December 22, 2014 Email "But Charity Is The Pure Love Of Christ"

Tortillas: 20

Steps: Sadly, the step counter broke this week... May it rest in peace

This week was basically missionary Christmas! We had two ward Christmas parties, and a multizone conference in Huehue. The first ward party was wednesday and was for the Children. All of the children received a present (A toy car for the boys and sand toys for the girls) and their was cake! I had the opportunity to be one of the Tres reyes magos (Three kings) and deliver the toys to the children. It was a great experience, and they were all so grateful for a small plastic toy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, on friday we had our big branch christmas party. We ended up spending all day setting up, and it was one of the craziest days yet. 

 

 

The actual party was really busy because I was incharge of all of the technology and helping everyone feel welcome. On half of the people present were members, and only half of those were active. That is pretty normal for a party here if there is food. 

 

 

The work is going very well. The family of Agusto are all really interested in the church, and a family that lives with them even came to church this week! Agusto and his wife have not been able to come to church yet, but hopefully this week. That is the hardest part, getting people to chruch. Tino and his family could not come to church this week because they were out of town, but they promised to come this week. As for the other two families we are working with, it is a bumpy road but we are working. We were able to have a lesson with the Grandfather of Manuel this week, and hopefully little by little we will work into all of the family. Dennis, Manuel, Dennis´ brother, and one of their friends came to the Christmas party and invited us to do fireworks with them but we were too busy... I felt really bad. This week it is going to be hard to contact people because Christmas here includes a lot of party and alcohol, but hopefully  we can spend time with them and their families. 

Mejor Milagro:

This week we had the amazing opportunity to listen to a member of the quorum of the 70, Elder Duncan. He gave us specific instructions for our mission during the time that we were together, and his spirit was so strong I loved it. He talked a lot about goals, and how we needed to start setting goals for our areas if we want to succeed. He also talked about a study done by Harvard with their buisness school. Those who had ideas of goals made 2x as much money as those just working hard. Those who had those goals written down made 10X MORE than the original hard workers. This can be applied in our lives, as we look at where we want to be in the future. As we make goals that we have faith in and goals that make us stretch, we will be successful. And, as we add God into the equation nothing is impossible. This week we have the plan to make a detailed plan for our area, and I am going to make a detailed plan with goals for my mission. I would encourage you all to make goals, and most importantly write them down. With new year coming up, it is the perfect time to decide what you will change for 2015!

Testimony Time: 

The title of the email is from Moroni 7:47, and in this chapter Moroni talks about faith, hope, and Charity. With the Christmas season, I decided to spend the month studying the life of Christ and attributes of Christ. One that I specifically have been trying better myself in the aspect of Charity, and specifically love. Being in a new culture with many people that I cant understand it has been a hard process learning to love, but as I have prayed and fasted I have seen such a difference in how I look at others. It also helps that I can understand people better. My testimony of the power of prayer and the power of the atonement has grown so much. The atonement is not just for grave sins, it is through the atonement that we become like Christ, which is our ultimate goal. As we work and pray and study, I know that we will find a change and that we can change. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and that he set the perfect example for all of us. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve him and serve God, and I work everyday to be more effective. I am also so grateful for this Christmas season. Take it as an opportunity to demonstrate the pure love of Christ to others, and I promise that this will be on of the most meaningful Christmases ever. I am excited this week to serve more!

I love you all! 

Merry Christmas from two of three kings- Elder Richardson and Elder Castillo 

DECEMBER 15 Email "Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God"

Tortillas: 57

Steps: 38220

Wow! What an amazing week! The highlight of course, the baptism of Familia Sop Chavez! 

Though the water was cold, we were warm with the feeling of the spirit! It was such an amazing experience, and with all of the trials that we have gone through with them I am so grateful that they have taken this very important step to baptism. I know that they will be strong members of the church.

 Hro. Jorge testing our the water for us the morning of.

 Also, we had our special night of Jesus Christ. What we did is I read excerpts from the Book of Mormon of prophets testifying of the birth and divinity of Jesus Christ, explaining the timeline and important information. Between each testimonies of the prophets, we had a member come up and share their testimony of Jesus Christ and of the Book of Mormon. My favorite was the final, which was Caterino, the father of Familia Sop Chavez. Though it was short, it was one of the most beautiful testimonies for me to hear. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have taught their Family and I look forward to helping them grow in the church! Right now we are also working with 4 other families! All in different stages of progression, but all interested in the gospel. The most progressing of these is the family of Tino. Their is Tino, his wife Odelia, his son Alexander (14) Oveimar (11) and a young seven year old that I cant remember his name. Oveimar has been coming to church and even participated in the primary program this week! The others came to the baptism on Saturday, but could not make it to church. They are very interested in the church, and very interested in baptism! The only problem is they want to be baptized in warm water! Also, Odelia cannot read, and so right now we are working on getter her a copy of the Book of Mormon in audio so that she can read and gain a testimony! Heavenly Father has blessed us so much this week with success in our lesson, and I am excited to see what is to come!

Mejor Milagro:

This miracle is about one of the four families that we are teaching, Familia Perez. The father, Agusto, lives in Camoja, about and hour away from the church, but he is good friends with the branch president, who lives in la democracia close to Camoja. Last Sunday the daughter of Agusto was at church, and on Wednesday Presidente Villatoro invited Agusto and some of his other children to Noche de Jesucristo. At Noche de Jesucristo, I came up and introduced myself to him after the program and he said that he was not a member. The odd thing was, that he was dressed in a suit! Here, for members, it is a big thing if they show up to church in a white shirt and slacks, let alone and investigator showing up to Noche de Hermanamiento in a suit! We talked about what he thought about the presentation, and it was clear that he had felt the spirit. I asked him when we could come by and teach him and his family, and he asked for us to come the next morning at 8! We said that we needed to study in the morning, but we could come at 10! So, the next morning we took the drive to Camoja and met him and his family. We had a beautiful lesson about the restoration and the Book of Mormon, and we invited him to pray about what we had taught. He agreed, and asked us how soon he could receive a Book of Mormon! We had run out, but we said that we could give him one on church on Sunday. He was sad, but he agreed. To end our lesson we explained how to pray and ended with a prayer, which he volunteered to do! I am so excited to teach him! Sadly, on sunday we had a conflict and had to go to Huehue and could not go to church, but we gave his daughter a Book of Mormon to give to him! 

