MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!! So this Christmas week i've been reading a lot in the Book of Mormon. I was reading a lot so that i'd be able to finish it up to make the the challenge that our President gave us in the mission. The challenge was to read the whole Book Of Mormon starting November 23 and finishing it by December 31. That gave us a little over a month to start over wherever we were in the book and go through it completely again. At first i was a little pesimistic about the challenge because i had read the BOM a lot already and i was getting into studying the new testiment. But as i began to read i started to change my attitude towards the challenge and started to realize why our president had given us this challenge. In D&C 84:54-58 we can read one of the biggest reasons that President Martineau gave us this challenge. It says in those versus that we are brought under condemnation if we treat lightly the blessings that we have been given. The main blessing being the new covenet of knowing the Book of Mormon and all the commandments that God has reveled to his modern day prophets. Basicaly our president could tell and knows of the importants of the BOM in the Lords work and for that reason gave us this challenge so that we might remove any type of condenation from above our heads and preach the new and everlasting covenent that is going to bless this whole earth.
So now personaly as i've read from the pages of the BOM i have felt again a renewal and strength to a testimony that i had already had. The renewal came as i've prayerfuly read from the words of acient prophets that lived so long ago on the American content. I know that the words from these great men are true and that they truely new of Christ even though Christ lived on the other side of the world as them. Their testimony of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect in every way and as we live the commandments that they gave we will be blessed by our loving Father in Heaven. Now that i'm about to finish the book for our Presidents challenge here in a couple of days i find myself looking forward to the year to come! I really would like to make a goal for 2010 and forward that i dont go a day with out letting the words from that book cross my eyes. I know that as we read and pray about the message that is found in the book we will grow and see the blessings of God! I also would like to invite all who are able to read this e-mail to do the same this upcoming year. By so doing we will be remembering the new covenent that God has established in our days as we read earlier in D&C!
Well i hope all have a Great week an a happy new year with great times to remember forever!! much Love,
Elder Lopez
Monday, December 28, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Last full week of 2009 (email dated 12/21/2009)
Yeah its hard to believe but its true... this is the last full week of the year 2009. Man how time can just catch a plane and fly! I remember where i was a year from this moment. I was in the land of Puerto Rico kicken my butt trying to learn Spanish in the mountains of Utuado. Now i'm here on a little island just above Venezuela called Curacao kickin my butt trying to learn Papiamentu... I sure hope next christmas i'm done with this language learning thing...
Anyhow this past month has just snuck on by because its already Christmas time and that means a phone call home! I'm pretty exctied not going to lie! I hope everyone in the family has some good questions and stories to tell me! I'm sure i have tons to tell you all about whats gone on in my life this year!
So this week we had a good hard working week with a lot of contacts, and a lot of lessons, and a lot of fun! It was really fun to be all over the place teaching a lot of different people and having a lot of funny experiences!
We ran into a preacher guy this past week who we just contacted like normal, and from the get go he told us he wouldnt talk to us until we had read Act 2:36 to the end of the chapter.So it just so happens that i have studied that part in the Bible quite a bit while i've been out here on the mission. So i just quoted him verses 37 and 38 of that chapter and it sort of threw him off gaurd.. he wasnt really expecting that we'd know them of the top of our head.
So anyhow these 2 verses talk about peticost and how a bunch of people listend to the apostls and we're baptized right off the bat. Then he asked us if we had down as Peter says to do in these verses and we testified to him that we had and we left it at that and then left the man. It was a pretty funny situation because the guy was just looking to fight and we just testified to him of Christ and then left. He was pretty suprised. that was just a funny story i thought i'd trough in real quick for you guys.
well like usual the time has run out and our ride is leaven so i got to wrap this up but i'll feel you up in more detail on Christmas this week!!!
Any how for the phone call info.. I'll call you Christmas eve real quick and set up a time for christmas. I'll probably call you at 9 here which will make it 7 back home so you know.
I'll call dads cell phone to! Love you all so much!!!!
Elder Lopez
Anyhow this past month has just snuck on by because its already Christmas time and that means a phone call home! I'm pretty exctied not going to lie! I hope everyone in the family has some good questions and stories to tell me! I'm sure i have tons to tell you all about whats gone on in my life this year!
So this week we had a good hard working week with a lot of contacts, and a lot of lessons, and a lot of fun! It was really fun to be all over the place teaching a lot of different people and having a lot of funny experiences!
We ran into a preacher guy this past week who we just contacted like normal, and from the get go he told us he wouldnt talk to us until we had read Act 2:36 to the end of the chapter.So it just so happens that i have studied that part in the Bible quite a bit while i've been out here on the mission. So i just quoted him verses 37 and 38 of that chapter and it sort of threw him off gaurd.. he wasnt really expecting that we'd know them of the top of our head.
So anyhow these 2 verses talk about peticost and how a bunch of people listend to the apostls and we're baptized right off the bat. Then he asked us if we had down as Peter says to do in these verses and we testified to him that we had and we left it at that and then left the man. It was a pretty funny situation because the guy was just looking to fight and we just testified to him of Christ and then left. He was pretty suprised. that was just a funny story i thought i'd trough in real quick for you guys.
well like usual the time has run out and our ride is leaven so i got to wrap this up but i'll feel you up in more detail on Christmas this week!!!
Any how for the phone call info.. I'll call you Christmas eve real quick and set up a time for christmas. I'll probably call you at 9 here which will make it 7 back home so you know.
I'll call dads cell phone to! Love you all so much!!!!
Elder Lopez
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Christmas fast approaching (email dated 12.14.2009)
Wow, here we are on another week in the life of a Missionary... This past week was full of big events that were all fun but sort of took away from our time on the street working hard. So this week we are going to have to repent and make up for the lack of time we were on the street from last week. I'm looking forward to it though and am sure that if we put in our part the Lord will bless us with the fruit we need here. Any how this last week we had our christmas Conference and ward Christmas Party and a baptism from a different area on saturday with a lot of serviced mixed in there that took up all our time. The week just flew by quick and next thing i know i'm sitting down here enjoying all the letters from home. Thank you to for the letters and e'mails! You all rock! So here for our Christmas conference we boarded a plane and flew back to Aruba to have it with the whole zone of the ABC islands! I felt like a real business man because we flew out to Aruba on tuesday morning and then flew back that same night in time for a couple of appointments! Yeah, cool christmas conference though right. We got to fly and have a spiritual meetting then go out to eat at a way nice restaurant on our Mission President! Yeah it was one of those places that makes the food right in front of you and do tricks a long with it as they cook. It was pretty impressing actualy the stuff that they were able to do while cooking our food! Then after our lunch it was back to the air port to catch a plane and work the rest of the day out until 9 o'clock. So that was a fun experience to have! Then we found this really nice lady thats become sort of like our adopted grandma and just loves to feed us. Actualy it was a real blessing because last p-day we didn't have enough time to go shopping so all the food she feed us ended up saving us for the week. What we would do is go do service for her and then she would feed us after we finished cleaning up her yard. She's awesome, but she's just sort of been offish about excepting the gospel so far, but little by little we'll see what we can do with her to get her to church. She has a great family also that we're going to see if we can work with to but only time will tell. Her name is grandma Felis and cooks way good suriname's food! So in other news i was able to do a baptismal interview for a man named Oscar who's from here in Curacao and a great man that is really prepared to be baptized! He's just a man that eats up the gospel and wants more and more every day! It was an honor to be able to help open the doors of baptism for him so that he could make such an important covenent with God to get him on the straight and narrow path. Mission work is so awesome when you get to see people grow so much in Christ! So thats pretty much the hightlights of the past week! hope you enjoyed and have a great week! Love you all! Elder Lopez
Monday, December 7, 2009
Mission Front (email dated 12/7/2009)
Hey every one,
Well down here on the Island of Curacao things are Progressing slowly but there starting to go some where and we're coming across some new potential. The only problem now is going to be making sure we're getting enough lessons in with our investigators as we want to. Its starting to become a little tough because of the Christmas season everyone is to busy. For that reason i loved the talks this Christmas Conference by the 1st presidency! I was so happy to be able to even see it down here on these islands! Honestly it was such a nice fresh breath of air and edifing a the same time. Just like always though right? As i was watching the Christmas Conference this year i starting reflecting to myself, why do i as a missionary get so excited to hear the Prophets and Apostles speak? Because honestly yesterday i was basicaly just counting down the time until we could go listen to the words of the Prophets who are living today.
