#22

What is up everyone? How has everyone been? I just want to apologize
for not sending out a group email every week. P-Days get crazy and I
forget to write one. Anyways, this week has been pretty awesome. We
witnessed probably one of the coolest things I have ever witnessed. We
were at Fred Meyer getting some stuff and we walked out of the
building and there were these cops standing outside talking to this
guy. Then all of the sudden we start walking to our car and this guy
is sprinting away from these cops. The cops chased him and then they
went around this corner and we don't know what happened after that,
but it was awesome. This place was flooded with police within seconds.
It was crazy. Then, a bunch of people started asking us what was going
on as if we were cops or something. It was pretty funny.

Anyways, we taught Irlinda this week too. I don't know if I have
talked about her before, but she is the sweetest little Peruvian lady
ever! She has been taught for quite a while and wants to get baptized.
The only problem is that she is not married. Her and her "boyfriend"
have been together for like 30 years but marriage is not an option for
them. We have talked to President Ballard about her situation and he
said she could get baptized if they are not in a physical relationship
and we have his permission. We are currently working on getting his
permission for her to get baptized but he is in Peru so that makes it
a little difficult. She is the best though. We love teaching her.

Other than that, we are just living the missionary life. Knocking
doors. That pretty much sums up what we do on a daily basis. Haha it
is the best thing ever. We talk to some pretty interesting people that
way. The other day we met this guy that just got out of jail for
stabbing someone. He is also a drug dealer. Really cool guy though. He
seems to like us. I don't know if we will go back there though.
Anyways, I hope everyone has a great week and keep being awesome!

Elder Navarro

My best friend Lupe

#19

Happy 2016 everyone!

This has been a pretty awesome week. We go to do a lot of service
because it was New Years and they didn't want us knocking on doors. On
Thursday, we did service for Habitat for Humanity. We helped them
build this apartment building for refugees and people like that. We
helped finish this scaffolding that goes to the top of the complex. It
was pretty scary because the ladder only went to the second floor of
the scaffolding so we had to climb on the outside of this scaffolding
to get to the tap and we weren't strapped to anything so if we fell we
were pretty much dead. It was awesome though. Super fun.

Then on Friday, we didn't get to do a whole lot except for more
service. We went to the old folks home that we usually go to and
played games with them. It was a lot of fun as usual. Oh yeah I forgot
to say, I got a new companion. His name is Elder Casanova and he is
from Idaho Falls but not really. He moved there from California a few
months before he left on his mission. He has been out for almost a
year. We get along really well and we have already gotten a lot of
work done. It is going to be a good transfer.

Other than that, everything else is going pretty good. We are still
looking for people to teach. We are working on cleaning out our area
book and starting fresh in a way. We just want to try to find a lot of
new people to teach since the people we are teaching right now aren't
really progressing. Anyways, I hope everyone has a great week and an
even better 2016. Bye!

Elder Navarro

#18

What up?

Yes, I will be getting a new companion today. I'm pretty excited. I
think it will be fun. I've only talked to him a couple of times but he
seems pretty cool. I'm sad that Elder Keith is leaving but it's all
good. We have been together for a long time. Of course you already
stalked him on Facebook haha. It was awesome seeing everyone. I'm glad
they were all there.

The rest of the day, we kinda just hung out at the church. Elder
Anderson couldn't call home until 5 so we just waited at the church
with them which was still pretty fun! Then, we went to dinner which
was alright. It kinda sucked because there were twenty people at their
house. The house was huge so there was a lot of room everyone but they
were all family so we felt a little out of place!

Hey, we switch to 9 o'clock church next week too! It is way better now
because I can take a lunchtime nap on Sunday's now! That is so awesome
that Nate gets to serve. That is so exciting! When does he go? What is
different about that mission than a normal one?

This week, nothing too crazy is happening. We can't work again on New
Years but that's really it. A lot of people in our district are
getting transferred. Sister Wynn is getting transferred. Our district
leader is getting transferred. Then, Elder Cepeda is getting
transferred down south too. :( he is going to be the Spanish Training
Leader in the south. I was hoping he would be the STL up here so we
could go on exchanges.

I'll probably just keep the Christmas tree at least until I get
transferred then I will figure out what to do with it.

Yeah it was awesome face Timing! I had fun! And Mother's Day isn't
even that long away! I'm excited for this transfer. We are going to
get some good work done. Love you all! Bye!

Elder Navarro

#17

Hola! Feliz Navidad!

What's up? How is everything going? Is everyone excited for Christmas
this week? I know everyone here in the OPM is super excited. We have
had a pretty awesome week here. On Tuesday, we had the chance to go to
the temple! It was a lot of fun! The Portland Temple is definitely
very beautiful!

