April 19,2010

Dear Mom and others,
This week was really really good. How did yours going? I had remembered that it had been 2 years since Matt died and that seems really crazy to me. I know he died doing the Lords work though and that being a missionary is the greatest thing ever. At least it is for me.
Its also crazy that Grandpa would be 90 this week. I know that i´ve never met him but in having his name i feel so connected to him. I know that you feel the conection as well. I am more greatful for my heritage than you can even understand. I owe it all to those who have come before me.
We had our baptism on Tuesday of the little kid Brandon. It was so awesome! I gave him a big hug after. He´s an awesome little kid. We went to his house after to have pizza for dinner and it felt realy good to have a family moment like that again. He can't be confirmed until this Sunday though b.c we had Stake Conference.
Stake conference went really really well. President Alvarado and Elder Clarke were there and President Alvarado was really happy which is good. He said it was the best stake conference he had been too. He was really really happy with us in our zone b.c we brought so many investigators and recent converts and less actives. Elder Clarke gave an awesome talk on the things we need in order to conqure satan. He used five stones from David and Goliath. 1. Obedience and a pure heart 2. Exceptional faith 3. Divine Help from the spirit 4.Preparation and practice 5. Understanding the power of God and his priesthood. - It went really well.
We also have 3 maybe 4 more baptisms planed for the 8th. Hopefully im still here. We´re having success but we need to work harder still and find more families.
The greatest feeling we can feel in this life is the Love of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We should look for all the love he sends us in our lives and we should thank him continually for it.
LOve,
Elder Vincent

April 12, 2010,

Dear Mom and Others,
This week was really good. My companion got a little sick this week but we gave him a blessing and all is well. We baptized the little girl Fidelina and it was absolutely awesome! She was so happy. She´s an awesome girl her mom is a little specially and her little brother is handicapt and I don´t know whats really wrong with her dad but she helps keep everything in order with the family. She has trouble sometimes just b.c the way she´s been brought up and all the difficulties she´s been through. They´re super poor but are always so happy. I wish i could send you the pictures but from some reason they wont show up on the computer when i try to send them. Idk but its all good.
I Still love Guatemala. We have alot of progressing investigators here. I could see us having 10 baptizms here in our ward in may. I´ll probably get changed though but thats ok as long as they get baptized.
We ´ve been focusing on finding more families lately. I know that will lead to more success and help out the lives of many people and families for many generations.
We had a really good zone conference this week were we focused on faith. We also focus on not putting limitations on our potential. We talked about how we as humans put fake limitations over ourselves or the world or other people tell us we can do things and for some reason we believe them and dont even try. We are children on a God and therefor we should not restrict ourselves b.c God can do anything. I thought of 1ne 17 when we talked about that were nephi´s brothers tell him he´s crazy and cant build a boat. In verse 50 he¨s says God can do all things, if he commanded me to make the water in to earth i would be able to do it and then in 51 he asks them a question i absolutely love ¨How is it that he can not instruct me to build a boat-¨ I love that i can just see him staring them in the face ¨tell me what i cant do with the help of God! I can do it all. I need to have the same attitude here and know i can do all things and can baptize lots of people b.c it is what God has comanded me. I can and will make a difference here.
Im really glad you had fun in mexico at the beach. In taxisco at times i was like 5 minutes from the beach but i never saw it dang it haha i saw the ocean from the mountains though which was cool.
Im glad you´ll got to have such a cool expirience with so much family up at our house. Its always so much fun to be with all of the family cousins and what not. Really alot of my favorite memories are doing things with cousins over all of the years. Make sure to send me or email me pictures. Oh also for my birthday you can send me a USB memory stick so i can save emailed pictures on to it.
I love you a ton and keep working hard to share the gospel, You are the best mom i´ve ever had and never forget that. Dont forget to read john with me before my birthday.
Love,
Elder Vincent

April 5, 2010

Dear Mom and Others,

How are things going? How are you enjoying your vacation? Its it pretty cool there?

Things are really good here in Guatemala but the city was really really deserted for Holy Week. We got some good work done still though. We have one baptizm set for this week with a little girl from one of the poorest families in the world. Its really sad but she´s excited to get baptized. We also have 6 other people who have accepted our challange to be baptized we just have to set baptizmal dates for them. We are hoping to set all those dates this week and one more. We could really use your prayers so we can make it happen.

