Hey Everyone!
I hope everyone is getting ready for the happiest day of the year! This week has been really fun, especially because we have been able to teach our investigator to prepare him to enter the waters of baptism this coming Sunday! The true meaning of Christmas is all about those "glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." I can truly say that I am able to experience that this Christmas season because I am able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands in bringing the Gospel to the life of Ruben.
Tuesday, December 17th, 2013:
Today was filled with doing work for the Bishop. He doesn't have a ward secretary, and his office hasn't been cleaned out in probably at least five years. Elder Porter and I have really been trying to work closer with him to help the ward have a solid footing to go forward in the future. As a result, we spent a lot of time cleaning out all of his drawers, cabinets, really old papers, unopened video cassettes from 2003 and really helped make his office a place that he can use to work. We have really been filling in as the ward clerks recently while there hasn't been one. Elder Porter and I were going to teach Ruben when Hermana Bardsley and Hermana Stohlton called us to say that they had both had flats in their tires at the same time. We went to go fix them, but found out that there were like five holes in each tire. We think they probably got popped by some person who was trying to cause trouble, so we told them to go to the bike store and get some new tubes. It's annoying when people mess with your stuff like that. After helping them, we brought Ruben along with us (sadly, we didn't end up teaching him) to go caroling to some less-active families. It's been really fun during this holiday season to go and carol to contact people. I find as a missionary that we have to get very creative in our finding efforts, and what better thing to do than sing Christmas songs during Christmas time?
Wednesday, December 18th, 2013:
During the morning, we did more clerical work for the Bishop. We have really helped him get on his feet and start cleaning out all of the old names on the ward list. There are still people on the list who moved more than five years ago; Elder Porter and I have been busy trying to visit them and update all of their contact information in order to send the information off to the proper location. After helping out Bishop, we went to help out at English class for the final time this calendar year. It was a small turnout, but they always appreciate our help. They also invited us to their end-of-the-year party tomorrow morning! We will resume teaching English class on the 8th of January. After English class, we went by the Caballero family to see if we could update some of their information. They have moved to an English ward, even though they don't speak English. At night, I took Elder Porter and Ruben to Subway before our lesson with him and got the $2 meatball marinara sandwich. Elder Porter and I taught Ruben about the importance of tithing and fasting, and Ruben was very receptive to it. He progresses so fast; it's insane. I love teaching him because we can actually use all of our Gospel knowledge with him; he wants to learn all of the in-depth stuff, as opposed to the usual things that we teach that just brush the surface.
Thursday, December 19th, 2013:
In the morning, we went to the party for all of the English class students. It was really fun to see them get up and sing a Christmas song in English and receive their certificates of advancement. It was also funny that I was the one that kept getting pulled off to the side for pictures by all of the Iranians and Latinos. After the party, we had zone meeting in Pomona. I GOT TO DRIVE A CAR!!! I was so excited to get to drive for the first time in nearly five months, and I miss driving a car so much. My driving skills are just as good as when I left, too. It was also my first time ever driving a "car." I have only ever driven trucks, SUVs, or mini-SUVs. Zone meeting was really good, too. We talked about our new method of teaching with the pamphlets and doing shorter lessons. I like the old teaching method much better because the new method seems like we don't talk at all or use any scriptures. It's more like how Jesus taught, which is the right way to do it, but I'm just not used to it yet. President Gutierrez came to join us on a lesson with Ruben during the evening. He didn't think he would be able to come because he felt sick, but he said a prayer to receive health; he immediately felt better when he stepped out of his car. Guess what our lesson was about? That's right, prayer. It was a really cool example to share right during the middle of the lesson. We were going to have Ruben read Ether 3 about the Brother of Jared's prayer to the Lord to have the Lord touch the stones, but Ruben had already read it! He is the most awesome investigator anyone could ever hope for, and President Gutierrez was even floored by how prepared Ruben is.
