September 23, 2013 - First Week in the Field

Hey Everyone!

I hope everyone has been having a fantastic week! This past week has been an immense change, but I would say an immense change for the better. I arrived in California on Tuesday morning after having to sprint through customs, security and baggage check in Dallas on my way from Mexico. I had to stop the lady at a gate, have her call to hold the plane for myself and nine other missionaries, continue sprinting to the gate and sit down in my seat five minutes after the plane was supposed to depart! It was chaotic, but we all made it safely! My address now is:

Elder Gabriel Valley

170 West Duarte Road

Arcadia, California 91007

Today has been quite the P-Day because of how much stuff I've had to do. I still need to get some mail and get a permanent library card, but I'm currently using a temporary one. The computers log you off after one hour of use because the library is so busy. I'm serving in the Chino - East area, which is a tougher area and is on the very border of the mission, which touches the Racho Kuckamonga (I have no idea how that is spelled) mission. I'm once again in a trio with Elder Knight from Idaho (my trainer) who has been out for a little over a year, and Elder Smith from Beaver, UT, who has been out 6 weeks longer than me and is waiting on a visa to Aguas Calientes, Mexico. I love them. They are both fantastic missionaries and are very easy going. They have both been extremely helpful, and I feel bad for Elder Knight basically needing to train two missionaries at the same time. I'm trying to do my best to make his job as easy as possible.

Tuesday, September 17th, 2013:

We left at 2 AM in the morning from the MTC to head out to the airport. It was surreal knowing that I would be leaving so soon. Fortunately, I had ten other elders coming to Arcadia with me! That's right, we had 11 Spanish-speaking elders heading to Arcadia today. We almost missed the flight and had to have a lady hold the plane for us as we sprinted in our suits about 1 mile worth through the airport (no joke). We made it to the Ontario, CA airport, where we met President and Sister Becerra. I already love them to death. They are AMAZING. I got to eat lunch by them in the mission home and talk to them about my background and family. Sister Becerra is really friendly, and President has a great sense of humor. I met my companions after having a relatively brief training meeting. Elder Low and I are in the same district together again! I'm super excited. In our district, we have Elder Low, Elder Porter, Elder Knight, Elder Smith, Hermana Connelly, Hermana Villenga and myself. It's a good group, and us elders get along fantastic. It's supposed to be a tough area, but we are going to change that. Tonight, we had dinner with the Moran family, and Hermano Moran is the Stake Patriarch. I got the opportunity from Elder Knight to give the spiritual thought, and it was a great opportunity to teach my very first night. I'm really excited to serve here.

Wednesday, September 18th, 2013:

I'm loving the daily schedule here much better than the MTC because everything is so much more practical, and we're able to get out of the apartment a lot to go do work. Today, my companions and I had a lesson with an "eternal investigator" named Enrique. He hasn't been progressing because he has problems with the Law of Chastity; however, he reads the Book of Mormon often and even highlights different passages. If he could just change that one (really) bad habit, he would be on his way to baptism! We challenged him to come to church and focus on his marriage more. He said he would do both, so we will see how it goes. We went to Sofia's house for dinner, and she is a less-active. She struggles with her testimony but loves feeding the missionaries. I love this job. We get free food and get to teach people about a message that will save their eternal well-being. What could be better? We finished off the night by going to the church, which is a brand new building and is awesome! Our district had a planning meeting to determine which members in the ward and which investigators belong to each area. My companionship is in charge of Chino East, Elder Low and Elder Porter have Chino Central, and the Hermanas have Chino West.

Thursday, September 19th, 2013:

Once again, our district met up at the church in the morning. However, today was for our weekly district meeting. We had a discussion about finding people and how to better improve our skills. We also have "accountability," where we report on our investigators and find ways as a district to help each individual person progress. I found out today that my bike got messed up on the way here. The front disk brake got messed up and was rubbing the entire time I have been riding. By the way, as a side note, our mission got picked as a test mission to get rid of cars altogether. So, basically, nobody in the entire mission even has a car anymore. It sucks. We have to get to Arcadia and back, which is an hour away, by the help of members, or figure out how to take a two-hour bus trip there. But anyways, I took my bike into the bike shop to get tweaked and all was good. We ate lunch with a somewhat crazy lady named Hermana Herrera. She has been struggling with her relationship with her family. She gave us a referral to a guy that the sisters have already been teaching, and we have come to find that there are few referrals in this ward. Referrals from members and investigators are the best tools that missionaries have to be able to find people to teach. At night, we went to the Moreno family's house for dinner. I am loving the food here so much more than the MTC; it's actually real food. Elder Knight shared an object lesson with small, plastic bowling pins that have three different colors on bottom. He set them up and told each person to try and find a particular color. It was very similar to Christ looking for the individual lost sheep; He would give anything to find us. Elder Knight related that back to our purpose as missionaries to help search for the lost sheep, and he challenged the family to look for people that they can share the message of the restored gospel with. We also then ran into a man named Mario Sanchez on the street from a referral from an English member. He has recently had a kidney transplant and wants to talk to us! We set up a return appointment for next Thursday after sharing a little about the Restoration.

Friday, September 20th, 2013:

Today was a lot like the in-field orientation at the MTC. We went to the mission home at 9 AM and stayed there until about 5 PM. I had my interview with President Becerra in the morning, and I cannot express my love for him enough. He is an amazing man and has a fabulous spirit about him. During my interview, he promised that my family would be blessed more than I could possibly know, too. Talking with him for a little while inspired him to bless me with the very same blessings that are promised in D&C 31:1-2; the scripture talks about the blessings that an individual family will receive as the result of one person serving an honorable full-time mission for the Lord. I love President Becerra so much. He truly is inspired of the Lord in this calling, and I can feel his love for this mission - and that love extends beyond the love he has here just because he served his mission in Arcadia, too. He even remembered me throughout the day and made a reference back to something I quoted to him from Elder Holland during our interview about missionaries being "apostles with a lower-case 'a'." I can tell that President and I will be very close, and I'm so excited to learn from him. The training was very long and ended around 5 PM. After that, we headed back from Arcadia to Chino for our Chino Ward Mexican Independence Day party! Many of the members came, made food, and enjoyed some dancing (of which we can't do as missionaries) during the night. All of our district was there to enjoy the festivities. It was fun! Also, our entire district serves solely the Chino Spanish Ward, which means we have 7 missionaries for a ward of about 125 people.

