Monday, March 30, 2015
March 30th, 2015 - Weekly Letter
Family,
So this week for us was a really good week! So
on Monday we had a sweet district meeting about David and Goliath. We
related it to the missionary work and got super pumped to work. Then on
Tuesday the assistants came and interviewed our investigators and worked with
us all day, and we finally got Aelin´s mom to give permission so that Aelin can
be baptized.....but only half way. She says that Aelin can be baptized
but she won't sign the baptism register. She says that we have to wait for her
husband to come back to sign it. He works for two weeks and then comes
back for a week, so Aelin and her brother could have been baptized last week,
but their dad doesn't come back until this week, so Aelin and Rafael are super
stoked for their baptism this week, and we are too!!
Also we finally got Pati and Cayetano married!!! Man
it was soooo cool. I don't know why, but I just think it's fun to marry
people. It's like when I was in junior high and I was the 'love doctor'
and hooked people up together, but now it's for real. It was fun because
I sat them down and told them where they needed to sign and then they had to
put fingerprints, and it was just all cool! Then a few days later we had
the party. Tuesday was the official marriage and paper signing, but then we had
the party Saturday night. We brought a tres leches cake (three milk cake), and
it was soooo good. We went to the members and invited them, and it was
just cool. Me and Elder Hansen made them be the first ones to cut the
cake........it was fun! So yeah, now we are finishing teaching Cayetano
the lessons and he's going to get baptized either this weekend or next weekend,
whichever we feel is better for him.
Other than all of this stuff that happened in
our area, there is another little town in my district called Guerrero and there
are two missionaries there, so I went down there 2 different days to interview
their investigator. Her name is Karely and is 14. I got her super
excited for baptism the first day, and then two days later came back and she didn't
want to get baptized anymore because she was scared.....so we talked to her
some more and got her excited again. She reminds me a little bit of Emma,
so it was pretty easy to talk with her. I told her she was my sister from
Mexico. So she got baptized yesterday!!! I was really happy for her!
So yeah. Then we had mutual again and it was really
good. One of our investigators named Alan (14 years old) came and said that he
wanted to get baptized in the church, but he didn't come to church
yesterday. We're thinking that in 2 or 3 weeks he and his little brother
will get baptized! We're pretty stoked. We worked really hard in March, and we
are going to see the fruits of our work in Abril. I'm super excited!!!
So yeah. Now it's going to be my LAST general
conference in the mission. I can't believe it. I remember my first
conference in the mission......it was in the MTC. But I'm super stoked.
Me and Elder Hansen put a goal of bringing at least 10 investigators to the
conference. To a normal day of church, our record is 6 at church, and so
we're going all out this week to make sure that we bring a bunch to all of the
different sessions of conference. We know that if we bring investigators, they
will receive answers to their prayers, and so this is a BIG step for us. The
conference will help a TON of our investigators gain a testimony of the church.
I'm super excited!!! We're going to get another computer and watch it in
English too, so that's good!
So just wanted to remind you all to bring
questions to General Conference. I know that whatever kind of question
that we bring, God, through the prophet and his apostles and those that are
going to speak, Will answer our questions, and help us get to know Christ more.
Thanks for everything!!! Thanks for your love and
support. 4 more months from yesterday.....deep breaths. Gonna
dominate these last four months!!!
Love you all so much, and miss you all as well! Have a great
week!!!! And Happy Easter next weekend!!!!!
-Elder Loveless
Friday, March 20, 2015
Monday, March 16, 2015
March 16th, 2015 - Weekly Letter
Family,
So last Monday was the only somewhat warm day, and
it was good because we had a zone activity and we played soccer, which was
super awesome. Monday we didn't do more than that and have a zone
meeting, and the zone meeting really did change me. We talked about
making sacrifices, a sacrifice meaning something that is good that helps us
progress and that brings us out of our comfort zone. So I started making
sacrifices, and I'll tell you a little bit later, but we saw a ton of
blessings. My testimony really grew about sacrifices.
So then on Wednesday and Thursday we went out all
day with some of the youth members and had a lot of success. This is when I
started to see the blessings of the sacrifices that I was making. We
literally just walked around with them and went to visits, but they pretty much
guided us throughout the day, showing us to their cousins and friends, a lot of
them having already gone to church and wanting to be baptized, but little
things happened and made it so they couldn't be baptized, things that now
aren't a problem.
