Week 83: Teresa Rodriguez, The newest member de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de Los Santo de Los Ultimo Dias!

Hey family! 

Glad to hear that no one is being lame at Bear Lake and that you are all enjoying the time up there! I wish I could be there! Make some plans for next year! haha 

This past week was a great week!! First off Teresa's Baptism went amazing!!!!!!!! is was such a good baptism! I was so happy! We were pretty nervous about how is was going to go because no one form the ward ever shows up to them but there were a few that came so it was good! It was one of the most spiritual baptism on my mission though! This was something she has been wanting for a Very VERY long time! I felt the spirit very strong as I watched her be baptized! She also brought her son and daughter to the baptism. They felt the spirit too, her daughter was crying and I was talking to her son after and jokingly I told him he was next. He just kinda looked and me and said "yeah, I would like to get baptized" so more seriously we talked to him about it! He came to church the next day and said he "got a few spiritual slaps", but (it) was "what he needed to hear".

We taught him that afternoon and set the date for the 17 of August!! It was so amazing to see the change in him! Just looking at his picture is a good idea of him. ;)  I got to confirm her and it was also a great experience for (me) to be able to assist in giving someone such an important gift!

That Saturday we also had splits with the assistants. Elder Cope came with us. He has been one of my best bros. on the mission. He is a big soccer player and he actually played on a team with Zach Read and Phill Neworth so we know some people in common. But Elder Viitanen, Cope and I are like the three amigos in the mission! It was so fun to all be together for an exchange. We were chatting how it was almost unreal how it happened haha!

Another awesome investigator that he have is Hugo Garcia...sadly not the Garcia family. His wife and kids left him shortly after we started teaching them....it was sad. He jokingly said "ah its because y'all started coming over" but I don't think he was 100% joking. But ni modo he is still down to work double shifts Saturday night to come to church on 2 hours of sleep! he is so awesome! I wish we could have taught his whole family but I'm glad he now has the gospel to help him out. We also have a date with him for the 17 of August! Yesterday in church he was cracking jokes in priesthood and just going around talking to people like he is already a member. He smokes so as of right now that is his hold up. But things are looking bright. 

Con amor y respeto

Elder Erickson

Teresa's Baptism

Elder Viitanen, Teresa Rodriguez, Elder Erickson

The Three Amigos

Elder Erickson,  Elder Cope,  Elder Viitanen

Week 82: Repentance Works

Que tal familia!?

Hope all is well for you in your preparations for Bear Lake! I'm pretty jealous! I miss that place so much! It's the best place ever, no doubt. Being with family, a chill environment, water front, open beach, awesome food! all that is missing is me! haha 

This week in our area we have some really good things going on! We have so much potential. We have made a plan and set our goals for the transfer of what we to have by the end and how we are going to get them and doing everything we can to reach those goals. One of which was to find a family and this transfer. We have found a family of 4 already! La familia Garcia. The husband came to church and in 5 days has already read 30 pages of The Book of Mormon. When he read the part of the "whore of the whole earth" he said he was really confused and decided to pray. He said after he prayed he had the thought come to him that it isn't talking of a person or any one thing but of the temptation of the devil and all the evil in the world. It was so amazing to see how he is already understanding personal revelation! He is good friends with some converts of about 1 year! we have set the date with them for the 17 of Aug. Its going to take some divine help but when you are on the Lord's mandato you get the Lord's ayuda! 

With Teresa Rodriguez, she has had one of the craziest lives I have ever heard of. She has been so humbled and has so much faith. She is over coming so much. She is a really strong women. She told us a story of how she was going to a church in Mexico and she stopped going and someone told her she wouldn't see the next Sunday and that week someone shot her in the leg and she still has part of the bullet in her leg! its crazy! She has had so much other stuff happen with deaths in the family and what not but those pains are what cause her to smoke. We told her to call us whenever she had the desire to smoke and we would talk to her. She called us last night at 11:45! We talked to her for a bit and she just told us stories and we told her a few to try and get her mind off of it, then read some scriptures! It was funny, felt like I was in Jr. high again talking on the phone with my crush into the wee hours of the night. 

