"Pic with the train monument and Elder Vasquez in La Junta. This place is known for making trains a long time ago."

"The baptismal font in San Juanito."

"Elder Vasquez and me!!!"

"Baptism of Gilberto. Rafael baptized him!!!"

"All of Briana's family."

"Baptism of Briana in San Juanito. She is in love with me. I gave her my facebook and her cousins tell me that she is always looking at my pics :P The little girls in Chihuahua, hah!!"

"Playing with the kids in San Juanito. This is one of the kids that I interviewed a while back that got baptized."

"The house of worship in San Juanito....really small!!!!"

"Another Baptism!!! Her name is Tere!!!"

"We had a huge activity to celebrate Mother's Day!!!! A ton of ladies came. I played the piano a bit."

May 26th, 2015 - Weekly Letter

May 26^th, 2015

Family,

    Wow. It sounds like your week was jam packed with awesome stuff!  I can't believe my little sister already graduated from Lakeview. I remember that day.  So long ago.  I'm so proud of my little sister.  I'm also super happy for Jonny boy.  Just the interview with the stake president and that's it. In less than a month hopefully he gets his call.  There's so much happening that it makes me excited as well!  I want to wish Jon good luck this week.....the last week of senior year was pretty stressful, but it's way fun!!!  But that's cool.....also, HAPPY SUMMER BREAK MOM AND EMMA!!! 

    So this week was pretty crazy.  On Tuesday we celebrated Mother's Day, and it was awesome because a bunch of people came.  One of our investigators named Tere arrived, and she got baptized that night.  It was awesome because one of the investigators that came, named Cayetana, left telling us that she also wanted to be baptized.  We have her planned for this weekend. She's super excited!!!

    Then from Wednesday to Saturday I was in San Juanito. We worked so, so, so hard, and got 2 baptisms over there. One of them is a cute little 12 year old named Briana.  It's really funny because when I interviewed her I told her to invite me to her quinceñera, and then her cousins told me that she is super, super excited.  I was reflecting back on my mission, and I've told a lot of girls that I'm going to return for their quinceñeras.  Probably should stop. I don't think I'll be able to make it to all of them - haha, but it was way fun in San Juanito.  A missionary is the branch president there, so it's always fun to go there to work with them.

    So we got back on Saturday and that night we found a miracle. A guy found us and wanted to get baptized more than anything. It was crazy.  So we talked with him, the zone leaders interviewed him, and he got baptized on Sunday morning. His name is Gilberto. That has to be one of the weirdest things I've seen on my mission so far.

    So yeah, Sunday was good, but at night we found out that all of the other missionaries from La Junta had transfers.  The new zone leaders are Elder Zarco and Elder Blanco, and my new companion is Elder Vasquez from Honduras.  So yeah, La Junta is pure Spanish except for me now. This will be a new adventure for me! I'm excited though! It'll be good.

   So yeah, so that's the update here in La Junta, Chihuahua, Mexico. Thanks for everything my amazing family! Hope you all have an excelente week!  Love you all so so so much!!! Take care!!!

Love, Elder Loveless

Elders Christensen and Valenzuela visit to the mission.

"Another pic of Mario at church! He's 13...and he's a stud."

"Our baptism of Luis!!!!! (We worked hard this week.)"

"First baptism of the week....Mario (It was just destined for me to baptize somebody on my mission named Mario :))"

"Our cigarette tea."

"The family Torres on Mother's Day."

"The District :)"

May 17th, 2015 - Weekly Letter

Family,

    Wow! The Payson Temple is way cool looking. Super beautiful! That's definitely a temple that I want to visit when I get back.  Sounds like you all had a great week, and I have to agree that our week last week was genial (genial means cool) as well.

    So we started on Tuesday. Tuesday was just a bad day. It was cold and nobody answered their door, and just nobody was outside, and we just didn't have success at all.

