September 23, 2013

 Hey Everyone!

   

     Well it has been somewhat of a better week than the last! Well we started of the week in the our district class. It went pretty good. We have been watching the Work of Salvation and how we can change the way we are doing this work to the way the Prophets want it to be! It has been something that our mission President wants us to study really hard and put it into practice in the field.

So we have heard there that there has been a lot of hurricanes going around Mexico and the Carribean. One hit part of our mission. Luckily I was clear on the other side. But later that day, Tuesday, I got a call from our Zone leaders sayin that they just talked to the President and we have a Hurricane headed right in our direction!! He said to call your district and tell them to go buy food for at least 2 days and get more water! haha. I got kind of freaked out! haha. When in reality, we had one of the hottest weeks I have had in the mission in a long time! haha! It came no where close to us! Turns out that they were all around us but nothin too bad!

     The past week was a really hard week in the work. As we started this week off, I was ready to start to see some changes! So Tuesday, we went and ate with the family that gives us food and as we were leaving we asked if there was anyone that she knew of that we could go and visit. She said the family that lives right in front of them. So we went and knocked on there door and their kid that is 16 answered and told us that his dad is sick. Then the mom came and talked to us for a minute. We explained to her that we could give her husband what we call a blessing, like a prayer. She invited us right in. So we went and gave the dad a blessing and talked to him for a second. Turns out they actually have family that are members and a nephew that is a ex missionary. They are a family of 5. Surper nice and have accepted us to come back and start teaching them! We have also been going through the Area book and looking at the old teaching records of people that we could go back and start teaching! We went and found this girl named Nitza. She is 18 and was listening to the missionaries about 2 years ago. So we went and contacted her and she stopped listening to the missionaries the first time because she didnt have any support from anyone or really know anyone in the our ward! We had a really good first lesson with her and got to know her really well! We have an appoinment to come back to see her tommorrow! We also found another new family to teach this week. Well they were new, haha, but they weren't really interested! So we went and taught this mom and her 19 year old daughter for the first time and it went really well! They accepted everything really well and we said we would come back the next day to see them but they werent there. So we kept trying and tryin but we couldn't find them! So we went back yesterday and tried to see if they were there! We found them, so we went in  talked to the daughter and turns out that her husband doesn't want her to listen to us and said that we cant' come back!! Well ....there isn't much we can do there!!

     Overall it has been a little better week! We still have so much that we can do to be better! I talked to a returned missionary that is here in the ward. We talked about his mission and how we are here to work. He said the last night of his mission, he went out and knocked doors instead of getting ready to go home!! It was cool to hear that Made me think about how much harder I can be working right now!!

      Love all of you guys!

Elder Liljenquist

 

Clearly he still has his sense of humor.....;)

 

Central!

September 16, 2013

(His English isn't very good anymore;) Truly converted!!)

 

Hey Family!!

  

  Another week down here! Time feels to be going so fast! We only have two more weeks in the transfer! Feels like that I just got here! But it was somewhat of a good week. We have really had a hard time with the investigators that we have. It's hard to get them to continue to progress! It has been kind of frustrating! But we just need to keep in mind that what we are here to do is to invite and we can' force this upon anyone. So some of our investigators have gotten in a bad rhythm of not keeping there commitments and not wanting to progress. So we have had to talk with them to varify everything to make sure they still understand this process.

     Thursday I went and did my first divisions with the other elder that lives with us. We went to his area and we actually had a pretty good day! We had some pretty good lessons and we went and taught this family that has a kid that is a member and everyone else is not. We had a really good lesson. We taught them about how the gospel blesses the family and at the end we commited them to be baptized and they accepted! Its such a good feeling to have people accept this invitation! Even though they're not my investigators! It was still really good!

    Wednesday here, the skies went dark as ever and it poured rain!! I have never seen it rain so hard! We have been soaking wet all week! The rain here is really on and off though. It will pour rain for like 10 minutes and stop, then come back and do it over and over again. We put our scriptures and things we dont want to get wet, in a plastic bag from like the grosccrie store and then in our backpacks cause everything just gets soaked! 

  Saturday we had somewhat of a better day! When we went to visit people and they were actually in there houses/ haha, We have a investigator named Norma. She is progressing really well and from what I can see, doing really well. We went and saw her and taught here about the Book Of Mormon. It was really good! We had a good time explaining it to her strong cathlolic family!! haha but it went really good! 

