June 16, 2014 - 18 Months!!

 Happy, healthy, and HANDSOME Elder!!

 Water balloon fight!

Hey Guys!!

Well it was a really good first week here in Coatza! The area here in beautiful and like 2 minutes from the beach! I can see the ocean in all parts of my area! haha makes it hard to remember that I cant go there!! haha its alright though. But we have had a really good week just getting to know the members and all of the investigators that are here in this area! My comp is Elder Gonzales from Mexico, he is a really cool kid and we have been getting along pretty good! He has around 13 months in the mission. We share the house that we live in with 2 other Elders from Utah. Elder Jeppson and Elder Layton. Haha they are Hilarious!! We have been messing with each other every single night of the week! haha it has been a good time and only the first week here. Some crazy things have happened to me this past week, well we live in a house with 2 rooms and we all have to sleep in one room and in the other we have all of our study things, but one night I woke up and started feeling my lip and it felt like I had a dang golf ball in my lip!! I don't know what happened but something must have bit me or maybe something I ate! Who knows what happened but its all gone now! haha! And the other night our neighbors that are crazy started hitting us with water balloons when we got home from working! haha so we ran into our apartment and can out with buckets of water and started fighting back! haha it was way fun!

Don't worry we did some working too! haha when I got here there wasn't much and there was not any baptismal dates but this past week we were able to work with some of the recent converts and find family members that are not member and we started to teach them. One of them is Arron, he is 15 and his dad was just baptized and he told us this past week that he wants to be baptized! so we put a date with him for the 28th of this month! 

Then we have another part member family, Her name is Paulina she is 13 and her aunt is a member but less active! so we are working on getting her aunt back to church and Paulina says that she wants to be baptized also! It was really cool. She has loved the church but its really sad that her aunt wont take her, but we brought her a Book of Mormon the other day and we made her close her eyes before giving it to her and she got really happy and excited when we gave it to her! 

I am really excited to be here in the area and to keep working! I hope that we can find new investigators in this next week! I love and miss you all! Happy Father's Day to all the dads!

Elder Liljenquist

June 9, 2014

 Elder Liljenquist and Elder Parduhn! Both Lone Peak graduates from Highland, UT! 

 Sweet family bought Elder Liljenquist some news shoes! Apparently he needed some;) 

Hey family! 

Well it was another pretty good week here in Grijalva, and it was my last! Today I have transfers! There sending me to the other end of the mission in Coatzacoalcos Veracruz. I did not see that one coming at all! I thought for sure that they were going to leave me there for a little bit longer! I feel like I just got there. But I guess that the Lord needs me somewhere else! My new comp will be Elder Gonzales. This area was great! When I first  got here it was really struggling, and they had not had a baptism for almost a year! We were able to get the area back up and going again and have some baptisms!

The members here are awesome and have really helped us, I'm really grateful for the time that I had to be here and work with them, I hope that the area will continue to progress and the baptisms that we have coming up go through!

Sunday, my comp and I had the opportunity to give talks in our ward, It went really good. Our subject was Missionary Work. Our talks went really well! But my comp talked forever! it was like a 20 minute talk and only left me with like 7 minutes! Haha its alright though! I focused my talk on how missionary work is a commandment from our Heavenly Father that we should  Preach the gospel to every land and person. And then I compared that to the scripture in 1 Nephi 3 verse 7 That says the Lord doesnt give commandments to his children without preparing a way that they can complete it. And then I ended  with one of my favorite scriptures in D&C  120  that says many are called but few are chosen. I love this scripture and to be able to apply it to the members. We are all called to the work of the lord, but those who answer the call make themselves chosen in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. 

That night around 6 I got a call telling me that I had transfers! so I went around and said bye to everyone and we went back to the house and I started packing my things. Around 9 I got a call from a family that has been pretty close to me ever since I got here. Haha they saw me in my Sunday shoes which I had brought from my house and now are completely trashed! But they're the only shoes that I can wear with my suit, and they had called to ask me what shoe size I was because they had gone out to buy me a new pair of shoes! Haha So they came over to my house like at 10 at night and took some pictures with me and drop me off a brand new pair of Sunday shoes! They are the best family! I love them so much! 

Packing my stuff wasn't too bad,  I left my little suitcase there actually and just took the medium and the big suit case. Slowly leaving stuff behind that I just don't use or that just doesn't work anymore! I left my first pair of shoes haha they lasted me 17 months!  Everything is good here! coming up on 18 months in the mission! It has gone by soo fast! I don't know how it has flown by! 

I miss and love you all soo much! 

Elder Liljenquist

June 2, 2014

Hey family!!

