Elder Ronald Santacruz: I've done one month I can do two years

Elder Santacruz has been in the DR for one month! He continues to wow us with his experiences every week. He looks and sounds great. We really enjoyed the pictures this week. They show us the funny Ronald we remember! Hope you all enjoy his email as much as we did!

Hello my family!!!

My fourth week in the MTC was fantastic! I enjoy every second that I have here! The week started out by going to the university again! I was so pumped to use my Spanish because I have been working on it a lot. Right when we got there my companion said to me he wasn’t feeling good he said he had an upset stomach so he didn’t really want to do contacting and try to talk to people. So when we were walking around I was kind of on my own speaking. but it was alright we were there for the experience and to talk to people. It was so hard to understand them sometimes. They really do take out there T's in the DR haha. We found a guy that could speak English and we were SOOO happy. We told him about the gospel and he was really interested. He wanted to know about Joseph Smith and we ended up talking to him for 30 min. This past Sunday was so spiritual every Sunday has been spiritual but this time we were fasting! We got to bear our testimonies and most of the missionaries bore their testimonies. The new Elders are getting better with their Spanish but they are working hard to get better!

We had a quorum of the twelve talk played to us. It was from Elder Holland, broadcasted of course haha but we heard his words and he spoke with such boldness and strength that it felt like a Baptist preacher was talking to me (because of the boldness and strength haha). He told us that he knows how a mission can change any ones life and how we need to know that when we have prepared for one we give up things like sin to prepare to serve our Heavenly Father. He asked that after coming back from a mission, how could missionaries go inactive? He said that if things don't turn out the way we wan't our mission to turn out, if we don't baptize the goal that we set , or if we think that we didn't have any crazy stories of how our testimonies were strengthened; we better be grateful that we were able to serve our Heavenly Father. He told us that when we get back home to not leave the church and not say "well we will just check that off the list." He said that if we felt like that to just go back to what ever thing we were doing before we started to prepare. I love Elder Holland so much he has so much wisdom.

Another thing that we had on Tuesday was a devotional. Dieter F. Uchtdorf spoke and he shared some inspirational words! He told us that we as missionaries need to work hard because we are an extension of the quorum of the twelve apostles. He gave us some good advice and said that the first three hours of our day is the most important part of our mission. When we read, study and learn over and over again, we will receive revelation and we must not be tired of studying things over and over again. "For he that works and continues to work will learn more because the power of revelation will come to you and will help you in what you need to teach your investigators."

This week I had been praying really hard because sometimes I have trouble with the language and I feel discouraged! I had fasted because I felt that way for a couple of days. I was thinking about not being ready to go out and I felt like I am not working hard enough. Two days later I received my answer. Someone had told me this scripture that would help me with my problem. I read in D&C 90:11 it says ''That every man shall hear the fullness of the gospel in his own tongue." I knew in that very moment I had received my answer and that night I thanked my Heavenly Father for answering my prayer. I'm grateful for the power of prayer. I have never been so close to my Heavenly Father than I am right now. I know he hears my prayers and that he answers them by helping me feel comfort or by helping me with my Spanish. The past couple of days I have been speaking it a lot more with my district and I have been speaking it with teachers. There are some native missionaries here and I talked with them for a while also.

All is well, and I am trying to work as hard as I can. My companion and I are getting closer and we are helping each other out as much as we can. We are starting to get the hang of teaching investigators and we are learning the importance of planning and how we use planning to practice what we are going to say to our fake investigators. Tomorrow we get to go on splits and go with the field missionaries to their appointments. I am kind of nervous but I am so glad to go out and speak with the people! Well that is it for my fourth week! I cant wait to tell you about my week 5! I love you all and miss you! Hope all is well. I am praying for you all! I have done one month I can do two years!

Elder Santacruz

Shout out to Elder Broyles who just left on his mission!!