Announcements – Archived

Released:
August 28th
Brad Hatch – Bishop
Jared Arnett – Bishopric 1st Counselor
Myron Dunn – Bishopric 2nd Counselor
Steve Crisp – Ward Clerk
Tobin Rudd – Elders Quorum 1st Counselor
Justin Crewse – Elders Quorum 2nd Counselor
Justin Thomsen – Elders Quorum Secretary

New Callings:
August 28th
Jared Arnett – Bishop
Steve Crisp – 1st counselor in Bishopric
Todd Hildreth – 2nd counselor in Bishopric
Gerry Castillo – Ward Clerk
TC Hogle – Elders Quorum 1st Counselor
Brent Williams – Elders Quorum 2nd Counselor
Curtis Hall – Elders Quorum Secretary

Oiii todos!! What is up!! Here we are another week!! I love you all!! I hope you all had a good week!!! This week was pretty alright!! Let’s jump right into it!! 

This week went by pretty fast!!  We taught Sheila this week which was super awesome!! She wanted to do her family history and I am not a family history expert and neither is Elder Bell but we met with her and started her tree!! It was incredible to see how excited she was to get to know her ancestors better!! We then talked about temples and how we can be sealed to our families for all time and eternity!! As we were teaching her it was just so awesome to testify of the truthfulness and importance of temples.  How sacred and amazing is the Plan of Salvation!! That was definitely a highlight for me this week!!

Well this week was a lot of the find grind haha and unfortunately we didn’t have as much success as we wanted haha but there was one apartment complex that supposedly had a lot of Brazilians but we had no dots there… so we tried cold knocking for like 15 min haha we tried to see if we could tell if there were Brazilians by their window decorations haha!! Let’s just say there was a lot of awkward conversations haha… one dude was not too happy to see us but once we started talking asking if he knew any Brazilians he softened up haha.  Cold knocking is definitely not the move 😂😂

To top it off this week, I have been pondering a lot about how I hear Him!! Our president challenged us to think about how we hear Him.  To me I hear Him in many ways but one way that has impressed my mind lately is my family!! I hear Him through their testimonies and words.  They all have different Christ-like attributes that I lack!! They each strengthen me, the weak parts of me!!  I hear my Savior through each one of them and that is a big part of who I am and where I am today!!  Families truly are a central part of God’s plan!! I’m thankful for my family that Heavenly Father has given me!!! 

I love you all!! Have a great week!!

Tchau tchau!!

Elder Castillo 

Good Morning!! 

This week went by a lot faster and its because of all the crazy things that happened. You never know what will happen in Magna Utah 

For p-day we have the Zone Olympics. We go up against another zone in games and challenges. Not gonna lie my zone is not the most athletic so we will see how this goes 

Tuesday 

So yesterday on p day we were about to go to Walmart and I couldn’t find my bag with my wallet, camera, and book of mormon that I had marked up. We couldn’t find it anywhere, so we checked all the churches we had been to. Last night we had mission prep at the church and that was the last time I saw it. I checked my missionary debit card balance and saw $75 was spent at maverik gas station at 1AM. Someone got into the car and stole all my money and my mission camera. It sucks. I talked to the office and they said I would get all the money back on the card I get in 2 weeks. So I’ll be eating the tuna, eggs, and bread I have for the whole week.

Wednesday

We walked into the park bathroom today and saw two homeless dudes smoking crack on the ground. We still went to the bathroom though. We taught them a lesson about prayer and God’s love for us. Didn’t think we would teach them but it happened. He had a mini blow torch and a crack pipe in his hand so you know he wasn’t playing around. They were scared we were going to call the cops but we aren’t no snitches. It was sad we had to stop teaching a lady because she has dementia and couldn’t remember what we have been teaching her. 

Thursday 

Today was a pretty chill day. We had some meetings and then planned out our training for tomorrow’s zone council. The zone is pretty chill so it should be good. We went to 7/11 for a slurpee and the guy that owns the store gave us a bunch of stuff for free. What a goat. Had some solid lessons today and played some futbol with the Latinos. I’m just chillin being the only white dude out of 30 people. I get to work on my Spanish so that’s been nice.

Friday 

I led my first zone council which went pretty well. The only thing is that our zone doesn’t care when we get up and talk. So when we take 2 hours to prepare a training and they don’t listen I want to smack them upside the head. We have the zone Olympics on p day and I was practicing the shoe toss with an elder and accidentally kicked his shoe on the apartment roof. Hope he got it. I had an exchange with the AP’s and it was awesome!! I was in the South Sudanese area where that the only people they teach. The language barrier is rough but the spirit is strong. Most are speaking Arabic. I loved every second being able to teach in a different culture

Saturday 

We had a solid day with a ton of fun stuff that happened. We went to a member’s home and found out a baby shower was going on. They fed us and we talked to the lady having a baby and she served in the Philippines on her mission. She said she ate balut and it was disgusting. “Balut” is a duck embryo so goodluck eating that easton. We had a big service at the park and served popcorn for an hour while I kept getting grease burns on my arm. 

Sunday

Pretty chill Sabbath day. We had some good sacraments and a ton of meetings. The work is picking up so I’m excited about that. We went to that mission prep again where my stuff got stolen. I guess some people had their windows smashed from last time. We were safe this time.

Spiritual thought:

Mosiah 26:18

“Yea, blessed is this people who are willing to bear my name; for in my name shall they be called; and they are mine”

I was reading in this chapter of mosiah and it talks a lot about Alma and him baptizing many unto repentance. This verse stuck out to me because it made me realize am I doing the best I can to represent christ? The savior taught to feed his sheep and to bring others unto him. The only way we can do that is by being christ like. The more we implement Christ’s attributes in our life the more of an example to others we become. Bear the name of Christ.