Then it dawned on me the reason that i get so excited, its because of the spirit that i feel as i listen to truths that they teach as they speak. AS a missionary serving the Lord 24/7 for 2 years we basicaly live off of the spirit, because with out that we are not good servents in the Lords hands. Then i started to think what exactly does the spirit do for us, and the fraise "the spirit always edify's" came to mind. So as i thought of that little fraise i realized as missionary's we're here to invite others to come unto Christ be excepting His restored Gospel and Church. Truely the only way of doing that is by teaching others or edifying others with the truthfulness of the Gospel that the spirit testifys of.
So as all of these thoughts were running through my head i realized that every time i listen to the Prophets or read their words the spirit is inviting me to become better,and thats why i feel so good. But if i dont act on what the spirit is teaching me then that spirit will go away and i'm left at where i started. Now here on the mission i've come to love the words of the Prophets so much more then before, because i'm more prone to put them in practice and act on the feelings that the spirit gives to me. I can truely testify that we are led by a true Prophet Thomas S. Monson with real Apsotles of God that were divinly chosen to lead us down the straight and narrow path. As we listen and put into practice their teachings we are edifying our spirits and as we put their words into practice we are growing spiritualy which is what really matters here in this life.So as you can probably see this past Christmas Conference was a great conference for me as i listend to good old Mo-Tab do their thing, with Presidents Uchtdorf, Eyring, and Thomas S. Monson speaking!The Christmas Spirit is in the air and lets carry it forth this whole year and not only for Christmas, always looking for Christ in everything!
MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone and i hope and pray the best for you!
Much Love,
Elder Lopez
Well down here on the Island of Curacao things are Progressing slowly but there starting to go some where and we're coming across some new potential. The only problem now is going to be making sure we're getting enough lessons in with our investigators as we want to. Its starting to become a little tough because of the Christmas season everyone is to busy. For that reason i loved the talks this Christmas Conference by the 1st presidency! I was so happy to be able to even see it down here on these islands! Honestly it was such a nice fresh breath of air and edifing a the same time. Just like always though right? As i was watching the Christmas Conference this year i starting reflecting to myself, why do i as a missionary get so excited to hear the Prophets and Apostles speak? Because honestly yesterday i was basicaly just counting down the time until we could go listen to the words of the Prophets who are living today.
Then it dawned on me the reason that i get so excited, its because of the spirit that i feel as i listen to truths that they teach as they speak. AS a missionary serving the Lord 24/7 for 2 years we basicaly live off of the spirit, because with out that we are not good servents in the Lords hands. Then i started to think what exactly does the spirit do for us, and the fraise "the spirit always edify's" came to mind. So as i thought of that little fraise i realized as missionary's we're here to invite others to come unto Christ be excepting His restored Gospel and Church. Truely the only way of doing that is by teaching others or edifying others with the truthfulness of the Gospel that the spirit testifys of.
So as all of these thoughts were running through my head i realized that every time i listen to the Prophets or read their words the spirit is inviting me to become better,and thats why i feel so good. But if i dont act on what the spirit is teaching me then that spirit will go away and i'm left at where i started. Now here on the mission i've come to love the words of the Prophets so much more then before, because i'm more prone to put them in practice and act on the feelings that the spirit gives to me. I can truely testify that we are led by a true Prophet Thomas S. Monson with real Apsotles of God that were divinly chosen to lead us down the straight and narrow path. As we listen and put into practice their teachings we are edifying our spirits and as we put their words into practice we are growing spiritualy which is what really matters here in this life.So as you can probably see this past Christmas Conference was a great conference for me as i listend to good old Mo-Tab do their thing, with Presidents Uchtdorf, Eyring, and Thomas S. Monson speaking!The Christmas Spirit is in the air and lets carry it forth this whole year and not only for Christmas, always looking for Christ in everything!
MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone and i hope and pray the best for you!
Much Love,
Elder Lopez
Monday, November 30, 2009
Na Mi Mama i Tata
So here are some pictures that i've taken while down here in the wonderful ABC Islands!The one family where i'm holding the Book Of Mormon is Alexandras family. She's the way cool investigator we had in Aruba who is just waiting to get married before she can be baptized. Then there's a picture of Luisa's family on the last day we visited her before i was transfered. then theres a picture at all the languages we come in contact with here in these Islands that were in and have to find a way to comunicate in Papiamentu, Spanish or inglish. Yeah pretty crazzy huh. i'm pretty sure there are 9 different languages there of Books of mormon that we have to five to people we meet. A lot of culture right?....Also the bowling was one of our Pday activities we just barely did down here in Curacao! So as you can see were making memories down here that last a life time!
Getting to know Curacao
Bon Dia,
Con ta bia mi kerido famia i amigunan?! Mi ta spera tur kos ta bon bon pasobra Tata Celestial stimanos hopi! Well i just thought i'd through a little of papiamento in there for you to let you see how we speak out here in Curacao. Its really a fun language to be honest. its really similar to spanish which makes it easier to pick up but it still comes out the mouth a little rough... ma poco poco manera e hende ta bisa no. ( but little by little like they say right?) We had a good building week this week here in our area my 1st week here. The whole week just was spent trying to get a hold of our investigators because they all had things coming up and canceling our visits which made it really tough. So i wasnt able to even meet all of our investigators this week but i did meet most of them. We have a couple of promising investigators named Nilson and his wife Anna. Their actualy from Colombia and have been here for a couple of years. They really seem to have interse in finding more happiness from what we've been teaching and have been injoying us coming over. But they didnt make it to church this week which was sort of a blow for us because we were so excited for them to come... but sometimes that happens i guess... We'll have better luck next week though and they'll get up intime to come to church.
The Branch here is pretty cool and should help us out a lot to help this branch grow! I'm looking forward to working with them and making some good relations so we can get the work moving here! My district is a great district also which always makes things injoyable... oh yeah i'm district leader again by the way... i dont rembember if i metioned that last week or not. it will be fun. I'm starting to get to the point in my mission were i really dont remember what it was like to be at home in the real world. I think i actually hit that a couple of months ago but i never really thought about it. Mission work has just become my way of life now and its awesome! It full of fun moments mixed in with some funny experiences that only happen on the mission. I cant believe how fast time has flown though and its almost christmas already. Decemeber has made it and 2009 is coming to an end... looks like my year of none exsitence is coming to an end rapidly.. ugh oh... anyhow to be honest that about sums up my week here in Curacao because nothing else is coming to mind and time is running short. So until next time, God speed! Ayo.
Elder Lopez
Con ta bia mi kerido famia i amigunan?! Mi ta spera tur kos ta bon bon pasobra Tata Celestial stimanos hopi! Well i just thought i'd through a little of papiamento in there for you to let you see how we speak out here in Curacao. Its really a fun language to be honest. its really similar to spanish which makes it easier to pick up but it still comes out the mouth a little rough... ma poco poco manera e hende ta bisa no. ( but little by little like they say right?) We had a good building week this week here in our area my 1st week here. The whole week just was spent trying to get a hold of our investigators because they all had things coming up and canceling our visits which made it really tough. So i wasnt able to even meet all of our investigators this week but i did meet most of them. We have a couple of promising investigators named Nilson and his wife Anna. Their actualy from Colombia and have been here for a couple of years. They really seem to have interse in finding more happiness from what we've been teaching and have been injoying us coming over. But they didnt make it to church this week which was sort of a blow for us because we were so excited for them to come... but sometimes that happens i guess... We'll have better luck next week though and they'll get up intime to come to church.
The Branch here is pretty cool and should help us out a lot to help this branch grow! I'm looking forward to working with them and making some good relations so we can get the work moving here! My district is a great district also which always makes things injoyable... oh yeah i'm district leader again by the way... i dont rembember if i metioned that last week or not. it will be fun. I'm starting to get to the point in my mission were i really dont remember what it was like to be at home in the real world. I think i actually hit that a couple of months ago but i never really thought about it. Mission work has just become my way of life now and its awesome! It full of fun moments mixed in with some funny experiences that only happen on the mission. I cant believe how fast time has flown though and its almost christmas already. Decemeber has made it and 2009 is coming to an end... looks like my year of none exsitence is coming to an end rapidly.. ugh oh... anyhow to be honest that about sums up my week here in Curacao because nothing else is coming to mind and time is running short. So until next time, God speed! Ayo.