Well it was another good week! The weather here has been out of control! We have had lots of heat and pouring rain all week! haha but all in all it was a good week! My comp Elder Chajon has been suffering with a lot of back pain this past week and feeling like he is going to throw up! So we have been trying to help the best that we can. Wednesday he could not get up from his bed from the pain that he has in his back! So we called the President and he sent us to the hospital. We got some test don't on his back and they said that he has a bladder infection! and that he might get kidney stones! Freak! He has been dying in pain all week! I feel really bad for him! So they gave him some meds and told him to take it easy! But the medicine has not been doing much for him and he has gotten kind of depresed about the situation! I have been trying to help him out the best that I can! 

We have had a kind slow week for the same reason, his back pain doesn't let him walk very much before it starts to bother him. But we were able to get some things done! We have our 3 investigators that are progressing pretty well! Laura has her baptismal date for the 21st of June. She is doing good, we just need to her to get rid of her boyfriend that is living in the same house with her and then she will be ready for baptism. Jorge has a baptismal date for the 14th of June. He is doing pretty good, we have had some trouble seeing him this past week just becuase of my comp and his back! But we got to see him on Saturday and he has been reading and keeping his commitments! The only bad thing is that he did not come to church on Sunday!! 

Miguel...haha well we found out that his mom is about as catholic as you can get..so yesterday we went to his house to take him to church and he didn't answer the door, so we went to church and then after we went back to his house to see him. His mom answered the door and started off on how we are bothering her son and how everything that we do is a lie and she has never heard anything like that before haha. So we started to explain everything to her to try and find a point that caught her attention the most. We started on the Book Of Mormon and she had a ton of questions! So we put and appointment with her and we will be seeing her this week!

We had some members introduce us to some of there neighbors and we have found some good references from the members in our ward! We have some new families that we will be teaching in the next week! 

I cant believe that its June! half of the year is over! Time is going by so fast! So crazy that my brother graduated! I remember mine like it was yesterday! I miss and love all of you soo much!

Elder Liljenquist

May 26, 2014

Hey Family!

Well it was another really good week here in Grijalva! We have been dying of heat all week long! The weather here is crazy! One second it can be completley sunny and burning hot and 5 mintues later its pouring rain! They say that hurricane season is going to come early this year and there are chances that one or two come for Tabasco! Haha everyone here is talking about that, every house that you go to they tell you about how worried they are about flooding again! I guess in 2007 they had a huge flooding here for storms that came in. They say that the water was higher than the houses! So crazy, lets hope that doesn't happen again.

So every Tuesday we have a district class and we have to travel in what they call a convie, imagine a van with welded bleacher seats around the the whole inside. Haha so we had to take one of those to the class and one back to our area. In the class they gave us 10 Books of Mormon each to go and pass out and use to contact and for our investigators. So on the way home there was 6 missionaries in the convie and that means 60 Books of Mormon haha it was awesome to see the looks on the other peoples faces when we all got in! Haha but they all got interested about why we had all these Books. So all these missionaries started contact all of the passengers, it was pretty cool! I sat in the front seat with the Driver, I was able to give him a Book and set up an appoinment for the missionaries to pass by his house. Contacting in the begining was something that was really hard for me to do! Just cause I think I was scared! But I feel pretty good about it now! 

The family that got baptized are doing great and progressing really well! We have still talking with the Daughter Laura about her baptism. She has some problems with her boyfriend. He and her are living in the same house but she told us that she does not want to be with him or anything, she just is afraid to separate from him because they have a huge debt that they have to pay off! But she talked to us this week and said that she is going to explain to him what she wants to do and ask him to leave. She just hopes that he will still help her pay off the money that they owe! Sunday we confirmed Juan and Ruth it went really well! And at the end of the sacrament they asked Ruth to go up and give the closing prayer! Haha she was shaking so bad! But her daughter Laura is going to be baptized the 7 of June so not this week but the next!

We have been working with another investigator Jorge. He has been to church the 2 past weeks and has a baptism date for the 14 of June. He is progressing pretty good and has a desire to learn more! We have received lots of references from other missionaries and members that we have contacted and are in the process of working with them! 

So mango season is back!! there are so many mangos here!! its crazy! we walk around all day and eat mangos off of the tree! haha there definitely my new favorite fruit! 

The ward that we are in right now is trying to get up and running again, we have our baptism was the first in almost 9 months!! Here in Mexico that is terrible! we have been trying to get our Bishop excited again about workin and starting to have ward counsel again but he says that its a wast of time! So what we have been doing to having our own counsel with all of the members of counsel! This area and all these members have so much potential but we just have to help them get up and going again! 

Each week I feel like I need to do more and more! We have interviews with our mission President this past week and we talked about my time in the mission. He told me that the last 6 months is the time to put everything you have learned into practice! I love all the people here and know that the Lord is preparing all of the people around us to hear our message! 

