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
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