Mothers Day

Dallas had an hour to talk to us yesterday!  Being the selfish mother that I am, I took up about 30 minutes, but he did get a chance to talk to each family member.  It was so wonderful to hear his voice!  Bam got on the phone for a minute but could only say 'Hi' because then she started to cry.  She said that Dallas just said, "Oh Bam" with his low little chuckle.  I told him that I didn't think I would be able to wait until Christmas to talk to him again, and he told me it would be here before I know it!  He's healthy and happy and here is his weekly email...
Hey family!



How are you all? This week has been interesting. I feel like the Spirit has really been reprimanding me, and encouraging me to have more faith involved in the little parts of the work. I definitely could use some improvement on being obsessed with it all. I always love working with the people and studying etc. but I've been lacking when it comes to always giving my input and really being energetic no matter what we're doing. That's why this week I've been working on diligence. I want to have a steady, consistent, earnest, and energetic effort in the Lord's work, while finding joy and satisfaction in every second (just like it says in Preach My Gospel). Anyway, I found it interesting that this attribute has been by far the hardest to work on! It shouldn't be, but I'm going to keep trying to improve.


Anyway, I've meet some pretty awesome people recently. I can't remember if I've mentioned Liliana or Frosty, or if I've said much about Beatrice's husband Marcos, but each of those people have been incredible examples to me in really diferent ways.


Marcos never wanted to listen to us when we were over to teach his family. He would just go sit in the kitchen and pretend we weren't there. Luckily, with the help of a sister in the ward who's actually related to Beatrice and Marcos, we got him to come be involved in the lessons. We talked to him last Tuesday, and he said he not only loved church, but had seen some changes in his life already. He said he use to have a bit of a problem with drinking, but hasn't had a desire to since he started reading the scriptures and praying with his family and stuff. He's one hundred percent focused on making the best possible future for his wife and daughters now, and he's alot happier than before. He said it's like he felt a weight lift off of his heart, and now he can't ever stop smiling. Pretty awesome!


Liliana has had a really rough life. She's been through alot of things that have really scarred her mentally and spiritually. Just recently she was kicked out of her home and has kind of been abandoned by her family. Luckily some of her more distant relatives who live in our ward decided to take her in, and she's now living with them. We started teaching her about a week and a half ago. Everytime we would show up to teach her and talk about the gospel she would either be waiting for us outside, or be inside with the brother and sister from the ward reading the Book of Mormon. She was more than ready to start a new life, and the brother got to baptize her yesterday. She's a very kind humble person, and she'll be a great example in the ward.


Ok now to say a little about Frosty. Frosty just recently moved in with Carmen and Ruben. He speaks English, so we got him an english Book of Mormon and started visiting him to share the gospel and just to talk with him. He gets pretty lonely at times, because he doesn't know spanish very well, and he doesn't really have any friends who speak english. He was born in Jamaica, and was raised by his grandfather who is a minister there. He was always teased a little growing up for being the "preacher's son" who couldn't fight or drink or anything. He always wanted to be like the other kids so when he turned eighteen he took off to the U.S. He lived in California for a while where he got in alot of trouble. He started just fighting and stuff, and then got into drug dealing. He had two daughters, but he wasn't able to get married to their mother because of their conflicting opinions about religion. He ended up getting in trouble and went to jail for a while. When he got out he found that his girlfriend had sort of taken off so he was left to take care of his daughters. That's when family became his life. He was a soccer mom and a girl scouts leader and everything. A while later once his daughters were more independent he got in trouble again. He started a group in jail and he would help the other in mates by teaching them the gospel. After that alot of stuff happened that wasn't really under his control, and it made him sort of fall away from religion, very confused as to why his life had to be so unfair. He ended up traveling the world a little and wound up here in Guadalajara. Right now he's running a few businesses and trying to raise money to start a youth center for the kids here, since there aren't many programs or activities for them after school is out and alot of them get into drugs and things. He said it's almost unbearable to think that the problems he's now trying to fix are the same kind of problems that he had been starting when he was a drug dealer. He also said that he knows everything in life happens for a reason, and that he wouldn't change a thing because he knows the Lord has molded him into what he is today. When we started talking to him about his views on religion he explained that he had studied with many different religions, he's read and studied every verse of the bible multiple times, but he said he feels like many churches have bits and pieces of the truth, but it seems to him that since the church that Christ established was rejected, most of the religions today have been put together based on philosophies of man. Then he told us that in his studies of the bible he's learned that the Savior promised to reestablish his church with the Priesthood and prophets and everything someday. Could we have asked for a more perfect investigator for the Lord to put in the middle of a house we visit pretty much every day!? We shared with him the story of the restoration and he was blown away. I can't wait to see what happens with this guy. I've already learned so much from his example and we've only known him for about a week! I don't feel very qualified to have been so blessed by the Lord, or to have been trusted with such an incredible work, but I could never express how thankful I am to be here with these oportunities to help these incredible people here. My testimony grows every minute of everyday, and I know even more surely that Christ loves each of us more than we could ever comprehend. And when we try to earn a little bit of what he's given us by keeping the commandments or serving others, he just showers us with more and more blessings! The gospel is incredible.


Anyway, I loved talking to some of the family yesterday. I miss you and love you all so much, and I'm so thankful for your support and your wonderful examples. I mentioned some things about a story on the phone last night. Carmen, one of our recent converts, is a little bit of a drama queen. He's always made things just a little bit bigger deals than they need to be, and he just says funny stuff all the time. Anyway, I could sense that it's been bugging him a little bit recently that we've been talking to Frosty so much and that we always have Ruben come with us to visit investigators. We've asked Carmen to come to but he never seems to be able to. Anyway I think he was getting a little nervous about the attention that everyone else was getting, so he decided to do something about it. The other day we were walking down the street and Maria came running up to us and told us to come to Carmen's house as fast as we could because he was really sick. We went over there and joined the small group of people gathered around his bed. He looked like he was pretty tired, and said that he felt sick and thought he was going to have a heart attack. We told him he needed to go to the hospital, and he said he couldn't stand up. Maria went to call an ambulance and Carmen told her not to, and that it was better to just let him be with his friends since he could be in his last moments. He proceeded to give a little farewell speech, and then seemed to go out of consciousness a little. He then sat up and started saying a few more things and called out some friend's names, then he layed down to die. The only problem was he was still breathing, still had a pulse, and his eyes were blinking a little. He also forgot to lay one of his arms all the way down on the bed, and was trying to lower it really slowly hoping nobody would notice. Most of the people in the room, however, were thoroughly convinced that something very serious had happened, which was pretty sad because they were all starting to stress out a little. The paramedics showed up, and told Carmen to sit up, which he did after reviving a little. The paramedic checked him out and told him he might have hyperventilated a little, but that he was fine. He told Ruben to make sure he stayed in bed for a while until he calmed down. I don't know if something really might have happened to him health wise, but we'll definitely try to dedicate a little more time talking to him when we visit from now on, just to make sure he's ok.


Anyway that has been my week. The cockroach war wages on but we seem to be doing pretty good. I love you all, and I can't wait to get out there and continue serving the Lord.


Dad- Thanks for your advice and testimony. I really need to work on some of the things you mentioned. Thanks for your example. I love you dad.


Mom- Thanks for reminding me to find joy in the journey. I hope you had a good rest of mothers day last night! Thanks for all you've done for me and all your support. I love you mom.


Love you all Fam!


Elder Dallas Robert Aguilar