An amazing story!

August 26, 2014

So the branch is pretty awesome! Last week we found 2 investigators! One is an amazing story! So this girl has friends serving missions and she asked one of them what they teach and what do they do everyday so he told her to talk to the missionaries the next time she sees them which was the next day! So the missionaries she ran into were reading in the little white hand book for missionary rules and all that stuff and read how we should not travel the same roads regularly. The way their apartment is there is really only one way in and one way out to other areas that is convenient for them since they are on bikes but they decided to be more obedient to the white hand book and went another way thats way out of their way. Obviously this was a spiritual prompting since they were then able to run into the girl we are now teaching who had just talked with her friend serving a misison the day before. How awesome is that!? I mean if that's not sign enough that the Lord is definitely in charge of this work than idk what is! What are the chances of all of that happening? Zero in my book. So now we are teaching her and she is loving the lessons and coming to the activities and even brought a friend with her last night. My favorite part about the ysa branches is the fellowship that ysa give. Its truly amazing. So last week we were on exchanges with some other elders and they are on bikes (the same ones that talked to the girl we are now teaching) and i went to their area. Lets just say I am so not in biking shape first off hahahaha anyway we had a lesson with this one guy who first off is a very philosophical thinker and has a good knowledge of the bible. So we start taking about things like Joseph Smith and if hes really a prophet and prophecies from him and what not then we talk about the Book of Mormon and he said he didnt see the need for the Book of Mormon. Of course i could come up with a million reasons why we need to book of Mormon but he had his mind set already that there is no need so i jsut bore testimony of it. Plus I don't really like bible bashing haha I don't like making people doubt their faith ;) hahaha jk But anyway we went to a baptism of this family. The mom is Less Active and the kids and dad aren't baptized. but anyway just the kids got baptized and while they were changing they had a time for people to bear their testimonies. While someone was sharing theirs I started pondering that experience and realized that those kids getting baptized is why we need the book of Mormon. Without it that baptisms never would have happened and that family would not be experiencing the joy they now feel. The spirit was almost overwhelming in that room. I love baptisms!

Love Elder Espinoza

August, 19 2014 

So things in the branch are starting to really pick up! Its honestly a pretty awesome time to be apart of the split and now we can really start focusing on all of the less active young single adults who live in our stake only. At first I was a little sad it split but now I know its totally inspired of God and and super excited! The branch is also very excited and really wants to get out and met people and do some good missionary work! This branch used to be the highest baptizing unit in the stake but hasn't had a single one this year...yeah....thats about to change :) haha We have new branch missionaries who are super pumped to do missionary work. Also we got like 8 referrals from other missionaries in the zone last week! Only one seems promising so far but that's one more than none! So we are really hoping to see some good progress with this branch soon! It is sad to not be in the Bandelier ward anymore but the branch is fun too! And we still get to see pretty much everyone in the Bandelier ward anyways haha. So like I said in my email last week Brett Moe is the EQ's President so last week we had dinner with the Moe family and it was super fun to have dinner with a family from Pasco and to talk about all of the same people that we know!!!!! I only got a pic with the three older kids Kara, Brett and Travis. It was pretty fun though! Got to find out about a bunch of people who are either married now or are engaged. CRAZY! haha Well not much going on here other than that just trying to find more people to teach and trying to stay busy in our new area!!!! Hopefully we find those that are being prepared soon. I know they're out there! Love you all.

Love, Elder Espinoza

08/12/14

So last week just flew right on by with Pday on Monday then transfers on Tuesday then preparing our mission leadership council report on Wednesday and then having the MLC meeting on Thursday then preparing zone training that evening and then having zone training Friday and then preparing our stake missionary correlation meeting report for Sunday then actually having the meeting - BUSY week!! We didn't really get a chance to get work done in our area other than go to institute, but this week we have no meetings or reports to do so we can finally get some real work done in our new area!

Sadly on Sunday the YSA branch was split in half. It used to cover the ABQ West Stake and Rio Rancho Stake but now its split so we cover ABQ West and sisters cover Rio Rancho. We met a ton of really cool people that all will be going to Rio Rancho which was pretty sad but there are still some cool people in our ward!!! The elders quorum president in the branch and I had a seminary class together my sophomore at good ol' Pasco High. His name is Brett Moe so that is pretty cool to be able to see him again and get to work with him! The branch before wasn't very big at all but there were hundreds of names that should be there in both stakes that aren't so the leadership felt impressed to split it and it will allow us to really focus on the lost people in the branch which will hopefully lead to lots of missionary opportunities as well!! This branch hasn't had a baptism this year so Elder Taylor and I are excited about improving the work here!!! There continues to be exciting things that go on here in our zone!

Love Elder Espinoza

Getting transfered

August4, 2014

  So, we did end up getting swapped with the young single adult Elders. I don't remember if I said why we were going to but basically the mission needs another car somewhere else and our area is tiny but since we are zone leaders we need a car so we got moved to the Young Single Adult branch because they cover the whole stake and need a car as well. And the elders who take our spots in Bandelier ward will now be on bikes! So we are very sad to leave the ward :( The nice thing is some of the members in our ward have kids who are  in the YSA branch and can still feed us! Also a kid in the ward just got home from his mission so the joke is that the ward will just pass him around so they can still feed us! hahaha This ward is definitely one that I will come back and visit. I feel like I have made life long friends here! We are sad to go but we understand that this work is truly inspired so we both look forward to working with the young single adults in this stake. I got to be in a YSA branch in El Paso for a transfer and that was really fun! So we're anxious to see why the Lord felt we needed to be in that branch!

We are also getting a brand new Ford Fusion so I guess we can't complain too much ;) haha Well its another busy pday so I don't have very much time. We have a lot of stuff to do before transfers tomorrow! Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love Elder Espinoza