Why I Wear the Plaque
I put on my plaque every single day because I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I may not be perfect, in this life I never will be, however one day I can be perfected because of Him. He paid the greatest debt that could ever be paid. The least I can do is put on the plaque with his name and serve. I find joy in serving. It might be hard, I definitely mess up, I have rough days, but he is on my side. When I turn to him, he is there. That's the reason that I put on my plaque everyday.
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Hey friends! Thank you so much for all the emails last week, they helped a ton. I can't promise I will respond to every single one but I will try. I know y’all are dying to hear the update…
Take Two
I need to start off by saying that in terms of the work, my comp is a pretty decent missionary. He follows the schedule to a T. He does street contacts a whole lot better than I do. He talks to people and connects the lessons to their lives (when he remembers what they said lol). I will learn a lot from him. Now, when it comes to loving fellow missionaries and communication… there is some work to be done, however, I am going to try to persevere this transfer and not ask for an ET (emergency transfer)... at least for now. (my ZLs already told me they would get it done if I asked). With that mindset I am trying extremely hard to look at all the good things we are doing.
Love, kindness and positivity solved some mindset and tunnel vision issues I was having but, as much as I'd love to say they solved everything, some things never change. Even on Christmas. I had just hung up the phone with my family and was talking to my ZLs, laughing, trying to make the most of our Christmas away from home. My comp comes out of our room and rehearses the same lecture he gave me just a few days before saying we were wasting our lives, asking who we believed in, and wondering why we were even here (hence why I started this email with that). On Christmas. He left the room, I put my airpods in, my head on my desk and cried. It had already been a rough week with Christmas away from home, his last lecture, problems sleeping and not feeling good… that was my last straw. Luckily I have loving ZLs who came over and picked my head up. They were more frustrated with him than I was, I was just emotionally exhausted.
How do I know? The next day I sat in the ZLs room for an hour while they let him hear it. I will admit it is not how I wanted to approach the situation but the ZLs having my back showed me what it means to love your fellow missionaries. After that little intervention he gave me an apology and we started on Take Three. What is Take Three? Well I told him if he wanted to correct me and tell me to do better he had to figure out how to do it with love, aka without yelling at me. I told him if he yelled at me again it was going in one ear out the other. Right now that plan is going okay. The kid needs to work on his tone of voice and be a little more optimistic so that's the biggest thing I'm going to work on with him. Why? Because everything we have done has resulted in pessimism and it SUCKS. A simple question of mine turns into a 40 minute lecture. I still can't do anything right but at least I'm not being yelled at anymore. I am grateful for that change. I pray it lasts more than 3 days this time.
I will kill this kid (he's 26 btw) with kindness don't worry.
BATISMO
Alright, let's be positive now shall we. My boy Eduardo got baptized! I met him at the start of my last transfer. A young woman from our ward had been bringing him to seminary and game night. He would always talk with us but the young woman didn't want us to teach him. Eventually we had lunch with the young woman and her family and we won enough of her approval to talk more with him.
After that things moved quickly. He came to Church and brought his mom! We started teaching them both and got them both put on a date for the 28th (unfortunately we had to move his mom's date but she will still be baptized). He understood every single lesson we taught and he never had doubts. In fact, at some points he was answering better than I would have because of what he learned in seminary.
Yesterday, he was baptized by the father of the young woman. One thing I have noticed about the baptisms that I have been at is everyone comes out of that water with a new light to them. Eduardo was baptized and nothing changed physically but I looked at him and couldn't help but smile. He was the brightest in the room. It's impossible to describe the feeling. On top of that, feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit of Promise makes it even better.
The Other Stuff
We had Zone Christmas Conference… highkey was nothing special. The best parts were being able to see Bingham (and get my first real hug in a long time), seeing people from my MTC district (shout out Call, Walker and Jones), using a laptop, and hanging out with the APs.
I am officially one of the top 3 most hated people of the Sisters in serving Lorena (I don't even know who they are so that shows you how much I care)
Ika bought us Christmas dinner
I need to learn Spanish and Portuguese now (we are teaching 4 Venezuelans)
Had a family home evening and tried Columbian Pastels and got Chocolate cake!
Visited a member the day after Christmas just to stop by and say hi and within seconds there was 4 liters of soda, chocolate cake, and honey on the table. I love the members. I also tried raw honey, like eating the honeycomb raw. It was actually pretty good.
BYU won the Pop-Tarts bowl! I miss my BYU sports.
Went street contacting and found a recent convert's mom and she came to church the next day! The recent convert is kinda stubborn though.
We got soaked by rain on multiple occasions. It made me so happy
Quotes
“I know who she is… does she know??” [Elder Eysser to Elder Gonzalez, 12/17/2025]
God's Hand
Rain (again)
Getting to talk to my family 3 times this week
A loving ward
All your messages
Better sleep
Heart in the clouds
Spiritual Thought
The invitation to “Come unto Christ” (Moroni 10:32) has been made. It's always there. It never changes. All we have to do is accept the invitation and follow him. Follow him through having faith in Him, repentance with a desire and effort to change, baptism by immersion, in his name and by proper authority, receiving the Holy Ghost, and persevering and turning to him throughout life. Elder Gerrit W. Gong said, “He waits ready to embrace us” (Our Campfire of Faith, October 2018). Come unto Him. He wants you to. He is the light (John 8:12)
Well that's all I got for y'all this week. God is with you everyday. Turn to him and you will see his hand. Remember it when you see it.
I love you all so much and I can't express how thankful I am for all your emails. Please keep emailing me, I read them all. Let me know if I can do anything for you guys, in writing, in prayer, anything. I hope you all had a great Christmas and now a great new year!
Feliz ano novo,
Elder Urbano
