New Transfer, New Successes - January 27, 2014

Hey Everyone!

 

This past week has been filled with success! Elder Knapp and I have been tearing it up here in Chino and have been fortunate enough to witness the single-best week in as much as a year-and-a-half in Chino. Elder Knapp is a great example of what it means to be exactly obedient, and it really shows in his work ethic. He is a quiet, lead by example kind of missionary, and it is very inspiring. I'm really happy to be here and be able to work with him.

 

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014:

 

In the morning, Elder Knapp and I went to go teach Alejandro and Josefina about the Restoration. There were a few interruptions with people entering and leaving the house, but the lesson went quite well, overall. They were a bit scared when we invited them to be baptized in the first lesson, but they will come around with time and as they understand more. After teaching them, we went to English class. It's strange to think that I am the oldest missionary in the area, in terms of time spent here in Chino. I still feel like I'm the new guy, but everyone looks to me for how to go about doing things in Chino. It's really a strange feeling. Elder Knapp's tire popped, so we ended up having to go the bike store. I feel like we are in there every other week for one thing or another. All of our pre-arranged appointments before dinner ended up changing on us and canceling, so I had to improvise and figure out where to go. I still don't know Chino Central as well as I know Chino East, so it is also a learning experience for me as we go around to meet new potential investigators. For dinner, the Ramirez family invited us over to eat. Elder Knapp and I practiced the new Book of Mormon lesson with them. We are definitely still working out the kinks with teaching the first chapter and applying it to the investigator in a way to make them understand how important it is, but the teaching success will come with time.

 

Thursday, January 23rd, 2014:

 

Our first district meeting with Elder Knapp consisted of role playing a church tour. I enjoyed his way of teaching because of how much he likes to encourage discussion. Elder Knapp is a quieter person and doesn't talk as much, but his character speaks volumes. After district meeting, Elder Knapp and I went down to Chino HIlls to do Facebook at the Family History Center in Chino Hills. Later in the day, we went to Hermano Montanez's house to have our weekly correlation meeting. I love his excitement about missionary work; it is so contagious! He is a solid member who truly understands the value of the knowledge the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring into someone's life. To conclude the evening, we taught Martin Ramirez again, with the assistance of our recent convert, Ruben. Martin ended up talking way too much in the lesson to let us teach what we wanted to teach. The hard thing with teaching is that we have to guide the investigator to what we want them to learn. Latinos, as a whole, are a very talkative people who like to tell stories. It's hard to get them to stay focused on what we are trying to share, and this lesson was a prime example of just that.

 

Friday, January 24th, 2014:

 

In the morning, Elder Knapp and I found out more than we wanted to know about a certain problem in the ward. I can't really elaborate more than that, but it was sad to see people make choices they know they shouldn't make. We must always remember that we must put the Lord first in everything that we do, regardless of the fact that we may not always not get the things that we want. The Lord will provide us with the things that we need, but not always the things that we want. Elder Knapp and I had our first weekly planning session together, and it went very well. We work very well together, and we both have the same purpose in our mind all the time. This will be a transfer in which a lot of work gets done. The one success story we had was teaching a man named Raul during the time in which he was having a garage sale. It wasn't the best situation to teach the first lesson, but he was open to listen to us. We are going to go back to teach him next week. At night, we taught Camilo Gomez, but, like Martin the night before, Camilo talked way too much for us to share what we wanted. Latinos have some incredible stories (especially dreams), but we are there to teach.

 

Saturday, January 25th, 2014:

 

Today was an awesome day for teaching; we taught five lessons in one day. There were weeks last transfer where I didn't even end up teaching five total lessons through an entire week. We taught two other people in the same apartment complex as Martin Ramirez in the morning before going almost the entire afternoon without any success. We brought Hermano Montanez with us to a lesson, but the investigator ended up canceling on us. Hermano Montanez ended up taking us to the Moreno family's home to eat dinner with them and their other friends who were over to celebrate their son's birthday. During the evening, Elder Knapp and I returned to go teach Martin Ramirez and ended up committing him to baptism on the 16th of February! We ended up walking home, but we were way too excited to care.

