Wow its Christmas season and what a time to be greatful! This past sunday night we had the opportunity to go and watch the Christmas Devotional and listen to our beloved Prophet and his councilers speak! It was a great experience and I felt close to home as i watched good Old Motab Choir sing the hymns of Zion! Wow, what a great meeting it was. It really hit home the true meaning of Christmas.
Right now i'd just like to thank you all for the wonderful fiends and family you've all been to me. My testimony of Christ has grown so much out here and i know he lives and loves us all! What a great time of year it is to follow his example and stretch out our hands to help another and show our love for them.
with love,
Elder Lopez
Monday, December 8, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Thanksgiving on the Mission (email dated 12-01-2008)
Hey, its Elder Lopez again. Another week has gone by and now i'm another week smarter and experienced on the mission. This past week we really started to try and get the members that we have in our little branch up in going in the missionary work. Utuado is a big place so we really a lot on our members to help us out in getting from place to place. Its really true that every member is a missionary. As members of this church we have the opportunity to be a flag on the hill standing as an example for all the people in the world to look to. Its a great priviledge and i have to thank all of you back home for being great examples for me to look up to. As members of this church we really do stick out because of the high standards that we have and are striving to up hold. it might seem hard at times with all the things that are going on the world but as we stand united we will not fall. Its just like Elder Uchtdorf talked about in the last conference during the priesthood session to lift were you stand. It doesnt matter where you are, Utah or Puerto Rico, we all have the sacred opportunity to be a beacon of light for the world to see. This work is truely for everyone and it truely is amazing to see in motion. I take comfort in the fact that this gospel, and this church will stand until that great day when the Lord comes back to the earth to reign in His glory. Wow this Gospel is amazing!
Well before i end this i hope all is well back home and that you all had a great Thanksgiving. Remeber "Thanksgiving comes but once a year but times to give thanks are always here"...( is that saying still up in my car with the little dollar bill with the missionary shirt?) Well love you all,
Elder Lopez
Well before i end this i hope all is well back home and that you all had a great Thanksgiving. Remeber "Thanksgiving comes but once a year but times to give thanks are always here"...( is that saying still up in my car with the little dollar bill with the missionary shirt?) Well love you all,
Elder Lopez
Monday, November 24, 2008
I'm going to miss the Turkey Bowl (email dated 11/24/2008)
Hey i hope all is well over there on the home front in Utah. All is well out here in Utuado and i cant believe how fast this passed week flew by. We had a lot of work to do this week and every night we came home i was dead tired. Here up in the Mountains it seems like everyone lives up on the top of a mountain or clear down in a valley. So which ever one it is we get to go up and come back down or vise versa. Lets just say my legs are going to be tree trunks by the time i leave this place. Here in Puerto Rico they have all the same Holidays that they have back in the states and more. I'm pretty sure the people just make up Holidays so they can get of work and have a break. Thats just fine by me though because during peoples breaks there home and we're able to find more people to talk to about our message which contains the way to recieving eternal salvation which is a pretty big deal last time i checked. We have a little small branch here in Utuado like i said last time but the people in it are way nice and feed us and feed us and then feed us some more! We had a Dia de accion de Gracias ( just a long name for Thanksgiving) Party this past saturday with a bunch of food. It was amazing and i was full for all of saturday and most of sunday. Yesterday it rained almost the whole day which sort of put a damper on being able to find people. People here in Puerto Rico dont care for the rain to much and when it does rain you dont find many people out because their all scared of ""La munga"(the cold). Anyway we had some cool teaching experences this week. We came accross a guy a couple of nights ago during our sacred finding time and i called him out and when he came out and it was sort of like all the rest that we had been having that day he just said that he was catholic. So i was like oh ok well is there anything we can help you with, and then he stopped and said yeah. I wasn't expecting that but he then let us in and said some time he'd need his tree in his front yard trimmed so and would need help so we told him we'd be more than happy to help. Then he invited us in his house we talked to him a little about what we do as missionaries and i was actually able to share and talk a lot more then i have in the passed. He even gave us dinner for that night. It was a really cool experience and goes to show that when you show a desire to truely help out your fellow brotheren your leaving a little seed and are being an example like we should be as members of the True Church of Chirst. Mission work is great and i'm gaining a greater love for it every day!
Thank you for all the support back home and have great thanksgiving this week! I love you all at home and thank you a billion for your letters and support!
Thank you for all the support back home and have great thanksgiving this week! I love you all at home and thank you a billion for your letters and support!
Monday, November 17, 2008
One Transfer Down (email dated 11/17/2008)
Dear Mom and Dad,
Well i'm here in my new area and all i have to say is its beautiful uphere. I say up here because i'm right smack dab in the middle of the island which is up in the mountains. The area i'm in is called Utuado, Puerto Rico.Its sort of being in a rain forest/ mountain conditions. Our area is full of hills and i come home every night whiped because we walk a lot of places here.My new companion is Elder Hernandez by the way. He's from Mexico and is aver a hard worker and i'm glade i got him as a compion. The first day here we had a lesson to go to so before i even could unpack my bags we were off to work. It was a great lesson i thought and i love teaching with a native spanish speaker because i learn so much about the language everytime we teach. This is going to really help me with my spanish i'm hoping.
Anyway so far here we've had some really intresting experiances with the people. We taught this one guy named Ruperto who lives way far up the canyon, so he came to pick us upand take us to his house. Well when we got there his house wasnt much of ahouse. It was more like a little schack with metal all around the outside and ontop as the walls and the cealing. As i walked in i looked up and the top and alli could see were cob webs every where with these huge spiders of every kind. Thewhole time i was just thinking to myself how could some one live here and stayhealthy. There were cars all out around the side of his place like you some time see hanging off cliffs and stuff as you drive in mountain areas, like the one at the cabin if you remeber. It was pretty interesting to say the least. Rupert lives with his mom and she's 94 years old and she's still cooking and cleaning she said, but it didnt look like their place had been cleaned in quite some time. I couldn't believe she said she was 94 years old and living inthe conditions she was. Anyway their family is a little different but thats all right cuz were all children of God right. Any way we couldnt stay and talk with them very long because we got to go to a conference that Elder Bendar spoke at!It was so awesome! Elder Bednar came here to Puerto Rico and people got to ask him questions in this meeting and it was great to see and Apostle of the Lord speak here in this little island. He was in a different church then we were sowe watched him on a perjecter at the stake center. One of the people ask the big question about getting a temple here in Puerto Rico.His answer was direct and i loved every bit of it. What he said basicly is that when a temple is chosen to be built some where it has nothing to do with the people here on earth and their wants. The Person who decides where and when a temple is built is the Lord himself and when i decides He then reavels it to the prophet. Than we went on further and said if you really want a temple here you got to have the members who will be able to support and then he told the people to "get your hearts right." It was simple statement but it hit me hard! it renewed my testimony of his calling because the spirit during that meeting was so strong!
Well i got to finish up now so remember your always in my prayers and i loveyou all!
