Monday, January 26, 2015

More and More Miracles!

Alright, this week was so sweet but I have to throw it down quickly! We met with a less active-ish brother that hasn't been to church in a while and we talked with him and his daughter about putting the Lord first in all things. Something really cool happened, though. As he was talking, I was listening to him and he said something that made me think of 2 Nephi 32:8-9, when he said not doing anything before checking in with the Lord. So I shared that scripture and we talked about it and then we all read chapter 37 of the book of Alma. Sweet lesson and they both came to church yesterday. So sick!!

We had a lesson with Niki and Pamela and we reviewed the baptismal interview questions again because it is hard for them to remember everything that we teach them. They remembered quite a bit and we set a date for them to be baptized February 7th

Last night, we were planning on going to visit some former investigators and we picked three that were in the same area and we headed out to visit them after dinner. The first one said we could come back this week and the second one was not home. We headed to the last one and right when we pulled up, she did as well. Her name is Pamela and she met with the missionaries like 2 years ago and then they just kind of stopped coming I guess......??? Anyways, we talked with her and that was a miracle of its own with the timing and it turns out she is best friends with someone in the Magnolia 1st Ward where her grandson Anthony just got baptized. The same Anthony that Elder Lythgoe and I were working with! Small world!! It was cray!

This morning, I got a call from Elder Graves in our zone and shared an experience with me that was super sweet. He had felt prompted to go to a certain area to follow up on a potential investigator and they got in to teach him and they now have a return appointment for Tuesday this week. I share that because he had been fasting to find new people to teach and they Lord blessed him for that I know that. I have been fasting once a week for this very same purpose as well. We have been fasting every Saturday after dinner till Sunday dinner. I have been doing it this entire month and I plan on doing it for the rest of this year. Remember why the sons of Mosiah were so successful? "They had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God. But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting....." (Alma 17:2-3) It works you guys. I have a strong testimony of the power that comes from fasting. 

I also forgot to mention that we went on exchanges with the Magnolia 1st elders and while on the exchange they found two new investigators. Our finding is in direst correlation with our faith. We have to have the faith that Heavenly Father is preparing people for us. 

I love you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, 

Elder DeLuca 



​Favorite scripture? This was what we were doing at the campus trying to get people interested in the club we are starting at the college! 


I don't mean to boast, but we got a zero on our apartment score! :) 


​"Have you ever seen missionaries like us before??" hahaha Go hard er' day!

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

New Investigators and Members

Hello everyone! Sorry this is a day late due to MLK day! This past Tuesday at transfer meeting I was shocked to come to find out that me new companion was one who I have served with! Elder Christensen and I are back in business. 

Wednesday, we has a miracle happen that was SO sweet! We were tracting in an older neighborhood that evening because President Mortensen has emphasized all of us going from house to house Alma 26:28, and we were not having a ton of success. We knocked over 10 doors and no one wanted our goodies. It wasn't until the last house we knocked that this lady was like "Come in!" after we explained who we were. We asked if there was a adult male inside and she said yes so we went in. Her Husband Bill was sitting on the couch and I went over and shook his hand and sat next to him. He is Vietnam Veteran so he was telling me about a bunch of stories as Elder Christensen helped his wife with something on the computer right there in the living room. When he was done he sat down and we just started teaching the restoration lesson! It was so sweet. We shared the entire lesson and they committed to read from the BoM and we have a return appointment tomorrow evening! 

We have been seeing so many miracles with finding throughout our entire zone. We were averaging with like 3-5 each week and just this past week our zone found 18 new investigators. This work is so real and it is on fire! We have been talking a lot with the district leaders and doing all that we can to help out and they are getting the companionships all fired up. we have been seeing so many miracles and we are grateful to be a part of it! 

