The Lord's Timing Creates Miracles

Hello Everyone! 

This week flew by! There were some amazing highlights. We were able to see the Lord help us find some very prepared people! 

Our friend Robert is doing super great. He is so prepared by the Lord to receive all the blessings from the Gospel! 

We've been able to get out a lot and get into more people's homes to help them understand the Gospel! We're very excited for some potential friends that we met this past week. I'll tell you about them :) 

Robert is still preparing to be baptized on June 5th! His testimony is growing so fast and it's such a blessing to witness it. We were able to go to the visitors center and walk around the temple grounds with him and a couple of members. I love the temple and the peace it brings to us. 

After the Visitors Center tour and walking around the temple Robert wanted to buy us some lunch. Now that we're fully vaccinated we were able to do that. It was a very spiritual time and it was cool to see how Christ had been able to help him through his trials and challenges. Later that day we stopped by Robert's house  and talked to him. He said he felt really inspired seeing all the artwork at the VC tour and then he gave us a drawing of Jesus Christ. I'm so excited for Robert! If you all could pray for him this next week that would be much appreciated:) 

The Lord is really preparing people to receive the Gospel. Our members are playing a huge role with our finding right now. We get a lot of member referrals that we're excited to go visit this next week.( a lot of part member families) The determination of the members is truly inspiring and drives me to be a better missionary every day. 

I was able to a very cool experience with trusting the Lord's timing. After Robert's time at the Visitors Center and temple we were on a spiritual high. It was amazing, but because we live about 30 minutes away from the Temple and we live in LA the traffic here is not to fun to drive in. On the way back home we got stuck in traffic for a good hour and it made us about 2 hours behind schedule. I was really trying not to get frustrated and to  practice my patience but it was hard for me during some points of the drive. 

There were so many little things that happened on the way home that definitely wasn't a coincidence but it was Heavenly Father placing certain people and things in our lives at that time. When we pulled into our parking garage we saw this lady cleaning the windows of her car. When Elder Christensen and I both got out of the car we both looked at each other and felt prompted to talk to this lady. So we asked her for help and she politely declined, but we got chatting about herself and about us as well. Her name is Ana. She has two daughters and she lives in the same apartment complex as us. We were able to explain our purpose as missionaries. She explained how she was looking for a church before the pandemic but stopped when everything happened with Covid. We got all her info down and set up a time to teach her and her daughters! Later we made some brownies for them and dropped them off at their apartment. When we dropped them off Ana told us she knew it was sign from God that we talked to her and she seems excited to talk to us more and to learn more about the gospel.

This experience helped me to remember God's timing is everything. Sure Clder Christensen and I were running behind schedule but if we hadn't been running behind we may have never met her and been able to introduce ourselves to her. 

I know that God's timing and Will for us is everything and as we trust Him we will be tremendously blessed. I love my mission and I love Jesus Christ :) 

-Elder Espiritu 

Last Transfer New Companion

What's up Everyone!

Quite an eventful week! The Lord has been blessing this area! I would love to tell you more about this amazing week!

This past week I started my last transfer on my mission! Wow its crazy how fast time has gone by. I'm so excited to continue to work hard until the very end! My mission president had a zoom  meeting with all the missionaries who are going to end soon. The meeting was called
"finishing strong". It was like a 5 minute meeting but it was so powerful! I loved how he kept inviting us to be examples to the other missionaries and keep working hard until the end of the mission! It really gave me motivation to continue working hard every day.  

With this new transfer I got a new companion, moved apartments, and I stayed in the area.  Sadly Elder Garlick transferred to another area. He was really awesome and I learned a whole bunch from him. I'm grateful for him and I will miss him. My new companions name is Elder Christensen.

We moved into a closer apartment to live in our area. This was nice because we don't have to drive so far.  Elder Christensen is really funny. He's been out on his mission awhile. He also speaks Spanish so that's gonna help a lot serving here in Inglewood. This place is so diverse and we can easily find people who speak Spanish here.

This past week our ward held a little missionary event. It was a drive-thru prayer. We held the event at our church parking lot. In each part of the parking lot there was a little station for different things. First people would drive up and fill out a form with their name, address, number, and what they want us to pray for with them. Then they would drive to the next station which was the prayers with the missionaries. (we had Spanish and English missionaries there to pray with them!) And the last station was where we handed out some few food! The event was pretty successful. We had quite a few cars drive through and we had a lot of numbers to call. We might make that event a monthly thing. I loved it and the Lord really helped us as we did it!

We were blessed quite a bit this past week! Here's one miracle that was amazing...

In the English ward I am serving in there are two sets of missionaries so four Elders in total. There are also four Spanish missionaries that serve in the same area as us. So if we ever find someone who speaks Spanish in our area we pass them off to them! And then vise versa from them to us!

One night the Spanish Elders called us and said they have someone who moved here that speaks Spanish and English but prefers English and that he would like to be baptized! His name is Robert. Robert is such a beast. He is truly prepared by Heavenly Father. Robert was taught in the past and was really close to baptism. He then had some hard times in life and didn't talk to the missionaries anymore. He said for the last couple months he's been really wanted to put God first in his life. He overcame some problems in his life and knows Christ is helping him. We all met with Robert this past Saturday and had a very spiritual lesson. We went over all the baptismal interview questions with him and he remembered all the principles from the lessons. We invited Robert to prepare to be baptized on June 5th! He said he would! He is so amazing. The next day he came to church and we had a lesson with him with one of our members at the church building!

Heavenly Father is sending us such prepared people! I'm super excited for him!

I love this work and it breaks my heart to think I'm heading home soon. I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for me and my companion in these next couple weeks! I love you all!

-Elder Espiritu

 

 

Last companion - Elder Christensen from Kaysville, UT

 

 

Elder Nitta is from the ward my parent's moved into last year - Cedar Hills 15th Ward in Utah

 

 

Service at the Los Angeles temple

Special Advice from My Grandparents

Hello Everyone! 

I just wanted to say thank you for the birthday wishes. I really appreciate it and I'm grateful for all of you! 

Nothing too crazy has been going on lately. We've been teaching quite a bit and all of our friends are starting to progress well. 

We have about 5 people coming to church each week but we're always trying to get more people there to see the joy of coming to church. Our friend Katrice is still excited for her upcoming baptismal date for May 22nd! If you all could pray for her that would be great! 

I love my mission and helping others out! I love my area and the people I've been serving with. I've truly been able to see a significant change in my life as I have served our loving Heavenly Father!

At the beginning of the year I made it a goal to finish The Book of Mormon by May 2nd and mark every time it referenced the Savior. Yesterday I was able to finish The Book of Mormon:) The reason I chose May 2nd to finish it is because that was the day I was baptized 12 years ago! :) 

For my 8th birthday my grandparents gifted me a quad scripture set. I have been using these scriptures even now on my mission. In the front of my scriptures my grandparents left me a note saying:

"To our dearest Dallin, Use the scriptures as your Liahona. We love you!" 

This little note is very short but has always been close to my heart. Both my grandparents have passed away and I miss them so much. These scriptures are priceless and I'm forever grateful for them. I'm so grateful for my grandparents showing me a example of people who loved the scriptures and really understood the importance of daily scripture study:) 

I know the scriptures can help everyone single one of us and they all can bring us comfort and light as we use them as our "liahonas" in our lives. 

I love my mission and I'm happy to be serving!

Thank you all for everything and your support🤙🏽😄

-Elder Espiritu 

Special counsel from Grandpa Eddie & 

Grandma Ceres Espiritu in my Scriptures