April 24, 2017

April 24, 2017

This week went by super fast. 

The whole week we were focused on preparing Pedro for his baptism and he really was willing and made the effort. I sometimes felt that he was such a perfect investigator that a lot of times, even though we taught him all the lessons, I thought, “Are we even doing anything?” Because it just seemed like God was guiding him so much. 

We were really grateful for this miracle and to be able to teach him. We were so excited for his baptism

We got to help out the family Castro with their house that they are building. That was really fun. Hard work but we got to experience it.

I have really enjoyed getting to know the Bible better, specifically, the New Testament, and I want to share something I learned...

This week we were watching a Bible video with Jesus Christ about the Bread of life. It’s found in John 6. I have seen it and heard it before and I was kind of zoned out but still listening and well some things caught my attention and I had to listen to it again and then look for the scriptures...

First, I heard about when Jesus talks about how the bread of live is what descended from the heavens and gave life to the world.  Here the people were still thinking about the manna from heaven.

At this point Jesus tells them that He is the Bread of Life and that he descended from the heavens to give not only life but life eternal.

A little bit later he says in the 51st verse that the bread that he gives us is his flesh and his sacrifice.

Now how do we remember his sacrifice? The Sacrament! In the verses 54 through 56 it talks about how we can have life eternal through remembering Jesus with the sacrament. It’s part of enduring to the end.

These are simple principles but it made the connection with me that the bread of life is Jesus, and we remember Jesus with the sacrament, Sooo taking the sacrament each week is how we partake of the bread of life.

I enjoyed studying that this week

That’s about all for this week.

My toe is doing a lot better. The doctor took out the stiches and everything.

Love Elder Wolf

We helped out a family put a concrete base for their house. They are our investigators. They are the Castro Family. They have 5 kids from the ages of 8 and under and the parents want to get baptized with their little boy Christian who has 8 years.  It was hard work to mix the cement and all, I have a lot of respect for the people who work in that almost every day. Afterwards, Tony, (the dad) wanted us to write our names in the concrete. It was an honor.

   

  

This is the motorcycle of Pedro when we were preparing for his baptism. He let us take a picture with it! haha

 

Here is a picture with Pedro

Other pictures with Pedro before the baptism.

  

April 17, 2017

April 17, 2017

Hey all!  I’m doing good here.

This week was amazing! We ended the week with 4 investigators in church, two of which have a baptism date. 

One of them is Pedro. He is a miracle, a real golden investigator. He showed up to church last week on his own. After that we taught him all this week, and he accepted a baptism date. He genuinely reads what we ask him too, and reads and studies more than what he has to. He is 32 years old and is working in engineering. He has accepted a date of this Saturday. He wants to be baptized and he asked us, is it possible for someone to get baptized this fast? And we told him, yes, and we explained the scripture in Alma 32:21 about faith, and how we don’t need to have a perfect knowledge. This Sunday, he came to church in our ward, and the members were able to know him and they are also excited for his baptism. He has really been a miracle, and I have gained a testimony that God prepares the people well, and we are just the messengers.

We also had a girl named Brisa come to church with us. She has a great family and finally was brave enough to try church.

Easter was fun, we got some kinder eggs, haha, and well that was our little surprise. But I have enjoyed sharing this message this week. I never really understood well Easter, and to be able to study it and share our testimonies was amazing.

I know Christ lives, because of how He has, and how He does help us. This was something that I loved about Easter is that we celebrate that He lives. We celebrate how we can feel of His love and how it’s something tangible. I know He has an infinite amount of grace for people like us and it’s something that we can see and feel in our lives if we choose to accept the things that He has done for us.

Love you all,

Elder Wolf

We saw some paintings on the wall of a neighborhood club, and so we took some pictures haha

  

Today we played on a turf soccer field.  This was with the zone.

Afterwards, a Brother invited us to eat with them. Really nice of them.

Here’s a night shot of some apartments that we contacted.

This week I went on divisions (splits) with our Leader of the District

And I also found a scorpion while I was in their apartment.

Elder Told and I took a selfie with the train.

  

April 10, 2017 - The Lord's Time

April 10, 2017 - The Lord's Time

Hey all,

This week was a roller coaster ride, as is the mission a lot of the time buuuuuuut.... it went really well.

I bore my testimony about the Lord’s time this Sunday, because again I gained a big testimony that sometimes we pass through trials just to pass through them, and the whole time God is there and knows how we feel. 

