Hola Familia y Amigos!
This week was awesome but unfortunately it is my
last day today in
the Bedford/Manchester Area. President Stoker called this
morning and
I am being emergency transferred tomorrow I don't know where to
yet
but I will let you all know next week.
Other than that piece of
exciting news Monday was so awesome! I am
sure you all have heard about L and J. They have been
struggling to understand priesthood authority so
on Monday we talked
about the Apostasy and the Restoration of the priesthood.
They now
understand the importance of the priesthood and a great
miracle
happened during the lesson. After we finished teaching L has
been
struggling with some anxiety and so she asked for a
priesthood
blessing. We offered her one last transfer when she got sick but
she
didn't feel comfortable or understand what it was. So we gave her
a
blessing and closed the lesson. Later on in the week we gave her a
call
just to see how things were going and she said hat her anxiety is
way to
almost none existent. I have a testimony that the priesthood is
a real power
and that through faith in Jesus Christ is the way and
only way that the power
of the priesthood can be used.
I know that the priesthood has been restored
and that it is only in
Christ's church. It was give and restored upon Joseph
Smith and has
been given to all worthy to hold it. It is the power that
governs
heaven and the universe. It is the power given us from God in order
to
perform all the ordinances necessary for salvation. I would in it
all
who read this if they do not have a testimony of the Book of Mormon
to
find out for yourself and as you come to know the Book of Mormon
is
true you will come to know that Joseph Smith was called to be a
prophet
and that God's authority is here on the earth again. Also
check out
christmas.mormon.org and Discover Why the Savior was born.
Have a great
week.
Love
-Elder Espinoza
Monday, November 30, 2015
November 23, 2015 - Transfers!
Hola Familia y Amigos!
This week was a good week. First news is that transfers came with
both of my new companions! Elder De Leon who is from Guatemala and
who was my district leader in Lawrence is now one of my companions.
And my other companion is Elder Harper and he is from Nebraska and is
a French Speaker and has served most of his mission in Portland, Maine
which is the French version of Lawrence.
Yesterday we had dinner with President and Sister Stoker it was
super cool to be able to have dinner with our mission president and
his wife and share a message with them. We were a little nervous at
first but when the Spirit tells you what to say it isn't bad at all.
I also finished he Book of Mormon for the second time and applied
Moroni's promise. I know even with greater conviction now that the
Book of Mormon is true and that if anyone truly wants to know if it
is all they have to do is ask God and it shall be given him! I love
being able to spend everyday for two years serving the Lord and even
though it is not easy at times but it is always worth it.
I know that my savior lives and I know that as we strive to serve
daily we will feel greater joy in our life and feel His love more than
we could if we didn't. So go out there and serve our Father in Heaven
by serving His children.
Love
-Elder Espinoza
Enviado desde mi iPad
This week was a good week. First news is that transfers came with
both of my new companions! Elder De Leon who is from Guatemala and
who was my district leader in Lawrence is now one of my companions.
And my other companion is Elder Harper and he is from Nebraska and is
a French Speaker and has served most of his mission in Portland, Maine
which is the French version of Lawrence.
Yesterday we had dinner with President and Sister Stoker it was
super cool to be able to have dinner with our mission president and
his wife and share a message with them. We were a little nervous at
first but when the Spirit tells you what to say it isn't bad at all.
I also finished he Book of Mormon for the second time and applied
Moroni's promise. I know even with greater conviction now that the
Book of Mormon is true and that if anyone truly wants to know if it
is all they have to do is ask God and it shall be given him! I love
being able to spend everyday for two years serving the Lord and even
though it is not easy at times but it is always worth it.
I know that my savior lives and I know that as we strive to serve
daily we will feel greater joy in our life and feel His love more than
we could if we didn't. So go out there and serve our Father in Heaven
by serving His children.
Love
-Elder Espinoza
Enviado desde mi iPad
November 16, 2015 - Transfers
Hola Familia y Amigos!
This week was transfer calls and I will be staying here in Bedford,
New Hampshire. My companion Elder Shupe is headed home and Elder Pemberton is
being transferred as Assistant to the President and will be serving in the
neighboring ward of Manchester.