Elder Lopez
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
A New Island (email datd 11/24/2009)
HEY, Well i'm sure your wondering where could Elder Lopez be at right now... and the answer is Curacao!! Its an island right next to Aruba! Its a lot bigger then Aruba i'm begining to realize and I'm stoked to be able to serve hear on such a beautiful island with a awesome companion also! I'm with Elder Turner from Layton Utah. He's a big boy, he played football at Weber and we get a long great. Really i think it might be impossible to not be able to get a long with him, were going to have an awesome transfer together. So as you can tell i'm pretty excited to be able to be here and start a whole new transfer for the holiday season. Unfortunately Thanksgiving isn't really known here but i'll have you all know i'm very thankful for you all back home and your thoughts and prayers that are always with me.
So my last week in Aruba was spent with a lot of hard work like usual, preparing all of our investigators the best i could before i left. I was happy to leave it in a good condition with some future baptism waiting to happen which is always great to be able to do but tough to leave...Alexandra's husband, Alexander, came to church and had a great experience which i think is going to help him a lot to progress toward baptism. It was tough to leave their family behind but i'm sure that they will be getting baptized here down the road and enjoy the blessings of the gospel in their family!
Also i had to say good bye to Luisa and her family which was really tough but good none the less. She's doing so good right now and learning every day and strengthing her testimony and looking forward to going to the temple in the future! Not only that but she was liking the idea if some way i would be able to go with her because it would be after i return home and i'd be free for that maybe... Cool thought!!! oh yeah, and you could pretty much say that i got a new home in Aruba!!! Definately going to have to take advatage of that some day!
So as you can see i'm very content and happy with life right now and am looking forward to making a bunch of new memory's this transfer here in Curacao. I arrived yesterday and we went out and worked, because P-day is on tuesday during transfers, and we came across a family who came out and recieved us very happily! Always a good sign! so we started to talk with them and then they told us that they had heard the missionary's before through their friends who had moved so they lost contact i guess. They said they really enjoyed it though as the missionary's visited them before and said they'd love to have us over again. As you can see the Lord is blessing us already on our first day of the transfer to get it started off right with finding a great family with some potential. So we're passing by tonight to visit them with the whole family present! Hopefuly all goes well! Looks like you'll have to tune in next week to find out for sure. .. I know the suspense.
Well that about sums it up for now in the life of Elder Lopez so until next time much love, and remember i am really thankful for you all this thanksgiving week and all the rest also!
Love,
Elder Lopez
So my last week in Aruba was spent with a lot of hard work like usual, preparing all of our investigators the best i could before i left. I was happy to leave it in a good condition with some future baptism waiting to happen which is always great to be able to do but tough to leave...Alexandra's husband, Alexander, came to church and had a great experience which i think is going to help him a lot to progress toward baptism. It was tough to leave their family behind but i'm sure that they will be getting baptized here down the road and enjoy the blessings of the gospel in their family!
Also i had to say good bye to Luisa and her family which was really tough but good none the less. She's doing so good right now and learning every day and strengthing her testimony and looking forward to going to the temple in the future! Not only that but she was liking the idea if some way i would be able to go with her because it would be after i return home and i'd be free for that maybe... Cool thought!!! oh yeah, and you could pretty much say that i got a new home in Aruba!!! Definately going to have to take advatage of that some day!
So as you can see i'm very content and happy with life right now and am looking forward to making a bunch of new memory's this transfer here in Curacao. I arrived yesterday and we went out and worked, because P-day is on tuesday during transfers, and we came across a family who came out and recieved us very happily! Always a good sign! so we started to talk with them and then they told us that they had heard the missionary's before through their friends who had moved so they lost contact i guess. They said they really enjoyed it though as the missionary's visited them before and said they'd love to have us over again. As you can see the Lord is blessing us already on our first day of the transfer to get it started off right with finding a great family with some potential. So we're passing by tonight to visit them with the whole family present! Hopefuly all goes well! Looks like you'll have to tune in next week to find out for sure. .. I know the suspense.
Well that about sums it up for now in the life of Elder Lopez so until next time much love, and remember i am really thankful for you all this thanksgiving week and all the rest also!
Love,
Elder Lopez
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Update from Aruba (email dated 11/16/2009)
So this week we had a nice hard working week with a lot of lessons! The weeks just have flown by out here in Aruba and now out of no where i'm on my last week here in Aruba... Yeah, they've made some new laws which only alow us 90 days here legally. So pretty much that means i'm off to a different island this next week which i'm pretty sure is going to be Corocao which is right next to aruba. Yeah i'm going to miss here a lot because i've really come to love here in aruba and the branch and area and just everything. The only thing i wont miss is the bike ride to the church all the time. Yeah that was just hot and long... but it was good for me!
Anyhow this week in church we had Alexandra and Fransisco. We were very excited to see them both there but at the same time we were a little sad not to see other investigators of ours there in church. Alexandra is progressing really great with her testimony and basicaly is just waiting to be baptized because she's still not married to Sandro. But the good news is that we're starting to get Sandro involved in the teaching now! He's finaly starting to let us teach him and he's actualy liking it all up till now. I wasnt very suprised that he likes it though because i mean its true who could listen to this message with sincer heart and not like it? NO one! I think we got on his good side when we started becoming better friends with him and decided to do an activity with him of bowling! Yeah, it was pretty fun not to mention that he showed me a trick or 2... He's in a bowling league and averages almost 200 which in my book is way good! Any how from there we scheduled a vist with him and went over the first lesson with him and his future wife Alexandra and we even had Luisa come along with us to help out. Lets just say it was by far one of the most spiritual lessons on my mission just from the sweet testimony Luisa gave of her own baptism a couple of weeks back! She shared an experience that she had never shared with us before about when she prayed that just my heart as i listened! I don't know what its like being a parent, but i do know how proud i was to see Luisa grow so much spiritualy ever since we began teaching her a couple of months ago. She shared her experience of how at first when we would pass by it was just to be nice, and then when we started to invite her to come to church she would just find excuses to say no. Then when we started to call her on sunday mornings to come she was a little tired and didnt want to come but she did anyway because she promised she would. Now she comes to church and is amazed at how fast it fly's by she loves it so much and just wants there to another class added to it. Then she started to share about her first time to actualy pray about what we taught her to see if it was true and she shared her feelings as she prayed as though she felt a tingling from the top of her head to the tip of her toes that was a comfort to her. She had never felt it before and went to ask a friend what it ment. (this friend actualy had been giving us problems before because she goes to some other church and thinks that the story about Joseph smith is crazy) Her friend told her that the feeling was a good answer to her prayer and it just helped Luisa confirm her testimony that the BOM truely is the word of God and that he was called as a prophet to restore the true church to the earth! thats just a little piece if anything of the what she was bearing testimony of as we were with Alexandra and Sandro and the spirit was so strong! It was a perfect experience for Sandro, helped Alexandra grow in the testimony she already has and i was so happy for Luisa and her strong testimony! HOnestly that night was a night to remember! That right there just made my whole week awesome not to mention we got to see Elder M. Russell Ballard speak to the whole Caribbean at a fireside on Saturday! Listing to apostles has definately become my favorit thing about the mission! To hear from the Lords chosen servents on the earth is truely an edifying experience! Let me just confirm to all of you once again that the church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth and just like every week my testimony has been confirmed this week that Christ's church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!
Man do i love this work!
