Cinco de Mayo!!

Hey Family!

Well this past week was a pretty good one! We have been seeing more and more success here in our area! And the best part is that I am feeling a lot better! Her in Grijalva, we have been working really well with the families that we are teaching and have been trying to find more investigators! The heat wave passed 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 we are 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 baptism date for the 17 of May! We are really excited for them and the best part is, is that they are just as excited! This past week we had a Family 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 an invitation to all to join the church and pray to see if it is true. It went really well! Who better to give the invitation than an Apostle! But this family really has opened up to to us and shared things that let me know that they are really ready to take this step! I have had experiences 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 didn't share from our 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 didn't give just one blessing, but she asked us for multiple blessings. It's crazy the difference 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 in the Book of Mormon and it goes away! They say that a few years ago, an old lady that lived 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 a lot 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 knowledge in this life, so I'm pretty sure that we call all do more! So crazy that it's already Mother's Day this Sunday!! I feel like Christmas just happened!!! Well I am really excited to see and talk to you all one last time! I miss you all so much! Love all of you!

Elder Liljenquist

April 28, 2014

Hey Family!

Sorry I wasn't able to get off a letter to you guys last week! I'm not sure if my mom wrote something for me or not! But remember how a couple months ago I wasnt feelin too good...well it came back again last week and it hit me pretty hard! So we didnt have that exciting of a week here! haha. Well it kinda sucked, I was hit with a fever and throwing up all of my food. We went to the Doctors on Friday and she told me that I have Gastritis, the same that all the other doctors have been telling me! Well the doctor of the mission gave me a prescription for 2 weeks worth of injections! So each day I have been going into a public doctor and gettin poked in the butt!! It's awesome!! haha.. and yesterday all of the doctors were closed! So last night, I spent around 15 minutes in the bathroom trying to convince myself to just do it! haha.. Ffter 3 or 4 bad attempts I finally got it done! Man I just hope I can finally get rid of this stupid thing! I really just want to get better! 

Besides being sick and not working very much, it has been an alright week haha. The gates of Hell were opened up and Villa was hit with its flames of heat!! Holy cow, It has been out of control! The heat down here is crazy! We were at 43 degress cellcius. That's 110 degrees!! and that was at 11 in the morning!! You can only imagine what the afternoon was like! and thats not the best part, We only have 1 freaking floor fan!!! Our house is ground level and there is another house above us and it's sourrounded by both sides so it is naturaly a cool house, but it's terrible at night!! I dont even bother drying off after I shower. I just put my clothes on and go to sleep! It's the only way to stay cool! 

So this past weekend I got a call from the assistants of the President and they said they needed our help with something. I guess some missionaries had some problems and 1 of them was taken out of his area, and the other was left there alone so we had to go with him and sit and his house and wait for his companion to come back! So Saturday we were planning everything for the baptism of Roberto and we had another Elder tagging along with us. It was around 4 o clock and we still had not heared anything for Roberto, so we started to call him and finally he answered me. He then told me that he was not going to be babtized this day and that he does not feel prepared. He then hung up on me. It was one of the worst feelings that I have felt in a long time. I knew that there was more to it! We then went to where he was working and found him there selling his things! I started to talk to him and it was like he had never talked to us before. He told me a lot of things that I never knew about. He and his family were baptized in the Jehova Witnesses church and I guess made plans to return to this church as a family. I said to him that there was not much more that we could do for him, I then shared a scripture with him and my testimony and let him know that we are here to help with whatever he needs. It sucked really bad! But I know one day he will understand and really see!

Well I had the chance to do alot of thinking in the past week, really refelct on the time that I have in the mission and all of the good and bad things that have happened, all that I have learned, and so many unbelievable people that I have met. I am so greatful for the opportunity that I have to be here, I will do everything that I can in these next months to be the absolute best missionary for my Heavenly Father. I miss and Love all of you soo much!

Elder Liljenquist