So Elder Lopez has made it back to the main island and is very excited to get to work! Our flight got in last Wednesday and we went to the mission home first and then from there it was off to my new area with my new companion Elder Moran from Guatamla! Yeah, he's about 5'7 i'd say and probable doesnt weigh more then 150 lbs but has the heart of a giant. These Elders that come from Guatamala are awesome and i'm glade that we're companions. He's still really young in the mission, actually this will be his second transfer in the field making him really new which is great because he's ready to work hard with me here in Vega Baja. Our area is probably one of the biggest in the mission, if not the biggest because we cover a lot of pueblos, not just Vega Baja. the nice part about that is that we have a car and its new one too...yup we're rolling in a 2009 toyota corolla. I'm feeling pretty blessed to say the least. We got up early today just so that we could wash her.
Anyway as for the work here in the area we got a lot of area to cover and some good investigators that are going to progress towards baptism i believe. We have this one guy named Freddy who i think has ADHD but loves the gospel and the BOM and to come to church. He lives way out in the mountains which takes us about 40 min. to get to for our lessons. I guess he was a reference that they had recieved from to office or something. His baptismal date was for this next week end but were going to have to see if we can move it today because he's living with his girl friend and their not married yet. So that is going to put a delay on the work a little, but i'm sure he'll be willing to repent and get married with her. I'll have to write you next week and tell you what happens tonight. He loves coming to church and has read almost up to Alma in the BOM which shows a lot of progress! If he keeps on progressing like he is right now i'm positive he'll be hitting the water of baptism.
Also yesterday we were at church and received a referece of an inactive member to go visit in our area. So we went over there yesterday and found to our happy suprise that the member lives with his wife there and she's not baptized and right now she feels more prepared to be baptized and he wants to come back to church. The whole situation was just really cool. We went over there with our Mission leader of our ward and sat down and taught the 1st lesson with them. As we were teaching we found out that Armando was baptized a while back but went inactive and started to get caught up in the world until last week he had a complete 180 happen in him. He decieded to go to church and from there we got his info from a member. Also his wife has previously heard the lessons from the missionary's but never felt ready to be baptized but as we taught yesterday she told us that now she feels like she's ready to take the step of baptism! So we threw out the goal for her baptismal date this 27th of march thats coming up! Elder Moran and i felt really blessed to have been put in their path to be able to teach them and find a child of God ready to follow His path. All of this and the fact that our appartment is basicaly on the beach made our week here in Puerto Rico a great first week to start the transfer off with!
Well that's the great news from the mission field and i hope all are doing well back home!
Much Love,
Elder Lopez
Monday, February 22, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
New email system (email dated Feb. 8th, 2010)
Greetings from the Island of Curacao,
So looks like the Mission is starting to upgrade on these email accounts and change their system which changed my email addrss to bret.lopez@myldsmail.net. So it would probably be good to start sending your emails to this account. In the information it says that all the emails that are sent to the other address will automaticaly be sent to the new account so that you dont have to worry to much. But if Lachelle could put that up on the blog that would be cool. Thanks!
In other news from the island of Curacao we saw a great dolphin show last p-day at the sea aquarium. Yeah, dolphins are pretty much an amazing animal i decided after waching them do all of the their jumps and flips out of the water. It took me back to those good old days when Mom and Dad took us to Sea World and we watched the shows there. But this time i didn't sit in the splash section and i realized how amazing the dolphins really are.
Also this week we had a great week of hard work. Pretty much during the week you can count on us getting some good sun rays and a leg work out on those bikes of ours. But at the end of the week its all worth it because you can look back and see the difference you made in the world. What we had to look back at this week was a new member, Marlone who we baptized last week, receive the Priesthood during Elders Quorom on sunday! Yeah i was way happy to see him already getting right before i have to leave with tranfers next week. Its been such a good time watching him progess so much in the Gospel. I think i sort of know now how parents must feel to see their kids accomplish things in their life, its an awesome feeling to say the least. Man do i love this work! Also on sunday night we had a great lesson with our new golden investigator named Duan. He's 21 years old and lives with his family who's from Colombia. He came to church yesterday also which makes him progressing a bunch also. He was a little nervous at first but that is expected for your first visit, but as church went on he got a lot more confidence and started to participate and everything. When we went over that night we were able to feel the spirit tell us he was ready for a baptismal date and we set one with him for the 27th of February! And Yes he did accept it with smile on his face and a lot of desire to make it happen. He's going to be great example for his family in the changes that he's going to start making to make his baptism happen also which we're happy for because they also should be baptised here down the line but they have a little stumbling block in their way. Their little daughter who is 11 is preparing to go through the first communion in the catholic church which is every sunday morning right during church which keeps them from coming to church with us. But their more then happy to bring Duan and drop him off at church with us before they go to their catholic church which is good. Yeah you could say they still dont understand the whole authority of priesthood deal but they will here soon, so some prayers to help them except it would be awesome! Duan understands the authority fairly well but we're still going to have to make it more clear for him but that will come with time. Their doing great though for only having visited them twice... We have a lot of high hopes for them! Unfortunately i'll be leaving next week so i wont be able to see him be baptized, but thats not to important as long as he's baptized on the 27th of February!
So that about wraps up this week from the news here in curacao!
Thank you all for your Love, support, and prayers!