Much Love from Aruba,
Elder Lopez
Anyhow this week in church we had Alexandra and Fransisco. We were very excited to see them both there but at the same time we were a little sad not to see other investigators of ours there in church. Alexandra is progressing really great with her testimony and basicaly is just waiting to be baptized because she's still not married to Sandro. But the good news is that we're starting to get Sandro involved in the teaching now! He's finaly starting to let us teach him and he's actualy liking it all up till now. I wasnt very suprised that he likes it though because i mean its true who could listen to this message with sincer heart and not like it? NO one! I think we got on his good side when we started becoming better friends with him and decided to do an activity with him of bowling! Yeah, it was pretty fun not to mention that he showed me a trick or 2... He's in a bowling league and averages almost 200 which in my book is way good! Any how from there we scheduled a vist with him and went over the first lesson with him and his future wife Alexandra and we even had Luisa come along with us to help out. Lets just say it was by far one of the most spiritual lessons on my mission just from the sweet testimony Luisa gave of her own baptism a couple of weeks back! She shared an experience that she had never shared with us before about when she prayed that just my heart as i listened! I don't know what its like being a parent, but i do know how proud i was to see Luisa grow so much spiritualy ever since we began teaching her a couple of months ago. She shared her experience of how at first when we would pass by it was just to be nice, and then when we started to invite her to come to church she would just find excuses to say no. Then when we started to call her on sunday mornings to come she was a little tired and didnt want to come but she did anyway because she promised she would. Now she comes to church and is amazed at how fast it fly's by she loves it so much and just wants there to another class added to it. Then she started to share about her first time to actualy pray about what we taught her to see if it was true and she shared her feelings as she prayed as though she felt a tingling from the top of her head to the tip of her toes that was a comfort to her. She had never felt it before and went to ask a friend what it ment. (this friend actualy had been giving us problems before because she goes to some other church and thinks that the story about Joseph smith is crazy) Her friend told her that the feeling was a good answer to her prayer and it just helped Luisa confirm her testimony that the BOM truely is the word of God and that he was called as a prophet to restore the true church to the earth! thats just a little piece if anything of the what she was bearing testimony of as we were with Alexandra and Sandro and the spirit was so strong! It was a perfect experience for Sandro, helped Alexandra grow in the testimony she already has and i was so happy for Luisa and her strong testimony! HOnestly that night was a night to remember! That right there just made my whole week awesome not to mention we got to see Elder M. Russell Ballard speak to the whole Caribbean at a fireside on Saturday! Listing to apostles has definately become my favorit thing about the mission! To hear from the Lords chosen servents on the earth is truely an edifying experience! Let me just confirm to all of you once again that the church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth and just like every week my testimony has been confirmed this week that Christ's church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!
Man do i love this work!
Much Love from Aruba,
Elder Lopez
Monday, November 9, 2009
Hey hey hey! (email dated 11/9/2009)
Hello back in Cold Utah,
Well i'm going to go ahead and start this letter off with giving my loving Father a big BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT!!! Hey, Love you Dad and hope you have a great Birthday!
So now for this week we've been out going from lesson to lesson and enjoying working together Elder Kolar and I. I think our companionship just clicks and we just get work done together and we have a great time while doing it. Thats what mission work is all about! going out and loving the work that you do and striving to become better every day! We had another week with 3 investigators in church but that 3 we were hoping to be a little more because we have some good investigators that didnt show unfortunately.. As for Alexandra who's our investigator with the fecha she's doing great and we're now putting our sights on her significant other who we still haven't been able to teach yet. but for this week we schedualed a cita with him specificaly so we're looking forward to that because a whole family in church is way more beautiful than just some.... Anyhow speaking of family's i'm so happy for Luisa's family recently! She's been getting her boys to come to church now and we're going to start teaching them and getting them ready for baptism also! Not only does she have that going on her life but she is now starting to do missionary work her self and with the missionary's! this past week she went out for her first time to help the missionary's teach a Dominican lady as a member helping! I felt like a proud father to see our new recent convert going out to preach the gospel and help the missionary's out! She's doing great right now and really liking church and the difference it has made in her life! Any how in other news this past week we came across 9 new investigators and we're hoping for a lot in church this next week, well at least more than 3... As for learning papiamento goes, its sort of slowed down because lately we've been finding a lot of Spanish speakers and talking a lot of spanish. That should change though here coming up soon because soon i'll be heading over to Curacao because my time here in Aruba is coming to an end. Yeah we only have a tourist passport so they only alow us 90 days in Aruba and after ward they have to ship us out because of laws and things. But the time they give me to stary here will start back over again at the beginning of the year so mabye i'll have a chance to come back here to Aruba... But i'm pretty sure i'll be in Curacao for Thanksgiving and also Christmas and the new year... So i'm going to get to see how it feels to party up the new year in Curacao.. I hear their pretty crazy over there but i'll let you know when i get over there. My time here in Aruba ends on the 23rd of this month so on that day i'll be on a plane going some where. Any way, i really dont want to leave this awesome little island because its really growing on me and i dont want to leave it. Even though its way hot always and all desert and you have to bike every where i love it! Any ways i hope that was a pretty good up date and you all are doing great back home!
Much love,
Elder Lopez
Well i'm going to go ahead and start this letter off with giving my loving Father a big BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT!!! Hey, Love you Dad and hope you have a great Birthday!
So now for this week we've been out going from lesson to lesson and enjoying working together Elder Kolar and I. I think our companionship just clicks and we just get work done together and we have a great time while doing it. Thats what mission work is all about! going out and loving the work that you do and striving to become better every day! We had another week with 3 investigators in church but that 3 we were hoping to be a little more because we have some good investigators that didnt show unfortunately.. As for Alexandra who's our investigator with the fecha she's doing great and we're now putting our sights on her significant other who we still haven't been able to teach yet. but for this week we schedualed a cita with him specificaly so we're looking forward to that because a whole family in church is way more beautiful than just some.... Anyhow speaking of family's i'm so happy for Luisa's family recently! She's been getting her boys to come to church now and we're going to start teaching them and getting them ready for baptism also! Not only does she have that going on her life but she is now starting to do missionary work her self and with the missionary's! this past week she went out for her first time to help the missionary's teach a Dominican lady as a member helping! I felt like a proud father to see our new recent convert going out to preach the gospel and help the missionary's out! She's doing great right now and really liking church and the difference it has made in her life! Any how in other news this past week we came across 9 new investigators and we're hoping for a lot in church this next week, well at least more than 3... As for learning papiamento goes, its sort of slowed down because lately we've been finding a lot of Spanish speakers and talking a lot of spanish. That should change though here coming up soon because soon i'll be heading over to Curacao because my time here in Aruba is coming to an end. Yeah we only have a tourist passport so they only alow us 90 days in Aruba and after ward they have to ship us out because of laws and things. But the time they give me to stary here will start back over again at the beginning of the year so mabye i'll have a chance to come back here to Aruba... But i'm pretty sure i'll be in Curacao for Thanksgiving and also Christmas and the new year... So i'm going to get to see how it feels to party up the new year in Curacao.. I hear their pretty crazy over there but i'll let you know when i get over there. My time here in Aruba ends on the 23rd of this month so on that day i'll be on a plane going some where. Any way, i really dont want to leave this awesome little island because its really growing on me and i dont want to leave it. Even though its way hot always and all desert and you have to bike every where i love it! Any ways i hope that was a pretty good up date and you all are doing great back home!
Much love,
Elder Lopez
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
(email dated 11/2/2009)
i'm doing great out here in Aruba. We've been working really hard out here in the heat and everything, biking in the wind like its no ones business and even preparing people to be baptized. We ran into a little delay with Alexandra this week and were going to have to move her fecha back a little bit! yup... lame right... I wont be here for her baptism anymore.( i know thats selfish of me but thats really how i feel) we taught her the law of chastity this week and she was all good with it but, she's not married to the guy she's living with right yet. They have 2 kids together already but are planning to get married this December which will be great! So on the bright side at least their already willing to get married and want to get married! Anyway this week was her first time coming to church though which was awesome. It was a great fast and testimony meeting with a lot to the spirit there which was awesome for her. In Gospel principle class we talked about chastity also which just made sure Alexandra understood it completly! Not only was it good for Alexandra but it was great for the son of Luisa ( who we just baptized). He's 18 years old and living in a world with morals like you know how they are and is at a big time in his life. It was good for him to hear and learn about the law of Chastity though to help him make good choices when it comes to girls. He's a good kid though and is starting to progress to join his mom in the waters of baptism i think... it might take a little longer but we'll see what happens.
Anyway church was Awesome for the mission work here in aruba! we had 13 investigators there out of us 8 missionary's in our branch! The principles of the gospel class was pact! it was awesome to see Luisa's entire family there in church! Man family's are awesome!
So for Halloween we had to be inside at 6 o'clock as a mission rule so what we did was play monopoly with the Elders from O-stad 2. It was a blast to be honest even though unfortunatly i didnt win either of the games we played. Yeah i guess monopoly just isn't my game
..So sounds like back home everyone is having a good time with the new little Camdon in town. I loved looking at his pic's! especialy the one's with the state championship rings on his fingers ( Bling Bling)! thats what i'm talking about! He's definately coming up the right way!
