May 19, 2014 (day 167)

Hey there!!!

This was a really good week! Also a little interesting and different than normal, but I will tell you about that in a minute.

So basically this week started with visiting less active members and trying to find investigators. We had a great lesson with Andrés on Tuesday and on Friday he had his baptismal interview!! It was awesome! He is progressing towards getting baptized this Saturday and I am beyond happy! Woohoo! But other than that we didn´t teach much this week. The family of 6 that we were teaching never have time to let us in. They are really nice and sincere, but we will see if they will progress at all.

We had a really good zone meeting on Wednesday that was very inspired because the zone leaders talked about a lot of things that Elder Pava and I had recently talked about and that we need to improve. It was great! Mostly we talked about how we need to love the people we are serving. And I can definitely say that I put it into practice this week!

But the part of our week that was really different is that right now we are using a stand thing that we set up in the middle of busy areas like in plazas and parks and stuff that has a big question on it like: How can my family be more happy and united? And we stand on the side saying hola to everybody that passes by and if someone comes over to us and starts talking to them then we can contact them and try and get an address or phone number to teach them. But the key is that we have to wait for them to come to us. I have to say that I don´t like it a whole ton because we have the stand for 8 days. We have to use it 4 hours a day every day. In the 8 hours I have used it, like 7 people have come up to us, not counting all the drunks and people that come to make fun of us haha. It's a really humbling experience, because thousands of people pass by and most people won´t even look at us or say hi back. But its interesting! And the people that are interested make it worth it! But it takes up a ton of our time, so we were running like crazy this week trying to get everything done.

But this week I really learned a lot about loving people. I felt so much love for so many different people this week that I don´t even know! Last night We contacted an atheist man and I was just about crying when he wouldn´t accept our invitation to read the Book of Mormon. In that moment I realized how much this gospel really means to me. When people don´t accept, or make fun of or don´t want to listen to what we have to say, it makes me sad! Because I want them to understand what I do, because somehow, even without knowing them, I love them and want them to be happy. And this gospel makes us happy! 

My companion and I sometimes want to climb up on each others shoulders and start yelling so that everyone can hear what we have to say! Haha, not really, but something like that! 

But that was pretty much my week. I am really happy and really tired haha. I´m always tired. I think thats a good thing though. I love you all, have a good week!

Elder Marchant

May 12, 2014 (day 160)

Hey there! So I am pretty much the happiest guy in the world right now! This was a really good week. We had lots of things happen, but not really tons of time to work. We have extended sudies because I am training Elder Pava, and someimes that takes up a good chunk of our day. We also had a crazy amount of other stuff, which was all real good! We had a few lessons during the week. The best ones were with Andrés. He accepted a baptismal date for he 24th of May. He is so awesome!! He has the biggest desires ever to follow Christ and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to help him take this step in his life. He says he is getting anxious to get baptized. I am so happy to see the changes that are happening in his life!

On Friday we had a little activity in the ward for Mother`s Day that was really fun. Us missionaries put on a little skit that was so much fun! We pretended to be teaching a guy about how we need to respect and love our parents, especially for Mothers Day. He didn´t want to so we decided he needed a change of heart, so we pretended to take him to a doctor (me) who surgically removed his heart (a rock) and put in a new one ( a big pink heart shaped pillow) Lets just say we maybe went a little far with the ketchup and I may have ruined a white shirt. The story really needs to be told in person or you have to see the video, but the file is too big to send haha.

Anyway, The next morning we had a baptism! Martina got baptized at noon. We had to go fill the font beforehand, so we were going to leave the apartment early, but we ran into a little problem. I got locked in the bedroom! It was hilarious! We couldn´t open the door from either side and I eventually just had to climb out the window, because there was no time to disassemble the door in the morning. Haha so that was a little adventure. But we made it to the church in time to prepare for the baptism, and while we were there I just felt at peace. I didn´t have to worry about the door or anything else. The baptism was great! It was really cool to see all of Martina´s family there. Their family is slowly growing stronger in the church and they are way happy! And they can be an eternal family! I love seeing the happiness that this gospel brings to the lives of families!!

Yesterday was pretty much the highlight of my life though. Skyping my whole family from all different parts of the world! So cool! I have been so happy since then! And then we went and taught a family right after, and it was pretty cool! They are a family of 6 and they all want to find out for themselves if what we teach is true! I hope and pray that they will get baptized! The parents names are Jessica and Alan, with two daughters Britney and Mia, and the two sisters of Alan named Carol and Karin. They are great!! 

But that is basically what happened this week! Lots of real real good stuff! I love you all tons! Have an amazing week!!!

Love Elder Marchant

Cereal coming out our noses! 

Martina's baptism

Martina's family

Mom's favorite photo of the week!

May 5, 2014 (day 153)

Wow this week was awesome!!!!!!

Elder Pava and I are having the time of our lives right now. This week was really really awesome.

This week I have really noticed how many weaknesses I have. I am starting to understand the scripture Ether 12:27 a lot more. The Lord sent me Elder Pava to show me how much more room I have to improve as a missionary and as a disciple of Jesus Christ. We started the week off really well. We had a good lesson with Martina, and she is progressing nicely towards her baptismal date for this Saturday!!!!! She will be having the baptismal interview today and we are really excited for her!!! 

Thursday was a crazy day. We started it off nicely with some interviews with President Kahnlein. My interview was really good, and I left feeling really happy and ready to work. I also realized more things that I need to improve as I talked with him. He is really an inspired man and servant of the Lord. He is so awesome!!! But we left from there and had a lesson with Andrés. Andrés still wasn´t sure about his answer–if he wanted to get baptized, but he is so awesome! He decided he wanted to fast, so we decided to fast with him. So he decided during this fast to go and hike a mountain and sit on the peak. Its not really a mountain, but a really really big hill I would say. But he hiked that on Friday morning with the Bible and the Book of Mormon. He sat there for about 3 hours comparing the two and praying to find out what he should do. He is so awesome!!!!!!!! He finally came down and we went and visited him. He said he still wasn´t sure, but that he had received a lot of answers to prayers up there on the mountain. We watched the Restoration with him and talked about the importance of baptism. He still has not given us an answer, but he will figure it out soon! I have never seen someone so motivated to follow Christ, and I love it!!!!!

Oh I forgot to mention that right before that lesson we had a lesson with some recent converts and their cousin who is not a member. We started to watch a video and I got really really sick. Haha I had to leave and go to the bathroom in the middle and I threw up everything in me and was in the bathroom forever haha. I don´t know what I ate, or how the video ended haha because I missed it. But my companion taught the lesson solo and he did really good I think haha. But that was a fun experience. 

Anyway, Then we had another lesson that was even more way awesome because we taught a family!! They are way awesome! Jessica and her two daughters Brittany and Mia and then two sister in laws named Karin and Carol. They said they would read the Book of Mormon and pray and come to church, so we were really happy. 

The next day we went back to their house with a married couple who are members and watched the Restoration with them. They got really excited to come to church and said they would.

And yesterday they came!!!!! We had that family and Andres come to church and the meetings were all so awesome! They all felt the Spirit and I have just been so happy ever since!!! I can´t wait to go visit them today! I will be sure to let you know next week when they are going to get baptized because they sure will!! Anyway, I am just really happy and content right now. That's pretty much what happened in my week and I am very very grateful for the blessing of the gospel in my life. I love you tons!!

Elder Marchant