The Lord Sees to the Heart

On Monday, we had a lesson with Malissa and Daisy. It was so good! It is cool to watch them come closer to Christ with their whole family.

I went out tracting on Tuesday, which we have not done all transfer. We found a couple of good people, but the problem was that the most of them spoke English, so we gave them to the English Elders. We met one guy whose name was Rishard Johnson, a black guy who loved what we were talking about. His dad is a preacher and all. It was super funny, but cool because he was interested, and we just found him walking on the street.

Also, that day, we went to go visit the family who just randomly came to church. No one invited them or anything. Come to find out, the father was a member. He was baptized 10 years ago and then went inactive. We are now teaching his family and they love church and are faithfully coming again. It is so cool to see how the Lord works.

This week I got a spiritual slap on the face. We were teaching a lesson to this guy and his girlfriend. They were dirty and older, just very unkept, and not the people at all that I would expect to get baptized. But we invited them to get baptized and they accepted. They will have to change a few habits, but that is alright. That we can do. It just shows me that the Lord sees to the heart; as men, we often just see the outside. It was definitely a good lesson to learn.

My Week in Mo Town

This week has been full of funny stories and it all started on Tuesday. We went to a lesson and this lady we are teaching (who is very Catholic, she says all the time that she believes in her Virgin Mary) said that we deserved to be happy and we should go get girl friends. That is the first time in my life that girl friend = guarantied happiness. But, o well, it was definitely funny.

On Thursday we had an interesting day. At first, no one was home, then we swung it around and had 3 straight lessons before dinner. And they were all standing up; my feet heart after that, but it was alright. That night was pretty good. It just showed me if you keep pushing through, it always ends up better or at least working out.

We had another productive day on Friday, which was good because Saturday we played soccer all morning, and during the night, we could not be out because it was New Year’s Eve.

Sunday was a super cool day. For one, a family came to the church without anyone inviting them or anything, which was super cool. Then at church, one of our investigators invited us over to dedicate her house.  We said ok and went over right after church. We are welcomed by a ton of people, music, food, in other words, a party and we are super confused. But we are told to sit down and eat. So I broke my fast early and ate. The whole time I was thinking that we were invited to give a blessing on the house, not to a New Year’s party. Finally, after we are done eating and the kids start dancing, the investigator stands up, pauses the party, thanks everyone for being here for the blessing of her house!?!?! It was a party to dedicate her house!?! Mexicans make a party out of everything. Oh and this investigator is more active than most of the members. Back to the story, we gave a blessing on the house, said thanks for having us over, said bye and left. But it was super weird.

Ya, so that has been my week in Mo town.

Christmas

So this Christmas was pretty good, definitely different not being at home because all the traditions change, but it was still good! I was able to go to the Temple last Tuesday which was very good. It is always good to go there and feel the spirit of the Temple. So that was fun and then two days later on Thursday we were able to have a zone conference. I got to see my old companion, which I enjoyed, and found out what was going on in my old area.

This week has been kinda a slow week on missionary work because everyone is gone. But last Wednesday, we were able to teach Jorge and his family and they seem to be all on board to learn more and join Jorge in being baptized. Jorge will be able to baptize the rest of his family. It is definitely cool to see families come together because of the Gospel.

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.