GLOBOS

First off.... had a killer P Day today. Woke up at 3 in the morning to go see the Leon International Hot Air Balloon Festival. Not gunna say much about it cause I got sweet pics. And I'm coming back to see it again in a couple years with my hot wife.

 

Man I'd be lying to you if I didn't tell ya this was one of thee hardest and most humbling weeks in the good ol misión. But it was hands down one of the best too... In the end I'm super happy, and that's important right?

 

My compañerito Elder Perez is pretty awesome.  I've yet to find a single thing we have in common besides the góspel. He hasn't exactly opened up to me yet... but one day he will tell me all his secrets. He's got a super powerful testimony.  He is from Tabasco Mexico... He was one of 2 priesthood holders in his branch. All of his family is Jehova Witness, and they weren't to happy about him serving a misión.  I have a lot of respect for the kid.

 

Like I said, this week was hard but awesome.  It was hard because between my comp and I we have 0 time in the misión, we have a big old sketch área that I'm still learning, and last week ALL of our fechas for the rest of this month fell through. 

 

But the cool part was that we had a ton of lessons with members, and even though we didn't quite make the cut for baptisms this month, God blessed us with 3 anyway. First, an investigator who progressed a ton this week -- his name is Arael!  We will baptize him the 29th. Another is a little girl named Leslie... her fam is inactivo but her parents want to come back, and what better way to come back than with a baptism!  Also this week is our miracle investigator --his name is Tadeo. He just moved into the ward, his parents are menos activo but are reactivating, and he wants to get baptized. He reminds me of Zane :)  We are baptizing him this Saturday! :)

 

Got your package mommy :) thanks for the TRX and shirts! The Border homies stole my peanut butter. I ain't happy. The ZL's told me I got some letters and I get those tomorrow!

 

Peace and Love and read the BoM please!

 

Elder Minnick

Some of the Zone and the President

Elder Romero my zone leader! 

Tangled lantern thingy's

My homies!

My compañerito Elder Perez!

This is Leslie.....she drew a pic of me!

My gorgeous area.... it gets worse!

CAMBIOS

Hola!!!

This is gunna be a short one.... I really wish I had a ton of time to write today but schedules super off with changes this week!! 

Monday:  Found a whole new family!!  Baptisms coming soon!

Tuesday:  Found another guy! HE was super stoked and accepted a fecha but we tried to return a couple times and he's super hard to find...And we were bummed when he didn't come to church this week.

Wednesday:  Not a single one of our lessons went through....one of those long days!

Thursday:  Had a giant family night at the church.... 3 whole wards. Received a butt load of referrals. Hoo Raw!

Friday:  Really our only full day of work this week... Lots of lessons. We taught an older lady. It was the second time we taught her, and the second time we had to explain to her that we aren't Catholic, and the second time she accepted the same baptismal date...I'm feelin like we will have to do it all again next week...  :)

Saturday: Family History thingy at the church all day. Amazing how much of this stuff I already knew.  Youth Family History Coordinator in the Draper South Mtn. 3rd Ward :)  I do really miss the temple. Go a lot please!

Sunday: Last day of the change and I hit the 4 month mark! Where did the time go?

So our ZL's called us at 8 and told Elder Manning all the changes, cause he's the DL -- he gets all the dirty deets on the zone. But we didn't have changes.... 15 minutes later they called us again and told us that president changed our changes! Elder Manning is off to Irapuato (he comes home next month....(DATE HIM LADIES) and I'm gunna stay here in Leon and train :) I'm pretty stoked! I would be lying too if I didn't tell you I am pretty nervous. I don't exactly know everything I'm doing and my Spanish needs some work, but I do know that the Lord qualifies those he calls. I'm ready for a super humbling experience!  Pray for the people we teach!

I'm training Elder Perez from Mexico. That's about all I know about him but I pick him up tomorrow! Pray for my new hijo to be patient with me!!

No pics this week. I took a break from taking pictures this week... sorry momma you'll have to go another one with out seeing my face :)

Love and miss you all and see ya in 20!

Elder Minnick

Stellar week...

Fam and Frens,

I had another stellar week :)

We had interviews with President Merjorda Wednesday.  I dread interviews because that usually means an hour of chastising from dad. But this week I was sooooooooooooo excited to have an interview with President, hoping he'd just chastise the crap out of me and tell me everything I need to do better... but unlike interviews with my old man, this one lasted like 45 seconds with three questions. I was bummed.

Other than that our week was good. We found a ton of new people, we are always dropping a ton of people....AND, a ton of people love Jesus but are too lazy to do anything about it.   I kinda guess for every 20ish people we find one of them will be baptized!!!   Yay for contacting and references!

