Zarahemla Week 41

It's been a pretty good week here in Zarahemla! Transfer calls are already in a few days; I cannot believe how fast this transfer has gone by. We'll see what happens, it will be my last transfer call! Other than that, we've seen some really cool miracles, and had a few new developments! 

We found a super super cool young guy this week that we started teaching. His name is Piero, and he moved here from Peru a few months ago. He's super prepared! We taught him on Wednesday for the first time, and he was just hungry for more... He asked so many amazing questions, and was so willing to learn. He has a very humble character, he is honestly searching for the truth. It's hard to see him often since he works a lot, but he really loves the gospel already, and is committed to learn more! He's super cool!

Horacio is finally committed to be baptized! He should be baptized this week! Like he always says, he will do it "si estoy vivo todavia!" (If I'm still alive)! He's super awesome. We will have his interview tomorrow, and hopefully everything will be good! It's been so cool teaching him, although he's very old, it's cool to see how the Spirit helps him understand. It's been a miracle!

We had a district fast this week to raise our faith in getting people to come to church, and we saw some really cool miracles! Blady, a man who for months we've been trying to get to church, just showed up on his on will! It was amazing! He really loved it, he even gave the closing prayer in Elders Quorum and was very proud of himself. It's so nice that we have a great ward that helps them feel so welcome and loved! It makes such a big difference when they feel love from the members. I hope I am one of those members when I go home!

This Sunday I had the opportunity to give a talk in Sacrament meeting. I talked about how we can receive, recognize, and understand the Spirit. In the Book of Mormon, in 2 Nephi 32:5, we are taught, "For behold, again I say unto you that if ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what ye should do." What an amazing promise! If we do our part, the Holy Spirit WILL show us everything we need to do. Temporally, as well as spiritually. That is such an amazing blessing! We must constantly and actively work for the guidance of the Spirit, and if we do, we will be guided by the Lord. I know that that is true, I have seen the Spirit help me constantly as a missionary; I can't go a day without its help. It's an amazing gift that God has given us!

Again, everything is going well, It's STILL cold up here, around 9 degrees celcius! But hopefully it will get warmer sooner! I love you all so much, I hope you have a great week.

Elder James

Zarahemla Week 40

The Mejia family at their baptism!

We had a great week! Lots of work was done, and lots of progress was made with some of our friends that we're working with. Here are some quick highlights!

We had an amazing wedding/baptism in the ward on Sunday! It was super cool, the mother is a member, but the father and kids were not, and they were all baptized right after the father and mother were married! The Sisters were mostly teaching them, but it was a whole ward effort! Elder Ramos was able to baptize them which was super cool, it was his first time! It was a great experience; the ward is growing so much!

My favorite Poutine and a Québécois soda made with
Maple Syrup. Regrettably, I ate it all.

Sean has been making really good progress! We've been teaching him most of the commandments, and he is very committed to keeping them. It really helps that his wife's family are some of the most solid members in the ward! They have been doing a great job at bearing testimony and helping him stay strong. They've been pushing him and reminding him to read the Book of Mormon, to pray, and he's been coming to church with all of them very consistently! It's been awesome to teach him, he's so prepared.

We've made serious progress with Horacio this past week! He was struggling to read the Book of Mormon consistently, and so we set some alarms on his phone in the morning and evening to remind him to read. And, ever since then, he's read about 2 chapters every single day in the morning and evening! It's been such a cool miracle! We've been struggling with him not being motivated to be baptized soon, but we know that as he reads and prays and comes to church consistently, he will be able to know what God wants him to do! He also came to church on Sunday, and the members did a great job at fellowshipping him. Another Colombian member bonded with him a lot, and will be going to teach Horacio with us tonight! Horacio is really excited, it's great to help him have some more friends here. He's doing awesome, it's been such a pleasure to teach him!

This past Sunday, we went to visit a referral that some other Elders sent to us. We couldn't confirm with him, and we had other things that we could have been doing, but we felt that we should visit him nonetheless. We showed up, and not only was he there and willing to receive us, but he had 3 friends living with him, and we were able to teach them all! It was awesome to see that the Lord guided us and helped us know where to go. They all moved here from Mexico a couple of months ago, and they really want to get involved in the church. They were super cool! It was an awesome miracle!

