Week 55 - Life of a Father

Hey all!

It was a super great week with my new son Elder Quezada! I know a lot more about him now than I did last week haha! He is so great! Fresh out of high school, 18 years old, from Hidalgo, Mexico. He is younger than B! He just turned 18 a couple months ago. He is super super awesome and so NEW! Its just great cause he has so much faith in everyone and desires to work! 

This week we had a pretty cool experience that we got to teach a person that we had contacted Elder Ramirez and I. Her name is Ign., she is a little viejita (little old lady). But she is so great! She is so prepared to listen to us, and accepted our message perfectly! She made an effort to read the whole pamphlet we left her even though she has been sick, and remembered almost everything she read! And she also remembered that she had to pray, but she said she takes lots of pills and they make her sleep haha, and so when she was going to pray at night before going to bed, the sleep beat her! haha. But she is so awesome! She couldn't come to church this week cause she was sick, but next week she said for sure!!

Once again Elder Quezada is super great! Super excited to work and serve with him. This is an awesome work and I know that when we work with pure hands and a clean heart we can make miracles happen! We just have to work!! Thats all there is to it. Love you all! Have an awesome week!

-- 

Elder Daines

"Elder Quezada's first lunch!"

."

"Sunset

"Fireworks for Independence Day!"

"Noche Mexicana"

Week 54 - I'm a Dad Again!

Howdy All!

As you can see by the title, Elder Ramírez and I got changed ): He is heading to Mazatlán, and I am staying here in La Paz for another 6 weeks. After these 6 weeks, I will have an entire year in the Baja! So crazy!

So yeah I will be training another new missionary, fresh from the Missionary Training Center. He gets here tomorrow, his name is Elder Quezada.

This week was crazy, crazy busy again. I had three baptismal interviews from Calafia, we did splits with the missionaries from Calafia, we had a Hurricane (Newton) pass by, and we also had a neat missionary activity with the primary children!

First off, kind of embarrassing story. So I shave with my electric razor thing, and after having done it each day for a year, I have developed a certain pattern of shaving, in which pattern the mustache always comes last. So it just so happens that when I shaved on Friday morning, I shaved everything...but the mustache. I didn’t realize it till we had already left the house and couldn’t go back home. So I went through the day with a nice mustache shadow. Sorry I forgot to take a picture haha.

Second, well we had nice Little Hurricane Newton come by on Tuesday, but it was only category 1. Kind of disappointing to be honest.

Third, and last, we had an awesome primary activity on Saturday, where the little kids got to pretend to be missionaries for a couple hours, and we went around, helping them practice talking to people (actors) as if they were contacting people in the Street! I have an awesome pic I will try and send next week of the two, Elder Gonz. and Elder Hig. (both 6 years old haha), it was great! Also got to see the Silva family again!

Have an awesome week all!!

-- 

Elder Daines

"Primary activity!" 

"The Silva Family! "

"Goodbye my 3 Elders!"

"Primary activity!"

Week 53 - Over the Hill

So this is what it feels like to be over the hill... (that’s how they say it right...? When you turn 50 or whatever...?) 

We had a pretty, interesting week. We had lots of things that got in the way of our time, but we made use with the time we had! We were able to get some more members to come visit people with us this week which was super great! 

We had a pretty great visit yesterday with a man named Rigoberto. He is raising his son alone, and we contacted him last week, and he wasn’t fully attentive to say the least, when we contacted him, and we set a visit with him and wasn’t home, but he called us Saturday night asking us to come on Sunday, and so we moved our plans a bit around so we could get to him in time, and he was home! Which was great. And he was super receptive! He may have been a little rude the first time we met him, but now, in his home, and having a good time to talk with him, we came to realize it is just because he is confused and wants to know how he can come closer to Christ! And that is just our job! Haha. He was super excited for us to come and is super open to reading and praying and continuing to learn the truth! 

