March 24, 2014

Hey.........

      How is everyone?? It seems like you all have been so busy. I’m glad that at least you have a little bit of time to write me. Dad couldn’t have said it better in his email! I’m pretty glad that this last week is over. This last week was pretty hard. I received some very sad news. 3 elders that are really close to me have been sent home and that made me really sad. These 3 Elders are like brothers to me out here.  It’s like dad said, it’s just for those small things that turned into bigger things. I find it weird that mom sent me a photo of that scripture and dad in his letter also mentioned that. So this last week was a little more tough but I won’t let that change the work and the spirit here in the mission.

     I can’t believe I will be seeing you guys in a little less than 5 months. I'm just going to make the best that I can out of my mission with this short time that I have left. The Lord has blessed us so much here and we are now blessed to be in charge of another area here in Victoria. Yes we are in charge of 2 areas…Central and Bicentenario. We will be having a bautismal this coming week for the Central area. So I guess that is cool right???

     This last week was the Conference of the Stake and President Jordan was here. He gave a really good talk. He has a lot of love for us Elders. It was nice to have the Conference. We gave a blessing that same night in the area of Central. The spirit was super strong there. I was training a recent convert and mission leader how to do the blessing. It all turned out beautiful.  I hope the surgery went good for the baby.

     We have about 4 investigators now and none of them are progressing. I feel blessed that at least we have investigators. Tomorrow we are going to get another.  He is a reference and they said that he is like gold.  So we shall find out.  I have esperansa confiansa y fe que si:) I love you all so much!  Have a great week.

   Love,

    Elder Lawrence

March 17, 2014

What’s up me familia...

     How is everything goin with you guys?  Everything is going great here in Victoria. The time seems to keep flyin by so fast! So yeah, I can’t believe I lost my wallet. Well, I didn’t lose it... someone stole it. I accidently left it in the car of a member and they had it there ready to give to me but that night someone stole it.  So somebody is walking around with the picture of a white boy hahah.

     So I got the package from G-ma. Tell her thanks for the cough drops and CTR rings. I also got the valentines package from you….thanks, the shirt is pretty awesome haha…I like it!

     I didn’t know that Blake is playing on the tennis team!  Well that is pretty cool I guess.

     The Rama Bicentenario is going really good! We have been working really hard here. But what is hard on us right now is that we do not have any investigators that are really progressing. We have contacted and searched many references. We’ve got now 3 investigators, and we have the faith that they will progress and make the choice to come unto Christ. This last week in church we had a good turnout. Lots of menos activos and recent converts went to church. The one thing that is missing in this Rama is the Priesthood. So this week we have the goal to focus on looking for old Priesthood holders and to find new investigators. We have been talking to everyone!!  We are really hoping that the spirit will be touching the hearts of everyone as well. All we do is follow the spirit because it’s impossible without the spirit.

     Today we went to the zoo. It was pretty cool!  It was just a lot of animals like normal haha. I love you all so much!!  I hope that you guys have an amazing week!! God is with us.

Elder Lawrence

 Doing a service project 

 The Zoo

March 10, 2014

Hey there everybody…

     Wow how lucky are you guys!!! I wish I had the chance to go to Vegas with ya’ll.  Sounds like you guys had a great time there. I sure hope so!!  Seems like everything is going super good for all of you.  You guys are definitely receiving blessings…I know that for a fact!

     So this last week has actually been pretty cold here in Victoria. My new Companion is Elder Quiñones and he got here last Monday night. He is super awesome!! We get along great! He is a little bit smaller than me and he likes to exercise.   We have been exercising every morning and night.  I’m going to get back looking like super man. Haha no that is not true….probably more like a Latino than anything else haha.  He is a really nice guy and a super hard worker. I really can feel the love that he has for me and the area. I’m really excited to be companions with him. I really hope that I will be able to learn a lot from him so we can help others come unto Christ.

     This week we did a lot of searching for old investigators.  We found a couple of names that seem like the families are ready to accept the gospel and we were pretty grateful for that. We are still praying and hoping to find more. We have been talking to everyone and asking for references from everyone. We really want to get our group of people that we are teaching to 30 or more. We feel like it is definitely possible.

      This week the attendance at church was not too great. It seems like the cold weather and rain was a little hard on the people in our area. But we did have a pretty good turnout with recent converts. I’m so thankful to be in an area where we have the help of the members and our Ward Mission Leader. The Visiting Teaching here is great also. There are 5 pairs of visiting teachers and everyone did their visits this week. We were happy about that.

I am excited to watch the progress this change.

     So Elder Quiñones has about 15 months in the mission. So he knows what he is doing but I have been training him in the area all this week. We visited everybody......... we talked to so many people and taught some really spiritual lessons, it was awesome.  One family we taught is the Familia Camacho. The dad attended the lesson and he never attends…he usually leaves.  The lesson with him was so tight.  We put a goal with him to stop drinking and everything. So we will see how the progress goes with him. The work of the Lord is growing. The spirit is strong and it’s a beautiful thing to be a part of.

     I am pumped for Nadia, BreAnn ... and that kid with the beard…. Blake or something like that haha. They will all be serving missions soon and that’s so awesome!  Blake should go up North with all the family and go through the temple because that was awesome! It’s great to hear how good everyone is doing and that Kamrie made dance team. Well I hope you all have a great week!  Love you all so much. Best family ever!!! 

Elder Lawrence

 This is the class Principios del Avanjelio (Gospel Principles class)

 Last day with Elder Montoya

 My new companion Elder Quinones

Pres. Johnson came to speak to us.  He is a member of the Seventy.

March 3, 2014

Hello,

      Sounds like you guys had an awesome time at the cabin this last week! Wish I could have been there to spend the last time at the cabin with you guys…but the new cabin house is going to be super awesome too! I’m excited for that!!!

      So yeah, Elder Montoya went home…he should be arriving at his house any moment now. Sooo crazy!  I’m definitely going to miss that guy. He was such a great missionary. He was full of emotions on his last day... sad, happy, nervous…all the emotions in one. So I will be staying here in Bicentenario!!! I’m super excited about that!!! I have become really close with everyone in this Rama. I really care about these guys here. My new companion will be Elder Quiones or something like that. He isn’t here with me yet but he should be getting here tonight. I’m looking forward to the next 6 weeks getting to know him and work with him. It’s always pretty tough when a good companion gets changed. I will miss being companions with Elder Montoya… but I’m sure I will have just as much success with my new companion.

     We always have a pretty good turnout in church and this last week was no different. We had about 15 less active members show up to church. Right now we don’t really have any solid investigators. So that will be a great new goal for me and my new companion.

     So guess what?  It is pretty cold here again. I kinda wish it would just stay hot haha.  I don’t like the cold to much…but it’s all good.

     That’s pretty crazy that everyone in Blake’s grade is getting their mission calls.  That’s way exciting!

 

     Well I’ve got to go because we are going to be pretty busy today.  Right now I’m with two other Elders and we will pick my companion up later.

 I love you all so much!! Best family ever!! Have a great week!!:)

     "It is impossible for us to fail when we do our best when we are on the Lord’s errand."

—M. Russell Ballard, and Elder Lawrence