Red Hot 7/24/17

pretty marvelous week, the transfer is over, i have 6 weeks left and i am being transferred to corpus to be companions with an Elder Harris. Elder Ortega and I had a great run and i am very thankful to have spent at least one transfer with him. we were able to see many many miracles and able to truly follow the savior. i dont really know what else to say but this was one of the best transfers ever. Be Believing and Fear No Man.
during the week we contacted this women who was a little crazy and she told us to not contact her neighbor, but something told us to. so we went over and she was outside. she told us she was visited in the past by missionaries. she said that they told her church was 3hours long and that was to long for her, we then explained how church was, and after she said "oh wow that actually sounds not to bad. id love to go and so will my husband" how awesome guy:) Later that day we were visiting the recent convert javier and he said that while he was reading the book of mormon the night before, the spirit reminded him who his missionaries were when he was in mexico over a year ago, their names were Elder Ortega and Elder Gonzalez. javier is so awesome!! there was this day where we kinda felt like things should be different with our plans, we ended up heading over to some gated apartments to see a member and they werent home so we decided to walk through the courtyard in this apartment complex instead of knocking doors we just knew there would be someone out in the courtyards and there we met Mari, she was sitting at a table with a friend and as we should up the friend just booked it inside and we ended up having a very spirit filled lesson full of tears about the atonement and how we can be forgiven, in that moment we truly knew that the lord had led us there. I dont really have much to say other than the lord has been so merciful to the zone and we've seen many miracles of families coming out of no where and also families being completed. I know God lives and that he knows me and each and every one of you. share the things from your heart and he will reveal so much to you, you wont have any idea what to do with it.

Picadily

ahhh plane!!

Minerva 7/17/17

Many great things are going on, many baptismal interviews we are very excited for these families. the misison really is a great experience. so at the beginning of this transfer about 5 weeks ago we made contact with this women and she said back in the day her son would play basketball at the church but he wasnt home and she couldnt talk to us.. so we tired to come back later y nada. well weeks later and many phone calls, she told us a few weeks ago that her son tried to commit suicide and that she really wanted us to visit when her son was there.. well finally this week.. we were rolling through the streets and saw her outside doing some yard work.. errrrkk we stopped the car and got out and walked over, she immediatly walked inside and there was her son.. her son then invited us in and we started talking and everything was going great and then all of a sudden...... he says.. i was baptized like 4 years ago in edinburg which is a city 30 minutes from hidalgo... we were like what.. no way.. he then went and got his baptismal pictures. wow what a great moment, and his family is really wanting to go to church.. ahh que milagro. we are also able to take out youth with us in the truck so thats what we have been doing and we've seen some very crazy powerful lessons with these youth and people even stopping us mid lesson asking us where the church was cause they would be there. the truck accidentally ran over a wild rabbit.. it was pretty sad.. also Lariza and Rosa were baptized!!:D it was such a blessing and this weekend was easily one of the craziest weekends of my life, running around and just being crazy, the mission is the best. the members are amazing and always come in clutch. the glory is not ours but the lords, I know God lives, the mission is just the best thing in the world, i invite all who have not gone on one that can to go. not for you but for the lord and our brothers and sisters out here that need to hear the power from the restoration.

Golden Corral with Agustin again..

At The Bodega

Met up with Javier and he's wearing this. #bestfriendsalready

Out with Brandon a YM in Sharyland

Live at the Dive ( Lariza, Rosa y Remplis)

Behold! A Royal Army 7/10/17

miracle of today

so we had just got done digging and we were on our way to walmart to get food and all of a sudden a cop rolled up behind us and pulled us over, i was driving. the cop comes up and tells me i was speeding and asks for my license and insurance. i gave it to them and my compa and i just sat in the car thinking..i wasnt speeding at all. the cop comes back and asks where we were going we tell him walmart. then he tells me that he tried to look up my license and couldnt find it at all anywhere. he asked me when i got it. he then said that we were good to go even though he couldnt find my license anywhere. que milagro!!!

