Sprained Ankle

Well, whats going on in the 480?! This week was pretty crazy, but a good one for sure! We had divisions on friday and I had to lead our sector with a kid who only had two weeks experience! I actually did really good, and I was surprised how well my spanish was when I was talking with the people. It's different when you have to do it on your own because a lot of times my companion talks a lot hahaha. So when I talk I have to bring down the hammer on them! hahaha! 

Well it's been strange, we have three people with baptism dates, but we might have to push them back because they having been coming to church. We had a really good lesson last night with one of them and he said he would come to church the next week so that works for me! 

Also we have been working with this family really closely and we have gained a lot of trust with them, so yesterday we talked with them and the mom kinda just poured her heart out to us and why she hasn't been coming to church. It's weird because we visit these less-actives and a lot of times they have super strong testimonies, but they just have a problem with someone in the ward or something like that. This hermana served a mission and has read the book of mormon many times but she doesn't want to come because of stuff with her sons and problems, but we will get them to come for sure! Also it was crazy -- we went to a person's house and they weren't there. It was already late and we had an hour before we had to be back in the house, so I was just thinking crap we are probably just going to walk around for an hour! But in that hour, we met with about three different people who we have meetings with. I just thought that was such a blessing for us hahaha! This week though I was so flipping tired, and so full. I was given so much food multiple times i thought I was going to throw up! hahahaha but then there is one bad thing I think I sprained my ankle today during soccer, so that sucks because it hurts so bad! Oh and i have my package!!!!! LOVE YOU!!



p.s.

Oh if you send me something like a package don't send it through anything but united states postal service. I paid 108 dollars to get my package.....

package!

108 bucks. seriously.

JB baby. All children of God.

Add caption

love you guys!

He lives in Garden Grove! Went to high school with Haley!

ankle problems...

Amen Señor!

Well this week was full of adventure, for sure! I was super grateful for my experiences and I loved it! First though I have been told I will receive my package this wednesday, and they took care of everything so thats great! Anyway, this week we ran into some painters that were painting our house and we contacted them and ended up setting a meeting with them for saturday. We met up with them on saturday and holy moses was this lesson powerful and just so intense. Probably the most intense lesson I have had in my life. Just shows me that the lord puts people in our path to help them. Also we had family home evening with hermano manuel and he brought his neighbors who are not members, we watched the talk given by Tad Callister who talked about the organization of the church, and wow that is doctrine look him up! After the talk they really understood the mormon church and we all bore our testimonies, and she said that was the first time she has felt anything from anyone! 

Well the baptisms we tried to put weren't really anything like I told you before, we haven't talked to the guy forever. We pass by his house all the time and he is never there! But with Ana Maria and her daughter we put a baptism date for March 1! Now all they have to do is come to church because she told us she knows the church is true! The only problem is that her daughter has schitzophrenia, so she is worried to bring her especially in the morning. Also we contacted a man on the street on saturday and we visited him on sunday. This guy is an evangelico and we just kinda got to know him and all that. The lesson went pretty freaking good but this guy was over the top with his amen and praise the lord. While I was giving the prayer he just kept saying Amen Senor! hahahahah tried so hard not to laugh! But anyway my comp asked the guy to close the door and the guy asked why? So my comp shared the scripture matthew 6: 5-7 and basically told him he was a hypocrite. Then we talked about prophets and apostles and priesthood and I can't remember what scripture he used but he also used ephesians 4:5 - one faith, one senor, one baptism, and said "do you have a prophet, apostles or priesthood?" he said no. "then your church is false!" I was just like oh snap hahahahahah wow! but he ended up accepting a baptism too for the 8th of March hahahaha! Super genial enserio! but everything is all good, I had my fisrst bbq and it was super flipping good! oh you guys need to look up huilo huilo in chile it is so flipping beautiful! love you guys!

animal fried chileano

asado! bbq

mom i need more ties!

completo grande

Ana Maria

Hello family and friends. I hope you are all doing just dandy because I am! Sorry I couldn't write very long last week because we went hiking but that was super fun, and I have some awesome pics so be ready for that! Well on thursday I had the opportunity to do service for a guy in our ward and he is super cool, not gonna lie, I love that family! But we helped take out the metal sheets in his roof we aren't done, but it was definitely fun! Also, this week was a lot of contacting on the Simi and to my surprise worked really well this week we have six potential investigators or people we haven't visited before! 