Saturday, September 21st, 2013:

Because yesterday was so busy and ate into our weekly planning day, we had weekly planning as a companionship today. We had to revamp a few things from when the previous elders were in this area, so we ended up working on weekly planning for about four hours today! We didn't even finish either. As a result, we ended up using most of the time during the middle of the day for planning, instead of proselyting - but hey, what else were we supposed to do? We took a break to go reserve time in the library for time on the computers for P-Day, and we ran into this drunk guy who was crazy! He stopped us (because we spoke Spanish) and began cursing at us, according to Elder Knight. His words were really slurred together so that we couldn't understand anything. He then began praying or something and looked possessed. It was kind of freaky, but thank goodness nothing bad happened as a result. After we finished planning back at the apartment, we went to our weekly volleyball night at the church! The members get together and play volleyball together. They're good too, which is unfortunate for me; I'm awful at volleyball. However, I did have Elder Smith on my team, who is about 6'4" and played football in high school. Our team dominated the other two teams because Elder Smith was able to spike everything haha. The Hispanic people here are so nice, and I'm so excited to serve them. Elder Porter told me, however, that the only reason the work isn't more successful in this area is because the Hispanic people are often lazy and don't follow through with their commitments. I was rather surprised when he told me that there have been less than about 7 baptisms here in the last 8 months, despite the number of amazing missionaries he listed off to me. He told me that we really don't have any flakes in the Spanish-speaking areas. He said there are occasionally problems with English-speakers, but we are fortunate to have an excellent group of Spanish-speakers. It was humbling to then realize that I have been called here for a reason and put in a tough area as my first area to help me grow.

Sunday, September 22nd, 2013:

It was my first Sabbath day back in a regular ward in seven weeks! It was so great to actually experience church in its usual form - not the weird setup they have at the MTC. I decided that I'm going to make a collection of every Sacrament program from throughout my mission to keep for when I get home in twenty-two months. We had correlation meeting at 9:30 AM as missionaries meeting with the bishop to analyze our progress as a ward with missionary work. The bishop is really funny, but I can tell that he is a little rule-oriented. According to the other five missionaries here besides Elder Low and I, he has been setting up some questionable rules because of some apparent conflicts among ward members. However, I'm optimistic that this ward can grow in the gospel. Our meeting started at 11 AM, and Elder Low, Elder Knight and I all got to bear our testimonies because we were all new to the ward. It's tough speaking in Spanish, but speaking with Spanish-speaking members everyday has definitely helped me. There are people here from all over the place; I have met people from Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Argentina and Peru so far. It's quite the eclectic mix. After church, we had a couple of other meetings and didn't end up leaving until about 3:45 PM. Since we were starving, all of the elders in the district decided that we would go to Elder Low and Elder Porter's "pad" (the nickname for their apartment) to eat lunch. Elder Porter fixed up some turkey and pasta, which was to die for. He's quite the chef. It's funny how much I have grown fond of good food out on the mission. I have eaten so many nasty meals and just learned to love them, that good food actually makes quite the imprint on my memory haha. We chatted during our lunch/dinner time before heading back out to go do work. Our main lesson tonight was with a recent convert named Camilo Gomez. He was baptized on July 28th and is the most humble guy you will ever meet. He sleeps on one of those beach chairs in someone's basement because he is so poor. However, he was waiting outside for us to come teach him when we got there. He LOVES talking with us, and I could feel the Spirit so strong as we were teaching him. He is the kind of investigator I want to find. He is willing to do whatever is asked of him, regardless of the sacrifice, and loves the Lord with all of his heart, might, mind and strength. He is getting ready to receive the Priesthood, so we talked with him a little about that, in addition to answering some questions he had about the concept of grace, as it relates to the gospel. Teaching people like him are the reason why I want to be here. If I could find even one person like him through my labors in doing the Lord's work, this mission would be MORE than worth it. I know that I'm here for a reason and that someone like him is waiting for me, too.

Well, that's my first week in review, everyone! I hope everyone at home is having as great of a time as I am! Just remember that when times are hard, that is when we need to turn to the Lord. Elder Porter told me when we were at his pad on Sunday that in tough areas like this one, I need to learn "how to be me." Finding people will be tough, and teaching people may even be tougher at times, but these are the times when the best habits are set and I will learn more about myself than I would have ever thought. I know for a fact that this is where I am meant to be. I love the people, and I love the work. I love all of you and all of the support and love you have given me over the years. I want to give these next two years everything I have.

Love,

Elder Gabriel Valley

September 19, 2013           (Letter dated September 17, 2013)

Dear Mom and Dad~

I just made it to the Arcadia Mission Home safely.  I apologize for not calling; all of us almost missed the plane because Customs was so slow.  We all made it after having to sprint for almost 20 minutes and call to hold the plane.  However, it was a wonderful trip over, and I sat by three very nice people.  I got to eat lunch with President and Sister Becerra.  They are so nice and friendly!  I am currently waiting inside the mission home and listening to a lot of field-orientation things.  Hopefully I will find out who my trainer is shortly.  I am allotted $160 per month for food and expenses.  I will NOT ever have a car to use, so I am very grateful for getting a good bike.  The last few days in the MTC were very spiritual, and I am so excited to being work here in Arcadia!

Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley

September 19, 2013

Dear Parents,

Today we had the privilege of welcoming your missionary to the California Arcadia Mission.  Thank you for all you have done to prepare him to serve as a worthy representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am grateful for the opportunity we will have to serve together here in this part of the Lord's vineyard.  We will do all we can to support and to encourage him in this challenging new calling as a full time missionary.

Your continued support through weekly letters and e-mail, also occasional packages is important for his success as a missionary.  Mail should be sent directly to the Arcadia Mission Office:  170 West Duarte Road, Arcadia CA 91007

We know that Southern California is a favorite vacation area for family and friends.  We request that you, your family or friends do not plan to visit with your missionary.  It is a distraction and takes them away from their service as a missionary.

This is a great work and an exciting time to be serving a mission in California.  The mix of cultures and languages here is most unique, and we discover daily that special people have been led here to embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I know you and your family will be richly blessed for the service he renders here and the sacrifice you are making to support and strengthen your missionary.

Sincerely,
Jorge T. Becerra, President
California Arcadia Mission

September 17, 2013

Dear Parents,

We are excited to have welcomed your missionary into the California Arcadia Mission.  They are excited to be here and we will send more information soon.  Thank you so much for preparing them.

President Becerra

Last week in the Mexico City MTC - September 12, 2013

Hey, Everybody!

 

I hope everyone at home is doing great! This week has been rather difficult for me, as I'm sure many in the future will be, too. I have felt extremely home-sick and rather lonely during the course of the week. During Sunday and Monday, four different people came up to me from my district to ask how I was doing. My district is so awesome, and every missionary is extremely motivated. I love all of their examples. Thank goodness, I feel much better now, though. Elder Mask really helped me get out of my poor mood through his charity and service to Elder Metro and I. I just felt terrible afterwards for being such a miserable person to be around for two days. I think there was a period of about 24 hours where I said two full sentences total to my companions. It wasn't good. However, after getting through that feeling that every missionary experiences at one point or another, I feel remotivated and ready to enter the mission field! I will leave from the MTC at 3 AM on Tuesday morning before arriving in California at around noon, local time.

 

Friday, September 6, 2013:

 

My companions and I were a little late getting to breakfast, so everyone was a little irritable after being required to leave breakfast early to make it to personal study. We started getting on each other's nerves a little, which does not invite the Spirit. We later had companionship inventory in the day, and Elder Mask brought up the valid point that all of our problems have arisen because of poor/little communication. It really helped to just be upfront and honest with one another, and get back to focusing on the work. During our actually companionship study time, Hermana Powell joined us for the hour. We began by sharing scriptures that we found stuck out to us while reading in personal study time. Hermana Powell then directed us to focus those feelings and scriptures on how they can be of benefit to our investigators. It was so helpful having her guide our companionship study because we needed to improve on focusing our entire attention on our investigators. At the conclusion of our study, she apologized to us (which, by the way, was not needed and wasn't her fault) for not introducing us to the other useful sections of Preach My Gospel sooner. We have been focusing so much on the lessons and what we need to teach, rather than using Preach My Gospel as a study guide. It has a lot more in it than just the basic lessons in Chapter 3. During the evening, Elder Hyde, the District Leader from District A, informed my companions and I that one of the companionships in his district was having trouble and wanted to talk to a ''Priesthood Authority.'' We were super nervous because it's our job as zone leaders to make sure everyone in our zone is behaving and not getting into trouble. We went to reception and tried to contact President Romero, the Branch President, in order to set up a meeting for them. We haven't heard yet the outcome of it. I love being a leader, but times like this freak me out. I don't always know what to do.

On a side note, today marks one month since embarking on the mission!

 

Saturday, September 7, 2013:

 

Today was probably the most action-packed day since getting to the MTC! My companions and I had the privilege of teaching twice today! We taught Fernando in the morning about the covenants made at baptism, and I could tell the Spirit really touched his heart as we talked about the importance of enduring to the end after the first covenant of baptism. I told Fernando that taking upon the name of Christ is similar to adding another surname; if you think about adding ''Christ'' as your last name, what would you do? You wouldn't want to bring shame to His name, so you would seek to serve Him and bring honor to Him. That is exactly what we must do if we hope to be worthy of being His disciples. Elder Hyde and Elder Goulding then told us in the afternoon that the situation had suddenly gotten worse. Oh no. During the time we would have used for companionship study, we decided to use the time for talking with the troubled companionship. We tried to console them, help them work out the situation and resolve it peacefully. However, by gym time, it came to the point of needing to set up a meeting with President Pratt, the MTC President. I didn't hear anything about the situation for the remainder of the day after setting up that meeting, so I was hoping things had gotten better. As a result, my companions and I had zero time to prepare to teach Andrea and Luis again. Oh no, again! The lesson was right after dinner, so we decided to talk to them about tithing. We said everything that needed to be said, but, like Hermana Powell later told us after the lesson, I wasn't sure that all of it had gotten into their minds. As missionaries, we must be bold and powerful in our teaching. My companions and I can definitely work on that.

 

Sunday, September 8, 2013:

 

Normally, I love Sundays in the MTC, but today just didn't feel quite right. All of my morning meetings with my branch were wonderful, but in the afternoon was when I really started getting that feeling of being alone. Elder Mask's grandparents sent four pans of breakfast cake, which was awesome! Elder Mask had said that I could have a piece after I finished my weekly letter to the branch president, so I went to grab a piece afterwards. He then got mad at me and told me that I should have asked first. I took it the wrong way and thought that he was just being selfish, which isn't what he meant. I was taken aback, so I didn't end up eating any of it while everyone else was practically devouring it. It put me in a rather poor mood (as I mentioned earlier), and it was almost a full day from that point that I said virtually nothing to my companions. I tried to find ways to serve both of them to try to reconcile and feel better, but nothing better. I began sweeping up the floor and such, and I found myself even angrier. The adversary was really going after me today. I became even angrier when they wouldn't even offer me a simple thank you for cleaning up everything for them. It wasn't a good day. For the devotional, we watched Elder Holland's talk to the Provo MTC in January 2013 in which he talked about the significance of the hastening of missionary work in the past year. We then watched Legacy, which is a film about the early Saints at the time of the Restoration. From the time of the devotional up until going to bed, I just progressively felt worse. I continaully asked myself, ''Why Am I Here?'' It is exactly what I should NOT have done. During our evening time, my district finished our testimony meeting from about three or four weeks ago. It was so spiritual, and I could feel the Spirit speaking to me through other people. I was just continually hoping that I could get past this awful feeling and mood. I went to bed feeling alone and discouraged.

