Another good week!

April 29, 2013

Hey hey,
     This week has been another good one!  Staying busy all day everyday.  We did a lot of contacting less actives and part member families.  No new investigators sadly but two men who work with our bishop came to church and really enjoyed it!  We're hoping to meet with them this week! 

     We were finally able to get a hold of Natasha and had a very interesting lesson with her...haha...she told us she was planning on getting baptized by a Baptist church too.  She's always throwin' us loops!  We asked her lots of questions though that got her thinking about how there can only be one true church and one baptism.  So hopefully we are making progress with her.  She came to church and is starting to make friends so that is really helping out!!!  The Riofrio family dodged us last week.  It was really sad!  The dad knows about our church 'cause his dad is a member.  He knows our standards and we feel like he doesn't want to change 'cause he enjoys partying with all his buddies in his squadron.  We saw his wife at Walmart and she was so excited to see us and is still very excited about the church!  We gave her a Spanish Book of Mormon and some Spanish pamphlets and she was so happy and thankful for that.  So we know she's still progressing!  Their son still goes to boy scouts which is good.  We're really gonna try and meet with them this week though.  Hopefully it happens! 

     Transfers is also this week but our small district of 4 Elders is staying the same!  Me and the other Elder are getting trained and it's a 12 week process so our trainers stayed here with us.  We all have fun on Mondays  whenever we get together.  I can't believe my first 6 weeks have already passed!  It seems like  yesterday when my mom was telling me I didn't have to go if I didn't want to and that I could just stay home with her... She was just too nice to say she couldn't handle me being gone for so long ;) hahaha jk. well not much has changed here.  We are all excited to skype our mothers on Mothers day!  We know they're even more excited haha!  Thanks again for all the love and support and the letters and emails!  I really appreciate it :)  Love you all!  

  Love,  Elder Jaden Espinoza

Photography by Galicia

Amazing Experience

April 22, 2013

Hello Hello!
     So this last week has been a pretty good one!  We had an amazing experience with a family that’s wanting to know how to get closer to Christ and learn more about His gospel.  They have lots of LDS friends and they notice how close they are and they always notice a different feeling going into their home.  Which most of us know is the Spirit!  So their main concern is wanting to get their family to grow closer to one another.  We had the most amazing lesson I've ever had and the same with my companion.  They were soooo excited about learning more and more.  We were there for 2 1/2 hours teaching them.  They soaked it all up even though they were Catholic and went every Sunday.  They say they don't feel anything when they go and they feel as if its the same thing over and over again.  The Husband is a little shakey about the whole thing.  But we know its 'cause he likes to drink and all that "fun" stuff and he knows we don't do that.  His dad is actually a member who served a mission and is a high priest.  He lives in New York.  The husband’s name is Xavier Riofrio (cool last name I know haha).  He's from Guatemala and grew up with his mom only.  But nontheless he knows about our standards now that he and his dad have a good relationship.  His wife and stepson are so excited!  His stepson actually goes to scouts at the church and all the other activities.  We feel as if this family is one of those elect families that Heavenly Father is preparing for the gospel.  They couldn't make it to church this last week so we're hoping for next Sunday!  We haven't been able to talk to our other investigator Natasha for a while 'cause I guess she is out of town 'til Wednesday or so.  She's still doing good!  

     I went on my first exchanges this week also.  I went with Elder Kemp who is from Newport Washington!  It's just north of Spokane.  He's one of the Zone Leaders.  He's a really cool guy and we had lots of fun.  I hope we are companions sometime.  We have already planned to go bow hunting when we both get back.  He's pretty good so he's gonna take me! 

     Things are starting to look better for the White Sands ward as far as missionary work is going. Our bishop has been stressing missionary work this whole month so I think the ward is finally starting to get it!  So everyone go out and share the gospel!!!!  I hope everyone is doing well and I'm always so thankful for all the love and support.  I pray for everyone every day!  Love you all.

