Miracles Everywhere

So this week has definitely been a week for miracles! We were walking down a street in "lil Mexico" and we had been having little success for the first couple hours of the day. Then this teen age boy I'd never seen in there before gave us a little gesture to come closer. Not sure if that was the best idea or not, but we went because hey why not?! The first thing he asks us is if we can give him help to know God? Turns out this young man, who by the way is the most respectful person I’ve met the whole time being here, is a long lost member of the church. He had been suffering with being in a gang and wanted out. He wanted to change! We told him God has answered his prayers. We bore testimony of the changing power and redemptive power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I shared with him I know how it feels to be alone and feeling helpless, like everything just seems to becoming worse and worse, like you've let everyone you care about down and that hope is lost. Well it is not lost! God has given us a light and a way to become better and be who He needs us to be! I could see the light in his eyes and tears pouring out. This teenage kid could feel the Spirit and God’s love for him, it was truly incredible!

We also this week met with our 10 person family again also in the same place. They had no food for Thanksgiving and asked if we could help. They had asked a pastor next door who shunned her and forcefully told her he could not help! This humble mother told us she was left her feeling stupid on his doorstep. I told her of course we could help! The branch quickly came together and made it happen. She was sooo incredibly grateful! The kids gave us the biggest hugs and were so excited! We hadn't planned to see them that day but just felt a prompting from the spirit that we should stop by. We only caught them on their way out. God has a plan for each of us and always supplies a way! Sometimes miracles come in ways never expected and sometimes they seem great and sometimes they seem small but they are all around us and God’s loving hand is always out reached for us!

We saw so many more miracles this week but these topped off some of my personal favorites. It is truly a great blessing to be allowed to be a part of this work and see the hand of God is so many lives. Don't forget to count your blessings and look for the miracles this week, they are there. Read, pray, and go to church. This is the best way to start to feel the atonement and peace of Jesus Christ in our lives. I love you all and I love him, until next week … 

PS: it is absolutely freezing here and I need to get a sweater some gloves maybe a scarf and hat. Apparently it gets that way every year - yeah 70 as a low, total lie! LOL The humidity makes it feel like the top of Mt. Timp with the wind too lol:)

Puppy belonging to our of our investigators

Alvarado twins who are both RMs in our branch 

After knocking three doors with a bloody face from a tree branch
that attacked me on my bike through my helmet

Brownies bunt style that I ate for breakfast - happens when you're low on food 

Love it Here!

So the weather turned cold! I didn't think that happens in TX! So I had my short sleeve on one day and it got really windy and after five hours knocking doors and having appointments fall through being outside for all of it I was chilled to the bone. The humidity doesn't help. So we saw a man who had a BBQ going because it was dark and we could see the flame from a ways off. So we got excited because: 1) it smelled good, 2) it would be warm, and 3) it probably wouldn't run away if we came close. ;) So we started talking and the man invited us to come closer, he let us talk, fed us and invited us to come back. This surely is a modern day good Samaritan. The people are so nice its incredible!

For a while we've been working in an area you might describe as "Little Mexico" my favorite part. (Oh side note, my area covers right down to the border yeah!) There is a group of boys we like to play ball with in the street and one of them is kind of the leader. Because of him we've been able to reach three different families because after each game the boys sit down for a message. One day they even told us to wait one sec while they went for their bibles only to come back with 12 copies of the Book of Mormon. So we invited them to our branch Thanksgiving dinner this last week because they have almost nothing but they ended up not being able to come. Since then it's been hard to get in contact with them again. But last night one was across the street by a fire staying warm (I was once again rocking the short sleeve hoping maybe with the cold they'd let me in haha) and he ran inside for us and his mom came out! So we found out that things have gotten worse and they've fallen into even harder times. We shared a scripture from D&C 59 talking about when we attend church the Lord promises to help us with all of our temporal needs. As we talked and the Perez family (our rock star mission leader) shared their testimonies, she began to cry and said yes they will come because they need to come and make it happen. The Spirit was soooo strong it was incredible. This is really an answer to her prayers and needs and the Lord had directed us to her to make it possible.

