"Memories Are Summer Flowers For The Winters Of Our Lives."

Hey everybody!

This past week was great and Elder Durrant and I are kicking it into high gear to finish strong.  We had lots of good lessons and have been blessed to find and receive success from our Heavenly Father.  This week we have a goal of three baptisms that we hope to have so we are excited and excited again to also be preparing some people and families who will be baptized after I leave.  I love these people and really wish I could stay a little longer to bless the lives of a few more people.

Somehow, two years go by in the blink of an eye.  It's hard to comprehend that my time as a full-time missionary has come to a close.  The funniest part is that even though I had many difficult and hard, rough times in the mission, all I remember are the good times; the times I was happy, the times I have felt the Spirit bear testimony, the times when me and my companion would run through rain, dust, mud, hail, cold, heat and be laughing as we were and fully loving what we were doing.  Truly we do remember the good times more that the bad. I love a quote I saw the other day that says:

 "God gives us memories, because memories are summer flowers for the winters of our lives."

I have cherished and hold dear every memory I have had here in the mission and all the lessons I have learned and all the growing I have done spiritually.   I love my mission.  I have loved it and I will forever love it.  There has not been any moment in my life to compare with it and if I had the chance, I would gladly do it again.  My favorite scripture says:

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding; in all they ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

I testify that if we trust Him and love Him, He shall indeed direct our paths.  I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father.  He knows each and every one of us.  He wants us to be happy and thus provides the means by which we may have happiness if we will but only follow Jesus Christ.  I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and our Redeemer and our Friend and Advocate with the Father.  He lives!  He loves us!  He can and will heal even the deepest of wounds that we have if we will let His loving sacrifice take effect in our lives.  I know that the scriptures testify of that.  I know that all scripture invites us to come unto Him and be perfected in Him.  I testify and know with all my soul that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.  He did see the Father and the Son that early spring morning in 1820, an occurrence of which he so persistently and unwearingly testified of to his death.  He was the instrument in God's hands in bringing forth His truth and His restored work in these last days.  The Book of Mormon is true.  I know it is.  I am convinced that this is the true and only church of Christ upon the face of the Earth.  It is called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I know that all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Christ which are faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, receiving the gift of the holy ghost by the laying on of hands, and enduring to the end.  I know that all of this is true.  I know it because I have felt the Spirit of God confirm the truth of it to me personally.  I bear my special witness as an authorized representative of Jesus Christ  that these things are true and I do so in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

Enduring To The End!!

Howdy doody!

Elder Durrant and I had a good week.  Actually, we had a terrible week. 

Every single one of the appointments we had fell through during the week.  We fought hard to keep our spirits up the whole week with everything and the additional rain storms that came all of a sudden.  But!  We actually did have a good week.  We remembered to forget ourselves and go to work.  We were happily working in the rain and such and we learned a really important lesson about enduring to the end. 

On Sunday in our very last appointment of the day we went to visit with an inactive member of our ward, Edgar, and his non-member wife, Karina.  We taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the spirit was very strong and present.  We identified the spirit and invited Karina to be baptized and she accepted and we will have her baptismal service August 3!  We also strengthened Edgar's recent desire that he has had to return to activity in the church and he is making plans to come back with us and enjoy the fullness of the blessings his Heavenly Father has to offer him.  

It was a great experience for us to work hard all week and finally see the fruits of our labor in the last minutes of the last day of the week all because we decided to endure.  We are going to have a great week and finish these last few weeks I have left with a bang!  

I love you all!  Have a great week!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

 Me getting wet in the rain.

 The both of us getting wet in the rain

  Elder Durrant getting wet in the rain.

We Are Going To Turn This Mission Around!

Hey guys,

We had a pretty good week. It was uneventful for the most part, just mainly a finding week, but we had some success and will see a lot more in these next few days. 

We made some contacts and met some really great families who we are going to visit today and tomorrow and we hope to see lots of grand success and more baptisms.  I went of divisions with some elders in my zone and helped them out a bit and the fun thing right now is that everyone in the zone has a goal to baptize this week and we can see that the excitement and work is increasing which is a super great thing to see right now. 