Love,
Elder Jaden Espinoza

Me and Elder Becar this mornin.

Little sand storm

If you look close you can see a white line across the picture. Those are the white sands!! they are huge dunes its pretty cool.

First Baptismal Commitment!

April 16,2013

Hello hello!

So this past week has really been a great week!!  I'll start off with telling you about our investigator Natasha.  So we went and taught the first lesson and it went really well!!  She committed to baptism and everything.  Its crazy how receptive she is to everything we teach her.  She really wants to be baptized.  She came to church with us on Sunday and absolutely loved it.  Everyone was really nice to us and at first she was a little hesitant to leave us for Relief Society but some random sister came up and took her right away from us.  It was pretty funny and we were really thankful!  She loved it though!!  We are so excited for her and its really awesome to see her want to change her life and come closer to Christ.  She really is a sincere woman.  We still need to teach her some more lessons and make sure she fully understands the atonement and why we are baptized.  Her baptism date is May 11th but we both think it will be sooner than that 'cause she is so receptive and so willing to learn more and change her life.  She is definitely one of those people God is preparing for His gospel.  Its pretty awesome to be told you are the answer to someones prayers:)  So on Sunday we had to teach CTR 5.... oh boy, haha it sure was fun!!!  At first all the kids were super rowdy and not really listening.  We were teaching about the Holy Ghost so I told them that the Holy Ghost is really quiet and we can't hear it when we are super loud.  So after that they were all quiet and whispering and folding their arms.  It was the funniest/cutest thing I've ever seen!!!  It was such an awesome experience!  So we knocked on this door and this lady answered and said we could come back.  We met her at the park and we thought we would be teaching her the first lesson but boy did we have a surprise waiting for us!  Her husband was there with his Bible ready for us, haha!  He tried to prove us wrong saying we don't need to be baptized by water only by the Holy Spirit.  He really has these weird thoughts on things but he is a really nice guy and very sincere.  We brought a member with us and he got a little upset and told the guy he was wrong and this and that which is something were never supposed to do!!!   So we asked the guy if we could come back and talk to him another time haha which we did and we had a TON of scriptures talking about baptism by immersion and what not.  We straight burned him haha but that's not what we're supposed to do so we did it in a different way lol.  We just showed him all the scriptures and he told us what he thought.  He never lets us tell him what we think or what the scripture really means...lol but its a huge testimony builder for me 'cause so many people are confused about what the scriptures mean and what you need to do to be "saved."  And I KNOW exactly what it is we have to do.  As missionaries we are truly called and qualified of God.  I learned in the MTC that God doesn't call the qualified.  He qualifies those he calls.  Its very uplifting and comforting.  I hope everyone is doing well!  I keep everyone in my prayers every day!!  Love you all!

Love,
Elder Jaden Espinoza

My district at the Albuquerque New Mexico Temple!

in order 1. Elder Wilhelmson 2. Elder Snyder 3. Elder Becar 4. Me!

Me and Elder Becar-my Companion

My trainer and my trainer's trainer! So in the mission your trainer is called your dad.So thats my Grandpa, my Dad and I! and guess what my Grandpa's name is? Elder Espinosa haha just spelled wrong ;) kinda cool though!

Elder Koranda and I.  I've actually stayed the night at his place before this zone conference so I know 

him pretty well now. I gave him the low down on Pasco. He seems excited to go there!

(Elder Koranda is Melanie Bassett's son. Melanie moved into our ward last year from Utah. What a coincidence that our sons are in the same Mission and now have the same home ward!)

Sister Carpenter and I. She was in my district in the MTC. we called her the Holy Ghost cause she was super quiet but whenever she talked everyone shut up and listened haha

Us three did this burger challenge at this restaurante after our district meeting and got this shirt haha

This is a cool picture of the sun!!! It was really windy that day so the white sand gets blown everywhere. we couldn't even see the mountain but you could look right at the sun with no problem.