Elder Lopez
PS. I got your tape and i love to listen to it! YOur voices all sound so good to my ears. I have a tape and a memory card of pictures to send home but i dontknow if i should send them with a normal letter or not. Also if you could send THis email to lechell and do what ever you want with it so she can put it up onthe blog that would be great because i dont have time to write another one. thanks love you!
Well i'm here in my new area and all i have to say is its beautiful uphere. I say up here because i'm right smack dab in the middle of the island which is up in the mountains. The area i'm in is called Utuado, Puerto Rico.Its sort of being in a rain forest/ mountain conditions. Our area is full of hills and i come home every night whiped because we walk a lot of places here.My new companion is Elder Hernandez by the way. He's from Mexico and is aver a hard worker and i'm glade i got him as a compion. The first day here we had a lesson to go to so before i even could unpack my bags we were off to work. It was a great lesson i thought and i love teaching with a native spanish speaker because i learn so much about the language everytime we teach. This is going to really help me with my spanish i'm hoping.
Anyway so far here we've had some really intresting experiances with the people. We taught this one guy named Ruperto who lives way far up the canyon, so he came to pick us upand take us to his house. Well when we got there his house wasnt much of ahouse. It was more like a little schack with metal all around the outside and ontop as the walls and the cealing. As i walked in i looked up and the top and alli could see were cob webs every where with these huge spiders of every kind. Thewhole time i was just thinking to myself how could some one live here and stayhealthy. There were cars all out around the side of his place like you some time see hanging off cliffs and stuff as you drive in mountain areas, like the one at the cabin if you remeber. It was pretty interesting to say the least. Rupert lives with his mom and she's 94 years old and she's still cooking and cleaning she said, but it didnt look like their place had been cleaned in quite some time. I couldn't believe she said she was 94 years old and living inthe conditions she was. Anyway their family is a little different but thats all right cuz were all children of God right. Any way we couldnt stay and talk with them very long because we got to go to a conference that Elder Bendar spoke at!It was so awesome! Elder Bednar came here to Puerto Rico and people got to ask him questions in this meeting and it was great to see and Apostle of the Lord speak here in this little island. He was in a different church then we were sowe watched him on a perjecter at the stake center. One of the people ask the big question about getting a temple here in Puerto Rico.His answer was direct and i loved every bit of it. What he said basicly is that when a temple is chosen to be built some where it has nothing to do with the people here on earth and their wants. The Person who decides where and when a temple is built is the Lord himself and when i decides He then reavels it to the prophet. Than we went on further and said if you really want a temple here you got to have the members who will be able to support and then he told the people to "get your hearts right." It was simple statement but it hit me hard! it renewed my testimony of his calling because the spirit during that meeting was so strong!
Well i got to finish up now so remember your always in my prayers and i loveyou all!
Elder Lopez
PS. I got your tape and i love to listen to it! YOur voices all sound so good to my ears. I have a tape and a memory card of pictures to send home but i dontknow if i should send them with a normal letter or not. Also if you could send THis email to lechell and do what ever you want with it so she can put it up onthe blog that would be great because i dont have time to write another one. thanks love you!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Champion Burrito
Dear Lopez family:
I had the honor of being with your son today as we moved him from one apartment to another, just before his transfer tomorrow to a new area.
Sister Reyes and I are the "housing coordinators" and after the move we then treated him and his companion to an early dinner at one of the few mexican restaurants in Puerto Rico.
You have a great missionary and it was a pleasure to be with him. Thank you for raising a great young man.
best regards
Elder & Sister Reyes
I had the honor of being with your son today as we moved him from one apartment to another, just before his transfer tomorrow to a new area.
Sister Reyes and I are the "housing coordinators" and after the move we then treated him and his companion to an early dinner at one of the few mexican restaurants in Puerto Rico.
You have a great missionary and it was a pleasure to be with him. Thank you for raising a great young man.
best regards
Elder & Sister Reyes
Monday, November 10, 2008
Transfers
Well another week of the mission life has come and gone! Thank you all for the support and letters that I've recieved, you all keep me going!
Well this week was full of new's! I had my first interview with the President of the Mission, President Martineau, and he pretty much told me after this transfer I'd be gettin transfered some where else. Sure enough this Sunday i got the word that i'm going to be getting transfured this Wed. I'm actually looking forward to this next transfer to get a new companion and learn new things. For the most part i'm starting to settle into the mission life. It gets better and better every day. It started out a little rocky, but no one ever said it was going to be ease. When times are going rough i always am able to find comfort in the scriptures! I found some scriptures that really helped me out this first transfer. One of them was in D&C 128:31 right at the very end of the verse if you want to look it up... The Scriptures have grown to be my best friend out here and i love reading them every day!
My Companion Elder Haskell's birthday was this week, so we decided to celebrate and went bowling last p-day! It was a blast and it reminded me of the good old days going bowling in High School, i still sort of stuggle so i wont tell you my score. I know when my brother Mark reads this he'll be a little disapointed, but it is what it is.
Finding people this week looked up a little bit. We came accross a guy who had been in the Army for ever and learend english and could speak it very well. To add to it the guy was amazingly nice. He excepted everything that we said to him and invited us in to have some water! We set up a return visit with him and everything but unfortunatley i'm not going to be there to teach him cuz i'm getting transfered. Thats alright though, all that matters is that he gets to hear the gospel!
So elections are finaly over and i hear we have a new President of the United States. Í'm not going to say much about who got elected cuz out here on the mission we're not supposed to talk polotics... and this way i wont say anything bad about him, you know how the saying goes, "ïf you cant say anything good dont say anything at all".
Well until next week keep it real back home! Love you all!
Elder Lopez
Well this week was full of new's! I had my first interview with the President of the Mission, President Martineau, and he pretty much told me after this transfer I'd be gettin transfered some where else. Sure enough this Sunday i got the word that i'm going to be getting transfured this Wed. I'm actually looking forward to this next transfer to get a new companion and learn new things. For the most part i'm starting to settle into the mission life. It gets better and better every day. It started out a little rocky, but no one ever said it was going to be ease. When times are going rough i always am able to find comfort in the scriptures! I found some scriptures that really helped me out this first transfer. One of them was in D&C 128:31 right at the very end of the verse if you want to look it up... The Scriptures have grown to be my best friend out here and i love reading them every day!
My Companion Elder Haskell's birthday was this week, so we decided to celebrate and went bowling last p-day! It was a blast and it reminded me of the good old days going bowling in High School, i still sort of stuggle so i wont tell you my score. I know when my brother Mark reads this he'll be a little disapointed, but it is what it is.
Finding people this week looked up a little bit. We came accross a guy who had been in the Army for ever and learend english and could speak it very well. To add to it the guy was amazingly nice. He excepted everything that we said to him and invited us in to have some water! We set up a return visit with him and everything but unfortunatley i'm not going to be there to teach him cuz i'm getting transfered. Thats alright though, all that matters is that he gets to hear the gospel!
So elections are finaly over and i hear we have a new President of the United States. Í'm not going to say much about who got elected cuz out here on the mission we're not supposed to talk polotics... and this way i wont say anything bad about him, you know how the saying goes, "ïf you cant say anything good dont say anything at all".
