Everyone canceled but I learned a lot.

Dear Family,

I loved the pictures you sent of the house, looks pretty crazy, but looks like it is coming along. I can't believe you are going to Disney Land on the 28th that's crazy! Hope you all enjoy that, I will be enjoying a huge transfer that week. We have so many missionaries coming in and hopefully we get to help with the driving to San Francisco. We are excited for the transfer though. There will be a lot of changes and good things that will be happening. Oh Alex, I hope he gets better. Listen to your mother... She knows whats best for you but yes the fish was totally worth it! 19 inches! That's awesome. Pezon! That's so funny about Maylin. She makes me laugh. Sounds good that she is doing well in school! McKenzie  that is so cool that you are doing the pageant! I saw pictures of you last week and you look so mature and older! WOW. 

So what happened this week. Not much. We didn't teach a single investigator. Its been a tough week on that side but I have also learned a lot and its been really good for me. We actually don't have any investigators either, they have all dropped us. Its sad but we are working forward and going to find the elect. I have never had so many appointments cancel on us than this last week, even with members.

I had a good exchange with a new elder of about 4 weeks who is an English elder. We had a really good exchange. We did a service project with a member where we moved some furniture from downstairs to upstairs. That was fun and then they fed us afterward. I was laughing when my companion was eating the food with all the hot stuff. He couldn't handle it. We taught a less-active after which was good and I did a lot of translating in the lesson so that my companion could teach. It was a very powerful lesson also because the member said that they weren't even sure now if God really existed. We were able to testify to him and the spirit was so strong. It was a powerful experience for me. 

We also attended 3 district meetings this week because this week is the last week in the transfer and we have to get all the district meetings visited and finish with our exchanges. We went out to Berkeley and visited a district meeting with President also. After the district meeting, we talked to president about the maps and then went over to Staples quickly and printed off a huge map of our Zone. It looks really good. We laminated it also. 

Thursday was full of district meetings also. I learned a lot in those district meetings about how to plan better and how to improve our studies. We attended the Chinese district meeting which was fun! I love being with the Chinese missionaries. After that district meeting we met with President to show him the maps we made. He and Sister Meredith loved them and are going to have us display them at Zone Leaders Council in April. 

That night we taught a less-active family that is coming back. We taught them the restoration and it went really well. We really were focusing on their needs and what the needed to come back to church and be full active members. After the lesson we were able to discuss their needs and come to some conclusions and received some revelation on what we needed to do to help them progress. We then visited the Garcia family ( my recent convert ). That went really well. We were teaching them about the temple and preparing them to do baptisms for the dead that Saturday  We were really excited and it was funny because the husband being a member for a while wasn't sure what was going to go on in the temple. The wife being a brand new convert was explaining it to him! It was awesome. 

Here are pictures at the temple. Their girls are so cute.

On Friday we had the opportunity to go out and do some finding at a park. We had some really amazing experiences as we talked with everyone. One in specific was with a lady named Lashauna (yes she was not Latino . She was with her daughter at the park and we began to talk to her and we could really tell from the spirit that we felt that she was prepared. We began to talk about her family and how much it means to her. She talked about how its so hard for her to protect her daughter from all the bad things in the world. I asked her how she would feel if her daughter knew that she could come home and be safe and feel peace. She said that she would give or do anything. I then shared my personal experiences about our family and how Our home truly felt like a refuge, somewhere we could come home to and feel peace. As I shared that and testified about what it says in the Family: A Proclamation to the World, the spirit touched me really hard. It was powerful and I could tell she was feeling it. We then shared about the restoration of the gospel and how she can establish her home on the restored gospel. She accepted missionaries to come back and we gave her a pamphlet. She was really prepared and when we left she said, "Thank you stopping and talking to me." 

That really struck me because I thought about how it will be after this life when we meet the people we affected and they say, "thanks for helping me, or thanks for talking to me." It was a testimony to me about Gods plan and the gospel. That night we taught a Focus 15 family at the visitors center. It went really well but he talked a lot. After though we were asked to give a blessing to one of the sister missionaries  We went with Elder Weise (his grandson lives in Bluffdale I know him) and gave the sister a blessing. Its the small and simple acts of service that make us happy. 

Saturday was the best! We went to the temple with the Garcia family. We met at the temple at 1:30 and took the kids to the nursery and then went to the temple. Sister Garcia was a little nervous of course but she was so excited. She didn't know what to expect inside but she said as she walked in, "It feels so good in here." We were able to go and do baptisms for the dead and confirmations with them. They really enjoyed it. It was good to be in the temple. The bishop, my companion and I had to go help some other groups out with confirmations and so I was able to do a lot of the confirmations. I can't remember if I had ever done them before but it was a good experience. After the temple, Sister Garcia said that she can't wait to come back and for the next time we want to help them prepare family names. For dinner, we went with them to the Relief Society anniversary dinner at the church. It was good and funny to see all the Latino woman dressed as pioneers. 

Sunday was good but not much happened. I got destroyed by the Tongan food. Wow! they feed you so much. I have to go because they need the computers but this week was really good.

I had been thinking a lot about whats going on in the Zone and I came to the conclusion that we have forgotten the Doctrine of Christ and we are forgetting to love the people and to focus on their needs. Elder Bradford and I had a good talk and we have decided that we want to fast more and make more sacrifices for our Zone and for our investigators. I was able to fast this week and we will be fasting more now but smaller fasts. I am excited and I feel like I am hopefully going to help the Zone and the missionaries regain focus. 

Love you family Ill send pictures! Bye

Elder HIll