She also came to a baptism this weekend! She sat front row and after the baptism she was crying! When we asked her how she felt she said "mi corazon destapo'" she said how when he went under (the water) then came up she felt like her heart was unclogged and all the pain and guilt just exploded out and was gone for a second.   We are going to give her a blessing today at a members house. I have learned so much from her and how repentance works and the blessing it is to all of us! I can't imagine life without it! make sure you use it! The only thing more stupid than sinning, is not repenting! 

Con amor y respeto

Elder Erickson

ps we had another mini-missionary...he was different (he just came from cheer camp) but we still worked hard! haha

Elder Erickson, Elder Viitanen and mini-missionary

Week 81: Brothers Reunited

Well Elder E and Elder V are REUNITED! haha yeah!

I'm pumped! 

Elder Viitanen is my new comp! Its so great, none of this awkward first week trying to figure out how things are going to work out between the two missionaries and learn each others life! We just jumped right into it! We are great friends and that makes the missionary work so much more fun! A lot has changed since we were together, we were both pretty young missionaries, now we got a little more time under our belts and things are going great! 

We've been doing a lot more work in getting the members with us and it's making a big difference with our relationship with the ward. This week was quite eventful though. On Saturday we had a pretty big lesson with Teresa, She is a lady who has been through A LOT in her life. She is a crazy tough women and could really use the gospel. Missionaries have been finding her where ever she goes. When we started teaching her things would not sink in, at all...we would teach one point at a time of the plan of salvation and then review it. By the next time we saw her she'd forgotten it. But just recently she read Lehi's dream and could describe and give the interpretation of it! It was an amazing change, It reminds me a lot of the change that we (Elder Vittanen and I) saw in Yaneth! She has come to church three weeks now! and every time is opening up more and more. But we had a lesson with her on Wed. about the word of wisdom because she is overcoming smoking. Elder Viitanen brought out a good thought about what's causing her to smoke and how she has some pain that (makes) wants her (want) to smoke, so we set up an atonement lesson and left her some scriptures to read. We planned a bomb lesson for her. So Sat. before the lesson Elder Viitanen gets sick and passes out and just drops on the porch of an appointment haha. He was so out of it...I think it was just Heat Exhaustion and dehydration but we made it home and had about an hour before the appointment. He was down to come and just sit there but it really wasn't a good idea since he couldn't remember the last half hour of his life. But we got some other elders who didn't have plans to come with us and we exchanged for the appointment. They were English elders but it was ok because we had some members! It was such a good lesson!!!! So spiritual! She will be getting baptized on the 27th! :) 

Con amor y Respeto

Elder Erickson

 After Elder  Levia left, the place was destroyed...then we came in dropped our stuff and Elder Viitanen pulled out what he needed and then we left and worked haha....after a couple days of working hard we needed to clean ;) we just couldn't find time

...but we finally did...its such a nice place now.

... a long with our working hard..this was our dinner! haha I'm eating 

yogurt...Elder Viitanen is eating beans! We had like 5 minutes or so ;) 

Week 80: God Is Love

Querido Familia,

First off an update on transfers...I'm not sure if I told you but this was Elder Leivas last transfer, so he is heading home to Chili ya. This week was a lot of saying good-byes and what not. It kinda made me think a little bit more in coming home than normal. Ever since I left Denver Harbor until now I haven't even really thought about it but now that I see him packing up it scares me for when that sad day comes my way. 

My new companion is very possibly Elder Erickson, or Elder Viitanen again! They both are going to be Zone Leaders so we'll see. I would love to be with Elder Viitanen again, we had so much fun together. 

I talked with the missionaries in DH and they said that Ortegas finished all the classes for the temple. Hno got his recommend but sadly Hna went to Mexico! so she will be back in a week or so then they will be going! So it should be really really soon! I'm so stoked! 

Our 4th of July was just a normal day. We had a grill session with our district for lunch, we still did hour of power. We had a miracle at 6:59! We had just got done talking to some guy who doesn't believe in God or anything, which I still can't wrap my head around, and we got a call from a wrong number we had dialed earlier in the day. We ended up contacting her and getting her address! Turns out she lived in the mission, even in the zone! We gave the referral to some Hermanas and they went and visited her on Saturday and said she is really great! 

That was Elder Leivas last contact in the Hour of Power. It was  pretty cool.

