Quickie

Well Familia, 

I have no time due to some complications with the library, and cleaning our apartment. Anyway. This week was great. It was hard, and it was exactly what we needed at the same time. 

Daniela, still doing awesome. Azucena and Marcos, bailed on our appointment, and we haven't seen them since. Yadira, we've tried contacting them so many times but nothing. We're struggling to find investigators that will progress, but I have faith we will find them. We found a lady named Sonia from tracting, and it was a miracle we were able to find her, and we found miracles as we taught her tambien. She had a concern about God the Father having a glorified perfected body of flesh and bone, but when we retaught it to her, she said, "Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense since Jesus was the express image of his Father". By the way, before I forget, I confirmed Daniela in Spanish.  So Sonia was awesome!  And the temple was good. We had an awesome breakthrough lesson with Hno Plata, Jessica's dad. That was amazing too. I love being a missionary. I wish I had more time to testify of the blessings and miracles it is. I love Christ! 

Love,
Elder Logan Bryan

Last Temple Day on the Mission (July 21, 2013--10:30am Session)

My second family, the Kaisers, joined me in the temple!

Other Missionaries attending the Temple

Baptism and Sealing!

Me, Rita and Allen Collins, Elder Anderson

What a week! It was amazing familia. On Monday or Tuesday night I got a letter from Allen and Rita Collins (Cheyenne, WY) inviting me to their sealing this past Saturday at 1pm. President Toombs gave us permission along with Elder Anderson and his companion, and we got to go to their endowment session, and their sealing. 

Elder Orejuela, Daniela, Me

Daniela was baptized! Elder Orejuela baptized her, and I confirmed her. It was a neat experience, and I know she totally feels a part of the ward family.  We taught Daniela several times this week, and it was so cool to work with her and help her prepare for the baptism. She wants to be a missionary very badly, and I know she'll prepare to serve a mission and stay active. 

This week was also full of teaching. We taught 20 lessons this week, 14 of which were investigators. It was an awesome week. It was cool to reach our goal again. It makes such a difference when we commit ourselves to the goal that we set.

One of the biggest tender mercies this week was Azucena and Marcos, her husband. We took a member with us to our lesson with them on Tuesday, and it was such a good lesson. We were a little bit apprehensive about Marcos because we hadn't met him, and he walked in as we were talking with Azucena. But, Marcos sat in on the lesson, and we ended up talking to them about the problems they were having in their lives. Marcos said he wants to improve his marriage, and his relationship with his kids. We talked to them about a marriage and family centered in Christ is the only way to true happiness in a family. It was a spirit-filled lesson, and Marcos told us afterwards that all that we had taught him made a lot of sense to him, and they really liked it. We have another appointment with them on Tuesday, and we hope they will progress.  We needed to teach 5 lessons yesterday to reach our goal of 20 for the week, and again, we saw miracles. We had 2 lessons before dinner, and needed 3 after dinner. So, we set up 3 for after dinner, and got to our second appointment and they weren't there. We were bummed, and decided to try some other potentials near the trailer, so we did, and we set up an appointment for the next week with one of them, and we needed to go soon, so we biked back past the appointments trailer, and they suddenly pulled up! It was a miracle, and we were able to teach Pati, and she is very willing to learn and grow her faith. We see miracles all the time when we commit ourselves to the Lord, and we were able to see that yesterday just like we do every week and every day if we look for them. 

I'm so grateful for my mission, and for the wonderful miracles that I have been able to see and help happen. The Lord grants us the blessing of doing His work, and blesses us so much in return. I love my Savior. He is so keenly aware of everything that we need and want in our lives. He will grant unto us our desires. I hope and pray my will can be His, and that I can help others feel of the arms of His love encircled around them. I love my mission!  

Love,

Elder Logan Bryan

Week 2 Andando en mi Bici

Que transita por tus venas?

Sorry for the terrible slang, but that's what I learn down here in C-City. Just kidding, I just laugh at some of the slang that I learn. I learned that one way to say "peace out" in a pretty slang way is "te bañas!" Crazy huh? Well this week has been a pretty dang good one. We set some really high goals this week, and we didn't achieve them, but that's why we set goals, to help us work towards doing better. We found 7 new investigators again this week. It's been really good. Elder Orejuela and I have been changing the way that we work here in Montevista. Many times, people will tell us they're busy, or to come back another time. Many times we can't enter the home because there isn't a man there. But, we can sure pray and teach outside. So we do now. We invite the people to talk outside with us for a few minutes, and we have opening and closing prayers with them, and teach them parts of the missionary lessons. It's been really good, and it's been an awesome opportunity to teach people we otherwise wouldn't have been able to teach.

Daniela is doing awesome! We taught her a ton this week, and there were some crazy miracles and things that took our hearts and our prayers for a roller coaster, but I'll tell you more about that when I get home. If you'd like to start making some questions for me about things I told you I'd tell you about when I got home, that might be a good idea, because I just don't remember all the things I've said I would talk about later. It has truly been a week of miracles. Familia Vasquez, who I talked about a while back that we were teaching them how to do member missionary work, had Hna Vasquez's friend over for a noche de hogar on Monday. It went awesome, and Hna Vasquez invited Yadira, her friend, to listen to the missionaries (us). She said she did want to do that. So, we had a lesson with her on Thursday morning with Hna Vasquez. So despite a few rough patches in the lesson, Yadira accepted the invitation to be baptized, and we set up a lesson for yesterday. Yesterday we taught her again. We taught the first lesson, and showed her part of the restoration video. It was really good, and it was awesome to be able to see her feel the power of the message. In the end, she accepted the invitation to be baptized on July 13th. Woohoo! Daniela is getting baptized this Saturday at 11:00 am. She chose Elder Orejuela to baptize her, and we're stoked. It's going to be such a good baptism, and she is way excited too. She's so ready. It's been such a good experience to be able to teach her.

