2 July 2012

This week was pretty sweet down here! This week we had training and President Ward and the AP´s came here to David. It was sweet!

 

We got a call on Wednesday night that the AP´s were already in town and that on Thursday Elder Monroy wanted to work with us. Elder Montero and I were kind of surprised that they wanted to work with us but I was actually really excited because I knew that he would teach us a ton!

 

When we went with him we went and visited a few of our investigators that have baptismal dates already set and he helped us out a ton with them, after each lesson he talked with us about what he felt that the investigator needed and we made plans of what we could do to help the investigator even more. One thing that he taught us was how important it was to make sure we gain the confidence of the ward members. While we were out walking he always asked us if there was a member that lived nearby or a less active member that we could go visit. So we´d go and do short visits with them to see if there was anything we could do for them and then we´d ask them if they knew anyone we could help or visit. I realized how important it is to make sure that we have the confidence of the members and as we gain their confidence we´ll receive more references and strengthen the ward.

 

Friday we had training which was great! I learned so much and so many things that i want to improve on ha I have a lot of work to do but i´m ready to do it! Sorry this one is really short we don´t have a lot of time today but thank you all for everything! I love you all!

Elder Westwood

25 June 2012

This week was awesome! Of course every week is awesome when you´re on a mission ha they aren´t always the easiest but I´ve learned that you´ve got to look for the good that happened and see the miracles that the Lord does for everyone.

This week we were teaching one of our investigators we´ve had for a while. I think I´ve talked about her before but she´s catholic and then first time we went there I thought there was no way that she would progress. While we were there we were talking about baptism and she told us that she wants to get baptized but is just nervous because she´s been catholic all of her life and all of her friends are in the Catholic church. So from now on every time we go there we are gonna go with a member of the ward so that she has friends within the church as well. Which will hopefully help her make the change in her life. I wish we would have done that from the beginning because I know that if we did so, she´d most likely be baptized already.

While we were there she also told us that she had hurt her back pretty bad earlier that day so we offered to give her a blessing. She accepted in and when we went back the next day she said the pain was almost completely gone. It still hurt a little but it was a ton better because the day earlier it was almost unbearable to even sit in a chair and do nothing. I love the privilege we have to hold the Priesthood! It´s amazing the miracles that we can do on behalf of our Heavenly Father here on the earth by the power of His priesthood.

This week we also found a lot of really positive people that we´re praying will progress and be baptized. This work is amazing! There´s nothing like it and I love it!

Sorry this one is kind of short but thank you all for everything! I love you all!
Elder Westwood

18 June 2012

Well this was another good week down here under the sun, and rain.

 

This week we did a lot of searching for the lost sheep or in other words we were contacting a lot. It´s interesting to see when the Lord has prepared someone to hear the message of the restoration of the gospel and to see those who aren´t quite ready to give up the things of the world and come unto Christ.

 

On Wednesday I believe it was, we were down contacting in this area when we´ve only been a few times and weren´t having any luck. We contacted house after house and we weren´t getting anything. It was getting pretty late and we were pretty far from the house so we decided to start making our way back towards the house when my comp went to this house to contact it. The door was closed which we usually don´t contact the houses with the doors closed because whenever people are home here they always leave the front door open. This older lady came out and we told her who we were and that we wanted to share a message with her and she invited us in. We were inside teaching her when her daughter and friend came in and were like, "wow Mormons." Apparently they´d both talked to missionaries before and were super surprised that the mom let us in because normally she won´t let anyone in. We retaught the message of the restoration with them to refresh their minds on what they had learned years before and the spirit was so strong! They were all super interested and participated a bunch in the lesson. This week we´re going back to teach them again and i´m sure that it´s gonna be another awesome experience!

 

One of the big things we´ve also been working on lately is searching for and reactivating the less-active members. One of the points of the gospel that i think a lot of people don´t realize here is the part about enduring to the end. So we´ve been trying to work with the members of the ward to help us find those who have fallen away and get them coming out again. The emphasis has been every member a missionary and that´s what our goal is so that we can all, not just the missionaries, help others to come unto Christ and stay active. So I guess what I´m sayin is if any of you know of someone who is less-active, do what you can to get them coming to church again! So that they can receive the blessings that come from our Father in Heaven which come from being active and faithful to His will.

