Jennifer Anderson's baptism

Hey! whats up?

This week was amazing! we taught 21 lessons! :) The Valencia family is progressing decently.  They didn't come to church, but we did read scriptures with them and we got the mom to pray for the first time while we were there.  So that is always good! JR and Monica (part of the Valencia family) are doing okay.  They could be moving along better if they would stop stupid habits and come to church on Sunday, Satan is so lame! Why is it so hard for people to just come to church? You don't even have to come for the full three hours.  The first hour is most important. It can be very frustrating when you are trying to get people to keep commitments or to just keep the commandments in general.  The 4th commandment is Thou shalt keep the Sabbath day holy.  Modern revelation states that this means going to church and rendering service to your fellow saints.

I can now see how this is like being a parent.
"Okay, now Bobby, don't go out in the street because if you do, you might get hit by a car, and I want you to be safe."  "Don't you want to be safe?"
"Yeah, I want to be safe"
"Great now stay in the yard and play nicely, can you do that?"
"Yeah, I can"
"Okay, I trust you,  now go be safe and have fun."
Then immediately after you get done explaining everything, Bobby looks around and runs out into the street again. Now isn't that frustrating? YEAH.. Yeah it freaking is. Sometimes God's children do the same thing. The difference is, sometimes they completely understand the consequences of their actions and other times they don't. But, either way if the doctrine is taught correctly, it should make sense. Anyway, sorry, I'm just a little unhappy about Satan's efforts to destroy everything that is good!

Other than that though, we did have a baptism :) Jennifer Anderson got baptized! It was a wonderful experience! We had our ward mission leader and his family perform a special musical number, "Come Thou Fount".  It's such a beautiful song!  After the baptism we had a fellowship dinner at some other members' home. It was a pot luck, so there was a lot of food to choose from. We had an investigator there (Yvonne and her son) and we even found a fellowshipper for her, someone to give her a ride to and from church. It all went pretty smoothly and we got to share an awesome spiritual thought.  The spirit was really strong! It was that video by Jeffrey R Holland "Good things to come" It's really, really good.  Then my companion and I shared some scriptures and some personal experiences.  It was just great!



Our other investigator Lorretta is doing well! She is kind of old, so she has an excuse not to come to church, but she is progressing right along! She has been to church two times and she keeps reading the scriptures and has lots of questions :) She doesn't want to pick a baptismal date just yet, but she is moving in a steady forward direction.

This ward is great, they are supportive and our ward mission leader is amazing.  So, the work should continue to roll right along! The longer I am here, the more trust I gain and the better things are going.  That is great! :)

Love you all!

Have a great week!

Good Things to Come

This a great video and "Mormon Message" from Jeffrey R. Holland, an apostle of the Lord.

09/04/12

The work here has been rolling right along smoothly even with all of the little things Satan does to distract us away from the work. Good news is that we have a baptism this Saturday at 4pm at the local chapel :) Surprisingly, the sweet sister who will be baptized has asked me to perform the ordinace :) Of course I will do it! I'm excited to do some work this week.

Transfers passed and I am still here in Jurupa with my companion, Elder Fielding. One of the Spanish missionaries that we live with is training so I'm kind of exited for that :) I need to be a real good example so it's just a good reason to work even harder :)

The Valencia Family is progressing right along.  We taught them three times this week.  Jr. and Monica got interviewed for Baptism, as I expected, they have some things to work through but it should be really good for them, when they are ready. I would rather prepare them a bit better now so that we don't have even more less active members than we already do now. However, it will be really good for them to (as Veva Jean said in her letter to me) receive the Holy Ghost to help them through out their lives.

Anyway, so I'm doing pretty well :)

Thanks again for all of the love and support!

Teaching Loretta

What's up?

This week was sick! We taught 20 lessons and we got 2 new investigators! Also, our investigator JR has an interview scheduled with President Smart this Friday.  I was so surprised that he said that he was ready.  He just wants to get it done with and Monica, his wife, she is going to take a bit longer.  But, to be honest, I'm surprised that they are progressing as well as they are.

We also had 2 investigators come to church and we should have one getting baptized really soon.  Her name is Jennifer.  She comes from a part-member family. Everything is going great! We had a pretty cool experience with this lady named Loretta.  I think I mentioned her before.  She is an older black lady and she is having us teach her.  A member of the Ward's home (they are friends).  Well, we taught her the Plan of Salvation last week on Monday.  When we taught all about the Kingdoms of Glory, she pointed to the Celestial kingdom and was like, "I'M going there!" She has a husband that passed away and she was all excited that she could do the work for him in the temple :) Man, she is progressing right along! We also asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she said, "that's what I'm shooting for!" :) YEAH!!!

Oh! and we also found this one lady.   She was a referral from the Spanish missionaries.  She has an addiction that is running her life and she has the desire to quit and she was praying for some help right before we came over and knocked on her door! :) It was awesome! So, unfortunately, my companion is going to be out for a day this week because of a procedure.  But, we have some people from the church coming to help us out so that I can go to all of our appointments and stuff. So, that should be good.

Well that is about all!

