First Convert in more than a Year!

Hola Everyone...
This week was an excellent week! We got a lot of stuff done and found a lot more people to teach...We also had the baptism of Maria our Investigator! This baptism is the first one that this area has seen in more than a year....It has been crazy to see the whole conversion process of Maria...I am so truly grateful to have been able to find, teach, and baptize this wonderful lady...I will never forget the moment she came out of the water, she started crying then immediately gave thanks to our Heavenly Father for the cleansing power of Baptism....


In the attached picture you will see Elder Aguilar and I with Maria and another investigator of an other area in Agua Prieta...Our Convert is called Maria del Carmen and the other Maricarmen haha a little funny with the almost the same names haha... These are two wonderful ladies....that are the newest memebers of the Church...WOOT! WOOT!


We are 2 weeks away from transfers and I am feeling like we will be changing...but I am super grateful for all of the wonderful experiences I have had here in Agua Prieta....


Also this week will be an exciting one with a member of the Quorum of the 70 coming to our mission to do Zone Conferences...All of the Missionaries in Agua Prieta will be going to Nogales for this Conference so that will be sweet...


Thanks for all of your love and support...
Love you all
Elder Child

                                            Putting patches on our Bike tires...FUN! FUN!

                                                         Service with the Hermana Maria...

                                            Baptism of Maria del Carmen and Maricarmen

Life on the Border

Hello everyone...


This weeks has been crazy...haha We have had lots of wind here that picks up the dust and gets everything dirty haha we come home and the dirt is just thick on the collars of our white shirts haha....life of the mission....


Maria is doing GREAT! On Wednesday we went to teach her a little more of the Gospel of Jesus Christ...and she told us about how Tuesday she dropped everything that was against the Word of Wisdom....After 40 plus years of smoking and drinking coffee she dropped it...It was quite the emotional experience when she told us that she feels 100 % ready for baptism and as she expressed her desire to be baptised right then...she cannot wait for this next Saturday (which is the day scheduled for her baptism) We are so excited to watch her make this step in her life and to really change...


On a different note...I have been quite spoiled here on the border of the U.S. to recieve packages in less than 1 week it has been wonderful..It has also been great to be able to buy the wonderful high quality Milk of the U.S. it is quite something to taste milk from the Happy American Cows...I dont know what is in the milk from Mexico but it tastes like it came from Sad Cows that dont eat nothing but onions...haha.... Another aspect that is interesting is that some people speak nothing but english and so for the past little while I have been trying to learn how to Speak Spanish in one moment then the next change everything to english it is quite interesting haha The funny thing is now I have to battle to speak in english...haha but I am thankful I can speak both languages well more or less....I feel a little sad for E. Aguilar that understands absolutely nothing when we have a lesson in English haha...


Attached you will find a couple of pictures of when we did companion exchanges this week with an Elder Barrientos from Guatemala....


Thanks for all your support and love
Love
Elder Child
                         Elder Barrientos and I pointing at the "D" painted on the side of the Hill behind us                                                               Representing Douglas, Arizona

                        I finally found IDAHO POTATOES haha and at a good price haha....

Another Great Week....

Hello Everyone...
Everything has been going really good here....We have been finding lots of people thanks to the Iniciative of the Church...Because He Lives...We about 30 new investigators this week which is something really awesome....


This week has been super busy for me....I did 2 companion exchanges with 2 companionships in my District...so I havent been in my area for 2 consecutive days this week haha But I have been super glad for the opportunity to work with some of the Elders in my District...I am really grateful that my Trainee has been able to keep things control in my Area....I am quite proud of how Elder Aguilar has taken the iniciative this past week finding and teaching more people...


Maria keeps progressing...this week we had quite a few lessons about the Word of Wisdom with members that have had addictions like Maria has...she has been battling hard the addictions of tobacco and coffee...She is progressing quickly dropping these addictions....I am super grateful for her progression...


Quite a small letter this week, sorry but thanks for all of your support....
Love you all
Elder Child

Visited a family during Exchanges that has a restaurant of a Type of food like Corn Dogs but this has Chorizo, Cheese, Sausage, Hotdogs, and Chicken Nuggets put on a stick like a Shishkobob then deep fried

For BEN, took this picture in Hermosillo quite a while ago...thought I would send it to show how the lineman in Hermosillo do things haha Congrats on Graduating!