 

Monday, September 9, 2013:

 

There was not a whole lot of news to report today, with regards to teaching and the work. By this evening, I finally got past the awful mood I was in. I honestly felt so bad for how secluded I appeared and selfish I must have acted. It was just so hard feeling so alone not to feel sorry for myself. It was honestly awful. My companions are so great, though. They really helped me out tonight get over this feeling by just helping me talk through it. Elder Mask was totally right about problems arising from poor communication. During the day, my district began practicing our musical number for Sunday. We are going to sing an arrangement of ''Come Thou Fount'' with the lyrics from ''Oh Mi Padre'' in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. It sounds so pretty. Elder Hernandez and I are going to sing tenor, Elder Metro, Elder Karren and Elder Low are going to sing bass, and everyone else is going to sing the melody. At night, Melquisadec finally came! He makes hand-made leather scripture cases with pictures of different scripture events. He also puts your name on there, your mission, in addition to a scripture to go with the picture. They are so cool, and I hope to keep the ones that I bought for the rest of my life as keep-sakes from my mission. They are so cool. Elder Mask's grandparents are going to ship ours to our respective missions when they are finished.

 

Tuesday, September 10, 2013:

 

It felt so great to finally be back in a good mood, and I felt AWESOME. It reminds me of the story of Alma the Younger when he talks about how terrible he felt before being smitten, and then how exquisite he felt afterwards. My feeling wasn't that extreme, but it was  polar opposite. I was very in-tune with the Spirit today. We had the opportunity to teach Fernando again today, which was our last lesson with him here in the MTC. We finished the lesson about the Doctrine of Christ and focused on the Gift of the Holy Ghost, in addition to the importance of enduring to the end. We shared D&C 8:2-3 with him, which talks about the Spirit of Revelation being the same Spirit that led Moses across the Red Sea. He was really taken aback. We then shared 3 Nephi 15:9, which explains the promise of gaining eternal life if we endure to the end; Fernando almost cried. It was so powerful. He even told us during the lesson that he was, at that very moment, feeling the Spirit testify to him. Other than that lesson, the day was pretty normal and uneventful. We had Elder Alfredo Madrón of the Seventy talk to us in person during our evening devotional. His talk was so great because he explained how we will see many things on our mission that may appear to be coincidences, but are actually the hand of God working out for our good. It was so inspiring. He then told us (half-jokingly) about the coincidence of meeting his wife. They dated before he left, she turned in her papers and received the call to the same mission as him, and they flew home the very same day after their service. After the devotional, we sang ''The Spirit of God.'' The reason I bring it up is that during the third verse, my r's magically started rolling without me even trying. During Elder Madrón's talk, he had mentioned the Gift of Tongues, and it blessed me in that very moment. I can now, officially, roll my r's. My accent is improving daily and this was a huge miracle for me. Also, today was the beginning of celebrating Mexican Independence Day on September 16. We sang the Mexican National Anthem during the devotional. It was so cool!

 

Wednesday, September 11, 2013:

 

I first want to start of by saying I can't believe it has been 12 years. My whole district wore red and blue ties with our white shirts today. Elder Mask's grandparents also sent us a huge double-chocolate cake and candy for Elder Mask's birthday today! He turned 19 and the cake was so good and rich! His family is seriously so generous and giving. We have received in the course of five weeks the following: seven total pans of breakfast cake, two pans of cinnamon rolls, a double-chocolate cake, candy on two occasions, three gallons of juice and numerous cards wishing all of us luck. They live in Mexico City, but they still go so far out of their way to look out for us! My companions and I didn't have any lessons to teach, but we did have TRC tonight. There weren't enough members, so we just practice-taught with Elder Draper (he plays tennis, too!!!) and Elder Taylor from another district. It was helpful to get some different people to teach. They gave us nothing but positive feedback, which felt great to know that our teaching skills are improving. After TRC, we found out more bad news about the troubled companionship from District A: they still weren't getting along. One of the two has been having some self-confidence struggles, so we met with him to help encourage him as he goes through this situation. It really helped show me that, as leaders, we must be loving to all of the people we serve. It felt amazing to be able to encourage him and give him suggestions about how to resolve this conflict. I'm not at liberty to discuss anything about it, so that's why I'm not going into detail at all. I really want to continue to improve to be the best leader that I can be.

 

 

Today is our last P-Day here in the MTC, which is a weird thought. We got to go to the temple again this morning and didn't get back until2:00 PM local time, so it has been pretty chaotic trying to get everything done. We are set to teach Andrea and Luis their final lesson today. Also, I was able to take some pictures with Brian Ridd today in front of the MTC sign, and I am really going to miss seeing him around. I will be able to email again on Monday, seeing that it is the day before I leave. My bus leaves the MTC for the airport on Tuesdaymorning at 3 AM; it's going to be a rough morning.

 

Anyways, thank you all so much for all of your support and the love that you continually show me! This week has been a struggle, but I have also learned immensely from it as a result. I love hearing about how all of you are doing at home, and hopefully my emails can leave an impact on you in some way or another. I would encourage all of you to read Alma 26 this week, which talks about not boasting of ourselves but rather boasting in the strength of our God.

 

Love,

Elder Gabriel Valley

MTC Trio August 2013 Mexico City

Past the Halfway Point - Thursday, September 5, 2013

Date: Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 8:42 AM
Subject: Past the Halfway Point

Hey, Everyone!

