Put your hands in the air!

Familia, Amigos, Individuales, etc. ;D

Hola!! My oh my, it's been a great week. Tons of many great experiences. With the time I have, I will try to explain a few.

Well, this week we have been going through the area book like crazy. Feels like we are digging for a golden nugget...and truly, every person in that book is a golden nugget! haha Actually, better than that, they are a child of God! But, anyway, we have been contacting like crazy and have set up several appointments for this next week. In the meantime, we had several miracles this week and we were able to teach many people about the gospel.

The first big experience was with Edgar y Sandra. We just felt like we should knock on their door. Edgar answered the door and like usual didn't seem super excited about 2 young men in church clothes at his door. Well, we got to know him a bit and introduced ourselves. We also asked him questions like: Are you a very religious person? Why do you think there are so many churches on the earth today? etc. These questions really sparked him. And then I just said: Hey, well you probably think it is a little weird seeing us 2 young men at your door. But neither of us would be here if this message wasn't important or if we didn't know it to be true. He just laughed and then said... Come on in! haha cool!! So we went in, got to know him and his wife a little bit more and pretty soon taught the first lesson. It was a really great experience. I know they felt the spirit because I could see it in their eyes and my heart was pounding. They agreed to be baptized if they come to find it is true through study and prayer. I am really excited for them. The wife is Evangelista so she has some questions still, but that's why we are here. So we will go by soon and see how they're doing.

On Thursday, I was on an exchange with a different Elder because my companion went to some leadership meetings. So I spent the day with Elder Pouni. He is from Tonga and is such a cool guy. But we had an amazing experience. We went to go pick him up and then I drove us back (my first time driving in 4 months :) ) and it was like 7:30pm at this time. We had a GPS so that was sweet but there was so much construction that we had no idea how to go anywhere. haha. I began thinking...Wow, what should we do? We had planned to go see a less-active member tonight but it's already getting dark, we don't know their exact address, I don't know where I am, the family only speaks Spanish and my companion doesn't speak Spanish, I'm tired, and there is more work we can do back at our apartment for future investigators. I told Elder Pauni my thoughts and he said: Do what you think we should do...Let's go do work! After he said this, I thought: We told the stake president we would try to stop by, and that I just need to have faith. Well, I decided that we would go try to find this house. So we did. By the time we got there it was like 8:00pm but we found the house!! They invited us in. Sister Flores is a member but her son is less-active and he is the one we really wanted to see. We had a chance to talk with him (Nefi) for like 5 minutes because he said he was going out with friends. Well it was a great chat. Anyway, we then talked with Sister Flores for a bit and then I shared a quick message in Spanish. And then I was about ready to go, but then she offered to feed us some food. I was like: hmmm, not sure... looked at my companion and he said yeah. haha ok. But, he told me he felt like we needed to stay. Pretty soon, as we were finishing eating, Nefi came back and the spirit was so strong with him! Greatest visit!!! So glad for my companion. Helping me to exercise faith, be patient, and trust in the Lord!

Last night all of our plans fell through... so we thought, Hmm, what should we do? We prayed to know where to go and we felt like we needed to go to a trailer park. So, we went there and then walked around a little bit. We saw a guy outside and went up and talked to him. Once again he didn't seem super excited either, but he changed. At first we explained who we were and I could tell he wasn't super interested because he was looking all around. So we started to ask him some questions. In the end, he accepted a restoration pamphlet and Book of Mormon. He has a wife and daughter and they just moved it. My companion, Elder Jones, shared a powerful testimony and then I also shared my testimony, and once again said that I am here because I know this message to be true and it has brought me so much joy. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't important to me. And then I said: PLEASE read this pamphlet. Please, and pray before doing so because Jesus Christ is coming to the earth again very soon. We need to know which religion is right and it's through studying and prayer that we can receive that answer. As both of us bore testimony, his countenance changed and he looked us both straight in the eye. I know he felt the Spirit and he honestly was more excited about this message than any other investigators I have met. I am really excited for this guy!! Go Luis!

Great experiences. Hope you all have a great week! Thanks for your letters!!

Love,
Elder Vawdrey