Week 24, January 18, 2016

Area:  Green Bay, Wisconsin

Companion:  Elder Christofferson

Date:  January 18, 2016

Well everyone I feel awful because I haven't rewritten a good email home in for ever, I really felt so bad about not telling you anything new so I promise I will write my big one first so I always write a good one home! Well whats new with me well first off I have a new companion his name is Elder Christofferson super chill kids we get a long great he has only been on his mission for about 4 months so its two young guys trying to speak Spanish. He is from Ogden. I am now serving on the West side of the river in Green Bay instead of the East side. The west side does not have very many Hispanics so its like hunting we have to be sneaky in finding them because white people are not too friendly here especially when it is in the negatives -oh ya the temperature is dropping fast, if you take a deep breath through your nose the hairs freeze pretty crazy. When you are walking the wind freezes your muscles in your face. The wind is called Artic wind so you know.... they say if any skin that is not covered will get frost bit in 20 minutes of being out side don't worry though that is only if the Lord isn't protecting you.

 So little funny story I will share is me and Elder Christofferson where teaching this guy Christian and we were talking about Joseph Smith and who is he and what he did for us and so we started to show the Restoration video which is like 20 minutes because we think he is more of a visual learner -not the brightest of the bunch- but, anyways we just started it and someone comes knockin on the door and so we pause it and he goes and opens it and this guy is trying to sell him this weird lookin seat thing that can also be turned into a basket it was only 20 bucks if you're wondering which is a great deal I guess. Our investigator Christian is all for it, he ask the guy if he wants to come in and pray with us and watch a movie, hahah so weird so this black guy Charles sits down and so we tell him what we are watching and we started it with him also. The guy loved it haha so we referred him to the English Elders. Well ya that is life here baby. I love you all thanks for your emails!!

Amor Elder DeSantis

Week 23, January 11, 2016

Area:  Green Bay, Wisconsin

Companion:  Elder Lee

Date:  January 11, 2016

Whats up everyone,

 So this week was really slow all the way up till I found out I am being Transferred but i am like being told to put this computer away right now so I am so sorry I cant write anything but my new address is 140 S Fisk #14 Green Bay 54303  I love you all!

Week 22, December 28, 2015

Area:  Green Bay, Wisconsin

Companion:  Elder Lee

Date:  December 28, 2015

Whats up everyone

 This week was sick we got to see our families obviously and it was so nice to talk to them! We spent this Christmas with The Ramirez family they are super cool! They were so nice and bought us like 6 presents! Couldn't believe it then after that we went to the hospital and tried to give out Beanies to little kids we sat in the waiting room for like 45 minutes then they told us that we can't go and give them so I just asked them if they will give these to them and they said they would. Oh ya these Beanies came from my second Grandma Debby she sent them to me and told me I could do what ever I want with them so I tried to make good use of them. We also gave two of them to homeless people so thank you Debby for keeping people warm this winter!

 Todays message is about Christmas because for the first time ever I understood what Christmas is, I mean my parents taught what the real meaning was but, it didn't comprehend it till now. Christmas day was very special for me because in some way I felt like Joseph -Mary's Husband- in the sense that I didn't have anywhere to go, I know that sounds weird because I went to the Ramirez family house but, what I am getting at is that I didn't wake up to my family, I didn't wake up to all my sisters, brother-in-laws, nieces, nephews, and friends they weren't there this time it was just me. Joseph I feel felt this way that it was just him and his wife who was carrying the most precious gift ever, the person who will give us all life. I imagine that his feeling were somewhat of this that he was trying to do good he knows the significance of the baby his Wife is carrying and is wondering how he could not find anywhere for this perfect human to sleep and what he had to result in is a place where no person would ever want a child to be, Christ was born in the lowest of low which I believe is because those days that we are at our lowest is knows how it feels because his whole life was hard. This knowledge I had of the Saviors birth didn't hit me till I forgot myself and thought of others, until I tried to be like the Savior. This is my testimony of our Savior that he lives, that his whole mission in life was to come here for us and redeem us from our faults and weaknesses. This Savior was born for me and all of you, he humbled himself to do the will of The Father. I hope I can do this and Humble my self before the Lord and try each day to become a little more like Him. I love my Savior and I love this Gospel I hope you all had a great Christmas and kept it centered around the true meaning.