 

Sunday, January 26th, 2014:

 

Church was surprising because of the fact that we had such a high turnout of people come. It was nice to see a near-full chapel. Unfortunately, Martin didn't end up coming to Church, but we will get him there next week! The longer that I stay in this ward, the more that I love the members. The people here are such great people have such strong desires to help out the missionaries. It is wonderful to see. It's also cool to see that they seem to trust me more because I have been here the longest. They are so willing to help me and help Elder Knapp with lessons and whatever we may end up needing. During the afternoon, Elder Knapp and I taught the Restoration to Jesus Nunez. We ended up finding eight new investigators this week! I think we found two the entire last transfer, total. At night, we taught Ruben about the Plan of Salvation and helped him understand why the Plan of Salvation is so important and key to our Church. Many other places think that they have the same knowledge, but we truly have all of the puzzle pieces together. After teaching Ruben, Elder Knapp and I stopped by a few members before returning to the apartment. We are much more efficient with our time than before, and it is really helping out the work here in Chino.

 

This week has been very successful in the finding department, and I'm really excited to see how this transfer goes! I hope everyone has a fabulous week this week, and I look forward to hearing how everyone is doing! I'm grateful for all of your love and support! Thank you for all that you do and for being great examples to me!

 

Love,

Elder Gabriel Valley

Transfer Number Four in Chino, California - January 21, 2014

Hey Everyone!

The big news of the week was transfers and the fact that I am staying another transfer in my first area! Elder Porter left for San Gabriel yesterday (yes, I do hope that I serve there, too, for more reasons than the joke behind that). My new companion is Elder Knapp! He is from Pocatello, Idaho and knew Elder Knight in high school! He is a really cool guy and an even better missionary. We are going to be doing a lot of work this transfer, and I'm excited to see the success that comes from it. I don't have a whole lot of time today, so I am going to be quite brief in this email.

Tuesday, January 14th, 2014:

We had our weekly correlation meeting at Hermano Montanez's house. It was rather productive because of how much we planned for the upcoming Family Home Evening lesson with the ward. It is going to be quite the activity: we are going to have a giant mix of Book of Mormon games and stories, which we are planning to do on February 8th. Elder Porter and I then ended up going back to check up on Enrique Olvera. He has been struggling for a while. It's no coincidence that the time at which we stopped teaching him was the time that everything in his life started becoming a little tougher. Enrique just doesn't look the same, either. However, we can't keep teaching him if he isn't willing to progress. At night, we taught Ruben again and answered a few of his questions regarding the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. He is so intelligent; he will pass our understanding of the Gospel really fast at the rate he is progressing.

Wednesday, January 15th, 2014:

After nearly a month and a half of not going to English class, I had the chance to go teach English class again! It was really fun to go and do service for the people who aren't fluent in our language. I have so much more sympathy for them here on the mission as I continue to try and learn a foreign language. It is extremely difficult. In the evening, we ate dinner with Sofia Castro and shared a message about the first chapter of the Book of Mormon with her. We tried doing the new teaching style using the Book of Mormon with her, but it didn't go as well as we had planned. Brother Donaldson is definitely much more polished than any of us are. After eating with Sofia, we taught Ruben again about how to prepare his family to begin being taught about the Restoration.

Thursday, January 16th, 2014:

We were supposed to have interviews with President Becerra, but he got really sick and had to postpone them. As a result, Elder Porter taught our second district meeting of the transfer. It was a decent meeting but consisted of almost nothing but role plays. It takes twenty hours of practice to begin really developing a skill, so we are trying to expedite the process of applying this new teaching method that I have been talking about. During the afternoon, we ate dinner with the Guzman family. He was bishop in the Chino Ward a number of years ago, and their family is rock-solid. The daughter, Jenny, is going to turn in her mission papers in like two weeks! I hope I'm around long enough to hear where she ends up getting called to. After eating with them, we went to also eat with the Castaneda family. That's right, we had two dinners! I was so stuffed at the end of that. The Castaneda family has been doing well, and we shared a message with them about the Plan of Salvation. It helps us work on the new teaching method and helps them with their gospel knowledge. We also learned that they will be moving in a few weeks. It's sad to see them leave, but I hope they will begin attending a new ward wherever they end up at.

