Easter

So this week was the bomb.com! We have found another two amazing families who are going along steady! The one, Joel and Tracy, we met while knocking doors and they are amazing! They haven't come to church yet because of their work but they have been diving into the Book of Mormon and normally they hate reading and have never read anything more than anime! The other family is the Jacoways. Jose (part of Gracie's family) told us to go by, so later that week we stopped by. That very same day their son had gotten out of jail. The past week they had been involved in a drug raid due to someone they were allowing to live in their home. He would deal while they were at work on their twelve hour shifts. So when we came by they were soo glad and soo happy to see us. They said they needed something like this (the Gospel of Jesus Christ) back in their lives, that they had strayed so far off and they needed to and wanted to come back. So they came! Sunday was Steven's first time at church in a long long long long time! He said he felt welcomed and at one there and like it was what he needed and where he needed to be. To quote him, "it was very inspired, I liked it, it felt good". Boom baby! God is blessing so many people in Beeville right now it is incredible! I feel blessed to be a part of it and to be molded and used by the Lord to do his work! To quote Peter when he saw the resurrected Christ, "It is the Lord!" This is His work and this past week was once again another week of miracles! Sorry for the lack of details this week, I'll repent and do better next week. I love you all and pray for you! Have a wonderful wonderful week! 

Easter is This Week!

Yesterday was the best day ever!!!! At church we have normally only have about three people there each week that we bring, well this week we had five non-members come and eight inactive members back to church!! Our member records are way out of date here. One of the members on the list had died two years ago and no one knew! Well the Lord has been leading us to find family after family after family that are members, or part of the family is, and haven't been to church in years. Many of these people no one knew were even here! 

My favorite of all is Scott and his family. He left the church at 13 and lost his mom late last year. We found them one day at the doctors office when his wife Gracie asked "Are you the Mormons?" and from there we got all their contact information and quickly met Scott. Well as we got to know Scott, Gracie said "y'all should go meet my daughter she needs Jesus." Well we went over the next day and it was so true. Her daughter had been caught up in the heaviest drugs & everything else that entails for years! She and her husband were considering giving it all up, throwing in the ultimate white flag, the same day we showed up. Normally they'd run the missionaries off but this time they let us sit down. Well long story short: they moved in with her mom to get help and now the whole family is coming to church and happier every day we see them! We love them so much!! Last Friday we watched "Meet the Mormons" with them and had a pizza night, Amy said after "I didn't know the Mormon church had black people in it" We laughed so hard:) 

Wanted to filled y'all in a little on our peeps down here and how the work is going. I just want to leave you all with my testimony that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that He still lives today. His atonement is given to us to change our lives. To turn bad to good. Good to great. Great to the best!!! He is our brother and loves us infinitely! It doesn't have to be the most dramatic change like Jose and Amy but Christ will lift us and change us and purify us as much as we will allow Him to do so. So everyone have an amazing Easter and remember why:) I love you all so much!

Amy & Jose are the bomb!

A treat from a member, first time trying a candy apple.

District meeting

The best water bottle this work has ever seen!

Teaching in four languages??

Mormon mafia LOL

Let them eat cake.

Bike day with my comp.

Service, cleaning up the trees.

Do I look like a Texan yet?

Amazing Stake Conference!

Ok so we washed our clothes today and both elder Riding and I ran out of short sleeve shirts and it's burning hot today and we have long sleeves on and we aren't allowed to roll them up of course. But we thought today was free cone day at DQ and so we went to cool down ... well it's not but these sweet sisters from the church were there and they bought us ice cream! So kind the best thing ever! 

So this week we had Stake conference which was crazy because we had to take our car into Corpus Christi extra early to have it worked on and then get to the conference. SSSSSOOOOO much driving in this area! But anywhoo the meeting had the San Antonio temple president and his wife, they are amazing!! Elder Frost of the 70 and his wife also amazing! President Maluenda and his wife, we already know they are amazing, and the stake presidency it was an amazing amazing conference! 

So the temple president drove home how absolutely wonderful and crucial the temple truly is! Two things that really struck me about it was one he said the veil does not exist in the temple. Those who's work you're doing, if they have excepted it, are right there with you and you can feel it, and even on occasion you can see them! another thing he drove home was that the temple is not just the House of God it is a place a learning, enlightenment, healing, a place of rejoicing and went into each one but each deserves its own sermon in my opinion.So please go to the temple y'all! 

But the thing I liked the most from everything that was talked about was from Elder Frost's wife. She talked about their 34 year old son who has down syndrome. She said at first what was one of their greatest struggles has turned into one of their greatest blessings. Ever day she takes him to and from work where he washes dishes at a restaurant. Ever day she asks him how his day was and he says better. She asked how could that be all he does is wash dishes. So she asks what made it better. and He says I worked on my quality. 

That hit me at home. This humble man shows in that statement what Christ himself asks of each of us. To be better. She then went on to elaborate about being a better disciple of Christ becoming more true and better in every way. Christ has asked to "ye be therefor perfect" and so it starts with just trying to be better. 

So here are the three four steps to doing that. 1. Frequently take a moment to stop and eliminate ALL distractions and study and read the Book of Mormon. 2. To apply and live by its precepts 3. Every time  you read humbly ask God if the Book of Mormon is true. and 4. Repent daily! It was sooo amazing and truly inspired so sorry I didn't fill y'all in on the work this week but that is what I hoped to share that touched me the most this week! I love you all and I know this is God's work. So please each of you pick up the Book of Mormon and just read and then pray I promise comfort and joy and more light will come to those that want it! Love you all and have a great week!!! ps read!

