What the Tombstone Would Say

I don't know how I feel writing this....it's a weird sensation to know that there is just a couple days until the great and dreadful day arrives. I am very excited to see you all again though! I am really excited to see how much you have changed and grown.

Spiritual: this by far has one of the most amazing weeks of my life.

Words cannot describe how amazing it has been to be witnessing the hand of the Lord like this. We have seen so many miracles and felt the spirit so strongly this week. Everything from new baptismal dates to an actual baptism. We have seen new investigators fall from the sky and prayers said a long time ago answered. It's been amazing. As my first full time mission comes to a close, it's interesting for me to look back over the past two years and see what has happened. There are a few themes that stand out to me as I reflect. The first and most important thing that has stood out to me as I have thought about my mission is the understanding and knowledge that I have gained about my savior and his atonement. I know now from personal experience that the atonement is real! Jesus Christ can provide us strength to face our troubles, hope for the resurrection, and peace from our mistakes in life. I am so grateful for the knowledge that this is real. The spirit has confirmed this to my heart time and time again and I have seen the evidences manifest in my life by the strength that He has given me and the peace that comes into my life. Jesus Christ lives. He is the savior and redeemer of the world. He is my brother, my friend and my king. I am so grateful for the experiences I have had with my companions. I have had all sorts of favors, sizes and varieties of companions. All with their individual strengths and weaknesses and I love every single one of them. Each one has brought something new that I have learned and blessed my life with. I love them all. Through the good times and the bad. I am grateful for an amazing mission president. I have been so honored to serve with him and learn from his dedication to the savior and the gospel. It's been an incredible wonderful opportunity to associate with such a great man of God. The other thing that I have gotten out of my mission that was a little more unexpected was a true, deep and profound love for my family at home. Being away from home has made me realize a lot of things about my family and the blessings I have been enjoying my whole life. My dear faithful mother has written me a letter every single week for the whole two years. She doesn't realize it but those letters have carried me through some hard days and some hard times. I have felt so much love and support from her and from my whole family as I have been here. That support has helped me so much and I am so grateful for a family sent from heaven. I am grateful for an angel of a mother who takes the time to do things that will make me smile like cutting out a comic from the newspaper and mailing it to me. I am so so so grateful to a merciful Heavenly Father for such an amazing woman in my life. I am excited to spend the rest of eternity with those that I have come to love out here. My family and those that I have been blessed to be able to teach. This church is the Lord’s kingdom on the earth. He leads and directs it through a prophet of God who hears his voice and follows his commands. Joseph smith is a prophet of God and he translated the Book of Mormon. It's true. It's the way to a happy life. There is so much more to say but is sufficient to say that I know that this gospel is the way for us to be truly happy. It's God’s plan and it's real. Genuine and true. I bear this testimony in the name of my savior Jesus Christ amen.

Funny: We have been trying to learn how to make some super good curry for a whole now and finally last night that prayer was answered. We met a family from India who took us in and talked us through how to make curry! Delicious! It was super super spicy though.

Where I am at! Well, it's been fun! If you are not a member of the church you really should be. I highly recommend it. It's the best. I come home on Wednesday. Yikes. It breaks my heart to leave my new family here but it has to be. I love Elder Hearne and Elder Bringhurst and the fun times we have had together. Love them. I love this place.

California San Jose is amazing. I love you all!

ipads that go and lemons that stay

This week has been one where I have felt more motivated to serve by love over anything else. It's been amazing to be here and to be serving. It really is a blessing. I love my two new companions and I am happy to be serving with them. They are young missionaries in fact Elder Bringhurst is one of the missionaries I brought into the mission. It's been fun to serve with these two.

Spiritual: It's been said that the Lord works in unusual ways and that no one really quite understands how he works but we know that His ways are higher than our ways and that he asks us to have faith in him even though we might not understand all of the things that are happening.

This week we saw a manifestation of that. We had an appointment where we were given a bunch of lemons. (It's kinda been a theme this week).

We were biking back from it and going to stop by another investigators house when Elder Hearne stopped us and asked if I had grabbed his IPad from his bag when I had taken the lemons. I told him that I had not taken it and he started to freak out. He got this wild look in his eye. The look that comes when you think that you lost your new iPad and to be the first one in the mission to lose one. No Bueno. He said that it must have fallen out of his bag. We decided to retrace our steps and to find the lost iPad. We crossed the street and as we were sitting there waiting for the light to change, the prompting came today a prayer. Elder Hearne offered the prayer and when we looked up there was this guy sitting there on his bike looking at us. Elder Bringhurst sprung into action. He started immediately talking to him and asking him where he was from and carrying on a great conversation.

This "guy" was 18 years old and clicked super well with Elder Bringhurst. He played football with several young men in the ward as well. We asked him what he believed in and he said that he was looking for a way to worship God as his family was not very religious. He said that he saw us praying and didn't want to be rude in any way and disrupt us. He accepted a return appointment and was super happy to learn more. It was an inspired street contact for sure. We finished the contact and Elder Hearne said that he remembered the last time he had had the iPad and he knew roughly where it was. We biked back and within two minutes we found the iPad on the ground. No damage or anything like that. It was amazing. We joked that God had stolen the iPad because he wanted us to meet this young man. God lives. This is his work. He is very much aware of what is going on.

Funny: we also committed a woman to be baptized this week. She sometimes can be a little flakey so we had her sign a contract. Haha as we were leaving she also gave us three huge bags and had us go and pick a ton of lemons. We are having lemonade for days in Glenmoor!

Where I am At: I have no idea where I am at. It's the absolute most amazing thing in the world to be part of the missionary service. To work and wear out my life for my God whom I love dearly. We have a baptism next week and we are really excited about it. I am excited for miracles to happen as well. I love you all!

A Box Full of .......Communism????

Big things are happening this week. We got a baptismal date, my companion is getting transferred to be the next AP, and I gave my testimony at the outgoing fireside, got interviewed by president Mella, and had a teary emotionally draining wonderful week. 

Spiritual: This past week we helped a woman clean out part of her house. It’s a little crazy in there so we started slowly. She was worried because in the past, some others had started to help her clean and she was not there for part of it and she was very worried that a lot of her stuff had been thrown away. We asked if we could just start with one box to see how it would go because we believed that she needed to touch everything that was there to help her through some emotional issues. We walked into the house and looked for what box to grab. It was amazing. I felt like we needed to go to the back room where there were a lot of boxes stacked up and we picked one to give to her. The one that we picked out of 100+ boxes was exactly the one that she needed to see. We brought it back to her and she picked it up and tears came to her eyes. It had pictures of her children from right around the time she joined the church. She hadn’t seen these for 20 years and it was a special experience for her to go through and revisit those memories. That act alone brought her courage that she could make it through the emotionally taxing experience and that the Lord loved her and was very aware of her situation. I know that we were led and guided to pick that particular box. The Lord knows us and uses most times people to bless our lives. 

