May 30, 2016

We had another really great week in the mission, had some members in our area pass by for some investigators that we have and bring them to church. We had plans for others to do the same but our investigators were sick. We are hoping that for the upcoming week they are feeling better and are able to come. The investigators that came this week are now one Sunday away from their baptism!

They had been having a little bit of trouble during the week because they heard a lot of people in the streets saying that the Mormons worship God in a bad way and a bunch of other stuff. We asked her how she felt at Church and if she thought we were worshiping God in a strange or bad manner. She said she liked it a lot and we were able to help her and her daughter regain the desire to be baptized.
During the week we also passed by for our convert Lucia that has never returned to church. We were able to teach her and then after we went with her and her daughter. She has been taught a little bit by the missionaries but not much. She shared with us a couple experiences that she has had with prayer and at the end of the lessons we asked her to say it. When she finished she bursted into tears and didn't know why. I explained to her that it was the spirit. She then told us that she would come to church because she wanted to feel like this again. It was a good week in all.
I hope everyone else had a good week as well!
Love Elder Ivie

May 23, 2016

This week we were able to have interviews with President Stutznegger. We had a really neat interview. He shared with me a random scripture that he pointed to in Preach My Gospel and it was D&C 67:10. He explained to me exactly what he interpreted it to mean and said it was talking to me. It has a really neat promise in there if you guys want to read it to find out what it is.
On Sunday we were able to help one of our investigators come to church for the first time. I think that she really liked it. We are hoping for the next week she will be able to come wit the rest of her family. we also had a couple other less actives that made it.
During the week we went and passed by for a member that was feeling sick the other Sunday. We got there and she had forgot that we were going to pass by. We shared a talk that my dad sent me about the logan temple and how the saints did everything they could to make it to church. Afterwards she shared with us that she has been struggling with coffee. She says she has talked to the bishop and he said if she can be clean from coffee for one month she can get it back. She has been clean for a month but she told us that 30 minutes before we knocked (yelled) outside her house, she had the urge to make herself a cup of coffee. If we didnt pass by, she would have lost all that she had been working for. It was a really neat lesson. Afterwards it started to rain and we had to wait for it to stop because it was super strong. The roads were like rivers of mud.
Another day we ran into a drink guy that we had contacted before. He dragged us into his house and as showing us what he was making with all his chicken intestines. He was pulling all the junk out of them to make tacos. We then went to his house and we just shared a scripture and he was acting really strange. We shared james 1:5 then I asked him how he felt and he just stared at the floor for a long time. He then got up really quick went to the other end of the room and grabbed something really quick and came walking back really quick. We thought he was going to have a knife or something but it was a photo album. He shared a couple photos with us and then we left. It was a strange lesson. Overall we had a great week! Hope everyone else did too!
Love Elder Ivie

May 16, 2016 New Companion

First week as a dad! It was a pretty interesting week. The very first day we ended up doing divisions with the zone leaders so I wasn't even with my companion. We were able to find so many new investigators but not many are actually going to progress. We had 17 new investigators. Normally we have about 3 or 4! Our district leader was really happy to hear our numbers this week!
Sorry I wasn´t able to write last week I didn't have time to write a long letter. My companion is from Tamauiplas and his name is Elder Tristan. He is a pretty tall Elder and also pretty quiet. For those of you who know me really well know that I am a pretty quiet person. He is helping me out a lot because now I have to talk more cause he doesn't haha. Now the other Elders in our district say I talk to much haha! This Sunday we were able to get three investigators to come to church. The day before we went and visited them and we asked her how she was doing with the word of wisdom. She said she drinks like three cups of coffee a day. She told us we could take her coffee away when we left kind of jokingly... but when we left I saw the bag on the table, so I took it with us and dumped it in the bushes in the street haha! The next day she told her daughter to make her a cup of coffee and she couldn't find it and remembered we took it haha. Hopefully it will help her out a bit.
Today we went to a really nice 4 story mall in Oriental. We ate some Chinese food and looked at all the clothes they had that we couldn't even buy cause we are poor haha! It was a pretty fun P-Day. We

also had a family night with our convert Lucia. She hasn't come to church ever since her baptism. We told her to invite all her kids that were all grown up. They all actually came and we had a great time. We played a couple games and had a bunch of sandwiches! We also were able to receive 4 references and it was 4 new investigators. I think they liked it a lot too! Hopefully we can go and visit them now and teach them better. Overall it was a great week! Hope everyone else had a great one too!
Love Elder Ivie

May 2, 2016

We had a pretty tough week here in the mission! All through out the week we were working really hard with all our investigators. We ended up placing 7 baptism dates and each one of them needs to come to church so that there date stays put. We had planned out that some members would pass for some investigators that we had, others we were going to call in the morning and we even passed by for some in the morning and they were getting ready to come and all. We had to go to church an hour early to go to the ward council meeting. When church started we looked around and we didn't have a single one of our investigators in the room. We even had less actives that were supposed to come but never showed up... it was a tough week! In our whole zone we had 32 baptism dates and of those 32 investigators.... 2 came to church... It was hard on the whole zone.
We did recieve some good news on Sunday though, my companion and I will be having sons (We will be training one of the new missionaries that come)! I am really excited for this! This means that either me or my companion will be staying in this area and the other will have to open up another area from scratch. We will have to see what happens.
Today we went to El Guarda again. It is a church owned camp and we played capture the flag and volleyball with waterballoons and towels. It was a lot of fun! We ate some carne asada which is just a bunch of seasoned meat and tortillas. It was alright... but I think it made me sick...
I hope everyone else is having a great week!
Love Elder Ivie