  So we live in a house that has two levels. A big family lives below us and we live on the top floor! Saturday night, we show up to our house and one of the teenage daughters is out there with a group of her friends. She stops us and says to us before we go in, that they are  sorry for the noise that there's going to be! They had planned a party that night! So around 10:20 ish the stereos just get blasted with this electronic music! Our floor was shaking!! So we go out on the balcony of our house and down below the beer man is making his drop off at this house!!! haha. You can order your beer for delivery here! 3 carts! I look at the other american that lives with us and tell him we are not going to sleep tonight! haha. Sure enough we did not go to bed untill 1:30 in the morning!!  haha. o we had to use our time wisley! ...So me and Elder Urbina went and spied. Peeking through the windows! haha. It was ridiculous!! A solid 12 people there! haha. The kind of party you walk in and walk right back out! Made our house smell like beer and cigarettes though!! I was so exhausted the next day! Sunday nigh,t was the night that they celebrate their Independence Day here too! So there was a huge party going on in Central! I got a call from our zone leaders telling us that we had to be in the house at 8:00 that night because it was going to be so crazy!

  Everything is going good here! Having patience with me had really been a test! I have taken a lot of time this past week to just think,  "how we can be better so we start to see more success?" When I dont want to, I still do it. When I'm tired and want to rest, I'll still go....just pushing and not letting disappoinment bring me down has been the biggest help for me! I love you guys and thank you for all your help with everything! Especially the Elder Holland talks! 

Elder Liljenquist

September 9, 2013

Hey Family!

How is everything going there at home? Not gonna lie, this past week, I  got a little Mexico'd out!! Haha. I miss the states!! But everything is going good down here! We have had a little better week! So we started off our week visiting a ton of people! In this area, there is work to be done! The only hard thing is to get people to keep there commitments! So, I have been studying really hard to try and find a way to help these people that we are teaching to keep progressing. I have studied and studied and I think that I have found a way that should help. haha! So, we have an investigator named Ontoniel. He is 23 and just working and going to school. He loves the missionaries and loves to joke around and have a good time! His family is from another church and don't really support him listening to us, but haha, he doesn't really care that much! His girlfriend is actually a member, but inactive! So we have been teaching him for the past couple of weeks and he actually had a baptism date but he has yet to come to church with us! He likes to listen to us but likes more to just hang out and talk to us more than anything. ( were coming back to this) So we had a zone class this past week and we talked about how we need to change the way we teach so that the investigator can understand better. We talked about how everyone is different, and we need to adapt our teachings more to the investigator and less in the order of the lessons. So I have been thinking of a new way that we can teach him, Thanks to the Best Mom in the world, I have some Mormon messages that I have just watched in the house but we took them and put them to work. It went really well! Being able to be taught from the Prophet's voices themselves doesn't get much better! It went really well. We showed some videos of Christ and really refocused our teaching on him. After the video, we reexplained our purpose as missionaries and recommitted him to be baptized for the 28th.

 We have two other investigators that are moving really well and progressing! In our Zone class, our goal for this month of baptisms is 43 for our zone!!! We were all kind of shocked when they told us this number! But I know that we can do it. As a goal for me and my companion, we have a goal of 5! I know that we can get it! We just need to be more persistent with these people!
So.... we are still sleeping on the floor and sharing one fan for all of us! Haha. But it's not really that bad! I have kind of gotten used to it. One of the other Elders is from  Arizona. Elder Urbina, haha.. he is pretty cool. I am glad that there is another American there in the house. haha. It's just nice to be able to talk in english sometimes! So  at nights, we call this place that delivers the best tacos! haha and we sit out on our porch and just chill! I miss and love all of you guys!

Elder Liljenquist

September 2, 2013

Now that everything is caught up....we can FINALLY go week by week:)

September!!

Well it was another really good week here in Acauycan! The weather is so much better here! I actually get cold at night! I love it! Haha I would be fine if I stayed here for the rest of my mission! Just in the months of May and June!! Pray that I'm not back in Tabasco in those months! Well I think that I have finally learned the area well enough that I don't need anyone to show me around anymore. Tuesday I taught my first District class to the Elders in my District! I was kind of freaking out a little bit, but everything went really well. We focused the class on a talk from Elder Holland called "The Divine Companionship" haha I think that's how you would translate that! But it focused in on how us as missionaries should have more that one companion with us at all times. The Holy Ghost. It showed us how we can start working better and more effectively when we have the spirit with us always. Because in all honesty, it is the only way that we can do this work! When we forget that and we start to do in in our own way, it will never work. There is one way to do this work, and it's the Lord's way.