Funny: Out gospel principles class is a riot. Our ward is super small and there are not a lot of people that come to this class and so sometimes there is more opinion shared than actual gospel principles. For example this last week the ward mission leader started off by singing a song with his guitar. (Although it was a little unorthodox it really brought the spirit in) then we started to talk about the premortal life. Sometimes a tricky subject to bring up with this group. One dear sister started speaking about the plans of the devil. "And what Elder do you think the devils plan is to destroy us all?" I replied "the degeneration of the family and sliding moral values in society is..." "Communism." "Oh. Right. That was my next guess." 

Where I am at: I. Love. My. Mission. I feel so blessed to be here and be serving where I am. I love the work of the Lord. I am so grateful that he has given me a portion of His vineyard to take care of. It’s been a wonderful time to be serving here. It’s so much fun to interact with the people here in San Jose. I love this place. It’s going to be hard for me to leave. I am very happy here. It was a special experience at the fireside last night. I bore my testimony and as I was interacting with the missionaries and members that attended it was sweet to see how many people were there that I had interacted with and had blessed my life and how many people I had truly without feign come to love. It’s been such a blessing to be here. Everything from my interactions with the mission president to the missionaries to the members and non-members. It’s been amazing. I am so excited for the next two weeks. Two new companions (although it’s breaking my heart that Elder Cusworth has to leave) and lots of people still to find and invite. I am so excited. I love the Lord who has blessed me with this opportunity and I am happy to be here. I love you all!

Ammon uses a lot of words like "Its going to be REALLY REALLY hard to come home btw" but luckily that boy knows how to do hard things because like it or not he is coming home August 5th. (Some of us really like it...) He will be speaking at the Murray 28th Ward on Augst 9th at 11:00. The address is 932 W Green Oaks Drive, in Murray. 

Seeking What is Good

Facebook is really cool. Neat place to work. Really relaxed environment and some really good food. It was super fun to go and tour it. I am, on the iPad today so next week I will send you a picture of me by the thumbs up sign.

Spiritual/Funny: we met this Indian man on the side of the street a few weeks ago and he had asked us if we could get him s copy of the Bible in Punjabi. We said that of course we could and that would be no problem. Turns out that the Book of Mormon is not in Punjabi yet so when we met him again he told us that he also spoke Hindi. Great! We have one of those so we went in and sat down with him. He told us to eat a couple of muffins while he went back and make us some coffee.

Awkward.  When he came back we asked him if we could have water instead. The conversation goes as follows, "Hey Tej, can we have some water? We don't drink coffee." “But I am making coffee." "Oh. Well, we don't really drink that as part of what we believe." "...okay. I will bring you some water." Yikes. That was close. Tej is an amazing man. He is a seek and so he wears a turban as part of his beliefs. He is extremely devout in his religion but he believes that you need to learn about all other religions in the world so you can respect them better. When he was ready for the Book of Mormon he first said that he needed to wash his hands. We thought this was because he had spilled some coffee on them or something but it was more than that. He washed his hands and pulled out this silk cloth that he carefully placed the Book of Mormon on. So when I so gracefully whipped out the slightly dust covered and slightly bent copy of the Book of Mormon out of my bag, he took it with great care and placing it on his cloth lifted it up and kissed the Book of Mormon. That is the most respect that I have ever seen for a slightly bent at the corners Book of Mormon. He promised he would read it. We explained to him what it was, where it had come from and how we knew it to be the word of God and even though he had a totally different concept of what God is we all felt the spirit touch our hearts. The gospel is true for people of all races, lands and origins. It will help with whatever problems anyone is going through, I know it's true.

Where I am at: the work here is going really well. We don't have any baptismal dates yet, but we are still working hard for them and praying with all we have. We got some amazing leadership training from Liz Wiseman this week. She wrote a book about how to be a good leader and it was amazing, things are good here in ye old San Jose. I love it here. I love these people! I love you all!

What Ammon wrote on Facebook's wall (literal wall)

This is Jessie The Pacer at the actual Facebook campus. He really enjoyed his tour. He said "It was incredible. The ice cream was super good. They had all sorts of incredible things. We even saw Mark Zuckerberg. Haha it was really neat. They had tons of free food and bikes and all sorts of neat things like arcades and really trendy looking benches and things. It was cool. No one wore a tie there. It was totally chill."

The First Prayer

This week was a good week. Lots of good things are happening around Fremont.

Spiritual: we had a very sacred experience the other day. We met a man who was taking out the trash. We spoke to him for a little about what he was doing. He was helping his neighbor while he was in China. We talked to him a lot about what we do as missionaries and we felt impressed to start speaking to him about how the gospel blesses families. When we spoke about that something struck a chord in him. He started to really listen and pay attention. We set up another time to come back and meet with him some more and he agreed. We told him that one thing he could do before we came again was to pray and we asked him if he had ever prayed before. We invited him to do it right there in the middle of his friend’s driveway. He told us he was from China and they don't teach that there. We encouraged him and gave him an example. He finally prayed. It was one of the most simple yet powerful prayers I have ever heard before. In broken English he asked God to bless his family. His first prayer ever before. Wow. After we asked him how he felt, he said that he was relaxed and felt really good. We testified of the Spirit and the comfort it gives us. I am so lucky to be here with these kinds of experiences taking place.

Funny: we met the funniest little 82 year old lady the other day. We were going over to our investigator’s house and we rang the bell. This little old Hispanic lady come s to the door. We say hi and ask her what her name is. She stares us down and bluntly says "the Virgin of Guadeloupe." Oh! That's nice! How are you doing today? “Good." That's great to hear. She then went on to tell us that she was old. She said she was really old. We were polite and told her that she didn't look that old and that she looked a lot younger. She said "yes. I get that a lot. I have a wrinkle free face, but I have all these tortillas hanging off of my arms." I have never heard arms described like that.

When our investigator came down we were dying with laughter. It was a funny contact. Needless to say she is very Catholic being the Virgin of Guadeloupe and does not want to change.

Where I am at: things are good here! We are working harder and harder and we are seeing the Lord’s hand more and more. We are excited for miracles to come. I love you all!

Donald the Divine

I hope you are all having a wonderful time camping away! I have prayed for a lack of bears, rain and mosquito. I hope you are all safe and doing well. Things on the Fremont side of things have been going great! It’s been a good week! We had zone conference and it was really cool to see where the mission is heading. There was a lot of training about opposition. How to combat testimony doubts and things like that. We are gearing up for push back from the Supreme Court decision and for the Book of Mormon Musical coming our way. It will be interesting to see what happens. We are ready for it though! 

