March 24th, 2014 "I Love Baptisms"

March 24 2014

This week we had received some messages from our Mission President

about the new Mission President we are getting soon and what he is
like so we can pray for him and the preparations he is going through.
The more we hear about him the more we hear about the departure of
President Taylor and how much we all are going to miss him. Then what
comes in my mind are the missionaries that leave with him and that is
my trainer Elder Wardle and Elder O'Neal who lives here. Then I think
about me because I leave shortly after that. It's going to sound weird but
2 years is way to short. I better step it up and use this time wisely!

Alexa Flores got baptized this Saturday and the baptism went great!
She had a lot of friends from the surrounding area come and support
her and even participate in the service. There were a couple songs I
have never heard before such as "How Can I Be" I don't know who plays
it but it is done with a Ukulele. Many of her family members came to
support her and it was great to see all of them come and talk with her so positively.
I love baptisms!

There is a man that we go teaching with every so often. His name is
President Jeff Page. He is in the Stake Presidency. He has had us over
to his office in Midwestern University where he is a co-founder of the college.
We are teaching a colleague of his. He recently told us of a lady that he has
known and worked with for many years. She went to the former
university that he was dean over in California. Her name is Tonya
Thoms and her husband is Rick. He told us he wanted us to go over to
help her move stuff because her husband is fighting terminal brain
cancer and can't do much. We got in contact with her and went over
with the other missionaries we live with to rearrange her garage and
all of the husbands construction equipment. It was really great to be
able to help her out in such of a need. I love doing service! We were
just told yesterday that her husband passed away and it came a lot
quicker than usual. We stopped by again to offer help. She said she
doesn't know much about God and religion so we hope that the gospel
will help her out. She reminds me a lot of Analiesa.

We had another lesson with John Tassone and this time he wanted to
talk about some of the controversies in Christianity that he was
reading in a book. A number of them I have never thought about and was
kind of thrown back wondering why that was such a large controversy. I
can't remember them but we answered the ones we were able to talk
about. He is a really smart guy and likes the conversation. We hope
that we can involve the rest of his family. With the new temples going
up he asks a lot of questions about temples and the importance and
significance of them which I love to talk about.

Now is picking season for citrus fruit. We have been helping out
all over the place and tons of people are giving us fruit too. The
problem with all the fruit is that we keep drinking so much citrus
that 2 of us missionaries got sores in our mouths. We have had to
cut back on them. Fresh fruit is so so so good! I love it!

We were out driving from visit to visit and through a small prompting
had a spiritual experience. We were in a certain area and were trying
to see the people when we came to a point of where to go next.
I couldn't think of anyone that we really needed to see at the
time other than Sister Farvid. When we knocked on their door her husband
answered and invited us in. He doesn't like us missionaries. She was
standing in the room thanking us for coming because her throat was
hurting and she wasn't sure who to call to give a blessing. We gave her
a blessing. Afterwards I was wondering why we had that spiritual
prompting, if you could think of it as one. As small as it was it was weird
to how amazing it ended up being. Why do you think The Lord sends us
such small spiritual promptings that can lead to such amazing experiences?

Have a wonderful week.

Elder Leonhardt