Blessings and Protection

Hey everybody! Happy Valentines!!! This week has been much better. Well, this week we found a lot of new investigators. We found 2 families, they're cousins and we taught them one night and they were all listening to us and it was great. They are soo interested. We are going to teach them tonight. We also went to eat at a restaurant thing, idk what you even call them in English. We taught the man cooking our food and these other 2 families.  They are all interested and we're teaching them all. Plus yesterday we were walking to find a reference. Then this man was out on the street and we talked to him.  His mom was ill and her leg was in bad, bad pain from something, I can't remember, like surgery, and we told them we could bless her and so we did and she was sooo sweet and nice. She just grabbed our hands and was thanking us and now were going to teach them.  We explained how we bless and we have the priesthood authority. Now they are interested and we're gonna teach more. Then we got like 4 more references that day and right now just as I am typing this we found another young man. He's like 26 and he speaks English. He is from Denver and now he lives here and he's on the computer and we're talking to him.  He wants us to visit him and he needs help with painting. He is really happy, and really interested about churches. The bad thing is it is transfers this next week so its a bummer if I will be transferred but my companion says I'll probably stay and help the other companion that comes, show him around the area and just get to work. That's what I'm hoping. 

My Spanish is getting a lot better. It like goes on and off, but now it's just sticking. Things are going better. We're close to baptizing our other investigators. One came to church yesterday for the first time and was amazing. He loved it. Everything is getting better, I think. I am learning a lot about the area and how to be a missionary. I miss the U.S. haha, even though El Paso is right by us, it's so different. Oh, also, this lady in our ward had a man put a gun to her head and wanted her money and she was soo scared and sad. He said if he would see her walking around again he'd kill her and take everything she had. Later I gave her a blessing and it was in English. At the end she cried and cried. She thanked me and we left. I could feel the spirit so strong, and the fact that God loves her and cares about her and is watching over her. It was awesome!! ahh yeaa! that was cool. 

I am glad to be a missionary here, not a normal citizen, because its pretty scary sometimes. But the people love holy people like us. So they don't do anything. I have noticed - now this is like such a testimony builder for me. OK, so when it is night time the lamps turn off in the street except the main roads, but other than that they turn off. When we are walking in the dark and walk under a lamp it turns on. Every time. Then as we have passed by to the next one it turns off and were walking in light safely. I know that Heavenly Father loves us and cares about us and is watching us. Especially the missionaries hehehe. So I do feel safe and now I am not scared. How is everybody doing? Tell me whats going on over there. I wanna hear what's happening. Well I have to go. Love you all. Have a good week.

Elder Castleton

Every Member a Missionary

Hey everybody! This week has been great in Juarez. Learning new things everyday. A little more on Juarez and how I'm doing. So first off, I've noticed I do the missionary speed walk but sometimes it hurts my feet because the sidewalks are sometimes slanted. Its weird, the sidewalks are either dirt, normal for a little bit, then slanted, or like normal, then it drops off like two feet. It's weird. I love living here. We have awesome neighbors that try to speak English to me. So I got my hair cut and the guy that cut it spoke fluent English so it was nice to explain what I wanted exactly.

It's funny here because they have Walmart which is actually bigger than the one in AF. Also they have Home Depot and Costco and other same restaurants. It's nice in some areas when you're by the big stores like Walmart but other places are like Mexico Mexico. Like dirt poor. I love the people, though. So it's like the US but in some parts it's wayyy different. In the stores they play normal music we have in English like Cold Play and stuff, even like Eminem and Hannah Montana or stuff which is weird because they don't understand it. I'll ask and they're like "It just sounds cool". lol. Or they play way cool Mexican music and no its not the weird Mexican music, it's normal like we have but in Spanish. Anyways...

We found a new family to teach and another man and this girl that came to church yesterday. She's 18. I gave her a Book of Mormon and asked if she would read it and she said she will, and she will come to church again. There are some other young women in the church that are nice and the girl we're gonna start teaching likes those girls in the church so now she has friends. I've been teaching family home evening like every night. Its awesome. Getting better in Spanish. BTW, Suzy, family home evening in Spanish is Noche De Hogar.

Everything is great here. I cook for my companion. He loves my cooking. I'm loosing weight. My pants are big now, lol. I love serving here. I'm safe and working. The work is grand. We had one lesson with this member. She's a tad less active but we taught her the restoration again. She knows it a lot and all the other lessons but I taught the whole thing and after she said she felt like it was the first time she heard it because the spirit was so strong and it reminded her when she heard it the very first time. Another cool story is - we went on the bus, which is crazy sometimes, and it's hard to preach on the bus. It's like hard. Missionaries will be like "Yea, I gave away a passalong card" or something but I prayed before I got on and asked Heavenly Father if I try to give a Book of Mormon on this bus will you put someone in place for me? It's hard to word it in English but something like that. So I get on and I see this teenager and he's listening to music so I tap his shoulder and I introduced myself and he said hi and he was nice and told me his name and how old he was. He's 18 and he was headed to school. I asked what he was listening to and it was some rap in English which was Eminem and I like Eminem so I told him I speak English and love Eminem and he's like "Wow! Cool!" So we talked. Then I told him I was a representative of Jesus Christ. Later on I gave him a Book of Mormon and a passalong card. He said he'd love to read it and he was very happy and kind.

Everybody, I testify as we ask God for help to find someone to share the gospel with He will place someone in our path. I know if we just open our mouths he will put in the words for us to say. I hope this makes sense - it sounds better in Spanish but I have a strong testimony too on the work of salvation. I have a strong testimony on the importance of Members and Missionaries working together. It is crucial. We can't do this alone. Members live in the area. They know more people and can get around faster. Plus missionaries are getting transferred. I testify as we work together and every day we try to find someone to serve or share the gospel with we will be BLESSED. I promise. It is scary, it is hard sometimes but I promise it is possible and they will feel something. If we just open our mouths we can work miracles. We are the light. We have something other people don't have. We need to share it with everyone. With a desire to do it and to LOVE EVERYBODY. We will be blessed forever. We need to set the example here for everybody. Many a time us members think "Oh, I'm a Mormon, I'm fine, I don't need to work or help share the gospel. The missionaries are doing that." This is false. Please share, please. Imagine if each member found 1 person to bring to church or into the church. That's so many! I know this is sooo important. God wants EACH of us to share, not just missionaries or a few members. Start by being someone's friend. Serve them. Love them. If you see someone who needs help, help them. If you go to a restaurant and there's a person with tattoos, go talk to them. You don't know what they might be going through. Everyone can change and needs help. You can changes lives with the help of the Lord. Just act and do it. Their is much work to be done. Much. I can't stress this enough. It is sooo important, like I said, as members we kinda slack at trying hard every day to find people. We don't need to be full time missionaries to share the gospel. We're all missionaries. I saw in Salt Lake that they didn't wanna help spread the gospel, even the English wards. The other elders said it's hard to work with members who don't wanna help. There is much to be done. There are less actives as well. God is hastening his work. Let us all do our part to help bring the gospel to every nation, kindred and tongue. I wanted to share my testimony with you guys. It is hard to say it in English so if it's a little like "Wahh" it's because I was translating from Spanish to English. It takes forever to read in English but in Spanish speaking it is faster hahaha. I am trying to roll my R's. It's hard. IDK why I can't.

Oh, guess what!?!?? They have Glorias here, the candy! The dulce de leche! Ahhh, so yummy! I got to go. Love you all!! Have a great week. Mom or Dad maybe one of you could read my testimony to the church for fast and testimony meeting. Its important. Its something we're teaching down here a lot. Our bishop asked us to teach it to the families but not all. Haha. This is elder C closing my report. Have a grand week ehehehe.