Love always,
Elder Lopez
So looks like the Mission is starting to upgrade on these email accounts and change their system which changed my email addrss to bret.lopez@myldsmail.net. So it would probably be good to start sending your emails to this account. In the information it says that all the emails that are sent to the other address will automaticaly be sent to the new account so that you dont have to worry to much. But if Lachelle could put that up on the blog that would be cool. Thanks!
In other news from the island of Curacao we saw a great dolphin show last p-day at the sea aquarium. Yeah, dolphins are pretty much an amazing animal i decided after waching them do all of the their jumps and flips out of the water. It took me back to those good old days when Mom and Dad took us to Sea World and we watched the shows there. But this time i didn't sit in the splash section and i realized how amazing the dolphins really are.
Also this week we had a great week of hard work. Pretty much during the week you can count on us getting some good sun rays and a leg work out on those bikes of ours. But at the end of the week its all worth it because you can look back and see the difference you made in the world. What we had to look back at this week was a new member, Marlone who we baptized last week, receive the Priesthood during Elders Quorom on sunday! Yeah i was way happy to see him already getting right before i have to leave with tranfers next week. Its been such a good time watching him progess so much in the Gospel. I think i sort of know now how parents must feel to see their kids accomplish things in their life, its an awesome feeling to say the least. Man do i love this work! Also on sunday night we had a great lesson with our new golden investigator named Duan. He's 21 years old and lives with his family who's from Colombia. He came to church yesterday also which makes him progressing a bunch also. He was a little nervous at first but that is expected for your first visit, but as church went on he got a lot more confidence and started to participate and everything. When we went over that night we were able to feel the spirit tell us he was ready for a baptismal date and we set one with him for the 27th of February! And Yes he did accept it with smile on his face and a lot of desire to make it happen. He's going to be great example for his family in the changes that he's going to start making to make his baptism happen also which we're happy for because they also should be baptised here down the line but they have a little stumbling block in their way. Their little daughter who is 11 is preparing to go through the first communion in the catholic church which is every sunday morning right during church which keeps them from coming to church with us. But their more then happy to bring Duan and drop him off at church with us before they go to their catholic church which is good. Yeah you could say they still dont understand the whole authority of priesthood deal but they will here soon, so some prayers to help them except it would be awesome! Duan understands the authority fairly well but we're still going to have to make it more clear for him but that will come with time. Their doing great though for only having visited them twice... We have a lot of high hopes for them! Unfortunately i'll be leaving next week so i wont be able to see him be baptized, but thats not to important as long as he's baptized on the 27th of February!
So that about wraps up this week from the news here in curacao!
Thank you all for your Love, support, and prayers!
Love always,
Elder Lopez
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Baptism (email dated 2/1/2010)
Well i'm very happy to report back home that down here on the island of Curacao we saw the waters of baptism be filled and used! Yes, Marlone was baptized on the 30th of january and he even asked if i would do it and i was more than happy to do so. He really is a good guy and is going to progress a lot i believe and turn into a very strong member down here for Curacao and it was humbling to be able to preform the ordiance for him. I really cant believe how fast this month just flew by with all of our teaching to Marlone and others.
As i look back at our time from when we meet Marlone and up to his baptism it took a total of 35 days for him to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-saints. By far the fastes i've ever seen on my mission. He's really just a sharp guy and ready to learn. Its amazing to see what the Lord can do to change the life of a person by the power of the Holy Ghost! Mission experiences like this one are what make the Mission unforgetable and testimony builders that just cant be replaced by anything else in this world.
Also to add to the success of the week we found a really cool family of 4, all with the potential of baptism some day. They really were open to hear the message of the restoration of the gospel and liked it a lot. They said it brought a lot of peace to their family and are for sure open to hear and learn more. But we'll find out this week how reliable and responsible they are from what they do with the Book of Mormon and assignment we left with them in 3 Nephi 11. Its always a key indicater of peoples real desires from if they read the Book of Mormon or not. So we'll keep you up dated on what happens with them next week...
Well those are the highlights from this week!
Thanks so much for the love and support that you all give to me through all of your prayers. They really do have an effect on the work out hear in the field. They truely do give me energy to keep on going forward with the Lords will!
Well much Love,
Elder Lopez
As i look back at our time from when we meet Marlone and up to his baptism it took a total of 35 days for him to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-saints. By far the fastes i've ever seen on my mission. He's really just a sharp guy and ready to learn. Its amazing to see what the Lord can do to change the life of a person by the power of the Holy Ghost! Mission experiences like this one are what make the Mission unforgetable and testimony builders that just cant be replaced by anything else in this world.
Also to add to the success of the week we found a really cool family of 4, all with the potential of baptism some day. They really were open to hear the message of the restoration of the gospel and liked it a lot. They said it brought a lot of peace to their family and are for sure open to hear and learn more. But we'll find out this week how reliable and responsible they are from what they do with the Book of Mormon and assignment we left with them in 3 Nephi 11. Its always a key indicater of peoples real desires from if they read the Book of Mormon or not. So we'll keep you up dated on what happens with them next week...
Well those are the highlights from this week!
Thanks so much for the love and support that you all give to me through all of your prayers. They really do have an effect on the work out hear in the field. They truely do give me energy to keep on going forward with the Lords will!
Well much Love,
Elder Lopez
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