Farsi...for 5 days!

What's good everyone! 

Pretty crazy week! Here are some of the highlights: 

Earlier in the week we got a call from the Assistants telling Elder Snooks and I that Elder Taylor (one of the missionaries who lives with us) will become our companion and we will becoming a trio. And that elder Plaisted (the other Elder that lives with us) will be going to another area. 

That meant we would be covering Woodland Hills and the other Elders' area which is Tarzana. The other Elders speak Farsi and English in their area. We were confused why only one Farsi missionary is staying in the area...but we went along with it.🤣 

Yesterday we found out that a brand new Farsi Elder is coming in tomorrow to be Elder Taylor's new companion. So the trio only lasted 5 days but we had a great time working in both areas and Elder Snooks and I were able to join in on some Farsi lessons. I never really spoke any Farsi. It was a weird but a fun experience! 

This week I was also able to go on exchanges with another Elder in my district, Elder Tew. He's serving in the Young Single Adult ward here. He's so funny! He's been out the exact same time I have and we actually go home the same day. He's very knowledgeable of the scriptures and is excellent at answering questions! 

One of the lessons we had was with one of their friends named Krystal! We talked about the Plan of Salvation. The Spirit was so strong. We talked about how this time we have on Earth is really meant to prepare to meet God. And one way we can do that is through baptism. Elder Tew and I both felt prompted to invite Krystal to be baptized...and she said YES. I'm so happy for her and excited to see her prepare to be baptized in the YSA ward 😁👍🏼

We had virtual stake conference this past weekend! I'm so grateful for technology and the Lord providing these amazing resources we have to continue moving the work forward! Stake conference was so spiritually uplifting. We heard from a lot of recent converts and their conversation stories! 

One thing that stood out to me was that all the recent converts said hearing about the gospel all started when a MEMBER started talking about the gospel to them! It's hard to keep quiet about the gospel. 

We have this amazing knowledge of how to gain true happiness through the gospel of Jesus Christ! GO share it and use the resources we have to spread the gospel to everyone 🤙🏼💙

Thanks everyone for your prayers! Have a good week! 

-Elder Espiritu 

The Trio only lasted 5 days 

Los Angeles temple

Elder Tew

The Bastian is gone.... but its Christmas time!

Hey Everyone! 

Nothing to crazy happens this week! This week Elder Snooks and I dropped Elder Bastian off at the mission office. It was pretty sad but I'm super happy for him. We were only in a trio for 8 days but it was fun and I learned a lot from him. 

The light the world calendar is out! And it's amazing. I love Christmas time and I'm hyped for this upcoming month. Its so amazing to see so many people participating in light the world. I would encourage everyone to continue doing it and if you're not doing it... I encourage you to start! 

It's such a great time to really think about our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. I have such strong testimony that Christ lives and he's working miracles amongst us:) 

Love you all hope everyone has a great week! 

-Elder Espiritu 

Elder Norton and I

The boys (Elder Snooks is taking the pic)

last breakfast with Elder Bastian 

Back to a duo

Pokéman is serious out here 

Transfer News

Hey everyone!

It's been a crazy couple weeks. A lot has happened! The Lord has provided so many blessings for us in this area. I'm truly grateful for the work and for the opportunity to be here! Here's what's been going on here in Woodland Hills: 

MIKE GOT BAPTIZED! What an amazing experience! Mike was baptized last Sunday November 22, 2020. With all the restrictions of Covid planning Mike's baptism was very different than normal. We had to find a member's pool for the baptism (because we're still not allowed in the church buildings). Good thing we live in the Calabasas area so it wasn't too hard to find a pool. 🤣 Our Bishop offered his pool for the baptism. 

The day of the baptism was great. Everything ran smoothly and the Spirit was able to testify to me that the work continues to move forward. We were able to Zoom the baptism. With permission, Elder Snooks and I were allowed to invite our families to watch the baptism from Idaho and Utah! It was a very special experience seeing my family support Mike in his decision to be baptized. 

I've known Mike ever since I arrived in this mission last June. The change I've seen in him is incredible. The Gospel of Jesus Christ really can touch and change the lives of everyone who receives it. Mike has been welcomed with open arms in the ward. Someone from the Elders Quorum is calling him every day for the next month to help him meet more members! Mike has been joining us when we teach our other friend Jose! And they're starting to read The Book of Mormon together! I'm so happy for both of them!

Last week we got transfer news...... I found out that Elder Snooks and I will be staying here in Woodland Hills for another transfer! We'll be here for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New years! We're happy were staying together because we really love this ward and we're working well together. The only thing different that happened to us was we got a new companion named Elder Bastian, but Elder Bastian actually goes home on December 3rd.🤣 We're in a trio until then. Elder Bastian is so funny and is an amazing teacher so Elder Snooks and I are learning a ton from him. I'm happy to be companions with these two missionaries! 

