January 27, 2014 - Great Success in Parilla!

Hey Everyone!!

Well it was another really good week here in Parrilla! We have bee seeing a lot of success here in the area and a lot of miracles! In this past week the weather has jumped back up and started to get warm again! Not sure if I'm ready to go through another April and May!!! With the weather this week only being in the 80s I don't know if I can do the 110s again!! The time has gone by so fast! So crazy that we are already done with the month of January! Crazy! 

So we have been working a lot with the Family, Claudia Arlet and Emanuel. They are a great family that we get along great with. They have such a strong desire to better their lives and be better people. Especially their kids, Emanuel who is 19 and Arlet who is 22. Which is really crazy because most people at this age don't wont anything to do with us! But we have been visiting them a lot this past week! The family when they are all together, are so funny! They remind me a lot of my family when we are all together! haha.. They joke about the same things as we do! haha... if you know my family, you'll know what I'm talking about!! Friday night we took Emanuel to the church for the ward activities and we played soccer with the ward and some other guys that wanted to play! Not gonna lie, I'm gettin pretty good, haha... but these kids that play are unreal!!

We have 7 people on date for the month of February! I am way excited about that! But it's way stressful! Because if they don't go to church, they lose their dates! So this past week we have been teaching a lot about the Sabbath day trying to get everyone to understand that they have to go to church! The last week when we got to church there was a guy standing out by his car in normal clothes, so I said to my comp that we should go and see who that is. So we went and talked to him. It turns out that he and his wife had just moved here and he wants to start going to church. He doesn't know which one but he just wants a church in his life and in the life of his family! So we took down his information and went and visited them this past week! They are way cool! His name is Jair and Anna. They are a young couple that just moved into the town. We started to ask them why they want religion in their lives. And they both answered for their family. We didn't have much time so we left them with the The Restoration and put an appointment to come back with them! They are really good! 

So Sunday morning our church doesn't start until 12 so in the morning we started to make phone calls to remind investigators to come to church! When we got there, Claudia and her family were there and our other investigator Mayra was there! But no one else showed up! So 4 out of the 7 got there! I was mad and happy at the same time.. haha but I think if they all go this next week, their dates won't fall! 

We have been changing a lot of the ways we have been teaching in the past week. We carry around our little DVD player and watch Mormon messages with our investigators and our members. I got all of them downloaded on a USB. It has been a good way to see a variety in our teachings, and who better to teach them then the Prophet himself? 

Everything is going really good! Pray that I don't get transferred in the next week! I want to see all these baptisms happen! I love and miss all of you! 

Elder Liljenquist

January 20, 2013

Hey family!

 

Wow! It has been a good week here in the work! We have seen some milagros here! haha. We have been working here pretty well! The ward here is great! The members have actually helped us out a lot lately! I cant believe how fast time is going! 13 months in the mission! It has gone by so fast! To think that I was in the MTC this time the last year! I cant believe it! 

We started off the week really well, As companions, we sat down Tuesday morning and planned to invite every one of our investigators that we have to baptism. That day we went with the family that I told you guys about the last week! Claudia, Arlet and Emanuel. We had a really good lesson with them. We taught about the first vision of Joseph Smith and at the end, committed them to baptism for the 15th of February! They are such a good family! We all get along really well, but the best part is that they are looking to change!

 

Later that day, we to see an old investigators of mine from the time that I got here in the area, Felix. He is like 60 years old and has been to church with us a couple of times. He has been doing pretty good but has never showed this much progression before. We felt that we should invite him. We put him on date for the 15 of February also!

 

The next day we went to an investigator that is from a part member family in our ward. I think I might have told you about her, Mayra. She is 22 and lives with members. We had one really good lesson with here about the Restoration, and we watched the video of the First Vision. After, we invited her to be baptized and put her on date for the 15th as well!! I hope that she will be able to keep her date! She has been in teaching for a while! But hopefully this will be the last time!

 

The other night we went with another part family investigator who lives like right behind our house. His wife has been member all of her life and she married her husband Ivan who is not a member of the church. We went and had a first lesson with them and like before, we taught lesson 1! We taught the First Vision and invited him to be baptized at the end of the lesson. He his on date for the 22 of February!! His wife was super happy when we left the lesson! They have been together for 4 years and he has never accepted the missionaries before!

 

We have received some references from our ward and we went to go and do some contacting this week! From the 2 that we contacted, we put one more on date for the 2 of march! Her name is Neomi! We had a great lesson with her and she looks like she is going to progress really well!

 

Well this week was also a week of exotic foods also!! So there is a dish here that they eat in all of Mexico! called mondongo. It's the stomach of the cow!!!! And everyone has told me how good it is and how great it tastes!! Oh man!!! It was awful!!! Luckily we ate with the bishop and his family so they understood when I politely said no thanks...haha and the other day we ate turtle!! I only had a little bit but mostly just to say that I got to try it! It was alright. Just really different... like I cant describe it!

 

I hope that we can continue with the success that we are having in this area! I miss all of you guys so much! Love You all!!