we had MLC this week it was a 2 day meeting this time the first day it was literally a 12hr meeting, 9am-9pm it was crazy. it was great to receive trainings from presidente torres and an area seventy. the mission is wonderful! i cant even explain how great revelation is for people you are helping. it brings me such comfort to know exactly what we are doing on an eternal perspective. it truly is what keeps the fire going. we also found out that zone leaders and district leaders will now be training as well so thats exciting. the mission is changing and we are doubling everything. even tortillas. hah jk about the tortillas. we got rejected super hard last week. we knocked this door and this man swung the door super fast open and then yelled at us for knocking his door, it was really a great moment, but back to mlc i was really grateful to just be a part of this work. its life changing and really just something that has changed my heart as the time goes on out here. we had a great visit with this man named Fidel last night and we bore pure testimony to him of conversion. the spirit is the teacher and there is just a verse in alma 5 that really stands out to me

14: And now behold, i ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

Through the book of mormon not only can it change your heart but it also binds families together. I am super super grateful to be here and i love it more and more each day. God lives and loves us so much.

🐨🐒😁

Briones

Tag

Hidalgo

The Cleansing 7/3/17

we went to china buffet again with Agustin a recent convert and almost exlpoded again haha. we had a bomb lesson with Javier and Elder Ortega asked him so what are your plans for after your baptism. javier paused for a moment and then he said that he wants a calling in the church. wow what a thing to hear right?:) we are so beyond grateful for this experience.

so we've been having some great visits with Javier Silva, its amazing to see someone grasp the book of mormon and truly apply the principles in it. a member came with us to a lesson and told him that he can just see the power of the spirit working through him as he studies on his own. the power that comes from the book of mormon is so real, just ponder and pray. He continues to tell us how he feels the spirit and how he wants any calling after he gets baptized. His next goal after that is to be sealed. we also had interviews with the mission president and it went very well. being an example is key when you are a leader and just in general. do whats right always. we got caught up with some things at the office after the interview and just as we were leaving we got a call from a guy that just moved down with his GF and he needed help giving a her a blessing. it was honestly perfect timing cause we were on our way back. we gave the blessing and just as we left plantation and we got another call for another blessing somewhere else close by, its crazy how things work out. we met oscar who just got out of federal prison he's a pretty dope guy. also someone tried to snatch our bikes off of the bike rack one night haha que awkward cause we were sitting in the car hahaha. on friday we had a crazy day, after weekly planning we got a call that a member we just visited the day before was in the hospital and she needed a blessing so we raced over there and the room was empty.. we thought awesome... ha found out she just went downstairs for an mri and it takes around an hour. so we left and prosed around the hospital well an hour later we came back and it still was empty but her husband was there now. so we started talking to him they had just got their paper and recommends to go to the temple and be sealed. they are in their late 60's. well the wife finally makes it back and she is in super bad condition it honestly looked like she was going to die. they told us to leave the room and like 15 other nurses and doctors rushed in w/ machines. the husband told us that whenever they came close to God something happens but he knows that god always wins. we then gave her a blessing and everything is going to be alright. Hmna trevino came by and was cheering her on and telling her that everything will be fine. later that night we went by a LA that we have been trying to contact and we knock the door and i hear some people singing to what sounds like corridos so i thought sick these people are going to be awesome! this lady opened the door and immediatly said come in, she had a veil over her head and it was kinda weird and just as we set food in the door we had no idea what we were getting into, we ended up walking into the middle of their "church service" and it was actually kinda scary, all the women had veils over thier faces then they all got on their knees, cried and screamed to god all of their sins. it was actually very frightening and sad to see the look in one of the persons eyes, there was a girl there that had to be like 16 and she just seem full of fear and worry..we honestly felt super bad for all of them, we tried to say a few words but the spirit was just telling us to get out of there. man many times out here do you come across things that really really push and try and break your testimony, remember who you are and what you stand for!!
also Javier was Baptized!!!!:)

With Briones at the hospital

Found this in a church parking lot..

Javier was baptized!!!, Hmna Trevino came in clutch with the ride.

