June 5, 2017

Hello Family and Friends!!!!

Well my time here in the Draper Rover View Stake has come to an end
😔. I will miss it and all the people I have come to know and love.
Now it will be up to Elder Sandino who will be staying and will be
leading out the area now. I'm so glad that they're keeping him in.
He's someone that I completely trust with the people that I'm leaving
behind.

I will be going back to West Jordan!!!!! I feel like I spent almost my
entire mission there!!!! I will be companions with a missionary named
Elder Vivas and we will be sharing the Ward with one of my old
companions, Elder Stout! I'm very excited to see both of them. They
are both amazing missionaries and it's an amazing Ward as well. We're
going to be seeing some incredible miracles!!!

This last week we had the an amazing miracle happen! We received a
text not too long ago from a woman named Nicole. She wanted to meet
with us and start her journey in the church. We met and it was a much
needed meeting especially for her. She is going to trial after trial
in her life. We decided to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to address
her many concerns and we were able to help her feel the Spirit. Tears
were shed, experiences shared, and the Holy Ghost bore witness to her
that peace will be possible. She knows that she needs to be baptized
and has a goal to enter the temple one day and be sealed. She doesn't
want to choose a baptismal date yet but I know that she is very close
and will want one soon. I know that Elder Sandino will continue to
help her and encourage her.

Nic unfortunately did not hear back from Salt Lake City yet about his
baptism so the baptism has been postponed. It will now be on June
24th. Everyone please pray that the letter will get here soon. He's so
prepared that he's been teaching the lessons to the missionaries
perfectly! All he needs now is that letter.

The most recent miracle actually happened this morning! We received a
text from a woman who had just moved into our stake and she wants her
son to come back to the church! We were able to set up a time to meet
her tomorrow morning. I know that as long as we're keeping the
commandments and doing all that we can to be worthy missionaries, God
will trust us with His children and send them to us. It's happened
more times than I can count to many missionaries in this mission. It's
the same for members of the church! In a conference talk by President
Eyring entitled "A Child and a Disciple" this principle is explained.
Any member who truly wants to participate in the Lords Vineyard and be
called one of His precious servants may become so as they prepare and
seek opportunities to save souls. If anyone has desires to experience
the joys of this work, please read the talk and think of ways you can
begin in your families.

I love each and every one of you! Have a great week!

May 27, 2017

Dear family and Friends,

Well the day finally came!

Kenny was baptized on May 27th and confirmed on the 28th of May.
During his baptismal interview last Thursday he was feeling completely
fine with the baptism and everything! Kenny was a really cool
investigator because he always kept every commitment that we gave him
and because of that gained a testimony really fast!!! After the
interview Elder Sandino asked him to play the drums for us and so he
took us to his garage and played for us. It was awesome!!! He's very
good and if I had a video I would show it to you. Anyways everything
went perfectly with the baptism and now he is a very happy member of
the Church of Jesus Christ.

Elisa had the craziest week of her life!!!! We met Elisa on March 30th
and we have been teaching her ever since with the Griffin family. This
last week we met with her many times and called her every day to see
how she was doing. At the interview on Friday she told us that she's
just been having so many feelings of stress and anxiety that she
almost didn't show up! But she did and she's glad for it. On the day
of her baptism we were running around like crazy trying to get
everything set up for Kenny and Elisa. She was the first to come and
in all we had 6 members of her friends and family there, the whole
district, the griffins, and President and Sister Peters even came from
the mission presidency. The baptism was very spiritual!!! Everything
went perfectly!!! When she was confirmed we asked her about how she
felt. She said that she felt as light as a feather and she hasn't
ceased to feel that way ever since her confirmation. She's really
excited to start doing the work for her family in the temple and this
Thursday we're going to be helping her find names to take to the
temple.

We're going to be picking up a new investigator tomorrow named Nicole.
We're super excited but don't know too much about her. We know that
she's excited to meet and that she's thinking about baptism!!!! The
Lord is so good to us!!!

Anyways that's the coolest stuff that we've seen this week. I want to
quote Moroni when he said this: "15 And now, O all ye that have
imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask
of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the
end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be
a God of miracles." I shout with Moroni in saying that God is still a
God of miracles!!!! He always blesses his children with whatever they
ask for in faith as long as they seek to do his will!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!!

P.s. Ignore the crazy sun burn I had in the pictures haha!

May 22, 2017

Hello family and friends! I hope you all are well.

This has been a fantastic week!!!!! Especially at the end.

We had some amazing lessons with Elisa this week. We were really
worried about her because she was still having some struggles with the
word of wisdom. We met with her last Saturday and saw a big change in
her. We talked about the two things that she wanted to work on to
prepare herself for the baptismal interview, receiving a testimony on
the Prophet Thomas S. Monson and quitting coffee. We asked her how she
was doing on both of them and she said "oh I think that President
Monson is what we would call in the Catholic Church a Saint!!!" As a
gift, Sister Griffin had given her "On the Lord's Errand" and she
loved watching it. She has a testimony of the prophet now. When we
asked her how she was doing with the coffee, she said that she was
still trying to get off of it. Sister Griffin and Reese (a family
friend) both shared their strong testimonies about the word of wisdom.
Afterwards I felt impressed to say "Elisa, to prepare yourself for
your baptism, will you give us all of your coffee right now?" She
immediately dos so and told us to throw it all away! We took pictures
doing it. She has such great faith! I've never taught anyone more
prepared ever before in my mission! The baptism will be this Saturday
at 7:00P.M. Everyone keep Elisa in your prayers as she gets through
these last couple days before her baptism and confirmation.