Spiritual: We had the wonderful opportunity to attend the baptismal service for a very special man. Babaranti is an African American man from Nigeria who just happened to walk into the ASL branch Sacrament meeting. He was taught by the ASL elders and was baptized a couple of weeks later. When we were at the baptismal service the Spirit was so strong there. It was amazing to see such humble people who knew that God loved them and were there to follow His commandments supporting him as he made this decision. The most inspiring part of the whole service was after he came up out of the water he shouted for joy at having made that sacred covenant. It was a special experience. The Lord has prepared all sorts of people that need the blessings that this gospel bring. It doesn’t matter who they are or where they come from, it just matters that they are willing to follow their covenants and come closer to God. This week it’s a simple testimony that God loves all His children no matter where they are or what they have done in the past. 

Funny: We are in the habit here in Fremont to talk with everyone. Everyone. The other day we were biking around and we saw a man carrying a huge bag on his shoulder. We went over and started talking to him. He immediately lit up when he saw us. He said that his name was "Brother Kenny" and he would be happy to talk to us in his "Sanctuary." He said that he was a Christian music artist and that he was preachin the word as well. Super cool guy. We then met Donald. Donald David the Divine. He was very very drunk and as soon as we finished talking with Brother Kenny he came right up and started talking to us. He said that he couldn’t believe that Brigham Young was a true prophet because Michael was the Archangel. It was so funny. We talked to him for a little while but we realized that nothing was happening there. We said that we would talk to him later. To get the final word in he yelled at us as we were riding off "You guys are bananas!" Sir, yes. We are. Have a wonderful day! We love Donald. :)

Where I am at: Elder Cusworth and I are working harder than ever before. We are so ready to see some people here join with us in the Glemoor ward. We are really excited about some of the people we are teaching. There is a really great spirit in this companionship and we are excited to see what will happen this next week. I am amazed at how the Lord has heard and answered our prayers. Things are looking great. We found a few new investigators this week, one of whom has a lot of friends in the ward and is very open to be taught. I love you all!

That Flat

This week was an amazing week. Elder Cusworth and I have really got a good pace going. We love the bikes and we talk with everyone. We found a bunch of new investigators this week and are excited for their progression. We don’t have any baptismal dates just yet, but stay tuned, because there are some amazing things happening up here. I love Fremont. I love the cultures, the people, the interesting things that happen every day. It’s a great place to serve. 

Spiritual: The Lord has a tenancy to do His work in His way. Even when we think that we know a better way. :) We don’t. This week was proof in my life that God works in ways that we do not expect to fulfill his purposes. For example, this week we were biking around talking to people and we were on the sidewalk. Elder Cusworth was in front and talking to a Chinese woman. She was not really in the talking mood so he went around and found to his surprise a nice patch of goat head thorns. No Bueno. Both of his tires were flat. Really Flat. So, we turned around and walked on home to change bikes. As we were walking though, the Lord placed us in the path of those that we needed to talk to. We met Maria and her son Harold. We had met them about a week ago and talked to them. They said that they were kinda interested in attending a baptismal service and hoped to meet us again. The Lord answered our prayer with two really flat tires. Because we had to walk home, we were exactly where we needed to be to meet those two! We invited them to come to a baptismal service on Sunday night and read some scriptures with them and prayed. They felt the spirit. They came to the baptism last night with two of their friends. One of whom had a husband who was Mormon and had come to church for 10 years and never joined the church. It was an amazing miracle to see the Lord work His work in His way. I am just grateful to be part of it and learn to love the journey and marvel at the hand of God moving in His way. 

Funny: This week we were talking to some kids that were outside playing. There were probably about 12 kids playing and we gave them all cards, did a little card trick with them and told them that we were missionaries. We asked "Do you know what missionaries are?" One little girl in the front innocently said "Insurance?" We paused for a moment not quite sure how to reply and then said "Ya. Kinda..." It was a really funny moment. Yes to the whole Life Insurance, but not quite how you might think of it. 

Where I am at: Fremont is blowing up. I am so happy to be here at this time. There are so many great things happening in our area. We are doing a bunch of finding and teaching. We just can’t wait to start doing the baptizing part as well. :) I am very happy. I absolutely Love Elder Cusworth. He has a great drive and determination to work hard and to be obedient. It truly yields miracles. Things are going so well here. I am excited to see what else the Lord has in store for us here. 

Fremont

This week has been one of the best weeks of my mission. Its feels so good to spread my wings and really let loose and go all out in missionary work. It’s been a great week. We found 5 new investigators and talked to everyone we saw. It was awesome. It’s really great to go and serve with everything you have. It’s been a great week. Elder Cusworth is an amazing missionary! Seriously, one of the best missionaries I have ever worked with. He is humble, hardworking and culturally attuned. He is from Thousand Oaks California and is a great missionary. 

Spiritual: This week we have had a goal to talk to everyone we see. Fremont is very diverse. As in very very diverse. It’s the largest melting pot I have ever seen. It could well be called Little India. So many different languages and cultures. It’s not uncommon to see people in Turbans and robes walking down the street. I have a few goals for Fremont and one of them is to find the best curry recipe that I can. :) We were biking down the street after a meeting at the church and we stopped to talk to a little old Pilipino woman who was pushing her shopping cart down the street. She was so prepared. She told us how she was going from church to church and seeking the truth. She just didn’t know where to find it. Well, we knew where it was so we started talking to her about it. As we were talking to her two other guys rode up and said "Hey! Are you Mormons?" we replied "Ya! How are you doing today?" “Man, Things are good. Do you have something for us to read? We are on our way to our program, but we are trying to come closer to God!" One book of Mormon, prayer, invitation and return appointment later and they were off. We finished talking to the Pilipino woman and had a really good lesson with her. I am amazed how following Preach My Gospel when it says to talk with everyone, results in miracles. I am so happy to be in Fremont. It broke my heart to leave the Almaden Ward, but I am excited to see what new adventures the Lord has in store for me here in Fremont. 

Funny: We did some service this week at the American Cancer Society on Wednesday. It was quite a funny adventure. We happened to show up right on the 50th year anniversary celebration. It was great fun. Lots of food and tons of people to talk to. We also met Mr. Mayor of Fremont. It was an unusual service day, but it was a good service day. 

Where I am at: Elder Cusworth is a great companion. I am so happy to be with him. He has a heart of gold and is willing to work hard. Our big push with the zone is to help everyone open their mouths and share the gospel. Talk to everyone we meet. It’s been a spiritual highlight to put that principle into action and see the blessings that have come from doing that. Things are wonderful here. I have truly entered Zion. :) I love you all! Be ready for some cool miracle stories to come! 

Interesting fact: Ammon is now serving in what is probably his last area, Fremont, California. Fremont was actually his dad's first area when serving in the Oakland Mission many years ago.

