Great Opportunity to Play Guitar!

So this week was pretty sweet. We gave a lot of lessons to the members called the ATM.  At the end we asked them to pray to our heavenly father and ask him who it is he has already prepared for you to help come unto Christ. Once you've received the name you must go back in prayer and ask what you should invite the person to. For example....a family dinner, a walk or church it can be anything. me and my companion have gave that lesson to 38 families throughout last month and this month. So far we had a couple people receive an answer but not a lot yet. This lesson is suppose to encourage the members to do missionary work and that It’s not a onetime deal. That we should be always be asking heavenly father who we can invite to this gospel. President Gelwix likes to say that when Christ comes, two things will be going on...missionary work and temple work, so we need to start now.  I know that it sometimes not easy for members to ask their friends to go to church but it doesn't have to be. It could just be talking to them about what they believe and being an example to them. By doing this you are planting the seed and eventually that person will be more interested in the church.
Last Saturday there was a huge California state wide service project going on called "Mormon helping hands." We went to a place called Woodward Park.  We raked, cleaned the lake, painted the bathrooms, and other landscaping things. I did repainting in and around the bathrooms....it took forever haha!  It took about 2 hours to complete one bathroom and I learned something that day....I never want to be a painter for a living haha, It’s not fun at all. The whole thing finished around 12pm and we started at 8am. Our ward mission leader brought us to good old McDonalds for lunch mmmhhmmm it was yummy.
I forgot to tell you that after D. Todd Christofferson came we had a big mission lunch and I was asked to play guitar while other missionaries sang the song "Army of Helaman" and I was a little nervous because I was playing it front of the whole mission but everything went fine. A man took some pictures of us so I need to get them from him. Yesterday President Gelwix wanted me to play guitar and my companion to sing at a youth fireside in Porterville which was 2 hours away.  So our church finished at 4pm and then the Assistant Presidents came to pick us up and we went to Porterville immediately. We got there at 6:30 pm, practiced a bit then played the song in front of the youth/members. Everyone really enjoyed it and our mission President loved it. After that we headed to the Assistants Presidents house for the night because we didn’t get home till 11pm haha. It was sooooo fun.  We talked a lot during the car ride and sang a lot of hymns.
By the way thank you for the package, I love it! And I love using my GPS. I got a package from Mike Ahern and his brother nick and their family. I was excited he gave me some awesome talks and quotes that I can use. If you hear from them tell them I said "thank you soooo much". I’m not sure what’s going on for mother’s day but I will know next Monday.  Hope you and everyone is doing well.Talk to you later.

Love,

Elder DeMarco

I got your package! I love it.  I played with it for a bit and it works like a charm. I can’t wait to use it tomorrow! Thank you for the General Conference CDs and the toothbrushes, they shall also be used a lot ha-ha. I’m glad to hear that everyone is doing fine and that Joey, Josh and James are being nice to grandma and helping her out. Tell Aunt Joan I said hi and I’m going to send a gift to grandma and mom for mother’s day.....hopefully it will be there on time.

Last Saturday Elder smith came into out companionship and we are now a tri-panionship ha-ha. He is a traveling trainer and see's how other missionaries work and give them help if they need it.  He is only staying with us for a week and then on Saturday he is leaving for home to San Antonio, Texas. Elder Smith is helping my companion Elder Fisi'ihoi become a better district leader since he is new to everything. Today I went to Yosemite!!! I got up at 5:30 am we met at the church with our all zone. Brother Stokes took some of us in his 12 passenger van and it was a 2 hour drive to get there. Once we got there we went on a bus which took us on a hiking trail and I took some pictures that I will show you next Monday. Yosemite is such a beautiful place and its soooo BIG! After the hike I went to the gift shop and bought a little magnet. Then we traveled home. I hope everything is going great in New York.  Talk to you soon.

Love,

Elder DeMarco

Last weeks post! (4/16/2012)

Hey how’s it going?  This week has been really good.  For Easter bishop
Pauline gave a really good talk about removing the stones that are
blocking our progression in the gospel.  He connected that with the
importance of "the family: a proclamation to the world" he said that
each family should work on the following principles to help them grow
more in the gospel and also there bond for each other.
1.faith
2.repentance
3.forgiveness

4.respect
5.love
6.compassion
7.work
8.prayer
9.FUN

He asked the families in my ward to work on at least one principle for
the month and so I want you do to the same thing for our family.