 

It's really neat how time is speeding up! It feels like this past week has flown by. I keep thinking back to the joke that ''the weeks are days and the days are weeks.'' There hasn't been any major news for the week, other than a giant rainstorm last night that lasted for about six hours. I haven't ever seen it rain so much anywhere. The streets looked like rivers around the MTC and my pants are still soaking wet from yesterday! My companions and I have been very busy teaching lessons, and we are making progress. I still feel like I have so much to learn, but I love it here. My only wish is that it was warmer (only two weeks until I get to Arcadia, though!). It's about 75 everyday and rains every single day for about an hour between 5:30 and 6:30.

 

Friday, August 30th, 2013:

 

I was a little worried about yesterday, seeing that Elder Metro was having a rough day. Elder Mask and I were trying our best to include him in everything, but he is very quiet and has a different personality than the two of us. However, today was fantastic! I can tell Elder Metro is gradually breaking out of his shell and is more outgoing than when we all first arrived. More joyous news: for the third week in a row, we got to clean the kitchen again! I love service and all, but I'm not going to lie... cleaning isn't my favorite form of service haha. I envy all the people that get to stack the fifty-pound jugs of water. There isn't clean water in Mexico City, so we get Ciel water sent here everyday. Later in the evening, we had another lesson with Andrea and Luis. Our lesson plan was to teach the Word of Wisdom to both Andrea and Luis, followed by the baptismal invitation for Luis. We only had twenty minutes, and, unfortunately, we took twenty-five. As a result, Luis had to leave before we could invite him to be baptized. The lesson was fantastic, and Luis and Andrea both said they would try to stop drinking their morning coffee. I was just a little bummed that we didn't get to extend the invitation. We always take longer than we intend, which is largely due to our inability to fluently speak Spanish. However, Hermana Powell told us after the lesson to study the second chapter of the book of Acts, specifically in verses 37-41. She also instructed us that everyone needs faith, which is ''hope for things which are not seen, which are TRUE.'' We can't have faith if what we believe isn't true; that would merely be a belief. I had never thought of that principle, which was very interesting. My companions and I always feel at a loss after talking to Hermana Powell because we're always unsure how to apply what she tells us. It seems like we try to apply the principles prior to her telling us, but we obviously need help haha. She told us she will observe our companionship study time on Monday, which is making all three of us nervous. On a side note, I'm now officially sick, which sucks. I have a headache, my nose won't stop running, and it has been spreading to our entire district. I think eight out of twelve of us are now sick. I merely view it as a nuisance that is testing my dedication to the work.

 

Saturday, August 31st, 2013:

 

The day began by teaching Fernando about the Word of Wisdom. It helped to have just taught it to Andrea and Luis, so my companions and I were familiar with the vocabulary and lesson plan. It was exactly what Fernando needed to hear. We are beginning to do better at teaching people, not teaching lessons. Fernando was very receptive, and he informed us that he will try his best to end his addiction to smoking and quit drinking coffee. He has had a monumental change in his demeanor and habits since we began teaching him just a mere two weeks ago. My companions and I have set a goal to be more focused during our study time to best meet the needs of our investigators and invite the Spirit into all of our planning sessions. Due to the fact that the MTC is nicknamed ''Spirit Prison'' (It´s a running joke because it feels like an isolated compound where the Spirit is always present, and we don't have much freedom to dictate our schedule), we were required to begin fasting Saturday after lunch, instead of dinner. I would much rather prefer to fast dinner to dinner. However, my companions and I decided to fast for the desire to focus ourselves during our studies on the needs of our investigators. I know for a fact that the rewards we will reap from fasting will be much greater than the sacrifice of food and water for 24 hours.

 

Sunday, September 1st, 2013:

 

September is here! Where has the time gone? After Fast and Testimony Meeting today, I got to break my fast. I was able to feel the Spirit very strong during Leadership Meeting and also during Sacrament Meeting. I know the Lord is blessing us, as missionaries, for our sacrifices. I have not, however, been blessed with the ability to be healed of my sickness yet. It has progressively gotten worse and is more annoying than hindering. I love Sunday Devotionals because we always have  the opportunity to listen to General Authorities (and most often, Apostles!). Everyone always tries to guess who we will hear from. I was guessing it would be Robert D. Hales, but tonight we got to listen to Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve! It was very imformative because Elder Christofferson recounted all of the things he would have done differently if he could do his mission over again. The main point he tried to drive hoem was focusing on working hard in accordance with our purpose as missionaries; he told us that he worked very hard, but didn't always work hard to fulfill his purpose as a missionary: to invite others to come unto Christ. He also informed us that peoples' opinions about the Church are largely based on how they view us as missionaries, so it is our solemn duty to focus on meeting the Lord's will at all times and in all places. I love that he talked more about what will happen in the field, as opposed to just the MTC. That is one thing that I wish the MTC would be better at; the MTC doesn't tailor the training to how life in the field will be (for example, we don't ever actually have time allotted for companionship study, so we have  to make our own time for it). I love how excited all of the Apostles are for all of us as missionaries. It truly inspires me to want to improve and live up to my potential.

