Letter #90

Whats up guys!

To let you all in on the transfer news, which came quite early this transfer, I'm leaving Roma. I didn't wanna leave this place, but the Lord has good things in store. It'll be interesting to see where He sends me! I'll let you guys know next week.

How was conference for you guys?! I loved it. On Saturday we had some technical difficulties setting it all up, the signal wasn't good at all and it kept pausing and everything so our last resort was all of us piling into the little family history center and watching it on one of the computers in there. It was sweet! It was cool to see how dedicated and excited the members were for conference and to hear the words of the Prophets that they were even willing to pile into such a small room without A/C haha. That's true conversion to the Gospel.

 Thanks also for all the birthday wishes! Funny story, so on Friday we usually have a district dinner and then after that play basketball with the young men of the branch, its a super good finding opportunity to teach more youth and I love playing ball so, it works haha. Anyways, we were heading down to go to the dinner and we made plans to specifically not be late, so we went by to pick up the elders and a youth and while we were at the youths house waiting for him to come out, the elders get a call from him and he's like, guys just come in for a sec, i gotta show you something. I was like, we'll just see it later, we made plans to not be late, we gotta go. So the other elders we're like, come on lets just go see, and I was like whatever if you guys get out I'm leaving, I'm not gonna be late. So they jump out and i was planning on leaving and did, but then i turned around cause i couldn't leave the elders and I walked into the youths house and they all yelled surprise! Hahah, they got me pretty good. Its a good thing i wasn't just a little more stubborn on sticking to my plans or else i would've ruined the whole surprise. It was funny. Then we had delicious cake and the Mom smashed it in my face.

This week we brought a little family of 3 to conference! It was so cool. I was worried out of my mind because of the problems we were having with conference and I wanted this family to have the best experience at church ever and God made everything work! They loved it and even stayed for the branch activity after. They plan on coming next week too! I'm pretty sad that i won't be here to be able to see them progress but someone else will!

I love this Gospel, I love the mission. I can honestly say that I have changed so much even in these short transfers here in Roma. I'm sure gonna miss this little pueblo. I wish I could just be a missionary all my life and never come home. Sorry mom and the rest of the family. The mission life is the best and I love it so much. Love you guys!

Elder Brian

Letter #86

Hey guys!

It was a great week here in Roma!

We had a good zone conference last week in McAllen. Brother Bott, I think that is his name, he came down from Salt Lake and he introduced something called the "Tiwi" Its a little device that is installed in each car and it pretty much monitors your driving and if you drive like a maniac it will call you out and yell at you and tell you to do better haha. Lets just say I've only had it yell at me once ;) It records how many mistakes you make and it reports them to the vehicle coordinator and at the end of the transfer you get a grade and based on your grade they then decide if you get to keep your driving privileges or not. Its basically installed and meant to keep us safe on the roads and to keep us from being stupid.

This week we painted the house of one of the members in Rio Grande! It was awesome. There were lots of holes in the walls and stuff so we patched everything and we painted it all. It looks great! Hopefully that will stop the cockroaches...

The branch is doing well. This last Sunday we reactivated another young man named Josh. He's sweet. He's from our area in Roma, I've been working with him since I've been here and it feels really good to have him back and active in the church again. There is a lot of less active work to do up here in Roma and I think that is what the Lord wants us to be doing. 

I love it here! The mission is great, life is good. There is nothing in the world i would rather do right now than serve. Have a killer week friends. Love you!

Elder Brian

Letter #85

What an awesome week to start the new transfer here in Roma!

So, to let you in on the news, you maybe already know, Im staying in Roma again but I got a new comp and his name is Elder Herrin. He's sick. He's from North Cal, probably like an hour or so above San Fransisco. Now I have 2 comps from that area haha. Elder Davis and Elder Herrin. Elder Herrin has been out for about 7 months, this is his 5th transfer in the mission and he is a good hard worker! The district switched up a bit also! We have a greenie in the district! He's sweet. Its funny to see him act the way I remember I acted when I was a greenie and was barely getting into the mission field just a couple months ago....

Church was crazy yesterday! As a district in total we had 13 people come to church and 7 new officially reactivated members to the branch. Its been really awesome to see this little branch grow. I love it and I'm really stoked that I have the chance to stay here and continue to see these miracles. It was really unexpected, but we got a new branch president! One of the senior elders just got called to be it so I'm stoked to see the new changes he has to bring to the branch.