Well until next week keep it real back home! Love you all!
Elder Lopez
Monday, November 3, 2008
Just another day in the life of Elder Lopez (email dated 11/3/2008)
Well i'm sorry that i haven't been able to get a E-mail out for the passed couple of weeks. My E-mail has been sort of being dumb and hasn't worked for me. Now it should be doing just fine though. This passed week we've been doing a lot of finding with not a lot of luck. Its alright though because it will start to pick up sooner or later. Some good news is that we found a good Apt. to live in. Hopefully next week we'll be able to move in to it. Right now their trying to get all the paper work done for it so hopefully by next week we can move in. The Ward out here in my area isn't like a Utah ward, but it is pretty big for here in Puerto Rico i believe. The People in my ward are all nice and loveing people and are really wanting to have a Temple built here in Puerto Rico. Thats where us missionaries come in. I hope to be able to see a Temple here in Puerto Rico some day! It probably wont be while i'm here but i'm hoping to be a help in getting this island ready for one. I see the Lords help every day while i'm out here doing His will and His work. Thank you all for your support and prayers!
sorry this E-mail is pretty short, i ran out of time so next week i'll see what i can do.
Oh yeah and one more thing, When your write me letters you need to put my first name and my last name because there is 4 Elder Lopez's here in my mission...
Thanks again and I love you all! Until next week God Bless!
Elder Lopez
sorry this E-mail is pretty short, i ran out of time so next week i'll see what i can do.
Oh yeah and one more thing, When your write me letters you need to put my first name and my last name because there is 4 Elder Lopez's here in my mission...
Thanks again and I love you all! Until next week God Bless!
Elder Lopez
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Sorry my emails aren't sending (email dated 10/27/2008)
Hey Sorry that you didnt get my email last week. For some reason my e-mail wasmessed up and hasn't been sending my e-mails that i wrote. I'm prettyfrustrated about it to cuz i wrote some pretty long e-mails! Hopefully your ableto recieve this one. Thank you for checking my Checking account for me. I loveyou guys and i love reading your emails and letters. next week i'll makesure that i send a better e-mail but for now i'm out of time because i spentall my time on the email i sent earlier that didnt send. Well thats the way lifeis sometimes i guess. Remeber I love you!
Elder Lopez
Elder Lopez
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Weathering out the storm (email dated 10/14/2008)
Well it's been a full week out here the field and i'm starting to get how things are done around here in the Mission field. This is definatley good training for Life. I mean i have to go shope for myself and even cook, like with a stove not just a microwave... I'm even searching for a house to live in so we can start this new Area up that we've been assigned. Actually techanicaly right now we dont even have our own Area, becasue they still have'nt decided where exactly they want to put the line to seperate our area from the others. So this passed week consisted of a lot of walking and biking around in different areas trying to get a feel for Ponce.
It's been raining a fair amount here and every time it does i just think its probably snowing back home. I dont think that i'm going to see very much snow for the next 2 years of my life. While we were out toking (going house to house) this week we got cought in pretty bad rain storm unprepared. It pretty much looking like we went swimming with our clothes on. Yeah, and to make things just a little worse i was wearing my only silk tie i have out here and it took a really bad beating. Silk and rain dont mix well together. But you know what its all just part of the missionary life. I guess you could say it buildes character. Its all good though the work goes on. We had our P-day changed to tuesday this week because it was Columbus day yesterday and when there is a holiday we work because people are at home with their family's. It turned out to be a really good time to work though. We had our best success yet yesterday. We got 4 return visits and i'm excited to finaly get out and teach some lessons. One lady that we got a return visit with really needs our message and i dont think it was by accident that we talked with her. We talked with her for a little bit and bore testimony of the gospel and that we know that there is a plan for us to return to live with our Father again in Heaven and we are all childeren of our Heavenly Father. As we were talking she told us that her brother was killed not to long ago and the funeral was going to be on Wednesday. So we scheduled a return visit with here on thursday! Yeah it seems to good to be true right! I pray that we're able to teach her this week with the spirit, and that the spirit will touch her Heart so that she'll want to hear more.
In church this week they introduced my companion and I to the ward and had us stand up and be recognized. The ward is really full of nice people that i would love to talk with more often but right now my conversation skills in spanish are still limited...But i try. We had a nice dinner with some members on sunday and had potatos. The potatos reminded me of sunday dinners back home. Oh how i miss those dinners. I'm still trying to get used to cooking for myself. I'm not exactly sure on all the things i like to make yet, so right now i'm still experimenting on what to buy from the store to eat. Hopefully over the next two years i learn to be a good cook. (so if anyone back home has some nice easy recipes that they'd want to send me I'd be very gratefull!) Oh yeah and Mom you'd be proud to hear that i've been buying soy milk here because the regulare milk taste even worse than the soy... I'm actualy learning to like it. Oh yeah i'd ate some shrimp at a members house and it wasn't to bad. You learn to like everything on the mission i guess.
Thank you all so much for you support and love; All of you back home help to keep me going. I cant thank you enough and remeber your always in my prayers and i love you all!
Your's Truely,
Elder Lopez
It's been raining a fair amount here and every time it does i just think its probably snowing back home. I dont think that i'm going to see very much snow for the next 2 years of my life. While we were out toking (going house to house) this week we got cought in pretty bad rain storm unprepared. It pretty much looking like we went swimming with our clothes on. Yeah, and to make things just a little worse i was wearing my only silk tie i have out here and it took a really bad beating. Silk and rain dont mix well together. But you know what its all just part of the missionary life. I guess you could say it buildes character. Its all good though the work goes on. We had our P-day changed to tuesday this week because it was Columbus day yesterday and when there is a holiday we work because people are at home with their family's. It turned out to be a really good time to work though. We had our best success yet yesterday. We got 4 return visits and i'm excited to finaly get out and teach some lessons. One lady that we got a return visit with really needs our message and i dont think it was by accident that we talked with her. We talked with her for a little bit and bore testimony of the gospel and that we know that there is a plan for us to return to live with our Father again in Heaven and we are all childeren of our Heavenly Father. As we were talking she told us that her brother was killed not to long ago and the funeral was going to be on Wednesday. So we scheduled a return visit with here on thursday! Yeah it seems to good to be true right! I pray that we're able to teach her this week with the spirit, and that the spirit will touch her Heart so that she'll want to hear more.
In church this week they introduced my companion and I to the ward and had us stand up and be recognized. The ward is really full of nice people that i would love to talk with more often but right now my conversation skills in spanish are still limited...But i try. We had a nice dinner with some members on sunday and had potatos. The potatos reminded me of sunday dinners back home. Oh how i miss those dinners. I'm still trying to get used to cooking for myself. I'm not exactly sure on all the things i like to make yet, so right now i'm still experimenting on what to buy from the store to eat. Hopefully over the next two years i learn to be a good cook. (so if anyone back home has some nice easy recipes that they'd want to send me I'd be very gratefull!) Oh yeah and Mom you'd be proud to hear that i've been buying soy milk here because the regulare milk taste even worse than the soy... I'm actualy learning to like it. Oh yeah i'd ate some shrimp at a members house and it wasn't to bad. You learn to like everything on the mission i guess.
