Jan. 12, 2015

Hola

well it seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life that the first month of the year has lots and lots of trials in store for me haha! i think the Lord is just always getting me ready for great things in store for me throughout the year. well this last week was super hard but at the same time SUPER AWESOME. it was really difficult to deal with some emotional things, but i am super grateful for the trials that the Lord has given me to be able to grow closer to Him than ever before. i have realized some really important things. in John 12:24-25 it talks a little bit about true conversion. 

24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

 25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

the truth is that if we aren't willing to give EVERYTHING then we can gain eternal life. i realized this week that there have been some things that i was just still not willing to give up. but now i realize that i truly have to let go of everything...but just like the wheat that is cast into the ground and covered by dirt....we cant see the results for some time, but with time we will bring forth much fruit. also that we must the calling that God has given us in life....love His will and that is has SO MUCH value that our love for our own life and our own desires seems as hate in comparison. i truly know that to find who we are we must lose ourselves in Christ. He has the power to make us become what our potential is...IF we are willing. so i choose to be willing to do His will. i love this work. i love the Lord and i want to dedicate the rest of my time as a missionary to serve Him with literally all my heart, might mind and strength. i encourage all of you to look deep at anything that is keeping you from being fully converted to the Lord and His will, and to cast it out. I'm not saying this just because i know it but because i am living it and have felt His power in my life and how it has changed me. i just want the same for all of you. 

well other than that there isn't much going on. just working super hard and having a blast being a representative of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has given so much strength and helped me become who i am today and surely will guide me to my potential as a potent instrument in His work now as a missionary and His servant for the rest of my life. i just want to do what He wants. nothing else. because i know that He will bless me hundred fold for every sacrifice i make now. thank you all for your love and support and prayers! have a fantastic week!

Elder Glenn

Dec. 29, 2014
hello!

so just because it was Christmas this last week and y´all got to talk to me over Skype isn't an excuse to not write me! stinkin' turds. haha. well i hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas! i know i did! my family is all lookin' good!

Pictures from our call ;-)

 Jacob trying to remember the words in English (he did this a lot)

Well just to let everyone know Mari Elena and her daughter Zayra and Abigail got baptized and confirmed members of the church this weekend! we are super super happy for them. wow at the baptismal service i had such a cool experience. so when Mari Elena had her ordinance done i just felt SO OVERWHELMED with the spirit. it was truly incredible. like i just felt so sure that the angels in heaven we're rejoicing and that God was so very pleased. three of His chosen daughters have returned to his path. she is absolutely thrilled and is loving having the Gift of the Holy Ghost. on another note, her friend Melina who we have been working with, came to the baptism and also to church yesterday. we put a baptismal date for her and her to kids for the 24th of January so we will be working hard to help them reach that goal. also we put a goal for one of Mari Elenas sons Isaí for the 10th of January. we are going to be working super hard to reach these goals and find even more people!!!

so on the 26th our mission president came to do a training meeting with us. IT. WAS. AWESOME. wow. so we went like deep doctrine into the Abrahamic covenant and lineage and all this stuff but basically after everything was said and done i realized how HUGE of a responsibility i have as a missionary serving especially here in México. the people here really are prepared and really are chosen. i truly was preordained just like all of us were, to preach the gospel of Christ. we had to have behaved so incredibly well in the pre-earth life that God in His infinite wisdom saved US for these last days. i had always heard that before but i really got a spiritual testimony of that this Friday. i serve the Lord. i want to do His will in every moment possible. this year i choose to forget about what i want, and put in first priority His desires and expectations of me. i know that for man it isn't possible, but with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).

I Hope everyone can set some awesome goals and really make yourselves reach higher this year! i know that i will do all i can to serve to my highest ability this last year of my service as a full time missionary. love you all so much. have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Glenn

Mari Elena, Abigail, Zayra, and Isaí

 Mari Elena, Abigail, Zayra

Las hermanas and us!! some people arent great at taking pictures lol 

 A pic with E. Smith (Jacob went to Jr. High with E. Smith)and E. Navarro too!! YAY!!!