Elder Liljenquist

 

January 13, 2014

Hey family!

  

Well it has been a really good week this week! We have found a bunch of new work here in Parrilla! And the weather here has gotten 10 times better! I actually started to sweat again haha! The sun finally came back out after having about a month without seeing it! 

 

So this past week we have had some changes in our work! We have been able to find some new families to begin teaching! Friday, we had a Zone class. There we learned a ton of new things that we are going to start doing here in the mission. I guess the Area Presidency is changing a lot of the things here in Mexico so that we can start to see more success! We should be doing so much better than we have been doing! Not just our mission, but all the missions here in Mexico! 

 

Friday we had a good activity in the ward, We had an open house. We had all of the ward counsel set up a class in all of the classrooms and give a presentation to the investigators that came. It went really well! Our ward here is unreal! They do so such a good job with all of the activities that they do! Some of them even brought other families so they could learn about our church! We received 2 new families to begin teaching! I was so stressed during the whole activity!! haha there was just a bunch of people and they were all looking to me to know what to do!! haha. I wanted to kill someone by the time it was done! I don't know why it stressed me out so bad!

 

So we found a family of 4 people that had been in teaching before I got here. They are a great family. The wife's name is Claudia and she has a daughter that is 22 and a son that is 19.From the beginning, I got along great with them. We had a really good first lesson with them and we committed them to be baptized for the 8 of February and they accepted! It was soo good! and the best part is that they came to church too!! 

 

Last night we went and taught the family Garcia. Man, it was a long lesson. This man doesn't have any belief in the bible but says that he believes in God. And has to have a logical answer for just about everything we teach. It was a lesson that tested my patience a lot! We tried to leave him the commitment to pray and find an answer, but he says if he doesn't know its true how could he receive a answer? Oh man, haha... so I did what I was supposed to do and invited but he told me no, and all I could say is ok. I felt really bad walking out of the lesson, all because he didn't want to pray. I thought about how I could have helped this man, but really we are here to invite. We will go back maybe in a week or so and see how they're doing!

 

Everything here is going good! I love and miss you all so much!!

Elder Liljenquist

January 6, 2014

Hey Everyone!

Well its been a really good week! Last Monday I got told by my assistants that I was going to be transferred back into the area that I was in before! I was really happy! I was so ready to get out of the offices and get back to work! And especially to be able to return to Parrilla! So my new companion is Elder Gomez! He is from the Dominican Republic! He is way cool and we get along really well! Haha He is pretty old thought! 26! He was baptized like a little more than 2 years ago and decided to serve a mission and is the only member of his family! 

So this past week we have had a lot of success here! I just picked up right where I left off! The day that I got here was New Years Eve! So that day we went around to a bunch of families that I knew and they invited us to dinner!! We ate a bunch! It was really cool because it was a big surprise for the families when I walked in the door! Haha.. it was really fun to see everyone again! I love this area! My comp only has like 1 week in this area and only like 6 months in the mission and wasn't really sure what was going on in the area, so that day we basically went around and visited all the investigators and members that I knew!

So here on New Years, the people and the parties are crazy!! They have these huge family parties and invite everyone!! And they all have a huge dinner like at 10 at night then they will stay up until 6 or 7 in the morning!! And they have this weird thing that they do, they have like these huge mannequin dolls and at midnight, they blow them up!! haha... I wasn't up to see any of it! But I for sure heard it all! Music and drinks all night long!!!. The next day was so funny!! There was not a single soul in the street! They even cancel public transportation for this day just because there is no one out! Haha.. Every single door that we went to the people came out looking like they just got punched in the face! haha.. It was so funny! 

The work here is still going pretty strong. We have some really good investigators and we have been visiting all of our members and tryin to get them involved in the work! I am really happy to back working full time and not sitting in the offices! The members here are amazing and have been helping us out here a lot! Abraham is doing really good!! He got the Priesthood right after I left and has been blessing the Sacrament every Sunday!! It was so good to see their family! I have become really good friends with them! 

The week has been really cold here! In the low 60s all week and with the humidity it feels even colder! And it has been pouring rain! Some parts of the area are flooded. It has been a really good way for us to find new families to start teaching just by helping them clear their houses and clean out water! I feel so bad for some people. Some people lost everything that they have and are left with a house full of water and nothing else. It really has made me think again about how blessed we all are. I am really very grateful for all the blessings that I have in my life. For my family and my parents that have always made sure we never had to go without. 

I love you all so much! This year is the time to start again and to have a new beginning for everything. I was reading in the Book of Mormon in one of my studies in the mornings and I have been reading in the book of Jacob. In the 5th and 6th chapter. There it talks a lot about how this is the last time the Lord is going to prepare his people before he comes and what we need to do to prepare. There is a scripture in Jacob 6 that sums up what we need to do, and has also been what I have been sharing in most of our lessons this past week. Jacob 6:11...

Elder Liljenquist

"O then, my beloved brethren, repent ye, and enter in at the strait gate,

 and continue in the way which is narrow, until ye shall obtain eternal life."