Stories and Move to Zone Leader - FOTOS!

A great experience for ya!

The end of the day. We're passed stressed and into that lunatic/laugh-at-anything state, and we pass a house that has a call box in the front.

(try a door approach through one of those - it never Works!) My companion wants to try it and I tell him that I already know what will happen.

Like he was pulling the sword out of the stone he yells "ESPERANÇA!!" (hope!)

...

we wait to hear the owner of the house tell us that she's not home, busy, cooking, sleeping, or dying... but

*CLICK*

the door to the front gate opens!

(i'm thinking: God is with us!!)

the lady of the house says, "Sorry! the call box has a defect!"

(i'm thinking: God smacked me upside the head with this: 'be more hopeful!!')

And a kid who speaks perfect english comes out and we teach him the gospel of Jesus Christ.

​When we are doubting - don't be suprised when God 'smacks ya upside the head' wi​th a good miracle =)

~ James

James!

Hello there buddy! I hope you are having a good week. It is shaping up to be quite busy here.

I am eager for this coming week, as I am off all week. So naturally, that means I have more time to work

 on my coaching calls! But of course I will be working while I'm watching kids play at Silverwood!  ;)

......

At any rate, I had a client who recently told me but she didn't deserve to be loved but only to be hurt. 

Broke my heart! And soon it was burying my testimony to her of a perfect, kind and loving Heavenly Father 

and Mother who saw her beautiful, perfect and whole, innocent, and valued. She sobbed and told me how 

much she appreciated my presence. I don't think it was me that she felt. .. but hopefully her 

Heavenly parents. I hope that I can always be able to help and comfort for people - to feel God working 

through you is really cool - and it helps to comfort me also.

Well, I am exhausted, how I suppose I had better go to sleep I love you...

Mom

I do not have a doubt that the spirit of God was there with you two. I can imagine how intense the 

feelings were at that moment. Thank you so much for sharing this experience with me. I love when 

God gives us a chance to really feel charity. The love that Christ has for His brothers and sisters. 

The love that brought him through the atonement. With every crook, vagabond, family, and saint - 

he truly paid the debt. He never once thought, "oh. this person doesn't deserve a chance. He will just 

sin and do wrong his entire life, so I won't pay the price for his sins."

No. Everyone is a child of God. Everyone deserves this. God did not send us here to just be sent to 

outer darkness. He did not create failures. He did not create anything ugly. He created all things 

perfectly. Let them have their agency with a perfect hope that the would choose the right. And in the 

end, He will have a perfect judgement.

Now I have a little story for you .

My companion and I were freaking out because we had to talk to our investigator's mom about baptism. 

We didn't know how she'd react so we thought about various ways to try and soften her heart. 

We wondered if it would be better to call, talk in person, bring cookies, send mail via pigeon! 

We were scared. We felt alone just trying to be careful, effective, and full of love for this family.

We felt the need to pray. We were set to ask Him to confirm how we should approach to subject with 

her mother.

As we prayed, we did not feel the need to ask these questions. The spirit sent these emotions and

 thoughts to us very spefically:

"Why are you worrying? Are you thinking that it is you that is working here? Do you think you are 

in charge? Why do you fear? Do you not know that when you teach with My love and My spirit, it is

 I that speaks? This is not your work - it is mine. For this I will guide you. Be worthy of my spirit 

and afterwards pray for My love and courage.  I will lead you. I will teach you and them."

I kid you not, it was like our Heavenly Father got up and gave his two fearful children a thump on

 the head and a reminder of who's boss.

Even when things don't go as planned, I know that God is guiding us. I am very thankful when 

God shows us that He is near and I have the faith, love, and courage to believe that He still leads 

us when we are not looking.

I love you and my family to PIECES!!! I really want your conversion story mom!!

Tell Dad that I want our preisthood lineage!

ABRAÇOS E BEIJOS 

James

this Family is super sweet! The little

 girls are all super smart and the mom Works harder than ever

the baptismal servisse was super spiritual!

This was my zone leader - we moved up to Linhares and now we're zone leaders together!!!

two idaho boys workin up a storm! Good things are going to happen!

HEY!

Sorry i'm without time yet again.

I'm Zone Leader now! Oh boy! I don't know what God thinks he's doing...but the good thing is that He

 always knows =D

I'm back in the state of Espirito Santo in Linhares. It's the first place that's not right on the coast.