 

Monday, September 2nd, 2013:

 

I love teaching, so it's weird when we don't have anyone to teach during the day. As a district, we take turns teaching the investigators, so there are times when my companionship doesn't get to teach at all in a day. We didn't have any lessons today. It was weird. This sounds terrible to say, but it almost feels like a waste to go to classes when I don't have anyone to teach because I feel like I should be serving instead of focusing on learning. I hope that means that I'm beginning to improve with putting the needs of investigators ahead of the my own needs. Hermana Powell was supposed to come join our companionship study today, but she never showed up. Elder Metro, Elder Mask and I have all begun to move our companionship study into the Thomas S. Monson building, which is where our Sacrament Meeting is at. It's hard to focus in our classroom in the Lorenzo Snow building when there are so many people there. It's easy for one person to get off task out of twelve people, and then it's contagious. When we go to the other building, we are much more focused and are able to learn more. We spent our hour together reading Mosiah 4 in Spanish. Everyone, please read verses 2 and 3. The verses talk about the need to be humble and repent. We ended up using that scripture for one of our lessons on Wednesday. Tonight, language study was rather chaotic. It was so hard to pay attention, and I earnestly wanted to learn more about the subjunctive mood. As a result, Hermana Powell told the entire district that we will use this week to focus more on review and pronunciation. I was quite frustrated because I want to continue to press forward, not take a step backward. She later told my companionship that, although we are advanced with our grammar, when we get into the field, grammar will be the last of our concerns. The natives will talk must faster and won't annunciate, so we need to improve the basics of Spanish before we move forward. I then set a personal goal to be able to roll my r's by the end of the week and speak Spanish as much as possible. It was good that she was so blunt with us and told us exactly what we needed to improve with. My companions are extremely bright, and we have all made it through every single grammar lesson, but it was humbling to know that we need to know more about the simple things before we focus too intently on the more advanced concepts.

 

Tuesday, September 3rd, 2013:

 

We were supposed to teach Fernando this morning, but other companionships took longer. We ended up running out of time and didn't ever teach him. It's alright, though, because my companions and I have the reputation for going way longer than we are supposed to haha. We need to improve on that. The day was fairly routine, but we made a serious effort to speak Spanish more. And to cut out the awkward silences during meals while speaking Spanish, we decided to attempt telling stories in Spanish about our childhood for practice. It is very difficult, but proved beneficial. I'm already almost to the point of being able to roll my r's! I sound (almost) normal while speaking in sentences, but I can't continuously roll them by themselves like most people can. However, I'm happy with the improvement I have made thus far. I want to be able to roll them by the end of the week. Learning a language is a monumental struggle for me. This evening, for Tuesday Devotional, we had Elder Villalobos of the 4th Quorum of the Seventy speak to us in person. He spoke of the importance of leadership in missionary work, specifically at the levels of Bishop, Stake President and Mission President. All three positions have different keys, but they all need to be aligned for the work to progress. He then told us that we must obey each one and follow their individual policies on the local missionary work in order to find success in the mission field. It was interesting to hear his opinions about missionary work because he oversees so many missionaries. It was truly enlightening. Most importantly, he told us to pray for the members, in addition to the investigators. He said that we will find success if we pray for the members because they are a missionary's aid to finding people to teach. Members have the ability to fellowship and work on people even moreso than missionaries can in many situations! I will definitely heed his advice. Plus, the devotional was made even better after having pizza night! Pizza + Devotional = Happy Missionaries

 

Wednesday, September 4th, 2013:

 

Since we ran out of time yesterday to teach Fernando, we got to teach him first today. Our main focus was on the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Lesson 3 in Preach My Gospel), but we really wanted to tailor our message around the blessings that come from the proper process of repentance. As was expected, Fernando had many questions relating to repentance. We only covered the first two steps of the Doctrine of Christ (Faith and Repentance), but it was such a spiritual message. I had woken up this morning with an unusually optimistic and happy attitude/feeling, and I just knew today was going to be a great day; that lesson alone lived up to the feeling I got. I could feel the Spirit bare witness to Fernando that our message can help him overcome his addictions and regain his agency. He committed to being baptized already. It has been such a rewarding experience to see the changes that he has made. Nothing too exciting happened during the day, with the exception of the torrential downpour that I mentioned at the beginning of this email. We had to walk through that on our way to TRC during the evening. However, my companions and I were in for a rude awakening. Hermana Powell told us that we would be teaching her and Luis, instead of talking with members during TRC. I was SO NERVOUS. She didn't tell us, so we hadn't used our companionship study to prepare for the lesson that we would teach. We would have to go in completely unprepared and rely on the guidance of the Spirit. Hermana Powell told us that it will be good practice for the field because we may be called upon to teach lessons in the field without prior formal preparation for the lesson. We acted as if it was the house that they live at, and we decided to knock on the door to the TRC room. It truly felt like a ''real'' lesson. The beginning of the lesson was somewhat jumbled as my companions and I tried to teach off of one another in some sort of structured manner. However, as is typical of the Spirit, we were directed by what to say. We tried to focus on Luis' faith in Jesus Christ. We testified to him that Christ, God and the Holy Ghost are all separate and distinct beings. We also shared with Luis that God and Christ have bodies of flesh and bone, like we as individuals have. He told us he was concerned with the fact that he hasn't felt anything different when praying and reading the scriptures than what he has felt going to his own church. I don't even remember what I said, but the Spirit spoke through me. I asked him something along the lines of ''Have you prayed individually about our message and about the Book of Mormon?'' He looked startled, and then sat back in his seat. He then responded that he had only prayed with Andrea. I testified with what may have been my most powerful testimony ever that he will receive an answer if he prays with real intent to know for himself. Then, Elder Mask was prompted to ask Andrea to tell Luis how she came to know of the truthfulness of our message. Andrea then testified to him about the need for a true desire and intent to know the truth. She even then shared scripture that she had read about the need for a sincere desire with Luis. It was awesome to have the Holy Ghost work through an investigator and help us teach Luis, too. The lesson was very powerful. Luis then told us he would be baptized if he receives an answer about our message. We concluded and returned to the classroom through that awful rainstorm. Hermana Powell then told my companionship after class (we talked for over twenty minutes past the conclusion of class!) that we are excellent teachers. She told us, however, that we need to be more bold and direct with investigators. My companions and I have a tough time seeing the good in the teaching that we do, but Hermana Powell cheered us up. We were nervous because of how scattered the beginning of the lesson was. She pointed out to us that Luis said he believed us when we told him about the nature of God - He is a personage of flesh and bone. That isn't normal for Catholics, especially for one as devoted as he is. She even admitted that she was floored when he said that and she was very confused as to why he said it. Regardless, she then pointed out to us that clearly our message is meeting his needs if he is so willing to believe that. Her advice is always so uplifting, though it is often confusing. My companions left utterly lost by her advice, but I took from it that we have been making the progress we need to and that we need to be more direct in our application - that is, we need to do the ''checklist'' kind of things, such as invite the investigator to be baptized in the first lesson, commit them to reading the Book of Mormon after every lesson, etc. Hopefully we will get to talk to her more tomorrow night and find out what Hermano Peterson (the person who plays Luis in the lessons) said.

