Announcements – Archived

All my notes got deleted so sorry about the trash email. 

This week was the craziest week on my mission by far with all the stuff that has happened 

We had to have and elder stay with us this whole week because a few got in trouble and were waiting for the seventy to decided whether or not they go home. They did some pretty dumb crap. He got news though on Tuesday that he is getting sent home and he will be leaving Friday. He was pretty bummed about it and it hit him that it was actually happening. So yeah we were just forced into this whole mess of stuff and watched him while stuff was being figured out. My Companion was also sick for half the week so it started of trash. Other than that, this week in Mission leadership Council we decided to get rid of Facebook because it is a piece of crap. The mission has found no success through it and all missionaries do is waste time on it so we tossed it. I know some missionaries are going to be pissed they actually have to start working. Conference this weekend was the best. We watched it together as a Zone on saturday and had a potluck of food for everyone. On Sunday we invited people to watch conference and then headed to the church to watch it with missionaries. After the morning session we hopped on the train and headed to downtown salt lake to go watch it in person. It was amazing being able to listen to our living prophet and his apostles testify of our savior Jesus christ. The conference center is freaking massive and the choir is amazing. I hope I can go next year. Easton is Killin it in the Philippines MTC and is getting bloated on rice. He’s gonna come back bulky.

Today we have a zone kickball game so we will see how this uncoordinated zone does.

 In the “Price of Priesthood Power” by the prophe Russell M. Nelson he says: 

I fear that too many have sadly surrendered their agency to the adversary and are saying by their conduct, “I care more about satisfying my own desires than I do about bearing the Savior’s power to bless others.”

We can bless others as we dedicate our lives to let God prevail in our life. He knows what will make us most happy even though it may seem like it’s the opposite. Turn to the savior and we will have that power to bless others everyday 

Elder Willis 

Good morning!

 This week was hard but it ended with some crazy miracles!!  

Tuesday 

What a way to start the week with a trash day. We got ignored, dissed, and cussed at one after another today. We visited some missionaries earlier today to say hi and drop off some goods. We had a family tell us they didn’t want us around anymore and aren’t interested in baptism. It’s always hard when you hear that. We knocked on a lot of doors and even had someone sitting on the porch just straight up ignoring us and pretending we weren’t there. We hit them with a God bless and left. Of course the night ended off with us talking to kids on the street that then started to cuss us out and call us MF’ers. The dude charged the car and we dipped. What a night 

Wednesday 

Today we had exchanges with the AP’s and it went really well. I usually would be a little nervous for these exchanges but I’ve been on one with our mission president so it can’t get any worse. Elder Morse came to Magna with me and we put our friend Gabriel on date to be baptized! He’s an absolute stud and we’re super excited for him. We knocked on some more doors and found some potential new people to teach. We came home and started to pack my bags for our next exchange with one of our district leaders, Elder wanlass. I just went on one with him a few weeks back but it’s time for another. 

Thursday 

I had a solid exchange with Elder Wanlass. We tried to make fried chicken wings together and they ended up raw. So that was a bust. The weirdest dude walked up to ur car and started saying random stuff about veterans and ended up pulling up his shirt to showing us some tunes in his chest for a surgery soon. Great guy. We invited a girl to be baptized on October 15th so that was a great experience we had together. We had some good lessons and ended it off by visiting a guy from the Marshall Islands named Kopepe. He gave us some chicken and rice and we talked about his relationship with God.

Friday 

Today we got our tickets for general conference for the Sunday afternoon session. I’m super excited to be able to go again and I’m glad my family is going Sunday morning because that would of been sketch. We found a new person to teach today and some more potential new people for next week.

Saturday 

We had lunch with some elders at Canes today and talked about some goals we have for our zones, so it was nice to catch up. We had to write some reports today about the exchanges we went on with other missionaries and that took a minute. We knocked a ton of doors today and came up dry which sucked. We went to this apartment complex and talked to the girl that is getting baptized and her friends. Tomorrow they are taking us to some of their friends that aren’t baptized. They are better missionaries than adults 

Sunday

Today made up for the whole week, we put 2 people on date to be baptized that we just met!! We talked to some kids last night and invited them to church and low and behold they showed up to church somehow. I got to watch my brother’s farewell talk today and he did awesome. He’s going to kill it in the phillpines. Another missionary is staying with us tonight because he got in big trouble with President and might get sent home so we will see what happens.

