Love this work!

Wow, glad all the pictures worked! ah...last week’s email was sooooo good! I spent my whole time writing it--yup none for the friends last week. Bummer that it didn’t work! I wanted that one for the journal. :( It didn’t work in my `sent` folder either. Well, we learn right?

Ok, I have needed to ask this question for a long time to quiet my companion. Is Trevor’s mission for 3 years because he’s going to Japan?? haha EVERYONE that I tell here that my little brother’s going to japan ask, ´so is he going to be out for 3 years?´ they think he needs a year to learn the language. I don’t know how they all think this, must be like a mormon myth here, but please appease this by telling me he’s not. I would die if I had to wait an extra year to see my lil bro again. :O

This saturday we have a baptism! Hopefully two to make up for last week. Franz Rodriguez is his name, AH, super bumbed that you didn’t get my last week’s email, i explained all about him. But pretty much my companion and I try to look for the people who are going to help build the kingdom to teach, and Franz is one of them. He’s an orthodontist of about 35 years who’s married to a girl that’s menos activo, but now who have come to church 3 times! When my comp started teaching him he said he would NEVER come to church or get baptized, but that they could keep coming, he just wanted to make sure they understood. So incredible seeing the way the spirit works on someone. His mind just isn’t at peace for past sins etc, so when my companion said that a baptism isn’t for a change of religion, but for a cleansing from sin, he jumped on that and initially came to church to ´meet the requirements´ of baptism(they have to go to church 2 times before they can be baptized.). Well, this last sunday his wife told us that HE told her that they had to be to church early and was the one to get them going. He also said, `I don’t know how, but those sisters are convincing me..`haha. NUH uh buddy! It’s the spirit!!! I have like 1 percent of it all. I’m just willing to show up and open my mouth and thankfully with the Lord thats sufficiente. Amazing. Saturday night we brought a member couple with us that is Franz´ same age who bore some powerful testimonies and the spirit was so strong. As tradition, we had Franz say the last prayer and he started to cry while he was saying it! Immediately after he started to cry he said `amen`and left the room. His wife was tearing up too. Incredible. Just seeing the difference from the beginning when he was trying to prove us wrong on everything and had a pride wall up, but to see the way the Lord softens hearts and humble people is incredible. Incredible. Afterwards the member gave him a priesthood blessing and everyone in the room was crying (except me...maybe cuz I still can’t understand everything..ha, but I definitely felt the spirit so strong). What was cool was that the Lord was able to strengthen two families through that one lesson. The lesson was way better than Martinez and I could’ve done alone and easier on our part because of their testimonies, Franz and Vanessa learned from an outside perspective AND the members were able to have a spiritual experience and remember how they got testimonies. The members thanked us afterwards, they were really touched. Incredible. All it took was a little extra coordination on our part. Work smarter not harder as Hermana Martinez says.

I’ve realized that that's really what the difference is. Working a little smarter and the small things make the difference. Today at zone meeting the zone leaders asked us to teach for about 40 minutes. We had the most baptisms in the zone for the last month (one a week), and so they wanted to us to help the rest of the missionaries learn how to have success as well. My companion has this bomb article list thing with 3 kinds of missionaries on it. `The Social Missionary`, The Honorable Missionary`, and `The Consecrated Missionary`. The social one is always looking for fun, relies on his own talents to teach people, he looks for excuses when he’s being corrected--always blames it one someone else (always a reason for why he does something wrong, or why he chose to not live the higher law), lives the commandments or rules that he wants to--cafeteria obedience, or does it so he doesn’t get in trouble, is looking for the praise of others and recognition. The consecrated missionary is the one that is incredible. He is obedient because he wants to be, he welcomes correction from his leaders to become better, his study journal is filled with spiritual impressions he's received, he’s constantly looking for ways to improve, strengthen his testimony, and learn more to help others, he sees others as they really are--his brothers and sisters, precious souls of our Heavenly Father, those with the capacity to become Gods and Goddesses. The Honorable one is somewhere in the middle. The crazy thing is that all 3 of the missionaries are doing the same things, it’s just HOW they do them. It’s just their attitude and commitment to God. We can all learn from this. Keep doing the same awesome things, but like while we study do it prayerfully, have more love when we talk to people and always remember him and our purpose in being here on the earth. How we do things makes all the difference. Just that LITTLE extra effort and thinking.

So i got bit by a dog yesterday!!! hahaha i was just walking down the street minding my own business and ignoring a barking dog like I do every day, when that dang dog ran up and bit my hand while it was in my coat pocket! Haha my companion makes fun of me for my slow reaction time, but I literally was so confused by what had just transpired that I just stood there and looked at the stupid animal. we had an eye contact exchange and then I walked away rubbing my hand because of the pain and just shaking my head thinking, ´did that just happen?´haha so at that moment I was kind of having a bad attitude because my companion decided that I would decide what we were going to do and I was feeling sorry for myself for ´not knowing as much spanish as I would like and because I couldn’t remember street names or names of members etc and I’m going to have to lead the sector next week when  my companion goes home and I’m still in my training, and I want to learn by example while she’s still here-aka have her do everything ha´. ya bad attitude. I think the Lord in his mercy gives us dog bites or wake up calls to get a move on and get going! We´re on the earth to learn so let’s get going and dive into the hard times with a good attitude! News flash, it’s not easy! Lets rejoice because we`re here! We`re living Gods great plan of happiness and have the opportunity to learn to become more like Him! We have bodies (an INCREDIBLE gift from God) when a third of the hosts of heaven didn’t! We have the gospel!!!!!!!!!! PARTY!!!!

I love the strippling warriors more and more. They had less experience than EVERYONE else and they `had never fought, yet they did not fear death`, and what happened?? They dominated! They trusted God and he was with them! They had remembered the things they were taught in fhe and remembered the little faith they had first (like Holland said in his last conference talk). So remember, when we are called to the work and think we're not good enough (at least deaths not on the line eh?) or don’t have experience, don’t know the language, TRUST God. And we will always come out victorious.

I’m realizing more and more that the mission is the ultimate learning zone. I have learned so much and I’ve only been out for almost 3 months!(whoa crazy) I am so grateful to the Lord. Well, there’s my soap box, I’ll share more experiences and miracles next week. I LOVE this work and the Lord.

Take care this week, party in cali for me!

much love,

Mal