Transfer Time!

Holy smokes!

Transfers were on saturday anf I have been asigned to work in a higher capacity

President ask me to be district leader trainer! 

Just about crapped my pants,

Best part is im on bikes and my new campanion is the awesomeest, bestest, diligentest, obedientest, kindest, honestest, most great person ever!

His name is Elder Larriva!

He was born in Ecuador but lived in utah for 11ish years, he is in his 7th week in the mission, so not quite super green but still pretty fresh.

We get along quite amazingly and I learn so much from him!

Being district leader is a whole new kind of thing, I expressed an Idea that was diferent excpecting it to be shot down, and they all accepted it and liked it so that was really cool!. I guess when you are district leader people listen to you and rely on you for guidance

Something really interesting about it is no body gave me a training on how to be a district leader, all president told me was: be a good boy, be obedient, follow the spirit and it will go great.

In my new apartment we live with the Zone Leaders, holy they are so nice!

I asked them: what do I need to do for my district. They said: its your district, follow the spirit and it will go great!

So ima do my best to stay humble, kind and patient; and it will go great woohoo!

So its my responsability to do all the things this time around.

I am district leader over our zone leaders and assistants to the president!

Also! my trainer: Elder Robledo recently was asigned AP so i have a pretty sweet district this transfer!

The new area is awesome!

Nice and flat and filled with latinos!

The members here are all super cool as well

Yesterday we felt guided to a park

And got to play a quick game of basketball with some dudes

We got their phone numbers and they said they will come to the ward activity this tuesday!

Ok sorry dont got much, I love you all so much, im so grateful for you alll!

Elder sandberg

My companion got arrested

That title is not true,

Although my companion has the desire to get arrested. And i wanna catch a lizard so there ya go

This week flew flew flew, 

We have a small group of solid people we are teaching,

Rona: who is very gay but suprisingly super interested and progressing

Jacob: hes 13, we baptised his grandparents a month or two ago, he is coming along, he is starting to understand the importance of the gospel

He is a super goofball. he gets along way too well with my companion and likes to punch my companion. So usually its me who teaches him everything because also my companion falls asleep during lessons so that super fun and we love it!

Lilian: we dont have her address yet and she is SOO busy we can never teach her.

Although she shows up to church every week so thats awesome!

Yesterday we found 3 new friends! And gave away three book of mormons. super success! Ill give updates on how those new home boys are doing soon

Vicente, Gabriel, and Ramiro

All three of these dudes are so ready and so accepting to the Gospel, such miracles!

We found a few more Jehova Witness, JDuBS! Man they can talk your ear off!

And they still cant tell me how to be saved, because supposedely they arent even saved themselves!

Hows that for ambition.

My favorite thing this week about missionary work is the people!

Human beings have SO much vareity, mean ones, people who mock you, insult you, kind ones, super loving ones, rad ones, ALL kinds

We have found some super cool people with super rad personalities

I also love talking to random people in public! Whenever I can i will walk right up to someone and talk to them, my companion hates it but i do it anyway, and thats how weve found lots of people so!

This week we will have transfers,

We will get word thursday and saturday will be the changes.

So ill let ya know what goes on!

Biggest thing i learned this week again, is how truly true this gospel is,

Because if it wasnt true, teenage missionaries would have destroyed it along long time ago

I love you all take care

Im so grateful for you human beings

Be safe, love one another

Everyday I am striving to be kinder and more loving just like Jesus

Love Elder Sandyberg

Quick week!

This past week went by super fast for me

We have been seeing many many little miracles!

This area is slow but we are seeing it slowly change!

As far as numbers go (we are kinda trashy and not succsessful) although!

Numbers does not define a missionary.

These past two weeks, we have been doing a lot of visiting members, because Elder Gonzalez has been here for 4 months, ive been here for 2.5ish, and we realized we barely know any of the members, so every day we visit 2-3 member families! Ill be perfectly honest it is much better to knock a door and have them say: ELDERS!!! YAY! COME IN COME IN! vs, NO, GOODBYE, DOOR SLAMMING, etc.

Turns out a neighbor of sister Luna is a  13ish, super sweet kid, he is from  colombia and hes living with a super rad older dude named juan carlos,

They always come to the activities and yesterday they came to church!

Super awesome!!

I love visiting members, everytime we visit members we ask them to share their testimony, and everytime they do it brings the spirit so strong and is so inspiring!

Each one of you has a unique heart, unique needs and feelings, god knows and loves you perfectly and your testimony is beautiful, Share it as much as you can! The whole world needs to hear it!

I had the sweet opportunity to go on an exchange with Elder Robledo ( this Elder was the Elder who trained me over 8 months ago!!! He is now my zone leader!)

This exchange was super fun because Elder Robledo is from mexico and we spoke pure spanish the whole day.

It was cool because I could finally understand him!

I wanna testify that christ lives, he died for our sins! He loves us.

