New Gators, Last Zone Conference, and the Temple

This past Tuesday, we went tracting and we were sharing the new "A Savior Is Born" video and talked to a guy named Marshall and asked if we could come in and share it with he and his family and he was like, "Yeah come in!" SO sick. His wife's name is Jennifer and they have three daughters. We shared the video and then talked about the Savior's earthly ministry and then set up a return appointment with them for the next day. 

Wednesday, my companions went with Brother Douglas back over to share the restoration lesson with them and Brother Douglas and Marshall hit it off. They were like two peas in a pod. They both do Ironmans and they just clicked. Meanwhile Chris Saenz and I went over to the Kotak's house and we had a lesson with Raj. 

Thursday, I had my last zone conference and I gave my departing testimony. HOLY COW! It's getting real now. I asked the assistants if I could go last because I wanted to throw it down. I talked first about how I have had the privilege of training a new missionary and it has been the coolest experience for me. I said I told Elder Myers just a few weeks ago that the best advice I could give him would be to follow the rules, then I proceeded to talk about the importance of obedience. I then talked about the Book of Mormon and how that book has literally changed my life. I talked about how much I have changed throughout the course of my mission and then shared a couple paragraphs from Christy's email to me this past week. She said;

 "I remember a Sunday, not all that long ago, when a very annoyed young man sat next to me in sacrament meeting.  He definitely did NOT want to be there; he was there because he had to be.  As he sat there, unhappy and frustrated, the organ prelude to the opening song began.  I opened up the hymn book and offered it to the young man.  He said, "You can make me go to church, but you can't make me sing."  Do you know who that young man was?  It was you.....but it wasn't you.  I mean, it was you sitting next to me, but your spirit hadn't yet learned some of the secrets to happiness.

Now, more than 2 years and many spiritual miles later, here you sit, at the jumping-off place to what is certain to be your next great adventure.....the rest of your life!  And, having served the Lord on your mission for almost 2 years now, you have learned so much and changed your heart so completely that you don't even RESEMBLE the young man who sat next to me in church back then and refused to sing.  Now, you know that the secret to a truly happy life is turning our hearts, minds and wills over to Heavenly Father and letting him make of us what He wants us to be.  The truth is that He can make us into far better people than we ever would have the ability to become by following our own desires and impulses.  He loves us so much that He gave us His Only Begotten Son to make it possible for us to change and become the amazing creatures He wants us to be.  Jesus Christ and His gospel are honestly the only ways to true and lasting happiness and joy in this life and the next. You have learned that for yourself and it's been quite a journey from where you were then to where you are now.  Just think of where you'll be 10 years from now!  As you continue living "after the manner of happiness," your potential for true joy is limitless!  The journey you've taken so far makes me so happy.  I am honored beyond words to have witnessed it."

My allergies were really picking up as I read this and it made it really tough to read when my eyes were watering. After that I talked about how I know there are many reasons why I was called to Houston, but I am certain that one of them is because of President Mortensen. I cannot express how much I love my Mission President and his dear family. He has helped me tremendously with becoming something of what I always wanted to become, but more importantly what the Lord would have me become. I have learned much from watching how he and Sister Mortensen treat each other. Obviously, they love each other, but you can tell that they really 'like' being around one another. I talked about the love they have for all of us and how we have much to learn from them. I closed with a verse in Jacob 5:72 and said that the only thing that is keeping us from the presence of the Savior is ourselves. 

Saturday Morning, we went to the temple with the Saenz for their first time doing baptisms for the dead. The Evans came with us and they were the ones who helped the Saenz find family names on family search. It was the coolest experience ever. I can honestly say that being in the temple is my most favorite place in the entire world. That is where lasting peace, joy, and happiness lay. May we all strive to keep the commandments and the covenants that we have made, that we may be able to enter into the Lord's house. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

P.S. Happy Birthday to my little sister, and my biggest fan. I love you, Buddah, and I will be thinking of you this Friday! :) 

Its Christmas time in the city! We are going to get ornaments soon so don't worry. :) 

A Great Turkey Day!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We went to four different members' homes for dinner so I just nibbled on some things at each place that way I didn't have to roll myself out the door. My companions went all out though! 

After our last dinner, we went tracting. We talked to a really nice lady who said we can come back this Wednesday and her name is Teresa. We didn't feel super solid about her so we kept on knocking. After about 20 or so minutes we were starting to become a little frustrated because no one was answering and the ones that did didn't want to have anything to do with us. I suggested that we say a prayer, so I went ahead and offered that. I included in that prayer for Heavenly Father to lead us to someone who he has prepared. After the prayer, it started raining on us. It wasn't too bad at first, but none of us had rain jackets so when it started coming down harder we were all soaking wet. None of us wanted to say it, but we were just not feeling it. We kept on going and still nothing. We were just about to go back and then we decided to knock one more house. The lady ended up not wanting to talk to us and as we were leaving we noticed her neighbors garage was open with the light on. 

