Waters of Baptism!

Well this week was super! Mary and Armando and Joel all took the plunge! It was so amazing! The baptism had to be taken to the chapel because so many people came and the chapel was filled! And this is like a stake center chapel! Presidente Torres came and spoke at the baptism and it was powerful! He jokes with them that they are primos haha :) Then a member from the stake presidency spoke on the Spirit and that was amazing! He teaches Mary in institute and she loves him! Their cousin said the first prayer and their mother's sister, who is a member, the last prayer and they were so beautiful! From the moment the first himno and prayer was over, Mary had already begun to cry the Spirit was so strong! A set of sisters came and gave a special musical number and it was so powerful!!! It was like the phantom of the opera came to town or something! All in all it was such a great experience:) They love the gospel and are converts:) All three want to serve missions and are working on it already by helping their parents. Slowly but surely they are opening their hearts up to the gospel! It has been crazy cool to see the transformation in the three Torrescitas over the last five or so weeks:) 

I know that's all over the place but that's ok. Elder Chavez is the best! Alton is boppin and the work is a burnin:) This family is super cool, I know that through them their parents, their cousins, uncles and aunts that are now beginning to listen more and more and except the gospel will have their lives changed:) I love this church this is it! Yes I did wear Emily's tie with the camels on my hump day, it was the same as any other day hah:) Love you all have a great week! 

Our district

Mi compo is tired.

Learning to make tacos.

Success!

Watching The District on the big screen.

Best Day Ever!!!!!

I Saw the Prez!

So this week Mary and Joel and Armando are taking the trip down into the waters of baptism it is so great! Earlier this week Mary texted us at like 2am expressing her excitement tot be baptized but her nerves for her interview, they are so prepared it is amazing! They came to Stake conference with us and they loved it! Their last name is Torres so we introduced them to prez and his wife he was great with them! He addressed them as primos it was awesome! Then they watched a baptism on Sunday to help prepare and Mary was crying she was so touched by the Spirit. Please pray that their parents will have their hearts softened by the Spirit, their mom loves it but lacks the faith to act and her husband is a little bit of a stumbling block for his family right now:) 

One experience I want to share from conference. We are one of 3 or 5 bilingual stakes in the whole world and in the Saturday session we talked about Zion. A people and a place. the people are of one heart and one mind. The place is a place of refuge among much else and to demonstrate it they had two children come up. Colby and Kayli, both white kids. The kids then bore their testimonies in Spanish, and it was the most beautiful Spanish I've ever heard and was the Spirit strong! They didn't know Spanish, they had never spoken it but they learned their testimonies for this. The faith of a child is great! no wonder God asks us to become as little children! 

Through this I feel like I came one step closer to learning the love that God has for his children that no matter the color the race, the language, nothing matters to God - He knows us individually and He loves all his children! There is so much more I'd love to share and say but I've got to go, I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Solid Week in Alton

Well another day another dollar:) Sorry no photos this week my camera died and my charger is MIA at the moment we'll see what Walmart can do for us. 

This week was great. Mary one of the people we are helping out right now is doing super good! Yesterday she was called into work and then called us telling us what happened. Well we quickly turned to the end of 3 Nephi 13 and read about God's promise to provide if we put him first and seek to build his kingdom over the things of the world. Well when we finished she said "well I guess it shouldn't even be a question for me, if they fire me God will provide me with a better job anyways" And Mary was there all dressed up and ready for church! it was amazing to see that kind of faith from someone who is still working on on getting baptized and isn't even a member yet. 

Well I've got to go I love y'all and there is a least one miracle for ya'll for this week! Love ya keep in touch! 

QUESTIONS FROM HOME:
1. what is the best part of being a district leader (DL)? Learning and being taught by the Lord.

2. what is the hardest part of being a DL? Helping sisters lol, inspiring them the way they need it to really get it not just telling them the answer.

3. what goal are you currently striving for personally? To be humble and do the Lords will and to fulfill presidents vision.

Good Week, Good Week

So the district has me, Elder Chavez, Sisters Valdez and Sister H, (her name is German and super hard to spell), Elder Walgstaff, and Elder Enfield. The ward is amazing and it's great to be back in Spanish culture. 

This last week we had a mission wide leadership meeting and my comp was asked to come with me and we were asked at the meeting to share some stuff so that was nerve wracking to do in front of Prez. but super fun! In the meeting President gave us some new commandments for the mission and they were so awesome! One thing that was a super simple commitment but with huge blessing is to tract for one hour everyday in the evenings. This has lead to some awesome miracles. 

Just one example since I'm short on time as always. Yesterday we spent our last hour of the night tracking. With about two minutes to go after having a Catholic lady try and trap us at her door and not let us go, we hadn't seen much for our efforts. Our previous plans had been changed since a few hours earlier after leaving a meal appointment we walked out to a flat tire on my bike. So we thought well God must have some big plans for  us near here instead. Well back to those last two minutes of the night, I turned to ask my comp and asked, should we knock this one last door? The light is on. And he responded: what else do we have to lose? So we knocked it and well a guy walks out and says I know you guys! I've seen you guys at so and so's house. Well turns out he is a friend of a member who had been wanting to go to church just didn't know what time it started. So we taught him and invited him to be baptized. Well he more than excepted the invitation. And now Miguel is on his way to salvation! 


That has been the basic theme of this week it has been incredible! For y'all to know Aracely is someone we started working with when I got here and she is just an angel! She gave up coffee for good and she and her granddaughter were baptized the same day by the father and son!:) I love you all the work is great here, hope its going well with y'all too. The Book is blue, the Restoration is true, and I'm on a mission! Love y'all!

Gripped my shake too hard at Whattaburger!