Two Elders in my District have been having a hard time getting along and seem to be always fighting! I was about ready to just beat the both of them after an hour talk and still nothing had changed!! haha. I felt like a dang marriage counselor!! But as of now, they seem to be going good.  Our area seems to be full of people that are super prepared to hear the Gospel and are actually really receptive! We are actually doing pretty good with our investigators. We have put some more people on date for baptism, but they keep falling through because we can't get any of them to come to church with us! They keep all their commitments until Sunday and then they decide to be lazy! haha. We are teaching this family and the mom is really interested. Her husband Juan is having a hard time moving along! We have really been focusing our lessons on the Book of Mormon! I asked her if she thinks that she has received an answer yet.  She said that she feels something different when she is reading and then she told us YES! She and her family are there! We just need them to come to church!
Saturday I had to go to an area in the middle of no where to give my first baptism interview for a couple of Elders in my District! haha. Luckily the lady that was getting baptized was just as nervous as I was!! But everything went really well! Later that day, we had our interviews with our President. He is such a cool guy! He told me that me and Elder Berry will have the opportunity to serve together before we end our missions!! SO Pumped! yesterday we had our Stake Conference! We had such a good turn out! Over 600 people!! Things are starting to pick up in this area! Just pray and help us get these people to church! Love you all so much!

Elder Liljenquist

Good News in August!

August was filled with so many great things for Elder Liljenquist including becoming the new District Leader!! He is doing so great and we are all so proud of him!

August 5, 2013

Hey Guys!

Well another week down and we're in another month! Weeks have been flying by! Well we started off this week pretty good! We have had a lot of contacts that we have needed to contact! So that is pretty much what we did all of Tuesday and Wednesday! It went pretty good! Some of the contacts were alright and others just didn't want anything at all! But out of like 8 people, we were able to keep 3 of them progressing! So one of them is named Roeglio. He lives alone and is pretty poor. The contact was a Book of Mormon contact but later in the lesson we realized that he couldn't read! haha. So we have gone back a couple times this past week to read from the Book of Mormon with him. He is doing pretty well... just that his family are really strong Catholics (like everyone else here!!) and they don't really approve of us teaching him! Its alright! We'll just see how it goes!

      Having been here for 4 months now I have gotten to know pretty much the whole town!! haha. It feels pretty cool to walk down central and know people haha!! I have become pretty close with all of the people in our branch too! It's really cool to be able to see the leaders in this branch start to hold up their callings and do some missionary work in their branch! So this past week we were just doing some contacting by our house and we found a kid that is around 10 years old and it turns out that he is a member! He took us back to his house and showed us his family. It turns out most of them are members! This kid is unreal! haha. He just started talking to us about the church and how he wanted to come back but his dad is a drunk and won't take him! So during the week he came with us and taught lessons all day! haha. He is soo funny! When we would leave a lesson, he would talk about what he thinks that persone needs and stuff! Then Sunday morning we went by his house to bring him to church and he had 1 one his friends with him to bring! He's10 and he is doin missionary work!! Such a good example for some of the other members that don't want to do anything!!;) haha. Things are moving here. We should be having a baptism this Saturday if we can get this couple married!! haha. And there should be another the next week! Pray that we can keep finding people to teach! We need to find some more! Other than that everything is going good here! My Great Grandma Faye Marsden passed away this weekend. Please remember my family in your prayers. It makes me soo grateful for this gospel and the blessing that we have to have our families forever. I love you all and I love my Grandma!

Elder Liljenquist

August 12, 2013

Hey Everyone!!

  It was another good week! We started off the week really excited to start working with some of these new people that we have! So Tuesday we spent most of our day in this area called La Ceiba. It is a part of our area, just on the other side of the freeway! It's actually where we have found some of these new people that we are teaching! We started to teach this one family that is there. They are really good people, just the dad has to work 5 days away from home and then 5 days at home so we only had the oppurtunity to teach the mom, but it went really well! She is super interested... haha and a good listener! So much easier to teach when someone actually listens to you! But we taught the book of Mormon and the Resturation and after we invited her to be baptized! It went really good! And whats even better is that her husband is more interested than she is!

