Week 31 - Pasame A Martin

Hey what's up my friends,

Well this week went by super fast and was super tiring.  We walked a TON.  So what happened is that both of us are new in this area and the other missionaries that were here left us with hardly anything.  So we spent all week looking for members and investigators and basically anyone else that would listen to us.  The Area Book was pretty much our personal study all week.  But we were able to find a lot of people using it and with the help of some members!  It was really cool because although it was super tiring, we were able to have a lot of success.  I'm excited to see how the rest of the cycle goes with Elder Ayala.

So a few nights ago we were sitting in our house and all of the sudden we got a call from a random number.  I answered and started talking to some woman but she wasn't making very much sense.  She told me to pass her to my companion.  Then she started yelling at us and telling us that she wanted to talk to Martin (we don't know anyone named Martin).  She was cussing and yelling and got pretty irritated.  I guess she really wanted to talk to Martin haha.  So we ended up hanging up on her and since then she's called us like 30 times but we don't answer now.  Good times.

To finish I'd like to share a quote by David A. Bednar.  "Knowing that the gospel is true is the essence of a testimony. Consistently being true to the gospel is the essence of conversion."  So many times we say that we know the Gospel is true, but are we always true to the gospel?  I think we can all work on that.  It's always great to say we know it's true, but let's act on it too.  When we stay true to the Gospel and keep the commandments and do the things we should be doing, our testimony will grow and we will become truly converted.

Well that's all I have for you guys this week!  Have a great week and I love you guys!

Elder Warren

Week 30 - Cambios Especiales

Hey everyone!

Crazy week this week.  So on Monday I got a call from Pres saying that another Elder had to go home for a surgery and that he needed me to help him out with those special changes.  So on Tuesday I switched areas from Paraiso to Pantitlan.  ALSO Pres told my that the Elder I was going with (his name is Alamea) was going to have changes today, so I had to learn the area in less than a week.  We walked a TON this week so that I could learn everything.  But I think I did a good job!

The good thing is that this Saturday I got to return to Paraiso to baptise one of our investigators named Hafid.  He was a reference from one of my converts actually.  It was really cool because in a matter of about five weeks he turned from an alcoholic to a member of the Church.  It's crazy how big of a change this Gospel can make in people's lives.

Today we had changes.  This week was a little bit sad because the reign of Elder Warren and Elder Kay in Paraiso was brought to an end.  Also I wasn't able to finish the training of Elder Chichia but that's okay, he's more than ready to finish his training.  But anyways right now I'm with another Elder named Elder Ayala.  He's cool!  I'm excited to work with him.

To finish I want to share something we've been sharing with members and investigators all week.  It's from Dallin H. Oaks' talk from conference, about doing the small and simple things.  He said that the three most important things we need to continually do are read the scriptures, pray, and go to church.  I don't think I realized the importance of these things before the mission, and I think that maybe some of you don't either, but now I can promise you that these simple things are what make the difference.  Do them!

Well that's it for the week!  Take care everyone!  Love you guys!

Elder Warren

Pictures:

A family of investigators

Elder Kay and Elder Hale, the coolest zone leaders on the planet

Elder Fuller, another one of my good homies

The coolest family on the planet and their cat, Mikus

Hafid , his son, other missionaries

My son, Elder Chichia

The Zone Paraiso the day of my funeral

Week 29 - Boliche Baby

Hola Amigos,

We had a good week this week!  We were able to have a lot of success finding new people and progressing with those that we're already teaching.  Always nice to see the fruits of your labors!

On a sad note, one of our investigators, Jose Manuel, passed away this week.  He was a little bit older and had a lot of problems with diabetes.  But the progress I saw in him before his death was amazing.  The first time we met with him he said, "I don't believe in God or Christ.  I can't see them and they don't answer my prayers.  I'm not a believer at all."  We kept working with him though and before he passed away he was assisting every week at Church and sharing his testimony on faith and prophets and God.  He even said the prayer for us in every lesson.  He was actually working towards a baptismal date before he passed away.  It's incredible how big of a change this Gospel can make on people.  You never know who will accept the Gospel!

