April 16, 2012
This week was again really cool. Not quite the extremes of weather as last week, but we still got some hot days and some rain. Texas is a little like Utah weather, but without the snow and a lot of humidity. We had a really cool experience this week when I got to give my companion a blessing, and right after we were called to give a non-member a blessing. It was cool how the Lord opened the door for us. His friend is mormon and he's had good experiences with mormons and his friend suggested we give him a blessing. Members make such a huge difference in missionary work. Exchanges, dinners (which are really good, we got tres leches which was amazing), referrals, and most importantly just inviting their friends and fellowshipping investigators. The ward here is great. Spanish wards are very different, but it's still the same church no matter where you are, and we have some great members. This week I've really gained a stronger testimony that when you teach by the spirit, and they recieve it, both are edified and rejoic together. It amazes me how much we learn by teaching the most simple doctrines. The spirit really is teaching us both. The one downside to spanish speaking here is that we have to give all the awesome english investigators to the english missionaries. Though I hear it's different in McCallen TExas because it is the only completely spanish speaking mission in the U.S. That would be cool. And apparently it's less spanglish than here. A lot of the members and missionaries just make up words like parkiarse for park or weldiar for weld. It's funny. We also talk to a lot of Tongans in our area, the tongans help the missionaries a ton, and my companion served in a tongan ward before, so they love him, and he's been teaching us some tongan. They don't conjugate there verbs, so it's not too hard, but I think I'll be sticking to spanish. We also got to help at an eleven year old scout/priesthood preview fireside, which was cool. Apparently 33% of LDS men serve missions, but 94% of LDS eagle scouts serve missions. And scouting really does help with being on a mission/getting ready. Texas really is awesome. The song called to serve says "Called to know the richness of his blessings" and it really is true. We get to see God bless so many lives including our own. Missions just rock. Still can't wait for Mexico (because it's where I was called), but Texas is awesome! Que les vayan bien! Love Elder West

April 9, 2012

This has been an incredible week. God has really been giving us miracle after miracle. My senior companion, Elder Wagner, is on his last transfer, and rather than being trunky has decided that he needs to fit in every last ounce of work he can, so we've been working from six thirty to ten thirty (and since they're zone leaders and have to put stuff in the computers in the mission office at night sometimes we work until eleven) without stopping. It's exhuasting, but it's great. We set three more baptismal dates. Which is especially incredible because this area hasn't baptized in two years, and now we have it set up to baptize weekly for the next month, plus several others who are so close. As far as the Tornados go, we kind of didn't take the tornado warning too seriously (sorry mom), and didn't notice that the president had told us all to "seek shelter" becuase we were working rather than checking our phone, and ended up seeing several miracles. The tornados were far enough away that it didn't really affect us. THe cool thing was the hail that was the size of golf balls to base balls. WE have some saved in the freezer. All of the cars in our apartment complex, and almost our entire area recieved some form of damage, mainly lots of dents on the roof and the hood, but we were in a corner of our area, and didn't find out about the hail until after, meaning our truck was completely undamaged. It was really cool. President has now sent out rules that we are required to seek shelter if any list of bad weather occurrences happen. So don't worry mom, we'll be safe. Another cool thing is that, since we whitewashed in, and the elders before us don't seem to have been to hard working, we started from literally nothing, but this area has become one of the most productive. There are so many people ready to here the gospel here, it's great. Also, my companions have broken my fear of speaking on the phone by only writing my name on all the cards they give out with the phone number, so everyone asks for me, and for making me call everyone. After several days of some very misunderstood phone calls, including a couple just hanging up and Elder Wagner or Ward calling back, I can officially have a phone conversation in spanish. So there's that language barrier down. The gift of tongues is really real, spanish is not a problem here, and now I can focus a little more on being a better missionary and teacher. My comps are great for that. Another random fact, I can read portuguese (even if I can't spell it). It's very similar to spanish in spelling. We had a portuguese BoM with us and I opened it up and we could actually read it, it was cool. Well, I'm pretty much out of time, gotta go. Que les vaya bien, love Elder West!

