This is Ross with Heather...she and Ross were in the same student ward in College Station and were both sent to the San Diego mission..crazy!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Pictures!!
Happy early Thanksgiving! What a special surprise to open up my email and find that Ross had sent some pictures this week. He never does that! Enjoy :)
This is Ross with Heather...she and Ross were in the same student ward in College Station and were both sent to the San Diego mission..crazy!
This is Ross with Heather...she and Ross were in the same student ward in College Station and were both sent to the San Diego mission..crazy! 
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Letter from November 16, 2010
November 16, 2010
hahaha i think the last time all those teams won on the same day was when i was a little kid. Im glad the Ags are doing good, all the new missionaries that come in see me and ask if i went to school before the mission and i tell them A&M, then the next question always is "Are you going to play football there?" i just smile and say, "we'll see" hahaha
1. haha Im sure you are both wondering what was in that letter hahaha. IDK, I was studying one morning and i just had the impression to write Pres. Packard and tell him about my story with Marc MAndel and how everything is going out here. Thats basically it. If you read it you would just be reading the same story, but i did throw my testimony in at the end. Nothing to special, I still dont know why I wrote it, just followiing an impression. I have come to realize on my mission that if the Lord speaks, it is usually a pretty good idea to do it. haha
2.I know nothing about the Christmas Gathering. Just that it is on like the 23rd or 22nd and that all the missionaries (in SD, not in the desert) get together at one of the churches and ahve a big christmas "party". We watch a christmas church movie and then they hand out gifts and president gives everyone an orange and some socks hahaha. I am trying to get president to show "ELF" but i dont think he will show a will ferrel movie, its worth a shot. And yes mom, in my last letter i did ask about skype...i got no reply, there is your answer hahaha
3. "Zone-Leading" is pretty fun. we have to do a lot of extra work, but the Lord has definitely blessed us in our area. Another lesson that I have learned is that when you serve others, the Lord will serve you. That is the case in our area right now. Last week we didnt have time to teach a lot of lessons, but we still had a baptism, 2 with a date, and 3 at church. Still a good week and yes, you read right, we did get a baptism! haha. We have a meeting with president like twice a month and he calls regularly. He like to talk with us, our zone is doing the best right ow in the mission. But, i would love to be a regualr missionary again, i didnt get to do that for a while haha
Well my marine story of the week....it was a pretty good week. The Protestant prayer leader taht i taught last week is doing really well. Last week, he told me that he wasnt interested in getting baptized but just wanted to learn. This week i taught him a little abot joesph smith and authority and how there is only one church taht has it all. And I INVITED him to follow the example of jesus christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authoriry of God. He said that he would, but not untilhe gets his answer taht this is the ONLY true church. He will get it this week. His best friend in bootcamp is a stud member. returned missinoary, so he knows what he is doing. I think he will get baptized soon, very soon. The other marine is doing ok. He seemed to cool off a little bit, but im going to talk with the missionarys up north at "phase 2" and get them to talk with him and keep the fire burning. I also found 2 more recruits that are interested. One of them saw one the the recruits in his compnay, that is a member, praying by himself one night and felt like he needed to join him. It was a pretty cool story. the lord works on these guys big time. they have spiritual experience after spiritual experience it is great.
In my area the story of the week is.....I am teaching my first interested cholo. yes, a legit thug from a legit gang. His name is Edgar and he is the son of a member. he came to the mobat yesterday with us and he loved it. He has a lot to change, but he knows everything is true. He wants us to help him change his life. But yes, i am now teaching my first cholo that is actually interested haha.