Friday, January 17th, 2014:

Elder Porter and I spent a long time with weekly planning to pull out some old former investigators to go by. We have been struggling with finding new investigators, so we need to exhaust every resource we have to find some new investigators. That ended up taking the better part of our day, leading up to our lesson with Ruben during the evening. We taught him more about the importance of obedience to God's commandments, despite the fact that we may not always want to comply with them. He took us out for dinner afterwards to my favorite taco place. I also found out that Ruben isn't a huge fan of Latino food and much prefers the traditional American hamburger (especially hamburgers from Carl's Jr.).

Saturday, January 18th, 2014:

Today was quite the busy day of work visiting members. In the morning, we had brunch with the Kirk family. They are a really nice family, and he may end up emailing you, Dad, about advice related to working for Costco. We then went by a large number of relatively less-active families who live in the corner of our area. We weren't able to find that many people home, but we did manage to contact a few people who we haven't seen in a while. At night, we got transfer calls! Elder Porter ended up getting a call from the new Assistant to the President, Elder Hoover, who told Elder Porter that he will be serving in San Gabriel - South with Elder Chapman. There was no other news for our district in Chino; everyone else is staying put. That means that I will be in Chino for my fourth transfer! It will be sad to see Elder Porter leave, but he was getting visibly tired of working here in Chino. Seven and a half months in one area will definitely ware on you.

Sunday, January 19th, 2014:

It was stake conference today for the Covina Stake. It was a little different being able to attend stake conference in Spanish, but I rather enjoyed it because of the fact that it ended up being a transmission from Salt Lake City. We were able to listen to Elder Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve and Elder Eyring of the First Presidency. Additionally, there was Elder Mervyn of the Seventy and the Relief Society General President who spoke. I don't like listening to the translation because of how much emotion is lost in the translation, but the message that was shared was powerful and all about the hastening of the work of salvation. I found out immediately after stake conference ended that I will be serving here in Chino with Elder Knapp! He was serving in San Gabriel with Elder Flindt, who came out with me and is also from the Redmond, Washington Stake! I'm seriously stoked to be able to serve with him! During the rest of the day, Obispo needed help with cleaning out more of the ward list. We cleaned out over forty old names, we have fifteen more to follow-up on, and we may have a few more names to clean out shortly, too. This ward list hadn't been cleaned out in about five years, and Obispo was determined to take care of that before attending to missionary matters and the things that we want to do as missionaries. He did, however, invite us over for dinner to talk more about upcoming things to help missionary work. It wasn't my ideal way to spend the last day in Chino with Elder Porter, but it should benefit the area over the long run.

Monday, January 20th, 2014:

During the morning, I had to wait with Javier Nunez for Elder Knapp to arrive after Elder Porter left. Ruben took Elder Porter to San Gabriel and took Elder Knapp from San Gabriel over here to Chino. Javier is a great kid and is preparing to serve a mission. I was able to share a lot of advice with him about what to do to prepare. Once Elder Knapp got here, we got right to work to finish up the stuff to do on P-day. It was nice not having to go to Chino Hills because we saved nearly three or four hours of our day. As a result, we ended having time to play Jenga and Bananagrams outside with Hermana Stohlton and Hermana Bardsley. It was a nice little break and quite relaxing. I love actually have time to do stuff on P-day. At night, we tried contacting some former investigators and potentials. We were fortunate enough to find the people home and set up a couple of return appointments. We then taught Ruben about the gifts of the Spirit to finish the evening. Ruben is such a solid member and is so quick to progress.