As we walked up to the garage a guys was like, "It's the Mormons! Come in here and get out of the rain!" We went in and he explained that he had an in-law that was a member of our church. We talked for a few minutes and then he asked if we wanted some food. My companions were stuffed, so I was like "Sure, I'll take some food!" I am willing to take one for the team. I'll gain a pound for a new investigator any day. Luckily, I just had a tiny bit. I wasn't hungry, but I wanted to get in that house! The chances of someone becoming an investigator and taking the lessons increases dramatically just by entering into their home. After we ate, his wife asked if we wanted to come sit down in the living room. Yes, please! We talked about the Restoration briefly and they both wanted us to come back this coming Saturday so we will see how it goes! :) I am telling you, the "Fourth Watch" is a real principle. The Lord does not come right away. He doesn't come right when it gets tough but, rather, He comes after the trial of our faith. 

Saturday, we had a lesson with Kent and Brother Lane came with us. Kent is the one who used to be a professional boxer and Brother Lane teaches boxing so it was pretty sick. We went in and they talked for just a couple minutes then we had a prayer and talked about the Book of Mormon and explained it in depth. Once I understood this principle that "the amount of the Book of Mormon an investigator reads, is directly proportionate to their conversion," I started to teach it differently. That principle has changed my life forever. It changes my studies, it changes the way I discuss it with members and it changes the way I teach it to non-members. Most importantly, it changes the way I will teach it to my children someday. At the end of the lesson, we asked Kent to say the closing prayer and asked him to ask Heavenly Father to know that the Book of Mormon is true. It's not a matter of "if" it is true. We know it is true. They need to ask for that knowledge to come to them as they read, ponder, and pray about it. He stopped partway through and looked at the pamphlet to see what else he should say, so I whispered to him, "Pray about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon." And he did. If they don't do it with us, the chances of them praying about it on their own are slim and if they don't say a specific prayer it is hard to get a specific answer. 

This Thursday is my last zone conference so I will be giving my departing testimony and I have literally been thinking about it for weeks now. I have put a lot of thought into it because I ask myself, "What do I wish I would have known when I first came out on my mission?" and "What could I say that would be of the most benefit for the missionaries to hear?" I think about that kind of stuff. I will report next Monday on the things I chose to talk about. My time is going so fast, and I can honestly say that I am learning the most in the last few months of my mission. I love it! Have a great week everyone! 

Sending some love from the three musketeers. :) 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a sweet week! On Sunday, we had a special MLC with Elder and Sister Packer and that was pretty awesome. Elder Packer said that after all of the studies that have been done with trying to baptize more of the people we find, there is a tool that will show us how to do that. He got us all fired up and then told us that the tool was Preach My Gospel. Mind blown! Preach My Gospel literally has everything we need to succeed as missionaries. 

Tuesday, we had a zone conference with Elder and Sister Packer as well with President and Sister Mortensen. There were a lot of things that we talked about. President talked about the Doctrine of Christ and it was really good. He talked about how our faith and repentance are essential to us as we progress in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Honestly the thing that sticks out to me most is how a General Authority treats his spouse and how she treated him. The way they talked about each other was moving. I pay attention to the details in everything. President and Sister Mortensen do the same things. You can learn so much about how to treat your spouse just by making observations with our Priesthood leaders. It is the coolest thing ever! 

On Wednesday, we had 8-week follow up for all of the new missionaries (Elder Myers) and it was literally my favorite meeting I have had my entire mission! I have been called to train a few missionaries throughout the course of my mission but due to circumstances, this was the first meeting I made it to. We all started out together and President was doing some training and then all of the trainers got up and went into the Relief Society room while the trainees stayed in the chapel. We then went around and asked what is hard, what is good, and if we feel that our trainees could train if they were called to next transfer. It was really cool. Then we went into the gym and all of the trainees go to a different trainer and we look over their outlines for the first three lessons found in chapter three of Preach My Gospel. Then we rotated after each lesson. We had lunch after that and then it was time to role play! All of the trainees went around and start to teach the lessons. We are in a trio so president just had me go around and observe with he and the assistants while Elder Nielsen was being taught. It was so cool for me to listen to all of the new missionaries teach. President had everyone close their eyes and asked the trainers, "If you felt moved, raise your hand." There were a lot who didn't raise their hands and so he told them to start over! Haha I love President Mortensen so much. He is a man of God, and he does not mess around. I love it. 