Dec. 22, 2014
Hola!

so wow this week has been SUPER AWESOME. first of all on Saturday we had our big mission party where the entire mission got together and i got to see a bunch of old good friends. it was awesome. seriously such an awesome day. there were talents and stuff and testimonies and a cool video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sANbcbvwNy0) that some missionaries made. we had a delicious turkey dinner and got to break some piñatas n stuff. so that was super fun and awesome. we got home at like 11 or something. it was crazy. 

but i have way cooler news than all that. so Mari Elena has been progressing super well and what not, but the new leaders were like pressuring super hard to together to get baptized on Friday last week.. and we were like no....because she legit had already received her answer and all this stuff and beside that her daughter was going to get here but not until yesterday early in the morning and she wanted to get baptized with her daughter. so they literally came to our area to basically pressure her into it and so we just felt a strong impression to intervene. so we called the mission president and explained the situation, he told us to tell them to stop and to just let the lady get baptized with her daughter. so that's what we did. and it has all been going super great! SO her daughter got home yesterday and they came to church and it was great and then afterward a family in the branch invited them to eat with all of us and what not. then after that we went and visited them in their home and talked to her daughter about how she felt about being baptized and she said good....but that she wasn't sure. so then we asked her if she had read the book of Mormon that we had given her before she left for Texas a couple weeks ago and she said no. SO THEN we left her a chapter to read and told her to pray and all this stuff and it was a really awesome lesson. and that we were going to call her today in the morning to see how it all went. 

so the thing is is that people have to have 5 attendances in the church to be able to be baptized here. WELL Saira the daughter only has 2 because she was in Texas. and so the thing is is that we have to call the mission president to get special permission to baptize her this Saturday.....well....ladies and gentlemen. we called her this morning and basically had a little mini lesson over the telephone and asked her if she read. she said yes. and then asked if she prayed. she said yes. then asked how she felt about it and she said really really good. then the big question....drum roll please.....do you feel that God wants you to be baptized this weekend? she said yes very enthusiastically. my companion and i were filled with the spirit. we ended the phone call and then proceeded to call Pres. Chavez and explained the situation and he gave us the green light. wow. just wow. we have been working so hard and this is such a great blessing. the fruits of our labors are showing. we felt the spirit super strong and just prayed thanking Heavenly Father  for the opportunity to be a part of this work and be instruments in His hands. so Mari Elena, Saira, and Abigail will be baptized this Saturday at 5.

I'm so grateful to be able to serve the Lord in the mission field. I'm so grateful for all of the love and support i get from all of you. i hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and remember Christs birth. i love you all!!! 

Love,

Elder Glenn

My old comp E. Hernandez

me and my good friend old companion E. Mainasa....he leaves january 3rd :´( 

 he first time since like....march since we have been allowed to drink soda!!!

mis amigitos!!!

E. Peréz and E. Newman buddies from my old district

Pte. Chavez taking it out on the piñata

E. Pérez a buddy from Parral

me and E. Lindo. he loves it when i make "the mask" face...and he tried it too

             me and E. Cabrera and E. Lindo two of my best friends

Pres. and sister Chavez

E. Minquiz my trainer

Dec. 15, 2014

So i didn't get transferred! super happy because i love this area. 

a crazy change though is that my old comp is now our new zone leader! ha ha its kinda crazy but I'm adjusting. he is a really good missionary but just barely got put up as a ZL so i think he is learning how to lead because all he does is planch (chews us out) us to death lol. and well because I'm his old comp or something he picked my companion and i in the zone conference and just let us have it in front of everything. and then wanted to show us how to work so he came to our are and chewed us out some more and a bunch of other stuff....well needless to say my comp and i were left quite discouraged because we really have been doing a lot and making progress and working hard, but at the end of the day we get told that we are offending God and a bunch of stuff...i know that he really just wants us to improve and do better because he gets a lot of pressure from the assistants...but ¡hijole! está bien pasado ese chai. its just a little much. well with all this craziness i have been able to learn a few things. 

first-i need to be more humble and moldable. pride is the root of all sin

second-  Satan will use ANYTHING, especially harsh words, to try and get us down and keep us from reaching our potential.

third- Christ loves me and is satisfied with my work and effort if i have genuinely given it my all. 

its interesting because HE, being the son of GOD did not have HUGE success in Jerusalem and in the old world even though he was literally walking and teaching and healing and doing miracles and even discerning peoples' thoughts and teaching better than ANYONE EVER.....they still didn't convert. while on the other hand when he came as the resurrected Christ to America he was so moved by the people he had tears of joy because of their faithfulness and love for Him. the people literally would stay and listen to Him for hours while on the other hand the Jews crucified Him. so i guess what I'm trying to say is that the numbers don't always reflect the effort. now that isn't an excuse to give little effort, but i learned this week that i really just have to give it my all and then just trust in Him.

well just an update Mari Elena is doing super well and is on a steady course to her baptismal date on the 27th with her daughter Abigail! we are working hard to help them and many others! thank you all for you love and prayers. and thank you to those that took my challenge to read that talk. i hope you can all apply it in your lives and become better people! love you all so much! have a fantastic week!

