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