Hey Everyone!
As you can probably tell from the title of this email, I am anxiously awaiting 9 AM tomorrow morning! At that time tomorrow morning, my zone will be receiving iPads to use as missionaries! It's really exciting! We will no longer be using paper planners, area books, paper dictionaries, or paper books, for that matter. The head of the entire missionary department of the Church will even be there in that meeting. It's quite a step forward and really marks the point at which missionaries will be entering the "technological age." I am also excited to say that, even though next week is a holiday (meaning the library will be closed), we will still be able to email from our iPads next Monday on P-day!
Tuesday, February 4th, 2014:
Elder Knapp and I have been extremely fortunate to find great success over the past couple of weeks. The only bad part about that is that we are bound to run into a roadblock in the near future (as seems to always be the case). In the morning, Hermano Dos Santos came with us to help us on a lesson. He is one of my favorite people in the whole ward, so I was excited to have him join us. The lady ended up canceling at her doorstep, so Elder Knapp and I ended up going with Hermano Dos Santos back to his house to take down his Christmas lights. He has been having back problems and hasn't been able to do it. He took us to Taco Bell afterwards. I'm not really sure how I ever liked fast food before the mission, especially fast food that tries to imitate Mexican food. I can make authentic Mexican tacos that are homemade in the apartment for cheaper that are way better. Regardless, it was good spending the time with Hermano Dos Santos, and I definitely view him as one of my best friends in the Chino Ward. During the remainder of the day, Elder Knapp and I visited at least twenty different people. We taught Lino about the Book of Mormon; he is progressing ever so slowly, and it seems like a lot of what we tell him goes into one ear and out of the other. The other bright spot of the day after working so hard was receiving not one, but two referrals from the Walnut Park English Elders! Elder Morgan is a visa waiter to Brazil and was able to talk to two different Hispanic people using Portuguese to get us two referrals! Like my zone leader, Elder Trauntvein, told me, "When we do things that need to be done, even if they aren't directly related to our missionary purpose (I will talk more about that in a second), the Lord will bless us in other facets of the work." There are just so many enlightening lessons to learn on the mission.
Wednesday, February 5th, 2014:
Today felt kind of like a wasted day. My whole zone went to Azusa to have our interviews with President Becerra, which were the make-up interviews from about one month ago. I told President Becerra that my biggest "weapon of rebellion" on the mission is probably the fact that I like to talk. He told me that "whenever we are talking, He [referring to the Holy Ghost] isn't." It was a concise statement that illustrated why I need to talk less. As you probably can tell from the length of my emails, clearly I have a long way to go. After finishing interviews, Elder Knapp and I went with the zone leaders to Arcadia to pick up a moving van. Remember when I quoted Elder Trauntvein about doing stuff unrelated to our purpose? Here is why: Elder Knapp and I have to help out the zone leaders with cleaning out the old apartment in Chino. It isn't something that we particularly want to do, and it won't help with finding new people to teach; however, it is something that has to be done, and the Lord will provide. The whole day ended up being used to start moving out furniture and continue cleaning. I enjoyed the time getting to know the zone leaders, though. I found out that Elder Trauntvein lived in that same apartment (the same one that I was in for three months) during a transfer about one calendar year ago. Our zone leaders are great examples, and it was a wonderful opportunity to learn from them.
Thursday, February 6th, 2014:
In the morning, we all went to Pomona for zone meeting. Elder Chandler and Elder Trauntvein are exceptional teachers; they instructed us on the importance of incorporating the "Ten Points for How to Begin Teaching" into everything that we do as missionaries. There is a page in Preach My Gospel that contains a list of ten points. Those ten points were direct revelation to Boyd K. Packer one evening and immediately put into Preach My Gospel when Preach My Gospel was being written in the early 2000s. When Elder Knapp and I returned to Chino, we had to use the better part of the afternoon to help the Hermanas with their bikes, which ate up more time than we wanted. After that, the zone leaders came to Chino to do round two of cleaning out the old apartment. I now understand why people dread moving. That apartment was DISGUSTING. I don't know how I lived there for three months, and I can't even imagine what other apartments must be like behind the beds and in the back of cabinets. Suffice it to say that I have a new found motivation to be even cleaner than I was before. At night, Elder Knapp and I got to work trying to contact the seven referrals we had accumulated over the past couple of days. It was a record high for me ever. I probably had seven referrals in my whole first three transfers in Chino. We were unable to get any lessons, although we did find some solid potentials and return appointments.
