Felt, Michael PT

I can't believe how much time flies out here. It saddens me to know how fast time is flying, it just makes me love and appreciate the mission more and more!     It's been a great week! We witnessed a miracle. One of our investigators, Gus, had a baptismal date a while ago. And he was sooo close!! Elder Matthias and I felt prompted that we should wait. We later found out that he had some past criminal and court issues that needed to be settled. After a few weeks, he was sentenced to 8 months of jail. During this time, he would've missed the birth of his son. He had another court date this past Saturday. The night before, he called Elder Barbosa and I asked for us to come over and give him a blessing. We did so and then prayed all night and morning asking that everything would go well. He called us right after court and gave us incredible news!! Everything was cleared. There wasn't enough evidence for his past "crimes' '. He no longer has to go to jail and th...

My new companion is Elder Barbosa!! He's INCREDIBLE! He is a convert of 2 and a half years!! He left to serve a mission exactly one year after he was baptized. You would never even guess that he's only been a member for a couple years. I am learning so much from him. He's 27 years old and used to be Jewish! He's a beast. Together in the past 5 days we have already picked up 8 new investigators!! And they're all super solid. We have a lot of work to do for this transfer.      I was a little bit worried about the district staying focused on the work at the end of last transfer. With two missionaries going home, it was hard for them to stay 100% focused. Their excitement on going home rubbed off on us. We too started thinking about the day when we will go home and all these thoughts soon filled our minds with what it would be like. All is well now, the 3 new missionaries that came in settled all the worries. They have brought in a new excitement about the work and toge...

It has been an insane week!!! So I am pretty upset right now because my companion, Elder Matthias, is getting transferred. We have only been together for 2 transfers!!! It's crazy because if anyone was going to get transferred, it was going to be me. I can honestly say that Elder Matthias and I are best friends. We are extremely close and have had a blast together. President threw a curveball, so I will be staying here in the City of Enoch, HOLLISTER, as District Leader still. This transfer will put me in Hollister for 6 months, which I'm totally okay with. I love Hollister so much.     So on Tuesday, our branch presidency went on exchanges with the stake presidency. Elder Matthias and I had to split up and go with each member of the presidency. It was incredible! We went and visited some recent converts and less-actives. I had to translate for the stake presidency member because he doesn't know any Spanish, it was really tough! But the gift of tongues is true. I have a fir...

Sorry for not emailing yesterday! Our zone went to Santa Cruz for P-Day! It was amazing, I'll send pics.     This past week had its ups and downs. It was extremely difficult at first. Our recent convert Javier, hadn't come to church in a month and we hadn't seen or heard from him in weeks. Then to make matters worse, Jauna, our number one progressing investigator who was ready for baptism, called us on Tuesday morning and basically dropped us. She feels like she's being separated from her family and is scared that if she gets baptized, her family will disown her. It was heartbreaking for Elder Matthias and I. We were 100% certain that she was going to get baptized. Missions are tough sometimes! But, all is well.     The week got better though! We picked up a new family of investigators and found Javier!!! It was the best. He's been working from 3am until evening so that explains everything. Brother Montuy and his wife, the ones that have been less-active for years a...

It has been an awesome week. I went on exchanges with Elder Bringhurst on Wednesday, it was great! I had a lot of fun with him. He works very hard and is ALWAYS looking for ways to serve in any way he can. He is a fantastic elder. I am definitely grateful to be in the Spanish program though! The people are just so humble and kind. Plus they make way better food, we get spoiled almost every night!     So I mentioned a couple weeks ago about how so many people will be impacted from the baptism of the Elias family in our branch. And it's happening!! Sonia and Ramon (the parents of the family that got baptized) are doing remarkable things for the branch! They are helping everybody out and they are sharing the gospel with EVERYONE! In fact, they both came to a lesson with us with our #1 investigator, Juanita! It was incredible! She came to church for the FIRST TIME and they picked her up for it! Beforehand, she could never come to church because of her husband that wouldn't let her...