Additional moment this week to add to my thought. We were walking down the street, nothing was working out the way the day had been planned and we stopped to talk to a man who was chilling with his buddy. We were just saying hi when he said "Hey can you guys do me a favor?" Umm what kind of question is that of course we can?!! He asked if we could pray for him. Immediately I said yes knowing that the Lord had directed us to this man through the "change in plan" He said he was looking for help and we were able to offer it. The details are many but the point is that the Lord provided a way for this man to receive an answer. The Lord loves us so He sent His Son. He really truly answers all His children'
s prayers when we ask, knock, and receive. All requires action on our part, all require faith, and all require sincerity but when we do, we receive greater blessing than we can hold.

I love you all thank you for all the letters and the support and all the love! Stay great!

Attitude is Everything!

So first off a little about Texas. Navigating is hard! It’s all flat so I can’t use mountains to get my direction straight. It’s not too hot but it’s soooo humid! And the mosquitos are ridiculous! I had a massive circle of bites on my calf and on one arm I counted 19 bites in one day! They are from the devil I know it!

The people here are super, super nice! They feed us every night and the first three days here I ate double dinners and could barely handle it! Since I can barely speak to some of them, they are so kind with being patient and letting me mess up a ton. Like trying to say my sister is speaking Mongolian and ending up saying she has a mental handicap or saying shoulders instead of men, but hey it’s all in the process. ;)

Sundays are the best thing ever! We get to go to church, take the santa cena, ayunar, and see the branch members. We meet in a super small building that is in the downtown type area. I think it used to be a lawyers office, but it’s been fixed up for church. Crazy-ish story … some people we talk to don't like us and one guy saw us, opens the door to let his pit bull out and closes it while his CRAZY dog is trying to bite us, lol like an attack dog is going to stop me. ;) Our mission president is the bomb.com!! He might be the most inspired man I've ever met. Our zone is super tight too and the district as well. We like to meet up a couple times a week in the mornings at 5:50 and play ultimate frisbee until 7. It’s the best thing ever, especially when we do it in the mud!

Spiritual experience/thought this week:  So when I got here we had two people on date for baptism and now neither one is being taught. So we focused a lot on finding new people to teach and right now the member missionary effort needs help, so we are working hard on that as well. But that left us having to find people by door contacting and referrals. We found a ton of people and I was super excited because when this happened it was all really early on in the week and I thought we'd be able to help people out for sure. However, when we came back to most of these lessons we got stood up by one person after another - it was awesome. ;) But this led us to find people who wouldn't have been home or found without our appointments falling through and it led to us being able to find lots of new people.

Lessons I learned this week: Sometimes we can get discouraged because our plan doesn't turn out. On the mission this happens a lot! But what we don't see, that the Lord does, is that perspective. School might be hard, the team might not be coming together, work could have orders backing up all over the place and it can seem like a disaster, but when this happens it’s an opportunity for blessings. We can show our hope and exercise faith in the Lord and receive many blessings we could never think of, if we just trust in the Lord. He did not send us here to fail He wants us to succeed, we just need to trust in Him, pray and act!

I love you all and God loves you too. Be a champ, see ya next week!

Texas famous fast food!

Arrived Safely

Ok so the field is the most wonderful thing in the world! No photos this week super sorry but I want to leave with a spiritual thought. We talk a lot about goals here and setting goals then making a plan to get there. One question was have you made a plan to get into heaven? Well no I just kinda thought do the right stuff and it all works out right? But no we need to make a plan and make it purposeful! Often here they give us what seems to be an impossible goal but they expect it done nonetheless. Well there is always a way provided and like the Lord says, He will provide a way. This is true and He never fails us. He makes all things possible.

I love you all. Have a great week!

ADDITIONAL INFO COURTESY OF THE GREAT MEMBERS OF THE TMM: David is serving with another Oregonian, Elder Moss, in San Benito. These photos courtesy of thoughtful members on the mission!

Greenie and his trainer.

Drat those bike racks!

Leaving the MTC, Headin' to Texas!

Some last minute photos before leaving the disctrict in Mexico.