I just want to close by sharing you all my testimony. I KNOW God is our Father in Heaven that loves us! I know that Jesus is the Christ.  I know that through Him we can truly have happiness; and all of our burdens can be lifted.  No matter what we are going through in this mortal life; mental, physical, emotional, spiritual.   Through the Savior Jesus Christ, our loving Father in Heaven can extend mercy, help, and love. When the Savior suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, he took upon himself all of our pains, sicknesses, issues, etc. So that we, through him, can have happiness. As we pray to our Father he can comfort, uplift and even remove pain and guilt. I Know that this is true and I have a strong testimony of it.

I also know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is God's church; that it has been restored again to the earth today in the FULLNESS.  I know that it was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith and I know that there is a current Prophet on the earth again today.  He is one of Christ's successors that is real and true as well. I know that through this church, true happiness can be found and obtained upon principles of righteous actions and desire!
I know this is real and true.

Thank you all for all of your love and support!

I love you!

Love, Elder McNew

We got a Car!

It has been hot here, guess what? We got a car! It is pretty sweet! Actually, it's the oldest car in the mission.  A 2007 Toyota Corolla, but it works :) My companion has health issues and this area is huge so we got a car!

This week was pretty sweet though.  Our investigators JR and Monica are on date for baptism in September.  But, they didn't come to church this week.  Maybe you could include them in your prayers? That would be nice! We got some pretty good news this week for an investigator that has been taught for forever.  She has an interview with President Smart on Saturday and we have been going over the lessons with her again. Other than that, there is not a lot of other news that I can think of to share,

I love you all, Love Elder McNew

Working Hard

8-13

I’ve been doing really well this week :)

My companion has some heath issues, as I may have mentioned before, but we just keep working hard and seeing success. I’ve come to understand and know that companionship harmony is mucho importante, especially when you want to see the work move forward. I think that the Lord is blessing me for my diligence :) Although I can always do better; I feel that the hard work is once again paying for itself and that’s only on the mission.  Imagine all of the blessings about to come. Of course, we don’t do it for the blessings, but it’s a benefit to being obedient to the Lord!

So this a week ago tonight we picked up a sweet investigator! She is one of the only black people in Jurupa and she is legit! She is about grandma age and her friend is a member. We went over to her house to teach The Ward Mission Process lessons the 5.5.5. I’m not sure if that’s broadly recognized by members outside of ward counsel but it should be! Anyway, we went to her house and she had told us there would be a non-member there. Well, the lesson went really well.  We taught lesson 1, the Restoration, and the Spirit was so strong.  When we were resisting the vision that Joseph Smith had she was in awe AND Loretta is it so interested! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she asked us if it was okay that she comes back and listens to more of the lessons :) Of course! Lol

Then the Valencia family, the younger couple, JR and Monica they are progressing right along! We went and taught them at the end of the day last night and they are doing so well! They keep on surprising us with all of these random things.  Like JR has cut back on his own with some of his issues and they are just working right along. Last night we taught the Word of Wisdom, committed them to stop, gave both of them blessings and also taught the restoration.  I’m excited to see them continue on their path towards baptism.  We shared with them a sweet analogy that the Spanish missionaries taught me about setting a date. “So imagine that you are in the middle of an ocean in a row boat and you don’t see any land anywhere. How fast are you going to paddle and in what direction? Now imagine that you see an island or a piece of land in the distance! How fast are you going to paddle now? And in what direction? ha ha Yeah. They loved the analogy and they agreed to set a date.  We set up another meeting with them this Wednesday :) it will be awesome! :) Anyway so we are doing way well and I’m so excited to see the work moving forward! :)

Well that should be about it for this week!

Love you! Have an awesome day and week! :)

Till next time - Elder McNew

Teaching the Valencias

08-06

Hey what’s up?

 As for this week; things went great!

We have been seeing some great success and I think it is because I have learned to be more patient and it seems as though I have gained some pretty good trust in the ward already. I know that the Ward Mission leader respects me.  We taught one of the counselors to the bishop and he was really appreciative of us. :) I love feeling welcome and comfortable with the members!

So check this out, we have like 5ish progressing investigators right now and we had 2 come to church this week.  We have an interview set up with the mission president for another and he should be getting baptized pretty soon.  Then we have this awesome Hispanic family, the Valencia’s, they are getting more and more legit every time we meet with them. We had a cottage meeting in one of the members homes with them and we taught them the Doctrine of Christ.  Then we went over to their house and JR,  the son, brother, husband of the family said a prayer out loud for the first time ever anyone had ever seen.  Then he told us that he eventually wants to join our church. We went over the baptismal questions with them all and most of them were like, "Yeah!" They have a few things to work over, but I think their first covenant with the Lord is right around the corner :) It’s so sick! And also they had us bless their home! :) I’m impressed with them. It seems as though the spirit is totally working on them. :)

So yeah! Our week was pretty good and I’m loving it here in the Heat :) lol It’s really not too bad, the barn gets pretty cool at night we have a little unit in the window that blows cold air.

Oh this is kind of random, but we live with another set of missionaries and they are Spanish speaking so they teach me Spanish words and stuff. I’m getting pretty decent. Not too bad for a gringo.

Alrighty well that is about it.  If you have questions, please let me know.

 Love you have great week.

Love, Elder McNew