 Today at 2:04 PM March 17,2015 This week has been a pretty crazy week. On Wednesday we had dinner with Juan and Jose Isais. They are both deaf and blind. We use something called "Tactile" to communicate with them. It is where we have their hands over my hands and they understand the signs i am saying that way. Then they lift their hands up to sign what they want and that just happens again and again. They are so awesome. We also had one of our investigators come join us for the dinner. It was Luis. He loved it. We also had zone conference and that went well. Other than that nothing super exciting happened. It was a good week overall. Now for the spiritual part of my email. I love this talk from the 1st presidency message in the ensign for this month. In it it says: Who Will Comfort Us? Though none of us will ever have to experience the depth of what our Lord suffered, we each will have our own dark and bitter hours—times when our sorrow and grief may appear to be greater than we can bear. There will be times when the weight and remorse of our sins will press mercilessly upon us. Even so, if we will lift our hearts to the Lord during those times, surely He will know and understand. He who suffered so selflessly for us in the garden and on the cross will not leave us comfortless now. He will strengthen, encourage, and bless us. He will encircle us in His gentle arms. He will be more than an angel to us. He will bring us blessed comfort, healing, hope, and forgiveness. For He is our Redeemer. Our Deliverer. Our merciful Savior and our blessed God. Isn't that so true. I know that is true. We can rely on him. He is always there for us. Love you all!! I hope you have a fantastic week. Love Elder Betts

Hey everyone!!! So this last week we were able to do a lot of cool things!!! We went back to the temple after i emailed you guys to meet with our recent convert Tara. Then we also had a few parties because Elder Gerber is now gone. He went home because his 2 years is finished. It was sad to see him go. As for the work... we are working with Norman (he is an investigator) to prepare for baptism on the 28th of March!!! It will be exciting. We went to the Mormon Battalion with him and his wife yesterday as well as the ASL South missionaries. It was a party. Then we shipped Elder Gerber off this morning. So real quick before time is up i want to share this message with you. It is in the March ensign. It is the first presidency message. In it is this: Who Will Comfort Us? Though none of us will ever have to experience the depth of what our Lord suffered, we each will have our own dark and bitter hours—times when our sorrow and grief may appear to be greater than we can bear. There will be times when the weight and remorse of our sins will press mercilessly upon us. Even so, if we will lift our hearts to the Lord during those times, surely He will know and understand. He who suffered so selflessly for us in the garden and on the cross will not leave us comfortless now. He will strengthen, encourage, and bless us. He will encircle us in His gentle arms. He will be more than an angel to us. He will bring us blessed comfort, healing, hope, andforgiveness. For He is our Redeemer. Our Deliverer. Our merciful Savior and our blessed God.

I know that this is true. No matter what we go thorough he is there for us. Love you all!!! have an Amazing week!!! Love Elder Betts

Hey everyone. This week has been a good week. I got into the new area and i am now in a trio for one more week. Then one of the companions go home. I am back in ASL work!!!! That is good!! It is taking some time to adjust back...but all is well. This last week one of our investigators got baptized. Her name is Tara. She is deaf. She had a wonderful service. Here is a picture of the baptism. The one in the baptism suit is Elder Pierce. He was in my district in the mtc. he is now a companion. The other one is Elder Gerber (going home next week). Tara is the one being baptized. Sorry to keep this email short. We have little time today because we went to the temple. It was such a wonderful opportunity. Hope you all have a wonderful week!!! Love you lots Love Elder Betts

White Out!!!

So it happened!!! The baptism went super well!!! It was such a spiritual time and a great experience!!! Wow, it was so great! I was super nervous the whole time, but it went super good! So that was really the highlight of the week! It was super great!! We celebrated by going to Olive Garden and ate unlimited soup, salad, and bread sticks!!! It was fantastic!!! Randomly we got a text from Amy-the 12 yr old who got baptized- and she said of how she felt blessed after the baptism. It was so great to hear that! Other than that...nothing exciting happened. So for a spiritual thought. Well because it is the week of valentines day....i think we should talk about love. Whenever i think about love i think of the love of Christ. In the song "I stand All Amazed" it says: I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me, Confused at the grace that so fully he proffers me; I tremble to know that for me he was crucified, That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died. I marvel that he would descend from his throne divine To rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine; That he should extend his great love unto such as I, Sufficient to own, to redeem, and to justify. I think of his hands pierced and bleeding to pay the debt! Such mercy, such love, and devotion can I forget? No, no, I will praise and adore at the mercy seat, Until at the glorified throne I kneel at his feet. He loves us. We can do the same. We can show our love to others. #Charity I love you all!!! have a fantastic week and an amazing valentines day!!!! Love Elder Betts

THE HOLY GHOST IS THE TEACHER!!!