Well that is about all for this week. Oh, before i forget. Because the San Diego mission is the best mission in the world and the 1st presidency and the 12 love us the most, 3 weeks ago, the California San Diego mission became the 1st mission in the world to have.............TEXTING ON THEIR PHONES!!!!! hahahahaha yep, missionaries can now text. I love my missio so much. It is a lot more fun to text in spanish ahahahah
Thanks for all of your prayers and i will be praying extra hard on thursday, all day. And like dad told me, "no news is good news." I dont want to get any news haha LOVE YALL
Ross
hahaha i think the last time all those teams won on the same day was when i was a little kid. Im glad the Ags are doing good, all the new missionaries that come in see me and ask if i went to school before the mission and i tell them A&M, then the next question always is "Are you going to play football there?" i just smile and say, "we'll see" hahaha
1. haha Im sure you are both wondering what was in that letter hahaha. IDK, I was studying one morning and i just had the impression to write Pres. Packard and tell him about my story with Marc MAndel and how everything is going out here. Thats basically it. If you read it you would just be reading the same story, but i did throw my testimony in at the end. Nothing to special, I still dont know why I wrote it, just followiing an impression. I have come to realize on my mission that if the Lord speaks, it is usually a pretty good idea to do it. haha
2.I know nothing about the Christmas Gathering. Just that it is on like the 23rd or 22nd and that all the missionaries (in SD, not in the desert) get together at one of the churches and ahve a big christmas "party". We watch a christmas church movie and then they hand out gifts and president gives everyone an orange and some socks hahaha. I am trying to get president to show "ELF" but i dont think he will show a will ferrel movie, its worth a shot. And yes mom, in my last letter i did ask about skype...i got no reply, there is your answer hahaha
3. "Zone-Leading" is pretty fun. we have to do a lot of extra work, but the Lord has definitely blessed us in our area. Another lesson that I have learned is that when you serve others, the Lord will serve you. That is the case in our area right now. Last week we didnt have time to teach a lot of lessons, but we still had a baptism, 2 with a date, and 3 at church. Still a good week and yes, you read right, we did get a baptism! haha. We have a meeting with president like twice a month and he calls regularly. He like to talk with us, our zone is doing the best right ow in the mission. But, i would love to be a regualr missionary again, i didnt get to do that for a while haha
Well my marine story of the week....it was a pretty good week. The Protestant prayer leader taht i taught last week is doing really well. Last week, he told me that he wasnt interested in getting baptized but just wanted to learn. This week i taught him a little abot joesph smith and authority and how there is only one church taht has it all. And I INVITED him to follow the example of jesus christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authoriry of God. He said that he would, but not untilhe gets his answer taht this is the ONLY true church. He will get it this week. His best friend in bootcamp is a stud member. returned missinoary, so he knows what he is doing. I think he will get baptized soon, very soon. The other marine is doing ok. He seemed to cool off a little bit, but im going to talk with the missionarys up north at "phase 2" and get them to talk with him and keep the fire burning. I also found 2 more recruits that are interested. One of them saw one the the recruits in his compnay, that is a member, praying by himself one night and felt like he needed to join him. It was a pretty cool story. the lord works on these guys big time. they have spiritual experience after spiritual experience it is great.
In my area the story of the week is.....I am teaching my first interested cholo. yes, a legit thug from a legit gang. His name is Edgar and he is the son of a member. he came to the mobat yesterday with us and he loved it. He has a lot to change, but he knows everything is true. He wants us to help him change his life. But yes, i am now teaching my first cholo that is actually interested haha.
Well that is about all for this week. Oh, before i forget. Because the San Diego mission is the best mission in the world and the 1st presidency and the 12 love us the most, 3 weeks ago, the California San Diego mission became the 1st mission in the world to have.............TEXTING ON THEIR PHONES!!!!! hahahahaha yep, missionaries can now text. I love my missio so much. It is a lot more fun to text in spanish ahahahah
Thanks for all of your prayers and i will be praying extra hard on thursday, all day. And like dad told me, "no news is good news." I dont want to get any news haha LOVE YALL
Ross
Letter from November 9, 2010
November 9, 2010
haha well this week was a little tough, but it ended up pretty good. Preguntas
1. haha sorry mom, i have been so busy lately that i havent even had time to think about christmas. I dont even have time to think about the next day. But i promise you that i will get to it this week, hopefully.
2.My plans for thanksgiving. Well since there isnt a spanish ward in the stake, i will explain things to you. Everyone in the Bonita 3rd ward is a convert, so everyone loves having the missionaries over. This translates to my situation of having 6 dinner appts on thanskgiving day. One with an investigator, one with the Munoz family (the coolest guy ever), one with the rosas family (they already are counting down the days till i can come back off my mission and stay with them) one with our bishop, one with a counselor in the bishopric, and one with our EQP (he is a stud..dad, if you knew him, you would wish all EQPs were like him). So thats what i will be doing on thanksgiving.