One of the coolest new investigator stories we found this week was a lady named Asusena. She is from Mexico, and her family all live there still except her, her husband, and her kids. Recently she had some family members die, and she isn't able to go back and see them, and it's really hard for her. We testified of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the power it had to give us knowledge of God's plan for us so that we can find peace. She loved it, and we're going back tomorrow in the afternoon. One of the coolest experiences of the week was teaching Jessica Plata last night. We'd been trying to be able to meet with her for a long time, but never have been able to. Last night, we were supposed to visit her family. In fact, we had confirmed it, and reconfirmed it. But when we got there, her parents weren't home. We had Hno Bermudez with us (our Lider Misional), so we could go in and talk. So when we got in, we didn't even know she was home, and so we talked to her little brother. After a while, she came out into the room, right as we said the opening prayer to teach Angel, her little brother, a lesson. After the prayer, she was just standing there, and I asked her if she wanted to sit down, and she said that she did, and we ended up teaching pretty much just her. She shared with us why she wanted to change her life, and what she needed to do. Hno Bermudez shared his testimony and his conversion story, and it was EXACTLY what Jessica needed to hear. She said she has been confused for most of her life with religion, but she wants to grow close to God, and she is willing to get baptized when she knows for herself it's what she needs to do. It was just a miracle that everything worked out the way it did. We had never taken Hno Bermudez to the Platas, and this day, he happened to be with us and it was exactly what she needed. The Lord works miracles in his work!

I love being a missionary. It is without a doubt, the best thing I've ever done. I've had the blessing of testifying of Christ, and of helping people grow close to him. What a blessing. Christ is the center of all we do. He is the mark. When we find we are losing hope, or direction--in my humble witness, I know He is the source to which we need to turn. I love the scriptures. What a marvelous blessing they are to me. They have become my friends. My source of comfort. In reality, they are a means to help me realize and come to know more my divine friend, Jesus Christ. They testify of His love, and His power available to all of us who are here on this earth. I am so grateful to my Maker, my Savior, my Friend. He is the fount of my every blessing. He has indeed calmed my troubled heart. He has stilled the raging tempests. He has been my firm foundation. I love Him. 

Love,

Elder Logan Bryan

Monte-Beast-a

Buenas Tardes Familia!

Esta semana tuvimos milagros y desafios, y esta semana que entra, vamos a ver milagros cada dia.

Daniela is progressing really awesomely. We taught her several of the commandments this week, and she loves them. The first commandment we taught is obedience, and when we teach obedience with the Spirit and they understand and commit to it, the rest of the commandments make sense and are easy for them to follow. That's how it worked with Daniela, and when we taught the rest of the commandments this week, like the Word of Wisdom, she had no problem in accepting and committing to live them. It was awesome. We're set to have her baptism on June 15th, and Elder Orejuela will be baptizing her!

We had a miracle this week on Tuesday. We were walking to our appointment that we didn't feel like was going to be there after teaching Daniela. So we walked by the library, and there was this lady sitting down looking pretty down as well. We passed her and I felt like we should talk to her, so we stopped on the sidewalk across the street, and dared each other to go talk to her. While we were stalling and Elder O made a call to our next appt, this lady came up to us, and asked to borrow our phone to make a call. We said sure, and after she was done, we asked to talk to her. She said she used to be religious but not anymore. She told us her name was Cynthia, and that three weeks ago her boyfriend and basically husband, even though they're not married, was killed. We asked her if we could talk to her on a park bench nearby and she said sure. So for 20 minutes after praying with her, we testified of the love God has for us. We testified over and over again that God loves her and has a plan for her, and He has a way for her to find happiness again. She thanked us, and asked us what we think happens after this life. We told her and testified again, and asked her to please listen to the missionaries who cover her area (she doesn't live near Commerce City). She promised us she would give them a chance. We prayed for her, and for her daughter too, and then she left after giving us her real name, and her phone number. It was such a tender mercy to be able to testify and help one of God's lost daughters. I felt so much love and sympathy for her. I wish so much she could feel the Love God has for her. It was a tender mercy of the Lord. I love testifying of God's love.

I'm sorry I don't have more details, but this next week will be full of them. I love you so much. If there is one thing I have learned on my mission, it is that God truly loves us. He does. More than we could ever imagine. More than we can feel. When our hands hang helplessly down, He loves us. When we have lost all that we feel we can, He loves us. When we fail, and fall, and falter, He loves us. When we waver in our love for Him, He still loves us. I have felt it. And I feel it strengthen me. I know God loves me. And the essence and base of that love is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Because God loves me, He sent His Son. Christ loves me too, enough to suffer both body and spirit and drink the most bitter cup known to man. I love Him so much. I know God Lives, and I know God Loves! 

Love,
Elder Logan Bryan