Pictures of our newest members

Here are pictures of our newest members


Noemy  with Elders Kulbeth and Davis







Olivia Guzman with Adrian and Vida




Sergio Manzo: good friends with Ramon Rodrigues




Ramon Rodrigues: So strong in the gospel.  Already gave the talk at Sergio's baptism.




All the children love Elder Pack including the Chavez children at their baptisms.






Roberto and Rafaela Chavez with children

El Fin

Oh yeah. For my last Sunday in our Spanish branch I was able to get up and talk in Spanish without notes for fifteen minutes. Obviously the Lord helped me because I still couldn't understand much after church when everyone came up to give Glen and I farewell hugs. Of course that could have been because I was sobbing.

There have been a lot of "lasts".
 
The whole zone threw us a surprise good-bye party after our zone meeting. It was with balloons and cake that they made themselves.  I will sure miss associating with the young Elders and Sister missionaries.  We loved them.

We took a last trip with the Malhums to San Francisco and then the next day to the Oakland Temple. Glen really wanted to see the Temple before we went home.  I wanted to see what I could remember from 50 years ago when Uncle Louis was working on the temple.  Not much.  But we have really enjoyed the time we have spent with the other Senior Missionary couple, the Malhums.  Today was our last luncheon together after district meetings. Hopefully we will see them again after their mission here is over.

Packing up has been very unpleasant.  We have one pile of mission boxes that will go to some other Senior Missionary couple somewhere, along with the furniture.  Then we have one huge pile we are going to try to cram into our car.  And then we have another pile of things to distribute to the branch members because there is no way it is all going to be able cram into our car.

We have been doing all this around our missionary work.  They haven't called anyone as the new Relief Society president so I passed everything along to my counselors.  They haven't called anyone to replace Glen as Ex. Sec. so he is trying to tie everything up to hold them for awhile.

Plus he had the Spanish speaking Patriarch come up from Fresno and give blessings to five of our members.  And he pushed himself really hard to get Pastor Infante (80 years old) and his wife Rafaela to the temple for their own endowments and to be sealed together afterwards. Most of the members of the branch with recommends attended.

It has been amazing to see how much help we get from the Lord when we are on His errand.  We have loved being missionaries.  It has been serious work.  And it has paid serious rewards.  We see much that could still be done.  But we have no regrets because we worked every second to fulfill His purpose in sending us to the California Fresno mission.

Ready or Not

We are on the last days of our mission. That is a bitter-sweet thought.  Of course we are looking forward to returning to our family and friends and home.  But there is still so much that the Spanish Branch here needs help with. We will serve to the very last minute and leave the rest to the Lord.

When we think of the amazing experiences that we have had, the big baptisms are not what comes to mind first. Instead, we think about the four men recently ordained Elders. We think about working with an inspired LDS Employment Specialist.  We remember the Sacrament being passed by three little old men for the first time.  The spirit was really strong then.  We think about the new members being baptized in the temple for their deceased family members and the old members doing the work for their families and being sealed to their deceased parents. We remember the little man sitting there dressed up in his new Goodwill suit and tie waiting for the missionaries to come and teach him the missionary lessons each week. We think of the Relief Society sisters working together to make 400 tamales for the Christmas dinner. And bringing them their first dances at the socials.

We are especially thankful to be a part of people catching the vision of God's plan for them.  Just showing them what is offered in the scriptures makes their eyes sparkle. Hearing the plan of the restoration and the plan of salvation really makes a difference to them. Having a goal of getting to the temple gives their lives new purpose.

We learned to pull as a perfect team with the revolving four young missionaries assigned to our Branch. They gave legs and enthusiasm to our simple wisdom. We truly loved working with the other missionaries in this mission, both the young and the Seniors. We fed them at Zone parties, after meetings, and a hundred dinners. We loved them.

In the few days we have left, we have lined up the members to receive Patriarchal Blessings from a Spanish speaking Patriarch from another stake. We will take an 80 year old couple to be sealed in the temple. And we will invite every single struggling member and investigator to "come unto Christ".

What a blessing it is to go on a mission as a Senior Couple.  Your biggest achievement is learning to live and work together 24/7.  Your biggest growth is studying the gospel together. Your biggest joy is seeing conversion in the lives of the people you teach.

Ready or not we are leaving one area of service and moving on to another.  We are so grateful for the opportunity to serve with the Spanish speaking people, and others, in the California, Fresno Mission.

Can He Trust Us?

The Lord asks us to do things all day, every day and then leaves it up to us to do it or don't. If you don't, he still loves you.  He still helps you. He still watches over you.
But if you DO what he asks you to do, then he trusts you. And he will give you more and more inspiration of good things to do as long as you are willing to act on it.  If you don't act on it then the time will pass and he won't be sending you anything new for awhile.

That is where the parable of the talents comes in.  If the Master gives you talents and you use them and increase the value, then he can trust you with more. Talents can be skills, gifts of the spirit, and inspiration of what to do and who to do it for.

We have seen this happen in our Spanish Branch over the last 1 1/2 years.  We are now having baptisms weekly. New converts are leading and teaching others.  Branch missionaries are going out to find the less actives and visit the members. And they are holding family nights together.

When the members became strong enough and willing to act, the Lord sent us new members. When he knew the Branch was ready to teach each other, friendship each other, and give everyone a calling then he sent us people prepared to be baptized.