Spiritual thought:

2 Nephi 4:28

“Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul.”

At times we can get easily upset about the little mistakes we make in life. The adversary tries to make us feel worthless but the savior welcomes us with love. Pray for forgiveness and give no attention to the adversary, he will do all he can to take away our joy. 

Elder Willis 

Oii meus amigos!! Tudo bem? Beleza? Well, this week was a pretty good week!! I love Portuguese!! And the people here are just so awesome.  Lots of miracles this week so I don’t wanna keep y’all waiting!! ;)) 

Well to start off, my highlight this week was one of our members has a friend who has a daughter that is going through some struggles and she wanted us to come over and sing to her! It was such a tender experience being there and just being able to sing and bring the spirit into their home.  We all bore our testimonies after and I truly could feel the love that God had for this girl and all I wanted was her to know how much she was valued and loved by her Father in Heaven! It was a feeling I can’t really explain but all I know is that I was overwhelmed with God’s love for one of His daughters!! It was an emotional time for her and her family and it was amazing to minister and serve this beautiful family!!

So, this week we went to one of our recent converts cross country race to support her and be with her family!! So that was fun!! And she had to go race and so she gave us her phone which was the new iPhone 14 cause she wanted us to take videos of her running!! And let’s just say I completely forgot how to use an iPhone HAHAHA! Like we were trying to find the Taskbar and try to take the auto lock off or something and I felt so weird holding an iPhone haha I guess the mission veil got me good haha I can’t remember how to use technology anymore!! But it’s been a while since I held an iPhone so that also was pretty sweet 😂

This week in my studies, I’ve been reading through the New Testament!! And oh boy do I love the New Testament!! We also had zone day this week and one of our prompts for interviews was a favorite miracle we had involving Faith!! And I chose the story of the woman with an issue of blood!! This story has a special place in my heart! I love to imagine just how that woman felt when the Savior says “…be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.” (Luke 8:48)  I love to imagine that very moment in my life every time I repent!! Christ is waiting with open arms ready to forgive us.  He wants us to feel peace and his love!!  And because of his perfect Atonement we all have the opportunity to feel that peace according to our faith!! That is something I’m trying to work on!! No matter how far we think we have strayed there is ALWAYS hope.  He loves us perfectly! And I love being able to share His perfect love with the people here in South Florida!!  I hope you all have a great week and a great Conference weekend!! I love you all!! 

Boa semana!! Tchau tchau!!

Elder Castillo 

Oiii!! What’s up everyone!! I hope you all have had a great week!! This week was really good!! Let’s get right into it!! 

Well to start off this week we tried something that I’ve always wanted to try in this area! We wrote “De onde você é?” on a big board! We went around Aventura mall holding this big sign!! It was so fun.  We actually found a few Brazilian families in the mall!! It was so fun to walk around and just talk to all types of people and their story!! It was so awesome to just meet all different walks of life and talk with them about our purpose as missionaries!! We definitely will be doing this finding activity again and we will switch it up and see what’s effective out here!!

Okay so this week I needed a haircut!! So naturally as a missionary you do what you got to do and get a haircut from a fellow missionary for free haha!! So okay I love this Elder and he will remain unnamed… but he cut my hair before and it looked fine haha!! But this time he did it a little differently… haha he used just straight buzzer on top and on the sides HAHAHA it was so funny because now I look like I’m 5 again haha.  🤣🤣

In my personal studies since I came out to the field, we were given a challenge by our Mission President! It was to read the Book of Mormon highlighting the doctrine of Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the end) and highlighting any reference to Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost!! And I finished it this week!!  I didn’t have some miraculous experience after reading the book, but what I did notice was that my testimony of the Book of Mormon grows more and more everyday!!  My relationship with my Savior is much stronger now than before!! I feel like the more I read the Book of Mormon, the more I get to know who Christ is and His attributes!! He’s such a loving and merciful being and is ALWAYS on our side!! That’s the biggest thing that I’ve taken out of reading the Book of Mormon cover to cover!! Ahh I love it so much!! I know that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God and that he speaks today through the mouth of his Prophets here in the ancient Americas!! The church is true!! Deus é real!! 

I love you all and am thankful for all you do!! I hope you guys have a great week!! 

Tchau tchau!!

Elder Castillo

Good morning! This week was filled with so much success and was a ton of fun. Elder Ellis and I work really well together so I’m excited for this transfer Tuesday 

Today was an awesome day with Elder Ellis. We found a new person to teach right off the bat while walking by the park. We are going back tomorrow. We went to lunch with some elders we haven’t seen in forever so it was good to see the boys. We had some stake meetings tonight with the Spanish elders. Those dudes are Goofy. When your comp and you are one in purpose the spirit is there and that’s something we have seen in one day. 

Wednesday 

We had an awesome day today finding some new people to teach. The girl that we found yesterday, we set her on date to be baptized on October 1st. I’ve been eating a ton with Elder Ellis to try and get big. My Tongan stomach has gone down so God bless. We are getting in shape now

Thursday 

Tony’s was solid. We had our zone leadership meeting that went pretty well. The zone is struggling big time with baptisms so we are really focused on helping missionaries put people on date to be baptized. We have a new group of leadership and I’m excited to see how this next month goes. We have been working hard and having a ton of fun, hope we can turn the zone around.

Friday 

We had a great zone council today and people actually participated for once. We knocked on some apartment doors in the afternoon and found a new person to come back and teach. Elder Ellis and I have seen a ton of success in our area and it’s been awesome to see the work pay off. Our zone is struggling big time right now with baptisms so we have been focusing on helping them invite more people to baptism. Cyprus high school in Magna had a homecoming game so we walked by and talked to some families outside of the game. Cyprus got whooped 45-6.

A dude cussed us out today for saying hi to him. Love to see it 

Saturday 

We had a service today with I swear half the mission at the highschool cleaning up trash. It rained on us too so it was freezing out. A ton of miracles happened today by just being in our area and talking to everyone. We found 2 more new people to teach so we ended off the week with 7. The best part is all of them have been taught about baptism so next week is going to be full of people being invited to be baptized. We got our car washed tonight at this place called ” Quick Quack” and we got some ties from the workers. They have to wear a white shirt and tie so we always say they look like missionaries. Now me and elder Ellis have carwash ties

Sunday 

Today was a good Sabbath because we had 5 of our friends come to church. We walked with one of them to church which was awesome and we had a few more come to some other wards. We found 2 new people to teach today that are super interested in the gospel. This week was weirdly easy and we didn’t even do anything special. The lord works in mysterious ways. We had dinner at a familes house that apparently one of the guys plays pickleball with my uncle Jared. We took a photo and sent it to him. Small world 

Spiritual thought:

D&C 49:7

I, the Lord God, have spoken it; but the hour and the day no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor shall they know until he comes

This time we have on earth is a time to prepare to meet the savior. It’s super easy to procrastinate the day of our repentance but with a world like we have today, we need to hold fast to that iron rod 

Elder Willis 

Oiii meus amigos!! Beleza? Então, this week was pretty good!! Im in a trio now here in Miami Gardens!! So the trio gang is a party!! But I hope you guys are doing well!! I love and miss you all!! 

Well this week was pretty long haha we didn’t have P-day until today because we get to go to the temple!! But we were able to get a lot done this week!! One of my highlights this week was one day we were out and about walking this one path around a mall that Brazilians usually walk.  Throughout all my time here I’ve never been able to meet a Brazilian on this walk or if I did they were never interested.  But we walked this 2 mile walk which took us about an hour to do just because we tried to talk with anyone and everyone! And at the very end of the walk we ran into a Brazilian!! She was super sweet and interested in doing our English class!! So that was sick!!

So one of my comps was a Spanish speaking missionary his whole mission until now and he has about 4 months left! And so he’s been learning the language with me! And we were on a phone call and he understood what she said but just didn’t know how to say what he wanted to in Portuguese and so I whispered to him “Vou mandar seu numero pra eles la na boca raton” which  just means like I’ll send your number to the missionaries in boca!! And he didn’t know what I said and so he just said some gibberish sentence to this Brazilian and she was SOOO confused it was hilarious!! We all had a good laugh because I myself have those moments all the time haha!!

