Letters from lately...

November 15, 2011


I’m good!

1. I have no idea what I am going to do for Thanksgiving. I figure some members will have us for dinner and the entire day with be full of dinner appts....not really looking forward to that

2. I'm hanging in there. Things are going good. I definitely feel the prayers, that’s for sure. Everyday, like I said, brings more thoughts of home, but the Lord is helping block those thoughts and stay focused. December is already looking like a way busy month, so I don’t even think I will have time to think about home once we get past Thanksgiving.

This week was awesome. Pure awesomeness at the MCRD. I met a kid that wants to get baptized, so I taught him and he is getting baptized next week. Also, I taught another kid and he is getting baptized next week, but up at the 2nd phase of training in Northern California. AND, I taught this other kid who set the date to be baptized in 3 weeks! Pure miracles and blessings! God really poured out some awesome blessings on me last Sunday!

We also have another man being baptized this next Sunday in the branch. He is way prepared and excited as well! BTW, did you see/hear about the Spanish fireside broadcast last Sunday. It was pretty good. Our investigator loved it! It was pretty cool for the church to do that, pure Spanish. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Sorry that my emails are getting shorter and shorter. The closer I get to seeing yall in person the more I just save to tell you face to face. Crazy! It still hasn’t really set in, but I’m sure it will after Thanksgiving. I love yall! LOVE YALL!!!

Ross



November 8, 2011

6 more....
1. Transfers are this week....and I am staying in Logan. This next week I will be looking for burial plots because I am dying here! Pres Lopez will be happy, he told me that he didn't want me to leave. My comp is staying with me too. (Aren’t transfers this week—are you going or staying?)

2. Members heard that I’m going home so all of them are feeding me. Members that I don’t even know are feeding me haha. (Do you have many dinner appointments?)

Well this week was good. Things have kind of slowed down a little bit in our area because we have focused a lot on the zone/stake lately. We have been working a lot with our stake pres to get the Ward Councils in our stake functioning. That’s been the main focus. Without the WC's help, missionary work is really difficult. So we have been focusing on that. Our stake pres really trusts us. I have built a super great relationship with him. We have the kind of relationship where I can just tell him how it is and he accepts it and changes it. He really loves missionary work and knows that the missionaries are better trained on the WC than the ward leaders are. It’s been really good. We are being invited to all the WCs in the stake and, along with a member of the mission presidency and the stake presidency, are training the wards on how the WC should function. Since we have started that, the work has sky rocketed. We have 26 people with a baptismal date in the stake and we just recently hit 100 baptisms for the year. The stake is being blessed.


November 1, 2011

Hi Mom

Good week...yes, 7 weeks to go. Haha.

1. Yeah he cooks oatmeal for me for breakfast every morning and sometimes he makes other stuff. He made me crepes one morning and I wasn’t sure what to do with them haha...I’ve never had crepes before. (Is your companion still cooking for you?)

2. My talk was good. I would send it to you, but I got up there and gave a different talk than I planned on and I only remember a few things that I said. (How did your talk go on Sunday?)

Sounds like yall had fun for Halloween haha. We had to be in our apartments at 5:30 so we went a grabbed some pizza and chilled the rest of the night in the apartment. I left something in the car that I needed, but I was going to leave it out there till the morning, but then I felt like we should go out there, so we did. Turns out that some drunk guy was trying to break into our car and he and his friends ran off when I turned on the lights...spiritual impressions are awesome. We also talked to a drunk chollo who was "tagging" (spray painting) the wall. He was ticked because someone wrote "hoe" over his tag haha I just laughed and said, "dude, that’s messed up." So yeah, that was our Halloween.