I'm really excited to be here for another transfer, and I can definitely see this transfer being even more successful than the last, as far as numbers are concerned. I hope everyone has had a fantastic week, and I look forward to writing again in just six days' time! Thank you for all of your love and support! Have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Gabriel Valley

One Month Until iPads!! - January 13, 2014

Hey Everyone!

I hope everyone has had a fantastic week! Here in the California Arcadia Mission, we learned this week about how much testing we do for the Church. Our mission president, President Becerra, talks to the Quorum of the Twelve on a regular basis and was able to set up a training meeting that was the first of its kind in the history of the Church. We were trained about our new teaching style (of which only about 15 missions in the entire world are doing currently), in addition to being briefed about the technology age of missionary work starting in one month!

Tuesday, January 7th, 2014:

Hermano Montanez had all of us over to his house for weekly correlation meeting. Hermana Bardsley was on exchanges, so Hermana Aydelott was Hermana Stohlton's companion for the day. Hermana Aydelott is one of the sister-trainers in the mission, so it was neat hearing about some of her experiences in Azusa. After finishing the meeting, our district carpooled over to the Chino Hills Family History Center to do Facebook. It was a nightmare trying to unlock the room because the English stake president gave us the wrong hours. We ended up waiting there for over an hour for someone to arrive to let us in to only use the place for an hour. This Facebook proselyting thing is making things difficult in Chino. In the afternoon, we went by Valentina Flores (Miguel's wife) to check in and see how she has been. Some of her family was over, and we assisted them with taking down some things from a party they hosted the night before. They were really happy to see us. The Mendoza family had us over for dinner, and I really enjoyed their company. I didn't know them well prior to that visit, but they are a very nice family and have this crazy five year-old son named Yair. Eating with them made me realize how little time we have spent with the members recently since receiving instructions not to pass around a dinner calendar. I want to start working with them some more to foster some greater success.

Wednesday, January 8th, 2014:

Elder Porter had a mission leadership training meeting in Arcadia, so I ended up going to Azusa to be with Elder Cobb while his companion, Elder Ingram, went to the meeting. Elder Cobb is Elder Ingram's trainee and has only been in the field for about four weeks. It was really cool being a trainer for a day and helping Elder Cobb out. He's an awesome missionary and will see some great success as he continues to learn and grow on the mission. Although we were actually unable to teach anyone during the day we set up a few return appointments with other solid potential investigators. We returned back to his apartment to meet up with the zone leaders and district leaders in order to switch back to our companions. Everyone in the car said that the meeting was literally the best meeting they have ever been to in their entire lives. The zone leaders dropped Elder Porter and I off at the Castaneda family's house for dinner when we returned to Chino. We ate dinner with them and taught them about the importance of the Sacrament using our new teaching method. They loved the shorter, more powerful lesson and wanted us to come back next week, too!

Thursday, January 9th, 2014:

The training meeting today was definitely the very best meeting I have ever been a part of in my entire life, and that includes school, church and anything in-between. Brother Donaldson was the mission president in San Diego when The District 2 (the Preach My Gospel DVD's that we use as missionaries) was filmed and now works very closely with the Quorum of the Twelve and Presidency of the Seventy. President Becerra got special permission to have a meeting with him, which was the first meeting of its kind in the history of the Church. Our mission is a special mission because of how much the Quorum of the Twelve trusts President Becerra in particular. Brother Donaldson also told us that we were likely called to serve with President Becerra, not just called to serve in the area! Often times, a missionary is assigned to labor with a particular mission president, not just to a specific mission. During this training meeting, Brother Donaldson showed us multiple role plays about the new teaching style with the pamphlets. Our goal is to teach the entire Restoration lesson in seven minutes. That allows for a couple of minutes getting to know the people, seven minutes to teach, time to introduce Mormon.org, and time to have the person/family pray. It was incredible. It is so simple, yet it is so effective. He also told us at the end of the meeting about how our mission is being selected to receive iPads in the middle of February! President Becerra didn't want us to know that, but our entire mission started going crazy when we heard that! The technological capabilities that the iPads have will help our efficiency as missionaries shoot through the roof! I can't even wait a month now; it's worse than Christmas as a kid. There are going to be major changes to how we go about missionary work, according to Brother Donaldson. He was an amazing speaker and taught us for over six hours. I was anxious to hear more. The normal person's attention span is twenty minutes (that's why we're using the new teaching method) and yet he managed to keep all of our attention for well over six hours. Upon getting back to Chino, we taught Ruben. The plan was to teach him about member missionary work; however, the lesson turned into teaching about the reason behind having trials in life. To end the day, Ruben took us to Carl's Jr. to get a hamburger. It was such a perfect end to a perfect day.

