Importance of True Conversion

Hey there O'Brien family,

Well another week has quickly come and gone! It continues to amaze me just how quick the time goes by! 

Some cool new is that I already received my new companion, but Elder Berdon continues here as well! We are a trio until next week when Elder Berdon heads back home to Ciudad Victoria. My new companion's name is Elder Guillen. It is pronounced. Gee-yen. Sounds almost Chinese right? Haha.  He is from El Salvador. He is a pretty cool guy.  Elder Alvarado (my old companion) was his trainer actually. It is quite obvious because he acts and says stuff just like Elder Alvarado did. Cool fact: Elder Guillen knows Elder Joshua Holmstead. Elder Holmstead served in the ward of Elder Guillen in El Salvador. Small world right? :)

It sounds like Ashley had a pretty darn good birthday! Happy Birthday Ashley! :) 16! Watch out haha. I hope you really enjoyed it!

We haven't had the chance to make mashed potatoes yet. Some members wanted to make them but we have been really busy lately!  Jose will hopefully have his interview today for his baptism but we will see how that goes! We also have another family that accepted baptismal dates yesterday. We have the goal that they can get baptized at the end of this month. Just in time for the general conference right? :)

Oh I have to tell you what I ate yesterday. Cow stomach soup. haha. It is called Menudo. Look it up on the internet. It was kind of weird but good. It didn't make me sick or anything so that is a good sign. I have a stronger stomach than I thought! ;) 

Not too much else has been going on lately. We are working to find some more references and new investigators. It has been a bit slow but we continue looking! We are trying to work a lot more with the members right now so they will have more confidence to talk with their friends. We have received a couple references this week so we are praying all will go really well for them and that we can truly help them.

One thing I am seeing as a missionary is the importance of the true conversion and testimony. I feel like as a missionary I am truly strengthening myself in that manner. But I believe we all as saints in the church of Christ should be constantly striving for that. A brother in the church gave a talk yesterday about what it means to be a saint in the church of Christ. I was pondering that quite a bit. I believe if we really understood just who we were as saints in Christ's church we would see ourselves and the world differently. 

I hope that all is well in Idaho and that the Lord blesses you all! Remember to continue to study and pray. The Lord will bless you in more ways than you can imagine. 

Happy Birthday Ashley, Grandpa, and Mariah!

Love,

Elder O'Brien :)

Mexican taters

Hey family!

 

Well it was another pretty good week! It's getting pretty warm but I'm enjoying it!

 

Not too much new stuff happening this week. Hopefully we will have a baptism this Saturday! We're really praying for that! His name is Jose and he has about a month listening to us. He started listening just a bit after I got here. He is a really cool guy he just isn't sure about his answer to the Book of Mormon yet. We'll keep working with him and see how it goes!

 

This last week was Zone Training. It was really good. There I got your Valentine's day package you sent and also some letters from Emily Christensen, the Farris family, the Seminary class, two from Abby and I think that's everyone. It was fun getting pictures from everyone and hearing how they are doing! Your package was way awesome also! I am loving the triple double stuffed Oreos and the Poptarts haha!

 

We also did divisions this week. I got to work with Elder MacCarthy. He was in the MTC with me so it was really fun to get us back together again. In the zone right now there are 4 of us that were in the MTC together! Pretty crazy huh? While on divisions I gave the baptismal invitation to someone. She answered me kind of weird. She said something about how we weren't going to be friends anymore? I am still a little confused haha. She still listens to us but we'll see how it goes with her.

 

Oh so some people down here were asking me about the food back home and I had to mention mashed potatoes of course. The problem is that I don't remember very well how to make them. Could you tell me the best way to make some mashed taters for them?

 

 

We are seeing improvement here in the church. There were 53 that went to sacrament meeting this week. A bit less than last week but a lot of less actives came this week and those that came the week before didn't come. Now we just need to get them all to come every week together! :)

 

I hope you all keep have a great week. Wish Mariah, Grandpa, and Ashley happy birthday for me! I hope they all have very happy birthdays! Keep being great and the Lord will bless you all! 

 

Love ya loads!

Elder O'Brien :)

A Prophesied Time

Hey family!