Love

Elder Glenn

Dec. 8, 2014

¡hola saludos a todos!

Alrighty so this week has been super duper great. we have been working super hard and have been seeing some really awesome miracles.

so Mari Elena has been progressing SUPER WELL. she received her answer about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and it was so cool! seriously. she just told us that she knew it was true. its really really awesome to see someone SO prepared and ready for the gospel. she was Cristian before so she knows stuff about the bible. BUT she is super humble and willing to do WHATEVER the Lord asks of her. and THAT is what is truly humbling and awesome. now that she has a testimony of the book of Mormon everything else just falls into place. for example the other day we taught the word of wisdom because she was boiling water for her coffee...during the lesson i could see in her eyes that she had felt the spirit testify to her that this really was a commandment of God. and nothing else matters. so as a result she turned off the stove right then and there and threw out her coffee. WE DIDN'T EVEN ASK HER TO DO THAT. and she just did it. 

God really prepares people. its so humbling to be led by Him to those select people. to be an instrument in His hands is truly an incredible (to say the least) experience. i have been reading a talk called "beware of pride" by Ezra Taft Benson. i don't really know how many times i have read it but its a lot. really something we all need to recognize is that we all have loads of pride. i have a lot. and you do too. this talk is to reflect upon and set new goals to change and become a better person. i challenge each of you to look it up on lds.org and print it out and study it. i don't challenge to do much in these letters so i hope you can all take on this challenge and change and become better than you already are! 

well i love you all so much. i may or may not get transferred i guess ill find out tonight and let y'all know next week. but i really hope that i get to stay because we are just killing it here in Saucillo :) LOVE you all so much. ¡q´ tengan una buena semana!

Love,

Elder Glenn

Dec. 1, 2014
HOLA

So this week has been just full of miracles. we really have been reaping the rewards of all of our hard efforts over these past couple weeks! so the lady that came to church a couple weeks ago out of nowhere, well her name is Mari Elena and she has a baptismal date for the 27th of December. we have been fasting and praying and working super hard to help her progress and this week some really exciting things happened. first of all she has a daughter that lives in Odessa Texas and she came here for the holiday week and we got to teach her and give her a book of Mormon and we gave her all the church information for where she lives in Odessa and she is going to go to the Spanish branch there. WE ARE SUPER EXCITED. 

so visiting with Mari Elena we have just been guided 100% by the Spirit and it has been just awesome. all the lessons have been so inspired and we have been able to resolve her doubts and answer her questions. something that really has been testified to me is the role of the Holy Ghost. really i have nothing to do with anything. its all the Spirit. He is the one that guides and teaches and touches the hearts of God´s children. it really is magnificent though to be an instrument through which the Spirit can teach. it really is humbling.

So Mari Elena has slowly been growing her testimony and the other day we were visiting her and a friend of hers was there and Mari basically sat there in the middle of the lesson and straight bore her testimony to her friend. it was really cool. and a few days earlier we were teaching her about the Book of Mormon and all of the sudden she just stopped and was like "wait wait....so you are saying the this book was written by ancient prophets and that Joseph Smith TRANSLATED it?" and we were like...uh mm....yeah exactly and she just sat there with this PRICELESS look on her face of like "holy wow this stuff is serious bidness". super cool. so then fast forward to yesterday after church we were teaching her in the church with her daughter and stuff and she asked us if she could bare her testimony and she told us that she had fasted 4 DAYS. 4 DAYS without food. she drank only liquids. but she fasted 4 days and prayed asking God to give her direction in her life and to reveal the truth to her. well. on the day after she finished her fast. we showed up into her life. she cried and told us that she knew God had answered her prayer and that this is the true church. i was humbled and moved. truly an inspiring and amazing experience that i will always treasure.

I know that God loves us and listens to us when we talk to him. it is an honor and a privilege to serve Him and be guided to those that are truly and honestly searching for the truth and the path that God desires them to take. i know that this is the true church. i know that the only thing God really wants is for his children to return to His presence. i love you all so much. VIVA PARA CRISTO, NO PARA SÍ MISMO 2 Cor 5:14-15

Love

Elder Glenn

Me and the 1st counselor in our branch Jaime Morales(NATURE SUNSHINE SHOUTOUT FOR YOU DAD!!!)

Me with the cherry cheesecake pie thanks to my mom