The week Ammon did not put a title, but when I asked him what he wants for his birthday he said "A mission extension" (Sigh)

I am in good spirits today. Things are going great round this place. The work is going well. We are still meeting with the miracles that happened last week. We are really excited for their potential. 

Spiritual: This week we were able to teach Adrian our 18 year old investigator. He is a great kid. Last time we met with him we asked him to complete three of the questions in the back of the pamphlet. When we came back to teach him he had completed all of the questions. Yay! It was awesome! He even showed us the questions that he answered and he explained how they worked. It was really cool to see. He understood the apostasy really well. Our next step was to help him learn how to read the Book of Mormon so he could start on the path to conversion. We read 1 Nephi 1 with him and had him liken it to himself. When he was reading and explaining how it was so much like his story the spirit touched me. I felt the Spirit so strongly as we were talking about the scriptures. The Book of Mormon changes lives. It gives a perfect vehicle for the Spirit to reach in and touch our hearts and help us learn truth. The Book of Mormon is the Word of God. I know that it has the power to change lives. I have seen my desires, my life and my convictions change as I have read it and applied it into my life. It’s true. It changes lives. I so testify. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Funny: Exchanges in the Vietnamese program this week! Oh my goodness. I have never felt so useless in my life. That is a really hard language. We went contacting in a market and it was just a couple days before New Year and it was crazy! So many fireworks and just mayhem going on. Elder Kwon taught me a few words. He taught me to say hello to people. The phrase is Jung Go for a girl or Jung Jew for a guy. The first person I talked to was a Vietnamese man who I walked right up to and said a friendly "Jung Go!" He was not very happy that a white awkward looking elder just called him a girl. 

Where I am at: Things are going great here. I am happy and loving life. We are planning a lot of fun activities to get the youth going in the ward. We love it here and are doing a lot of good work. This transfer the sisters that I came out with are going home. It’s an interesting landmark to be a part of. One of those landmarks where you think about but think it will never come. Now comes the sprint to the finish. I love you all!

A great photo from a very nice member.

Elders Mario and Luigi? I asked him if they drove home crazy that night.

Miracle of 6

This week was nothing short of miraculous. Wow. It was an amazing week. Miracles every day. It was awesome to say the least.

Spiritual/Where I am at: There are so many things I want to talk about this week. The fact that Heavenly Father Hears and answers our prayers in ways that are perfect for us, how impactful friends are to our spiritual well-being, how God Loves us so so much. I could talk about blessings and trials of some of the roughest varieties and about how one of the richest men I have ever met in my life gave us the secret to his success. But I won’t. :) I will talk about miracles. This past little while in the mission we changed around the standards of excellence. These are the numbers that we report on to the mission. These should be the results of our efforts that make the most difference to helping people come closer to Christ. For example we reported and still report new investigators, Lessons taught with a Member Present, and acts and hours of service. We changed up some of the goals that the mission set. For example the mission set the goal of 2 new investigators a week. This was a pretty big bill to foot, but through an inspired mission president the standard changed to be 6 new investigators. Through some faith, hard work and mostly by the grace of God, we found 6 new investigators this week. What a week. They completely fell down from heaven. They were almost all found through media referrals from Mormon.org. Wow. Marry and Larry are doing great. Larry came to church; Lori and her son came to church and loved it as well. What a miracle. I have some real tender feelings when it comes to these things. It is such an honor and a blessing to be working in this part of the vineyard. It is completely the grace and mercy of the Lord that he decided to bless us with these miracles. It is through Him that we do all that we do. It is so much my testimony that the Lord loves us and is more concerned with our happiness and our eternal well-being than about our image or our prowess in society. We taught a young man named Adrian this week. He came to church two Sundays ago and we were able to teach him Tuesday night. He is a great kid. Really nice. 18 and goes to college in San Jose. When we were studying that morning the theme of revelation kept standing out over and over. So when we went to teach him that is what we taught about. It was perfect. The Lord Lives. He inspires us. It’s TRUE!

Spiritual/Funny: This last week we received a media referral. We went over to the home looking for a Michael. We went over to the house and rang the doorbell. We saw a little kid poke his head out the window, saw his eyebrows hit the roof, and then run away. Elder Fisher and I just looked at each other a little worried. We were expecting the door to be answered any moment but it wasn't so. We waited then finally knocked again. This time the same little kid answered the door and said "Oh!" Then booked it away, door still wide open. Then a 14 year old came to the door and we asked if we could speak to Michael. He replied and said "So... Um... Yeah, Michael isn't home right now." "Oh!" We said, "Can we come back sometime and..." Then his mom came out from the back room and said "Michael? Who are these people?" Can you say BUSTED? Long story short, a friend had played a joke on him and had sent us over. Awkward. Especially when his mom kept saying "Michael. Why would he do this?" So she made him say sorry to us and listen to us because she felt bad that he was wasting our time. We gave him a copy of the book of Mormon and were able to set a return appointment. We just got back from teaching him. It was so cool. In his second lesson he was seriously considering baptism and had read a few pages from the Book of Mormon. God works in mysterious ways!

I am very happy and doing well. We have a lot of exchanges happening here soon. Tomorrow I am going into the Vietnamese program. Yay!

I love you all!

