¡Hola Fonzfam!
What would you do if you knew you had only a short specific time left to live? Would you make every second count by doing crazy intense activities to live life to the fullest? Or would you make every second count by reflecting on old sweet memories and maybe making some new ones? What kinds of things would you still want to learn? What kinds of things would you still want to experience? This is what I've reflected on a lot these past couple weeks as I approach my final transfer. This journey has been a sweet one with lots of peaks and valleys and turns and surprises. As this chapter of my life comes to a close, I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new beginning with a whole new understanding. But until then, here's what's been going on...
Friday evening during our exchange with the zone leaders we needed to go on a quick split with another set of missionaries, which meant I was with Elder Itaia (who's from the Marshall Islands, so no Spanish haha) for our lesson with Jose Ceja. This lesson was very important because we were going to invite him to be baptized. In a perfect world, both Elder Silva and I would need to be there, but it wasn't meant to be I guess. But that's ok because after sharing a message about the gift of the Holy Ghost, I invited him to be baptized on June 8th. And he said he would!!! This is more of a soft date as he still has some Words of Wisdom things to overcome, but he's made a ton of progress in the quick few months I've been here. Sunday he was already for church but wasn't able to make it because he had to wait for the mom of his granddaughter he was having to take care of until she got back from work. He's excited to come this next week, and we hope he won't be the only one there.
The Castillo family is doing well, but their grandpa (the member) left for California this weekend to visit family so we were able to involve another member in the lessons who did a fantastic job fellowshipping. We had a great Temple Visitor Center lesson with Jesús too, where we invited him to be baptized as well, but he wasn't quite ready for that kind of commitment yet. We'll keep working with him closely as he's in Helaman already in his personal scripture reading! We're praying so hard that he gets his answer soon!
Yesterday morning we decided to do our comp study at McDonald's for the first time. We were hoping to be able to catch someone we met on their shift, but they weren't there. As we finished up and headed out I walked past this older man who reached out to me and said "hi." He turned out to be a semi-active member from one of the local wards (He had a coffee as part of his meal;). My companion joined us in our conversation and we got to learn a lot about his family life in Maui and journey with the Church. He is a very humble guy as he has a lot of trials he's going through. Towards the end of our conversation, we asked him what life advice he could give us. He responded with this, "Just love with the capacity of Jesus." Basically, don't hold on to any negative feelings towards anyone or anything, and instead, turn outward in pure charity. I feel like this is something I can always improve on.
Before we left he asked if we could pray with him, so right there in the middle of this McDonald's us, these two young guys in ties and this older man with his USA eagle cap bowed our heads together in prayer. He offered it and he started to choked up as he expressed his gratitude for all his blessings, including the chance to run into us when he did. Something that he said in his prayer that touched me was his blessing over us that we would have the ability and strength to continue the work with a heart full of charity for others. The Spirit was so strong in that moment, and the power of his prayer was felt in my heart as I was filled with an incredible love for him. As we walked back to our car, my companion and I reflected on what God's purpose behind that interaction could've been. It definitely influenced both us for the better. There are always miracles that come at the timing of the Lord. Never by chance, luck, or coincidence do things just happen. There is always a purpose whether it's great or small. That's what we get to look for in each day. I love you guys so much! You're all wonderful and I'm excited to keep working hard for you and for our Heavenly Father!
Con Amor,
Elder Fonnesbeck
What would you do if you knew you had only a short specific time left to live? Would you make every second count by doing crazy intense activities to live life to the fullest? Or would you make every second count by reflecting on old sweet memories and maybe making some new ones? What kinds of things would you still want to learn? What kinds of things would you still want to experience? This is what I've reflected on a lot these past couple weeks as I approach my final transfer. This journey has been a sweet one with lots of peaks and valleys and turns and surprises. As this chapter of my life comes to a close, I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new beginning with a whole new understanding. But until then, here's what's been going on...
Friday evening during our exchange with the zone leaders we needed to go on a quick split with another set of missionaries, which meant I was with Elder Itaia (who's from the Marshall Islands, so no Spanish haha) for our lesson with Jose Ceja. This lesson was very important because we were going to invite him to be baptized. In a perfect world, both Elder Silva and I would need to be there, but it wasn't meant to be I guess. But that's ok because after sharing a message about the gift of the Holy Ghost, I invited him to be baptized on June 8th. And he said he would!!! This is more of a soft date as he still has some Words of Wisdom things to overcome, but he's made a ton of progress in the quick few months I've been here. Sunday he was already for church but wasn't able to make it because he had to wait for the mom of his granddaughter he was having to take care of until she got back from work. He's excited to come this next week, and we hope he won't be the only one there.
The Castillo family is doing well, but their grandpa (the member) left for California this weekend to visit family so we were able to involve another member in the lessons who did a fantastic job fellowshipping. We had a great Temple Visitor Center lesson with Jesús too, where we invited him to be baptized as well, but he wasn't quite ready for that kind of commitment yet. We'll keep working with him closely as he's in Helaman already in his personal scripture reading! We're praying so hard that he gets his answer soon!
Yesterday morning we decided to do our comp study at McDonald's for the first time. We were hoping to be able to catch someone we met on their shift, but they weren't there. As we finished up and headed out I walked past this older man who reached out to me and said "hi." He turned out to be a semi-active member from one of the local wards (He had a coffee as part of his meal;). My companion joined us in our conversation and we got to learn a lot about his family life in Maui and journey with the Church. He is a very humble guy as he has a lot of trials he's going through. Towards the end of our conversation, we asked him what life advice he could give us. He responded with this, "Just love with the capacity of Jesus." Basically, don't hold on to any negative feelings towards anyone or anything, and instead, turn outward in pure charity. I feel like this is something I can always improve on.
Before we left he asked if we could pray with him, so right there in the middle of this McDonald's us, these two young guys in ties and this older man with his USA eagle cap bowed our heads together in prayer. He offered it and he started to choked up as he expressed his gratitude for all his blessings, including the chance to run into us when he did. Something that he said in his prayer that touched me was his blessing over us that we would have the ability and strength to continue the work with a heart full of charity for others. The Spirit was so strong in that moment, and the power of his prayer was felt in my heart as I was filled with an incredible love for him. As we walked back to our car, my companion and I reflected on what God's purpose behind that interaction could've been. It definitely influenced both us for the better. There are always miracles that come at the timing of the Lord. Never by chance, luck, or coincidence do things just happen. There is always a purpose whether it's great or small. That's what we get to look for in each day. I love you guys so much! You're all wonderful and I'm excited to keep working hard for you and for our Heavenly Father!
Con Amor,
Elder Fonnesbeck
Next week we're saying good bye to Elder Young who'll be returning home to Arizona. We had a zone funeral for him as he and his musical talents will be missed.
Saturday evening we went to the temple with Jesus and showed him the Days of Harmony video of the translation of the BoM and the restoration of the priesthood.
Elder Lui and I did a split for service Saturday morning. Sporting our new OPM service shirts, we cut some long wet grass for this injured lady we met the week before.
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