The first one to stand!

                                                                                    February 24, 2014

  Well last week I had one of the most amazing experiences of my entire mission. It is not every day that you get to hear from an Apostle of the Lord, the presiding bishops 1st counselor and a member of the presidency of the 70. I remember just waiting and waiting for Elder Holland to walk in the door cause I wanted to be the first one to stand lol I was the first one to stand :) The spirit that came into the room when he walked in was unreal. Totally undeniable. You just know that that man is a special witness of the Lord Jesus Christ and communes with him. It was awesome. They walked in and sat down up front then Elder Holland decided he wanted to shake all our hands so they came down and we all got in line and shook his hand. And Bishop Causse and Elder Christensen as well. Oh and Elder Villareal who is our area authority. We only had two hours and Elder Holland got the last hour. He didn’t even stand at the pulpit, he came down and walked among all of us. Lets just say I probably have never laughed as much as I did either. Holy cow he is HILARIOUS! He had us crying from laughter then crying from feeling the Spirit. Probably the funniest thing he said when he was talking about mission rules and how they're not just random. He looked at Bishop Causse and Elder Christensen and said something like, "Look at those guys, do you think they drink a quart of pickle juice every morning and think about how they can torture the missionaries!? NO! THIS ISNT BURGER KING! YOU CAN'T HAVE IT YOUR WAY! WE PUT THE PICKLES ON! WE SAY HOW MUCH MUSTARD!  He yelled it literally and holy cow we were all dying laughing! But it is so true. I was thinking about it even for everyone else. God's ways are not our ways. We cannot decide which commandments we want to follow and which ones we don’t. It’s not our decision! He is the one that knows it all. The main thing Elder Holland talked about and I was grateful for it since I am coming home sorta soon was conversion after the mission. He said quoting the Lord, (cause he can do that!) "If I am going to send the shepherds to find the sheep, then for heaven’s sake we cannot lose the shepherds." It was a great point. Too many missionaries are going less active when they get home. Something that he made us all promise not to do when we get home.  He said he cannot promise us any number of baptisms but he can ask for and promise us one convert. and that convert is ourselves. It was just a super spiritual meeting and I cannot with words describe it. I know without a shadow of a doubt that Apostles are on this earth now and that they lead us and guide and will and can never lead us astray! Well, this is my last week. Kind of crazy. But I have one more time to email. Love you all!

Love Elder Espinoza

Elder Berryhill and I. We have been good friends since the beginning of his mission!