First day of school VCU

FAMILY!!! 

 

Another fantastic week to be a missionary!!! I really can't even explain to you guys how much I love it down here!!  Seriously, all we do is teach lessons and street contact, and occasionally contact a referral  AND IT'S THE BEST!!!  and it only got better this last week because Thursday was the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!! 

Writing on the street

There are so many people EVERYWHERE!!! I officially have used up all 5 of my potential pages in my planner, and am now using the rest of the pages with investigator and member slots (Heather can explain)!!  We've been able to find over 100 people who are willing to meet up with us and talk about Jesus!!!  Now the big challenge and responsibility for Elder Hathcock and I is to make sure that we stay accountable for the people that the Lord has trusted us with!!  We've been working on daily contact and just calling everyone!!  and it really helps out... but it takes FOREVER!! but it's definitely worth it.

 

Thank you so much for continuing to pray for miracles!!  They just don't stop!!  The miracle that happened this last week is probably the coolest miracle of my mission.  

 

Elder Hathcock

So Tuesday, we are contacting around monroe park, and president has asked that when we proselyte, that we split up so we can contact more people (obviously still staying within sight in sound).  So Elder Hathcock comes up to me after talking to this guy and says, man that was the craziest thing! He said he wants to meet with us, he's met with missionaries before and knows it true said he didn't have a phone but wanted our number so he could contact us, so I gave it to him and he walked away."  I was like yeah!!  that is awesome!!  He said, " no, it gets better, as he was walking away he turned around and said "hey!! I was thinking the 13th"  I said, "for what?"  he said, "for baptism"  at this point as Elder Hathcock was telling the story I completley lost it!  I was super stoked!! 

A tour of a Catholic Church

A couple of days pass and we don't hear from him at all, and we're starting to doubt that he was really serious, and that takes us to saturday,  Elder Anderson of the 70 came down to do a fireside for RC's and Gators, we were allowed to go as long as we brought one of the two.  We had asked everyone but no one was answering or they just had no way to get there.  So we decided that we'd just go contacting for the rest of the night.  We contacted for a little bit and ended up talking to this girl sitting at a table outside, she seemed a little interested, but got an urgent phone call like halfway through our lesson.  She walked away and I was a little bummed, and doubted that she would come back after she got off the phone.. and then out of the corner of my eye I saw some guy walking up to the table,  IT WAS TRISTAN!!  He apoligized that he wasn't able to get in contact with us and asked when we could meet up, we got him to come to the fireside with us!! and set up another return appointment.  When we got to the return appointment with him he was waiting patiently.. listening to mo-tab... me and Elder Hathcock just looked at each other and said, " Man, are you listening to mo-tab....." and he says "yes sir the one and only!!".  So we start our lesson with him and just asked him what he wanted from us as missionaries.  He instantly opened up and told us that he had been investigating the church since the 7th grade, he had never met with missionaries but he bought a ton of books like, True to the Faith, the Gospel Principles book, and Our search for happiness and he just learned the doctrine for himself. He read the Book of Mormon and gained a testimony of it's truth and divinity.  He testified to me and Elder Hathcock ( kinda like we should of to him) that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God and that he truly restored Christ's church back on the earth.  the only thing that was stopping him from being baptized at that point was the fact that he was under 18, and his parents did not approve at all, he continued to read and pray, and tragedy struck and his father passed away, making his mother all the more against the idea of him being baptized.  He told us, " My mother doesn't approve but I need to be baptized, (then stopping and choking back tears said) I need to be baptized so I can enter the temple and do the work of salvation for my father."  The spirit was so overwhelming it was difficult to keep myself from crying, we testified that he would, and that we as missionaries would do everything we could to make sure he could be baptized by the 13th.   He came to church on sunday and introduced himself like this, "I'm Tristan, I'm getting baptized on the 13th of September so... all of your prayers would be appreciated.  I have just been blown away by how prepared and ready he is to be baptized and also by his understanding of how baptism is merely a gateway to so many eternal blessings and so much happiness.  I am so thankful that the Lord has trusted us with such a prepared person.  It has truly been a miracle and it has solidified my testimony that there are truly people out there who are prepared by the hand of the Lord.  People who are yearning for the blessings and the peace the gospel brings and all we have to do is open our mouths, extend a loving hand, and be an example of the believers!!  I love this gospel so much, I'm so blessed to be a missionary at this time,  The Lord is truly hastening his work at this time!!  I love you all so much!!! Have a great week!! 

