December 25, 2024 - 70th Email - Merry Christmas to the boys

Hey

Ima be honest

This that week was so jam packed with stuff that i really couldnt tell ya what was going on for most of it

Went on an exchange on thursday that was fun hung out with elder curtis

Tuesday we had president interviews

Uhhhh

Our friend Lupillo got baptized! He's awesome, fastest baptism yet in 10 days of meeting us he was in the font and saying how we're his favorite people (he's the brother of a member) big dubs for him absolutely golden person no issues with his baptism whatsoever everything was perfect

It's kinda been cool sharing Christmas messages with everyone ngl but it did not feel like Christmas at all it kinda just blew by and now the Christmas season is over so thats kinda sad it's like way too warm down here too compared to Victorville its probably freezing up there perfect Christmas temps

I mean i had a good christmas we went up to indio for breakfast then came back and chilled all afternoon it was really nice and went to members' places

We weren't supposed to tract yesterday or today we just visited members and some friends to wish em merry christmas some light work

Plus today was pday so

Monday was wild we were absolutely drained that night we all crashed (probably from lack of pday on the normal schedule and our bodies couldnt handle that or something)

We played bingo with some old people on saturday

Went up to bermuda dunes on monday to do some tracting

Uhhh

Dang man its wednesday already what the heck where is the time going

2nd christmas (/2) on the mission so next year im going to be home

Finishing up my blackout year (full calendar year as a missionary) and honestly just a lot of milestones coming up, the month is almost over basically and we're really close to the 1001 goal

Me ive just been really tired all week idk why but ive been chillin just getting stuff done kinda hit the going through the motions grind

Yknow the last few days has basically just been 90% member visits idk how we're boutta get our numbers this week lol we need to get to work but itll be ok

(We had good dinners with the members fr Christmas too so that was hype)

Alright seeya read luke 2 it's about Jesus's birth good chapter  merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

Pictures!

-cheeseburger flavored doritos

-cute dog (our member's dog)

-baptism

-sunset

December 16th 2024 - 69th Email - Rats

Hey

So there were no actual rats in my week but elder howard who serves in the english borrego area is constantly saying rats including in phone calls with random people and its absolutely hilar

ious so i just had to include it in my weekly i felt kinda bad cuz on tuesday he said "rats" all goofily in a phone call and then we all just started laughing really hard in the background so i think the guy thought we were trolling or something and hung up on him lol

Anyway

Goofy little week we had

What even happened bro it blew by like wind (get it)

Uhh monday we passed by Karla's place (who got baptized last sunday!) And she fed us some potatoes so that was hype we showed her the temple and she is soups excited for allat and she's like "yeah we boutta start workin on da rest of the fam cuz we tryna get sealed" (paraphrasing) so she is awesome

Also she bore her testimony to a returning member on saturday who struggs hard with coming to church fsr but its ok because she was touched by the Spirit like crazy and she was like "yeah ill be there and ill see you" but then a funny happened on sunday where karla woke up throwing up and then the returning member's son woke up with pink eye so neither of them ended up being able to go to church and they were both sad cuz they wanted to meet each other but its ok cuz they boutta both pull up to church next week

Ok uh

Wednesday we did a cool mega exchange with the whole zone where we just went wherever basically i was sent to indio again so i saw more members i knew and i had a cool dinner with those members and it was great to ketchup (catch up) with them and eat more potatoes (ngl ive started to like potatoes)

Thursday was epic! English class was lowkey dying but our member on tuesday was like "hey keep it going its finna grow" and so we were like "ok" and thursday comes around and our other member that comes brought ya boy his brother and he wants to join us and he getting baptized on sunday! It'll be the quickest baptism ive had fr but hes so cool and hes super excited! Name's jose but he goes by lupillo cuz his middle name is guadalupe

Also had a member ask us "name 10 body parts with no slang that only have 3 letters" so that was a fun little riddle if you wanna try it out

Whoa that rhymed little riddle

Ok anyway

Oh yeah friday we had this meeting thing it was kinda cool i guess

Just kidding lol it was hecka epic because the entire mission pulled up to redlands by the temple (forgrot to take picture lol) and we were able to listen to Elder Renlund talk! He came with his wife and they gave us some words of wisdom and then we drove the two hours back home lol but it was great and we learned a lot

Plus having the entire mission in one place was so awesome

Oh yeah on saturday we pull up to teach lupillo more stuff and bro has already watched the hour long restoration video so that was crazy he ate that all up

Basically my week it was good and bye and have a merry christmas! Wild thats next week wasnt christmas just like a year ago

Pictures!

-Sunset

-bug

-elder renlund is in this picture somewhere and so am i

Life update

What we have been up to:

We went to Saint Augustine and spent the night there. We took a trolley tour of the city Christmas lights and that was a lot of fun. (Dec. 6, 2024)

Hahaha a house decorated with Trump signs.

We donated to the Light the World Giving Machine.

We stopped by a very pretty beach to look at it.

