Trust in the Lord's Timing

Pretty tough week but the work continues moving forward! I'm super proud of Elder Owens for getting through his first transfer in the mission. He's made such good progress and it's really cool to see how he's learning how to be a great missionary. We figured out we're both going to be staying here which is a huge blessing I really want to stay here and help the work grow in this area!

Yesterday was probably the best virtual church program I've watched. Our ward had our primary program! The numbers in the primary are very few but the testimonies of these little children were so strong. Little kids are so funny and it was a great program they set up. I loved it! 

A lady we ended up doing service for last week was so nice. She actually had met with missionaries when she was a little girl and when she saw my post on Facebook for free yard work she automatically knew who we were! She invited us over for lunch next pday so that's going to be fun! We think she really is interested! But sadly she's a block outside of our area and is in the area of the 2 other Elders in our apartment. But as our mission president says "one Lord one vineyard", one thing that President Cordon has implemented well in our mission. All the work is the same no matter where we are. I'm excited to hear what progress she will make with the other elders.

This is where the huge miracle comes, and where I really saw the hand of the Lord in our work. A few weeks ago Elder Owens and I were going through our area book on our phones and came across a single fellow in the ward. We went to his profile found his number and gave him a call. The number was disconnected so we texted Bishop and asked him if he had the number but all he had was the same number. We just moved on and didn't think anything of it. 

This week we got a text from our Bishop saying that man reached out to him and said he wanted to come back to church and for Bishop to send the Elders his way! What a huge miracle! Immediately Elder Owens and I called this man. We started to chat with him and he told us everything. Bottom line is he wants to come back to church. He said he's been to several churches but always seems drawn back to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (can't see why he wouldn't😁🤙🏼). 

The huge thing is he's engaged and said he has 3 daughters who weren't members and his fiancee wasn't a member either! He slowly wants them to learn and hear about the Gospel! We had the chance to meet in their backyard with him and two of his daughters. Such nice people! 

His middle daughter by far is the smartest 12 year old I've ever met! She was telling us all sorts of facts that were insane. We were were there for like 2 hours just getting to know this family, I loved it! 

I'm so grateful for the Lord and His help to help us find this family! I know this wasn't a coincidence and that the Lords timing truly is real. We really need to have trust in Him always.

Hope everyone has an amazing week! 

Elder Espiritu

Barber Owens at his shop

Our District

Elder Norton and I

Made some cookies for some of our members 

Caught the man sleeping on the job ;)

Los Angeles temple

Continuing to Use My Tagalog

Awesome week in Woodland Hills Cali! Lots of Come Follow Me lessons. Members in this ward are so awesome. They are really starting to love us and because we can't go to their houses to eat dinner they've been coming to our apartment and just dropping off a ton of food and drinks! We'd be in a middle of a study when we get a random call from a member who had a ton of food for us. It's been a huge blessing!

I've learned a lot from the members here. Like I've said in previously emails, our ward is mostly older folks but they are all so willing to meet with us over Zoom. A lot of the widowed women in this ward are so faithful. Most of the widows have some kind of health issue that's really hard for them, especially with everything going on now a days. When we meet with them they love it and their faith has really strengthened my testimony knowing Heavenly Father doesn't give us things in our life that we can't handle. Super faithful women. I love it!

We've made some major progress with our friend Mike. With the ward's support we've had a ton of members joining us for our lessons with him. Mike comes to Elders Quorum and Sunday School every week and sometimes he even makes comments. We've had to adjust how to teach him and really listen to the Spirit. It's been a huge learning experience for me. 

I can't remember if I've talked about Tito Herme and Tita Hannah. They are amazing! Their daughter Michelle is in our ward and she invited us meet with them every Sunday. Yesterday we had a Family Home Evening kind of lesson. We read from 2 Nephi 31 about The Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we read and discussed this chapter we came to the subject of baptism. It was a really good discussion. 

Tita Hannah and Tito Herme are Catholic and they said they were baptized as babies so we told them our how baptism works in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She really liked the concept and how we did it. She still has belief in the Catholic church but she's really liking what we've been teaching her. Later somehow my parents were mentioned in the conversation. Both of them are converts. After the lesson was over Michelle's husband (Brother Dettenmaier) texted us and said they really want to hear from my dad's side about how his family converted from Catholicism to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So hopefully soon my mom and dad can join a lesson! 

Hope everyone has a great week! Love you all! 

Elder Espiritu 

Church members love us!

Cool football field by our chapel where we do district council (low key miss football and all the boyyysss)

I love speaking with Filipinos!

