Sunday, October 24, 2010

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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