New Young Bishop

Monday- Today we got up and went right to momos, we got to the zone leaders house and dropped off a few things, then went over to the church. We met all the hermanas and zone leaders for my district activity. We made tacos!! We all started to cook, like everybody and it was a little crazy but it went really good, we finished had a prayer and watched a movie while we ate the tacos!! It was really fun!! After we played uno for a couple of hours, then we left and went to write our parents, that went really good. After writing we all went and got ice cream after, then we had to go to look for a family, so my comp and I left but we didn't find one, everybody just kept denying us. We then went to a family home evening with a member from the ward over here, her son is leaving on a mission this week, but the whole zone came over, all 24 of us!! Crazy! It was a big testimony meeting and went really good!! I loved it! After all the elders ran back to the ZL house as fast as we could, to get a mattress and blanket, because all of us were going to be sleeping over there. What a day.

Tuesday- My comp and I got up early and went to the buses, and took a bus back to our house, then we got ready and took a little pickup back to momos, we had our district meeting, and that went really good, I'm getting better and better. After the meeting we all went to this restaurant called lools, we all go after the meetings on tuesday to eat, it went well, I ordered a lasagna and ohh it was amazing!! After we had divisions with the zone leaders, I got to go with Elder Paxtor, we went back to Santa ana my area. We worked all night long and found a family that seems kind of positive so that went really good. We came back and made dinner and just chilled talking! 

Wednesday-Today we got up and we got ready then left and knocked on doors for a bit, that went really good but didnt really find anybody. He said that he had lunch planned in his area, so we took a pickup to momos again, then we had to take another pickup from momos to another area thats like 1 hour away! So we just rode in the back of a pickup for an hour, pretty fun but really dirty on dirt roads haha. We had lunch then came back to momos. We were going to finish divisions but my comp and the others were way far away in a different place doing an interview for someone. We stayed in momos and went to some appts he had, it went really well, had a great lesson with one of his investigators that's really nice! We then met up with a member for dinner, she has like 7 girls haha, but the whole night she just kept talking to me and hinting to come back and marry one of her girls...awkward. Sorry I cant haha! But it was a great dinner and we shared a little message with them after! We then came back to the zone leaders house and slept there for the night.

Thursday- Today we got up and got ready and left once again to our area. We got to our area got showered and then started washing our clothes, after we went out tracting for a bit, then came back and made lunch and then did our planning for our next week, we planned a baptism!! Even though we don't even have a date with someone! But we have faith that we cant put that date today or sometime this week. But it went well we planned for some investigators and filled out some things too. We then left and went like an hour and a half into the mountains, and we taught this little girl the gospel because she is getting baptized this next Saturday, so we taught her kind of the basics, I gave her a HLJ ring, a CTR ring, and explained to her what it meant, she loved it! We then hiked back up and went to one of our investigators, angel, he is 10 years old, but always comes to church with his uncle and loves it, his dad is a member but inactive and his mom goes to a different church. Anyways tonight was the night that we were going to teach him the gospel and then ask him to be baptized. But…, we were waiting at his uncle's house for him to come up so we could teach, and his whole family showed up even his little brother. We have never met them before or seen the. It was awesome, the spirit told my comp and I just to teach the first lesson because all of them were there, and it was new for them. I was so nervous to mess up or for the mom to get mad, but my comp and I taught that first lesson so great, the spirit was so strong and the mom seemed interested and the dad was getting reminded of everything, we bore our testimonies and it was just a great feeling. They said they would read, and maybe come to church!! What a crazy night, we asked if he could be baptized and his parents had a lot of questions for us, but we answered every single one, they had more but it was late and said we would meet again. We left but that was a moment that I will never forget! We started walking home, cause they live almost an hour away, and it was dark, there was so many wild dogs trying to get us, we fought off like 30 different dogs I swear, and one time 6 surrounded us but we just threw rocks and kicked them haha. 

