Happy birthday to me! (and Preston) I'm 21! I can now buy alcohol!! Crazy! But it's not that cool cause they sell drugs and alcohol to anyone here :( JK but still, I am an adult now and I don’t feel like it. So we didn’t tell a lot of people that it was my birthday but somehow we ended up eating cake Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday! The members were so great, Tuesday we were just walking in the street passed by a member’s house and they shouted for us to come in, turned out it was their little girls birthday and somehow they messed up and bought two cakes and somehow we just ended up there, but it was great!! Everything worked out great!
Wednesday we had a little activity that we have every Wednesday a family home evening for our investigators and members and we ate tacos (not cow brain, but normal chicken ones) which were amazing! Then other members kidnapped me and gave me a cake!
Thursday the family who just barely sent their son off made a huge dinner for us! But ridiculously big and so delicious!! I love them so much they are so loving and amazing! Also on my birthday we had interviews with president! He wished me a Happy Birthday and sister stay gave me a cookie that was amazing! (She gave one to everyone)
Friday we had another zone counsel with president, with just the zone leaders. We are really focusing and working towards every companionship baptizing a family in March. That is like our biggest goal and everything that we do is to support that goal, we put the goal that 8 families (18 people) are baptized here in zona Cuilapa, that's a pretty high goal for this zone but I know we can reach it! We are pretty stoked about it and we are trying to get everyone on board and stoked also! So far it is coming along great, and so we shall see how everything turns out. But during the zone counsel I was so tired! Traveling for 2 hours and then sitting for another 3 hours just kills me! Also another goal that we are focusing on is working with the members.... Lemme explain because we are so sneaky and sly that they don’t even know it. The thing is if we ask for references the members put up a wall and don’t wanna help. so what we are doing are teaching a little about the plan of salvation, then we ask 5 questions, if they know if anyone that has experienced a death, had a baby born, marriage, moved recently to the neighborhood or are having trouble with their kids.... People here are gossipers always gossiping so they always say yes, then we invite them to come with us and if they can introduce us to them, then we teach a little then we put an appointment with them and then the member asks if we could do it in their house and we end up teaching their neighbor in their house!!! It usually always works! There is more to it but like no time today! But that is what we are doing here!
Saturday we had a mini branch conference in an area called Pueblo Nuevo Viñas it was the branch´s idea to have a small training meeting to help out the branch in a couple areas where they can improve on. The branch president, the missionaries that are there, the district leader and zone leaders all gave ¨tallers¨ or workshops. Ours was on how the members help in missionary work, (we basically explained what I explained up above) the others talked on the branch goals, home and visiting teaching, forgiving and having love, and improving the teaching that takes place in the church. It went very well I am impressed with that branch at the enthusiasm and willingness to change and progress! The conference was awesome and I think they came out ready to work and do things how they are supposed to be done.
Saturday we had a baptism it was a little girl of a family we activated. Coming up for baptisms we have a ton of possibilities. We are focusing on families as the goal so they can we sealed in the temple. Basically couples are what we are focusing on, but obviously if they are single and they desire to be baptized we will still baptize them. But it's so much cooler when they can be sealed as a family one year later! We have 2 families we are working with to be baptized in March, pray for them it's gonna be a big battle but I’m positive we can win! We also have a ton of other possibilities but they would be individuals, pray for them all.
So idk why but Barberena decided to have a cold front come through, it has been ridiculously cold and windy this weekend, to the point where I woke up shivering and had to put on sweats and a long sleeve shirt to sleep! It got to the point where a lot of our investigators didn't go to church because it was so cold :( and a lot of members also.
Umm I’m sorry but I’m not taking photos! I am failing horribly! This has been such a crazy busy week, I always say that but this one was truly jammed packed. But I am exhausted it’s getting to the point where I am getting worn out! And that's not good I'm going to use p day to relax more and maybe plan better so we aren't so exhausted but it's gonna be hard. It's not that we are walking way too much it's the mental task of juggling 8 different things and just doing everything, it's stressful but I love it. I have always like being busier than not so I am happy. And I am using my talents that the lord has blessed me with to help out in missionary work I love it! And I love being so busy!!!
Now that I covered all the business side I want to share a couple of spiritual experiences we had this week, we were teaching this young guy, we had taught him our purpose here in life and why we have so many challenges, and this time we were teaching the restoration. Now we are always teaching this, but this time it was different, maybe it was an increase in the spirit, or maybe it was an increase of interest on his part, but at the end I asked how he felt, (we were feeling the spirit super strong and he was too) and he said "I want to cry... but I’m not sad, I feel so peaceful inside" then we went on to explain the purpose of the spirit. We as missionaries live for those kinds of moments!! It was so powerful.