Anyway the highlight of my week was definitely teaching this lady Ana Maria, she has a daughter who is not all their in the head but is super fun and smart. Her mom is Catholic and the first time we taught she didn't really care to listen, but we invited her too and she did. She had tons of questions and wanted to know more. Our next visit she was super excited to learn and again had tons of questions and it was just crazy, we answered all of them hahaha, but she said " I dont know why but usually with people like you, I just reject them and don't want to hear anything, but with you guys I decided to listen. I feel really peaceful right now." She definitely felt the spirit, but we asked her to come to church three times and she said no I have things to do. Then I said pretty sternly " If Jesus Christ was here and he told if you went to church he would send you the spirit, would you go?" she answered "Yes." Then i said " Well as representatives of Jesus Christ I promise you that if you go he will send the spirit to you and the spirit will testify that our message is true. will you go?" she said yes! hahahaha but she ended up not coming but thats okay because it was super spiritual! At church though we had 3 inactives come to church two of them were the Bishop with the problems and his wife and man he looked good! He just looked so happy too! Helped my testimony a TON! 

Well my new years consisted of good food and The Testaments love you guys!

thug life

mom would be proud!

milkshakes. mom would be proud.

transfers. so long elder soulier.

haircut time. sorry jackie :(

Cool Stories

Hello everyone! Sorry this week i don't have much time at all because we went on a hike today and it took a lot longer than expected, so sorry. Well this week has had its ups and downs -- definitely not the week we thought it was going to be, but it was good! It was actually a lot like my first week in the field walking door-to-door and finding people. Not my favorite, but it works hahahah. But i had some cool stories! So in the ward they give out a book of mormon and they have to give it away to someone and its super cool. This guy hermano manuel came contacting with us and you could tell he was kinda nervous, but we ended up talking to this girl. He started by reading the bible and then relating it to the book of mormon and he did an excellent job i was so impressed and it made me think wow, the real missionaries are the ones in the ward, just super awesome! 

Also another thing was this Bravo family, they haven't been active and we went to their house 5 straight days and on the fifth day we went with a member who is the secretary in the stake, but the crazy thing is is this guy who is a less active was a bishop. crazy right? But the situation he is in is insanely crazy. The guy has a testimony, but just said i'm taking a vacation from the church and my companion read a scripture, and told its time to end that vacation. He said your right i will be at church next week! Wow it just strengthens my testimony to hear stuff like that and to know the Lord is preparing everyone for certain people to hear the gospel! 

Well my hike was fun and super beautiful. i love you all! chau!

Christmas Miracle

Hey guys, hows it going?! How was your christmas?! Hopefully amazing! Well this week was a good one, that's for sure. I had the opportunity to see all your faces and talk with your guys. Super grateful. No lie. Anyway after we skyped we headed over to the Bishop's house for dinner, and man was it really good, but it was super important to gain trust and have a good relationship with him. The night went so perfect with the perfect mixture of fun and spiritual, man it was just awesome. 

