3/31/08
Last friday we had zone conference, it went really well, something crazy about it though is we had our red cross training as well, because the church is actually partnered with red cross, so as missionaries we are certified volunteers, that are allowed more access than regular volunteers. So we had to have a three hour training on what we are to do when a hurricane, tornado, flood, or any other disaster hits. Each companionship kinda takes over there chapel in there area and opens it up for refugees and gets everything going, until priesthood leaders can assist. It was good knowledge to have, i am hoping we dont have to put it to work though!Saturday all of the language missionaries within the orlando area were assigned to go to a "step-up florida" event where they had a 5k run and events, we had to go to translate for anyone that needed it, there were about 15 spanish companionships there, and it was funny because there was not one spanish person there, i dont know who thought that any of the spanish people would have a day off work and if they had a day off work, would want to go and run a 5k?!?!?! It was basically a BUNCH of African Americans, oh well it was fun and it was a change!
2/25/08
Hola mi familia!
I was soo surprised to get soo many emails this morning, it was really neat! Thank you sooo much! Everything is going good here, we had a pretty good week, some hard days of tractin in the rain and getting doors slammed in our faces, but there were blessings as well. We were able to take one of our main investigators to a baptism on saturday and afterwards we did a church tour with him, he is a solid investigator, i know the lord has been preparing him, afterward we were riding back to poinciana when his car died at a red light, so elder avila and i pushed him to a gas station where we had to wait two hours for a ride, while we were waiting i was able to do some preaching to alot of bums that were chilling in a big group, i went over there with alot of pamphlets and asked if i could share a message with them, they said sure, so i shared the first lesson with them, and after ward one of them insisted that we have a prayer circle, so it was actually pretty cool, me and about ten bums in a prayer circle holding hands, and in the prayer the one that said it said, "thank you soo dearly Lord for sending this Angel to us to share a message from you and to provide us with hope" I was truly touched , it was a neat experience from a crappy situation.
The burning of the tie!
2/11/08
if i had to describe this week, i would have to use the lyrics, "the spirit of god like a fire is burning" It seems like soo many times this week the spirit has literally pushed or pulled me in certain directions. The other day we were riding bikes past a group of thug gangster lookin guys and so we just kept to ourselves trying to stay out of trouble when about 10 yards later it felt like the spirit was pulling me back, i was a lil scared about them so i ignored it, then another 10 yards i got the same impression, trying to save my hide i blew it off again, then after another few yards it felt like the spirit yelled in my ear to go back and give them the restoration pamphlet, so i told elder avila that we have to go back and he looked at me like i was nuts, but he came anyways, when he got back to the group i knew exactly which one i needed to talk to, he was a scruffy looking guy with big old dred locks but i knew that he was who was ready for this message, after i spoke to him and gave him the pamphlet he told me that he belonged to the seventh day adventists but for the past few years he had heard more and more about mormons and he always wanted to know more about them and what there differences are from other religions but he didnt know how to find any mormons, he sincerely thanked me and said he was going to read the pamphlet that night, all his thug friends were looking at him like he was crazy, it was kinda funny, but it taught me a good lesson, Just do it, and do it when the spirit prompts you the first time.This has been an incredible week for missionary work here in poinciana, our branch members are getting more and more excited about missionary work, we actually taught 11 lessons to investigators with a member present this week which is a really cool, especially for poinciana, and i can testify that when a member is present and can testify to the investigator it adds something that missionaries couldnt do alone.
