Christ Like Attributes

                                                                                  December 30, 2014

Well I hope everyone had as amazing of a Christmas as I did! Last week was actually a really slow week for us. We had set a few appointments with people but most of them cancelled on us.  We got to have a wonderful and very traditional Danish dinner on Christmas Eve. I guess it has been a tradition in their family since before they were even born. So it was neat to get to participate in that! I guess one year some people brought rolls for the dinner and they were pretty much shunned cause it wasn’t traditional haha it was really fun! For dessert she made a rice pudding. Kinda tasted like aroz con leche but not as good ;) ha but apparently most people think its gross but there’s kind of a game they play with it. It has slivers of almonds in it with ONE full almond and whoever gets the almond gets this Marzipan Pig. So I think I kinda gets everyone to actually have to eat the rice pudding so they can get the almond haha we didn’t get it but the person that did apparently had gotten it three years in a row now so she gave it to us! Then we all held hands and sang three Christmas songs as we circled around the Christmas tree. It was fun! After that we all opened the gifts that were under the tree for us. Really cool night! Then of course the next day we got to skype! So nice :) We got our time extended as well so it was a real blessing. Scary to think that that was my last time getting to skype on the mission....  Its going by way too fast! So yesterday I started this 9 week long study of Christ like attributes. Our mission president challenged us to take the little self assessment at the end of Preach My Gospel Chpt. 6 which is Christ like Attributes and then study each attribute for a week and apply it throughout the week and see how each attribute strengthens in us. So I am pretty excited about it! I’ll be finishing the last one on the last week of my mission! Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a safe Happy New Year. Ponder goals you want to set for yourself. Its important as well to do that prayerful since the Holy Ghost teaches us all things it will help us to set meaningful goals that we can achieve throughout the year to better ourselves and most importantly come closer to our Father in Heaven, :)

Love Elder Jaden Espinoza

 Miss these goofy people! got to go to lunch with them! :)

 My little ghetto tree haha

Merry Christmas!

                                                                                            12/23/14

Hello Hello!

I hope everyone has a wonderful merry Christmas! I've been really thinking a lot about giving gifts and how wonderful it is and exciting it is when people open up your gifts and love whatever it is you got them. Its way better than opening up your own gifts I feel. There's just no other feeling like it. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to give someone a gift and them not like it and just set it aside and not use it. That would be terrible! Now lets apply this to our Heavenly Father and the most amazing gift that He gave. Think of the sacrifice our Savior went through, willingly, being the gift our Father in Heaven gave us. The effort, love and thought that went into that gift is greater than any gift that we ever could give. Think about how we make our Father in Heaven feel when we don't accept that wonderful gift or use that gift. When we think lightly of that gift that brings salvation to all men and women, I can't imagine how He feels when we do this. The wonderful part is He still loves us no matter what and the gift will always be there for us so long as we apply the principles taught from the it and use them in our everyday lives. We are SO blessed with all that we have. Everything is a gift from our God and it all ties back into the one most important gift our Father in Heaven gave us. Its why I love the new video the Church put out. Its amazing to think about!

I have also, this Christmas, been pondering on the birth of our Savior. He is the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, yet He was born in a humble stable. The first people to know of His birth were shepherds. They were His first visitors. Its all humble. Which is why we too must be humble when we accept this wonderful gift of Christmas. These are just some of the thoughts that I have been having this Christmas!

So the ward I am serving in is awesome! The members here love us lots. We have gotten quite a few gifts from them already, ha ha! We have been going caroling with members and it has been fun to see peoples faces light up! Sad that this is my last Christmas as a missionary so I'm trying to soak it all in. The work here is getting a lot better. We still have our investigator on a date to be baptized! She is doing so awesome. So lots of exciting things going on here in Rio Rancho. Thank you all for the cards letters and packages. It means so much to me :) I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and have safe travels and most importantly remember the true gift of Christmas :)

Love Elder Jaden Espinoza

HE IS THE GIFT

                                                                       December 16, 2014

  So last week was a pretty awesome week! These members in our ward have a dental practice and they entered into a parade and had their own float to advertise but she wanted us to come along and hand out toothbrushes and what not too but we ended up handing out the HE IS THE GIFT cards so we handed out a TON and talked to TONS of people it was so awesome!!!! The parade was cool too haha Then they took us out to dinner after and we told them that we are supposed to be caroling every night and they said they would come with us. So last night they had an FHE Christmas gift exchange thing and had a few families over and everyone came caroling with us after. We went to their next door neighbor’s house and all the kids were super excited so they all ran there and knocked on his door and rang his doorbell a million times which I’m sure did not make the older man happy AT ALL but it was amazing to see his countenance change as we all started singing. The spirit of Christmas is so amazing!!!! So we did a few other houses and had lots of fun :) We might have found an awesome family too! We had about a half hour before we had dinner so we decided to walk around the members neighborhood which is a ways out and we never go out there so we thought it was a good idea. We started talking to this really humble man who was spraying down his sweet dirt bikes. We talked about the HE IS THE GIFT video and he was excited to show his wife. We noticed they had a picture of Christ in their garage and asked him if he was pretty religious and he said not as much as he wanted to be and then we talked about his family and he has 3 kids and we bore sincere testimony that families can be together forever and he started to tear up!!! We couldn’t get a return appointment with him but he wants to meet with us. He said he needed to talk with his wife first so we’re gonna go back over and see what’s happened since then. We’re praying to start teaching them!!! We have zone conference tomorrow so excited about that. Its gonna be a good week! Love you all!

