Tuesday, May 5, 2015

May 4, 2015
HOLA

Alright! so this week was once again super awesome! a little girl from the Rodriguez family that we baptized a year ago turned 8 a couple months ago but refused to get baptized unless it was by me or Elder Minquiz....and well elder Minquiz is super far away and I'm right here next to Parral so i got to go and baptize her and see all the people from that area! it was super awesome. seriously one of the greatest days of my life! i missed those people so much, and after the baptism i went with them to their house and we had a family home evening. super cool stuff seriously. 

also president came and we had a training meeting and it was awesome what we learned about the parable of the wedding feast. it was super cool and i learned a lot. i have been learning tons with my comp and been progressing a lot....or at least trying to. sometimes it takes longer to comprehend certain things, but it makes them more valuable. 

honestly that's about all that went down this week. we are just working hard and enjoying the mission to its fullest :) hope you all have a great week and enjoy life!

Love,
Elder Glenn
Training with President Chavez



I think he likes this green little town ;-]




La Familia Rodriguez Trianna







April 27, 2015



HOLA

another awesome work week! we have been working super hard and we had some awesome results this Sunday and 7 people were able to go to church. there are tons of people who are willing to go to church its just that most people in our area don't have money to pay for the transports to come to Parral and return so it gets kinda tricky. but the Lord works in mysterious ways to help them. the work is really awesome here we have a bunch of people that are intently listening to us. we actually found a Tarahumaran family they are like Indians and have this cool language. it sounds awesome, but i don't know any of it. anyway they speak Spanish too and are listening sincerely and want to get baptized! so we'll be working hard with them to help them out in their quest for the truth!

me and my comp Elder Castro get along super duper well. haha we joke around a ton but we also share our knowledge and help strengthen each other and other people too. our companionship studies are freaking boss. and we teach really well together and think a lot alike. i can really feel the spirit flowing in our companionship and see the miracles wrought because of our love for the people and each other. the Lord is so powerful and does so many miraculous things...we are simply instruments in His hands, and we just have to be humble enough and have enough love to be able to be USEFUL instruments.

well that's about all i got right now! i love you all and i hope you have a great week!

love 
Elder Glenn

waiting for the bus to go to el Valle with Elder Castro


we get along really well

Erika got each of us one of these to remember her and her family :)

el Valle is super pretty





April 20, 2015

HOLA,

Well I'm in Parral again and its awesome!!! Valle is way smaller than Saucillo but its ever more green and its just like a happy little small town...there are only a few member here, so its interesting because we have to travel to Parral to go to church on Sundays. it gets expensive....i just spent like a ton of money on transports this week...like a ton, BUT its all good because this girl Vanessa got baptized. she is awesome and she wouldn't wait a couple more weeks to get baptized, she wanted it now! haha and she wants to serve a mission when she is older too! her mom is named Erika and she along with her other 3 kids are going to be baptized soon...i think on the 2 of May or something like that. so we are working hard also to baptize some other people here in El Valle. we have some sweet bikes that we get to use and travel to lots of little towns that are a ways away. this place has so much potential. we just need to work hard and be the right people to do the Lords will here. 

my comp is Elder Castro, he is from Tampico and is super chill. he was my zone leader like 8 months ago and we get along super well. we can talk about anything and we can get into some sweet doctrine and learn from each other. I'm not gonna lie he was super tough before, but he has changed SO MUCH and is now super humble and super chill. love this guy seriously. i have so much fun working with him. i look forward to LOTS of great things these coming weeks and months, and i hope i get to stay here for a while. also i did divisions with Elder Garces for like 2 days and it was awesome. he is a super chill guy and we hit it off really well....i feel like his group of friends was a lot like mine...haha

at Vanessa's baptism on Saturday i saw Sister Castaneda! she was a sister in my first area that i seriously love so much. she said that soon i will hopefully be able to see the Chavez and Rodriguez Families :)

well that's all i have for right now! i hope y'all had a great week! Shout out to Sam for his 20th birthday! congrats bro! felicidades triste cuate! no te hagas güey!

love,
Elder Glenn
maybe the last time with woods..
 Elder Castro....i promise he isn't picking  his nose....i think
 El Valle Verde. its green here :)
 El bautismo de Vanesa

Edler Glenn y Elder Castrito mi nino jeje
Erika and her family 


April 14, 2015

oh yeah! i almost forgot.we had a choir performance at el teatro de los héroes on Sunday night and it was super cool. lots of people came and we sang great songs....that's about it haha.


 the dressing room before the performance


 the theater
 the stage from up above

April 13, 2015

Hola,

i have cambios and my comp is staying here and who knows where im going, ill find out at like 2, so i dont have time to write but im alive and ana and ofelia got baptized and confirmed this weekend. true miracles. super awesome experiences  i will write about it sooon. love you all take care!
Elder Glenn

April 14, 2015

CAMBIOS

Alright so i just got my new comp and my new area......I'm in Parral again!!!!! WAHOOO! super stoked, I'm actually in this little town like 30 minutes away but ill be coming to Parral like several times a week so I'm pretty stoked. hope i get to see some of the converts from my first area. my companion is Elder Castro. he was one of my zone leaders when i first left Parral and went to Chihuahua. he is cool and finishes the mission in 3 months. so we are going to be working super hard here and ill keep you all updated.