Friday - Today we got up and planned out our day, we then had our personal study and I love having personal study, I study so much and learn so much more!! Its amazing! We left and went and visited some inactive families in the area and visited with them and shared a little scripture with them! WE then went with these investigators that are like in there 80{s, we visited and tried sharing about the BofM but they kind of didnt understand that much but at the end the lady asked “if we had oil and made a cross on her forehead, and was like [bendicion bendicion con aceite” haha she wanted us to give her husband and her a blessing because she heard about them. We were more than welcome to give that! I gave it to the old man who is sick, It went really great, the spirit was so strong and I said something really cool, I said if he would read the book then he would get better, I don't why it just came to me, but I felt it and had to say it. It went really well, with them the spirit was so strong!! We then helped them chop some wood and bring it to there house after. Later we came back and made some food and ate, then we left to visit some more members and invited them to church this weekend. It went really good, they love when we come visit. We then were walking back home because it was like an hour away, and we could see in the distance where our house is big storm clouds coming our way!! We were scared as we got closer like 10 min away, we didnt have jackets or umbrellas, and we could hear the rain in the distance, its kind of scary! Haha, my comp was like runnn!! We started booking it, it started pouring and we got soaked but made it back to our house and got in and took our clothes off and got ready for bed, it rained all night long!!!

Saturday -oday we got up and had our studies. Then we left to this place high up in the mountains, took us 45min or so to hike up. Then we met up with these members who took us to a member who is in active and we went and taught her for a bit and invited her tomorrow. We then came back to that members house and they asked us for help to kill a squirrel haha, but we set up like 5 traps with sticks and rocks and then waited while we used sling shots to try to kill the squirrels, lets just say I think it takes more than a rock to kill them, cause we hit one like 7 times and it didnt die. We finally killed one, one of the little kids hit it in the head and it fell all the way down the tree. We took it back and the mom dried it out somehow and then cooked it. We had lunch with them and that's what she fed us with an egg and these amazing things called tamalitos, just look them up haha. It was not bad actually the squirrel meat, a little weird but not bad. We then came back running through the mountains with all the little kids, but it was pouring and we were running through like little tiny trails through this thick forest!! It was so fun the little kids were falling and laughing and we made it to the church in like 15 min!! We then waited until the storm kind of died down, then went to our investigators that are really old, we found out that the lady is in a different country getting surgery and that they can meet with us for another month…. Kind of blows, but we will pray for them! We then went out and visited with this kid named elvis, he got back from his mission like 1 year ago. But he is awesome and always tries to talk english with me haha, he wants to go to Utah so bad just to see conference, I want to help in every way I can to achieve that dream. He is awesome though, we went and visited a bunch of members and different people and invited them for tomorrow! We then came back and got changed out of our wet clothes and chilled.

Sunday -Today we got up and got ready, we went to church and there was so many people showing up!! We had like 8 investigators show up and a lot of inactive people came! We then had the ward conference, it went well! They called a new bishop, the old one was like 70 and didnt really do a whole lot, they called this young guy thats like 26, I don't even know him, he doesn't even live in this area, but I think he will be good! They then called us up to bless the sacrament, when I finished I said Amen in english and not in spanish, everyone was making fun of me after haha, but it went really good! After we had a bunch of meetings and those went really good! We then came back and made lunch, then we left on foot to momos, it took us almost 2 hours to walk to Momos, but we went there to meet up with the hermanas from my district so that I could do a baptism interview for them. It was my first one, but I went in with this lady called jannette, she was really cool. I felt the spirit so strong while in there with her, and she was ready to be baptized! I signed the forms and gave it to the hermanas. My comp and I were dead from walking that far. We took a bus back, and we got back and went tracting for a bit, but did not find much..but we kept going and didn't really find anybody! We came back and did our studies and then got ready for bed! 

This week was pretty nice, we stayed in our area to work a lot, and got a lot of things done, the work is going slow here but I know that we can speed it up and have the success we want. Sometimes the mission gets really hard especially when the people dont want to listen and all but I think if we just have faith that things will work out. BUt I hope all of you are doing great and living life haha. Miss all you guys!! Have a great week! Les amo, 

Elder Montoya

I will send photos seperate