The Spirit of the Work

This week was great and really have felt the spirit testify and tell me what I need to work on to become a better missionary. We found two New Investigators and one of them is named Sofia and she is baptist and absolutely loves talking about God and Jesus Christ and gets really emotional when she does so, but the great thing is that she has said that she doesn’t have faith in the religion, but faith in God and Jesus Christ, which is awesome!

We taught the Barrett’s a great lesson. They asked a lot of questions and we responded to the questions by saying “Now the real question you should be asking is if Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God, as you come to know that and read the Book of Mormon to gain that knowledge, you will know that all of the teachings of Joseph Smith and the current prophets are the word of God.” The spirit was super strong.

I am absolutely loving the area and the people. My companion is amazing and we have really found what works and what makes us in harmony and that is such a blessing! We are hoping to set up a baptismal date for one of our investigators Lakeisha so please pray the spirit can touch her heart.

I know that the key to gain the spirit is simply, to obey ALL of God’s commandments. I testify that those who are baptized, as they live worthily of it, will have the spirit to guide them to follow the will of the Lord, which is the best path we can follow. I know that Jesus Christ established his gospel on the earth through the prophets and apostles and that through Joseph Smith, the gospel has been restored in its entirety. Thank you for all the love and support.

Con Amor,

Elder Saunders

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Received these on Father’s Day:)

Blessings Galore!!!

This week has been great! We are seeing many blessings from being obedient and striving to let the spirit guide our efforts.

On Monday we went bowling and went to DI (Deseret Industries) and got some stuff. I had exchanges with Elder Yarber in Emerson and it was great! We did a lot of service, Elder Yarber is a great missionary.

On Wednesday we did service for Bonnie West and we talked about her spirituality level. She said she is tired of giving up the gospel for her husband so now she is going to start receiving again, in other words, she wants to start coming back. We met with a Less Active named Brent Nicholas and this guy is awesome and super strong, in fact, he tore a license plate into 11 pieces and yeah he is awesome. He is really softening up to the gospel so that is great! Wednesday night we taught the Jimenez family about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and man they believed every thing and were so happy to hear how they can improve their life through the Atonement.

On Thursday we went out with Brother Kobayashi and taught Sister Flint, a less active, about the Atonement using Alma 7:11-13 and man she has a great goal to go to the temple but she just needs her husband to want to do the same.

On Friday we shared a spiritual message with Clint Robbins and man he is super awesome and really has a desire to change! We visited with the Rodriguez Family as they are getting ready to go to the temple and are going to start their temple classes here really soon and they are so strong in the church. We have not been able to contact the Gallego Family because his mom is in town but we will get in contact this week.

We found 3 New Investigators this week. The first one is William and he has really had a spiritual awakening and is ready to hear the gospel. The next one is Sister Jimenez and that is the one we taught on Wednesday, and then you have Brother Casarez who Elder Castellano and Elder Wade taught while I was on exchanges.

Any who, that is pretty much it for this last week. I absolutely love you guys and thank you for all of the support and prayers! I know that this church is true and am so grateful to have the gospel in my life. Have a great week!

Con Amor,

Elder Saunders

Amber received the following message on Facebook this past week, we feel so blessed from Elder Saunders service.

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Loving Rupert

This week has been a awesome week and I have really enjoyed it! We had some service opportunities with picking weeds and painting houses and that is great to gain the trust of members through selfless service.

We found a new investigator named Epi and man he is a great guy! He doesn’t go to any church but he has a strong belief in Jesus Christ and God and the Bible and he said multiple times that he doesn’t see how the Catholic church lines up with the Bible so that is great! We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he was interested and would read it but yeah I guess we will see how much the spirit works on him and if he keeps any of the commitments that we left him with.

We also were able to meet Annette Hirsch, who is the wife of one of our New Investigators we found a couple weeks ago and they are some of the best bowlers ever. Their son is going to nationals in July and his average score in Bowling as an 11 year old is freaking 194!!! Like whatttttt. The highest game he has ever bowled was a 291! I was astonished and yeah they are super nice and we hope that we can find a time to meet with them and teach them more about the Plan that our Heavenly Father has for us.

We also taught a family that went missing for like 6 months named the Jimenez Family and the kids are baptized but the parents are not. The great thing is that the mom wants to be baptized but the bad thing is she can’t until she gets married to the guy that she is living with soooo we need the Lords help to get her baptized along with her boyfriend. Well the Gallegos have been super busy because their Mormon Family got married and so they went to Utah to go support them but we are meeting with them on Wednesday so that will be great!