Also we were talking to this one sister that
gave us lunch on Wednesday last week, and she is a great lady. She is
kind of old, but has SO much family. She has like 10 children, something like
that, and then like 40 something grandchildren, then like 11 great
grandchildren as well. So we were talking to her, and literally pretty much
all of her family are members, only like 3 or 4 aren't. So that's the
first plus. And then after, she told us how like None of them are active anymore,
so we made a goal with her, that we were going to bring ALL of them to church
again. And she got so happy. It made me so happy to see her. I love
that feeling, the feeling you get when you get the desire to do something for
someone to make them happy and because it's the right thing to do! So
we've been going around a lot and we're getting that family together! It's
awesome! And then we also found out that one of the ladies isn't married
to her boyfriend, but the boyfriend will be baptized when they get married, so
the assistants today are going to bring us the marriage papers and we're going
to get them married!!!! YEAH!!!! Their names are Patti and
Cayetano. He's so cool, he told us that he wants to be baptized so
bad. So we're going to marry them this week, and we're shooting for his
baptism on the 28th of this month.
Also me and Elder Hansen were out contacting,
and there were a bunch of kids playing soccer, so we went in and played with
them for a little bit and then contacted all of them. Oh the creative ways we
can contact! It was super fun.....I have gotten so bad at running during
the mission, my heart just won't do it very well, but my skills in soccer have
increased a lot. It's such a fun sport!!!
The youth activity was alright, but it was really
cold outside and we didn't know what to do........Any ideas for fun youth
activities that incorporate all ages of youth????? That would be
great. But yeah. So then Sunday rolled around and it was awesome!
So church starts at 10, but me and Elder Hansen left at 7:30 to pass by
investigators and wake them up, because we had I think 22 names yesterday to
pass by for. So we did that, and at the end we didn't have anybody with
us. So we get to church, late, like at 10:30, luckily before they had started
the sacrament, and there were 2 investigators in church. Soon after arrived another.
Then later arrived 3 more. It was such a miracle, because we had so much
faith and hope that at least somebody was going to come out of those 22 people,
and 6 ended up coming, and that is really good for these small branches out
here in La Sierra. I also realized that this was partly due to the
sacrifices we had made. God saw our desire, and He blessed us. We
can say things all we want, but until we act and show God that we truly have a
desire, he doesn't bless us. Why would He? But yeah. It was a good week,
also with contacts. We got a lot this week as well. I just am so happy now, and
I know it's because we are working hard. As we are working and constantly
talking with people time flies by SO fast. These last 3 weeks here in La Junta
really have been the fastest weeks for me in the mission! I love it so
much. I am going to finish the mission running hard! I don't want
any regrets, because we have 2 years to do it, and an eternity to think about
it!
Thanks for all the love and support! Hope you
all have a great week. LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!! Have fun at work and
school!!!!!! Do good things!!!!
-Elder Loveless
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
March 9th, 2015 - Weekly Letter
Family,
So this last week was really cool! Last
Sunday, not yesterday but the Sunday before, me and Elder Hansen realized that
we needed to find new investigators. Before I got here they had quite a
few investigators, but like none of them were progressing and Elder Hansen
didn't know the rest, so we pretty much dropped all of them except for like 5
or 6, and then what better way to get new investigators???
Contacting. We put a goal of 50 contacts for the whole week. A contact is
when we talk with somebody on the street or at their house who we have never
known before and getting them to accept having us come back and them giving us
their address. So we had a goal of 50.....and last night we got home
with 46. We were so close, and yet we were still a little bummed.
But we ended up doing this because to achieve converts, you have to have
somebody to teach, and the best way to get new people to teach is to
contact. I guess here in La Sierra the missionaries have never really
contacted much, but Elder Hansen and I are changing that. We figured there are
missionaries that wait for success to come, and there are the missionaries that
make success happen, and we wanted to be missionaries that make success happen,
obviously with the help of the Lord. So that's what we did. It had
never clicked before....I kinda just waited for success to come, but I realize
now that the Lord is hastening His work, we can't just wait, we have to work. I
have less than 5 months left, and I have to give it my all!!! And I love
it because Elder Hansen just loves working hard and talking with everybody as
well!!