Some elders in my district, their apartment got shot up this morning and so like 6 cops were surrounding their apartment and went through all the elders stuff looking for drugs. Just another day in the life of a Rio Grande missionary. Life is great!

Love you guys!

Elder Brian

My comp and I were committed to take selfies and wear matching ties everyday last week. Keeping commitments = blessings

Catching up with Elder Christiansen

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. 

Letter #80

Hey!

 

The conference with Elder Oaks was awesome! You would think apostles are very uptight strict people but man, Elder Oaks is hilarious! I've never seen a man have more fun doing what he has been called of God to do than Elder Oaks last Saturday. It definitely helped me learn a lot about enjoying everything that you do and getting the most out of it.  Not to forget Elder Robbins and Elder Wright also gave really good talks and spoke a lot about change and how change is required of everyone, especially us a Latter Day Saints. 

 

Elder Iman and I are doing great! This week we didn't have a lot of time to work in our area. The conference was Saturday morning and we went down and got to spend the night in McAllen because Sunday morning we also had Stake Conference. It was fun! Its been a pretty long time since I've been in an apartment with more than two elders haha. Im kinda exiled out in Roma. After that I worked down in McAllen for the rest of Sunday night and until later I'll be here working with Elder Knighton from Maine! He's great. 

 

Last night we had a couple really powerful lessons in the stake presidents home. President Chandler. We had dinner with him and his family and after that, his son brought his friend over and we taught him the restoration. It was awesome. The spirit was so strong, especially because we were in the home of a member with members who loved and cared for the young man we were teaching. After that, the stake presidents daughter brought a friend over and we taught her about the plan of salvation. That was also really cool. Its great to see what a great example the Stake President and his family are of missionary work. A great leader leads by example. Back to back lessons in the stake presidents home, I wish everyday was like that!

 

We don't have any investigators as of right now. We are just trying to get things up and running through our members and hopefully we can start finding some good people for the end of February and into March! Time is flying a lot faster than I would like it to haha.

 

Sorry for no pictures! I don't have my camera cord on me, but I'll take some good ones this week and I'll send some next p day!

 

Love you guys!

Letter #79

Transfer news! I'm staying here in Roma! I'm not too surprised at all but I'm stoked to be here again. My new companion is Elder Iman. He's pretty cool. He goes home in about 2 months. So... that'll be interesting. I've never had a comp that has been so close to going home. Hopefully he holds together well haha.

This past week we had interviews with President Maluenda. It was great! Its always good learning from that spiritual giant. Cool fun fact, President Maluenda has actually lost like 45 lbs in the last couple months! He took all of the general conference talks pretty seriously, especially the one by Elder Jorg Klebignat and the part about taking care of yourself physically. He really is a great example of a leader, of one who leads by example.

This week we are focusing on pure member work! I kinda figured out that we are struggling so much because we are finding all these investigators off the streets and they have no connection to members whatsoever! So when we show up to second lessons, they bail out and we never see them again. Now I'm not saying that you cant find prepared people off the streets, because trust me, I've found and baptized my fair share, but it is so much easier and more reliable when you find investigators through members, that way they have that support right from the start and they are actually willing to come and feel comfortable at church. Elder Iman and I made some super deep plans this morning on what we are going to do and how we are going to do it to get this plan up and running and I cant wait to start seeing these miracles!

This weekend we are having another huge mission tour and Elder Oaks will be coming to speak to us! Its going to be awesome. Then on Sunday, we have our stake conference and Elder Oaks and Elder Robinson of the 70 will be speaking. This weekend is going to be pretty gnarly.  I'm pretty stoked.

My view across the border into Mexico.

Downtown Roma

Elder Iman

Letter #78

Whats up!

So transfers are tomorrow! But..... we still haven't gotten any news as to where anyone is going and who is staying and what not, so I guess I will have to let you guys in on the news next week. Or mom, I'm sure you can hunt it down somehow. ;)

I loved this transfer, I've loved every transfer but this transfer has been pretty hard. I came into a pretty dang successful district and I felt like I kinda screwed it up. Because the months of December and January we have not had a lot of success. We haven't been finding at all, the people we do find, flake off super quick and this branch isn't all that there yet to give us the support that we hope for.  I was listening to a really great talk by Elder Holland, its called Missionary Work and The Atonement. This sums it up a lot better than I can:

"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary."

