-
Rosanna Thomsen called as Primary Secretary
-
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
-
Girls camp was a blast. The young women are spectacular.
-
Okay this week has been absolutely wild but lots of good!!
☆ got in contact with another person we have been calling for 2 months and they’re getting a Book of Mormon!!
☆got to finally meet someone I’ve been talking to on Facebook for a long time which was so happy!
☆got to go to the temple!!!! We went with Paul and a couple other recent converts and I was able to baptized for his mom, so special!
☆I’m on my way to the temple again for another recent converts’ endowment!!!
☆we helped a returning member (who hasn’t been back since she got baptized in ’96) do family history work and a lot of her relatives work is done! She started crying when she saw that and now she wants to work towards the temple and her husband wants to get baptized!!
There are soo many more miracles I can’t think of but I have 2 minutes to send this
Im leaving Lawrenceburg and I’m devastated!! I’ll be in Smyrna now!
-
Hello friends!! Another amazing week here in Lawrenceburg! Lots and lots of miracles out here. I’m telling yall this is the promised land and if I get transferred next week I’ll be absolutely distraught. I’m just happy I’m having my birthday in this area at least because the members have been so excited about it and I’ve been feeling lots of love!!! And it’ll be my only birthday on my mission so I’m happy it’s going to be in the greatest place in the world!!!
☆lots of progress with unbaptized children of record!! 2 preparing to be baptized in the next couple weeks!!
☆we spent months and months preparing for this ward fireside and ALL DAY it was pouring rain with predicted 30mph winds all night. The place we were having it at was only partially covered so that combo would not have been good. BUT we moved forward with faith and prayed very very hard that it would work out. And it did!! The second people started showing up the rain went away!!! The event went so much better than planned and was a blast for everyone involved!
☆fireflies????
☆we got back in contact with a part member family that we were teaching very regularly who literally fell off the face of the earth for an entire month! And now we’re helping them with their family history!!
☆had our first ward coordination in over a month and a half, very happy day and very big miracle!
☆exchanges in Columbia!!! I could write a whole letter on this alone but it’s enough to just say it was a miracle. Lots of lessons with people who genuinely want to come closer to Jesus Christ
☆we got a message from a friend we recently started teaching and he went on and on about how excited he is to learn more and how grateful he is that we met him!
☆blessed with lots of 2nd moms here in TN that we could celebrate Mother’s Day with!! And an amazing momma of my own!!
☆lots of people want their own Book of Mormon!! Luckily we’ve got lots
If you haven’t read 3 Nephi lately go do it!!! Reading about Christ’s ministry on this continent is amazing. A part that especially stuck out to me was in 3 Nephi 12, verses 21-48. In this section Christ tells us essentially that he doesn’t want is to just change our actions, He wants us to change our hearts. Not just filter ourselves but purify ourselves. Now that’s a lofty goal but guess what, He doesn’t expect us to do that all instantly!! As a wise missionary once told me, we are like babies trying to use a toothbrush. Have you ever seen a baby try to use a toothbrush? Doesn’t work too well. God will help us to be a little more christlike in this area or that area but we are babies who need some help.
Here is a C.S. Lewis quote I love,
“Christ says, Give me all of you!!! I don’t want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work. I want YOU! ALL OF YOU! …I don’t want to only prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out! … Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart.”
That sounds great right?? God wants all of us! He also works line upon line. He will help us to do that but it can be discouraging when it’s not instant. I’ve had to learn to trust God and give myself credit for the things I’m doing right! God will help you turn your weaknesses into strengths, but this does require some effort on our part. We need to desire it, pray for it, and then work for it. This means reading the scriptures, serving and experiencing some discomfort. Anyway, God loves yall!!! You’re all amazing and huge examples to me!
-
-
It’s been a fun last couple weeks! The 4th was my 6 month mark, that’s crazy. We’ve met lots of people and have been able to see lots of growth with our recent convert friends! Also conference was fantastic!! I tried to pay a lot of attention to the themes throughout the talks and 3 that stuck out to me were 1. Missionary work!!! 2. Avoiding contention/building unity and 3. Continuing conversion. If there were some that stuck out to yall let me know!! I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts. On top of the miracle of conference there were lots of other little miracles!!
☆ got ahold of THREE people within a couple hours that we haven’t been able to get ahold of for weeks
☆ Paul finished the Book of Mormon and is absolutely tearing through the Doctrine and Covenants! He updated us last night that he is on section 82
☆ Miss Georgia hasn’t made it to the full 2 hours of church since she’s been baptized but as we were driving to her house to make sure she was good to go she was pulling out of her driveway! Her granddaughter rolled down the window and said “are yall going to church?? We’ll see you there!” So so happy! AND she came to both sessions of conference on Sunday!
☆ Dave Ruby got baptized on Friday! It was very crazy and a bit stressful to get it set up because of some issues he’s having at home but he’s a legend and it all worked out. We are sooo happy he has the gift of the Holy Ghost now, he really needs it especially right now. Keep him in your prayers!
☆We cold texted into a man who was only willing to talk to us because he was going through a very tough time. We felt very guided by the spirit and were able to be very bold with him. He said he doesn’t know why out of everyone we texted him and knows there’s something God wants him to do but he doesn’t know what it is. Pray for Thomas!
☆We have been teaching my comps friend from home who is dating her brother and it has been such a cool experience to join the lessons over video call!! She just told us yesterday that she decided to get baptized this Saturday!!! And her boyfriend will be able to baptize her a few days before he starts the MTC. Lots of answered prayers
☆I get to stay in Lawrenceburg for another 6 weeks!!
I’m sure there were a million more that I’m not remembering but there a few from the last couple weeks!!! Expect miracles!
This week I was studying from the war chapters! There is so much to learn from them. One thing that I’ve been thinking a lot about as I’ve been going through these chapters is the need to be constantly preparing. Alma 50:1 says “And now it came to pass that Moroni did not stop making preparations for war…” It is no different for us. Satan is constantly attacking us and when he realizes one thing won’t get us he will change strategies to find another way to break down those walls or bring us down from our high ground. Building a stronghold once really is not enough. We aren’t perfect, we’ll never be perfect but that’s why it’s so important for us to continue our conversion for our whole lives. There are things that I struggle with that you may not and I’m sure there are things you all struggle with that I don’t. Satan will do all he can to find those things. He will personally create attacks for you BUT we are so so lucky that Christ also personally helps us create those defenses. He knows us perfectly. He knows that it’s easy for me to forget the small and simple things and he knows it’s easy for me to doubt myself and be tempted to give up. So He helps me. These aren’t things we can do on our own. They really aren’t. But we also aren’t expected to. Turn it over to the Lord and you will see those defenses against Satan strengthen. This is through those small and simple things. If you haven’t been praying, like REALLY praying, then start today. If you haven’t picked up your scriptures in a bit, go get them and ask God what He wants you to learn. If you haven’t served anyone lately go make someone’s bed or send a letter to a friend.
I love you all more than you know!! Keep up the good work and have the best week yet!
P.s. Send me your favorite picture of Jesus!! You can mail it to me or send me an email or if you can find me on Facebook that’ll work too
Edgewood Ward