Week 40, May 9, 2016

Area:  Lake Mills

Companion:  Elder Lopez

Date:  May 9, 2016

Well it was an amazing week to say the least but also the most stressful week of my life. I felt every single emotion one human can experience I believe. I don't really know how to describe it all but, all I can say is I gave the Cabrera family my whole heart my everything that I have for them and what turned out was amazing! I have never thought about one family so much every second I was thinking of them praying for them that all would turn out. It finally did even though at times I didn't think it was going to happen. I guess that is why the baptism was just so much more amazing for me is because I did give them my all because I know it is true I know that this would bless them more then anything. One of my most spiritual moments came two days before their baptism. Things really hit the fan with them you could say so we asked if they wanted a priesthood blessing and they said yes and asked me to say it. Before that moment I always kinda felt like during priesthood blessings my own thoughts and words got in the way but, this time was completely different the words came out and we all felt the Spirit so strongly I will never forget that moment. Then their baptism was amazing everything went great except the water was a little caliente opps... We had over 100 people there to support them including our President and his wife! I was so nervous to actually baptize someone but it was so fun also! I guess you could say this was a missionaries perfect weekend we baptized a family and then the next day we talked to our mothers what better weekend is there for a missionary. 

For my Spiritual message I want to talk about the following the Spirit because I kinda had an experience that Thomas S. Monson had -not to compare by myself to him at all though- the spirit told me to ask a question and I didn't do it, it then told me again to ask a question and I didn't do it. Then the spirit told my Zone Leader to ask a question and he didn't do it. What came out of it was something that almost cost a family their Salvation their ETERNAL exaltation. God has trusted 18-21 year old boys to have this work but, he didn't leave us a lone he gave us His Spirit to do it that is why this work actually works and so when we don't follow it because we think we are better or smarter or we may be too afraid that is when this work wont work. I will always from now on try my hardest to follow the promptings of the Spirit no matter what it is telling me I will do it! I love you all! I have lots of pictures to send home!

Love Elder DeSantis  

Week 39, May 2, 2016

Area:  Lake Mills

Companion:  Elder Lopez

Date:  May 2, 2016

Hey everyone this week was good. We did a lot of service which is always nice but, the first one was pretty rough we helped this in-active lady move out of her apartment and oh my she  had soooo much stuff every where like you could barely see the ground ah man and the smell so bad. I don't understand how she was living like that so crazy but the lady was super nice to us and doing service for those members is sometimes what they need. Then we also helped one of our members daughter move all her stuff which was fun we had a lot of the ward there and Angel Cabrera also came with is which awesome. Then that same day we helped this young man in our ward with his Eagle project because no body in the ward could go help so the mom called us and it was really fun we made these storage type of shelves out of wood so ya pretty fun. I love doing service for people now like I look back and man it was like a burden for me I felt but now it has just become like more of a desire. Sunday was also great we were able to hear Angel and Irasema testimony in Sunday School about the restored Gospel. To hear their stories it just makes me so happy how it started from honestly nothing to this huge new desire to follow our Savior. One thing that made me laugh was we got a call Sunday morning from Angel and he asked "who do I make the check out to for tithing and fast offerings" I can't believe their dedication they aren't even members yet and they paid tithing this family is just so amazing! I can't wait for Saturday it will be a day I never forget. Kinda makes me sad when we go to invite some families from the ward and I hear the reasons why they can't make it to their baptism I just want to tell them do you understand what is happening this is one of our brothers and sisters that we lived with before this life, who we loved and cared for so much back then that is finally finding their way back! This is what we all agreed to before we came here to fight everyday to make it back to him and this family is making that first step. So moral of my tangent if there is a convert baptism in your Ward or stake GO! That support will mean so much to them I promise! That is pretty much all for the week.