And tell Grandma and Gramps not to worry anymore because I'm here with another IDAHO BOY from

 Shelly, ID!  I'm gonna be more tired, excited, tested, and experienced than ever this transfer - but 

I'M STOKED AS ALL GET OUT!!'

Love ya all LOTS!

Happy World Cup to you all!! it's gonna be crazy around here! wooo hoo!

James

Saving souls and Mom's testimony...

Dear Mom, 

Sorry I'm not writing more!!! we're Always super pressed for time here in the computer house!

Thank you sooooo much for the package!! the ties are SWEET you sent me one with super colorful dogs =D

and the ziplock bags came just in time! it's raining quite a bit =)

That blue waterproof sack really is water proof!!!! I could fill it full of helium and use it as  balloon!! haha!

I gotta tell you more about the story later for times sake...but i was interviewing this girl of 20 years for batismo. IN the interview she told me that she messed with satãn stuff - in the past.

She's fully come to christ by now but that's not the point! through black magic, she gained tons of Money and worldly things, but it NEVER lasted!

When she got pregnant, she tried to use those powers to abort him...the witch said that she 'has no power over things that are purê.'

1. Satan really is real. He really does have power.

2. God's plan can not be stopped.

3. Children come directly from GOD

4. That child, who now  perfect, smart, beautiful 2.5 year old boy, saved the life and soul of his Young mother.

I wish I could tell you more of the stories that i am seeing first hand but jst know that I love you and I think about you and the Family more and more each day. not to be trunky but just to be thankful!

Mom! I really want your detailed conversion story! I already tell almost all of our investigators bit and pieces of your story, but i would love the whole kit and kaboodle! that is if you don't mind me using your story to help these people come to christ.

love ya!!​

James

***************************************************************

Hi James, 

Boy! - How humbling - when people open up and share those dark spots -- and what an honor to help save souls -bring em home, son!  - you know - our children do make us better than we are, that is so true.  And yes -- Satan is real! - though he would like us to think he is not real - He does indeed have power - and knows all of our weak spots. - He does have power to bruise our heels - BUT WE HAVE POWER TO CRUSH HIS HEAD!  Wickedness never can, nor will it win --not in the end, not in the big picture.

Oh - I'm such a turd for forgetting to write my story!!!! - Here it is.   Let's see here....  where to start. 

As a child - like from my earliest memories -- other kids always told me how ugly I was, so I grew up to believe them - consequently I had no friends, and I had such a hard time growing up, - But my third grade year, we lived in Boise, ID, and my neighbor was an elderly lady -- I think she must have been in her 70's.  She was so kind and lovely to me. - She made sugar cookies and homemade doughnuts - and more importantly, she was my friend.  She used to take me to Primary - and Church -- and I did take the discussions with the missionaries in my home.  My parents, who claim to be aetheists,  were there - and I got to hear all the arguments my dad made, of course - but they also raised me to be an independent thinker (which I am grateful for!) - and I did choose to be baptised.  

We moved to Kendrick my 5th grade year, and I did go to church for a couple of years with a family there, but I had a hard time - still being told I was ugly and having no friends, and I had so many questions that no one could answer to my satisfaction. - Now, I had never read the Book of Mormon for myself. - I did have a Bible, I think - but don't remember ever reading or praying about it.   So, I fell away from the church in about the 7th grade.  

Out of High School, I went into the Coast Guard ( found out I wasn't ugly after all and made friends and did well)  and was transferred several times around the U.S.  - I got married and divorced, and it was

about my 20th year when my brother was killed. - That was by far, the greatest heartache I had had to that point in my life, and it did get me to thinking....  I had fallen under the notion that perhaps people were afraid to die - and they created the idea of God to avoid the natural fear of death. - It was this time that I wondered -- was there a God?  How could I find it if He was there?  That question gnawed at me......I really wanted to know if there was a God or not, and I decided I would look til I found him, proved he didn't exist, or I grew old and died.  I started reading the Bible, I went to every church I could think of and could find.  I began to really feel thirsty for the scriptures - especially the New Testament, and I started to worry about the state of my soul, although I still wasn't sure if HE was real or not.   