    Wednesday was a different story though. On Tuesday we had a branch council meeting and we talked about Mario and how he had problems with smoking, and so the branch president, Presidente Ordoñez, shared his conversion story and how he smoked a ton as well, but the missionaries gave him a remedy that made him stop smoking forever.  So obviously we wanted to know what it was, so he told us. So to make this remedy we had to buy 60 cigarettes, open them all up and dump out the tobacco in boiling water and make a tea, then after it boiled for a while we had to dump out the tobacco, obviously, and just keep the tea, and then get it cold....so we did it and went with Mario and told him that we had a remedy so that he could stop smoking. At first he didn't believe us, but finally did because he really wanted to stop smoking.  He told us that it is the WORST thing ever, but we made him drink it, having faith that it would help, and it did in the end.  Now he has told us that when he sees cigarettes he wants to throw up.....which is exactly what Presidente Ordoñez told us that it did to him. So he committed to stop that and then we baptized him the same day. He had a few days without smoking anyways, so it was perfect.  He is way strong. Only 13 years old, but already a leader.  He's awesome.  That was definitely a testimony building experience. That was awesome!

    Then the day after, on Thursday, we found out that a supposed member never had a membership record number, so in that case you have to be baptized again to get a record number, so he was alright with it and was actually very happy for his baptism. Imagine being able to be baptized again? That would be awesome!  So he was really happy and content for that.  And then that night we went to Cuauhtemoc for a meeting that we were going to have with Elder Nash from the Seventy on Friday. 

    Friday was awesome because we had the meeting with Elder Nash, and it started at 10 a.m. and went until 5 p.m.  We had an hour break in there for lunch, but it was still crazy.  He taught us to start teaching with the end in mind....the end referring to eternal life.  And it really has impacted us so far. When we refer everything to helping people return to live with their father in heaven, they have more desires to keep their commitments, because they know that what they're doing will help them return to live with their Father in Heaven.  That should be a good enough reason for all of us as well to keep the commandments!

    Later, well today, we had a meeting in Chihuahua with all of the missionaries of the whole mission....man we are a ton. But we had a meeting with Elder Christensen from the First Quorum of the Seventy.  It was a really cool meeting. He said that in Salt Lake City our mission is catching their eye so they wanted to come down to see what we were doing good to spread the word. Our mission is started to be an example to others which is really cool!

    But  yeah.  We also focused on Christ's Atonement, and how our church knows more than any other church when it comes to the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  In the Book of Mormon it says the word Atonement more than 50 times, and in the Bible only 1 or 2 times.  The Atonement can change the life of anyone, anywhere.  I know it is true, and that Jesus is the Christ....our Savior. I love Him, and I love God and the Holy Ghost as well. 

   This church is amazing, and I don't know where I would be without it.  Thanks for everything amazing family, and I hope that you have a great week!  And more than anything.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA!!!!!! Happy birthday to the best sister in the whole wide world! I love you so much Emma! Thanks for being my best friend!!!!

Love all of you so much, and miss you all tons as well!

Have a great last week of school and second to last week of school.....and work ;)

Take care!!!

-Elder Loveless

Mission tour with Elder and Sister Nash - Cuauhtemoc and La Sierra zones. Elder Loveless is on the back row, second from the left.

May 11th, 2015 - Weekly Letter

Family,

    I also enjoyed a ton talking with you guys on Skype.  I felt a little bad also because of the poor quality of the webcam, but I was just happy that I was able to talk to you and see you all again!  This time, more than the other times after I've talked to you, I am more excited to work hard. Now I guess it's hitting me that I have a little bit of time left.  I finally saw my last general conference in the mission, I have 11 weeks left, I had my last skype call, less than 80 days left.....but that just means that this is my time to shine here.....to work harder than I have before.  That's also really exciting about Austin. I'm so stoked to be one of his groomsmen. 

    So for me though it was a different week than normal.  The zone is having a lot of baptisms this month, but there was also a lot of work in the zone leader's area, so I went with Elder Ruiz to visit the zone and do interviews while Elder Hansen stayed with Elder Goldsberry to take care of the areas.  So I got to know all of the areas in the zone. They're all just a bunch of little pueblos, but they're all really cool.  So this week was a lot of traveling, but with a lot of success at the same time. 

    The Lord really blessed us too, because Elder Hansen didn't get to work in the area very much either, but 2 young men investigators came to church, and they both want to get baptized!  So that's really exciting!

    I know there's not much to write this week, and that I don't have any pics, but next week for sure I'll send some pics....today I just forgot my camera in the house.

    But thanks for all you do for me. Every time I get to talk to you all and what not, I feel so grateful for being part of this amazing family! Thanks for helping my throughout my life!  I love you all and miss you all tons!!!!