These pictures are from the Windridge Ward Christmas party (Dec. 7, 2024)

(Dec 9, 2024) Sister Alessandra Schmeil who now lives in Sao Paolo, Brazil messaged me this:

We are always thinking of you two...this is our entrance hall for our apartment...before the snowmen, we had the beautiful frame you also gave us! So good to have reminders of great friends like you ♥

(Dec 14, 2024) We went to Disney's Epcot and it was a beautiful day. 

December 10th, 2024 - 68th Email - I love sleeping

 This week was wild

It was a good week dont get me wrong but it just went by so fast

I don't think I went one day without taking a nap tho it was pretty wild

We had zone conference on Wednesday which was cool cuz it was half the mission instead of just one third so we saw a lot of epic people

But we also had to drive all the way up to san bernardino

Its like an hour 45 minute drive and I somehow slept all the way up and all the way down that was fun

So on thursday we were having our english class like normal when elder harris tries to go to the bathroom but finds the toilet full of water and then he flushes it and it just starts coming up and so there was water (clean water) all over and we were all confused outside "where is all that water coming from" so we had to clean all of it up and then it came back to bite us later because the people that play bingo there complained that we didnt clean the bathroom because it came back up again but we had already cleaned it so we were confused and I think we heard something weird was going on with the sewage down here idk havent had any problems since

Exchanged on friday with the district leader and it was super fun did some stargazing that night regrettably my phone is incapable of taking those kinds of pictures

Most of our week tho was planning a sick miracle baptism for Karla she's great but the pictures we got were off the newest iphone and our dumb mission phones cant handle them lol so theyre poor quality

Anyway she had gotten her interview done on Friday and she was all ready to go like 100% yeah im doing this and we get a text at like 6:30 that evening saying "idk if im ready" and we go back on saturday and shes all like "i love church and stuff but i got mega flack from my fam" (paraphrased) and some other problems too it got to the point where she handed us back her baptismal suit and we had to convince her to keep goin and it was crazy she took it back and said "tomorrow morning ill let you know and ill bring the suit to church" and then that evening she asked us what time we needed to be at the baptism awesome miracle

And the baptism itself was great on sunday like everyone went even though we had to drive a half hour to borrego after church so i consider this a success

We did have to clean the baptismal font cuz it was dirty on saturday and it took us like an hour and a half lol

Ok good week love you guys bye

Pictures!

-that's all just fish bones

-salton sea

-i did a puzzle

-Karla's baptism (bad quality lol)

-turtle at someone's house

December 2nd, 2024 - 67th Email - I'm a pretty thankful guy all around

hey

So this week apparently had a holiday in it

And that day was thanksgiving

So rq i just want to say i love thanksgiving its a great holiday and i love turkey its super good and we had a great time

Plus i am super thankful for my parents love you mom and dad you guys are the best frfr

Although we did have a meeting that morning that we had to go to that was super lame (jk it was actually really good it was just on thanksgiving so that was sad)

And we proceeded to take an hour and ten minute drive from indio to borrego springs because we were having dinner with the branch president's cousins at their place in borrego (which was interesting, they actually dont like the church and presidente garcia was lowkey not sure if theyd let us come over but they were down to feed us) and she had SAID she would be ready at 2:30 but we get to borrego (a little early for once) and we get a text saying "yeh the turkey aint finna be ready until 4 so yall tryna pull up at 3:30?" (paraphrased) so we just say hey we got some time so naturally we do what anyone else would do in that situation and we went and visited some awesome metal statues in the middle of the desert and they were sick and all but we saw them in like 15 minutes so we just said "yeah lets just go over we aint doin anything else" so we get to the garcias cousins' place at 2:50ish and they were playing some football on the tv and giving out appetizers and they say the turkey aint boutta be ready till 4 so i took the opportunity to talk to fam for a second outside on the chairs and then i went back inside and started chatting it up with the family and we ended up sitting there watching football (the cowboys beat the giants and then another game started between the packers and the dolphins) for like 4 hours because the turkey didnt end up finishing until 5:30 and then we were there for about another hour and then we dipped and visited some members to tell them happy thanksgiving and then at 8 pm we had a missionwide zoom meeting so there that was my awesome holiday

Its still un poco loco that this was my second thanksgiving comparing myself to a year ago ive learned and grown a lot in this last year but its really super cool to see how far ive come i mean a year ago i was still in victorville like nah this is wild

Anyway

Back to the other junk i did this week

Monday night we got gas and then elder harris randomly just started asking people if he could wash their car windows with a squeegee so that was super wholesome

Tuesday i exchanged with elder jeetan who is super cool (his last name is indian so how much cooler can you get like)

Wednesday we spent the whole morning in borrego (now that i think about it we went to borrego three times this week) because we did service for a member by moving her furniture around in her house and i think we were able to clean up a lot of stuff it was really good

Also we had to get our oil changed i was kinda putting it off and then i realized it was actually something we had to do soon so we did and i took the fattest nap of all time at that pepboys

And if i had a nickel for every time ive taken an awesome nap at that pepboys in indio in particular id have two nickels which isnt a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

Thursday i think ive talked about enough

Friday was cool, our friend Karla is progressing super nicely and we even put her on baptismal date for the 14th of december! But then we went back on sunday and she told us she actually is down to get baptized this week on the 8th instead! (Ok the story is a little more complicated than that, the branch president couldnt be there the 14th cuz he got a meeting all the way up in redlands so we kinda had to move the date anyway) but she is super awesome so keep her in yer prayers