We had the Idaho Falls Temple Rededication this Sunday and man it was great to experience that. President Eyring spoke and also gave the Redidicatory prayer and something really cool in the prayer was that he specifically blessed the young people listening with a vision of their eternal potential and purpose. It was so powerful to hear that and we live in a time of miracles, angels, and visions, with a prophet who leads the church today. How grateful I am for that and the knowledge of a young boy of 14 who had a question and asked in faith nothing wavering. I know this is the ONLY true church on the earth, that the Book of Mormon is where we can look for guidance, answers, and peace in this life and salvation in the life to come. In the name of our Advocate, Savior,  Jesus Christ. AMEN

Con Amor,
Elder Saunders

Love our leaders

We finally set a baptismal date with the Gallegos for July 1st but we think that they are going to want to do it earlier so that should be good! We found this guy named William and he has had a really hard life and knows that the Lord saved him for a reason so we asked him if he wanted to know that reason and he said of course so we set a appointment with him. We also met this family named the Gomez Family and they are amazingly nice and there is a certain type of spirit about them so we are going to teach them this week and that should be great as well! We had back to back exchanges this week and I really learned a lot about myself and the other missionaries I am serving around. We met some other cool people this week so I guess we will see how it goes and who is interested.

On Thursday, we had our mission tour and Elder Randall K. Bennett attended and we had a really amazing time. We learned about the true importance of our calling, and how to talk to everyone that we see, and also the effective way of street contacting. We have already implemented a lot of the things we have learned and can’t wait to see what else we can apply into our daily mission life.
Thank you for all the prayers, love, support, and examples that you have shown me. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that prayer is essential to getting to know your Heavenly Father.

Con Amor,
Elder Saunders

Putting My Shoulder To The Wheel

We didn’t have much teaching this week, but we have been trying to contact as many people as possible and ended up contacting like 60 people this last week but yet nobody opened the door.

We fasted and prayed earnestly for the Lord to guide us and hope that we can do his will this week. We have really been working hard and know that the Lord will bless us here soon.

I am grateful for Elder Castellano and his positive influence he has had on me and man I can’t wait to get back to work. This last week for Preparation Day we went to City of Rocks and it was pretty fun with the Zone. Here are some pics from that and other pics I took from this last week.

We also had a great District meeting and I gave a training about communicating with converts from the missionary handbook and used Luke 7 to explain how Jesus comforted and gave words of encouragement and so should we.

Good week and we are just going to keep on grindin. Thanks, for all the support and prayers and please pray that we can get some new investigators and set a baptismal date with the Gallegos this week.

I am so thankful for the members here in our area who continually ensure we are taken care of. It was such a special blessing for me to create a quick birthday video for my mom. Thanks Carpenters, I love your family.

Thanks so much to all of you for your love and support!

Con Amor,

Elder Saunders

 

Branding cows and other stuff in Acequia

This last week was great and we had lot’s of fun branding cows as a service project and also having the opportunity to go to the temple. The temple was amazing and we had a super full session and man that was great, I really felt the spirit and know that the temple is the house of God. 

We went out to this really good food place called Stevos with the Neubars and they are an amazing couple. 

We were able to teach the Gallegos about the Word of Wisdom and they were willing to live the Word of Wisdom and man I am super excited we think that we are going to extend a baptismal date to the Gallegos this week. 

We are really trying to make the Lord’s will our will and to see his timing instead of ours. I have so much love for the Lord and am so grateful for the Holy Ghost. We have really been trying to contact as many people as possible in Rupert and we are hoping to get a lot of new investigators this week. Also the boundaries for the Rupert Stake and the Declo Stake changed last night and there are some HUGE changes. Raft River is now part of our stake and part of Declo so man it is crazy! We are pumped and can’t wait to see what is to come of this. 

Keep praying that we will be able to find some new investigators this week and that we can set a baptismal date for the Gallegos. 

Thanks for all of the support and love.

Con Amor,Elder Saunders

Learning the area, loving the people

This week was a pretty good week. We taught the Gallegos and man we could feel the spirit so strongly after we taught about the Law of Chastity and then also talked about being sealed. After teaching that we invited them to be baptized because we both felt the prompting, they didn’t accept but we know that they will it just needs to be on the Lords time. I testify of that.

We have been doing a lot of research and extracting names from the old Progress Records and we have like 30 names or so right now that we need to go contact so it is hopefully going to be a good week with a lot of new investigators. I have really had a good time so far with Elder Castellano and he is a great missionary and example for me. We have been doing a lot of service this week and man it feels so good to do service I just love all of the people here. I have been getting to know the area a little bit better but Rupert is pretty confusing for me so I am just trying to study up on the maps and to get myself acquainted with the area.

I just wanted to take some time out to congratulate Ben Lewis for getting his mission call. He is going to have a blast there especially if he serves in Virginia Beach! I also am super pumped for Becca Olsen getting here call to Washington and all the rest of the kids in Senior class that have gotten their calls. A mission is such a blessing in so many ways.
I really love serving and teaching. I hope everybody has had a good week and thank you for all of the prayers and support.

Con Amor,

Elder Saunders