Elder Brian’s June updates

6-7-2011
I am doing so good, the weather is cool (we are in “June Gloom” right now).  But it is super nice.  The ocean is beautiful and I love seeing it every day!
Miercoles: We went to the train station and we sang hymns and contacted people and it was SO fun.  We had some sweet experiences.  This one guy from Africa came and talked to us and [we] were able to teach the Restoration to him and he felt the spirit strong!  Then, this one lady came up to us and said that she was thinking about the missionaries that morning and how she needs help with her daughter who is heavily addicted to drugs, so they set up an appointment and met with them that night!!!

6-14-2011
Wow, so for my news….I am being transferred!  It was a shocker for sure.  I was not expecting that, not even for a minute.  I was only here in San Juan Capistrano for 6 weeks?!  Gah.  Well, I guess the Lord needs me somewhere else, so I am ready to go for it.  This area is insanely crazy, we have seen way more miracles than we have deserved.  This has been the most productive area that I have been in, and truly it has been a great experience.  On Sunday at the stake missionary correlation I was talking to President Cook and I am also being released as a Zone Leader!!!  Hallelujah!  I have been a Zone leader for 8 months.  It is time for someone else to be a zone leader too.  What President Cook told me was that I am going to be a district leader in a Spanish area (hooray), so that this transfer I can get to know the area and then for the rest of my mission I will train.  President wants to have the experienced missionaries be trainers because for awhile most of them were just really young and inexperienced.  This transfer there aren’t any Spanish missionaries coming in, so he is “arranging his pieces”, so that next transfer and the transfers that follow, I can train.  So that will be awesome, I am
really, really, really excited for that, but I am sad to leave San Juan.

6-21-2011
Ok so for the news on my transfer.  So now I am serving in Mission Viejo as the district leader of the Mission Viejo Spanish District.  I cover the entire Mission Viejo stake, and the ward that I am serving in, (the Mission Viejo 5th Ward), covers three stakes!  So there is one companionship assigned to each stake and there are 6 missionaries in the ward. We cover the cities of Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Ladera Ranch, and Wagon Wheel.  President Cook told me that they are putting me in position so that I can train here soon. The district is small, only 6 missionaries, and they are all great, so this will be a really nice transfer, where we can get a lot done!!  We have a full-time car (covering 4 cities), but the car got wrecked a few days before I got here, so we were walking and hitching rides until a few days ago when we got the car back.  The area has a ton of potential, and historically has always seen a lot of success.  Right now, we don’t have a whole lot going on, but we will see here in a little bit and hopefully we can get things rolling!

6-28-2011
I do now know my release date and everything.  So the official day (as of right now) is December 20th.  That is a Tuesday, so I will either stay in the mission home that night and come home on the 21st, or I will go home that day.
Jueves:  In the morning we had a MIRACLE!!!  We were going to check up on a referral in these apartment complexes and this 15 year old kid came out.  He was all like, they aren’t there, but you can teach me if you want!  So, we did, and we taught him about the plan of salvation and the Restoration and we invited him to be baptized and he said yes!!  We are working for July 30th!  He is awesome and has so much potential.  After him, a lot of our appointments fell through until we were able to teach one of our progressing investigators in the evening.  It was a really good lesson about the plan and she really felt the spirit strong.  Then after that we ran over to English classes and helped out with them, and then at the end we gave the spiritual thought.  The classes are so fun!  I love teaching English!

This work truly is the work of angels and miracles never cease to exist!!