Friday, January 10th, 2014:

Weekly planning lasted much longer than normal due to the amount of time that we spent on companionship inventory. Clearly, I talk too much. I think Madisen has had too big of an impact on me... During the day, we were unable to really find anyone to teach. We tried testing out a few finding ideas that Brother Donaldson suggested yesterday, such as "would you really be willing to bet your entire eternity on the fact that you think we can't add any knowledge to what you already have?" I thought it was golden, but people are just really hard-headed sometimes. At night, we ate dinner with the Ramirez family. I love visiting them; they are so humble, friendly and love talking to the missionaries, despite the fact that they are less-active. We taught them the Restoration using the teaching method, and we managed to teach the entire Restoration lesson in under ten minutes.

Saturday, January 11th, 2014:

I am gradually feeling more and more physically drained during the day. I find myself yawning all the time and constantly feeling sleepy. I believe it is because we don't always have full agendas and have to devote a great deal of time to chasing people down to try to set up appointments, rather than teaching at pre-planned appointments. In the afternoon, we stopped by the Montes de Oca family to talk to Javier for a while about how he can continue preparing to serve a mission. He is kind of lazy at the moment and needs the push to serve a mission. We also invited him to help us teach Ruben later that evening about the first lesson that we will teach to Ruben's family. Javier agreed to help us out. We all went down to the Church to meet up with Ruben, where we role-played the Restoration and how we would teach it to Ruben's brother. Ruben seemed nervous the whole time about what his brother might say, but I think all will be all right. After the lesson, we stayed and played volleyball with the ward. Elder Porter and I grabbed some tacos on the way back to our apartment. Often times, we get busy and don't have time to eat, so we improvise in whatever way that we can. Those tacos we ate are from a taco stand outside and are the best tacos I have ever eaten in my life! I ate two tacos al pastor and two tacos de chorizo. That place is called La Carreta de Don Jose and is definitely worth going back to after the mission.

Sunday, January 12th, 2014:

Elder Porter and I talked to Hermano Kirk during the day, and he told us about how different it is serving in California than where he served in Mexico. He said he wouldn't be able to handle teaching so many fewer lessons everyday here; it is much more difficult finding investigators in California than Mexico, no doubt about that one. That was a bit of a confidence builder to know that I'm not doing quite as poorly as I thought. During the afternoon, we tried visiting several potentials but ended up spending the majority of the time talking to Mauricio Dominguez. He is fourteen and is a freshman in high school. We are trying to help him start the habits that he needs to develop now to begin preparing to serve a mission in just a few years. At night, we went to a family home evening in the home of the Moreno family in which the ward was also invited.Hermano Moran, the stake patriarch, talked for almost an hour and a half. It was a good talk.

Anyway, the training meeting on Thursday made this week so exciting! The fact that iPad minis are coming in a month makes me so excited! We are going to be able to use the iPad minis for our scriptures, Church magazines, area books, journals, TALL language learning, dictionaries, maps, bus routes, and many more things yet to be seen! Remember that the Lord has given us tools to assist us in many different facets of life, but we must be responsible and use them for their intended purpose. We must be careful not to give in to different distractions.

I hope everyone has an awesome week! I love you and appreciate your love and support!

Love,

Elder Gabriel Valley

New Year's Day - January 1, 2014

Ruben's Baptism - December 29, 2013

Full Year of Missionary Service Ahead - January 6, 2014

Hey Everyone!