For this spiritual message part it comes from me learning more about what I need to do better. I learned something that to some of you might sound like a "duh" type of thing but some how I didn't realize it. One thing I had been struggling with is trying to understand why people don't except this Gospel so one way I tried to fix that was by trying to prove people wrong. I would never do it in a harsh or mean way I just always trying to show people that what "their church" was doing is wrong and proving to them that all this is true. Well I was talking to this member in our church who we go and visit every week cause he has some deseases where it made it so he can't walk anymore so he gets lonely. Well this man is very smart and pretty much called me out on the things I was doing wrong which is what I needed. After kinda sharing to him what I just shared with you he looks at me and says "you know what that sounds like to me? Fear, Doubt or Pride. You need to just let the spirit testify to them that it is true not proving it to them because that wont last." he is so right me trying to prove them wrong shows doubt on my part that I have to re-assure myself each time that it is true instead of letting the Spirit tell them it is true. I do not need to answer every ones questions I do not need to know everything and why we do everything. I just need to testify that Jesus is our Savior and Heavenly Father loves so so much that he gave us Prophets again and The Book of Mormon. I know that all this is true! I don't need to prove it anymore even though we can I don't need to. I am grateful for this humbling experience and for the wisdom of that member. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love Elder DeSantis

Week 38, April 25, 2016

Area:  Lake Mills

Companion:  Elder Lopez

Date:  April 25, 2016

Hey everyone this week was another good one hmm lets see what happened we went to the Zone Leaders area which was really fun to get back into teaching only Hispanics ah man I love them they are so much better to teach and so nice to us just so excepting with the Gospel! The language is still coming a long by no means am I fluent though still have a lot to work on but it is coming. While we were with the Zone Leaders we found a lot of cool families so hopefully they will start to investigate the church more and more. Well for us we didn't teach to many lessons this week but we got a lot done with the Cabrera family which is more important. We started there baptismal records and planned the program for the day of their baptism also found out that I will be giving one talk and also baptizing Allyson so I am super excited and nervous to do it but more excited! We also found out something that we have been stressing out about a lot and that was if Angel and Irasema were actually married our just telling us they were but we saw their marriage document all is good they are legally married haha! They also feed us on Sunday which was so fun I love being with their family I just want to stay in this area for the rest of my mission so I can make sure they stay active but I know that wont happen and that they need to start taking the steps on their own with out the missionaries but they are already doing that so thinks are looking great! Also the ward is really helping to make them feel welcomed they planned a temple trip for May 20th only for adults and they are only doing Baptisms for the Dead so that Angel and Irasema can go in and participate! Now I know that doesn't seem like much but we don't have the luxury to just go to any temple any time. Anyway I hope they enjoy it and can feel the Spirit I know they will! It was so cute so while we were at their house yesterday, my mom sent me these Choose the Right rings for the kids and so I gave them to them and they were so excited! They just loved them, so we started playing this game where they ask me what is your favorite.... and then I answer so, Frida the little girl asked Angel Jr. who his favorite parent was and so he sat there for a second and was like yours elder Desantis cause they gave us these rings haha I love little kids!

As I have been sitting here think about what to say for a Spiritual message only thing really coming to mind is my family and how lucky I am. The reason why is because we had a lesson with this lady this morning who only calls us when things go south and needs money really from the church so we just sit there and listen and tell her things we feel she needs to hear but she just was telling me about how destroyed her family is and everyone hates everyone. Man I can't imagine that I honestly can't. There is only one reason why we are all so close and it is because of this Gospel it is because we try our best to live this Gospel. This Gospel is loving,serving, caring, crying, listening, talking and enjoying every person in your family and your friends it truly is! When we do those things we are living the Gospel many people only think it is about ourselves and how good we look to God but you wanna know what looks good to God is when we go and rescue or comfort one of His Children. I hope that I may live this Gospel even more after my Mission! I love you all so much and hope that you have a great week and enjoy your families!