I don't know how they found me after all those years. (I'm sure it was the Smith family, from Kendrick who got my records updated)  -- but one day, I had 2 home teachers show up at my doorstep in Quincy Massachusetts.  I remember telling them that I didn't want to hear what they had to say, but that they could come in.  - They did.  They never preached or pushed - but they were my friends.  Soon after, I had a Visiting Teacher assigned to me, Linda Hallen, with whom I still keep in touch.  - She was there for me - never preaching or pushing.  But I remember I had so many questions about what happens when we die - -She's the one who had me read the book, "Return from Tomorrow," by Dr. George Ritchie. - Now, I lived a different life than I do today -- I didn't really know any better, but I was afraid that if He was really there - I would not be worthy of him.  She shared a bit of her own story, which in some ways was like mine and it did give me hope, and stirred up more questions.

I then moved to New Hampshire while I was still stationed in Boston, Ma.  I was so sad about my brother.  I started working at KMART on my days off because every time I went in that store, people were so nice and happy -- I wanted to be happy too.  One particular day, while I was working at KMART, I thought to myself -- perhaps I can find the missionaries for the Mormon church -- I can ask them my questions.  - and I looked up and there were two missionaries right in front of me, buying a typewriter!    Of course, I was excited and was thrilled to ask them all my questions.  They began to visit and gave me the discussions again. - but this time, I was looking for real answers, not just friends, as I was as a kid. - They gave me a Book of Mormon - and I devoured it!  - I wept and thrilled with the desire to likewise promise to follow God as I read King Benjamin's address, I rejoiced with the people that Ammon taught and baptised, I sorrowed thru the war chapters, and I took Moroni's challenge. which made perfect sense to my scientific mind. - I prayed to know if the things I was reading and learning were true.  I met with the bishop and shared with him that in my mind and heart I felt unworthy to enter His chapel.  I wanted to know how to repent and most desperately, how to know if and when I was or could be forgiven. (funny that I thought I wasn't sure if God was real when I was so worried about my standing with him!)  -- I remember he told me that I would just  know.  He shared with me how He came to know for himself.    - I still have my journal of all my questions and evidences I had found in a red 3-ring binder at home. - It's still precious to me.  I read scriptures all the time, prayed  and started attending church.   I felt I didn't KNOW if it was true, but I believed it was - or at least I wanted to believe. - I just hadn't found the proof I though I needed.  - And yet, every day I woke up in prayer and I felt like I was on fire -- you know that feeling when you stick your tongue on a 9-volt battery?) - and everynight I went to bed on fire and in prayer.  

One night - still in my Coast Guard uniform after my shift, I stopped at the chapel for a Relief Society General Broadcast.  I was overcome as all the women sang and prayed. - I don't remember much of that meeting - but I remember I was so overcome and couldn't stop crying -- that on the way home, I had to pull off the road as I wept in my car -- feeling an overwhelming love, a sense of peace, acceptance and I suddenly recognized the Spirit.  I felt that He had indeed forgiven me - and I was new again.  It was then that I realized I had felt the Spirit my whole life, I just never recognized him!  - I always wondered why I would tingle at certain times when something really good or right was in my life. - I realized I had felt it my whole life - but never recognized that it was the Holy Ghost that I was feeling! - All this time I had thought I was alone.   

I know that this is the true church of God on the Earth and that there is no other.  Other churches may have bits and pieces, but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints has the fullness of His Gospel, and that He does have ONE church, not many. I know that God does live and that he designed a plan for us - one that so many fought to bring to pass - especially His Son, Jesus Christ.  I know with every fiber in my soul that it is true.  And every single time I ask again, I have that same witness.  When I'm struggling or feel alone, and I ask sincerely if I'm okay, and if He loves me - I feel that same thrill of the Spirit.  I can now say for myself that I know this is His Church - God is real! - He does live!  He loves us!  Jesus did come to the earth - as a babe, he grew,  and he did take upon himself all our ills and our sins -- he did die for us and He did rise on that 3rd day - triumphant! - And that because He lives - so shall we all!  It is through Him that we have hope, purpose and a divine, Godly destiny.  We are a part of His plan!  I testify that this church is true! - In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

~ Love, 

Mom

-- PS - thanks for asking me about this. - I still am humbled and grateful to know for myself!  I love you a squillion percent!

XOX

Mom