Announcements – Archived

The ward pool party was a blast!

Check back here later for pictures from the ward pool party.

Olá todos!!! Man what a week!! I hope everyone is doing well!! 

Well this week was good!! We grinded so that was good!! We were able to have some really good lessons. And one of my favorites was actually a member dinner lesson! Elder Russo and I have been focusing on our teaching unity and we taught the Restoration to them!!  We focused on keeping it simple and the spirit was so strong there!! As I recited the first vision, the power of Joseph Smith’s words just hit me hard!! Oh man I love teaching and testifying about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!!! That was one of my highlights for sure this week!!

So, we were OYMing in Brownsville and let’s just say it’s not the most missionary friendly neighborhood.  But we knocked on this one door and no one answered so we were biking off and this big man comes up to us and yells “What are you guys doing here?!” I said we are just visiting a friend! He goes “Your kind is not welcome here! You preach to other people! Jesus isn’t here for us!” I just said we are here for all!! He proceeds to curse and yell and threaten us and one insult that made me laugh was “Get yo tight pants outta here!!!”  I lost it haha it was too funny!! I just told him have a great day with a smile and he didn’t like that haha!! But what can I say!!  

But my spiritual thought today is from the Come Follow Me last week!!  We were talking about faith and how it was demonstrated in the story of the widow!! And this scripture stood out to me!! It’s James 1:2-4 

“2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

   3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

   4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” 

This stood out to me because for me I know when I pray I ask for more faith and I ask that God can help me build my faith!! And this scripture hit me because we have to be put in difficult situations to build our faith!! Just like anything in life!! If we want to get better at something whether that be sports, working out, or any hobby really!! We have to be put in situations that help us sharpen a weaker skill.  It’s not fun but it is worth it!! I have a testimony of that!! This week my patience really was tried!! But I know that Heavenly Father needs me to learn and improve my weaknesses!! Count it a joy when you have hard days, because that just means you’re growing and sharpening those weaker skills!!! I love you all!! And Happy 4th of July!!!

Tchau tchau!!

Elder Castillo 

Good morning!!

This week was pretty solid, we found some new people to teach and had a ton of service opportunities. My family is staying in Utah 40 minutes away from me which is pretty cool. We have an all day p day today so we are going to the parade in the morning!

Tuesday 

We had a service today carrying boulders and making a dry river bed for this old lady. It started to rain so it made it really nice outside. We went hard today and got 6 lessons which is always nice. Most of it is just talking to people on the street and sharing a message to them. We finally got in contact with this family that was supposed to be baptized last Saturday! They were ghosting us or anything, they just for some reason couldn’t contact us even though they have our number. We moved his baptism but we are glad it’s happening. 

Wednesday

Today we had another service pulling off some vines in a backyard. We got some Cafe Rio afterwards and it was fire. We did our studies and then went to a few lessons. We biked all the way down to overlake which is like a 20 minute bike ride downhill. So uphill sucks. We knocked on an absolute Karen of a lady. She acted like we were stupid and just stared at us. It’s sad seeing her kids so nice and friendly to us and then she just takes her anger for the church out on us. You can tell when someone isn’t happy in life but they just don’t realize we can help with that

Thursday 

It felt like we biked a marathon today. We were up and down main Street all day. We met with a girl that is interested in being baptized so we are super excited for that. We had all our lessons cancel so we went to overlake and knocked on some doors of families with unbaptized children. We had this one lady open the door that was bouncing off the walls with energy and her son kept grabbing my camelbak straw. Not cool. We got barked at today by a teenager. It’s non stop here with people doing stuff to us. It’s hard not to say anything back but I just have to remember I’m elder Willis right now not Tillman Willis.

Friday

We had a solid zone council today with all the missionaries in the Tooele valley. I got a nice package of brownies from grandma and grandpa crandell. By the way, some of the best brownies I’ve ever had. I got a 1 year package from my family so that was sweet of them. We keep having random flaw rain storms so it makes biking around pretty interesting. My bike just has mud all over it.

Saturday 

We had a sold service at Tony’s house today and put all his crap in a trailer. He gave us like 2 foot long otter pops. We went to dinner and had the best hot dogs I’ve ever had. They had cheese in them so they were nice. They had some cool dogs and a boxer that reminded me of Brutus, my grandparents old dog. 

Sunday

Today was a fire fast and testimony week. We gave our testimonies in a couple of wards and I talked about the importance of coming to church. The spirit is strong as we gather together. We contacted a lot of unbaptized children and didn’t have much luck. It’s pretty crazy that tomorrow I will have been set apart as a missionary for a whole year. Time flies 

Spiritual thought:

D&C 6:132

Verily, verily, I say unto you, as I said unto my disciples, where two or three are gathered together in my name, as touching one thing, behold, there will I be in the midst of them—even so am I in the midst of you.

This week we had a training on the importance of inviting those we are teaching to church. As we gather together as a ward family and have that focus on coming closer to christ, we will have the savior by our side. The spirit is so strong as we come together and focus on chirst and his great sacrifice.

Elder Willis