October 24, 2011

Hey Family! Thanks for all the emails and support. I am so grateful for you all. Grandparents and Aunt Janet! Thank you so much. I wish I had more time to write you all back but please know that I deeply appreciate your love and support and I love you all so much.

This past week was BUSY! We have been super busy with our respnsibilites this week. It has been a change from East Bakersfield for sure. But I love it very much. An Elder we live with was had a migraine for about a week and he was in a ton of pain so we called the mission Presidents wife and she told us to find a urgent care to take him to. We spent about 3 hours looking for a place that would accept our insurance. We finally found a place and he was able to be checked out and got medicine. The Elder is from Mosembiq in Africa and he is doing a lot better. The reason I tell you this is because Elder Snelson and I were talking about how we spent those hours trying to help him and we had to cancel some appointments, but because we were helping an Elder and fulifilling our responsiblity as leaders the Lord made up for the time that we missed. We have recieved 4 referells since that time. It is incredible. The Lord is very aware of the things that we do and He will bless us if we do our part. It led me to think about magnifying any calling we have in the church. If we sacrifice other things to fulfill our respnsibilty and do all we can to magnify our callings, the Lord will make up the difference and bless us in the areas where we need His help and blessings. When we put our trust in the Lord and our faith in Him, i know that we can do things that we, on our own, wouldnt be able to do. We can show that trust and that faith by the good righteous things that we do. It was a good lesson that I learned!

We had an amazing lesson with some investigators this past week! It is a family who we taught. We taught them about the Book of Mormon because we left the daughter and mom to read 3 Nephi 11 1-17. When we got there the daughter told us that she had read the whole chapter! We were so excited. She then told us that she has a bad memory and probably couldnt tell us what she learned. We invited her to try and as she started telling us about the chapter, she was explaining perfect! She explained the whiole chapter so well and at the end of explaining she was like wow! I cannot beleive how much I understood! This was awesome because we were able to see how the Holy Ghost was working with her at that point and how he was bringing things to her rememberence. She had a lot of good questions and we answered them all with the BOM. The lesson went well and the spirit was so strong! There were times when they couldve gotten distracted with things that were around, but they were completely focused on what we were talking about. The Mom at the end seemed doubtful. We asked her what was wrong and she told us she wants to follow the Church That Christ started when he wa on the earth. So we gave her a restoration pamphlet and testified that it would answer her questions. She then looked at us and told us that she had talked to other people from other churches before but she said there is something about you. She looked at us and said you bring such a peace and a comfort when you come and the way that you actually answer our questions is so special to us. She said everything about you boys is glowing, your eyes and everything you say brings a peace. (It reminded me of Stephen in the book of acts 7) She was recognizing the spirit. We then paused and let her words settle and testified that what she was feeling and describing was the Spirit of God. We invited them to be baptized and they said when they receive an answer they will.We invited them to remenber how they felt because that is how they will recieve their answer. We have another appointment with thenm this week.

I love you all so much. Miracles happen! God lives and loves us! Pray for spiritual experiences, look for them , and that is what will happen! Thanks for all you do! Have a great week

Love Elder Bills

October 17, 2011

Hey Family,

I hope all is going well! Things here are great. Last week was a good week filled with finding and working with the members. We are making it a goal to meet all of the members in our area to teach them the Plan of Salvation and invite them to refer us to their friends who are ready for the gospel. We have taught some lessons about the importance of family to a few less active families and we have had some very spiritual lessons. I am so grateful for you all.

I love Oxnard. The weather is beautiful! Last P-day we went to the Camarillo outlets which was fun. We didnt stay too long but it was fun to walk around. It is so fun to be in a place that is close to where you all lived.

Last night we had a very good lesson with an investigator named Freddy. We took our ward mission leader Tone with us and had the lesson at the Church. There was no way that we couldnt have felt the spirit! We had planned on reading with him from D&C 20:37 to help prepare him to accept a baptismal date. When we got in there and started asking him about church, the spirit directed the lesson in a completly different way. We began to teach him about forgiveness. It was an incredible feeling to know that the spirit had completly made known his need at that point and how he was guiding our words and testimonies. Our ward mission leader told of an experience in his life when he needed to forgive and how during that time he felt like he was living in darkness. He couldnt let go of the grudge that he had. He then said when he finally recieved the strength to forgive, it was as if he went from a black an white life to a colorful vibrant life. After tone testified, we read from Helaman 5:40-43. It talks about how the Lamanites were surrounded by a cloud of darkness when Nephi and Lehi were in prison and how they desperatly wanted the cloud to leave from them. When Aminadab tells them that they need to have faith in Christ and repent they do so and the cloud of darkness was disperesed and it was as they were circled about with pillars of fire. It was an incredible lesson that I learned as we taught him. When we dont forgive we will be spiritually blinded. We will have a darkness about us because it is almost impossible to recieve the whisperings of the sprirt if we are holding a grudge and preocupioed with what someone has done to us. When we come unto the Savior, as we recieve power to forgive, our lives will be brightened by the power of the Atonement. I know that it is hard to forgive, but when we come unto the Savior we will recognize actually how weak we are and how hard it can be to forgive, then if we try are best and rely on Him HE will strengthen us and we will be able to forgive. When we rely on the Savior and do all we can, He will do the rest. He will fill in the gaps and help us acheive our goals that allow us to fully live the Gospel and become fully converted. I know the Atonement is real. I know that the Holy Spirit guides us when we are willing to follow and listen. When we teach, and listen with love, we will be taught by those we are teaching and by the Holy Ghost. The Gospel changes lives and it helps us to see the Lords hand in our lives. He lives and loves us. There is no doubt in my mind that we are here on the earth to grow and progress. Everything that we have in our lives helps and and prepares us to return with our Father! We are so blessed!