We had one of our progressing investigators quit his job this week so he could go to church Sundays! He literally has nothing, but exercised some faith and the Lord blessed him with a better job, better hours and better pay! We were stoked. He gets baptized this month.

Today we went to a park and rented some bikes.... there was a little track there... reminded me of that one time when I destroyed dad's Yamaha 450... the track was exactly like that... but don't worry mom I didn't even crash and all my bones are fine :)  Tam note:  the first question I asked before I even finished reading the letter "WHAT KIND OF BIKE?"  see pics... lol

I have changes next week...feeling kind of nervous. If we don't have changes,  I'll be with Elder Manning for his last change and end up being in this area for at least a total of 6 months. That's what I want, but both Elder Manning and I feel like we are going to have changes.  Either way I'm nervous for this week!

Elder Minnick

P.S. Got your letter GPA Chuckles. Miss you and love you and thanks for the letter!!!

Tam:  Weston sent no captions with the pics, but I will caption them "HAPPY WESTON!"  Seriously, not sure if I have ever seen him so happy.  Makes it a ton easier to not MISS him.  Finally.... I have told both of my kids... a 45 second interview with the mission president is WAY better than a 45 minute interview. :)   Currently...poor Zane is getting all of Jay's attention!  Don't let my kids fool you, they all secretly LOVE Jay's father's interviews!!! 

Blog:  www.elderwestonminnick.blogspot.com  

Testimony

Fam,

This week was solid... as a companionship is was probably one of our greatest weeks. Our ward had 3 baptisms this week. Two of them came from less active families, and the third was an investigator named Monica! She is the last member of her family to be baptized, she has three children already baptized! Yay for Monica! 

I decided I needed a little more excitement in my life this week so I cut my own hair... The most exciting part was that I decided to just go for it and started right down the front middle of my head. I didn't do too awful, I kinda messed up on the right side of my head so I just had to cut everything shorter and then it was chill. I've been praying really hard and decided that BYU just isn't for me and that I should go to hair school ;) hahaha NAAAAAH,  but Elder Manning told me I can cut his hair this week... just after interviews with President :)

"But the haircut doesn't look too bad. right?"

We had a couple extremely powerful lessons this week.  First we went into the sisters area because they asked us to help them teach a lady who was having problems.  It just so happened that the person we visited was in need of a blessing. And well... boom it was a powerful blessing. She's been smoking for 40 years but wants to quit! We are fasting for her this week!

I'm fasting for grandma Linda this week too! I love you grandma and hope you feel better this week!

We had a another cool lesson Saturday.  Its with one of our investigators named Jose... he has issues with the BoM. It was a cool lesson for me because after he spent 15 minutes telling us about why the BoM isn't true, we spent 5 testifying that it is. He was speechless after, and when we were done, we just got up and left. I felt like we punched him in the face with the Spirit. 

I also had the opportunity to speak in church yesterday... I didn't know I was speaking until sacrament started.. so I wasn't exactly prepared, but they told me to speak on whatever I wanted.  Elder Manning chose testimony, I chose conversion. 

I don't really remember much of what I said, but I do remember talking about how my testimony has been and is the most important thing I own.  My testimony is the base of everything I am, everything I feel, and everything I want to be and do. I'm not perfect but everyday I do my best to do what God wants me to do. I realized all of this why I was speaking in church. 

Because of my testimony I know that everything will be okay. That bad days become good days when we pray. I know that we have a Savior that suffered and died for me, you, and every person in the entire world. Sometimes after I have walked 20 miles in the hot sun I start complaining in my head. I think man... I'm tired, I'm hungry, my feet hurt, and we haven't had any success today.  It's super easy to forget about the amazing blessings I will and have received in these last few months, especially in my weak moments.  And because of my testimony I know that tomorrow will come and soon after that eternity comes too. 

Sure love you all!

Elder Minnick

Elder Minnick:  "This is what happiness looks like!"  

Hermana Minnick in Guatemala: "The water in the baptismal font, I also shower with that water, and wash my clothes with that water..."


Just a tad bit of difference between the
two missions and water quality!!!!  

Elder Lafavor y yo!

The zoo!

Friends and Fam,

Nothing as exciting as getting hit by a car this week...sorry.

No this was a really good humbling week. It was super disappointing. We had to drop a family and another investigador.... Super frustrating when the salvation of someone is more important to you than it is to them. 

I got super mad at myself this week too. This whole Spanish thing is frustrating and our one promising baptism for this month fell through. But Elder Manning and I repented of all our imperfections and mistakes this week, and I'm feeling much better for this next week.

Like I said... not many super exciting things happened this week, but I'm grateful for tomorrow and the chance we have everyday to better ourselves!

We went to the zoo today! I got some sick pics!!!

Love you all!