Also remember how I explained that we took the members out to introduce us to their neighbors, well in one of those we had the appointment last night in their house, and her life has crossed so many times with the church, he mom was a member, she used to attend but never was baptized, and then she told us that she can’t attend a church because she has 2 babies, and that she was praying that she could attend a meeting in someone’s house, and then we came?!?! God works in mysterious ways. But it is awesome to witness God working through us. I love you guys and thank you all for the birthday wishes! I hope you all have a great week!!!!!!!!
Wednesday we had a little activity that we have every Wednesday a family home evening for our investigators and members and we ate tacos (not cow brain, but normal chicken ones) which were amazing! Then other members kidnapped me and gave me a cake! 
Thursday the family who just barely sent their son off made a huge dinner for us! But ridiculously big and so delicious!! I love them so much they are so loving and amazing! Also on my birthday we had interviews with president! He wished me a Happy Birthday and sister stay gave me a cookie that was amazing! (She gave one to everyone)
Friday we had another zone counsel with president, with just the zone leaders. We are really focusing and working towards every companionship baptizing a family in March. That is like our biggest goal and everything that we do is to support that goal, we put the goal that 8 families (18 people) are baptized here in zona Cuilapa, that's a pretty high goal for this zone but I know we can reach it! We are pretty stoked about it and we are trying to get everyone on board and stoked also! So far it is coming along great, and so we shall see how everything turns out. But during the zone counsel I was so tired! Traveling for 2 hours and then sitting for another 3 hours just kills me! Also another goal that we are focusing on is working with the members.... Lemme explain because we are so sneaky and sly that they don’t even know it. The thing is if we ask for references the members put up a wall and don’t wanna help. so what we are doing are teaching a little about the plan of salvation, then we ask 5 questions, if they know if anyone that has experienced a death, had a baby born, marriage, moved recently to the neighborhood or are having trouble with their kids.... People here are gossipers always gossiping so they always say yes, then we invite them to come with us and if they can introduce us to them, then we teach a little then we put an appointment with them and then the member asks if we could do it in their house and we end up teaching their neighbor in their house!!! It usually always works! There is more to it but like no time today! But that is what we are doing here!
Saturday we had a mini branch conference in an area called Pueblo Nuevo Viñas it was the branch´s idea to have a small training meeting to help out the branch in a couple areas where they can improve on. The branch president, the missionaries that are there, the district leader and zone leaders all gave ¨tallers¨ or workshops. Ours was on how the members help in missionary work, (we basically explained what I explained up above) the others talked on the branch goals, home and visiting teaching, forgiving and having love, and improving the teaching that takes place in the church. It went very well I am impressed with that branch at the enthusiasm and willingness to change and progress! The conference was awesome and I think they came out ready to work and do things how they are supposed to be done.
Saturday we had a baptism it was a little girl of a family we activated. Coming up for baptisms we have a ton of possibilities. We are focusing on families as the goal so they can we sealed in the temple. Basically couples are what we are focusing on, but obviously if they are single and they desire to be baptized we will still baptize them. But it's so much cooler when they can be sealed as a family one year later! We have 2 families we are working with to be baptized in March, pray for them it's gonna be a big battle but I’m positive we can win! We also have a ton of other possibilities but they would be individuals, pray for them all.
So idk why but Barberena decided to have a cold front come through, it has been ridiculously cold and windy this weekend, to the point where I woke up shivering and had to put on sweats and a long sleeve shirt to sleep! It got to the point where a lot of our investigators didn't go to church because it was so cold :( and a lot of members also.
Umm I’m sorry but I’m not taking photos! I am failing horribly! This has been such a crazy busy week, I always say that but this one was truly jammed packed. But I am exhausted it’s getting to the point where I am getting worn out! And that's not good I'm going to use p day to relax more and maybe plan better so we aren't so exhausted but it's gonna be hard. It's not that we are walking way too much it's the mental task of juggling 8 different things and just doing everything, it's stressful but I love it. I have always like being busier than not so I am happy. And I am using my talents that the lord has blessed me with to help out in missionary work I love it! And I love being so busy!!!
Now that I covered all the business side I want to share a couple of spiritual experiences we had this week, we were teaching this young guy, we had taught him our purpose here in life and why we have so many challenges, and this time we were teaching the restoration. Now we are always teaching this, but this time it was different, maybe it was an increase in the spirit, or maybe it was an increase of interest on his part, but at the end I asked how he felt, (we were feeling the spirit super strong and he was too) and he said "I want to cry... but I’m not sad, I feel so peaceful inside" then we went on to explain the purpose of the spirit. We as missionaries live for those kinds of moments!! It was so powerful.
Also remember how I explained that we took the members out to introduce us to their neighbors, well in one of those we had the appointment last night in their house, and her life has crossed so many times with the church, he mom was a member, she used to attend but never was baptized, and then she told us that she can’t attend a church because she has 2 babies, and that she was praying that she could attend a meeting in someone’s house, and then we came?!?! God works in mysterious ways. But it is awesome to witness God working through us. I love you guys and thank you all for the birthday wishes! I hope you all have a great week!!!!!!!!
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