Like I said, my talk was good. I had planned on talking about how as members we need to help everybody else and share the gospel. But when I was sitting thinking about my talk, I felt that I needed to talk about my mission and how I loved it and the things I sacrificed to come out here (football, school, job opportunities) and that led me to talk about some rough times that I have had out here and how I have overcome them. It told them that when we pass through hard times and we feel we can’t move forward anymore we need to ask ourselves the questions, "Where are our hearts?" Are our hearts focused on our problems or are our heart focused on all the blessings and miracles God has given us. I told them to quit thinking about how hard their lives are and how difficult it is from them to live here. I told them they needed to focus on how awesome it is and how special they are to be members of the church. God loved them so much that he gave them the opportunity to listen to his servants and become members of the church. I told them that if they are focused on their problems, they won’t progress. But if they focus on the miracles and help those around them, they will progress and become like God. After the talk, a bunch of people thanked me for it and my Recent Convert (Ignacio) told me that is what he needed at that time. So I felt good after. Once again, spiritual impression are awesome.

So that was basically my week. We are working hard to have a baptism this weekend. We aren’t sure if it will happen, but we are working for one. A couple extra prayers would be nice. Thanks for everything. Every day is a little harder to focus, because every less day brings more thoughts about home. But don’t worry, I’ve been praying a lot for help and I’m receiving it. Everything will be alright. I LOVE YOU!!!!!

Ross



October 25, 2011

Pretty good week.

1. We don’t have weekly service projects. We had the Mormon helping hands in April but that is like the only legit service project we do. Other than that, we help members out every now and then and do some other stuff but nothing really planned every week.

2. Our week was really good. We had 2 confirmations and a awesome day at the MCRD

So yeah my week was really good. I can’t remember if I told yall but we had interviews with Pres Clayton a couple of weeks ago. My interview was awesome. We just talked about what I needed to do with my time left and I told him how I was doing. He got a little teary eyed and told me that he wasn't looking forward to December 20th. That made me feel good. I just told him that I would do everything I could over the next 2 months to leave the mission, my zone and my area better than it was before I got here. It was a great talk/interview.

MCRD story of the week: So on Saturday night, in my prayers, I prayed that I would have success the following day. So on Sunday, I got to the MCRD and was talking to some missionaries outside the door to the room we have church in, when this group of recruits come waking in. I start to talk to them and found out that 2 of them weren't members of the church. So they sat down, and I followed them in and started talking about where they were from, why the wanted to be a Marine, etc. I asked them what brought them to church with us and they both said they were looking for a church to go here and looking for faith. So I told them we could talk after and they agreed. During that time, one of the members of the Branch Presidency there (there are 9 counselors haha) came and gave them Books of Mormon and they read during sacrament meeting. After the meeting, we went to the back of the room (its like a huge college classroom) and started talking. During the talk, 2 other recruits came and sat in. One was a lifelong member that was going to serve a mission after and the other was a recent convert. We started talking about everything and the 2 non members were just eating it up. They talked about how they didn’t want to rule anything out yet and they decided that they needed to start with our church because of the examples of the other member recruits. We talked about the organization of the church and I taught a little bit about the restoration. Then we got on the subject of baptism and started talking about the need to be baptized and how God wants all his children to live with him and that why we do baptisms for the dead, and that led us into what happens after this life. Usually, I don’t like to talk about so many different topics in one lesson, but for some reason I felt like we needed to give like a brief overview on everything. At the end of it, they both said, "sir, you are presenting a very, very VERY convincing argument and we feel that this is true." So I gave them 2 Nephi 31 to read this week. I felt like they needed to discover baptism on their own for some reason. I had a lot of different promptings in this lesson, that I don’t usually have. It was cool. They both said they would be back next week and they would love to talk again. I’m excited! This is why I love the MCRD!!!

Other than that the week was pretty good. I'm speaking on the 30th in church. Pres Lopez said I could pick my topic. I think I’m going to talk about where our hearts are focused. Are our hearts focused on all the problems we face or are they focused on building the kingdom of God and helping people who have worse problems than us? As Elder Holland said, I might have to singe their eyebrows a little...but in a loving way haha

I LOVE YOU!!!!

Ross