Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Hope it was a very merry Christmas for you all!

Que onda querida familia y amigos!

Hope you all had amazing Christmases! I know Elder Maughan and I did!

I'll start out with a cool miracle that happened last Wednesday on exchanges with Elder Goeckeritz. We were in our area and stopped by a potential investigator named Krisi, she was super nice the first time we met her and super prepared, has good friends from the church, had just attended a baptism and her 2 year old had been blessed in church. Well anyway we went to stop by her and she wasn't home, instead we met her husband Mike who we had never met before. Turns out he was baptized when he was 8 but  ended up with his dad who isn't a member for most of his life, so he is familiar with the church and loves the memories he had as a child. We were able to just talk about the savior and he expressed how he wants his daughters to grow up with that. We were also able to talk about the blessings of eternal families and he was stoked. we are super excited to go back this coming week.

Christmas Eve was a blast, we spent it spreading Christmas cheer to our investigators and members and everyone. We had lunch and a lesson with the Jamchi family, who are so awesome. I love every minute we get to spend with that family. Alex's mom mad a Persian style turkey with some rice, it was super good. Later on we had dinner with the Stapely family, they have a tradition of having the missionaries over on Christmas Eve. They even invited their friend and our investigator Martha over, so that was great to be able to spend some time with them on Christmas Eve. They are an awesome family and helped us to feel as at home as we could :) after the Stapley's house we went to bishop Wilton's house and had another dinner, and participated in their little family Christmas program. Elder Maughan played a song on the piano and since I'm not super musically talented I shared a Mormon message. Thank goodness for those. It was a lot of fun, we felt a lot of love from the members this Christmas. Thanks for everything that was sent to me and all your love and support!

Christmas Day was great! We woke up and ran, studied and for comp studied opened some presents. Then we went and had a zone lunch at the church together. We had dinner with a couple awesome families and then got to skype! It's always so great to talk to family. Felt like I was just hanging out again, didn't miss a beat. We finished the night by Christmas caroling to some members and investigators as a district.

Those are some of the highlights of the week. I would love to hear about your highlights this Christmas season. The work is going great, always finding, always teaching always baptizing!

Christmas Eve 2015

December 22, 2015

Merry Christmas Dear Family and Friends! ☃❄

Hey everybody! Merry Christmas, I hope you are all having a great Christmas week so far! I know I am.

Sorry for some of you who haven't gotten an email from me yet, I just barely got the list of emails, but I hope you have been able to keep up with my mission a little bit from the blog.

So this week in Penasquitos has been crazy! It's been awesome but crazy. Last week was transfers, so I said goodbye to my last companion Elder Augusto as he went home and Wednesday we went to transfer meeting to get my new companion!

My new companion is Elder Maughan from Provo, Utah. Some of you might remember that about a month ago Elder Maughan and I went on an exchange out in Ramona for some training, so it was sick to get a companion I already knew a little bit! He's a stud, he's been out for about 5 months. This is is second area, I'm the second oldest missionary in the zone based on time in the mission, which is SO WEIRD! I'm about to hit my 18 month mark.. Elder Maughan and I are having a ton of fun together!

The assistants asked us to not teach zone meeting until after transfers so Elder Maughan got to teach his first one two days after he got here. He did great though, we taught about the atonement. It was one of the most spiritual zone meetings I've had on my mission so it went great. I love reflecting on Christ's birth and mission this time of year, especially as people are together as families and are more open to talk about those things. We have seen some cool miracles in the mission with Christmas.Mormon.Org as well, so check it out and share it! The little videos on there are great :)

Sunday we had our Christmas Programs in church which were awesome. We had some really great musical numbers and talks given in both wards.

Yesterday was the Mission Christmas devotional. It's so fun to get altogether as a mission, see some musical numbers and get a chance to eat together. It's always fun to see my old companions and friends I've served around in the mission. That is always a highlight.

I wish you all a merry Christmas! I love and miss all of you!

December 15, 2015

Tchau to the Portuguese :(

What's up family! It's been an adventure this past week! Lots of interesting days, I don't think we had one normal day!

It all started with dinner last pday, we had dinner with an awesome family, the Riches. They fed us some massive steaks! I'll include a picture.

Wednesday we had exchanges with the Tagolog Elders in our zone. Love those guys. I had Elder Martinez in our area, we had an we some day. Taught a bunch of lessons, it was a fun day.