Other than transfer calls this week was super awesome we taught a
lot of good lessons and were able to see some miracles for the last week of the
transfer. On Tuesday is when we had a lot of work we had 5 lessons that day and
two of them we were able to have fellowship for our investigators there.
Unfortunately all of our lessons except one on Wednesday fell through. But some
miracles did happen.
-Miracle 1: We went and saw S and A- they are fairly recent
investigators that we picked up a few weeks ago and hey have come to Church the
past two weeks in a row. A is reading the Book of Mormon and we left them
with the Plan of Salvation pamphlet to read when we stopped by one night and
S loves it and has read it through twice. They are so prepared for the
Gospel and it is super cool to see them so enthusiastic and excited about
everything.
-Miracle 2: we saw L and J is week on Saturday night and had
dinner with them and a good lesson on the Book of Mormon and faith after they
had read Alma 32. They seem to be enjoying the parts in the Book of Mormon that
resonate with them but they are still struggling to understand the entire Book.
So please pray for them to be able to understand he Book of Mormon.
-Miracle 3: Happened yesterday after Church. Well first off S, A,
and J came to Church. And then after Church we all went up to the Joseph
Smith Memorial Birthplace and they all loved it. S and A especially
because at one point S said "This guy Joseph must have been one of the most
important people to have been born over the past few hundreds of years". It is
cool to see someone understand or at least start to understand who Joseph Smith
truly was.
 |
| Elder Espinoza and friends at the Joseph Smith Memorial Birthplace. |
I would just like to leave you all with my testimony that I know that
Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ in the spring of 1820
and that he was guided and directed by God to Translate and ancient record now
known to all humanity as The Book of Mormon- Another Testament of Jesus
Christ. I know that as we read the Book of Mormon, Pray and ponder about it that we can receive a witness of its truthfulness and divinity, that Jesus Christ
is our Savior and that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet of God. I know
that through Joseph Smith God has once again end restored his only true and
living Church here on the Earth again and at we are guided and directed by a
living prophet today who is guided by The Head of this church, the head of my
life, our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. This is His work and His glory that
I am privileged to be apart of and I know it is all true.
Have an awesome week.
Love
-Elder Espinoza
November 9, 2015 - Two Weeks of Missionary Work
Hola Familia y Amigos!
This week (26 of October-November 1) was not full of very much
teaching but we did have an eventful week. We started the week off
with a less active named Sister C and we talked about the
prophet Joseph Smith and she seems to have a greater understanding of
the importance of the prophet and it seems that her testimony grew
from us reading the talk with her. On Tuesday we were able to teach
the Restoration in Spanish to a new investigator named L. She is
from Mexico and seems to be interested in the message; hopefully she
starts tomorrow to apply the message. On Wednesday we had our Ward
Trunk or Treat and we had a good turn out of some investigators and
less actives so it was a great hit even though it rained. Because it
rained all the kids went around to different classrooms of the church
and trick or treated that way. Then on Halloween we went to a member's
house for dinner and then went home at 5pm because we were not allowed
to be out past then because of all the trick or treaters. So we stayed
in the apartment and deep cleaned it we found something super weird
while we were cleaning and I have no clue why missionaries keep or get
their hands on stuff like what we found which was a whip. Sometimes
you find or have super random things happen to you as a missionary but
that is one reason why the mission is so great because there is always
almost a new experience everyday.
This week (November 1- November 8) was super awesome and it
started with exchanges with the assistants. We meet some super cool
people Monday night while street contacting and hopefully we can find
those people again because we were not able to see them during the
rest of the week. Tuesday we were able to find a woman named D
whose door has not been knocked by missionaries in 38 years but was
able to walk through the Washington DC Temple before it was dedicated
in the 70's. We offered to rake her leaves and she accepted. We then
had a lesson with L and Hermano Raymundo came with us to the
lesson. We taught briefly on the Book of Mormon because she was having
family over for dinner. She invited us to eat with them and it was
cool to get to know her and her sister and brother-in-law. After that
we had a dinner appointment with Brother Pastrana who is our ward
clerk and he has such an awesome conversion story and is super rock
solid in the gospel. We then on Wednesday had a great lesson with an
investigator named R and he is similar to Brother Pastrana. He has
had no religious background and has read the Bible, Koran, and the
Tora. So he has an understanding on religion but he still lacks
fundamental basic belief in God and that Jesus Christ is our Savior.