Saturday was rough we had like no breaks that day we were in borrego all morning and had lessons in the afternoon (they all canceled lol) also ran into an old friend i met back in october who we had dropped at a completely different friend's house so that was random but she chill

Sunday i totally forgot it was fast sunday i know im a horrible sinner but it was a great sacrament meeting and we got three friends to church! And i took a fat nap again afterwards

Anyway super cool week crazy its already december and 2025 is in one month (holy cow bruh i am old) and we are super excited to see some epic holiday miracles

Alright im outta here love you all hasta luego (oh yeah i realize i havent talked about learning spanish in a while but im lowkey cracked at it now)

Pictures!

-Random borrego statues (scorpion, grasshopper, and dragon)

-me and the boys waiting to eat

-weird rocks

Thoughts on Come Follow Me

Ether 1

Bible dictionary: The object of prayer is not to change the will of  God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but are made conditional on our asking for them.

In other words, Prayer is not a negotiation process, it is an alignment process. We place our faith in Jesus Christ and not in a specific outcome. 

 Ether 1:34-39:  The brother of Jared prayed to the Lord. The Lord had compassion for him.

Ether 1:40-43:  The Lord tells them he will meet them in the valley and  lead them to the choice land.

The Lord doesn't leave us, he guides us and we are given opportunities to learn and grow as he prepares us for what he wants us to do.

The Jaredites had great faith. They did what the Lord told them to do.

The were in the valley for 4 years and the brother of Jared forgot to pray. 'The Lord chastened him for not praying. He repented. They were probably very comfortable in the valley and when things are going great we tend to forget to pray. 

Ether 2:16:  The Lord told him to "go to work and build"

We need to get out of our comfort zone, we are here to help build the kingdom of God on the earth and to gather Israel on both sides of the veil.

President Nelson said: "The Lord is hastening His work to gather Israel. That gathering is the most important thing taking place on earth today. Nothing else compares in magnitude, nothing else compares in importance, nothing else compares in majesty"

The brother of Jared got to work building the barges. He built them just as the Lord told him to "according to the instructions of the Lord" Ether 2:16. The brother of Jared had a question about how to light the barges and how to have air in the barges. The Lord solved the problem of the air but with the light he let the brother of Jared figure it out. 

He went up to the mountain and melted 16 stones out of a rock, he made them transparent like glass. He prayed to the Lord and humbly acknowledges that he has weaknesses and is imperfect and unworthy to be in the presence of God who is holly and dwells in heaven. He also notes that God has given him a commandment "ask and ye shall receive". He showed God the stones and asked God to touch them so that they will shine.

The brother of Jared worked hard to find the stones and presented them to God, the best stones he could find. God touched the stones and they were lit. 

In life we go before the Lord and we present Him with our best effort and ask Him to magnify it with His light. It is His light not our light we are shining. 

President Ezra Taft Benson said: “Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can.”

Ether 2: 25

 And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come. Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?

We are dependent on the Lord. We were prepared before this life and He continues to prepare us in this life for those things that lie ahead. 

Ether 6:8

And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind.

The Jaredites were obedient and had faith in the Lord. It could not have been easy to travel in the barges. Are we still obedient and faithful when all around us seems to be going wrong and we are faced with trials and difficulties?

Ether 6:6-7

And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.

And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were tight like unto the ark of Noah; therefore when they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters.

Are we humble and prayerful to God when are feeling the storms of life and always?

Ether 6:11-12

And thus they were driven forth, three hundred and forty and four days upon the water.

And they did land upon the shore of the promised land. And when they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised land they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them.

The first thing they did when they landed on the promised land was to humble themselves before the Lord and thank Him for his tender mercies.

If we are obedient and humble before the Lord, given to much prayer, He will guide us in our lives, He will be our light, just like the stones.

Ether Prophesied great and marvelous things, he foresaw the days of Christ and the latter day New Jerusalem.

Ether 12:5

And it came to pass that Ether did prophesy great and marvelous things unto the people, which they did not believe, because they saw them not.

Ether 13:2

For behold, they rejected all the words of Ether; for he truly told them of all things, from the beginning of man; and that after the waters had receded from off the face of this land it became a choice land above all other lands, a chosen land of the Lord; wherefore the Lord would have that all men should serve him who dwell upon the face thereof;

Ether 13:4

Behold, Ether saw the days of Christ, and he spake concerning a New Jerusalem upon this land.

Ether 12:5-6

And it came to pass that Ether did prophesy great and marvelous things unto the people, which they did not believe, because they saw them not.

And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

The people did not believe because they wanted evidence before believing in Christ and His power.

Jesus gives us hope. 

Ether 12:4

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

Ether 12:23

23 And I said unto him: Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing; for Lord thou hast made us mighty in word by faith, but thou hast not made us mighty in writing; for thou hast made all this people that they could speak much, because of the Holy Ghost which thou hast given them;.

Jesus Christ helps us recognize our weaknesses and makes us strong even if he doesn't remove them.