Week 93--April 27, 2015

Holy Cow the wind almost blew us away today! It was ridiculous!

Well our week has been pretty good. Working hard as always! Things are going really well with the Ostlers! They are still progressing and keeping all of their commitments, as well as coming to church every week. I really enjoy teaching them a lot! Their baptism is the weekend after next, so they will be baptized the day before Mothers Day. We did have a really good lesson with a new investigator that we have, his name is Justin! He is super cool. Other than that we have been struggling to find new investigators. It is something that we need to work on! 

The weather has been interesting this week, today it was super windy, the past few days it has rained and all week it has been overcast. All of those things are very unusual.

Well Elder Luedke is great! He is a big ole' corn farmer from Nebraska! He is super funny! I really enjoy being with him! He is super cool! This transfer is going to be great!

This week I was studying in Alma and I am in the War chapters, and this verse stuck out to me from Captain Moroni's letter to Pahoran: "And now behold, I, Moroni, am constrained, according to the covenant which I have made to keep the commandments of my God; therefore I would that ye should adhere to the word of God" That verse really impressed me! Moroni honored, and valued, and kept his Covenants that he had made. Not only that, he was not going to break his covenants because of anybody else. How do we value our Covenants?

Well I love y'all

Elder Bangerter

Week 92--April 20, 2015

Well, another transfer has come and gone, and I won't be able to say that too many more times :( Thanks to one of the Elders serving in the ward with me, I am painstakingly aware of how many weeks that I have left as a missionary. Anyway I am not being transferred today, Elder Warren however is being transferred to one of my old areas, Lasselle! My new Companion is Elder Luedke from Nebraska. I don't know too much about him, just that he is a farm boy and he has red hair. I have heard that he is a super hard worker, so I am very excited to be with him! In addition I have been assigned to be a District Leader again, and every one in my district except for One elder and myself are under 6 months out, so my district is going to be very green. We will set the area's on fire! Wait that probably isn't a good idea, there was a huge fire this week. We will do great work!

This week has been pretty good. We had a really good Lesson with the Ostlers this week! They are still progressing great for May 9th! I wish that every investigator that I have had progressed like this. As far as teaching this week was actually pretty slow, Elder Warren was sick for two days again too, so that contributed to it too.

So, Fires: There was a Huge Fire this weekend that was 2 miles away from where our area is we got a call during Dinner from President Mullen making sure that we were safe. Until then we weren't aware that there was a fire. We were heading home and we could see the flames a couple miles across the freeway. It was Dark and we could see the glow too.

Donkeys: This week we saw this guy riding down the street, and he was the most stereotypical Mexican guy I have ever seen. He had on a huge sombrero, a traditional poncho, he had a huge Mexi-stache, and he was riding a donkey. It made me laugh. I wish I had my camera to take a picture.

Well things are going well!

Love you guys,

Elder Bangerter 

Week 91--April 13, 2015

This week has definitely been a good one! We got a lot of stuff done this week.

The Ostlers are doing so well! They are progressing towards their date of the 9th, and it is very exciting. They are feeding us Dinner this week, it should be great! We also have dinner tonight with the Elder's Quorum President, and he and his wife invited our investigator Veronica over for dinner as well. It should be great! They are going to help us teach a lesson about the word of wisdom. They are perfect for it especially since they have both quit smoking in the past, and that is what Veronica struggles with. Other investigators: Alfredo's Nephew we turned over to the missionaries in Bloomington, and we are trying to figure out the situation with Lizette. Hopefully we can figure it all out. We did pick up a few new investigators this week too, but they are all in the works right now.

It never ceases to amaze me how Heavenly Father Prepares people to receive the gospel. I feel like I have been extremely blessed as a missionary to have had so many people who have been so prepared to receive the gospel. It also never ceases to amaze me how it is never too late to come unto Christ. I have had the opportunity to teach so many people who are older, and often times they are the ones who are the most converted to the gospel. 