 

well that´s all from me this week hope you all have a great week! love you all!

Elder Westwood

11 June 2012

Another good week down here ha I´m still getting used to having the new companion but we´re gettin used to it and working better together

This week we had a couple of cool things happen, we went and visited our recent convert Rosa to see how she was doing and teach her some more. While we were there she started talking about how since she got baptized and received the Holy Ghost she´s felt like she has more peace in her life. I guess normally she´s kind of high strung and she can get mad pretty fast but since then she´s noticed that she is a lot more calm about things. It was so awesome to hear her saying that because it show´s that she is noticing how much the gospel has already blessed her life. it was awesome!

We also went and visited one of the older couples that we´ve been teaching and the husband started telling us about how a few days earlier some missionaries of another church contacted their house. Before they could say anything he asked them where we go after this life here on earth because we had just finished teaching them about the plan of salvation a few days earlier. He said that they kind of stood there staring at him with blank stare on their faces and didn´t know what to say. Then he pulled out The Book of Mormon and taught them himself! Ha it was so sweet! I was doing all that i could to keep from laughing as he told us the story ha i can only imagine how those missionaries felt about that.

We´ve also been teaching this investigator that from the beginning she had a ton of doubts. She had a ton of questions and it didn´t really seem like anything we said satisfied her doubts. Then she asked for a Book of Mormon to read so of course we gave one to her. We went back a few days later and she said that she´d been reading the book and the more she reads it the more she is realizing that everything that we´ve been teaching is true and that the Book of Mormon is true. I love the Book of Mormon! it helps with everything!

This was a pretty good week and we´re looking forward to next week. thank you all for everything!
Elder Westwood

4 June 2012

Well I now have 4 1/2 months going on 6 here in David. We got the call around midnight Monday night telling us that Elder Oliva had changes and that I´m going to be staying here another change. We were both pretty surprised by it but oh well ha we just keep on doin the work! The Lord wants me here for a reason, so I´m gonna do all that i can to do His will.

 

My new comp is Elder Montero from Costa Rica and has about 5 months in the mission. He´s a really quiet guy ha he talks less than I do if you all can believe that. Our investigators were like he doesn´t talk very much does he?? Haha but it´s been fun getting to work with him so far, although he doesn´t talk much he has a really strong testimony of the gospel and is really good at teaching it to people. It´s been an adjustment after being with Elder Oliva for 3 months but we´re workin on it and I know we´re gonna see some more miracles this change.

This week we went contacting in a part of our area where I´ve only gone a few times just to see what we could come up with there. The first two houses we contacted were awesome! They´re actually right next to each other and they´re family. The first one talked about how a few years ago her husband died and so we began teaching her about the Plan of salvation, she was super interested and had a bunch of really good questions! Her sister, who lives next door, had a lot of questions about why there are so many churches and the differences between what every church teaches. So we taught her about the restoration and it answered a ton of the questions that she had.

 

That´s about all i have for this week ha changes took up a lot of the week but we´re looking forward to this next week to see what miracles we can bring to the people here in David!

 

thank you all for everything!

Elder Westwood

28 May 2012

Well we had another good week here in the work of the Lord. This was the last full week of the change so we wanted to try and get things ready for next change!

This week we also went and helped the sister missionaries in our district work their area since my comp is the District Leader. While we were working with them we had a really cool experience. We were teaching one of their investigators who they´ve been teaching for a while and have been trying to put a baptismal date with him but he´s turned it down every time. We were teaching him about baptism and why we get baptized, the spirit was super strong, and then at the end of the lesson the Sister´s tried putting another baptismal date with him and he accepted it! After he accepted it we asked him how he felt and he said it was a feeling that he hadn´t felt before. He said it was like a burning in his heart, and we described to him that the feeling he felt was the spirit testifying to him that what he was doing was right. It was a super cool experience and the spirit was super strong.