Elder Minnick

Some call it work, I call it therapy!!
Tam: The hat and pen behind the ear... same old Weston!!! The mold on the the wall behind him -- killing me!!!  :/

Selfies for mom!

Pucker up! 

Pretty Bird!!!

Obispo let me use his iPad!!

IGOTHITBYACAR!!!!

hahhaha mom don't be mad... I really am okay :)

Last Monday night it was raining super hard... and it was night so it was like... DARK.  We were walking across a small street headed to a bigger street.  And yes mom, I even looked both ways...but a couple stupid people were driving and took this corner super fast.  They hit Elder Manning's leg, cause he walks a little slower than me so he actually saw it coming... but they hit me in the butt.  I only flew like 10 feet and comfortably landed in a crap filled puddle... But, like I said, I really am okay. Not a single bruise. My back was super sore this whole week but I'm not complaining.  Glad I could check that one off my bucket list.

I know the Lord was looking out for me. There really isn't a perfect way to get hit by a car, but if there is, I'm pretty sure I did it. And yes momma, I'll be more careful :)

We found an awesome investigator this week... his name is Arael.  He lived in Utah for like 3 weeks, down in St. George. He really liked it, and wants to go back, but he wants his daughter to go with him. We contacted him this week outside our house, set an appointment up for Saturday.   He was somewhat familiar with the church and we have a fecha for him next month! He even came to all 3 hours of church this week!!!  That was a relief because all our other investigators couldn't make it. 

It was a harder week. We had to drop a whole family... of 7. It's super sad. The whole family is super super receptive to the Spirit, and we have had a ton of awesome lessons with them... But the dad trusts the internet more than he trusts the power of prayer and the Holy Ghost.

We had a super cool day today. Played soccer for like 100 hours, then we went to the centro here in Leon! It's awesome!!!!  We went to a couple of giant churches... They were beautiful. But, the feeling is just so heavy and cold.  I MISS the temple back home. Feeling is soooooooo much better.  Cant wait to go to Draper Temple in 2016.

God loves you!

Elder Minnick

Bunnies and Books of Mormon!

I didn't make any Mexican jokes, I PROMISE!

Met a member with a longboard today!

SELFIE!!

BOOM!

Silly white people!

Fancy art and stuff!

Elder Brito y yo!

Gen Con

Fam and Friends,

Really though conference is sooooooo much cooler as a missionary.   I wish I could sit down with all of you and talk about all of my favorite talks, but I only got an hour so I'll just tell ya my absolute favorite was Pres. Uchtdorf's talk in priesthood. I wish I could send pictures of my notes or something but they are completely ineligible and don't make much sense to anyone but me...haha! 

I also couldn't help but think of a certain boat that couldn't turn in Powell over the 4th of July during President Monson's talk. Those Germans just needed some duct tape.

Conference really was an amazing experience for me. I had 5 questions at the beginning and got 100 answers each session. I testify that not only does our Father in Heaven hear our prayers but he answers them through Profetas of Old and in these latter days. We are sooo blessed to hear from these men and women who have received a special witness, and receive revelation for the world.  We had some investigadors come to some sessions, but we had one dude named Ricardo, who came to all 5 sessions!  The prophets and apostoles did all the teaching for us, did some converting, now all we gotta do is baptize the dude.  Can't wait for the next conference...6 months will come fast!

P-Day today was cool -- went to the Plaza again!  I bought a ostrich snapback, and two other sick leather hats all for a total of ten bucks. Bought pops a belt buckle.  Don't worry dad, I'll send you some boots home soon.... what kind do you want... shark skinned or elephant?  I'm gunna get Manta Ray, but you can wear them until I get home.  :)

Other than that, this week was crazy. We finally got materials.  It's hard to teach about the BoM when you don't have any to give out.   We gave out like 50 in 4 days.  

Some people here are sooo ready. We have those lessons where we meet them, teach em a little, and they are committed to baptism in 15 minutes. But then we have those hour long lessons on how God is our loving Father in Heaven and the people can't get over the fact that we can pray ANY TIME day or night and share our feelings with Him.  I personally like the people who are humble enough to listen without proof. Faith is a powerful thing.

Thought I'd take a second to thank my parents who taught me how to pray. I can't remember right now who talked about that, but I'm grateful for a home that's built on the Rock of our Redeemer!  Love you mom and dad!  Momma feel better! 

Elder Minnick

MOM NOTE:  Weston did say he finally got some mail.....  16 letters and the first pkg. I sent him!!!  GOOD DAY!!  Weston also told Jay, "...couldn't be happier with mission life.  The work is good.  One complaint though.... you didn't tell me that the mission was fun!!  Just hard!!  You gotta tell your priests it's fun too!"   SO from the missionaries mouth.... missions are FUN!!!!  

McDonalds  -- WOOOOOO