Also, we got caught in an easter storm out tracting. No one is home on easter until late in the evening, so we basically had to fill all of our appointments that didn't show (hispanics punch a lot more than white people, but are a lot more willing to listen in general if you are talking about God or Christ). We got caught in a really long thunderstorm that rained so much the whole time. When we drove home some of the roads felt more like little rivers. My comp who has been out 23 months said he has never been so wet in his whole mission... It was really fun though. There was one bolt of lightning that was really close, almost at the same time as the thunder, that was so loud it set of a couple car alarms. It was cool. But we met some cool people. I think people decided that if we were going out in this we were either crazy, or we really believed what we were teaching was true. One guy even came back and asked us to come by after he had told us we were crazy, it was funny. But out of time, love you all! Cuidanse!

Hola y'all. Turns out y'all is usually singular, but can be plural and all y'all is plural. Also, you never say yea. It's yes mam or yes sir. And in general the people are pretty friendly. Viva Texas. So President Sagers met us right off the plane and spent the day orienting us. All I really remember from that was contacting while we waited for other missionaries, and President saying a few things like "This is Texas, we eat meat." or "Don't you dare ask a man to turn off a Dallas Cowboys game if it wasn't a prearranged appointment. That is his kingdom." "He also told us these are good, God fearing people. Jesus people." It's true, in general (we still get doors slammed in our face and stuff like that) most people are willing to hear who we are and either politely say no, or in the case of most hispanics say they are at least willing to let us come back because they won't say no to anyone who wants to come back. The first day out with my companions (Elder Wagner and Ward, the current zone leaders and one a former assistant) we met this awesome lady. Her name is Esther, she's from Mexico, Catholic, and by our second visit had a baptismal date. She rocks. We whitewashed the area, so we didn't really know anyone and the previous Elder's didn't have anything going, so we're pretty much starting from nothing. We already have eight investigators, plus several families that said we could come back (one of them has 14 people and the dad is so humble and willing to learn). It's kinda sad not knowing how long I'll be here, hopefully I'll be able to be here for Esther's baptism. The hispanics and Tongans here have so much faith and are so nice to the missionaries. They'll feed us even when they don't have a lot, just saying they need the blessings. So far the mexican food has been pretty good, and the Katsu and Kalami (no idea how to spell them, but they're tongan foods) are way good. We spent most of our p-day getting our apartment, car (which is a nice truck, it's sweet), and some other Elders all moved in. My companions are great, Elder Wagner is on his last transfer and Elder Ward has been out about a year (he reminds me of the funny big white guy on remember the titans). It'll be sad to leave here, Texas rocks (it was 72 degrees outside when I got off the plane), but I'll still be excited to get to Mexico. It's definitely a little more work out here than the MTC, but It's still great to be here. Oh yeah, the language. So I can understand pretty much everyone (which rocks, but also means my comps make me do a ton in the lessons) except for when they get excited or it's over the phone. When they get excited (especially a really interesting lady we had dinner with) they talk so fast that I'm amazed they can even speak that fast, and I only get about half of what they say. But that's more than the other new guys, so that's a blessing. The other Elder's that came out with me started in beginner so they had a lot farther to go, and didn't get to spend the extra week in the MTC with a hispanic district. Apparently I was sleep talking in spanish again. I'm sure I won't understand anything when I get to Mexico and they're not all speaking slower because of all the English around us, but for now, things are going great. It's also funny to see the Texas pride. It really is practically it's own nation, but that's not all bad. Texas is pretty great sometimes. Well I'm about out of time. Oh yeah, my mission office address is 1331 Airport Freeeway #305 Euless, Tx 76040. I don't know when I'll leave, but I'd love to hear from y'all (and I can say y'all, it's texas). Vaya Con Dios! Love Elder West

ps: General conference rocks! It teaches all of the lessons in preach my gospel, and it gives us everything we need for investigators and ourselves. It really will answer your questions if you go in with real questions. General conference weekend for missionaries is like superbowl weekend. Except one of my companions still didn't know who played in the super bowl and was shocked to hear that Steve Jobs is dead. Life in a bubble, even in the real world. But being a missionary rocks, we're finally really trying to help people. Also, since my companions are the zone leaders and our area is huge, we have a car (a brand new truck), so it'll be cool to get that experience too before Mexico. We teach some of our lessons in spanglish, going in and out of spanish and english, it's really funny. But I can't wait for this week, hopefully we won't have quite as many appointments fall through, and if we keep up our investigators, we're going to be doing so well. Cuidense!

