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

April 9, 2013

Dear dad and grandma and everyone else, Well we got transfer calls last night. it looks like I'm staying here in Ceres 1st ward with elder vaughan! I'm excited to be here for 6 more weeks and to help our investigator progress towards baptism. I told Elder "V" that we are going to "work more smarter and not harder" and use our time effectively. I still can't believe how much time flies. This week we found new investigators. We taught them about God and about the Book of Mormon. We are going to give them a church tour next week and then invite them to be baptized! Not much else for this week, I enjoyed General Conference as always and loved Elder Holland's talk about faith. It is true, that it's alright to say "I believe...." if you can't say " I know...." Thanks for the funny pictures from brother Downey and of Bruce's puppies. By the way.. for my birthday I would like a puppy. (I will let you ponder about that) Well I got to go. love you all. -Elder DeMarco

April 3, 2013

Well things here are getting better. We still have 3 dates for this april. One of them is solid. President Gelwix and the Assistants gave us GREAT training last week. Every time President talks to us I feel chastised HaHa... but he always lifts us up at the end, he is the best! One of the things that was happening to our mission was that we have "spiritual ADD" meaning we have all these tools for missionary work but we can only focus on them one at a time. We have a district standard and then a zone standard and then a mission standard. So we are doing away with all those things and just focus on baptism! We need to rely more on God and the spirit for answers. I'm really excited the direction we are heading, as humans it's hard to focus on a bunch of stuff at once and not many people can do it. So by just focusing on 1 baptism a month minimum for each companionship then we can see more success......when I was a trainer I went to leadership training and this British business major person named Greg McKeown came in and talked to the mission. He is like a motivational speaker for businesses. He talked about "less, but better" and basically it means focus on the essentials each week and get rid of the things which are wasting time. It was an awesome training I hope to show you one day. I had a nice Easter Sunday and it was nice to see that James is getting skinner haha. love you all.
-Elder DeMarco

March 26,2013

This week had been fan-tast-ic! We set a baptismal date with April 13th. He is 22 yrs old and he has a great family. He came to church last Sunday and it was great to see him. We are seeing him again this Tuesday. During personal study this morning I was reading a talk called the "fourth missionary", which talks about there are 4 types of missionaries and we need to strive and be like the fourth missionary who is willing to give up his heart, mind and will to heavenly father. I was chastised by the spirit when I read that because there are some days I want to do things "my way". I just need to continually change and stop having an inner battle within myself and just do it his way. We are doing this project as a mission called "the Easter project" and we read about 1,000 references about Jesus Christ in the scriptures by August. President Gelwix asked us to do this because he wants us to be exactly obedient because we love Christ . I'm learning a lot from it and I know my love for the savior will increase because of it. Thanks for keeping me updated on how everyone is doing. love you all! -Elder DeMarco

February 18, 2013

So this week we found 7 new investigators and 3 of them are a whole family! We worked hard this week but it was worth it to see the Lord show us these miracles. We taught the "L" family yesterday and it was a spiritual experience. We didn't plan on seeing them but my companion had a thought pop into his head to stop by. When we got there they were home and they let us in. (usually they are busy as a family so it's hard to catch them.) We talked to them about how there week was going and then talked about the Book of Mormon with them. Mr."L" had a lot of good questions and was into the whole lesson. He asked about prayer and we were able to tell him how we receive revelation. The spirit was strong throughout the lesson and they were excited to read the Book of Mormon. We set up another appointment for today and they as a family are prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel.

I realized that not all lessons have to be this big emotional thing, it can be a very nice peace and the holy ghost can be there just as powerful. This week we are going to be busy with a lot of appointments and we are doing great! The more I focus on the people of California the more I feel joy in my life. I'm starting to understand charity and how Heavenly Father feels about us.

Talk to you soon.

love ya bye.

-Elder DeMarco

 

February 11, 2013

This week has been busy but a good busy. We found 2 new investigators. We found them through tracting and we were able to teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We set a return appointment and we will see them this Tuesday. Our investigator "D" is still reading the Book of Mormon and  we try and keep daily contact with him. We are seeing miracles here in the mission with doing a minimum of 3 hours of finding every day.  Last as a mission we found 275 new investigators!!! How great is that! its hard work but worth it.

Also on Friday went on exchanges with Elder "S" (my Australian amigo). He has been out for awhile and gave me a lot of good advice. I always learn something new that I need to improve on. One of them is being diligent. It's hard for me to work for a long time without being distracted so I need to focus harder on my purpose.

So yesterday at church something funny happened. Me and Elder "C" were sitting down because sacrament was about to begin when the 1st counselor came up and asked if we could give a 8 min talk because the members who were going to do it , forgot about it. ( in my head I was thinking, well....this is going to be interesting). With what time we had we prepared as much as we could. I went first and talked about missionary work and how we need to find joy and to make it a natural thing when we talk to people. I read a couple of scriptures and the spirit took care of the rest. When I was looking out into the congregation some of the members were getting emotional but I knew that it wasn't because of me. It was because of the spirit and I am grateful for the chance to speak. It definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone but I was able to do it in the end. My companion Elder "C" spoke on patience and he did a great job. I realized that members know that they need to do missionary work but they need to know how much joy they can bring and that it takes work.

Other than that not much else happened this week. I will write to Aunt Veronica and could I get Uncle Bruce's address?

Hope you and everyone else have a great week! By the way can you send my Elder Gagne and Elder Blanchard's blog....and also did you get my letter?

Love you bye.

-Elder DeMarco