Letter #96

Hey Fam!

What a week!

I don't really even know where to start, so many great things happened this past week, it was crazy!

So the teaching process with Meranda was awesome! She accepted everything that the gospel had to offer. The only big struggle we had with her was getting permission from her Mom to be baptized. So we had a great lesson on fasting and we set up a time and date to fast for it, us the Cavazos family and Meranda. So we fasted and after a couple days nothing really happened, but while we were in McAllen at 3 day training we get a text from her saying her Mom told her that she could do what she wanted with religion and it was her choice. It was a huge miracle!! So her mom signed the record. I gained a great testimony of fasting that week. So the baptism happened yesterday. It was awesome! Its been a while since I've had a baptism, it feels good to see it again. On top of that we had 5 other baptisms in the zone, which is huge for the Sinton zone! We are looking really good to hit our monthly goal of 7 in the zone. 

3 day training was awesome! We went down Monday night and I was paired up with Elder Shumway and Elder Johnson. We pretty much just traveled around the mission and worked wherever haha. We were driving the AP van so we had no mile limit! It was rad. One night we worked in a little town called La Joya, another night we worked in Donna, McAllen and another night we worked in Edinburg. I spent my nights at the AP's house with a bunch of other dead missionaries. Man, was that ariot! At the end of the 3 day training, I left having the nickname of Steezus. I don't really know why but I am now known as Steezus and not Elder Brian. 

Presidente Maluenda gave some great trainings on faith and finding and for like 2 hours he went off on how important it is to read books, scriptures especially but other books too. He said you should always be reading a book of some sort other than the scriptures. He said that's where he got almost all of his knowledge and why he is so successful. I definitely want to do that when I get back. 

So Elder Green is gone! His exit interview was last night, so he will be down there until he leaves so I am just left here to do transfers all alone! I can't really believe that I have only 6 more weeks left of my mission. It has gone by too fast. I love my mission so much and am so grateful for everything I've learned and still will learn. I'm slowly getting excited to apply everything here to life back at home. I love being a missionary and have really come to learn and know my Savior personally. Words can't express my gratitude for His sacrifice for me. I know He lives. I've learned how important it is to have a good positive attitude through trials and hard times. If you have to go through them, you might as well go through them happy right? I love this gospel and I know its true. I know Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet to restore the same church Jesus Christ himself established. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and we will get closer to our Savior if we read and follow its teachings. The mission is the good life.

Thanks for the support! I love you guys!

Elder Brian

Probably broke the Word of Wisdom on that one.... Ooops! Pretty good though.

The sweetest, most humble family ever.

Elder Steezus and Elder Casteez

Elder Christianson

Lunch at Godfather's Pizza.

*I'm only like 2 feet taller than them both. No biggie.

Letter #95

Hey guys!

Happy Mothers day again!! Not too much to go over since I gave you guys the run down of most of it yesterday.

We will be in McAllen most of this week. We head down today and we'll be there until Thursday night for a big leadership 3 day training. I'm stoked for that. They are always full of good advice and things that we can do better and improve on.

Meranda is progressing really well! She came to church again yesterday and she loves it all. She has great support from her uncle and aunt the only thing is she is struggling to get permission from her mom so if you guys could keep her in your prayers this week that would be awesome. She will be getting baptized this Sunday if all goes well! 

Love you all! Have a killer week!

Elder Brian

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 #62

What's up guys!

 

The weekend was awesome! Jonathan was baptized! It was sweet. Many of the members were there to support him and he feels really comfortable with his new family the 3rd branch.

 

We had zone conference last week. I love zone conference. I always leave wanting to improve and do better. Presidente Maluenda put a big stress on using Preach My Gospel and teaching people not lessons. I've seen a lot in my mission where we sit down to teach a person and the main goal is to set a baptismal date so we can hit our goals for the month and get out of there as quick as we can. But that shouldn't be the case. We should be sitting down with people with the main goal of blessing their lives and having an impact on them for the better.

 

The other day we were walking some streets and a crazy guy waved us down. He was carrying a 7 ft. tall walking stick and we talked to him for a little bit, then he decided to show us how it was that he expresses his love for God and started doing some squats and yelling "The Lords Prayer" at the top of his lungs. It was pretty entertaining :) Some people have some very interesting ways of expressing love for God.

 

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

Letter #45

Whats up?!

This last week was awesome. We had Cesar's baptism! It went really well, I don't have a pic to send. My bad. Ill try and get on that. It was really cool cause he even brought his mom and sister too! They seemed to enjoy it a lot so we're hoping they will be our next victims ;)

We aren't really working with anyone right now. Elder Christiansen and I cleared our board so its going to be a big week of finding! So we're hoping all goes well with that.