Love you!
Elder Lopez
Anyway church was Awesome for the mission work here in aruba! we had 13 investigators there out of us 8 missionary's in our branch! The principles of the gospel class was pact! it was awesome to see Luisa's entire family there in church! Man family's are awesome!
So for Halloween we had to be inside at 6 o'clock as a mission rule so what we did was play monopoly with the Elders from O-stad 2. It was a blast to be honest even though unfortunatly i didnt win either of the games we played. Yeah i guess monopoly just isn't my game
..So sounds like back home everyone is having a good time with the new little Camdon in town. I loved looking at his pic's! especialy the one's with the state championship rings on his fingers ( Bling Bling)! thats what i'm talking about! He's definately coming up the right way!
Love you!
Elder Lopez
Friday, October 30, 2009
Dressed in White (email dated 10/26/2009)
Well this week was toped off on a very high note with Louisa being Baptized at 7 o'clock in the church of Aruba! Yes she went threw with it and we were all very happy to see her make this very important decission in her life! We were passing by every day to make sure that she was all ready the whole week and it definately was worth it. Especialy when we asked her who it was that she would like to preform the baptism for her. She answered us by saying well of coarse i want some one who's helped me from the begining and asked me if i would do it! I was very humbled and very willing to accept, and on baptism saturday there i was standing in the water in white with Louisa and performed the baptism!!!! The moment passed fairly quickly, but the memory and the feelings are going to last with me an eternity! It was such a honor to be able to help Luisa make one of the biggest choices every for her eternal life! I felt so warm inside and so happy for her that words literally cant explain it! Then the next day, sunday, she was confirmed as a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints! Its weeks like these that make the mission so great! Not only was it great because Luisa was baptized but what made it even better was that Alexandra, one of our investigators, said she would also be baptised so we set a date for her on November 21. Yeah Awesome week right?... With Alexandra we still have some work to do but she has a lot of potential and were going to be working for her goal of the 21st of November to be baptized. So as you can tell the work is progressing down here in Aruba quite well and i love every moment of it! i'm really just at a lose of words because of how great this week has been and to just throw a cherry on top i'm an uncle again! Congrats Lachelle!!! i cant wait to see some picks of that little stud! Man count your many blessings right! ? I'm very grateful to my Heavenly Father right now for all the blessings he's given us in our lifes to experience this past week!
Man i love this life!
Elder Lopez
Man i love this life!
Elder Lopez
Monday, October 19, 2009
Good start to another transfer (email dated 10/19/2009)
Hello back home, Well this week i was in a 3some until my companion got down here on friday morning! But it was a great week to be honest. The day Elder Kolar got in we went out and found 4 new investigators right off the bat... and 3 of them were part of a family that was a reference from a member family. That all ways gives them a better chance of excepting the gospel and becoming converted! That made us pretty excited and then the other new investigator we found is named a Marina and she was very cool to say the least! It was lesson in Papiamentu which ment i was doing all of the talking because it was my companions first day down here with the language. I felt like i did alright but obviously with a lot of room to improve... Any how the language didnt even play a big factor because Marina could put it all together in her head and loved it. When we got to the part of the BOM she read the last 2 paragraphs in the introduction, which invites all to read and pray, then looked up at us with out us saying anything. Then she told us right away, "i'm going to read this book, and i'm going to pray, and when i do i'm going to call you..." Let me tell you we were more then happy to hear those words come from her mouth because i know what that book is capiable of doing to people in their life. So we set up a cita with her this tuesday and are going to pass by to see how her reading goes! I was really blown away at the way she just commited her own self to read and pray with out us even having to say anything. It was a wonderful lesson, and now we'll wait to see if she's for real when we come back this week.
Now as for the Ocean baptism this weekend... well... we had a change in plans.. No worries about the baptism part its just the Ocean part was shut down by our mission President. I called him up because to do a baptism in the ocean you have to have permission, and i guess the area presidency made the decission that if the church has a baptismal font you have to do it in the font. Then he went off on the reasons why which are pretty lagit... they were its not a controled inviornment, which means other people who are dressed inmodestly could be by, also that some people focus more on the scenery then on the baptismal covenent, and last but not least it could be dangerous... yeah i know sad right, but its just the way it is!
Well all in all it was a great week still because Louisa is set up on her baptism still and we'll be having that this week! also we have some great potential investigators for this transfer lined up. so we just hope all goes accroding to plan.
anyhow until next time much love!
Elder Lopez
Now as for the Ocean baptism this weekend... well... we had a change in plans.. No worries about the baptism part its just the Ocean part was shut down by our mission President. I called him up because to do a baptism in the ocean you have to have permission, and i guess the area presidency made the decission that if the church has a baptismal font you have to do it in the font. Then he went off on the reasons why which are pretty lagit... they were its not a controled inviornment, which means other people who are dressed inmodestly could be by, also that some people focus more on the scenery then on the baptismal covenent, and last but not least it could be dangerous... yeah i know sad right, but its just the way it is!
Well all in all it was a great week still because Louisa is set up on her baptism still and we'll be having that this week! also we have some great potential investigators for this transfer lined up. so we just hope all goes accroding to plan.
anyhow until next time much love!
Elder Lopez
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Short update for the week (email dated 10/13/2009)
Hey, hey, Hey,
Well this week was Elder Brownings last week of his mission which ment that he was a little trunky as we say here on the mission! yeah he was just counting down the days until he could fly out today! Anyhow, as for the info with the transfers and whats going on here in Aruba. I'm Staying in the same area which does mean i'll be able to see Louisa be baptized! Now we just have to get the ocean baptisim cleared threw president Martineau and we'll be good to go for the 24 of this month! that will be awesome! Anyhow also this week we had a little activity with Louisa's son at a baseball field with his buddies... yup we went over to the ball field right next to our apartment and had a homerun derby! The field was a perfect size for us also, just 300 ft to all sides... yeah lets just say i'm a little rusty but not to rusty not to take it... ha it was a blast (litteraly)!well much love, oh yeah and just to let you know my new companion that i get this friday is named Elder Kolar and i'm going to have to island train him. He's fresh from Puerto Rico and i have to teach him a language i'm not really sure of yet myself... but with the Lords help all is possible. I mean look at the Apostles in the Bible at the penticost.. they spoke in a bunch of different languages to preach the gosple that they had no way of knowing! Only through the spirit is it possible and thats what i'm going to be relying on... thanks for the prayers!
I Love you!
Elder Lopez
Well this week was Elder Brownings last week of his mission which ment that he was a little trunky as we say here on the mission! yeah he was just counting down the days until he could fly out today! Anyhow, as for the info with the transfers and whats going on here in Aruba. I'm Staying in the same area which does mean i'll be able to see Louisa be baptized! Now we just have to get the ocean baptisim cleared threw president Martineau and we'll be good to go for the 24 of this month! that will be awesome! Anyhow also this week we had a little activity with Louisa's son at a baseball field with his buddies... yup we went over to the ball field right next to our apartment and had a homerun derby! The field was a perfect size for us also, just 300 ft to all sides... yeah lets just say i'm a little rusty but not to rusty not to take it... ha it was a blast (litteraly)!well much love, oh yeah and just to let you know my new companion that i get this friday is named Elder Kolar and i'm going to have to island train him. He's fresh from Puerto Rico and i have to teach him a language i'm not really sure of yet myself... but with the Lords help all is possible. I mean look at the Apostles in the Bible at the penticost.. they spoke in a bunch of different languages to preach the gosple that they had no way of knowing! Only through the spirit is it possible and thats what i'm going to be relying on... thanks for the prayers!
I Love you!
Elder Lopez
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Missionary pictures
These are the pictures we took of your sons when we were in Aruba a few weeks ago. My wife called to get your emails.
As a former Mission President I can tell you that these two are about as good as they get. I talked to the Branch President who is from where I was serving, and he said they are great workers. That is the best endorsement a missionary can get.