Thank you all so much for you support and love; All of you back home help to keep me going. I cant thank you enough and remeber your always in my prayers and i love you all!
Your's Truely,
Elder Lopez
Monday, October 6, 2008
The Real Mission
Well it's a new life here in the real mission field. The flight over here to to Puerto Rico was nice and i was releved when i finally met my mission President. He's a great guy and his wife is Awesome. The mission President and i have the same time left on our missions so we're preping the this mission to hand over to the next mission Pres.
My date to come home is Aug. 5th 2010. Yup you can start the count down....Actually it would probably be best if you didnt. Anyway my first day in Puerto Rico i stayed at the Mission Presidents house and had a real nice dinner over there. Their house was really nice and i could see myself living in one like it here Puerto Rico when i grow old. Its so beautiful here! The only down side is that its way humid here and you sweat no matter where you are. Anyway my one day at the Presidents house had to come to an end and then i got thrown around like a little child i felt like. We drove to one of the Chapels and all the Missionaries were there, except for the ones down in the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonier, and Curaco). I met my new companion there. His name is Elder Haskell from west Jordan Utah. He knows his spanish pretty good and he's a fun companion to be with at least so far. We'll see how it goes as time goes on. Once i got my new companion we got a new area too. When i say new I mean brand new. Elder Haskell and i have the job of opening a brand new area called "Ponce 5". There spliting one of the Areas here up so we get to go find a new house and start a new Area from nothing. Right now we're living with 2 othere Elders, Elder Martinez from the DR and Elder Powell from Oregon. Its a pretty big job for a brand new greeny to get to try and help his companion open a brand new area from scratch, but i think i'm up for it.
My 1st time "toking" was a good experience though. Toking is what they call tracking here in Puerto Rico. people usually have gates around their homes and i guess its rude to walk in so we stand out side and have to yell to get them to come out. Yeah i thought it was a little wierd too. Its not to bad though. As we were going we talked to this one man that was Catholic and he was interested in hearing our message but wouldnt really except anything we said. I know he could feel the spirit touch him because he was standing there moving around a lot and i just seemed like he was trying to find out what it was he was feeling. We started to talk about the trinity and my Companion shared some scriptures from the Bible and explained how God, Christ, and the HG are three different personages. We pretty much gave him the 1st lesson and i was able to recite the 1st vision to him. That was a great experience and felt so good. We eventualy had to leave and asked him to pray about the things we had talked about. I sure hope he does.
Saturday was a really special day because it was conference! How lucky am i to get out here in the field on conference weekend. Anyway we all went to the Chapel to watch Conference and unfortunitly the power to the Chapel wasn't working and we missed almost the entire first session. They finaly got it to work right before the last talk by Elder Utchdorf on Hope. I was sure glad i got to watch that talk because i felt like that talk was specificly for me. Learning a language isnt the easiest thing to do and i learned that i must have a hope in order to learn Spanish...After conference we had a BBQ with all the missionaries that are in our zone at our Apartment inbetween the conference sessions. It was good to get to know all the Missionaries. One of the Elders out here is playing Baseball at BYU when he gets back home. His name is Elder Wells. Small world huh? We talked for a while about baseball and just everything. He's a really cool guy and has been out here for a year about. He's an outfielder. After the afternoon session was over Elder Martinez had a Baptism for a boy named Ricardo. He's 14 and likes to play baseball. He's good kid and i was actually able to be the witness for his Baptizm! I felt way honord to be able to be one of his witness. Missionary work is great!The natives here speak really fast and are hard to understand but give me a couple of years and i'll get it. Well thats all thats coming to my mind that happend here in my first week on my mission thats worthy of telling. For the most part i felt out of place and didnt know a thing i was doing, but i'm still alive. And what doesnt kill you only makes you stronger right? So i guess you can just say that i'm a little more stronger now.
So whats going on Back home?
My address here is:
Puerto Rico San Juan West Mission
Urb. Jardines de Caparra
500 Calle Marginal Norte
Bayamón, PR 009559
All the letters are just sent to that address and then they bring them to us, so that will be my address for the rest of my mission. I'd love to read Your É-mails to so thank you all and God Bless!
Elder Lopez
My date to come home is Aug. 5th 2010. Yup you can start the count down....Actually it would probably be best if you didnt. Anyway my first day in Puerto Rico i stayed at the Mission Presidents house and had a real nice dinner over there. Their house was really nice and i could see myself living in one like it here Puerto Rico when i grow old. Its so beautiful here! The only down side is that its way humid here and you sweat no matter where you are. Anyway my one day at the Presidents house had to come to an end and then i got thrown around like a little child i felt like. We drove to one of the Chapels and all the Missionaries were there, except for the ones down in the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonier, and Curaco). I met my new companion there. His name is Elder Haskell from west Jordan Utah. He knows his spanish pretty good and he's a fun companion to be with at least so far. We'll see how it goes as time goes on. Once i got my new companion we got a new area too. When i say new I mean brand new. Elder Haskell and i have the job of opening a brand new area called "Ponce 5". There spliting one of the Areas here up so we get to go find a new house and start a new Area from nothing. Right now we're living with 2 othere Elders, Elder Martinez from the DR and Elder Powell from Oregon. Its a pretty big job for a brand new greeny to get to try and help his companion open a brand new area from scratch, but i think i'm up for it.
My 1st time "toking" was a good experience though. Toking is what they call tracking here in Puerto Rico. people usually have gates around their homes and i guess its rude to walk in so we stand out side and have to yell to get them to come out. Yeah i thought it was a little wierd too. Its not to bad though. As we were going we talked to this one man that was Catholic and he was interested in hearing our message but wouldnt really except anything we said. I know he could feel the spirit touch him because he was standing there moving around a lot and i just seemed like he was trying to find out what it was he was feeling. We started to talk about the trinity and my Companion shared some scriptures from the Bible and explained how God, Christ, and the HG are three different personages. We pretty much gave him the 1st lesson and i was able to recite the 1st vision to him. That was a great experience and felt so good. We eventualy had to leave and asked him to pray about the things we had talked about. I sure hope he does.
Saturday was a really special day because it was conference! How lucky am i to get out here in the field on conference weekend. Anyway we all went to the Chapel to watch Conference and unfortunitly the power to the Chapel wasn't working and we missed almost the entire first session. They finaly got it to work right before the last talk by Elder Utchdorf on Hope. I was sure glad i got to watch that talk because i felt like that talk was specificly for me. Learning a language isnt the easiest thing to do and i learned that i must have a hope in order to learn Spanish...After conference we had a BBQ with all the missionaries that are in our zone at our Apartment inbetween the conference sessions. It was good to get to know all the Missionaries. One of the Elders out here is playing Baseball at BYU when he gets back home. His name is Elder Wells. Small world huh? We talked for a while about baseball and just everything. He's a really cool guy and has been out here for a year about. He's an outfielder. After the afternoon session was over Elder Martinez had a Baptism for a boy named Ricardo. He's 14 and likes to play baseball. He's good kid and i was actually able to be the witness for his Baptizm! I felt way honord to be able to be one of his witness. Missionary work is great!The natives here speak really fast and are hard to understand but give me a couple of years and i'll get it. Well thats all thats coming to my mind that happend here in my first week on my mission thats worthy of telling. For the most part i felt out of place and didnt know a thing i was doing, but i'm still alive. And what doesnt kill you only makes you stronger right? So i guess you can just say that i'm a little more stronger now.