We had a great Thanksgiving here. We got to spend it with some other Elders and it was so fun. I'm so grateful for all of God's creations and the love He has for us. 

COVID has been pretty crazy in LA. Yesterday we actually got word we're going to go into a pretty strict quarantine for the next 3 weeks and we're only allowed to work online. Which means no more in person lessons..... and that may be difficult for us because we've been teaching all our friends outside at parks or their yards. I would like to ask if you could pray for us that we'll be able to continue teaching our friends even if it's online! 

Thanks for everything have a great week! 

-Elder Espiritu 

**Elder Espiritu is now serving as a District Leader **

Mike's baptism

Our district

Thanksgiving

Baptism News

This week was super busy! Every day was nonstop and was such an amazing blessing. So here's an update and some of the highlights. 

Unfortunately we had to move Mike's baptismal date to the 22nd of November, but that's okay because Mike's a beast. We're so excited for him to take this huge step in his life. 

We meet with Mike consistently and we have a daily call with him to help him stay accountable🙌🏼 We have some great news... Mike had his baptismal interview this past week and he PASSED! Mike's extremely excited for his baptism and asked some missionaries in our district to sing a song. He's more excited than a 6 year old for his birthday! We love Mike and he's been a huge example to me as he's demonstrated his desire for the gospel in his life. Everyone keep him in your prayers for this upcoming week please!

2 or so weeks ago we started teaching a lady who was taught the missionary lessons in the past. Her name is Robin Harris. She's a sweet older lady that we've been in contact since I've been in this area. The last 2 months we've been building a really strong relationship with her. Her husband is a member of the church but has dementia. She's on her own as of now but she's great! 

Robin loves the church and loves the missionaries! She used to go to church a lot in the past (we even call her Sister Harris and she's 100% fine with it). She was never baptized.

We're excited to continue working with her to help her prepare for baptism. We were able to bring her the sacrament yesterday. She was very grateful for that and the Spirit was there. Another person you guys can pray for: Sister Robin Harris!

I want to share another experience that happened to me this week. The Sister Training Leaders in our district have this Filipino in their area who doesn't really speak English that well but he speaks Tagalog! So the Sisters referred him to me. 

His name is Alex and he's been in America for awhile now. He's actually from the same city my Mom's from which was a pretty cool connection. Alex is great and has a desire to learn, but unfortunately my Tagalog is a little rusty since serving here in LA. 

The first lesson I had with him I was by myself and it was a little hard to speak but it turned out ok. I know that there is another Tagalog speaking missionary in my mission who was in the missionary training center the same time as me. With permission from my mission president I asked Elder Roberts (the other Tagalog speaking missionary) to join me on our Zoom calls with Alex. 

We had a lesson on Saturday with him and it went great! We were able to share the whole first lesson about the The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him! I loved being able to speak and teach in Tagalog! It gave me a lot of motivation to work harder on my language skills. 

I love my mission and the great experiences I'm having out here! Thank you all for your prayers. I know it was your prayers that were helping us through this week to help us stay busy. I love you all and miss you. I hope everyone has a great week!

-Elder Espiritu 

A sick 1976 Porsche 

Lego Porsche 

Did some service with our district 

(the Sisters weren't there) 

Blessed With New People

Thanks everyone for the prayers for helping Elder Snooks and I find new people to teach! Great news....we found some new people to teach which is awesome! The only downside is most of them aren't in our area🤣 but that's okay! It's always tough passing off people we're teaching to other missionaries We're happy our fellow missionaries can help them continue to hear the Gospel. 

We really appreciate your prayers. Your prayers strengthened my testimony about the power of prayer. So keep the prayers coming🤙🏼

Quick update on Mike: he's such a beast and doing great. We meet with him quite often throughout the week to help him stay accountable. We've built a really good relationship with him. He changed his baptism to November 14th. So no more Friday the 13th baptism! ;) 

We're so excited for Mike. Our church congregation (ward) is doing amazing with fellowshipping and making him feel welcome. Continue to pray for him please:)

I was studying the parable of "the unmerciful servant" in Matthew 18:23-35 this week. I've come to love this parable. It's all about forgiveness.  If you have time I would read it. It's amazing!

Our Heavenly Father forgives us all for all our sins when we repent. Not just a couple of us but all of us. We should all follow this example and choose to forgive others and to love one another! Hope everyone has a great week. Love you all!

-Elder Espiritu 

We love The Book of Mormon 

Our Apartment

Made some salmon!

