Spanaway, WA -- August 22, 2011

We had a fantastic week! Gregorio finally accepts the Book of Mormon as the word of God and understands that he needs to get baptized. We had a powerful lesson on the Book of Mormon and got on our knees right there and prayed with them and just waited. We were literally down on the ground for a good 15 minutes. But he felt the influence of the Holy Ghost and knows the Book of Mormon is the word of God. He's still hesitant about a solid baptism date but he's reading Alma 34 where it talks about not procrastinating and is praying about a baptismal date. Concepción still has a lot of doubts, but she'll come along too.

Mari is working on quitting smoking; she just wants to finish off the cigarettes she has right now before she starts. But we gave her some things that should help her make those steps. On Saturday we watched Finding Faith in Christ with her, and we feel she's willing to come to church now, except that she's usually having to do something for her family, either watch grandkids or take care of her mom with dementia.

On Tuesday we had a sweet miracle: Our dinner appointment cancelled so we called a member so that we could eat, and that member happened to be working with a less active member who overheard our conversation and offered to feed us. So we met this less active that we'd never even heard of before who we wouldn't have been able to find because her address was wrong in the directory, and what's more, her husband-boyfriend is a nonmember that was taught by missionaries a year ago and likes coming to church when he can. We've been trying to set up tours and appointments with them but so far they've always been called in to work, but we have another appointment tonight which will hopefully go through.

The meeting with Elder Perry was pretty legit. Elder Clayton, one of the presidents of 70 came too, and we certainly had a spiritual feast about study, companionship unity, and stories from Elder Perry's missionary and military service. We also talked about Less Active work and using Less Actives to bump up our lessons each week to 20. It was really weird to see the Seattle missionaries too. At one point Elder Perry asked our mission presidents how many lessons each companionship taught each week on average. Seattle said '6 or 7' (I know, we were all shocked when we heard that). President Weaver is still really new and didn't know the exact number but said jokingly 'A whole lot more than that,' and to an apostle! The entire room just busted out laughing.

Hmmm, what more? We had some fun on P-day today by playing some board games. Usually we just get together with the zone so there were 5-6 of us that played Godswar Risk (a pretty fun version of risk that involves mythology).

Anyway, love you guys! I hope all is well!

Elder Greg

Spanaway, WA -- August 15, 2011

Hello Family!

 

All is going well. This was a great week for us all! The Spanish zone broke a record in that together between the 8 companionships we found 31 new investigators! We were blessed with 3, which is the most we've had in a week since I got here. We gave a church tour to Ricardo and Kimberly, a young couple from Honduras who are cousins to one of our less active members. We also had a miracle when a member brought a friend, Juan, to church, though seeing him will be a bit difficult because he's a truck driver and technically lives in Yakima (way far away, plus out of our mission).

 

Mari is doing awesome; we tried to bring fellowship over one time, but we felt like it made her feel way uncomfortable. She's more or less willing to come, but also has to take care of her mom with dementia a lot of Sundays. But she's been reading in the Book of Mormon, and she committed last night to start working again on quitting smoking, so we'll be working hard with her to do all those things so that she'll be more able to feel the Spirit so that she'll gain a spiritual testimony of the Book of Mormon so that she feels the desire to be baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authority of God, thus making her first life-saving ordinance and covenant with our Heavenly Father. But, all things step by step, line upon line, etc. :)

 

The bishop is in Spain this month on vacation with his grandkids and our ward clerk is being deployed to Iraq, so it'll be intersting to see what happens with the ward in the coming weeks. I'm not trying to say that the leadership is incapable or anything, but the ward itself is still relatively young and most people are converts and just don't have very much experience. But it'll be interesting to see how everything works out. :)

 

I'm super excited to hear from Elder Perry this Friday! We have zone conference next week too, so it'll just be a spiritual feast!

 

Hmmm, what else? Did I tell you about the Paella I had a few weeks ago? Before bishop left, he cooked us the national dish of Spain (he's a chef), which consists of Rice (which turns yellow because you use saffron), shrimp, mussels, octopus, chicken, etc. It was the first time I'd ever eaten mussel or octopus like that, and it was absolutely delicious! I haven't eaten anything too weird yet, but my papa Elder Liechty and my new little brother Elder Wilde ate menudo last night, which is that soup made out of cow stomach.

