New companion- February

Dear Friends and family,

I have to be honest I've been complicating things unnecessarily and this has been driving me a little crazy:) Yesterday at Church we read the prophet's message and it said...

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

I've been obsessing a little bit on learning Spanish. I study very hard during our 1 hr and then before a couple of days ago I would try to force my mind to think in Spanish during the day. This only made it so I didn't talk to my companion as much as I should and also it made me focus more on something that is good but just not the best. 

I've decided to bring it back down to the basics. 1=love God 2=love others... This is very basic but this is the core of what I(we) must do to live the way our Father wants us to live! With this new focus I know everything will fall into place! I feel very calm and grateful that God has guided me down this new path. I already feel so much more calm it's wonderful...just wonderful!

Picking up my new companion Elder Garcia

Saying Good bye to Elder Nelson

The more I think about it the more I wish I could have helped Elder Nelson more. He was depressed and because I didn't want to hurt his feelings, I just was nice and kept going day to day without truly addressing the issue of helping him improve his attitude. I pray his new companion Elder Donakey can really help him so he can finish his mission strong. 

As far as it goes with Elder Garcia-my new companion. It is easy to say on the first week that "wow I love my new companion" however I really do!!! Being around a very good man such as Elder Nelson was great but some of the personal struggles with negativity he had brought me down a little bit and Elder Garcia is flushing that out! He was less active for a period of 6 months during his teenage years after moving from Guatemala to St. George. He has such a drive to testify that families can be together forever. As of now his family, though members, have not been sealed in the the temple. He is striving so hard to serve a fantastic mission so that by his example he can help his family come closer unto Christ. It's wonderful! He doesn't like tracting as much as I do, but he has sooo many good ideas of how we can use our time more effectively specifically with the 8:00 hour.(ex. write letters to less actives and members, document less actives so we don't lose the people that we've found- if we do not have any appointments set)

In Bridgeport so many great things are happening!
 
Robert-
despite being told he has to vacate by April 1, he is staying calm and faithful. I can see the change in his eyes and it's incredible. I knew from the moment we saw him that God was going to show me how he can change people and so he is. Everyday he has been reading and praying and this week we had some fantastic lessons with him.
The first was with Elder Nelson and we read 1 Nephi 3 together. He, while we were reading took a moment and said, " I know God is telling me I need to stop...I just need to do it!" He also later said he really truly wants to be baptized on May 14 to show his mom he loves her. It's really tender and I know it just may seem he's trying to push it off but he really is making some progress
Another lesson we had was on Priesthood authority. We put the restoration video into his little DVD player a neighbor gave to him and watched it together, after we opened the scriptures and discussed how as in ancient times we have the power of God once again on the Earth. It was really special for me to describe along with Elder Garcia that through our Fathers we have the power of God.-truly humbling-and a tender moment. We then gave him a blessing, and I gave it because obviously he doesn't know Elder Garcia too well yet. It was such a great moment being able to give him a blessing of comfort and strength to overcome his addiction. How grateful I am that God trusts me. After Robert asked if I would Baptize him. He was very determined and excited and I was very humbled and honored. Robert also loved Church this Sunday. He asked if it's okay to pray for the Patriots to win the super-bowl and I guess he did and God honored his prayer!:)

Bryan-
We weren't able to see him all week until yesterday oh and what a blessing it is to have Elder Garcia. I can do fairly well with my Spanish but obviously not as good as him! He is sooo helpful and truly a tender mercy for Brian. Bryan is hesitant to continue forward but he has read 16 chapters of the Book of Mormon this week! We discussed that he can know for himself what he needs to do and if the Book of Mormon is true through sincere prayer and reading! We are excited to go back and see if he followed through with his commitment! My favorite moment of our lesson is when we kneeled, and he asked if this is true. These are the moments that make all that searching for souls and knocking in a foot of snow worth it! After the prayer, he said he felt peaceful. We haven't been able to talk to his mom or his brother because they were not home but I pray God will help them all as Bryan reads and prays.

