Heavenly Father is a friend. He’s the best friend that we can have.

The church is true. Jesus Christ lives and loves us! I know that he truly is mindful of us when we feel low or sad. He has passed through all of that before and truly does understand us. The Book of Mormon testifies of that and I have had so many great witnesses of the truth of Christ’s atonement from reading that sacred book. Sometimes we don’t understand the ¨why¨ part of everything, but we can feel calm if we just tell God how we feel and move on trusting in His all-knowing power. One time I just expressed myself to my loving Heavenly Father that I didn’t really get what was happening, but that I was going to keep trying my best and doing all that I could. I felt really peaceful and I truly felt the love of God. Heavenly Father is a friend. He’s the best friend that we can have. I love talking with Him. Prayer is powerful and cleansing. Heavenly Father listens and understands our hearts! I love you all!

S.E.E.D.

This week went quite well. We had a cool experience with Pilar and her daughter Yire. We met with them Monday night and I could feel at the beginning the confirmation that the spirit was going to testify strongly to them. We talked about the restoration and sure enough, the Spirit helped testify of the truth. They felt it; we felt it and they accepted baptism for Sunday.  Sadly, her mom was sick and she couldn’t come to church. We tried all we could to get her there, but it’ll have to be this next week.  It made me think how every commitment made when the spirit is present is a commitment that the people are making with God, not us. God sends His Spirit to testify that they should commit and we extend the commitment to them. The commitment is not with us, the missionaries, but with them and God. That’s what makes it more sad when those we teach don’t keep their commitments.

This week I’ve been so humbled to see the large amount of miracles that God provides for us, His children, if we just have faith (which includes works) and trust in Him. I would say that if you haven’t seen a miracle in your day, you probably have faith, but you may not have looked deep enough to see something miraculous. I hope that makes sense. A lot of times, we live so many miracles, but we just don’t see them. I’ve been making sure to see them and it is incredible what God does for us. Elder Coulter and I did something that we called SEED (Spiritual Experience Every Day). It helps to be looking. God is not silent in out lives! He loves us and does wonderful things for us EVERY day!!! I love you!!!

Love,

Elder John Pope

WE`RE WORKING AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday we got the go ahead to work half days. It has been great to

get back on it. I'm looking forward to working "full" days this coming week:)

Potential is an incredible thing. I have been praying to have more

charity for the people here in this week that we have gotten back to

work, and instead of just seeing a normal person, my thoughts about

the people we talked to changed to thoughts about their potential. I

thought of men as future priesthood holders and families going to the

temple. It is cool how my mindset changed.

Sometimes it doesn’t take much information to invite

the spirit. It is all about finding the thing that invites the spirit

quickly for them.  I love when the spirit takes over. We

need to prepare, and then we can humbly be led by the spirit. A lot of

times we can think that we can just wing it or we plan out something

memorized, but if we just plan well and humbly seek the guidance of

the spirit He truly helps us. There has been times when I don't even

know or remember what I am saying or said and the impact is felt. It

is so humbling that a member of the Godhead would show interest in us.

Cool beans!

Well, two weeks until transfers. A ver que pasa. We’ll work as hard as

Adam Pontipee did when he plowed 20 acres in one day! I love you!!!!!!

playing nurse

January 9, 2012

Hey, we are in the hospital right now finishing up with the surgery on the cyst of Elder Jordan. Sorry that I didn’t write very much, but I’ve got to go hang with the little guy. The church is still true, even in Hospitals and I love you a lot!!! 

Much love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

January 16, 2012

This week was a strange week, that’s for sure. We were in the house a lot. Elder Jordan is doing great. Since his cyst was infected, they left it open so that is would heal better - that is why we have to be in the house - to keep the thing clean. He’s getting restless and so am I, but I could at least leave a couple of times on splits. Elder Narvaez came with me one day to teach a lesson and we began by talking about faith and then the Atonement. The spirit arrived strongly and we identified it. We set two dates. One son, who has 19 years, Adrian, was especially sincere.  Sadly the family didn’t come to church. They weren’t at their house when we went by Sunday morning. I felt blessed to be able to have a cool experience in such a short workweek though.  It helped me this week to feel more the sense of urgency, because I only had 1 or 2 hours to work, so I knew I had to get everything out of it. That was a good lesson to learn.

All this sitting sure makes me appreciate and miss working! It is sooooo much cooler to be working hard. We see the doctor again on Thursday and he’ll give us the news of how things are going.  Until then, we’ll be in the house. 

One verse from the scriptures that hit me was about how God brings great things to pass through small and simple means. I just felt humbled and so little. I love that even though we are nothing, we are everything to God! (Pres Uchdorf´s talk). Love ya!