So whats going on Back home?
My address here is:
Puerto Rico San Juan West Mission
Urb. Jardines de Caparra
500 Calle Marginal Norte
Bayamón, PR 009559
All the letters are just sent to that address and then they bring them to us, so that will be my address for the rest of my mission. I'd love to read Your É-mails to so thank you all and God Bless!
Elder Lopez
Friday, October 3, 2008
Puerto Rico Missionaries
Bienvenidos a Puerto Rico,
Gracias por sus misioneros. Ellos son misioneros buenos. Esta es lamision mejor. Todos son animados y felices.
Thank you for your missionaries. They are good missionaries. This isthe best mission. They are all excited and happy.
Con amor,
Hna. Martineau
You have been sent two pictures.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Puerto Rico, here comes Elder Lopez!
We'll i'm here in paradise aka "Puerto Rico"! I made it safe and sound and the plane that we took was one of those little planes with the propelers on the wings and you have to walk out on the run way because the planes not big enough to reach the little tunnel thingy...
Anyway my Mission President and his Wife Hermana Martineau are great. I feel like i'm just at home with them. Their spoiling us with some great food at their house but in the morining i'm going to have to fend for myself out in the El Campo,(the mission field).
Well i just got time enough to e-mail you this and let you know all is well. Oh yeah and my p-day is on mondays and my mailing address for my whole mission is:
Elder Bret Lopez
Puerto Rico San Juan West Mission
Urb. Jardines de Caparra
500 Calle Marginal Norte
Bayamon, PR 00959
I love you all!
Elder Lopez
Anyway my Mission President and his Wife Hermana Martineau are great. I feel like i'm just at home with them. Their spoiling us with some great food at their house but in the morining i'm going to have to fend for myself out in the El Campo,(the mission field).
Well i just got time enough to e-mail you this and let you know all is well. Oh yeah and my p-day is on mondays and my mailing address for my whole mission is:
Elder Bret Lopez
Puerto Rico San Juan West Mission
Urb. Jardines de Caparra
500 Calle Marginal Norte
Bayamon, PR 00959
I love you all!
Elder Lopez
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Last week in the CCM (email dated 09/25/2008)
Well this is going to be my last email from the CCM. I cant believe my time is done here and now i get to go out into the world and preach the Gospel to the people of Puerto Rico! Its going to be such a great experience for the next two years. I'm really feeling ansy to be able to get out of this place... I mean dont get me wrong i love the people here and all the teachers are great! But being in one building and and only using one floor of that building for six weeks is starting to get to me. i want to get out there into the world and walk around. At least on Mondays here they'd give us a little taste of what the outside world is like by letting us go to the University.
This week was our last week going to the University actually, because next week we'll be getting ready to leave for tuesday morning. The proselyting went really well though, and we ended on our best time yet. We just went this time and bore short but sincere testimonies to as many people as we could. It went way good, we actually were able to talk to 35 people and recieved 35 phone numbers. Yeah i was shocked when we got back to the class room and started to count up our numbers. It really didnt even seem like we did that much. The best part about it was that when we were leaving to go back to the CCM we ran into one of the guys that we had talked to the previews week! He rocognized us and was excited to see us. He wanted to meet with us agian next week but we're going to be gone, but he gave us his number again anyway. Latter that day i talked to one of my teachers here Hermano Mediovilla and he said he'd give him a call for us since we're not going to be here. I felt good about the whole thing and know he's in good hands with Hermano Mediovilla. I pray that all goes well with him and he's able to recieve the gospel!
This sunday we were able to watch a movie for our fireside. We watched the Testament which is a great movie! There was a part that i actually had to cover my companions eyes because the kiss for one second. Yeah i know i'm a good comp. just looking out for his best interest. We dont need to bother looking or even thinking of that stuff our here on the Lords time.
Anyway not much else happened this week. Just the usual sit in class try and learn/speak spanish. The spanish is actually getting a little bit better. I'm still about 4 or 5 months away from being able to have a good conversation with anyone but its coming none the less. Some things just take time...
So How's everyting back home? I love getting all your emails and letters. Ryan i was happy to read that your still palying ball and crushing Bombs on High School size fields. By the time i get home your going to have teach me how to hit again. Cory i hear your just bulldozing through kids in football. You might have to start taking it easy on them a little.( on 2nd thought, no dont do that. Keep it up!). Jessi you need to keep an eye on your two brothers and keep them in line k! Skyler i hear your doing great at football too. Keep up the hard work buddy. Sierra & Brooklyn I hear you 2 are dancing now. I miss dancing with you two and Jessi to the High School Musical CD. Its alright though time will fly by and we'll be back to dancing before to long. I hope your taking good care of your little sister Kelly too. And Andrew I hope your taking good care of your little sister, Hayle down in ST. George! I love you bud, and dont beat to many kids in games at P.E. ok. We'll I'm running out of time so i got to sign off... I love you all and thank you all for your emails!!!!! Next time i write it will be from the Beautifull Island of Puerto Rico!!!
With Love,
Elder Lopez
This week was our last week going to the University actually, because next week we'll be getting ready to leave for tuesday morning. The proselyting went really well though, and we ended on our best time yet. We just went this time and bore short but sincere testimonies to as many people as we could. It went way good, we actually were able to talk to 35 people and recieved 35 phone numbers. Yeah i was shocked when we got back to the class room and started to count up our numbers. It really didnt even seem like we did that much. The best part about it was that when we were leaving to go back to the CCM we ran into one of the guys that we had talked to the previews week! He rocognized us and was excited to see us. He wanted to meet with us agian next week but we're going to be gone, but he gave us his number again anyway. Latter that day i talked to one of my teachers here Hermano Mediovilla and he said he'd give him a call for us since we're not going to be here. I felt good about the whole thing and know he's in good hands with Hermano Mediovilla. I pray that all goes well with him and he's able to recieve the gospel!
This sunday we were able to watch a movie for our fireside. We watched the Testament which is a great movie! There was a part that i actually had to cover my companions eyes because the kiss for one second. Yeah i know i'm a good comp. just looking out for his best interest. We dont need to bother looking or even thinking of that stuff our here on the Lords time.
Anyway not much else happened this week. Just the usual sit in class try and learn/speak spanish. The spanish is actually getting a little bit better. I'm still about 4 or 5 months away from being able to have a good conversation with anyone but its coming none the less. Some things just take time...