The best day this past week was for sure Saturday. We had been meeting with Paul throughout the week and he was so excited for this special day. To start off, it was a great turnout. There were like 20-30 people that showed up, including both of his parents that are non-members! It was really neat for me to see and listen to Paul's brother James give a talk on baptism. As he was sharing his message he started to talk a little bit about how far Paul has come and he started to get a little choked up. I could see the love that these two brothers had for each other and I couldn't help but to think of my brother. I love you Zacky. After the talk on baptism I had the opportunity to perform the ordinance. It was funny because before the service started Paul and I were doing a little "test drive" so to speak and I showed him how I was going to grab his wrist and what not and he was like, "Are you sure you are going to be able to pick me back up!?" And I was like, "Come on man, don't you see these guns?? I got you!"  Haha!! After the ordinance was done and when we were changing, he said that I was a lot stronger than he thought and that made me feel pretty good. My push-up are paying off. (; Haha!! So the baptism was a success and it was the neatest thing for me to be able to have been working with Paul these past few weeks. It is the coolest thing knowing that you are someone's "missionary." I love it! 

Bobby was not baptized this past weekend, but we are still working with him and we set another date for February 7th. He wants to finish the BoM before praying about it....He has like 100 pages left so we set a goal for him to finish it by the end of the month! 

That is all for this week, but I want you all to know how much I love you! I will talk to you soon! 

Love, 

Elder DeLuca



 ​I have a video too, but I don't know how to post it. I was doing some service by bringing this back into the store. This thing needs a turbo! It took like 5 minutes to get into the store! 


​Elder Weaver made it back to give a talk on the Holy Ghost!


​We are getting some snow here in Texas too! (; 


Monday, January 12, 2015

More Miracles!

This week, we were super busy with different activities and lessons! On Tuesday, we always volunteer at this place called S.O.S., which is a food bank and we unload a big trailer full of food and then organize it all in the room that they store it in. After that we went over Sister Hughes' house to help her with some stuff in her backyard. I got to mow the grass! I was so excited. I love it! 
    
Tuesday night, we met with Paul and it was such a good lesson. We visited him with Brother Hausman and we all felt the spirit so strong. We started teaching the commandments lesson and we all were bearing testimony of each principle and it was like a mini fast and testimony meeting in Paul's apartment. I seriously paused and was like "Are you guys feeling it?" We ALL knew that the spirit was present with us. It was the coolest experience ever. 
    
Wednesday, we went back over and we went over the 15 steps to quit smoking. He has completely stopped smoking these past few weeks but we wanted to make sure he has all of the supplies that are on the list to just help out. He didn't have any grapefruit juice so we told him that we were going to go have dinner and then pick some up for him and bring it over. We told him to be thinking of who he wanted to perform his baptism and confirmation because it is this coming weekend. He knows a lot of people in the ward and his brother is a member of the ward so we just wanted him to have someone in mind so we could get the programs printed out this week. When we came back with the juice we were talking for a couple minutes and then Paul said "I have been thinking a lot about my baptism and...." My heart sunk to my stomach! At first, it sounded like it was going to be bad but it ended up being the sweetest thing ever. He said, "I have come to a decision on who I want to do what and I want you (Elder DeLuca) to do the baptism and you (Elder Weaver) to do the confirmation." But here is why. "Elder DeLuca, you and I have had to make a lot of changes in our lives and we relate well with each other and I feel like it would mean a lot to you to bring someone to the waters of baptism to be forgiven for their mistakes. I feel like it would be a blessing to you to know that you have helped someone change so much."  I actually cried a little bit. (just a couple tears) because it meant the world to me that he took that much thought into it. He told Elder Weaver that he "has an angelic voice and he is very sincere when he teaches." He said like four time to not take offense from that before he told Elder Weaver that he has an angelic voice but he really hit it right on the head. We both we so honored to be able to be the ones that he chose. 
     
