Trio Becomes a Duo Again and Alicia's Baptism

Hey Everyone,

       Well how I start every week....It’s been crazy! I'm no longer in a trio anymore as Elder Marin got Emergency Transferred on Thursday to train a new missionary in another area. It was a sad day as Elder Marin and I worked super well together and now I'm left with my new trainee all by myself. It was a lot easier as a trio but life moves on. This Sunday was by far one of my favorite days on my mission as Maria and her son Joe and granddaughter came along with Noami to church and they really enjoyed all the classes. In gospel principles they taught about the family of the covenant of God. The class really helped them understand how once they accepted baptism that they would be accepted into the house of Israel and become the children of Christ. It finally clicked with them and they are wanting to continue progressing towards baptism. Maria calls us her angelitos and ninos, so she is in love with us. I great to see their conversion process in motion. But that's not all......I also got to go back to my last area to see Alica's baptism!!! She was one of my former investigators who always came to church, but it took her 6 months to finally make the decision. It was a beautiful service as my last companion Elder Low baptized, and another Elder and I did the missionary moment. It was the best baptism I've seen in a while! I got to see several members in my last ward that I fell in love with. I have great memories of Harbor 3rd ward! The work keeps moving forward here in LA! Many changes are happening soon with more missionaries and a new mission president this coming July. Life is going well! Until next week!

"The kingdom of God is not a democracy. Wickedness and Righteousness are not legislated by majority vote. Right and Wrong are not determined by polls or pundits, though many would have us believe otherwise. Evil never was happiness. Happiness lies in the power and sweet simplicity of virtue" Gordon B Hinckley

Os amo tanto!

Elder Marrott

Elder Anglade and More Golden Investigators!

Hey Everyone,

 What a crazy week! So Elder Marin got our new companion from the MTC on Wednesday, Elder Anglade. He's from South Jordan Utah and he is waiting to get his visa to go to Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission. He’s a big guy with a big heart. This week has been great as we had some fantastic lessons with Joe, Maria's son who we've been teaching the last couple weeks. We went to his birthday a couple weeks ago. I wasn't there as I was doing a baptismal interview for one of the companionships in my district, Antonio, which was amazing. A month ago I did the interview with his nephew Junior and now he got the missionaries to teach his family. It’s great to see things like that happen. Anyway, Joe from what I hear was very receptive to everything and accepted a baptismal date for next month. The next day we taught Maria and Noami again about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We used an object lesson that uses water, pepper and soap that really helped them understand how the Gift of the Holy Ghost works. It finally helped Noami understand why she needs to be baptized again. We are finally making progress with her. AND I can finally say I have found a GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR. Last Sunday, Hna Flores a member in our area brought her nephew Victor to church. We had gospel principles class and he just loved it! On Friday we had Dinner at Hna Flores house and Victor heard we were coming over, so he came over from next door to talk to us. He explained to us how much he loved church and how there is a lot of love there. He said that his best friend is a member of the church and how he has taught him a lot and invited him to church, but has never had time to come. Now he's on break from work in NYC and has time to investigate. He mentioned that how his friend invited him got his attention. "Hey come to my church and if you don't like it you don't have to come again." He told us that is "a celestial invitation." After dinner we invited him to have a lesson. We sat down he asked of if we had a Book of Mormon? YES WE DO.  Even before we started teaching he told us that "ok I'm going to read as much as I can and I will let you know when I want to be baptized." WHAT! Amazing. We set a date for May 19th with him. Tender Mercies! So great!

Os amo tanto

Elder Marrott

Still in Maywood and Trio Companions

Hey Everyone,

Sorry I don't have much time. Transfers have come again and its doosey this time. Elder Marin and I are both staying still here in Maywood, but we will be training a new missionary together straight from the MTC. Yeah TRIO POWER! I think he will be a missionary that is waiting to get his visa for Argentina, but we will see tomorrow. We are excited but it will be a challenge for sure. As for this past week we had a great experience with our investigators Maria and her grandson Joe! It was Joe's birthday on Tuesday and Maria invite us to come because he doesn't have many friends of his own. Elder Marin and I had the idea of inviting some of the young men in the ward to come to the party too. Hermano Reyna the young men’s leader was able to bring 4 young men over to the party. It was so great to see both of Maria and Joe's faces because of kindness that the young men showed to Joe. The next day Maria and Joe were able to come to the activities at church like Boy Scouts and we were able to give Maria a tour of the church. It was a little over whelming at first but it worked out. It was a evidence of ministering of angels those young men. Brother Beck gave a great talk at priesthood about ministering and how it goes beyond than Sunday. Things are going great!

Os amo tanto

Elder Marrott     

Conference Was Great and Amazing Maria

Hey everyone!

General Conference this week was amazing! There were so many talks that we can use to help my investigators! President Monson's funny story on starting a forest fire was awesome! Elder Perry gave another great talk on obedience. "Obedience to Law is Liberty" It’s plain and simple. I would invite everyone to read and watch conference over and over again! This past Friday we had a great lesson with Noami and her friend Maria who came to our Easter Sacrament Service last week. Maria is so prepared to receive the gospel. We taught them the plan of salvation and they seem to understand it extremely well. Maria even expressed to us even before we started the lesson that she is considering baptism because she knows that it is how she can accept God's plan for her. So as I was inviting her to be baptized there is a phrase we always use to invite people to baptism. "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone who holds the priesthood of God" Before I could finish asking the question" She cut me off and said yes like 5 times! So prepared!

I hope you all have a great week!

Os amo tanto!

Elder Marrott

Bike Accident! (But Got To Do Some Singing)

Hey Everyone!

