September 30, 2013

Hola HOLA hola!! hello…

     How are you my friends? So what’s up?  How are you guys doing?  So I believe that everything is part of the plan of God… I always have believed that.  This week Elder Girot was sent to another area and he is no longer my companion. It is now just Elder Santeliz and me. I really did learn a lot from Elder Girot though.  It turned out not to be too bad.   We actually ended up having a pretty good time!

     Right when Elder Girot left though you bet your bottom dollar that we went to work papi! We cleaned that house right up.  Now the house is nice and I love it. It’s all clean and organized. We’re in the process of organizing the folders of the people we teach. We asked the ward for a new member list and I’m getting things together here. We are going to see the progress of Marta Redondo because this area really is awesome. I really do love it!  I now know with the super good energy in the air and the love that this area is going to be the bomb! There is work to be done here and we are doing it. Elder Girot only wanted to teach the people that he was custom too, but we are going to be going out now and looking for a whole bunch of new people to teach and work with.  I now have the list of members in the ward that will help us a lot.  We talked about having a meeting with the leaders in the area of Consejo de Barrio. Don’t know what it’s called in English. Were going to put together invitations for the conference and pass them out to everyone!!!!  We’re pumped for the conference! I can’t wait… it is going to be awesome to watch.  Conference is going to be in Spanish I think but that’s fine with me. We’re also putting together an activity for the ward. Yeah, there is some good stuff that is happening here in Marta Redona.

     I never lost enthusiasm, even in the trio (as hard as it was).  I’m blessed to be in this area and I know that Elder Santeliz and I can progress this area more. We now have 3 baptism dates set and 45 people went to church this last week.  When I first started here there was 28 people who went to church. The hand of the Lord really is here and it’s all about that love baby haha.

     Well everything is super good!!!  Elder Rodas gave me his old charger:) so I will be able to charge my camera. Well I hope all ya’ll have a marvelous week. I know I will because I’m in the work of the Lord.  I love you all so much and all of you are in my prayers. CTR everyday. pray, read the scriptures and go to church.  That is the key to a great life.  Loves ya bye Adios me frens y familia. With lots of love, your brother, your friend, your friendly neighborhood missionary.

Elder Lawrence

September 23, 2013

Hello hello…
      How is it going family? I hope everyone is super good. I’m doing good… that is for the time being...haha… I don’t know what the problem is with one of my companions but he hasn’t tried to got along once with me at all. He is so not cool, but my other companion Elder Santeliz is super cool and we get along really good!  It’s hard to work in unidad (unity) when my one companion is weird about everything.  I’m pretty sure he doesn’t like that me and Elder Santeliz get along.  I also think he doesn’t like me for other reasons. For instance he has 5 months in Matraredonda and a lot of the members don’t even remember his name. He has like no love for the people and everyone here already remembers my name. When were walking the other day all the members yell… “Hey Elders... Elder LAWRENCE”.  I just have that gift where I can get along with everyone really easy and everyone likes me.  I do not think he likes that at all.  I haven’t had any problems really in the mission but I think he definitely is a test for me and he’s an American too!! Wow! I’ve tried to get along with him and I have love for everyone…so I don’t know what this guy’s problem is but whatever it is it’s his problem. Dad, this dude would never take the day off to clean the house. I’m not going to say anything more.

      Elder Santeliz and I cleaned the house the other night.  It’s a little better now and that’s a good thing because I’m sleeping on the floor on a little mattress pad and there is a lot of dirt always on the floor that we sweep up every night.  I haven’t seen any cockroachs in this house so that is good and for that I’m grateful.

     I’m pretty excited for conference!   Mom, I’ll buy a charger as soon as possible… and yeah, the members still feed us here and yep I live in the State of Veracruz. There is like 3 stores here and they are little little stores. We have to cross the river to buy our stuff.  We bought our food and stuff at Walmart this week.

      That was awesome to hear about Ethan and how good they did at his tournament, congratulations!!  Well, I've got to go… I love you all so much!!! 

Elder Lawrence

  (These pictures were taken before my last transfer)

September 18, 2013

Hey what’s up family!!

      Yeah, the hurricane was pretty cool, I guess. It rained sooo much…way super hard.  It was to the point where President said that we couldn’t leave our houses. The streets got super flooded. I was walking around in water up to my knees.  It was a pretty good time you could say haha.

     So yeah we had cambios (changes) and I got a new companion, and I’m also in a new area. The area is actually really sweet!  It’s a pueblo (small village place) It’s like an island kinda because we have to cross the river to get there. We don’t cross the river in car, we cross in a little boat thing hahahaha…it’s pretty legit. From what I have seen of my area it’s super cool!!! I’m pretty excited! So yeah, Elder Leon and I both left our area. I’m now in a trio. So there are three of us missionaries. Its kinda weird but sweet I guess. One is Mexican and one is American. The American is Elder Girot. He has like 20 months in the mission or somethin, and the other is Elder Santeliz and he has about 7 months in the mission. I don’t think we will be in the trio for that much time though because new missionaries are coming this next week. So I guess we will see what happens. I’m just going to try to learn as much as possible in this time that I can. I bet I can learn a bunch of words being with another American. It will be a little different to get used to but it should be good. I didn’t really even have time to say good bye to the members in my other area so that is kinda sad. There are some really good people there but I’m really excited to get to know the new people here in this area. I hope they are some nice people. The church is super small.  It only has about 30 members that attend or something. So I will definitely get my turn to give a talk hahahaha. Probably like every other week, who knows?  Oh yeah, so my area is actually considered part of Veracruz. How cool is that, huh??