Love Elder DeSantis

Week 37, April 18th, 2016

Hey everyone how are you all this week was good we had stake conference yesterday and that was really good! We went to Milwaukee on Saturday and we had to go early cause our BIshop was taking us and so when we got there we were able to go walk around in Milwaukee and do some work there man so different being in a big city! The weather is so nice right now so people are outside again and while we were walking we just felt like celebrities people would come out from the Bars and say "Looking good fellas" or just wave man super weird usually people avoid us but not that day like 15 people waved and were smiling at us so that was weird and cool at the same time. Must be how Utah missionaries feel walking in Utah. Well then on Sunday Angel (ones being baptized on may 7th) and his whole family came to stake conference and it is about and hour and half drive to the Stake Building so they wanted to be early so they could sit close so they got all their kids up at 5:30 am so they could get there early! So cool they are so dedicated to the Church or I guess to Christ! They also met a lot of awesome people at Stake Conference they met our Stake President who speaks Spanish then they met our Mission President and His Wife -so cool while talking our mission President was like "we are so excited for your Baptism" he responds in his best english "we are too I have just felt the change in my life and my families!" Man my heart just is so touched by this family! Well the list goes on for who they met next was a Temple President (Chicago temple) he bore his testimony of how families are forever and then he met a General Authority so they felt the Spirit threw these men and women. So that was really cool for all of us um for the other parts of the week I took the coolest picture of a Sunset I am very proud of it I will send it with this email! Then also we met a girl named Annabell who is very humble and nice and really wants to learn and accepted baptism so hopefully that will happen. We also had interviews with our Mission President which are awesome I love talking with that man! I am super sad he is leaving in June he really has changed my life so much! 

For my spiritual message I want to talk about the Book of Mormon my mission is doing a Book of Mormon reading where we get a brand new Blue Book of Mormon or the ones we hand out, as we read we highlight every verse that talks about The Nature of Christ and his Atonement and then in a different color we highlight all verses that tell us what we must do to access the Atonement. While doing this I have realized two things that the Book of Mormon truly testifies of Christ and we can come to know that he is our Savior almost every page has a verse or verses talking about His atonement for us! Then the next thing is how much we must do to access it, it tells us every page what we must do but always follows up with the reasons why! I love this studied and it is strengthening my testimony more and more each day. I can't wait to finish it in June and then to start it again! I am so greatfull for the Book of Mormon and the peace it brings me and for all the sacrifices that would made so we can have it! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love Elder DeSantis