     We had a couple more over there in that area that we thought were going to be really good! haha but turns out they didn't really want anything! sucks when you can see just how good they could progress! and then it just doesnt work out!! But its alright! haha... All in time! Friday we had to go to the area of our Zone leaders for a Zone meeting! So this was the first meeting where we were going to see what changes our new President had for us! So it looks like we are going to put our attention and our focus not only in just teaching, but reactivating less actives. Teaching recent converts and really looking after our wards and branchs and working with them more than just working just by ourselves! Not really a huge change.. haha but they said that that was far from the end of things to come! Haha. So the bus ride to the zone meeting is like 2 hours. We were on the bus on the way home and these two guys sitting in front of me started arguing and fighting over something until one of the guys threw a punch at the other one!! Then they just started going at it!! Swinging at eachother with everything they had!! hahaha!!! The bus driver stopped the bus and told both of them to get off! haha... and we were in the middle of no where!  So ridiculous!! So after we had gotten back from the zone meeting, we went and met with one of our new investigators. She is like 18 and works in this resturaunt that we eat in every Saturday. We started to talk to her and she had been having a really hard time trusting us and really opening up and talking. But that day she finally broke. She has had a really rough life. Her dad died when she was like 11 and  she had dropped out of school a year later. Her mom is a drunk and she works for her family basically. She just had the question, why me? why my dad? We started to talk to her and asked her if she would like to know where her dad is? And first it wasn't something she wanted to talk about so I gave a small explanation of the Plan of Salvation. We left her the pamphlet and were goin to go back and talk to her! We are so blessed to be able to know all the things that we do! The rest of the day we had been helping our Branch President go around and invite everyone to our branch conference that we had yesterday! We had to have more than just 25 people there like we usally have! So Sunday morning we left early and invited people to come! We got to the church and we saw a freaking miracle!!! There were not enough seats for some of the people! So they were standing in the windows and outside the door of the little church that we had!!!! We had a attendance of 67 people!!! And 6 of them were investigators!!! It was so cool to be able to be apart of that!! We just need to keep that number growing every week!! Then soon enough there will be a big chapel here! So overall, it was a good week!

The rainy season has started and it poured rain last night and today! haha. Last night we were at a investigators house and the clouds moved in within like 5 minutes!! Told my comp that had like 5 minutes before it starts to down pour! So we started back to our house and like 3/4s the way there it started!! HOLY COW!! We just started sprinting!! haha ...Along with anyone else that was in the roads! The streets were flooded in like 5 minutes! So this Saturday we have a challenge from our zone leaders that everyone in the zone baptizes!! So you should read about a baptism next week!! Pray that we can find someone who is ready!! Love and miss you all!

Elder Liljenquist

August 19, 2013

8 Months!!

  Hey everyone! Holy cow. It feels like that everytime that I get on, I am talking about having another month in the mission! Time has gone so fast! Well we have had a pretty good week this past week! Well... our baptism didn't work out!! But we were able to put a few dates for the future! So all in all, we are progressing! That is all that matters! But we have had a few pretty interesting lessons this past week. I have learned a lot of different things!

      So we went to go and visit a investigator that has been investigating our church for a little over a year now. Our branch president has wanted us to continue to visit her and not drop her just because we all know how prepared and ready she is! So we get to her house and started into talking about the Atonment and all the blessings that we recieve from it! She then asked us the question,"how can I know if I truly have repented and if I have repented, why are the same thoughts and temptations still in my mind?" Wow. That one kind of threw me back up against the wall and cornered me! It really made me think. How can we know if we have recieved forgivness and why do we have the same thoughts and temptations even after we have repented? 

So first how can we know...I feel that it is different for everyone. There is not a basic feeling or knowing that we truly have, like everything else about this Gospel, it starts with the faith that we have. If we truly have faith that we can recieve forgivness for those things that we do wrong. But if we have truly repented of the things we have done, why do we still have the same temptations and things that we think about? It is to protect us. The temptaions will always be there and I think that if we have the same thoughts or feel the same way, its to protect us from making the same mistakes again.