 

Love,  Elder Sahagun  

Move in day for VCU

FAMILY!!! Mom!! I'm so glad that you and the fam are praying for miracles for me and Elder Hathcock here and let me just tell ya, the Lord has been so merciful by blessing us with tons of miracles this week!!  I know for a fact that's an answer to your prayers!!  There is so much good happening in our area right now!!  Move in day for the VCU students was the past 3 days, and it was CRAZY!!! 

Elder Tolman from Canyon View High School

There were (and are now walking around everywhere) SO many people!!  During move ins there were constantly people standing by huge piles of stuff on the edge of the sidewalk!  

One miracle was this.  I went up to talk to this girl named Sophia and her mom standing by some stuff and asked if they needed any help moving, they said no, but we got talking a little bit.  Sophia and her mom explained how she had been raised Catholic and been taught to believe in God but she had come to a point of searching, and was looking for a church to go to while she was away at college!  I Immediately jumped on the opportunity to testify and promise blessing!  I was so excited I gave her our number and then got her number on a mormon.org card (mistake) little lesson for ya'll.   Always.... write potentials' numbers down somewhere where it will not be lost.  Because that's exactly what happened.  At some point later that day I handed that card with her number on it to a random person..  at the end of the day when I realized it, I just felt sick.  Here was this awesome potential that the Lord had trusted us with and placed very nicely in our path and I had lost our only way of contacting her again.  I talked about it with Elder Hathcock and we came to the conclusion that as long as we had the faith that the Lord would place her in our path again.  I prayed super hard that night that we could have the faith to see a miracle.  The next day (sunday) we went out contacting early to see if we could find her and had no luck. We went to church thinking that maybe we really weren't suppose to run into her yet.  After church and a linger longer (ward activity with food)  we went back out and just stopped trying to look for her and just decided that if we ran into her that it would really be the Lord's will,  Right as we said that we made eye contact with some girl in a huge.. and I mean huge crowd of people and it was Sophia!!  She was super excited and asked how we were! and I had to tell her that I had handed her number out to a random person, but we were able to get her number and set up a lesson for this week!!!!  It was such and answer to my prayers!!! I was so relieved!!  I wish I could tell you all of the miracles of this week!! Like how some random girl and her guy and some other girl helped us contact people and find 15 potentials in like and hour!! but it would take a really long time!  We are having so many miracles!!  I know that the Lord is so ready to bless us with miracles!!  As long as we are exercising the faith and we go forth and DO!!!!  BE BOLD!!! I love this gospel!! I love being a missionary!!! and I love all of you!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

August 12, 2014

Sis from Thailand, Heather knows her mom!

Steering Wheel Bike!

Woah,  Seriously.  This has been one of the weirdest weeks of my mission, as far as weird random stuff happening!!  Some of the stories will have to wait till I get home,  I don't want Mom to worry that much ;) but honestly, it is super fun!!  We talk to and get to know so many people!!!  It's super great!!  I mean before I came on my mission this is what I expected it to be like!!  and it's about to get even more jammed packed with people down here.  Fall semester starts Aug 21st and everyone has been talking about how crazy it's going to be and how many people there are walking around!! I'm super excited!!  There is one Place on campus called the compass and that is usaully the prime contacting location, just because everyone goes through there!!  I'll get a before and after pic of when school is out and when it's in so you can see the difference. 