Amor Elder DeSantis 

Week 21, December 21, 2015

Area:  Green Bay, Wisconsin

Companion: Elder Lee

Date:  December 21, 2015

Hi everyone to all who read them actually if you read them you should just send me an email even if it like a blank want I just want to see who actually all reads them.

 Well this week was good um some things that happened this week is I spoke on Sunday ah geez let me tell you that story, so we get a call from our 2 counselor in the ward and says hey our person that is suppose to be speaking today cant make it so can one of you guys speak and of course some how it lands on me and the topic was Miracles I want for my family and how I am going to accomplish them. I was like man this is a hard topic and I only had like 2 hours notice so I started writing the talk but I first started writing in Spanish and it was taking for ever to get it so when I had like a page I just tossed it and started it in English with plans of translating it after, well by the time finished writing the talk I was up on the stands and so I had a good talk but it was in English and I need to speak in Spanish obliviously so at this point I wanted to throw up! Well I thought I had a plan of just translating as I read the talk but that was way to slow so I just bagged all of it and boom miracles  the words just started flowing out of the mouth making sense and so ya gift of tongues is real! 

 Well now for more my message I will share another story this one happened this week. We were contacting a referral that we got and the parents weren't home but the kids were so we asked when they would be home and they didn't know but they said that they just went to the store so we told to tell them that we stopped by -oh the mom is a member- after that we just knocked the other doors and this Hispanic lady answered so we started talking to about who were and stuff and asked if she has ever talked to her neighbor across the hall she said no not really. We then told how she is a member of our church and right after saying that the Lady and the Husband are walking up stairs just cussing up a storm and man I was so embarrassed because after they got in side you could hear them yelling at their kids. The lady we were talking to after said "oh she is a member at your church ok" so ya that was a real shot to the foot. So what is my message it is that you represent the church and that people see your actions, now I know that we are not perfect or even close but people will see your actions so you also have a good opportunity to represent the church well, now I don't want you to go and do good so others see you doing cause that is not why we do service. Service should come because we want to now how do we get this desire to serve it can only come from much prayer and reading because service is an opposite of the natural man so much develop it and that is only possible if heavenly father gives it to us! I have felt my desire to serve become so strong because each day I ask for those attributes of Christ to be put in my heart! I love you all and sorry this one was pretty long! I hope you all have a great Christmas! 

Amor Elder DeSantis

Week 20, December 14, 2015

Area:  Green Bay, Wisconsin

Companion:  Elder Lee

Date:  December 14, 2015

To everyone,

 Pues este semana nada mucho paso entonces yo quero pedir perdon para este email. Ok I will type in English cause that would suck for you and it takes a lot longer haha anyways ya my companion got sick with like the flu this week so we only went out if we had an appointment and so we didn't go out at all one day haha but it is ok I got a lot of reading done and studying. I pray that I don't get sick like he was cause he was throwing up all night one night, oh ya that night when he was throwing up I had a dream that night that I was helping a someone who was seizing  and throwing up at the same time weird dream but I think it is cause I heard him throwing up or something like that. Well what else happened man honestly nothing to exciting sorry this week is super boring from me. 

 My spiritual message of the week I will start with this if you want to have an idea for a family night this week the church released a video you can find at Christmas.mormon.org it is a really good video talking about why we celebrate Christmas! My other message is one that I learned this week about faith. We can have two types of faith the Faith to try and the Faith to reap. When we hear this it may seem the same at first but when you actually start to think of the differences they become obvious. When we have the faith to just try nothing happens after we try, to make it more clear it is like when I go to into each lesson and I faith that I will say the right things so I will try to teach a good lesson. This faith is not the faith we want, the faith we need is the Faith to Reap this faith comes by faith in your Savior Jesus Christ knowing that when we put our faith in him all things will be well. I can know that my words can touch the hearts of my investigators not because of me but because of the faith I have in the message and Gospel we share. I love growing my faith because I just have so much more confidence -not in my self of course but in my Savior my invitation to all is to find what faith we have and to also grow it each day so that when we come to the last days of our lives we can have the testimony like Moroni 10   33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.
 34 And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen.

