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
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