Sacrifices and blessings

Hi all.

Transfers are always a gigantic surprise every time. Just when you think you have every path laid out and is prepared to except the unexcepted, it's almost always something you never except. Last week, my companion has been transferred to the California San Jose Mission, and the ASL program has been stepped back to two areas (grr...) for the time being.

My new companion is Elder Leavell. He's a cool guy. And small world of a small world, he's from Las Vegas. Weird, huh? He's from the rich side of Vegas (the north-western part of town, I think?) He has a personality that reminds me a lot of Jared's. In fact, almost the same, expect more wackier, and it brings back a lot of memories.




Last friday, the Los Angeles Visitor's center has been dedicated, by Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. When word came around that Elder Nelson was coming to town, Elder Leavell pulled in some favors from high places and got us to attend the dedicatory service with some recent converts. It was a very solemn occasion, and I saw a lot of promient people from all over LA in the room. As Elder Nelson said the dedicatory prayer, one thing he spoke impressed me a lot. He asked the Lord to bless the full-time missionaries, that they can go great strides in the work, and that the missionaries can take full advantage of the visitor's center, that they may use it as a effective instrument in the gathering of Israel. WOW. After the service, I had the wonderful opportunity to shake Elder Nelson's hand. It's a weird feeling... his hand is SO soft and he radiates the spirit...

Did you know that in little under a year have I been less than 50 feet from six Apostles but have never been able to actually shake hands with one of them until last friday. oy...

Othat than that, things are going ok here. Getting used to the extra work here now. We're teaching a sweet old lady named Mary Sepulveda, and she has a BURNING desire to learn more about the gospel. We met her 2 weeks ago, and she's already halfway through the Book of Mormon before we even committed her to read anything, and everything we taught, he absorbed it right up and is getting some of her friends to be taught the gospel. =O She has a baptismal date for November 7. She's very golden, I tell you.

Well, bye for now.

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-E.T. {0 ^ 0} __o
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Another General Conference come and go...

Received October 5th

Hi all.

General Conference was very sobering. 5 MORE TEMPLES! What more, somehow for the past 3 weeks, I had this enormous hunch that they would announce more temples at this general conference. Wow. What a revelation.

During the course of General Conference, I was stricken with the impression that the Lord needs more Full-time Missionaries and that He is concerned about Satan's growing influence in the world. I noticed that several of the speakers were talking all about the gift of agency, or the gift to choose and act for ourselves, and that Satan is fighting hard to take that gift from us and get us to be miserable like he is. In many parts of Los Angeles, this message often echoes true. A lot of people here live in poverty and live in dangerous neighborhoods because of a series of choices they made and now they have limited choices (for example, not having a car, not affording a home, or probably in their lives will never be able to get good jobs). In principle, they're trapped (in fact, we found out that one of our investigators is in jail now), and it's kind of sad. I wish I could help them make better choices and thus lead to better freedom, then it hit me that, as full-time missionaries, we are exactly in a position to help them make better choices. then it HIT me that the lord needs MORE full-time missionaries to help MORE people make better choices and to help in the battle against Satan's evil incluence.

Last week, I encouraged all the youth in my ward to consider a full-time mission. I will not repeat what I said last week (you can just scroll down on my blog and look it up if you want) but I'm going to say more, and I'm going to say it to every able-bodied young man and woman who will read this, not just those in my ward. Satan's influence is real. I see it all the time here in Los Angeles, not just in Las Vegas, and I'm pretty sure that it is the same the world over. You can help in the fight against Satan. In fact, I WANT you to help. The Lord WANTS you to. Much of the time we are too causal about this. We are in the final dispensation. The "end-game" in the history of mankind. Satan is fighting harder than ever and all the stakes are on the table. President Ezra Taft Benson said:
"For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the Second Coming of the Lord. Every previous gospel dispensation has drifted into apostasy, but ours will not. True, there will be some individuals who will fall away; but the kingdom of God will remain intact to welcome the return of its head--even Jesus Christ. While our generation will be comparable in wickedness to the days of Noah, when the Lord cleansed the earth by flood, there is a major difference this time. It is that God has saved for the final inning some of his strongest children, who will help bear off the Kingdom triumphantly. And that is where you come in, for you are the generation that must be prepared to meet your God.
All through the ages the prophets have looked down through the corridors of time to our day. Billions of the deceased and those yet to be born have their eyes on us. Make no mistake about it--you are a marked generation. There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time as there is of us. Never before on the face of this earth have the forces of evil and the forces of good been as well organized. Now is the great day of the devil's power, with the greatest mass murderers of all time living among us. But now is also the great day of the Lord's power, with the greatest number ever of priesthood holders on the earth. And the showdown is fast approaching.
Each day the forces of evil and the forces of good pick up new recruits. Each day we personally make many decisions that show where our support will go. The final outcome is certain--the forces of righteousness will finally win. What remains to be seen is where each of us personally, now and in the future, will stand in this fight--and how tall we will stand. Will we be true to our last-days, foreordained mission?"
I know that if you serve a full time mission, the Lord will bless you in more things than you can imagine. As a full-time missionary, you can make yourself extraordinary. As each of us help out, the devil's power becomes weaker. I know that as all of us pur forth all our best efforts to accomplish the Lord's purposes, we can overcome Satan forever. I love you all and I want the best for all of you, and I know missionary service will definitely help you do that.