Yesterday we also finally got a ward mission leader put in! We´ve been asking for a while now and finally our prayers have been answered. The guy´s name is Pedro and he served his mission in Nicaragua when he got home he got put in as Branch President over one of the branches here in David. The guy is awesome and although he just got the call yesterday he´s helped us out a ton with our recent baptisms. Before I never really realized how important it was to have a Ward Mission Leader or to work with the members but it really makes a world of difference. Also the members have been giving us a bunch of references lately which help a ton as well. References are awesome because it usually means that the people are already somewhat interested and already have a friend who is a member of the church.

But anyways I think that´s about all from me for this week thank you all for your love and prayers! We still don´t know what´s gonna happen for changes, we find out tonight!

love you all

Elder Westwood

21 May 2012

It´s still raining! ha I´m pretty sure that the rainy season is here now, it rained everyday this week and it rained hard! Right now we only have one umbrella so we had to share it and walking in water up to our shins in certain areas ha it was great!

This weekend the Lord blessed us with the opportunity to see 2 more of his daughters, Rosa and Sharlyn, get baptized and confirmed into the church! It was so awesome! They were both super excited and way happy. The night of the baptism we didn´t have a lot of ward members show up which was sad but the spirit there was so strong. Before we finished the service Rosa got up and shared her testimony with all of us. The spirit there was so strong as she was sharing her testimony and tears of joy running down her face. It was so awesome!

This week we were teaching this other family which we found a couple of weeks ago and we were teaching them about the plan of Salvation. The lady had a lot of questions about where we go after we die here on earth and what our resurrected body´s will be like. We shared with her a few scriptures from the Book of Mormon and helped her receive the answers to her questions. I´m so grateful for the Book of Mormon and that we have it to help us teach the gospel better. A couple of changes ago i started reading the Bible from the beginning and I realized just how perfect the Book of Mormon really is. It´s so much easier to understand and is a lot more direct. I love it!

This week is the last week full of the change, ha it seems like it just barely started! but we have a lot of work to do and i can´t wait to find more people who have been prepared to hear the gospel!

Thank you all for everything!

Elder Westwood

14 May 2012

Well first off Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom´s who will be getting this! I hope you all had a great day!

This week was great down here! A little bit of snow actually fell here this weekend.... ha Just kidding but we had a Baptism! We´ve been teaching this girl Jenifer and her grandmother Ludia for the past couple of weeks and on Saturday Jenifer got baptized! It was so awesome to see her do this covenant with the Lord and she was super excited about getting baptized! Then yesterday she received the Holy Ghost and you could tell that her whole countenance just changed it was awesome. She´s super happy and I pray that she´ll continue in this path she´s entered.

Yesterday we also had a really cool surprise while we were at church. One of the families that we´ve been teaching lately came to church! We´ve only taught them a few times but every time we go they are super positive! But a lot of times they have to work on Sunday’s so they aren´t always able to come to church. They were supposed to be working yesterday but for some reason they didn´t have to work yesterday and they came to church and loved it! it was so awesome!

This week we had to go in to Panama City so that my Comp could renew his visa and while we were there we ran into a couple of Americans. it was weird to be talking with them in English and I found out that one of the couples we met have lived here for over a year and neither of them have picked up on Spanish still. Another family we met didn´t know a lick of Spanish and were having some problems because the people here don´t know English so they asked me if I could go translate for them ha it was so cool being able to do that! It was a pretty awesome experience because it showed me how much God blesses us with the Gift of Tongues to be able to learn the language so fast.

This weekend we have another baptism planned which we´re praying will go through so it should another great week!

Thank you all for everything I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Westwood

7 May 2012

This week was sweeet!! We had another great week down here under the sun, and rain now I guess too. We had some of the biggest storms this week than we´ve seen in a long time. The rain has cooled it off a little, only a little, but it´s still nice.

This week we were walking down a street which we walk on almost every day and had contacted almost every house on this street before. But as we were walking we saw this house which we hadn´t contacted and we felt that we should do it. So we went up and first a few little girls ran outside about the ages of 3 and 8 and then ran back inside really fast to tell the people inside who it was and then came back and told us to come in. When we went inside we waited for a little bit and then this lady came walking around the corner and had kind of a surprised look on her face when she saw us. She told us that her granddaughters had told her that we were kids that came to play with them and that´s why she told them to let us in. So we started talking with her to get to know her a little better and we found out that 2 of her daughters are actually members of the church and she had actually talked with the missionaries before and actually went to church and wanted to get baptized but for some reason the missionaries quit visiting them. But now we´re teaching her again and she´s going to be baptized on the 19th with her granddaughter who is 8!! It was so crazy how everything all went down with it down but we know that everything happens for a reason and that our Father in Heaven lead us to them.

