Pretty chill P-day! We cleaned up our apartment and then headed up to San Jose to pick up our new car from the mission office! Apparently, our car had reached too many miles, so we had to change it out for a newer one with less miles! After picking up our car and cleaning the old one out, we got some lunch at Chipotle and then headed to Gilroy to play some volleyball with the Zone! After playing volleyball and talking to Elder Astle for a bit (I love that man), we headed back to Hollister to write our emails and talk to our families! After relaxing for a bit and finishing P-day up, we ended the night by having a really good lesson with Juan and Dora! We talked about baptism and read 2 Nephi 31 with them and explained to them the importance of the doctrine of Christ and why we need to follow it! We testified of the importance of the Atonement and choosing to follow Christ! We extended a baptismal invite for May 18 and invited them to pray about it! They weren't 100% willing to commit to being baptized this day, but I truly believe that if we can continue to minister and teach them, they can progress and make covenants with God eventually!
On Thursday, we began the day by planning the baptism for Diego! We had to find the people to give the talks and perform the ordinances! Hermano Montuy was willing to confirm while Mauricio was willing to baptize him! We were trying to get the branch as involved as possible! After finishing creating the pamphlets, we waited for Diego to come but he told us that we would have to reschedule because he had gotten called in at the last minute to work! After lunch and daily contact, we went and found a couple people! After finding a couple more people, we had to clean our car for Zone Conference! After cleaning our car, we ended the night by teaching Martha and the Lepe Martinez family about the Doctrine of Christ at the church! Hermana Maggie was able to come and bear a really powerful testimony on how a covenant relationship with God has changed her life and the blessings that come from following the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Me and Elder Isaacson bore powerful testimonies on how we've been blessed and changed through the Gospel and how it blesses families! We invited her to pray about a baptismal date for May 25th (right before Elder Isaacson finishes up his mission)! She's similar to Juan and Dora's position where she isn't quite sure yet! We are going to keep ministering and helping her out! She's so prepared to receive the Gospel in her life! We just have to help her get there! She truly is one of the sweetest ladies I've ever met! She tells us constantly that her house is our house and that she is our "Mom" from Jalisco haha!On Friday, we had a Zone Conference in Salinas! We had to wake up really early since it started at 8:00 in the morning and the drive was around 45 minutes! It was a really good Zone Conference as well! We learned about the Second Coming and how spiritual preparation is necessary for the coming of the Lord! A senior missionary from the mission also gave a really good training on the things that we need to do in our youth to obtain happiness in this life and the life to come!
After Zone Conference, we were able to go and get lunch with Connor Copeland! (my cousin)! It was really good to see him again since it had been so long! He has moved down to the Monterey Area so we were able to plan a time and meet in Salinas! Connor is a really good guy! We were able to talk about our mission experiences and the blessings/things we have learned as missionaries! He was also able to give me some good advice while my mission was wrapping up and finishing.
After lunch with Connor, we did our daily and then had a really good lesson with Diego preparing him for his baptism! We went over the baptismal interview questions with him again and we explained to him the commandments! Since Diego was so prepared, we were not surprised that he was willing to keep the commandments and how he even wanted to! After reviewing the baptismal interview questions with him, we taught about the Priesthood and how priesthood keys function/how priesthood power and authority makes the ordinances of the gospel possible! We ended the lesson by showing him a video of the Oakland temple and promising him that we'd go after he was baptized!
After a really good lesson with Diego, we visited Perla and Mitchell. They were doing well but they were getting their car fixed! It was pretty cold and dark, so we didn't take up much of their time but we just invited them to church and explained to them the importance of the Sacrament! We ended the night by contacting a couple more of our friends!We had a pretty busy Saturday! We started the morning by finding a couple people in the morning! After finding, we came back to make lunch! However, when we got home, we saw that the Elders who lived with us had totally trashed the apartment! We were pretty annoyed, but we are mature and responsible adults so instead of causing contention, we just decided to clean up for them! The mission really does teach you a lot of patience haha! After cleaning up, we had to contact all of our progress friends! With daily contact, we usually try to contact in a multitude of ways! We'll either call, send texts, Dm, etc! The best way to get people to progress and have their lives '"flooded" with the gospel is making sure they are always surrounded by it!
