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
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