Well Sorry this is so short, 

But Enjoy some pictures that I have been meaning to send for a while.

Two are from Kassie Cordova's baptism, one is from the temple, one is from Alfredo's baptism, and the other is a picture I took of Elder Warren when he was playing the piano and not looking!

Well love you guys!

Elder Bangerter

Week 90--April 6, 2015

Hey Everybody! General Conference was Awesome! This week was Awesome, and by a miracle we hit the Standard of Excellence.

Before I get into General Conference, I will talk about our week. We had lessons with the Ostlers twice this past week. It was awesome! They set a date for baptism on the 9th of May, which is the day before Mother's day. It will be very exciting for us. Hopefully I will still be here when that happens, because there is a transfer between then and now. One really cool thing that happened this week; there was just one night where everything was just falling through, no one was home nobody was outside. I suggested that we go see someone, and then Elder Warren said that we should go see someone else. We went and saw the family that Elder Warren suggested, and same thing as all night, nobody was home. We then started towards home, and Elder Warren and I both got an impression to go visit a specific Less-Active family, but neither of us said to the other that we had felt the impression, and with out a word we both knew exactly where we needed to go. We got to the house and the Wife answered the door, and was fighting to hold back her tears. She explained to us that she was an hour away from an interview with the doctors that have been taking care of her Sister, who because of a car accident has become basically a vegetable, they were going to discuss taking her Sister off of life support. She also explained that her husband, who got baptized in 2013 and since gone less-active, was at work and not there to comfort her. She said that she hadn't prayed audibly, but had more or less prayed in her heart that there would be some way for her to receive a blessing. It was after she had prayed for that in her heart that we showed up on her doorstep. The timing of it all had her fighting back tears. She asked us to give her a blessing, and as I gave her that blessing that she had desired I could feel the Love that Heavenly Father has for her, and for all of us who call on his name. It was Perhaps a more powerful spiritual experience for me, than it was for her, to me it was a powerful witness of how the Lord can use us as instrument's in his hand. I am grateful that I was in-tune with the promptings of the spirit.

General Conference: There were a few things that surprised me during Conference. First, President Monson did not open the Conference, or close it, and he wasn't the last speaker during the Sunday morning session. I guess his health isn't doing too well, and he can't do as much. Second, I was surprised that Elder Richard G. Scott did not speak at all during the conference. Third, I was surprised that there were dissenting votes in the sustaining of the officers of the church. 

My favorite word that was used during Conference was Pickle-suckers by Dallin H. Oaks. There were a lot of really good talks. I don't think I have ever heard so many talks focused on Marriage. We were watching Conference at the Stake Center, and my companion leaned over to me and Elder McConkie and said that they were all directed right at us, as both of us will go home during the summer. I guess that isn't quite what I want to be thinking about yet. I still have a long time as a missionary! I really enjoyed Elder Oaks talk about the Parable of the Sower. I also like how he called out the youth of the church for being on their mobile devices during the Sacrament. I thought that was really good. I also enjoyed Elder Ballard's talk during Priesthood session, when he challenged all the missionaries and return missionaries to raise the bar of our generation to be the greatest generation of young adults ever, and then what did he do? He said return missionaries do not wait too long to get married, and then he challenged them to not text their dates, but to call or ask in person, and it might shock them into saying yes. I also liked several talks on Sunday including Jeffrey R. Holland's talk about the Atonement, and President Uchtdorf's talk on Grace. Both were very good. It was awesome to see that all of the questions that I asked for conference were answered.

Well I love you guys!

Elder Bangerter

Week 89--March 30, 2015

Well, another week has come and gone and we have definitely had a great week and have seen some miracles.