Love you guys!

Elder Brian

Letter #44

Good news!!

Hey guys!! This week was killer! The Morales family got baptized! It was awesome. Thanks for all the prayers! They are doing really good right now and are being taken in as part of the branch family. The members here rad. They love doing missionary work.

We had a miracle this last week. We weren't really working with anyone too solid and we were praying to find some prepared people. So we go to branch coordination with the ward mission leader and we end up seeing all the kids at mutual so we go talk to them and Miguel (one of the young men) had brought one of his friends. And we find out that his friend (Cesar) has been coming to church with him on and off for about 2 years and he came up to us and told us that he thinks its time for him to get baptized! So we started working with him and we had a first lesson. At the end he said a prayer and told us that what he was doing was right and that he believed with all his heart that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. It was sick! The spirit was really strong and we set his Baptismal date for this Friday! I have a strong testimony that the Lord answers each and every one of our prayers and if we are doing everything we need to be, following all the commandment and being exactly obedient, there is no way that the Lord can keep those miracles from happening.

I love the mission! Thanks for being there to support! I love you guys!

Elder Brian

Letter #41

What up everyone!! We had an awesome week here in Laredo. I don't think I've sweat more in my life than i have this past week. I love showing up to people's doors looking like i just got out of a swimming pool. I'm sure they do too. ;)

To start off, Brian got baptized yesterday!! It was an awesome experience and definitely one of my more spiritual baptisms. Brian started tearing up and everything and the spirit was real strong. It just helped me grow even a stronger testimony of the Lord's work.

Earlier I was reading over a talk by Elder Ballard from the October 2013 Conference called "Put Your Trust In The Lord" I'm sure you guys have all read it, or at least heard it. If not, I'd get on that. Its a killer talk.  I love how he talks about 2 things that keep most people from sharing the gospel. 1 is fear and 2 is misunderstanding of the work. And that can all be solved by prayer. Pray for those missionary opportunities and you will be blessed with them. (Matt 7: 7-11) I know it works!!

Thanks for all the prayers an support! They are definitely felt out here in the mission field. I know i say this every week but i can't say it enough, i am so grateful to be out here in the field serving our Lord. For sure it is hard at times and there are times when i don't want anything to do with the mission but i know that those times make us who we are. Like they always say "Whatever doesnt kill you, makes you stronger"

Love

E. Brian

Letter #39

Good news! We had a baptism last week! It was awesome. Jorge got baptized. We are still working with his mom. She's doing well, she just needs a little bit more time. She's awesome. She'll get there soon.

We are working with a guy named Brian right now. Haha, pretty ironic. He's doing great. He came to church last week and loved it. He's 19 so he's going to the singles branch so we've been working with that branch a lot this past week or so. He's looking really good for his date!

Sorry I dont have a ton of time today but I just want to let you guys know that I know that this church is true! That God loves each and everyone of us and he knows each of us and our needs. i know that Jesus Christ lives and that he really descended below every single one of us because he loves us and because of that we can be able to return to live with our families together again after this life. I love missionary work and i'm so glad to be out here. i love you guys a lot!

Always remember who you are!

Love

Elder Brian

Letter #32

Pretty awesome week! We had two baptisms! Ilanie and Ilita Rodriguez! It was deffinately one of the better feeling baptisms that ive had. Everything went as planned and the water was actually somewhat warm haha. And it seemed like Ilanie and Ilita had an awesome experience.

 

Earlier this week we went out to the Gulf of Mexico! Kind of. Its a little area called the Laguna Madre. A town called Port Mansfield. Its about a 35 mintue drive from Raymondville but its 1 of the 10 best fishing towns in the U.S. Not a lot of people live out there but a lot of fishers just go rent houses and boat around and fish. We went and visited a less active family out there and they showed us around the whole town and took us out on the peir and we watched the sunset and had an awesome lesson on the Book of Mormon. It was sweet! And the town is awesome cause the deer out there just roam around and they are so used to people that they come up to you and you can pet them and feed them! I would have sent some pics but i forgot my sd card at the house, my bad.

 

Right now Elder Nichols and I arent really working with anyone. Its been pretty hard to find people to teach. But were hoping and praying this week is going to be a good one!

 

Thanks for everything! Have an awesome week!

 

Elder Brian

Letter #22

Hey! This week we had a sick training from Elder Callister from the Presidency of the 70 just this last friday. It was awesome and deffinately made me look at the mission a little differently. He talked about the Atonement and really went into depth on how it should be used. Its wierd, cause before my mission i never really thought about how important the Atonement of Jesus Christ really was. But now as a missionary the Atonement is really the center of the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is what this church is about!

Thanks for all the support!!

