Makes Perfect Sense, Actually

 Hello everyone!! Sorry I didn't get an email out last week, but its been a pretty good two weeks. 

   With Melvyn, our recent convert, we had an awesome lesson preparing him to receive the Priesthood and to go through the temple. It was centered on The Savior and his role in The Plan of Salvation. Melvyn bore testimony of Jesus Christ multiple times throughout the lesson and it was so awesome. It's my favorite thing to see his testimony grow. He is also wanting to have his parents and his late wife get baptized in the temple. It's so exciting!

   We've been working with a guy named Joe Hernandez, and he's met with missionary for like 7 years now. He knows the church is true, and he knows it's what he needs to do, he just simply lacks the motivation to change. So we've been working on slow and simple ways to grow his faith in Christ. He hasn't been praying so we've started by calling him daily and having him pray. He's actually been doing it so so far so good!

   We knocked on someone's door the other day and this guy named Eric answered. He had met with missionaries once before and he said that he loved talking to us but he would never convert because he disagrees with certain things. We sat down and went through a few things with him. He didn't feel that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and didn't believe that one religion made by a man could lead us to God, and that that religion couldn't "do God justice." We had such an incredible discussion about the holy ghost, about personal and continuing revelation, about why God calls prophets and why he still does, and how The Book of Mormon is the keystone to all of this. He said "well, again I just don't think a religion made by man could teach about God's true nature or his eternal truths." I answered and said that a man made religion couldn't, but one that is God's church with Christ at the head of it, could do those things. We then explained that all he needs to do is read and pray about the Book of mormon, and he stopped and goes "ya know, that makes perfect sense actually. Give me that book and call me in a few days, I'll tell you how this goes." It was so cool. Everyone pray that Eric receives an answer!

   I don't have much more time so that was just some of the things that have happened! We're still trying out best to find more people but it's been difficult. But I've completely and totally seen God's hand even in difficult times. I love yall! Talk to ya next week!

Love, Elder Ryan

Awesome Miracles

 Hello everyone! This week was so cool and we had some awesome miracles.

   One of the miracles came with a priesthood blessing. Last Pday we got a call from a pretty distraught member whose wife, who isn't a member, was in the hospital. He asked if we could come give her a blessing so we gladly went! Priesthood blessings are possibly my favorite part of being on a mission. When we got to the hospital she was convulsing and couldn't speak at all. The doctors had just told our member that she probably wouldn't live.  We still gave her a priesthood blessing and her husband as well, and in both blessings we felt very strongly and blessed them that she would live and be healed.

   We kept in touch throughout the week, and we did a fast for her to be healed. She is now doing so much better! She's not completely healed, but she's no longer in critical condition and keeps improving. God's power and Christ's ability to heal is so real!

    I went on an exchange to the YSA elders area. The college campus around here is still closed for winter break, and so it's been a pretty slow area. I went with Elder Hoffman, and this is the beginning of his second transfer. We worked real hard and saw two cool miracles! The first one was on the campus. We had only one copy of The Book of Mormon, and there is no one on campus. But we prayed that God could put just one person in our path, and then we went. Literally 10 seconds after the prayer, one guy, probably the only human on the whole campus, walks out of a building right toward us. We started talking and he was super interested! We gave him The Book of Mormon and scheduled a return appointment right there. Super awesome!

    The second one was we were in an apartment complex looking for someone who lived there. We couldn't find their door for the life of us and it was getting late so we decided to leave and try later. But then as we were leaving we got the strongest impression to keep looking. We finally found his door haha, and the guy we were looking for didn't live there. But the guy who did live there said that he had been practicing paganism for the last 10 years. Just the night before, he prayed for the first time and felt strongly to come to Jesus. And then we show up at his door! We set up another meeting with him. Such an amazing miracle! God is so aware of us.

    Our area has been fairly slow recently so we've been on a huge finding grind. We finally found some success with a part member family. The mom, Valerie, is a member and she lives alone with her daughter Aaralyn. Valerie hasn't been to church in at least 25 years and she has written a 75 page discourse disproving the book of mormon. Super interesting haha. She's had some really difficult experiences with family and it causes her to struggle with the church.

    We went there for the second time, and had a really powerful lesson about having a personal relationship with Jesus and what that does for us. We talked about prayer and the Book of Mormon. It was really powerful, and Valerie started laughing saying she might come back because of us haha. Valerie also said she almost came to church the other week. But the coolest part is when we were leaving, her daughter Aaralyn stopped and asked for a copy of The Book of Mormon because she's really "intrigued" by what we teach. We're hoping we can start making some good progress soon.

