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

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