There's nothing better then teaching other people and sharing your own personal testimony with people who aren't as lucky as you to have had the gospel in their lives

03/04/14

Hello hello,

So last week was just an amazing week for missionary work here in El Paso. That guy we met is just so on fire its crazy. We set a baptismal date with him for March 29^th and then two days later we moved it up to the 15th and he is just sooo excited about it! It is so amazing to see this happen. And I've already seen it in lots of people on my mission but he is just something else. His wife is also a member and I guess they have been having troubles and the other day he told us about some stuff and my first thought was, "Dang he is doing this for his wife and now hes gonna drop us!" but I was soo wrong. He said he is not letting anything get in the way of his baptism and it's all for himself! I about leaped outta my chair for joy! Haha! He was saying how he usually likes to set goals and his next goal was to make the E6 rank in the army which is an amazing goal to have but he said that he has never been so determined to reach a goal as he is for this baptismal goal. He is just so prepared for this gospel its unreal. The night we moved his date up we talked about the word of wisdom a little bit cause in this mission you have to be living it for at least two weeks to be baptized and he was like well I've never drank or smoked and I don't drink coffee and rarely drinks tea and that it wouldn't even be a struggle for him. That was a big relief for us haha were just so excited for him right now, its crazy.

We also have another investigator that's just about as solid as he is! He even came to our zone conference yesterday and talked to almost 60 missionaries about what teaching methods we used that worked for him the best and at what moment did he feel the spirit. He did an amazing job and had all of us missionaries were asking him questions and laughing it was so awesome! We also have another little girl getting baptized. She didn't grow up in the gospel or anything and she is one smart cookie! Haha! We taught her the plan of salvation and she taught it right back to us and she's only 10. I don't even think I knew how to spell the plan of salvation when I was 10 haha jk. But these 3 will be getting baptized this month and the elders that cover the south half of the ward will be having 2. That's 5 baptisms for this ward in one month! Talk about hastening the work! Its just a super exciting time to be a missionary right now and I'm loving every minute of it.

Its also crazy to think that on the 6th I will hit my year mark! This first year has flown by way too fast and this next one is supposed to go by even faster. Kinda sad but it makes me want to work even harder now! This work truly is amazing and when you have wonderful investigators who are progressing they make YOU excited about the gospel. Especially when the investigator is doing missionary work after the first lesson you have with him! I would really recommend going out with the missionaries. Especially if you are struggling with your own testimony right now. There's nothing better then teaching other people and sharing your own personal testimony with people who aren't as lucky as you to have had the gospel in their lives. It truly is an inspired work! Love you all and have a great week!

Love Elder Espinoza

This was my last district! All of them except one are in my zone!

 This is the Thompson family. They moved to Spokane last week :/ Lookin forward to seeing them after the mission though!

02/25/14

 Hello,

So last week was a bit of a crazy one that's for sure! We had a new apartment so it was completely empty and we had no food and no money because it is the end of the month and we didn't save as much as we probably should have so it was a fun first few days! Luckily we have the most amazing members ever and they totally got us groceries - that was the nicest thing ever! This ward really does watch out for their missionaries!

Glad to have been able to serve here for 9 months! So pretty much I can leave at the end of this transfer or be here for 3 because my companion goes home in two so they wouldn't bring in two zone leaders who have never been in the area before. I really feel like I'm leaving at the end of this transfer. I really hope not but we will see what the Lord has in store for me! So I was kind of a little sad to find out we were getting the north side of the area because it definitely wasn't as productive as the south side and we never really come up to the north side (the ward boundaries are massive!). But it's crazy how the Lord is preparing people for his gospel and how after the little time we have spent up here we have found some super solid investigators. One was actually last night. I have never met someone before who was SO excited about the gospel as this man. It was almost unreal... like still even thinking about it is crazy! Even my comp who has been out for 21 months has never met someone this excited! So he's totally going to get baptized for sure and his wife is a less active member in San Antonio and she's moving here in April because he's stationed here in the army. He had been to church a few times and didn't think much of it and then all of a sudden he wanted to change his life around and just really felt God impressing him to ask his wife how to learn more about her church and how to change his life. It really is amazing to see peoples desire to change and then when they have the gospel and actually change has to be one of the most wonderful things ever. We had Tyler Nelson with us, he's the guy we baptized in December then he baptized his wife a few weeks ago. It just all worked out so perfectly, it was so awesome! Missionary work never gets old and never will especially in this time we live in on this Earth! It is up to us to go and proclaim the gospel! I hope you all had a wonderful week and thanks for all the love and support!