Also a little bit ago we started a 40 day fast as a mission.  A few companionships fast every day for 40 days in order to find more success in the work, especially baptisms.  As you know, we baptized a young man named Eiberham recently, who has parents that are alcoholics.  We actually had to stop visiting his parents because they weren't progressing at all.  BUT soon after we started the fast, his parents stopped drinking COMPLETELY.  All on their own!  We were able to start visiting them again and they actually have baptismal dates right now!  I can definitely testify of the blessings of fasting.  Do it!

Well that's it for the week!  Also I beat Elder Kay and everyone else in bowling today just so you all know that I'm still the greatest.  Haha have a great week and I love you guys!

Elder Warren

Week 28 - Me Sobra Chupe Pachanga

Hello my friends!

Well we didn't have the greatest week this week.  We should've had a lot of success but things happened and we ended up having almost zero success.  But things happen like that!  This week will be better for sure.  And if there's one thing I can testify of from this week it's that prayer truly does work.  We had a lot of moments this week where we had to dedicate ourselves to a LOT of prayer.  Long story short, whatever we needed-comfort, an answer, help with a problem we had-we got it.  Don't forget to pray!

So the other day we went to an appointment that we had with a man named Juan Carlos and there were two SUPER drunk dudes outside of his house.  We asked them if Juan Carlos was home and they said, "Juan Carlos doesn't live here, all of this is my house and we don't know anyone with that name."  We started to talk to them and after a few minutes Juan came out of the house!  Elder Chichia asked, "So what's his name then?"  And they told us, "Oh I don't know, I don't live here."  We said, "I thought this was your house?"  And they got pretty quiet after that haha.  It was a good time.

I' just want to share something from Conference two weeks ago that helped me a lot this week.  It's the talk that Lynn G. Robbins gave about making mistakes.  He said, "Success isn’t the absence of failure, but going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.”  He talked a lot about how we need to experience failure in order to progress.  We need to "taste the bitter, that we may know to prize the good."  This helped me a lot this week, because there was a lot of bitter haha.  But that just means that the good is right around the corner!  I just wanted to share that with each of you and to make sure that you know that failure and trials aren't a bad thing!  We need them to grow!

That's it for the week!  I hope you all are doing well and I wish you the best in this upcoming week!  Love you all!

Elder Warren

Pictures:
Some homies and the sunset
Sweet gym picture
My child dancing on our way home from church

Week 27 - Picotasos

Hello everyone!

Pretty solid week this week!  First of all my companion is hecka funny.  We were walking to a little store with our convert and this lady asked us if we wanted any beauty products.  I told her that my companion needed some because he was kind of ugly.  So she whips out her catalogues and starts trying to sell him EVERYTHING.  But my companion didn't want anything so he started asking her if she sold yoyos because all he wanted was a yoyo.  She said no, and kept showing us products.  He was like "Well really all I want is a yoyo like this one, look."  And he pulled his yoyo and started showing her some tricks.  She wasn't interested in the yoyo.  We asked her at the end if we could visit her but I think she just wanted our money haha.

Also something cool happened this week.  We have this one dude in our street that's always drunk or smoking with his friends, but one day we were walking and he was sitting on the corner, looking kind of sad.  He asked us where we were going and I said we were on our way to a visit with someone.  He said, "Visit me.  I want to stop drinking and smoking.  I need to change my life."  We met with him twice this week and taught two complete lessons and he started reading the Book of Mormon!  It just proves that you need to talk to EVERYONE.  Even the people who don't seem like it might be ready to hear this Gospel.