Ric-
He feels like he has arrived, but he hasn't read the Book of Mormon. We are going to have a do or die lesson of the Restoration at the Church with our ward mission leader Brother Riggan. 

The New Ones
We had 2 great lessons with some of our stagnant investigators.
La familia Perez
We had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon! They were very intrigued with the introduction of the Book and 3 Nephi 11. When we got to the point in the introduction where it talks about Christ coming to the Nephites I asked them if they would like to know what he said and we read it and even went as far to ask them if they wanted to be baptized the same way Jesus said we needed to be baptized and they said they already had been baptized-we will save that battle for another day

Domingo
We had a fantastic lesson about the restoration of the Gospel and invited him to read the Book of Mormon and he really has the desire to! REALLY but we haven't been able to follow up on how his reading and asking for an answer went!

We found this quite strange 18 year old boy named Zydani who found me in the store while Elder Garcia was in the restroom. I kind of really needed to go, and he tapped me on the shoulder and asked us to come to his house. We did and my goodness I have never met such a strange individual in my life. We gave him the Book of Mormon and I really hope he can open his heart. I have faith. The gospel is for everyone-even the unique ones:)

While we were waiting for our companions to come I was with Elder Najarian. It was reaching that time when we needed to go pick them up and we didn't know what to do. We decided to pray and we felt like we needed to go across the street and so we did. we found a person with their bible wide open on their table. Crazy! God does guide us we just have to trust him.

Last night we didn't know where to go and with Bridgeport being such a quiet place people are usually in bed by 7:30 which is pretty frustrating. We prayed and went clear to the boonies to knock on a less actives door. They let us in, and we were able to have such a great discussion about Christ and missionary work. He does answer prayers! I will try to make prayer a more powerful part about choosing where we go!

Just a quick summary but usually when we knock on doors I've always been the more social one even though my Spanish has been a less than my older companions and so it will be with Elder Garcia. It's really fun but usually we get talking, they don't realize what I say and so they look to Elder Garcia with a puzzled look and he keeps the conversation going. It's hard these people of what ever religion believe in Christ but they don't have a desire to come closer to him.

oh one more thing we met some pretty strong Christians who love the Bible this week and gave them a Book of Mormon and then came back later and shoveled their walk. They are super grateful! We're getting to them;)

To be honest again I need to just have some fun. I'm stressing to much and some of the negativity from Elder Nelson has fed a  little bit of lack of hope to my heart for this area! I will have fun this week! I will laugh more! I will not worry as much! And I will believe that God will guide us to us to do his will! This week will be fantastic!

Elder Garcia is such an asset with all the Hispanics but also he is helping me with my Spanish! He is a true blessing! And for the first time ever I actually have a companion who likes to talk to me without me trying so hard to get words out of them! hahaha I love him

Thank you for all the pictures of Maleck. it looks like you had a great time! We should do some fishing out here on the Columbia some time after the mission. Dad I read your talk you sent to me that you gave. thank you so much I much enjoyed it! Mom I will read yours this week along with chapter 3 in president Hinckley's book. 

It was so nice to get your letter Grandpa Weaver. I've read Chapter 7 of Moroni like you asked and it really prepared me for Sunday thank you! Thank you for fasting for me and praying for me oh and keeping me in for the hunts. thank you I feel your prayers. Stockton I've been praying for you pal. I hope you understand how much I love you. I hope you're feeling a little better this week.

I love what I am doing. Yes, it is hard sometimes. The devil really fights but I have to fight harder. I believe in Christ. I pray that all of you are reading your scriptures and praying and focusing on what you can do to come closer to him! I'm trying to do the same!

On a lighter not my friend from my district in Moses Lake Elder Verpalumbo was transfered into my district!

P90x is going so well! Tony our trainer is really putting me and Elder Najarian in shape!

I love you all! May God bless you!