Keeping Commandments

This week has been really busy. We have played the part of Santa all week where we go out and handed out all of the Ipads to the missionaries. We were the most loved missionaries in the mission this week. :) It was a fun week but it was hard for us to find time to do a ton of missionary work. We did get to interact with a lot of missionaries. It was a really fun week. :)

Spiritual: I want to share a very interesting perspective this week. This comes from President Rob Davis who was the police chief in San Jose for many years. In his professional career right now he does consulting work around the nation for different police forces and he helps them improve their relations with communities that they serve. He spoke last night at the outgoing fireside and it was so powerful I wanted to share it with you. He told about how he was in Baltimore helping the police and citizen relationships before the riots started and he was there when things started going crazy. He commented that the world focuses on fixing the symptoms of the problem instead of hitting it at the core. He talked a lot about getting back to the basics. Problems in cities arise when there is a lack of father figures and a high word of wisdom problem rate. The solutions to problems like this that arise are found in the basics of the Gospel. A family teaching their children how to obey God and His commandments. Doing good to others and loving the way Jesus loves. I thought it was a beautiful and a very real perspective from someone that is very affected by this in his day job. There is peace in your personal life and in society at large when we follow the direction that God has given us. 

Where I am at: I am getting transferred on Tuesday. I am sad to be leaving Almaden. I spoke in Fast and Testimony meeting yesterday and said that I have 9 new sets of grandparents, and 30+ younger siblings and lots of best friends there. It was a special day. A great ward. I feel so loved there. I am ready to move on though. I am excited for my next adventure! I love you all!

It's a Simple Message

IPads are in. Wow. Anyway, things are going well. Its transfer planning this week so things are going to be crazy. We might not do much missionary work but we will do a lot of missionary things. We also have to roll out ipads to the zones as well. Crazy times. 

Spiritual: This gospel is a simple gospel. This past Thursday I got the wonderful opportunity to go on an exchange with Stanford. It was really neat. Everyone there was so trendy and it was a totally different experience than anything I had ever encountered. One of the people we were able to teach was a Chemistry Professor who was working at Stanford. She was very very smart and the missionary and I who were going in to teach her were a little apprehensive about teaching someone who was so smart. The spirit of the Lord confirmed to us though that all would be okay and that we knew enough. We walked into the lesson confident in the Lord and ready to do his work. We taught her about the book of Mormon and the spirit there was incredible. The thing that stuck out to me the most was that even though she had an advanced degree from a prestigious university, we still had to explain the why of the gospel very simply. She felt the spirit and we did as well. It was incredible. The Simple truths that the gospel has are so powerful to those that are educated as well as not educated. The Gospel is a Gospel for everyone. :) I love it. It’s true. 

Funniest comment said this week: "Wow! What a delightful ball of fluff you have! Oh my goodness! Did you know there is a dog in here? Rich people with Pomeranians. :) "

Where I am at: Almaden is going well! We had a surprise yesterday when Sam and Lori showed up to church! Yay! I love them. Still hard to meet with but nice all the same. Things are great. I am looking forward to a busy week. Lots of things to do but I am excited. I love feeling the spirit with me. I love you all! 

Car Wrecks and the Middle East

Happy Memorial Day! This past week has flown by. It’s crazy how fast time has started to go now. It seems like they days feel like hours and the weeks feel like days. The months just fly by. I love where I am at. Things are really starting to pick up here and we are excited for the future. Lots of tender mercies this week and we have really noticed the Hand of the Lord in our work a lot more. 

Spiritual: This week we had a wonderful visit with a less active family. This family is from the Middle East. They came to America and about 50 or so years ago they went to Utah for a tour. Later on when they came back to New York, the missionaries stopped by their home and shared the gospel with them. They ended up joining the church and were very happy about it. Eventually they moved to California and settled down. While here they got acquainted with a lot of their friends from the Middle East who do not speak English very well. This family felt really bad for their friends and so they started to drive them to the Iranian Christian Church so they could have a better sense of community and interact with their own language. This couple knows that the church is true but out of obligation to their people they go to another church. Our lesson with this couple was really funny as well as very profound. They are TALKERS. It was so cute! They sat and just told us story after story of them doing funny Middle Eastern things and how the American culture interacts with it. For example Majid was driving along going 120 mph and gets pulled over. "Oh officer, I so sorry. I thought it was in Kilometers!" He knew perfectly well it was in mph. Oh so funny. I love them. They sat and told us about some of the struggles that they are having. From the wife’s bouts with some nasty cancer to the struggles of their people. It was so sweet to hear them talk of the gospel and how they love it so much. They offered as well to have all their friends from the Iranian Christian church come and hear the lessons. We said that we could make that work and we are really excited to teach those people. They said they would arrange a meeting and we are really looking forward to meeting them all and teaching them. We are so excited! This gospel is true. It has the capacity to bless the lives of anyone in any circumstance. There is no place on this earth, no culture so diverse where the gospel of Jesus Christ cannot bless lives. We saw it in the lives of these humble people and I see it in my life every day. 

Funny: We were going to a baptism in Fremont on Saturday when we got a call from president. He was going down to a baptism in Prunedale and when he went to change lanes, a motor cycle smashed into his car! President had a flat tire and was in need of some help. His Jack bent and he was on the side of the road. It was really fun to be able to run to the rescue to help him out. We grabbed a spare jack and took off. Poor president. He wasn't happy. Can’t blame him. That car was brand new. Not even a month old. Everyone was okay, the vehicles were only going about 10 mph. Thankfully no one was hurt and everyone was okay. We had to take away his driving privileges though and make Sister Mella the designated driver from now on. :)

Where I am at: We are planning to start up the Farsi group here in the Almaden Ward. We just need Farsi baptisms to start it up. We are planning on just changing venues for Majid and his people. We are way excited. We also found two new investigators last night at dinner and we are going to the visitor’s center at the temple on Saturday with them. Things are going so well here. We just got a new Ward Mission Leader who is young and fresh and full of great Ideas on how to get the work really going. I am so happy to be here. Ipads are coming this week so it will be a huge change in how missionary work happens. Be ready. It’s going to be amazing. I love you all. I am so happy to be here. I feel the spirit every day and am so grateful to be serving my Savior to the best of my ability. I love you all! 

Faith=Happy

This week we worked our tails off. We had a couple of ZTM Meetings and we had a little bit of office stuff, namely picking president up from the airport, but other than that it was a week of work. We saw some miracles and learned a lot. The Lord’s work has got to be done with His spirit, His way or it’s not His work. When we try to interject our own ideas without asking for his help, usually it just goes south. Just a little excerpt of what we learned this week. 

