Kevan's Baptisms

August 23, 2010 - Kevan

hey Family!

Yeah the pictures of Connor look great! Everyone looks pretty happy. Connor lost some weight too.

This week was great. It was a little crazy too. We eventually did have baptisms! That was awesome. We had 4 baptisms! We went to the house of these two girls that were going to get baptized on thursday and their family had had some problems with some of the members. And so them and the girls all told us that they were not going to get baptized this saturday. Ah, it was sad. So we talked to them and eventually left feeling a little down but also excited for the other 3 kids that were going to get baptized. So saturday came and we had so much to do. We were walking in the street and got a text message saying that Cinthia, one of the girls, was going to get baptized. That was so awesome! I was so excited! So she got baptized and her sister didnt. I feel that with the Spirit though Yanira will be able to get baptized this week. Also this week Gabriel Romero, a child of a part member family, will also get baptized! I got the oppurtunity to baptize all four of the kids and i felt great. I love using the Priesthood and being a part of helping these people come unto Christ.

This week has been beautiful. Just amazing spring days. I love it. This morning it rained but now it is just beautiful.

I began studying and reading the book of John. It really is amazing. I read Chapter six the other day and something popped out to me that i love and helps me understand God and His Son better. I counted 4 times when people talked to Jesus Christ or when He spoke to them and it showed that He really does know everything! He saw the disciple under the tree before he was chosen, He knew of what Judas Iscariot was going to do years ( i believe) before it happened, and other things. He truly is all powerful, the King of kings, all knowing, and it our Savior and Redeemer. I have such strong desires to just dig into the scriptures and learn about Him. It is such a sacred time to me right now that i have to actually act in His name and do what He would do. There is no better way to learn of Him than this!

This week we will travel to Malargue this wednesday to do some baptism interviews. it will be about 6 hours but i am excited to know that place. I here that it is beautiful.

I love you all so much family. thank you so much for the prayers and for the support i recieve everyday. Truly this is the work of our Father in heaven. This is His. Let´s be instruments in His hands and do all we can do to bring our brothers and sisters to the knowledge of the truth!

El evangelio es la verdad. Jesucristo vive!

Love, Elder Kevan Bills

August 16, 2010 - Craig

Hey family how is everybody doing?? This last week was good! We taught 24 lessons! It was a busy week. On Saturday our car broke down though so we are walking everywhere now ha. It is tiring! But its ok. I am so happy to be able to have legs to walk! This last week we got a new investigator and taught him athe intro and gave hima restoration pamphlet. Then we came back to his house to teach him and when he opened the dopor he was wearing an old BYu jersey! Ha a Reno Mahe one! It was hilarious. This chicano wearing a byu jersey. He probably got it at a garage sale or something. But it was a great lesson and he basically taught himself becuase he read the pamphlet like twice. It was really great. This pat week i have been taking the advice of President Willis and praying every prayer for spiritual experiences. It was a week that was full of them! We were teachiong this recent convert and we were talking about faith and i felt the spirit so strong. Elder Eyring said that when you are teaching, if you are not learning too you arent teaching right, and in this lesson i was just learning so much fromo elder soza and this girl too. We were taliking how she can gain faith in Jesus Christ by reading the scriptures and also protection from evil through the holy ghost. When i said that i just realized when we pray, read, go to churcxh and do the things that the lord asks of us the holy ghost is literally our protector. He will shield us from harm and danger. We have all recieved the gift of the holy ghost. What a special gift! We need to stay worhty to recieve strength and help from him! I am so happy to be able to have this gift and have the ability to receibve revelatiopn and inspioration on a daily basis. I have also been praying every night to recieve inspiration in my dreams and revelation too. I wont tell you the whole dream i had last night but i learned so much. I woke up and was like wow cool! ha but i had a dream that i had to use the priestyhhood for something. And i remeber i was kind of lacking faith ansd said no i cant do that, but that thought was countered by the though , yes you can you are worthy and has the authority of god to act in his name to serve others, and as i thiought that i used the priesthood and saw a miracle. We recieve power form worthiness and we are worhty becuase we are obedient. Satan will always try to put doubt in our mind and in opur thoughts. We need to press forward with faith. Faith in the gifts and blessings we have from Heavenly Father! I love you all so much! Thanks for everything! La correcta autoridad de Dios es con nosotros. Tenemos el sacerdocio de Dios. El poder para actuar en su nombre. Presidente Thomas S Monson tiene todas las llaves! Les ama muchisimo! Love Elder Bills

August 9, 2010 - Craig

Hey family! Hows everybody doing? Well this week was pretty good. The work has been hard lately. Really slow! We dropped most of our investigators so now we only have 6 in our teaching pool. And we have 1 that is progressing pretty good. It is been stressing me out and been kind of discouraging for me. This weekend we only taught 2 lessons and we were walking on sunday night and i was just thinking to myself what is going on? We are working really hard. Why isnt anyone interested? I didnt really get any answers but I just remebered that one of Satans biggest things on missionaries is discouragement. I cant afford to get down or anything because that will slow my progress down and that wont let me have the spirit. I need to be patient and just keep working hard. I am staying here in Santa Paula so i will get to keep working here and hopefully the work picks up. I cant beleive how much success Kevan is having. That is crazy!! He is an awesome missionary. Our investigator who has come to church for 3 weeks straight came to stake conference yesterday with his daughter. It was an excellent conference. There was some very good talks. The president of the Los Angelos temple spoke and it was very good. I learned a lot from his talk and the stake Presidents talk. Our investigator after asked us to come do Family home evening tonight at his house! Which is exciting because we taught him a lesson on the family and the commitment was to do FHE. He said he would let us know on sunday. But he was excited to ask us. It was pretty cool. We are grateful we get to be teaching him. He is a great guy and is really humble and willing to learn. we tracted into the rudest human being i have ever met on Saturday haha. We knocked gave the "intro" then she asked you mormons?? and we said yesss. Then she went off told us to go fly a kite and take a hike ha and never come back.. Ever ha. She added some choice words in there too! I just smiled and asked her if we could do any service for her. She said no. We tracted a ton this past week. We are trying to find people to teach. We found a less active member from guatamala. It was sweet. We knocked this tiny house like way hidden on this street and he answered. He told us that that morning he had read his book of mormon and was like man i need to find the members so i can go back to church. And we knocked on his door that very day!! Very cool. We were happy to find him. I love you guys so much. I fasted yesterday to have more charity and love for the people and it was the hardest day to love the people! Ha . I learned that when we truly want a gift from the Lord that we need to be ready to do our part. Through dilgence, prayer, and fasting we can gain gifts from our Heavenly Father. I love you all so much! Thanks for everything! Love Elder Bills

Zone Conference - Kevan

KC in Craig's Apartment in California

August 10, 2010 - Kevan

Howdy Fam!!!
Things are going great here! It is such a nice day today! I am feeling great too!
I love you all so much!
Love,Elder Bills