SPRING

Hurrah Hurrah, Spring is finally here! The weather has gotten so nice here in New Jersey, now I just have to enjoy it while it lasts because it's probably going to start getting really hot. 

We bid Farewell to Elder Larsen.

This week has been a pretty crazy one full of changes and learning. My new greenie is Elder David Jellen (Yes, people mess with him a lot by saying, "Hey, Are you Gelin". He's from Orem Utah, he went to Mountainview Highschool, and he is super awesome. He's so humble, and so desirous to learn and to grow, and I'm grateful for the opportunity and priviledge to train him. Hopefully I can teach him a lot, and I know that he's going to teach me a ton. 

Tuesday was a pretty dramatic day as we headed to the mission home for the Arrival meeting. The new missionaries had gotten there that morning as there was a mix-up in flights and everything, so the new missionaries had to take a red eye flight into JFK. They were all pretty tired, but they were excited to be there in New Jersey. Elder Erikson my old companion, was called to be one of the new assistants which is pretty cool. At the arrival meeting they assigned us our trainee's, we ate and they headed to transfer conference. Lot's of missionaries left this past week, and these next few transfers are going to be pretty packed full of missionaries leaving. There were 8 new missionaries that came into the mission, 7 of them being Spanish.

This week has been quite an adventure of learning and growing, and teaching lot's of less-actives. Elder Jellen has really good Spanish and can already lead out in lessons in Spanish which is a big help. Henry is doing great. Yesterday we went and taught him again. He has already read up to 1 Nephi 17 and he told us that he believes Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and he believes what the book says. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and changed his Baptismal Date to April 8th which he readily agreed to. I truly hope that everything goes through as planned.

One of the miracles of the week would be when we went to see the Estrada family. We went there with the intent of teaching about the importance of service. We were mostly there to teach the 2 11 year old boys, but the message had a huge impact on Hermana Estrada. She stopped us during the lesson and explained how she has been going through a tough time lately and was wondering what to do. We shared Mosiah 2:17 during the lesson, and she explained how the lesson we shared was an answer to her prayer and she understood what she needed to do. The Lord works in mysterious ways, little did we know that our short message on service would be such a grand answer for one of the Lord's children in need.

I don't think I ever understood what a big deal Saint Patricks day was until this year. We were driving just doing our normal routine, and then we saw a big crowd. We drove towards the crowd, and they had a whole parade going. I hadn't even remembered it was saint patricks day until that point. Everybody was wearing green, and the pubs around town were filled to the brim with groups of people. We don't have any other stories regarding the holiday, but it was interesting to see how much the people here got into it.

This week has been a good one full of ups and downs like always. I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be working with Elder Jellen and for all that we are going to learn together. It should be a great transfer, and hopefully I can help Elder Jellen take the steps necessary to become the missionary that the Lord wants him to become. I'm so grateful for the gospel and for the opportunity to be a missionary. Time is going by quick as we near 5 months... It was a weird realization the other day that I graduated from High School 3 years ago. I still have much to learn, but I'm so happy to be here and I need to continue making the most of it, finding those flecks of Gold.

The Gospel is True! I love you all so much!