alright now let me get to the awesome stories from last week. so Ana is an investigator that has been wanting to get baptized for a while, the only problem is is that her work won't let her take Sundays off....so there would be no way to confirm her. well this week on Thursday we went by to go visit her and turns out that a day earlier someone had thrown two Molotov cocktails into her suburban that was parked in her garage and it burnt the thing to a crisp and a ton of smoke got into the house and it was just a huge mess. so we told her that we would get some missionaries together and come by the next morning to help clean and paint. so we came the next morning and did all that good stuff. she said that her work gave her two weeks off because of this incident and then she told me that she just thought it was cool how God puts everything into place so that she could attend church. we invited her to be baptized on Saturday and she said yes! 

Now Ofelia. she is the old little lady that is just precious. this week we came over on Monday and she had fallen the day before and was bed ridden. it was super sad. but she was telling us that her kids were all against her getting baptized and that they would abandon her if she kept going to church with us so she just wanted a little more time. we gave her a blessing and the next day we came and she was feeling loads better. she told us that she didn't care anymore what her kids did. she just wants to do Gods will. she said so be it if they abandon me and so be it if i die, i know that i have to do His will....i was blown away. so she set up a baptismal date for April 25. then on Friday we went over to invite her to Ana´s baptism on Saturday and told her that if she wants she can also get baptized that day. she smiled and said that she felt that God wanted her to just get baptized already. so on Saturday we baptized the both of them and it was great. then they got confirmed on Sunday.

i am gonna miss Ofelia so much. she was just the biggest sweetheart. all we did is just listen to her and love her and she felt Christs love and that why she decided to be baptized. sometimes all we need to do is just love people more and be more sincere and true miracles can happen. i went over yesterday to say goodbye and she started crying...something about her is that she rarely cries. i have been there when she is telling just heartbreaking stories and she never cries. she raised like 25+ kids in her house, just like kids off the street and grandchildren that her own kids abandoned and lots of people, and she calls all of them her children....but yesterday when i said goodbye she called me her brother...and she said "not like a brother in the church, but i mean a real true brother". I'm seriously going to miss her so much. she is so special and has so much faith. she is a true example of a disciple of Jesus Christ. i wish i could be more like her and not care about the adverse consequences of making the right decisions that are sometimes hard. i love you all. i hope something her can inspire you to change and become a better person. have a great week! 

Love 
Elder Glenn

Javier....this guy is great, really trying to change his life around he is currently living out of this little place and trying to overcome his alcoholism. he has a great heart

 Ana and Ofelia got baptized on saturday!!! WAHOO
 this is Ofelia. the sweetest old lady ever, and one of the newest converts to the Church!
 César. this guy only has one leg, but he is huge and super strong and a great guy
 thug lyf3

April 6, 2015



Hola

this week was so awesome. so in march we had a goal as a mission to have 200 baptisms. something never before done here. and turns out we had 235 or something like that. totally crazy! so on Thursday all the missionaries here in Chihuahua went to this place and we ate and played games and just chilled all day and it was super awesome. i basically just chilled with my best friends. Elder Woods, obviously, and my new friend Elder Warden. it was a super good time.

also this week we go Ofelia interviewed for her baptism and we are pretty stoked for that. i cant remember if i mentioned this, but a couple weeks ago i was working in the Sisters´ area and we contacted this guy, his name is J and he lives in this little burrito stand(in which there aren't any burritos lol he is selling like tires out of it or something). he is a drunk but he wants help. so gave him a book of Mormon and a bunch of stuff and whenever we pass by we buy him some tacos or something. any who. he hasn't been drinking for a week now and he went to ALL of the conference session! so cool right??? he loved it. and we are going to make sure that he is clean from alcohol and get him baptized asap :)

Conference was so awesome. seriously i loved it so much. i hope y'all got a chance to watch it and enjoy the counsel and words from the prophets. they are getting super direct about some things and i love it! i loved the talk by Wilfor W Anderson. seriously that example of the dancing to music was AWESOME. i hope you get a chance to watch it if you missed out. alright well that's all for now. got some sweet pics sent out today. enjoy. love you all and have a great week!

Elder Glenn
Poolside mobbin'
on the bus ride there. (Gotta love the tan lines on these boys)
 Derp!!