But he has a desire to learn more about what we believe. On Friday we
finally had a lesson with L and J after helping them move
some furniture and it was a very spiritual lesson on the Holy Ghost
and baptism. Please pray for L especially as she is sick right now
and is trying to understand the restored gospel and the importance of
baptism. On Saturday we were up in Vermont for a Zone Conference and
we were given instruction by Elder Neilson of the Seventy who is the
Head of the Missionary Department for the church and he gave a great
training on the Atonement and how it can help us in all aspects of
life and that is what I would like to end with.
I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can be
strengthened and lifted up because of the enabling power of the
Atonement. Through the enabling power we are given the power to
overcome our pains and difficulties our burdens and trials and that is
because as we pray for strength to overcome our trials He can and will
strengthen us. I would invite all of us to pray and seek for strength
to overcome our adversities and trials and then watch as you feel the
effects of the enabling power of the Atonement or sacrifice of our
Savior come into your life. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and
Redeemer. Have an awesome week.
Love
-Elder Espinoza
Sent from my iPad
This week (26 of October-November 1) was not full of very much
teaching but we did have an eventful week. We started the week off
with a less active named Sister C and we talked about the
prophet Joseph Smith and she seems to have a greater understanding of
the importance of the prophet and it seems that her testimony grew
from us reading the talk with her. On Tuesday we were able to teach
the Restoration in Spanish to a new investigator named L. She is
from Mexico and seems to be interested in the message; hopefully she
starts tomorrow to apply the message. On Wednesday we had our Ward
Trunk or Treat and we had a good turn out of some investigators and
less actives so it was a great hit even though it rained. Because it
rained all the kids went around to different classrooms of the church
and trick or treated that way. Then on Halloween we went to a member's
house for dinner and then went home at 5pm because we were not allowed
to be out past then because of all the trick or treaters. So we stayed
in the apartment and deep cleaned it we found something super weird
while we were cleaning and I have no clue why missionaries keep or get
their hands on stuff like what we found which was a whip. Sometimes
you find or have super random things happen to you as a missionary but
that is one reason why the mission is so great because there is always
almost a new experience everyday.
This week (November 1- November 8) was super awesome and it
started with exchanges with the assistants. We meet some super cool
people Monday night while street contacting and hopefully we can find
those people again because we were not able to see them during the
rest of the week. Tuesday we were able to find a woman named D
whose door has not been knocked by missionaries in 38 years but was
able to walk through the Washington DC Temple before it was dedicated
in the 70's. We offered to rake her leaves and she accepted. We then
had a lesson with L and Hermano Raymundo came with us to the
lesson. We taught briefly on the Book of Mormon because she was having
family over for dinner. She invited us to eat with them and it was
cool to get to know her and her sister and brother-in-law. After that
we had a dinner appointment with Brother Pastrana who is our ward
clerk and he has such an awesome conversion story and is super rock
solid in the gospel. We then on Wednesday had a great lesson with an
investigator named R and he is similar to Brother Pastrana. He has
had no religious background and has read the Bible, Koran, and the
Tora. So he has an understanding on religion but he still lacks
fundamental basic belief in God and that Jesus Christ is our Savior.
But he has a desire to learn more about what we believe. On Friday we
finally had a lesson with L and J after helping them move
some furniture and it was a very spiritual lesson on the Holy Ghost
and baptism. Please pray for L especially as she is sick right now
and is trying to understand the restored gospel and the importance of
baptism. On Saturday we were up in Vermont for a Zone Conference and
we were given instruction by Elder Neilson of the Seventy who is the
Head of the Missionary Department for the church and he gave a great
training on the Atonement and how it can help us in all aspects of
life and that is what I would like to end with.
I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can be
strengthened and lifted up because of the enabling power of the
Atonement. Through the enabling power we are given the power to
overcome our pains and difficulties our burdens and trials and that is
because as we pray for strength to overcome our trials He can and will
strengthen us. I would invite all of us to pray and seek for strength
to overcome our adversities and trials and then watch as you feel the
effects of the enabling power of the Atonement or sacrifice of our
Savior come into your life. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and
Redeemer. Have an awesome week.
Love
-Elder Espinoza
Sent from my iPad
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