Hola Todos! Finalmente sabemos donde vamos, y cuando. Estamos tan mas feliz que antes. Y voy a quedarme a aqui cuando mi distrito y companeros no estan. Pero esta bien. Voy a salir muy pronto. No puedo esperar. It's official. I'm finally heading out! The field is white and apparently Fort Worth Texas is the place for me right now. I have been temporarily reassigned to Texas (probably spanish) until I recieve my visa to Mexico, which they think will be 3 to 6 weeks. I can't wait to head there, I've heard so many great things about Texas and Texans since I've been here. Before we recieved the reassignments two people told me they felt like I was going to Texas, which was cool. My district has been reassigned to Las Vegas, Independance Missouri, Salt Lake South, and Ogden. I can't wait to head out and be able to teach the gospel. I had a really cool experience this week. Elder Oaks dropped by out of the blue and talked about the significance of the sacrament (he wouldn't even quote the whole prayer because it was so sacred), and about always having the spirit with us. I also realized earlier this week that when I came out I felt like I had a pretty good testimony, but know I feel like I knew the church could be true before, but now I know that it is true, that Christ really does live and that he really wants us to be happy. That was cool for me. I can't wait to head out to Fort Worth, to learn a lot more about being a missionary and hopefully some spanish as well. The Church is true, don't ever try to convince yourself otherwise, it really will bless your life so much. I also really loved how the scriptures make more sense the longer we study them and they relate more to us the more they make sense. They really help so much. I heard a cool quote that says, "This is the only time in all of eternity that you will have to go out and serve a proselyting mission. Don't waste a minute of it." I can't wait to get out and share the gospel. Keep me updated on your lives, Vayan con Dios!

March 15, 2012
Hola Todos! This week has been quite the week. First off, as far as visas go, we have no idea when we will get them. They tell us that we will be leaving anywhere from next wednesday to three weeks from now, though the latest word is that they have just decided to reassign at least some of us starting this next monday, so I may still be getting reassigned, but we are definitely delayed at least a little. Hopefully the visas will come through and we'll be able to get there relatively soon. So this week we had a girl in our zone who had a kidney stone, and it was really not going well for her, so we decided to have a zone fast, and again, fasting really does work. She is doing much better now, even thought it's not over yet. But fasting really does work. We had a really cool devotional on tuesday by Elder Cardon of the seventy. He really had some really motivating/inspirational/spiritual things to say, and really helped me focus completely on the mission, and completely on submitting to God's will. This was great timing because a lot of Elders have been a little unhappy because of waiting for visas, but we need to learn to trust God's timing. "Faith in God means faith in His timing." I also love how much happier we are after the temple. You can't be in the temple and not be happy. It really is great. Go to the temple as much as you can. Also, the MTC choir is going to be singing in conference, which is kinda cool. I will probably be gone before then, but for the other Elders here that could be a cool experience. This week I found a cool scripture in Jacob 4:6. Jacob, a great prophet who saw Christ, says that over many times searching the scriptures and many little revelations we build our testimony. His testimony was built by little revelations, time after time, to the point where it was so unshakeable that he could command the elements in the name of Christ. I thought that was a really good example of the way we build our testimonies. Even for the great prophets, it's rarely a one time miraculous experience, but many little witnesses from God that this is his church. We also had a cool experience with someone we were teaching this week. We were teaching him about the word of wisdom and his son (who had followed the word of wisdom) had passed away because of cancer. It was a really cool lesson, he was crying a lot by the end and the spirit was really strong. It was cool to see how it really doesn't matter what language it's in, the spirit is universal. I hope you all are doing well, I'll be praying for you. Vaya con Dios! Love Elder West

3/8/12

Hola todos! So this week has been filled with a ton of interesting things, which I still don't understand becuase our schedules are exactly the same. First, I accidentally forgot to make casar reflexive, so instead of telling the "investigator" that he needed to marry or not live with his girlfriend, I told him he had to hunt her... That added some confusion. In general spanish is going pretty well. After reading the Book of Mormon in spanish I can read it really well and pretty fast, but I'm still not very good at speaking it. Such is life I guess. Though apparently I had a dream in spanish. My companions told me I was sleep talking in spanish the other night. I thought that was way cool.