So How's everyting back home? I love getting all your emails and letters. Ryan i was happy to read that your still palying ball and crushing Bombs on High School size fields. By the time i get home your going to have teach me how to hit again. Cory i hear your just bulldozing through kids in football. You might have to start taking it easy on them a little.( on 2nd thought, no dont do that. Keep it up!). Jessi you need to keep an eye on your two brothers and keep them in line k! Skyler i hear your doing great at football too. Keep up the hard work buddy. Sierra & Brooklyn I hear you 2 are dancing now. I miss dancing with you two and Jessi to the High School Musical CD. Its alright though time will fly by and we'll be back to dancing before to long. I hope your taking good care of your little sister Kelly too. And Andrew I hope your taking good care of your little sister, Hayle down in ST. George! I love you bud, and dont beat to many kids in games at P.E. ok. We'll I'm running out of time so i got to sign off... I love you all and thank you all for your emails!!!!! Next time i write it will be from the Beautifull Island of Puerto Rico!!!
With Love,
Elder Lopez
Monday, September 22, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
And the work goes on (email dated 09/18/2008)
All in all it was a good week. But honostly when isn't there a good week out here in the mission field. Elder Sellers wanted to get up at 5:50 am to read our e-mails so right now back home its about 4 in the morning. Mom i bet your up, but as for everyone else i'm sure your sound asleep.
The weather here hasent changed one bit. We dont have the trees that change nice pretty colors here, but we do have some really pretty palm trees around the temple grouds. We went on a little walk during one of our breaks around the temple and saw like 50 little lizzards running around. It was pretty neet. I loved to watch them change colors for whatever back ground they were in.
Anyway we get to go to the Temple today which i'm way stoked for! the Temple is like a fresh breath of air every time we get to go. This week i was able to play catch during gym for a little with one of the Elders here. He's from North Carolina and brought his glove. i think i might have told you a little about it in my last letter. It felt really good to get out there and to throw the ball around for a bit. The arm feels good. at least it did for the little bit i threw. Mostly for Gym i either play basketball which is fun. the only down part is with all the humididy outside i have to go in and shower after cuz i sweat so much. Its all good though its a good work out. I'm still the same size and weight as when i came in. We'll have to see how that keeps up for the rest of these two years.
We got a new hermana in our district this week, actually two. One of them just flew in from the states last night. she only had a week in the states before she had to come out here becaust Hermana Etwaroo came straight here to the DR MTC because here country Guyana wasnt gettting any visas to go to the US. She's been having a rough week especially because she just got thrown into a country were she doesnt really understand anything thats going on. It will be good that she has a companion thats in the same boat as here now.
Last saturday and monday we were able to go to the University to prosolyte. Its getting better every time we go. When we went on Saturday i just decided i was going to talk with as many people as possible and we were able to get 34 contacts and 26 referals. Thats by far the best we had ever done. We would just go up to anyone and everyone. there was this one time when there was a group of like 5 or 6 people and one of them was looking at us so i just went up and starting talking t o her and we ended up just talking with them all at once. it was great.
We went again to the Universtiy on monday and we didnt get as many references but thats because when we would talk to people it was for a long time. We ran into this one member with all of her friends. We introduced ourselves and found out that they all were learning English. so they wanted to talk with us in english. That was pretty neet but we decided to make a deal with them. I told them we'd work on our spanish with them and they could work on our English with us. so thats what we did. It Went so good. We gave them our little message on one of the comandment to read the scriptures and to always be obediant to the lords will and stuff and they were all interested. it was a dream come true and then we just let them ask there questions in English as best they could, it was great. We were able to answer all there questions. We both bore testimony to them in Spanish and in English, we even had the one member t hat was there bear here testimony to them in english. It was great! I Was on cloud 9 the whole time! I could feel the spirit and i knew they could to. As we were teaching like 2 or 3 other people came to listen to us and hear what we had to say and aked questions. After about 20 or 30 min we gave them all commitment to go to church this sunday with there friend that was a member. I hope at least one of them goes. We gave them all little pamphlets about the church and got all there numbers for the missionary's! It was a great experience.
On Tuesday we had a General Authority come and speak with us who's name was Elder Johnson from the Seventy. It was really good. the only down part is that it was all in Spanish... Its alright though i'll get used to it on the Lords time. I was actually happy with all that i could understand. For the most part it was just the natives that were involved in the lesson but i think i followed pretty well for only haveing been learning this language for a month and half. So that was really good and i got some good notes on how to become a better missionary. we were able to watch the Joseph Smith movie to which is a definate tear jurker... I love that movie and the spirit is so strong when we watch it.
Well my time is winding down so remember i Love all of you back home!
And to answer Skyler, Sierra, and Brooklyn's questions. I'm in the Dominican Republic right now learning how to speak Spanish. I'm teaching people in Spanish about the Church. I wont be back for a couple of years but thats alright cuz the time will fly by. Just remember i love you all and think about you and pray for you every night! I love you guys!
With LOVE, Elder Lopez
PS. Mom and Dad, behaive yourselves on your little trip to San Diego!
The weather here hasent changed one bit. We dont have the trees that change nice pretty colors here, but we do have some really pretty palm trees around the temple grouds. We went on a little walk during one of our breaks around the temple and saw like 50 little lizzards running around. It was pretty neet. I loved to watch them change colors for whatever back ground they were in.
Anyway we get to go to the Temple today which i'm way stoked for! the Temple is like a fresh breath of air every time we get to go. This week i was able to play catch during gym for a little with one of the Elders here. He's from North Carolina and brought his glove. i think i might have told you a little about it in my last letter. It felt really good to get out there and to throw the ball around for a bit. The arm feels good. at least it did for the little bit i threw. Mostly for Gym i either play basketball which is fun. the only down part is with all the humididy outside i have to go in and shower after cuz i sweat so much. Its all good though its a good work out. I'm still the same size and weight as when i came in. We'll have to see how that keeps up for the rest of these two years.
We got a new hermana in our district this week, actually two. One of them just flew in from the states last night. she only had a week in the states before she had to come out here becaust Hermana Etwaroo came straight here to the DR MTC because here country Guyana wasnt gettting any visas to go to the US. She's been having a rough week especially because she just got thrown into a country were she doesnt really understand anything thats going on. It will be good that she has a companion thats in the same boat as here now.
Last saturday and monday we were able to go to the University to prosolyte. Its getting better every time we go. When we went on Saturday i just decided i was going to talk with as many people as possible and we were able to get 34 contacts and 26 referals. Thats by far the best we had ever done. We would just go up to anyone and everyone. there was this one time when there was a group of like 5 or 6 people and one of them was looking at us so i just went up and starting talking t o her and we ended up just talking with them all at once. it was great.
