Goodbye to Laredo!

Transfers are tomorrow and I got word through Facebook that Finn is leaving Laredo. Here he is having a farewell dinner with some of the members in his area. I know he is going to be very sad to leave! 

Thanksgiving

Letter #71

It has been a tough week, rather humbling, but I don't think I have ever grown more on my mission this week than any other.

This week we went up to Corpus to hear a General Authority speak. It was awesome. Elder Foster of the 70 came up and he gave some great trainings on growing your relationship with the Lord and what really stuck out to me was prayer. I feel like I've struggled a lot with prayer lately but ever since that training and this week, I don't think I've ever felt closer to the Lord than I have in my whole life. Before this, a lot of the times I prayed and I got up and questioned if He even heard what I just had to say and if it was even worth my time to offer a prayer. It was definitely a struggle. I specifically remember having so many feelings of doubt, like I had no one to rely on and I knelt down and I cant even remember what I said but I just remember pouring everything out to the Lord, as if everything relied on Him and this huge feeling of peace came over me and at that moment I knew that He was there and He answers every prayer that we have to offer. Its all up to us, to be willing to offer everything and pouring out our hearts to Him as if everything relied on Him and that is when we will get answers.

I love this Gospel, I know its true with all my heart. I love serving a mission and becoming the man that my Father in Heaven wants me to be. There are still a ton of things I have to improve before times up.  I love the people I serve and I can honestly say that when you lose yourself in the service of others that is when you will find yourself.

Love

Elder Brian

BTW: Transfers are next week! So if you happen to send something, just send it to the mission office. Thanks!

Laredo North Zone

Learning to make tamales...

Helping Sister Violeta Gonzales make her famous tamales.

Letter #70

What's up guys!

This week was great! The only bummer is that Kurt didn't show up on Sunday for the confirmation so we will have to figure out what happened and get him back on board. But other than that it was great!

This week I've been studying really hard a lot of chapters that Presidente Maluenda gave me in my last interview. I've read a lot about fasting and I set some good plans to improve my fasting skills. Were you guys able to read about the article that the church put out about Joseph Smith? I haven't yet but I will this week. Its been kind of a struggle, especially for a lot of the recent converts seeing the article, but I know it was put out for a reason and Im thankful for the strong testimony that I have of Joseph Smith and God's church here on the earth today.

Sorry I have like no time. But I love you guys!

Elder Brian

Letter #69

This week was awesome!

 

It was a bit unexpected but still a huge miracle, Kurt got baptized! He was progressing really well, so we had a lesson with him, told him, why procrastinate the day of your baptism? Then committed him to be baptized a week early and it went great! He's loving the church and his wife was able to come too. She's doing really well and is looking to be baptized at the end of this month. I love being able to meet with them, they are such a great family and I love seeing them grow in this gospel. On my mission I've definitely been able to see why the family is so central to God's plan here on earth.

 

This week we also were able to have interviews with President Maluenda. I know I might say this every time I talk about him but words cannot express how spiritually in tune that man is. Every time we are able to receive training from him I know and can feel that he is a true representative of Jesus Christ and this is His work. I know that the leaders of this church are called of God and that if we follow our leaders we will be blessed. Having President Maluenda as my mission president has been a major blessing in my life.

 

So we were leaving Kurt's house one night around 8:30 and we get in the car and as we are driving away all of a sudden the sky lights up and the biggest shooting star/asteroid comes falling down and streams across the sky for like 2 seconds and it disappears. No joke, I thought the world was ending for a second that's how cool it was. And the cool thing was it wasn't just me, some other Elders across town saw it too!

 

Here's some pics from Downtown Laredo!

 

I love the mission and you guys!

 

Elder Brian

Letter #68

I'm just gonna start it right off with a pretty weird but cool experience. So I think it was on Saturday, we show up to the church for one of our meetings and we get there and there is a black, homeless man sitting outside of the church. So a lot of us just thought it was normal cause we always get homeless people who come to the church looking for money and stuff but we got out of the car and went and talked with him. So the conversation goes on, his name was Irvin Butler, we find out he is a member and has been for about 7 years, has been through the temple and everything and then he starts explaining a lot of stuff from D&C and quoting scriptures and revelations from D&C and had a pretty firm testimony of Joseph Smith. He then takes off his dew-rag and shows us this tattoo he has right on his forehead and he then asks to see a copy of the Pearl of Great Price. I was kind of weirded out by this point but we gave him a copy and he flips to the diagrams, I forgot what they are called, and he then starts to point out symbols and talk a little bit about them and he points to one of them and stops and then asks us all to look closely at his forehead and it was the same symbol that was in The Pearl of Great Price in the book of Abraham. After, everyone just stops and there was a couple seconds of silence and he says "You guys don't know who I am. I know a lot more than you guys think I do" and then it was awkward for a couple seconds and then we gave him some food and we went inside. I don't really know if that guy was just making stuff up or what but it kinda freaked me out, seeing how much this guy knew about D&C and the Pearl of Great Price and I don't know, I guess it was a good spooky Halloween experience haha. Probably one I will never forget.