Something else that was cool that I learned as well
was that we aren't going to be judged as a missionary for how many baptisms we
achieve, but we are going to be judged for how many times we invited others to
come unto Christ. People have their agency, so forcing them to be
baptized is not going to help in the end, but as we invite everyone to come to
Christ, obviously there are going to be those that do accept us, and that
progress until Salvation.
So we are thinking that this is going to be a good
week because we got somebody to tell us that this next Saturday he would be
baptized. His name is Rafael, so we're going to work with him real hard. Also,
the one girl that her mom didn't want to give her permission to get baptized is
really close to giving her permission. We're thinking that she might get
baptized this week too. We're going to work on exact obedience so that the Lord
will help us with these two people!
Also we have this investigator named Luis that smokes
cigarettes and marijuana, but primarily marijuana. He wants to change so
bad, because when he prays he always pleads to God to help him get over his
addictions, and so we're helping him out with that. We have a month plan
to stop smoking, and so far he's doing good. We bought a big poster board
today, and we are going to write his plan on it and put it up in his
house. He wants to get baptized so bad to get the remission of his sins,
and so we put the goal for his baptism for the 4th of April. We're hoping
in another 2 weeks he's not smoking anymore and that he goes for at least a
week without smoking so that he can be baptized. He's going to do it, and every
time we call him or pass by he is so excited to stop. When we told him that he
could stop in a month, he didn't believe it, but then we got him to realize
that it wasn't us that was helping him, but it was God.
Also the first week in La Junta there were only 6
youth that went to the youth activity, and we only had 1 at church, and it was
a blessing because we didn't even invite her. But this week we had about
17 at the activity and 4 investigators at church. It was just a testimony
to Elder Hansen and me that we can be the ones that make the change, we just
have to put our hearts and minds to it. So we're planning on having even
more this next week! I know we can do it, and we are going to do it. I've
never been so pumped to work. While I was in the offices you guys sent me
the quote from President Hinckley that says, 'Forget yourself and go to work'
and every time I see it I do it. We just have to forget ourselves and go
to work. This is not our work.....it's the Lord's work.....and now that I
have less than 5 months left, I have realized that time flies by WAY too
fast.
I'm so happy to be a missionary and for the
opportunity to serve here in La Junta. Thanks for all of your support and
love!! Have a great week, and I love you all!!!!
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Monday, March 2, 2015
March 2nd, 2015 - Weekly Letter
Family,
Wow! What
a bunch of awesome stuff you all did this last week! I'm so happy to hear
that you all are doing so good! It always makes me so happy to hear
that! Sounds like there's been a lot of love in the air! Bunch of marriages!
That's so cool! And also I'm just so jealous of Emma, and being able to
go to the temple with all of her friends! A year and a half away from the
temple is hard sometimes....I miss going to the temple so much! But yeah!
I'm so excited for you all! Makes me happy to see that everything is
going good!
So
let's see what happened with me this last week.
So Monday not
really much happened. Like I told you guys last week, we just took the
day as our P-day to finish up everything that we had to do.
Tuesday
was good. Now that I am training we stay in the house until 12 every day for
our studies. For my language study I just read the Book of Mormon a
little bit more in Spanish! I love it! So even though we stay in a little
bit longer, it's good because I have learned more every day! So on
Tuesday we just worked like normal, Elder Hansen showed me around town.
Then at about 8:00 we took a bus to a little town to the southwest called San
Juanito. This town, San Juanito, is the only one in the whole mission
that has a missionary as the branch president, so that's kinda cool. But
we went down to do a baptismal interview the next day-Wednesday.
So on
Wednesday we woke up and left the house at 8:00 am because the investigator that
I was going to do the interview with lived in a little Ranch about 3 hours away
from the main town. So we started our Journey. So here's me,
thinking that I am in the same shape that I was in before the mission and in
the beginning of my mission. But what I forgot was that I was in the
offices for 8 months. So we start walking, but obviously really fast so
that we make it there the fastest we can. In San Juanito we can hitch
hike for rides, but only if it is a truck where we can sit in the bed of it. So
on the way up we got two rides, but they didn't go very far, so we only cut off
about 30 minutes. So we finally get there and I was kind of tired, but
not so bad. But when we got there Elder Solorzano, one of the missionaries in
San Juanito, told me that we were going to have to do whatever the guy that
lived there wanted us to do, or else he would get offended. So we got there and
had a horse ready for us to ride. It was pretty awesome. I have like
never rode a horse, so that was crazy. It's really not as hard as you
think.....but maybe that's just because the horse was a little horse.