To end I'd just like to share something from General Conference this past weekend.  It was awesome hearing from Russell M. Nelson as prophet for the first time in Conference and a lot of great messages were shared.  I loved the story of the man who was stuck on the boat that got caught in a typhoon.  I don't have my notebook so I don't know who gave the talk.  But the boat was having problems and they were scared it was going to sink.  A Mormon man on the boat decided to pray, but when he prayed he didn't ask God to solve his problems, he specifically asked how he could help be a part of the solution.  And through the revelation he received they were able to make it safely to port.  I loved that.  I think our prayers need to be more specific, and we need to do our part.  What can we do to be part of the desired solution?  Also he said something interesting.  This man had to have had experience receiving and following revelation to have the confidence to do what he did.  We can't pull out a dusty Holy Ghost and expect to be able to use it for the first time when the typhoon comes.  We need experience in times of peace to be able to utilize that gift in times of chaos.  What a great message!

I hope you all have a great week!  I miss and love you all!

Elder Warren

Week 26 - Si Nos Quejamos, Nos Va Mal

Hola Mis Animalitos,

Well we had a pretty good week this week!  The sun was super strong and it was killing us but we're still out here walking around!  Also we hiked the mountain again today in the heat and it was awesome.  I'll send pictures.

We had a zone conference this Thursday and it was really good!  They talked about working with the youth and young single adults to find more people to teach.  They said that those groups of people are the ones who know a bunch of people, I guess that means that old people don't have friends?  Haha but the only thing was that it was SUPER LONG.  The Conference started at 8:30 and we were there until 5:30.  Crazy stuff.

Also something pretty cool happened this week!  So this family that has been inactive for YEARS just now decided to sign up to feed us.  So we went to eat with them and we started talking and were able to become their friends!  The mom said she wanted to invite us to eat again so I said, "The Sister that's in charge of the food will be at church tomorrow if you want to attend!"  Guess what?  They came!  It's crazy how easy it is to just make an invitation, and how much it works!  I invite all of you to make invitations to your friends.  You have the easy part, we're the ones that take charge in teaching them!  I can promise that references from members are usually way better than the people we find in the streets.  This week we received a reference from a member and ended up finding and teaching a full family of five that was super interested in our message!

To end I'd like to share a scripture from Mark 16: "15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."  It's our job to make invitations to those we know.  We've received this light in our lives, we should be more than willing to share it with others.  I invite all of you to invite your friends to watch General Conference this weekend!  It's a great experience to feel the Spirit and hear the words of Christ through our prophet and the apostles.

That's it for the week!  Have an awesome week everyone!  I love and miss you guys!

Elder Warren

Week 25 - Vente Guero

Hello my people!

This week was a little bit slower, not too much happened.  But we just got done with some legendary basketball games which was sweet.  Solid day.

First I need to tell you guys about one of our investigators that we have.  This dude is ridiculous I'm always dying in our lessons.  His name is Heriberto and he's 12 years old and I SWEAR this kid has ADHD.  He can not focus on ANYTHING.  We have to explain things like 7 or 8 times sometimes before he actually gets it.  The last lesson we had with him I actually almost started dying of laughter because it's hilarious.  But he accepted a baptismal date which is awesome!  Maybe he didn't understand what the invitation actually was... haha.

Also something cool happened this week.  So there are some recent converts in our ward and they're cool but they're a little difficult.  They're very specific on which elders they want to visit them and they said they didn't want us to come to their house.  The only one that said it was okay was the father.  So we made an appointment with them and when we were on our way it started pouring HARD.  But we were already on our way so we kept going.  We showed up drenched and freezing and because we went to their house even though it was raining hard, the whole family realized how dedicated we were and all of them accepted us.  They all came back to church this Sunday which was awesome.  I'll send a picture of how wet we got.

That's about all I have for the week haha, I hope next week is more exciting!  Before I go I just want to encourage all of you to watch and invite your friends to watch General Conference in two weeks!  It's incredible to be able to listen to living prophets and apostles that literally speak the words of Christ.  If we have true apostles and prophets of God testifying to us, what's the point if we don't watch and invite our loved ones to watch too?  That's my invitation for you all this week and I hope you're all able to do it!

Have a great week!  I love you guys and miss you all!

Elder Warren