We taught her a couple of times this week and on Saturday she told us that she wasn´t going to be able to come to church yesterday because she had to work but as we were sitting in sacrament meeting her and her daughter and granddaughters all walked in! We were so surprised! Afterwards she told us that late Saturday night her boss called her and said that she didn´t have to work. It was so awesome!! It was so awesome to see the Lord’s hand in everything that has happened with them. We´re going to do a Family home evening with them tonight with some of the other members of the ward. it should be great!

This was just a few of the many miracles which the Lord blessed us with and I know that he is blessing his children all around the world with many more miracles every day! I love this work!

thank you all for your love and prayers

Elder Westwood

30 April 2012

Well this was another pretty good week down here! it was another hot week haha but it was good!

We did a lot of service this week which was fun. They had a ward service project on Thursday which we went and participated in. We helped clean up the grounds around the Health Center in our area and then we also painted a couple of the rooms. Ha the plan was to have everyone there by 8 in the morning, ha I think if we would have said by 6 or 7 people would have shown up on time. Elder Oliva and I showed up a few minutes after 8 and we were the only ones there for about a half an hour when one of the sisters in the ward arrived. and slowly but surely the rest of the ward started trickling in haha but I think the majority of them showed up around 930 or 10. It was still fun though ha we were outside raking up the leaves and there was a group of kids from the age of 3 to about 12 going around picking up the piles. They were quite the team ha as the moved from pile to pile and the garbage bag got bigger and bigger the it took all of them to carry it around. it was cool to see them working together.

The other day we received a reference of a less active family who wanted us to go over and talk with them. Well we followed the directions we were given and we came to a house which wasn´t the right house. (they don´t really have addresses here so it´s kind of a guessing game) but soon after talking with the people who lived in the house we realized how much they needed to hear the message we had in that moment. The mom started talking about how a couple of years ago this week one of her sons died but she thought that there was no life after death. So we started teaching her and one of her other sons about the Plan of Salvation and it answered a lot of their questions. it was way cool and we´re going back there this week to teach them more!

This week is another week full of service, ha I think we have service projects planned everyday this week. should be fun!

thank you all for everything I hope all is well!
Elder Westwood

23 April 2012

Well I would tell you all about my new area and new companion and everything but I stayed here in David and I stayed with Oliva for another change too haha. We were both super surprised that I didn´t have changes but it´s cool that we´re staying together again. We have a lot of plans for this change which we´re praying will help our success.

This week we went back and taught one of our investigators named Danny and his wife Diana. Diana is already a member but has been less active for the past couple of years but she told us that she wanted us to start teaching her husband. he´s a way cool guy and has actually gone to church quite a few times with Diana when she was still going. We talked a lot about the family and how the gospel blesses families and he said he wanted to be baptized! it was so cool! The only problem is that they have to get married first which could take a while to do but it´s alright ha as long as he gets baptized. When we told him that he had to get married before he could be baptized he was a little nervous, Diana has been wanting to get married for years but he´s always been nervous to do so but after talking for a bit he said he wanted to get married so this week we´re gonna help them start the whole process.

Yesterday we went and visited an older couple whom we contacted a couple of weeks ago. Right of the bat they told us that they were members of the catholic church and we found out that they´re actually really strong members of that church. But the past couple of times we´ve gone back we´ve noticed a change in both of them. They are actually really interested in learning more about the church and even asked us for a Book of Mormon before we could offer one to them haha. Then yesterday while we were there the wife started asking more about things like if there was a dress code at church and made sure she knew where it is and what time it starts and said that she wants to come and learn more! It was so cool to hear that because our first visit with them they said they always go to the catholic church on Sundays and none other but now they want to come. I know that the Lord is softening the hearts of the people here an preparing them to hear the message of the Restoration of the Gospel.

The mission is awesome! thank you all for everything

Elder Westwood