The Good Life

We have been really enjoying this area and were able to have a baptism this weekend! Definitely the highlight of the week was seeing our friend Juan Vargas all pumped up to get baptized!! We were able to teach him everything after we were tripled in to this area, get him to know some members, and most importantly watch his desire to do God's will and be healed by the Savior's Atonement. Earlier this week, we were in a lesson with Juan and we could feel that he needed a blessing of comfort, so we were able to leave him with a blessing to overcome the struggles that will come his way as he starts this new phase of his life. At the baptism, it was very easy to tell that Juan was feeling the Spirit and the peace that this new beginning is bringing into his life.

Another miracle we saw this week was being able to teach a family of 4 who are some neighbors to a member in our ward. They gave us the referral last week, so we set the appointment for this last Saturday and we had like 15 people in this small little living room for the lesson. The member family had a lot of little kids as well as their friends, so we were teaching a pretty big crowd. The mom of the family of 4 is named Candy and she has 3 kids that live at home who are 10,13, and 15. The mom was able to feel the Spirit pretty strong despite all the little kids being rowdy and is definitely looking in the right direction. We want to get the kids involved with Primary and Young Women's activities, but the mom should be a good push for the kids as well. It also sure does help that they are becoming really good friends with their member neighbors!! 

One of the most interesting things of the week was a new investigator that we "inherited" from the sister missionaries in our ward. The guy's name is Jose Luis and he is from Honduras. Really outgoing guy who has already been to church 5 times. The reason the sisters passed him over though is because he started flirting pretty hard with one of the sisters, so we took over the teaching. So he comes to church this Sunday and we talk to him a little, but he has a lot of doubts that have came by looking up anti material. We invited him to the baptism and he really enjoyed it, but we walk out the parking lot afterwards and he is ranting to some members, so the members call us over and he starts asking more questions about church history and what not. He hasn't read a page of the Book of Mormon, but now he has 3 muchachos who will be making sure he puts in the work to gain a testimony! Hopefully we will be seeing him again at his own baptism soon. 

4th of July was a good time! Played some soccer with members and other missionaries, then we had our BBQ and pretty much were dead by the end of the day with how much sports we played. 

I did an exchange with Elder Castro in his area on Friday, which happened to be the hottest day of the week (got up to 118). We did our studies, service, and headed out there on bike to get some work done. I had set a goal with both companionships to find 2 investigators while we were on exchanges. We were praying to find a family to teach, but we only had about 2 hours to work. We stopped by a few people who ended up not being at home, but then we went tracting at a nearby apartment complex. A young family let us in and we taught the 2 parents! It always feels good ending an exchange strong like that and being able to find success in other missionaries areas. 

We did a blitz on Saturday morning where we went to the English sisters area in Orangecrest. It is one of the more challenging areas in the mission, but we were able to follow the Spirit and talk to some elect people and help the sisters area out there!! 

This week has helped me see how much fun missions are supposed to be!! Even though its been scorching hot, the Lord is pouring down his blessings upon us to show us that this is what we need to be doing, that this is His work, and that this is what the good life is all about!

Elder Moon

 Baptism of Juan Vargas

 Fourth of July

 Exchanges with Elder Castro after biking in the 100s

 Proselyting in the heat on a blitz in Orangecrest

 After the blitz 

 Most of the zone after the blitz

 Fourth of July

 Fourth of July

Fourth of July - Companionship trio

Heating Up

Looks like it'll be heating up to a little over 110 this next weekend in Riverside, so we really hope to be filling up the baptismal font for the baptism of Juan Vargas. Juan is an investigator that the Elders before us were teaching a little bit. He came to church a few times, but whenever we were transferred in, we had some trouble getting lessons set with him because his work picked up a lot. Luckily, we were able to teach him everything and we set up a baptismal interview for this last Friday. He had a really good interview and is now even more ready to enter the waters of baptism! We set a date to go to the temple with him one month after his baptism, which shows how ready he is to share the blessings of the gospel with his fam!

Other than that, we had a Multi Zone conference this Tuesday. 27 missionaries are leaving our mission in 2 weeks, so we heard a lot of great testimonies/trainings from some of these departing missionaries. One of my favorite trainings was given by one of our APs who is about to go home...he talked about visualizing successes/miracles before they happened. If we can in a way, "spiritually create" these moments, know what they feel like, and expect them, then we will be ready for when they come. 

This "visualizing" is actually a concept I learned from a goalie coach in lacrosse way back, so it has stuck with me and is something that really does work. It helps us to have more faith/remove doubt.

After multi-zones, we had a good week of teaching the people. Unfortunately, some aren't willing to get baptized now, but it feels good to have at least strengthened their testimony of Christ, so they can be ready the next time missionaries in this area come around.

One of the most spiritual lessons this week was with a part-member family. The oldest son in the family is the only member, but really isn't willing to come back to church yet. His mom is handicapped and his little sister is only 10, so we were really giving it our all to help motivate this young man to bring blessings to his family. We asked him if he would be willing to prepare himself to baptize his family, but he is not willing to change at this point. As we were teaching the plan of Salvation, it just felt so right and the little sister and mom were feeling the Spirit, but it is just a tough circumstance. 

We are doing everything to be guided by the Spirit, so we will be expecting some big miracles this week and to find people who can be baptized within the next few weeks!

We will be doing this 4th of July right with a cookout in the evening, so should be a good time with the zone! Hope everyone has a good holiday!

Elder Moon