Another miracle was that we were at lunch with the Relief Society President Sister Rittman and she received a phone call from Cindy French! Remember her? We have lost contact with her and here is why! She told Sister Rittman that she broke her phone and she lost our number but when she came to church that one Sunday, she got Sister Rittman's number and she was going through her purse and found it! She said that she wanted our number because she felt so bad that she lost our number and that she wanted to meet with us again. Sister Rittman was like "well they are sitting right here with me as we speak!" This was seriously a miracle. We were so pumped! We went over there Thursday night and we got to know here and her husband a little bit better. It was a great birthday present. ( : 
     
Friday we went to College Station for a YSA Training meeting. We are now going to be working with the YSA's in Tomball. We are stoked. There is a lot of paperwork we have to do in order to get the LDSSA club up and running. 
     
Well, those are the highlights of this past week, but we have two baptisms scheduled for this Saturday, so please keep them in your prayers because we know who is going to be working on them extra hard this week. We haven't been able to get in contact with Bobby since Saturday so please keep him in your prayers. If all goes as planned, we are having Bobby and Paul's baptism at the same service! 
     
Thank you and I will talk to you next week! 

P.S. - Elder Weaver is being transferred tomorrow. We both were so shocked! He will hopefully be able to participate with Paul's baptism! 

Love, 

Elder DeLuca



Service clothes say whaaaa?? No way! I mow in pros! Nothing a little lint roller can't fix! ( : 


​Sundays are good days! 

Monday, January 5, 2015

Happy New Year 2015!

This past week was sweet! We were able to meet with Niki and Pamela twice and they are doing well We have set their baptismal date for the 31st of this month. I can't remember if I told you guys that or not last week! On Tuesday, we had MLC and President Mortensen threw it down again. I love him! I pulled him aside after we had lunch and I was talking to him for a few minutes and I asked him how I could improve my studies and he said something really cool "The difference between studying and reading for an hour is thinking." Information leads to revelation. I have been wanting to have more effective personal studies and he helped me out a lot! 

Wednesday, Elder Hegeman left us! He was needed in another area so he will be there until next Tuesday and then we have transfers. We miss him, but he is off doing great things in the Woodlands!

We were able to meet with Bobby three times this week and he is awesome. We went over all of the commandments with him and everything made sense. He also came to church on Sunday and Aaron Finch from our ward was quick to reach out and sit with him. We have a sweet ward! 

Saturday, we went to an apartment complex to visit a member who was not home and we ran into a lady named Stacy and we were able to talk to her for a few minutes. She was super nice to us and she explained that she was ready to start cleaning up her life and that she would be okay with us coming back soon to teach her! The sister missionaries actually had run into her a week or so before and she recognized that God was watching out for her. How cool is that!?

Saturday evening was one of the times we met with Bobby and after our lesson we went back home and I told Aaron Finch that I had a tie and some socks for him, so I gave them to him and we were talking for just a few minutes and some guy walked up to us. This was really neat because he knew Aaron because he gave him a "He Is The Gift" card the week before. This guy's name was Robert and he was Christian and we were able to talk with him for like ten minutes just about the love that our Savior has for us! This may not seem like it, but it was truly a miracle because Elder Weaver and I had been fasting for more opportunities to talk and find people to teach in our area and for the entire zone. Robert was really friendly and he said that we could come over next weekend! Ill let you know how it goes! 

Sunday was sweet! We had asked Brother Finch if he would be willing to bear his testimony at church when we were talking with him the night before and he said he was thinking about it, but we were an answer to his prayers and that he definitely would! So he did. He threw it down up there, to the point where he scared everyone from going up there. haha jk, but seriously. It was dead silent for a couple of seconds and no one was getting up to go to the pulpit so I said to myself, "If no one goes in 5 seconds, I'm going." 5,4,3,2,1 boom! No one was up, so I went for it! No turning back now. I got up there and testified of what Brother Finch said and I told the ward about Robert and the experience we had all because Brother Finch shared a card with him! It was so sweet. I had no intentions on going up there, but the spirit guided me otherwise. 

Have a wonderful week and I will talk to you next week! 

Love,

Elder DeLuca



Elder Christensen came to our zone meeting on Friday! It was good to see him again! 


Another lame pic! I buzzed by head a #4 though!