I love and miss all of you guys! So crazy that its summer already back there! Love you guys!

Elder Liljenquist

May 19, 2014 -- 7 Months Left!!!

Hey Family!

Well it was a really good week this past week! We have had some pretty crappy weather here. It has been raining all week and the streets were all flooded! I walked around in soaking wet shoes all week and in some spots the water came up to my knees! But we still had a pretty good week of work here. And the best part was that Ruth and her son Juan were baptized on Saturday! It was such a cool experience for them! I t was a great service, but it was really fast! That night was the first session of stake conference for us so we had to really hurry with the service! I had the chance to baptize the mom Ruth. Haha with all respect to the her and the family she is not the smallest lady haha and it didn't help that the water in the font had be slowly draining during the service so when we got in to the water it was about mid thigh, high knee on me! So after 3 times she finally came out clean! It was awesome, and the same thing happened to Juan and my comp, he had to do it 3 times as well. But in all the best part was to see how happy everyone was, and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to be apart of it. 

Yesterday we had stake conference. It was really good! We had a area Seventy there and he spoke, also our Mission President and his family were there. It went really well. The best part was haha is that all of them talked about the Work of Salvation and missionary work. I think that it really helped the members to understand what there role is in the work of the Lord. All of the talks were really good. We had our investigators there and it was really good to have them hear from our mission President and the Area Seventy. After the conference we had a chance to see all the Elders and Sisters from the zones. Some of my old comps were there and some of my other friends from the mission! But the best part was that the other daughter of Ruth that did not get baptized after the conference came up to us and said that she does want to take the step and be baptized!! So we are planning a service for her not for this week but for the next Saturday! 

I have been doing a lot of studying in the past week, I have been reading in a talk that I found in my things called "the fourth missionary" 

I remember reading the talk when I had just started my mission in the Salt Lake mission. It is a great talk and I would definitely recommend it to any and all future missionaries or missionaries that are in the field. I learned that we as missionaries will gain little to nothing from our missions if we do not put our hearts in to it. Like anything else, if we do not give it our all we will not see the end results. I read in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. This chapter helped me a lot. It helped me understand that if I do not have the gift of Charity for these people than I am nothing. I think that all of us can apply this into our lives, to really dedicate our lives around the Gospel and helping others see the blessings that it brings to all of us. I know that this is true. 

I am so thankful for all of you in my life and miss you all so much!!

Elder Liljenquist 

May 12, 2014

Hey Family!

Well this past week was a pretty good one! We have been seeing more and more succes here in our area! And the best part is that I am feeling alot better! Here in Grijalva we have been working really well with the famlies that we are teaching and have been trying to find more investigators! The heat wave past through and pretty much all this past week it has been raining or overcast, so it has been pretty nice to have a break from the heat! The only bad thing is that when it rains haha the streets here flood! The part of the city that were in is really low, and all of the water rushes in when it rains pretty hard or for a long time! But it felt really good not to be dying of heat at night! 

We have been doing really good with our families that we have! Rut and her family are doing really well! They are a family of 3 and have a babtizm date for the 17 of May! We are really excited for them and the best part is, is that they are just excited! This past week we had a Famliy night with them and the family of our Bishop, it went really well! We watched a Mormon message about the Atonement and at the end President Uchtdorf gives a invitation to all to join the church and pray to see if it is true. It went really well! Who better to give the invatation then an Apostol! But this family really has opend up to us and shared things that lets me know that they are really ready to take this step! I have had experiances with them that I will never forget! The daughter of the family has had problems for a long time with feelings of a bad presence and has suffered with depression and sickness, my comp and I have always felt weird walking into the house and especially when we leave. Something I didnt share from out first visits with them is the first time that we went to that house we knew from the moment that we walked in that there was something wrong, We didnt give just one blessing but she has asked us for multiple blessings, its crazy the differencet that we have seen in her! We blessed the house and she says that she feels it every now and then but she just reads int eh Book Of Mormon and the feeling goes away! They say that a few years ago an old lady that lived a above them practiced like witch craft stuff...pretty crazy!

We have another investigator that also has a baptism date for the 17 of May! Miguel is getting alot better, we have seen a true change in him! He told us that he really wants to change and drop all of the things that he is doing! He is young, about 20 years old and has a lot of troubles with girls and things like that, but he believes that there is a better life away from all those things! 

This past week as with everyday is a challenge, I have told myself that I want to be more obedient, not that I haven't been, but there is always so much more that we can all improve. We will never come to a point of full knowlege in this life, so im pretty sure that we all can do more! So crazy that its already Mothers Day this Sunday!! I feel like Christmas just happend!!! Well really excited to see and talk to you all one last time! I miss you all so much! and love all of you!

Elder Liljenquist