July 7, 2014

Hey family!!

How was the 4th of July?? Well here most people have no idea about what tha date even is! Haha so there was not much that happend here! But it was a good week this past week! We are really trying to get this area up and running again! We need more investigators! But we have been doing our best working through the ward members and trying to find some more less active members who have family who are not members of the church! 

Our mission and our President has been really focusing on the way that we contact and making sure that we have 2 contacts that turn into new investigators daily! So my comp and I who do not have much experience in contacting have been putting goals so that we can make this happen each week! So we have not done any corner of the street contacting but we have been doing our best in between appointments to find people that maybe are like cleaning or doing something that in some way or another we can help them get introduced to the gospel!

It was a pretty disappointing Sunday!! We did have our investigators in church! it was pretty upsetting! When you try so hard all week so that they will go and they don't show up!! haha something that will never be easy to handle! Only imagine how Heavenly Father feels when they don't go! haha. But it was a really good fast Sunday! I bore my testimony and talked about the power of fasting! I shared with them that I really did not understand fasting before my mission. Really and sadly the first time that I think I truly had fasted for something was here in the mission! But I have come to love fasting. It helps me focus on the things that I am doing and really helps me see that the Lord is in control, it helps me to be a little bit more humbled each time that I do it. As hard as it is walking around in this dang hot weather and not being able to eat or drink it is something that it is really important to our Heavenly Father and I know that through the power of a true monthly fast we can be that much closer to our Heavenly Father!

Well for the 4th of July here we were not just gonna let it pass us by, we set up a soccer game with some of the members and had them bring some investigators if they could play and we could get to know them. But us 3 Americans against 3 Mexicans haha pretty much representing the Country! Don't worry haha I have gotten pretty good haha!! It was tough but we did come out on top! haha! 

I love all of you guys! I am having the best time here right now! The ward it great and the area is awesome! The Zone is doing really well as well as our district! I hope that you all had a good weekend! haha all we could talk about here was the things that our families do on the 4th! haha made us all home sick a little! But everything is good here! Love you guys!

Elder Liljenquist

June 30, 2014

Hey Guys!!

How is everyone doing? Man it was a good week this past week! But it was a burner!!! It was a really hot week! We are all nice and farmer tanned up! haha but the work was really good this past week!. We had our baptism on Saturday! It went really good! Aaron was really happy and really excited! And his dad was really happy and nervous when he did the baptism, but all in all it went really good! I have felt really grateful for the success that we have been seeing here in our area and the success that I have seen in my past areas, There is just something that that tells me that I can do more! I feel like I need to talk to every single person that I see! And this week its now my goal to take every opportunity that I get to help someone new understand how the Gospel has been restored here in the earth again. 

This past week and especially today and I'm not sure why but I have just felt really grateful to be here and to be a missionary to be able to represent our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. We have been working really well this past week. We started to go through our area book and look at ou rinvestigators that we have progressing and the next ones that are preparing for baptism. After cleaing up some of the old investigators that were not progressing really well we ended up with 3 or 4 progressing investigators and that can be ready to make baptismal covenants. But we need more! We have been working alot with Paulina whos aunt is in active and we are still waiting for her to come to church with us! We have been visiting then like 3 or 4 times a week, but we  need to be able to see them in church.

We had a really good conference with our mission President on Saturday also. He talked a lot about how important it is that we contact each and everyday. He put a goal with us that we have 14 new investigators each day! At the end of the conference we watched a video of when the Prophet announced The Work of Salvation last year. It was really cool, I saw faces there in the MTC that I recognized and to hear that we are a part of the most important work that there is made me feel really blessed to be here right now. I hope you all know that I love you so much! 

Elder Liljenquist

June 23, 2014

Picture jackpot this week!:) 

Hey Guys!!

Well it was another great week here in Coatza! The people and the ward here are great! We have been trying to get this ward that we have here turned around and working again! We have people with a lot of experience here in this ward. I guess that it was the first ward established here in Coatza. So there are a lot of members but there are a lot of less actives that have not been to church in years! We have been teaching a lot of less actives in this past week! But it has also helped us find new invesatigators to begin teaching. Through the less actives in the ward they usually have members of he family that are not members of the church yet. SO this past week we found some new investigators and helped lots of less actives get back and goin again!

We have been workin a lot with a family whose dad was just baptized. His son Aaron is 14 and we have been working with him alot this past week and he is preparing to be baptized for this Saturday! He is really excited! The only little problem is that his mom is what they call here Catholic to the bone, haha so she was kind of against it at first but seeing the change that it had in her husband she decided to let her son be baptized! We are really excited for them! The mom is a really nice lady but haha you can definitely see who wears the pants in the family because she makes all of the decisions! 

We have also been working with an other part family investigator Paulina, her aunt is taking care of her because her mom passed away and her Dad left her. Her aunt is a member but is less active, so we are trying to reactivate the aunt so we can baptise Paulina. She is a really nice girl, shes 14. Her story is really sad, We want to be able to help her so bad but we have to get the aunt back and active in the Church so that she will be able to go every Sunday! 

This past week a family got here from Nicaragua, they say that there are making there way up to the United States. But on there way they things got robbed and now they are left with nothing. They got here claming that they were members of the church, so the ward started to help them while they were trying to figure out if they were members or not. We got a call from the Stake President and he wanted us to go and meet them and ask them some questions and see if we felt like they were members of the church or only looking for money. So we went to get to know them a little and from what the mom had said to us we know for a fact that she is not a member of the church. We kept asking and asking questions and finally she came out and said that she was not a member of the Church but her son was. We met the son and started talking to him about some things and he seems like he knows what he ius talking about. The Stake got back to us and said that they had called the stake president there and he told them that they are not members of the church. So as of now we have been told to teach them and helo them in the ways that we can. They both seem really willing to be baptized we just need to be careful and make sure it is for the right reasons. 

We had a ward party for fathers day this past week, it was way fun! They asked me to lead it! It was reallly funny! Made me miss my family a lot! 

Today for P day we went to the beach and then we went to a all you can eat seafood restaurant!! and it just so happend that the owner of the place was a memeber of the church and let us eat for free!!! We were all so pumped!! haha it was going to be soo expensive!

Everything here is going so good! Miss you all so much! 

  

Elder Liljenquist

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