     We had a meeting a with our mission leader of the branch and we started talking about how faith is principle in everything that we do. Just as it is the first principle of the gospel, it is key in everything that we do. Faith isn't faith unless we do something with it. It is an action. Taking what we have and put it into something! What I have learned is that this the hardest part for investigators to do. Take the faith that they have and put it into action. You can ask anyone and they will tell you that they have faith but how do we use it? That is something that I have been thinking about! When we go and see these investigators that have been being taught for months and months, if I dont walk into that lesson with faith that they can change, they're not going to! 

 Well the time here in La Venta has been good! haha... But I got my phone call this morning and I'll be being transfered tomorrow! My new area is Acauycan, and a haha... I'll be the District Leader!!! I am freaking out a little bit! haha. I have no idea what to do! Please pray for me! haha. I'm going to need your help! I love all of you and so thankful for all of your help! 

Elder Liljenquist

 Won't be gutting any deer this year...so a chicken will have to be good for now!

 August 26, 2013

Hey Family!!

  Well there was some big changes this past week! So I got my transfer and my new companion! My new comp is Elder Castillo. He is from some part in Mexico! haha. He is a pretty good Elder. Just I've ben told he is a little bit of a trouble maker!! haha. We'll see how that goes! So I am in the area Acauycan,Veracruz. It is a really nice area! So what they did here is that it used to be  one whole area, but they decided to cut it and make it into two! Once we got here, I met the other companionship that is in the other part of the area that was split. One of the other Elders was there. He had just gotten done with his training and haha, the first thing he did when he saw me was hug me and asked me if I spoke English! Well we have 4 Elders sharing one house! It is terrible! I sleep on a mattress on the floor in the middle of where we study. Same with my companion!.We are looking for a different house right now but there is really nothing for us to buy!

  So the whole past week we have been just going around and learning the area. I had no clue what to do ,so all 4 of us stayed together until we could get ourselves along! The area here is unreal! There is so much work here going on and so many people ready to hear the message! The ward that we have is unreal too. Even though it was our first week here and we didn't know anyone, we were able to put someone on date!! I am really excited to see this area change!

 It has also been a kind of stressful week. I have had some problems with companions in the district already! haha...  and have had to go and talk to them and see what they can do to better everything! Including the other two Elders that we are living with.Geez! My patience has been tried  the past week! Haha but I am prety sure that everything will work out! So tomorrow I have to teach my fisrt District Class! haha Pray for me! haha and also that we can find a house to live in! I love you all!

(Keep going and cheering on My Bro and Lone Peak!)

Love Elder Liljenquist

July in La Venta...

Email from 7-1-3

Hey Family!!

It was another pretty good week! We have had some pretty good lessons this past week! And some pretty funny ones! Haha So we started out the week on Tuesday going to visit this family that we have had one lesson with before. So we got to the house and stood outside of the gate and yelled to see if anyone was home and a older lady came to the gate to talk to us. So we asked if the lady that we were teaching was home. She then just looked at us and didn't say anything!! haha. We thought that maybe she couldn't talk or something. So we talked again and she then responded that her daughter wasn't here and to not come back. So we asked her why and she said that she has to follow the catholic religion that her family is in! Then I asked her,  "dont you think that she should be able to choose for herself?" haha. Nope she says!! Then she goes off on the scriptures from the bible acting like she knows what she is talking about! haha. Then says that there is only 2 true churches in the world!! haha. She says that the Catholic and the Apostolica are the only true churches!! I was done with it after I got done listening to that! So we just kept going and we just started to contact people.

      So we saw a guy working out in his yard and so we went up to him and asked if we could help him out. He let us right in like we have been visiting him for months! He called his wife out and sat right down at the table like he knew exactly why we were here! We started to talk to them and it turned out that they had just moved here and were accepting the missionaries where they were used to live. But it had been like 3 years since they had practice with us. We were super excited about that!! So we started to teach them and it went really well!! Hopefully we will be able to put them on date for this month! So Thursday night we got a call from our zone leaders around 10. haha. My heart was pounding because that usually means one of the two missionaries is getting transferred! So my comp answered the phone, haha, and I saw his face drop! haha. So I knew it wasnt' me!! He got transferred out that next day!! Kinda sucked! I liked serving with him. He is a really good Elder and will be a great missionary throughout his mission. So my new comp is Elder Anderson. He has been out about a year in the mission. He is pretty cool, haha... just kinda on the weird side....but he is a good Elder. We had a good rest of the week.

