Week 34: Becoming My Father

Monday, May 24, 2025    10:17pm

Hey, guys, I know it's kinda late, (not very unusual for me) but hope you had a good memorial day! We were given a full pday, instead of going back to work at 6:00pm like usual. It was nice, but I didn't know what to do with all the extra time... For some reason, I didn't write an email... Oh well. 

We also ran a 5k as a mission because our 70 year old mission president likes to do Marathons and... Ironmans? Ironmen? Anyways, my legs don't feel good, and despite having been here longer than 7 months, (holy cow) I still can't breathe the mountain air. I practically passed out immediately after sprinting across the finish line. But I got a shiny medal for it!! Yippee!!

We had some super cool stuff that happened, and some not super cool stuff that happened. 

The not coolest thing that happened had to do with the couple we've been teaching. Although they moved here recently, they've been super awesome progressing and learning. The husband had no objections about getting baptized, and was ready to begin following Jesus Christ. The wife had some doubts here and there, but they were quite simple and easy to resolve. 

They had all the lessons, the interview, and everything else they might have needed, and agreed on the date of Sunday the 25th of May to be baptized. 

The day arrives and we were just chilling, waiting for our friends to show up, me, trying to finish adding things to the 12 minute talk I was assigned to give that day. 😀 

All the stuff was ready and planned for the baptism, we had people who had prepared talks, and we printed programs and everything. Then, we receive a text from the wife, saying that they are unsure about being baptized, that things are difficult right now, and that they'll let us know when they have interest again. Hahaha. Yeah, whatever. 

But that's okay, because we have the other thing that happened that was actually cool:

Some of the recent converts from the English ward (they are Latino though) who were baptized in March have their niece visiting. She'll be here for 6 months. She does not speak English. The English elders gave us her referral and she really likes the church! 

Her experiences with the church she grew up in were... somewhat traumatizing, but she loves the differences she sees at our church. The faith of her family helps her a lot, and it's so awesome to work with them. Her goal is to be baptized this coming Sunday, and she's well on her way! 

So, uh, that's more or less the only events that occured. Other than that, I'm just getting sunburned. 

The talk I gave on Sunday was about the blessings of deepening conversion. 

Just as our beloved President Nelson says, "My brothers and sisters, I plead with you to make time for the Lord! Make your own spiritual foundation firm and able to stand the test of time by doing those things that allow the Holy Ghost to be with you always."

It's so important to take time each day to strengthen our foundation! There are many things we can do to build that: Praying, scripture study, Come Follow Me/Family Home Evening(👈that one's very good), repenting, going to the temple, and a ton of other stuff! We should be doing many of those things each day! 

Here's some other quotes from the prophet, if you'd like to know what specific blessings you'll receive from doing these things:

"I promise that as you diligently work to remodel your home into a center of gospel learning, over time your ✨️Sabbath days will truly be a delight. ✨️Your children will be excited to learn and to live the Savior’s teachings, ✨️and the influence of the adversary in your life and in your home will decrease. ✨️Changes in your family will be dramatic and sustaining.✨️" 

- October 2018 

'Becoming Exemplary Latter-day Saints' 

"My dear brothers and sisters, I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions—every day." 

- October 2017 

'The Book of Mormon: What Would Your Life Be Like without It?' 

I hope you think about these things, what blessings you need in your life in these very moments, and set goals to help you improve! I know you can do it and that you will see blessings! 

And finally, I have a big announcement to make: my album is being released! 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/dEhoAJNmHVi7gFQa9

If that doesn't work, I guess you can email me and I'll add you to it manually. 

Love you guys!! 👦 ❤️ 💓 💗 💛 💙 👦 ❤️ 💓 💗 💛 💙 

Not your typical roadkill...

Average Utah roadkill:

(Right, my Utah friends?) 

Zone temple trip!! 

Waiting for Elder Rivera to try on his new pants at Men's Warehouse:

Super sweet medal, no?

Week 32: Missionary Retirement Home

Monday, May 19, 2025 8:21pm

It's been a good first week in Copper Mountain. My companion, Elder Nicaragua, is in fact from Nicaragua for all those who were wondering. He also speaks English very well and is on his last transfer. He'll go home near the end of June... That might become a problem. 

We live in the basement of an elderly widow who has had missionaries living there since 2013. She has been given the title of 'Momma T.' It's an apartment with a lot of benefits: We've got a home gym with a bench press, and Momma T likes to bake a lot, gives us free eggs, and buys us bottled water, Caprisuns, and ice cream, among other things. 

But she does have a bunch of odd rules she's posted on the walls of the basement because of numerous elders who really like to be lazy or just don't have common sense or something. We also help her out whenever she's in need of service. I enjoy living here, haha. 

