Week 42 in Chihuahua - September 24, 2018 - 11 Months!

A lot to write about with little time.

 

We baptized a youngster named Ramses! He's a beast. We baptized 7 as a zone this week too which was way fun and amazing!!!

 

I had to stay goodbye to my favorite gringos this week which was sad, but I'd say that I'm the happiest I've been in my mission at this point.

 

That's all I got this week have a good one everyone!

 

(The pictures are of the missionaries Jacob said goodbye to this week as they were being transferred from his zone to new areas and he won't be their zone leader anymore.  And a picture of a bug he thought was cool looking).

 

 

Week 41 in Chihuahua - A Surprise Sombrero

Ok what a week.

 

So first of all this morning we were playing bball and my comp got hit in the nose and it broke. Soooo we already had special changes and he went to Chihuahua City to get it fixed and now my comp will be the elder that broke his nose hahaha He will be my comp just for a week until they send me someone else.

 

The zone is doing way good right now. We have a lot of baptisms for this Saturday. We decided that it would be cool if we all fasted specifically for this day so that everything would turn out good.

 

Right after we started the fast I received 2 text messages. One was from an elder saying that they just had a great lesson with one of the families we fasted for and that they wanna get baptized and the second said that this other dude we fasted for wants to get baptized and wants to be come closer to God. And the cool thing about that guy (his name is Juan) is that we contacted him one day that I was in divisions with an elder. He was super sick so I asked him if he wanted a blessing and he said yes and we gave it to him and he got better and we taught him a little. Now he is going to church consistantly and wants to get baptized!

 

 I honestly was so happy when I got that text that he wants to get baptized. It was so cool to see the affects of fasting so fast and so obvious.

 

And another cool miracle that happened this week is that we were walking through a place that sold sombreros and so I was like hmmm I think I'll get one because the one I had was horrible! It had a hole and made my head itch. It was the first time in my whole mission that I walked into a store with the desire to buy a sombrero.

 

I didn't see any that I liked so I didn't buy any and we kept working. Later that day a guy saw us and pulled over and said, "hey guero porque no llevas un sombrero hace mucho sol" (hey white guy why aren't you wearing a sombrero it's really sunny). As he said that he got out of his car and gave me one for free, and it's actaully one that I like hahaha and it's like way better that all the ones in the store! He then got in his car and sped away.  Right after that happened I looked at my comp and said, "I love how lucky I am"

 

It wasn't until yesterday at church that I started to remember a lesson that my seminary teacher,Brother Dumford, gave us about tender mercies from God. He tought us that tender mercies basically are blessings that we don't necessarily  need but that God gives us because he loves us and I then realized that that was a tender mercy. It's not like I was super sad that day or that I was thinking about going home or something, I really feel like God gave me a blessing so that I would remember that he loves me. And know that if God can do that with me he can do it with everyone else in this world! 

 

I love you all! Know that God loves you and have a great week!

 

Elder Lignell

Week 40 in Chihuahua - September 10, 2018 - What a Week!!

Okay,  so this week has been kinda crazy.

 

On Thursday we were contacting people in a place super far away from our house, when all of the sudden it started raining sooooo hard! 

 

I had an umbrella thank goodness but the wind was blowing way hard so I was still just getting soaked.  We started walking to a lady's house who is less active and for some reason I was on one side of the street and my comp was on the other. As we were walking I found out that I needed to cross in order to get to the house but I'm not kidding the street was literally a river of rain... I couldn't cross. 

 

Me and my comp kind of looked at each other for a second and then he kept walking hahaha assuming that I would just find a way over this raging street river hahaha but I did not want to  cross knowing that I would get so wet so I just stood there.  After a second a dude pulled up in car with his family  and screamed get in.

 

I could barely hear because of the thunder and wind and rain. I said I couldn't because my comp was over there and he said we will pick him up too. So I took my chances and got in.  

 

After I got in the car, my comp turned around to see if I found away across the river and I wasn't there lol I think he panicked a little but he started laughing as I rolled down the window of this dude's car and my smiling face popped out haha.

 

We picked him up and went to the family's house and taught them. It was awesome because they are way cool. They have a bunch of pictures from our church of Jesus all over their house and the dad told us that he feels like God has been preparing him for something with a bunch of small things every day but he doesn't know why. Aaahh it's literally like a perfect family and they are way awesome.

 

We also found a kid who told us that he wants to get baptized because he has a lot of sins that need to get erased and he went to church and he loved it!

 

On church they asked me to give a talk as we were walking in to sacrament meeting haha I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be but it was different giving a talk with only notes that I manged to write on a page in my planner haha but I think I did a good job.

 

 

I LOVE YOU ALL have a great week!  Here is a cool scripture.

ALMA 7:23 "And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.

 

Have a good one everyone!

 

This video is of a river bed that was completely dry before it started raining.

 

 

Week 39 in Chihuahua - September 3, 2018

Wow what a week. First of all I turned 20... I still can't believe it to be honest. I still act like an 11 year old hahaha For example it's the 3rd of September and I'm rocking a Christmas tie already!

 

Thank you so much to everyone who tried to make my birthday special even though I'm not there!  I got every single package before my birthday which was so awesome!  Aunt DD, Aunt Kathy, Grandma Ingie and Mom and Dad!  That part was pretty awesome!

 

My bday was alright. I woke up 5 am feeling like I was gonna puke lol. And I didn't really have any energy throughout the day. (classic mission bday) hahah.

 

The other day we were contacting and we were just walking down a street and we heard a family talking inside their house and so I stopped and my companion stopped kinda at the same time and we knocked and a lady and her son came out. We made an appointment for another day.

 

We kept walking for a sec and there was a dark like hidden street. It looked way cool and scary and my companion said one day we gotta contact there and I told him that I wanted to right then and there hahah.

 

We talked about it for a sec and then we entered. As we were walking down this sketchy path the mom and the son that we had contacted screamed, "hey do you guys want some dinner?" We said, "Yes" and went back to eat with them and we shared a message and they loved it and the spirit was way strong.  I don't know if the spirit promted us to go down that path so they had the opportunity to invite us to eat or if the spirit prompted them to invite us to eat so that we wouldn't die on this sketchy dark street haha.

 

We did an activity as a zone here the other day and we made a huge book of mormon and contacted a bunch of people it was way fun. I love you all !!! Always look for the promtings of the holy ghost!!!!