Letter #72

Oh the joys of being a missionary.. especially during the holidays!!

Thanksgiving was awesome! We went and stopped by a lot of members and it was awesome! Just for fun, Elder Davis and I did weigh in before the day started and after the day was over. It was pretty ridiculous how much food we ate. Elder Davis gained a total of 11 lbs by the end of the day and I gained 7 hahaha! Oh how much I love the holidays. I'm really thankful for a fast metabolism :)

Friday night I got a call from President and I am now going to be a district leader! I'm pretty excited! So I don't know where I'm getting transferred just yet, we should find out later today but I'm definitely going to miss Laredo a lot. I love this place. The members here are so willing to help and ready to do missionary work and there are so many prepared people but I know that God calls us where we need to be and Elder Davis is going to do really well in  Del Mar. 

Love you guys! 

Have a killer week!

Elder Brian

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. 

Letter #67

What a week! The weather has been really nice down here lately, its actually starting to feel a bit like Fall. That is, its dropped down to the 80's, I don't know if you guys back home would call that Fall weather, but I do here in Laredo.

We had a really good experience last night with one of our investigators, his name is Kurt. He came to church just yesterday and loved it. It was cool cause he just kept saying "I keep getting this warm, peaceful feeling." I love how the spirit works and through those feelings we can come to know if what we are doing is right. Later that night, we stopped by his house and had a really powerful lesson with his whole family. His wife, 16 year old son and 9 year old daughter. We taught about the atonement and what it is that Jesus Christ did for each and every one of us and what we can do to be able to show to Him that we accept that and applied it to baptism and committed them as a family to be baptized on the 16th of November and they accepted! Throughout my whole mission, its been hard to work with a whole, complete family all together. A lot of times we teach broken families, single parents, young kids and I love it, but I'm really excited to be able to work with Kurt and his complete family and watch them progress as a family and support each other through that process.

I don't know if any of you guys have heard about this, but I want you guys to go onto Youtube or online somewhere and look up "Missionary Work and The Atonement" its bits and pieces of talks by Elder Eyring and Elder Holland put together focusing on missionary work and the atonement and the importance of them both. Every time I listen to it it just makes me want to do better! So I invite you all to listen to that this week! 

Life's good! Keep on keeping on!

Love

Elder Brian

Letter #66

I'm staying in Laredo!! Almost our whole zone is staying except for 2 elders and 1 sister. I'm excited to stay here just a little bit longer. Maybe I'll hit one whole year in the city of Laredo?! That would be pretty sweet.

Besides the fact that I'm excited to stay, we just had 5 investigators at church yesterday! It was a huge miracle and I'm stoked to start/continue to work with all of them this upcoming transfer. Erica was able to make it to church and she is doing really well! We also had some more of Jonathan's family come and they loved it. So we are gonna work with them a lot these upcoming weeks and a less-active came to church and brought her non-member friend who now wants to start taking the lessons! I can see the Lord continuing to hasten his work day by day, especially here in Del Mar!

This week we did some service for a couple we are teaching. Their names are Kurt and Grace. They are really cool. They had one jungle of a backyard, not the worst I've seen on the mission but, it was fun.

Mom, I'm so sorry I have no photos! I'll work on that. I made a goal this week to take at least a photo a day! So by next week you will have some!

Love you guys!

Elder Brian

Letter #65

I feel like the days and weeks just go faster and faster. Especially on the mission when you have so little time to work. This week we went up to Corpus Chrsti and we watched Meet The Mormons. It was an awesome movie and I definitely recommend you guys going to see it! And telling your friends about it too of course.

 

We are coming up on the end of another transfer. Its been really good working in Laredo! I could stay another, I could leave, but thats up to the Lord. I'll let you guys know next week.

 

To tell you guys just a little about how much we really get fed down here. Its ridicoulus. Missionaries do anything and everything to keep the weight off haha. Last week we took the advice from our leaders and went by and set up appointments with every member we could so that we could get to know them a little better and we ended up having 4 meal appoinments in one day. One at 3:00, another at 5:30, then 6:30 and last at 7:30. I dont know how I packed down that much food but it was a miracle that i did.

 

We are working with some awesome people right now. I feel like i kinda go through fazes of what kind of people i teach. A couple months ago it was a lot of young people and a couple months before that it was a lot of old people and now we are going through the faze of teaching a lot of single women with kids! I dont know what it is but, hopefully everything goes well and they make it to church this week! One of our investigators names is Erika. We brought over all the missionaries in the district and she cut our hair. It was cool. She's awesome and has a baptismal date for the 9th of November. If you could keep her in your prayers that would be great!

 

Have a great week! Love you all!

 

Elder Brian

Letter #64

Talk about an awesome General Conference weekend! I know you guys can probably already guess what my favorite talk was, cause I'm sure it was every full time missionaries favorite, Elder Ballard's talk. I love how right from the get go he focused his talk and directed it to non-members of the church. It was powerful. Even though it wasn't directed to me as a member it still hit me hard and helped me remember my purpose as a missionary and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

 

This week we didn't have a lot of time to hit the streets and talk to a bunch of people, which makes me think we didn't do that much work. But I think I need to get over the fact that you can still be very effective in your work without hitting the streets. We did a lot of service this week. We helped the ward mission leader Brother Bryand roof his house. It was pretty fun! Just Elder Davis, him and I. I've never really done roofing before, but it was a sweet experience. I'm glad we got to it before the heat did.

