SLC WEEK 81

 Hola todos!

This week was awesome! Many coming closer to Christ and many things to be excited for!

The bad news.. it's still snowing.. but how? Its spring... this is a long winter

But lots of good news. First we are now marriage councilors. We have 2 weddings in the next coming weeks. Those people from my email last week are getting married! And then baptized!! We are excited for them and their families. It's great to see people aline themselves with the commandments in order to follow God.

We have several people to be baptized in the coming weeks. But one is a large family. We are trying our best to help them all take this step but some of the children are slower to progress. Pray for Keidanas family so they can take this step all together

We also are excited for general conference! We have tickets for the Saturday morning session. But no tickets this year for those we are teaching. 

Our ward has really stepped it up. When we first arrived we didn't have the support really needed for the amount of people God has prepared here. But the ward has finally called ward missionaries and we have multiplied our success. This work is not possible without the members. 

We are still working hard each day and are always looking for new people to teach. The Lord has guided our companionship to those ready for the gospel and my testimony has truly been solidified during my mission.

We went bowling as a district and I bowled a 157 

The work has been flying by and I'm loving it here in this area! I thank you all for your prayers

I hope everyone is doing amazing and has a great week!

Love,

Elder Randall

SLC WEEK 80

Hola todos!

This week was great! Very busy and lots of fun as always. We did take a lot of Ls this week with random and hard concerns

We literally have to marry so many people. We are teaching a lot of families and couples but for whatever reason marriage isn't a thing to them. Like seriously we have to either convince people to get married and then set a marriage date and then they can get baptized.. we have like 5 or 6 different cases of that..

We are teaching someone who already listened to the whole book of mormon but her husband doesn't want to be baptized until he feels 100% sure. The wife won't get baptized without the husband. They just will take a little longer..

Another mom of a little girl we are teaching said she wants to have the baptism with her family there. We said that's awesome! She then said it'll be on May 17th  But it's still a miracle because she had been waiting for parental permission.

On the bright side Steban went to church for the first time since December. He has had a job that hasn't allowed him to go but it was awesome to see him again there.

Pray that we can marry these people 

But overall the weather is a lot nicer and people are happier. This has been a rough winter but it's supposed to rain  next week. 

But the mission is awesome and I'm loving it. General conference is coming up and I'm super excited! Can't wait to see all the Lord has in store for us during this transfer and for these people. 

I hope everyone is doing well!

Love,

Elder Randall 

SLC WEEK 79

Hola todos!

This week has been cold but a lot of fun! We are working hard and have been blessed with many to teach

Lorenzo got baptized! His baptism was pretty crazy.. we were told the font would be filled already and we would just start our baptismal service for Lorenzo after the stake baptisms. We arrived 1 hour early and the font wasn't filled neither was the room set up. We made some calls for some missionaries to help and started filling it with trash cans pots bowls. Then the family arrived and luckily weren't mad. We ended up pushing it back a ½hr and it went well. But it was pretty stressful

Paul and Lia also got baptized! After Lorenzo's we set up for the next service and it went smoothly besides the fact they arrived 15 minutes late haha they couldn't find the church building where we had the service. But it was awesome and they have shown lots of faith meeting with us.

The weather has been crazy this winter. It's still 40⁰ and it keeps snowing. It seems like this winter won't be ending any time soon. This has been the worst one in the past 5 years. So maybe the drought in Utah is over

The people we are teaching are super awesome. We have been blessed with many and it's fun to get to know different cultures and help them progress.

But I'm excited for this transfer! It's a 7 week one and we are ready to keep working hard. It's kinda weird I only have 4 months left. 

But I hope everyone is doing well!

Love,

Elder Randall

SLC WEEK 78

Hola todos!

This week was full of spiritual highs. Sorry it's a longer email but a good one for sure.

An apostle came to our mission! We were all able to meet Elder Ronald A Rasband. You truly feel a difference in them from others. I know he is an apostle of God. 

Temple trip. To prepare for Elder Rasband we were able to go to do endowments at the Draper Temple. It was cool to see the new updates and I could definitely understand the covenants we make there better.

We also were invited to read the whole book of mormon. As I studied through this past month or so, I have been marking all the Doctrine, the words spoken by Christ, his names, and His attributes. It has been cool to see just how much I marked up my book. And it's even crazier that Joseph Smith made it all up. Haha just kidding I know it was an inspired book and written for us today. I know that the Book of Mormon is true.

Our teaching area has been great, we have several families who are starting to progress. One being Steban, he is someone who loves church and God. He has had a job so he couldn't go to church and because of that hasn't been baptized. Our prayers for him were too strong, the whole business he works for shut down  but I have never seen anyone tell us that with such a big smile on their face. And he was able to find a better job allowing him to not work on sunday! We are excited for him.

We have taught Lorenzo who is 9 and he will be baptized on Saturday. He is super cool and the parents are committed to be active again. They have a strong spiritual momentum right now

Paul and Doris are also being baptized. We had set the date with them last week. They have been super excited. They gave us a scare when they said we want to talk to you before you announce our baptism on Sunday to the ward. As I talked with them they said they were about to move to another state this week to find work, but as they talked and prayed they felt they needed to be baptized to have the spirit always with them. Doris started crying and really wants her family from Peru here. But she feels certain in her heart that as she is baptized everything in her life will improve. The spirit was so strong as they put God first in their lives. 

Transfers are this week but we are blessed! Me and my companion Elder Barahona are staying here for a 3rd Transfer together. I'm excited!

Also it's still snowing here 

As I was writing these experiences it made me think of this Quote from our prophet today, Russell M Nelson. Many of these people are ready to put God first no matter what happens in their lives. 

"We often pray that we and the missionaries will be led to those who are prepared to receive the truths of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I wonder, to whom will we be led when we plead to find those who are willing to let God prevail in their lives?"

I thank you all for your prayers for me and those I have taught. I truly see God manifest himself everyday. The mission is an experience never to be forgotten.

Sorry for the long email. I hope everyone is doing amazing!

Love 

Elder Randall