WAYS TO IMPROVE

Transfers are in two weeks and I have NO idea what will happen, I would love to know right now, but I can´t!!!!! I would love to stay here a little longer! I feel like a lot of good things are going to happen this next month! But I have no idea what will happen, I haven´t quite got a hold on what President Thurgood likes to do in transfers too much so yeah... I am just left here hangin.  It will be hard to leave here though.  This is the longest time I have spent in an area, and I have to really come to love the people here a lot!! And this is my 4th transfer here, so I have been here almost 6 months!!

Last P-Day we watched some movies as a district, we have 3 hours for our district activity and everyone just wanted to watch some moives, so we watched The Minions and Inside Out, and i made some delicious Sloppy Joe for the whole crew. It was a super lazy P-day, but we were all tired and hungry, haha. 

We also got to teach the family that I think I mentioned in the last email, they have 3 daughters (the mom is a less active) that want to be baptized!! WHOO!! We also found a friend of a member, and then a cousin of a member! So we are just getting loaded of the new people and the help of the members!! Really that is the only way to be a successful missionary! Is work with the members! There are an average of 100 in every ward that are active and at least 2 missionaries! 100 people can do a lot more then 2!

Elder Avila woke up one morning and said as if we were a TV show ¨Elder Ward, I know what we are gonna do today!¨ He had a dream that at 4 we went over to the house of a recent convert  (I was here when she got baptized) and there in his dream we started teaching her cousin. So this dream seemed too good to be true.  So we had to find out what would happen.  Lucky enough we went to her house, and her cousin was there and we taught her the restoration! What a miracle!

Also other miracle I got a letter from John Nelson... With a killer Thai tie in it... Haha Thai tie. 

And last night we ate some waffles after a  Family night with a family! It was good, I brought Peanut butter and Jam, and they bought NUTELLA!! Oh man that was good, it´s been a while since I had that stuff!!

We had a super good lesson with some recent converts.  Elder Avila and I studied up on commitments and what they really mean for somebody and how they truly help them progress in the gospel. Preach my Gospel said that leaving commitments with people is helping them with their process of repentance. If they complete with these commitments then it is a way to repent.

So this week we talked about having daily prayer with the family and between the husband and wife. They are going on vacation so we commited them to do it every day of the vacation. I think that we can also give ourselves commitments to keep getting better at the things in this life just start with the basics. There is always ways to improve in that area.

I love the mish!  the hardest thing to overcome has been Myself, haha. Just dropping it all on the plate and making the Lord´s Will mine. COMPLETELY. I still have a long ways to go. 

Well that was about everything that happened in my week! Hope all you guys have a good week!!

Elder Ward

AMAZING SCRIPTURES

Well this week we had interviews with the Mission President. They were really good! Short, sweet and to the point. I talked to him about college and all and he said it would be super good to just get home and get started, I am thinking on just coming home a week early home.  But I have time to figure that out.  The theme of the interviews was faith and exact obedience and we needed to look up some scriptures about the two subjects, especially about obedience...

Alma 53:16-21 

Alma 56:44-48 55-56 

Alma 57:20-21 25-27

These are amazing scriptures! I encourage all of you too read them! They are truly inspiring! They really helped me out!

I finally got the package that you sent with Mike Hatch.  I loved it! It was so nice, everyone in the pench loved Hi-Chews so those are already gone, haha they don`t like candy corns so much.  But that means more for me!! WOO!!  I gave Stella the peanut butter.  She was so excited!!  She loved it!!

We were asked to give a noche de hogar (Family Home Evening) about patience, especially patience with other people. It was good, and we had a good turn out, lots of people came! We also found a couple new investigators that the people had invited! 

Everyone says it`s supposed to get warm soon, but it is still pretty cold. Luckily we can warm up at members homes with a cup of  malta.

Ok. So when we went to General Conference there was a lady that came that is a less active.  She had recently found out that she has cancer, and for that reason she has come back to church! We are going to start teaching her 3 daughters, and her husband! Sometimes God gives us a good kick in the butt to make us remember who he is and why we are here on this earth. Yes the kick kindof hurts at first, but if we follow what he wants us to do we will have ETERNAL BLESSINGS!! ETERNAL!!! YEAH!

Well I hope that you all have a good week!!  Love You All!!

Elder Ward

ACCEPT THE COMMITMENTS

Hello Everyone!!

