Zone Conference - July 11, 2013

Moreno Valley Zone

I'm Amazed!!

July 8, 2013

So I'll cut to the chase. I love America! We had a good time on the 4th of July. We had an activity as a zone and played volleyball. It was a good ol' American time. We had a good week teaching as well. I've been stressing my teaching skills lately because I need to learn how to teach more clearly and effectively, and I was able to feel the Lord's hand in my life this week helping me teach, and being more bold in teaching as well. I think it is because I've put more trust in my Savior, and I've tried to forget myself, and my weaknesses. We've seen progress in a lot of our investigators. We only had 2 come to church ( We had over ten committed), but nevertheless we are seeing improvement. We had two, what I call, "breakthrough" lessons with two families because we were able to identify what they need, and now when we visit them this week we can teach them more effectively. Another investigator is still doing well, and is searching for an answer, but said she doesn't know how to recognize it. I've tried to put myself in an investigators shoes, and understand how we can help them receive an answer, and recognize it, and I think sometimes it requires patience. All we can do is help them by inviting them to do the simple things like praying, and reading, and coming to church, and if they do those things they are promised an answer. ... 

Anyway, I love being out here! I'm amazed at how far I've come, and how much I've learned. I'm still amazed sometimes as I walk away from a lesson and look back and realize I just taught someone, in Spanish, the gospel. In Spanish! And they understood me!! I know it's because I have the help of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I've also come to a greater understanding of the Gospel which is a great blessing!

So I love you guys. That hasn't changed! Thanks for all you do, and have done for me!

You guys rule!!  Love, Elder Higgins

 

An Exciting Time to Be a Missionary!

June 27, 2013

 

Hey hey!

This week was good. It's getting hot! I'm sweating a lot these days. We visited a lot of people this week. We also found quite a few new families. We ran into a nice lady when we had a few minutes to spare and knocked a few doors. She let us in without hesitation when we offered to leave a blessing with her. We learned that her son just passed away about 4 months ago due to cancer, and that he was actually meeting with missionaries before then. I'm sure she recognized us, and I'm positive that has helped prepare her to receive the Gospel. We left the blessing and I could tell she felt the spirit. We haven't been able to find her again though. Other than that we have been working with J--, who we met quite some time ago. He is a very quick learner, and likes what we are teaching. We are kind of just hitting road bumps with all of our investigators. We invite them to do stuff like read and pray and come to church, and they commit to do them but then they don't. We had like 7 or 8 people committed to come to church, and guess how many came? 0. zero came. I understand that it is hard to wake up and get to church by 9, because I had a hard time doing it growing up, but it's not that hard. We remind everyone Saturday nights as well, but still no one comes. But other than that I can't complain much. We made some progress with another investigator, and we've addressed some concerns she has had. We have some pretty good ideas for lessons we can teach with the T-- family. So I'm excited for all of that.

 

I loved the little conference we had yesterday. It was so good! It got me excited to work harder, and smarter, and just be a better missionary. I hope it got all the members excited as well, because like they mentioned we need help. When we have a "fellow shipper" everything works out so smoothly. It definitely is an exciting time to be a missionary though!

 

A scripture for the day. John 17:3 "And this is ^alife ^beternal, that they might ^cknow thee the only true ^dGod, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast ^esent"

 

To know God (The only true God I might add), and Jesus Christ. I've thought a lot about this scripture. I could ask a room full of people "who is God?" and all of them would have a different answer. Each answer would be defined by the experiences they have had with God, and a lot (All of them, even mine) of the answers would be conformed to who they would like to think God is.  The scripture says we can know him, the only true God, but like each relationship we must open our lines of communication, and our hearts, and sincerely seek him out. That means sincere prayers, that means reading the scriptures, and that means opening our hearts to God's will. We expect answers, and miracles from God, and He expects us to live according to His will. We conform to Him. He blesses us. To know Him is Eternal Life, which I believe we can have a taste of here on earth as we grow to know Him.

Anyway, I have to go. My hour is up. Much Love :)

Love, Elder Higgins :)

 

July 1, 2013

Hey!