Spiritual: Recently in the mission the whole focus has been around baptisms. We have focused on finding, teaching and now baptizing. It’s been a huge deal. Since we are committed to carry that culture throughout the mission, we decided that we needed to baptize. It’s been like a hunger that has been growing. We have started salivating just thinking about white clothes. We actually had a sit down talk and just said that we needed to baptize this transfer. We feel that the Lord will support this goal and we felt like it was the right thing to do. So we started to work. We visited a ton of part member families but minimal teaching opportunities arose. We visited a ton of former investigators but again minimal teaching opportunities. There were a couple of gems we found in a couple return appointments, but this was not the miracle we were looking for. This started to really get under our skin this week and we started letting this obsession drive us to negativity and unfortunately a lack of happiness. This all came out Saturday night when we play some basketball with a bunch of investigators and less active members. We got there and despite our efforts, not very many people showed up. I was pretty frustrated at that point. We went home and planned for the next day and I caught myself feeling dark and not filled with the spirit. It was depressing. While we were praying for the Lord to confirm our plans for the next day, the thought came to me that true faith is manifest in a positive outlook in the future. Faith in Jesus Christ is filled with light and with hope. It’s not an enduring, draining resistance, but a light excited view on what is happening next. It’s also not a gleeful fleeting, spasmodic happiness that is gone within a couple of days. This faith sustains us and lifts us to overcome trials and discouragement and to move on stronger. As soon as we changed our attitude to one of faith and hope, the next day we met with Sergio. The man who we gave the blessing to a couple weeks ago. He was so open and humble and expressed his love for God and the blessings he has received from Him. It was a testimony to me that faith in Jesus Christ, appropriate faith, has power. Jesus Christ has all power. He lives! He suffered so that He could help us! I Love Him. 

Funny: President and Sister Mella went to an Ipad training in SLC this week. They told him he had to go back to California by Thursday. So he got the latest possible flight into San Jose Thursday night. I don’t blame him! He looked so refreshed coming off that plane! We were there to greet him. We had a card that said "Glen and Elizabeth Mella" And I was holding a couple of leis so when they got off the plane we greeted them with a "Welcome Home! Aloha!" and then drove them back to the Home. I love them so much. :)

Where I am at: We are finding a lot more people to teach. We are working a lot more with the ward and trying to help them in their missionary efforts. Things are great here! We have a pretty free week so get ready for some more miracles coming next week! Just us and the work here. We are excited to keep it going. I love you all!

Tiger

It was good to talk to you this week! Really neat things are happening at home and away. It’s been fun to talk to you about what was going on and about where you all are at. It was a delight to me and it’s been such a blessing to have you as a constant line of support while I have been here. Thank you so much.

Spiritual: One of the blessings of serving in this capacity is being able to do exchanges with zone leaders and whomever the President feels we should exchange with. It’s been really fun to go out with missionaries and learn some of their best practices. This week I got the chance to go on an exchange with a very young zone leader. It was so much fun to learn from him and be with him. It made it even more cool because I was the one who picked him up from the airport his very first day! It was my first transfer as an assistant that he came into the mission. It was a special experience. We were going through and visiting part member families and we were walking toward this house when we saw an oriental couple walking their dog. Sometimes it’s hard to talk to Chinese people because they don't speak English, but this time something said that we needed to talk to them. We walked right by the house and started talking to this Asian couple about their dog and about his work. He said that he worked as a software engineer for Google and he had a coworker who was also a member. He had served a mission in Taiwan and had shared some of his beliefs with this man. The spirit was so strong! We shared about what missionaries do (teach the doctrine of Christ) and then invited him to learn more. There was a pause (this is when the spirit touched our hearts and his) and he said "yes." Oh the three most beautiful letters in the English language. It was amazing. We got his contact info and then sent him on his way. Later we passed him off to the Chinese elders to teach. Both he and his wife came to church yesterday and they are now praying and reading. We are so excited for him. And thus we see how a member’s example and courage to share his beliefs can result in a miracle. I love the spirit of missionary work. I love my Savior. I am so happy to serve Him.

Funny: Devon last night was happy to see us! After we had gotten our food we said "Devon! Message of the night: God Loves You!" Devon replied: "have a good night." Love Devon.

Where I am at: Almaden. Oh Almaden. I found out this week that it’s not pronounced almadin. It’s pronounced Alma-den. I love my mission! I love my companion! I am so happy to be where I am. I love it here and am so excited to see what else happens this week. Miracles abound! I love you all! Thank you so much for your support and love.

Waffles and Blessings

This was a great week here in Almaden. We have been trying to find more people to teach and things are going well. Elder Matthias and I got to be mission presidents for a day when president Mella went to a conference in Monterey. It was so fun to drive the Avalon and enjoy the mission. I am happy here and things are going great. We saw several miracles this past week from recent converts moving into the area to a powerful blessing with the Bishop. Things are great.

Spiritual: This week we have been really putting the petal to the metal when it comes to finding more people to teach. We have a lot of investigators that are good, but floating around. It’s hard to meet with them and hard as well to help them understand sacrifice and blessings.  We have started visiting all the part member families in the ward and seeing the level of interest. We went over yesterday to a family that had asked to stop having missionaries come over a while back. They were really burnt out with the church and needed a break. We went over there hoping for a glimmer of light and it came in full force. When we knocked on the door a woman came out that was a little stressed. We asked her if she was the person that was on our directory. She said she was and that she was a little stressed right now. We asked her why and she told us that her husband had been admitted to the ICU with a tear in his aorta and a mass on his Kidney. Yikes.  She said she was on her way there and we asked if he would like a blessing. She said yes and then we were off. We got the bishop to meet us there and then we went and gave him a blessing. It sounds a lot worse than it actually is. He was sitting up in bed and looked happy. We talked to him and he told us that he was leaning on the Lord through this whole process. The blessing from the bishop was great and then we left. After the bishop told us what a changed man that man was from the first time he had met him. It sounded like a totally different person than who we had met. It was a testimony to me that the Lord uses his servants to do his work. Sometimes it takes a humbling experience to bring people to him. I am so grateful to be a part of this work.

Funny: In Almaden we drive the transfer van. A huge 8 passenger van that we use to move missionaries around. Because the mission presidents seminar was in Monterey President needed the van to shuttle mission presidents. In preparation the van was detail cleaned. It looked beautiful. So of course the next day as we were getting ready to go make waffles for some missionaries, the waffle batter spilled all over. Ha ha; it was a good example of how Murphy’s Law works. It came out just fine. Just one of those funny situations. :)

Where I am at: Things are great. I love my mission. I am happy to be here and serving in the way that I am. I love you all!

Mommy! I am on TV!

Transfers are over and now it’s free sailing for the next few weeks. Yay! This week President is going to a mission president’s seminar down in Monterey and so we are going to be mission presidents for three days. Reign of terror. :) It was fun to send off some more past companions this week and it’s been a great little run. Lots of office stuff this week but things are going to be getting a little less busy as time goes by there.