After, we had a short lesson with Diego before his baptism al interview! He had some questions about the apostasy, so we explained to him again the importance of the restoration through the Prophet Joseph Smith! After, Elder Leaune came and did Diego's baptismal interview! His interview went really quick since he was so prepared haha! Elder Leaune let us know how impressive Diego's prayer was haha! Diego always gives fire prayers! After running through the baptismal service with Diego, we had another lesson with Daniel! Hermano Montuy was able to come and help us out with him again! We went over the restoration with him again and explained to him how the restoration was necessary! We showed him a variety of resources and evidence of the restoration, but he still wasn't really buying! Daniel can be pretty frustrating to deal with since he's so stuck in his ways and he's not willing to change yet he continues to meet with us! He also refuses to read in the Book of Mormon and says he still prefers to read the Bible! All we can do is to continue to love him and continue to teach him the truths that we know to be true! Us and Hermano Montuy bore our testimonies on the importance of reading and praying about the Book of Mormon! We made him promise God and us that he'd read it haha!
After a couple more contacts, we ended the night by visiting the Lepe Martinez family with Hermano Arrington! The kids were partying and drinking so they were pretty wasted! While the kids were partying, drinking, and playing instruments, the boys had invited some of the buddies to come over, so we were able to talk with them as well! They were from various parts of Mexico, and they showed us some of the culture celebrations they do! For some reason, they dress up like the devil and dance; I didn't fully understand it/understand it still, but it was pretty interesting).
We taught Martha about the Holy Ghost and the influence that comes from having the Holy Ghost in our lives! We talked about how following the Gospel of Jesus Christ allows the Spirit to be let into our lives! We explained how the Spirit testifies of truth and we shared Moroni 10:6-8! It was a really spiritual lesson, and we were able to share our testimonies with her about how the Holy Ghost has impacted our lessons! Hermano Arrrington was able to give really good insights as well! I think we are slowly beginning to get to her! She also really likes how we act and present ourselves! She told us it can be hard at times seeing her kids drink and act the way they do at times! To end the night, we get a call from Elder Astle saying he needed an interview done for a friend of theirs named Fransico as soon as possible on Sunday! We tried planning at 4 after our baptism, but Elder Astle said it had to be earlier; so we ended up planning to do it at 7:00 A.M 😩!
On Sunday we began the day very early by going to the church to do the baptismal interview of Fransico! The Elders drove down to our chapel to have the interview! After the interview, we had ward correlation, and we talked about the needs and wants of the Branch! After, we had the service, and it went pretty well! Erika, Diego, Daniel and Eddie were all able to come to church! Juan and Dora were sick, so they weren't able to come! Martha sadly didn't come either for some reason! We got a couple friends who could progress really quick if they could just come to church! After the service, we had to go and give the sacrament to a couple members of the branch who aren't able to come due to health reasons!
After, we prepared the baptism of Diego and his service! It went so WELL! The talks and the ordinance went great! He was so happy to be there, and he was thanking everyone for coming! Meeting Diego truly was one of the, it not the biggest miracle I've experienced on my mission! It's crazy to think some guy who came up to us from Panda Express three weeks ago would get baptized just like that! Overall, it went really well, and I'm so happy for Diego!
After cleaning up and changing, we went up to Gilory to see the baptism of Fransico! Elder Isaacson had taught him while he was serving in Gilory, so we were able to go and support him! He had been taking discussions from the missionaries for almost 25 months; you truly never know how long it'll take for a person investigating the church to eventually join the church! Especially as missionaries! All you can do is continue to love and support them! God's timing is perfect!