     Soooooooooooo yeah, the reason I haven’t sent pictures in so long is… well, I guess you could say that I lost my charger. I’m pretty sure someone stole it but who knows? So I haven’t been able to charge my camera or take pictures. I’m probably going to buy a new charger soon because I’m going to want to take some photos ya know. Were making memories here!!!

      So that’s pretty cool all the waterfalls and stuff that you guys have had there in Hurricane. It’s green…wow!!! So how is school going with everyone?? I hope good.

      I feel like it will be kinda weird for me going from such a big ward to a small little ward. I’m pretty stoked though. We went to the house just real fast though and it’s not nice at all. It’s super small and dirty. The toilet doesn’t work. I could probably go on on on but I’m not going to. You want to know why??? Because I’m Elder Lawrence and us Lawrence’s aren’t babies. We don’t complain about things…We JUST DO IT, like Nike haha!  Nah, but really there isn’t room for me there, even though I’m not even that big…but it’s alright haha.

     Well, I love you all and hope all of you are doing good!  I always pray for you guys. Have a good rest of the week. Goo be me frens… haha love you all. Adios.

   Elder Lawrence

September 11, 2013

Hola Familia...que tal!

     This week has been really good and now it’s almost over haha.  I’m in week 6 and that means that I will probably be getting a new companion and a new area this next Monday.  Isn't that super crazy?  So today is our p-day...it got changed because we went to the temple on Monday.  It was really great to go to the temple and feel the spirit and love there.

     This past week was pretty good. We had a sufficient amount of lessons with all the less active members. But it was really difficult to come in contact with our investigators.  None of them seemed to be home.  I know that one person was out of town for work. But the others we never got the chance to teach them really. So that was really a bummer for us. We have been trying hard to get our investigators to progress but every time we  mention baptism they seem a little put off by that. The one thing that I have been so happy to see is how many menos activos that have really been progressing.  I can tell that they are feeling a lot more happy and really feeling the love of Christ in their lives.  I love to see that!

      Well everything has been going really good with Elder Leon and I.  I had divisions with Elder Christensen the other day. That was really good. You would not believe how much that it has been raining here!  All of the streets are super flooded. It’s actually pretty hard to get around.

     So it sounds like you guys had an awesome weekend in salt lake and also a good time in Pine Valley…that is really good to hear. So the package that I received was the one that has all of the garments and stuff. It was nice to put on some clean garments haha. So I bought some shoes the other day but they were really super cheap…like 10 dollars. I will definitely have to buy another pair sometime soon haha.

     That’s supa crazy that Kade is already home from his mission! I can’t believe that Nate only has 4 months left.  And me!!! What the heck can you believe I’ve been out a year?  That is so crazyyy... I feel like I just left!!! I am also being careful… you shouldn’t worry too much haha. Well I’m glad that everyone is doing good. I love you guys so much!  Have a good week.

Elder Lawrence

September 2, 2013

Hola Familia,

     Holy cow!!! It seems like everyone is sick back at the house!! That’s no fun. How can that be? You should be receiving those good old blessings some time soon... no but for real it’s such a blessing to have the gospel in our lives and the power of the priesthood. The other night one sister called us at like twelve, saying that her daughter was not feeling good at all.  We actually live above them. So we changed really fast and ran downstairs, and gave the daughter a blessing. The mom was crying and everything because the spirit was so strong. We are so blessed to have this power here on the earth…especially in our own house. The sad thing is, the dad was there and he is an ex Bishop who now is inactive and he couldn’t give the blessing. That just shows that there is also opposition in all things and we need to be very aware of that. Because of that, the prophets and everyone are always preaching obedience like you said. It is so important:)

      Peach days huh... I bet that was boring as usual... haha jk jk!  So I got the other package from you. Well actually Elder Rodas called me and said that it came. So I will get it this Wednesday.  Haha...Yes, I'm very excited!!!  

     So this last week was pretty good. None of our investigators are progressing that much... Angel, José, Ricardo, Bernice, None of them. We had 13 less actives go to church on Sunday.  So that stayed the same.  But you know what?  It's totally a process, and it's all part of the plan of God.   

     Anyway, I’m doing good! I Can’t believe that I will be out here one year in 5 days…that’s so crazy!  I’m going to have to party super hard for that. Maybe buy some tacos in front of the house for 2 pesos or something hahahah jk.  So my first pair of shoes are done!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha ill send a pic some time.  Good thing I still have the other that I haven’t really used at all:)

      I love you guys so much!  Thanks for all your support and prayers. Have a super great week. Love you adios.

    Elder Lawrence