We have been finding a lot of people but there have been quite a few who end up not being interested. We are here to invite the world, and find the elect. We tracted into this lady named Rebecca and she was literally searching or thinking about finding a new church. She was going through a tough time with one of her sons, and we just talked to her about the pre-earth life. We told her that she can make it through these challenges as she relies on the strengthening power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We talked a lot about the Atonement, and she wanted us to come back to talk to her and her family when her boys would be there. We are going back tomorrow! 

We also found a new investigator who was meeting with the missionaries in the past but they just lost contact and then we were going through our area book and found him so we went by. We are planning on seeing him sometime this week. He used to be a professional boxer and Brother Lane teaches a boxing class so we are going to bring him with us. I hope you all have a great week and know that I love you! 

A couple of us having lunch with the 'Big Dog' at 8 week follow up! 

Here is Elder and Sister Packer. So neat to have them! 

Faith and Hope

Alright, I have to be quick today! This past Tuesday, we went on exchanges with the assistants and we had a really good day. Elder Croft came with Elder Nielsen and I and then Elder Myers went with the other assistant Elder Visser. We went finding that night with a member Zach Eberhart and he and I went to a lesson while the other two elders went tracting. Our lesson fell through so we went back to a lady's house named Lindsey who we talked with a few nights prior. She told us to come back on Tuesday if we had time so we said, "Okay." When we got there a member from the Conroe 1st Ward was there with her husband! Lindsey had made us all dinner and then we shared a message when we finished. Good thing we went back!! She is a really nice lady and she works with Brother Fisher from the Conroe 1st Ward. He served here like 2 years ago and met Katie who is now Sister Fisher. They are sweet! We taught the Restoration and then we are going to go back this week. She has a daughter who 12 and she is interested in meeting with us as well!

Meanwhile, when we were at Lindsey's house Elder Croft and Nielsen found 5 other investigators!! There was one guy named Tommy which we have already met with again this past Thursday and then another lady and three of her children.

As we have reflected on why we found 7 new investigators that day we have come to one conclusion. We had the hope to find. Obviously we had the faith to go out and act and say okay lets go tract, but we were actually planning and hoping to finding people. We told each other that we would do whatever we had to and then prayed and confirmed with the Lord. You can have faith and no hope. They are so similar, yet they are different. I love these words of wisdom from Moroni 10:20-23.

Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity.
And except ye have charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God; neither can ye be saved in the kingdom of God if ye have not faith; neither can ye if ye have no hope.
And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despair; and despair cometh because of iniquity.
And Christ truly said unto our fathers: If ye have faith ye can do all things which are expedient unto me.

It is also interesting to me that some missionaries think that being disobedience doesn't affect the work. The scriptures clearly tell us that iniquity leads us to despair.  And if we are in despair we have no hope.  And if we have no hope we have no faith.  And if we have no faith we will see no miracles because miracles come on account of our faith. Moroni 7:37. 

"Keep the commandments; keep the commandments!

In this there is safety; in this there is peace.

He will send blessings; He will send blessings.

Words of a prophet: Keep the commandments.

In this there is safety and peace."

I love this hymn. I know that as we keep the commandments our faith and hope will increase and our confidence shall wax strong in the presence of God. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Interviews and Stake Conference!

This past Tuesday, Elder Myers woke up at 5:12 to go to the bathroom and he woke me up on accident when he came back into the room, so I was like, "Well, let's go workout!" I can never go back to sleep when I wake up and I had MLC that day so I had to leave at 7:30 anyways, so it worked out well. Elder Myers was not thrilled about going to the gym that early, but he was willing. :) I love going to MLC though because I am always spiritually fed. We learned a lot and we practiced role playing how to respond to investigators that say, "I've already been baptized." If I had a nickel for every time I heard that, man, I would have some serious dough. We went to Acts 19:1-6 where Paul is in his ministry and comes across a group of disciples that were just baptized and he asks them if they received the Holy Ghost and they didn't know what he was talking about.  So, he taught them and then they were re-baptized. I have used that before in my teaching, but the role play was super helpful for how to teach it with more power. It is the power that carries it unto the hearts of those we teach. 