We finally had a fun activity today!! We went to this  party place with skee ball, bumper cars, video games (no we didn`t play those, haha we can`t) and air hockey! It was pretty cheap so that was way fun! I felt like a kid  but I don`t even care, haha it was super fun, especially the bumper cars. Then we watched a movie and ate after, the movie was called Mobsters and Mormons. It was Pretty funny, kind of cheesy, and super over exaggerated but funny! Haha. Go watch it with the fam! I am sure dad will love the Guy in the movie, haha.

And that was our activity! Super fun, and I enjoyed it a lot! 

Well this weekend I was just blown away with a hurricane of inspiration from General Conference! It was so awesome. I just couldn't get enough! Can`t wait for the next one! I had a couple favorites.  

One of them was from President Monson, about being an example in word, conduct, faith, light, etc. 

The other was the testimony of one of the new Apostles Dale Renlund. He talked about how his calling wasn't about him, but it was about the Lord, and the Lord`s children that he will be serving. It made me think a lot about the calling that I have, and if I was serving like it was about me, or about the Lord. Me and my comp both decided that there were too many things that made it about us. So we have decided to change, and this week is going to be a different week, more work, more lessons, more investigators, and more about the Lord and his children.

This week we had quite the miracle, on our way back to the pench there is a a hospital that we pass by.  As we were passing by a member grabbed us and asked if we could give a blessing. We said of course, and gave a blessing to a woman who was not doing well and had very high blood pressure. When we gave the blessing the member thanked us and we left.

What would have happened if we weren't prepared with consecrated oil? Or worthy of our Priesthood? Was she cured? I don`t know. But I know that the Lord will be testing us in moments that we least expect. I know that Idid not expect that to happen at all. And only the Lord knows if we were truly prepared or not. So that was a pretty neat experience. 

Well I hope that everyone enjoyed General Conference and that everyone accepts the commitments that were given and that you do them! I can remember three specific ones! And if you don`t know what they are then read all the talks again! Haha but I hope you all have a good week!

Elder Ward

REALLY TIRED

So this week we had a lot of success in finding new people!! It has been such a long time since we have found some good solid people that are going to progress and be baptized! Some of them are the aunt and uncle of one of our recent converts.  The other we just found out of simply talking to people and contacting!!! Finally!!

The weather is not warming up yet.  Today it's pretty much cold and rainy.  It warmed up for one day but that was it, then it just started to get cold again

I am super tired this week because we have been really focusing super hard on finding some people. We also  did a fast and I am still feeling it.  Man when I get home I am just going to sleep for at least 2 whole weeks, haha. But before that I gotta keep working super super hard!!!

But yeah I am just really tired, haha this will not be a super long email. I am just worked, and am gonna sleep for awhile today. But I hope that you all have a good week and that you all have your questions ready for General Conference!!

If you haven`t done it yet, make a question that you want responded and make sure you listen well to all the talks, maybe read them after, but you will find the answer! General conference is full of inspiration!!

For Conference we will be inviting people to come to listen to the Prophet.  We will watch it in the Stake Center, and the priesthood session with our zone because it starts at 9 here and that is out of our schedule!


Have a good week!!


Elder Ward

RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE

Well this week we had some exciting things happened.  Some recent converts said they never wanted to go to church again, Elder Avila threw up in the street, the other companionship in my apartment is having a bunch of problems and I am just right in the middle of all of it! WoO! Haha.

Our recent convert and her husband had a pretty bad fight and the both of them got mad and said things that they didn`t really mean or want to say, and not going to church ever again was one of the things. When I heard those words come out of her mouth my stomach just hit the floor. I just felt terrible. Luckily we talked a little bit to her and everything, did some service in the house (painted their little girls new room), and she came to church this Sunday, haha. PHEW!!

The other had a fight with one of her best friends that brought her to church and she didn`t want to go because the friend said something on facebook or like that and she was mad (girl stuff). But she came to church this Sunday too. So man I have just had a roller coster of emotions here.  One second happy and then completely devastated, haha.  Man I was super glad that in the end they both came to church. Let`s hope that they KEEP coming.

One day we were walking in the street one night and out of no where my comp said really quietly, I`m gonna throw up (in Spanish obviously, haha) and man did he throw up. Luckily we were pretty close to the pench so our day pretty much  ended there.

Transfers are this week but I am staying here with Elder Avila!  There are some changes in my zone, but that's alright, no big deal. 