Friday, February 7th, 2014:
Elder Knapp and I have very similar personalities, and I love working with him. We both love sports, being neat, working hard and are very easy-going. During weekly planning, we spent a little bit of time reorganizing a new bookcase we got from the old apartment. President Becerra always admonishes, "You cannot expect to receive revelation if you aren't organized; God is a god of order." We were able to contact a few of our referrals today, including Carlos Balandran. We taught him the Restoration lesson outside his house because he wouldn't let us inside. It was a good lesson, and I can definitely see him as one who will progress. After the end of the lesson, I got the distinct impression that I need to invite him to be baptized on March 2nd during the next lesson we have with him. We will see how that goes when we teach him next. The second new investigator that we were able to find is named Hiberto. He seemed a little skeptical of what we were sharing, but he did invite us back to meet again. Hopefully he blossoms into something, too. The time that was spent working in the old apartment seems to be paying off. Speaking of cleaning the old apartment, Elder Knapp and I also spent about an hour in there today mopping the floors. I swear, cleaning is a never-ending battle, especially when you don't even live in the place where you are cleaning (I'm still trying to figure out how that one works).
Saturday, February 8th, 2014:
Elder Knapp and I worked extremely hard today to get even a single lesson in. By 7 PM, we had gone through all of our triple back-up plans for every single time slot of our day. It was literally insane how many people we visited that were not home or were unavailable. Despite the struggles, we did manage to find one new investigator on the day! His name is Joseph Rodarte, and he is the son of one of the older ladies we are currently teaching. The lesson with him went well. Joseph claims that he doesn't want to change at all, but I believe that he is really beginning to understand why the gospel leads to changes in the lives of everyone who hears it. At night, we were able to teach Ruben for the first time in almost three weeks. Ruben says that he is struggling with vanity because he seeks after a nice house and a nice car. We were able to talk to him about the importance of goal-setting and always putting the Lord first in our goals. It isn't bad to seek for material wealth, as long as we have the right intentions and goals behind it. After finishing the lesson with him, we played volleyball with the ward. The Mendoza family even invited a few people from Pomona to join us! It was a great activity.
Sunday, February 9th, 2014:
Church was fairly routine, except that Hermano Moran invited us to help him talk to Ruben about cutting his hair. It was kind of funny that Hermano Moran wanted us to help him with it, but he explained it extremely well. We look very professional because they are standards or rules to officiate in Priesthood ordinances. It isn't a requirement, but rather a standard. Elder Knapp and I also worked extremely hard today to try to find new investigators and more lessons. We were very fortunate to be able to teach our new investigator Joseph and his mother in the early afternoon about the importance of the Book of Mormon. His mother, Bertha, was pretty shocked when we showed her the passage about the Book of Mormon being the keystone of our religion, in addition to all of the implications of that one simple idea. They both committed to start reading it, so we will see how they do. Later on in the day, we found a new investigator named Augustin. He is Catholic but doesn't attend church regularly. He was really funny because he seemed like he was trying to argue his doubts but didn't really have anything to back anything up. We kindly turned the conversation back to the prophet, Joseph Smith, and invited him to pray about it. He invited us back for another appointment; I think he took it well. As the night was getting ready to end, Elder Knapp and I decided to stop by the Martinez family to see how they are doing. I didn't realize that it had been over two months since I had last gone by (when I was with Elder Knight). We shared a message about the Restoration with Juan, but he still doesn't seem like he is ready to change. It was interesting to hear that his views are that there had to be a restoration with a new prophet called and a retranslation of the Bible, but he didn't believe our message that all of those things have already happened.
This week has been filled with lots of cleaning and anticipation of the coming of iPads to missionary work! I hope everyone has a great week and continues to put God first in all that they do. As Valentine's Day approaches on Friday, remember to think about all of the people who you care about in life. Don't just think about that "significant other," but rather think about the close relationships that foster true love each and every day, such as those in the family. Thank you for all of your love and support, and I hope to hear from you all soon!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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