But guys, you wont believe it. I had a christmas miracle in my mission! We got some presents and stuff, but it wasn't about that, we had no where to go and were just kinda walking and my comp tells me to call hermano manuel, super random but I did and I guess his son was sick, but we passed by anyway. Remember he is a member too and he got baptized I think a year or maybe 3 ago--don't know--but we were just kinda messing around, then we got into kind of a lesson and usually with members it's just a scripture but we practiced the first lesson for some reason with the pamphlet. While we were teaching he was telling us all about his conversion and his baptism and how good he felt and he started talking about the missionaries that baptized him. We finally ended in a prayer right when the prayer was done the phone rang, and guess who it was, The MISSIONARY that baptized him!!! HOLY CRap it was crazy and once he got off the phone he sat down and told us he had a feeling to call him all day and kinda just shrugged it off but during the prayer he had the thought in his mind call him! Call him! and he called wow! Super crazy, and he just started crying, then we gave his son a blessing and were on our way! Super crazy. But anyway we cant' leave our house tomorrow and the work is starting to get better here so I'm super grateful love you guys!

ballin

bishop and elder soulier

Bittersweet Week

Hey, so this was a bittersweet week, for sure. we asked our first guy to be baptized, and he said yes! so that was awesome, and we are working on this 15-year-old boy, so we will see how that goes! The bitter part is that i got sick on thursday, a day before our huge christmas activity which sucked! Elder Allen and I both got sick so we both stayed in thursday night and missed the sports friday morning... but on the upside we got to watch Remember the Titans for our activity in spanish! Holy crap! i was so happy! basically it was a spiritual experience and healed me of my sickness hahaha! so i have tons of pictures this week for you guys. Also we were able to have an awesome dinner and a gift exchange, where I received the best gift ever which was a tellitubbie.... worst gift exchange ever hahaha. it was like someone picked it up off the street hahah, but its all good. i cherish it now!

Well i can't wait to skype you guys and hear about all your cool presents and such. that's not gonna make me super jealous hahaha. Well my plans are to work and go to members houses I believe. and for lunch on christmas, me and my comp are probably going to do a little cookout thing idk. maybe because the guys a chef! hahaha but not as good as chef Brad of course! hahaha miss those smoothies.... anyway the work here has been pretty slow, but we are starting to pick up day by day, so we will see how that goes. We are starting to get to know the members and getting help from them so its going good for sure!. Oh I forgot we went caroling these last two days and it went awesome. we just spread the christmas spirit all over town! hahhaha but people actually really love it, but it really just doesn't feel like christmas.... well love you! bye!

my gift exchange present

cantadores

we felt and earthquake for real...

im a reindeer

completos

"The Work is Coming"

what's up everyone?! what's cracking in the 480?! well i'm not gonna lie this week was pretty tough because as you guys know i'm in a whitewash area, and so we are starting from the ground up. so basically everyday we wake up, do studies and go contact less actives and knock doors for the rest of the day just trying to find new investigators to teach. so as you can imagine it's been pretty tough, my feet flippin hurt. it's almost as bad as going to disneyland three days straight hahahah! but seriously.... well one of my great stories this week was my companion and I were looking for this person and couldn't find the house, but there was this guy just getting out of his car and it was an elantra like ours! so i was like "hey man i like your car!" so we talked and he spoke a little english so it was all good, and next thing you know he is telling me he has cancer and all this stuff. like he has a kid and a wife, but his wife doesn't seem to care too much about him and he is just having a rough time. so i told him "hey our message is centered on jesus christ and families. I know our message can help you. you love your son, right? yes he said. Well through our church and the gospel you can live with your son forever and with god." right when i said that his eyes lit up, and i got his information and all this stuff, so i'm really excited to see where it goes!
  

Also thursday through saturday was just knocking on doors with little to no success, so my companion and i were super frustrated and were just like where do we need to go?! why can't we find people? but in my head i had a thought that said "brock be patient the work is coming." so I just thought about 1 nephi 3:7 and put my trust in the lord, and that night i prayed so hard! the next day we had 2 investigators come to church and 1 less active! wow my prayer was answered! but last night was the devotional and i heard david archuelta perform and he is pretty good, and i had a great time! well love you guys a lot! miss you!

this is my planner. cool right?!

feliz navidad

juice and ice cream

david archuleta concert

investigator and less active

sick pic

keeping selfie sunday alive