Other than that this week has been a lot of running around. We are getting 25 more missionaries. We have gotten between 20 and 30 every transfer since the first of this year. We will double the number of missionaries we had. We also had 3 scheduled baptisms that fell through and that is greatly our role as zone leaders to make sure that those things don't happen so we had a lot of things going on! It was a pretty stressful week. 

I just want you and everyone else to know that I love my mission! Houston is a great place and will always be holy ground for me! I've seen so many miracles and learned so much here. I know that it is because I have had divine help! I Know now more than ever that Jesus Christ is my Savior, Redeemer, and Brother! I Know I have a Heavenly Father that Loves me. I know God calls Prophets. And I Know God is LOVE

Con amor Y respeto

Elder Erickson

Week 79: Covenant With God

Que Onda!!?

Family! How is everyone doing!? heard its heating up back there, sorry to hear that. Hope you can stay somewhere cool. If it gets too hot, hop on a bike. The breeze will cool you right down ;)

This week we had a great week of miracles! 

First off is Wendy's baptism! This was a very stressful road to get where we got but we made it so all is well! To give a little more background on her, She is a "Rancho" meaning she grew up in the sticks away from all the city in El Salvador. So her Education/ Language/ Manners aren't really where most the other youth's are, the Young Women's president, who has been so great in taking her in and caring for her, described the first couple of weeks she was there - "The best way I can tell it to you short is some what like Tarzan." haha. Not lady like and foul language. She wasn't like a savage but church and all this was new to her. 

She told us a super awesome story the other day. We were teaching her the importance of the covenant she will be tacking at baptism and she told us how on the way over here her cousin got really sick and they both said a prayer, neither having ever attended church before, and promised God in the prayer that if he allowed them to make it to the states they would both find a church and get baptized and be faithful to that church. The amazing part was that when she got here we were already teaching her grandmother! It was so cool to hear that story and how she already had it in her mind that she was making this covenant with God to fulfill with her promise before. She said her cousin is getting baptized as well, in NEW YORK, how she ended up there no one knows but she did! Wendy doesn't know what church but she knows she is getting baptized! It would be crazy, but seems natural, that the missionaries found here there too!

Wendy is living with her Grandma but there is also her "ex-Aunt" who has been having her watch her baby and stay there, she is not a good influence on Wendy and doesn't like the church. I don't have time to tell all of it but that's where all the problems came from. It was pretty nasty! but Hna Guajardo, the YW leader helped so much! 

Another miracle is after Elder Golden came we set our goals pretty high. And we worked really hard to get them. really hard! We hit all our goals and exceeded total number of lessons the only one we didn't have was we were short 1 Less-Active lesson.  We had a good week and taught more lessons that we planned so we were pretty content at 8:45 to start wrapping up the night. But then we both decided we came too close to quit. Elder Leiva called a less-active who lived kinda far, and who we had already tried once earlier. He answered and said we could come over! 

When we got there He told us that his mom passed away on Friday and he hadn't seen her in 10 years! It was good that we were able to talk with him and share our testimonies of The Plan of Salvation! It was a testimony builder to me of setting Goals and then including and depending on the Lord to fulfill them! and also the Love God has for all of his Children. Even though this man hasn't been going to church and doing exactly what he should, He still looks after him!

We also had a mini-missionary come with us for a few days! He was cool, not quite ready yet but he'll get there! He is the only member so far in his immediate family so props to him. But he was always catching some shut eye when he could ;) we worked hard! haha. 

Con amor Y respeto

Elder Erickson

Elder Erickson, Wendy, Wendy's Grandma, Elder Leiva

Mini-Missionary, Elder Erickson, Elder Leiva

Mini-Missionary catching some shut eye.

Week 78: Wendy Got Her Answer!!!!

Que Tal?!

Well this week went by super fast! We had a much better week than last week! I was getting pretty frustrated last week with the way things were going but this week was much better! The zone had some highs in a couple groups of numbers!

First off with Elder Golden;   We had to give zone reports to him at the start of the meeting. Elder Clayton and I were sitting on the stand representing the 2 zones at the conference. Elder Clayton went first and gave a pretty good report. Different than the way ours was laid out but it  was good....then Elder Golden got up and picked it apart about everything he did wrong...haha. I started sweating bullets! I was sitting right next to President Crawford and he just kept slapping my knee and whispering, "can you make that adjustment".....I was having to do math and divide all our numbers and make things different. I already had it typed and had given a copy to Elder Golden so I couldn't change it much. 