Words with Friends

This week was full of miracles. It was finally pay off week here in Almaden. We had a bunch of miracles happen and there are still a ton of things that are going to come up. We also sent the outgoing missionaries home. Oh that was rough. There were some of my best friends in that group. It was hard to see them go. I am sure that they will be okay and they all have brilliant futures in front of them. It was also a very emotionally draining week for President and Sister Mella. They sent their son, Nathan to the MTC in Mexico today. That was rough on them. It was so much fun to interact with him before he left as well. 

Spiritual: This week we got a referral for Larry and Marry. The note said that Larry was YSA age and that Marry was his mother. We went over and knocked on the door. Marry opened the door. She is about in her mid-40s and a very pleasant lady. We struck up a conversation and it was really fun to talk to her about how she came here from Canada and a little about how she was interested in teaching and then we asked her about how she knew who we were and why she wanted us to come over. She said that she loved the Mormon ideology and she wanted her son to be like us and join our church. She said that she loved the community and loved all the things about the church. We thought that was awesome. We noticed though that she did not refer herself. She had someone else put in the referral online. We asked her how she met the lady that referred her to the church. She said it was through the online game of Words with Friends. I confess, I laughed. I am amazed at how the Lord works in amazing ways to bring about his purposes. I see it over and over again that the Lord will bring people into His fold whatever way he can. From Words with Friends to Christmas parties. The key for us is to in whatever situation we as members might be in is to invite whenever we have the opportunity. The Lord lives. He Loves us. He wants us to be happy and he wants us to experience the Joy that comes by accepting the gospel and helping others experience that same joy. I promise you it will be the best feeling in the world. Take courage and if you have been having that feeling that you need to share it, THIS IS THE TIME. Take heart, take courage and act. I can promise you that you will feel the spirit with you even more and that the Lord will see and reward your effort. I leave this promise with you in the sacred name of our savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Funny: This was actually a really funny week this week. We had a lot of strange experiences with Tongans and planes. (Do you know how hard it is to get those Tongans back to Tonga? Yikes.) We heard a really funny story from a few missionaries this week. They were street contacting and they ran into a Jamaican man. He came up to them and said "Hey mon! Jesus was black mon!" The missionary responded "Really?" "He even has dreadlocks mon!" "Really? How do you know that?" "It says it in the scriptures mon! It talks all the time about the great and DREDfull day of the Lord!" Bwahaha 

Where I am at: We had a good week as far as work was concerned. Despite the fact that it was transfer week we still were able to see a lot of miracles this week. It was touching to me to see the hand of the Lord in the lives of people that I am serving. I love being able to watch that and recognize that. I am really happy to be where I am. I can officially say that the Joy of a mission comes from being able to watch people’s lives be impacted by the Lord. The most amazing part is when they decide to turn. They might be going down a path of life and sometimes within a matter of only 6 weeks they turn their life. That big of a change is a hard and dramatic thing to behold. It’s beautiful to see. I know that there Is A God. His character is such that He loves us. All that He is and all that He wants is for us to be happy with Him forever. This means that he will test us and help us grow but it is always with love. He Lives. He loves us. We are His children. I cannot deny that. I testify of the reality of that message. I love you all!

What happens when the missionaries take the mission president's wife's phone.

Weekly Planning

We are really stressing a new Youth Mission Week idea for the ward and we are really excited about it! I am super happy to be here during this time. Just remember that God loves us and we can gain strength from his Spirit. I am so grateful to know that. 

Spiritual: The spirit that outgoing missionaries have is incredible. They radiate the Love of God that has been flowing through them for the last 18 months to two years. I love being in their presence. I am so happy to be in the position to be able to work with them. This week was a little crazy because of transfers. We have been working like dogs to get everything in order to be able to get things going for people to be moved all over the mission. I am a firm believer now that President Mella is a man that has been called of God. The mission leadership is inspired. It has been so cool to view that revelatory experience. A lot of missionaries do not understand what goes on for transfers and what an intense experience it is. The first thing we do is fast and pray together for the Lord to guide our thoughts and direct our hearts to bring to pass conversion. What an incredible experience that is. We then remove all of the outgoing missionaries and then proceed to remove all the missionaries who are up for transfers. The first decision we actually make is to pick the missionaries who will train this next transfer. We then start moving missionaries in. We generally decide it based on feelings and thoughts we have about what will help them have the best chance for success. It’s amazing to see and feel the confirmation that what we picked was right. It is an incredible experience. The message that I want to share most though is that Transfers are based on Faith. We do not know for sure where the missionaries need to go but we have faith that the Lord is directing our thoughts so we do not fear. It’s an incredible sensation. The hard part is that we sometimes have to wait all the way through a transfer to find out why a companionship is together. I will keep you posted for the miracles. Just remember that even leaders work on faith. The faith of the individual and the faith of the leader are the things that precede the miracle. The trick is to remember that the Miracle will come.

Funny: The Vietnamese elders brought in a box of chicken today that they got from a member in the branch. The head was still in the box. As was the foot. With the "Large Talons." We decided we were not hungry. :)

Where I am at: Transfers rule our life. It’s a busy time of year but we are having a good time helping the mission. I love where I am at. I love seeing the gospel change the members as well as the missionaries. This is a happy time of life for Elder Black. I am so in Love with this place. I love you all!