Announcements – Archived

Oiiii meus amigos!! Well a TON has happened this week!! I’ve been transfered to the furthest north area in our mission!! Port Saint Lucie!! Woohoo!! The promised land!! The ward is INCREDIBLE and it’s all suburbs and reminds me of home!! Ahhh I love it out here!! And when I got here we hit the ground sprinting!!! Haha!! 

This week we have been focusing a TON on Member work!! But really pushing getting less active members back.  Not only that, but trying to involve the ward and units in our mission to engage in missionary work!! We have had statistics that we have looked at as a mission that is 80 percent of our baptisms come from member referrals and 20 percent has come from our own finding efforts.  So we’ve been hitting member dots every day and I’ve had the most tender experiences on my mission than I have ever had so far!! We’ve had so many successful contacts with less active members and also one that offered to feed us this week!! The Lord is leading this mission to finding more miracles!! WOOHOO!!

Well, something funny this week is Elder Havell and I were teaching a lesson and I was explaining more about the Book of Mormon and what it is and I literally couldn’t think of the phrase “fulness of the gospel”. I was stuck and just said the phrase in Portuguese haha it was super funny!

So when I got here in the area we had a baptism we had to prepare for that we had on Saturday for our friend Danny! And we shared the Restoration to everyone there. Danny also invited a couple of his friends that were there supporting him! The spirit was so strong. Even though the members there have heard and know the Restoration, the spirit is always so special.  It got me pondering on how lucky we are as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to have a living prophet that is guided and directed by our Savior, Jesus Christ! I love this work. I love learning more about my Savior. And I LOVE being a missionary.  This work is truly the Lord’s work and I am forever grateful for this opportunity that I have to truly bring the world the truth.  I hope you all have a great week!! I love and miss you all!! ❤️❤️

Tchau tchau!! 

Elder Castillo 

This was the busiest week I’ve had on the mission. I felt like an AP and that is a trash feeling no one wants. 

We hiked Brighton canyon all the way to a lake and it was pretty. It was probably the prettiest scenery I’ve wear seen and almost makes me went to live here after the mish.

Tuesday 

We planned for our zone conference training for a couple hours today so we don’t just get up and wing it. We had an awesome choir practice and it’s getting way better. One of the sister missionaries is directing it and is making it sound a lot better. Her name is Sister Tonga and has been on America’s got talent, Ellen, nickelodeon and a ton of crap. Her and her sisters are super good. We gave a blessing to a boy who was having a lot of nightmares recently so we hope he gets better. I was able to do a baptismal interview for an investigator the missionaries were teaching. They even Invited my companion and I to their Polynesian dinner Saturday. Clutch 

Wednesday 

Today was hecka long but really good. We woke up and planned out training for another couple of hours. We had an elder come to the church so he could photoshop some pictures we have in our PowerPoint. Dudes a hacker. We had 3 amazing lessons today with new people we are teaching. Somehow none of them are under 15 so that’s got to be a record for Utah missionaries. We ended the night planning our training until 10pm. I was adding to the PowerPoint while also calling the sister missionaries about a training they are giving Friday. It was a packed day.

Thursday 

We gave our training today at zone conference and it was pretty solid. We went to Walmart right before to pick up some laser pointers to point out things on our presentation and we got candy to throw at people who answered. It definitely helped me to get more out of my comfort zone because it was a 40 minute training that we did for each of the 2 groups there. Tonight we scheduled a lot of baptism stuff and had some elders come over and do a baptismal interview for us. Everytime we come to this apartment its just chaos.

Friday 

We had zone council today and pretty much winged our training because the whole week was spent on our other training. We had dinner with a Tongan family at a Hawaiian girl so it was hecka nice of them. We were in bed at 10:30 and all of a sudden get a call from the Tongan family that his wife needs a blessing. We got permission from president and rushed over. She was on the couch shaking in pain. We gave her a blessing and it was a very spiritual experience. I so baldy wanted her to stop shaking but she kept doing it during the blessing. We hope she gets better 

Saturday 

We had a lesson with a 15 year old boy named Eric and asked him how praying about the book of mormon was. He said it was amazing and that he knew it was true, he prayed and fell asleep and saw christ by his side in a dream saying it was true. We filled the font for Jazzi and Aerielle’s Baptism. Me and elder Ellis got to baptize them and it was the first time I got to on the mission. It was an experience I will always remember. In utah everyone has an uncle or something thats a memwbr so missionaries dont baptize as much. We had Gabriel’s baptism too and it was awesome!! He’s the sweetest kid and they have the best family. He was already dressed at 8am and his baptism was at 5pm, he is a stud

Sunday 

We had a super busy Sunday but it was good. We confirmed jazzi and Aerielle members of the church and gave them the holy ghost. Jazzi is super sassy and likes to act like she doesn’t want the holy ghost and stomped up to the front of sacrament. It was a great look. 

Spiritual thought:

Mormon 9:11

But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the same God that created the world and the same who was over Moses and Abraham. If he loved us in the premortal life then he loves us now and always will. The lord will never forsake us.

