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

September 19, 2011

Hey Family! Hows it going? Thanks for all the pictures mom from the trip to Illinois. That is awesome that Hailey is playing soccer! Thats way cool. She will be so good! Its good to hear that everyone is doing so well. I am grateful Dad is working so hard as well.

Things here are going great! We had another great week. We went on exchanges with Elder Cuartas on Friday. He is an assistant to President Castro, and it was such a fun day! We were focusing on using the Book of Mormon in every short testifying opportunity. It was sweet because it helped us really focus and be in the zone to pull out scriptures from the Book of Mormon that applied to their situation. I love the Book of Mormon so much. As we were doing this I felt so much more strength and confidence wheile testifying. I focus was on the Book of Mormon and then we would back it up with our testimonies. So much more powerful! We also were teaching a less active family who had a lot of questions for us, and we were using the Book of Mormon and D&C to answer everything. President Castro has put an incredible focus on the Book of Mormon which I love! My love for it has grown so much these months I have been in Bakes!.

Last night we went to visit one of our investigators named Catalina. She is from Mexicali. We were talking to her about her family and she had told us how 2 of her brothers her parents and sister had all passed away. She wasstill really sad about it and I could tell that it was really hard for her. We asked her if she had ever asked herself where she will go when she dies, or where her family is. She said she had and that she basically thought that we are sleeping for that time until the day of judgement. We read with her from Alma 40:6-12, 21. We explained the spirit world and the love of our Father in Heaven and the love of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. She discovered the Book of Mormon. She understand the Spirit World completely. It made so much sense to her that God will give everybody a chance to hear the gospel and accept it. She was almost in tears when we told her that she could be reunited with her family for eternity. We taught about how important it is to follow Jesus Christ by being baptized and choosing the right. It was a testimony to me of the power of the Book of Mormon and the Plan iof Salvation. I love the gospel and the love of HEeavenly Father.

Thanks for all that you all do. i love you guys so much. Thanks for everything! ! Love Elder C. Bills

September 12, 2011

Family! This last week was so awesome!! We had 2 investigators at church who are so solid! Wendy and Laura. They live a couple blocks from eachother and they both have strong desires to come unto Christ! LAura is a special lady. She really thinks about the questions she asks and the things that she reads. She told us that as she was reading the restoration pamphlet she was reading about the Apostasy and she said she stopped to think about it and she said it made so much sense to her. She was being taught by the spirit because she stopped and took time to ponder. I have learned so much from investigators. It is such an awesome opportunity to be a missionary. Wendy and Laura are going to the RS activity this Tues. I am excited for them!

I had such a sweet experience this past Saturday. We got called by the Zone Leaders in South Bakes to come down to their zone to conduct an interview for the spanish missionaries down there. So we went down there and the woman that I was interviewing was none other than Angela Lopez's Mom!! (I baptized Angela and Her Husband Jose 2 months ago!) I was soo excited! She cam to jose and Angela's wedding and felt the spirit really strong during the service and she wanted to learn more about the gospel. So Angela told us that and gave us the info the her mom, Ines, and we sent it to the ZL's in S. Bakes. And now she is going to be baptized next week! It was the best interview I have conducted! The spirit was so strong. It was interesting, when I first saw her, I almost didnt recognize her. She looked so happy and so full of love. The first time I saw her she looked old and sad. I honestly could see the light of Christ in her. She was so happy and she was so excited to be baptized. Her countenance had changed because she had accepted the Gospel into her life and she is giving her whole heart to the Lord. Such a great example for us. When we give our hearts to Christ, when we are willing to do ALL that he asks, we will be filled with His love, we will be filled with His light.

The gospel is true! I love the Lord. I love the Book of Mormon. It is the word of God. Thanks for all the support and love. Les amo muchisimo!!!! Con amor, Elder C.T Bills

September 5, 2011

This past week was another really successful week. We found a lot of new investigators and we were able to talk to a ton of people! We set a goal to have 55 street contacts and we got 56! We were excited. They are turnin into new investigators as well. We found 8 last week and they are investigators who want to learn and who want to come closer to Christ.

I went on exchanges with an Elder from Edmonton Canada named Elder Orchard on Sat. and it was awesome. He knows the scriptures way good and it is always fun to teach with him. We taught a lady who is really active in her church. She had a ton of questions for us. It was awesome. I loved it. At first she was contentious asking a lot of q's about Joseph Smith and why we talk so much about him. We taught her from the beginning of the restoration and and testified the whole time and kept inviting her to pray and ask Heavenly Father for herself. By the middle of the lesson she had softened up so much and when we were testifying she was looking into our eyes and paying attention rather than thinkingof another question she wanteds to throw at us. When we testified to her abou t the power of prayer and invited her to ask God, it was like she was now expecting us to invite her to ask Heavenly Father. This is honestly the only way to know the truth. When we ask Heavenly Father with real intent with faith that we will recieve we will recieve a witness from the Holy Ghost. I testify that I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that anybody can come to know this if they pray. If they truly want to know truth and they truly want to come closer to Christ, they will recieve an ansswer. Our message is so unique and special and it can bless everybody.

Yesterday at church, Jose Lopez taught the gospel essentials class! I was so excited for him. He was super nervous but he prepared so well for the class and the Lord blessed him with the Spirit as he taught. I am so hapy for him and Angela because they are going out of their confort zone in the Church a lot. Jose never wouldve guessed 5 months ago that he would teach a class in church! hA. That is how we can progress in the gospel. When we do things that our out of our comfort zone, we allow the spirit to guide us and we are able to recieve the strength through the Grace of Christ. I know that God lives and loves us. Thanks for all you do!

Love Elder Craig T. Bills

August 29, 2011

HEy Family! This past week was another great week! We found 9 more investigators. It has been really fun and we have been so blessed! We have some great potential right now. It has been such a fun time here in Bakersfield. I love it so much.

Jose and Angela, the couple that was recently baptized, are doing well. They are so great! We visited them the other night and we read in the Book of Mormon with them. It was so awesome. The spirit was so strong. I testify with all my heart that the Book of Mormon is true. I cant even describe the spirit that we felt. We didnt do anything out of the ordinary. We read with them in 1 Nephi 18 and we just talked about what we were reading and how it applied to their lives. It was a sweet experience to see Jose making the connection with the scriptures and their lives right now. The Book of Mormon combined with the Spirit is the most powerful resource in conversion! They will progress an come closer to the Savior as they continue to study and apply the scriptures. It is the same with us. We need to reasd, take time to ponder, write down impressions and apply the teachings into our lives. That is how we will come closer to the Lord.

In the 3 Bakersfield Stakes, they just made a huge single adult ward. We are now assigned to cover it. I am excited and it was cool yesterday we were apart of the creation of the White Oak YSA ward. I am excited to work with them and also cover another ward. We will be BUSY!

We have been seeing so many miracles. I have said before, but i truly believe, that we can see miracles everyday of our lives. God is a God of miracles, and if we do our part and seek for them, we will be able to recognize them in our lives and we will be filled with gratitude towards Heavenly Father. We knocked a door the other day and started to talk to thi9s girl and we testified that the Savior lives, and that we can find true hope through Christ, and this girl said, "that is exactly what i need." Then she asked, "what do i need to do to join your church?" There are people being prepared! There are people who are looking for hope and light in theior lives and the restiored gospel will bring them what they need! I love the gospel!

Kevan looks so good in the picture you sent me! He looks big! I love football! Especially BYU football. I am so excited for this season! They are going to do aw2esome! I love you all so much! I know that the Savior lives and loves us. This is HIS work.

Love, Elder Bills