Week 10- Welcome to San Diego

Full disclosure, it was NOT San Diego, California. I didn't go to a beach, bustling city, with clean streets, and cool sites. I went to San Diego, Texas that has maybe 3000 people tops, tons of half finished buildings, only dirt roads except the main street, and no coast. When we told people we went to San Diego our friends would tell us to be careful. And, when we did go there our phones didn't work the entire time so we had to whip out our map skills and hope that we weren't missing anything too important. It all ended well but it was just funny to walk to a house that we have been told have members or people who talked to missionaries and there just be no door. Or it's abandoned. Or the people don't answer or somebody else lives there. I still have high hopes for San Diego, California though. Jajajaja 😂

This week has been super amazing though and there have been a lot of miracles. The loeras in the branch fed us homemade mole and it is the best one I have EVER had. And that family only speaks Spanish so it was exciting to have them ask tons of questions. Brother Loera also is in a mariachi band so he showed us the videos he has playing the accordian and then played his black violin a little bit for us. We also were fed by the Oestrech family. They have some really cool stories to share because he served his mission in Chile and he works for Border Control. So, he has done a lot of car chases, running through fields, helicopter spotting, and he has a dog that catches both hidden people in vehicles and drugs. So he shared stories of beverage vans being converged in the back to have a false wall and being filled full of people. Generally just some wild stories. Our other member family are ranchers and they gave us 2 lassos and a wooden pig to practice with. I better come off my mission a pro lassoer because for the next couple of p-days I'm sure that will be used constantly.

As for milagros!! We had zone conference on Thursday and thag was tons of fun to meet together with everyone, be fed, and talk with President Larreal. He doesn't know English (hardly he's learning) and I don't know the best Spanish (hardly I'm learning) so the interview I had was in the wildest Spanglish ever. He also would talk to the zone and just trade back and forth from Spanish to English ever other sentence which for sure keeps me on my toes. President Larreal also has done some very exciting but certainly abnormal things. For one, APs are Elders who assist the Mission President, work in the office, go to zone conferences, transfers, ect. There are usually two but in some cases there are 3. We have 4 of them. And they are not 2 separate companions but 4 altogether companions which means that they switch who they are with at any given time. Also, APs do one day exchanges with other Elders in their areas. President Larreal had this idea to do exchanges with APs and Sisters. I know what you are all thinking. ¿¿Qué?? So, after conferencía de zona around 12 my companion and I were told that 2 of the APs would be working with us in our area for the rest of the day. So we did our normal schedule and went out teaching, preaching, inviting, and baptizing. It was crazy! We ended up getting 4 people on date for baptism. Met 11 new people to teach in 7.5 hours. And went straight from driving back from zone conference to 8:45, no dinner and no stydying, going to work. It was really exhausting because we would all statt on a street or apartment complex and say go and literally run in different directions. We stopped cars, knocked on doors, called dozens of people, shouted to get people's attention. Everything. It feels a bit like a fever dream. It was super productive and helped me to see how to really encourage people but it was simply the longest day ever!! After all that, the 2 APs crashed at the Elders in our area but just thinking about all of it and that they didn't do exchanges with the elders is still insane.

We had 6 people on date for baptism this week!! The only downside is that right bow only 3 are still responding and going to church but we have tons of hope!! Also we have Stake Conference next week which is going to be productive but hard to get our friends to church because it is 1 hour away. And a lot of these people do have cars or they aren't reliable ones. We had our first church tour with a girl named Brianna. I really enjoyed it and the spirit was so strong!! She also brought her one-year old daughter and it was precious! We got our friend Deon on schedule for baptism which is super exciting. He went to church a lot last year and was really progressing but then he had ghosted the previous Hermanas. Now, he is ready! He even reached out for a referral for missionaries and then we showed up! Taught him a bit and then extended a baptismal invitation on the first contact (for us) and he said yes!! The APs were there to ask all the difficult questions like why he ghosted the missionaries earlier but it was really cool.

If you have been keeping track you might remember a couple weeks ago about our friend Joshua who was on date for baptism but works in the oil field. He had disappeared earlier and we were worried because he had been progressing so much and had really felt like this was what he needed to do. The problem was he had a warrant from 2020 and he was found and had to report to Houston for 10 days. But he comes back into town soon which is super exciting! It means that we can keep on teaching him and help him to get baptized. Our mission is really focused on baptism which has been very different from what we were taught in the MTC. They want us on the first or second meeting to ask them if they want to be baptized. It feels a little weird but I know thay there will be blessings and that we are helping these people learn more and hopefully continue changing their lives to become more like christ in all things.

Being able to focus fully on christ 24/7 helps you orient your entire life. After my mission there won't be any other time to focus so much on this Gospel because of simply the distractions of life and the constant things with future college, family, jobs, everything. On a mission you can focus on learning more about the Gospel of Christ and how to help other people get this same knowledge and experience. You learn a lot about being BOLD in preaching the Gospel. You bring it up to everyone. You talk about it, try your best to act like Him, and ask other people all about who Christ is for them and if they want to learn more. My number one advice: Forget yourself and go to work. As you forget yourself you learn more about Jesus Christ and you end up loving the people so much. You love them so much and want them to have so much joy thay it actually hurts when they choose to say no. I think that has been one big lesson. No matter how much you love these people and want them to choose the Gospel and learn more, you can't and you have to continue with just the next person even though it hurts so bad. That might be the tiniest portion of what Christ feels when He gives us all these things and choices and we still say no and turn away from it all. It makes me want to "come follow" Him as best as I can.

Escritura: Alma 7: 13, 15

Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me. Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments.

FOTOS!!!!