Alvear

Santa Paula

July 26, 2010 - Craig

Hey family! How is everyone doing?? I am so glad that you all had an awesome time in cali! The pictures look like you guys had a blast. Kimmy looks sososososo pretty. Matt looked like he was having such a good time. He is a good kid. This week was pretty good. We took the date off our investigator thouhg. We came to his house and he was very drunk and it was not good. So we are going to pray for him a lot. Anywhays, Last tuesday i had an amazing experience. We were teaching these investigators who are very very christian about authority and we made a restoration lesson around the priesthood authority and how we are the only church with the correct preisthood. I was teaching about Jospeh Smith and i truly recieved the gift of tongues. I have never felt so comfortable with spanish. I was literally thinking in spanish. Not only that as i was bearing my testimony about Jospeh Smith and how Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Cjrist truly appeared to him I was so full of the spirit. I literally felt filled. It was an amazing experience. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith. For the Love Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father showed us by calling him to restore the gospel on the earth. I know the gift of tongues is real. The only reason i reciueved it is because we were being diligent and working hard and we had been speaking spanish together throughout the day practicing the lessons and treasuring up. The lord blesses us only when we give effort too. Especially for spiritual gifts like the gift of tongues. I have been reading Jesus the Christ lately and it is truly amazing. It really helps you feel close to Jesus Christ. We dropped about 5 investigators last week. They were not progressing. Just like Kelly was saying to me, it is a releif to move on from these investigators and find others who really want to come unto christ. Today we went shopping and i learned something not to do. Dont go shopping when your hungry. I baught like hot dogs and beans to make beenie weeny and all this stuff ha. Then we went to Jack in the box. Its right next to our apt. I love yoou all so much. Thanks for you love and kindness to me. I hope you all have a great week and strive to feel the spirit!!! Les amo mucho! Esta obra es realmente la obra del senor. Jesucristo nos ama much. Morio para nosotros y nos quire que tenemos exito y felicidad. Nececitamos usar la expiacion diariamente. I love you all so much! Love ELder Craig Bills, Tell Hailey i love her so much!!!!!! and jake and luke

July 26, 2010 - Kevan

Wow Family! What a crazy week!

I will start it off with the craziest thing that happened. I have a new companion now. I was in mendoza on monday and got back at 1 in the morning on friday. Friday night president called and told us of the change. So we went back in on saturday morning and i got back here in alvear suunday at 2:30. right before church. Crazy. My new companion is Elder Fowler. He has about 11 months in the mission and i will train him to be a zone leader. He is awesome though. He doesnt need much training. He is from Conifer, Colorado. It is close to Evergreen but i am sure you know where it is.

I got to work in Palmira this week and that was awe4some. I got to visit some old investigators and put a few baptism dates with them. I visited the family gonzalez too. They are not going to church but hopefully the visit excites them. But... Gisela, my first convert, married an ex missionary and lives in La Pampa. She is going to church, is president of the young womens and is getting sealed to this guy in the temple in January!!!! YEAH!!!! I am so happy about that!

The training that we recieved is amazing! I love it so much! There are 8 focus that we focus on and this b rings the spirit to the lesson so much. Basically for me, it is trusting in God m ore and relying on the Holy Ghost more in the lessons. I have felt so much power and am so happy to use it now. I wish i would´ve had it at the start of my mision.

We basically focus on inspired questions. We help the people recieve revelation through prayer, the Book of Mormon, and going to church. Focusing on the people and having them commit themselves. I love it.

Our zone is doing good. There are some areas that are struggling big time but this week will be great for us to help them and have areas more positive. We will probably end this month with 7 baptisms which is one short of our goal! AHH! But august looks like it will be a great month! I am excited to see the success we have!

Church was great yesterday! We had 5 investigators and we had about 3 inactive families come! I was so happy and it was truly a blessing from Heavenly Father. He knows what we need and is truly blessing these people. I worked in my area one day this whole week. Sunday came and we just trusted God and He blessed us. THis truly is His work and I need to do the things His way to have success.

Tell all of these elders who are leaving congrats. That is awesome about all of them.

Family, I love you all so much! this is the truth and i am so happpy to be serving here. Thanks so much for your prayers and love. These people truly need it and i am so happy they can feel God´s love when they obey!

I love you all tons!

Love, Elder Kevan Bills

P.S. Great California pictures. Kimmy, What happened to you? You are like a little model! Watch out for the boys. i´ll be there in a flash with my argentina amigos if i hear about anything wierd!!!

