Birthday Week

Hey!

Sorry for taking so long to write today! We have been playing a lot of
basketball! But anyways, i did get the Easter package. Funny story
about that actually. We went to go get the package at the office of
the apartment complex. The lady told me that she put the package in a
bag because it was leaking. All I was thinking was "what the heck"
Well, I opened it and it just smelled horrible, and everything was
really sticky. I eventually figured out that one of the baluts
exploded and went everywhere! Haha :)

Anyways, the training is going good. I know I've already said this,
but Elder Clarke is a really good missionary! I love being with him.
We have been doing some really good work. We have been contacting a
lot of people. We have actually found a lot of new investigators. We
set a baptismal date this week with a black lady named Grashonda. She
is super cool. I wish we could continue to teach her, but we had to
pass her off to the English elders.

It's really sad as well because one of the strongest recent converts
in the branch is moving this week. They have been a really big help to
us while we have been there. We are having a farewell lesson with them
this tuesday because they move in Wednesday.

I think as for picking me up or not, i think I would rather just fly
home, and get back as fast as possible because we both know that we
have to maximize my time at home haha. The Pederson's are going to
visit? What the heck? Haha that's crazy! They are actually coming up
to feed us on my birthday! I'm excited for that haha.

Anyways, all is well here in the 503! I hope you guys have a great
week! I love you! Can't wait to talk on Mother's Day! :)

Elder Navarro

Castle

Well Hello!

Welcome to what seems like an annual update of how my mission is
going! I'm terrible at writing these things consistently. Sometimes
P-Day gets a little too fun, and I forget to write these! In case you
were wondering, I am doing really well! I am actually training a new
missionary named Elder Clarke right now! He is from Queen Creek,
Arizona and just turned 19 years old! It has been a really good
experience so far! He is a really great missionary already, and has a
really strong desire to work.

After some trial and error, I think we are finally understanding how
to use technology to do missionary work. I have sent so many Facebook
messages this week. It is crazy the amount of people we can contact in
half an hour using Messenger versus traveling to everyone's houses.
We have actually taught a few lessons on Facebook to some people we
have never even met in person. When I left on my mission, I never
would have guessed I would be teaching people on Facebook. The Lord
really does prepare us a way to spread the gospel using all of our
resources!

We do continue to teach people in person, so don't worry. We still
knock on doors and what not! The only problem we are facing right now
is that most of the interested people that we are finding are
Americans which is great because we are spreading the gospel, but we
really do need to help the branch grow. The branch has a goal of 15
baptisms for the year, and we are currently at 0. I have faith though
that we can find families to baptize! I love being here working with
the people here in Portland!

Anyways, I love you all! I love being a missionary! I love Jesus
Christ! I can't believe I am almost 20! I can't believe I have been on
my mission for 20 months now! I hope you all had a great Easter! I'll
try to write more of these! No promises though ;) Bye!

Elder Navarro
6105 SW Bonita Rd. Apt. K305
Lake Oswego OR 97035

Easter Week

Hello! Hello!

So I'm not getting transferred, but I am training! Well, kind of.
There is a Spanish missionary who got here last transfer and he was
being trained by an English missionary in an English ward for whatever
reason. But now, he is coming here with me and I will be finishing his
training. It should be fun. I am pretty excited. It should be fun! I'm
not going to be Spanish Training  Leader anymore which is ok.
President Ballard is getting rid of them completely because it is a
made up position anyways.

Not much else has happened this week. We have been doing a lot of
finding. We didn't have any meetings or exchanges to go on this week,
so were kind of at a loss with what to do with ourselves. The week
went by really fast though. A lot of the members were really sad to
see Elder Thatcher leave because he has been here for a really long
time.

I just got my new companion. His name is Elder Clarke. He is from
Arizona. He is super cool and super excited to work. It seems like it
will be a good transfer. That new car looks pretty sick! I will look
like a true Mexican when I get back driving around in that thing. As
for classes and all that junk, I wish I could just sit down and do it,
but I can't. Honestly, I don't really care right now. Whatever you
think would be best. And finally, Yes I did order that patriarchal
blessing. Please send it to me.

Oh and that whole mall thing was crazy. It was really scary to just go
there and just talk to people. It turned out really good though. We
ended up finding a new investigator. It was sick. Anyways, it was a
good week! I'm excited for this transfer. We get to call home this
transfer haha.  See ya later.

Elder Navarro

Happy Conference weekend

Hello! Happy Conference!

I really enjoyed Conference this time! It was very uplifting! We
watched the all the sessions with different members of the branch
which was cool except for the priesthood session. We watched that at
the stake center. I don't know, this conference felt really weird. It
seemed a lot more relaxed of a weekend than past general conferences.
I think it's because we have been so busy that it was weird to slow
down a lot this weekend. It was good though! I really liked a lot of
the talks. One of my favorites was Elder Bednars talk in the
priesthood session about being called and assigned. Super good!

After general conference, we saw a huge miracle! So Sunday morning,
Elder Thatcher tells me he feels like we are going to find three new
investigators that day. Then by Sunday night we still hadn't found
anyone and we were on our last stop at some apartment complex. We see
these people walk into their apartment and we were just like why not
knock on their door. We did, and this lady opens the door and lets us
right in and offers us food and everything. There just happened to be
three people that lived there this lady from South Africa, her
American husband, and a guy from Saudi Arabia. They ended up telling
us that they were actually wondering what mormons believe and that
they would like to learn more. We taught them and they al ended up
becoming new investigators. It was sick!

Oh man the whole sign thing was interesting! It was kind of a crazy
idea but we just wanted to see what would happen. For the first little
bit, we went to the part of the park where the skatepark was at. That
was pretty hilarious because it was mostly a bunch of crazy people
smoking weed! They gave us some pretty interesting answers. Most other
people didn't really talk to us that much, but that's ok. It was a
good experience!