I love you all so much. This is Christs Church and His true Gospel. I love the Lord and am so grateful for all He has done for me!

Thanks for all you do! You all are such good examples to me! Hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Bills

October 12, 2011

Hey Family! How are things going?? Today is our Preperation day because for the past 2 days we had Zone Leaders Council in Ventura. It was awesome! I recieved so much personal revelation and was uplifted, edified, enlightened, and blessed! President Castro is a man of God. He has been called of God and he wants the best for this mission becuase he loves the Lord and knows that this is His work and we are inviting His children.

Last Sunday we had the Camarillo Stake Conference. I couldnt help but think of you Mom and Dad. Do you remember what ward you were in? What buliding you met in? We met in the Camarillo Stake Center on 1201 Paseo Camarillo. I love it here! The weather is honestly perfect. And Mom its happened, I want to move here! Haha. I love it and I am excited to continue to get to know the members here and those who are waiting to hear the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday Elder Snelson and I had the opportunity to do the morning devotional at ZLC. All the Zone Leaders were assigned a talk on pride to study and we led a discussion about it. We put a lot of preperation and thought into it. The participation from the Zone Leaders was awesome! It was so special to be in that room and dicuss how we cann overcome the universla sin of pride. The spirit was so strong! As Elder Snelson and I though and studied about what we wouold share we both were impressed to talk about how service kills pride. We focused on pinpointing three questions. 1) What is Pride and how can we recognize it? 2) How do we have pride as leaders? 3) How can we be stripped of pride? We focused on thes questions and discussing how we can overcome the enemy of unity. We watched part of a talk from President Uchtdorf called, Lift Where you Stand from the 2008 OCT GC. (you should watch it) One thing that President Uchtdorf said in his talk Pride in the Priesthood stuck out to me too. He said "The moment we stop obsessing about ourselves and lose oursleves in service, our pride diminishes and begins to die." I love it! we need to forget about ourselves and serve. That is what I am going to focus on. Serving those around me.

We are teaching a kid named Freddy right now who is doing pretty well. Last night he discovered the Book of Mormon and committed himself to read it daily. We read Ether 12:27 with him and he said, " I think I get it now. If I read the Book of Mormon, my life will be better." Ha it was sweeet! The Spirit testified to him of the truthfulness of it! It is true!! I love the Book of Mormon!

Thanks for all that you guys do. I love you all so much. My adress is 701 Janetwood apt. # D Oxnard, CA 9303. I love you all so much. I am so skinny right now its scary! I have lost over 20 pounds! Its ok though. The Lord will bless me!

Love Elder Bills

October 3, 2011

Hey Family! Conference was unbelievable! I loved it. The spirit was incredible. I was sitting waiting for the last session to start and was overwhelmed with the spirit. It was a feeling of complete security and love. It wasnt just a good feeling. it was an incompasing feeling that gave me confidence and hope. I am grateful for the Spirit and the love of our Heavenly Father. I enjoyed Elder Scott's talk and I loved President Uchtdorf's first talk. I have almost memorized my favorite scripture (alma 32:42) and it is true what Elder Scott said. Memorizing scriptures can help them have more power. I had all my questions and concerns answered during conference. The gospel is true the Spirit is real and Heavenly Father's love is real.

We got transfer calls today. I am going to be white washing into Oxnard! I will be training a new zone leader as well. he has been out for about a year now and I am excited! I am confident that the Lord will guide us as we go into a brand new area together and have a desire to work and work harder than we ever have before. The Spirit will guide us if we have prayers of faith! I had a lot of success here in Bakersfield and I enjoyed my time here. I love the people I met and baptized and I know that it was inspired for me to come here, to meet the people I have and to be with the companions I have. The Lord knows our specific needs and will bless us according to our faithfulness. Thanks so much for all that you do for me! I love you all so much. Mom and Dad thanks so much for your hard work and love. Please always know and remember that I think often of the lessons I learned from you. You are amazing parents. If there is anything that i can do for you all please let me know.

I am sending you some boxes. Sorry about all of the letters in the box. You can throw them out if you want. I just didnt feel good about throwing them away! Could you save my planners? Thank you! I love you all so much! Thanks for your examples.

With all my love, Elder Craig Bills