Lovin the Springs

This past week was very long, but so awesome! It is incredible being a missionary in the army of the Lord.

The Castro family - sharing some Christmas spirit

We had several appointments with the Castro family. They are already members, but one of the goals of the ward is to teach every family in the ward, members or not, the missionary lessons. We feel it gets the missionary spirit into the homes to progress the work of member missionary efforts. It's a great opportunity to teach and learn together, and the Castro's have really enjoyed having us in their home. They are another great family that I've met here.

One of our investigators named Claudia has her baptismal date set for January 24th! She has really enjoyed the message of the Gospel, and after the last couple of lesson's we're planning on teaching her this week, she should be ready to enter the waters of baptism.

On Tuesday, we got a call from the secretary at the mission office. She told us that she had just received a call from a mother who was at the hospital with here baby in the NICU. Little baby Nox had been in the hospital for longer than expected, and so his mom was looking for somebody to give him a blessing. We had the awesome opportunity to visit the hospital and give Nox a blessing. It was one of the moments I'll probably never forget.

We had zone training on friday morning. The topic of discussion was the importance of developing relationships of trust with members and other missionaries. A couple of the missionaries were asked to share their thoughts and insights. I learned a lot, but the main point that was repeatedly mentioned was simple. Conversion all starts with trust. This includes missionaries trusting each other, companions trusting each other, members trusting the missionaries, investigators trusting the missionaries, and other relationships. If the members don't trust the missionaries, they won't assist them with referrals. If companions do not trust each other, there's no way to share a message in unity to allow the spirit to teach. If the investigators do not trust the missionaries, they won't be receptive to what is being taught. It was great learning the importance of trust.

Enjoying the winter weather...sort of

We started riding our bikes on Saturday because we ran out of miles on our car. Each car in the mission is only allotted a certain amount of miles each month. Once you run out, you start using miles for the next month. We did just that in December. So we've been using the car as less as possible. Biking is fun though.

Yesterday was full of the spirit. We had ward council first thing in the morning. It was really weird, but way awesome to sit in on that. It was amazing to see how much of the Lord's work is focused on "finding his lost sheep". Pretty much all of it. It again helped me understand how much Heavenly Father loves ALL of His children. It breaks His heart to see those who stray off the path, or those who haven't yet found it. He does a great job at calling church leaders who put all their efforts into helping others come unto Christ. That's you, Mom and Dad! Then this understanding leads me to another; how great my responsibility is to do everything that I can to help others come unto Christ, not only as a missionary, but as a child of God. It is a great responsibility. I know the Lord has His hands in all things. He helps each of us when we are striving to live righteously.

All three hours of church yesterday were centered around the temple. Brother Polson (a member of the Denver temple presidency) spoke in sacrament meeting. He really emphasized the blessings we receive from regular temple attendance, and he told some cool stories about different temples. During priesthood, we sat in with the priest's as a member of the bishopric, Bro. Spillane addressed us about temples again. I really started thinking about what the temple means to me. I realized I didn't learn too much new information when I first attended the temple. Yes, there were somethings that were new to me, but for the most part it strengthened my testimony I have worked on building over the years. The reason I loved the Temple so much is because it helped me understand my responsibility to live on a higher plane because I am a Child of God. Heavenly Father has SO many blessings in store for us, we must live our lives accordingly so we can receive those blessings. Great day at church yesterday.

I made a ghetto mud flap using an old cereal box

Last night we rode our bikes to dinner and then to a teaching appointment. The weather was great!.. for the first half of our ride to dinner. The sun went down and it started raining. We had an awesome dinner with the Meyer family, and when we stepped outside to start our ride to our next appointment, it started snowing! It was a short ride to the next home, but when we finished our lesson there, we opened the door to leave and there was already 3 inches of snow on the ground! It was a long ride home, but it was super fun! No cars were on the streets so that was good. Cold, but great!

It's so great to hear all about you guys and home! It was awesome hearing about Kenyon and his national junior honor society business. Watching that little video clip made me miss him and Dad! Watching those two being dorks again was funny hahah. I hope everything with basketball and rugby is going well. I also hope everything with the ward and your separate callings are going well. Keep working hard with all of your goals for 2015.

I love and miss you guys tons!