Jonathan, the man I talked about last week who we talked to for an hour standing by the street, kind of disappeared last week. He came to church and loved it, but for some reason we couldn't get a hold of him for the whole rest of the week. We thought that maybe he was just ignoring us, but we prayed really hard yesterday that we would somehow be able to regain contact with him. Later in the day, we were doing some finding in the Metro. We felt like we needed to get off of the train and go in the other direction, and as we went to the other side of the station, Jonathan was just sitting there waiting and said hello to us (This is a miracle, millions of people use the metro every day and you very very rarely see anyone you know)! He invited us over right then and there, and we were able to have a good lesson at his house! It was awesome! Such an amazing miracle!

Things are going amazing over here in Zarahemla. I'm loving my time here, and I'm excited for all the experiences awaiting us in the weeks to come! I love you all so much!! Have a fantastic week!

Elder James

Zarahemla Week 39

Waiting for the bus by this weird Québécois statue

Another amazing week in the Lord's Spanish Vineyard! We've had some interesting experiences, and have seen a lot of interesting miracles! Being with Elder Ramos Chen has been very fun, we've been seeing lots of success together. It's crazy that it's already the 4th week in the transfer, it feels like we started together just yesterday! It's crazy how fast the time is going by. Good thing I have a long time left!

We had an interesting Saturday. We had a TON of appointments set up with potentials, other investigators, and lots of other things to do, and literally every single appointment fell through. We were a little bit sad, and we felt like we had wasted time, and after dinner we just left not knowing what we should do. But, we then saw lots of miracles! I talked to this Algerian lady on the bus (well, she talked to me to be exact!), and she was super cool! She was Christian, but because of the Muslim culture in Algeria she didn't know too much about the Bible or Christ, or anything. So she wanted to learn more! We got her information and the French Sisters should be teaching her soon. She was super cool and had lots of awesome questions! We were supposed to be there at that exact time with her. Also, we went to go finding on the street near the Jean-Talon Metro, and we stopped Jonathan, a younger guy that moved here from Mexcio only a couple of months ago. We had a conversation with him just standing there on the street for one whole hour! It was amazing! He's super open and humble, and he even came to church with us the next day! It was awesome to see that although at first it seemed like we had a failure of a day, the Lord led us to where we needed to be at the right time! As we try our best and make plans according to our best thinking, the Lord will correct them if need be! It's been so cool to see this happen very frequently as missionaries!

We saw Sean again, and he's progressing super well! I found out that he had a Saab, and we bonded over that for a little bit haha. The Silva family is doing so well at fellowshipping him, it's great. He just understands so well and is so willing to apply everything! It's been a blessing to teach him. He's got the right things in order! We hope we'll be able to see him baptized by the end of the transfer, but if not, definitely soon!

Things are going great, life is great as a missionary! I hope you're all doing well as well. Have a great week, I love you!

Elder James

Zarahemla Week 38

La Banquise with Elder Ramos 

We've had a pretty cool week! Things are going well, and it's FINALLY warming up. Trees and bushes are finally blooming, which is so refreshing after a long winter. Spring makes everything more enjoyable! Other than that, things are going great, my Chinese continues to improve little by little each day! Elder Ramos Chen is teaching me how to write now, which isn't actually as hard as it seems! We don't have a lot of time to do it, of course, but it's been fun nonetheless. Well, here are some highlights from the week!

My Chinese writing practice in our apartment...
The green is him, the black is me!
Those are most of the characters that I have memorized so far.
There are too many though! 

We started teaching Sean last week, and he is progressing so well! We taught him in the beginning of last week, and it as great; he's super open. When we went back on Saturday, he had read the assignment we gave him twice! That's very impressive, especially when you consider the fact that the people we teach usually forget to do their assignments, even if we remind them consistently. We gave him a baptismal date on his first lesson, and he accepted without a problem! He understands the gospel so well, it's crazy. He was very prepared!

The YSA Building on the Island has a pool table,
so we played and it was so much fun! 

Horacio is doing well; we just saw him yesterday. He is planning on going to Colombia soon, but he still wants to be baptized, so we're working hard to help him prepare before he leaves! He should be fine though, we have lots of faith!

We have also been having lots of finding miracles recently. In Spanish areas, you have to find a lot of people and cycle through them fast to find the ones ready to hear the Gospel. And, the Lord has been blessing us by helping us find many people every day! It keeps us busy which is great, and also always increases our faith that we can find people who are ready. It's also really nice being able to be on busses, metro, and walking, because we are able to find people no matter where we go! It's amazing! 

Well things are going really well, and we continue to see lots of miracles. Elder Ramos and I are getting along very well, which helps us do the work with positivity! We're having lots of fun—it's always amazing serving as a missionary!

I love you, I hope you have an amazing week!

Elder James