Thursday, April 21, 2016

18 Apr 2016 - Birthday week, no more teenager

Dear family,

This past week was SO great!
Its so weird to think that I'm not a teenager any more. Makes me sad.
But I had a ton of fun this past week. One day we saw a lady sitting outside on her patio and we went to go talk to her. She told us that she'd love to listen and then asked us what time ''cult'' started in the ''salon''. I guess she thought that we were Jehovah's witnesses but after we finished talking to her we turned around and a guy was sitting in his car on the other side of the street waiting for us. He called us over and gave me a slip of paper with his name and number on it. He told us that his wife had died 2 months ago and was looking for some ''more'' in his life!!!! So Crazy! He told us that he lived in campo 2...so apparently campo 2 is a restricted area in our mission because 2 missionaries were killed or something like that and so we had to talk to President Munive and ask him. He said that we needed a priesthood holder with us every time and after the first time that we went he wanted a report on the family, circumstances, etc..
It was super sick!! We invited the ward young men's president and his wife and they just clicked with the guy. Its a family of three, him and his 2 kids and turns out that the brother and sister, their kids go to the same school as this man's kids. We invited them to be baptized and they all agreed!!! WOOHOO! They'll be preparing for MAY!!! SO PUMPED!!! 
Oh and I almost forgot, they live in a field of mango trees. The brother, Francisco, does the management on a mansion, where they have parties. Its like an event house with a pool, basketball court, outdoor dance floor, roofed eating area and the mansion!!! Its so crazy! and Francisco said that the owner has like 10 of these and he's almost never there! I think we got out next idea for family home evening!(; 
I know that miracles exist and that God puts us exactly where He needs us to bless all of his children. 
He exists and loves us. 
I love you all and am so happy to be serving! 

The birthday party was simple and nice. we ate cake and sang and I also did something but I dont want you to freak out mom...okay?

So my allergies were bugging me and we went to visit a recent convert and she told me that the way to get rid of that bothering feeling is that you have to squirt pure lemon juice in your nose and sniff it up.....So I did it. I'll send the video.

Love you guys much!
Elder Padilla

Happy low key 20th

Ding Dong Ditch

We are both 20 now...

Baptism of Martha


Friday, April 15, 2016

11 Apr 2016 - 119 Bowlling



Dear family,

Well we're really cooking here in Obregon!! Our zona baptized the most this past month in March so we went bowling as a zone today!! Super sick! I killed them all, ya boy bowled a 119 game. (;

This past week was super fast and very fun. So there's a pair of elders in our district that have been finding pure 9 year olds and have been baptizing them within like two weeks. For example: in these past 3 weeks they've baptized like 8 or 9, 9 year olds!! hahaha Its so crazy and the president had an interview with them and he asked them ''Aren't you afraid of them going inactive, because they're only kids..?'' And they responded and said, ''We've reactivated 7 families..their kids' baptisms was exactly what the parents needed to return to the church! So cool!!

Well don't have that much time...I'll send pictures!!
Love you all!!
and yeah I know...Imma be 20. weird right?
Elder Padilla

P.s. this video is super popular!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckLqfX62u_I

7 in a taxi...its cheaper that way.

Bowling with the district. 

Zona Nainari!

Dinner with the family..we ate spaghetti, that's why i have the shirt on.



The zona meeting.


4 Apr 2016 - Conference

Dear Family,

The Conference was super great and a really good turn out. There were over 100 members and investigators there watching. So in the chapel they had it playing in Spanish and in the baptize room it was being transmitted in English. We watched all of Saturday in English and watched the Sunday sessions in Spanish because an investigators came. It was funny because when we had realized that Elder Jeffrey R. Holland still hadn't spoken yet and it was the last session everyone started getting all antsy and when they had announced that he was going to be last there was a big gasp in the room hahahaha ..

I liked the talk of Myrvin B. Arnold about ''Rescuing the less actives''. Super powerful and super exactly what me and Elder Walhstrom are trying to focus on right now!! The talks were really great and very powerful! 
And we weren't the only ones. We had a great experience with one of the recent converts that we're visiting. We invited Virginia to go to conference with a question in mind and listen attentively for the answer in one of the talks. She only went to one of the 5 sessions and she testified so powerfully that she knows without a doubt that these men are called of God. Its so awesome to see the testimony grow in each and every one of the people we teach whether it be less active, recent convert, investigator..etc.. It's like being a parent I imagine..

