(05/19/2010)

Things are going really well here. Both Tomas and Leo are doing great. We had stake conference this week so it was somewhat difficult to get people to church . But conference was really good.

We moved Tomas's date back until the 6th of June because he felt like he needed more time. That is fine. He is a great guy and likes to learn so we will give it to him.

I am really am dumbfounded at what to write. Elder Urbina was sick for most of the weekend with the stomach flu and then yesterday, we had a Spanish zone conference.

I am sorry for the short letter. I hope and pray you are all doing well.

Have a great week

(05/11/2010)

So I am just like everyone else who wrote me. I don't really know what to say after talking to you just Sunday. I do have a few observations from Sunday though, that I will go over.

Grace is a busy-body. She is so smart and she is good at telling stories. I don't know if you know but she told me the story of Snow White while you were eating dinner.

Everyone looked really happy. It was good to see everyone so happy. Also everyone pretty much looked the same as I remember them.

Grandpa Milt looked really skinny. I had no idea he was losing weight. He seemed happy and good as well.

Well that’s about all I have. Have a great week. I will talk to you next week.

Big things are happening (05/04/2010)

Things are really REALLY going well here. We now have two people on date for baptism. This first one is Leo. We had him on date for the 16th but we pushed it back for the 30th to give us a little bit more time. We went over on Saturday and his wife, who is a less-active member, was there and was acting very strangely. She kept saying that he is not ready for baptism and he is doing it for the wrong reasons and all of these sorts of things. I said well let’s ask him and so we did and he said I like how the members of the church help one another out and she started yelling, see, he just wants money and all of this stuff and he just thinks they are going to help him financially and all of these things. But we took it along with our branch mission leader who was there that he meant that they helped with spiritual matters. Anyway after a little bit of time she finally came out and said, "I just don't want his life to be as terrible as mine because I know this church is true and I didn't follow the gospel and I am being punished for it and there is no way that I can change and I would just rather him live in ignorance that make this huge decision and not fully understand it and fall away and have a terrible life like mine. Well we promised her that we would not baptize him if we didn't think he was ready and that she needs to think if he is pulling him back or pulling him forward. And that together they can go through the repentance process. It was really good. Then we went by yesterday and it was totally different. She was helpful and teaching him. It was really good. So he will be baptized on the 30th.

The other one on date is Tomas. He will be baptized on the 23rd of May. He is doing really well. He really wants to be baptized and is still telling everyone about the church and how much it will help them. It is awesome. He really understands the bible and he is such a good learner and understands everything we tell him. '

Another kid we are working with is Gustavo. He has come to church for three weeks in a row now. It is hard to teach him because we don't know if he is really interested or he just comes because he lives with a member and they bring him. He seems interested and understands what we teach him. We need to get in and really find out what his interest is. It is hard to teach him because it is always so loud in the house he lives in. They have a couple of little kids that are always making noise, but we can figure it out.

Heraldo is really doing well also. We had lunch with him on Saturday and he asked us where we do baptisms and we told him in a font and asked if we ever do it in a river and I said yeah, but we would have to get permission. That’s where he wants to do it he said so we will see if that gets him over hump. He is really doing well. He finished the Book of Mormon as well so we will see what happens.

That’s about all I have. Although the other day we were in this lesson with the door open and we start hearing this pounding noise and I thought it was some sort of compacter packing the dirt down or something like that then we see this old Cadillac-like looking car, literally bouncing down the street with its hydraulics. It was so funny. I kid you not , the front wheels of the car were getting probably 3 or 4 feet off of the ground. It was so funny. They were just doing laps back and forth down the street.

Oh yeah the weather has been almost cold lately. Yesterday it was in the mid-50's and really windy. It was cold. I can't believe that we are in May. It just doesn't seem real to me.

Well I gotta go. Have a great week

Pictures 1 (May 2010)

Our district in Yakima April 2010:

Back row from left:Elder Urbina,Yours truly, Elder Luncefor, Elder Deloach.

Front row: Elder Becerra and Elder Lundquist.

Elder "Davey" back for a visit

I rolled my ankle playing basketball


Elder Urbina and me off to do something important.



An El Camino limo

Pictures 2 (May 2010)

Heraldo and me

Brother Webber (branch mission leader) and me

Hmo Alfaro and I


Two Arizona boys getting homesick


Elder Urbina and I doing missionary work.

Pictures 3 (May 2010)

Elder Deloach and I

Manuel Pimental and I. He got baptized last September and is getting his papers ready to go on a mission.

Leo with Elder Urbina and me at Leo's baptism.