    We also had an awesome stake conference with Elder Dunn, who gave the conference talk one percent better. It was an incredible experience to hear his knowledge! I love how well the general authorities represent Christ. It always makes me wanna improve its SO cool to be around.

    Sorry for the longer email! Love yall!

Love, Elder Ryan

Mel was Baptized!

 Hello everyone! This week was a super super good week. Our friend Mel got baptized and confirmed and it all went so well. 

     So a few weeks ago while we were teaching Melvyn, he was struggling a lot. He had lots of different emotional struggles, and he was struggling for money because he couldn't get a job anywhere. It was a hard time for him and he was really down. It's so amazing to see the light he now has and how happy he is. But the cool part is we felt prompted to promise him that he would get a job if we he would make this decision to follow Christ. He accepted the baptismal date and he started doing his very best to follow Jesus. He threw away all his coffee immediately, he started reading the Book of Mormon and listening to general conference and praying. But for weeks on end he could not get a job, even though he was following Christ and trying his hardest to get a job. He was sad about it, but knew he should still be baptized. Then on Saturday night, literally hours after his baptism, he got a call saying he got a job and he starts Monday morning. Such a cool miracle!! God is so real and so involved in our lives!

     I went on exchanges this week out to a small town called Childress. It was a super good time. They've been teaching a friend who is really promising, but they hadn't gotten her to accept a date to be baptized. We went and taught her on exchanges and as we explained covenants and the connection they gives us to Christ, she looked at us and told us she wants that in her life! She is now preparing to be baptized!

     I got to go down to Lubbock this week for MLC! It was a great one, and we decided as a mission to do a month long mission fast. We'll pray and ask God what we can sacrifice, and fast from for the next month. It's a super cool opportunity and I'm stoked to see what will happen in our mission! 

     We found a few people this week, they're a part member family named the Del Fierro's. The mom is a member but no one else is. The husband has been to church before, but he's pretty hesitant because he thinks we praise Joseph Smith too much. We had a great conversation about it, and he understand a bit better. He's reading Book of Mormon passages that correlate with Bible passages, so hopefully this will work out!

    Had a cool but interesting thought while studying The Book of Mormon this week. Im currently looking for what every single story can teach me about Christ, which was a little difficult with Nephi killing Laban haha. But I had a super cool insight. Nephi represent Christ, Laban represents Satan or sin/temptation, and Zoram represents all of us. Zoram (All of us) was a slave to Satan, and to sin. But he was rescued by Nephi (Christ) who won the victory over Laban (Satan). Kind of a fun way to look at I guuess haha.

Love yall! See ya next week!

Love, Elder Ryan

Happy New Year!

 Hey yall! This week was a real good week. New years was fun, a member in Amarillo invited all the missionaries to their house and we had an awesome little party! 

   I went on an exchange in the Spanish area which was a blast. I got to speak Spanish and it came back pretty quick. I was able to give a blessing to a Venezuelan family which was incredible. I love being able to exercise the Priesthood! I'm hoping I get to serve in a Spanish area again!

   We had a couple rough experiences this week. Our friend Viviana was making such great progress. She quit vaping, was reading the book of mormon daily and wanting to be baptized. Then, we go to her house with a member and it was a nightmare. Total disaster. She asked her husband questions about the Book of Mormon and he completely destroyed her testimony of it. She questioned everything and wants nothing to do with us anymore. That was hard.

   Then we also had to drop some other friends named Gwenna and Tim. They were making some progress but she eventually expressed concerns about being "labeled" and she prefers to be non-denominational so she can go where she wants. It was hard to hear but that's alright! It's just time to go on a finding grind to get some new people to teach!

   Our friend Melvyn is doing FANTASTIC! He's so ready to be baptized on January 7th. Everytime we go to his house he is already watching a general conference talk. He is just a stud. He's learning so much and it's been my favorite thing to watch. He's developed such a a strong and firm testimony of Jesus Christ as our Savior, and before he never had that. But he's learned to rely on Him. It's been fantastic and I can't wait for him.

   We were praying for ways to find more people and we felt like we should park our car and start walking. It's funny because we don't live in our area so it's a long bike ride. But we did it and we were totally blessed for it. The first day of us biking, it was around 8 o'clock, pitch black at night and all of our lights died haha. We were about 30 minutes from home but decided we should stop by one more. Well the person we were looking for wasn't there, but a guy named Jason was and he let us in. We taught him about The Restoration, and during the First Vision was the spirit was so strong. He had tears in his eyes! Afterwards he said he needs a copy of that book, so we gladly gave him The Book of Mormon! 

   We had a fantastic week! I learned a lot about sacrifice this week. God is so willing to bless us, especially when we sacrifice something in our life for the Lord. I love yall! Talk to ya next week!

   

Love, Elder Ryan