Monday, Ocotober 22, 2012

Hola Mi Familia! Another week gone, and it sounds like you all made it through your craziness last week! Un montón de felicidades a Elise y Alex y sus concursos! I was thinking of you both Saturday. I am just bursting with happiness that one act was dominated! And Megan got Best Actress! That is fantastic! I sure hope it was recorded so I can see it when I get back! Good luck with State! I have been thinking a lot about Spelling Bee lately with it being that time of year! So many good memories that I miss. Good times!!! That nice that you all were able to spend time with Aunt Melon and you all enjoyed Blue Willow...you're making me jealous! I have heard of Jerico Road! I really like them! I'm jealous that you heard them! And I LOVE "Homeward Bound"! One of my favs! Thanks for sending the packages mom! I'm sure I'll get them soon! I am supes jealous about the BYU game that you all will go to! Are they going to do a fireside and tailgating like they did at Florida State? That should be fun! I miss college football! This week was pretty decent. A little stressful at times, but such is the life of a missionary! We had a reference from one of the Youth for us to visit. It is a young family. The mom was just there with her 2 kids. She started off asking questions about the 2nd coming of Christ and the 3 days of darkness and asked if the world was going to end in December. We assured her that the world wouldn't end and that the Lord always reveals to his prophets what will happen. Like he did with Samuel the Lamanite about the death of Christ. We then transitioned into there are things we can do to be prepared for when it comes and be saved or whatever and then we taught "The Gospel Of Jesus Christ" and told her if she and her family followed the 5 steps of having faith, repenting, being baptized, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end, they wouldn't have to worry about a thing. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted and said she wanted us to talk to her husband (who was working at the time). So we have to talk with the husband and teach him too and hopefully we will have a family of 4 to be baptized in a few weeks! And thankfully they are legally married so we won't have to deal with that mess! It was really great having members (the girl who gave us the reference and her sister) present to help with the lesson and give testimony of what we were teaching. It is always so great to have a member present to have someone the investigator knows and can easily trust in! So we are hoping for them! Also we have been teaching a family that is a reference from the sister that works in DIF. Unfortunately this family was separated this week because of the abusive alcoholic father. But they really want to better things and work to be a better more responsible family. Here I go again on a family rant! The mission has just made me so thankful for my own family! I am so thankful that I have loving parents who love their kids and who love each other! Parents who aren't abusive and are good example for their kids. I have never heard my father raise his voice to my mother and I am thankful for the love they share. I am so thankful every single day for the parents I have and for the family I am blessed with. I cannot wait to be reunited with you all and share this new love I have for you all! I am so thankful that we are sealed for Time and all eternity and that we can be together forever! You guys are the greatest! I love you all! Raul still has not made it to church which is quite frustrating! He has now passed 2 baptismal dates that we put and so now we need to think of something else. We are planning to teach him the importance of keeping the Sabbath day and going to church as well as the importance of baptism. We are also planning to have some members go with us to the lessons. So hopefully this will help him. Hector and his family are progressing so nicely! They just need to get baptized right now! They are the greatest and we always have a good time visiting them! This week we are going to teach the law of chastity and I have come up with a story to tell with visuals to help explain this commandment. I will have to take pictures of my visuals, I'm quite proud of them! I plan to relate our lives to being Prince and Princess of our King (Heavenly Father) and that there are those who want our inheritance (the power to have a family) and how important it is to save ourselves for someone who wants to cherish this inheritance that we have. I am hoping it goes well like I have planned. I will give a report later on. This week we had the opportunity to give quite a few blessings to a few different people. I am so grateful to hold the Priesthood of God and the power to help bless and heal people! Each time my testimony grows of the power of the priesthood and of how much God loves his children! Every one of those blessings were to none members as well, so it is great that they have the opportunity to receive these blessings and see the power of the priesthood and how it can bless their lives if they join the church! Good news! I've finally learned how to make Frijoles or refried beans! They are my favs along with flour tortillas! Believe you me, we will be having quite a Mexican Feast in a mere 15 months! So yesterday in church the Branch Pres. wasn't there because he had to go to Hermosillo, so we were in charge with the Elders' Quorum Pres. Luckily we got him to conduct the meeting, but we had to give the Sunday school class to the youth. My comp delegated me to give it and unfortunately we didn't have a manual to go off of so we had to wing it. Of course we had a blast with me teaching and I made us have a good ole time! But it was tough and a little stressful not know what to teach. This past Friday was also Elder Cruz's birthday and so in the morning I made him pancakes and I bought him a cake from the Sister who owns the cake shop! We didn't do anything too special, but I was nice to him! :) ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner