Thanks again and El Paso got snow!

November 25, 2013

  Well I would like to thank everyone again for all the birthday cards and packages. I got a lot more after my email last week so thanks once again! I really appreciate all the love and support I get from everyone back at home. I also got a lot from members here! Had a few birthday dinners and lots of cake and ice cream haha.

  So transfer news...IM STAYING! 'Im so glad to be staying here another transfer! I've almost been here for 6 months now and have loved every minute of it. There is so much work to do here in El Paso. We have lots of baptisms coming up. One this week actually. Our investigator whose kids got baptized last month is finally getting baptized! She asked me to do it so that was also really exciting. We are working with lots of other people who have been prepared for the gospel. It still and never will fail to amaze me how many people are so ready for the gospel. I hope no one ever thinks that the gospel is'nt for someone cause first off its not our place to judge someone and second off it IS for EVERYONE.So don't hesitate to share the gospel with your friends!

  So like I said I'm really excited to stay here for another transfer cause that means I get to be here for Thanksgiving Christmas and New Years! I have a feeling this might be my last transfer here so i'm determined to have the best one yet! It's gonna be hard to leave all these wonderful people here and the sad part is none of them will be here for when I come back after my mission cause they're all military! But I have made life long friends in this area. Lots of people I really look up to.

  So this may sound crazy but El Paso got some snow! Kinda of a sad excuse for snow but it snowed nonetheless! It was pretty crazy it went from 80 degrees on Thursday to 35 on Friday! It maybe wouldn't have been so bad if it gradually got that cold but over night? It wasn't all that fun! haha but I think were used to it by now and all the snow is melting off the roofs today. Its supposed to snow again but we will see! Supposed to be a cold winter I guess. Well once again I want to thank everyone for all the love and support! It was wonderful to get cards from everyone! Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Espinoza

Thank you!

November 19, 2013

Well I would like to start out by thanking everyone for all the birthday wishes, cards and packages I have been receiving! I love you all very much!

So this last week was so AWESOME! We finally had a busy week where we were teaching lots of lessons and helping people build their relationship with God. We had to push back our baptism that was supposed to be happening this week sadly :/ BUT we have someone else getting baptized on the 30th! The mother of the two boys we just baptized. We had a really amazing lesson with her and set the date! Its amazing to see and feel the spirits presence so strong in lessons. We were also able to confer the priesthood on two people we baptized. One was baptized in the summer and the other one was one of the boys we just baptized. That was definitely a new experience for me but its so awesome to see people you helped enter into the waters of baptism progress even more! I love this area so much. We have transfers coming up this week and we are both praying we don't get transferred! We both feel that if we stay together for at least one transfer more that amazing things will happen in this area! A goal that our mission has is to baptize weekly. Which almost seems impossible. We have that potential in this area. Especially if we stay together! We are working with about 23 investigators now. We've done a lot of finding and now were doing a lot of teaching! It really helps the time fly by when you're busy serving the Lord. Its crazy to think I'm almost at 9 months out now. It's going by too fast! I'd be devastated if I had to leave this ward. I really have grown to love the people in this area. They are so wonderful to us! They already started feeding me birthday dinners and what not haha I'm gonna have wayyyy to much cake this week. Time to start working out even harder I guess! ;) lol

Well once again I'm so grateful for all the birthday stuff and all the love and support I get from everyone! I love you all and hope you have great week! 

Love, Elder Espinoza

We ordained Danny to the office of a Deacon and gave him the Aaronic Priesthood!

The Fox family

Elder Espinoza and his companion Elder Hoggan- still goofy!

November 12, 2013

So there are about three things going around El Paso right now. A stomach flu, really bad cold and head lice. So far I haven't gotten the lice and I really hope it stays that way!!! lol For some reason or another diseases and sickness spreads thoughout El Paso like wildfire! I've heard lots of different reasons as to why lol

The missionary work is going great though!!!! I feel pretty lucky to be the district leader of the Mt. Franlkin El Centro district at the moment. This district is doing absolutely wonderful! In this last zone training I had to account for our district to the zone and not trying to toot our own horn here but we definitely had the best month last month! lol ;) It really is a privilege to see this district improve in every single aspect this last month! Now we just have to keep it up and continue to show improvement as missionaries!

A challenge we were given at our zone training was to prayerfully pick a Christlike attribute we feel we could do better on and set two goals on how we plan on doing better. I would encourage everyone to take that same challenge and see how much of a change you can make in your own life and in the lives of others around you. Christ really is the best and ultimate example. He set the perfect example for us. We should all try our best to be like Christ. If anyone has access to a preach my gospel I would highly recommend reading the 6th chapter which is all about Christlike attributes. It talks about lots of them and then give you scriptures to study and things to think about. Its something that would only benefit each and every one of us!

So last week was another slower week than usual. Yet we still have wonderful lessons with people and are finding new people to teach every week! Its crazy how when we do what we are supposed to and have the spirit with us we will be lead to places where someone who needs the gospel is. (Which is EVERYWHERE) But its our job to open our mouths and overcome that fear and just talk to people. We have a wonderful promise that all we need to do is open our mouths and it will be filled. I've seen it just about everyday. My favorites are when we are knocking on a door and the people pull up in the drive way and were just like, "Oh boy get ready for the awkward moment!" haha but it never is. Cause we open our mouths and things just always work out. its great!

We have a baptism coming up on the 23rd. We are really excited for that! I feel like that will be my last Saturday in this area! I reallllllllly hope not cause I just love this ward! I wouldn't mind being here for a few more transfers lol But we will see!!! I hope everyone had a wonderful week! Love you all!

Love, Elder Espinoza

ps. Congrats to Chiawana and Richland for putting an end to those Spokane football teams! Payback! ;) lol

November 4, 2013

Well this last week was definitely a lot slower than any other week I've ever had. There's been something going around El Paso for a while now and we finally got it lol. We traded the illness back and forth for a while so this week wasn't as productive as it normally should have been not to mention our car has been in the shop all week. Luckily we have wonderful members to give us rides! Other wise we wouldn't have been able to get much teaching done from walking place to place. Our area is massive haha But its still crazy how we were able to see blessings from the Lord. Whenever we were able to go out we had so much success in finding new people to teach! We have a baptism coming up in a few weeks! This investigator has to be one of the most humble people I have ever met. He was homeless for a while and now has a home but still has no car or phone. He is sooo prepared and ready for this gospel. He really wanted to change his life around and this gospel has done nothing but help change him. He's noticed the change in himself as well. Last week we had the primary program and he absolutely loved it and the rest of church. It was crazy cause he really saw no problem in being at church for 3 hours. That's definitely not very common for investigators lol. But we are very excited to see him get baptized in a few weeks! He is too. A little scared but he's so ready for it :)

Halloween was a fun night. We had an appointment with this investigator and we were only able to get a ride there so we were like what the heck we can just walk back home cause we didn't have anything else scheduled for the night. After the lesson we were walking home and wondering what our parents would think if they knew we were walking about half a mile from the border of Mexico also one of the most dangerous cities in the world on a Halloween night. The roads we were walking down were pretty sketchy too. But we weren't scared or anything at all lol. We're missionaries! We got the Lord on our side ;) lol. We finally got our car back today and are feeling much better. We're lucky to have such wonderful members in the ward who really take care of us! We have a bunch of homes away from home in this ward haha. Well I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! Love you all! Have a great week :)

Its sad to hear that my grandma passed away but its also comforting to know that she's in a better place no longer suffering. Please keep her and my family in your prayers. Thanks!