I also had my first chance to interview someone for baptism. His name is Cand.! And he is super great!! He comes walking to church every Sunday, and lives almost an hour away! He is elderly, but loves it so much, and even though he doesn’t remember everything 100%, it is clear he has been super humble and repentant, and it was great to see his baptism on Saturday! 

I know this is Gods work and we will receive blessings with respect to the effort we put into this life!

-- 

Elder Daines

Week 52 - Un Año?

Howdy!

Don’t have much time, like always haha, but this week was super great!! At the beginning of the transfer we only had 2 people listening to us, now we have 14! We found 11 new people this week!! It was super great and they are all awesome!

Some are: Margarita! She is Awesome. She listened to missionaries before, 3 years ago, but never went to church. She couldn’t come this week, but she really wanted to but couldn’t, but she said con mucho gusto she is going to go this week!! She really wants to go! Its super awesome to see how God prepared her for us!

Tomas is another great guy that was a guy we contacted in the street. We had an awesome lesson, and he asked us, “are you guys happy?” And we said, “of course!” He explained he has a great job, he has an awesome family, but he feels like he is missing something, like he is only half full, and we were able to explain to him that the gospel is what he is missing! Super awesome man!

Nancy and Alicia are the mom and sister of a guy we contacted. We know he wasn’t going to be home, but I told Elder Ramirez, let’s go! Maybe we can find his family. And guess what! We did, haha. They are so, so awesome! Nancy had lots of experience with an LDS family a few years ago, and thats why she let us in! She offered an awesome prayer at the end of the lesson, asking that God could bless her brother to soften his heart. 

ALSO! I went to do splits with Elder Murillo! Wow! We walked a lot! But we were able to find a couple new people and we also placed two baptismal dates for THIS Saturday! Super excited for them! Elder Murillo is super great and hilarious. I love that man. 

Thats all! Also, don’t like to say it… but this week I already have a year in the mission. Crazy how the time goes by and I don’t want to waste a minute!

-- 

Elder Daines

"Cactus Sunset"

Week 51 - Be Thou an Example

Howdy hey all! 

This was a pretty crazy awesome super busy week! It was super super great cause it rained a lot!!! I LOVE rain. 

We were able to find lots and lots of new people to teach this week! It was pretty great. Even though we sometimes weren’t able to find the people we were looking for, we found others that the Lord placed in our path that needed more of the Gospel. We had a super cool experience during about the span of an hour this week. We had a lesson who wasn’t there, so we decided to dedicate a whole hour to looking for people to teach . We decided to head up to another area in our area, and unconsciously, I turned on a street. And Elder Ramirez asked me why I turned, and I told him, I have absolutely no idea. Right after, we saw a guy coming towards us on the sidewalk, and we contacted him! He was super super nice, and we asked if we could leave our number with him, and he said yeah! Do you want mine? And we were like...OKAY!!!! ESTA BIEN. It was super cool. We had some other super cool experiences like that during the week, and we were also protected from the storms in almost every circumstance! Which was a blessing I guess, even though Id rather be running in the rain! haha. 

I had some super cool opportunities this week! An hermano called us on Friday morning, and asked if we could teach a part in a youth conference they were having that day, he asked for it to be between 60-90  minutes...he gave us 3 hrs warning. And I was like...okay. SURE! Let’s do it. So we did it. And it was AWESOME! I could really feel how the Spirit could work through me, and I was actually able to get AND hold the attention of dozens of young men and women for 90 minutes! What a miracle right? Haha. Honestly though, it was so great! I am super excited to serve with young men and women after the mission. It helped me remember to BE AN EXAMPLE to the young people, because in two years, they will be in my place!

Loved this week! We are working hard and enjoying this work like crazy! We also had an awesome multi-zone conference with the missionaries and President this week, and we are feeling super excited to see even more miracles here. 

-- 

Elder Daines

"Walking on sunshine."

"RAINBOW!"

"When a dog jumps on you after rain..."