We had interviews on Wednesday with President Mortensen and he saved the best for last. ;) Haha, just kidding. He wanted to interview the zone leaders last and Elder Mikesell went before me so I really was last, but certainly not the best. My interview was really short because I got to talk to him at MLC on Tuesday. I have never met a more spiritual individual than President Mortensen. I told him and I tell missionaries if they don't have anything but a great relationship with President, it is their fault. He loves us so much and he does so many things for us. If they only knew half of what he really does, they would change the way they speak of him. I don't want you to think that a bunch of missionaries talk badly of him, but there are always going to be "those missionaries" that have no idea why they are on a mission and they have a bad attitude about everything. I don't tolerate missionaries speaking evil of the Lord's anointed. It drives me cray cray! 

Thursday evening, we went tracting and we were not having a lot of success. It just seemed like people didn't want to talk to us. We prayed before we left and poured our heart out to the Lord and told Him that we knew He could lead us to someone who He has been preparing. I was determined to find someone, you guys! We knocked a few doors and talked to some people and nothing. We finished up that street and it was getting pretty dark and people do not like it when we knock after dark. There was one more street like a block away so I was like lets go up there. We have to talk to at least 15 people a day and when we tract we try to keep track so Elder Myers asked me how many more until we talk to 15 and I simply said, "Till we find a new investigator." It was the second door that we knocked on the very next street that a guy named Wes let us in and we shared a message with him and set up a return appointment.  Therefore, he became a new investigator. The Lord is a Fourth Watch God. We are going to teach Wes and hopefully his family the message of the Plan of Salvation tonight at 7 with our Bishop. 

On Sunday, we had our Stake Presidency reorganized and during stake conference I felt the Spirit really strong when President L. Whitney Clayton spoke. WOW!! He talked about when they interview the wives of the stake presidency. He said the women are terrific, and the men are good. Women make men terrific. SO true. I don't think enough women understand how important they really are to us, and more importantly, to Heavenly Father. Us men could not do it on our own. I love the first sentence of the Young Women's Theme: "We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him." That is beautiful. I love that! It establishes their identity as daughters of God. One thing the adversary tries to do to us is rob us of our identity. There is a perfect example of this in the book of Moses. Moses 1:4 God says thou art my son. Verse 12 satan says to him son of man. Immediately satan tried to blur Moses' vision of being a son of God. 

In 1 Nephi 12:17 we learn about the mists of darkness and it says "which blindeth the eyes, and hardeneth the hearts of the children of men". The adversary is well aware of our potential and satan and his followers will do all that they can to blur our vision of what we can become. Satan does not have a body so he will do all he can to try to tempt us to do anything contrary to the commandments of God with our physical bodies. May we all be aware of this and follow the commandments of our Heavenly Father where lasting peace, joy, and happiness awate. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Happy Halloween from Conroe! Elder Myers' mama sent him a 

really nice halloween package with some goodies for both of us. So sweet of her! 

New Companion and New Investigators!

This past Tuesday, Elder Myers and I were happy to go down and pick up our new companion Elder Nielsen. He came out with me and he was just called to serve as a zone leader so it makes it a lot easier when zone leader companions are serving together. Elder Mikesell and I were both serving in different wards. He was called to serve in Tomball! I told him that was MY ward! :)

On Friday after our district meeting, we went to help Brother Russo do some yard work and I got to mow his grass with a riding lawn mower! I was SO happy! I was cruising on that thing. It reminded me of my Papa's riding lawn mower that my brother Zack and I would drive around with the three-wheeler. Good times! Elder Nielsen was pulling weeds and he got bit by some fire ants! Turns out he was allergic to them and his hand was swollen about three times its original size on Saturday. It was crazy!!  

Friday evening after our dinner appointment, we went tracting and before we got out of the car I told my companions that I was committed to find a new investigator and that I was willing to do all that I had to in order to find one. I then said are you in? They both were pumped and were like, "YES!" Elder Nielsen offered a really nice prayer and we committed to the Lord that we were going to do whatever we had to do in order to find whoever He was preparing. It was the second house we knocked into that we talked one of the nicest people I have ever talked to in Texas. Her name is Taylor and she lives with her boyfriend and a roommate and she has a little 11 month old baby boy named Houston! We taught her about the restoration and she really liked it. We were going to go back on Saturday but Houston was sick so we are going to have to go back another day this week. It was neat for us to see the Lord answer our prayer so quickly that night. Usually the miracles happen towards then end of the night, but this one was a tender mercy. :) 

Sunday, we had a Regional Conference and it was SO good. I want to see if there is a way to get access to those talks and reread them. One thing I have learned is that, sometimes, when we listen to talks, things slip past us, but when we read back through them we see things that we didn't the first time. It is a pretty cool experience. I love reading through General Conference talks! After church, we had to go an Urgent Care for Elder Nielsen. His hand was so swollen it looked like it was going to fall off. He got a prescription and it is helping. 