Keep smilin'
Rick & Sue Hall
Baptisimal date (email dated 10/6/2009)
Hey,
Well this week started out on a high because yesterday we were able to set a Baptismal date for Louisa this 24th of october and today for p-day we went golfing! Yeah i know, i know sweet right? Well this General Conference was awesome and helped Lousia a whole bunch to make the decision to take the step of baptism! We went over to her house yesterday and she made us these amazing lemonade drinks that she always makes for us and then she brought us our some flan! Then from there on i just had a good feeling on where our cita(appointment) with her was going! We then continued on to ask her what she thought about conference and the talks by the living Apostals and Prophets. Then she continued to say well i really liked Elder Nelsons talk... she said it really touched her and that she now has made the disicion that she wants to be baptized... Right when she said that my heart just was so happy and i felt so good inside. She followed to say that the story that Elder Nelson told about the old man who lost his hearing before he decided to be baptized effected her alot. She started to think about her own life and how she doesn't know what could happen tomorrow and how she doesnt want to be like that man and wait so long to the point that it becomes to late! She told us the only obstical she has right now is buying new clothes so that she can come to church in because she doesnt have enough skirts she said. So pretty much in my eyes thats a small obstacle that we can get over here pretty quick! She's awesome, all we have to do is finish up the commandments with her and she'll be good but i think were going to start from the begining again because her son who is 11 really is starting to like the chruch also and we want to have them both be baptized at the same time! Then a little bit down the road i believe her other son will be baptized also who's 18 years old and a great kid also. (He likes baseball and keeps me updated on the playoffs)... But with him i think once we get him to come to the church we'll be good to go and especialy when he see's his mother be baptized. Any how its a great family and we have a lot of hope for them. The other best part about the whole thing is that Lousia really wants to be baptized the ocean! So were going to have to call president martineau up to get it approved, but as for me, i think we're going to be having a caribbean sea baptism here this 24th of october! Now i just hope president doesnt do something crazy and pull me out of this area next week... that wouldnt be to cool, but i think i'm going to be safe, at least hopefully! so that about sums up the big news for the week!
REmember i love you all a ton and appriciate the prayers!
Love always
Elder Lopez
Well this week started out on a high because yesterday we were able to set a Baptismal date for Louisa this 24th of october and today for p-day we went golfing! Yeah i know, i know sweet right? Well this General Conference was awesome and helped Lousia a whole bunch to make the decision to take the step of baptism! We went over to her house yesterday and she made us these amazing lemonade drinks that she always makes for us and then she brought us our some flan! Then from there on i just had a good feeling on where our cita(appointment) with her was going! We then continued on to ask her what she thought about conference and the talks by the living Apostals and Prophets. Then she continued to say well i really liked Elder Nelsons talk... she said it really touched her and that she now has made the disicion that she wants to be baptized... Right when she said that my heart just was so happy and i felt so good inside. She followed to say that the story that Elder Nelson told about the old man who lost his hearing before he decided to be baptized effected her alot. She started to think about her own life and how she doesn't know what could happen tomorrow and how she doesnt want to be like that man and wait so long to the point that it becomes to late! She told us the only obstical she has right now is buying new clothes so that she can come to church in because she doesnt have enough skirts she said. So pretty much in my eyes thats a small obstacle that we can get over here pretty quick! She's awesome, all we have to do is finish up the commandments with her and she'll be good but i think were going to start from the begining again because her son who is 11 really is starting to like the chruch also and we want to have them both be baptized at the same time! Then a little bit down the road i believe her other son will be baptized also who's 18 years old and a great kid also. (He likes baseball and keeps me updated on the playoffs)... But with him i think once we get him to come to the church we'll be good to go and especialy when he see's his mother be baptized. Any how its a great family and we have a lot of hope for them. The other best part about the whole thing is that Lousia really wants to be baptized the ocean! So were going to have to call president martineau up to get it approved, but as for me, i think we're going to be having a caribbean sea baptism here this 24th of october! Now i just hope president doesnt do something crazy and pull me out of this area next week... that wouldnt be to cool, but i think i'm going to be safe, at least hopefully! so that about sums up the big news for the week!
REmember i love you all a ton and appriciate the prayers!
Love always
Elder Lopez
Monday, September 21, 2009
Hello from sunny Aruba (email dated 09/21/2009)
Well this week the sun beat down way strong like always in this desert of Aruba with beautiful beaches like always. Which would have been fine but unfortunatley it was a little tuff this week because we were on our feet basicly the whole week. Yeah that means that our bikes were out of order with flat tires and broken rims the entire week. Its really a drag to have to fix your bike every day especialy because it just takes to much time away to do! i had to get a new rim and change 4 tires this week to give you an idea of the curse someone put on our bikes, thats not to mention that my companions bikes tire went flat around 3 times also. Yeah annoying right?
Any how on a brighter note we had Victor and Lousia in church this sunday and they both have been able to antend baptism's of other people to see how a baptism is. It was great to see Victor there finaly because he finaly came through and made all his talk about coming to church an action and not just words. He's the type of guy that talks and talks and talks but doesnt do a whole lot. So we have to have a lot of patients with him and help him out a lot. Its a good thing we have a really good Branch here to help him out also. As for Louisa she's doing better also, she's starting to come to church now and she was even able to see a great baptism yesterday which i really think sparked her interest a lot. For some reason or another i think she has been really skeptical about things but is starting to soften up a lot and let the spirit work in here conversion. We just have to take things slow with her also so that she understands things. She's sort of been confused a lot with different churches which makes here confused at times so we just have to take things slow, but its all good. We're looking forward for the best and i'm happy with where were at. so that about sums up the highlights and the investigators we have for this week.
Sorry it was a little short but thats just the way it roles some times. Now its time to wrap up because the golf course here in Aruba is calling our name for this P-day! Yup you read that correct, Elder Lopez and his companion Elder Browning are going to hit the greens.
So until next time, choose the right!
Elder Lopez
Any how on a brighter note we had Victor and Lousia in church this sunday and they both have been able to antend baptism's of other people to see how a baptism is. It was great to see Victor there finaly because he finaly came through and made all his talk about coming to church an action and not just words. He's the type of guy that talks and talks and talks but doesnt do a whole lot. So we have to have a lot of patients with him and help him out a lot. Its a good thing we have a really good Branch here to help him out also. As for Louisa she's doing better also, she's starting to come to church now and she was even able to see a great baptism yesterday which i really think sparked her interest a lot. For some reason or another i think she has been really skeptical about things but is starting to soften up a lot and let the spirit work in here conversion. We just have to take things slow with her also so that she understands things. She's sort of been confused a lot with different churches which makes here confused at times so we just have to take things slow, but its all good. We're looking forward for the best and i'm happy with where were at. so that about sums up the highlights and the investigators we have for this week.
Sorry it was a little short but thats just the way it roles some times. Now its time to wrap up because the golf course here in Aruba is calling our name for this P-day! Yup you read that correct, Elder Lopez and his companion Elder Browning are going to hit the greens.
So until next time, choose the right!
Elder Lopez
Monday, September 14, 2009
"The work continues here in Aruba" email dated (9/14/2009)
Week 2 in Aruba,
Well this week was a good week lesson wise if i do say myself. We had a pretty interesting experience with a new investigator that we came across this week. It so happens that on of our members works really close to the beautiful beaches here in Aruba and he so some kid that was trying to camp out on the beach getting kicked off so he being the good guy he is went over to see if he could help out i guess. I guess the situation was this, the kid named, Nicolas from Canada, was trying to camp out on the beach because he got all his money stolen while he was staying at some hotel here. But then he was informed that its illgal to camp on the beach during this time of the year, so Miguel, the member, offered the kid that he could stay at his house and find a job so that he could start working to get some money back that he had stolen.... Yeah pretty crazy if you ask me. Anyway the story goes on that we stoped by Miguels house that night to visit him, and we meet this Nicolas guy from Canada who speaks English and French but cant really communicate with miguel because miguel just speaks spanish and papiamento. Yeah pretty funny to watch them communicate but they get along good enough with had signals and broken up sentences. So anyway as we were there we found out more about this Nicolas kid and we found out that he came down here just searching for something in his life... So we happily let him know that running into us is what you were looking for but he wasnt to sure about that. He actualy told us he doesnt really believe in God but believes in some supreme being which was very interesting. So what Elder Browning and i decided to do was take a Ammon missionary angel at it and teach him that this supreme being is God and he has a plan for us here on this earth and after this life also. He actualy took to it very well also and liked the idea of the BOM and was very open to listen to us. So we'll have to wait and see how it goes this upcoming week when we see him again.
