Alien 8 5/29/17

so we are working with Francisco, ( Pedro's father in law) we had a visit with him last monday and we said to each other im not sure if he is fully understanding the lessons.. and then we went over and he told us how he has spent all day watching lds videos and told us all about joseph smith we look at eachother and almost wanted to start laughing cause it was just an unreal miracle hahaha.
we also had a super good zone conference there were some key points were having a positive attitude, doing things the lords way and not your own, and trusting in the lord its his battle. just be believing!!!! the lord provides!! had a sweet exchange with elder Hernandez he is a convert of 2yrs and is from Vegas. so last week i shared about a guy who's car broke down in the church parking lot, well yeah we had a church tour with him and it went super great!! haha got em. we were later in this place called Old plantation its a giant gated community and this guy just started talking to us, well we had a return appointment with him so we met him in the golf clubhouse and while we were talking ot him this woman asked ,"are you guys elders?" well yes we are. "im a member and i knew you guys were elders" we got her info and later visited them and set a bd with her son chris! there have been quite a few great miracles. all i really gotta say is just smell the roses and enjoy life. study the doctrine and pray about it. God lives and he truly does listen to you. the only one that teaches you not to pray is el diablo. so do it. 🐨😁

Yummy

The Border

One of few cool things in Hidalgo, the Pump House

Papasadas

Hernandez and I

for my dad.

Choose to Stay 5/22/17

Pretty solid week..just a few things, making plans and presenting them to the lord is everything. we've been doing that and we've been finding genuine people that want to come closer to christ. i sat in on this district meeting this last week and they were talking about comp inventory and we really talked about the importance of being open with your companion. first things first im gratfeul for all the companions ive had and have and the help ive received and also been a part of. being open is very important, clean up something small from the beginning so you dont have to pick up a great mess later. cut the fluff and get to it! we came across this guy named fernando so we were actually looking for this member so we parked the truck on a random street near by where we thought the house was. walked down a block and no luck so we walked back to the car but as we were walking back we noticed this guy shooting hoops out front of his house, we didnt see before. we started talking to him, next thing you know we had one of the best plan of salvation lessons, he's a stud and actually wants to find joy in this life, we later had a bomb lesson with this member family, we shared about the importance of genealogy and temple work and at the end the brother was like "wow this is a big sign from the lord, my pb talks about me doing lots of geneaolgy and i kinda felt that i should get a start on it, thank you" we were amazed. we later had a great lesson with Pedro he is excited to someday preach the gospel as well, during the lesson i had crazy deja vu and in that moment my heart was filled with the spirit but i truly knew we were exactly where we needed to be at. it was a moment i hope to never forget. we also had interviews with Presidente Torres, in my interview i asked him if i could call President Robertson my old mission president from argentina, he straight up looked him up and gave him a call..no answer.. my heart was racing but president torres gave me his email. i really just wanted to thank him for calling me this one sunday, this one sunday after i had gotten home from argentina, i skip out on church and stayed home.. as i was home alone someone called our house phone and i picked it up and i heard, hello is this elder gonzalez, i said yes and then it ended up being president robertson just calling to make sure i made it home fine and that i was doing well. what a great guy you know. Just serve the lord, open your heart and give it your all, dale gas as they say you know. we really learned alot about having faith, just have an single particle of faith and your life can change and your belief and testimony can grown. I know christ lives, countless times have testimonies been jabbed and beat up, stand strong and remember who you stand for,
Deuteronomy 31:6

Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

the Lord knows our heart and what we can do. dont let him down.
we also learned that at one time for a month straight border patrol was catching 1200 illegals a day.. A DAY!! its dropped down to 600 a day, and its kinda getting slower now that Trump is president so on a busy day they might catch 400. also that there is about 35 tons of marijuana being smuggled across the border every week in Rio Grande City, its a city in our zone and BP is usually only able to catch 1.5 tons of it a month. lol do the math.

a lot of other crazy cool stuff went down but most importantly Pedro stepped into the waters of baptism and we had a recent convert of 3 months baptize him!!

only in south texas

Border Patrol Boats

see that fence in the back, yeah the other side is Reynosa

Me, Karim (RC), Pedro, mi compa

so fuzzy

the water legit has blue dye in it

27th Street 5/15/17

went on an exchange in Rio Grande City this last week, it is about an hour from out area and it was a great experience we were able to find long lost members, we contact a referral and found out that its actually a member that hasnt been to church in a while and hasnt had any contact so it was awesome to finally make the connection again. those are some of my favorite moments when youre just following the spirit and you come across someone who hasnt seen missionaries in a long time. we had another experience kinda like that where it truly testified that we were instruments in the lords hands. we had just got done visiting a member and contact a few referrals and then we decided to say prayer because all of our plans fell. so we prayed and then started driving and we turned a few blocks and then we parked in front of an apartment building and then shortly after that this white truck pulled up in front of us. as we were sitting there this woman walked up to the white truck in front of us and she was in tears holding her little baby boy. we immediately got out and started talking to her she was just in tears and we said a prayer with her and she calmed down and said there were some crazy things going on in her family. her son was 4 months old and we just testified of what we know is true and she totally changed her mood and said we could come back again later. after that we were like woah..the gospel is so true. we've been going hard with family history and we came across this member who has done nothing and she's the only member in her family also her and her husband want to be sealed! how sick! we are super pumped to help them get prepared. also we are working in helping this member come back to church, he has 3 purple hearts from the army. things are poppin here mostly in genealogy also Pedro is super pumped to be baptized this saturday, he even brought his father in law to church and he loved it. mothers day was dope, the primary in one of the wards sang a sweet song, i cant remember what its called but i remember how i felt when they sang it and to be honest i almost wanted to cry cause it really helped me remember how much my mom means to me and just all of the things ive learned from her. one thing in particular is prayer. as a child she would kneel down with me and help me learn to pray when i was a lil dude, she also used to always wear this mickey mouse watch that would play music and i loved hearing it. my mom is the best and im so thankful for all the things she has sacrificed for my siblings and i. she's the best and i miss her a ton:) gracias mami, te amo!!