Week 36, April 11, 2016

Area:  Lake Mills

Companion:  Elder Lopez

Date:  April 11, 2016

Everyone holly cow this week couldn't have been better, the coolest thing happened like I just smiling so hard right now. I have this awesome story to share and miracle man I wish I could just tell you all but oh well. So one quick thing before I start is that I will not be getting transferred which is amazing ok here we go. So you know the family I have been talking about that we are teaching well this Tuesday we went over our whole goal for this lesson was to see why they are not accepting a baptism date so we went over and followed up with the how conference was and they loved it so much like couldn't get over how amazing it was, they know that these men are called of God and have the Priesthood that are there exact words well expect in Spanish. So before we could start talking more Angle (the Father) started to tell us this experience he had when we taught him about temples and showed him a picture of the Salt Lake temple he said " the moment I saw a picture of the Salt Lake temple I knew I needed to enter into it but I know I need to clean myself off first cause I know no unclean thing can enter into the temple" he then tells us how he prayed to God to give him a way to go to the temple and that same day his best friend who is a member (Brother Laws) asked Angel to go to the Salt Lake Temple one day and go to conference, Angel said that was his answer to his prayers right then that same day! We were so excited and couldn't believe his experience and then he looked at his wife Irasema and then at us and said we are getting baptized and man I just almost died like I couldn't believe it I could't stop smiling! I still can't so then we just told them lets pick a day and they said no not yet and we were disappointing but now we know why he didn't tell us that night it is because he promised Brother Laws that he would tell him the day first so anyway we were just waiting for Saturday to come because that was the next time we were meeting with them and so Saturday finally came and then we asked them the day and it is May 7th!!! The only reason it is far is because Brother Laws is going out of town for two weeks and he really wants him there which we understand, so man we were just stoked but then there is more get this so we planned it all and man they are so ready couldn't be more excited so then we go to church and of course they are there and he came in a brand new suit he bought the whole ward new they were going to be baptized and a lot bore there testimonies of how excited they are for them! So then after church  we started talking to Brother Laws who is originally from Utah and he told us more stuff that Angel didn't tell us, so Brother Laws and him work together and everyday for 20 minutes Brother laws and him talk about the church and Brother Laws Described a little more about the temple and garments and so when Angel heard all this he went home and asked his wife to marry him again in the Salt Lake temple! When I heard that I was so excited. Ok so now let me tell you more about the family it consist of two parents with 4 daughters and a younger son this family is about the same age as Mom and Dad when they got baptized, Now if you are telling me that this family who is almost identically to my family wasn't prepared for me to come to Wisconsin and share with them my families story so that they can relate to it perfectly then I don't know that isn't happen chance we are called to certain areas of the world by God we truly are. Well to keep adding on to this story my plan now is for them to get married in July of 2017 in the Salt Lake Temple and to stay with us, how amazing will that be if right when I get home I can go into the temple with this family and watch them be sealed forever! Then to also have them in our home! This is why we go on missions to bring families together for ever. My testimony is that this is the true church and we have the power and aurthority to bind families together through the priesthood that was restored to Joseph Smith but Peter, James and John. I am so grateful for my mission and wouldn't trade it for anything! I know is God answers our prayers and he is very aware of ever single one of us!  Love you all

Elder DeSantis

Week 35, April 4, 2016

Area:  Lake Mills

Companion:  Elder Alatrista

Date:  April 4, 2016

Whats up everyone! well this week was good, for district meeting we had a great testimony meeting and I always love baring testimony about His atonement cause man I need it everyday! That is one thing my mission has done it has "shown unto me my weaknesses" and they will only become strong if I inquire of the Lord. After that the next cool thing we had was a guy came and spoke to us who was a NHL hockey player for two years -which was his dream- then after two years didn't really have the passion to do it anymore so he said he got fat and just lazy until someone asked him if he wanted to do something with his life again so then he just started picking up speed skating and made the Olympic team for long distance speed skating and he would have won gold if he had not fallen but ya that was really cool to hear his story. I got some really cool revelation you could say for my own life and what I should do. He said "no matter what you do be the best at that thing you do, doesn't matter what it is put it in your mind that you will be the best at that thing" very true you need to push out all those negative thoughts and honestly believe you will be the best at that thing and well it worked for him he went to the Olympics and played pro hockey. Well after that not too much happened but Angel the family I have been talking about is still doing really good the kids are awesome and really enjoy us coming over and listening to us! Angel made some stuff and brought it to priesthood session dinner that is at the church btw Angel watched 8 hours of conference so awesome he loved it all and thought it all was so profound! Little funny story cause you know I love my "little funny stories" when I was at priesthood dinner I got to talking to Brother Luccion -who is from Argentina- about soccer and found out he played for Provo I laughed and said we played Provo in Semis and finals for soccer, oh ya this conversation happened earlier in the week, so then I get to preisthood dinner and he says "I read an Article about you last night" I was so confused on what he read and he went on and explained saying he went and found stuff from when I played soccer at high school so now from what he read he told me he expects to see me playing after my mission haha so I thought that was funny. Sorry that story is very poorly written well anyways onto Sunday we watched General Conference at Angels house instead of the church like on Saturday, they are so fun and amazing the kids watched all 2 sessions on Sunday I was impressed. That is all for the week now on to conference and spiritual message.