This morning in our companionship study, we went through the 3rd chapter of Mosiah. There is a lot of good stuff in there for such a short chapter. Verse 19 is very common talking about the natural man, but what hit me was in verse 21 where it says, "And behold, when that time cometh, none shall be found blameless before God, except it be little children, only through repentance and faith on the name of the Lord God Omnipotent." Now, this is talking about the judgement and I thought it was so neat how NONE shall stand blameless before God, EXCEPT it be LITTLE CHILDREN. That really hit me hard today. I absolutely love little children. They are the most perfect and precious people on the earth. What a blessing it is to know that all little children are saved in the Kingdom of God. Most of our world does not believe that. Would a loving Heavenly Father not let an infant or little child back into His arms if they did not have the opportunity to be baptized and accept the gospel? No, He would not do that. The scriptures teach us to become as a child, not that a child is to become as we are. The teachings of our church and the doctrine we believe makes too much sense. I love it. Have a great week! 

Howdy, y'all! ;)

It's always nice to get some extra love from my family! ;)

This is Elder Nielsen's hand!!

The Fourth Watch

Alright I am just going to be honest with you. I type really slow and we do not have that much time so I am going to share an incredible miracle that we had this weekend!

Saturday night, we had a our 8-o'clock appointment fall through and the Conroe 1st Elders called us right then. They asked us where we were because they wanted to come check our apartment for their mileage logbook for their car. We have to track our mileage in our cars everyday, and we all keep the credit card in there for fuel. They needed to get gas because they were on empty and they didn't want to get gas on Sunday. They thought it might be at our apartment because they come over a lot. We searched our entire apartment high and low and it was nowhere to be found. We then went out to their car to help them look. Their car was a mess; most missionaries cars are (except ours). So we took everything out and completely searched everywhere and it was nowhere to be found. I said, "Have you guys said a prayer?" They said they had.  I felt like we needed to pray again, but I didn't want them to think I thought their prayer wasn't sufficient or something, so I didn't say anything. It was right then that Elder Elsberry was like, "Lets just say another prayer. It is not going to hurt anything!" I was thinking to myself, "YES!" 

After the prayer we searched all of the boxes in the car and still nothing! They left to go look in their apartment and as they drove away I said to Elder Myers, "Should we just go help them look?" He was fine with it so we called them and they said, "Yes, come."  We followed them over and took everything out of the car into their apartment. It was nowhere to be found. We stopped searching for a bit and were just talking and then I was like, "I am searching this apartment."  I don't give up without putting up a fight. Never. In most cases that does more harm than good, but this time it had a good turn out. I searched their apartment like a German Shepherd searching for paraphernalia! I did not find it anywhere. Finally I was like, "Okay, I am going to the car to look again."  Elder Myers came with me and I felt like checking the glove box again, so I did. I emptied it and nothing was in there. Right then I felt prompted to take the glove box out of the car. Most people don"t know this, but in most cars the glove box comes out really easily. You just disconnect it and pops it right out. I removed the glove box, and there was the logbook jammed into the dash. I grabbed it and showed Elder Myers and he was like, "Way to go Elder DeLuca!" 

Being the goof I am, I tucked the logbook in my belt behind my back like I was packin' some heat and then we walked back in and I was like, "Sorry guys.  We couldn't find it, but we have to go."  I asked them how much they loved me.  Then I asked them to turn around and then I pulled it out and I was just smiling waiting for them to turn around and see the logbook. It was pretty cool. They were shocked! They were like, "What did you do!?!?!"  They had been searching for this for days. 

There is a talk by S. Michael Wilcox titled "The Fourth Watch." I would encourage you all to watch or listen to it. This is a real principle. The Lord does not come right out when it gets tough. He comes after the trial of our faith. If we would had given up when we were searching at our apartment they would have never found it. If we would have given up at their apartment, they would have never found it. That prompting to remove the glove box wouldn't have come to me if I didn't listen to the first prompting to go back to the car even though we searched it thoroughly 2 or 3 times. It was neat for me to see the Lord working through all of us that night. The Lord is with His missionaries. I know that. May we all listen to the still small voice of the Spirit of God. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.  

I bought a couple of hats this week. These type of hats look good on bald guys, so I got a couple. Stihl is the best chainsaw ever made! 

Here is my companion when we were changing the oil in a silly John Deere. They shoulda bought a CAT! 

​"Well she ain't into cars or pickup trucks, but if it runs like a Deere, man her eyes light uuuupp..." I loved changing the oil in this tractor. I miss wrenching on my car and dirt bike!