One more thing, I came up with a cool quote: "Every member is a missionary. We are the front lines"

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-E.T. {0 ^ 0} __o
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Father and Son Gets Soaked

Hi all.

This week have been hard, but so wonderful at the same time... This week, we've had unusually cloudless weather and high temperatures (almost like a heat wave) so that meant working under the scorching sun. The Los Angelenos call it an "Indian Summer" so I'm guesing that it happens sometimes.

Nevertheless, the Lord always blesses you for your faith and efforts. Many of our investigators are growing a testimony and progressing a bit at a time, although they haven't come to church yet. The good thing is that this week, we enjoyed having a lot of people come to Sacrament meeting, Investigators and Less-Actives alike (The Branch President said 83 people showed up), and we are also very pleased to have three new people into the fold. Sister Krystal Caywood two weeks ago gave birth to a healthy and beautiful daughter, and Father and Son Juan Guzman Sr and Juan Guzman Jr whom I talked about two week ago have been baptized yesterday afternoon. Juan Guzman Sr is very heavy so at first we thought that there might have to be two people in the water to help baptize him, but our Zone Leader, Elder Amundsen (the orange-haired elder in the picture) baptized him without any problem.




Received Sept 19th
This baptism service has been very intense, because it is the first baptism in our branch to be translated in three different languages since Juan Sr. only speaks spanish and several of his family who attended preferred spanish. I think that the spirit has touched them very strongly, and that means a lot of good things in the near future. Since a LOT of families in Los Angeles are spanish-speaking, the Branch Presidency is adjusting the branch structure to accomodate these people. In two weeks, we are going to announce the calling of someone to teach the Sunday School in Spanish. (My guess is either Rodrigo Perez, Brother or Sister Martinez, or Brother or Sister Calderon). Little by little, the Branch is slowly becoming a Ward. In fact so that President Sutton is already talking with the Stake President about increasing the branch to Ward status around the next year... President Hales joked that at the rate things are going, There might be a deaf Stake here in Southern California very soon. Sutton then remarked "Yes, and you can be it's first stake president.". Hales then said "Yes... I might need to learn ASL first."

I love you guys and thanks for all your prayers. Hump day is rolling around (November 3) so it's kind of freaky. Missionary work really is working all kinds of havoc on my normal time sync because I feel I have only been here for at least 1/4 of that time. Something have been chewing on my mind all week, so I want to add a quick message to all the men and young men in my ward who might or might not be considering the opportunities of a mission: GO ON ONE. Your life aspirations really only last a lifetime, but I KNOW that a mission WILL bless you and other lives you touch, FOREVER. I know it because I want you all to go. I want Ryan Lindquist to put his music carrer on a short hold and serve a mission. I want DJ Kesterson and Steven Stewart to put their brains together and come back to church and go on a mission. I want the Jennings and the Mulvey Boys to go on a mission because it will bless their lives infinitely. I want Jordan Torres and Tim Olsen and Daniel Tomola, and all the other young men to get ready for a mission because this extraordinary opportunity only comes ONCE (well, sure, you can serve again when you have arthritis and kidney stones. And even so, you'll just be teaching people about family history. Isn't that fun?) so I want ALL OF YOU to take advantage of that precious opportinity to preach the gospel and to build a steadfast testimony of the truth for yourself. Besides, it'll go be pretty past, and before it hits you, you'll already be home from your mission and planning for college and other stuff.

Plus, most LDS women loves RM's. Think about it.

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-E.T. {0 ^ 0} __o
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