Elder Trevor Ward's Mission: The best day of the mission yet!

March 7, 2011

Heyyyy guys!

Like always, it’s good to hear from and hear about everyone! Haha, that’s funny that I’m "famous" at Greenfield Jr. High. Too bad my writing stinks now because my English aren't very good. And…Ava still cracks me up, by the way. Tell the whole family that I said hi and I’m glad that you recognize that the Lord blesses our whole family so much!

FHE with the Chavarria Family

Elder Ward, Elder Rodriquez and the Chavarria Family

This week was so awesome!!!! Honestly we didn’t really do a whole lot else but focus on the Familia Chavarria, now that I think about it, but everything paid off. By the way...last week on Monday night we had a FHE with them and played charades and everything. I felt like I was right at home again. The highlight of the night though was when we confirmed their baptismal date. Hermano Chavarria had some doubts and I felt impressed to share with him your note (the one you wrote last week dad). It was pretty hard not to get choked up as I read it and afterwards I bore my testimony with that of our families. They agreed to be baptized and we were all so excited!

The baptism this week was amazing! There were about 60 members there to the point where we had people peeking their heads in the door from the outside hall. We even had balloons, food, you name it (for the wedding too). The members gave them gifts and welcomed them into the ward. We even had two other investigator families there. It was such a happy day, one that I’m sure will be the best of the mission. I learned so much with the Chavarria family. One of them being that the Lord is so patient with us and that the miracles of His Son's atonement can be obtained by all if we do all that we can. They moved a mountain this Sunday and finally closed their little store to come to church together for their confirmation. Honestly, I can’t explain all of it but it was such a happy day!

Welp...on to the random not so spiritual matters...I bought an original number 34 Shaquille O'Neal Lakers jersey for two dollars last P-day along with a freakin sweet hammock that I still have to put up.

Elder Rodriguez loves picking up mangos off the ground and drop kicking them (because they’re all over the place). The other day he picked up a fat one and said "watch this" (in Spanish...) and punted it super hard. The mango rocketed, miraculously, into the space between the roof and brick wall of the nearest house. We heard it bang around inside, looked at each other in horror, and felt prompted by the Spirit to get the heck out of there. Haha…we pretty much died laughing after that.

Other random story...Roberto Jose Rivera. This guy is a recent convert and I know that he is a child of God but he's a little...strange. He’s about 60 something years old and it’s sweet because he’s been coming to church more often lately. They called on him to say the closing prayer at the beginning of the meeting yesterday and I thought hmm...sweet. Well...the meeting finished and he had no idea. I then scooted over to him and told him that he had to say the closing prayer. After some confusion he got up and walked to the stand. He closed his eyes, folded his arms, and said, "Buenos dias (good morning) Jesus..." and then went off bearing his testimony I guess you could say. But, he just started talking about the universe, and Adam and Eve, and the craziest stuff ever. People started to open their eyes and wonder what the heck was going on and a member of the bishopric walked up and told him to say the closing PRAYER. Oops...

I taught the Gospel Principles class by myself this Sunday. That was definitely an adventure. Especially because I walked in the class and didn’t even have time to pray for help before I started teaching. Also.......we made a garden for a single mom and her kids this week in our missionary clothes. Haha…it was way sweet! Wellppp, I don’t have much else, but know that I love you all so much and hope that you’re doing well! Keep being the best that you can be and I’ll talk to you next week!

Love super much,

Elder Ward

PS...don't have my camera cord :( otherwise I would send pictures, but I'll try it again next week!