Semana Santa..

Hola Everyone....
This week was a super great week with Conference and Easter but It was kind of a bad week because everyone is on vacations haha For some reason I thought there would be more people for Semana Santa (The Week of Easter) but I was wrong haha...


Even thought everyone was hard to find this week we did contact a few on the street and shared with them the Iniciative of the Church...Because He Lives....It was great.. One of the people we contacted was selling Ice Creams...we found him walking on probably the most busy street in our area...haha there was quite a few cars passing, rushing to get to their Easter Parties...haha So there we were talking to this man about the Iniciative and we offered to show him the video and he accepted so I pulled out the baby dvd player that we have and one of the speakers that I brought from home...and turned up the volume as loud as it could go haha..He had a baseball hat on so we couldnt see his eyes during the video but we were able to see his tears....after the 2 minute video he looked up at us with tears still streaming down his face...and said Thank you...Thank you that is exactly what I needed today....I feel grateful for this experience To have been able to share with him in possibly the busiest part of our area this touching message...And that he could feel the spirit that a 2 minute long video brings.....


Our Progressing Investigators, Maria and Narciso, were super excited to attend General Conference....Kind of funny we passed by on the Friday before to teach them the Plan of Salvation...and to get them excited to go to Conference we arrived Friday and couldnt find anyone in the house...this was really weird because they never leave...So we tried calling and waited for a little bit...and then we saw Maria walking the long path to her house haha when she arrived we asked where she had been...she told us that she had been doing a service project with all of the Sisters of the Branch haha an activity we knew nothing about...haha It is great she is building a lot friendships in the Rama...Narciso arrived a little later from the store...and we taught the lesson...The day after we met Narciso and Maria in the Chapel...on time and everything even had their notebooks to take notes....There were very happy to have stayed for all of the sessions and to hear the Prophet speak...They are progressing super well for their baptism...


In the Spirit of Easter...I testify that Jesus Christ really suffered for every one of us and that He really rose on the third day...And because He lives we will also live...I know this Church is true with every fibe of my body....I know Jesus Christ is the head of this church and that we can recieve counsel and direction from Him and our Heavenly Father through the words of our Prophets....In the Name Of Jesus Christ Amen.




Love you all and thanks for all of you support
Love Elder Child

Trying to keep up the tradition of eating Japanese food after the session of Priesthood....Thanks for the curry Mom and Dad!

Maria, Narciso and I between sessions of General Conference in a near by park...on Sunday

Another 6 Weeks, another responsibility

Hello Everyone
I hope everyone had a great spring break...and everyone was safe...


We have had quite the week this week...We have started another iniciative by the Church that is called Because He Lives...We are super excited to be able to share this message with everyone we see...The Mission has told us that we can carry around our little portable DVD player showing everyone we contact the little video...If you havent seen it please watch it and then SHARE IT at easter.mormon.org.......


Well another 6 weeks has passed...and I am still in Agua Prieta with my companion training..but this transfer I have a little bit more responsibility as a new District Leader...Which should be interesting...I will be one of the 2 District Leaders here in Agua Prieta....I am super excited for this calling but a little nervous haha


Yesterday We had a going away dinner For Elder Loomis...He will be landing in Boise, Tuesday haha it is so crazy that we got to meet up with each other for his last transfer in the Mission...


Our Investigators continue to progress rapidly....Maria has had quite the week battling new trials almost every day...I am always so happy that she continues to make the right decisions and at the end of the week put God first and went to church on Sunday and is excited for General Conference this upcoming week....
She is almost in Jacob in the Book of Mormon and she says She loves it so much...and that she finds so much peace reading and meditating the things that she is learning.....


One of the Pictures I will send is of Elder Loomis..and Elder Smith...Kind of Funny Elder Loomis is from Weiser and Elder Smith was born in the same place I was Burley haha Both of these great Elders were the Zone leaders here in Agua Prieta...Elder Loomis leaves for his house and Elder Smith is the new Assistant...


Thanks for all of the Support
Love You all
Elder Child

                

                                              Zone Conference Sierra Madre 2015

Eating Tacos de Tripa or Tripe with a Hermano....My face didnt turn out very well but you can tell that the Hermano really loves that Tripe..haha

                                                        Elder Loomis and Elder Smith

                                                              Goodbye Elder Loomis!