More like a pony. So then after that we went to a place close buy and we
played a game he likes to play, see who could hold the cows tail the longest.
At this point I just thought this was the craziest little Mexican guy.....just
living out there in the middle of nowhere, losing his mind. But so we did
that and then he was like, we’re going to climb a mountain. When I heard that,
my legs just started already giving out, but sure enough we climbed his
mountain in his backyard that was a good 2 more hours of hiking....but it was
hard. By the time we get down his wife had some beans and tortillas for
us.....so that was good. But at that point I could barely move my legs.
But we ate the food, and then I interviewed the wife. The guy was already a
member, but his wife not yet. So I talked with her, helped her with a few
doubts, and we got her to gain the desire to be baptized. I know for a
fact that it wasn't me though....but it was the Lord, through me. I could not
have been able to do it alone because I could barely think because I was sooo
tired and in so much pain. But it all worked out, and she got baptized
Saturday. But so after all of that, the husband taught us how to use the
lasso, and so we practiced with his dog, then after that it was time to head
back. At the start I was just praying that a truck would pass by, because
about just a half hour of walking my legs could barely do it.......but a truck
never passed by and we walked the 3 hours back to San Juanito. So when we
got back they had one more visit before returning home and so we went. Only
about 20 minutes sitting down, but I couldn't get up after. My legs and feet
hurt so bad that I couldn't stand up, let alone walk back to their apartment.
But we did it........we finally got back, and I think I got to know a little
bit more of Christ's love for us. I did all of that just so a lady could
get baptized. I learned that in order to have success, we have to show
God that we want it. So that was awesome....till the next day.....when I
couldn't walk.
So on
Thursday was a zone meeting. That was good! We talked about having more
courage. I liked it a lot!
On
Friday, I couldn't walk very well, but I did my best and just hobbled around La
Junta. I realized that the people here just love to talk....because we
only got about 4 lessons in because they just kept talking and talking.
On
Saturday I was with one of the zone leaders, Elder Walker, because Elder
Goldsberry, our other zone leader, took Elder Hansen to Chihuahua because they
had to do some stuff over there. So we just worked and worked.
Also, there's like no youth leaders in this branch, so we do mutual with the
youth. So on Saturday we taught the youth a little gospel principle and then we
played some volleyball and basketball. There were only about 6 that came,
but they're all so cool. I love them all already!
Sunday
was also good! But I realized that the members of the branch are just nut
cases. They're cool, but they're all just different. We only had about 30
at church yesterday, and then we had ward counsel after, and there was just all
of them sucking on their suckers.....and I was thinking that it was odd.
They're all a little bit older, but they all act like little kids. And
then our Branch President actually comes up from Cuauhtemoc because there's not
anyone capable of being Branch President in La junta. But it was a really
fun day at church....and then for lunch the member had us help her make the
food. We made these cool tortilla things called Gorditas. SUPER GOOD! All
the members pretty much just give us beans and meat though. It's a really
poor place....but I love it!
So yeah,
that's been my crazy but awesome week. I love training Elder Hansen. He's
just so funny. He still doesn't know Spanish so when he talks sometimes
it just makes me laugh. Not because I'm making fun of him, but just because
he's that type of guy. He's super relax and cool! We've had a blast so
far. Like we'll be talking about something completely different, and then
he’ll invite the person to be baptized. Then he starts to speak Spanish
but doesn't know what more to say, so he tells me what he wanted to say. I love
it! It's just a crazy adventure every day!
We have
some pretty cool investigators, but there's just something really sad. We have
a little girl named Ailin who wants to be baptized. Her dad says it's fine, but
her mom, no. So we've just been super sad, because she always tells us,
"Please convince my mom! Please, please, please!" So we've been
really working with her mom but have come to no success. We’re going to fast
probably and do all we can to help her. But yeah....everything’s good so far in
La Junta!!!!
Also, I
saw that the latest I have to accept BYU is May 1st, so I'm going to pray a bit
and look at my options, and then I'll come to a decision in the next few weeks,
but thanks for everything mom, and fam!!! Thanks for helping me get to
this point in my life!!!! I love you all sooooo much!
Hope you all have a great week!!!! Take care and do your best in
everything!!!!
-Elder Loveless
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