3.The baptisms did not happen. They just werent ready. we had appts with them and yeah, we could ahve pushed them and forced to be baptized. But there is a big difference in "dragging" someone to be baptized and "drawing" someone to be baptized. But they will go down this month for sure.
The marine is doing great. He knows everything is true, he knows what he needs to do, he is just a little nervous about what his family thinks. I explained to him that it is really importnat to have input from you family and told him that i never made a desicion without asking my family. But, when it comes down to it, no one can make the desicion for you. Only you can make it. But, because our Heavenly Father loves us and is rooting for us, he can help guide to the right path. He talked a little more about he doesnt want to disappoint me or his parents so he isnt sure. Right then i knew i hadnt taught him clearly enough. I explained to him that he needs to do this for himself. Not for me or his parents. So he said he would pray and he knew that God would guide him and help make the desicion. While teaching him, the thought came to me, but i didnt say it because i think it was the Lord teaching me. But the thought came to me that this marine needs to choose which parents he is going to disappoint. His earthly parents, or his Heavenly parents. It changed my teaching alittle bit while i was teaching him and i think he really understood at the end. But...
THIS WEEK AT THE MCRD:
I found a new investigator. But I have to explain something before. At marine boot camp, the marines are given the last 10 minutes of the day to meet together and pray with peole in the barracks. There are 3 "pray circiles". There is a catholic, a protestant, and a newly established mormon pray cirlce. Each pray circle has a prayer leader that gives a little spiritual thought and then they pray. So this week, i added a new investigaotr there. he went to church up north in his 2nd phase there, and he was interested. We were talking about prayer and idk why but i asked if there was a mormon prayer circle in his barracks. he said yeah and that his best friend invited him to pray in the circle. Turns out that this kid is a protestant prayer leader but left his circle to pray with the LDS. he said it just felt right and was something he had to do. BOOM! The spirit works on everyone..thats all i have to say.
I started reading this book about letting Christ help inour lives. In the book it said that the best way to overcome feelings of inadequacy and guilt or anything is to serve. I realized, A lot of times in the church, we loook at a calling as a "have to" not a "get to". That is how i had been looking at my mission the past couple weeks. I "had to" get up and go work. i "had to" do this. But after while i was praying, i asked for forgiveness for my bad attitude and spiritually slapped myself in the face, and asked for help to change my attitude. The next day i went about serving. i made my comps bed, i cleaned up the apartment a little, i served investigators and i helped members. It just felt good. That was what was missing, that Spirit of Service. Now i feel better and everything is going great. we had a great lesson with an investigator and she is progressing big time now. We have a baptism coming up on sunday and i have that "fire" agian.
THANKS FOR ALL OF YOU PRAYERS FOR ME AND FOR THOSE WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO BE BAPTIZED. YEAH, THEY DIDNT GET BAPTIZED, BUT THEY WILL SOON. THE LORD HAS A PLAN FOR THEM AND IT JUST WANST THE RIGHT TIME. THEY NEED TO SOMETHING MORE AND WE WILL FIND OUT WHAT IT IS, TEACH IT AND THEN BAPTIZE THE SIN OUT THEM. hahahah
I LOVE YALL
ross
haha well this week was a little tough, but it ended up pretty good. Preguntas
1. haha sorry mom, i have been so busy lately that i havent even had time to think about christmas. I dont even have time to think about the next day. But i promise you that i will get to it this week, hopefully.
2.My plans for thanksgiving. Well since there isnt a spanish ward in the stake, i will explain things to you. Everyone in the Bonita 3rd ward is a convert, so everyone loves having the missionaries over. This translates to my situation of having 6 dinner appts on thanskgiving day. One with an investigator, one with the Munoz family (the coolest guy ever), one with the rosas family (they already are counting down the days till i can come back off my mission and stay with them) one with our bishop, one with a counselor in the bishopric, and one with our EQP (he is a stud..dad, if you knew him, you would wish all EQPs were like him). So thats what i will be doing on thanksgiving.
3.The baptisms did not happen. They just werent ready. we had appts with them and yeah, we could ahve pushed them and forced to be baptized. But there is a big difference in "dragging" someone to be baptized and "drawing" someone to be baptized. But they will go down this month for sure.