This weekend we had a mission tour, from Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the presidency of the seventy, it was awesome!! It all started on Thursday with a mission leadership council. It was awesome, we talked about lifting others without trying to take their burdens away, and how Christ does that. I love that concept, that he never takes away our load, but he lifts us and strengthens us so that we can lift it ourselves. That night we had more stake (people have been really stepping up their dinners for elder Augusto's last week).

Friday we had some more mission conference in the morning, tons of good stuff, they talked about planning a lot, and how much it applies after the mission as well, not just on the mission. That night we had a fun lesson and dinner with the Jamchis at the Pomeroys House. I'll include a picture with the Pomeroys and the Jamchis.

Saturday we wrapped up the mission tour, it was crazy to have 3 days in a row interrupted by the meetings, it was because Elder Clayton had to be in Tijuana with President Uchtdorf for some Part of the Tijuana temple dedication.

Sunday was awesome. Elder Augustos last Sunday in the mission. He spoke a little in both wards, everyone was really nice to him as he prepared to leave. We had a final dinner for him at the Raymond's house which was great. Then we had the stake Christmas program at the church.

Elder Augusto flew out today.

I'm hanging out with Elder Thueson, who's companion also went home. We are hangin out playing ping pong and basketball. Elder Fiso and his companions came to our zone to hangout. We miss him still our zone is getting blown up this transfer. Each companionship has someone leaving so this next transfer will be a fun adventure.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

It's the end of what's been an exciting and eventful week out here in beautiful Penasquitos! I love it out here, the weather is perfect! It was 75 and sunny yesterday!! ☀️ I now think I'm freezing when the temperature drops below 50 in the morning... I'm officially a converted San Diegan.

This week has been a super busy and interesting one! This past week Elder Augusto was pretty sick but he's been a trooper and he's powered through. He's finishing the last week and a half of his mission strong. We've had lots of administrative things to take care of, stake member missionary coordination packets, checking out apartments and all the meetings that go along with it, so it's been busy in that sense. But we have also been busy with missionary work as well.

Plus Friday Elder Augusto had the first half of departure activities, so they had a temple session and I got to wait around out there with a couple other elders. Then after that we had Mission leadership conference and then we saw the Jamchis and had dinner with our bishop and that was pretty much a typical day this week, running around everywhere.

We have been working a lot with the Jamchi family. They are an incredible family and I learn so much from them. They are so fun to teach and be around!  We finished up with the lessons this past week and finalized all the plans for the baptism. Alex, who was baptized in August baptized his wife Shana and two daughters Jordyn and Savana.

They were so excited for the big day. It was an awesome baptismal service. So many people came we had to move it out of the set up relief society room where the baptismal font is to the chapel so everyone could fit. The ward has been incredibly supportive and have really been instrumental in bringing this family to Christ. It's awesome to see a ward family come together! Elder Fiso got to come back for the baptism, and we did the intermediate message while the Jamchis were changing. The trio made a comeback! Haha it was super fun. We still miss him.

A Couple cool things with the baptism. Cara, an investigator of ours came to the baptism with a member friend of hers and really enjoyed it. I think she really felt the spirit there and she also came to the ward Christmas party afterword. She's so cool and had a really great time meeting the members. Also the Jamchis went out to eat after the baptism and a struggling member of another ward overheard them talking about the "stake center" and thought to ask what ward they were in. The Jamchis were all excited to talk about their baptism and the light of Christ was really shining through them as they were able to talk about how the gospel has blessed their lives and brought their family closer together. The other ward's bishop was sharing this in our stake coordination meeting and shared about how much that experience helped the member see the importance of the gospel in her life and the happiness it brings. It was a cool side miracle. The Lord puts people where they need to be so we can all feel of his love in one way or another.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Happy December

Hey family and friends! Its been a fantastic week this week, I hope everyone had an awesome thanksgiving! I'm so grateful for all of your love and support!!

We had a great week, started off by an awesome pre-thanksgiving dinner with the Agle family on Wednesday with turkey, potatoes, stuffing and all the good stuff, that warmed us up for thursday! We also had some awesome lessons with Jen Youkel and the Jamchi family, they are doing so good! It's awesome to see them progress, especially as they read the Book of Mormon.

