October 8-November 18, 2013 Update

 

 

 

November 18, 2013

Good news, this week went great. We found 5 new investigators and our teaching is up to 10 people. We were just going around talking with people and then God placed them in our path. This week we plan on asking all of our investigators to be baptized even if they already been asked. We want to see where they are all at in their desire to come unto Christ.

Our baptismal goal for November is one. We have 2 dates but both of them are for December.   I'm focusing on the things I can control (D&C 58:27-28) like inviting them to church and talking with everyone in hopes that the Lord will place someone in our path that can be baptized this week.

 Also we had a ward chili cook off and that went great. A lot of people came. There was also a country band playing. Things are going good with my companion. Just grateful to be a missionary and to help change lives.

Elder DeMarco

 

 November 4, 2013   

This week we have seen a good amount of success. We found 2 new investigators but we also lost  a couple of them. So right now we are teaching about 8 people. And our goal that we have set is 1 for this month. We were going to see our appointment and this man came up to us and asked what we did.  We told him and he said he wants to know if God exists and wants to change his life. When we read with him Moroni 10:3-5 , it touched his heart. As I look back on what I learned from that experience I realized how much God is in control of everything. This is his work, and he has people he is preparing, All I'm doing is trying to find them and  teach them. 

The day we found him we did nothing special to find him. He just went about our day as normal and God knew this man and knew where we would be. The more I realize that God is in control the less stressed I am. All I have to do is take control the few things I can control and trust God.  Heavenly Father will provide the rest. 

I am sad to see Elder "L" leave. I'm going to miss him a lot but it's okay, I am sure my new companion will be great though.

I'm okay with doing the fireside with Aaron and Brian. 

love ya,

Elder DeMarco

October 28, 2013

The following happened this week...
- we had a successful Halloween party.  A lot of people came and a non-member gave us her address and told us to stop by and see her this week....yay! 
- didn't find new investigators but we are teaching around 12 people right now.
That's pretty much it. By the way I'm not allowed to watch videos, sorry about that.
love you,
Elder DeMarco

October 14, 2013

This week has been great!  We found 6 new investigators and 2 of them have a baptismal date for October. It is great to be able to teach the gospel to them.
Personally I feel better with being able to teach more people and focusing on them rather than myself.
Also today I went to "old navy" and bought a coat because it's getting cold at night. Now I'm off to get my flu shot ....yay...not.
love you,
Elder DeMarco

October 8, 2013

Dear dad, grandma, and everyone else. 

 This week was okay for us. We had an investigator with us for general conference which was great.

We are focusing on the FMP (Family Mission Plan)  and ATM (Awake The Members) with our members. Especially now that conference is over and that 3 talks were given about missionary and members working together. We are going to use are less productive time in the morning and afternoon to see  members and do our part talking to everyone we see.

 We had interviews with President Gelwix on Thursday and had a zone meeting too from 9am -1pm .  President came in around 10am and started to interview people. Me and my companion were one of the last missionaries to go. We finished around 8pm and then President was nice enough to give us a ride home in his fancy car. He told of crazy stories when we worked for the airline companies and all the places he's been too. He said he enjoyed going to go to Ireland.

Now for the habanero pepper story. So during the first part of general conference on Sunday we were with the zone leaders around 8:45am. One of them had some peppers and I tried this small one and it wasn't so bad. Then they dared me to eat the habanero pepper and I knew it was going to be very hot. So I thought to myself this will probably be the first and last time I ever do this. Well, after eating it for 30 seconds my mouth was on fire. I ran to the kitchen sink in the church and had my mouth open under the faucet for about 20 mins . Then once the heat calmed down I went to watch conference which only lasted 30 mins before my stomach was killing me. I got up with my companion and we went off to the side in one of the rooms and I was laying on the floor. It felt like a giant war was going on in my stomach. The other missionary who took the habanero too came in and said " is it hurting you too?"  So we were both on the floor in pain. Luckily my ward mission leader came to the church and gave us "tums" and "Alka-Seltzer", which helped out alot!  So by the time the pain was gone it was around 11am. I missed that session of conference but was able to watch the other and I had some ice cream for lunch. yay! I'm doing fine now. 

