It has been an incredible first week of the transfer! I started off last week with Elder Parata and we were able to work together on Monday and Tuesday. Elder Parata is in his last transfer of his mission and he was assigned to train a new missionary in an area that is brand new for him as well. I was able to take him by some of the people that he will be teaching and we were also able to find some new people for him to teach in his area. On Tuesday, we had an appointment fall through, so we started to street contact. The streets were uncharacteristically empty and there weren't many people to talk to. We were about to head back to the car in order to get to the next appointment, but we decided to knock on some apartments. The first one we knocked on ended up being a great contact. The lady told us that she was upstairs and usually never answers the door if no one else is home, but she felt an impression to open the door, so we talked to her on her porch for a little bit. She talked about how her faith was diminishing in God because of some trials that were happening in her life, but knew that she needed to get back on track. She only spoke English, so we referred her over to the English elders, but she was really elect and ready for the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We were able to get in contact as well with some of the people in my area and help them to continue to progress towards their baptismal dates.
Wednesday was a really busy day! Elder Parata and I headed out to Riverside to go pick up our new from the MTC companions. All 3 of the new Spanish elders coming in seemed really awesome, so I was going to be happy getting to train any one of them! I ended up getting paired up with Elder Crichfield! He is most recently from Boston and recently finished college there. He came in super ready for his mission and is already teaching me a lot by his example. We were able to drop off Elder Parata and his new companion, Elder Potter, at their apartment, and then we were off to work! We had a few appointments that night and we were able to start teaching a new part member family. They are the Marquez family and are the family that I mentioned in my email last week. We were able to teach the Restoration and it went pretty well! The mom, Estella, has a son named Diego who is 9 and hasn't been baptized yet, so we set a goal with him for baptism on the 24th of August. He told us that he wanted us to baptize him even on that same day that we met him, but we will need to teach him just a little more haha.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and Sunday were all super packed as well. I mentioned in my email last week that we gave a blessing to a less active member named Christian that had a pretty serious accident at work. When we gave him the blessing, he had just returned from the hospital, but he could barely breath due to the poisonous gas that had filled up in his lungs. We were glad to see him on Thursday looking 100% better. We had a really spiritual lesson with Christian and his girlfriend. We set a time for them to be married and for her to be baptized. If all goes well, then we will be the witnesses to their marriage sometime early this week and she will have her baptism on the 17th of this month. They both came to church this week and Christian even brought his sister who isn't a member. Tomorrow, we will be teaching them all again and we'll see if we can help Christian's sister, Destiny, get baptized as well!
That night, we were teaching a guy named Abraham and we had no idea that he was holding a bible study a little bit later that night as well. The lesson was going alright, but then people started showing up for his bible study. There was an older lady named Maria who showed up who immediately started talking to us about our church and let us know she really wanted to go because she has been going through a hard time. We taught her real quick and found out where she lives, so we were able to give the referral to the bike elders in our ward. They ended up teaching her again and she came to church this Sunday and even bore her testimony!
We were able to teach an older man named Reynaldo a few times this week. He has been catholic his whole life, but never attended church, so he recently started coming to church with us and he is trying to see if he really wants to get baptized. His goal is to get baptized the 24th of August.
We also taught Jose a few different times this week and he is super set for his baptism on the 31st. He is inviting a ton of friends and family to the baptismal service, which will be a great missionary opportunity.
On top of all that, we will have a baptism this weekend because Miguel passed his interview. He is one of the 3 amigos that we found a few weeks back. He has embraced the restored gospel and is living all the commandments and is excited to receive the blessings of being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.
All in all, the Lord is blessing us tremendously and we should be able to see a lot of our friends get baptized this month of August. I love the tools that God gives us in order to see miracles in His work. The more chances to sacrifice, the better, because the Lord is willing to pour out blessings upon us according to our willingness to follow Him. I guess the best way to describe this week is the revelation in Doctrine and Covenants 78:17-19
Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you; And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours. And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.
Really looking forward to this week!
Elder Moon
Some of the trainers and trainees (Elder Crichfield pictured on far right)
Service work
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