In other news Louisa was able to come to church this week which is always a good big step for investigators to take. We were stoked to see her there and she told us after ward that she is going to keep on testing it out which is a good thing.
Other than that we had some really good lunch citas with the members which is always fun and filling! In our Branch this past sunday we had 125 people in church which is awesome! Definately the highest its been on my mission so far. It was great to see the chapel full!
So yeah as you can see the mission in a Aruba is going great!
Until next time,
Elder Lopez
Well this week was a good week lesson wise if i do say myself. We had a pretty interesting experience with a new investigator that we came across this week. It so happens that on of our members works really close to the beautiful beaches here in Aruba and he so some kid that was trying to camp out on the beach getting kicked off so he being the good guy he is went over to see if he could help out i guess. I guess the situation was this, the kid named, Nicolas from Canada, was trying to camp out on the beach because he got all his money stolen while he was staying at some hotel here. But then he was informed that its illgal to camp on the beach during this time of the year, so Miguel, the member, offered the kid that he could stay at his house and find a job so that he could start working to get some money back that he had stolen.... Yeah pretty crazy if you ask me. Anyway the story goes on that we stoped by Miguels house that night to visit him, and we meet this Nicolas guy from Canada who speaks English and French but cant really communicate with miguel because miguel just speaks spanish and papiamento. Yeah pretty funny to watch them communicate but they get along good enough with had signals and broken up sentences. So anyway as we were there we found out more about this Nicolas kid and we found out that he came down here just searching for something in his life... So we happily let him know that running into us is what you were looking for but he wasnt to sure about that. He actualy told us he doesnt really believe in God but believes in some supreme being which was very interesting. So what Elder Browning and i decided to do was take a Ammon missionary angel at it and teach him that this supreme being is God and he has a plan for us here on this earth and after this life also. He actualy took to it very well also and liked the idea of the BOM and was very open to listen to us. So we'll have to wait and see how it goes this upcoming week when we see him again.
In other news Louisa was able to come to church this week which is always a good big step for investigators to take. We were stoked to see her there and she told us after ward that she is going to keep on testing it out which is a good thing.
Other than that we had some really good lunch citas with the members which is always fun and filling! In our Branch this past sunday we had 125 people in church which is awesome! Definately the highest its been on my mission so far. It was great to see the chapel full!
So yeah as you can see the mission in a Aruba is going great!
Until next time,
Elder Lopez
Monday, September 7, 2009
Sunny Aruba (email dated 9/7/2009)
Hey from sunny Aruba,
Well getting here in a Aruba was really nice but unfortunately i left some things up in Puerto Rico that i should have brought down with me but i forgot... The one thing most important was that i forgot my little thought book that i always take with me that has all the birthdays of everyone in the family too. Yeah i cant believe i left it up there but some times i think i might lose my head if it wasnt screwed on... Also some really sad news for my is that my camera's screen broke and you cant see anything on it at all anymore. I had it in its camera case and it was stowed away in my bag when we were off working and it must have banged against something because when i took it out to use it today the screen was all broke but the camera still takes pictures, you just cant see them after. I was so sad and mad at the same time that it happened but i guess thats just how the ball roles some times... at least the camera still works and i still have all my pictures on my card and when i want to see them or take more pictures on my card i can just use my comps camera and put my card in his camera. Still i'm a little bumbed but the mission work can change that!
This week was really cool i thought! I really like this island of Aruba! To be honest its really just a big desert with a whole bunch of cactus, but the beaches are amazing. But being a missionary we really dont get over to the beach to much... Sometimes we get to ride our bikes along the beach though which is way beautiful especialy when the sun is setting and its a full moon! Yeah i know its pretty rough with some of the nicest beaches in all the world here on my little island!...
This week i got to know all of our investigators and to be honest we could have a lot of potential! Our best investigator right now would have to be Louisa who is from the Dominican Republic and is great and really looking for the truth. The only problem is that her car is broken down and that she feels uncomfortable having a member come and pick her up who she doesnt know. But i think this next week for sure we'll be getting her to church! i feel like if we can get her there to the chapel she'll be getting a fecha soon... but we'll just have to wait pray and see! She is a great person though and is searching for the truth which the Church of Jesus Christ has!
Then our next best investigator would have to be a kid who's 20 years old who we came across yesterday night! He's from Columbia and was the coolest kid i've ever met on my mission so far. We go up and knock this door as we were finishing up our day at 830 on sunday night when Mario opens the door and tells us he's really interested in our message and wants to know more about this Joseph smith guy. Pretty much Elder Brownings jaw droped and we were like well you've run into the right people to answer those questions you have and learn more about the true church also... we then started into the first lesson and he was just inganged in the lesson and understood everything, and as i testifed to him of the 1'st vision i could see in his eyes that he was touched by the spirit! All of it just went like that and he loved every part of our lesson and was more then happy to read the Book of Mormon and have us over again tonight to share the first lesson with his whole family! So you could say we're stoked for tonights lesson and praying that Mario is one of Gods son's who's ready for the gospel in his life right now!
So as you can see the work here in Aruba is going forward and i'm happy to be a part of it! As for the language its going little by little right now but i use my spanish a lot because the people here all almost speak at least 4 languages! but still i'm going to learn this Papiamento before i leave these Islands! People here come from every where though, in our ward we have Columbians, Venezuelans, Chilieans, Argintinans, Ecuadoreans,and much much more! I'm basicly learning something about every culture which i love and the branch is the strongest i've ever been in.
Go Aruba!!!!!
Elder Lopez
PS. by the way its hotter here than it is in Puerto rico and it never rains...
Well getting here in a Aruba was really nice but unfortunately i left some things up in Puerto Rico that i should have brought down with me but i forgot... The one thing most important was that i forgot my little thought book that i always take with me that has all the birthdays of everyone in the family too. Yeah i cant believe i left it up there but some times i think i might lose my head if it wasnt screwed on... Also some really sad news for my is that my camera's screen broke and you cant see anything on it at all anymore. I had it in its camera case and it was stowed away in my bag when we were off working and it must have banged against something because when i took it out to use it today the screen was all broke but the camera still takes pictures, you just cant see them after. I was so sad and mad at the same time that it happened but i guess thats just how the ball roles some times... at least the camera still works and i still have all my pictures on my card and when i want to see them or take more pictures on my card i can just use my comps camera and put my card in his camera. Still i'm a little bumbed but the mission work can change that!
This week was really cool i thought! I really like this island of Aruba! To be honest its really just a big desert with a whole bunch of cactus, but the beaches are amazing. But being a missionary we really dont get over to the beach to much... Sometimes we get to ride our bikes along the beach though which is way beautiful especialy when the sun is setting and its a full moon! Yeah i know its pretty rough with some of the nicest beaches in all the world here on my little island!...
This week i got to know all of our investigators and to be honest we could have a lot of potential! Our best investigator right now would have to be Louisa who is from the Dominican Republic and is great and really looking for the truth. The only problem is that her car is broken down and that she feels uncomfortable having a member come and pick her up who she doesnt know. But i think this next week for sure we'll be getting her to church! i feel like if we can get her there to the chapel she'll be getting a fecha soon... but we'll just have to wait pray and see! She is a great person though and is searching for the truth which the Church of Jesus Christ has!
Then our next best investigator would have to be a kid who's 20 years old who we came across yesterday night! He's from Columbia and was the coolest kid i've ever met on my mission so far. We go up and knock this door as we were finishing up our day at 830 on sunday night when Mario opens the door and tells us he's really interested in our message and wants to know more about this Joseph smith guy. Pretty much Elder Brownings jaw droped and we were like well you've run into the right people to answer those questions you have and learn more about the true church also... we then started into the first lesson and he was just inganged in the lesson and understood everything, and as i testifed to him of the 1'st vision i could see in his eyes that he was touched by the spirit! All of it just went like that and he loved every part of our lesson and was more then happy to read the Book of Mormon and have us over again tonight to share the first lesson with his whole family! So you could say we're stoked for tonights lesson and praying that Mario is one of Gods son's who's ready for the gospel in his life right now!
So as you can see the work here in Aruba is going forward and i'm happy to be a part of it! As for the language its going little by little right now but i use my spanish a lot because the people here all almost speak at least 4 languages! but still i'm going to learn this Papiamento before i leave these Islands! People here come from every where though, in our ward we have Columbians, Venezuelans, Chilieans, Argintinans, Ecuadoreans,and much much more! I'm basicly learning something about every culture which i love and the branch is the strongest i've ever been in.
