The Spirit is Everything

Hello Family!

I can't believe it is time to write again. I wish I knew where the time went. I think I have told you this before; but the Spirit is EVERYTHING. I have learned out here that you cannot succeed without
it. You cannot do missionary work nor do it right without the Spirit.  We cannot see success with the people we teach without the Spirit. I personally feel like I can't convince people. Lately I have been SO dependent on the Spirit in lessons. It has to be that which does the convincing. It is so key. Elder Ramos and I continue to be guided by the Spirit. Jessica committed to being baptized on April 20th! We are pumped. She is 18 and her parents were baptized hace un ano and we are teaching her boyfriend too. She FINALLY came to church. The new church continues to bring in the presently-known-as-cold people. Haha. It is really nice. When we report to Obispo Cid about who we need help with, he usually says; Ok Elders We go! so He is very good. It kinda helps that we visit a lot of members and less actives. Just so you know; we are staying busy and teaching non-members too! This week I became completely converted to the fact that the best way to do missionary work is through the members of the church. No member is ready to hand over referrels of friends because they typically just aren't that outgoing about it, but we are teaching them because we strain their friends out of their brains by using the Spirit! Seriously. It is working. And because we help members they invite their friends to talk with us because "they helped me be happier." It really is simple like
this. Elder Ramos and I have knocked about 10 doors here and it was BRUTAL haha. No more. He said he knocked almost 2 hours a day with his trainer here. Ay caray. He hated it haha. This is the best way to do the work. It is what we have been told and taught and I have always believed it but I became converted to it in this area. I KNOW. We had dinner with the Morenos yesterday. They are sweet. They are pumped to invite their friends to the Easter Pageant in Mesa. They wanted us to go with them so we already have plans for that. I can't believe it has been a year since I went! I am starting to make the second and final round on everything in the mission. President is still preparing
(wigging out) to leave the mission. He definitely wants things to be going smoothly. Ay caray. Love that man! Glad you got to see him. I hope you noticed some more of his humor which is exactly like Dad's. Dry haha. I am in my third area with a Spring training ballpark in it! We passed by the Dodgers park on Camelback and 110th when there was a game last saturday. SO MANY MEXICANS. There are already a lot here, but for a Dodgers game too!? We did another Temple run this week. It was good to be back. I have been having withdrawals. I will have to survive another 3 months now. We went with the-one-and-only Hermano Barrera. He told us that he doesn't want to get married again because he likes doing whatever he wants and he knows he wouldn't be able to
make little house figurines and paint them until 4 in the morning with a wife. He also said that his life is helping the"Elderes de Israel" so, aqui estamos. Elder Ramos and I finally went to the doctor this
week. His stomach is eating him alive. He has Gastritis and the garbage we eat in the states is destroying him. It was in my first area! I saw many memorable sites. Elder Ramos is wild haha. He is
telling me more about his growing up. El Salvador was a wild place. Every man for himself. Lots of gangs. Elder Ramos would still be in a gang as a hard core leader if he weren't baptized. Haha. Kind of cool. Something I learned this morning in studies: Captain Moroni was wigging out about the war/liberty situation at the end of the Lamanite war so he writes a letter (kind of ignorantly) to Pahoran, the chief judge. Well, he didn't know what was going on so he reproved him
greatly. Pahoran responds ever-so-benevolently. HE says that he does not delight in Moroni's situation. He then sends troops and provisions despite his own plight. WOW. Moroni then frees himself from the situation and goes to the aid of Pahoran. Then they both go and win battles together. How many of us as members of the church can respond like Pahoran to an offensive situation such as that one? What if Pahoran got offended, gave up, got ticked off, and left the judgment seat or gave up the fight? Our responses to others are important.  Remember that life is 10 percent what happens and 90 percent what we do with it (Evan taught me that quote). I room with a couple bible-bashers too and I have learned in my mission that the BOM is everything. There is a section in PMG that says that we use it to respond to objections, rather than the Bible. I am so much happier relying on the BOM, the Spirit, and honest invitations to act, than on Biblical knowledge. Granted, I am not ignorant (because how could I be saved if I were?) but our best means of bringing the Spirit is the
BOM. So let's drop it! (get it?) Great week. Love you!