July 2nd

Hey everyone!

So this week was so ridiculously crazy and busy but it turned out so well.  We planned a "noche misional"  basically a ward activity to help the ward members do missionary work.  So we organized and did EVERYTHING...on top of regular proselyting...it was rough but the activity turned out great!  We started with a dinner and after we had three short workshops (since we had 6 missionaries in our ward, each companionship was incharge of a workshop).  Hermana Pare and I taught how through the "small and simple things" (Alma 37:6) we can do missionary work like inviting friends and neighbors to volleyball every saturday at the gym, movie night, english class, inviting them to dinner etc.  I shared my experience with Caitlin and how I invited her to the ward talent night and she later come to church then took the discussions and got baptized last Easter.  All I did was invite her to the activity and as a result she progressed.  How easy it is to do missionary work, right?  I also said that the first person to invite her to Sunday dinner was my mom...I said "If my NONMEMBER mom can do missionary work, you can do it too."  They all gasped everytime I said it...so funny.  I hope it motivated them.  The other elders do object lessons and role playing.  Each workshop was like 15 minutes max.  After we all gathered in the chapel to hear our mission president, President Maynes, speak.  We prepared "goodie bags" for each member with books of mormon, pamphlets, mormon.org, photos of christ, a card and letter and they all wrote their testimony in the book of mormon after President Maynes' talk.  We closed with of course "called to serve".  It was a great experience and it took alot of work but it was so worth it.  We NEED the ward members in order to be sucessful in missionary work.  I can't stress the importance of that.  I attached a photo of our room.  "Pedir con fe" means "ask in faith" and we did it with mormon.org cards and yarn we found in the church, pretty good, right? 

  We also had an AMAZING lesson with Nancy one of our investigators.  She's 25 with a lil 4 year old boy and she lives with his Dad but they aren't married....and he has no intentions to do so which means, it's hard for her to get baptized since she's breaking the law of chastity.  We decided to have a lesson with her at the temple on Friday and we brought Hna. Razo, a member with such a solid testimony...single mother of 2 boys.  We talked about marriage and families and read "A proclamation to the world" and shared some scriptures.  She really liked it and it was great because there was like 3 other weddings going on. Awesome!  And it's impossible to NOT feel the spirit on the grounds of the temple.  You can feel it.  I prayed alot before the lesson that she would accept a baptismal date (she never likes to commit because of the whole marriage thing) but I felt very prompted to extend August 5th.  So we did and of course the first thing she said was the marriage thing but Hermana Razo came to the rescue and said "don't worry about it....just accept it and have the faith that the Lord will provide a way for you to be married so you can be baptized. Just let it happen because it will." It was PERFECT.  Nancy accepted! So it's going to take alot of work but it's going to happen!! I'm so excited. 

  Yesterday Melissa got confirmed and received the Holy Ghost!  It was fast and testimony meeting and she decided to bear her testimony!  Her parents came to her confirmation so it was so powerful to see this young girl bear her testimony infront of her parents.  I loved it.  She's incredible.  Last week at transfers, we received a letter telling us an apostle is coming the week of my brithday! HECK YEAH.  Apostle, birthday and year mark.  What up.  Alright that's all I have for this week.  I also attached another photo of my 9 month photo...it freaked me out a little bit...you're welcome.  Well I love you guys. Be safe. You're awesome.

Love,