Friday, December 20th, 2013:
I think today was my favorite day of my entire mission, thus far. We got special permission to leave the mission to go to the Los Angeles Temple Visitor's Center with Ruben and the Dos Santos family! Hermano Dos Santos is less-active (technically) because he coaches soccer all the time, so we figured it would be good to bring him with us. (Side note, he is also the uncle of world-renowned soccer star, Giovanni Dos Santos - I got to see a couple of cool pictures). We got to the Visitor's Center and went through the tour with the Dos Santos family and with Ruben. We concluded by watching the longer Joseph Smith video because we wanted to tailor the tour to the Restoration of the Gospel. Ruben absolutely loved it. It was also really neat to see the giant Christus statue at the beginning of the tour. Also, one of the Hermanas that was conducting the tour for us is friends with Elder Mask! It was really cool to see someone who is a friend of one of my MTC companions! We also viewed the Christmas lights around the temple before heading to dinner. The Dos Santos took us to the Cheesecake Factory in Beverly Hills - I NEVER thought I would be there on my mission. We saw two Bentleys, three Ferraris, a Rolls Royce, a Maserati and countless BMWs, Audis, and Lexus. The day was so much fun and so spiritually uplifting.
Saturday, December 21st, 2013:
In the morning, Elder Porter and I had to finish up weekly planning. Going to Los Angeles yesterday was almost two hours each way, so our weekly planning kind of got thrown out the window yesterday. We went to contact a referral on the very edge of our area, so we ended up riding the bus for about an hour each way to go contact the person. To our dismay, he wasn't home and we ended up just contacting on the bus on the way back. We weren't given a phone number to call; this referral may be difficult to contact, but the text we got said he is interested. Later in the day, Elder Porter and I got dropped by the Martinez family. It's kind of funny how when a missionary is planning on dropping an investigator that the investigator almost always drops the missionary before the missionary can even say it. After stopping by their house, we went to the church to go set up for the ward Christmas dinner.
Sunday, December 22nd, 2013:
Church was filled with people from out of town, which was to be expected with Christmas coming up so soon. Elder Porter and I taught the oldest primary class, like usual. It's really fun to mess with Tito Guzman because he can be clumsy at times but isn't annoying like most Deacons. He tripped and fell and broke his arm about a week ago, so we tease him about it. He's a good sport and enjoys humor. After church concluded, we taught Ruben about the importance of scripture study and following the counsel of the Prophet. Our job is to teach the simple doctrines of the Church, but we got into some very deep doctrine. It was really fun to talk about, and Ruben is ready to hear it. Elder Porter and I are pretty well-versed with some deeper doctrines, and Elder Porter has all of the thousand-page Institute manuals to study from. It's fun to talk to Ruben about everything. After teaching Ruben, we went to the Montes de Oca family's home to teach Ana's boyfriend. His name is Juan, and he believes in God but doesn't believe in organized religion. The weird thing was that Hermana Bardsley and Hermana Stohlton also showed up to teach their neighbor. As a result, we organized the lesson into one big group and had four missionaries teaching one lesson on the Restoration to two investigators and a less-active family. It wasn't the best lesson just because of how difficult it is to split up the talking among four people. We also used the new teaching method, so it was a bit choppier than normal. After the lesson, Elder Porter and I helped Javier (the son) start working on his family history so that he can take his father's name to the temple to get the ordinances done. To conclude the evening, we went by the Aguilar family, who have been less-active recently. We taught them about the importance of faith and how our faith in Christ can help us overcome all of our weaknesses. They haven't been to the temple together to be sealed yet, so we are going to see what we can do to make that a reality.
This week has been really exciting, and I love teaching Ruben. We are trying to be with him every single day, in preparation for his baptism. I am also really excited to talk to my family on Christmas. I would encourage everyone to read Elder Holland's talk, "Christmas Doesn't Come From a Store," which explains the significance of the Christmas story. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, and I can't wait to hear how everyone's time with their families is. Thank you again for all of your love and support!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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