            It’s been another eventual week full of successes and.....some funny moments. Ahh, well yesterday was a tiring day and Elder Marin and I went to stop by a 7 Eleven to get a quick snack because we were starving. On our way there, I turned a corner on my bike and there was a bus stop area followed by a fire hydrant. I was going a little fast and I was a little tired. I was able to avoid the bus stop, but I hit the fire hydrant dead on and I flew and had at least 2 seconds of air time before I fell. I ended up okay. My knee is just a little banged up a bit but I should be getting better soon. The bike is fine too. Only my self-esteem got majorly damage, but hey it happens. We had a great Easter Weekend with great lessons and a great Sunday service. We had our first lesson with Paola and Omar a young couple on Saturday Afternoon and Victor Garcia our ward mission leader came over with us. Paola is originally from Mexico and Omar is from Washington State. They got married about 4 years ago and they have gone through a lot together, and they were super ready to accept the gospel. They opened up a lot with us telling us about their wedding how they lost 100 lbs. of weight together, several things. We taught them the Restoration and they accepted it really well. They felt the Spirit really strong and Omar is really wanting to make a change. They wanted me to sing to them because we told them for the Easter that I would be giving a musical number. I sang Grand Eres Tu or How Great Thou Art. It was a touching experience. Unfortunately they got sick and weren't able to make to church. BUT...we had Noami and church again and she brought a friend Maria with her son and granddaughter. The whole ward was able to befriend them, even Aaron a 6 year old boy in our area, invited the little granddaughter to primary. So cute!

They loved all the classes especially the sacrament services that us missionaries were in charge of. I was Elder Marin and I, 2 other Elders, Elder Pollard and Elder Roberts and 2 sisters, Sister Bateman and Sister Foster (who is from Springfield Missouri, she is super cool). We all gave talks on the importance of Easter and our testimonies and we had two musical numbers, one all of us sang Senor yo te seguire and then Elder Roberts and I did a A Capella duet of Tan Solo con Pensar en Ti (Jesus the Very Thought of Thee) It went great and several people congratulated us! Maria, the friend that Noami, brought told us how much she admires the missionaries. Apparently the parents of her granddaughter aren't around anymore as the father left them we she was born and the mother committed suicide a while back. Just before she died she was meeting with the missionaries and she enjoyed listening to them. At the funeral, except her mother and the missionaries were there at the funeral. This was the first conversation I had with her and it just blew me away. I'm glad the Lord has prepared a way so that people can more easily accept the gospel through simple acts of kindness. We will be meeting with them on Friday and hope that we can commit the family to baptism. It’s so great!

"There are only two kinds of people in this world: those who you love and those you don't know yet"

Os amo tanto

Elder Marrott   

Golden Investigators: Luis and Noami

Hey Everyone,

 It's been another crazy week. But the best part was the lesson we had with Luis and that Noami came to church yesterday. The lesson this week with Luis was great. He's a young single adult and lives with his roommate, and he's a super intelligent guy that works on computers and delivers seafood. It was super easy to teach him because...I don't know... he just understood. We taught the plan of salvation and the Atonement and we brought a member Ricardo a young man the same age as him. We were able to read a lot of scriptures from the Book of Mormon and the Bible with him because we knew that he would understand what they meant. Ricardo was able to read him the Alma the younger conversion story to help him understand the purpose of the atonement and bore a marvelous testimony. I really touched Luis's heart. We invited him to baptism and he accepted a date for the 28th of April. Church attendance for him may be difficult because he works in the early mornings, but I think he will make an effort to prepare and learn. It was one of the most spiritual lesson I've been a part of so far in my mission. But on Sunday, Noami came to church, we weren't able to teach her, but she committed to come to church as a member when to pick her up. She enjoyed the Gospel Principles class as they taught about Christ and his purpose as our Savior and what it means to us specifically. She made a lot of friends and the Relief Society President was able to give her a ride home. Just perfect! Things are looking up and we are counting all the tender mercies we've seen so far.

"Prayer is not the substitute for work; it is a sometimes desperate effort to work further and to be efficient beyond the range of one's own powers. It is not the lazy who are most inclined to prayer ; those who pray most, who care most, and who have worked hard, find it intolerable to be defeated"

             George Santayana

Os amo tano

Elder Marrott

An Investigator From Who Learned About Church from Jail

Hey Everyone

      It’s been another awesome week as I'm still adjusting to my new area and responsibilities as district leader. This past Tuesday, I went on splits with Elder Beecher an elder in my district so I could do the baptismal interview for their GOLDEN investigators Junior. He has an amazing conversion story. A couple years back he made plans to have his first lesson with the missionaries one night but he ended up getting arrested due to possession of drugs and never got to meet with the missionaries. One day when he was in jail he ran into some missionaries that were teaching in the jail there and he basically learned everything of the gospel there and built his testimony. The missionaries gave him a pass along card to call as soon as he got out of jail so he could find a church and get baptized and that's exactly what he did! During the interview he constantly was bearing his testimony and I knew without a doubt that he was ready to make this step. This Sunday was his baptism and he had all his kids from Arizona come up for the service. Unfortunately he had a family member of his die on the freeway minutes before the baptism and it almost seemed like it wasn't going to happen. But it happened, and it was super powerful and his testimony was super strong! I'm looking again to teach a person like him again. That is what motivates me to work hard so I can be ready to find these kind of people!

The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. the world would take the people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of the people and then they take the slums out of themselves. The world would mold men by changing environment. Christ changes man, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior bur Christ can change human nature.

Ezra Taft Benson

Os amo tanto

Elder Marrott