Short and Sweet (email dated 6/30/2009)

Well we made it here to Email really late and i only have like 2 min. because their closing the Library. but this week went good with carlos and Andres in church. We had a sweet p- day. Ill up date you next week with more details.
all and all it was a good Week!
Love Elder Lopez

Just another week in paradise (email dated 6/22/2009)

Hey,
Well this week here on the Island of Puerto Rico we staid busy like always. The only down part is that there just arent enough hours in a day to get done everything we want to get done in one day. But sometimes thats just how it goes.

Carlos Lopez one of our investigators that we're working with was in church this week which is always a good sign to have. Really he has a lot of desire to learn about the gospel which is good but then the other part thats a little tough is that he has a lot of false doctorine running through his mind that he's learning from his preacher and just from other people in general. One of the questions he wants us to bring next time is how will it be when Christ comes to the earth again and whats he going to do. Basicaly he has a lot of desire to hear really profound things but as of right now we're still at the baby feeding stage and not the whole T-bone steak yet, if you know what i'm trying to say? But it's alright because he has the desire to learn everything and with time he'll be able to handle it all. We have some other Potential investigators that are sort of just pending right now but i think that they have some good potential so we'll see next week. Then we have Andres still who we are visting every morning still. So basicaly everything over here keeps on going and at the same time the normal is going on so is the District Leader calling on top of everything. I think i'm going to be learning a lot as a District leader which will be fun with some presure added on top but its just the name of the game right?...

Anyway as for right now my brain is running blank so i think i'm going to wrap it up. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and knows that i send my Love!
signing out,
Elder Lopez

The beginning of a new transfer (email dated 6/15/2009)

Well this transfer got started off really busy especially now that President called me as a District Leader this transfer. He really threw me off when he anounced that i'd be the District leader in the District of Toa Baja because really i'm not that old in the mission yet. I dont even have a year out completely and everyone else in our District at least has 14 months other than me and my new companion. Its a pretty humbling calling that the president gave me for this transfer and i hope that i'm able to do a good job of it. Basicly i'm incharge of 4 pairs of missionary's and am going to be leading a lot of meetings. Just like every other calling i'm really going to learn a lot from this one.

So now in other news my new companions name is Elder Parodi from Spain... Yup pretty cool right, and the great part is he doesnt speak any english so that pretty much means i'm going to be learning a lot this transfer spanish wise also. The couple of days we've had together also have been great and we really do work well together which i'm greatful for. Lets hope that that just keeps up right. We had a good lesson with Andres yesterday where the spirit was felt in abundance! It was great because finaly he came out and admited his problem openly to us infront of every one about the alcohol which means he's finaly starting to take the first steps. His main concern wasn't the alcohol though, it the depresion he has from all the things that are going on in his life. We took what he said in acount and then set a goal with him to start working on.The goal includes certain things we're going to do with him every day. We're going keep on going walking with him every morning which he likes to do anyway and also we're going to do a little scripture study with him every morning to get him started off right. We'll see how it starts to go, but really only time will tell like always... Were excited though and we put a goal on baptisim which will be July 11th if all goes acording to plan!

Well that about wraps up the action here in the mission field so now i'm throwing it back to you... Much love,
Elder Lopez

Another transfer down (email dated 6/9/2009)

Hey every one back in the good old Beehive State. I hope everything is starting to warm up over there for you all.

This week we had a new Investigator come with us to church which is always a good thing to have. His name is Carlos and he´s partialy blind but he does his best to read and he´s a good guy. He lives in some humble circumstances but he´s very willing to learn about the restoration which is the key! He enjoyed church he said, but as for fast and testimony meeting he thought it was a little boring and was little drowsy...(Some times Puerto Ricans can have some interesting fast and testimony meetings)Anyway he loved all the other classes though which was good and he said he´d love to come back. Hopefuly we keep up this progress with him and lead him right into the font. In other news Andres relapsed again this week with his alcohol which is pretty disapointing but we´re still working with him to see if we can keep helping him out. Its tough to see him with such a bad problem with the alcohol, and makes me realize how great of a blessing it is to have the word of wisdom to protect our family´s from worldly traps like those that people get cought in with drugs and alcohol.

Other news is Transfers are tomorrow morning and i´m staying here in Toa Baja but my companion is going...Their sending Elder Bown down to Corocao down south my Venzuela which is part of our mission. I enjoyed having Elder Bown as my companion here though because we had a lot of things in common and had a good time picking up this white wash we had here. so that means next week i´ll let you know who my new companion will be...

Until then,
Peace!
Elder Lopez

What a week... (email dated 06/01/2009)

Well this week was a week full of events with the Elders from Dorado having their house burn up. Yup you read that right, the Elders in our district had their house burn... no one sure in how it started still but while they were out working they got a phone call that their house was on fire. So they ran back thinking it was a joke be sure enough when they got there it was burnt... So the Zone leaders called us up and we headed over there to pick them up and have them stay at our apartment for the night. It was really a ironic thing that 2 missionaries of the Lord had their house burn. We had some fun joking around about it actualy that night but the next day was all business with helping them clean up everything and get it ready to be repared and painted again. Its a good thing here all the housed are made from cement and not wood because if not their house would have been gone... But through all the craziness we were still able to get some work for the Lord done. We had a great lesson with a man named David who we´ve been teaching for the past week or two.( he actualy likes to be taught in english which is sort of hard to do suprisingly because i´m so used to teaching in spanish)As fot the lesson though the spirit through out was amazing! We had just finished up the 2nd lesson with him and i could see what seemed like a vail be lifted from his eyes, and all his confusion about life and our purpose here on earth just left. He was so excited to have learned Gods plan for us here on earth that he pretty much asked us if he could be baptized so he could be saved with God and Christ again. I asked him how he felt after ward and he said that he felt so calm and just full of happiness like nothing could take him down at that moment. I testified to him in that moment that what he was feeling was the spirit testifying to him of the truthfulness of what we had just taught. We then asked him if he would start to prepare now to be baptized by someone holding the power and authority of God here on the earth and he excepted it. After the cita i felt like i was on cloud 9 and Elder Bown and i both just agreed that what we just experieced was a man prepared to hear the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. The 1st day we meet him i wouldn´t have thought he was a man prepared just from looks, but now about 2 weeks later from the 1st time we contacted him my whole perspective has changed. It was a definated testimony builder of how we need to give every one the opportunity to hear this message no matter the way they appear to us at first. What a great lesson it was! Now we just need to find him a new job so that we can stop him from working every sunday morning... but we´ll just take it one step at a time i guess.

Anyway it was a great week you could say. well i thing i´ll wrap it up with that...
so remember your all in my prayers and i love you a ton!
With Love Elder Lopez