But after about 20 minutes of correcting, which really was good and helpful and done in a loving way, it was my turn. As I stood up President Crawford said "make him laugh or something to start to change the mood a little".  So I got up and said something stupid about my report being done because he gave it just how mine was or something...it made him laugh. Then I went on with the report and he didn't say anything after really. Not because it was so much better but because I think he didn't want to take the time.  But I was grateful for that, it saved me a little bit of humiliation. haha.

Second we went to the Training conference yesterday as well. It was so good! There was a lot of things that I think will be good. I realized I need to repent with my "less active" work.  Ive never really been a fan because that has been the reason for a lot of time wasted in the past but we'll figure it out! It would have been better if our ward mission leader came. 

This morning in conference call, President Crawford said that the change in missions with technology and the church tours will take place over time and in selected missions. As of right now we are still the same. 

Good news. Wendy got her answer!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is going to be baptized Saturday at 3:00! We are having to teach quick but we feel that she will be ready! 

We were also able to meet with Esequiel again, he is still pretty bummed out about his mother but we are going back on Wednesday. 

We also had a miracle with Ivan. He wasn't all that interested when we started to teach him but the more we talked the more he opened up. He said he is losing faith in God. Then as we talked more he said, "yeah I don't know about God, He doesn't really answer me, I'm so confused,  just the other day I was asking him what I needed to do, cuz just like you said "there are so many paths to take." Then he kept talking for a sec, we were both like wooooo buddy slow down! What did you ask him? Then we were able to talk to him and help him realize that God sent him us! It was a very spiritual lesson by the end! I'm super excited for him!

I know I am weak in my writings but pray for the spirit and you will be able to read this and feel the love I put into it and understand the meaning, despite the errors. And I, Elder Erickson write this with my own hand ;)

Con amor y respeto

Elder Erickson

Week 77: Enough Drive to Keep Going

Como andan!?

Thanks for the pictures of you trip! It looks like you had so much fun! I would love to go to Lake Tahoe! It look like such an amazing place. Nothing will ever beat Bear Lake but it did look like it was a fun place to go! I hope I can see more pictures soon!  Glad you got a suite instead of that other room. I don't think I could even see the carpet! haha but there is nothing wrong with being a little close right? haha y'all are family. 

This week was a hot one! Summer is here. When we got in the car after church it said 104. Good things bike come with a breeze once you start moving ;) It was a pretty frustrating week though, no one was home and we felt like not a lot of people want to talk to us. And the few that we did the devil would take them away. Example: we found one guy who was very interested but as soon as we really started to share what we do, the bus he was waiting for pulled up and he was gone.

We had so much going on this week that I never even had a full day in the area. We had a leadership training and 2 exchanges! On one of them we did some service and took out a concrete floor. It was fun but I haven't used a sledge hammer in a long long time! I'm still sore! and I have the hand of a 5 year old princess!! I have 3 big blood blisters and 4 other nice size blisters! haha. but I was able to get a good work out so that felt good! 

I did get my TRX sent off. It was a miracle how we got it. There isn't even a ups store in our zone so I took it when I went on exchanges with the AP's hoping they would have one but the closest one was is the wrong direction from where we were going so we just went on faith that we would see a UPS truck so I brought it with me...luckily we found one and I was able to give it to him!

Another miracle that kept me going this week happened yesterday. We were having a Zone fast to find families. We were breaking the fast at 5:00 and from morning until about 4:30 no one was in the street or answering the door. We went and tried Ezequiel but he didn't answer either, or come to church. But as we were trying to plan what to do next I sat down on the steps in the apartments where Ezequiel lives and we heard a little kid yell happy fathers day. We both kinda perked up and went and knocked... hoping to find a family. We knocked twice and nothing happened, but could still heard the kid.  So we went for three and struck out, we started walking down the stairs...but then a man opened the door! He let us in and we were able to talk to him! Turns out he went to church in Honduras a few times! So that was our miracle of the week that gave us enough drive to keep going!

Love y'all! this Wednesday we have a conference with Elder Golden from the 70! Its going to be good, we've heard he is pretty blunt! haha. 

Cuidense!

Con amor y respeto

Elder Erickson