 

I love you guys and I hope all is well! Say hi to my Berkeley friends for me and tell them that I love them!

 

Les amo, y ¡que tenga una superchida semana! ¡Guarden la fe!

 

Con amor,

Greg

Spanaway - August 8, 2011

We had some more good experiences with Mari this week; she told us last night that she doesn't doubt that Jose Smith was a prophet, and that a lot of what we've taught makes sense to her intellectually, that God would have had a hand in the lives of the people of the ancient Americas, etc., but that she's still searching to gain that emotional and spiritual witness. She doesn't want to come to church because she sees all sorts of faults in the leadership of churches and doesn't agree with that and had a really bad experience with the Jehova's Witnesses because they excommunicated her after she divorced her abusive husband. But she loves us and with time and as she continues to feel the Spirit she'll come around.

 

We did have some miracles this week. We gave a church tour to a guy named Alberto on Monday, but he works and hasn't been at home when we've tried to see him. We also received a referral from Utah: apparently Espanoza sat in on a few lessons with her sister in Utah who was investigating the church, and we saw her yesterday and hopefully will be able to give her a tour of the church soon.

 

We're really excited because in a couple of weeks we'll be joining with the Seattle mission and will get to hear Elder L. Tom Perry speak for a couple hours.

 

Les amo muchisimo <3

 

Greg <3 <3 <3

Spanaway - August 2, 2011

¡Buenas! (Hi)

 

Transfers were fantastic!!!  Elder Lehr and I are actually going to be staying together this transfer in Spanaway. My granddaddy, Elder Hansen, goes home in a few hours and we received three new Spanish Elders, one of whom is 6'9´´! No one else goes home for 10 more months, so the Spanish zone isn't going to change for almost a year, and we'll all have the chance to get super close! President also opened up another Spanish area, so we now have eight areas with the brand new addition of Centralia. And I wouldn't be surprised if Forks opens up to Spanish, or at least a zebra companionship before I finish my mission.

 

The García family did end up dropping us, which was sad, but like you said it's just part of the work and hopefully everything will work out in the end. We were also blessed in many ways.

 

Transfers also probably fixed the problem with the English elders. The new missionary is super cool, and also clean and cleaned the bathroom already, and we talked last night about a rotating chore thing so that we can turn the apartment into the best apartment in the mission like it used to be.

 

We made a lot of progress with Mari this week. Witnesses do believe in Jesus Christ as the son of God, but tend to place more emphasis on God the Father and believe the the Father is Jehova. They like to talk about the name of God and why that's important, etc. Certainly there are a lot of interesting beliefs. I had a humbling experience in the last lesson we had with her; as we've taught her, there have been a lot of things that she hasn't agreed with, but this last time she told us 'you know, I think you two may be right. Whenever you come to my house, I feel a kind of energy, and when you go, it seems to go too. That's why I started calling you angelitos [little angels] when I first met you. But I want to be sure.' She's still a long ways from coming to church, let alone getting baptized, but this really strengthened my testimony about the importance of being obedient so that we can qualify for the companionship of the Holy Ghost, which is the true testifier of the truths of the Gospel.

 

Hmmm, what else? Tacoma Spanish had a legit baptism on Sunday, probably one of the most spiritual baptisms I've attended. A member just saw Wendy and her two kids at the store, invited them down to the church because there was a barbecue/activity going on, Tacoma gave them a church tour right there, and three weeks later, they entered into the waters of baptism. Member missionary work is the Lord's way of doing missionary work!

 

Keep praying for finding miracles! Instatours! That's probably one of the areas in which we struggle the most in Spanaway, since the Mexican's live so far apart and we need to scout them out. But we feel rejuvenated and we're excited to baptize this transfer!

 

¡Les amo muchísimo y espero que se encuentren bien! (That means I love you very much and hope that you are well).

 

Con cariño y amor (with care and love),

 

Greg