Called To Serve In Orlando, Florida.
RETURNING DEC. 7TH, 2016

Monday, June 27, 2016

Week #81 - Baptizing Tiger Woods?

Hey!

Well I got transferred and I'm in Orlando south right now, my area over here is Windermere. It's a very wealthy area so I'm just preparing to baptize Tiger Woods and Shaq, don't know if they have a jumpsuit big enough for my boy o'neal but we can make it work bahaha ;)

Anyways my comp is Elder Acevedo he is great, he has a real drive to get the work done. He's almost been out a year so he's at that point in the mission where you just want to do so much haha It's a much different kind of work over here than it was in Viera so it's kinda weird, instead of a lot of old people and gated communities we have just a huge assortment of people down here. We have A LOT of Portuguese work down here so that's dope, but what's even cooler is all the Polynesians that are down here! This Ward has a ton of Polynesians, mostly Tongans but there are some Samoans scattered about #manycalledbutfewareCHOSEN ;) it's been a lot of fun though!

There's just a lot of work here to be done and I just want to share some cool stories on how I know that each one of us is so needed. So I usually don't say how certain people are found because of myself or others because the glory truly is to God, but he does have his instruments and what I saw this week was really cool to realize, again, the personal need for us as individuals. So, it's the first couple days in the area and I do missionary very differently than the missionaries that were previously in this area. They liked tracting and all that and I love using the tools I've been giving and following the spirit on certain people to drop by and teach. So it's like my 4th day here and I was organized the area book and studied all the records by now and I saw a family I wanted to go visit. So, i was following elder Acevedo for a bit because I'm still so fresh to the area but since I had just read all the records I knew the formers. So, I said elder Acevedo I have somewhere I would like to go and he said ok, so we went to this family. As we were pulling up I said well this is it and even if their not here I know God leads us to who we need to meet, like that family right there. (Family sitting on a bench in front of the apartments). We got out and immediately went to talk with them and the the guy said are you guys Mormon? And we said yes, then he said (in some rougher English) I want to go to that church! Then we talked about it and he said but you have to promise me that if I go I can talk to the bishop. So he came to church and talked to the bishop and after his meeting I asked how he liked church and he said I liked it, with a huge smile and then said, I'm going to be a member soon! Wow don't say that to a missionary ;) so we sat down and talked with him and put him on date to be baptized on July 16th!! It was so awesome!!! I just wanted to share though how cool is the way the Lord uses us, I know that we wouldn't have found this man without me, because the missionaries were doing work a different way to find. So I knew I was needed, and there were 3 people baptized in this area before I came that I knew wouldn't have been found with me.....because they were found through tracting. The Lord needs everyone's different talents and abilities at the right times and it's amazing to see how he truly needs us. He knows us and he knows what choices we are likely to make with who we are and he LOVES helping his children through guiding his other children.

More pictures to come next week, I just couldn't connect to wifi to send them from my camera. They will be pictures of more families from Viera and my new comp!!! :)


Some more families





Exchanges with Elder Baxter

Monday, June 20, 2016

Week 80 - Spanish Wedding & A Transfer

Heyyyyy what's up everybody :)

So this week has just been amazing!! Like seriously just such an awesome week of miracles and blessings. Alexis got confirmed a member of the church today which was pretty dang legit!! We had a water balloon fight this week with the Potente family which was pretty fun, I got hammered haha I'm pretty sure I got hit the most. It was just so great though and Caleb Gantz was able to come with us to that, I'm gonna miss that kid!! I have never seen so many Asians together at one moment til this water fight hahah but this week I would say the crowning moment was when Konny and Sammy got married!!! Oh my gosh I cried it was just the greatest thing ever. Not only did I just get pumped over theirs but it made me think of the day when I'll have mine and it was awesome to say the least. The stake president married them in Spanish and then afterwards we went and ate and had a good old time DANCING! Yep, we just danced like crazy to all the Spanish music and with the ward and it was the best. I got to see some gringos dance all the way up to pure Latins dancing sooooo good. It was probably one of the best nights ever!!

But good news and bad news with that family right now is they are preparing to be baptized which is obviously the best butttttttt I'm getting transferred to a new area and the missionary that is coming in doesn't speak Spanish and my current companion doesn't either sooooo we have to find a way to teach them haha we will figure it out though and they are a super solid family! I'm getting transferred to a place called Windermere, it's right by the temple and every week we get to go do work on the temple grounds and things like that so I'm pretty excited for it, and my new Comps name is Elder Acevedo!! I was his ZL in Orlando and now we are comps so I'm really Pumped for that oh and there are a TON of Polynesians in this ward too so I'm excited for that, just gotta get better at exercising super hard or I'm gonna look like big Buddha. It was weird thinking about this transfer because my mission just keeps getting closer and closer to the end so it's crazy!!!

Well I love you all and if you have any questions I'll ask away :)





























  

Monday, June 13, 2016

Week #79 - 18 month mark!

Wow so a freaking fantastic week!! Things are just rolling so smoothly with a beautiful baptism, like for real I literally teared up it was so good! The spirit was very powerful and a ton of people were there. Not only that we set a couple on date for their tism shortly after their wedding this weekend on the 17th!! Whooooo gettin pumped out here haha they are so dope and i am pumped about the spanish wedding we will be having!! Can we say salsa dancing :) jk i would be dancing with myself  :( but hey it works haha We also had a sweeet pot luck with our zone so that was pretty cool, not gonna like it made me soo happy :)

But really everything is just going great, its getting a little weird looking at schools and thinking about home a little more. I know i got like 5 months left but im supposed to apply and stuff so its trippy, but the U of U is winning me over with their website and all of their stuff its pretty dope so i need to keep looking and praying haha

The zone is doing fantastic, we are having all time highs in every category for the zone in a long time even with losing multiple companionships. Guys i really dont know what to say but that the gospel is THEE GREATEST THING ON THE PLANET, SO IF YOU'RE NOT IN IT.....FIX WHATEVER IS HOLDING YOU BACK AND GET IN IT!!!!





Monday, June 6, 2016

Week #78 - "Do Not Contact" Miracles

Well, we had an awesome week!!


We have been having a lot of great success! We have a baptism of a girl named Alexis this week and as well we put 3 more people on date so we are mad pumped about that! Two of them is a couple who is getting married next week and baptized a littler after, we've already baptized the kids and now its them and then straight to the temple!!!! #familiesareeternal But seriously its so dope!

So, one thing to know about myself is that i am a firm non-believer in DO NOT CONTACT lists. I have had way to many baptisms from people that we "were not supposed to contact" and that is the case with a girl we will be baptizing at the end of June her name is Madelyn Shafer. Their family was on the DNC list for a while and when I got to the area i was like nah we got this so we went and taught the father and then got a return appointment. We have been teaching them for awhile and slowly been grabbing more and more members from the family to join us. We have had some seriously powerful, spirit packed lessons with them and they all committed (4 of them) to start coming back and work towards being sealed as a family. Well, its been awesome. They are super dedicated and some of them came to stake conference yesterday and the son hung out with us today for P-Day, it is the coolest thing ever and just seeing how the gospel has been bringing this family so close together is the greatest thing about the gospel. The same thing has been the case with multiple families we are working with, and THAT is what the gospel is about.

Love you all and just stay beautiful!

Picture w/President Berry 

 Sister Earl, a departing sister
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