 Geez this General Conference was amazing it truly was I think I enjoyed it so much was because of how much they spoke on Families and Temples and then to be watching it with a family who is hopefully one day going to be baptized and then go to the Temple to be sealed for all eternity. Sitting there on Sunday with that family watching conference is what missionary work is all about bringing these families together! I truly loved all the talks but the quote I want to talk about more comes from our beloved Prophet Thomas S. Monson when he said in the Sunday morning session he says "may we ever choose the harder right then the easier wrong." I love that quote because I hate to break it to all of us but including myself but this life is hard it is hard to stay strong in the Gospel it truly is but coming from another quote says " I never said it would be easier, I only said it would be worth it." It is so true I believe in the council we had in heaven our Heavenly Father told us it would be very very hard but we all knew how worth it would be, if only we could still know how worth it will be we would work a lot harder. These "harder rights" we have to choose may come in many forms for me it is to keep focused and knock one more door go that extra mile for those who need to realize this time isn't for me those are my hard rights, I know that yours are all different but in the end we must always choose that "hard right" and one may ask how we do so and I believe the answer comes from 3 Nephi 13:  21 'For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Isn't this scripture amazing I read this about a thousand times when I found in my Book of Mormon reading the other day, I love it though so true what ever our treasures are there will be our heart. I pondered this forever and am still asking my self what are my treasures, then I realized well if my treasures are aligned with Gods will then how much easier will it be to "choose that hard right" when are hearts are somewhere; there is our energy, our passion our, love our desires and our all!  I encourage us all to find out our treasures and see if they are in line with Gods will for us and then to press forward always choosing "the hard right over the easy wrong" I love you all and my testimony is that this is the restored church on the earth today and we are lead by Prophets and Apostles who -as Elder Holland said- love us so much that they will give there lives for us, they truly do talk with God and Thomas S. Monson is our Prophet who is called of God! I know that this is the true Church even if at times I need help remembering that I know it to be True this is my small testimony that the Savior lives and He is our Redeemer and I say all this in the name of Jesus Christ Amen!

Love Elder DeSantis

Week 31, March 7, 2016

Area:  Lake Mills

Companion:  Elder Alatrista

Date:  March 2, 2016

Hey everyone,

 So this week was a good one you could say we have been doing a lot of finding this week cause my president has given us a challenge to teach the first vision twice a day to new peolple, so that takes a lot of knocking doors. Luckily the weather has been good so that makes people more receptive to listen. This area is doing better I guess. I am trying to think of any funny stories to tell I guess this one comes from this old man we knocked on his door and told him we have a message to share about Jesus Christ and he looked at me and said you believe in that bogus? I was like ya we actually do then you called us "a bunch of bone heads" my companion and I just walked away and just started laughing and Elder Lopez is like what does "bone head mean" took me a while to explain to him what it mean in spanish but ya we had a good laugh from that. I think I don't get offended really because Christ tells us that people will ridicule us or call us "Bone Heads" so I just know I must be doing something right cause Christ told us this would happen. I would say this week my testimony of the Book of Mormon and Prophets have grown so much this Gospel just makes too much sense not to be true. Well anyways I have a cool story to tell and so here it goes. This week Elder Lopez and I found this family we is really really struggling right now they are living in a Hotel and it is a Mom and a 18 year old then two boys who are 8 and 10 then two girls who are 11 and 9 the girls are in a foster care cause their mom doesn't have the space or income to have them all. So Elder lopez and I started teaching and talking to them I soon found out that they were out of food till Sunday and it was Friday so we called and we also got them food for that night and then we got members to make them the rest of the meals. Too see the look on the kids face when we brought them food and to hear them just tell you over and over that they are thankful for the food you heart just breaks for them. We have so much and sometimes we just don't open our eyes too see. Keep this family in your prayers they have a lot of stuff to work on and to help them get on there feet is the first one. I shared this scripture with Sara (the mom) in hopes of bring some peace it is found in Mosiah 24 

 "14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions."

I know God cares and loves each of us he wants us to be happy and he knows what is best for us in that moment. Put your trust in the lord and never give up pray for help your burdens will be taken from you in His time and His way. I love you all so much! 

Love Elder DeSantis