Week Two in El Sereno - March 17, 2014

Hey Everyone!

I hope you have all had a great week and that you all remembered to
wear green today! This past week has been very exciting and full of
opportunities to learn and to grow. El Sereno is really confusing and
difficult to navigate through the streets, but I am making progress.
The highlight of his week was definitely Myra (Elder Knight's
investigator) getting baptized! Here is he week in review:

Tuesday, March 11th, 2014:

It felt so nice to have a normal day to work again. We have had so
many things lately that have been eating into our time that it doesn't
feel like there has been time to work. Elder Steffen and I put in
records into the Area Book app; we are getting very close to
finishing, and I don't anticipate needing more than about two or three
more days to finish. During the afternoon, we found two new
investigators named Stan and Gloria who welcomed us right in. Stan is
quite the drug addict and wants to change his life around. Gloria has
family members who are LDS. It was a really good, short visit in which
we talked about the importance of prophets. They graciously accepted a
return visit for this Thursday. We later went to go have dinner with
Silvia and her son, Jose. Elder Steffen and I were each a little bit
worried that the meal might be a little bit awkward, but it ended up
being fantastic. I love that they really like to get to know the
missionaries as people; they remind me a lot of the Ramirez family
from Chino. We are going to go with their family on Thursday to East
Los Angeles to see about getting the marriage license all figured out.
Once they are both married, they should both be about ready to be
baptized. To conclude the evening, we stopped by Alex Varela's house
to see how he has been doing. The more that I am around Alex, the more
that I love the man. He is down to Earth and is extremely happy with
his decision to be baptized, despite the recent economic struggles
that he has been through. We talked to Alex for a little while about
the importance of exact obedience. He then told us that his brother,
Abel, has actually been baptized into the Church before! If Abel is
actually inactive, that could change everything about how we go about
teaching the family. It could also help the son, Chris, get baptized
sooner. It will be really interesting to see if President Muriel can
find Abel's records.

Wednesday, March 12th, 2014:

The morning was fairly routine, and we spent a little bit more time
putting in records into the Area Book. During the early part of the
afternoon, Hermano Velasco called us to request our help with helping
Hermana Salazar move some more furniture. We went to help for about
thirty minutes. It was a really easy service project, and Hermana
Salazar gave us a free desk that she no longer needed or wanted. I
gladly took it, so I am now using it instead of those annoying plastic
tables that every other apartment has. We rearranged a few things in
our apartment during dinner; it is amazing how much better everything
now looks. After dinner, Elder Steffen and I went to visit Hermano
Magdaleno. He is an older man who served a mission and is now
less-active. We talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon with
him. I was honestly quite surprised how much he still remembers, given
how long it has been since he has read or come to church. It was also
kind of funny to visit with him because he wanted to talk about a lot
of deep doctrine relating to the Book of Mormon. He seemed to be quite
fascinated with how the ancient American civilizations could be the
peoples talked about in the Book of Mormon. To conclude the evening,
our whole district went to the church for mutual to continue planning
for our upcoming Noche de Hogar activity with the branch on Monday.
Almost no one was focused during the planning, so I am a little
worried that we won't be able to get everything in order by Monday. We
have some awesome ideas; however, it will require some work and
additional planning to pull everything off.

Thursday, March 13th, 2014:

In the morning, we went to district meeting at the church. It was a
little different with Elder Knight teaching it. The zone leaders
joined us for the meeting. During the afternoon,
Elder Steffen and I went to East Los Angeles with Silvia and her son,
Jose, to learn how she can obtain a marriage license so that she can
be baptized. We had to wait in line for quite some time, but we
obtained the information that we were seeking for: Silvia will be able
to get married wife we can get her birth certificate translated into
English and obtain an ID card for her from the consulate of El
Salvador in Los Angeles. It may take a few weeks to get everything
done, but she would then be able to get baptized. She has been an
investigator for three years, and we have chance to help her enter the
waters of baptism. We met up with Elder Knight and Elder Turner to eat
dinner with the Perez family. I really enjoyed spending the time with
them and getting to know all of them better. Angie's younger sister,
Liz, couldn't believe that I am still only eighteen. Everyone says
that I look like I am at least twenty. It's interesting how living the
Gospel as much as we do changes not only our spiritual side, but also
our physical appearance. At night, we shared a quick Bible video (due
to a lack of time) with Stan and Gloria about the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. They were really excited to see us and learn more about
Christ's life. Gloria may actually be a member, so we will have to see
if her records can be found. Due to the bus, we ended up getting home
about an hour late; however, we had a couple of quality contacts on
the way home.