Giant police head we walk past almost everyday

So this is my crazy story of the week

Elder Hathcock and I are just walking downtown and we see this random Homie (homless guy) strutin his way up to us he stops right in front of us and says, " LET US PRAY NOW!!" so he takes both of our hands and we get in this little prayer circle,  He looks at me and says, Brother you start us off!! So I start to say a simple little prayer and during the whole prayer this guys is bouncing our hands up and down and nodding his head going, "mmmmm Hmmm"  after I'm done he proceeds to raise our hands up to the sky, and say "Where at? Where at? Where at?" we say, "Up?" he say's " Up there PoP........ goes the weasle" and walks away haha The crazy thing is that this is not a random happening for us here in Downtown Richmond, crazy stuff like this happens to us all of the time!!  But I seriously love it!! We get to teach a lot of people just on the streets!! We're working on finding some more consistent investigators,  We have about 3 solid ones right now with about 40 potential investigators that we've found this past week, so we're working on getting them to commit to it, Investigate and be baptized.

Elder Hathcock,Elder Sahagun,and Woodstock :)

A cool Rockwall

I am so convinced that this gospel can change everyones life!!  I am super blessed to be in this area with Elder Hathcock right now!! I love you all so much!  and hope you all have a great week :)

Love, Elder Sahagun

Downtown Richmond

New Area

FAMILY!!!!

 

There is so much stuff going through my head right now at like a million miles an hour!! This past week has been AWESOME!!!  I'm super excited but I'm going to try really hard to be organized with this e-mail, cause If I told you everything that was going through my brain right now I don't think you could handle it..  So for the sake of being organized I'm just going to calmly answer all of your questions.

 

How is your new area? AHHHHHH my new area is the best!!!!!  I'm serving in the Chippenham YSA ward It's so much different, I'm gonna have to stop teaching people younger than the age of 18 or older than the age of 30 but I'm super excited!!!! and my district is awesome, it consists of AP's the Sister Training Leaders and another set of awesome sisters, and we all serve in the same ward!!!  I don't know if you remember Elder Collie form when I first came out.. but he one of my favorite missionaries and he is AP and the other AP is Elder Unga and he is just the most awesome person ever he plays football for BYU he's the nicest person you'll ever meet, he's a good looking Tongan and Heather should marry him :)  The only downfall of this area is that we don't get dinners at all, so we have to eat out a lott. ;/  where we prosy VCU/Downtown is like 20 mins away from our house so we leave the apartment and don't come back until 9 or 9:30.

  

What is your new companion's name? My new companion is Elder Kurt Hathcock!! HE IS AWESOME!!! He's been out for like 7 months or so and he is just down to work hard!! It's like we are the same person..

 

 Where is he from? He is form South Jordan OOOTAAAAHHHH

 

 What is your new area like? It includes 3 stakes!! including 2 that I have already served in previously. VCU campus is in our area and that is where we pick up all of the people that we work with, we just walk around campus all day and invite people and I LOVE IT!! School doesn't start till the 21st so the campus is kinda like a ghost town right now, so we just go walking around Downtown Richmond, which is crazy!!!  More crazy stuff has happened to me in the last week than has happened to me on my whole mission!! I have so many stories to tell about this place!! It is so fun!!  We talk to so many people and it's super suprising how many people are willing to listen to us!! We teach a lot more and that is always good :)  

 

What is your new address?

2028 B Timbershill Rd. Richmond, VA 23235 :)

 

 How are you feeling thus far about your mission?

I feel like I wasted a lot of time being homesick, I really wish a lot that I could go back to my first area the missionary that I am now, but I know that's something I'll never be able to change so I don't worry about it.  I feel like my mission has been perfectly tailored to stretch me to my furthest limits without breaking me.  There have been a lot of times where I've been in slower areas where I just felt like I couldn't do anything to improve the work, but when I did what I knew was right anyways, things always picked up and improved.  I really feel like thusfar on my mission the thing that I've learned the most is having the faith to fail.  To be able to have the faith to do everything you can the way you know is right and to fail miserabley but then to get right back up to find success.  That is something I feel like I have never have been able to do before and it was super hard but I'm super greatful that I learned that lesson out here instead of in real life. I feel super grateful for my mission so far.  The rest of my mission (I hope) will probably be spent here in Chippenham. President just announced how he's all about longevity.  Which is cool with me I'd love to die in chippy.  I'll send yall some cool pics of Downtown and VCU next week my camera died :(  I love you all so much!! Hope you have an awesome week!! :)

 

Love, Elder Sahagun  

Transfers

Family!!