if i had to describe this week, i would have to use the lyrics, "the spirit of god like a fire is burning" It seems like soo many times this week the spirit has literally pushed or pulled me in certain directions. The other day we were riding bikes past a group of thug gangster lookin guys and so we just kept to ourselves trying to stay out of trouble when about 10 yards later it felt like the spirit was pulling me back, i was a lil scared about them so i ignored it, then another 10 yards i got the same impression, trying to save my hide i blew it off again, then after another few yards it felt like the spirit yelled in my ear to go back and give them the restoration pamphlet, so i told elder avila that we have to go back and he looked at me like i was nuts, but he came anyways, when he got back to the group i knew exactly which one i needed to talk to, he was a scruffy looking guy with big old dred locks but i knew that he was who was ready for this message, after i spoke to him and gave him the pamphlet he told me that he belonged to the seventh day adventists but for the past few years he had heard more and more about mormons and he always wanted to know more about them and what there differences are from other religions but he didnt know how to find any mormons, he sincerely thanked me and said he was going to read the pamphlet that night, all his thug friends were looking at him like he was crazy, it was kinda funny, but it taught me a good lesson, Just do it, and do it when the spirit prompts you the first time.This has been an incredible week for missionary work here in poinciana, our branch members are getting more and more excited about missionary work, we actually taught 11 lessons to investigators with a member present this week which is a really cool, especially for poinciana, and i can testify that when a member is present and can testify to the investigator it adds something that missionaries couldnt do alone.
2/04/08
Our message is simple and perfect, it makes soo much sense, it is most definently the fullness of the gospel of jesus christ that our heavenly father intended us to have. I know that this is the only true church.Yesterday at church during sacrament meeting they made an anouncement that they are building a new church in POINCIANA! I couldnt believe it! what a blessing for my people here, everyone here has to travel about 45 minutes to get to the church in kissimmee, and so it is really hard for them to get there when they are in hard times, and it is really hard for us to get investigators at church, this will be such a blessing for members and non members here alike. The church bought 20 acres of gorgeous land here on which to build it on, it will be a beautiful building! although i will be long gone before it gets comepleted or anything, i am still soo happy
Our message is simple and perfect, it makes soo much sense, it is most definently the fullness of the gospel of jesus christ that our heavenly father intended us to have. I know that this is the only true church.Yesterday at church during sacrament meeting they made an anouncement that they are building a new church in POINCIANA! I couldnt believe it! what a blessing for my people here, everyone here has to travel about 45 minutes to get to the church in kissimmee, and so it is really hard for them to get there when they are in hard times, and it is really hard for us to get investigators at church, this will be such a blessing for members and non members here alike. The church bought 20 acres of gorgeous land here on which to build it on, it will be a beautiful building! although i will be long gone before it gets comepleted or anything, i am still soo happy
a TRUE Florida rainstorm
1/28/08
our baptism was really really good on saturday, elder avila baptised him and i gave a talk on the holy ghost in spanish, it was fun though. He was sooo happy when he came up out of the water. A really good thing about it too, is that his mom and lil bro and sis really want to learn more about it now, and we are teaching them tonight. I am really excited i really think that they will embrace the gospel. Our other families are doing pretty good too, they are still progressing just really slowly, include them in your prayers.
our baptism was really really good on saturday, elder avila baptised him and i gave a talk on the holy ghost in spanish, it was fun though. He was sooo happy when he came up out of the water. A really good thing about it too, is that his mom and lil bro and sis really want to learn more about it now, and we are teaching them tonight. I am really excited i really think that they will embrace the gospel. Our other families are doing pretty good too, they are still progressing just really slowly, include them in your prayers.
1/14/08
The other day i had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the assistants to the president, that was a really good change, i loved it, we did some sweet contacting and we ran into lou esperance, he is a haitian in his late 50s, he has a family of five, and he has been studying with the jehovas witnesses for 13 years and he said he never felt good about it so he was never baptised but he said his new years resolution was to find the true religion of god so he has been praying for it, and me and elder Holloway showed up on his door, and before we could say much he had us in his living room sitting on the couch and teaching him the first lesson, he is progressing sooooo good, he is keeping all of his commitments to, we will have to probably pass him on to the haitian speaking elders though, it kinda stinks but what really matters is that he knows the truth through the spirit, it doesnt matter who teaches him. our other families are doing good, slowly progressing, but hopefully they keep doing there commitments and that they feel the spirit