I hope everyone had a happy New Year's Day and set some goals to aspire to! I feel like I am at the point of all of my days and weeks blending together. However, I am looking forward to 2014 being the only time in my entire life when I can say that I devoted the ENTIRE YEAR to serving the Lord. It is the only full calendar year on my mission.

Tuesday, December 31st, 2013:

Elder Porter and I had to help the ward set up for the New Year's activity that they were having. The ward was going to do a dance and have nearly 1,000 balloons drop when the new year hit. To our dismay, that meant that we had to fill up all 1,000 of those balloons without an air compressor. There were only six of us there helping (us, the Hermanas, and a couple members of the Castro family), so I ended up blowing up balloons for almost two hours straight. Man, did I feel dizzy after that... After that, we went to the Superior grocery store to contact Latinos. It is so hard to get people to feel excited and want to come to Church. As a whole, the Latinos usually just get up and go to Catholic Mass certain weeks and then have nothing to do with Church the entire rest of the week. Elder Porter and I later went to teach Ruben the first lesson in preparation of receiving the Aaronic Priesthood. He had some good questions and was quite surprised at how important proper Priesthood authority is to the organization of the Church. We later went to dinner at Panda Express. It's also funny how many Latinos love Chinese food; we should just go there to contact people in the future! We invited a guy there to come to the New Year's Dance at the Church, and he said he would come! Elder Porter and I went to the dance for an hour to contact people. It was, however, the only activity in the entire stake, so there were many people from different wards there. I think people enjoyed the diversity of people at the activity.

Wednesday, January 1st, 2014:

It feels weird writing 2014! Happy New Year, everyone! Holidays really don't feel any different as a missionary because we are out and about working, like any other day. The only difference about today was how easy it was to tell that people were sleeping in. Elder Porter and I spent the majority of the time in my old area, and it was impossible to find people home. We stopped by the home of the Moran family while we were in the area. He is the stake patriarch, and one of his wife's companions from her mission to Mexico was visiting. She actually helped translate the Bible from English to Spanish! She translated five or six books and was set apart by Elder Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve to perform that task about a decade ago! She told us a few stories about how the words would come to her mind when she was translating, and she can no longer even remember the books that she translated from the Bible. It was purely inspired. Elder Porter and I later taught Ruben about how the authority of the Priesthood was passed down from the time of Adam and about the different dispensations over the course of time. After the lesson, Ruben and Gabriela (a returning less-active member) cooked dinner for us at Ruben's house. Gabriela is interested in Ruben, but he is really only helping her because he is nice. I just worry that something could happen if she keeps trying to be with him all of the time.

Thursday, January 2nd, 2014:

In the morning, Elder Porter taught what will be our only district meeting of the entire transfer. Due to Christmas and Facebook, we have had so many training meetings with the zone and with the mission that typical district meetings just haven't happened. We talked more about our new teaching method with the pamphlets. After ending the meeting, the zone leaders did their exchange with Elder Porter, which meant that I was also affected. Elder Chandler came to Chino to be with Elder Porter, and I went with Elder Carvajal to Pomona. My first realization was that the zone leaders have a much easier area to work in.

 During the day, I went with Elder Carvajal to about five different lessons, only one of which being a less-active lesson. Their teaching pool is much bigger than ours in Chino, and a great reason why is assistance from the members of the ward. Seeing their success there made me really want to inspire the Chino Ward to realize that the Hastening of the Work isn't just a nice phrase. I was able to extend the baptismal invitation to one of the investigators that the zone leaders are teaching, but the Hermano wasn't ready to accept yet. He isn't a member, but the rest of his family is. If we could be teaching that much in Chino, I feel like my teaching skills would actually be progressing. When you teach more, your skills definitely become much sharper. I felt like the day consisted of me not being able to keep up with Elder Carvajal in the Spanish department. I can understand everything, but I can't process it quite quick enough to keep up with how fast he reacts when someone talks. It is so much easier teaching in your native language.