Probably the biggest miracle this week happened on Wednesday and Thursday of this past week. Things really weren't going very well and we were struggling. We decided to go and to visit the Bishop. When we were talking to the Bishop he told us about a family that he was going to visit that night. They are not members of the church, but all of their family is. Bishop told us that he would let us know how it went. Well Bishop called us at 6:32 the next morning, two minutes after the alarm went off, and told us that the family not only wanted to take the missionary lessons, but they want to get baptized. It was pretty exciting! We went by to see them that day, their name is the Ostlers, and we get there Brother Ostler comes out and he says, "What took you so long, we've been waiting for you?" It was pretty funny, our reply was that we had meetings earlier that day. We taught them the restoration, and come to find out that between January and now they have read all of the Book of Mormon, all of the Doctrine and Covenants, and all of the Pearl of Great Price. It was pretty amazing. They have committed to be baptized, they are working with their family for a date, but It was definitely a miracle.

We got to go to the Temple this week, That was good as always! I realized that before my next temple trip, which will most likely be my last as a missionary, I will most likely have to renew my temple recommend. 

Last week I also got an e-mail asking for information so they can book my flight home. I can't believe I already got that e-mail. I guess I've been out here for a long time or something.

Here are some scriptures that I liked from my Scripture Study this past week. "What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." (James 2: 14-18) I love this scripture because it raises the question: Are we acting on our Faith? Or are we just saying that we believe? 

I know without a doubt in my heart that Jesus Christ lives, he is our savior! He lived for us and set a perfect example for us to follow. He suffered, was beaten, and crucified for our sins and for all of us. He rose on the third day, and He Lives today!

I love you guys,

Elder Bangerter

Week 88--March 23, 2015

It has been another interesting week here in Mira Loma.

There have been some frustrating things happen this week, and some really good things happened this week.

So, on the frustrating side, Mark dropped us this week. He feels like the Catholic church puts less pressure on his personal life. We finally felt like we were going somewhere with him, and he was starting to come to church and keep commitments, so it was frustrating when he dropped us. Then the other really frustrating thing that happened was out of the Ten or so people that committed to come to church only one of them came. It was very disappointing.

The good things, Terry is progressing great! He has cut down from 20 cigarettes a day to 2 cigarettes a day. He is doing so awesome. He has lots of fellowship, he came to church, and gave some awesome input to the lessons in church. It is awesome! Another thing that was super good that we found out about is that this Friday the church is releasing a new video for Easter called Because He Lives, all the missionaries have gotten to see the video already and it is awesome. It really helps me focus on what is possible Because Jesus Christ Lives today. There are also going to be three video's released between Easter and Christmas as supplements to The video. I encourage you all to share this video, and flood the world with the spirit of Christ! The video will be able to be found on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube beginning on Friday, as well as on HeLives.mormon.org

Well My New Testament reading, this week I have been all over the place, but I have been reading a lot in Jesus the Christ to go along with my reading. But I really liked What I read in Thessalonians. Here Paul is speaking of how he feels about the converts to the church, but this can apply to all of us, to the families that we home or visiting teach, or to anybody for whom we teach or have responsibility over. "So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us." (1 Thes. 2:8) and then also "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy." (1 Thes. 2:19-20)

Well I love you guys,

Elder Bangerter

Week 87--March 16, 2015

Well another week seems to have gone by, I'm not quite sure how it goes so fast but it does!

This week has been kind of interesting, Elder Warren has been sick again so a lot of our week has been spent inside, and at meetings that we had to go to. So needless to say we didn't get a ton accomplished this week, but that does not mean that it was a bad week! Of the time that we were able to get out we saw many miracles. One of the people that we have been teaching on and off is named Terry, Terry hasn't really been progressing because he likes to drink and to smoke. Well he was out drinking and smoking this past week and got beat up pretty bad. He told us when we saw him that he want's to stop doing those things and be baptized! It was pretty darn exciting for us!

I was reading in the scriptures this week and this scripture stood out to me. It is in Acts and it is Peter and John, Right after they are delivered from Prison, and it says: "And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name." (Acts 5:41) I think it is incredible the zeal that the early apostles had. I wish that I could be more like that.

Sorry this is so short,

Love Y'all

Elder Bangerter