Elder Willis

Oiii todos!! Como tá!!? Well here we are yet another week!! I hope everyone is doing well and had an incredible week!! I love you all!! Thank you guys for all you do!! Well let’s dive straight into this week!! 

To start off my Portuguese is coming along!! Speaking not so much but my understanding is getting better every day (not by a ton) but I’ll take what I can get HAHAHAA!! This week was pretty good!! We’ve been grinding out this area and it’s been a party!! My highlight this week we were actually on exchanges and I went to the Miramar Area (English speaking) and we knocked this inactive member dot and we met this guy and his sister! They both served missions and we just got to know them! The guy said that him and his wife haven’t made it to the church and will come back in “due time” which was sad but we started asking them about their missions!! And they just exploded with stories and experiences and how much they loved their missions!! It was a good start to spark their memories and that fire that they had so long ago!! I loved it!!

Something funny this week was we were biking one day and there was a street where all their recycling bins were out on the side walk… and I totally clipped one on my handle of my bike but luckily I stayed upright but it was funny cause right when I hit it a car drove past and totally saw me hit it HAHAHA. And later we biked past her and she asked if I was okay haha I was more so embarrassed than hurt HAHA!!

This week I’ve been focusing a lot on hope!! For some reason I just kind of skimmed through that Christ-like attribute and didn’t really study too much about it!! So this week I read some scriptures that stood out to me!! (2 Nephi 31:20, Roman’s 8:24-25, Moroni 7:45) As I read these scriptures I began to think what exactly is hope? And how can we keep that “perfect brightness of hope”?  To me it came down all to faith!  The first step of the gospel!! Without faith we have no hope!  We can’t have one without the other!!  Then it got me thinking of Helaman 5:12!! We must build our foundation on Christ by doing the little things!! I know that as we strengthen our faith in Christ every day we can have hope for better days. Hope for change. And hope for good things to come!!  I know that was kind of a tangent but I hope it all made sense haha!! I love you all and I hope you guys have a great week!! ❤️❤️

Até mais!! 

Love,

Elder Castillo 

Good morning!!

This has been one of the longer weeks on the mission. Magna is the complete opposite of Tooele. Sister missionaries can’t even serve here because it’s to dangerous I guess. The tap water here is so bad that I’d rather drink hose water from rocky point Mexico and get sick. Magna has a strip club and witchcraft store right by each other so now you can picture what this place is all about.

Tuesday 

Yesterday I moved into the house and slept on the floor with 5 elders in the apartment. Love to see it. Today, my new companion Elder Escamilla and I woke up and did some “Ab Ripper X”. By the way he is 27 years old and should have a family of 4 right now. He’s kind of a robot so we will see how these next 6 weeks go. We helped all the elders move their stuff to the other apartment and I got to see some of the boys. We had a solid lesson and contacted some referrals before some meetings. Finally got to come home and unpack all my stuff. Not a bad day in Magna.

Wednesday 

Today we were at the house for a total of 30 minutes for dinner. I had my new leadership meeting today where they told me the ins and outs of leading a zone. It was ight. We knocked a butt ton of doors today and had a lesson with a lady that talked about her cat for 30 minutes. There was a small thunderstorm today and we expect more this week so I’m pumped for that 

Thursday 

We had transfer interviews today with our mission president and it went pretty good. While our companion is in their interview, the president’s wife takes a walk with us and chats. She is like 6’3 and towering above me with her 5 foot strides. Afterwards we went and bought some elders fizz to get to know them better. We taught a guy from Burundi  Africa and barely knew what we were saying. We played soccer with the Spanish ward and elders. Hardly understood a thing but it was a ton of fun.

Friday 

Today was a chill one. We had district council and the district leader did a jeopardy for the entire district council. This guy. We had Costco food again, it’s really a celestial place. It rained for a bit today during our lesson outside so that was fun. We met with a family and they talked about their unbaptized kid so we are pumped to teach him tomorrow. We also met a lesbian couple that wasn’t to excited to see us. We talked to a crazy dude that told about his wife being in polygamy in the FLDS church. We haven’t had a dinner one time this week because of how packed we are. I still have to get that Tongan area belly off me.

Saturday 

We went to “island grinds”  to eat with some elders. Island grinds is like mokis but 10× better. If you are in Utah you have to get it. We met with some relief society presidents for referrals and then went to a ward BBQ. We got our food and sat next to this scary looking guy on the bench. We talked to him for a bit and found out he wanted us to teach his unbaptized son next week!! Definitely a miracle tonight because we could of sat anywhere else at the bbq.  God is good 

Sunday 

For the last 2 days I’ve drank a whole gallon of water everyday. I was peeing every 10 minutes so I feel bad for my companion but I have to stay healthy. We had like 3 meetings and then a lesson with a kid named Ike. We put him on date to be baptized September 3rd and he is excited to learn more. We went to a mission prep and got to see a ton of youth in the Tongan stake that I used to go teach. They have the youth roleplay which is hilarious. Tonight was my first time having to get all the numbers this week from the zone and send them to the Assistants to the president. It sucked. 

Spiritual thought: 

Instead of a scripture I just wanted to talk about what I learned and felt in one of my personal studies this week. I was in a lesson and realized I wasn’t as familiar with the priesthood as I should be. The next day I studied hard to learn more about it. I recapped about how the priesthood we have here on earth is the same priesthood God used to create this earth and the planets around us. I watched a video on gospel library that showed an 18 year old boy give a blessing to a little kid at football practice that got struck by lighting. I felt the spirit so strongly In that video, because I knew the priesthood was real. 

Having the priesthood gives us authority, but staying Righteous and keeping or covenants gives us power.

Elder Willis