Okay. This email is pretty long! But, there is a lot of good stuff in here! If you read it, I actually will love you. If you don’t, that’s okay. I still love you. There is a lot to update on for this week!
Last pday was so nice! We legit did NOTHING!!! It was beautiful because usually we have to drive 30+ minutes to the mission office for packages and whatnot but we simply had 0 responsibility. We did go to the church with the Eldas and played bball for a couple of hours, which was a blast!
However, this week I was able to see a lot of miracles happen. tbh! I’ve been praying hard for my eyes to be opened to seeing the hand of the Lord in our work, and yo prayer works like crazy. Our friends and recent converts have been progressing really good! Jessica is loving the church and we got her started up on some family history and she really enjoyed that.
Chantra has been great as usual and is loving everything about the church! He just got a calling to be a ward missionary. We were able to go to the Newport beach temple on Friday to do baptisms for the dead. It was so great. Jessica, Chantra, and Robyn came it was awesome too see them in the font. Juan has been progressing slowly but surely. We have faith he will be ready by Febuary 8th. He is just a slow learner. Hasii is sooooo close!! She asked us to take her off date for the 25th. We then had another lesson and she wants to pick the date herself. It’s just a matter of when not if. So please pray for Hasii!
Chantra has been great as usual and is loving everything about the church! He just got a calling to be a ward missionary. We were able to go to the Newport beach temple on Friday to do baptisms for the dead. It was so great. Jessica, Chantra, and Robyn came it was awesome too see them in the font. Juan has been progressing slowly but surely. We have faith he will be ready by Febuary 8th. He is just a slow learner. Hasii is sooooo close!! She asked us to take her off date for the 25th. We then had another lesson and she wants to pick the date herself. It’s just a matter of when not if. So please pray for Hasii!
We have been teaching a family of 3, Maragrita and her kids. They are awesome really trying to come to baptism soon! Also, last week we found a family of 6!! When we knocked on their door it was just the Dad, Mom, and a 13 year old daughter. We set up a time to come back on Wednesday. When we went back, the whole fam was there! It was amazing! They had even read up to 3 nephi 11. It just felt so good and the spirit was so strong in their house! Ill keep you posted on Junior and his family!
Some fun stuff this week! The Temple excursion was one of them. The Relief Society had us meet them at a Italian place and they fed us lunch which was bomb.
Elder Capps and I have just been having as much fun as we can. So every time is a fun time we go all out. We pulled up to the church early for our morning workout a couple times this week and played some ball, which was awesome! I’m in a hooping phase rn so I just crave Bball all the time haha.
One day this week we set our “Finding Goal” to 4 for the day. We had one find at 5:00. Which meant 3 hours left before dinner. We challenged ourself to find 3 people to hit our goal for the day. If we made goal we could go hit Chipotle for dinner lol. We absolutely “Grinded” and got 3 more finds. haha.
There are 2 more miracles to come!
1. Kristi Hickman. She has been taught by the missionaries for about 18 months and is legit an active member who just hasn’t been baptized.
When we got this area there, there was a ward Christmas party planned, and we went and tried to get to know the members of the ward. I introduced myself to Kristi. She explained that she wasn’t baptized and whatnot. I felt the need to talk to her then and there about the covenant of baptism. She said she didn’t even know what a covenant was! I showed her an analogy I like to use. I held her wrist and explained how when you are baptized it’s like you and God grab on to each other. You then tell them to count to 3 then let go. But, I didn’t let go when she did. I explained how God will always be there even when you break your covenant, God will never break his.
Her face lit up and she said thank you for that and proceeded to sit down and continue to eat. I honestly didn’t think about it again Until I found out she was getting baptized on Saturday. (We haven’t been teaching her since as she was passed off to the senior couple in the ward who had been teaching her) However, we were at her baptism and she then shared her testimony at the end. She shared the story I shared with you and said it really helped her to make that leap of faith to be baptized. When I heard that, I was instantly filled with the spirit and was amazed how a small simple prompting like that can change someones life.
I’m so grateful for the gift of the holy ghost which allowed me to share about the covenant of baptism.
2. Nisha and her children. After Krisiti’s baptism we had a big lunch with a member family who fed us toooo well. Elder Capps and I felt very stuffed and unmotivated to go out and search for new opportunities . But its not our choice. So we went to visit a referral. However, they didn’t answer the door. However, I got a prompting to ” Look up!” I looked and saw apartment D. I told Elder Capps, “Yo we gotta knock on that door.” We walked up the stairs and met Nisha and her family. Nisha explained how she has been looking for a Church close by and hadn’t found one suitable for her and her family. When we described Christ’s church was on the earth today she got so happy. She yelled to her kids, ” YALL WANNA GO TO CHURCH IN THE MORNING??” In the background we heard 3 young voices yell, ” YESS MAMMA!!” The joy we felt was a joy you can’t obtain anywhere else. This is truly the Church Of Joy.
Transfer News: The transfer report was dropped Sunday night and… ELDER CAPPS AND I ARE STAYING HERE IN LONG BEACH!!! I am so hyped fr. This is the first time in almost a YEAR where I have stayed with my companion for more than one transfer!
If you have made reading this post so this far, I love you haha!! This week I read the amazing testimonies of my some of my best friends, Luke and Nick, who are also serving missions. They shared their strong testimonies of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. Luke has always had a strong testimony of the young boy from New York. Their testimonies has helped me to gain one as well. They inspired me to dive deep into the restoration of the Church.
I’d just like to add my testimonies to my friends and just say that I know Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the restoration. I know that he saw God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. I know the Book of Mormon is true. And I know that the priesthood power to do ordinances like baptism and sealing is back on the earth today. It’s so obvious that the bible speaks of a falling away of Christ’s church. And, if it be true, it must needs be that a restoration was necessary. I know that this is God’s Church and I know that He loves all of his children. I know this is the greatest work on the earth and God is at the head of it. None of the miracles that I have seen this week can not be done by just me, or anybody. Because God intervenes. I love him and I love you all! Have a blessed week and be safe! Bye!!
Elder Lando
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