Friday, January 3rd, 2014:

Because we didn't technically start the exchanges until after district meeting, I had to stay overnight in Pomona and do studies there. I was able to use the gym downstairs in their apartment complex (which, might I add, no other apartment complex that missionaries stay in has). They are so spoiled. I forgot how good it felt to actually have a real workout. I get tired of push-ups and sit-ups everyday; I need cardio every now and again, especially when we aren't able to do anything on P-day anymore. Once we switched back, Elder Porter and I did our weekly planning. Right before finishing weekly planning, the mission cleaning inspector came by, unannounced. Anyone that knows me well enough knows that I hate having things messy. As a result, he said our apartment looked like one of the better ones he has seen. He is supposed to come by monthly, but that was the first time he has even come by since I have gotten to the mission field. He also said it is possible that missionaries may be occupying my old apartment soon, which means that it is possible that another set of missionaries could return to Chino next transfer. The ward here isn't ready for that, however. They don't seem to have noticed a difference since last transfer when two missionaries were taken out. Later on in the evening, we went to teach Ruben the last lesson he needs in preparation for the Aaronic Priesthood. The lesson was very quick and only explained the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood, as found in Section 84. For dinner - and to finish up the evening - we went to visit the Ramirez family for the first time this transfer. They are in dire need of some friends and visitors; it was apparent when visiting with them that Hermana Ramirez doesn't feel genuine love from the ward. She feels like any time that people come by to visit her, it is out of obligation, not sincerity. She was very appreciative of us coming by and realizes that we come by to visit her because we sincerely care about her and her family. We will definitely be stopping by there more often in the coming weeks and months. Every time I feel like we make progress in some area, another problem arises. I'm sure this is how life is in general, too.

Saturday, January 4th, 2014:

Elder Porter and Elder Low had received several referrals last transfer that hadn't been contacted, so we spent the greater part of the day trying to contact those referrals. Unfortunately, it would appear that every one of them was a fake address. In the afternoon, we went to visit Hermana Veron, who is an elderly lady in the ward with a son who is an investigator. It is really hard to find the son home, so we ended up just talking to her. Later on in the day, we set up a Family Home Evening lesson with the Castaneda family for Monday evening. They have been less-active for about a year, and I really like visiting their family. Before going to the Church, we stopped by the Herrera family to visit them. The Hermano is a pastry chef and one excellent cook; he offered to make us dinner, and we kind of couldn't turn down the offer. I like visiting the members more; it will help us build stronger trust with them, too. Elder Porter and I went to head up to the Church to teach Ruben, but he ended up being really late. As a result, we ended up just playing volleyball with him and the ward. There has been a better turnout at volleyball recently, which means the ward is now a little more active than before - it's great to see.

Sunday, January 5th, 2014:

Ruben was confirmed today by Elder Porter, and Ruben invited me to stand in for the confirmation. It was my first time ever being in the circle during the confirmation. There was definitely a spirit and power present. During the meeting, the stake president, President Zavala, and President Gutierrez, the first counselor in our Mission Presidency, were there attending the meeting. I wasn't sure what they were both there for, other than to see the confirmation. Elder Porter and I no longer have to teach Primary because someone was finally found to do that job, so we were able to attend Gospel Principles with Ruben for the first time in a number of weeks. The Hermanas may have found another golden investigator: they found a man named Mani, who they anticipate will be baptized at the end of January. After Church, we waited with Ruben so that he could get his Aaronic Priesthood interview. Ruben will be ordained a Priest next Sunday during Church; I will likely be the one to do the ordination! Bishop was swamped with things to do after Church, so we ended up staying at the Church until after 7 PM helping him with things that needed to be done. Sadly, that killed our night and killed our stomachs (we had to wait until about 8 PM to end our fast). 

I hope everyone has a fantastic week, and I really appreciate all of your love and support! Don't lose that Spirit of Christmas with sharing the Gospel, though. It's important that we remember and share that knowledge of Christ's birth with everyone around us.

Love,

Elder Gabriel Valley