Testimony Time:

This week each day I have been studying one general conference address each day in personal study. The title of the email is from Moroni 8:16 and Elder Lynn G Robins quoted it in his talk. He talks about how we need to be firm in defending our beliefs. As a missionary, I am called of God to defend his gospel, and I truly have been given authority to be bold. This week I have been working more to be bold and truly but out our beliefs, helping others to come unto Christ. Really, we all need to remember the importance of defending our beliefs, and never be afraid to be bold! You to have authority to defend the gospel of Jesus Christ wherever you live! I testify of the words of the modern prophets and prophets of old. I testify of the divinity of Jesus Christ, and that we have the responsibility to stand up for what is right! I know that as we do, he will bless us and strengthen us. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love you all!

"This week we have! Family night, making Chicharones, they are fried puffy things, hard to explain.  The pictures after of the city and the mountains are of Camoja, a city in our area about 2 hours from where we live. We have a family of 9 we are teaching there! It is super beautiful.  Next, pictures of our house and why we cant live their.  After, me eating corn like they have in Nacho Libre, I had to buy it.

A Little Mam For You Guys (December 8, 2014 email)

(Title of the email is a little Mam for you guys. We have an investigator who speaks Mam, and every lesson I ask him for a new phrase! Teen tai mean Como estás or how are you!)

Tortillas: 24 (We traveled a ton this week and I did not get to eat a lot of tortillas...)

Steps: 43357

As mentioned above, this week was a ton of traveling. Last monday we were in Huehue (3 hours each way) for Pday, wednesday we went to Huehue for a leaders meeting for Castillo, and Thursday we went to Colotenango (2 hours each way) for our zone meeting. So, this ment that we did not get a lot of work done in our area... 

This saturday we have the baptism of Familia Sop Chavez, and it is so amazing to see the conversion! Walter (The son) and Caterino (the dad) have changed so much. They are now coming to church on their own and consistently! Their questions and doubts are no longer big things, like why do I need to be baptised again, but stuff like what they have heard we think that meat is against the word of wisdom! It is pretty funny some of their questions! We are really excited for their baptism! We also right now are working with two other families, Family Castillo and Family Pablo. The father of Family Castillo is brothers of a member and the mother and daughter in Familia Pablo are inactive members. We dont have a lot of lessons with them, but they have alot of interest! Sadly, we were not able to have a single lesson with Avilia this week... Everytime we called she said she was not home, and when we invited her to church she said she did not know why she needs to change... We are going to try and have another lesson this week to remotivate her, but the traveling made it hard this week... Other than that, we are using the Christmas inititive as much as we can to try and get more investigators, and this week we are going to have a special Noche de Hermanamiento wednesday that is Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon! It was my idea, and I am really excited to see how it goes! 

Mejor Milagro:

So, almost everyday walking down the street I will hear a little kid call out from a house "Hello!" or "Merry Christmas!" in broken english. For the longest time, I had no idea who it was, but I would just respond back with a "Goodbye!" So, Friday we were walking down the street and I hear the same broken "Hello!"  but this time it was not hidden, it was a group of little kids in the street. 

So, we talked to them for a little bit and joked around, and I mentioned that we would be having english class for free in the chruch on Saturday. They were so excited they could not help but jump! They are a group of three Dennis(10), Manuel (7, he looks exactly like the Guatemalan version of Sam, and the funny thing is that Samuel and Manuel pronouced with a spanish accent sounds exactly the same! He even has the good manner of Sam, when I invited him the english class he said "Thanks you so much for the invitation, I am excited to come!) and Dennis brother (8). So, Dennis and Manual showed up to English Class the next day! That night we went to visit Familia SopChavez, and the crew stopped us in the street. We talked and joked for a second, but told them that we had to go and invited them to church the next morning. 

So, I was sitting in sacrement meeting, and in the window I see two hands grab the bars of the windows and see manuel poke his head up for all to see! So, I run out and tell them to come in, they come in and stay for 2 hours of church!

                                                   The Church building and Manuel

 I know that this week it is not the most amazing miracle, but really it is about what the future holds. This week we are going to try and get a lesson with their whole family, and hopefully the trust that they have in us will rub off on their families!

Testimony Time:

This week I have been studying in Matthew, and truly the words and teachings of Christ are so powerful. I started writing down verses that I find and really like and I write them on sticky notes and put them on my desk, and it gives me so much strength constantly see and grow from what Christ has taught. I also have been reading passages of Christs birth in the Book of Mormon for our night of Jesus Christ on wednesday, and it has grown my testimony so much of the Book of Mormon and of Jesus Christ! I am so grateful for the opportunity to preach the gospel during such a special time, and even though I am away from the norm this Christmas it has been one of my favorite Christmas season. I know that Jesus Christ died for us and that through him we can become the people that God wants us to be!  I know the power of the Book of Mormon and I know without a shadow of a doubt it is true! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love you all! Enjoy the Christmas season and remeber the true meaning! Also, watch the "He is the Gift" video! Such a special spirit!

My Christmas Tree!

Elder Castillos Christmas gift to me