We also had a zone leader conference with President Hall this week and it was great and we learned a lot and got work done and planned how we are going to turn this mission around.  I love this work and know that we will have some huge successes in these up and coming weeks. 

Take care and love you all!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

 What can I say, we're goons!

Mexico City Temple

"Stay Put And Wait A Little More For An Answer!!"

Hey family!

So, we had an alright week here in Arbolillo. 

We started the week having interviews and Zone Conference with President and Sister Hall and the assistants.  President Hall is a great guy and in my interview with him we talked about my desires to finish the mission strong and about the miracles I can accomplish here in my area.  Be prepared all of you to hear some great stories because I ain't finished just yet!  

One cool experience I had during the week was when we left our house one day, we were wondering what we could do since some appointments fell through when all of a sudden I started feeling the spirit super strong trying to tell me something.  So I listened more but the funny thing was I wasn't guided to go anywhere but to just stay put and wait a little more for an answer.  All of a sudden, the car we were standing next to blinked its lights to signify that it was unlocked. I looked at the car for a bit and turning back around saw a family pass by us and get into the car.  That's when I realized that that was why I was prompted to stay put.  I contacted the dad and it turns out he is an inactive member but his wife and kids aren't, so I got his address and we are going to visit him.  We also have an investigator named Ruben who has the most sincere heart to know what is true than any other person I have met in the mission.  It has been great teaching him and answering his questions this week and we keep seeing him progressing which is fantastic.

We also had a stake primary mission activity where the kids got assigned to missions and did fun stuff.  We  taught them all a little bit about why missionary work is such a blessing.  It was really fun and cool to see all the little kids excited about missionary work. 

Also, today I went to the Mexico MTC and helped the security guards with a power point presentation.  A brother in my ward is a security guard at the MTC and they had to translate into English a power point they made for the missionaries to know what to do in certain situations.  Since none of their English is very good yet and Google translate is horrendous in translating, they asked me to help.  So, I basically redid the whole presentation and helped them pronounce the words, it was fun.  So Michael, when you are in the Mexico MTC and see that power point, you can tell everyone that yours truly helped make it!

Cool, well, take care everyone and have a great week!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

I found Heather's twin!

Mexico MTC

¡Bienvenidos President & Sister Hall!

Hey guys!

Elder Durrant and I had a great week.  We had the blessing of baptizing Maria Elena this week and seeing her joy and enthusiasm as she followed the steps of the Lord Jesus Christ.  This week we didn't have as much success as other weeks as far as people accepting baptism but we are still working hard and seeing huge blessings, especially through the members of the ward who are coming together to help us out even more in the work of salvation.

We now have a new mission president who is President Hall from Idaho Falls, Idaho.  He is a really great, sincere, and spiritual man and will truly continue to press missionary work forward here in our mission. (I also asked him and Sister Hall if they have been to Da Pineapple Grill and they said they have and that they love the food there.)  He and Sister Hall visited us on Friday with the assistants to get to know us and to visit some of the other companionships here in Arbolillo.  We will have interviews and zone conference with him tomorrow morning.

In other news, I was in Walmart the other day to take money out and to buy some stuff when we saw a bunch of Mormon-looking white people.  When we got closer we found out that they were indeed Mormon white people!  They were the MTC teachers at the new and recently functioning Mexico MTC!  And suprise!  One of my MTC teachers, Brother Arnold was in the group!  Strange.  We talked for a bit and it was exciting to see him and hear what he's done in these past few years.

Also, the Sister missionaries had another baptism of another couple that was in that baptismal service when I spoke!  It has been a really neat experience being there in each and every one of their baptisms during this past month and see how the family has progressed and come closer and see the joy that they have experienced recently and will continue to experience.  Well that's all!  Take care and have a great week! 

I love you all!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

Maribel's baptism! 

Maria Elena's baptism!