Did anything exciting happen this week? I think YES!!! Probably the most exciting thing that happened is all 3 of our main investigators had their baptism interview this last week...and they are all good for the 7th!!! Do you know what that means?!?!?!?!? Tri-baptism!!!!! Whoo hooo. They are all going to be baptized on the 7th. Ben is going to be baptized by his member friend Bro. Warne, and probably confirmed by him as well. Becky is being baptized by President Despain-ward member and 1st councilor of the stake presidency. She is going to be confirmed by Elder Weber. As for Amy, she decided for me to baptize and confirm her.....there is a first time for everything!!! So i am super stoked...but at the same time a little nervous to do this!!! But all will be well!!!! So that is the exciting news of this week! This week was an ok week! We have been focusing on the three being baptized and that is mostly all we have done is meet with them and help them out. For the spiritual thought for today I wanted to share a little of the email I got from our Mission President today. In his letter he said, " THE HOLY GHOST IS THE TEACHER: The key to becoming a great gospel teacher is to be guided and directed by the Spirit. With the Spirit, you will love those you teach and will teach people, not lessons. With the Spirit, you will listen intently and not be rushed. With the Spirit, the things you have studied and planned will be brought to your remembrance and you will teach with power and authority. While Sister Schmitt and I were in the MTC in June, Elder David A. Bednar taught us the following: "The Holy Ghost is the third member of the Godhead and a Revelator, a Teacher, a Comforter, a Sanctifier, and He brings all things to our remembrance. Elder James E. Talmage explained, “The Office of the Holy Ghost in His ministrations among men is described in scripture. He is a teacher sent from the Father; and unto those who are entitled to His tuition He will reveal all things necessary for the soul’s advancement.” Inviting the Holy Ghost to be the teacher is a central purpose in all of the Lord’s patterns for learning and teaching. A learner who exercises moral agency and acts in accordance with correct principles opens his or her heart to the Holy Ghost—and thereby invites His teaching, testifying power, and confirming witness. Learning with and by faith requires spiritual, mental, and physical exertion and not just passive reception. In the sincerity and consistency of our faith-inspired action, we indicate to our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ our willingness to learn and receive instruction from the Holy Ghost. Consider how missionaries help investigators to learn by faith. Making and keeping spiritual commitments, such as studying and praying about the Book of Mormon, keeping the commandments, and attending church meetings require an investigator to exercise faith and to act. One of the fundamental responsibilities of a missionary is to help an investigator make and honor commitments— to act and thereby learn by faith. Teaching, exhorting, and explaining, as important as they are, can never convey to an investigator a witness of the truthfulness of the restored gospel. Only as an investigator’s faith initiates action and opens the pathway to the heart can the Holy Ghost deliver confirming witnesses. Missionaries obviously must learn to teach by the power of the Spirit. Of equal importance, however, is the responsibility missionaries have to help investigators learn for themselves by faith. The learning I am describing reaches far beyond mere cognitive comprehension and the retaining and recalling of information. The type of learning about which I am speaking causes us to awaken unto God, to put off the natural man, to change our hearts, and to be converted unto the Lord and to never fall away. Learning by faith requires both the heart and a willing mind and is the result of the Holy Ghost carrying the power of the word of God both unto and into the heart. Learning by faith cannot be transferred from an instructor to a student, from a missionary to an investigator, through a lecture, a demonstration, or an experiential exercise; rather, a student must exercise faith and act in order to obtain the knowledge for himself or herself." Let us try to have the holy ghost be with us all the time! It is such a great feeling and definately worth it!!! Love you all!! Hope you have fantastic weeks!!! Love Elder Betts

Miracles Happen

Hello Everyone! The highlight for our week was on Friday. We were having our district meeting and at the same time our mission president was having a meeting with our stake president. Anyways... during our meeting both him and the stake president come in for a second (which was scary). And they talk with us for a little while. Then our mission president came and stood by my companion and i and he puts his hand on my shoulder. He says "Elders you have Becky and Amy with a baptism date for the 31st right?" We reply "Yeah, but we will probably be needing to reschedule the date because she is still working on the Word of Wisdom." President's reply was unsuspected. He said "well what you need to do is go over there today, take away her pack of cigarettes (we never mentioned smoking, just said word of wisdom), and give her a blessing and commit her to that date!" We replied "yes president." and so we did just that.....well almost. She wouldn't let us take her cigarettes she wanted to finish the last few because she was stressed because her mom was in the hospital....anyways we explained she needed to stop the next day and stay stopped.... she said yes. So that was super cool! However...she wont be baptized on saturday. She is having a birthday party for her daughter (Amy) and so she will be the 7th!!! MIRACLES ARE REAL!!!! Other than that...the week has been pretty boring! We have been busy but not anything awesome like above happen. So for my spiritual thought I wanted to share this wonderful mormon message with all of you. It is a wonderful thought!!! So have fun watching it!!! http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/gordon-hinckley-lessons-i-learned-as-a-boy-1 I hope you all have a fantastic week!!! Love you all!!! Love Elder Betts

Shark Tacos!!