The OG's, Brother Harding (our ward mission leader), Mike, and us 

Cops

Hey Everyone! 

Not too much going on this week but there definitely was some miracles! 

Mike is doing really well! He is changing and preparing for his baptism. I've really seen a huge change in his countenance the more we meet with him! Yesterday we talked about temples and family history work. He got really excited about that and said he wants to learn more. Elder Snooks and I don't know much about family history work so all 3 of us are going to learn together these upcoming weeks! 🤙🏼

The reason "cops" was my title is not really that series. Here's the short story. The other Elder in my apartment got pulled over because he forgot to turn on his lights when he was driving. The cops were nice about it and said they knew who we were. They let us off with a warning so that was a cool little miracle.

This week my comp and I talked to a lot of interesting people on Facebook. A lot of people are stressed about an upcoming event but there's a lot of amazing people out here. Unfortunately a lot of them are not ready to listen to the message of the restored gospel! 

Please continue to pray for us here in Woodland Hills/ Calabasas. I hope more people's hearts will be softened. I know there are people here who need the Gospel! 😁 

I hope everyone has a great week! Love you all!

-Elder Espiritu 

Our meeting with Mike 

The po po 

Scary!

We love our ward Come Follow Me class!

New Companion

What's up everyone! 

Pretty solid week! This last week was transfers so I said bye to Elder Owens and I got a new comp. My new comp's name is Elder Snooks. He's from Eagle, Idaho. He's supposed to be going to Italy for his mission but got reassigned here. He's way sick and played football in hs so we have a lot to talk about. This is his second transfer in the mission. His first area was in Compton. 

Some of the stories he was telling me were tight and it legit sounded like he was in another mission. He said Woodland Hills is way different! He went from the hood to a real boujee area haha. He's a great missionary and we're working well together. I'm excited for this upcoming transfer. 🤙🏼

Mike is progressing well. He has some Word of Wisdom issues but we've been bold with the scriptures we read with him and the things we say. He really liked that. We told him we're going to give up sugar and sweets while he's giving up one of the things against the Word of Wisdom. He really liked that idea. So we're going every step of the way with him. Yaaaa boy! He's preparing for his baptism and Heavenly  Father is softening his heart. If everyone good continue to pray for Mike that he'll be able to prepare every day I'm sure he'd appreciate it! 

Love you all have a great week. 

-Elder Espiritu 

My new comp Elder Snooks 

Dinner with the apartment (the Elder on the very end is new in the apartment his name's Elder Taylor)

Last time with my district before transfers

Saying bye to the apartment on transfers 

Foggy morning 

Training Again

What's good everyone! 

Still loving it here in Woodland Hills/Calabasas California! Well first off here is the good news about the week. 

I wanted to share the miracle that happened! The last couple of weeks I've been talking about our one friend named Mike who's been taught by missionaries since the beginning of this year. He's a funny dude and he loves the church. He comes to Elders Quorum & Sunday School every week. He knows more members than we do probably. 

We had a lesson with him and our Bishop this last week and invited him to be baptized... and he said yes! He picked November 13th for his date which is funny because that's Friday the 13th Haha. (which we didn't think he knew when he picked it) He said he wanted to push all the "evil" away and do something GOOD that day.  If you all could pray for Mike that he'll be able to prepare for his baptism that would be great! 

Here's the sad news... we got transfer calls yesterday and I'm... staying here in Woodland Hills (which isn't bad at all cause I love this place) but my comp Elder Owens is transferring to the other side of the mission! So that's sad I'll miss him but he's a beast and he'll kill it. My new comp is a brand new missionary. It's going to be fun to train another new missionary back to back. I'm going to meet him tomorrow so excited for that! 

I'm so happy I get to stay in this area for a little longer, help this part of the Lord's vineyard, and progress in the work! 

Yesterday we had our first ever testimony meeting over Zoom! It was super spiritual. Brother Blackstone (the returning member we've been working with) came to our virtual church for the first time and it was amazing! Right when he got on he introduced himself and the ward members welcomed him back so well. He called us after and said that was one of the best feelings he's had in a long time. He was actually the first person to bear his testimony. It was a simple but a powerful one! 

Mike bore his testimony too and it was great. We thought it was so cool that the two people we're constantly working with were able to bear a testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ and see the progress they've made. 

I'm so grateful for my mission and the people I've met and the example of Christlike love they've showed me! I'm excited for this upcoming transfer😁🤙🏼

Hope everyone has a great week! 

-Elder Espiritu 

I went on an exchanges with Elder Norton!

Brother Blackstone on our Zoom call 

A church member gave us lumpia and we had to fry it...burnt it a little bit. Sorry Mom!