Kenny is awesome! He came to church yesterday and we went over the
baptismal interview questions. He's completely ready to go as well.
What a huge miracle he was!!!! Thank you Elder Cunningham!!! After the
lesson his wife started bragging about what an amazing drummer he is!
Kenny mentioned that he played but he made it sound like he was just
an amateur but his wife showed me a video and he is a professional!!!
Kenny is very humble so he would have never told me himself but I'm
glad his wife did haha!!! Kenny will be baptized this Saturday at 6:00
P.M. right before Elisa. It's going to be one of the best days of my
mission!!!

The Lord has yet blessed us even more! Yesterday we had two people
unexpectedly come to church! Tenaz is the sister of a recent convert
in the 1st Ward and she decided to come just before she started work!
She loved it and is committed to come to all of the classes the next
Sunday. We're going to ask her then if she will take the missionary
lessons with us. We know that she'll say yes! Her brother is such a
great example to the family and we're praying that he can help the
rest of his family join the church and be sealed together forever.

Nicole was the other one that came to church. In fact, she reached out
to us via text and asked us if we would meet with her and help her
start her "journey." We we're so grateful and replied with an "of
course!!!" We're going to try to meet with her this week maybe
tomorrow or Thursday. We're super excited. I've been praying all this
month that the Lord would help us find new people to teach and we
worked so hard only to have the Lord have them fall out of the sky it
seems haha! I testify that the Lord is the paymaster and rewards those
that serve him with all their "heart, might, mind, and strength."

Recently in my studies I've been learning about what it truly means to
give your "heat, might, mind, and strength with an eye single to the
glory of God." This quote from C.S.S. Lewis is something that I found
to go along with what I learned: "Give  me  all. I don't  want  so
much  of your  time, so much  of your  talents  and money,  and so
much of your work:  I want  You.  All  of you. I have  not  come to
torment  or frustrate  the  natural  man. but  to  kill  it. No
half-measures  will  do. I don't  want  to only prune  a  branch here
and another  there;  rather, I want  the  whole  tree  out. Hand it
all  over to me,  the whole  outfit,  all  of your desires,  all  of
your  wants  and  wishes  and  dreams.  Turn them  all  over to me,
give  yourself to me  and I will  make  of you  a  new  self in  my
image. Give  me  yourself and in  exchange  I will  give  you  Myself.
My  will,  shall  become  your will. My  heart,  shall  become  your
heart." When we give our hearts, we put both feet in the mission. All
of our wants or passions are put away and we accept the fact that
change happens and we embrace it and find peace and happiness doing
it. After the mission, instead of going back, we take a step forward.
I testify that if we can give our hearts to the Lord, he will change
them and perfect them in His own time.

I love all of you and I hope you all have a wonderful week!!!!

May 15, 2017

Hello family and friends!

What an amazing week this has been!

It was really nice seeing the family yesterday! Karis you've grown so
tall!!!! I miss you all like crazy!

We had an amazing week and I want to let you know what's happening
with the people we're teaching.

Elisa is amazing and came to church yesterday! She has a testimony in
the restoration and in the Priesthood. She chose to be baptized on the
27th of May and she is so excited!!! Brother Griffin (our Ward mission
leader) will be baptizing her and confirming her the next day. She's
changed so much from the time we first met her. She said that these
past 4 weeks have been an amazing blessing for her. Her testimony
comes from the change that she's seen in herself. She said that she
was a very angry person before but ever since she's met us she's
learned that she can leave that anger behind and change. If you asked
me she is the nicest person I've ever met! (Besides you mom) I can't
even imagine her getting angry. We're all excited for her baptism and
this Wednesday when we meet with her again.

Kenny is the coolest guy you'll ever meet! For work he usually finds
himself hanging from a tower 40-100 feet in the air doing maintenance
and electronic repair. Before that he was a drummer! He came to church
yesterday and loved it! It was nice to see the Elders Quorum get to
know him and befriend him. He feels really good about his baptismal
date for the 27th of May and already has asked someone to baptize him.
He's awesome and we're excited for him and his family as well.

So Nic Watson is a young man that we started teaching but when his
family decided not to join in , we transitioned him to the YSA Ward
because we felt that it would be better for him. However he's stayed
in contact with us and just the other day he had his baptismal
interview!!! He's going to be baptized on June 3rd and wants us to
attend and we told him that we wouldn't. Miss it for the world!!!! It
was an amazing blessing to hear that he decided to continue with
baptism. I have been thinking about him ever since the other
missionaries started teaching him and it's a wonderful blessing to
know that the fruits of our labors extend not only to our
investigators but can be anyone that we open our mouths to. I am very
excited to attend his baptism and I hope to bring some of our
investigators there as well.

Something that I've been studying about a lot is the Sacrament. It is
a very sacred ordinance that is essential for our eternal progress and
it is a very important part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My favorite
scriptures on the sacrament are the prayer themselves and they both
mention the promise that we receive which is that "they may always
have His Spirit to be with them" (Moroni 4:3). The Holy Ghost is often
referred to in the scriptures as fire because He purifies or
sanctifies us of our sins. This great blessing of having the Holy
Ghost in our lives is all thanks to Jesus Christ and His Atonement.
The Gift of the Holy Ghost and the renewal of this blessing through
the sacrament are just a few of the ways that we are over time
perfected in Christ. Every week we partake the Sacrament at church, we
exercise our faith to come unto Christ and little by little we start
to experience what Moroni explained in the last 3 verses of his book:

32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves
of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all
ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then
is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect
in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can
in nowise deny the power of God.

33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and
deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of
God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the
covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become
holy, without spot.

I hope that everyone can find this promise fulfilled as they prepare
themselves and loved ones to partake of the Sacrament each week. What
an amazing blessing it is!!!