This last Sunday I gave a talk about the 3 groups in Lehi`s Dream. And if you don`t know about the 3 groups go and read 1 Nephi 8, I hope that ALL of you can be the last group that Lehi sees in his vision, so read it to find out what we need to be doing!! Haha

Hope you all have a good week! 

Elder Ward

THIS CHURCH IS TRUE!

Well this week we walked a little more than usual but that`s ok! We had another service cleaning at that guys house. We cleaned the floors... AGAIN, and the kitchen, and we are supposed to have an asado with him. So we will see if we can clean that bad boy super well before we use it to cook, haha. 

This last week we had a Zone Meeting. And one of the things that struck me super hard was a ¨practice¨ that the zone leaders did. It was a practice to help us improve on how to do a comp inventory (when you tell your comp what bugs you and stuff).

This is the last P-Day before transfers.  So we need to do a super cleaning of the pench.

Yesterday we had a noche de hogar and we talked about a theme that I really like, and that is the simplicity of the gospel. We read a verse in 2 Nephi 1:20 that in English I don`t know what it says but its something like, If you keep the commandments you will prosper in the earth, and if you don`t keep them, you can`t enter into the presence of God. Literally it is simple. Their are 2 choices, one is good that will help you grow spiritually, and the other is bad that will diminish you spiritually. It`s that`s simple, and we already know the one that we should choose... So why don`t we choose it?

We know we should go to church but sometimes we don`t.

We know we should go to seminary but sometimes we don`t.

We know we should read the scriptures everyday but sometimes we don`t.

And I think the solution is in D&C (I don`t remember the section) where God commands us to not be Idle. 

Well I have a long way to go to not be idle in all things but I think all of us could try to do a little better in that subject.

You asked me what is the hardest thing on the mission and what I love the most.  Here you go..

I think the hardest thing that I have struggled with on the mission is opening my mouth and just talking to everybody, I mean yes I still do it but every time that I do it I always feel butterflies in my stomach!! But luckily I have been feeling it wear off lately being with Elder Avila. I feel like I have gotten to grow a lot this transfer!!

The things I love the most about being a missionary is hearing people say their first prayer, and then watching their prayers progress after that it is literally amazing. Listening to a person`s prayer you can really show you the true feelings and desires of their hearts. Super Awesome.

Your challenge for the week is to Read the Book or Mormon... EVERYDAY!!! For at least 15 minutes!

I know that this church is true! That`s why I  am where I am right now, haha

Have a good week everybody!! Love you all!

Elder Ward

GO EVERY SUNDAY!

We had a good week. We had some service activities, we gave a  noche de hogar and we had A LOT of people come to church this week!!! We had an asado, we ate horse blood, i made desert and we did a chili challenge. So you could say it was a pretty good week.

Our service activity was to clean the house of a recent convert.   And boy was there a lot of clean.  Grandma Shields would not know what to do with this place.  SO we spent 2 hours just picking up garbage and cleaning his floors... 2 HOURS!! We still have his room, his kitchen, and his bathroom. So yeah. OH the things we do for people... 

Since this month that the leaders of the church have been doing a project of Sacrament Attendance September! They want everyone, less actives, investigators, and members, to go EVERY Sunday of this month, then after that look back on the month and realize HOW MUCH we are blessed when we go to church. We have been challenging people a lot in that. And we got results! Almost 100 people came to church this week!! And the week before we only had 70!! SO MANY BLESSINGS!! 

This week we had an asado (BBQ) with the family that the mom just barely got baptized. and it was super good. We had a  bunch of food there, and there is something here that is called Morcilla. And pretty much what it is is cooked Horse blood with onion pepper and some other spices. But it´s actually pretty good! The first time that I ate it no one told me what it was because well yeah... It´s just blood. It´s really good with Bread!

Then when we were there the dad heard that i like spicy so he bought each one of us a chili. And it was super hot. But it was super funny to see my  comp eat it because in Brasil they never eat spicy. Haha oh man, hopefully she  sent you a pic of us eating them mom, haha.

But this week that was just about it! Lots of Blessings. I was literally so happy about how many people were in sacrament meeting. Literally almost cried from joy, haha. The mission does weird things to ya. But yeah that was pretty much all that happened this week!

I feel the love of my family every week.  Especially when I read emails.   I am very blessed!  

Love you all!

Elder Ward