I Love the Temple

This week has been a good week. Elder Zanudo and I are getting along really well and we are doing good work here in Modesto.

For the beginning of the week, I was in a trio because there are 4 Spanish missionaries in Modesto and one of them had to go to a meeting in Fresno. We were covering the whole city for 2 days in a trio; it was pretty fun, except for street contacts, because it felt like a gang up on someone. But it was cool being with 2 Mexicans because I got to be the brunt of all the Mexican jokes and Mexican talk; it was super funny.

Saturday, we had our big Christmas ward celebration. It took us all day to set up and get it all ready. With the time we had left, we went and invited people. The party was so fun and there was so much food; Mexicans know how to cook for sure. The other elders and I sang a couple Christmas songs.  Our singing was cool; I don’t know why, but when the missionaries do something, it is way cooler than if normal people do it. It was a real good party and we had a couple investigators there too.  We were glad about that.

Today was a really cool day, because I got to go to the temple again. It was great to be able to go during Christmas time. I love the temple.

Well that is about it. Modesto is doing good.

I love you all and have a great Christmas!!

Photo of a Baptism in Patterson

Myself, Patrick, Daniel, and Elder Roestenburg

 

Baptisms are Exciting!

This week has been a pretty good week. It is killing me that I am not riding a bike at all; I feel like such a fatty and lazy all the time, but other than that, it has been a good week.

We have been preparing Jorge for his baptism this last weekend. It was super cool. Jorge was so excited. During one of the lessons, all he could just tell us was how excited he was and how he wants his family to be together for eternities.

I learned that I am so glad I am speaking Spanish, because I went on an exchange into an English area and the work is so much harder. Americans are so prideful and set in their ways; they also believe a computer more than a person standing in front of their face.

Well, it is so cool to see how the Lord guides and helps his servants to find the people that are ready to hear the gospel. We found this lady who is great. We teach her stuff and she says that it makes sense and she guesses that she has always kinda known that. It is so cool.

Modesto is so different. It is nice to be in the city and not on the farms, but Modesto is still a farm city. The Spanish branch here is almost ready to be a ward, so that is cool to see. It is a lot bigger than the branch in Patterson. There were about 100 people at Sacrament Meeting the other day.

Jorge and his son, Elder Zanudo and myself

The Lord Guides His Servants

So my last few days in Patterson were pretty good. We went around and said bye to a few people and continued the work. It was weird leaving my first area, but kinda nice at the same time. I was going to have the opportunity to speak 100% Spanish. It has already helped my Spanish a lot. I can understand so much more. I still can’t understand everything or say everything I want, but I will get there someday.

One of the houses we stopped at in Patterson was Brother West. He likes to figure out where the Book of Mormon took place and all that stuff. He has some Jade artifacts that should be in museums and all sorts of cool stuff. It was way cool to be able to see all of his artifacts. He had a map of approximately where every city was in the Book of Mormon. It was super cool.

It was great to see Patterson start to grow. It is so ready to explode and so far away from exploding at the same time.

Wednesday was my first day here in Modesto. I am in an all Spanish area of Modesto. I cover the East side of Modesto, so we are all over the place. It is so nice to be able to be in a big city again and actually see people. I did not know how much of a city boy I was. We are on roads that have more than 4 cars on them at a time. Elder Zanudo has a hurt knee, so we are 100% in a car, which means I am going to start gaining more weight. It is also cool to know that Tompa (my grandpa) served his mission in the same city I am in. Because I am always in the older parts of Modesto, we will probably walk the same streets.

Within my first hour in Modesto, we found this lady who has so much faith and she is so ready for baptism. We taught her about the gospel and families, then about prayer. She started to say the closing prayer and could not finish because she felt like her heart was going to explode with joy. It was super cool to see how the Lord guides the paths of his servants.

We are having a baptism on the 10^th, so this Saturday. He is super prepared. He comes to church no excuses. He got home at 2 in the morning, before church at 11am, and still came to church. He is solid.  Hopefully his family is baptized shortly after him.

My new companion’s name is Elder Zanudo. He is from Mexico. He is super cool and we get along really well. He is a great missionary and it is perfect to be with him because he is teaching me a lot of Spanish as well. Hopefully by the end of these 6 weeks, I will be speaking pretty good Spanish.  The Branch here in Modesto is great as well. There are a lot more members than there were in Patterson.

That is pretty much it for this week I am still getting used to Modesto.