Alma's "Pollito"

 ¡Hola a todos! ¿Cómo están?

FASTEST WEEK OF MY LIFE. LA SEMANA MÁS RÁPIDA DE MI VIDA.

GOOD:

- This week I got to go on an AWESOME exchange with the bike boys. I was so excited to ride my bike. all. day. long. I am always grateful to be out on the bike doing missionary work. Anyways, I got to work with Elder Brewer who is a beast. He is from Holiday, Utah and on our day together... he hit 1 year in the mission! We had a very successful day and got to teach a lot of their friends! We lost track of time and only left ourselves 20 minutes to prepare, eat and clean up dinner... yikes. We were in a pickle and Elder Brewer whips out instant potatoes and coleslaw #soawesome. Pictures of this meal are included below, don't you even worry. After dinner we had a 15 minute bike ride to the next teaching appointment and it was POURING. Honestly such a blast up until the point that we had to knock on this door just dripping. So embarrassing. However this lesson went AMAZING, many great things happening in the bike boys area.

- Weslaco is still wild. There is a crazy BBQ joint a member took us to this week that is the perfect place to play "I Spy." Also, dealt with some more valley dogs. Let me know if you want videos of either of these things. Another highlight of the week was hitting up a little taqueria with my district before district council, it was incredible, I had some really good lonches for lunch! 

- On Friday night my comp started feeling super sick. This led to us having to stay inside on Saturday which was pretty sad but I made the most of it by finding a referral on Facebook, completing an hour of roleplays (practice teaching), getting in some extra studies and doing a ton of tech stuff for our mission Facebook pages. Elder Oli still is not feeling good at all but the good news is... we found out it is not the covix (and no that is not a typo, the Hulet's always say covix and I think it is way funnier than just saying covid).

BETTER:

- We had an awesome SERVICE opportunity this week. We had received a referral from our Service in South Texas Facebook page so we set up a time to go over and spent Thursday morning helping a lady named Lilith move into her new apartment! She was super nice and this was arguably the easiest moving job I have ever been a part of. The noteworthy part of this story is that at the end Lilith asked about the missionary program. She surprised us both when she told us that she used to go to early morning seminary in high school and would love to start coming to church here in Weslaco! This Sunday she hadn't completely moved to Weslaco so she didn't make it to church but she did say she would like to come next week, remember her name... more to come on her! #ServiceInSouthTexas #FacebookBaptizes

- ZONE CONFERENCE THIS WEEK!!! What an amazing day. President presented some very high expectations that he has for the TMM in preparation for the temple and we are all SO excited to work towards these goals. Just like in MLC, he focused a lot on us each becoming a more consecrated, obedient and worthy missionary. He is an awesome leader and I got to see a bunch of my friends in the mission. 10/10 for Zone Conference. I definitely have a testimony that I needed to be here while President Larreal is serving as mission president... the Lord works in mysterious ways.

- Alma and Erasmo invited us over for dinner this week and afterwards we got to teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ. During dinner, Karla (their RM daughter) expressed that it is a miracle that her parents are listening to the missionaries because they never do. Alma then told us how normally she finds the missionaries annoying and immature 🙊 but she said that we were different. Alma called us her "hijos adoptivos" then looked directly at me and said that she thinks of me like her "pollito" (meaning "little chicken"). I was a little thrown off as she explained that I reminded her of a little chicken saying "pew pew." As strange of a comment as that is, I knew that Alma meant it with love and appreciation. Man, I love this family! We taught them an amazing lesson about faith, repentance and baptism. At the end of the lesson we extended the invitation to them to be baptized and although they both declined, expressing a need to have a firm testimony of the Book of Mormon before taking that step, they asked us to keep coming and helping them fill their hunger to know the truth. We will continue working with Karla to help her family be #eternal. Oh also, Alma came to church this week for the 3rd time which was amazing!!

- Danii is our amazing friend who has come to church 5 times now! She is incredibly difficult to contact during the week but ALWAYS pulls up to church and ALWAYS expresses an appreciation for being there and that she loves Sacrament meeting. We had an after-church lesson with Danii and one of our ward members named Isabel. (I think they are like best friends from before this life, they are so similar it is crazy) We taught Danii about the Savior's ministry in America and the institution of Baptism. We also invited her to be baptized to which her response was "I have actually been thinking about it." She is currently praying about a Baptismal Date and is excited to start bringing her children with her to church so they can learn and decide if they are interested in baptism as well! Super exciting!!

- I know this is getting SUPER LONG but... you have to know about Gilbert. Gilbert is planning on getting baptized in October and man he is super lit! He can totally recognize the spirit when we teach and is looking forward to gaining that to be with him at all times. Gilbert is having a hard time making it to church but he is so prepared and has such a deep desire to change! Pray for my buddy Gilbert that he will be able to make it to church these next few weeks so he can get Baptized and start over!

BEST:

I was listening to a talk by Elder Neal A. Maxwell entitled Lessons from Laman and Lemuel. 

I have always loved learning from Laman and Lemuel. They lacked faith but I have always thought about how they were also asked to leave everything and put complete trust in God. They were put in a tough situation. I have often said that if I was in their situation... it would be hard to say if I would be a Nephi or a Laman. However, while reading this talk I saw the situation a little differently.

Elder Maxwell said "Ever to be remembered, however, is that the Holy Ghost, while a Comforter, is not an intruder!" Laman and Lemuel were asked to do a lot, but they were also given many chances to allow the Holy Ghost to enter their hearts and give them a witness. What made Nephi different is that he had an open heart and a willing mind. When the Holy Ghost touched him he moved forward and acted in faith. 

Discipleship is hard however our road to Christ can be made MUCH easier if we allow the Holy Ghost to truly be our companion. To be more like Nephi than Laman and Lemuel... we have to seek and listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost daily.

Listen a little harder this week. #belikeNephi

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

- Elder Pollito