There's Sunshine in my Soul Today with 65 degrees!

It's been such a great week everybody!

After the snowstorm it's been nothing but sunshine and warm weather. It's getting pretty close for sweater weather to being over. But along with the nice weather, the work has been going well here in Doylestown.

The Lord keeps finding us people in complexes, it always just seems to be the last building or the last door. But it's really cool to just see when you are determined, the Lord blesses you for your commitment. We met a woman named Julie and she was interested in knowing what our message was about. After it we explained it all, she asked "why does it matter if it's true or not", it was such a powerful time to bear testimony of the truthfulness and the necessity of the Restoration. She was interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon which was pretty exciting. 

I also went on exchange with my Zone Leader Elder Drake, who has pretty much become one of my best friends. We stayed here in Doylestown and we taught a part member family, Paul and Sister Bowes. Sister Bowes has been baptized for 4 years and her fiance is Paul who wants nothing but her and Paul to be sealed. He's met with he missionaries a couple times, but he's open to meeting with us again! It's been good with the work here in Doylestown. 

We also had Zone Conference and it was so great being able to see old friends like Elder Neilson and Elder DeLand. It's such blessing to be in the service of the Lord with your friends. Just a note, P-day will be next Wednesday because we are going to the temple next week. The mission is the best!

Elder Cortes

Doylestown, PA

Valentines Day? My Only Valentine This Year is Missionary Work

Hey everybody! 

It's been a pretty good week here in Doylestown. We definitely saw the Lord's hand in our lives as we went out to go proclaim the Gospel. 

It was pretty neat to start the week off with Zone Training. It was a little weird at first just because I was pretty used to setting up and conducting Zone Training, but it was pretty nice to observe and learn from the Spirit from the majority of the trainings. Our Zone Leaders were able to have our new Stake President give a training on working with members which is pretty cool. Throughout the Zone Training, it really made me thankful for leaders that can help teach me how to be a better missionary always.

We also got hit with a pretty heavy snow storm in the middle of the week. We got about 8 inches of snow overnight which was pretty unexpected. It was in the 60's at the beginning of the week, then the storm, then it went back up to the 60's. It was so warm so quick, a good amount of the snow melted that same day. It was pretty funny just because we were all set ready to go Shovel people out but there was nothing to shovel. I gotta say, East Coast weather can never make up its mind. It definitely is not the dry heat all the time in Arizona. 

The biggest miracle we saw happen to us was that we went tracting for a good amount of time and we met this man named Chuck who let us right in to teach him the Restoration! Now, I haven't tracted in the past 7 months or so. Not that I didn't like tracting, but because there were so many other ways to find, like street contact. But I was just so thankful the Lord let us in one house, if you go knock on doors for a few hours and one person lets you in, that makes it all worth it. Even if you don't get in a door, it's still a pretty good feeling you're doing everything you can to bring others the special message of the Gospel. We also met this Irish guy named Lee, he had the accent and everything. He never talked to missionaries before and he was visiting Doylestown from New York. After talking with him for a good couple minutes, he wanted to hear what missionaries had to teach him in New York so that was pretty cool. But the best part about that experience is that he told us it was commendable to go out and talk to strangers about something you believe deep down in your heart. It's people like that, who recognize who we are and what we do, that really makes you think Heavenly Father is always looking out for you. 

I'm so thankful for the time I have to be on my mission. I came to grips a while back I have a little bit of time left on my mission. But I'm so thankful everyday to be a missionary for the Lord. My mission has really changed me for the better and it continues to change me now. It is such special, tender time. I'm thankful I get to know my Savior Jesus Christ more and more. He's my Brother and I'll always keep representing Him in this great work.

Elder Cortes

Doylestown, PA

Priceless Pennypack!

Hey everyone! 

It's been a phenomenal week full of miracles as I'm getting used to the great area of Doylestown. It all started off with District Meeting on Tuesday. It was a pretty powerful discussion on prayer and we also had the Stake President's wife observing what a District Meeting was like since her and her husband are going on a mission in Houston which is pretty neat. But after, we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders who I have an incredible amount of love for. Elder Drake and Elder Haws have to be some of my favorite Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Drake to his area called Pennypack, which is borderline to Philadelphia. There were a good amount of ghetto parts so that really brought some good memories of Reading back. Elder Drake is such a great missionary! He came out one transfer before I did and we had such great talks about old companions we both had and really getting to know one another. The best part of the exchange was that we had an appointment fall through with an investigator St an apartment complex so while we headed back to the car we talked to this guy who was about to head into his apartment building. He wasn't interested at all, in fact, he was high as a kite unfortunately. But he told us we could knock on doors in his building and we decided to give it a shot. The first door we knocked one was a young couple with an infant son who let us right in. It was amazing to see how the Restoration just clicked for Khallel and Stephenie, Elder Drake is such a great teacher too. We just kept bouncing back and forth with each other which was so nice. When you can teach with clarity and unity at the same time, the Spirit is in abundance. It was pretty fun to go to Pennypack and do some work in that area. We only do 2-3 exchanges here since there's only sisters in the District but exchanges are so powerful without a doubt.

The next day we taught our investigator Skylar and she brought up a good amount of concerns regarding her testimony. So we started off with the basics of God and Jesus Christ and she knew about them, but she was searching for a personal connection. Well, Elder Morton was impressed to show an old holiday video of the Savior and by the end of it, everyone was in tears. The Spirit was beyond strong in that room, probably one of the strongest lessons I have been apart of on my mission. She knew from that point God was there, and He did hear her prayers. It was so great!

Something pretty neat that happened also was that we had an appointment with a less active named Brother Bachin. He's been less active for a couple years so he feeds the missionaries and is willing to have a lesson with the Elders after. So the interesting part of it all was he is uncomfortable sharing a message with us around his wife, so we went in a small RV in his garage to read the Book of Mormon with him. It was actually pretty neat, I've never had a lesson in an RV so it was an experience for sure!

We also had stake conference and it was a pretty big deal this weekend. There was a new Stake Presidency called and we were able to hear some pretty great testimonies from the old and new Presidencies. We also got to hear two Seventies speak which were pretty impressive and powerful messages as well as President Randall, who is one of the best speakers I know without question. Overall, it was a pretty good week! We don't have anyone on date yet for baptism, but we are going to go above and beyond to find those who are ready! I know the Lord can do the impossible. As we exercise faith in Him, believing we will get an answer, it will come to pass. I hope we can all remember that our Lord is waiting to bless us, we just need to ask in faith, believing we shall receive.

Elder Cortes

Doylestown, PA