Love Elder Espinoza

My new companion Elder Weber

 

I got called to be a zone leader!

February 17, 2014

   So crazy story, my companion got a call to train a new missionary which means that he will be staying and I will be getting transferred. There was still a high possibility that our area would get split and that I could go to the other side. But the next day I got a call to be a zone leader which meant I would either go to Las Cruces or Albuquerque. So I texted my bishop and asked if I could share my testimony on Sunday cause I'm leaving. Then, an hour later the 1st counselor calls and asks me to give a talk. Then I said wow it would be so funny if I ended up staying and that I would feel stupid telling everyone over the pulpit that I was leaving and then boom here I am next Sunday at church. Then Elder Hoggan and I started thinking about all these crazy things that would have to happen for me to stay and basically our zone would either have to split and have English zone leaders and I would stay here or they would have to change the zone leader area in this zone to 1st ward and change from Spanish to English. Anyway the more and more we thought about it the more we kinda convinced ourselves it COULD happen haha. So we were talking to the zone leaders and telling them our crazy ideas and they were like yeah no way that's never happening!! Well Saturday night we get a call for transfers and sure enough our zone got split and my area is getting turned into a zone leader area and I'm staying and getting another zone leader comp! CRAZY! haha But I'm really excited to stay and to be a zone leader it should be a good experience especially with the zone splitting and having two zones in one stake, there's just a lot of stuff that we will have to get figured out!

   So we didn't end up having the baptism last week :/ We're waiting so her Dad can baptize her which will be really good for their family so its alright! I'll still get to be here for it though!

   Also we have had pretty terrible weather here lately.... been in the low 80s :) haha well I hope all is well with everyone!!! Thanks for all the love and support!

Love Elder Espinoza

February 11, 2014

So we had the baptism last week and it was amazing!! The Spirit at a baptism is like none other. The actual baptism itself is so short and simple yet the Spirit just bears sincere witness to everyone there that what that person did was the right thing. The talks at the baptisms were also amazing. Very very spiritual. This ward seems to be becoming very missionary minded. The talks on Sunday were all about missionary work. The guy who introduced the Nelson family (the ones who were baptized) to the gospel spoke and kind of talked about his experience. It was so inspired because there are many people who have friends they want to talk to but they're too afraid or something else is in the way. Our ward mission leader talked after that. He had like 5 minutes to talk and it was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life. It was so obvious that he was filled with the Spirit and was telling the ward what they all needed hear. You could just tell that it wasn't really him speaking. It was amazing to watch. The Spirit filled the room it was so awesome! I think a lot of people know what they need to do now. LOL.

So this weekend we will have another baptism of a young girl whose family are all members but she was never baptized while they were in Hawaii. Her father is in the army. They're from Micronesia. They are really nice people! She always wants to feed us every time we go over its pretty funny. She's way nice. We actually talked to the missionaries in Hawaii who taught their daughter and they told us that this family didn't go to church very much in Hawaii but since they've been here there hasn't been a Sunday that they haven't been to church and its amazing to see how the gospel is blessing this family. So transfers is this coming week . I've said that I felt like I was leaving the last three transfers but this time I REALLY feel like I'm leaving and I REALLY don't want to! I'll probably cry if I have to leave, haha. I love the people here in this ward, it truly is an amazing area to serve in. Whoever the new missionary is will be one lucky kid, haha. But who knows I could stay here again. I hope so!

Well I heard it snowed in Tritown, thats pretty cool! The weather here as been pretty nice...like in the 70s all week, haha, but it would be nice to have a little snow! Well I hope all is well for everyone back at home! Thanks again for all the love and support!

Love Elder Espinoza

 The Nelsons

By small and simple things shall great things come to pass

02/04/14

   Well, hope everyone had a fun weekend and enjoyed the Seahawks finally winning a Super Bowl! 

   Our week went pretty good. Nothing exciting really happened but we stayed busy teaching a lot of people. We had to set some new baptismal dates with people cause they weren't ready for last Saturday. We also have a baptism this week! It's so awesome to see someone you baptized baptize someone in their family! The gospel really does change peoples lives. People you would never think that would give things up suddenly do. It's amazing to see the miracles we see every day. 