I’m 20!!!!!!!!! years old!!!!!!!! geez i feel soooooo old. I had a
really good birthday yesterday. In the evening I went to sister Archers
house for cookies, then I went to the Leon's house for cupcakes and
then I went to the Delvin's house for an apple, cinnamon, caramel dessert
thingy.  It was really good.  They also got me some ties and sea
shells from the beach. I took some pictures of it and I will attach it
to this email.

Other than that, this week has been sweet.  I was able to shake another
Apostle's hand.  D. Todd Christofferson, came last Saturday and
he did a "question and answer" message.  We got to ask him a good
amount of questions but one thing that he told us was that he and the
1st presidency of the church are really thankful for all the
missionaries and they wish sometimes they could just preach the gospel
instead of working on big projects for the Church and solving problems
around the world.  He also said us as missionaries won’t have another
chance in life to study the scriptures every morning for 2 hours and
as you get older it will be harder to do so.

Thank you again for the gift and I’m glad to hear everyone got my
letter. Talk to you later.

Love,
Elder DeMarco
The pictures with a lot of missionaries in it, that’s in our house and
we usually have them over every Wednesday for lunch haha

Can you believe I am almost 20!

This week was pretty normal. We have a new investigator named Jeremiah. He is a really chill guy and when we took him to church he loved it. He liked Elders Quorum class a lot and how it helps you become a better man. Yesterday we stopped by his house and gave him a book of Mormon. He was really excited about reading it and we plan on seeing him later this week. By the way, thank you again for the GPS. I can't wait to get it. I’m going to use it everyday. Have you sent your General Conference CD's yet? Anyways…last Friday my companion, Elder “F” and I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, Elder “D” and Elder “O”.
I stayed in my area and Elder “D” was my new companion for the day. We did a lot of tracking that day and found 3 new investigators which was awesome. On Sunday my companion and I joined in and sang with the choir during sacrament. It was pretty good. My Bishop gave a really good talk on how to conduct a family by helping them with the following principles...Prayer, Faith, Compassion, Forgiveness, Hard work, Understanding, and Fun. He said if every family tried to do those things, not only will their family be stronger but their life would be more enjoyable with each other.
So that was pretty much my week, Tell me when you receive my letters. I hope everything is going well. Talk to you later......my birthday is next week!! Can you believe it!! I’m going to be 20 years old! I feel sooooo old haha. I think I might be going to the Olive Garden for my birthday which would be awesome.
Love,
Elder DeMarco

We are well taken care of!

On Friday my companion Elder Fisi'ihoi was called to be a District Leader. Things are about to get busy....at least for him haha. General Conference was really awesome. Of-coarse since I’m here in California the times are 9am - 11am and 1pm- 3pm. It was really nice because at the church it was pretty much only all the missionaries in my Zone that were there. I took a bunch of notes and now I’m applying the messages that were said. After the priesthood session all the men in my ward went to go eat dinner at "home town buffet" it was really good.
President Gelwix called all the missionaries and told us that Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the 12 apostles is coming here to Fresno on April 14th, how awesome is that? So me and all the missionaries are excited about that. Thank you for buying the GPS. Don’t worry…I will take very good care of it.
Today is my companions birthday and so we went of with President Tanner ( he is the elders quorum president) to the mall. He bought him Nike shoes and a sweet LA hat. My companion was going to buy it but President Tanner said "don’t worry, I will pay for that". The members here LOVE us. They always ask if we need any food and stuff. Sister “H” got us new bicycle tubes and a bike kit.... all for free because her husband owns a bicycle shop. We get free tune ups too. Sister “L” drops us food once a week and so we invite the missionaries over for lunch at our house and feed them.
I hope everyone is doing well and can I get Elder Gagne's address? I can’t go on his blog to see it. oh yeah, I wrote a letter to Josh, Joey, James and Tyler so they should be getting in 5-7 days.
Love,
Elder DeMarco
PS me and my companion started to run every morning