Love you all!

Letter #21

Crazy week! We had three baptisms yesterday tho which was pretty sick! Feliciano, Ray, and Jailine. I got to baptize Feliciano in the spanish ward, it was awesome! First baptism in spanish!

The week was pretty crazy with him cause we had to get him married AND baptized. Me and Elder Roylance got permission to pool in our money and help him buy the marriage license. So finally after getting everything all ready we drove over to his house and then followed him and his girlfriend to the court house downtown. While we were driving we passed a cop and Roylance makes a stupid (but pretty funny) joke and was like "That would really suck if Feliciano were to get pulled over right now and deported back to Mexico" and then we both started busting up laughing and no joke, 30 seconds later a cop races by us, flips on his lights, and pulls Feliciano over! Me and Roylance just sat there in shock as we watched the cop pull Feliciano out of the car and get all up in his face. We sat there for like 15 minutes waiting and praying that he wouldnt get sent back to Mexico. After the big whole talk Feliciano got, the cop starts walking away and Feliciano looks over at us sitting in our car and throws up a huge thumbs up and puts a huge smile on his face and runs back and hops in his car. Haha, it was so funny! The cop ended up letting him off the hook... kind of. He still got a 350 dollar ticket for not having insurance, and no license.

That was probably the highlight of the week on the funny side. It was really cool to see Red baptize his little brother Ray and little sister Jailine too. He did really good.

 

The work down here is great! Were having a conference on Friday up in McAllen with a seventy named Ted R. Callister so that will be pretty exciting.

 

Thanks for everything! Happy Holidays!

Letter #20

Thanksgiving was pretty sweet!! Ate so much food. Ive never felt so full in my life haha! We only had two meal appointments, but you know Mexicans. They will give you food until they have no more food to give you haha. 

 

We are having two baptisms this week! Its the little bro and sis of Red! We've been teaching them for a while now but we just barely got permission from Red's mom to baptize them. And whats even sicker is that Red is going to baptize them! We dont even have to get in the water! haha. Thats our goal as missionaries is to not get in the water. Its a lot better when you have members from the ward do it, cause we wont be here as long as they are haha.

 

We've been working a lot with a guy named Feliciano. I cant remember if i've talked about him or not but he's so ready to be baptized he just has to get married with his wife. And the only thing thats stopping them is that he doesnt have money to buy a license. So we've been praying for a miracle or something! A lady actually stopped us in the middle of the road a couple days ago and gave us 20 bucks. So we put that toward our Feliciano fund haha.

 

Too bad missionarys cant buy investigators licenses or anything or Feliciano wouldve been baptized like a month ago!

 

Transfers arent till the end of the year. I have a feeling this month is going to be super long. I know this might sound mean, but i cant wait to get a new comp! He's killin me right now! I swear we are always argueing and sometimes i just want to deck him in the face. But i guess thats just how it goes.

 

Happy Holidays!

Love you all! Thanks for everything!

 

Elder Brian

Letter #18

We baptized Red! This week flew by! We had appointments after appointments and then just yesterday we baptized Red. It was awesome. And he ended up bringing his whole family and they all thought it was a cool experience. Now were just hoping that gives them the push to get baptized haha. Elder Roylance did the baptism this time. 

And transfers came through and me and Elder Roylance are staying here in Cameron Park! Which is a shock for Elder Roylance. This is going to be his 4th here in Cameron Park. So Ill be here for quite a while still. Which is good i guess. I like it here. The only bad thing is that i know and have talked to practically everyone in Cameron Park haha. 

Yesterday we had a pretty sweet experience. During the spanish ward, Elder Roylance and i had to run out to the car to grab something and as we were walking out we saw a hispanic dude in a tank top walk up and he asked us if church has already started. We told him yes but he was more than welcome to go in and listen. We talked for a little bit and he just flat out told us, he quit drinking and smoking and he wanted to be baptized and he felt like this was the right church to come to. And me and Roylance looked at each other and we were like WHAT?! It was so sick. And then we asked what area he was in and he said Cameron Park! It was so awesome! So we sat him down, had a quick little lesson, set a Baptismal Date for the 1st of December and set an appointment up for tomorrow. It was amazing to see how prepared this guy was and how ready he was to make a change in his life. His name is Feliciano.

For Thanksgiving the English ward is having a Turkey Bowl and we got permission to go and play next week. Im pretty excited for that. Red said he's gonna bring some friends and hopefully we can make some new investigators out of that.  Red and his family already asked us to come have a cookout at his house on Thanksgiving haha. We are pretty stoked about that too.

Gotta go. Were headed off to go buy 800lbs of ties!

The church is true!!! I love you guys! Heres Red and his wife Anna and kids