First Investigator!

April 8, 2013

Hey Everyone,

Well this week has been a pretty good week. The ward I'm in is really amazing but the members are a little lazy...we can't get anyone to go on splits with us and we haven't gotten a single referral from them. BUT! that's not stopping us at all.  That just gives us more finding opportunities.  We tract A LOT hah but we have a blast. So this last week we were tracting and came to this house and this lady answered the door and she was pretty open to wanting to learn more.  So she invited us in but since she was home alone we couldn't go in.  So we asked if there was a better time to come back and she said well can we talk outside.  It was crazy, haha, so she went and got her bible and at first I thought she wanted to bible bash and tell us how we were wrong and everything 'cause stuff like this never happens!  But turns out she was really sincere about wanting to learn more about Jesus Christ and she had some things that she's done that have been bothering her.  She had been praying for someone to help her and show her...crazy!!!  She was sooo receptive to our message and what we had to say.  She even invited herself to church!  It was crazy!!!   So Sunday she's gonna be comin' with us!  She has one 14 yr old daughter and I think she's married. She's a really cool person!!  We were so excited to finally have a real legit investigator to teach!!!  She really wants to come closer the Christ and repent and we are so excited to help her.  Hopefully everything goes well on our next lesson!  We've got some other potential investigators we will be teaching this week so were studying hard for them haha!  I'm still loving Alamogordo.  It's an awesome place!  Last weekend was really cool.  General Conference is a little different being a missionary haha I loved every minute of it.  Well, I'm so thankful for all the love and support I keep getting from people.  The letters and emails are very uplifting!  I hope everyone has a great week :)

Elder Jaden Espinoza

photo credit

Spoiled!

First off- some exciting news! Missionaries can now e-mail anyone and they have more time for that now too! 

So, if you would like to e-mail Elder Espinoza here his address-

jaden.espinoza@myldsmail.net

Next- a few more pictures from the MTC.

All the Elders and Sisters in his district at the MTC

The Elders in his District and The Provo Temple in the Background

At the MTC

April 1, 2013

Hey!

So I’m really growing to love the people of Alamogordo. Missionaries here are really spoiled honestly... We just dropped off our laundry at this really old guy’s house and he does it and folds it for us!!! He's never been married and he’s super rich! He also composes music. The tabernacle choir uses his music all the time and he’s been featured as an organist with them. His music gets used in cathedrals worldwide. His name is brother Ashdown he’s a cool guy! So there are really nice people and really crazy people here as well. Like old preachers that cry/scream/whisper all in the same sentence. Haha he’s a cool guy though he just REALLY gets into the gospel.... So the members here are awesome but we get NO referrals from them. That makes it so much harder on us! So get referrals to the missionaries and go on splits with them!!! We really need it lol. Last week we did a bunch of tracting....like a lot! But it was pretty successful and my comp and I also led the whole mission in lessons taught! It was pretty cool! There are lots of less actives here that we’re really trying to get going back to church. It’s interesting to see peoples different thoughts and opinions about the church and other people in the church and how the people we teach fail to realize that going to church isn’t about whether you like the people there or not. It’s about you coming closer to Christ and most importantly to take the sacrament. Some people are too stubborn though!! Haha but we love them anyways they’re all awesome people. My companion is a pretty funny dude and we get along really well. We have lots of fun even during tracting. So we have a girl that wants to be baptized but her dad will not let her! It’s really so sad cause she loves the church a lot but her dad doesn't even want her coming. But we’re working on her dad! I want to thank everyone that’s been sending me letters and what not. I really appreciate it a lot! They’re all really uplifting and I love you guys! Thanks for all the love and support! Oh and thanks mom and grandma for the Easter stuff!  And I forgot to thank the Lopez family for the cupcakes in the MTC. They were soooo good! Hope everyone has a great week!!

Love,

Elder Jaden Espinoza

View from his apartment window in Alamogordo