After the baptism of Fransico, Elder Isaacson was able to catch up with some of the members and families that he had taught while up there! This cute little family from Oaxaca that Elder Isaacson had taught and baptized had the cutest little kids! We played with them for a while as the Branch was eating post baptismal food! We headed back to Hollister to end the night!On Monday, we began the day with District Council! We talked about the Atonement and the Resurrection and how it's our job as missionaries to help those around us understand the Atonement! We also watched a couple videos that explained the Atonement in ways I had never thought of before! After district council and lunch, we went back to the apartment and rested; Elder Isaacson had a pretty bad headache, so he stayed inside and slept for a while! We were able to get out and do some work! We met a really nice guy named Roberto! We explained the Book of Mormon to him and how the Gospel of Jesus Christ gives us more puede and hope in this life! A couple more contacts, we ended the night by visiting with Diego! We talked about his baptism and the experience he had! He loved it and told us he feels like he has more strength and energy after receiving the Holy Ghost!
We began by reteaching him the story of Joseph Smith by reading through Joseph Smith History in the Pearl of Great Price! We also showed a video of Elder Bednar explaining the restoration of the Priesthood keys! It was a really good lesson! We are going to help him continue to learn and grow in the gospel! He already has such a strong testimony! In fact, a couple hours before meeting us he was able to go out and help the Sister Missionaries teach a couple of lessons!
On Tuesday, we got up pretty early and got to work! We tried visiting a referral that we had received in San Juan Bautista, which is about 25 minutes away from Hollister, but the address that we were given was wrong! It took us to some huge fancy neighborhood in the middle of nowhere! We tried knocking a couple doors, but no one was interested 🤣; after heading back to Hollister, we went and found a couple people to increase our teaching pool! After, we had a really long lesson with Daniel! We read Alma 42 with him and explained to him the need/process of repentance and how Jesus Christ and his Atonement allows us to be saved physically (through the Resurrection) and how the Atonement of Christ makes his doctrine possible which allows us to be saved from spiritual death: as long as we are following it! We explained to him the importance of reading and praying about the Book of Mormon to know if it's true or not; he said that the Book of Mormon sounded similar to the Bible! We explained how that it's the language used in the scriptures! He also said that the Book of Mormon teaches the same things as the Bible so that it wasn't necessary for us! So, to counter his argument, we read Alma 7:5-12 with him to show him that the Book of Mormon expounds on the Atonement! We've been trying really hard with this guy but he's so unwilling to accept what we are teaching him; He said he's still iffy on whether or not he believes in the Book of Mormon and the story of Joseph Smith! We showed him the video of Elder Bednar explaining the restoration and restoration of the Priesthood, but Daniel was not having it; me and him went on and on about a bunch of different topics. We ended by reading Moroni 10:3-8 with him and testifying to him that he had to read and found out for himself! I included this detailed lesson in my email to show you guys/remind myself how much work this man is haha! All I'm going to do is continue teaching him to the best of my ability, since he still wants to learn more, and pray for him!
After, we went and found a couple more people in a parking lot! After, we ate with Hermana Booth and the Sister Missionaries! While using the bathroom, some crazy lady threw away our books! Luckily, some nice person got them out of the trash can for us! This lady was going on and on how only idiots believe in God, etc. She also flipped the Sister Missionaries off while they were eating! Luckily, people came to our defense, but we just ignored them; people can be crazy haha!
After, we had a really good lesson with Juan and Dora! Arturo was able to come and help us out! We explained to Juan and Dora the Priesthood, and we showed them the video that we had shown Diego just a little while before! After, I was able to give Dora a blessing of healing! It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission for sure! For some reason, i was really feeling the Spirit in this lesson (which is weird since I rarely ever feel the Spirit like that) and I just bore my testimony on the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation and how important the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to us as children of God! I pray everyday that they'll be able to progress and be baptized! I really wanna help Juan and Dora receive the blessings that I have received in my life; they truly are an amazing couple! We ended the night by helping with English class! Martha and Juan Lepez, Benji and Laura Gladys were able to come!*I was also able to pick up a chicken this week! Elder Copeland
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