May 12th 2014

Family and Friends!

Oh my, such a great week this week! I want to start off by saying I love and miss you all! On Wednesday it was great because every morning we study and some times we do role plays for our investigators, so I just remember I wasn't really trying to practice or anything and it was funny because later on that day we went to our investigators house and literally it was EXACTLY like our role play we practiced at home that morning. So that's just something really amazing.

Well we worked really hard this week. Really helped our investigators grow and come closer to Christ. Found some and lost some but it's ok. Well life is good. On Saturday though it was really cool. We got to help out with this service preoject. It was like this Walk for Cancer and there were thousands of people there! We had so much fun! Elder Smith and I got on a big screen for ABC 7 at one point and we got a shout out! I loved it! We got to go in to this Stadium! It was so awesome! It’s called the Coliseum! USC! Also at that service we saw Bruce Willis and Halle Barry!

Well, later that day we had our Ward Mother's Day activity and Elder Schwalger and I just made up this song and played it at the activity! It was really funny and good. We both played the Ukulele. Yes, I can kind of play the Ukulele now. On Sunday we had 3 investigators come to church and after church I got to SKYPE!!! I love my family! I miss you all! Everyone is getting so big! Later that night we went to the Temple and Lindsey Sterling (violinist) gave a fireside and it was really good! She played a little as well! So that was really exciting and our investigator came and really enjoyed it as well. Everything is well here in LA just working hard!

Love you all!

<3/ Elder Puertas

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

P.S Here's a pic of our zone! HP1 ZONE!!

Cinco de Mayo 2014

Family and Friends!!!!

Okay this week was so crazy! I am with Elder Kimball and he is so good. He was my Zone leader a long time ago and now we are together. We work so hard, it's insane. We had taught and found more people this week than I have in a long time. He's 6'5 so haha yeah. And he's huge. Picture "Thor" with short hair and a white shirt and tie = my companion.

We really helped people progress and it felt really good. We had a chance to go to the temple yesterday and the sisters that gave the tour were so good with our investigators. We set 3 baptismal dates for June 1st so pray pray pray for them! It's a mom, daughter (20) and another daughter (11) and they are so amazing. After they were done they were like can you come tomorrow and as many times as you can next week. Ummm yeah we can! And guess what they literally live in front of us so talk about daily follow-ups. This was such a good week I love it. We went to work!!! That family also had a cat that just had kittens and it is so cute. Well other than that that's our week!

Also Elder Ballard is coming to our mission on June 1st so that's going to be crazy cool! An Apostle of the lord will be in LA speaking to us. I cannot wait.

I love you all! <3

Jesus Loves you!  

April 21st 2014

Okay so this week was really good.

Tuesday we got to go through the temple and it was amazing!!! I love it so much. 4 of us got the chance to go in with the temple president and just ask him ANYTHING, it was so great! I learned so much within  20 minutes, things I wouldn't have known if I didn't go in there. It's been really hot down here recently but its ok because we are in a car! :) We went to go to do some service on Friday and painted a porch red. It turned out great! We also got to go on some exchanges with Elder Luna, from New Jersey! He's a barber so you know he hooked me up with a fresh cut! Ha-ha and last but not least we went to the temple last night with our investigators and it turned out amazing. 3 of them have a baptismal date for May 18th so please pray for them. Emily, Jenny and Julio! They are all soooo cool!

It was a little interesting this week because we found so many new investigators, we found 8, and on Sunday we were excited because we were expecting them to come, but nothing! :(

Then we had 7 less actives show up to church that never come! Ahhhh that made me so happy! It’s something at least :) Also we just found out that Elder Ballard will be coming to our mission June 1st! Sooo cool! I can’t wait! Everything is good here in HP!

Sooo many Mexicans so I’m just loving all the food! Hahah.

I love you all!

Love Elder Puertas

April 14th 2014

April 14^th 2014

This letter might be a little short so sorry :)

This week I went on exchanges with Elder Adams and Elder Aleman! They are both super cool missionaries. Elder Adams had a "problem" when I was with him. We were walking and he felt like his shirt kept getting stuck so he checked it out and there was gum stuck from his shirt to his pants. We have no clue how it got there, but it was a good day. Elder Aleman is a Real Madrid fan so all day just debated who's better between BARCELONA or Real Madrid.

Church was good, we only had one investigator there but it was still good. We hadn’t expected her to come, so that was a good surprise. Everything here in HP is good!

I get to Skype in 4 weeks, for Mother’s Day!!! animanse!!!!!! :)

Pues Les Amo mucho!!

Elder Puertas

April 7th 2014

Buenos Dias!

Last Monday we got together as a Zone and played soccer! It was sooooo much fun. We have a lot of Hispanics in our zone so I really enjoyed it.

Okay so I want to start off telling an April Fools joke that was played on us that BACKFIRED pretty bad. On Tuesday we had this thing called MLC, just a meeting for all the zone leaders and sister training leaders, well I had my phone in my bag the whole time during the meeting and when it ended I checked the phone and I had 2 miss call and a text from these elders in our zone that said "call us, its an emergency!" so they tried contacting us at 2:15 and we checked at 3 when the meeting ended. So we called back and they are all like "Elder ____ just got hit by a car on his bike and we are in the hospital right now, we already let president know and we are just letting you know as well... I got to go though.." so they just hung up... so since we were in a meeting with president we decided to ask him, just to follow up and see how things were or if he wanted us to check up on them. Well when we told him about it, he just kind of was freaking out and checking his phone for miss calls or texts and he had nothing, his wife walked in and he's like "we have an elder that just got hit" so she's freaking out and checking her phone. I am trying to call them back for more details but nothing; President is calling them back but nothing... THEN.... I get a text so I say hey President they just sent us a text so he leads over to see what it said and it said... "April Fools, it was a joke".. ohhhhhhh no. President was just like "Call them back, Now!" so we did, they answered, President took our phone to talk to them and walked off... they got it pretty bad.. So yeah next you’re ever try pulling a joke, think and plan it out before! :)

SO this week I went on 2 more exchanges!! with Elder Alls! he's soooo cool. He's African American and super funny. He let me barrow his du-rag. We b brothers. I gave him a haircut as well so I can officially say I cut textured hair now too.

Then I went with Elder Smith. He's so awesome he plays ball, is from Utah and is just a super chill guy. We had a ton of fun as well!

This girl just returned from her mission last week and she's cool. Her cousin lives by her house and we teach the cousin with her too. It is so much easier when a member is involved. It really is. So everyone, invite a friend, family member to be taught by the missionaries! It really is the best. She also served in the San Diego mission so she knew my friend Mitch Fowler so that's pretty cool. He told her to look for me but what do you know, she lives in my area and we eat with their awesome family every Sunday!

Conference was amazing, like always. I wish I had paid more attention when I was younger because you get so much out of it. One of my favorite talks was the one about Joseph Smith's first vision and how important that moment was. How he prepared to pray for that moment. That just makes me realize that instead of just praying about it, if I REALLY want to know, I need to prepare for it, be worthy, be ready and most importantly, ask in FAITH! I love it! I love the gospel so much. It’s perfect.

I love and miss you all!

<3/ Elder Puertas