We went again to the Universtiy on monday and we didnt get as many references but thats because when we would talk to people it was for a long time. We ran into this one member with all of her friends. We introduced ourselves and found out that they all were learning English. so they wanted to talk with us in english. That was pretty neet but we decided to make a deal with them. I told them we'd work on our spanish with them and they could work on our English with us. so thats what we did. It Went so good. We gave them our little message on one of the comandment to read the scriptures and to always be obediant to the lords will and stuff and they were all interested. it was a dream come true and then we just let them ask there questions in English as best they could, it was great. We were able to answer all there questions. We both bore testimony to them in Spanish and in English, we even had the one member t hat was there bear here testimony to them in english. It was great! I Was on cloud 9 the whole time! I could feel the spirit and i knew they could to. As we were teaching like 2 or 3 other people came to listen to us and hear what we had to say and aked questions. After about 20 or 30 min we gave them all commitment to go to church this sunday with there friend that was a member. I hope at least one of them goes. We gave them all little pamphlets about the church and got all there numbers for the missionary's! It was a great experience.
On Tuesday we had a General Authority come and speak with us who's name was Elder Johnson from the Seventy. It was really good. the only down part is that it was all in Spanish... Its alright though i'll get used to it on the Lords time. I was actually happy with all that i could understand. For the most part it was just the natives that were involved in the lesson but i think i followed pretty well for only haveing been learning this language for a month and half. So that was really good and i got some good notes on how to become a better missionary. we were able to watch the Joseph Smith movie to which is a definate tear jurker... I love that movie and the spirit is so strong when we watch it.
Well my time is winding down so remember i Love all of you back home!
And to answer Skyler, Sierra, and Brooklyn's questions. I'm in the Dominican Republic right now learning how to speak Spanish. I'm teaching people in Spanish about the Church. I wont be back for a couple of years but thats alright cuz the time will fly by. Just remember i love you all and think about you and pray for you every night! I love you guys!
With LOVE, Elder Lopez
PS. Mom and Dad, behaive yourselves on your little trip to San Diego!
Monday, September 15, 2008
Pictures from the SLC airport
I just got these fun pictures from Bret's Aunt Francie! These pictures are when Bret coincidentally ran into his brother-in-law, cousins, and his Aunt Francie at the SLC airport- on his way to the Dominican Republic MTC. Enjoy!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Another week down (email dated 09/11/2008)
Another week down here in the CCM. It was that much of an exciting week, just a lot of sitting in clase and eating and then sitting in clase some more. Lets get the fist thing taking care of first, Happy Birthday Mark and Lachelle, (i know Lachelle's was awhile back so i apologize). I'm alittle jelouse of that cake you got mark. It looked pretty scrumpshis... the strawberries looked heavenly!
Any way Dad you need to get the blue tooth instaled in my car so you dont have to bother with the phone next time and can be aware of things around you.... Ha i love you Pops!
It was pretty neet to be ablet to see pic's from back home that mark sent. I was lucky enough that the computer i'm using let me look at the pic's. I got my first letter from dad this week. it was from aug 24. i believe is the date that you sent it. It was good to be able to read a letter again.
The weather here hasent changed it still rains every day. but now its starting to thunder and lightening. Its actually really sweet to just sit and watched the rain and lightening at night time. This past sunday we ate ice cream out under the canopy before we had to go back to our rooms for the night and just watched the lightening light up the entire sky! the thunder afterwards was pretty cool to, it was a rolling thunder for sure. the thunder would last for like a whole min. it seemed like.
I went to the distribution center here to see if i could get some new G's except they didn't have the kind i wanted so Mom if you could get me some dirlux garmets when i go over to Puerto rico and send them there it would be great!!! oh yeah and i left those bottoms that i wore for baseball games in my room if you could send those that would be great too. also with the garments on the tops if you could get some crew necks and some low necks that would be cool i want to try some of the low ones for a change.
Well i only have 3 more weeks here in the CCM and than there throwing us out. i got to get my butt in to gear it seems like. theres still so much more i want to know before i leave this place. Yesterday night we got some new roomates from Nicoragua and El Salvador. Yup you guessed it they only speak spanish. they seem like really good Elders. the speaking with each other its sort of limited right know though. Their both going to San Juan West with me though. Their names are Elder Bladon and Elder Rivera.
Since we werent able to go to the University this past week cuz the rain we did a lot of staying in side. I got to play a lot of ping pong though! I finally played Hermano Ruiz who was supposed to be way good, but i beat him 21 to 14, he wants a rematch and i told him i'd love another game. Anyway i found another Elder down here who plays baseball and brought his glove with him. We decided we're going to go out and play catch today! i'm so stoked for that! Its been forever since i've thrown a real baseball!
I got a Dear Elder from Anderw and Steph. and want to say thanks for that. I Even got an E-mail from Trudy! ha i loved reading about Brooklyn, shes so cute! Thanks for that! and the Halford Fam. i love to read your emails too! I'm lucky to have the best Family and Best 2ND Family in the entire World!!!!!Oh yeah one more thing Skyler Halford behave yourself up there at Utah State.... I got eyes and ears all over the place... Well i only have 2 min left so i got to rap it up! Remember i know with all my heart that this church is true and i love this work, especially when i finally learn the language.Much Love and until next week ,God Bless
Love Elder Lopez
Any way Dad you need to get the blue tooth instaled in my car so you dont have to bother with the phone next time and can be aware of things around you.... Ha i love you Pops!
It was pretty neet to be ablet to see pic's from back home that mark sent. I was lucky enough that the computer i'm using let me look at the pic's. I got my first letter from dad this week. it was from aug 24. i believe is the date that you sent it. It was good to be able to read a letter again.
The weather here hasent changed it still rains every day. but now its starting to thunder and lightening. Its actually really sweet to just sit and watched the rain and lightening at night time. This past sunday we ate ice cream out under the canopy before we had to go back to our rooms for the night and just watched the lightening light up the entire sky! the thunder afterwards was pretty cool to, it was a rolling thunder for sure. the thunder would last for like a whole min. it seemed like.
I went to the distribution center here to see if i could get some new G's except they didn't have the kind i wanted so Mom if you could get me some dirlux garmets when i go over to Puerto rico and send them there it would be great!!! oh yeah and i left those bottoms that i wore for baseball games in my room if you could send those that would be great too. also with the garments on the tops if you could get some crew necks and some low necks that would be cool i want to try some of the low ones for a change.
Well i only have 3 more weeks here in the CCM and than there throwing us out. i got to get my butt in to gear it seems like. theres still so much more i want to know before i leave this place. Yesterday night we got some new roomates from Nicoragua and El Salvador. Yup you guessed it they only speak spanish. they seem like really good Elders. the speaking with each other its sort of limited right know though. Their both going to San Juan West with me though. Their names are Elder Bladon and Elder Rivera.
Since we werent able to go to the University this past week cuz the rain we did a lot of staying in side. I got to play a lot of ping pong though! I finally played Hermano Ruiz who was supposed to be way good, but i beat him 21 to 14, he wants a rematch and i told him i'd love another game. Anyway i found another Elder down here who plays baseball and brought his glove with him. We decided we're going to go out and play catch today! i'm so stoked for that! Its been forever since i've thrown a real baseball!