We have a zone meeting on the 4th of July, and then we have weekly planning, and we also have to be in by 6 O'clock. So we won't be out visiting people for very long. I think we are going to have an activity with the zone at 6 actually, which will be fun!

So I can't believe how fast June went by. It zoomed by! I can't believe how hot it is either. Holy Moly it's hot! I've never sweat more in my life than I did this week.. It was wild! But don't worry I've been using sun screen, and the people we visit keep us pretty hydrated.

This week has been pretty good. We've been teaching some of the same people, and we've presented a baptismal date to many of them, and many of them are praying about them. I have felt the spirit work with me more in the lessons, and that's because I've been trying to think about them and their needs while I'm in the lessons, and not worry about what I'm going to say, or my lack of Spanish. (which is still coming along pretty well I might add.) We had a lesson this week and we taught about how to recognize the spirit, and to receive revelation, and then we taught about Joseph Smith and The Restoration a little, and explained what one needs to do to gain a testimony of the restored gospel. As we were committing our investigator to pray and read and finishing up the lesson she asked us if she could get baptized on Saturday. This lesson was on Thursday and she wanted to be baptized two days later! It was a miracle moment. We told her yes, and the next day we went to work planning her baptism only to get a call that afternoon saying she couldn't. It was pretty devastating. We visited her on Saturday though to figure out what happened, and it turns out there is some family opposition, she said she still wants to be baptized, but doesn't want to do it while there is opposition. We shared 1 Nephi 3:7, and explained there is always a way.

We also had a spiritual lesson with the investigator who just had a son pass away due to cancer. We taught the plan of salvation. She had a lot of questions, and seemed very interested in Temples. Near the end of the lesson she mentioned remembering the Elders that visited her son before he passed away had given him blessings, and asked if we could give her one, and of course we did. I thought that was cool she remembered that.

And then we have another who is pretty stubborn in his beliefs. He is reading though, and has come to church so we will still be working with Him. We promised him an answer if he read and prayed. We'll see if he does!!

Oh and one more of the highlights of the week. Somehow in one lesson I brought up five guys and how I'm craving it, and hno sterling (a returned missionary from Argentina that visits people with us sometimes) was with us. Well, apparently he took notes and kindly took us to five guys this week. Hoorah! It was super delicious!!

So that was my week. Loved it.

Love you guys too. Hope you have a good 4th of July! Home of the Brave! That's Right!!

Love Elder Higgins :)

Staying in the Riverside Mission!

June 17, 2013  

So here is the news. I'm still in the Riverside Mission, in Moreno Valley, with Elder Galindo. The news is that there is none. I'm super excited though! We have some good work going on, and we work well with one another. It's definately the most brotherly companionship I've been in so far. So I'm excited!

The big meeting was really fun, with all the missionaries. I can feel the spirit strongly when we all gather together. It's so cool. I loved It! It's weird to think that I won't see a lot of them anymore though. I was able to see all my past companions, and my other buddies like Opeda, and some of the missionaries from Murrieta. So that was really cool. I'm sure Sister Smart will be posting some pictures on her blog, and some will be staring me :) So watch our for those!

So the adversary has been working super hard with our investigators. They were told all sorts of lies about our church that scared them, and prevented them from being baptized this week.  It's been hard because we have counseled over, and over again, that listening to others should not influence their decision. We've encouraged to pray, and pray, and pray.. and to seek help from God while making decision....

Hey, and thanks for everything else you do for me as well. For your prayers. I feel them. Elder Boyd K. Packers talk this last conference mentioned that there is only a few forces greater than the prayers of faithful mothers.. Or something like that. So thank you for those :)

I'm in the Lords work and couldn't be happier. It's hard somedays, in the sun, riding my bike, and I might not be smiling, but I'm happy, because I know I'm where my father in heaven wants me to be.

Love, Elder Higgins

Mission Transfer/Split Meeting June15, 2013

Sickness, Which Mission Will it Be? and Fasting

June, 12, 2013

Hey Guys!

