Letter #84

Hey guys!

Sorry, but we still don't have any news on what is going to happen here in the Rio Grande District! All I really know for sure is that Elder Iman and I wont be companions anymore. For his last transfer President called him to be a district leader!

This week went by really fast. The 3 days worth of trainings was awesome! President Maluenda continues to blow my mind everytime we have a meeting with him. The 4 and a half hour training on pre-ordination was awesome. We talked a lot about the premortal life and really how blessed and how great we were in the pre existence. I've never really come to realize how important this life is and every little decision we make in this life. Every decision and step we take here can either benefit us in our progression to become more like Christ or it will knock us down. There is no middle ground. This life is so important! And sometimes we take that for granted, well at least i know i have. For everyone who is here on earth has made it and passed the first estate, great job! Now pass the second! God has so much in store for us and all he asks us to do is live this Gospel!

Because of the pretty crazy week its been, we havent had to much contact with any of our investigators. Amanda isnt doing to hot right now, she kinda lost a lot of desire to be baptized and Yenny and Teresa have just gone missing, we dont really know where they are. I'm stoked for the next transfer, I know the Lord has some big things in store for us!

Love you guys!

Elder Brian

*Ill send pics next week!

Letter #83

Happy Valentines Day!

Its a little weird not emailing on a Monday, no I am not being an apostate missionary don't worry, its just we have "3 Day Training" for all the mission leaders at the beginning of next week and the library won't be open because of the holiday. So you get the email a little early. Boo ya!

When a lot of people think of missionary work, they think of missionaries hitting the streets and talking to people, which is a big part, but not all. This week, we took so much time organizing our area and the branch. I'll just put it this way, over half of the members on the branch list that we have been looking for don't exist anymore or have already passed away or have an address too crazy to even track down. And it doesn't help that the branch doesn't have a clerk to help us organize all this stuff. Our branch president has been thinking of making me the branch clerk.... that would be interesting. So we've been spending a lot of time trying to track down people to see who still exists and who doesn't, its kinda like a big game of hide 'n seek haha. On the good side, God is a God of order so i definitely know this is going to benefit us in some way or another in terms of investigators and less-active work. 

Our investigator friend Amanda is doing great! She still has some real strong desires to come to church, we are just trying to get her to have those desires to be baptized. She has been taught a lot in the past, her best friend was baptized, but we found out that on the day of Amanda's baptism is the past, she got scared and bailed out. So we have been inviting her to pray a lot about how she can really come to know and find out for herself if she should be baptized at the end of this month or in early March. 

Our other investigator part family Teressa the mom and Yenny the daughter, they are doing great! We had an awesome lesson the other night with them and the Relief Society President and first counselor Sister Escobar and Sister Alvarez. Teressa and Yenny have also learned a lot about the church in the past but some little doubts that they had stopped them from progressing but we found out that Yenny has been getting in to some post high school trouble i guess and Teressa wants her to stop and do better so they've both accepted to come to church this Sunday and hopefully we can help them out more! They are awesome. 

 I'm pretty stoked for the "3 Day Training" next week. So for 3 days I'll be down in McAllen hearing awesome trainings from President Maluenda! I heard he is preparing a 4 and a half hour training on Foreordination and Pre-Earth life. Its going to blow my mind! He gave us some scriptures that we needed to study up on before then and I am already learning a ton! Especially from my Patriarchal Blessing. You never know how great your patriarchal blessing is until you actually study it hard! Those things are chalk full of good blessings. 

Last week we went down to La Joya for Pday. The elders down there found a little soccer place out in the middle of nowhere that some guys built so we went down as a zone and played, it was sweet! It turned out so good that i think on Monday we are going to go back. This is for sure something that we need to build back up in Utah! Its sick!

So, i wont be emailing on Monday and this is the last week of the transfer, so the Monday after this one I'll let you guys know on transfer news! Anything could happen! So if you happen to send anything please just send it to the mission office.

Love you guys!

Elder Brian

Letter #82

Hey Family!

This week was sweet! You guys probably here that a lot, I guess every week out here in the mission is a good one.

This week we had a zone meeting and we are now switching up some key indicators for the mission. Its really focused on less-active work and establishing the kingdom here. It will be fun and cool to see how much it affects the work in the up-coming weeks.

Something that changed in parts of the mission, in the McAllen area, is that there are now only one set of elders per ward. And if your area covers an English ward than you are only allowed to teach in English and its the opposite with Spanish. Luckily it didn't affect the Rio Grande branch or other parts of the mission, only the McAllen stakes. Its encourages a lot of member work so that you don't go looking for people in the streets and happen to find someone in a language that you cant teach in, but obviously if it does happen, they just dish the investigator off to the elders that speak that language.

We had some great less actives at church yesterday. It was a huge miracle. Elder Iman and I were asking for a big miracle of having someone come to church and we were blessed with 2 less-actives who also brought 2 friends! It was sweet. We will start working with them a lot this week and see how progress goes. One of the investigators is Amanda and the other one is Brittany. They are both former investigators and are friends of a lot of members. Hopefully we can start seeing some really good progress with them this week.

Life is good. The mission is great.

Love

Elder Brian

Letter #81

Well, we tried our hardest to not see the Superbowl last night but everyone in the streets just brought their Tvs outside and were all grilling carne and it would be a lie if I said we didn't see a couple plays here and there. Talk about that catch by the Seahawks wide receiver, the ball bouncing off his face mask. What a play!

Elder Iman and I are doing great! This week we had our first meal from a member that lives in our area this transfer!! It was good. Elder Iman has gaseritus. Basically he gets heart burn and acid reflex if he eats any type of spicy food. Its like the worst combination, being in south Texas and having gaseritus. I've grown to like spicy food a lot down here. I now understand why Hispanics put chile on anything and everything! Also, to add to the companionship unity, we've both had a cold for the past week. Hopefully that will pass quickly.

As for now, still no investigators that are too solid but we are seeing huge progress with our less actives! Our little branch had a total of 67 people in sacrament meeting! It was awesome! I've never seen so many people at church since I've been here. Usually we hit about 50 or so, so 67 was a big jump.

The mission is the best. There is not a place in the world I would rather be than serving as a representative of Jesus Christ at this time.

Love

Elder Brian

Mexico on the left, the U.S. on the right.