Well I was right about transfers, right when things start picking up and the ward figures out what it means to be missionary minded and nothing seems like it could go wrong, they tell me to leave hahaha but that's just how it works!  And I really am excited to go to a new area and meet new people there!!  I've got a really bad feeling that I will be in a car.. but whatever the Lord wants.  

 I will be leaving Massaponax tomorrow and I still haven't packed any of my stuff... Looks like it's going to be a late night and an early morning.  We have been going around these last two days just saying goodbye to my favorite members and investigators and it's just super sad.  I've been on my mission for 17 months now and I'm still really bad at goodbyes.  I never thought, especially when I first got here, that I would be sad to leave, but there are a lot of people/things that I am going to miss, but I am definitely ready for a new challenge and a new phase of my mission!!  I love this work so much, and no matter where I go there will be people who need to hear the restored gospel of Jesus Christ!!!  I love and miss you guys a lot!!  I hope you all have a great week!!  I'll let you know my new address next week.

Love Elder Sahagun 

Me out Tracting in the suburban Forest  Straight up trees for DAYZZZ!!!!!  

Exhausted in the Work of the Lord

My Wonderful Family!! 

WOW!!  You guys have no idea how crazy this last week has been!! Pretty much, it's been the most busy week of my mission, hands down!!  It's been so great!!  This is the most I've been able to teach in one week and it's definitely the most teaching that this area has seen in like a year and a half!!  And I'm straight up EXHASTED!!!  Things are going really well!!! The ward has really stepped it up!!  We are being fed regularly,  Members are coming out and teaching with us every day, and we just got a new bishop and he is super missionary minded!!  That's why I'm pretty sure I'm leaving this next transfer, well that and the fact that I've been here for 7 1/2 months. We find out if we'll be leaving on Saturday of this week and then we'll leave next Tuesday if we get a call, I'll let yall know for sure!!  I'd feel good about leaving the area the way it is. I always want to leave an area better than I found it, and it's been really rough and challenging but I think this area has really improved since I've been here!! 

The Family reunion!!!  Holy cow!!  I am incredibly jealous.  It looks like it was soo much fun!! I can't wait for next year to see all of the cousins and everyone!! It's so crazy to think that the last family reunion Heather and I went to was 2 years ago!!  How does the time go by so fast!?!?  

I love you all so much!!  I hope that you have a great week,  be grateful for the dryness.  Virginia is freaking unreal sometimes. 

The Church is true!!! 

Love Elder Sahagun 

Spotsylvania

Dear Family,

Such a crazy fast week!!  I can't believe I already get to email you guys again!!! 

 Mom that's way cool story!!  That lady is going to get baptized!!!!  Hahaha that is really cool how that all worked out so that she could hear about the gospel.  AHHHH I can't believe that Heather is going home soon!!  I can't believe it's already been almost 18 months!!!!  Time goes by way to fast to just be complacent!!!! 

It's been a good busy week!!  We've been teaching a lot more than usual this week!! We set a goal as a district to teach 20 Member Present lessons and we were able to get that plus 12 other lessons!!  That is really good for our district!!  I love serving with these incredible missionaries and helping them in anyway I can!!! Transfers are coming up pretty soon, We do them every six weeks.  I find out if i'm leaving on the 26th and then Transfer day is the 29th.  I'm guessing I will probably be leaving Spotsylvania. I've been here ever since the 1st of January!!!  It sounds like forever but it's felt way faster!  I'm just super excited to be serving with these missionaries!!  I have made so many lifelong friends on my mission.  I love the Elders that I'm serving around right now!! Missionary work is the best!! I love you all so very much and hope that you all have a great week!!  Make sure to tell everyone at the family reunion that I miss them!! but people would miss their families for eternity more, so it's totally worth it!! Love you alll!!!  The Book is blue and the Church is true!! 

Love, Elder Sahagun

Role playing with Elder Gambles

 

This is Elder Thomas and Elder Hansen, my fearless Zone Leaders.  They live right upstairs from us!!! They tear it up, they are my favorite (only) elders in my district!