So a little weird that you are receiving an Email on Wednesday right? Well, there are reasons for that. The first one being that all the computers were shut down on Monday, and no one in the Moreno Valley stake was able to Email, and so we got permission to Email a little later. The 2nd reason being that I have been on the verge of death. I've been pretty sick these last few days. Saturday night into Sunday morning I had a hurling spree of about 20. It was pretty miserable. Then I stopped for big part of Sunday, and after resting a little on Monday I thought I would go out for dinner at a members house. I didn't really have an appetite so I just nibbled on some stuff, and then one of the members brewed me up some weird remedy that was supposed to help me.. It didn't. I ended up puking everything up in their bathroom, and it made me feel super weird the rest of the night. Yesterday I just stayed in and rested, mainly cause I was afraid that if I went out people would try and help "cure me" with weird remedies.. not cool! It's not the same being sick without a Mother to be there with you. Every time someone would try and help I would think, "I don't want your help or your weird remedies, I want my mother" That's the honest truth. Hey, but I'm feeling pretty good now though :) Just a little weak still, so we won't go super hard core on the bikes these next few days.

So we find out what mission we are going to be a part of on Saturday. The whole mission is meeting together, and we are having a live transfer call meeting. It should be very interesting. I just can't believe another transfer has passed. It's crazy!

So we are still teaching a lot of the same people, and a lot of them are doing well, and progressing. Early last week we took a member that is planning on serving a mission to one of our appointments with Y & V, and we taught a short lessons about prophets, and then asked them about how they feel about their baptismal dates, which led into another discussion about how they've already been baptized (Baptized Catholic), and why they need to be baptized again. For 2 or 3 lessons they have been asking the same questions. We left, and they still hadn't grasped why they need to be baptized again. Well, we were taking with our member friend Diana, and we were saying that we didn't know what to do now, because we have tried a lot of different ways of approaching baptism, and she suggested that we fast, demanded it actually. We decided we would, even though it would be super hard being on bikes. So we did, and she fasted with us. It was tough. I thought a few times I was going to kick over from dehydration. Later that week we taught them again. We went in got straight to the topic of baptism, and they came up with the same concerns. We had planned to read Moroni 8 when this happened. So we read that with them, all we did was read it. We didn't say much, just read, and afterwards Y said she was going to get baptized. You could tell that something in the chapter hit her pretty direct. I think it is because she has a little girl, and having her in mind as she read it, made her realize that it wasn't right. V agreed to get baptized as well. They will be baptized on Friday :) My testimony of Fasting & The Book of Mormon grew a ton this week.

 

Love you, Elder Higgins :)

Picture This!

Redlands Temple

P-Day Kite Flying

Days Feel Really Short....

June 3, 2013

Well hello there family! I'm glad everything is still going good, and everyone is still going strong. Thanks for sending the video of Neal opening his mission call.. But I'm in a library as you know and I can't listen to audio, I can only watch it. So I watched it, and it was wonderful. I am proud of him. I still didn't know where he was going though. Oh well, I thought, my mom will mention it in her Email.. Wrong. There was no mention of where he was going!! What the heck!? But no worries mother. I ended up buying earphones from the library for a dollar, and then I was able to listen to it. And Honduras it is! How cool is that!? I'm excited for him! That will be so cool!!

We had another good week. Elder G and I have been working with mostly the same people. We have left so many invitations, testimonies, and promises, and told them that if they would do the things we told them to they would get their answers, and would be prepared for a baptismal date, so I don't know. We did find two more little families this week though. So I'm excited to go back and talk with them.

I'm still learning a whole lot. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed because there is so much to learn, and do, and suddenly two years doesn't feel like enough time, and I'm already 8 months in. Days feel really short. So, I've been trying to improve myself as a teacher, which by the way is not my thing, I'm not a natural born teacher, and especially not so in Spanish, but I've learned as I forget about myself, and my teaching weaknesses while I'm in a lesson, I am able to teach better, and feel a lot more comfortable doing so.

Anyway, Spanish is coming along well. I'm starting to study in Spanish completely now. I figured by doing so I would learn a lot more, and I would keep myself away from going into deeper doctrine that isn't super necessary right now.

Love, Elder Higgins :)

And hey, Some guy told me today that I looked like Brad Pitt's stunt double. I was pretty flattered. Just thought I would let you know that :)