Survived Some Bashing

What's good everyone! 

It was a really hot week! It was about 107° every day! When we got to do service I was dying but it's always great to get out of the apartment and serve others. 

A couple days ago I had the idea to post something in our local Facebook page "Free Yardwork" in our area and I got soooo many replies! I guess we're gonna be doing a lot of service and hopefully finding new people to teach! 

Great news! Finally met Jann and Diane in person and dropped off some Books of Mormon to them. They're awesome and hopefully their schedule will start to simmer down so we can talk to them more.

This week I had tons of people bashing with me over Messenger! It was crazy so many people saying that we're wrong, we're crazy, and trying to change my mind. Honestly these experiences make my testimony really grow. At some points I would reply and say "Honestly nothing you're going to say is going to change my mind or my beliefs. I know this church is true because it's changed and blessed my life more than I can describe!" 

Nothing or no one is going to change how I think about the gospel. I know that this church is true and I'm so proud to be a missionary representing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! 

Romans 1:16 says "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" 

Hope everyone has a great week! Email me if you need me anything!
dallin.espiritu@missionary.org

-Elder Espiritu

Bought lunch for Mike today for his bday 

Service! So hot but worth it!

The Work Goes On!

Nothing too crazy going on over here. Had a lot of Come Follow Me lessons with members. So that's been a huge blessing to get to know the ward a little bit more. I love this ward and the members! They're all so great! 

Jann and Diane have been pretty busy so hopefully we'll get in contact with them soon. We met with Tita Hannah yesterday and her husband joined this time. We talked to them about prayer and reading. We have a lunch appointment with them and her daughter Michelle and her son in law on Saturday. They're going to bring us Filipino food so woohoo! 

This week I got permission from my mission president to have my dad join in for a lesson with one of our friends we are teaching here. His  name is Mike. We met with Mike in  person at a park and into the lesson I called my dad and he shared his conversion story. Mike and got to hear another member's perspective on why they decided to join the church and be baptized. It was great!Really awesome experience.

Something from this week's Come Follow Me 

Alma 48:17 "Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men." Super a powerful scripture right here. If we were all like Captain Moroni, Satan wouldn't have any power over us here on earth. I know we all can strive to become like Captain Moroni and he's a good example to follow. He followed the example of Jesus Christ. 

The gospel is true and there's no doubt in my mind that it's not. Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father love us. HOPE EVERYONE HAS A AMAZING WEEK! 

-Elder Espiritu 

New Tagalog name tag 

Pics from the beach last Pday 

After our lesson with Mike 

RIP to My Name Tag

What's up everyone! 

Pretty good week with so many amazing miracles! 

Finally got to set up a couple of service opportunities this week. It was really fun to help out some members in the ward especially the older folks. They love to talk and I enjoy listening to them! They have so much knowledge and it's always great to hear their stories and about their life. 

We had a lot of Come Follow Me lessons with members again this week. I think we're finally getting to know the ward a little better. I'm so grateful for the technology we have to be able to continue doing the Lord's work here.

Two amazing things happened this week... 

We finally started to teach Jann and Diane! When we met with them we shared some scriptures about Jesus Christ in The Book Of Mormon. It was great! They loved the scriptures! The Spirit was so strong and they kept asking amazing questions. We loved it. 

At the end of the lesson Jann said "Yeah once everything starts settling down with us moving in we want to start meeting with you guys 2 or 3 times a week." We got super hyped after he said that. I'm so happy Heavenly Father is looking out for them in our lives. He truly has a plan for everyone! 

The other amazing thing that happened was we found another Filipina lady to teach! We had a Come Follow Me lesson set up for yesterday night with a younger couple in the ward but they called us in the morning and asked if they could change it to a lesson because Michelle (the wife) wanted to invite her mom over. Michelle is Filipina and her mom grew up there. When they said that we said of course. 

When we had the lesson we met her mom. Her name is Hannah. She told us to call her Tita Hannah. She said she was going through a lot of trials. We shared some scriptures in the Bible about Christ. She got really emotional. The couple helped us teach Tita Hannah. Super spiritual experience!

Well hope everyone has a great week and I just wanted to leave on a spiritual note. Everyone go listen to "We all need saving"  by Vocal Point. The song is really powerful cause it's true. We all need saving and if we humble ourselves and turn to Christ and our Heavenly Father we can be saved and be happy forever! So give it a listen if you have the time. 

Hope everyone has an amazing week. Much love! 

-Elder Espiritu   

My name tag sadly broke today
and I'm really sad about it 

Service

Elder Owens and I yesterday 

From one of our drives