Elder Willis 

Oiiii gente!! Tudo bem?? Wow well the transfer has come to an end already!! Holy cow!! Time flies!! Well, this week was SOOO good!! I just love the people here, the culture and the food of course haha!! But I hope y’all had a great week!!! To keep the momentum going let’s hop right into the week!!

Well, this week one of our friends Christian got baptized!!! So amazing!! He is a stud and his mom and dad are both members and it was just a matter of time till he was baptized!! But it was such a spiritual baptism!!! I loved it!! Lots of planning and running around getting stuff ready but ALWAYS worth it!! We also made pão de queijo with one of our friends and watched General Conference with her last week!!  Her name is Theresa!! She loved it and wants to be baptized so we are working towards her baptism for the end of the month!!  This past week we also played some soccer with one of our friends and had a great lesson with him and his girlfriend afterwards!!  They’ve been to church several times as well and are super cool!! The Lord truly is truly moving his work forward here in this area!! Your prayers are so powerful and it would be so awesome if you guys could pray for these people to help them progress towards making and keeping covenants with our Heavenly Father!!! 

Então,  In preperation for the baptism we had to fill the font on top of a ton of other things. But as we were filling the font, we noticed the drain was a drain we’ve never seen before!! It was one that had a metal pole sitting in the drain that made noises that sounded like it was draining the font! So, we filled up the font and everything was good but the water was pretty cold so we had to drain it a little to put hot water in.  But we thought that If you took the pole out it wouldn’t drain because it didn’t make any draining noises!! So, we leave and come back about 15 min later to check to see how much it filled up and sure enough it drained half of the water in the font!!! This was 15 min before the baptism so we had to put the metal pole BACK in without getting in the water haha so we had to be creative in getting the plug back in HAHAHA!! But the font ended up filling up on time and everything worked out smoothly and it was an incredible baptism!!

Well this week I was a little under the weather but I still worked my hardest!! And slept when I could HAHAHA but I’ve been listening to conference again and Elder Uchtdorf’s talk is the one I just finished!! And holy smokes I love his talk!! My favorite was the dialogue he created between us and Christ.  If Christ was sitting right in front of you, what do you think that interaction would look like? Feel like? What would he say? What would you be thinking? The way Elder Uchtdorf describes the love that Christ has for us struck me differently this week!!  The amount of love that Christ has for each one of us is perfect.  Absolutely perfect!!  He loves us too much to leave us where we are.  And He has given us the opportunity to repent and to change!! Repentance truly is a joyful process!! Which I’ve learned doesn’t mean it won’t be hard!! But that’s where we find the joy in repenting, in truly changing our hearts.  It’ll require work and a lot of getting up and trying and working harder.  But Christ is with us every step of the way.  I know this because I’ve felt it in my life!! Especially out here on a mission seeing people repent and truly come unto Christ. I’ve seen burdens be lifted as they yoked themselves to our Savior!!!

I love you all so much and I hope you have a great rest of this week!! Christ lives and He loves you!! 

Até proxima!! Tchau tchau a gente!! 

Elder Castillo 

kumusta ang lahat!(How is everyone )Hope you guys are doing great!! Mahal kita lahat(i love you all)

Thursday-

 Today was a historic day I used a taboo for the first time! If you don’t know what that is look it up haha. All you need to know is they don’t really use toilet paper here so they use the taboo instead.  Needed to practice before the field so I practiced at the mtc.

Friday-

Guys I was lied to by the locals!! They taught me how to use the taboo incorrectly it was very embarrassing. Oh yeah my whole room has worms so that’s super fun. Welcome to the Philippines haha. 

Saturday-

We watched general conference a week later because of the time zone difference. We watched Saturday conference it was amazing. Its so cool hearing prophets talk about missionaries and missionary work while your on a mission. After about 6 hours of conference the whole mtc went outside and played a bunch of sports. I thought I was good at basketball until I met the locals play. They are so short but soo good at basketball. 

Sunday-

2nd day of general conference was even better. I felt the spirit so strongly and the questions I brought to conference were answered. Quick story that happen today. After conference they gave us a bunch of snacks to eat. One of the things we’re these sweet rolls with meat inside. I was eating it and talking to the locals and they said how’s the rat meat. I believed them for a second because we have ate some weird stuff here and they started dying laughing. 

Monday- We started language study today and it’s a mix of scary and exciting. The language is so hard and I’m not really known for being the best at learning languages, you can ask my Spanish teacher how that went hahaha. For dinner today we had fish and rice. This was my first time having fish in this form haha(see picture below).

Tuesday- I threw up like 3 times today. It’s either the worms I have or the fish I ate. So today was not the best since I haven’t been feeling well haha. The spirit is always strong here tho so that’s a plus! 

Wednesday- pday today!! Today was super fun we went to the temple, went shopping at the local stores, and played some basketball. The stuff here is so cheap wich is awesome. I bought a barong which is what you wear in the temple in the Philippines they are awesome!

Miss all you guys hopefully everyone is doing great!

Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not. (1 nephi 9:5)

Nephi is such a great example. Nephi wasn’t sure why he was making these plates but he did it anyways because god commanded him. Sometimes in life we are not sure why we follow some of the commandments we do but I know that if we endure to the end and put your trust in the Lord we we be blessed. 

