Elder Hale: two missions, one God

Some things that happened . . . Elias said that he had some questions that he knows he will be able to find answers to now that he knows how to receive personal revelation. That was a special experience to give to him. Just looking at the foundation of the lesson plans and the sequence of them leading up to this point I can see God's hand in it. He now has enough faith to start looking for new work so that he'll be able to come to church on Sunday. when he went to work this past Sunday he felt something inside of him telling him that this was something that was good for him. He's also been texting or calling us almost every day to send us memes or tell us about his day. Everyone is my brother or sister, but Elias truly acts like it.  When it was 4/20 we #glazed it. Ate donuts with our friends Roxanna and Cecilia. Cecilia previous set up an appt with us but lost her phone! We thought she just bailed. Anyways, we had a lesson with Roxanna and when the first vision was recited...

 Dearly beloved reader, this is a love letter... It is also a mass email so don't get too excited A quote: "True love...  That beautiful arrangement That dream within a dream"  - A Bishop What I am learning:  To me true love is flexibility, selflessness, & vision.  Three behaviours of love I've identified that I am trying to apply - recognizing the efforts that someone is already making and complimenting them on it! - inspire. Recognize something that someone doesn't know how to do and demonstrate it in an environment where they can see the good consequences of said behavior. (It's hard to argue with results)  - Allow people to be themselves. We're not here to make people feel certain things, but to help them recognize and interperet what they are feeling.   Some Highlights: Got a referral of someone named Ricardo and had a quick call to get to know him and he told us about some of the trials he's facibg including addiction. He lived far away ...

Joe's Crab Shack was a good time. I didn't realize how good shrimp was until I had the high quality stuff. It was paid by an anonymous donor who sent me gift cards. That's cute. I hope that they have a good life. Random acts of kindness really inspire me to do the same.  The day before his baptism, Jairo texted us asking for us to pray for him because he felt something strongly urging him not to be baptized. He asked us to pray for him because it was frightening for him. We went inside the nearby church knelt and prayed, asking an angel to be sent to him. We texted him letting him know that we just barely sent him an angel and asking him what difference he's recognized. He let us know the next day that in that moment he received a random text from a family member that he hasn't talked to in quite awhile. They said some things that gave him hope for the future and peace with his decision to be baptized. It feels good to be a part of Jairo's life.  Met Octavio. He...

 We have a friend that has plans to get baptized next Sunday. Jairo came to the institute today and was really outgoing. We were busy with the tires so we got there late. He made friends with everyone, and a couple different people came up and told us that he was golden. On Sunday he came to Elder's Quorum and near the end of a somewhat dry lesson he piped up and said that he had something that he'd like to share. He came to the front and asked each person the reason for why they come to church. He summarized it all and talked a bit. In the end he made us all really excited to be a brotherhood of individuality in christ. This is the first time he's come to church in person and he's already so willing to give.  We have another friend of ours that was planning on being baptized next week, that decided that he wanted a break from us ;(. He believes that God has all power and exists, but he doesn't believe that God can save him. He's so disheartened by that that he ...

Someone that we met this week was named Miguel. The gate was closed on the apartment complex! We got a feeling we should wait for a couple minutes and surely someone came out and opened the gate for us so we could knock on his door. He was really nice, and opened right up to us, telling us that he really has been in search of truth and is so confused by all the doctrines and teachings of the world... We testified boldly that the way he is going to have something that he can trust, is by learning how to receive personal revelation. We are excited to see each other again.  We started off the lesson with Bryan by saying, "you've talked to Elders in the past, so I'm sure that you know that we like to talk a lot. Today is going to be different because we want to hear about you in order to know how best to help you." He opened up to us, and even told us some stuff that he's never told anyone else in his family. I'm so glad we stopped and listened. Bryan is very soft...

Miracle! We were contacting people on the way home yesterday, and we had a feeling that we should contact this one person that recently had been referred to us... but that we should wait ten minutes. Weird. Anyways, we decided to wait before going over even though we had nothing to do, and when we got there the lights were dark and on top of that there was a big fence and an aggressive dog in between us and the house. Right as we were going to leave & delete the referral record, someone pulled in that actually lived there and went in to get the person for us. Her mom and dad came out and they are excited to learn from us. The mom and dad especially want the family to come to church and the mom asked us for some stuff to read between now and the next time we pass by. Then an angel came down and - sike. Ok, but all but the part about the angel really happened. We're gonna have to pass them off to a family ward though because we're only in charge of teaching people in the ysa ...