   Today we went to a member's house to do our laundry and we had scripture study with them and we read the story where Amalickiah becomes king of the Lamanites. Its pretty crazy how he was able to deceive and lie to all these people. Especially when he had Lehonti come down from the mountain to "surround Amalickiah's armies" and then he poisons Lehonti by degrees. That's how satan works if we let him. He tempts us to come down from our high standards to his low standards and when we give in he slowly poisons us by degrees until we eventually spiritually die and then he gets what he wants from us. That's why it's so important to always do the small things that keep us safe from satan's temptations. There's a scripture that says by small and simple things shall great things come to pass. It works both ways, good and bad. It's pretty crazy how the Book of Mormon can really relate to us in these days. I hope everyone is doing the best they can to read and study the Book of Mormon! 

   Sorry this is so short but it's a really busy day today! Lol Hope all is well for everyone :)

Love Elder Espinoza

Some exciting news!!!!!!

Hello! 01/28/14

So last week was super busy again! We also received some exciting news!!!!!! So we baptized this guy in December and his wife was Methodist I think? But anyway at first she said she would never get baptized into another religion so we didn't bother to push her at all but her husband was progressing like crazy and got baptized. He was really looking forward to being sealed to his wife and it hurt him that she wouldn't get baptized. It was cool though 'cause after he was baptized she asked if she could still come to church and wanted a Book of Mormon so we just kinda gave her her space and invited her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We thought for sure she would get baptized in January but it wasn't happening and we were a little sad but then one day at dinner she said when her husband gets the priesthood she wants him to baptize her and we were so not ready for that!!!! And, the week before her husband was interviewed by the bishop and will be getting the priesthood this next Sunday! It's so exciting. So next weekend she will be getting baptized and then in a year right before Elder Hoggan and I go home they will go through the temple! And we get to go! So exciting! We also got a new bishoric this last sunday. The Elders Quorum president got called to be the bishop. He's a farmer from Idaho and we get a long a little too well haha. He's an awesome guy! But then our old ward mission leader is the 1st counselor and a ward missionary is the 2nd. The whole bishopric is really missionary minded right now so it's so exciting to be in this ward as a missionary. And to top it off the whole stake is getting in gear with missionary work. It's a great time to be a missionary right now. Something that has been brought up a lot is how missionaries are called to teach. Members are supposed to find! Our mission president had all us full time missionaries stand up in conference then said everyone else thats a missionary stand up. It took a little while for everyone to realize that they all needed to stand up! I think it really hit home for this stake. So it's just an exciting time for this mission right now! I hope all is well for everyone back at home and that you all are praying for missionary opportunities and thinking about people to introduce the gospel too! Love you all!

Love Elder Espinoza

January 21, 2014

Hello!

Last week was a crazy busy week! We taught the most lessons we ever have and also have the most people we have ever had on a baptism date. This week should be even busier than last. It's almost a little overwhelming how many people we have to teach but not in a bad way. If there is such a thing as being overwhelmed in a good way? Haha. We had stake conference last week and were blessed to have Elder Marcus B. Nash of the 1st quorum of the 70. It's amazing to see how inspired our church leaders are. Really, the only thing that was talked about was hastening the work of salvation. We had our mission president and his wife speak, the temple president and his wife speak, our stake president and of course Elder Nash. Their theme was all the same. I don't feel as if enough people understood what they were all saying. That the prophecy of the Lord hastening the work of salvation is being fulfilled right now. They just made it all seem so real. I know some people understood but some didn't and so I'm trying my best to help them all understand what was really said at that stake conference. It was probably the best and most inspirational stake conference I have ever been at. I also have never been to a stake conference where it went 15 minutes over but it was amazing. It's not too often that we have a general authority speak to us and how amazing it is to watch him receive inspiration for what needed to be said. Also the last thing he talked about was what President Monson has really been pushing lately and that is three things that the family should be doing. The crazy thing is is we all already know we should be doing these things and that it's important. But if the prophet is really reiterating it right now, we must need to be doing a better job. 1.) Have morning and nightly prayer DAILY as a family 2.) Read the scriptures DAILY as a family 3.) Have family home evening WEEKLY. The blessings he promised were amazing. So I would encourage everyone to follow that counsel and even if you are see if there are any ways that you can better what it is you are already doing. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love Elder Espinoza