Spiritual: We were on the news this week! The Lord uses any means he can to accomplish his plans. President and Sister Mella had us come over to help with some service. The church landscaper was coming over to make the mission home more drought resistant by putting in better less flowery landscaping. They had missionaries help because it was a pretty big job and we were happy to lend a hand. We went over and started working. The motive behind the change was the fact that the mission home was already known in the neighborhood as the "church house" and with all the flowers out front in a huge drought it didn't put a good rep on the home. When we were working the landscaper said to us that he needed some sprinkler parts. He ran out to the store and while he was gone we had some pizza. (Don’t worry we saved some for him :) He gave us a call and said that he was on his way home and that channel 7 was following close behind him. When he walked into the store channel 7 news was sitting there at the sprinkler parts section looking for someone to walk in doing drought resistant landscaping. Who walks in? The Mormons. :) They came over and interviewed President Mella and filmed all these missionaries doing service. The coolest part is that this all happened the day before the huge day of service in California. A huge day of service where the church throughout the state does community service. It was a cool event and President did a great job in letting the news know about that taking place. The Lord works in Mysterious ways!

Funny: This week we took the new missionaries out contacting for their first time. We normally take them around San Jose State but this time we decided to take them into the Almaden area because it was such a small group coming in. We went with Elder Wei who was straight from mainland China. What a powerful spiritual giant! We were excited to see huge miracles as we went out contacting. Of course one of the first people we met was a dis-fellowshipped Jehovah's Witness. Oh boy. Sigh. Luckily we don't think Elder Wei understood a ton of English. When we were walking away he said things like "oh. In China people don't believe in anything. Here people believe in other religions. Oh." We really built him up and gave him so good confidence boosters and he will be fine. You never know what will happen though when you go out to contact.

Where I am at: Other than a surprise visit from a past Elders Quorum President, things are pretty normal around here. We are working at building up the teaching pool and getting the investigators to meet with us. I am happy, I am healthy, and I love this work. The Lord lives and Loves us. I love you all!

The 30 Minute Change

This week was crazy. Lots of planning for transfers and lots of meetings. All is well now and things are going great. Still trying to find time to meet with the investigators, but the way the Lord is doing things I think that things will work out just grand. We fasted yesterday for both some more people to teach and for the way to be prepared to meet with our investigators. Low and behold we found a new investigator yesterday and one today. Boom. It’s been great. The Lord hears our prayers. That is so certain in my life. Wow. Lots of spiritual things have happened this week. Not too many funny things that would go well in an email.

Spiritual: About three weeks ago some of the Spanish elders from Redwood City called us up and asked who around their area would be able to do a baptismal interview for someone who spoke Spanish. Since my wonderful companion does in fact speak Spanish, we volunteered for the job. We went over there to the woman’s store to do the interview. The interview was only about 20 minutes long and in the mean time we sat and talked to the daughter of the person who was going to be baptized. The daughter was 16 years old and was lukewarm to the thought of joining the church. Being new to the situation I went in guns blazing. Before I went in, I had the thought come to me that this was the time to be bold! We went in and with the Spanish elders and we had a "Real Talk." A lot about why church was important and a lot focusing on the fact that she was a daughter of God and that He has a Plan for her and that He truly loves her. It was an incredible experience. I can honestly say that for myself I did nothing. I just sat back, did what I was supposed to and Let the Spirit guide. Everything that we said was confirmed by the Spirit that it was the right thing to do. We just put our own thoughts and desires on the shelf and let the Spirit tell us what to do. It was so much fun! AH! The biggest difference between this visit and others was the fact that the Spirit confirmed the words we said. It didnt look like she had been very impacted by the expression on her face and her demeanor, but we knew something had worked in her. This past week we went to her baptism. It was a testimony to me about the moment we decide to give up ourselves and let the Spirit in and trust in God more than ourselves will be the moments that make a difference. 30 minutes of speaking with the Spirit can change a life. :)

Funny: When we finish numbers sometimes late at night we will take a drive thought the drive through at McDonalds. (Always past midnight so we don’t break the Sabbath.) We have gotten to be good friends with the one anti-social guy who works the late shift. His name is Devon. We always talk to him and are super nice to him. He probably thinks we are crazy being so happy this late at night. A few weeks ago we gave him a because he lives pass along card and then last week we followed up with him and HE WATCHED THE VIDEO!!! Hahaha; now we have a progressing investigator at McDonalds. Once a week, and he is keeping commitments. :)

Where I am at: Things are great. It’s a great time to be a missionary. Transfers are this week and I am so happy that things are well. I am loving life and enjoying being a missionary. I seriously don’t know how things could be better. Adrian who we have been working with for a long time got baptized this past week. Yay! Cool experience. I love this work. I love you all! 

The Tongan and the Toothbrush

This week was busy busy busy. We had zone conferences and all sorts of things to do so we did not get the chance to do a ton of missionary work this week but we feel like our mission is almost more to the missionaries than it is to the non-members here. We hope we are doing a lot of good. We were training on how to take the average time for a person to be baptized from about three months down to about three weeks. It was a fun training to do. I loved being with all the missionaries and seeing how a lot of them are really growing up. 

Spiritual: One of the big events happening in the mission recently is the fact that this round of zone conferences we got the DAP program. The Driver Accountability Program is like a flight recorder that you would find in an airplane. The mission is now starting to monitor how the missionaries are driving. To install that project Salt Lake sent us a few people from the Missionary Vehicle department to help train us and get us up and rolling. One of the men they sent out here was named Russ. Russ was here from Monday until Friday. He was there at every zone conference and presented at every single one. The message Russ had to share was not liked by everyone. He was the messenger telling the missionaries to slow down on driving and from most people’s perspective he was like Big Brother watching what the missionaries did. He was not well liked before he came but after he left he was loved by everyone that would actually listen to him. He talked about how he had several missionaries pass away during his time doing his job. It was actually very emotional for him and after getting to know him we could tell that the tears that he shed were genuine tears of concern and grief. It was so interesting to see him go into every zone conference and have all the missionaries up in arms about the program that he was sharing. A lot of eye rolling and deep sighs, but after it there was still a little animosity but the missionaries knew that this was the way things had to be and there was a spirit of love in that meeting. It was so interesting to see Russ at the very last day of Zone Conferences when the deed was done and it was time for him to leave. He actually was pretty emotional about going. The friends he had made and the lives he had an impact on he would probably never see again. I saw this as a parallel for my missionary labor. We come in and are not loved by everyone. Our message is good for people but it is hard on the ears of those that hear this message. This is the most beautiful message we can possibly share. Its true and its really happening and some day we all will have to leave. Sometimes not even knowing the impact we have had. 