Elder DeMarco

 

October 2, 2013

Dear dad,

The week went great.   We found 1 new investigator named "V".  He is not your ordinary investigator. During weekly planning of last week I was going through the potentials list and one of the names that I felt impressed to go see was a man named "V".  But I thought..." I don't think I'm going to see him, he speaks Russian and I don't know how we would speak to him".  So the next day, the Spanish sisters gave us a referral for a man named "V", and I was like okay we are definitely going to see him this evening.
So that evening we saw him and he has an amazing story. To sum it up, he lived in Russia and became Christian and then left Russia because of religious persecution. He went to Italy and met a man who had a copy of the Book of Mormon in Russian.  There is so much more about his story I will share later....like him meeting President Benson as well as...Elder Monson.
He wants us to come by again and we are going to find someone that served a mission in Russia and help us out with teaching. so the next visit we are going to talk and help him to be baptized. it was an honor to meet him and we are excited to see what happens next.
I just got my new suit today and it fits great! got it at Macys......and yes I would like the new smaller messenger bag.

love you ,

Elder DeMarco

 

September 23, 2013

Yesterday we had a baptism for "Y". It went great. "C" baptized her and next Sunday she will be confirmed. Since I've been here for awhile I've seen this family grow. After we baptized "C" and "T" their family has increased. "T's" mother "P" , was a less active most of her life but because of them being baptized she became more interested. Eventually  her son "S" was baptized and then a month later "T's" sister "Y" wanted to be baptized also. It's an honor to see the effects of how 2 people who are baptized will have forever changed the life of their family. And now they all attend church , they're living the gospel and enjoying the blessings from it.

We found 3 new investigators this past week. His name is "J". He said he was catholic and wants to become closer to God. We taught him about the restoration and he invited us to come back again. We are planning on seeing him tonight. 

We also found a family of 7 to teach.  We were doing harvest blessings and they said to come back later that evening. When we came back we taught the mom and dad. They said they are open to learning more.

Tell grandma thanks for the package and thank you dad for the messenger bag. It's great and it works fine ( I feel like the kid on the movie " premium rush")  ....the only thing is , since I am not a big person would you be able to get a smaller one and I forgot to tell you I wanted a small one because I only want to carry books of Mormon and that's really it.

Well I got to go,

love,
Elder DeMarco

 

September 16, 2013....

 

 (Sorry I haven't updated in so long...)

This week has been pretty good for us. Our investigator "Y" is still doing great. She came to church this past Sunday and is on track for Sept baptism. Unfortunately our other investigator who has a date for Sept 28th didn't make it to church this Sunday. We are not giving up!

We taught a great lesson with our investigator "T". She said she feels it to be true but is afraid of leaving behind what she knew to be right. We told her that we are building upon those things she cherishes and some things might be a change for her but it's worth it. Our ward mission leader who was with us bore his testimony of his conversion and the spirit was strong. I asked her what she felt, she said I feel good. She knows that feeling comes from God and recognized the spirit.  She still wants to meet with us, so Elder "L" and I will continue to pray and work with her. I have  realized on my mission how powerful someone's agency is. All we can do as missionaries is invite but never force someone to the gospel and pray that their hearts will be softened.

That was pretty much it, thanks for the pictures.

love,

Elder DeMarco

This week has been good for us. Though we have been able to only get 1 new investigator he is prepared. His name is "J" and we found him through a mormon.org referral. We stopped by Friday and taught him about where the book of Mormon came from. He had lots of questions about our doctrine and church. When we invited him to read the introduction you could see the spirit work on him. He was touched and wants us to come back.

 We were suppose to have dinner with "C" on Friday but he wasn't feeling well. We still stopped by  to see how things were going with him. We are seeing him tomorrow and we want to talk about the blessings of keeping the commandments and reading the book of Mormon.

 "Y" is still set for her baptism in Sept.  The ward is excited for it. This week we are reviewing the plan of salvation with her. It's interesting too because her mother who is a inactive member has been coming out more and more to activities and church. Thanks to other family members getting baptized, they are affecting the rest of the family with the gospel.

Thanks for everything dad,

love you.

Update for the past couple months

 

May 20, 2013

Tell grandma I said thanks for the letter and package. and I got the Mormom messages.