Well, this week I had a pretty cool experience!! Well, it may seem kind of cliche but for some reason it touched my heart more than I can express!! So, we were on our way out the door when I noticed my wallet wasn’t in my bag which I always put it in this one place!! And so I was just irritated because I didn’t know where it was and I wasn’t sure if it fell out or if I lost it! I looked in my room the house and the car and couldn’t find it.  But we had to leave to the chapel for our studies before our lesson.  Right before my personal study in my prayer I was frustrated because I wanted to be able to focus on my studies and feel the spirit and not be so anxious about my wallet.  So, I asked Heavenly Father to at least just help me know where my wallet is. Just to know where it is so I can have peace of mind to focus on my studies! And so, I got up and sat down and began to look through area book to see if something would jog my memory of where I left it.  I glanced and saw “soccer” in area book and instantly remembered that I left it in my soccer bag and which pocket I put it in.  I know, I know it’s very cheesy! Those stories we hear all the time of asking to find something we’ve lost it seems kind of small and not very significant.  But in this instant to me it was more than just my money and cards that I had in my wallet it was the peace of mind knowing where it is so I could focus on the Lord’s work.  And he truly answered my prayer!! I know that prayers work!! Sometimes it takes a very long time to get answers and maybe sometimes it comes a little sooner. I can truly promise and testify that God’s timing is perfect. Whether it takes seconds or years to find answers I know the God ALWAYS answers our prayers!! But I love you all and I hope you guys have a great week!! Até mais meus amigos!! 

Tchau tchau!!

Elder Castillo 

Good morning!!

This week was a tough one lesson wise and just finding the motivation. We’ve for big transfer news so I’m super excited for this next one 

Tuesday 

This has been a long awaited day, when u can finally sleep in my apartment again. The pest control came by and heated up our apartment to 145 degrees they said. I had to take my tech deck skatepark out of there. Can’t risk having my wax rail melted. After they finished we came back and everything was good except it was literally 100 degrees in there. We were in a lesson with a hard core Christian dude that doesn’t plan on joining our church for almost 2 hours. I was pissed my companion was talking for so long because it was a waste of time that we could of put somewhere else. He has managed to do the impossible and make me not talk at all because if I do i get lectured. I’m now an intorvert.

Wednesday 

I’ve never been so grateful to sleep in a bed in my whole life. It was nice waking up without red dots all over my body. We picked up some elders today and went to lunch which was nice. We went to the celestial Cafeteria in Costco and got some pizza and hotdogs. We headed over to the seminary to try and teach some classes in the future and I got flashbacks of highschool. It was a trip being around kids only 1 year younger than me.

Thursday 

Today was a pretty chill day. We had a huge service cutting down these huge weeds as tall as me. We used these golf club looking tools with blades at the end. I was full swinging my 9 iron weapon at these weeds. I randomly discovered I have allergies here and I was a mess today. I sneeze once and I can’t stop for like a minute. I dropped off my brother’s tagalog book of mormon at the usps store today to ship to him. Dudes got to practice.

Friday 

We had a good day today doing transfer predictions in district council. Afterwards we went and ate at Costco of course, they always provide the goods. We had a ton of contacts today and tried to invite everyone to our harvest festival tomorrow. The stake is having a big party tomorrow so we hope to see all our friends there. 

Saturday 

Today we spent a big chunk of it trying to invite more people to the harvest festival at 6 tonight. We had a good turn out and got some nice food. It’s finally starting to get cooler here  and now the highs for next week are in the 70’s. I love Utah weather. Tonight we found our where and who we are spending the next transfer or 6 weeks with. I’m staying here and getting a new companion named Elder Ellis!! I knew him in the mtc and talked with him while riding the train and bus to the mission. He’s a great dude and I’ve always loved being around him and joking around. I’m stoked to see how this next transfer plays out!!

Also I got offerd a ” black and mild cigarette” today. I’ve definitely been offered more cigarettes on the mission than back home. Satan never stops.

Sunday

We gave talks today is church which went really well and it was nice my family got to watch it on live stream. We said goodbye to a lot of people today for elder escamilla. I’m gonna have to be in charge of this area that I barely even know but I think I’m ready for it.

Spiritual thought:

Luke 2:52

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”

I used this scripture in my talk yesterday and it really helped me understand that we really are following the saviors path. He was twelve years old teaching doctors and people at the temple. He grew in wisdom gradually as he grew older. We can do the same as we study and live the gospel. We can be the best member missionaries when we live the gospel instead of just being apart of the gospel.

Elder Willis