Love you all

July 19, 2010- Craig

Hey everybody! I hope everybody is enjoying California! It is a great place! The weather is always amazing. I t has been sooo hot here! I have loved it! In like the 90s and 100s. This past week we set an investigator with a date for Aug. 14. He is a really cool guy. He has to stop drinking but i know with faith and helpp from the lord he can do it. This past week for some reason was kind of slow. I dont know if its becuase its summer or what but the days were pretty long with not many lessons. KC Kelly and Dad and Kevan can probably relate but i feel like those times are real testimony builders. When it seems nobody cares or doesnt want to listen that when you can really know if you are on your mission for the love of the people and the gospel or just to be on a mission. I was reading this morning in section 122 in D&C and it is probably one of the most powerful sections. Its the lord talikng to The prophet Joseph Sm,ith in liberty jail. The lord is naming all the things that happened to joseph smith and things that will happen and then he says that all these things are to give Jopseh Smith experiences and to make him a stronger person. It shows the love that the Lord has for his children and especially the love he had for Jospeh Smith. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith. He went through so much to restore the gospel. He is the greatest example of faith. I cant imagine what he went through. What i am doing out here "sacrificing" Is nothing compared to what he or The savior went through. I am truly grateful to represent them. I know Jesus Christ is living and is the Savior of the world. What a great responsability i have to serve him! I started a diet today! Slimfast diet. Tortillas and beans go straight to the stomach. So im staring a diet ha. It probably wont work but we will see. I just hate to see my body go down hill. I hope you all are having fuin in Cali!! I love you all so much! With all my heart! Tell everyone i love them! Love Elder Craig Bills

July 19 2010- Kevan

Hola!

I am in mendoza this week. We will be here until thursday for a conferance. We are learning a new program, or actually new focuses, that the church wants for us. They are nothing new but just focusing on things that we should better on. We learn in the morning and at 3:30 we leave, work, and practice in the real world. So i am excited! Guess where i will be working for the week to practice these things... PALMIRA! I am excited. I will be working with elder hurst from idaho.

This week was great. WE had much much sucess. Our numbers were very high but more important more people were taught about Christ. What a great week!

One lady, Maria Lucero, was just amazed as she heard for the first time, the restoration. She loved it and kept saying, wow, i have never heard of that. she is great and is progressing so well. I left her some scriptures to read and she read most of them. She loved it so much. her testimony of the Book of Mormon is growing so much!

Oh, so we went to a town called the Matadero. it is acutally a barrio. We found a pure Gaucho named Valdez. We went into his tiny homeade wood house with a dirt floor. As we walked it he had all sorts of stuff from gauchos. He had a goats head with evearything on it besides the skin and fur, insides of animals, cow hide, pictures of horses, etc. We talked to him for a bit and went outside and sat by a tiny fire that he made and we taught him the Restoration. it was an amazing expirience. _He cant read but really liked what we taught. We need to take it slow with him. He is a great and very humble man. I loved teaching him in that atmosphere outside in the cold, a poor place. But i felt the Spirit way strong.

I love it!

I have been focusing my studies on the atonement and the priesthood. ALso on understanding more in depth the things that we teach. This week i studied one day the restoration. I had so many questions about things. but i kept studying and God really iluminated my mind and taught me. I loved it. I know that these things are the true. I love Jesus Christ and know that He lives. Joseph Smith saw what he said that he saw. This is the restored church of Jesus Christ.

Sorry for the quick letter. We are on a tight schedule. We are going to go and open the mouth now and contact and then we are finishing pday playing soccor and stuff.

Family, I love you all tons! Have a great week and have fun in Cali!! Be safe!

I love you and thank you so much for all that you do,

Elder Kevan Bills

Alvear

Santa Paula

Craig - July 13, 2010

Hey family how is it going?? I hope all is well. Things are going well in Santa Paula. Elder Soza is a good guy and i have enjoyed my time with him so far. We have taught over 20 lessons these past 2 weeks so it has been pretty good. We are striving to be 100% obedient and i know the lord will bless us as we diligently strive and are obedient. We have about 11 investigators and we are trying to prepare about 5 for a date. We have one investigator who is really searching for the truth. He is abouyt 50 and is a short mexican from cruz azul mexico. I think ha but he has read everything and really asks questions that are awesome. He read alma 32 and highlighted everything and had like footnotes and commentary and he had cross referenced to moroni 10! One of the most powerful chapters in the Book of Mormon. It is cool. We need to teach him the word of wisdom cuz he drinks ha. (all mexicans). Last tuesday my testimony really was strengthened on the quote by President Hinckley. "Forget yourself and go to work" . I was feeling homesick and just had nervous anxiety i guess but i just prayed for strength and tried to have a good attitude. Before i knew it the day was over. And we ended up teaching 9 lessons and found a new investigator. I was truly grateful for that experience. I have been trying to focus some of my study on Jesus Christ a lot. I read a scripture that really captured the individual love Jesus Christ has for everybody. John 11:35 Jesus Wept. Ha short but it was very powerful to me. This is when Jesus raised Lazerus from the dead. Jeus was truly grieved to see the Mary or marta? I cant remeber lazarous sisters name but he was truly saddened to see her in such pain. And in v. 33 It said his spirit was disturbed i think it says. But it just was another testimony builder for me. Jesus Loves us so individually and personally, and once we truly begin to recognize this, we will want so much to be like our Savior. I loved it. I have been feeling a different kind of love for Jeus Christ thje past few weeks. I cant really describe it but it is just a feeling of comfort, love, and peace. I love our savior so much.