We had a baptism yesterday and it went great! It went perfect! Next Sunday they are getting confirmed. Last Saturday President Gelwix called and said I will be a trainer again with Elder "W" (we are going to be in a tri-panionship) . We are getting a visa waiter that's suppose to go to Denmark. So I'm pretty excited about that. Other than that life is great.

Love,

Elder DeMarco

 P.S. I have a cast on my foot because during rugby one of the elders hit my toe and I got a small fracture. I'm fine though, I'm getting a car and I only have this on for 6 weeks. 

 

May 27, 2013

Let me start off and say that having a truck is the best! I'ts annoying getting in and out of the truck but other than that it's great.

We'll right now my companion is Elder "W" (from Utah) and we are training a new missionary named Elder "E" (from Utah) he is going to Denmark but he will be with us until he gets his visa.

We are all getting along great and getting some more new investigators. We have 3 dates for June and we want to get 2 more.

We had Elder "E" confirm our new converts and we are going to help brother "P" get  the priesthood. They are excited to go to the temple to be sealed together also, which is awesome!

Going from Fresno to Turlock we got into a little car wreck. we were half a mile from the church when the driver in front of us stopped quickly and turned , so we then also stopped but the car behind us re-ended us. We pulled over with the other car and exchanged information. The woman was really nice and kind. We actually taught her about Christ and she became a new investigator for some other missionaries in Turlock. We went to the doctor the next day and everyone was fine and there health is good. So yeah, this week has been crazy haha.

Well have a great week!

love,

Elder DeMarco

 

June 10, 2013

Well I have some good news and bad news.

The good news is we found 2 new investigators this week. It's a young couple named "J" and "P" They live near us. Brother Smith and I taught them about the restoration. We invited them to church. They are really nice and I hope they join us for church.

Our baptismal date for "M" (she is 9 yrs old) is still on for June. She doing well and we gave her  a BOM stories book to help her read.

We are teaching 4 people right now. A boy and a girl  came to church yesterday. The girl is a member but the boyfriend is not. He came to sacrament and then Sunday school and he enjoyed it. We then set up a time to see them both... he is really nice.

The bad news is our trainee Elder "E" got his visa. President Gelwix told us after zone conference on Tuesday. So yesterday one of our members drove him down to Fresno and today he is leaving to go to Denmark. Elder "W" and I  already miss him. It's quiet in the car with him gone but I know he will do a great job in Denmark.

Tomorrow I have a doctors appt about my foot. The doctor will take off the cast and take another x-ray of it. If it looks good then I won't need a cast but if not I will have a new cast put on.

Well I got to go. Love you bye.

-Elder DeMarco

June 24, 2013

So things this week are starting to pick up. We found 4 new investigators. We are going to see "C" tonight...he is a great guy and is prepared to receive the gospel. 

Yesterday we saw a the worldwide leadership training on the church. It was great! Everything they are talking about is going to move the work faster. The Bishop and the missionaries are going to work more together in unity. The members will do the finding and we will do the teaching. One thing Elder L. Tom Perry said was " We all know that tracting is not an effective way to find" and it's true. Once the members feel comfortable or desire to invite friends to church the ward will increase in membership. Needless to say I'm excited to see what happens to our ward.

Right now I'm wearing a boot and tomorrow I can take it off and walk again.....HALLELUJAH!!! My right foot feels a little weak but I will be able to get its strength back up.

Well that's it thanks for the updates on what's happening. Talk to you soon.

Love ya bye,

Elder DeMarco 

 

April 29, 2013

Thank you grandma for your letter, i received it a couple of days ago. Wow this week was another great week! Our investigator wants to be baptized and so does his wife!!! We stopped by yesterday and was checking up on him. He said he and wife have been reading from the book of Mormon. I asked if he has received an answer yet, he said yes, I want to be baptized and so does my wife! It’s the sweetest words to hear. We are seeing them both today and are going to set a specific date for May. It’s taken a lot prayer both parts but I know that heavenly father answers prayers. The baptism on Saturday went great! I took pictures and will upload next Monday....I was able to see a lot of the members and they told me how much they missed me. I was also able to see elder “G” who I came in with during the MTC and he’s doing good. Baptisms are the best! Anyways I have to go. Hope you all have a great week. Love, Elder DeMarco