This week was a solid one. Had some miracles happen and a ton of awesome experiences. Tuesday 

Today was freakin awesome because my trainer Elder Cragun took my comp and I out to lunch. It’s been almost exactly a year since I saw him so it was cool being able to catch up. He left halfway during his mission to his original assignment in Tahiti. So it was awesome hearing all the things he saw. We had some solid visits today and spent a lot of it preparing for our baptisms this weekend. This dude today took a wood sword and pretended to slice my head off. His name is onius

Wednesday 

15 Months on the mission today. It’s gone by super fast and I’m just holding on to the time that I have left. We had ZLC today and talked to the district leaders about the zone and how to motivate them to do crap. Today this 9 year old girl named jazzy called another girl the B word and she is getting baptized next week.

Thursday 

Pretty chill day. We went to lunch with some elders and then had our weekly planning. We started printing out the baptismal programs for the baptisms this weekend. We went to a ton of houses today and found a new person to teach named brinley. Her mom said she just asked her for the missionaries to come over and then we showed up. So it was definitely a miracle that we met her. We have exchanges tonight so I’m with Elder Smith in Granger for the next day.

Friday 

The exchange with Elder Smith went super well. We had district council outside today because all the food were locked to the church so we did it in the trunks of the car. We had a lesson at this dudes house and he had it stuffed to the brim with comics and action figures. Dude have us a ton of Teen titan comics from the 1980’s. We found 2 new people to teach today so it was super exciting to see the area grow. Got news today that my companion and I are giving a 40 minute training in zone conference so that sucks. It will be good though. Maybe.

Saturday 

Today was the most hectic and fast paced ones I have had in awhile. We had 2 baptisms today and one boys baptism named Ike went perfectly smooth and the other for Mia was insane. We had the baptism at 5 and everyone showed up except the girls family that was getting baptized, they texted us to move it to 6. Everyone goes home and comes back at 6 and the family gets to the church at 6:30. At this point my companion has been in his white jumpsuit for 2 hours. The girl puts the suit on over her clothes and the little kids start trying to jump into the font while the others ones are doing circles around the conductor. It was the craziest baptism I have ever seen. Definitely had a good laugh after we were the only ones in the building locking up.

Sunday 

I had opportunity to give Mia the holyghost and it was definitely something I will always remember. We found some new people to teach today which was a Mircle cause we had 1 at the beginning of Sunday and ended with 3 more. It’s crazy how the lord can work Miracles if you put for effort and have faith.

Inspirational scripture :

Isaiah 64:8

But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

Heavenly father loves us so much and wants to best for all of us. We all have our wants and desires but in the end aligning gods will with ours will make us most happy. He can mold us into the people we want to become as we turn to him

Elder Willis 

Oiii todos!! Tudo bom?? I hope you all had a great conference weekend and a great week!! I love and miss you all!! Can’t believe transfers is happening next week already!! So wild!! Well this week was kind of wild haha so let’s get into the good stuff!! 

This week as most of you know Hurricane Ian hit Fort Myers and Naples.  It was insane!! Luckily, here in Miami we just got high winds and lots of rain but nothing crazy!! I got to help out in Fort Myers with our stake which was such a great experience!! Being able to serve those people made me so happy!! I love the people here and I know that God is watching out for them during this tough time!! On the bright side, I totally got to make a kite out of a grocery bag and flew it which was super, super sick haha 😂😂

Something super funny this week was in preparation for the hurricane we all went to the nearest Target to grab some food just in case!! We all grabbed canned goods, granola bars, and water!! So we started checking out and one of my comps is checking out and I was helping him scan and bag and I see this like 40 pack of double A batteries! And he hands them to me saying “don’t know when I’ll use these but maybe I need them” and I was like “Elder, do you have anything that uses double A batteries?” And he was like “I think so, but I’m not sure” so I asked him, “What do you need these batteries for? 😂”  he said “I actually don’t think I have anything that uses these batteries 😂”  It was so funny he almost dropped like 30 bucks on this pack of batteries for nothing HAHAHA oh man so much has happened this week I can’t even think of one funny thing that happened!! But I hope that was as funny as I thought it was 😂😂 

Well this weekend of course was an amazing conference!! I hope you all were able to watch the sessions!! One of my  favorite quotes was from President Nelson when he said something to the extent of “We are not supposed to be perfect in this life, we do our best so that we can build our resistance to temptation!”  I thought that was so awesome!! It really hit me, that in this life we will make mistakes.  It’s inevitable!! But if we try our best and rely on Christ, we will be able to build our resistance to evil!! That’s the whole point of this life!! I also loved from I believe it was Elder Olsen that said “The advesary is the father of confusion, while the Savior is the Master of simplicity” how cool is that!! It is hard to discern right from wrong in a world that continues to grow in loudness and chaos.  But as we take the time to hear the words from our Father in Heaven through fervent prayer, daily scripture study, and regular temple attendance we are able to feel those promptings from the Holy Ghost!! Man I love this Gospel and I love my Savior with all my heart.  I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!! 

Até proxima!! Tchau tchau meu amigos!!

Elder Castillo