      Saturday we had the baptism of Ulicces!! It went so good! His whole family was able to come! The best part was that he was really excited about it! At the end ,he bore his testimony, and he said that he hopes that his mom will follow the example of him and his brothers and be baptized!! I was so pumped when he said that!!! Sunday was a really good day at church too!! So our members are pretty much the laziest people in the world!!! Having ward counsel with them is just like having group therapy and they just complain about how they don't want to do anything! So this Sunday we watched the talk that President Monson gave to the missionaries with them and then our branch President went off on all of them!! haha. It was so good! They needed it!! He passed around papers to everyone and said write down a reference for the missionaries to go see!! We got 17 references!! Finally!! Hopefully we will see some more progress with them!! Everything is going good here!! Crazy that it's July! Time is flying! I love and miss all of you guys!!

Elder Liljenquist

 Ulicces's baptism:)

Email from 7-15-13

Hey Everyone!

Don't think that this past week could have gone by faster! Even though the days sometimes feel so long, the weeks seem to fly by! It has been another good week here. We have worked really hard this past week! I have been completely dead by the time that we get back to our house! But I guess that it is a good thing! So Tuesday we had a really good day! We had a appointment in almost every hour... and not one of them fell through! I love teaching like that! But we had a lesson with the family that was listening to the missionaries a couple years ago. Their names are Lady and Wilbert! haha (great names!) but they are really good people! We had a lesson with the husband and taught him the Restoration, It went really well! It is so crazy that we can find the answer to  almost any religious question inside the message of the restoration of our gospel through Joseph Smith! But he is really progressing well. We  were able to meet with them 1 other time during the week and we taught the plan of salvation, haha.. again we gave him all of the answers that he was looking for! This lesson has been kind of hard for me to teach here in the mission! I have studied it really hard for the past couple of weeks! But when we taught it to them everything just went really smooth. I didn't feel nervous and it all just flowed really well! It was the best feeling walking out of that lesson! Me and my comp have run into some ruff patches this past week. He is a good Elder! haha He just has like a wall that I'm trying to tear down! He hardly ever talks! So that has been something that I have been trying to work on with him! But we have been doing some contacting this past week, just some door approaches. I actually like doing those! In the first few minutes of talking to people for the first time and hearing their background on religion, church and things like that, you can usually tell that they still have questions! And most of the time, haha they just cant help but to set themselves up to some point in one of our messages. We were able to find one new this past week from doing door contacts! so I guess that's pretty good! So yesterday we had a pretty good turn out at church! We usually sit around 32 members every Sunday, and yesterday we got 40! haha .We were so happy! The people are shocked when we tell them in our wards back home we are somewhere around 400 haha, But we have been seeing some inactives show back up and starting to come again! We have been working with our branch and we are still really trying to find things to better it and make sure that everyone has a calling so we can have all the help that we can to build this branch back up! I have kind of put that as my goal before I leave here! We still have a long ways to go! But if we can just get everyone in the branch to start working! I know that we could easily do it!

After church we went to a Birthday party of one of the recently baptized members. It was really fun, haha. All the kids broke pin-yotas(?) and there was a ton of food! it was really nice to just be around a lot of people! Later that night we went to a less active house that I have become really good friends with! They are really good people and are really funny! But we have been teaching the kids english! It has been really fun to be able to do that! I gave one of the girls this little book of Mormon in english, and she has started to read it little by little! So this morning we left our house to go and buy food, and my comp has been wanting to go and buy a hammock and we heard that they make the best hammocks inside the jail. Haha. So we went over to the jail and we were like what should we do? haha. and I asked him you really want to go inside of this Jail? and he said yeah, So we walked inside of this jail here in La Venta. Wow! haha. It was a pretty intense place! haha But my comp and I were able to talk to one of the convicts in the jail and he said that he would make him one! So looks like he's gonna get one soon enough! But it has been a good week for the most part! Still looking forward to see what changes our new president has for us! We should be finding out this week sometime! I love and miss all of you!

Elder Liljenquist

 Bryton's new Mission President! President and Sister Morales:)

Email from 7-22-13

Hey Everyone!

Well another week down! I know that I say this all of the time but time here just seems to fly by! We had somewhat of a better week this week! We were actually able to find some of our investigators in their houses! Almost everyone here is sick! This town of La Venta is getting hit hard with the dangey (west nile virus) The mosquitos here are terrible! Everyone here has it!