 

This week I've been working a lot on knowledge of the scriptures. I love it when you're in a lesson teaching and someone brings up a doubt and right then a scripture will come to your mind and you can teach right to the doubt using the scriptures. Its the best. Its weird to think and see that no matter what doubt a person may give, you can in someway tie their need into the scriptures. I have a really strong testimony that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that if we read it and study it we will grow closer to Him and gain more of a knowledge of the plan He has for us. Going along with scripture study, I received something in the mail the other day, from someone I don't know and it was filled with like 6 or so CD's of teaching to the doubts of people from the bible and the Book of Mormon. Its called Mr. Mormon. I have no clue where they came from or who sent them, but thanks if it was you cause they're pretty sweet!!

 

Que tengan exito y disfrutan la vida!

 

Elder Brian

Jonathan's baptism

Letter #63

It was a great week! Not to say that we barely slept... but that can come after the mission right?

Jonathan was confirmed! Elder Davis was able to confirm Jonathan yesterday. It was great! It kinda got me thinking a little bit about Priesthood and the power that we hold as worthy young men. We had about 5 men from the branch that participated in the confirmation of Jonathan and they were all older that Elder Davis but him being the youngest was able to be the speaker and give the blessing. As worthy young men we all hold that same priesthood. We all have that power to use and to bless people's lives. Even though a member may be a lot older than me, I still hold the same power that he holds. Its really cool how Priesthood power and authority works. 

A crazy little story i cant remember if i shared this last week or not but anyway. The other Elders in our zone live in a pretty sketchy area of Laredo. In fact they live right in front of one of the top gangs in Laredo and a big chunk of South Texas. So a couple weeks ago there was a drive-by shooting and some other crazy things, so they have to move out asap. Pretty nuts huh. Not to scare any of you at all...... But Im not too worried, we've got the Big Man up top on our side. LDS missionaries are the best gang out there. ;) But i was sharing this with you because we might be switching areas asap because of the changes that they have to make. Its kinda confusing, but i will keep you guys informed!

Con amor

Elder Brian

Kind of blurry. Finn, Elder Tilton (from Laredo) as he heads out to the MTC in Provo and Elder Browning. 

Letter #61

Hey guys!

 

Not so bad of a week. Our numbers might've showed that we didn't work at all, but that's not the case!! Numbers aren't everything in missionary work.

 

Were kind of struggling with finding people to teach right now. I cant tell you how many times this week that I've heard the phrase or sentence "Im Catholic and I have my beliefs. Thanks" or Soy Catolico y estoy bien aqui. Gracias" haha. But its alright cause we had a good time working.

 

Jonathan is doing great! His baptism is this Sunday. He's pretty excited and ready for it. So that will be something to look forward to this week.

 

I've been studying about prayer a lot these last couple days because it was too often that I would catch myself waking up at 2 in the morning still in the prayer position with my ribs aching and knee caps numb from falling asleep during my prayers haha. So I thought I would put an end to that and set some goals as to how to better my prayers. There was a pretty cool quote about prayer and how a man cannot gain salvation without prayer. Prayer is important! It shows our love that we have to our Heavenly Father and shows Him that we are really looking to Him for the help that we need in our daily lives. Make sure you are saying good thoughtful prayers and not just going through the motions!

 

Love you guys!

 

Elder Brian

Letter #60

Que tal guerros!

To start off I just want to share a story of one of our investigators right now who is doing really well. Its about how he came to find the Gospel and start learning. Its really strengthened my testimony.

 His name is Jonathan. He's 21 years old. His family is kind of in a tight situation right now. His dad is suffering from cancer and the doctors have taken him off of chemotherapy and have given him limited time to live. His mom his struggling with work and sent him out to find a job to help provide for the family. He found a job, its about an 8 or so mile walk to work and back. One day, Jonathan was walking home and he couldn't take it anymore. He was sick of it and he was really starting to doubt if God even existed. So as he was walking, he said a prayer, asking God if he really existed and if he did, that he would send someone his way to help him. He finished and that moment a man pulled up next to him and asked him if he would like a ride. He hopped in, thinking about the answer he had just received. The man took him to his house and the man said, Im heading to church right now, would you like to come? Jonathan, as shocked as he may have been from the answer that he had been given said yes and came to church. That man who picked him up was Aquiles.

That story really helped strengthen my testimony of how aware God is of each and everyone of His children. He knows exactly what we are going through and exactly what situation we are in.  I know that there are children of God in each and every one of our paths that are prepared and ready to receive this Gospel, we just need to look. I know this Gospel is true. The faith that recent converts of the church have are an example to me. I know that God has a plan for each and everyone of us cause we are His children and He loves us and He really does answer our prayers.

Love

Elder Brian

My district and the sweet mini-van I get to drive.

Letter #59

Wow! What a week! It has all gone by so fast. So I will try and fill you all in on the news without being too confusing.

So Thursday night around 1045, (way passed bed time :0) I got a call from the AP's to let me know I was training! That was pretty sweet. My sons name is Elder Davis. He's awesome. He's from Sacramento, California and he's fresh out of high school. Which is sweet. I was praying I could train someone like that. We are working up here in Del Mar in Laredo still.

Last week Aquiles was baptized! It was a really cool experience because he was fasting also. He told us that he wanted his baptism day to be the most spiritual experience ever and he brought up the topic of fasting and asked us if he could fast for 24 hours and then do the baptism to finish it off. I almost thought he was going to pass out right into the font because he had never gone without food and water for that long. But it turned out great and he's looking good for the confirmation this Sunday.

In Del Mar we don't have a ton of people that we are working with at the moment, but it wont be too long before that changes!

I have some pics I wanna send you guys! But I forgot my camera and cord today but I will send some next week for sure.

Love

Elder Brian