Also, this week we fasted a couple times and I really have gained a stronger testimony of fasting. It really does help. Also, if we take one principle of the gospel, and really focus on it, we can really develop our testimony of that specific aspect, and it really helps. I'm also enjoying studying preach my gospel, there's some really good stuff in there (which I didn't really believe a whole lot before I got here and took the time for it). Also, Alex Boye, a musician/singer from England who was converted and now makes church/gospel songs came and spoke to us. He was really funny for the first half (it was almost like stand up comedy), and really spiritual for the second half, telling us about his conversion story, and all because of a persistent member and two sister missionaries.

So as far as visas and travel plans go, half of my district recieved their travel plans today (all of the state-side missionaries), and the other half of us are still waiting. Mexico doesn't like the U.S. too much right now, so we're waiting and will probably get reassigned at some point within the next week and a half. The ones who recieved their travel plans are definitely enjoying knowing, but I guess it just means we have something else to look forward to getting, and if we get reassigned, I guess we get to experience a mission in two different places. I hope it's spanish if I do, preferably with a latino companion who doesn't speak english very well. I could use the help...

Buit life is still good in the MTC. Lot's of nuevos, and we got to host a bunch of them on wednesday. I got to help a Korean Elder who didn't really speak english (lot's of hand motions and confused looks), and another Elder going to Chile. It was fun to see how completely lost they were and how enthusiastic they were and to remember that was us not to long ago. I'd better go, Dios les ama, la iglesia es verdadero, y estoy orando para ustedes siempre! Love, Elder West

March 1, 2012

Que honda? This has been quite the week. We're finally in the final third of our stay here, and we're definitely feeling excited to actually go out and teach. As for the Visas, no missionaries going to Mexico have recieved theirs in a while. Four districts just got reassigned to various places. One Elder brought 8 short sleeve shirts and is heading to Lansing, Michigan. He might freeze to death. There are a couple who are going to Salt Lake South and Provo, so they'll be teaching my family and friends. The funny thing is that that could very easily be me in three weeks. Apparently when the visas do come, they come in big groups, so I hope that mine will be here relatively soon. But it would be a cool experience to get to teach in two places if it doesn't. Recently we've really realized how amazing our teachers are and how much of a difference that can make. We're finally to the point where the language isn't a problem when teaching (at least to non-native speakers), and I feel like we're finally getting the hang of teaching. One really cool thing that happened this week was that Elder Holland showed up and gave one of the best talks I've ever heard. After telling us how much he loved us he was very blunt and was getting up in our faces about being the best missionaries we can be now, and not trying to not act like a missionary when we get back. It was like his talk he gave in conference a while ago about the Book of Mormon. He was practically yelling at some parts and crying at others. He really is an incredible man and an Apostle of Christ. We are really lucky to have had him visit us again. He really got us going again after we were starting to get a littel tired of doing the same stuff every day. I had another interesting experience with BIble Bashing this week. One of our "investigators" managed to draw us in and get us really arguing bible scriptures, and that never works. We really just had to step back and say, "Look, we can't prove it to you, we can't force you to believe, but we know this is true, and we know that you need to ask God if it is true." I also really am liking keeping a journal, it's a great place to organize your thoughts, and sometimes to just vent. I like how Nephi said in 2 nephi 4:15 (I think), "Upon these plates I write the things of my soul". It's almost like Nephi's journal. I really like in 2 Nephi 4 where Nephi really is having a bad day, (his dad just died, his brothers are murmuring, etc.) and he tells us he is having a bad day, but then tells us the steps he goes through to really be happy again,putting his trust in the Lord. THe Book of Mormon really does help with everything. I've also been reading Jesus the Christ by Talmage. It's got some really cool things in there about Christ, I recommend it if you ever get some free time. Also, the Temple is great. We just came back from the temple again and it really is such a blessing to go and feel the spirit so strong every week and it really lifts your day. Love you all, the Church is true! Hasta luego!

Love Elder West