A Week of Rain and Hail

Hola Everyone...
We have had a great week this week...The weather has been really weird though...It has rained super hard almost everyday this week...haha we have also had a lot of fog and a little hail...hahaha we are still waiting for it to snow...That would be super cool...haha...


The work continues to progress...This week alot of our investigators recieved answers to their prayers...about Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon...It is such a great feeling to know that their relationship with our Heavenly Father is growing...and that their testimony is growing little by little... Everytime we pass by our investigators and have done what we have asked (like reading scriptures or praying) we are starting to see more changes in these peoples lives.....it is great!


Narciso and Maria are shown in the Picture eating some cookies haha....They continue to progress in every aspect...Their desire to change and the things they are doing really make me happy and excited for their future....They are such good people...Even if they live about a 45 minute walk from our house...haha...


Kind of a short letter this week...but I hope you all have a fun Spring Break....
Love you all...
Elder Child

                                Woke up to Fog this week haha It was quite thick!

Sharing my Cookies from Home with Narciso and Maria....They absolutely love them....haha and 

they Say HI!

The Gospel Truly Changes Lives....

Hola Todos...
Wow Monday already? haha time just flies here...haha
We had quite the week...It seems like we have been to all the corners of Agua Prieta searching for investigadores and going to meetings and going to Branch activites ....we have been up and down from Street number 1 to street number 50 at times more then once a day...I am trying to teach my companion to use his gears on his bike...He never shifts his gears and so I have been trying to teach him how to so that he wont be as tired...


We had a Zone Conference Wednesday with President Hernandez and the Hermana...it was super good we had quite conference and to end we watch Meet the Mormons as a Zone it was pretty sweet...
I hope everyone has had a chance to watch Meet the Mormons and to invite your friends to do so also...It answers lots of the questions about the church that we as missionaries answer everyday...and of course at the end of the movie with the part about the Missionary Mom...did make our zone a little watery eyed haha...


We have started a Volleyball tournament in our Branch every Tuesday...and the rule is that the volleyball team has to consist of 4 active members 2 less actives and 2 investigators...and so there is a possibility that we have 10 new investigators just from that activity so we are really excited about that....Also we have started to teach English classes in order to find more people to teach...so we have that activity on Saturday night...This is a great way to have more member interaction with our investigators so that they will have more friends at church...so we are super excited for the upcoming weeks with these activities...


We have been progressing a lot lately with our investigators....We have two investigators named Narciso and Maria they are brother and sister...they are about 50 years old...Funny story finding them...we were in an Abarrotes (little store) and Narciso comes in and we are talking to him and he tells us that he lives very far away on the out skirts of the city and that he likes to read by candlelight because he doesnt have electricity at his house...so we gave him a pamphlet of the Restauration and he went on his way walking....anyway we finished at the Abarrotes and walked out...we looked down the street and saw Narciso still walking out to his house...And I had a strong feeling to GO AND TALK TO HIM....haha I was about to tell my companion that we need to go talk to him when he turned to me and told me Hey Elder Lets go talk to that man...haha so we rode our bikes as hard as we could to catch up to him and we arrived on the outskirts of Agua Prieta on Street 50....We talked to him for a little bit and Put a visit with them....This experience was 2 weeks ago...and finally we were able to find him Saturday and found his sister too...we found out that they have had a tough life and they really want to change...We told them how they could change and told them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ...and Baptism...it was so cool to see that strong desire to change in their eyes...They are so excited to progress towards baptism...and They were some of the first people in the Church at 8 in the morning on sunday morning..haha..I will never forget the voice I heard as I was talking to a few members in the Chapel...Where is Elder Child I am looking for Elder Child...it was Maria and Narciso in the foyer asking the other Elders where I was haha...Super great people...that are truly prepared for this gospel to change their lives...and I get to be apart of it...YES!!!! haha


Thanks for all of your love and support....
Love
Elder Child

Eating Lunch with Members in a Mexican Restaurant with a Mariachi Band playing in the Background...One lesson I learned from them.....No matter how bad you sing..sing Loud haha

                                                                  English classes!