-Elder Loveless

May 10th, 2015 - Mother's Day Skype with Elder Loveless. A little blurry but better than nothing!!

Training in Cuauhtemoc

May 4th, 2015 - Weekly Letter

Family,
    Sounds like it was a good and crazy week for the Loveless fam!  But I guess everything’s normal at the same time.  I don't know why, but as time goes by I love more and more hearing from you guys every week and hear about all of the details!  I feel bad about Emma's ankle, but I'm super stoked for Jon! In just a few weeks he'll be getting his mission call!!!!  Elder Goldsberry, our zone leader with Elder Ruiz here in La Junta, his brother got his call to Wisconsin this last week, and he leaves in August, so I'm hoping also that Jon goes in August so we can spend some time together before he leaves!!!!  And I'm also excited for you mom. Working with the nursery must be really fun!  The little kids here in La Junta are all super funny.  It would be funny to take care of them I think!
    But for me, this last week was good.  It was kind of a rough week for a few reasons, but it was really good.  So the week started out normal, me and Elder Hansen working hard in our area.  Then after that the week got a little bit crazy. 
    So Elder Ruiz, before La Junta, was in Delicias, and this last week the missionaries from Delicias called him and told him that he had to go back so some of the investigators would be baptized, so Elder Ruiz went with Elder Hansen Thursday morning.  It was just going to be a one day thing, but then things happened I guess and they didn't return until Sunday night.  It was pretty rough on Elder Goldsberry and me because we had to run all of La Junta for a few days. 
    But taking a step back, on Wednesday, Elder Hansen and I took off to one of the areas in the district, San Juanito, and I did 2 interviews.  Only one of them was planning to be baptized, but we decided that we would do the interview of his brother, and he passed and had a desire to be baptized, so they got 2 baptisms this last week, so that was really exciting!
    But then during the week Elder Goldsberry and I went to an area called Madera to do more interviews, and they had 4 baptisms, and then we came back to work in La Junta.  Come Saturday it was kinda hot in the morning, so Elder Goldsberry and I decide to fill up water balloons for the mutual with the youth that we were going to have.  So rolls around 4:00 and some youth arrive and clouds come in, and on top of that it started raining a little bit.  So me and Elder Goldsberry are just thinking, crap, now what are we going to do with 100 water balloons, but in the end we played with them and all of the youth had a great time. We all got soaked, and even though it was kinda not too hot, we had a great time.
    It got me thinking, Satan does things like that to us all the time, to get us down. The scriptures say that all good things come from God, and all bad things come from Satan, so from that text we can know that those feelings of feeling down are from Satan......it's an easy way for Satan to beat us.  But, we have agency....a gift from God, to help us or hurt us, depending on the way we use it.  So after this experience I realized that we are the ones that choose our happiness, or our sadness. When things happen like rainclouds coming, we can choose to still play and have fun, or be sad and not have fun. Satan will try to get us down, but we can choose to enjoy life no matter what he does.  Agency, even though we don't realize it sometimes, is a special and very cool gift from God, where if cultivated, can help make our lives much better than what they could be right now. 
     So yeah. But it was all good. Sunday rolled around, and there weren't very many people at church, so Elder Goldsberry and I taught all of the classes. I taught the adult class from the manual of the New Testament, and Elder Goldsberry taught the youth class. It was a good day because after that we went and married Estela and Arturo, the parents of Rafael and Aelin. We are planning on Estela´s baptism for this next week, now that she's married, so that will be very exciting. 
    So last thing, next week on Sunday will be the last Skype for me on the mission.  I'm excited!!! But I am going to be on at 4 on Sunday. We all had to plan it out good so that we have enough time, so I'll be on at 4. If you could just send me your skype name again to search it on Sunday, that would be great. 
    Thank you all for everything that you do for me!  I love you all so so so much, and I miss you all so much as well!!!  Have a great week, and I'll be seeing you all on Sunday!!!

      -Elder Loveless

P.S.  Today I complete 20 months in the mission......craziness!

P.P.S.  I received the April package, thanks!!! Elder Hansen told me that the sandals are a new thing going on over there. I love them, and the tie, and the candy!!! Thanks :) I wonder what other new trends will be happening after 2 years......woah O.O