Monday, March 16, 2015

March 16th, 2015 - Weekly Letter


Family,

    Wow what a crazy week!!!!!  I love the weeks where there are lots of pictures!!!  That always means that it's a great week!  Tanner getting married, Taylor Manwill's homecoming talk, Jon's senior prom.  That's all so awesome! Tell Tanner congrats from me!!!!  Can't wait to see him again in a few months!!!  But yeah!!! I don't know about you guys over there in Utah, but this last week was FREEZING cold.  Actually, this morning it was snowing a little bit. Like not enough to stick, but it was snowing just a tad.  I thought it was so cool!  The first time seeing snow in these 18 months!!!  It was a cold week, but it was a good week.

    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

 

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