Hey Everyone!
So first off, like the title says, we have received iPads! I don't
have access to my list of contacts on here...
Tuesday, February 11th, 2014:
We went to Arcadia to go to the iPad training meetings in the morning.
It was quite the experience because the top three people in the entire
missionary department of the Church were all present for the release
of the iPads for our mission. Our zone leaders and a few other select
missionaries in the mission have had the iPads for about a month now,
and they were able to teach all of us how to use the devices. We are
in the process of moving our entire Area Book over to the iPads to
make everything digital. It is quite a tedious and lengthy process,
and it will not be done until the end of this transfer (two weeks from
now). I was counting down the days, hours and minutes until that
meeting, and these iPads are awesome! After finishing up with the
meeting there in Arcadia, we went with the zone leaders to finally
finish closing down the old apartment on Oaks and Riverside. It felt
so great to hand the keys over to the landlord and just be done with
cleaning that old apartment. Elder Knapp and I were able to find a new
investigator named Maria Rodriguez today. She has quite the Christian
background, and we ended up having to explain things in more detail to
her than we would have liked to help her understand the difference
with our message. It was a good lesson, just longer than we would
like. It's tough to help people understand that we don't want to sit
down and talk for an hour. As for the remainder of the day, we spent a
great deal of time trying to find new investigators; it seems like we
have gotten a little bit unlucky with finding people home.
Wednesday, February 12th, 2014:
After stopping by a number of different times, we were finally able to
visit with Hermano Ferrufino, who is a less-active member. He is the
only member in his family and has a fairly weak testimony of the Book
of Mormon. We are planning on paying a few more visits to his house to
work with him and to hopefully also work with his family. After
visiting him, Elder Knapp and I went to English class, as is usual for
Wednesdays. There were a ton of people there. Thank goodness, we had
ten missionaries (four Spanish and six English) to help out. I love
being able to do service for people; it is one of my absolute favorite
parts of being a missionary. Later on in the day, Elder Knapp and I
went to the Church to begin inputting records into the Area Book app
on the iPads. It will be an EXTREMELY long process. We can do about
twelve records per hour, and we have two Area Books to go through,
each with at least a couple hundred names total of investigators,
potential investigators, etc. During the evening, Elder Knapp and I
discovered that Martin Ramirez apparently moved from his house about
two or three days ago. We have been trying to find him and teach him
again, but we have been unable to find him for about two weeks. The
really sad part was that he had a baptismal date for this Sunday. I
feel like our teaching pool is quickly shrinking in size. We seem to
be finding investigators that will listen to us for two, three or four
lessons and then lose interest when they finally realize that they are
expected to make the effort to actually do something with what we
teach them.
Thursday, February 13th, 2014:
I think you may find a pattern with inputting stuff in the Area Book.
In the morning, we had our weekly district meeting about (you guessed
it) putting stuff into the Area Book. It was interesting to hear
everyone's perspectives on the process of inputting information; we
all love having the iPads as a teaching tool, but the time that we
have to sacrifice from actually teaching to be able to sit down and
input names and lessons into the iPads isn't exactly desirable. It is
a necessary process and will prove beneficial in the long run,
however. After finishing district meeting, (you guessed it again) we
put in more names into the Area Book app on the iPads! Since there are
only four of us in our district, we all decided to have an "Area Book
Party." We all pitched in a few bucks and bought some pizza to eat
while we inputted names. I would love to say that it was fun, but that
would be a lie. It was the most uneventful party I have ever been a
part of. Needless to say, the pizza was the best part of the party.
Elder Knapp and I got about 27 or 28 names into the Area Book, though,
so it was quite productive! As far as teaching goes for the day, we
were unsuccessful with finding anyone. I'm a little bit worried about
our numbers because of how much time we have been sacrificing to try
to get everything into the tablets. It is a slow process and takes
time away from finding and teaching.
Friday, February 14th, 2014:
I guess you could say that I spent Valentine's Day (or "El Dia del
Amor y la Amistad" as they call it in Spanish) with my new best
friend, my iPad. What that means is (you guessed it again) that I
spent a great deal of time inputting records into the Area Book!
Weekly planning was quite interesting using the iPads. It's kind of
difficult to keep track of all of the investigators because we aren't
using our whiteboard to write down everyone's name in one place with
all of their needs and lesson plans. I improvised and decided to use
the "Notes" app on the tablet. After weekly planning, Elder Knapp and
I spent more time (yep, you guessed it) putting in names into the Area
Book. I can seriously now understand why people get tired of desk
jobs; it is quite a drag. I think we are about one-third of the way
done with putting in just the former investigators, so we still have
quite the workload ahead of us. The rest of the day consisted of
trying to visit people and have a lesson but setting up return
appointments. I think most people are lying to us when they tell us
that they don't even have fifteen minutes to listen to us. It was also
really funny when a lady started yelling at me when I asked her if she
was sure if her tenant was home or not. People can be really rude, and
it's actually kind of funny to laugh at how ridiculous they sound
sometimes. At the conclusion of the day, I definitely found myself
thinking of my parents and sister more than usual, seeing that it was
Valentine's Day. I like the name for it in Spanish better because it
translates to "The Day of Love and Friendship." True love should
create the best friendship, and the name of the holiday in Spanish
recognizes the importance of friendship, too.
Saturday, February 15th, 2014:
Guess what I did again today? You're right. I put in more records into
the Area Book. As the day progressed, the optimism that I had coming
into the day began to wane. We had everything set up to have a
successful day with many return appointments, but everything that we
had set up fell through. Canceled appointments seemed to be a
recurring problem today. At night, we went to go play volleyball with
the ward. To our dismay, only about four other people showed up: the
Mendoza family, Ruben and Mauricio. We had a ton of fun playing
three-on-three, though. I played with Hermano and Hermana Mendoza, and
Elder Knapp joined up with Ruben and Mauricio. We played four quick
games to 25 and split the games 2-2. It was one of the more fun times
playing volleyball, even though not very many people showed up.
Sunday, February 16th, 2014:
Church was quite fun because I realized how much we can do with the
iPads. Elder Knapp and I taught Gospel Principles about the topic of
the Spirit World, and the iPads proved to be such a great teaching
tool. It's awesome to be able to pull up my notes, scriptures, manual
and pictures all on such a small little device. We went to Ward
Council after church ended. I don't really think we needed to be
there, but Obispo Arriaga covered many important points of discussion.
After Ward Council, guess what we did? We spent another hour and a
half entering information. I think I will be out of conference talks
to listen to by the time this is all done! As the day continued, we
were able to find a new investigator named Idie Ortiz. She has been a
member of several different Christian churches, and she has great
faith in God. We brought Hermano Montanez with us to teach her, and it
was a pretty powerful lesson. I think she can definitely progress.
While we didn't teach or find as much as I would have liked, I am so
very grateful for the opportunity to be able to use the iPads in the
lessons that we do teach. They will prove to move missionary work
forward quite possibly more than any other tool in recent history
(with the exception of Preach My Gospel). If everyone can use these
iPads in the way that the Church intends, the efficiency in our
teaching and finding should skyrocket.
This has been quite the exciting week! I think I have already
belabored this point, but putting in information into the iPads has
taken priority of much of the week. I hope everyone had a wonderful
Valentine's Day and that you continue to think about the people in
life who matter most. I am grateful for all of your love and support!
Have a great week, everyone!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
Sent from my iPad
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