We've been kind of busy. We had to plan two baptisms, one for our 77 year old friend whose family was baptized recently, and one for an 8 year old girl from the ward. 

We couldn't find our friend to have his baptism interview, so only the girl actually ended up getting baptized. We'll have to try to check on that guy to see what's up. 

We are also teaching a recently married couple. The husband speaks no Spanish, and the wife speaks a little bit of English, so the lessons we've had with them are very interesting. They are both excited to be baptized, but I'm not sure if they've been to church yet. They didn't come this week because they were painting their house. 🤷‍♂️

I found something I thought was cool during my personal study in Luke 20 where the chief priests send spies to trick Jesus by asking if they should pay tribute to Cæsar. Jesus responds in verses 24 and 25: 

24 Shew me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Cæsar’s. 

25 And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which be Cæsar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.

If it was right to pay Cæsar with the pennies of his image, what do we pay to God? What has God's image? Uh, we do. We were created in His image. 

Truthfully, the only thing God doesn't control is our own hearts and desires. That is the lasting tribute we can give Him. I invite you to align your will with His in small and simple ways! 

Oh my

Transfers are crazy

1st day with Elder Nicaragua!🇳🇮

My friends at the church history museum with the other elders the day after transfers 😢

We, uh, found a cat.

Filling the font🌊🌊🌊

Week 32: The Wrath of a Mother

Monday, May 12, 2025    4:38pm 

Transfers are on Tuesday, so this was my last week in the Springhill B area!! Which is sad, because it's a very good area and an amazing ward. 

My new area will be called Copper Mountain, I think, and my companion is Elder Nicaragua... one guess as to where he's from. I actually don't know yet, so your guess is as good as mine. We'll see. 

The transfer information says we have a car, but the car information says we don't. We probably do not. It wouldn't make sense for us to have a car anyways. 😞

This week, we've been teaching our friends Ana and Jose. They were a little skeptical when we first met them a couple weeks ago, but they wanted to come to church and check it out. When we talked to them the Monday after, they said they loved it! They felt super comfortable and welcome, and like they'd been going there for a long time, like it was their first attendance! 

They're super kind, and it's been amazing to see their enthusiasm for learning. They've been reading the Book of Mormon without us reminding them! We were able to put them on date for baptism for this Saturday, the 17th! 

This week, they also brought their daughter and granddaughter to church with them, that was awesome! It's kinda strange how much they like us after one week of knowing them. They made us eat with them after our 2nd lesson. We told them one of us was going to leave, and they were devastated. The spirit really just makes people trust you. 

We were really hoping our friend Jesús would be baptized this week, but he was kind of giving us the slip. We couldn't meet with him a single time. He didn't make it to church yesterday either. So we passed by his house to see if his car was there to have a surprise visit.

We told him that if he's too busy to be committed to the Lord, we'll step back until he's ready and has more time. But he told us he's still wants to be baptized and we're gonna do it this week. Hopefully, all goes well! 

We were teaching two younger girls just old enough to be baptized for awhile, but one of them was unsure and their family situation makes it a bit complicated. Friday, they both told us they really wanted to be baptized on Sunday, the 11th. "Alright, sounds good," we thought. So their dad told their mom who doesn't live with him by email that they were gonna be baptized. 

The mom apparently did not agree, and was... upset, accusing us of trying to baptize them without her permission... Which we were not in fact doing, and it would have been impossible anyways because she had the girls with her on the 11th, so what's the big idea?! I'm just confused. 

Worst part about all of this is that I won't even be in this area anymore when all our friends get baptized. Maybe I can come back to watch.

I love the talk from this general conference by Tamara W. Runia called, "Your Repentance Doesn’t Burden Jesus Christ; It Brightens His Joy." The title itself conveys mostly my favorite message from it. When we're in need of repentance, it can be hard to feel like God could love us. But He does. And the best way to feel that is to repent. 

Just as in the parable of the prodigal son, our Savior doesn't care what we've done, where we've been, or how much our stupid decisions have costed Him. He just wants us back. He will welcome us with open arms and the measure of His joy will be filled when we choose to leave the pain of sin behind. 

I can testify of the peace, joy, and love that is felt from daily repentance. It's easy to feel overwhelmed as a missionary, to feel like maybe I'm not cut out for the work and make too many mistakes. But because of Jesus's Atonement and His love, I can continuously repent and work to improve. And He will always be with me. 

Final days with Elder Enciso 

Last picture as a zone

Oh my…

Setting up for the Mother's day ward party 

Mother's day party (It was wild)

Here comes the sun (It burns)

Very windy day

Mankey and the 1st vision

They took me to get boba as a goodbye, haha

Night before transfers (Bye, Elder Enciso!)