Christmas week (email dated 12/28/2009)

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

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

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

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