Hello Everyone.....so some crazy stuff happened this week. We had 4 great adventures this week that made our mission......oh exciting. drunk guy, 17 yr old showering battery fish tacos The first one was when we went to an appointment with a less active, part member family. We set up the appointment last week, she knew we were coming and she wanted to meet with us. When we get there we walked into a birthday party for some small child in the family. We see the bounce house castle....and we were like "what are we getting ourselves into?" We walked into the yard and they came out. Elizabeth (the member) said "sit down. The food is almost finished." So we sat down. While waiting we tried to talk to this guy....he wasn't the most friendly guy. We asked his name to just say hi..... and he wanted to know why we were asking. We said just small talk. He said I am really busy I don't have time to talk with you.....about 15 minutes later, our bellies full, he comes and talks with us. Beer can in hand and all. Then he tells Elder Weber that he can read people. He "knew Elder Weber had a question", he thought because he was twice our age, he is twice as smart, oh and he thought I was on a water diet because I had a water bottle......silly drunk guy. I had to restrain myself from laughing! eventually we left. The second adventure was when we in Calexico, we tried to visit a less active family. The 17 year old daughter answered and talked with us for a while. Then out of the blue she says, "I haven't showered!" an awkward pause followed, then came the explanation when she realized what was going on. She just went running and hadn't showered yet....super awkward great conversation. The third one happened yesterday. We went and did service for a member.....oh it was the worst service ever. Their shed got infested by mice. There was dead mice everywhere....mouse poop....and an awful smell. We wore pretty great masks though.....so it was fun. We took everything out of the shed, cleaned them up (sanitized them), cleaned the shed, and put them all back in. It was....and adventure for sure...... Then they fed us lunch. But our day gets better. After lunch we go to our car....it wont start. We get the members to try to jumpstart it....that doesn't work. We try cleaning the battery....still nothing. So we take the battery out and then go to pep boys. They do a batter test....lets just say it was time to get a new battery...it was completely dead. So that was our "Happy Martin Luther King Day". To top everything off. Last night we had an adventure after all that fun in the morning. We went to an investigator's house last night to try her fish tacos-she said they were the best. I am not a big fan of fish, in fact you can say I strongly dislike it, but she said they weren't fishy at all. We are always down for trying new things. So....we went there. We ate like 4 tacos each. They were delicious. But that is not even the best part. It turns out they were actually shark tacos. The fish they buy is shark. They never knew that. It was really good....so I can say that I ate shark on my mission. So that was our adventures this week. Also transfers is this week. Luckily for our companionship nothing is happening. We are staying the same. Hope you all have a fantastic week. Love you all!! Love Elder Betts

Service!!!

So I am sorry if I made anyone think that I died last week. I failed to write a mass email. But I remembered this week! Things are going pretty great this week. We are doing such great work. We were busy this week giving lots of service. We did service for our LA member Sandy Johnson (who her husband passed away on Dec. 28th). We have been working a lot with her helping her out with what we can. We did service for her 2 time this week. Helping her around the yard. We also helped to tear down a part of a house. A Recent convert Thomas K. bought a house at an auction and we helped destroy part of it so he can rebuild it. We are also helping him rebuild it. So we got to go get dirty for a while with him. It was really fun. We also helped the senior couple move apartments. We helped them for part of the day on Friday and then we went on a walking adventure afterwards. Our investigators are doing well. Becky and Amy are most likely going to be baptized on the 31st of January. Ben is super ready for his baptism on the 7th of February. The other we are working on getting a date. Also this week I am having the "Opportunity of a Lifetime"........also known as teaching the young women a little bit of ASL....so that will be an adventure for sure. It will be exciting to do that. My spiritual thought this week comes from a talk entitled "What Manner of Men ought ye to be". in it it says "One of the most important questions ever asked to mortal men was asked by the Son of God himself, the Savior of the world. To a group of disciples in the New World, a group anxious to be taught by him and even more anxious because he would soon be leaving them, he asked, “What manner of men ought ye to be?” Then in the same breath he gave this answer: “Even as I am” (3 Ne. 27:27)." Let us try to be like to savior. Love you all. hope you all have a fantastic week. Love Elder Betts. A email from the sweet Senior Missionaries. Greetings to the Betts Family, We have enjoyed having Elder Betts and his companion in our home (apartment) this morning. They helped us move from our former apartment to this one last week. We are the Senior couple serving here in Imperial Valley. We are from Idaho Falls, and have been in El Centro for one month, starting our mission at the MTC on December 1, 2014. The weather is great and we love the missionaries. Elder Betts and Elder Weber are our 'first official visitors'. They came to do their laundry, and Elder Reilly fixed us all breakfast. Your son is a great missionary! Love, Elder and Sister Reilly