We have trials, temptations and Lots of pain! But he felt it all!!! Literalmente todo!

So if we bear our afflictions with patience we will have success

Im super stoked about the things im learning, patience, love, kindness, manlyness, other rad stuff

Today we had the opportunity to talk with Jehovah's Witnesses we talked to them and they had absolutely no direction to their words I asked them several questions but they could never give me a straight answer.

I love this gospel so much because we literally have the questions for example where do we come from? Why are we here? What happens after death? Which church is true? Is there a god? Etc

We have the answerd to all those questions plus we have proof!!! The book of mormon, profets etc all that good stuff.... anyway

Alma 26:27

Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

I love you all thanks for the support im praying for you all 

Love Elder Sandberg

Miracles!

Its been a little while so I figured its time for another one,

This past few weeks have been rough to be honest, but i have had some amazing growth with my own testimony, spanish, and just becoming a better person in general!

This area is very slow, as far as numbers go, there is not much success. Although thats not what defines success. 

I know for sure that my relationship with god has strengthened ten fold and is still even growing. 

Everyday we study, go out, and try our best to share the message of the restored gospel with as many people as will recive us. Its tough in this area with lots of rejection.

Although, we have seen many mighty miracles and many tender mercies!

One friend named, Rona...Rona...is gay.

Yet suprisingly he is progessing pretty well. He just needs to read the book of mormon, pray, and come to church.

Its suprisingly simple how simple and easy it is to recieve a witness of the truth through the holy ghost. Read, Pray, visit church... and there will be the answer through your thoughts and feelings.

Rona is very fun! Every time we call or see him in person he always goes: Hey chicos mormones! Which is pretty much: hey mormon dudes!

This is a common set back for most of those that we teach, if they simply read and pray, they will know the truth.

Another friend we have is named Jacob, he is 13 and the grandson of Gerardo and Imelda, (those two were baptized about a month ago)

Jacob is coming along, little by little. He is reading, praying, and coming to church.

Although there is one thing holding him back.

He isnt nesecarily doing those things with a sincere heart, as we learn in moroni 10:3-5 it is esential to do those with a sincere heart. But, we had a great little lesson with him about sincere prayer, the spirit was definitly there touching his heart and helping him to understand. We invited him to genuinly pray about his baptism and I think if he does that, he will recieve his answer.

A cool experience I had this week,

An Elder in my apartment, named Elder Bonilla was born in El Salvador amd moved to texas when he was 14 so he is basically fluent in both languages, anyway. Elder Bonilla was havin a rough day, and was also feeling very sick,also had many aches and pains. He asked me for a blessing, which I was very happy to give. Now mind you: i have totally forgotten how to pray and give blessings in English. And my spanish is still growing slowly but surely.

Anyway, during the blessing i stopped and made long pauses to see what heavenly father had to give him, because the blessing wasnt from me, but was from our father in heaven. 

I cannot remember anything at all of which I said because through the spirit I was an instrument in the hands of god, to bring forth his blessings upon his children.

After the blessing Elder Bonilla gabe me a big ol hug, said thank you and also said, Woah that was Not at alll your words, but the words of heavenly father. Because supposedly the espanish was 100%!

One of the skills I have been able to grow and cherish on the mission is the ability to recognize and understand the holy ghost, in other words the still, small, Voice.

Two sundays ago I had the opportunity to give a talk in sacrament, I spoke last and had a whole list of things I wanted to mention, but as I sat, listening to the speakers and the spirit,,, I realized that all those things were not what was needed to be said.

So

I folded up my little paper put it in my suit coat and followed the spirit which told me all the words to say, even in the moment I needed it.

This ability has helped me SOO much especially in teaching environments, to discern the needs of those we teach.

Something really funny, is the better my spanish gets, the worse my english gets.

For example, the word tocar means to touch, but, tocar puertas means to knock doors.

So one night we were hanging out as an apartment talking about the day and I said: "yo Elders we were out touching doors for almost 5 hours!" Super silly,

Sometimes ill start speaking in English and stutter and return speaking spanish cuz there are a lot of frases that are easier to say in spanish.

One of my favorite things about the mission is the people, its so great to listen to their stories and get to known them. I have gotten pretty good at listening! Because if you give someone the oportunity to talk and just sit back and genuinly listen to their day, their ideas, and their stories, then it is one of the best things ever.

Im doing pretty well, this past month or two ive seen lots of growth in my self, my testimony, and my relationship with god. Its tough but im hangin in there

Im praying for you All!

I love you all so much!

Be safe

Always Remember How much god loves you;  and also the sacrifice Jesus Christ did for you.

Love

       Elder Sandyberrrggg!!!

8 months in!

This week was pretty good!

Gerardo e imelda were baptized saturday and confirmed sunday!

I had the amazing opurtunity to physically baptize gerardo!

These two are a power couple!