Anyways, I have no idea on any classes! I'll need some options or
something. And yeah I don't think I will be able to do the test thing!
There's no time for that. Transfers are next week as well. I might be
getting transferred again because the rumor is that there are sisters
that are coming to this area. We will see next week though! I love you
guys! Have a great week!

Elder Navarro

General Conference weekend

Hey! Hey!

Holy cow! I totally forgot it was Dad's birthday. What the heck! That came up quick! Sorry Dad! Happy Birthday! Haha Anyways, this week has been busier than the past few weeks. We had three exchanges this week and zone conference. Only one of the exchanges was with Spanish missionaries though. Elder Thatcher is a district leader so we had to go on a couple exchanges with the district, so they weren't in my stewardship haha. They were fun nonetheless. We have a very interesting district. Our whole zone is what Elder Thatcher and I call a zone of misfits. Everyone is just a little weird and awkward in their own way. It's kinda funny!

Zone Conference was also great! It was a lot different knowing all the things that they were going to train on since I went to MLC earlier this transfer. It was really good though. Our mission is in a little bit of a rut right now. It's been hard for everyone to find people to teach, so President Ballard committed all of us to do something that scares us everyday. I wish we could start doing that, but I yesterday was literally the first day this week that I have been with my companion for the whole day. 

As of right now, we don't have any  plans for conference except for the Sunday afternoon session. Our branch is getting together at someone's house to watch that session. Other than that, we will probably start trying to plan that out more this week. As for today, we are going to Mt. Hood to do a little bit of hiking. It should be kinda fun. It's basically an idea to get more unity in the zone since everyone is weird and awkward like I said. We will see how it goes. It should be fun!

Anyways, I hope you are all enjoying march madness. It seems like a good year for basketball. Good luck on your talk in stake conference. That kinda sucks! It should be fun though. Have a great week! Love you guys!

Elder Navarro

Spring

Hey hey!

I am doing really well! This week has been fantastic! As you already
know, Elder Ballard came and it was amazing! I think this was my
favorite out of all the times that he has came. He told us some really
interesting stories. Something really cool is that he keeps a picture
of Christ in his scriptures and every time things get hard for him, he
looks at it and says "Gethsemane was hard." He shared some other
stories that I will tell you sometime. Elder Ballard is such a cool
guy. It's been really cool to meet him a few times now. It never gets
old. It's kinda sad because this was probably his last time coming to
this mission because President Ballard leaves in two transfers.

And yes, I also had an interview with President Ballard. We basically
just talked about what he wants to do with all the Spanish
missionaries. We had a discussion on some of the things he could do
with us and how effective it would all be. There is a really good
chance that we get rid of the "Spanish Training Leader" position
because it's pretty useless anyways. There is a chance as well that we
all get put in companionships with English missionaries, but that is a
little less likely. We will see what happens though.

Also, we finally were able to contact Juan yesterday. It was like the
saddest phone call ever. He basically told us that he appreciates all
we have done for him, but he is good where he is at. It was like
saying goodbye to a friend. It was terrible. But it's okay because I'm
sure he will come to realize what he is missing and seek us out again.

To answer your questions, no I didn't find anyone to room with me. I
would say just go for it and we will see what happens. And no, I have
not had any time to do any orientations stuff and I do not know if I
will have any time.

Anyways, this week will be another busy one. We have two more
exchanges to go on this week. We also have zone conference. It's
crazy. This is easily the busiest transfer I have ever had. Usually
it's hard to stay busy but now it's hard to find time. I love it
though. It's so fun! It sounds like you had a fun week as well. I hope
you have another great week. Enjoy march madness. It might be time to
go to Buffalo Wild Wings again. ;)

Elder Navarro

Spring is finally here!

Family,

Hey! So unfortunately, we didn't have the baptism. We had a pretty
crazy week with Juan. On Tuesday, I went on exchange with Elder Dunn
in Tualatin so i wasn't in our area. Elder Thatcher went on taught
Juan that day and apparently it did not go well. They taught tithing
and Juan really didn't want to pay it. He doesn't make very much money
so it's understandable, but he eventually said he was good with the
Catholic Church. Well, the next day we went and taught him again and
tried to get everything cleared up with tithing, and it went really
well. He read his scriptures the night before and he felt that tithing
was a commandment from God. It was insane! The problem now is that he
didn't come to church yesterday and we haven't been able to get ahold
of of him since. We rescheduled his baptism for this Saturday, but we
will see what happens.

So Yes Brother Callister came and it was amazing! I didn't realize he
was currently the Sunday school general president for the church. I
knew he was a seventy but I didn't realize he currently had a calling.
He taught the Plan of Salvation in a way I have never seen before. He
taught the entire plan in detail only using scriptures from the Bible.
It was incredible. No wonder he is the creator of Teaching in the
Saviors Way Sunday school program. It was kinda sad too because
President Ballard missed his sons wedding to go to the meeting.

That's crazy that you guys met elder Martin. Well, I guess Brayden now
haha. He is a funny guy. I was just talking to him a couple of Sunday
ago and now he's over there. Haha. Anyways, I went on two exchanges
this past week with some missionaries in our Spanish zone and it was a
lot of fun. We are trying to go on two more this week but we are
probably going to be too busy. We have interviews with President
Ballard tomorrow and then Elder Ballard is coming on Friday. It's
crazy.

Anyways, I'm glad all is well with you! It's getting close to general
conference. Woohoo! I'm getting pumped! Have a great week! Love ya!

6105 SW Bonita Rd. Apt. K305
Lake Oswego OR 97305

Elder Navarro