Happy News Year!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was quite different than what I was used to. Instead of snow being on the ground when we woke up we had to sun and the grass to look at. So it was a different experience for sure. This last week has been really slow due to the Holidays, so nothing too exciting happened. We did add a new investigator last night. His name is Josue. He is really awesome and he really is interested. We helped clear up some questions he had, taught the restoration, and committed him to read and pray about it. He accepted and he also wants to bring his cousins to the lesson next week. So things are going great. Other than that not anything too exciting has happened. The message I am sharing today deals with the new year and setting goals. First, take time to honestly reflect on the past year and then determine what you desire to achieve and, more importantly, what you desire to become in 2015. President Monson has taught: "When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates." In other words, your goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. The best way to achieve your goals is to seek the help of Heaven and then work with all diligence – resolve that you will not return home until you have met your goals that day. As we set goals for the upcoming year lets keep this in mind. We can do anything with the lord's help. This video is about setting goals and the new year. http://www.mormonchannel.org/mormon-channel-daily/385?v=910930409001 I know that setting goals is important and it helps us to accomplish the things we want to accomplish. Love you all. Love Elder Betts

Merry Christmas!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you all have a great week!!!! Time is short so I will be brief: Because everyone is out of town for the holidays, this week has been really slow. We met Elder Nielson of the 70 on Friday. We also had a mission wide christmas Devotional yesterday, meaning we went to San Diego two times this week. We had to wake up at 4 both times to be able to get there....so that was really fun. Other than that this week has been good!!! Christmas message this week: What shall We give him? http://www.mormonchannel.org/christmas-videos?v=2919740155001&cid=HPMO122214579 Our loving heavenly father has given us everything we have!!! What can we give back to him? Let's give back to him what we can!!! Love you all!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!

Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays everyone!!! This week has been a good week. We were able to have a few adventures this week. One of which was the ward Christmas party. We went at 5 to help set up and we didn't get done until about 8:45. The party started at 6:30 and it was a great party. We were able to have 4 investigators come to it and they had a great time. We had great food and wonderful entertainment. Everyone participated in the sing along program. They even made us missionaries do a special number....Feliz navidad. And of course it was the most white thing ever. It was so funny. My companion and I sang it....and it went surprisingly well. We had fun. Our investigators are continually preparing for baptism, however we are probably going to have to push the ones with dates for next week back a month or so. We haven't been able to meet with one. The others, the mom, is a coffee drinker. She said she cant give up coffee....so we are working on that. But we will see what will happen. I am loving it out here in the valley. It is such a fun place....except it is cold at night....but luckily we have our sweaters we wear. Hahaha. I hope you all have a great week. I have to go now because I have 2 minutes left until the library kicks me off. We had to use the library this week because the church wasn't working, so peace out. Love you all. Have amazing weeks. Love Elder Betts

Stand for Right

This past week i haven't too many adventures, but overall it was a really great week. To start off the week, on Wednesday we went down to Calexico to have an appointment with a deaf man named Javier. We went to his house, we met up with the spanish sisters, because they found him. We said a quick prayer, then we rang the doorbell. He came to the door, the sisters were like "that is him". they said hi and did a quick wave and Javier made it clear he was deaf. That is when i stepped into play. I started a conversation with him and we had a great time. I interpreted for everyone and it went well. We asked him if he was interested in us talking to him about Christ and his gospel, but he said he was really sorry, but he is a Jehovah Witness and he is not interested. We said it was all good. We also asked him if he had any deaf friends who we could see if they were interested. He gave us a name and address of one of his friends. We later checked that out after we finished with Javier, and no one was home, but we are going to keep trying. Other than that, nothing exciting has happened for me. We have had a few appointments with investigators, but most of our solid investigators were either super busy, sick, or out of town this week. So not a lot happened. We did have the Christmas Devotional on Sunday that we went to. We were able to watch it at a member's house. It was such an uplifting and wonder messages. It is available on lds.org if you missed it. So go check it out. And during this Christmas season, let's remember the true meaning of Christmas and how Christ is the Gift. This past week as i was reading the Book of Mormon, I came to chapter 44. This is a big battle scene with Zerahemnah. This is a scene where Moroni stands up for the truth. Because of this God made if so that they were victorious. Later on in chapter 48 it says of how if we were to be like Moroni, then Satan would have no power over us. How are we able to be like Moroni and stop Satan? We need to put on the full armor of God. As we do so we will be protected from the dangers of Satan. We will be victorious over him. We need to put on that armor and stand for the right. I know that is true and that as we do so, we can stop the temptations of Satan. Hope you all have a fantastic week!! Love you lots, Love Elder Betts