Woodsy 
We look like we could be Nirvana....those tan lines look great. we literally chilled over by the poolside like this almost the entire day. so awesome. 

we must have looked so chill that tons of people decide to come sit with us, after this pic it ended up being like 15 people lol

 Teeter totters are awesome


March 31, 2015
Sorry i couldn't write yesterday!
I was busy playing futbol with the assistants and a bunch of other missionaries. it was super fun! we played for like 4 hours. i figured out that i love playing defense. and I'm actually pretty good at it. my legs hurt a lot today and i got sunburned but it was totally worth it!
so a couple of weeks ago my comp and i contacted this old lady that was sitting outside her house. we have been going to her house and teaching her, and she tells us TONS of stories about her life and stuff, its crazy stuff but really interesting. we were sad because the last couple weeks she didn't come to church and she said it was because her pastor came with some other people and discouraged her telling he that she cant do that. but then this week when we came she said that she prayed and she said that she just felt the spirit fill her heart and she knew that she needed to baptized in this church and she said, "i don't care who comes here or what they say, i just want to do God´s will....not my will and not their will, but God´s will. so I'm going with you guys to this church, no matter what happens!" sure enough when we came to pick her up she was all ready to go and went and stayed the three hours and told us after that she wants to be baptized! so we are going to be working hard to help her in that process. she is just a precious little old lady that needs to be loved. she had tons of great stories and is super receptive to everything. the Lord truly has prepared so many people to receive this gospel, we just have to open our mouths and find them.
this lst week was awesome. Wednesday was one of the greatest days i have had on the entire mission. it was just perfect to me. we worked SUPER hard, talked to a ton of people and found great new people to teach and just felt the spirit really strongly all day and at the end we came home and were absolutely exhausted and fell asleep super content. i just love the tender mercies that the Lord gives us when we serve diligently. i know He loves us. keep Him in your thoughts this week and for all that He did for each one of us. i know that He lives. His power is real. His church is true. His work is that of saving souls, the sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. i love you all so much and hope you have a great week!
Elder Glenn

March 23, 2015
hola

So this week was a little crazy. we had some cool meetings with the assistants which i learned a lot in. and i got to go out to eat with Elder Matute a couple times cause he is an assistant to the president so he came and we ate out. we worked super hard. but it was crazy cause we did the weird divisions and i was with the one elder Saldña who is from my generation and we were staying in the Zone leaders house which was sweet cause they have lots of food and a little gym in the house, i definitely took advantage of that part....it was awesome. but we worked super duper hard and found some REALLY awesome people. we were walking down the street in the sisters area and this guy yelled at us "¡hermanos vangan pa´ aca!" so we ran over and entered his little tapicería and he started talking to us about his whole life. his name is M. he talked to us about how he lost his whole family to his alcoholism and drug addictions, and he lived on the streets for the past few years and was just a bad person, but how just 6 months ago he started going to a christian church and started getting his life back together. he says its been a huge change in his life but that he still feels like there is something missing and that he wants to devote himself 100% to Christ. he was asking us how he could do that, and then he asked us if we could invite him to our church. we were just like standing there stunned and amazed and just started teaching him a little and invited him to church and baptism the whole 9 yards. handed him a pamphlet of the Restoration and made an appointment for the next day, then he gave us both two big hugs each and we left. it was SO COOL. then the next day we went back and he was so happy to see us. he said he read the whole thing and that he was up until 1 in the morning reading the pamphlet with the light from a candle because he doesn't had electricity in his house......he had it all underlined and like little notes written in it and told us his favorite part was about Joseph Smith. he said that he could really relate with him because he feels like he is on the right path but that he just doesn't know which church is the right one, and that just like Joseph received revelation he feels like he is receiving revelation through the scriptures and his prayers and feels something different in his heart. me and elder Saldaña were just blown away and as we taught him we really felt the spirit super strong. 

so then here is where stuff gets interesting. we had to go to the mission offices that Friday night because there was this like youth activity that apparently we were apart of. so we get there and apparently we were going to have some 14 year old come stay with us for two days! AWESOME. his name is C and was super timid and shy. but i found out he played the sax and likes jazz so we connected on the level and he really opened up and he like Frank Sinatra and a lot of great music. cool kid. actually just got baptized 7 months ago and his mom is inactive but he goes to church. it was way fun working with him. and then on Saturday we had to go get everything ready for a baptism that the sisters from my district had and that was fun, then we went to lunch, the baptismal font overflowed because my comp left the water running, but luckily we got there in time before it was too bad and we got it taken care of. then the 15 year old got baptized and it was really cool. he looks like he is 9 though, poor guy.

 then we went and worked a little and they called me and told me that i had to go stay the night with Elder Woods and Elder Norris, some good friends of mine and i was like OKAY! so we met up with them and i stayed the night with them at Woods´ house, he has a banjo and a guitar and all 3 of us like to sing so needless to say that was an excellent night. bright and early we head up to Cuatehmoc to do a choir performance at a stake conference and it went really well. then we were there for the afternoon session. and on the way home we sang lots of stuff and it was super fun, mostly Americans. i got back and we got back and ate i got back and called M to see if he made it to church and he said yes and that he loved it and wants to be a part of this church now. then there was a meeting to end the youth activity and it was really cool. nice testimonies from the kids that stayed with the missionaries. all ended and i ended up having to stay the night with Elder Woods again cause all my stuff was at his house....so yeah. it was an excellent week. we had a lot of success too. but i have written plenty already so ill leave it at this haha.

well i hope you all have an excellent week! i love you all loads. and having tons of fun and loving this work!

Love, 
Elder Glenn

this is the only pic i took because my camera died :/ but here is the crazy van full of mostly americans! 
super fun stuff