Something else that me and my comp are trying right now is to get all the young men reactivated and going out with the missionaries so that they can also go on missions. We've been doing pretty good but i think the hardest part right now is trying to convince them that the mission is more important than their girlfriends....Luke, watch out..They'll getcha. 

We have an activity planned for April 15 to watch the Meet the Mormons movie. There's been a new burst of excitement in our area of people wanting to hear about the gospel so as a ward council we decided that this would be something fun and attractive for those that want to come for the first time. 

Love you guys tons and thanks for the package!! That tie was bien suave!!

Besitos. 

Elder Padilla

28 Mar 2016 - Easter

Dear Family!

Yes we are very busy and I apologize for not writing. 

So this week was super killer! We Baptized Ignacio!!!! It was so so great! All of the non-member family members were there at his baptism, like 50 people!!!
Me, my comp and the other set of sister missionaries were taking down referrals like no body's business.
The baptism went really well and was super funny because the stake president's counselor was the one that performed the ordnance and by accident he said his name wrong and so we had to do it again and when we told him that we were going to do the ordnance another time he said ''What? Again?!'' and then smiled and said ok let's do it. hahaha but yeah the spirit was way strong.

Apart from that the week was pretty normal. 
We've been helping the members in the ward to share the video and spirit of the Easter season! We've been pretty successful the only thing about this time of Easter is that everyone and their dog goes to the beach for the week. Here they call it ''Semana Santa'' (Holy week) but it is the time of the year when the people drink the most....so I'm not sure what that's all about but its defiantly not ''holy''..

We're having a ton of fun here in Bellavista!!!

I love you all!! 
I liked the picture of the Savior of the World! Wish I coulda seen it!
Elder Padilla


Fotos del bautismo :3




14 Mar 2016 - Sisters, Sisters,Sisters...

Dear Family,

These weeks fly so fast, even faster than before believe it or not.

Well Pretty much this whole week in the mornings we've gone with the Elder and Sister Downs (They're the married couple and office missionaries) to do surprise attacks on the missionaries of our zone to check if their houses are ''Worthy''.......aka. clean. We freak out just about all of them but I'm proud of them for being relatively clean.

So something funny happened the other day. So we had contacted some girl in the street like in her 20's and she said that she lives with her husband and that we could visit. So we set a date to visit. The day came and we got there on time and knocked and she opened up and invited us in. She went to wake up her husband but he took a long time to get up. So we sang a hymn and said a prayer and by the time we finished he had opened to join us. When he saw us he started walking really fast and so to not be rude I stood up to shake his hand. He shook my hand and said '' Look this is whats going to happen. We're Catholic, we're not Mormon, if we want you to visit again we'll call. He went to the door to unlock it but my comp and I were thinking that he was going to lock it to trap us in and kill us. Then he started counting and so we grabbed our stuff and got outta there. Man! This guy was super psycho. I thought we were gonners. So we kicked the dust off our shoes and washed our hands on their door step so the destroying angel wouldn't pass them by.....hahaha  just kidding.   

This transfer has probably been and will probably be the craziest and most fun of all of them! 

The other day we get a call from a sister from our ward and she says ''Hey I need you guys to baptize my dad. He's 88 years old and is super fragile and is probably going to die soon, I don't want him to go with Satan.'' Shes so funny but yeah we have his baptism set for this Saturday and between the 4 of us (me, Elder Wahlstrom, her husband and the bishop) we're gonna baptism him. He can't move so that's why we're gonna have to do a team effort. I'm super pumped!!!

Well I'm greatly for the confidence of my Heavenly Father and for the wonderful parents He gave me. Love you guys so much!!

I'm glad the MTC activity was a success, its pretty difficult here sometimes to get the youth excited about serving a mission. 

I love you guys and I love being a missionary.

8 more months(:
Elder Padilla 


The process of the Harvest.



Family Business