Then on Wednesday, we performed at the Temple Visitors Center. That
was an interesting experience. We only practiced for it twice and they
decided to change a bunch of stuff right before we performed. I don't
think any of us understood what was going on haha. It was still a lot
of fun! I enjoyed it a lot!

Then on Friday, we had our mission Christmas party! That was a lot of
fun! It was cool to have our whole mission in one place. There was a
talent show where a lot of different elders and sisters sang and
played instruments. Also, there was a devotional afterwards and that
was the best! Sister Ballard gave an amazing talk on Angels. She
talked about how we have angels watching over us on this side of the
veil and the other. Then President Ballard gave an awesome talk on
Christmas. He shared some of his Christmas experiences with Elder
Ballard when he was younger. He told us that when he was on his
mission in Japan and he got to call home on Christmas, he called Elder
Ballard and Elder Ballard said, "Good work! Keep working hard and we
love you." And then he hung up! That's all he said to him. Anyways, I
hope everyone has a great Christmas and remember why we celebrate!

Elder Navarro

#16

Hello everyone!

How has your week been? Mine has been pretty amazing. On Tuesday, we
had a mission tour with Elder Arnold of the seventy. He was amazing.
He talked a lot about the importance of us working with members. He
also told us how we need to work with members. He really focused on
the importance of members in the conversion of our investigators. They
are essential. It was a fantastic meeting.

On Wednesday, we went to the baptism of Doris and Camilo. They are an
amazing couple with a super strong testimony of the gospel. Even
better, guess how they were found? A member! They are a friend of
someone in the Spanish ward in Hilsboro. It is awesome because they
are the first addition to our group since I've been here. It's great.
We have really focused a lot this week on getting members to invite
their friends to activities and share the gospel with their family and
friends. I have yet to find a new investigator by knocking on doors so
hopefully the members can help us out a little.

Other than that, not a lot is going on here in Portland. We are going
to be working really hard these last two weeks of the transfer. We get
to go to the temple tomorrow which is super exciting. We also have our
mission Christmas party on Friday. That is going to be incredible! I
can't wait. Christmas is getting really close. It is super exciting.


Elder Navarro

#15

Hi!

How is everyone doing this fine December morning? I'm doing pretty
awesome! This week has been super busy. We have been helping set up
for the festival of nativities all week. It was so beautiful. I think
we did a pretty good job. It also went really well. We had some
investigators come which was super cool. There were different choirs
singing the whole weekend which was amazing.

We were also able to set a baptismal date this week. Woohoo! It was
with this guy named Edgar. He is a photographer and is booked every
weekend this month, so we couldn't set the date until January, but it
is still super cool! He really wants to be closer to God in his life.
He wants his kids to be able to fight the temptations that are in our
world today and he knows that he can help them through the church.
When we read the Book of Mormon with him for the first time, the first
thing he asked is how do I teach this to my kids? It was amazing.

Also, this week we went to this tree lighting at the library. We were
leaving when this lady asked us to take a picture of her and her son.
We got talking to her and invited her to watch the new Christmas
video. We asked if we could come over and talk more but she said that
all she needs is for us to keep her in our prayers. Then on Saturday,
we went to the nativities and she was there! We didn't even invite her
to it. We went and talked to her and she said she saw it online and
thought of us so she decided to come. It was definitely a miracle. We
talked to her again and said maybe sometime in the future we could
come over. It was awesome!

Anyways, I hope everyone has a great week this week. I love all of you! Bye!


Elder Navarro

#14

Hello!

How's it going? Everything is going pretty good here in Portland.
Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We didn't really do a whole lot of work
because they told us not to go knocking on doors so during the day we
went to a park and just hung out with Elder Cepeda and Elder Anderson.
It was pretty fun. Then at 3 we went to a members house for dinner. It
was awesome. There were four other elders there too so in total there
were 16 people at our thanksgiving dinner. It was a lot of fun. After
dinner we played some games with them. We stayed there until 9 and
then we just went home! It was an amazing day!

On Friday we fasted in order to find new people to teach so we went
finding all day on Saturday. We didn't find a single person that day
which was a little frustrating. We knocked on so many different doors.
People either weren't home or not interested. I'll just say it was a
long day.

We have been waiting to see if our group is going to be made a branch.
The application was supposed to be submitted a couple months ago. We
found out yesterday that it hasn't even been submitted due to the
application getting lost or something like that. We were not to happy
about that since we have been waiting for a long time to know. I guess
we can wait a little bit longer.

Other than that, everything is going pretty good. We are all really
excited for Christmas. If you haven't seen the new Christmas video go
watch it. It is always good to be reminded of why we celebrate
Christmas. Anyways I hope everyone is having a great week and I will
talk to you all later!

Elder Navarro