I know this because this week, we worked hard. It was one of the best weeks we have had here. A lot of people had a baptism date buuuut as we heard everyone promise throughout the week that they were going to church - no one had shown up. We got a little sad and I was thinking, “Well, what do I need to learn from this?”, and “Why is it such a hard thing for us?” I thought a lot of things, like, “Am I doing all that I can, or is there something that I’m doing wrong?” But as we had church, we found out that there was a man who showed up to the other ward and assisted with them, but that can be our investigator! It was a great blessing to get to know him and see his excitement. That lifted our spirits for sure and I’m sure God was just thinking, “Just wait...” because just before we entered into the sacrament meeting, we saw a woman and we asked her if she needed help. She said “Yeah, I want to know the schedule of your meetings, so that I can come and participate.” We got to know her and she lives in our area. She is willing and excited to come to church and that was another blessing.

At this time, I just felt overwhelmed and grateful. I felt God’s love for me, and felt that really I needed to be grateful for all the experiences I have because God never leaves us out to dry, if that makes sense. If we are going through a hard day, a hard week, or maybe if we feel that we always have problems, it’s because He’s waiting to give us something much better. He’s waiting to bless us according to our diligence and faith.

Later that day, we met with a family Salas, and they are all members except for the dad. They are less actives too. We got to sit down with the dad and teach him about the restoration. I know that the Spirit was there, and we asked him if he would be baptized and he accepted. We´ll be working with him more this week.

We have a lot of potential here, and I am loving the area, and being with Elder Told

Elder Wolf

These are pictures of our zone conference and our district

  

I did divisions (splits) with an Elder Maldonado.  He is a leader of the zona (the Zone Leader) and is from Peru. It was fun to get to know his area.

This is a photo of me with a tie that the Pergerson family sent me.

We had an activity the past Monday and an elder from Bolivia made us fried chicken! It was with the district and with the leaders of the zone.

  

These are other pictures from the conference, with the sister leaders and leaders of the zone.

  

We helped the Trejo family move into a new home. They are a young couple in the ward, and they both served missions. They are so awesome and loving. Here’s a picture with them and here’s pictures of on top of their house!

  

  

April 3, 2017

April 3, 2017

Hello All,

I really can’t thank my family and friends enough. I’m doing good here, but obviously I miss everyone. More than anything I am grateful for all the amazing people that I have had in my life. We get to know a lot of different people here and sometimes their lives were or are really hard. I will never be ungrateful for the amazing friends and family that are around me. I truly have been blessed with amazing parents.

This week was an interesting week...

I had been dealing with an ingrown toenail for quite some time and well after shoving cotton in it, it didn’t really get better or grow out so we went to the doctor’s office and they told me that they had to do a mini surgery. And I was like “What??” haha.  Buuut we went in for the mini surgery and it went well. They made a pretty big deal out of it, although it was just my toe. He chopped off part of the nail and it was a big chunk of nail that was also hidden in the skin. Grateful that everything went well. It’s just healing right now.

He told me that I could walk and I would be fine. I’m just a little slow. Haha.  Making sure it heals all the way.

My favorite conference talks were Mark A Bragg, with the light that we have. Also Russell M Ballard’s talk was a huge answer to my question and some of the doubts that I have in the mission.  

We have an investigator that should be baptized this week. His name is Gustavo. He’s a young boy and he’s pretty excited about his baptism!

I’m really grateful to be with Elder Told. He’s pretty awesome and we are having fun and trying to make the most out of every day. I have felt that my excitement is there, and that we just try to smile through all the things that happen.

We have been contacting and looking for ways to look for new people and I have seen that every time that there is just a horrible contact that makes us wanna quit, there is always, ALWAYS someone close that we need to find. We saw this a lot that when someone rejected us, the next house or the next person was a lot more receptive. This is a lesson for life. We will have a lot of trying times and times that are gonna want to make us quit but if we just hold on a little more, Heavenly Father is always ready to bless us.

That’s about it.

Love you all!

Elder Wolf

This is a picture I drew because when we were watching conference I saw the three-handed organist and it made me laugh and made me think of you guys! (Jacob's siblings always see the two people playing the organ at conference and call them the 3- or 4-handed organist)

This is a picture of Elder Told and I watching the Saturday session of conference.

Well, I had an ingrown toenail taken out and I guess they made it like a big deal and a whole surgery...haha.  So they gave me the hospital clothes which I think were meant for a seven-year-old and they brought the whole surgery table out. The truth is I’m fine and all but I just thought it was funny that they made me do all of that for my toe.