tengo gozo en mi alma hoy

 Hi friends!

I have been thinking... is Maria just the feminine form of the name Mario?

GOOD:

- We had dinner with the Hulet's again this week, and they are so wild. We always laugh so hard during dinner with them. Sister Hulet is known for giving missionaries little nicknames when they are in the area. For example Elder Ollie has the nickname "Curly" because of his hair and another elder had the nickname "IQ" because he is super smart. Anyways, I have been bugging her to get me a new nickname and she has not been able to come up with one she likes. However, on Thursday, while we were at dinner she gave me one! Sister Carson was saying the closing prayer before we left and literally as soon as she said "amen" ... Sister Hulet stands up, points at me and says "SUNSHINE, that is your nickname, Sunshine." Kinda vibey.

- This is awkward but I am going to keep talking about dinner appointments. #ilovefood. We had dinner with a member family at Ranch House Burger, which is this AMAZING little burger joint here in Weslaco. Anyways, the food is not the main character of this story I promise. The Vierra family invited their friend, Jerry, to come to dinner with us. I got to sit next to Jerry and talk to him during the entire hour of dinner. Jerry is super cool and literally invited me and my companion to come back to his house this coming week and share with him more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The members had totally prepared him too which was super cool to see. Stay tuned because I think Heavenly Father is about to change Jerry's life for the better. 

- Last P-Day we went to top golf to celebrate the end of the transfer! I am by no means good but it is always fun to get out with other missionaries and do something fun. 

BETTER:

- Alma and Erasmo Zavala are doing well! We got to teach them this week and we brought Bishop Morales with us! During the lesson, we invited them to church and Erasmo was pretty hesitant (hitting us with "Si Dios Quiere" and "Primeramente Dios'') but then we all started testifying and the influence of the spirit in the room increased! Bishop asked him again at the end of the lesson if he would come and he said yes! The best part of this story is that Erasmo kept his commitment and came to church on Sunday!! Unfortunately, Alma got sick on Friday night so she wasn't able to make it this week. They are pretty cool people, I love being in their home!

- DANII is doing super well! We finally got to start having lessons with her throughout the week. When we explained to her the pre-restoration conditions and the confusion that Joseph Smith felt, she said "That totally sounds like me, until I found your church, now I feel like I have found the right place!" She loved the message of the restoration and has been reading the Book of Mormon! She joined us at church for the 3rd time this week WAHOO. Also a mini miracle with Danii... last Sunday when I spoke with her she asked me to pray for her 16 year old daughter that her heart would be softened and that she could develop a belief in God. When we met up for our lesson Danii informed us that not only did she read the Book of Mormon herself but that her daughter picked it up and read the introduction on her free will! How cool?

- Remember last week when I said we met a cool family of 3? Yeah we haven't made any contact with them this week... but listen to this. The Lord works in mysterious ways. After we had knocked on this family's door after tons of unanswered messages and calls we figured we should move on and quit bugging them. In their apartment complex we had one other contact who we met and decided we might as well go knock on their door. We went over to visit our new friend Pedro (who we had met only one time briefly before) and when we opened the door he said "come in you guys." We were like "say less" and walked right in. Ended up teaching a Plan of Salvation lesson to not only Pedro BUT ALSO his wife, Mary and his daughter, Audrie. #familyof3. At the end of the lesson Mary pointed to the Celestial Kingdom and said "I want to go there!" We will most definitely be back this week to help them progress towards the Celestial Kingdom

- TMM Facebook got a makeover this week. What used to be 8 area specific pages has now been streamlined into 3 mission wide finding sources! There is still lots of organization and expectation work to be done with these pages but the progress we made this week was monumental. Make sure you go check out "Come Unto Christ - South TX" "Gracias a Dios - Sur de TX" and "Service in South Texas" !!! Super exciting stuff going down here on Tech Squad.

BEST:

This week I spent some time studying covenants. 

"Living and loving covenant commitments creates a connection with the Lord that is deeply personal and spiritually powerful. As we honor the conditions of sacred covenants and ordinances, we gradually and incrementally are drawn closer to Him and experience the impact of His divinity and living reality in our lives." - David A. Bednar

Covenants give us an end goal and define the path that we must follow to reach those goals. I love how Elder Bednar states that we will GRADUALLY and INCREMENTALLY draw closer to Him. Conversion is a lifelong pursuit. We must stay diligent and faithful until the end and our covenants are a divine tool given to us to help keep us motivated and focused. Covenants are such a blessing! I encourage each of you to study covenants and so you can more fully live your covenant promises or take the first step on Heavenly Father's covenant path if you have not done so yet! 

"Work Hard, Keep the Commandments, Have a Positive Attitude and Show Gratitude"

- Elder Sunshine