Texas has the best skies!

Playing pool before dinner with the Baird family.

Beeville Art Museum

Transfer Four Starts Today!

So this week we got a call late one night from a man in Utah and he said his brother Abraham was sick in a town close to an hour away but we are the closest missionaries. So we headed over and found him. When we got there he was super loving and allowed us in. He was very sick; medicine and everything he did wouldn't touch it! So we taught him about how today we hold the same power that Christ held when He was on the earth and it is only to be found in His restored church. So we went to give him a blessing and turns out after all the blessings we had given that day, we ran out of oil, but we had the littlest bit left and normally he said they never even have oil but his wife had needed a drop for her ear and hadn't returned it yet. This small town only has one store too which was closed, so buying some was not a option. So we consecrated the oil and went ahead with the blessing. During it I felt prompted to bless him to be whole both in body and in mind. The Spirit was sooo strong! After finishing the blessing he was filled with the biggest smile I've ever seen! He said he felt good and completely filled with peace. So he sat up and he talked about the past a bit and said he used to love the songs. We sang for him and he began to weep. It was such a powerful and spiritual moment to be there with him! Then he said we needed to call his brother (who is a member of the church and had sent us there). So we called him and he told him all about it. Abraham was sooo excited! He told his brother "I've felt like I've been looking for something and this may be it", and then he turned to us and said "look I got goose bumps when I said that!" Then he said son quick take a photo for me! It was such a power moment to be a part of. I know that we were an answer to many prayers that day and that God's power is real and that He knows each one of us perfectly and answers every single one of our prayers! 

This week we were walking around a old Navy Base Housing grounds knockin doors and getting to know all the people. We ended up being guided to another less active lady that was baptized 2 years ago in Austin! She is awesome! She immediately was like "Elders... How are you doing?" It was awesome, she invited us back for dinner! Boom! She has a strong testimony of the gospel and I am excited to be able to help her come back!  

Lydia Alaniz, who Elder Riding and I  found a month ago, is basically completely reactivated! She just needs a calling, thats about it! She is bringing her family to church and we are teaching Kaddie who is living with her! Its such a huge milagro! Kaddie is preparing for baptism on the 19th of March! She has changed so much ever since we first met her!  Lydia is so amazing and she is feeding us once a week! She is so funny! She has the strongest testimony of the Church and she is BOSS! I love her and the fam! They are amazing! :D I can't express to y'all how much I love the people here! The Lord's work is amazing and I am so grateful to be apart of it! 

We are also teaching a family from Nigeria and a few of their friends from Nigeria! Tope and Bose are married and have little Micah! He is the most calm little baby I have ever seen in my life haha... anyways these Nigerian people are amazing, their faith is so strong! I love being around them because their spirits are so strong, Tope loves the Book of Mormon he gets so excited about it! We told him that we have a temple in Nigeria and ever since then he has been on lds.org looking for the closest church buildings in Nigeria and the history of the church over there! The family came to church this Sunday and they loved it! They were  like... "We come here every Sunday now!" They are a huge milagro! We showed them the baptismal font and it was awesome... Tope immediately said oh oh brothers no! Not today! I do want to be baptized but I will tell you when I am ready! haha It's super fun to teach them, I just pray that we have the gift of tongues when we teach them because there is a little bit of a language barrier. We are super focused on the BoM with them and bringing the spirit! In the same moment it's difficult to teach because they have a buddy named Peter, he is super knowledgeable of the Bible but is not ready to receive the restored Gospel, he is a great guy and we love him to death! 

We also are helping a man named Brother Gother; he is a convert to the Church and is from Cali he has lost all of his family. He is an amazing man, whom I love very much! He has lost lots of hope... we went and taught him and have been helping him out! We went and did some hardcore service with him cause he lives on a Ranch good ole 43 acres of beauty! It was so awesome we were rippin out trees in the hot Texas sun, choppin at them with this pick ax thing and we were workin hard! Man it felt good to do some physical labor like that! I also have to say that everything in Texas is meant to kill you or hurt you - haha. There are so many fire ants, thorns, and other awesomely cool things! I love it, plus I got myself a good lookin tan ( dont worry I put sunscreen on my nose) haha. Brother Gother has a great testimony! He was born handicapped; his legs were super messed up, not straight at all. He and his family were converted to the gospel when he was 12 around that same time he went to his friend's house to find the Thomas S. Monson was there! He told us that Thomas S. Monson blessed him and within a week his handicap was gone! It's a powerful witness of the power of the priesthood! This week has been amazing! 

Oh yea we just got a text from our Zone Leaders! I'm not getting transferred! WOOT! I'm staying in goo ole BEEVILLE! 

I love this gospel so much. I am so grateful for it! My studies this past week have been incredible I know this gospel is the only way to return to our Father in Heaven. The more I study it the more achievable and real it becomes in my mind that I can live eternally with those whom I love! I love the Book of Mormon so much I know it's true. En el nombre de JesuCristo, amen.

The District

Our pal, Lola.

Package from home!

Working out with Tristen.

My study area.

Bringing spring with us everywhere we go.

Trying to make jam pie but it soaked out & set off the fire alarm for the 5th time this transfer!
Some things turn out great, but some are fails! :)