They have been taught by the missionaries for almost 3 years and have been coming to church for 2 or 3 years! So i came in at the right time, all the glory is to god and the missionaries who found them so long ago.

The reason they werent baptized sooner was because of some problems with a marriage so we held their wedding in the church on thursday which was super fun!

It was a big party with tons of music!

I got the dancing party started, everyone else was too embarased, they all would laugh and say hey the white boy is dancing!

But they started dancing anyway.

I also played the piano at rhe baptism too which was super fun!

We also set a baptism date with a new friend named Daniel, he is about 21 and super cool!

So we are very excited for that!

Other than that, this area is very slow! Lots and lots of rejection but we workin our tails off and we see so many miracles everyday!

This is tough! But we keep on keepin on

Poco a poquito chiquita!

Thanks for all your support and love i am eternally grateful

1 nefi 3:7

7:And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

I will go and do :))

Elder Sandberg

Happy Easter!

We had a good easter week full of hard work!

This area is still very large and I am very greatful for a car!

I have been taking advantage of a car, because my last transfer We were on bikes and it took solid amount of time to get from place to place.

But now as soon as we finish up a lesson or a visit. We get back in the car and zoom to the next point!

The biggest thing I think i've learned on the mission is time management. It's very important not only as a missionary but for life. That's something I really want to improve on because time passes slow but it sure does pass, and you cant get it back!

I'm getting very close with the other elders in my apartment. They are all serious goofballs and they are serious about missionary work which I love.

My companion is still a gangster and puts on a tough face. sometimes It seem like he's mad at me but that's just how he is. He's Never really mad. He just seems like something is upseting him but every now and again I make a joke and he burst out laughing in the most high pitch hilarious laugh i've ever heard!

Hes a softy on the inside

This week we found 7 people to teach and not just people who say they're interested but people in which we have a lesson with them and and they Learn a lot and I can tell they feel something special about this message.

I have a lot of things that I love about this work. But one of them is when people notice that these 19 Year old teenagers are preaching the gospel of jesus christ. It's something That blows my mind, That teenagers are responsible for the salvation of the world.

.......

And if that doesn't strengthen your testimony that the church truly is true, Then I don't know what does, Because if the church wasn't true missionaries would have destroyed it a long time ago.

I also really love the rules we have because honestly back home. I was kind of a Rule breaker.

And since I've been here on the mission I have heard a lot of complaining about rules and about how high of a Standard that we get put on.

But every time I hear somebody complain or break a rule it makes me think about About the reason we have rules.. Especially on the mission our rules are here to test us. The whole point Life is hard is because life is a test and if it were easy; what Would be the point of being here?

And all of the rules we have and all the standards we have. Are there so that we can fulfill our purpose more effectively, And that purpose is to Is invite others to come Unto Jesus Christ.

Because I am only here for Seventeen ish months more.

That's really not a lot of time so I'm trying to make myself as obedient as I can so that I can fulfill the purpose of being here. Because that's silly to come on a mission and not get work done.

Another favorite I love is finding how to apply the gospel to someone's life. Because the gospel can be applied to any kind of person, Is any kind of situation, And any kind of problem.

The best part about it is it only offers good things.

Find the good in the bad

 

This week was full of long days knocking doors, talking to everyone, visiting all kinds of members..... with little to nothing to show for it.

There is a lot of things to bum me out,

But

Im not gonna let it!!! Because of 2 reasons

Reason 1!

This past week we visits

we had a great visit with Sister Bañuelos on her front patio, we presented something called the missionary member menu (something our mission came up with that has a bunch of options for members to help us in the work)

 

and she chose family history (ps I absolueltly LOVE family history) so we got her all set up on her phone with the family tree app

But! when we saw her tree, it was just her! So I said, Ok we got some work to do. We had her add her father and filled out his information, then the App pulled up someone who had all the correct information and asked us if we wanted to combine the files,, she clicked yes, then it took us back to her tree and there was a lot of more of her family visible, 

 

we showed her how to see the ordenances and i cant explain the PURE JOY she expressed when she found out a decent ammount of her family has already recieved so many temple blessings! We also found out her passed away parents and havent been sealed yet! So shes gonna go with a brother to seal her parents this weekend(because she is an older lady maybe bout 60-70ish and her husband fell aways from the church sadly.)

But she is now super excited to go and get her parents sealed!

The joy she expressed helped me feel so much joy, these feelings of joy and peace are only from the spirit, and strengthened my testimony of the power of the spirit

Reason 2!

I have faith that this week there is someone who is in desperate need to feel the spirit and recieve the gospel!

And even if we dont find them this week, it will be the next, or the next, or the next, but we will find them even if it takes the remaining 17 months!

All the rough, hard and sad times we have are forgotten when we have even 1 small spiritual experience

And through jesuschrist we can forget all the pain, guilt, and remorse that we sometimes feel. And through him we can recieve everlasting Joy and eternal life

I love you all!

    Elder Sandberg