Elder John-Gregory Sierra

HEAVEN FORBID I QUESTION IT TWICE!

This week's letter

Hey Mom, 

This week hasn't been the best, as far as lessons are concerned. We haven't been having the best of luck in our area with lessons. It's been scarce as of late. Something that will change this week. We will try harder to contact more people and to get a lesson in. 

Something that has been nice, though, was that we have been doing a lot of service and have had many opportunities to work with members lately which has aided us in receiving referrals to find people to teach. We have also been strengthening the less actives and have found an investigator through working with them, as well. In short, we have seen some sparks happen and we are hoping to continue to fan the flames. 

There was one cool experience that I had. Last Friday, we were heading over to an area to contact a referral, Then, I received an impression to go and see Hermano Juarez. I'm all like, "We saw him yesterday, Why do we need to see him again?" Then the impression came to me again that we go to Hermano Juarez and Heaven forbid that I question it twice!! I turned to my companion and told him, "I feel like we need to go see Hermano Juarez," to which he responds, "I've been feeling the same." With that, we did an about-face and went to his home. We got there and saw that there was an ambulance there and I saw that they were carrying Hermano Juarez into the van. His sister came over to me and told me to follow her to the hospital. We got back into the truck and we booked it to the hospital. We got there before the ambulance did. He had fainted, due to pneumonia and water in his lungs, and now he is being prepped for open-heart surgery. We were able to see him real fast (he was not looking good) and offer a quick prayer for his health. The next day, we received a call from his sister telling us that he got moved to a hospital near downtown Sacramento and asked us to come over Sunday to give him a blessing before the operation. It was WAYYYY out of our area, but I wanted to be there to help, so I called President Jardine. I explained the situation to him and he agreed saying, "I believe it is a necessary and vital need to have the missionaries always be on call to help their members in their respective areas." He went on to add, "Usually, I wouldn't let missionaries go so far out of their area and I would get other missionaries to go there, but I trust you, Elder Sierra, and I know you love those you serve, so you have my permission to go and give him a blessing." That meant a lot to me. I really love my Prez. He is a great man and is very in tune with the Spirit. I wouldn't have any other leader. We went over yesterday to administer the blessing and the Spirit was there and it was a comforting feeling to everyone in the room. Ricardo Juarez feels happy and ready for his operation. We are expecting to hear how it went very soon. 

That's all the major news that has been going on lately. We will be throwing a surprise party for a cool Elder in our zone named Elder Bancroft. He is newer in the mission, but is a great guy. I had the chance to perform with him as we jammed on the guitar and the uke. It was pretty freakin cool. Elder Osorio and I have been planning this since yesterday and we've got everything prepped. We have a pretty unified zone (I really love it here). Mom I love you as always and I will hear from you soon.

Elder Sierra


Pics from a member's house in El Dorado Hills and from a concert Elder Sierra played in.

On a mission from God!

Jammin' on the uke with Elder Bancroft