Friday, March 14th, 2014:

Time has seriously been flying by. I feel like I just got here
yesterday, and I have already been here for almost two full weeks. We
have had a couple of absolutely fantastic weekly planning sessions. I
normally despise weekly planning because of how long it is, but that
hasn't been the case here. Elder Steffen is very effective with
planning, and it gives me the opportunity to learn more from him about
how he does it. I also feel like we are able to give one another
positive and constructive feedback, which really helps me grow
personally. It always seems like we are in the right place at the
right time, too. We ran into Isabel, one of our investigators, on the
bus, and we also ran into Gabriel Martinez, a potential investigator,
while walking along the street. It always seems like we encounter
those tender mercies of The Lord after we have devoted the time to
have an effective planning session -- in this case, a weekly planning
session. We had dinner with Hermana Caceres. She is such a humble and
sweet lady. I really enjoyed talking to her and getting to know her
better. Every member of this little branch that I have met so far
seems to be really nice and devoted to The Lord's work; I love it! At
night, our weekly correlation meeting was canceled, due to both of the
ward mission leaders being busy. Our district still decided to meet up
at the church to plan more of our Noche de Hogar that is coming up on
Monday. I think the activity will really leave the branch inspired to
go out and do service. The best part about that is that all service is
essentially missionary work, too.

Saturday, March 15th, 2014:

There were two more Hermanas who were serving in El Molino last
transfer, which caused the areas to be drawn a little bit differently.
Those two Hermanas are no longer serving here this transfer, so there
was a chunk of our area that was added back that neither Elder Steffen
nor I had visited before. We had a couple of people that we needed to
visit in that neck of the woods, so we started walking. It was a lot
farther than I would have expected, but we got to see some awesome
views of our area from the tops of a couple of different hills. We are
really close to the heart of Los Angeles; it is really cool to look
out into the distance and see the skyscrapers and all of the nearby
cities. It was really fun to basically get lost in the new part of our
area and explore what is out there. As far as teaching is concerned,
we were unlucky in that we did not find any lessons to teach. We did,
however, find a couple of return appointments with potential
investigators. We also happened to be walking by a couple of different
people on the street who needed our help. They were both very thankful
for our acts of service, and one lady had told us that we came by at
the exact right time. One thing that I have noticed since being in El
Sereno is how often I seem to be in the right place at the right time;
I never used to feel like that in Chino. At night, Elder Steffen and I
went to stop by the Varelas to see how they have been doing. Alex
wasn't around, so we visited with Abel and Chris for a little while.
Abel said that he wants Chris to show his desire to be baptized by
trying hard in school; Chris has until the end of this month to show
his desire to be baptized by doing well in school. We shared a quick
message with Abel about the Holy Ghost and the blessings that it
brings us. I think Abel wants Chris to get baptized, but he wants
Chris to see how big of a decision he is really making. I was really
the one being taught there. True love also includes teaching a person
about the gravity of a choice, even if both people know that the
desired choice is the correct one.

Sunday, March 16th, 2014:

Church was a little hectic to begin today because no one was around to
teach one of the primary classes or the Gospel Doctrine class. I ended
up filling in for primary by assisting Hermano Muro with teaching, and
Elder Turner taught Gospel Doctrine. Meanwhile, Elder Knight and Elder
Steffen were busy running around and making last-minute preparations
for Myra's baptism. Myra has been an investigator for quite some time,
and (the former) Elder Pickett made the trip from Utah down here to
baptize her. Elder Knight arranged for everything to have Myra
baptized by Elder Pickett. The baptismal service itself went smoothly;
there were no hiccups in the program, and the Spirit was very strong
during the entire baptismal service. I was also quite surprised to see
President Becerra at the baptismal service.  After the baptism, all of
us (the Elders in the district) invited a lady into the church for a
tour. It was weird trying to have a tour and lesson with four
missionaries, but it went okay. At
night, Elder Steffen and I set up a return appointment with our
investigator, Elias. Baptisms use up a lot of the day, but they make
everything that we do as missionaries all worth it.

Today for P-Day, all of the Elders in our district will probably be
going mountain biking with Alex and also play a little bit of
basketball. I'm so excited to actually have time to do stuff here on
P-Day! .

I hope everyone has a fantastic week and is enjoying the warming
weather! I appreciate all of your love and support! I hope you all
have a fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley

Sent from my iPad

Photo from Meeting in December 2013

First Week in El Sereno - March 10, 2014

Hey Everyone!

I hope everyone has had an awesome week! I am absolutely loving my new
area and my new companion! Elder Steffen has served a year in the
military, and it has helped me create an instant bond with him, seeing
that my father is a Navy veteran. I will talk more about that in just
a minute.