I love you all stay strong read pray and your lives will become better even if things are hard now think of the Saviors like things were always hard for him but luckily for us he suffered so us to succor us in our times of hard! A quote from President Thomas S. Monson "fear not for your future is as bright as your Faith"
Amor Elder DeSantis

Week 18, December 7, 2015

Area:  Green Bay, Wisconsin

Companion:  Elder Lee

Date:  December 7, 2015

Hey guys,
 This was a good week I got my new companion Elder Lee love the guy he has been out on his mission for 21 months so ya he has fewer weeks then I have months! Ya but we got these Nerf guns from my mom and man they are so fun haha we have battles so ya that is fun! We enjoy opening our little gifts and reading the scriptures each day, Also thanks from the Ward I 12 days of Christmas I received that today so thank you a lot! I am really excited about this transfer we have together gonna get work done! Um trying to think of other things oh ya so Elder Lee has a fit bit and so I found out we walk a lot of miles each day so that is cool to see. We walk like 10 so I guess its not that many but ya um that's all.

  Well for the spiritual note we are working with the family Alejandra and Gerrado I told you about them last week but, this week they said they would come to church and so they got to the church and Gerrado got a call from his cousin who said he was drunk so he couldn't go into work and needed him to cover his shift so they were going to leave. I was so devastated we walk back into the church super sad because they were there like they were at the doors ready to walk in and that happened. So we sit down and then Hermana Rios comes over and says "Elderes tienen una familia afuera" We ran out side there they were, they told us that Gerrado called his Boss and asked him to go in for him and his boss said yes. Gerrado loved church they loved the spirit they felt and he came out of priesthood (so yes they stayed all three hours) saying " I am coming back I felt something special here" They joy I felt when he said that and the joy I felt from having this whole family all sitting together in sacrament with 3 little girls drawing with me and talking to me man I loved it! That is true joy ahh I cant wait to have my own little family at church I honestly feel part of their family! That is my little story! I love you all hope you are doing well!

 Amor Elder DeSantis

Week 17, November 30, 2015

Area:  Green Bay, Wisconsin

Companion:  Elder Lee

Date:  November 30, 2015

Hola cada uno,

 Well this week was fun I loved thanksgiving and I have some photos to send you! We have had some exciting things happen so let me start with this first one we are teaching this family and I love them to death they have 3 of the cutest little girls Daisy, Jazmin and Lili. There dad is such a cool guy so nice and loves us! He is just covered in tattoos from head to toe like no joke but he has this one on his neck and by his eye they are tear drops and we were telling us that those tears drops by his eye mean stuff I don't think I should say it but lets just say he has a super crazy past! But I love him to death and I hope we can get him baptized cause he really wants too!! Then the next thing is we get these transfer text telling us who is being transferred and neither Alldredge or Me was on the list so that meant we were going to go 3 transfers which is a really long time like really long haha. I prayed before to ask for help with what ever happens but I asked in my prayer that he would be transferred but If not then I need the strength to endure another one but when I prayed I got this huge sense of peace that everything will be good. So when I thought no one was being transferred I knew it would be okay but then we get and check transfer board and he was on it so that meant I was getting a new comp so God does answer our prayers haha! My new Comps name is Elder Lee I hope it goes well! We had a good thanksgiving we ate a lot of food and also played Football! So ya that's what happened this week!

Todays spiritual message comes from Helaman 6 it is talking about when the Laminites were converted and what they did after there conversion! starting in verse 3  "Nevertheless, the people of the church did have great joy because of the conversion of the Lamanites, yea, because of the church of God, which had been established among them. And they did fellowship one with another, and did rejoice one with another, and did have great joy. 4 And it came to pass that many of the Lamanites did come down into the land of Zarahemla, and did declare unto the people of the Nephites the manner of their conversion, and did exhort them to faith and repentance.
 5 Yea, and many did preach with exceedingly great power and authority, unto the bringing down many of them into the depths of humility, to be the humble followers of God and the Lamb."
What this is saying is when we are converted that isn't all we must do now we have the responsiblilty of sharing it with others especially those of you who are converts to the church! What I am asking is for you to either go with the missionaries and bare testimony to there investigators, you don't understand how nice it to have a member at lessons. So I promise you if you asked the missionaries to come they will love you so much. My challenge to you all is to go out with the missionaries and share your testimony like the Lamanites did because it will be very powerful! I love you all and I thankful for all my teachers in My Amazing Ward thank you too all who have helped me be here! Pray always!
Amor Elder DeSantis