I got a Dear Elder from Anderw and Steph. and want to say thanks for that. I Even got an E-mail from Trudy! ha i loved reading about Brooklyn, shes so cute! Thanks for that! and the Halford Fam. i love to read your emails too! I'm lucky to have the best Family and Best 2ND Family in the entire World!!!!!Oh yeah one more thing Skyler Halford behave yourself up there at Utah State.... I got eyes and ears all over the place... Well i only have 2 min left so i got to rap it up! Remember i know with all my heart that this church is true and i love this work, especially when i finally learn the language.Much Love and until next week ,God Bless
Love Elder Lopez
Thursday, September 4, 2008
New pictures
Here are some new pictures, complete w/captions, Bret sent me. Enjoy!
It was a long trip to the DR
Elder Carter and me back in Provo. (He plays baseball too!)
Whooping up on another mish with my light-saber
My old district back in Provo
My Missionary name tag
It was a long trip to the DR
Playing some good old ping pong
Me and my comp looking good at the museum
A pic of me holding out the Book of Mormon for the whole world to see
The Picture of the 6 is my new district here in The DR and the temple in the background
The Picture with just the four is me, Elder Sellers, Slade and Twitchell. We're all going to Puerto Rico.
-
Our MTC here in the DR. We only use the top floor.
The DR...what a place! (email dated 09/04/2008)
Well another day down. Its a pretty crazy place out here in the DR. The weather is sort of on and off. It was really nice for most of the week and then all of the sudden it got way windy and rainny. Dont worry though its not a Hurricane though. I hurd that Haiti got hit pretty bad by a hurricane though but it was on the north side of the island and i'm down on the south. Its wierd to me how it can be poring rain and way windy and yet when i walk out side its way hot and i can just feel the humidity.
Thanks so much for the emails. the Emails are all i'm getting right now. i still haven't recieved one actual letter here yet. Sorry mom, but the scanning dads letters in didnt work, i cant open them on these computers here in the lab. It was a good thought though. looks like dad just needs to learn how to type good finaly. ha how's he doing in keeping up with little andrew?
Anyway, its official now, i've been out on my mission for over a month. Ha i know its not much of a mark but it seems like a mile stone to me right now. i cant believe i havent seen anyone for over a month now. (Except for at the airport.. ha what are the chances i'd run into cousins a brother in law and my aunt)
We were able to go to the University here which is only a couple of blocks a way. Its nice to get out of this compound every once and a while and see the out side world. In here all our classes are on the top floor and all our rooms are on the top floor. I cant remember if i told you that its just me and Elder Sellers in a room right now and then in a couple of weeks the Natives come in and we get two natives that will room with us. I hope that helps with the spanish. Anyway back to the University. We were able to go twice this week. It was a little scary to know that i was going to actually be prosolyting to real people out in the street. We walked the couple of blocks over to the University and than they sent us loose to go and preach the good word. The first day we went which was last satruday we just had to get up the courage to talk to people which we did. i was the one that usually would stop people and start up the the conversation and than they would start talking and things would go down hill from there. they talk super fast here i decided. Anyway the day went on and we were able to talk with 11 people and get 7 addresses. I thought that was a way good number and was stoked about it. But than we got back to clase and Hermano Orozco was like thats nothing you can do better. So we went again on the next Monday and we were determind to do better. this time we were able to talk with people longer, sort of. Luckly for the most part all the people here are way friendly. they love to talk! On Monday we were able to up out numbers in the prosolyting stats.. hah we got 23 contacts and 12 addresses which was a lot better than the first time we went. (Hey dad that over .500) Any way on Monday we sat down and talked with this guy that was catholic and his brother was a member of our church i guess. He was way friendly and helped us out with our spanish and we tried to answer his questions the best we could. Its was a way good experience. He asked us about our temple and how not every one is aloud to go into it. Then he said how back in the Christ day everyone was aloud in the Temple which isnt true.( I didnt know that ) But than my Genius comp new that wasnt true and it was actually on Jews that were aloud in the temple in christs day. anyway the conversation went really well because he spoke a little bit of english and we challenged him to read 3 Nephi 11. it was really good and i hope he does read that chapter and prays about it like i told him to. When we were walking back to the compound i was so pumped cuz we actually talked to real people in spanish for the most part...
oh yeah and just to let you know my Boy Sky up at Utah State, they have a ping-pong table here and i have yet to lose... I'm still looking forward to recieving that first letter maybe it will come this week...Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elder Lopez
Thanks so much for the emails. the Emails are all i'm getting right now. i still haven't recieved one actual letter here yet. Sorry mom, but the scanning dads letters in didnt work, i cant open them on these computers here in the lab. It was a good thought though. looks like dad just needs to learn how to type good finaly. ha how's he doing in keeping up with little andrew?
Anyway, its official now, i've been out on my mission for over a month. Ha i know its not much of a mark but it seems like a mile stone to me right now. i cant believe i havent seen anyone for over a month now. (Except for at the airport.. ha what are the chances i'd run into cousins a brother in law and my aunt)
We were able to go to the University here which is only a couple of blocks a way. Its nice to get out of this compound every once and a while and see the out side world. In here all our classes are on the top floor and all our rooms are on the top floor. I cant remember if i told you that its just me and Elder Sellers in a room right now and then in a couple of weeks the Natives come in and we get two natives that will room with us. I hope that helps with the spanish. Anyway back to the University. We were able to go twice this week. It was a little scary to know that i was going to actually be prosolyting to real people out in the street. We walked the couple of blocks over to the University and than they sent us loose to go and preach the good word. The first day we went which was last satruday we just had to get up the courage to talk to people which we did. i was the one that usually would stop people and start up the the conversation and than they would start talking and things would go down hill from there. they talk super fast here i decided. Anyway the day went on and we were able to talk with 11 people and get 7 addresses. I thought that was a way good number and was stoked about it. But than we got back to clase and Hermano Orozco was like thats nothing you can do better. So we went again on the next Monday and we were determind to do better. this time we were able to talk with people longer, sort of. Luckly for the most part all the people here are way friendly. they love to talk! On Monday we were able to up out numbers in the prosolyting stats.. hah we got 23 contacts and 12 addresses which was a lot better than the first time we went. (Hey dad that over .500) Any way on Monday we sat down and talked with this guy that was catholic and his brother was a member of our church i guess. He was way friendly and helped us out with our spanish and we tried to answer his questions the best we could. Its was a way good experience. He asked us about our temple and how not every one is aloud to go into it. Then he said how back in the Christ day everyone was aloud in the Temple which isnt true.( I didnt know that ) But than my Genius comp new that wasnt true and it was actually on Jews that were aloud in the temple in christs day. anyway the conversation went really well because he spoke a little bit of english and we challenged him to read 3 Nephi 11. it was really good and i hope he does read that chapter and prays about it like i told him to. When we were walking back to the compound i was so pumped cuz we actually talked to real people in spanish for the most part...
oh yeah and just to let you know my Boy Sky up at Utah State, they have a ping-pong table here and i have yet to lose... I'm still looking forward to recieving that first letter maybe it will come this week...Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elder Lopez
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