 So this past week we were able to actually do some teaching! We had some references from our branch that we had to go and contact and were able to pick up some new people to teach! So we had our meeting with our ward mission leader and we had been talking about the way we are working here in this branch. We started to talk about all of the inactives and less actives that we have in this branch. So I asked him if we have an updated list of all of the members in the area, haha and he said that the last time that it was updated was around 10 years ago... if that!! So we printed out the branch directory and and there is a good 10 pages!! haha. and our assistance is usually around 35 people! So this past week we have been going around the whole town and trying to actualize the list and get a definite number, and most of all, to try and get these people back to church! I know that doesn't really sound like a missionaries job to have to do all that, but there really is no one else that is going to do it! Me and my comp talked about it and we thought that maybe it is something that we need to do while we are here.

 So we have 2 really good investigators that are progressing pretty well! One of them has come to church like 5 weeks in a row. She could be baptized in the next week. The only problem is is that she is living with her boyfriend who is also a member, haha. So in order for her to be able to be baptized, she needs to get married! But because she is 16 we need to have the permission of her mom to be able to do that! Our branch president is in the process of that! haha. And the other one is from a  family that we have in the branch! They are less actives and have a daughter that is around 12 years old, and the mom and dad want us to start teaching her and they want to start to come back to church! So we are really excited about that! Especially if we can reactivate this family again! So Sunday morning we left the house a little big early and went around to gather as many investigators and members as we could to bring them to church! So we passed by this less active family and reminded them about church. haha. Turns out her husband was passed out on the floor drunk and she said that she would be coming!. So we got to church and everyone was waiting outside of the building, It was like 9:05 and our branch president was not there yet! Turns out that he was sick and wasnt going to be able to come! And it just happened to be the Sunday that people from the stake came to sit in on our meetings! So some keys finally showed up and we were able to start! The last hour of our meetings, the husband of this family that was passed out dunk on the floor showed up at the church looking for his family! He came into priesthood and was still so drunk! I couldn't believe it! So after church we had somewhat of a talk, haha its not like he is going to remember anything that we said to him! But later that day we had a lesson with a new family that we got from a reference. It went really good! We taught them the Book of Mormon. It really well. At the end of the lesson, I had the chance to invite them to be baptized, and they accepted! So we put them on date and we are really excited to be able to work with them! This week we will be having another zone meeting with our new president to hopefully find out what his plans are for us! Crazy that July is almost done! Everyday I feel that I am learning so much. The language has gotten so much better! I miss and love all of you guys! Keep praying that we stay healthy here! Love you all!

Elder Liljenquist

 His hammock might be he favorite thing ever:)

Email from 7-29-13

Hey family!!!

  Well this week kinda blew! haha. Not much happened other than we got basically got put on lock down to our house because almost everyone here in La Venta is sick with the West Nile Virus!! The mosquitos are so bad!! So last Tuesday, I wasn't feeling that great either so we went to the doctors and got checked out! Turns out that I had all of the symptoms! Don't freak out. Everything is fine! We just took this week and rested, haha... because I guess that is the only way to get rid of the sickness! They gave me some medicine for the headache that I had and that was about it! I'm sure that my mom right now is about to have a heart attack but dont worry everything is fine! haha. I feel great! I mostly think that it was just a little bit of a sun stroke. We have had a lot of sun here in the last couple of weeks! It has been crazy here though. Our branch President had to go to Villahermosa be checked out. I guess that this time every year here it gets like this! haha crazy!!

      So Thursday we went to have a zone meeting with our mission President and his wife. One of the changes that he is making is that he wants us to start Baptizing a lot more! He says that the Apostles talk about this in all of the meetings that he was in. I'm excited to see all the other things that he has planned for us! So after the meeting, he asked me and my companion if we would like to go with him and his family for the rest of the day and help out with some things that he had to do. It was really cool to be able to be with him and his family all day. He took us out to eat and everything.  We were able to talk about the work that we have going and recieve some help that I think is going to help us out alot! It was really nice to be able to be with him!

     But I am really excited to get back out and start working again this week! We have a ton of references to go see and start teaching! Hopefully the next letter I'll be talking about all the baptism dates that we have! haha. During this past week, I have had a lot of extra time to study and read from the scriptures. I love the scriptures and being able to learn and grow in the knowledge of this Gospel. I am so thankful for it and all the blessings that it brings to our lives! Love and miss you all!

Elder Liljenquist