Don't look back

Hey there family! Well another week has come and gone and just as we had all expected it was way too quick!

Leadership council was good. Long for sure! I'm pretty sure it was my last one though so we made sure to enjoy it! I'm sure I will include some pictures of the zone leaders there. This month the zone has the goal of 6 baptisms. We are looking over what we have right now and we feel pretty confident. It will just require the diligence, and spiritual sanctification as always. We are really excited also because Ivan will be one of those baptisms this upcoming Saturday. He came with us to the general conference yesterday and it is just obvious that he is super ready and chosen of the Lord! We are now just working out the final details so that everything will be ready for him. We are also working with his little brother Braulio and we are hoping that all of his family will open up a bit more to listen! Keep that in your prayers!

The zone training also went really well. Not too much to report there. There weren't many changes in the mission so we will keep up the good work that they told us we are doing!

I think this was one of my favorite general conferences! I really focused on only writing the things down that the Spirit said to me instead of just what the speakers said. I had about 2 or three bullet points for each talk but reviewing those points again today in the morning I could really see the ways by which the Lord spoke to me this conference and allowed me to see what I need to be doing to be better. I hope that you all enjoyed it a lot also!

Sounds like you all had quite the time getting everything ready for homecoming. Was it this weekend that just passed? How did Ashley enjoy it?

Haha I was actually thinking the same thing mom about the Spanish speakers. I said ''Wow, I sure hope I don't talk like that''. Haha. I get pretty good English practice here so I am sure I won't be too bad haha ;)

Overall this week was a really good one and I am glad that it went so well for all of you also! I know the Lord is blessing us very much. One thing that really stuck out to me from one of the talks was ''Don't look back''. I realized sometimes we get too comfortable in how we are for all the success that we have achieved. One thing we must always realize is that there is still MUCH work to be done. That is one thing we have for certain in this life is that the work will never be done until He comes again. We must continue to work with all diligence in what we have been called to do while the daylight lasts. May we remember that this is the greatest work in which we could possibly be engaged. I am so thankful I still have these weeks to continue my labor here and then I will be ready to continue to work in the next assignment to which the Lord calls me!

Have a great week! Love ya tons!

Love,

Elder O'Brien

The Lord's promised blessings

Dearest Family,

Well Elder Garcia and I had another really great week. Well it started off really great at least! Our first couple days were really great! We went to the FHE that we had planned out. At first we were a little bummed out because nobody had showed up but right before we started we found out their family members who live next door had a son who is less active and the son's wife isn't a member. We invited them over but after a while it was starting to get late so we decided to start. But after about 20 minutes he and his wife showed up. We shared a really nice message about the ways that the gospel can and does bless our lives.Overall it was great and we set up another appointment with them. The son did listen to us but he told us that his wife preferred not to. That was a bummer but the great part was that on Sunday he showed up with the rest of his family which was really exciting! 

I think overall the greatest lesson that we had this week was with a less active member. She is a widow and is having a really hard time making ends meet right now. We had planned to teach her about the sacrament but in the moment as we were talking with her we felt it would be much better to speak with her about tithing. Wow, I had never had such a great lesson about tithing in my life! We explained the principle tithing and the Lord's promised blessings for us as we kept the commandment. She said to us that she already knew. She then continued saying, "But how do you expect me to pay tithing if we don't even have money to pay to eat, or the rent, or the light bill?" Truly that really hit me hard. In that moment we really felt inspired to explain the principle of faith. Wow was that great. Even greater was that she came to church that Sunday and in the class of gospel principles that we gave we talked about faith in Jesus Christ. She gave a great testimony to the rest of the people there about her experience with tithing and how she would now be paying because she knew that the Lord would bless her. That was one of those moments when you feel, I am doing my job. Her daughter who was becoming a bit inactive has been coming more often and we heard she was called as President of YW! Great time we are having with them.

We continue to teach Ivan! He is the nephew of Liliane, the lady how got baptized a few weeks ago. He came to church again with us, his little brother also! We hope that he will be ready to be baptized the week after General Conference! Speaking of that, crazy it's almost conference again right?!

Elder Garcia and I continue to work hard . Right now we are trying to find ways to work better with the ward and have more success. We talked with the Elders Quorum this week and we hope that it will work out the way that we planned so that they can do some visits with us! Really we have seen a lot of the work and growth within a ward depends firstly upon the members and their desires so we hope as we work with them more we can find that success we look for.

It sounds like everyone is doing really great back home. I hope that is the case! Know that I am doing really great and I am enjoying my time a lot! Can't wait to hear from you all! Have a really great week!

Love you! :)

Elder O'Brien