 

This has been an incredibly exhausting, spiritually-filled and rewarding week. My love for the work grows more and more by the day. This is where I'm supposed to be. My testimony of the divinity and inspiration from God grows daily, too. Every one of the members in my district has been there to support me and support each other, and we are like a family. I can't believe it has been almost a month since I left for the mission. There is a level of happiness and feeling of accomplishment here that is found absolutely nowhere else. I cannot wait to get to California and assist in the work there for real people. My message this week for everyone is that the sacrifice to be obedient is always outweighed by the blessings that we receive. ''Obedience brings about blessings, but exact obedience brings about miracles.'' Like I have said before, in the words of Gene Griffith, ''The will to prepare to win is more important than the will to win.'' In the Book of Alma, Captain Moroni was occupied with building up his defenses in times when there was no fighting. It is like our own lives: we cannot be complacent. We must prepare NOW for the trial that will arise LATER. We can't expect to receive the strength by our own will to win in the time that we face our spiritual battles, but rather, we must prepare to win now to be ready for the spiritual battle before it arises.

 

I'm grateful for all of your love and support. You all mean so much to mean, and I love hearing from you all. The mission is undoubtedly the most difficult thing I have ever done. It isn't the most physically tough, the most emotionally tough, nor is it the most spiritually tough trial I have endured; yet, the mission is, overall, the single-toughest process and trial I have ever experienced. I love every minute of it, but the sacrifice is immense. I know, for a fact, that by the end of two years, I will be a different person. I cannot wait for that change to come about.

 

Love,

Elder Gabriel Valley 

Week 3: Halfway Home (to the States!)

Hey Everyone!

 

This week has, once again, flown by! First off, I just want to start out by saying how difficult it is to learn a foreign language. I actually find that it would be easier to learn English than Spanish, as far as grammar is concerned. I know I'm here to speak Spanish because I'm supposed to grow and learn from it, in addition to being humbled by it. It's also funny how everyone here that is going foreign is extremely jealous of people going back to the States. It seems like the consensus is that going to the States is easier, but people quickly realize how much they take for granted. I am SO happy to be returning to the States in just a mere three weeks. Additionally, I feel like this week has been a real test, as far as learning how to teach; I will explain more about that during my weekly report.

 

Friday, August 23rd, 2013:

 

In the morning, we taught Fernando about the Plan of Salvation. However, due to his limited understanding, we only got through the Pre-Earth Life and the Fall of Adam. We committed him to reading the Book of Mormon, in addition to inviting his wife to join us in the next lesson (he said she would think about it, but she never ended up coming). The middle of the day was filled with our service project of cleaning the kitchen. It feels so great to get out of a shirt and tie every now and then! Tonight, however, was probably the most enlightening time that I've had here at the MTC. I was super nervous to teach the Law of Chastity to Andrea and Luis, but the lesson went perfectly! We finished that segment quickly, and then Luis began throwing numerous questions out at us. By the end of the lesson, Luis committed to reading the Book of Mormon, and Luis and Andrea both committed to attending Church on Sunday! I was super excited after the lesson because the Spirit was so strong. Hermana Powell, our evening teacher who also assumes the role of Andrea, dampered my hopes a little, though. She told my companions and I that we had pressured Luis too much into everything and that we weren't teaching to his needs enough. We were all in shock because the lesson had been so powerful. Apparently, we needed to step back and refocus on what Luis needed most. She also told us that the central message of every message from ''Preach My Gospel'' keys in on three main points: 1. Power of God on the Earth, 2. Redemption, and 3. Exaltation. It was a powerful experience to learn that the content isn't as important as the Spirit speaking to the need(s) of the investigator. Tonight, my district also read from Alma 42, which talks about the need for both justice and mercy to complete the infinite Atonement. I had a major lightbulb moment: Verse 24 isn't talking about justice and mercy; rather, it is talking about marriage! In English only, justice is personified as a man, and mercy is personified as a woman. (The personification is lost by translation in Spanish). Elder Low then pointed out that a marriage set on God is the only marriage that will truly work - and could you guess it? Justice and mercy can both only be fulfilled through God! Don't worry, though, I still have a while before I will be married haha.

 

Saturday, August 24th, 2013:

 

It was a rather average day, but it went by rather quickly. My P-Day sets up nicely because it splits the week in half nicely between P-Day and Sunday. Language study was much better today because my companions and I focused our efforts on practice teaching with each other, rather than aimlessly drilling vocabulary about the weather and family relationships at eachother. During TALL, I studied past-tense subjunctive, which I believe to be the most difficult piece of grammar used in all of Spanish. I still don't have a good grasp on it nearly a week later. I had the chance to talk to Brian Ridd in the hall today for a while! It's wonderful to see someone I know! I actually just saw him in the computer lab, and he is wearing the same pair of shorts I have! We must be twins or something... Also, I had the chance to meet Tanner Mangum in person, who will be the future QB at BYU and possibly go on to play in the NFL. Elder Dias, my zone leader, will also be a future football player at BYU, though he will play RB. On a more spiritual note, I gave my first Priesthood Blessing ever today - in Spanish! I haven't ever given one before, so I was so nervous to give it in Spanish. Hermana Barney was feeling under the weather, so she asked me to give the blessing (seeing that I was district leader). Elder Mask did the annointing, and then I did the sealing and blessing. I was prompted to bless her with comfort and the knowledge that God wants her to become the best missionary she can become, and she later told me that she had been feeling extremely anxious. It was exactly what she needed and I'm happy that the Spirit worked through me to bless her with what she needed.