Funny: The other big thing that is happening this week is that the San Francisco East Stake, the Polynesian stake in the area, is having a Huge mini-mission even with all of their youth. 21 Youth are coming to San Jose for a weekend experience. We are the ones who are in charge of getting it all set up on the SJ side. We had a meeting on Saturday where we put the youth with the missionaries. It was like a pre-transfer meeting where we just made the assignments. This week they will actually meet up and start working together. We are really excited for it. There was a big meeting and we had one of the Tongan brothers speak to the youth about what they need to bring on a mission. He bore a powerful testimony about the power of missionary work. He paused for a moment, the tension was building. He said "What do you need to bring on your mission. Just as important as Scriptures and a Preach My Gospel, (the tension in the room was thick.) A toothbrush. Do not forget your toothbrush." I completely agree. 

Where I am at: Recently we have been going all over the mission putting out fires and driving to zone conferences. It’s been really fun. Elder Matthias are such good friends that most of the time we don’t even listen to music. We like each other so much that we just sit and talk. Just for a point of reference, most missionaries get between 700 and 1200 miles a month that they are allotted to drive. Just this week with all of our errands, we drove 800 miles. I love this place. I am so happy here. I have such a strong testimony of the Savior and His Grace as well as the reality of the Spirit in our lives. This church is so true! I love you all!

 The missionaries are holding the cards for the driving program Ammon mentioned in his letter.

Taking notes during General Conference.

He would like to make sure that it is known that the three bowls of ice cream are not all for him. 

He told us that he love love loves the senior missionaries. He says they are a really funny group. 

Prayers that Work

This week was full of conference, miracles, lots of fun and the Hand of God. It’s been a good week. I am really enjoying being companions with Elder Matthias. I love the man. It’s really fun to be part of the exciting things that are happening in the Church. It was game changer General Conference. I loved the feeling that was there. The Lord answered our prayers and we never watched alone. It was so cool. We watched it with some friends of a member and we taught them after. Lots of cool experiences this week.

Spiritual: We were able to teach our favorite Vietnamese family this week right in between conference sessions. This was the first time we were able to teach the entire family. We were in a little bit of a rush because we had to go to a less active members home and watch. (That was so neat because after conference she made us Flautas. Oh be still my soul. She also made us some super good Saviechie. Literally we got to see a taste of heaven during conference and then we got to actually taste heaven as we ate. It was SO SO good.) But before we were able to eat with this returning member family we had a lesson with the Lam fam. They are truly amazing. They have three kids. The kids are all incredibly smart and very interesting. The thirteen year old daughter had just graduated high school and was currently enrolled in college. Wow.  We taught them Sunday afternoon between the sessions of conference so ringing in our ears was the talk by President Eyring about prayer and revelation. We came in and did not have a ton of time to teach so we decided to teach a principal. We taught the principle of prayer as it pertains to revelation. These people did not have a Christian background so we focused a lot on how when you pray you can discover for yourself through answers from God that He is real and He is there. It was a powerful lesson. I am so happy to be in this place and doing this work to bring souls closer to Christ. Prayer for me has recently changed as well. God gives us a portion of His time to listen to us when we speak and He is willing and anxious to help us with our concerns and our trials. Prayer is how we bring our will and our needs to the throne of God to have Him help us with our trials. He always answers and loves to bless us. We give him respect and our attention through prayer and our actions and He blesses us. I know this principle allows us to access the divine help that God wants us to receive.

Funny: We also got the chance to teach a hippie. After conference Saturday morning we taught a friend of a member. As I share this experience please remember that we are in California and that this is not an unusual experience. We taught Randi. She is a therapist for kids and works to help them with their problems. We talked to her about coming closer to the source. It wasn't that weird for us, it was a just a very Californian view on things. Just another example of how everyone starts from somewhere. And how we all have things to learn. She is actually progressing now! We will be meeting with her this next week. Yay!

Where I am at: Almaden is blowing up. I am so happy that things are finally picking up. We are still teaching Lori and Sam and we are meeting with Madison as well. Things are great. This week is zone conference. Yay! We are really excited about that. It’s kinda fun being where I am. We have been down to Monterey every week this transfer for errands and other things. For example we went tracting special with the Vietnamese Elder this week down there to help them find some work. It was really fun. I love this place. I am very happy here. I love you all!

The Goat Named Tapatio

This week was crazy. Lots of things happened and we had so many events this week. We did everything from going on splits with Tongans from the SFE Stake, to driving to San Mateo for a meeting, to helping an old guy piddle around his house. It was a fun week. I am loving being with Elder Matthias. I love the guy and I love this area. We are having a great time and seeing miracles every day. 

Spiritual: A lot went on this week. We got the chance to attend an ARP meeting with our returning member friend. I want to talk about what that meeting is like. As soon as we walked in I felt the Spirit. There were not a lot of people there, but the power of the Spirit was so real. It was an intense feeling in the room as people would share their experiences about their personal struggles and how they have overcome them or are in the process of using the Atonement to overcome them. That meeting touched Elder Matthias and I so much that for the next couple of days we studied the ARP (Addiction Recovery Program) booklet to find out how to more effectively teach the atonement and help people go through the repentance process better. I saw more and more how powerful the atonement is in the lives of those people who want to change. I know it is real and I know the power for change that lies within. It can be so so so hard to ask for help. From both friends, ecclesiastical leaders and from God, but He will give us the help we desire if we ask and follow the path to change. The moral of this message is that change is real and is Possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

Funny: On Friday night we went over to eat with the Johnston family. Oh my goodness I love them so much. They have a set of twin girls who are about nine and one other girl who is about six. This is the most adorable family ever. Lots of dolls and cute things. We went over and were having pulled pork sandwiches. Yum! The mom pulled us aside and told us how the night before they made the unfortunate mistake of watching Charlotte's Web. She told us that the girls were less than enthused to be having pulled pork for dinner. The girls gave us the stare down as we ate. 

Where I am at: Almaden is going well. We are super excited for Conferences! Both Zone conference coming us in the next few weeks and General Conference coming up soon. We are going to the temple this week and I am really looking forward to it. I love that place. I am going to be a good missionary now and FOLLOW UP on the challenge that I gave last week. We have made a lot of plans for Conference and having people watch it with us. Our goal is to never watch alone. The nice thing about conference is that if people don’t have a ton of time they can watch one or two talks, feel the Spirit and then go out again. We have made a lot of plans and set a lot of goals on how to meet with people more this week. Thank you so much for your feedback and your suggestions. I love you all and I feel so much love and support from friends and family back home. I love you all!

P.S. This is the reason for the title: A member told me they went to a farm and there were goats named after hot sauces. I thought that was the best name for a goat. 

