God Speaks

First a  note to you all,

Stockton

Hey Stockton!! I hear you are becoming a man. I'm so glad you are able to play. It was very sad for me when you were struggling greatly health wise. You look great on the field Stockton! Best of luck in your last home game! 

Madsen

Hey Madsen! you sound super busy! my goodness! How are all your practices going? Thanks for writing me! I love you too Madsen!

Emma

Hey Emma I'm so glad you're doing well in cc! Keep running fast and doing great on your scripture study! I'm so proud of you! I"m sorry you didn't quite get your buck:( I hope you had a great time!

Maleck

Maleck! I saw those pictures with you taking it up field and my goodness that's pretty impressive! General Conference was great maleck! WE watched it in the church. No we did not watch it in Spanish but we could've though! I can pretty much understand it if it's not mumbled. Glad you listened to conference! My favorite talk was Elder Uctdorf's talk about getting in the light! I love how you talked about looking to Christ and live! I want to do that as well! Just pray all the time! You won both games and are scoring all the time! Wow! Maleck Keep it up!

Mom

Hey Mom! Wow it sounds like you're having a great morning! Sounds peaceful! I absolutely loved the package! especially the tie bar! Thank you it put a big smile on my face! Elder Hales was such a kind Man. I feel like he was a man that would've of been happy and grateful wherever he'd be put to serve. What a great example and a loving man.  It sounds that you are ever busy! Glad I'm out of the way:) Just so you know I am very clean and very quick in the shower and getting to bed! Remember those times haha

Elder adams with his talkable nature struggles with that. Sometimes I wonder what you would do here-I'm sure you'd get him lovingly into shape. Hopefully I can do the same:) I feel like stockton trying to get to school on time-what goes around comes around! that's so remarkable you get to take part in the celebration for the youth! You're amazing! You can do just about everything!

Dad

I love you Dad! Glad you were able to get to the mountain! You're a hero and I wish you a great week! Stay out of trouble!

  Toppenish Mission update

Jobanna

Jobanna and her daughter came to conference! Yes! They're doing great and we can see the hope growing in their eyes!

Jimmy

Our invitation for Jimmy to follow Christ must of been too much because the 18 year old a day later left his home to go live with his friends. When we came back his mom was suspicious-one day these missionaries come talk to my son the next day he leaves. We told her, "we were just talking about Jesus." oh well you win some and lose some:)

The Ramirez family

Yesterday after a great  session of Conference we went back to the Ramirez home. If you can remember the oldest son left to college and when he came back he convinced the rest of his 6 brothers there isn't a God. We came with a prayer in out hearts that we could spark a kinder of belief but we were unsuccessful. However, as Elder Adams, Brother Lott(an 87yr sweet old man), and I were baring testimony that God lives he loves us and the Book of Mormon is his word their sister Lucia(late 20's) gave a different response than that of her brothers. I could tell that she believed. I asked her without knowing her story, "Lucia how do you know God is there and he loves you?" She began to describe that she knows because God helped her get out of her anxiety and depression. We gave her a Book of Mormon, read a scripture with her, invited her to pray to God if it is true after reading chapter 1, and set up a return appointment. However the real miracle is how I felt. Like Lucia, God has helped me. Though I'm not burdened by what challenged me sophomore year, in many ways I still am. She helped me understand that this too shall pass

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Gizelle

we were unable to find our contact Gizelle this week(19 yr old single mom). Breaks my heart but the work still goes on

Germaine

We stopped by Germaine's home and her husband said a lot of "bad stuff" was happening and he didn't want to talk to us and neither did his wife. Germain was really struggling with what happens after death so we need to go back!

Vanessa

She moved to her mom's house. Ugh all the people need out help and they keep disappearing!

Yahaida

She is really getting into it. Even though her family is very active in their Church yahaida continues to read what we give her and pray. We brought one of her friends to the lesson this last week and her friend, Jamie, did an amazing job. I hope it opened up her heart! This is a slow process and she doesn't understand priesthood yet, but we'll just keep praying!

Guzman

They decided to go to the fair instead of hear our message.

Carmelo

My good friend carmelo. This good 27 year old man is  struggling. We have tried to teach very simply but still he doesn't quite get it! He feels guilt because he still struggles with his addiction and I know we can help him.

New people!

Teresa

Grandmother, really kind hispanic lady. She really love how we taught her to pray. When we went back she was feeling very ill. We have her number so we're staying in touch

Maria and Rosalio Lopez

Maria and Rosalio have a great young family with 5 kids they live in a little apartment and besides a little bit of pride(don't love to listen) our time with them was full of the spirit. We learned in district meeting this week to be more brief and simple-teach for understanding. This change has so far brought greater power to our teaching

Jessica

Last night we felt that we needed to go by Perla...again. We followed the spirit and God be thanked that we did. We met her sister Jessica. Jessica is a mom of 5 kids. She is Perla's sister. Jessica feels that all the doors in her life are shutting in front of her. She is separated from her 5 kids-for unknown reasons, her oldest son is in jail and though he's trying to reach out to God he feels that he's not there. She as well tried to pray but she feels that God isn't listening. After she made the comment about all the doors being shut in her face Elder Adams told her that we've come here with the door that will bring you peace-baptism. This was pretty shocking but as we shared the beautiful message of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ it made sense. We invited her to baptism and she accepted. She is ready to change and I pray that she will bring Perla with her. It's sad because I imagine my mom separated from all of us and it breaks my heart.  I have great faith that Christ can heal her just like he can heal me! 

Erica Contreros

We met Erica 5 weeksago and briefly shared the Joseph smith story. She just kept thinking about it. We felt that we needed to go back to her door. We completely forgot about her because she had no interest. When we came back this time we helped her understand the peace and joy that comes from God's plan and how it's back through our risen lord. It's been an amazing treat to be guided by the spirt every day.

Elder Adams is still pretty sick with his allergies I have a lot of weaknesses but his weakness is sounding like a dying pig on the doorstep because of his cough-poor guy. Someone help him please. These allergies are not getting better.

What I learned from Conference.

What God Told me in conference...

It's time to really find Christ. It's time to take his had and let everything go-all of my worries. The greatest way is to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. All my hopes and efforts lie on the truthfulness of this book. If the Book of Mormon is true then there is a God and he loves me, he has a plan for me and he doesn't want me to suffer but find joy in this life. If this book is true then my Father in Heaven has given me a savior who has broke the bands of my death and has given me a path to where I can find great light and the joy my father wants for me. If the book of Mormon is true it will teach me how to conqueror my current challenges and help me to see beyond my weaknesses right now to help them instead of only seeing my challenges. If this book is true then Joseph and all the other modern day prophets are prophets including the current 12 apostles wjich means I was called by God to be here in Toppenish and this is the place where my creator wants me to be.-everything depends on the book of Mormon and I must take it more seriously! Just gulp it all in! I invite all of you to do the same! I love you so much! God is with us! I wish you could see all the people he helps through a very imperfect Elder Rigby and Elder Adams!