Tuesday, March 4th, 2014:

In the morning, we had the cleaning inspectors come to check out our
apartment. I was so happy that this lady wasn't near as mean as the
last cleaning lady that came to visit Elder Knapp and I. Man, oh man,
she wasn't a nice lady. We had our inspection and got a "good" because
we needed to take out our trash; it got a little bit full, but the
dumpster outside was even more full...  Elder Steffen and his last
companion hadn't finished putting in stuff to the Area Book app, so we
spent a fair bit of time putting in former investigators into the app.
There is just always work to do on the mission! Our goal is to finish
it in the next week or two. We didn't have a whole lot of work
contacting a few potential investigators during the day, but I did run
into a guy named Al Alvarez. Dad, this is for you. I was talking to
Al, and Elder Steffen mentioned that he was in the Army. Al said that
he served in the Navy. I was like, "My father is a Navy vet!" Al and I
then started talking, and it turns out that Al served on the U.S.S.
Carl Vinson when it was in dry dock in Bremerton when you were in the
Navy! He also said that he works on the other side of the nuclear
reactor area, so he wasn't even that far away from you on the ship! I
was absolutely stunned. It just goes to show that The Lord places us
in certain areas at certain times. It was a really cool small miracle
that I saw. During the evening, Elder Knight and Elder Turner swung by
to pick us up to go do service for an Hermana in the ward that was
getting ready to move. Hermano Sanchez is the Elders' Quorum president
and drove all four of us. He is such a great guy, and I already love
the members of this branch. We helped the Hermana move out some bed
frames and furniture and then went to go get pizza with Hermano
Sanchez. It was a really nice evening and a good opportunity to get to
know a few people from the ward.

Wednesday, March 5th, 2014:

It was a pretty typical morning that consisted of putting in more
records into the Area Book app. During the evening, we went by Elder
Steffen's recent convert, Alex Varela, to talk to him about the
importance of service. Alex has had a few rough years recently because
his ex-wife went crazy and caused him to lose everything. He is such a
great guy, though. He was baptized about four weeks ago, and he is a
solid member. I love talking to him! During the evening, we met up
with the rest of our district at the mutual activity to begin planning
our ward Family Home Evening activity. We are going to go with a
service theme, seeing that March is service month. In our district
there is Hermana Vellinga (we served together in Chino), Hermana Lopez
(went to the Benemeritu before it became the MTC in Mexico City),
Elder Knight (my trainer who was also in Chino with Hermana Vellinga
and I), Elder Turner (Elder Steffen's companion from the MTC in
Provo), Elder Steffen and I. We planned out a really good activity to
inspire the branch to look for small ways to do service for those
around them.

Thursday, March 6th, 2014:

For zone meeting, we all met up at the Fletcher building. It took
Elder Steffen and I over two hours to get there by bus. It was a
really long way to go, but I am so happy not to have to use bike any
longer. Zone meeting is usually one of my favorite activities during
the month, but it was honestly a little bit of a let-down. I did get
to see Elder Low again, however! He is doing well and is currently
serving in Fletcher. Elder Steffen and I didn't get back to our
apartment until after three in the afternoon, even though we left for
zone meeting before eight in the morning. It killed our whole day.
During the evening, we went by Hermano Monzon's house to meet him. He
is the ward mission leader and seems very on top of everything. This
branch seems to be much more engaged and focused than Chino was, and
it's inspiring to see! To conclude the evening, we helped the Elders'
Quorum go out and do their visits. I went with Hermano Pasos to visit
one less-active family. Hermano Pasos is an older gentleman, but he
has to be one of the most polite men that I have ever met. We visited
the Mota family and shared a quick message with them about service, in
addition to inviting them to our ward Family Home Evening activity on
March 17th. One great thing that I have noticed about the El Molino
Branch is how well the members and missionaries have been working
together. Take note that missionary work cannot go forward, unless
members and missionaries are unified in their efforts; it is nearly
impossible to do it separately.

Friday, March 7th, 2014:

I don't know if President Becerra thinks that I need to be a cleaner
and tidier person, but I was sucked into using up another day to go
clean. I cleaned the mission office four weeks ago, but our district
got selected to do it again here in El Molino. I have now spent five
FULL days cleaning over the past calendar month (two days cleaning the
mission office and three days cleaning the Chino apartment out). When
we got back, we didn't have time to do weekly planning. We decided to
try to contact a few people before correlation meeting. We weren't
able to find anyone home, so we went back to the church for our weekly
correlation meeting. Hermano Monzon was busy, so we ended up all
meeting with the assistant ward mission leader. The crazy thing is
that Chino didn't have a ward mission leader, assistant ward mission
leader, or ward missionaries; the El Molino Branch has all three! I
don't know how Chino can be called a ward, and El Molino is called a
branch.