Love Elder Espinoza

​Me, Sister Barnard and Beech, Elder Taylor, Hicken and Jensen. Sister Barnard went home

Had a pretty awesome snow storm roll through but now its only on the mountains.

HE IS THE GIFT

A definition of sacrifice is to make sacred

                                                                                            December 8, 2014

So we had zone training last week and it was one of the better ones that I have been too. The spirit was amazingly strong. The main topic of our meeting was sacrifice. I had never really though before what the word sacred means and why things are sacred to me.. a definition of sacrifice is to make sacred. And i thought to myself what things are sacred to me? Then I thought about why those things are sacred to me? And it was all because of the sacrifice that I have put in myself for those things! For example the Atonement is the most sacred thing to me. Obviously I didn’t put in any sacrifice for that Christ alone did that but my understanding of the atonement and the application of the atonement is what is sacred to me because of the things that I have sacrificed to understand better the atonement and the apply the atonement in my life. It was amazing to think about everything that is sacred to me and why that thing is sacred. I would invite all of you to think about what is truly sacred to you and then ponder why it is sacred to you. You will have an amazing experience I can testify of that. Of course another thing that is sacred to me is my mission. For all the things that I have learned and now understand on my mission. Not to mention all the other things you sacrifice to go on a mission. But then you really think about the love you have for the Lord and the atoning sacrifice He made for us individually and suddenly all those sacrifices that you have made no longer seem like sacrifices anymore. It seems like it is the least that you can do for the Lord. The least you can give up for the Lord....you really aren't giving up anything to the Lord because if it wasn’t for Him you wouldn’t have anything. When I was thinking about this I was reminded of Kind Benjamin’s speech in Mosiah. Chapter 2 happens to be my favorite and that’s when he talks about no matter what you do you will always be indebted to the Lord. Its just amazing how he puts things into perspective. But still when it comes down to it we are sacrificing things. Time being one of them. So kinda just something I have been pondering this last little while.

Anyway, we did some service for a less active member in our ward and he contemplated having me dig this trench from the side of his road to underneath this tree kinda passing through it so the rain water won’t run down the road but into this field. We were both talking about how it’s not gonna rain anytime soon but I told him Id do it anyway so i finally did. Ended up getting a little over half an inch of rain that night and then through the next day haha super funny! Half an inch of rain floods everything down here! Transfers are this week and I will be staying with Elder Stevens in our area and we will no longer be a trio. It sure was fun while it lasted!!!!! Our investigator on date is still doing really well! so that’s exciting :) Well I hope you all have a wonderful week!! Thanks for all the love and support! Also, congrats to the Riverhawks for making it to state! Too bad they didn't win but going back to back is a huge achievement!

Love Elder Espinoza

 Elder Bushman came back to visit the mission so he stopped by for a while to say hi! Guess I'm supposed to call him Karl now haha :)

"He Is The Gift"

                                                                                                                                               December 2, 2014

 I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving weekend!!! Our thanksgiving was pretty good of course. Members made us lots of good food :) This time of year is always so wonderful since we have so many things to be thankful for especially in this wonderful country that we live in!       Last week was also a week full of miracles. The most amazing one being we were able to set a baptismal date with our investigator! She has been meeting with missionaries for a long time now and this is the first time she has ever set a date with any of them! She set it for her birthday which is in January but the spirit was SO strong when she said it I just knew that that was the date for her :) It’s amazing to see the change in people’s faces when they see the progress they have made with strengthening their relationship with Christ. It NEVER fails to amaze me. This work is so wonderful especially since it is not our work. It is the Lords work and will move forward whether you are helping or not but ya might as well jump on this bandwagon! 

I hope many of you have been able to see the "He Is The Gift" video the Church has put out. The Church keeps making it easier and easier to share the wonderful message of our Savior and His atonement. The video is very non-threatening and really brings in the true spirit of Christmas. We have been handing out those cards like candy this week!! So if you got an Ensign please do the same :)

Congrats to the Riverhawks for making it to state again! Represent! :)

Love Elder Espinoza

Me, Elder Stevens and Elder Pattison

"He Is The Gift"