Well it sounds like this past week was quite the crazy one! All the news really excited me! 

That is so awesome that Taylor got his mission call! How does he feel? I didn't even know there were missionaries out there! I quickly got on lds.org to check the news of the church there in Bulgaria. It sounds like it will be quite the adventure for him! 

Kate also got her call! I was checking out the information for where she will be. It sounds like it will be awesome! WAY cold but quite the experience! 

Wish them both the best of luck! :)

Lexi is engaged! WOW! That is nuts! How does she feel? Better, how does bishop feel? Haha! Poor guy! ;) Tell her congratulations also! 

A mission in Nampa! Are you serious! That is super weird haha. Way awesome thought! We'll all have to step it up in Idaho! :)

Well this week went by extremely fast! I couldn't believe it truly! We are starting to meet a lot more people which really excites me and some are beginning to activate themselves in the church. The work is really progressing here which is exciting! We are also wanting to start a class of mission preparation here in Nueva Italia for all the youngins that have the age for the mission. We are waiting to receive some Preach My Gospels but we will be getting those right away! Thanks a million for the letters. I'll be getting those to them right away!

 I should be getting some letters off to people soon. Tell them sorry I take so long. I am such a slacker in that aspect!

Not too much else is new! One cool thing I have been reading in Doctrine in Covenants 88. Starting in verse 72. It gets pretty cool about what is happening right now among us. We truly live in a prophesied time and we are seeing many of those prophecies becoming reality. I am so excited to be hearing about everyone going on their missions because I know we are really building the Lord's kingdom here upon the earth!

So far I am good with everything. The only other thing would be some goodies ;) Haha.

Thanks for all your support! Keep being great everyone! Love ya all! 

Elder O'Brien :)

Good moments

Dear Family O'Brien,

 

Hey! Well I am in Nueva Italia still! We had a couple of nice warm days here but they say the heat hasn't even started! I think I am going to buy a hammock haha.

 

Well this week was a bit slower but we are working out the details! We did have a couple good moments though. While on divisions with Elder Garcia we put a baptismal date with an investigator who seems pretty interested! We just need to help him to start coming to church. He and his wife are reading in the Book of Mormon and they liked it a lot. He said they learned a lot from reading it!

 

Today was a really good day also! Elder Garcia and Elder McCarthy came from the other área and we made tacos together. They were way good actually. We made them with like a camp fire so they had that good outdoor taste but it was way hot! Haha. It was already hot but then we built a fire which made it horrible haha.

 

We had an activity this week but it was slightly slow. They did a gift exchange for Valentines day which was fun! I got a big bag of chocolates which was nice! I'll send a pic.

 

We also had a good zone conference this week! It was actually really good! President wrote me today and told me he had big expectations for me here. I better not let him down right?

 

We are looking to have an even better week this next week! We have plans to start a mission prep class because there are a ton of mission age kids here. We committed one to go on a mission this week. I was so excited when he told us that he decided to go. His family is a bit against it but we're going to help them all out!

May the Lord continue blessing you all! Love ya all!

 

Elder O'Brien :)

Nueva Italia

Dear Family,

 

Well here I am in Nueva Italia. All is really well here. It is true that it is a bit warmer but it is nice. I don't mind it so far but I hear in a couple months it will be horrible haha. I spent nearly half the week in divisions in the city of Uruapan but I was still able to meet a lot of great people here in New Italy.

 

It is a branch of about 60 members going to church right now. We have found a couple good future missionaries and some less acitves we are hoping to help also. There are also a couple investigators ready for baptism so we are going to be working to help them with that.

 

My new companion is Elder Berdon. He has 23 months in the mission so he is about done haha. 

 

Some members here tell me they are going to make iguana for me to eat with them. How's that sound? Haha. We actually saw one yesterday in the church and it was enormous! A member grabbed it by the tail but it got away. I'll be looking forward to that!

It sounds like you all have some good plans for the week! I hope all goes really well with everything! Keep staying busy!

I don't have too many pics right now but I'll be looking for chances to take some this week!

 

Sorry it is short but know I love you all and I'll have a good email for you all next week!

Love ya!

 

Elder O'Brien