You already know its goin down when missionaries go to a buffet with a member. (4 plates or nah)

Elder Newns and I ( he's from Orem)

Pretty intimidating

Gringo

Post visit

Rio Dog

Feliz Dia De Las Madres

part of the squad

also something super cool, i live literally a minute from the border and the entry into Reynosa Mexico.

Situations 5/1/17

quote of the week, "you can draw a horse to the water but you cant force it to drink" also another one, "always pray before you knock a Trap Hou$e"

after 6 wonderful weeks here in San Benito it is coming to an end. we are being white washed. Elder Frandsen is going to Robstown in Sinton zone and i am going to Hidalgo as a zone leader there where my new companion will be Elder Piñeres and we will be white washing that area. but great news i found out my old companion elder Messinger is coming from beeville to San benito, how rad right? the mission is so wonderful you know. the other day we were walking down the street and just enjoying the mission talking to people and this soccer mom in her van drove by and we happily waved and she just flipped the bird, how lovely. lol i went on an exchange with Elder Puga. this whole week was actually a blur one scripture that really helped us and i enjoy reading in my mind is jacob 6:12 "O be wise; what can i say more?" just serve the lord. just do it!! we've been doing lots of service lately which has been great. we had some extra time before a cita and we decided to knock a few house in the area and so we said a prayer and went straight to it. we knocked a few houses y nada and then we heard some kids yelling in a house and we went and knocked the door of the house and a women opened up and within seconds invited us in and gave us water and asked how long we've been on our mission. we were in shock like woah, who are you? come to find out she's the daughter of a LA member we are working with and she used to go to church. they invited us to visit them again. i did a couple interviews for the sisters in my district and while i was interviewing the father of this family i had deja vu and it was just a really cool experience hearing their testimonies and just seeing how the gospel can change peoples lives. we also had the privilege of having lunch at The Gold Palms (a retirement center) there is a sister that lives there and she invited us over for lunch, it was dope. its honeslty the best retirement center ever! we were out contacting later in the week and we knocked a door and this guy just gave me a dallas cowboys thermos. its starting to hit 100's que bendicion right? haha its great. another cool experience we were also walking down another street and this little boy saw us from down the street and waved at us to come over. as we walked over his mother bolted inside and he stayed outside even though his mother was yelling at him. he must have been around 3 or 4 yrs old and he stayed outside, he couldnt speak a whole lot, well he was speaking so fast cause he was so happy we were there. he ran in to get his mom and she wouldnt come, we gave him a card with our info then left inside. and so we left and we were just 3 feet outside their gate and we hear the door bust open and there he was trying to show his older brother us.. he tried to avoid us be realized that we saw him so he came out. we talked to him just a kid in highschool and yeah later came to find out that they are members that havnt gone in a long time..I truly believe that, that little boy truly knows who we are. if it wasnt for him we wouldnt have found them. children are so awesome. i am so thankful for this opportunity.. i wouldnt trade it for anything. many times have we showed up at the right place at the right time when someone needed a prayer or just spiritual strength and just anything.

The Fam: Elder Flannery, Pollito (Barnett), Me y Elder Scott

Arroyo City

Mr. G's Pickadily

The Golden Palms with sister Flannery

The Golden Palms

The dopest family in San Benito: Mario, Patty y Blanca

best dog in the world, he just chills on this corner allll year. 

left a message for someone who wouldnt open the door, just wanted to make sure they got the message. 

resaca sun set:/ 

Mission humor 

made me think of my dad

very true 

K onda?

Are you Happy Now? 5/8/17

so we cover a 3rd of an english ward and then we are over a whole spanish ward, the area is big but its pretty fun so far. wow theres so many thing i want to write about but really i just want to talk about this man named Pedro.

so we are doing this retention plan for all recent converts and just helping the build a firm foundation on the gospel well my compa and i also presented a plan to the lord of houses that we will contact and we were out and about doing that while trying to pass by the recent converts. well one of the thing is knocking houses with christmas lights. youd be surprised that we've actually been coming across a lot of houses like that and we knocked this one and this woman answered the door and she was pretty sick and not really interested..but she said her husband has been looking for a church and we were like dope!! we got their info to come by later when her husband was home. well we tried by later y nada. sunday came and we tried by and nada again. well we called and nothing, so we texted her saying hey dont forget to remind your husband about church and what time it starts. as we are sitting in church this guy walks in, kinda not sure where to sit but he sits down and then just then we got a text from her saying hey i told my husband, he should be there, we are like no way!! so i go sit next to him and its her husband, how awesome!! he loved it and we set a baptismal date with him later. he's awesome!!

another cool thing that happened. on our way to coordination this guy had a truck filled with mangos and fruit and all his mangos spilled all over the street there were people getting out of their cars to help him and so we get out as well and then he let us take a box of mangos home. this place is awesome! and all the sisters and elders in the zone are great!! its been quite the transition but its been good. they are all going crazy on family history here!! the mission is awesome.

San Benito District

a Fidget or whatever you call them, they are the thing to have now i guess.

Bro Vela, I miss that guy:/

The Cuevas and Ericka

Elder Gunderson and I (the appendix guy)

we feel super chiflado..