Week 33 in Chihuahua - July 23, 2018 - Awesome Week!

This week has been awesome!

 

Okay,  first we are teaching a less active family because the dad of the family told us he was about to leave his family and live in the US for the rest of his life. He said that in front of his wife and children, it was We taught him about why God lets bad stuff happen and also about the atonement of Christ.

 

Long story short, they all went to church and the dad of the family is looking waaay better. He looks way happier and keeps telling us that he has faith that God has miracles waiting for him to help him with his problems.

 

And oh yeah, this family also helped us bring another family to church. It was way awesome. 

 

I really love that chain reaction affect. Helping one person might inspire that person to help someone else and so on and so on.

 

But it can also work negatively. Being mean or doing something wrong can have the same negative affect on a lot of people.

 

Understanding that really motivates me to always be thinking about how I can help or serve someone and makes me think twice before I say or do something dumb. A lot of people have been asking us lately why God lets bad stuff happen so I'd like do share with you all the stuff I have been able to learn as I have  studied this topic.

 

How can I know that God has the power to heal me if I'm never sick? How can I learn patience if I never have to wait for something?  How can I know that I'm walking in the light if I never have walked in darkness?

 

Those are some of the things I have said to help the people understand and I hope it helps you guys too!!!

 

That's all I got for this week. Special changes came and went and I'm still here in Riberas de sufrimiento (Riberas is the name of the area we are in and sufrimiento means to suffer) just kidding.

 

Love you all!

 

Elder Lignell

Week 32 - July 16, 2018 - Birthday in July

Hello Everyone,

Well, today has been pretty awesome.  We got up early and went and played basketball and then we went to a real restaurant to eat.  It was called Wing Stop and it was delicious American food!

We got up early today and took a bus to the gym and we got a full game in so that was really nice. 

And the best part is I got some packages for my birthday!  I didn't wait to open them so I hope that is okay.  Thank you so much!  I got yours mom and aunt Debra's.  I know that aunt Kathy sent one too so maybe I'll wait and open that one when I get it on my birthday, but probably not. haha
I love everything sooooooo much!  I loved all the pictures you sent and the scripture case, the backpack, the peanut butter, the hidden money (thanks DD) and just everything.  You guys are so awesome!  And thanks Austin for the awesome letter.

Thanks for the picture of dad, he is still muy guapo.

We are teaching a great family right now but I'll have to add more details about them in my next email as I'm short on time today. 

Everything is good here and we are getting used to the heat.  Oh yeah, we found another spider in our apartment but not a black widow, this one was a Tarantula.  Makes it real fun to sleep haha.

That's cool that Alec Templeton is coming home in September from his mission.  I haven't seen him for awhile but dang, that is really close. And no mom, I'm not jealous that he is finishing his mission, haha even though you are jealous that his mom is getting him home.

Well, I've got to go, so have a great week and we'll talk to you soon.

Love,

Elder Lignell

Week 31 in Chihuahua - July 9, 2018 - Happy 4th of July

Yo yo yo yo what's good people.

 

I actually completely forgot that we just passed the 4th of July hahaha... obviously no one celebrates it here lol and so I didn't even think about it.

 

It's been a pretty good week. We were able to bring 5 to church which was a milagro (miracle)and a half.

 

And we actually had a cool spiritual experience this week as well. Ok so I think it was on Friday we were just having a rough day. Literally like 6 appointments fell through so we just had been contacting the entire day. It was extra rough because it was extremely hot outside. I told my comp that I was gonna call a bunch of investigators to see if we could visit them. So we sat down for a sec to call and no one answered.

 

We were really just tired at that point, and kinda depressed. We decided to visit a member that is always home and always lets us in. On the way to the house I just had a feeling that we needed to contact a couple people more because I didn't want the day to end bad. I felt this feeling pretty strong but I was nervous to tell my comp that I wanted to contact a little more because he seemed pretty burned out but I threw the idea out there anyways and he accepted.

 

The first door that we knocked on a lady was sitting down eating with her family and said that we can't visit her because she can't walk or something and it was a lie because my comp said he saw her walk to the table and sit down haha and then I saw a couple painting their fence and I asked them if they needed help. They said they were good but were interested in what we do. I began to explain to them what we do and they began to explain to us that they actually had been talking and looking for a church to join because they want to become closer to God.

 

And then later when we visited them the wife told us that when she saw us walking she knew that we would talk to them about her and her husband's desire to grow closer to God. They are way cool and understand the messages we are teaching. I can't wait to teach them again. I feel like I really learned a good lesson about not giving up.

 

That was the milagro of the week. I'm super tired today because I'm running on like 3 hours of sleep because we woke up at 5 just to play bball and to get kicked out of the gym hahah but I couldn't sleep last night because we had to fit 5 missionaries on 3 matresses  and the matresses are really small haha.

 

I hope everyone has a great week.

 

 

                        Wow....this kid must have been really tired to sleep through this bus ride!

 

 

At the gym to play a little basketball

 

 

Week 30 in Chihuahua - July 2, 2018 - Still Here

Hi Everyone,

So I'm staying here in this area for another cycle which is kind of hard because it is a rough area but I know that God has something for me to learn here.

Everything is good here.  It is very hot but we are surviving.  I'm sorry but I don't have a lot of time today but I have a couple of videos for you.

Have a great week everyone and love you all very much!

Elder Lignell