We had zone conference yesterday in Camarillo and it is so bveautiful there. I saw Elder Erickson. He is in the Camarillo zone. I didnt realize yesterday but i had a strong feeling to give him a huge hug and honestly tell him how much i love him. I realize now that that was a prompting of the spirit. I dont know if that will help him and it propbably wont that much, but i hope he truly felt my love. I have really enjoyed the past few weeks. There are definantly still hard times when i feel homesick ha but i love the lord and his work. I love you all so much!! Thanks for all you do !!!!!!! Love Elder Bills

Kevan - July 12, 2010

Hey Mom Dad and Family!

Wow, that is so great that you all could go to the ARG festival! That is so great. I loved the pictures with the traditional Gaucho outfits. And of course the argentina soccer jerseys. I see those two outfits about 1,000 times a day. Here is Cuyo, they dont dance the Tango. That is in Buenos Aires. So I havent seen one of those dances. Here, the biggest thing that is tradicional is the Mate, and the folklore music. Look up Los Trovadores de Cuyo. They are the most popular along with El Chaqueno. And yeah, the Cumbia music. wow, i hear it 24 hours a day. Some is good.

Well, this week went really well for me and Elder LeBron. WE had a perfect week with being obedient to the hours. Today in the interviews with President I told him and he said that we are the first to ever achieve that! So that is really great! The zone is doing pretty well. The numbers in the zone are very low. The baptisms are going up. We are at 5 baptisms this month. I know that we will reach the goal of 8 baptisms for the month of July. President told me that i will be staying here in Alvear one more transfer. So i´ll be here until september. I really want to win the mission cup for the most baptisms. that will be awesome for the zone Alvear.

We are having great success with the people in our area. One family is really progressing. They are the family Romero. They are 6 in the family and will be getting baptized. All of them!!! The only thing is that the parents have to get married. So we will be praying and fasting so that the parents will have desires and get married in august. that will be so great!

We are also working with this young couple named Victor and Daniela. Daniela is member but victor needs to get baptized. they are both 19 years old. They need to get married so we will work on that for the month of August. It looks like we will have 1 or 2 baptisms this month in our area and about 7 next month! That will be really fun!

Remember that street domination? Well we have dominated every street in our area. Now we are thinking of some new plan to do. God will bless us so we can find the people that He has prepared to be baptized.

There is an Elder here named Elder Kyle Evans. He was in my seminary class and a good friend of Craig. Wierd how he got called here to.

This week we did a fire side in our church on Saturday. So it was great. While we were doing the fireside an inactive member came with his wife. He introduced himself to us and told us he wanted and his wife wanted to get baptized. We tld them of course they can get baptized and we are now preparing the wife ester for baptism.

I felt a lot of blessing this week from being obedient. Just being 100% obedient helped me really feel more patience and love for everyone. At the end of the week, so many things happened and i could of easily gotten frustrated of impatient. But i know that the Lord blessed me with patience to just be calm and not let the things bug me. I was focusing on the attribute of pàtience this week and truly Heavenly Father blessed me so much with this attribute.

Sunday was a good day as well. I taught the gospel principle class. I felt way good. I taught about the Dia de Reposo. the sabboth day. It was great and I felt the Spirit really strong. and I was bearing my testimony at the end about the blessing and just felt so good. I know that as we keep this day sacred, Heavenly Father truly will bless us in all ways.

I am in San Rafael right now. I will be going back to Alvear tonight with Elder Brown so that he can do divisions with me. He is having some struggles finding news, as is the whole zone, so we will see what we can do. The zone elders are really good. They arent really disobedient in bad ways. Mostly they just want to do there own thing. If we need them to do something or correct of say something that they dont like they seem to not even listen or do their own things. this is only aobut 2 areas. So the agency they use can be either for the good or bad. The Plan of Salvation is so great that we can progress so much while we follow it. I love how God lets us to be on our own to truly learn and learn how to rely on Him! It is true!

Siento muy feliz que puedo estar aca. La mision son los mejores dos anos en verdad. No hay otro tiempo que una persona tiene para enfocarse cien porciento en nuestro Salvador Jesucristo. Hable con Presidente Lindahl de esto y el me dijo que aun como un presidente de la mision, no es lo mismo. estos dos anos cambian la vida de cualquier persona que realmente pone su fe en Jesucristo y se esfuerza para hacer la voluntad de El!

I love you so much family! Thank you so much for everything! I miss you all tons. I love the mission and thanks so much for helping me prepare to be here.

I took money out today because i bought a new spanish bible, it is a an edition of the church. Sorry, but i love it! nexdt monday i will be heading down to Mendoza again. We have a four day conferance so i will be there until thursday. It is a new thing that the church wants to do with the leaders of the missions. I am excited. It will be great!

Thanks again family! I love you all so much! The church is true!

Love, Elder Kevan Bills