We had an awesome thanksgiving, did some studies, weekly planning and then had a sweet first lesson with some new investigators. We went to our first dinner with the Wongs, I'll include some pictures, it was awesome, lot's of family there so it felt like home :) We had another dinner with the Marin family, Martha is our investigator. Man she is such a good cook!! We had some dang good dinners.

Friday we did a little bit of christmas crafting with a member of ours sister Kenney, she's awesome. We took a time-lapse video, I'll include that in here :) We helped some members move, which is always fun, unfortunately they are moving out of our ward. For dinner we had some more thanksgiving, so we are turkeyed out!! But it was good, I have no regrets. It was awesome because the Pomeroys had set up all their Christmas decorations and lights, I'm so pumped for Christmas!!

Saturday was a good busy day, 2 coordination meetings plus a district meeting and teaching appointments in between. We had another lesson with the Jamchis, I can't say too much how much I love that family. Jordan, Savannah and Shana are so excited for their baptism! And Alex is excited to perform the ordinances.

Sunday was an awesome day at church! We got to talk about the new Christmas initiative #asaviorisborn in both wards, and in Penasquitos 1st ward we had president Schmitt there to present and teach with us which is a little nerve racking but was really  fun too. It was awesome, I think he really helped get the ward even more excited for the work and for Christmas season. I hope you all have had a chance to check out Christmas.mormon.org and share the cool videos and stuff! We had dinner with the Leavetts (from Alberta), she made Elder Augusto's request since he goes home in 2 weeks. It was homemade lasagna, homemade bread, with wheat they ground themselves and homemade apple pie. It was probably one of the best dinners I've had since I left momma's cooking 17 months ago. After that we had the baptismal interviews for the Jamchis. It's all good to go! We are so stoked!!!

Those are some of the main highlights from the week!! Things in PQ are awesome, the work is going good, We have some good stuff going, Elder Augusto and I are having a blast. Things are awesome.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey friends and fam! Happy Thanksgiving Week!!!

Hope everyone has had a fantastic week this week!! I have for sure. It's been a super awesome week!

Last Wednesday I got to go on exchanges with Elder Child in Scripps Ranch, and it was super fun. They live with an awesome member family, the Hansens. They have a super fun house and their little apartment is super cool. We were walking back to the house after an appointment and a little car pulled over and it turned out to be my ward mission Leader's wife from Sweetwater. It was crazy, she was working in that neighborhood and couldn't figure out how to get out of the neighborhood. It was crazy, what are the chances I'm on exchanges in another area, and we happened to be on the same street that she was driving on, it was a cool little miracle and testimony how the Lord puts you where you need to be. It was also just a super fun day. After planning we went down and talked with the Hansen's a little bit. Brother Hansen is a Lawyer so I wanted to talk to him a little about his career. It's pretty sick, he has some awesome stories. At the end we had "family prayer" and went to bed. It was so fun.

Saturday was such an awesome day!! We got to go to the temple with Alex Jamchi, who got baptized in August. We did some baptisms for the dead which was awesome since its been so long since I've done them. Elder Augusto and I baptized eachother. Alex had his father's name to do which was absolutely awesome. We are also teaching his wife Shana and two daughters Savannah (10) and Jordan (8) who will be getting baptized soon. His son Austin is awesome too but he's just 6 :)

Sunday was sweet. We had 3 investigators at church. Shana and Jordan and Savannah loved it, plus our investigator Martha came too. We had a sweet lesson about eternal families and the family proclamation. It was perfect for both the Jamchis and martha. Other fun experience Sunday. We had dinner at the Tolleys, sister Tolley and we figured out that she knew you mom! I will include more about that in your personal
email ;)

Monday was MTEs, which is where we have a training meeting in the morning and then in the afternoon we do exchanges with 2 other zones. I got to go down to Ramona with Elder Maughan. It was sick, he's a stud. He's a pretty young missionary but hes already a beast missionary. We taught a couple sick lessons, and we were just walking down the street like 50 yards from the church, and we saw a guy so we started talking to him a little bit, and he's like, you have a church around here? and we did, really close so we gave him a church tour and he's coming to church on Sunday. It was sick. Today we had the follow up meeting where we talk about all the miracles we had, and then we
played ball with President Schmitt and we've been running around doing pday stuff :)

Have a Happy Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for all my friends and family, I'm thankful for the gospel in my life and the joy it brings, and more than anything I'm grateful to be a missionary!!!!!!