HEYO!!! This week has been amazing… Doin’ work!
So my new companion is Elder Valenzuela, he looks Korean but is from Mexico, he was born in New Mexico but moved to Ciudad Juarez in Mexico when he was really young, and grew up there but went to high school in El Paso Texas. He is trying really hard to learn English since he doesn’t know it very well. He is a funny guy. We have been getting along great, I would say he is Orange… He is very outgoing and loves to talk. He is hilarious. He always calls me Mijo (which means my son). See pics below.
This week we have had a ton of success. So we have been working with A_______ this week and he is super cool. He got interested in the church because of Family History and wants to learn more. We taught him about the plan of salvation and he loved it, we invited him to be baptized and he said yes!!! We are going to try and work for the 27 of February for his baptism. He is super cool. We also watched the Restoration movie with him because he loves movies and he thought it was amazing. Hopefully this week we can plan a trip to the temple visitors center.
Then we had a lesson with one of our investigators named L_____. She invited us over and made this crazy good sandwich from El Salvador. It was like a hoagie roll, with this weird sauce inside (mayo, mustard, and sour cream) than lettuce, cucumber, and beets on the inside with this chicken that was super wet and covered with sauce. It made the sandwich super soggy but that’s apparently how it is supposed to be. It was pretty good. (except for the beets… ew…) We then had a really good lesson with her about the restoration, and I had this really weird moment in the middle of the lesson where I saw our reflection off their TV and it hit me that I am actually a missionary, because it was one of those typical missionary teaching moments. Pretty cool. Then her daughter and granddaughter came in who were visiting from Vegas, and it turns out that they are members (a little less active) who were baptized like 4 years ago. It was interesting. We had no idea that L_____ had family who were members and her family had no idea she was meeting with us. It was really cool. She then accepted the invitation to be baptized!!!! Super cool.
We also did service for an investigator of some other missionaries in the ward. She needed help cleaning out her back yard and we helped clean it. She had like 20 pet cats and a pet rabbit who hasn’t been let out of his cage in like a year. We cleaned the cage and the bunny which both were soaked in poop…. It was really gross. But it was really fun.
Sunday was great, there were so many people at church because there was an old couple in the ward who just got called to a mission in the Lima Peru Temple, and it was their farewell. They are actually from Peru and the temple is 45 min away from the house that they grew up in. Pretty cool stuff.
That’s pretty much it for the week. It has been pretty cold (in the 50’s!!!) and today it has been insanely windy…. I have been wearing multiple pairs of pants, and always a sweater. 🙂 California has truly gotten to me…
I have been studying obedience and humility a lot in the past week. In the bible there is a scripture where Christ says “Be of Good Cheer I have overcome the world” and I have always associated this scripture with the atonement how he has overcome the sins of the world. But Christ actually says it before the atonement. He says it when he has made the decision to put off the natural man and submit to the will of God. He has already decided that he would do what the Lord wants and not what he wanted. We can follow his example. Choose now to submit to the will of God, then you don’t have to make the decision every time to choose to keep the commandments and be obedient. It makes it easy. That although you may not want to do it that you will do it because you love the Lord, because you have already submitted to his will. Be of Good Cheer, Look unto the Lord in every thought, Doubt not, Fear not. (DyC 6:36)
I love all y’all! Hope ya have a great week!!!!
Elder Bryce
