14.6--A positively grand epoch!

Dearest people of the Internet,

 Whew this week was a really good week! :) It started off with a whole bunch of hurrying around to make sure that we got everything set for the baptism! And even though we had short notice for it, we were able to receive a lot of help, and it went off without a hitch!  As you can probably guess by this previous statement, the boy got baptised this past Thursday!! Whoooh! It was quite mahvelous! His dad did the baptism, and then his grandpa confirmed  him as a member of the church. At the baptismal service we had 64 people who came and of those 64 people, eleven of them were non-members :)

 And then after the baptism, we worked as per usual. Recently our mission has resurrected the practice known as "tracting".... but it's actually been working fairly well for us. It's kind of a different change of pace from street-contacting, and there has been quite a bit of success from it in our area. This past week we actually tract-ed into a lady from Turkey, I am not entirely sure what she was doing in Albuquerque, but it was good all of the same. 

Oh and this past week the temperatures have taken a dive.... +___+  bleh... but that's ok because that means we get to dress warm :) In fact, Elder Summers and I had a "man contest" where we rolled the windows down and turned the A/C up full blast, and the first one to admit they were cold lost. And after a painful half-hour I lost... :)

And last but not least, we had a super star cast from church headquarters speak to us! We had our local area 70, Elder Villa Real, Bishop Causse of the Presiding bishopric, Elder Christiansen of the Presidency of the 70, and Elder Holland!! :) All of which gave incredible talks.  Bishop Causse talked about the Atonement, Elder Christiansen talked about finding joy in the journey, and Elder Villa Real talked about Parables.

 Elder Holland gave an awesome talk about a few different principles:

1) The importance of what we are doing and how we need to be converted to the gospel.
2) Once we've felt the truth we can never turn away. He compared missionaries to shepherds who are helping to guide people to the truth and how its sad when one of the sheep leaves, but it's even worse when one of the shepherds leaves. 
3) Adversity-- Christ's life was never easy, His sacrifice wasn't easy for Him, then why should life be easy for us? We have to go through trials because " Salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation has never been easy" and as we face trials and persecution, we are coming in step with a long line of disciples who've had it hard and if not harder.

And I think one of my favorite quotes from Zone conference from him was " On the road to exaltation, every road runs through the Garden of Gethsemane . In order to be a disciple of Christ. Each one of us has to suffer a token of what He had to. Now I'm not talking about atoning or suffering for others, but I am saying that we must give our lives as a token to Him."

Well folks, I hope you enjoyed these little blurps from my week! Enjoy

Elder Jacob Guymon

14.5--Baptism

Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

So upcoming this Thursday, the older brother will be in fact getting baptized!! Hurray! It's been quite the adventure in the making, because it was happening, and then it wasn't, and then it was again. Well regardless, for sure it will be happening in T-minus 2 days! As far as the younger brother getting baptized, the mom wants him to wait until he's 12 to make that decision. But until then! :)

Also, this past week I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Roylance again! (perks of being in the same district!) And we had some sweet miracles happen. As we were cruising around on our bikes we talked and 2 people in a row invited us back to talk with them later! What? That never happens. We then ate lunch (chicken and waffles :3), and then we went through the Area Book and found a name that Elder Roylance didn't recognize, and so we decided to stop by him. As it turns out, the man that was previously taught had moved, but his ex-wife still lived there and was interested in learning more! :)

Hmmm, oh on this upcoming Saturday, Elder Holland is coming to speak to us! :) And we are all positively stoked for his arrival, because he is one of our favorite speakers in General Conference!! We are expecting a powerful and emotional talk!  

(http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1819) ps. this is an incredible talk given by him  in the past! We read it this week and are stoked for the future!

Well folks, I think that's all for this week! I love y'all and have a great week!

 

Elder Jacob Guymon

14.4--Up and up

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Life is going pretty good down here in New Mexico. We were pretty busy this past week, and we had a lot of success.

First and Foremost! We have news about the boys finally! The mom has given permission for the older boy to get baptized!! wooh! Sadly she wants the younger boy to wait for a while longer  until he can get baptized. :) Our tentative date for them right now is on February 19th, but we may need to reschedule due to some other things that are going on that evening. But at least the boys have the green light! :)

Also, this week, we have been seeing  a lot of success as we have been trying to incorporate the Book of Mormon into each of our contacts! This past week we went tracting... which usually isn't the most fun  thing in the world, but we met a super cool guy as we knocked! He stood outside for 30 minutes and talked with us. At first he was pretty critical, but as he asked his questions and we were able share some scriptures from the Book of Mormon, his whole demeanor changed. He lost his critical attitude and started genuinely wanting to know more. We have set a return appointment for this weekend, and we will see how it goes!

Oh also, this past Sunday we were asked by our Young Women"s President to talk about the Plan of Salvation with the girls. That was a great experience! As we talked about the Plan of Salvation, we testified about how Christ doesn't expect perfection all at once, but what matters is that we are doing our best and relying on him for help! :)

So I guess in a wrap, this past week has been quite satisfying, and we have been blessed as we have continued working our best! :)

Until next week,

Elder Jacob Guymon

14.3--Hit and Miss

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of the Blog-Reading Variety,

Man, I am honestly not entirely sure what to report on for this past week.... Oh! The boys have kept coming to church despite not having a baptismal date :) which is pretty sweet! Also we had a couple who haven't come to church in a long time come on sunday!! ;) It was a pretty great experience to see their faces!

 

Oh we've also been having crazy weather. Some days its been like 65 sunshiny and beautiful, and other days we've been having lots of snow. (I don't think we are the only ones having crazy weather though).

 

Other than that we've been trying super hard to find progressing investigators for our area! :) We've been going through our books and visiting people who've been meeting with the missionaries previously, and we are starting to see some success with that.  

 

One thing that I've been thinking about lately is how much God is aware of us. And how sometimes we don't always get what we want exactly when we want it, but we have to always trust in God's timing. And even if his timing seems super-inconvenient,  it will always work out for our benefit versus our detriment. 

 

Well, sorry for just a short one this week, but I think that's all. It wasn't super eventful! :) take care

Elder Jacob Guymon