 

Sunday, August 25th, 2013:

 

I felt like a veteran during Leadership Meeting, even though I have only been here for three weeks. I'm finally starting to not feel so much like the ''new guy'' all the time. And guess what, I got called as one of the new zone leaders today! Elder Metro and I are the new zone leaders, and Elder Mask is the new Executive Secretary for the branch. For the devotional, we had the opportunity to listen to a devotional that Jeffrey R. Holland gave in February of 2012 to the Provo MTC. I LOVE listening to Elder Holland. He talked about the importance of a life-long conversion after the mission ends, and that our time on the mission is to develop the habits needed to change our priorities. He said we must strive to focus our investigators (and ourselves) on the covenants beyond baptism; baptism is only the first covenant made in a life-long conversion in the Church. He then concluded by asking us why we would be in this spot as missionaries if our only goal was anything but the eternal salvation of other people. That is all that we are here to do. At night, for our Sunday movie night, we all watched ''The Testaments.'' I love the ending when Christ appears to a blind Helam, and Helam has enough faith to believe in the resurrected Savior of the world.

 

Monday, August 26th, 2013:

 

During the day, we talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon in a conversion. Hermano Montés let us watch Elder Holland's talk, ''Safety for the Soul.'' It is his testimony of the Book of Mormon, and I would encourage anyone and everyone to watch it. It is such a testimony-builder and only takes about 15 or 20 minutes to watch the whole thing. During our planning in preparation for teaching Andrea and Luis, my companions and I really butted heads and drew a major blank on what to talk about. We need to do a little better about having unity and not being so stubborn. Elder Mask and I are usually on the same page, but all three of us had different ideas about what we needed to teach. We finally decided to go in with a list of questions for Luis, which we hoped would enable us to focus more on his needs. Asking questions to him during the lesson got us NOWHERE. We testified of the truthfulness of our message, but Luis just wasn't being receptive to the Spirit. We concluded by helping him realize how much we want to help him and to help him succeed. We left the lesson still not knowing what essential doctrines he needs to learn about. My companions and I stayed in the classroom late to talk to Hermana Powell during the evening, and - once again - she had less than optimistic news to tell us. She told us that both her and Luis had the feeling during the lesson that we should have asked Luis to be baptized! We didnt even extend the baptismal invitation! She told us that, "most investigators dont even know they need anything; most will think their life is happy as it is, so it is your job to help them realize what theyre missing and why they need it." It was also very frustrating when she then told us that, "Maybe you all are focusing too much on the needs of your investigators. We, as teachers, also have needs." So, now we're supposed to teach four people at once? I'm so confused. Hopefully we can figure out this problem soon!

 

Tuesday, August 27th, 2013:

 

I feel like I say this almost everyday, but today was a rather routine day. We didn't have any lessons to teach, so the main day was rather uneventful. However, we got Costco Pizza for dinner! Every Tuesday, the MTC purchases like 400 boxes of Costco pizza and serves it to everyone! I had six pieces, two bowls of Frosted Flakes and two yellow apples! When there is good food to eat here, you have to take advantage of your opportunities haha. During the evening, we had a live broadcast from Provo for the Tuesday evening devotional. Elder Neil L. Andersen spoke about "First Love, Then Sacrifice." The premise of his talk was based around the principle that "We sacrifice for the things that we love, and we love the things that we sacrifice for." What really struck me most was when Elder Andersen said that the greatest sacrifice came from God (allowing Christ to die for us), and that the greatest love also came from God (allowing Christ to die for us). 1 John 4:19 reads: "We love Him [meaning God] because He loved us first." Through love and sacrifice, we can reach out and touch the greatest number of lives through our service.

 

Wednesday, August 28th, 2013:

 

Teaching lessons took up the majority of the day, and I love teaching! It was a great change from the usual drag of language study. I'm anxious to learn the language and all, but I would so much rather teach people than study language in the same classroom that we spend ten hours per day in. We first began by teaching Fernando more about the Plan of Salvation. Based off of what we heard from Hermana Powell, we decided to extend the baptismal invitation to him, but he respectfully declined. He said he needs to think about it first, so we challenged him to pray about it to receive an anwer from God. He did, however, reveal to us that he struggles with a smoking addiction and that he drinks a lot of coffee - looks like the Word of Wisdom is the topic for next lesson! We left him with the challenge to read 2 Nephi 31, and I feel like the lesson went well, but not great. Tonight, we had the opportunity to do TRC (I can't remember the acronym), which is where local members from Mexico City come to talk with us as missionaries. It gives us a feel for what talking with members will be like in the field. My companions and I had the opportunity to talk with three different individuals about the importance of enduring to the end for about 20 minutes per lesson. The native speakers are so hard to understand! I thought my Spanish was improving, but, just like they always say, real Spanish isn't like what we learn in the MTC. The natives talk much faster, don't annunciate and are rather quiet with their speaking. TRC has made me anxious to get into the field!

 

Today, I had the chance to go to the temple again! We went for the 9 AM session, and it took three hours to complete. It was such a wonderful experience, and I love having the opportunity to go through in a Spanish session. I'm now able to pick up most of what they are saying, even though the vocabulary is quite complex. Elder Mask, Elder Metro and I also all got our haircuts today! My hair is much shorter than I'm used to, but I didn't have a choice because the lady cutting hair cuts everyone exactly the same haha. Thank you all for all of your prayers, love and support! This is, without question, the Lord's work, and there is no place I would rather be. Well, maybe California, but this is to prepare me for that! I'm off to go play ping pong with Brian Ridd, so I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

 

I have attached a picture of my companions and I in front of the temple today. From left to right: Elder Metro, myself, Elder Mask.

 

Love,

Elder Gabriel Valley