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
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