Go Aruba!!!!!
Elder Lopez
PS. by the way its hotter here than it is in Puerto rico and it never rains...
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
"Aruba, Jamaica..." (email dated 9/1/2009)
Hey,
Well if your still asking yourself where could Elder Lopez be right now with transfers coming the answer can be found in a very famous song sung by the beach boys... Yup it starts with Aruba... Yup president decided it was time to send me down to Aruba and preach the gospel while learning a different language with it.... Yeah i feel like a greenie all over again but luckly a lot of people here speak english and spanish to! But the language i'm going to be learning is Papiomento... Yeah your probably asking your self what in the world type of language is that, no worries though i had those same thoughts... anyway technicaly its not a complete language of its self so its dialect combinding Spanish, English, and Dutch all into one... It sounds pretty cool though when your hear the people speak it though. Basicly all of the people here speak one of those languages fluent though if not all of them. I'm sure as i spend more time down here i'll have more to tell your about it but as for right now i've only been here for about 3 hours. Our plane got in today from curacoa where we stayed last night before we finished the flight over here to the island of Aruba! Basicly here it is all desert and beach, and a lot of heat! I'm really excited though to be here because its going to be a great experience!
To make this experience even cooler my companion, Elder Browning loves to play baseball also! He's actualy ending his mission after this transfer and going back to Play ball at a Jr. college and then wants to go to play at BYU!... how sweet would that be! that would make 3 Elders from the exact same mission playing on the same team because Elder WElls will still be there at BYU when i get back next year.. we'll just have to wait and see how it goes and works out a year from now!
Anyway as for the work all is going well and I left a great Area behind but i'm excited to get a new one! Carlos Lopez one of our investigators with his fecha for this up coming 12 of september was sad to see me go but it was alright. He really is a good man with a big heart and i think he'll progress toward baptism for sure! THe members were all pretty sad that i was headed out also. I made a lot of good friends there in that ward but now is the time to meet new people and learn new languages... so as you can see here in the mission field things are just doing crazy things, but i love it!
Any how i'm going to go ahead and wrap up now so until next week keep on keepin on!
Elder Lopez
Well if your still asking yourself where could Elder Lopez be right now with transfers coming the answer can be found in a very famous song sung by the beach boys... Yup it starts with Aruba... Yup president decided it was time to send me down to Aruba and preach the gospel while learning a different language with it.... Yeah i feel like a greenie all over again but luckly a lot of people here speak english and spanish to! But the language i'm going to be learning is Papiomento... Yeah your probably asking your self what in the world type of language is that, no worries though i had those same thoughts... anyway technicaly its not a complete language of its self so its dialect combinding Spanish, English, and Dutch all into one... It sounds pretty cool though when your hear the people speak it though. Basicly all of the people here speak one of those languages fluent though if not all of them. I'm sure as i spend more time down here i'll have more to tell your about it but as for right now i've only been here for about 3 hours. Our plane got in today from curacoa where we stayed last night before we finished the flight over here to the island of Aruba! Basicly here it is all desert and beach, and a lot of heat! I'm really excited though to be here because its going to be a great experience!
To make this experience even cooler my companion, Elder Browning loves to play baseball also! He's actualy ending his mission after this transfer and going back to Play ball at a Jr. college and then wants to go to play at BYU!... how sweet would that be! that would make 3 Elders from the exact same mission playing on the same team because Elder WElls will still be there at BYU when i get back next year.. we'll just have to wait and see how it goes and works out a year from now!
Anyway as for the work all is going well and I left a great Area behind but i'm excited to get a new one! Carlos Lopez one of our investigators with his fecha for this up coming 12 of september was sad to see me go but it was alright. He really is a good man with a big heart and i think he'll progress toward baptism for sure! THe members were all pretty sad that i was headed out also. I made a lot of good friends there in that ward but now is the time to meet new people and learn new languages... so as you can see here in the mission field things are just doing crazy things, but i love it!
Any how i'm going to go ahead and wrap up now so until next week keep on keepin on!
Elder Lopez
Monday, August 17, 2009
I'm back in Toa Baja (email dated 8/17/2009)
!Hola! Well the good news for the week is i'm back in Toa Baja and i'm with a brand new companion who's from Boston. Dont worry though he's not to big of a Boston Red Sox fan he told me and he likes the Cardinals also! So pretty much we hit it off good from the get go. His name is Elder Cabrera and he was actualy born in the Dominican Republic and lived there until he was about 10 but then moved to the states. So he speaks both Spanish and English perfect which is awesome because i get a lot of help on my spanish being with him, and i'm learning the Dominican accent. So the next time that "Slammin Sammy Sosa" has to go to court for roids i can translate for him so that he understands everything...Anyway Elder Cabrera is a good guy and i'm glad to have him as my companion!
This week we had some pretty cool experiences that happened to us and one of them starts with a new investigator that we recieved from a member this week. What happened was Mark Busher a member brought one of his friends to church this past week so we took advantage and started to talk with him right away and got a cita scheduled with him and went on over to visit with him and he accepted it. So we went over and shared with him the first lesson and he recieved it pretty well i felt and he came to church again this week so we can see some potential there for baptisim. like always only time will tell what will happen.
another cool experience that we had was this sunday after church. we had our lunch like normal and then were off into the streets to talk with the people of Puerto Rico when we came across a man shuvling a bunch of dirt and rocks. We stopped and asked if we could help out at all and he just stopped and looking at us like as if to say "who are you..." but in a good way. He then proceded to say you guys arent dressed well to be doing work like this and then we just told him "dont you worry about that" and took off our ties and picked up the two shuvles that he had there close by and got to work with him. He was pretty blown away but was really grateful because he had a big pile to move and it all had to be done by today and he was going to do it all by himself. But with the 4 extra hands we got what would have takin a lot longer down in about 30 min if that. Tito was the mans name we helped out and he was very grateful that we stopped for a bit to help him out and and talk with him and was more then willing to have us over this wednesday thats coming up so that we can share with him the reason why were here and what Christ has done for us today. It was just a small act what we did really but all the people in the neighbore hood just looked at us like who are these people that are dressed up in sunday clothes doing construction work basicaly... It was fun and i'm looking forward to teaching Tito this wednesday to see how it goes and all. So as you can see every week brings a new suprise and a new experience here in the mission field and its always a good time.
Thank you all for the love and suport and the prayers and know that there not un answered because i feel your help every day!
Thanks a million!
Elder Lopez
This week we had some pretty cool experiences that happened to us and one of them starts with a new investigator that we recieved from a member this week. What happened was Mark Busher a member brought one of his friends to church this past week so we took advantage and started to talk with him right away and got a cita scheduled with him and went on over to visit with him and he accepted it. So we went over and shared with him the first lesson and he recieved it pretty well i felt and he came to church again this week so we can see some potential there for baptisim. like always only time will tell what will happen.
another cool experience that we had was this sunday after church. we had our lunch like normal and then were off into the streets to talk with the people of Puerto Rico when we came across a man shuvling a bunch of dirt and rocks. We stopped and asked if we could help out at all and he just stopped and looking at us like as if to say "who are you..." but in a good way. He then proceded to say you guys arent dressed well to be doing work like this and then we just told him "dont you worry about that" and took off our ties and picked up the two shuvles that he had there close by and got to work with him. He was pretty blown away but was really grateful because he had a big pile to move and it all had to be done by today and he was going to do it all by himself. But with the 4 extra hands we got what would have takin a lot longer down in about 30 min if that. Tito was the mans name we helped out and he was very grateful that we stopped for a bit to help him out and and talk with him and was more then willing to have us over this wednesday thats coming up so that we can share with him the reason why were here and what Christ has done for us today. It was just a small act what we did really but all the people in the neighbore hood just looked at us like who are these people that are dressed up in sunday clothes doing construction work basicaly... It was fun and i'm looking forward to teaching Tito this wednesday to see how it goes and all. So as you can see every week brings a new suprise and a new experience here in the mission field and its always a good time.
Thank you all for the love and suport and the prayers and know that there not un answered because i feel your help every day!
Thanks a million!
Elder Lopez
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Pictures galore!!
I just got my hands on a plethora of mission pictures from Bret. I don't have captions for the pictures, so just sit back and enjoy!
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