8-11-14

Que pasa mi familia y mi amigos!!!

Thank you for the pictures! Everyone looks great! Elder Wilson will be a stud in Peru, "onward ever onward!" Tell him I said good luck!! (I think I'll just print out all my pictures when I get back and put them in albums, I’ve got thousands on my flash drive.) So I’m not in the same stake as Daylon. He's in the Vista stake and I’m in the Escondido stake. So that means that were in different zones and he lives about 20 minutes away. The assistants to the mission president serve in the ward boundaries where he lives. I referred him to them and they’ve stopped by him a few times. I’ve told them that he is my uncle and whenever I get to see the assistants at meetings and stuff I always ask about Daylon's progress and if they’ve met with him. I haven’t gotten too much info, all I really know is that they’ve met with him and Daylon knows I’m close by. I’ll keep y’all updated if I get any more leads on him.

This week we were able to meet with Alfonso. I think I forgot to tell you about him last week. The elders have been meeting with him for a little while now. He actually goes to an YSA ward in the San Diego Mission but lives here in Escondido, so we are the ones that are supposed to be teaching him. Kind of a long story. This last week we planned on teaching him about how the spirit works. Our last lesson with him we planned on setting a date with him. We knew he felt the spirit, he actually told us he felt like his body was on fire he felt it so strongly, but he still wouldn’t commit to a date. This last lesson as we were teaching we didn’t really know how to bring the subject of baptism back up for some reason, we just kept dancing around it, until E. Moolenbeek finally just asked him, sort of nonchalantly, and Alfonso said " That’s actually the main reason I came to meet with you guys today, I wanted to set a date with you for my baptism." So we set a date with him for the 23rd of August. He's a stud. He understands the gospel so well and he is so sincere about things. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, it is the coolest thing to see the spirit working with people. The spirit is real, and the spirit is what converts. People won’t remember much of the doctrine you teach them, but they will remember how they felt as you taught it to them. I know that for an absolute fact.

Hey guess what? We taught Jesus this week! Seriously, we picked up a new investigator and his name is Jesus. He is a Hispanic guy who lives in a pretty rough part of Escondido. You would think that he would pronounce his name like "hey-zoos" since he's Hispanic, but he goes by "jee-zuhs". Right when we got to the lesson we met him at his back gate and the first thing he asked us was "Are you guys okay with marijuana?" we said “well are you going to smoke it right now?" and he said "No no, I just did." So were like, great. Were about to teach a stoned Mexican, well see how this lesson goes. So we tried to teach him the Restoration of the Gospel, but every time we would ask him a question he would go off on some crazy, mundane tangent. So we realized we weren’t going to get anywhere with him so we gave him a Book of Mormon, bore powerful testimony of how it will bless his life, he said he would read it and we set an appointment for next week. We’ll see how this next one goes. You never know, I’ve seen far more wayward people embrace the gospel into their lives. It’s for everyone.

We werent able to meet with Michael or Mario last week, but we should be this week. And we have been getting referrals out the whazoo, so we will be super busy doing the Lord's work. It feels good when you get home at night and you’re tired because you know that you’ve worked hard. It’s even more gratifying because I’m out here doing the most important work there is. I love it. I never want to leave.
Gotta go,
I love you all more than you will ever know,
Your son, friend, and big brother, and friend

-Elder Daniel

 

-Bowling

-Drive'n (finally)

-Doubles Peak (in the backround is the beach in Carlsbad)

-E Moolenbeek on a longboard at church