So i finished the Book of mormon too. It was cool to read it for the first time in spanish. There are still quite a few words i dont know but i understood everything which was really cool. So listening to conference we recieved a new challange that elder anderson gave us in the last talk. We are to read a study the gospel of John in the Bible so im challanging you to read it with me before my birthday as a birthday present to me, ok.

I absolutely loved conference. The last one i felt like they talked more to new members and investigators but this one was more the family and the parents. You all will really benifit to watch read and study these words of the holy prophets. They are our connection to the heavens. Since they were talking to parents alot and im not a parent yet i took notes for things that will help me when im a parent one day but i really tried even more to apply the tteachings to my present circumstances. I tried to apply myself to being a parent and my investgators the children. I learned alot about how to teach and help my investigators b.c of this.

I especially enjoyed Elder Wilford W. Andersons talk about the atonement bc it was almost exactly what i have been teaching on my mission and expecially and especially to one thick shelled investigator that we have now that went to that session. He said conference was just ok and that later he would tell me what he liked and didn´t like. It made me feel pretty sad. There is nothing bad about conference!!!! I also enjoyed Elder Martinos talk (he´s a 70 for central america and came and talked to us when i was at the ccm) It was about embracing trials b.c we need them and its our attitude that makes all the difference. These are two things I have been really focusing on the members i´ve been teaching especially less active so it made me feel good to think that i was maybe doing something right. I even tell investigators that i pray for trials everyday b.c i want things to be tough so i can have resistance and be stronger. More like my heavenly father.

So I have another specially birthday request but i´ll wait to write it to you until its closer to my birthday. Tell heath congrats on bball and i really hope that you enjoy your trip and are safe. Work hard to help others find our father i heaven. We are only selfish if we will not.

I love you a ton

Love,

Elder Vincent

March 29,2010

Dear Mom and others,

Things are really good here in guatemala. The new email is alot bigger so you dont need to save my emails anymore. You can just forward the ones you get from me to other people. I got ann´s wedding invitation this week which meant alot to me (the guy looks really nice). I also got the letter from Jackson which was really cool. Things I would maybe like for my birthday, first off letters from people, especially cousins who have served missions with experiences and what not. next for things to get me to just keep at home a new dog tag for the one i lost and the black football backpack from the highschool and a black football hat. Other then that idk maybe a small hymn book in english and books of mormon in italian and french and Pictures!!!! other than that i dont need much i just love to get spiritual letters.

This week was really good. My comp is getting nice and adjusted to the mission but he has a culture shock moment everyday. Im really glad that i got to go to the ccm (mtc) in guatemala. He´s really excited and motivated to be here which is really nice though.

This week our big acomplishment was that we followed the spirit to get the written permission from a crazy dad for a little girl to be baptized. Her name is fidalina escobar and we are going to baptize her april 10th. Her dad doesn´t know how to write his name so we just got him to write si (which means yes mom). She´s from probably one of the poorest families i´ve ever seen but she really wants to be baptized. Her moms a member.

This week I also gave a talk in church. They asked me to give a talk on mission work so I did that but focused on the real purpose of mission work, which is so that we can help others to use the atonement and how there are other our friends and family who are suffering b.c they dont have the understanding of testimony that we have. So we need to help them and show them how to release there burdens. I feel like it went really good but i don´t know if anyone listened except the investigators that were there which made it worth it. Its kind of crazy that me (quite little searle) gave a 20 minute talk in spanish. haha Im so glad to have a understanding and testimony of the atonement.

Im really happy about all the mission work that is going on back home. You´ll should really keep seizing this opportunity to share the gosple with so many missionaries out from our stake and especially our ward right now. Im really happy that mary is progressing. You should tell heath to tell her to write me a letter. Also invite as many people as possible to watch general conference.

Im healthy safe and happy so you should be happy. I love guatemala but i dont love how fast the time is going. I hope you have a ton of fun on your vacations and that you stay safe. I´ve been trying to write you all letters but we dont get alot of time. I should finish the book of mormon by tomorrow and hope that you all are close too. I love you a ton and tell all the cousins and friends i say hi.

Love,

Elder Vincent