Buenos Dias

November 2, 2020

Hola mis padres amados!! It was so great to talk to you guys this week!!! Always a highlight. I really feel like the time is going by fast which is good and just weird at times. Can't believe Matt has a week left and JD leaves tomorrow! 

I didn't even realize it was daylight savings until we woke up Sunday morning and it was 6:30 but like actually bright haha the extra hour of sleep was so nice. Until it looked like the sun was about to set at 3. Haha. The season of darkness is coming. But apparently its supposed to be in the 80s this week here, kinda nice. 

El Paso is awesome though!! Seriously I am shocked at how invested the ward is in missionary work. We hard correlation and it was super impressive, but then ward council was just like missionary work correlation part 2. They love the missionaries and its like all we talked about. So sick!!

Yesterday we had fast and testimony meeting over zoom and I was able to share my testimony! A lot of the people bore testimonies on missionary work and Jesus Christ of course. They are awesome, I love the people!! 

We've called a ton of people in the ward and had some really good lessons, mostly just active people but I want to hit the less actives hard this week. Also we called a bunch of people who hadn't been taught in a while. It was kinda slow for the first few days but last night we had 4 or 5 really good calls which was a blessing. And we got 3 referrals just yesterday from the church. We only got 2 all last transfer. Only two actually answered, the other said it was an accident or something but still super exciting 

Elder Woods is a really nice guy. A little interesting but nice! His spanish is alright, his accent isn't very good but he gets by! He can understand more than I can i think but its just hard over the phone sometimes. He's been on the West side of el paso in the same spanish speaking ward for his whole time, like 10 months here. He likes to work pretty good, but also take breaks which sometimes I'm like why do we need a break but its still good. It is still an awesome situation, I'm super excited about all of it here. Really blessed to be here, I hope I'm here for a long time!! Knock on wood.

Some thoughts

Continue to try and hear Him!! It continues to be super prevalent the importance of the spirit in missionary work and really just everyday life. I also read in 4 Nefi about the love of God that dwelled with the people and how they were truly converted to Jesus Christ. It referred to them as true believers of Him which I loved. I pray to have that same love of God with me! Its something I definitely felt in our home and hope the people I teach can feel. I also read Mormon 1,2 and 3 this morning. His diligence and faithfulness is incredible, especially at such a young age and continually throughout his life even though literally everyone else around him was so wicked. In verse three he talks about that same love of God in his heart. He says " I had led them many times to battle, and had loved them, according to the love of God which was in me, with all my heart; and my soul had been poured out in prayer unto my God all the day long for them." And I loved verse 16 about his diligence and how he followed the spirit!! "I did even as the Lord had commanded me; and I did stand as an idle witness to manifest unto the world the things which I saw and heard, according to the manifestations of the Spirit which had testified of things to come." 

Also I read and loved D&C 6 again. Its one of my favorite chapters. Like all of it is so good haha but the last verses are some of my very favorites. 

Some other scriptures from the week

3 Nefi 27:8 Mi Iglesia, tiene mi nombre

3 Nefi 27:14-15 mi Padre me envió para fuese levantado sobre la cruz

3 Nefi 28:11 el Espíritu Santo da testimonio del Padre y de mí

4 Nefi 1:15-17 no había contenciones, no especie de -itas, eran uno. Amor de Dios mora 

4 Nefi 1:36 eran verdaderos creyentes en Cristo 

Alma 41:10 la maldad nunca era la felicidad

 Alma 23:6 convertidos, nunca se diverteron