Maybe right now, I'm just spending those few moments in Gethsemane. Its hard, its tough, but something good is gonna come out of it, I know it. I know the atonement is real. I can't count the amount of times I've knelt down and prayed at night and felt that love that Jesus Christ has for me. I love my mission. It has changed my life. The amount of good times exceeds that of the amount of tough times, but its through the tough that we learn the most.

Love you all!

Elder Brian 

Letter #77

Happy New Year!

Its been a good start to the new year. Frozen was good. Its good to finally see the movie that ever kid in the street talks about and sings down here. Then at 12:00 everyone shoots their guns up in the air for like 2 minutes straight. It sounded like a war was going on outside.

This is the last week of the transfer. This transfer has gone by so fast its unreal. I feel like I just got to Roma. Most likely I'm staying, which is good! But anything could happen, especially in the mission field. Time is just flying by and cant even keep track of everything. It gets pretty stressful at times.

This week we found a lot of new people to teach. There are 7 of them. Ill probably let you guys know how they progress a little further down the road, cause a lot of them we might not be teaching by next week haha. That's just how the teaching goes down here in the Texas McAllen mission.

Love you guys!

Elder Brian

Merry Christmas!

Letter #75

Earlier this week we had a Christmas zone conference. It was awesome to be able to feel of that Christmas spirit that all the missionaries brought and to be able to focus it all on Christ and His birth. What better way to spend Christmas than being out in the mission field! I love it

We also had a little Christmas party with our small branch in Rio Grande. It was fun! About 25 people or so showed up and we had some tamales and beans and Arroz con leche (Rice pudding). Sounds like a great Christmas dinner right? It was delicious.

The district is doing great! We had 3 baptisms yesterday. It was a part member family. It was great to see them all come together and have the mom return after being less-active for quite sometime. Our goal as a district is 6 baptisms for the month of December. This week is going to be a little crazy but we are looking like we have some great people lined up to be baptized this coming Sunday the 28th, one of those being Leo! Abelardo kind of fell off the board, we haven't had contact with him in a while but Leo is progressing really well. Any prayers on his part would be awesome.

Love you guys. Merry Christmas!

Elder Brian

pics....

Letter #74

Feliz Navidad!

So just a couple days ago, we were driving in our area and all of a sudden about 10 or so people bolted out of the trees and bushes all soaking wet, running for their lives, holding their clothes. I'll let you be the one to draw conclusions to the story. Elder Hatfield and I couldn't help but chuckle. I love the people here, they are so great;)

This week I went on a little exchange and was working in another little town called Las Lomas with Elder Serra. He's awesome. Great guy. We went by a less active part member family and we had a great lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they accepted to come to church and be baptized at the end of the month! It was a sweet Christmas miracle!

Our area is doing great! We don't have too many progressing investigators as of now, but Leo and Abel are pullin' along. They weren't able to come to church on Sunday cause Leo was in the hospital with his daughter. But everything is alright with her and she's doing great now. So this week we are hoping to get back on track with them.

I just wanna say how thankful I am for the blessings that I have in my life especially during this Christmas season. For a loving family, shelter over my head and food to eat. I encourage you all to be thankful for what you have, cause there are so many out there who have so much less. Love you guys!

Elder Brian

Letter #73

Roma, Texas. It definitely has no comparison to Roma, Italia but nonetheless, its what I will be calling home for the next little while. ;)

Just to tell you a little about Roma, its a little town of about 11,000. Its about an hour and a half outside of the city of McAllen and its right smack on the border of Mexico. I love it. Border towns like these are the best. Because of the many wonderful and perfectly paved roads we drive on down here, our area has a truck. From a mini van to a truck, that's quite the upgrade if you ask me. Our district of 6 elders cover a little branch in the city of Rio Grande about 25 minutes from Roma. The branch building is pretty cool, It used to be a Baptist church building so its a little different but still great. My new companion is Elder Hatfield. He's from Ohio and turns out he knows the Tanner's. Small world. He's great. He's been out on the mission about 8 months and about 7 of them have been here in Roma so he knows the area pretty well.

Right now we are working with a couple people we found this week. The two that we found are Leo and Abel. They are brothers. Really cool guys and they came to church yesterday! They had a pretty cool experience and are looking good to come back next week.

It's quite the fast and testimony meeting when a nice little old lady decides to get up and read the whole chapter of Alma 34 right from the Book of Mormon for about 10 minutes straight. Roma is great.

Sorry no pics this week! But I will hopefully have some next week. Love you guys!

Feliz Navidad

Elder Brian