See Them as They Might Become

Spiritual: This week despite some health setbacks, we were able to find two new investigators. The theme that I have seen for these new investigators is to see people not as they are, but as they may become. We got a phone call from brother Ainge (who happens to be the proud father of the well-known basketball star Danny Ainge) who told us that he had a Vietnamese family coming to his home to have lunch and that he wanted us to meet them and to start teaching them. We were thrilled. We went over with some Vietnamese missionaries just in case they didn't speak English, but we were so surprised when they spoke beautiful English. The thing that amazed us the most was the fact that they were so involved already in learning about the gospel. They had an employee in their company who had met them and started to introduce the gospel to them and they had met several other members who had shared the gospel with them. They were already so well loved and welcomed in. We went over and taught them the plan of salvation. We have taught several folks without a Christian background over the course of the mission but this was an interesting experience because they were actually willing to learn and grow. The spirit was so strong as we taught them why there were so many different ideas and concepts about deity. When we bore testimony the spirit filled the room. They were touched at what we said and I would bet that they didn't understand very much of what we said. They would later that day go over and have dinner with the bishop of another ward who would talk even more about it to them. They came to church on Sunday and are progressing very well now. It was so cool! We asked the employee what made him share the gospel with this couple and he said that when he first looked at them he saw a former mission president in him. What an example to follow. If we could all see our bosses as former mission presidents or as even just children of God, think about the impact that would have on our daily interactions. Our moments of opportunity would become precious and we would treat them as beings with divine potential. Our world would be a better place.

Funny: Today in District meeting we had a

Toast (We don’t know why the T was in there)

Thrive

On

Awkward

Situations

Turtles

Moments. Where we would reenact scenes from awkward times on missions. There were car scratches, attacking drunk ladies, drug dealings, breast feedings and so many more awkward things. Oh I love missions.

Where I am at: All of the investigators that we are working with seem to have one major problem. They all are very busy people and do not have a ton of time to meet with us. This also happens to be the biggest concern that they have about joining the church. They are concerned about the balance of time between the family and the church that they might have to give as well as the things that they would be asked to do. So... This week I am putting out a special Challenge to all who would like to participate. Please email the answer to this concern to me and I will pass along all of the responses to our investigators. Other than that, I am doing great. I love love love Elder Matthias, and we work really well together.

CHALLENGE QUESTION OF THE WEEK: How do I prioritize my church life vs. my family life?

I love you all so much. Things are great here in Almaden and I can feel the spirit very strongly.

The week with no letter

No letter from Ammon, but a few facebook photos. He was supposed to get a new companion this week.

Men on a Mission

This week was a good week. We are gearing up for transfers and for another busy week of putting pieces of the puzzle together. It never quite comes together until the very end. Then it works out perfectly. I love this work.

Spiritual: One of the goals I have before I end my mission is to make as big of a difference as I possibly can. I truly believe in my heart of hearts that Heavenly Father shows His love for us by providing us with small tender mercies. Small acts of kindness that help us know and understand Him better. I have seen that pattern over and over again with investigators and even with myself. He blesses us often times with small things that over time have a large impact on our lives. I have tried to follow that same example. I want to make a big difference, so I have been praying and asking Heavenly Father to help inspire me with little things that I can do to make a difference in someone’s life that day. The result has been very inspiring. This week has been full of little opportunities to make a difference in someone’s life. Small ways every time, but still meaningful ways. These things included leaving an orange on someone’s desk, putting my arm around and Elder and just telling him how awesome he was, picking up things for people, telling a joke or two, listening to a friend and writing a note. Every time not only did I feel the spirit confirm that what I was doing was pleasing in the sight of the Lord, I saw their lives get a little brighter as they realized that someone cared about them. Often times in the Gospel, we are so concerned with the big things. Do I have a testimony? or The Second Coming could happen tomorrow! Do I have my food storage? It would be good for us to remember that the ways God communicates with us, through small feelings, thoughts and impressions, are ways that we should emulate as we communicate with others. One of the purposes of the gospel is to bring joy into our lives and give us a vehicle to bring joy into the lives of others. Heavenly Father will inspire you with ways to bless and help those around you. The key is to let Him know through prayer that you are willing and ready to act on those promptings and be a blessing in the lives of others. The Spirit will bear testimony to you that what you are doing is right and you will see the impact in the lives of those you love. 

Funny: In the mission we are driving a huge 8 passenger van while our other car is being loaned out to another set of missionaries. Almaden valley right now is going through a massive crime wave. We have heard that there is a 400% crime increase in the valley. As such there are a lot of concerned citizens who are constantly on the lookout for suspicious looking characters driving suspicious looking cars. Unfortunately we look pretty suspicious. The other night at dinner we were talking to our host, Brother Yu and he got a phone call. A concerned neighbor had reported that two suspicious looking men in white shirts walked into his house! He said that they were missionaries and had a good laugh. We thought it was funny and moved on. It would be an okay story but then it happened again the next night! Good heavens! A woman came over during dinner and told the host the same story. Two suspicious looking men driving a huge van were in the home! She in turn introduced us. We wanted to have her make a payment of listening to the missionaries for false accusation but we decided not to. :) 

Where I am at: Things are great in Almaden. We just had a lesson with Lori and she is doing great! Learning and growing. She wants to know what she is getting herself into before she commits to be baptized. She is so cool! I love it here. Things are going really well and I am happy as a clam. I love you all! 

Orange you glad I didn't say banana?!?

Testimony Meeting

This week ended on a great note. We are so excited for things to come. We should be having two baptisms in the next few weeks and we are so excited about it! 

Spiritual: This week ended in a miracle. We have been trying to teach Sam and Lori. Sam is 10 years old and Lori is his mom. Lori was being taught in Oregon before she came here. They both came to church during fast and testimony meeting. We took them up to the front and sat down. Testimonies started but they were pretty sparse. I went up and bore a quick testimony of the Savior then sat down. Sam was acting pretty figidity. All of the sudden he leaned over to his mom and asked her a question. She shrugged and pointed at me. He leaned over to me then and asked if he could bear his testimony! We said that he absolute could and so he took a quick breath of courage and stood up. What a kid! His testimony went something like this "Hi! My name is Sam. This is my second time walking through those church doors. I have been going through a lot of trials recently and I feel like I have been helped by the missionaries and by Jesus. I feel like this church is a good fit for me and my family. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen." Of course at the end of that his mother and just about the entire congregation was in tears. It was so powerful. Later Lori would tell us that during the sacrament she had prayed to know if this church was the right one. She had asked for a sign to tell her if this was the right path for her family. She said that when she saw Sam be so confident and so articulate then she knew that she had gotten her sign. Wow. 

Funny: We taught Fatima this week. An Iranian lady who a member referred to us. Great lady! We went in and started to teach. We got all the way through the lesson and asked her what she thought about it. She said that she believes it all! Yay! We probed a little more and she really just believes everything. Sigh. Belief and testimony are two different things. Might have to work on that. :) 

Where I am at: Things are going great. We are excited for Sam and Lori and several others that we are working with. Transfers are coming up so things are going to get a bit crazy. I am so excited for the next chapter on my mission. Things are going great and going better every day. I am so grateful for the Lord for sending me to this wonderful place. It’s exactly where I need to be. I love you all!