The marine is doing great. He knows everything is true, he knows what he needs to do, he is just a little nervous about what his family thinks. I explained to him that it is really importnat to have input from you family and told him that i never made a desicion without asking my family. But, when it comes down to it, no one can make the desicion for you. Only you can make it. But, because our Heavenly Father loves us and is rooting for us, he can help guide to the right path. He talked a little more about he doesnt want to disappoint me or his parents so he isnt sure. Right then i knew i hadnt taught him clearly enough. I explained to him that he needs to do this for himself. Not for me or his parents. So he said he would pray and he knew that God would guide him and help make the desicion. While teaching him, the thought came to me, but i didnt say it because i think it was the Lord teaching me. But the thought came to me that this marine needs to choose which parents he is going to disappoint. His earthly parents, or his Heavenly parents. It changed my teaching alittle bit while i was teaching him and i think he really understood at the end. But...
THIS WEEK AT THE MCRD:
I found a new investigator. But I have to explain something before. At marine boot camp, the marines are given the last 10 minutes of the day to meet together and pray with peole in the barracks. There are 3 "pray circiles". There is a catholic, a protestant, and a newly established mormon pray cirlce. Each pray circle has a prayer leader that gives a little spiritual thought and then they pray. So this week, i added a new investigaotr there. he went to church up north in his 2nd phase there, and he was interested. We were talking about prayer and idk why but i asked if there was a mormon prayer circle in his barracks. he said yeah and that his best friend invited him to pray in the circle. Turns out that this kid is a protestant prayer leader but left his circle to pray with the LDS. he said it just felt right and was something he had to do. BOOM! The spirit works on everyone..thats all i have to say.
I started reading this book about letting Christ help inour lives. In the book it said that the best way to overcome feelings of inadequacy and guilt or anything is to serve. I realized, A lot of times in the church, we loook at a calling as a "have to" not a "get to". That is how i had been looking at my mission the past couple weeks. I "had to" get up and go work. i "had to" do this. But after while i was praying, i asked for forgiveness for my bad attitude and spiritually slapped myself in the face, and asked for help to change my attitude. The next day i went about serving. i made my comps bed, i cleaned up the apartment a little, i served investigators and i helped members. It just felt good. That was what was missing, that Spirit of Service. Now i feel better and everything is going great. we had a great lesson with an investigator and she is progressing big time now. We have a baptism coming up on sunday and i have that "fire" agian.
THANKS FOR ALL OF YOU PRAYERS FOR ME AND FOR THOSE WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO BE BAPTIZED. YEAH, THEY DIDNT GET BAPTIZED, BUT THEY WILL SOON. THE LORD HAS A PLAN FOR THEM AND IT JUST WANST THE RIGHT TIME. THEY NEED TO SOMETHING MORE AND WE WILL FIND OUT WHAT IT IS, TEACH IT AND THEN BAPTIZE THE SIN OUT THEM. hahahah
I LOVE YALL
ross
Letter from November 2, 2010
November 2, 2010
Well...this week wasnt AS good as last week, but this week has some potential for sure. Questions:
I just got a whole bunch of candy for Halloween. We had to be inside at 630 because things get a little crazy around here during halloween week. So it was pretty boring. No kids knocked on the door so we watched church movies around our portable dvd player that we have in the apartment and i went to bed early. 1st major holiday in the mission= dud hahaha
Well i knew the rangers would dissappoint me. But actually it makes me happy because they will probably win it when i am home haha.
I dont know why but i have been way out of it this week. I have been really tired and just seem to be going through the motions, it has been tough. But i am making it.
Story of the week: Early thursday morning around 1230, we get a call. I am way out of it and i got pretty ticked when i saw that it was some missionaries calling us. I thought they ahd done something bad and were calling me to bail them out of jail or something. But turn out they were evacuated from their apartment because of a shootout. Yeah, thats right, a shootout. Right next door to their apartment. We are talking like 20 feet away from where they were. They were praying and they started hearing shots and police yelling, "Officer down! Officer Down! I repeat officer down!" A police officer had charged the door of where this guy was and the guy shot him in the face. The elders were looking out their window and saw the police caring him down the stairs. Then about an hour later, the police beat on the elders door and escorted them out and down the stairs and around the corner. So we picked them up and they slept at our apartment. It was pretty crazy! The officer died at the hospital later and i dont know what happened to the guy who shot him. Probably going to die soon.