It has been a real joy to see this Branch grow and the members take care of each other. Some of our newest members are Ramon and the Chavez family.

Just Pinch Me

At church today we had an attendance of 63. It is so fun to stand at the chapel door and just look at all the benches filling up. But here is the amazing part.  Three people came to church today for the first time in a long time. One was for the first time since we have been here. They are people that we have visited at least 20 times each over our time on the mission. And suddenly, they were there. One sister with her son.  One sister with her three children. And one young woman that we have invited for forever. If you could have seen how their faces shone.  They knew they had chosen to do what was right and they were loving it.

And along the same lines, we have completely run out of space to sit in our Relief Society room! We have 20 seats. And we have 20 sisters that come each week and three young children in a double classroom. We have 30 sisters that attend at least once in a three month period of time. What will we do when they all come at once? It is a wonderful problem to have, but it is a problem. While discussing it with the other ward that meets in the same building at the same time it was decided to ask if we can knock a wall out of the back of the room to make it three classrooms large! Amazing, we now have so many sisters attending that they have to knock a wall out to fit us all in. Seventeen months ago there were six sisters attending. The Lord is blessing us beyond measure and beyond seats!

This past week we worked toward taking the newest members to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead. Elder Pack helped some of them find family names to take, got them all interviewed, made appointments at the Temple, found rides for all 13 of us going, and got us all through for the baptisms! One sister is deathly afraid to go under water.  She panicked at her own baptism. But she had her grandmother's name to do. She let everyone go ahead of her.  We told her she could just do the confirmation if she couldn't do the baptism.  But in the end she said she wanted to do it, and she did it. The Spirit of Elijah has hit her so strong that she went right home and looked on her computer to find another family name to do. We worried who would continue to help this Branch with their family history after we leave, and now we know. We will train this sister and even though she has been a member only a month, with the Lord's help she will magnify this calling.

Another sister in the Branch actually has a car that runs fine. And she needs friendshipping. So when the Lord directed us to her name to give the Relief Society sisters a ride to the Temple each month, it was such a perfect blessing! He is helping us fill every need and responsibility this Branch will have after we are gone. It is amazing to watch His plan unfold. We are so relieved and so grateful.

Here are three of the four brand new church members that we took to do baptisms in the Fresno temple today. Elder Pack helped them find and do family names. It was a great day!

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Taken for a Ride

I cannot thank my Heavenly Father enough for carrying our car in his hands throughout this whole mission.

In one three day period we were asked to take a missionary that serves 1 1/2 hours south of our city to a doctor's appointment 1 1/2 hours north of our city. We took advantage of the travel to stop on the way home and teach an investigating family that we met months ago at a restaurant.  They really like us to visit but they live 40 minutes away.  We played the "I'm thinking of a color" game, which the six kids loved! We have long since passed the family referral on to the missionaries serving in that city and they visit to teach each week. The oldest son was very interested in lds.org.  You just never know how things will turn out!

Then Sunday some Sister Missionaries in a city north of us asked if we could take them to a city two hours south of us to a baptism in Visalia.  Both of these young sisters had taught the investigator who was now finally being baptized. It was amazing to see these missionaries' joy in seeing their previous investigator get baptized and to visit again with the ward members they knew who had come to support the baptism. They felt the Spirit so much there that they said they felt completely drained on the ride home.  It was well worth our efforts.

However, this week has been very hot. It has been like 110 degrees hot. Our car, tires, air-conditioning, and every part of the car has continued to work perfectly as we serve in this mission. We have put 27,000 miles on the car just since we have been on the mission. And the car is ten years old.

 It is a miracle to me that the Lord is carrying our car through this mission. It is needed to take the Relief Society sisters to the Temple in Fresno each month, an hour away.  And it is needed to pick up people who need rides to church each week, sometimes making the trip back and forth to the church multiple times to pick up everyone. Every week there is a Missionary District or Zone meeting and we drive to the next city to pick up missionaries and bring them here. And we volunteer to drive the missionaries that are on bikes to across town appointments when the temperature gets over 100.

And somehow it all gets done because the Lord is carrying us-and our car.

Jesus is the Christ

We had a fantastic activity recently.  It was the Missionary Music Fireside! It involved our Branch and the YSA Branch and the regular ward that all meet in our building. Anyone could perform and our Branch had a new member sing a Spanish song with his guitar. Yeah, I know.  But apparently that is OK for a fireside.  He was so nervous but it was wonderful. The spirit was so strong in that fireside. There were some very talented performers.  And then as our zone leaders pointed out right before they sang "it isn't always about the singing. Sometimes it is about the Spirit you bring."  The whole evening felt so good!

We had recently found and talked with a Jewish man and since he was a singer and had performed in numerous plays and sang  the National Anthem in 50 ballparks across the states, we invited him to sing at the fireside. Included in the fireside were two short church videos, I Am A Child Of God and Because Of Him. So Christ was sang about a lot and viewed a lot in the videos, which he accepted very well.

The next day we had an appointment with him and reviewed all that we have in common with the Jews themselves and the House of Israel. It was amazing.  When we moved onto Christ we said that many people were confused and disappointed at the time because Christ was killed.  We said it was necessary and he cut in and said "Yes, for the resurrection and to pay for people's sins".  Wow. We were amazed at how ready some people are to feel a testimony that Jesus is the Christ.

We love this work.