Monday, August 5, 2013

Today has been a lot of fun because Elder Briones and I played fútbol with the missionaries from our zone at the church.  We had a blast!  However, right now I'm super sore.  I also threw the football around with Elder Lacey.  He plays football at BYU and plays wide receiver.  It was a lot of fun. He's from New Mexico and is a super nice and humble kid.  We get along great and we actually will be doing an interchange tomorrow so that will be fun.

It's been a great week! Elder Briones and I have seen the hand of the Lord everyday this last week! A cool story from three days ago is we got a referral from the Minas missionaries (Vamo arriba Minas, it's my old area!).  They gave us a referral of a man that lives in our area.  He´s been going to the branch up in Minas because he is going to marry a woman that is from there and she got baptized just last year.  So, he's been wanting to learn more about the church.  Anyway, we went to his house at 8:00 that night and clapped the house.  He man came out and looked at me and yelled "Hey, I know you!"  Long story short, this man had gone one time to church with me and Elder Ipson and now totally wants to be baptized!  He went to church yesterday with us and the ward supported him a ton!  It was awesome!  Elder Briones and I are pumped!  I love the mission and the wonderful miracles that we see everyday. 

It's been crazy how fast the mission has been going.  It's really scary, but it's a good thing also.  Elder Briones and I get along amazingly well.  He is super funny and reminds me a ton of Murphy!  He's super sarcastic and is always up to no good.  He has me laughing all day!  He is by far one of my favorite companions. 

Mom, regarding your question, I get to talk to Elder Barlow almost everyday because he's the Assistant to the President right now!  He´s a super stud!  Elder Hicks is a zone leader in an area called Rocha. We don´t talk as much, but every once and a while we do.  This Friday we have another big meeting with the zone leaders and the mission president so I´ll be able to talk to Elder Barlow and Elder Hicks a ton on Friday.  It's going to be awesome!

Tyler and Cade, today I was reading in Matthew when Jesus walks on water and invites Pedro (Peter) to walk with him but as Pedro started to look around at his surroundings and not at Jesus, he got scared and started to drown.  As Pedro cried out, Jesus was there instantly and helped him. I was thinking about this story a lot today and how it applies to us. This world that we live in can be really scary and sad but if we will keep our sight on the Lord and strive to be worthy to enter into the temple we will overcome the world and overcome the trials that we have in our life.  I like this story also because as Pedro started to drown, Jesus was right there and caught him. The Lord is always with us in our life.  We just need to do our part and keep going along the straight and narrow path and everything will turn out great in the end!

Well, I love you guys and can´t wait to hear back from you!  Keep staying strong in the gospel and enjoying life!  We´ll be back together before you know it! 

P.S. I´ll send photos next week!  I forgot my camera.  Sorry!