Well, MCRD story time. I am now teaching another miracle marine. He told me his sotry. A couple years ago he was in a boating accident where he was knocked unconcious. While out of it, he said he saw his grandpa and he told him taht he needed to find god. A few weeks later, he meets this girl and goes to church with her. Our church. He reads in the principles of the Gospel book that god loves everyone and it is up to us to choose to follow him. A few weeks later, he enters the MCRD and he prays and asks if he should continue to go to our church. He said that his Grandpa told hiim yes he should. It is the one to follow. Pretty crazy story. he said that he doesnt want to get baptized here because he wont see me or anyone else here again. I said that i couldnt tell him who was at my baptism, 12 years ago, but i could tell exactly how i felt. Then i told him Marc Mandel's story about the power and strength he felt about baptism. I went through Mosiah 18 with him. In that chapter, alma tells the people at the waters of mormon the attributes of a follower of christ. I read it and it is exactly the attributes of a marine. So i explained that to him and he said he would ask God what he wants him to do. Im pretty sure he will get baptized either this week or next week. It was pretty spiritual experience!
Well that is about all for this week. If everything works out the way it should and Satan doesnt mess anything up, we should have 4 baptisms on Sunday. I have the faith and i have the wokr, but it would be nice to have yalls prayers as well. Thanks for everything yall do! LOVE YALL SOOO MUCH
Ross
Well...this week wasnt AS good as last week, but this week has some potential for sure. Questions:
I just got a whole bunch of candy for Halloween. We had to be inside at 630 because things get a little crazy around here during halloween week. So it was pretty boring. No kids knocked on the door so we watched church movies around our portable dvd player that we have in the apartment and i went to bed early. 1st major holiday in the mission= dud hahaha
Well i knew the rangers would dissappoint me. But actually it makes me happy because they will probably win it when i am home haha.
I dont know why but i have been way out of it this week. I have been really tired and just seem to be going through the motions, it has been tough. But i am making it.
Story of the week: Early thursday morning around 1230, we get a call. I am way out of it and i got pretty ticked when i saw that it was some missionaries calling us. I thought they ahd done something bad and were calling me to bail them out of jail or something. But turn out they were evacuated from their apartment because of a shootout. Yeah, thats right, a shootout. Right next door to their apartment. We are talking like 20 feet away from where they were. They were praying and they started hearing shots and police yelling, "Officer down! Officer Down! I repeat officer down!" A police officer had charged the door of where this guy was and the guy shot him in the face. The elders were looking out their window and saw the police caring him down the stairs. Then about an hour later, the police beat on the elders door and escorted them out and down the stairs and around the corner. So we picked them up and they slept at our apartment. It was pretty crazy! The officer died at the hospital later and i dont know what happened to the guy who shot him. Probably going to die soon.
Well, MCRD story time. I am now teaching another miracle marine. He told me his sotry. A couple years ago he was in a boating accident where he was knocked unconcious. While out of it, he said he saw his grandpa and he told him taht he needed to find god. A few weeks later, he meets this girl and goes to church with her. Our church. He reads in the principles of the Gospel book that god loves everyone and it is up to us to choose to follow him. A few weeks later, he enters the MCRD and he prays and asks if he should continue to go to our church. He said that his Grandpa told hiim yes he should. It is the one to follow. Pretty crazy story. he said that he doesnt want to get baptized here because he wont see me or anyone else here again. I said that i couldnt tell him who was at my baptism, 12 years ago, but i could tell exactly how i felt. Then i told him Marc Mandel's story about the power and strength he felt about baptism. I went through Mosiah 18 with him. In that chapter, alma tells the people at the waters of mormon the attributes of a follower of christ. I read it and it is exactly the attributes of a marine. So i explained that to him and he said he would ask God what he wants him to do. Im pretty sure he will get baptized either this week or next week. It was pretty spiritual experience!
Well that is about all for this week. If everything works out the way it should and Satan doesnt mess anything up, we should have 4 baptisms on Sunday. I have the faith and i have the wokr, but it would be nice to have yalls prayers as well. Thanks for everything yall do! LOVE YALL SOOO MUCH
Ross
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