Service

Road Rash 6/26/17

we had a pretty bomb p day last week, the whole zone came down to play chair soccer. it was awesome to see everyone there. it was like having the whole family together. being here i just really want ot see others be happy and really enjoy the work. the missionaries just mean so much more to me now. our proselyting time didnt really go as planned that day. just believe and everything will workout.
theres a lot of things that i wrote down that really impacted me that im just going ot say. one thing i heard was before you ask someone to change , you might want to ask yourself, what do i need to change in me? Dreams -> Passion -> Success
we went out early one morning to catch some people home and i got my dead call.. hah it was pretty interesting. dead call meaning the office called me to set up my flight plans hahah. alright so there we've been pretty low on miles and we were talking about what we were going to do and we decided that saturay we would bike the whole day, use 0 miles.. and it sounded pretty good cause we only had 4 for sure set things and they were all spread out area. the first appointment was in mcallen which is like a 15 minute drive..well we made it in 40 minutes on bike and let me tell you this little trek out there was hot, it was about 2 in the afternoon.. easily over 100 with wind feeling like a blow dryer on blast. we biked non stop till we got the apartment. immediately as we started biking doubt filled my mind but i really felt that the day would be a day of miralces. just as we get there the family showed up and we had a bomb lesson. i literally felt like falling asleep while i was riding my bike haha it was so crazy!! so after that first appointment we are on our way this hobo starts yelling, ELDERS!! ELDERS!! I LOVE YOU!!! ELDERS I LOVE YOU!! YOU GUYS ARE DOING TOO MUCH!! OH MAN I LOVE YOU ELDERS!! it was pretty awesome to hear that and we finally get to our appointment and here is the miralce! AHH haha so we knock this door and this man tells us no not this door, knoock the other door. so we go to the side of the house and this little old woman opens the door all excited and invites us in, we sit down and theres 2 little kids playing and running around and then she introduces us to her son in low whose name is Javier, we sit down and then he tells us that the missionaries were teaching him in mexico cause his wife and his suegra are members. he tells us that he wants to be baptized and and that they just got married 2 weeks ago and theyve only been in america for 3 weeks. we are like alright next saturday you can get baptized, he was literally about to jump out of his chair he was so happy and he is already wanting ot be sealed in the temple.... well we have a few other cool moments in the day and faith riding which is calling people and getting random rides from appointment to appointment. it worked out, well sunday came around and javier and his family didnt have a way to get to church but hmna trevino came in clutch and crammed them in her car. we see them at church finally and i go and sit by him and he is just in tears and in my mind im just thinking like oh man what is going on.. but he enjoyed sacrament, the next hour we are talking and he tells us how the night before he prayed and asked god if the church was true.. and on his way to church he wasnt feeling anything.. he didnt feel any peace of gozo or just anything.. once he walked into the church.. he was hit by a wall of joy and just began to cry as he was talking to me.. he said it was something he knew was from god and he's never felt like this before and he knows this is the place that he needs to be. he then told us of an experience he had when he was living in mexico. he was on his way to work and his first son had just been born and he got stopped by some men on the road and they were yelling at him pointing guns asking who he worked for.. they ended up taking him out of the car and took him to where there were more people blind folded that these crazy guys were going to kill. they continued to yell at him and wouldnt listen to what javier was saying.. one of the gunmen felt that javier was telling the truth and that he didnt work for a cartel.. but the other gunmen just wanted to kill him.. javier prayed that god would let him get away from these man and go back to his family.. the gunmen finally said alright you can go but if you make it across this river we'll kill you cause that will mean you work for someone.. well he made it across and the other gunmen that believed that he was telling the truth picked him up on the other side and took him back into town, after that javier knew that god lived and that he actually cared about him.. man it was super crazy to hear all of that but his whole family was hear at church and they loved it!!:D

God is good and he really does listen to you.

that good good chorizo con huevo

random hammock i had to try

on our way to Rio Grande city for an interview and this is what we saw.. haha making things happen

its called a Tuna and its super good

Gratis, some kids were selling them and gave it to us!

this dog was super depressed when we first met it. come to find out it had a tumor behind one of its eyes and the 2nd time we went over the eye was gone. Pelochin. 

homies!!