Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Work hard Pray hard

hello hello! This week didnt turn out the way it should have, we didn't have Kelvins baptism this week. We are going to have it in a couple of weeks but the great thing is he talked with us one day and he said that he feels like he needs two more weeks to learn more and when he said that we were so happy because we are not trying to rush him into baptism and that it is great! So we will be working hard with him! 
Also we have been working with the members. This week our district leader has been telling us that we need to work hard on reactivating the less actives and so we have been busy with them. We have been doing everything to get them to church and we have a bunch of activities.  We have been playing basketball and some less actives come which is awesome and we also play games at the church and we buy refreshments for them. The church isn't as organized as it is over there. There isn't any mutual so its kinda hard to work with the less active youth. Everything is slowly getting better! 
I got my bulto this week its so awesome! All the elders wear these dont worry mines different! its awesome! It helps a lot more so my back isn't sweaty and my shoulders dont hurt!
Everything is all good my companion is so cool. We are like brothers! Im sad that we only have three weeks left together till next transfers unless he is still with me. All is well here. There is so much work here and I love it. We are always busy! 
Love you all miss you all! 
Elder Santacruz



We went to the zoo and there were dogs




My district Leader

                                                                   

The famous bag so much better than a back pack

                                                                         

Doing the Do

Hola! como estan! this week was fantastic we are working on are next investigator he is the teacher of english and his name is kelvin he is a domincan and he is so awesome! His baptism is still on this week and we have been teaching him a lot and its so great to teach him because he really wants to know about how everything works! We can definitely  feel the spirit in the lesson! We definitely feel like he is ready for baptism and that he truly wants this because he knows this is true! Also this week we have been working with menos activos in our area and they are families and they are so great. One of things that we are trying to do is earn their trust because members have a hard time trusting the missionaries because there were tigres before us and the missionaries would never work. I feel like they are trusting us and that they are getting closer with us. One thing that happened this week is that I was really sick! I had a problem with my stomach two days ago! I thought I had worm in my stomach because I couldn't eat anything and my stomach felt like I had something in me! haha I was next too the toilet all night hahaha and you can use your imagination on what happened! That was definitely a moment for the journal but everything is all well now and let me tell you my companion is awesome Elder Mata and I are so close I love him we have so much fun together and we also work hard. That is one of the things he has taught me is that a mission is also to have fun and not be so serious all the time! I am definitely learning a lot and I cant tell you how much I love my mission the work here is amazing! 
love you all and miss you tons! 
Elder Santacruz

Sunday, January 12, 2014

The Power of Missionary Work

Hello everyone!
Wow this week was simply amazing! I had the opportunity to baptize someone! It was the best experience ever! I will always remember that day. The day we had the baptism we were so happy it finally arrived. One funny thing that happened was we found out that the church didnt have power or water hahahah so I was just like oh flip hahah but dont worry we still baptized her the bishop helped us out. He paid for a water truck to come fill up the font! One thing that was bad was the water was so nasty haha it was so green so the problem we had before the baptism was trying to get the water clean. We went to the nearest cormado(mini store) and bought some blue dye to try to make the water less scary haha So we poured the whole bottle in the font to try to make it look like blue water. It worked out!!! The time came and we had a talk from one of the members and we also had a testimony given after that it was time for her to be baptized! One thing I had to do was remember the words to say in Spanish. I was practicing the whole week just repeating it in my head haha but it worked out great. When the time came I remembered it perfectly. How great that moment was when we both saw eachother on each side of the font and how I remembered looking down at my toes going into the water and how I saw her smiling and that made everything worth it. All the lessons we had with her were all worth it and I was happy that she made that decision to change her life forever.That night was one to be remembered!
Also this week we have been working with our other investigator and he is the best. He is a teacher and his name is Kelvin and we have his date settled for the 18th! He is doing so good out last lesson we had with him we talked about the plan of salvation and how we all can feel the Spirit when we are together in a lesson that is the best!
Everything is going great, there are some times when Satan brings me down but at the end of everyday I know that I conquered him and that out work in Cristo Rey is paying off!
Love you all, miss you so much! 
This gospel is 100% true and it is incredible of how my testimony grows everyday!
Elder Santacruz

Feliz año Nuevo

hello everyone happy new years!!!! I love you all!!! I was so grateful to talk to you guys it was so weird and really cool at the same time! I can finally speak Spanish haha it only took me 18 years to pick it up well im not fluent yet but its great. This week was great haha this week we have been preparing La france for her batism this Saturday!!! woot woot!!! It is awesome and I cant wait till this saturday! We have been visiting with her every night and she is willing to do everthing! She is working hard and I know she believes in this gospel. It is amazing to see someone change so quick I know that her faith has grown so strong and mine has grown even stronger than it was before. Also this week new missionaries came to the mission and missionaries that live around the mission home have to come and take the new missionaries out for a couple of hours and they have to place a book of mormon so we went and I had to take an Elder out and it was awesome! Its crazy to think that I was just doing this! It was great the elder was form Peru so he knew spanish and it was easy for him but he has a lot to learn just like me. Also there was transfers the assistants asked me to help out with it and it is crazy but Elder Mata and I are still together and than after this transfer he will probably go somewhere else. 
This week I also lost my camera or maybe it was stolen but I looked everywhere and I could not find it and i was kinda sad cause it had my two tranfers in it and so for a couple days I was bumbed but I remembered that La france got her stuff stolen and she was super sad that someone did it and I gave her words of comfort and I told her that they were things and that things happen for a reason and I felt better after I remembered that! 
All is good here everything was closed yesterday so I couldn't write you guys but I love you all and I hope you had a good new years! I sure did! We all had a sleep over with a bunch of missionaries and we hung out and played games it was fun and we saw fireworks and a lot of people were shooting there guns in the air, crazy!! ha but Im alive dont worry!
I love you all and miss you all happy new year I hope you all will set goals to come closer to Christ!
Elder Santacruz 
shout out to grandma! happy birthday!!!!!!!