March updates from Elder Brian

March 1, 2011
Domingo: I LOVE SUNDAYS!!! They are the best day of the week. In church I performed. I played piano and sang. I had a boom mike set up and everything, it was pretty intense. I performed my arrangement of a Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief. You HAVE to hear it, when I get home. It was super spiritual and there were a lot of tears. So that went really well, and we had 4 investigators at church. It was great. Then these two priests took me up to Aliso Viejo to go to the singles ward. That was also awesome. We ended up teaching Gospel Principles. We taught this less active kid and then we gave a youth fireside. We were the speakers in the bishop’s fireside and it went way good. After the fireside, while everyone was eating I performed again. I had them pick a Disney song, a hymn, a primary song, and a pop song and I mashed it together. The kids LOVED it.

March 8, 2011
I am doing amazing. Can you believe that tomorrow will be my one year mark in the field? That is crazy.
Viernes: We had to drive up to Mission Viejo to drop something off and then we went down to Capistrano Beach to visit some less actives. After that we went to this rest home, and I played piano for the people living there, and we sang songs and it was really fun. We got to meet some neat people. Then after that we went and gave bread to the homeless which was also really fun.

March 15, 2011
But Japan! Wow, that was nuts. We got a call at 5:30 in the morning on Friday saying to stay away from the beach because there is a reported tsunami that was going to be hitting California. Luckily, nothing hit, I think it raised maybe like 4 feet and that was it. So that is good. Pretty nuts though. We haven’t heard very much of anything, just little bits and pieces and what we hear from members. It sounds pretty bad though.
Saturday: The BAPTISM!!!!! Everything went really good for the most part. So first, the hot water didn’t work, so we prayed really hard, and then it was warm!! Then, the drain wasn’t working, so all the water was slowly leaving so we had to find a way to stop the water, so we found this rubber disk randomly and just slapped it on, and it worked. Then the programs were all messed up, so we had to have someone fix them. Our ward mission leader was in Hawaii, so we had to get the programs fixed without him. All good though. The service was great, and the spirit was strong, and it was awesome.

March 22, 2011
Lunes: We had to drive up to Aliso Viejo to get our car fixed and while we were up there, we went out to eat at Cafe Rio. Yep, you heard it, Cafe Rio. The first Cafe Rio in California. I have pictures to prove it. We walked in, and the entire restaurant was full of Mormons. We saw people from our ward (we were very far away), and we had 3 offers from different people to pay for our meal. Yeah it rocked. Then the entire time people came up to us and said hi Elders! There are more Mormons at Cafe Rio than at church!!
Domingo: Then a huge miracle. We were going over to dinner at [a family], and we went and knocked their door without thinking twice. It wasn’t them. It was their next door neighbors which actually is a very small assisted living center. This man from the Philippines (one of the two workers), let us in and we started talking. He said “I have always seen you in Manila, but I have never gotten the chance to talk to you. I saw you in the peephole and something inside me told me to open the door. I know God sent you here for a reason and I know that what you are sharing is true.” YES IT IS TRUE!!!! We didn’t even share anything with him really. It was a miracle. He said to come over on Monday night.

March 29, 2011
Saturday: Not much happened until the evening. We FINALLY got a hold of our miracle man and we had a lesson in [a member’s] home!! Wow, it went AWESOME! He is SO in tune with the spirit, and he said that when he heard it, it sounded “familiar and like I was coming home”. Of the First Vision, “I feel warmth and like something inside of me, is telling me that is true.” When invited to be baptized, “I will walk 40 miles to have that”!! Wow, it was awesome. Then after him, we had another sweet lesson with [an investigator]. We talked about the Book of Mormon, and we got all of his questions answered about it.