Saturday, March 8th, 2014:

Elder Steffen and I were asked by Alex Varela and his family to help
out with a community garbage pick up in the morning. It was a really
fun activity, and there was an awesome turnout (plus, we got free
t-shirts!). I talked to a guy for nearly two hours about all of the
sports going on, and it was a ton of fun. We got about ten full-size
trash bags from just the street that we covered. We met up to go do
visits, and apparently, the stake leadership was joining in with our
branch, but no one ever told us. The stake president swung by with
President Muriel (the branch president) to pick us up after we were
late. It reminded me of the quote: "A lack of planning on your
part doesn't constitute an emergency on my part." The stake leadership
never told us that they were coming and didn't even tell us about the
visits until two days prior; Elder Steffen and I committed to helping
with the community garbage pick up at the very beginning of the week.
Communication seems easy by principle but is really difficult to follow through with, for some

reason. During the evening, Elder Steffen and I went to go visit an
investigator named Sylvia Recinos. She is really nice, and we talked
to her about obtaining her marriage license so that she can be
baptized. She is all ready to get baptized, except for that one
problem (it's a huge problem in Spanish work). We are going to go down
to East LA next week to go meet with the office to see if we can
obtain a license.

Sunday, March 9th, 2014:

It was a wonderful first Sunday to meet the branch. All of the stake
leadership was there because it was "Branch Conference." El Molino is
the only branch in either stake, which is quite an accomplishment for
Spanish work in our mission. There are only five only-Spanish stakes
in the whole country, and our mission works with two of those five.
Elder Steffen and I had the opportunity to teach the youth about the
Restoration. I love teaching youth, and it was really fun to see them
role play being their friends at school. I am going to get along with
all of the people in this branch really well; I'm excited to see how
this transfer goes. When we got back to the apartment in the
afternoon, we had the opportunity to weekly plan (finally!). It may
have been the best weekly planning session that I have been a part of.
We got a lot of really good ideas planned out, and I really enjoyed
it. It ate up most of our day, but we were able to contact a few
people out on the street during the evening. Weekly planning reminded
me of a famous quote: "More important than the will to win is the will
to prepare to win." Planning takes priority over execution.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful week and isn't hurting too bad
from losing an hour of sleep! One quick thing is that Howard W. Hunter
actually was a bishop in the South Pasadena English Ward back in the
1940s, and that ward meets in the same building as the El Molino
Spanish Branch! Thank you all for your love and support! I love and
miss you all!

Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley

Sent from my iPad

Transferred to El Molino South - March 3, 2014

It would appear that I spoke too soon! President Becerra deceived the
Hermanas, and I ended up being the missionary transferred from Chino.
I asked him last week to be able to stay another week there, but I
guess he didn't accept my request. I almost cried when I left Chino
because of how much I love that ward. I didn't realize how much I
loved it until it was time to leave. I have created some friendships
there that should last for many years to come. My new area is a suburb
of Los Angeles that is called "El Sereno" and is part of the El Molino
Spanish Branch. Elder Steffen from Texas is my new companion, and he
is enlisted in the Army. He's an awesome guy, and I'm really excited
to work with him!

Tuesday, February 25th, 2014:

Like we promised yesterday, Elder Knapp and I went with Hermano Castro
to go help out the Montes de Oca family with their lawn. They really
appreciated the small act of service. I love helping people out!

Javier came with us to teach a lady named Maria Rodriguez. Elder Knapp

and I spent some more time putting in records into the iPads before

dinner. During the evening, Ruben Torrado joined us to teach a lesson

with his (now former) neighbor, Martha Segura. We taught her the Book
of Mormon, and Ruben bore his testimony about the Book of Mormon. It
was absolutely incredible and was one of the greatest feelings I have
had on the mission to date. Ruben's growth and progress has been such
a blessing to watch.

Wednesday, February 26th, 2014:

Elder Knapp and I went with Hermano Kirk to go teach Idie Ortiz in the
morning, but we found a note that told us that she wasn't interested
in talking to us anymore. It's sad to see her lose interest, but I was
grateful that she was kind enough to tell us "no." Most Latinos don't
know how to say no and then end up wasting your time on numerous
occasions by making you come by and them telling you, "another day."
English class was a lot of fun, as usual. I wish I would have known
that it would be my last English class, though! I have grown pretty
close to the group of about eight people that normally come, and it
will be sad not to be able to work with them again. Elder Knapp had an
dentist appointment during the afternoon, so I ended up reading about
the Great Apostasy in "Jesus the Christ." Talmage sites the Nicean
(spelling?) Creed about the nature of the Godhead. If you haven't read

it, READ IT. Elder Knapp and I then spent almost four hours at the

church putting in more records into the Area Book. The only thing that
we have left to go through is potential investigators before we
finish. In the evening, the Ramirez family invited us over for dinner.
I love going to visit them, and we were able to share a message with
Rafael to help him prepare to receive the Melchizadek Priesthood.

Thursday, February 27th, 2014:

The zone leaders came to our district meeting, which was centered on
member work with the iPads. We role played a scenario of working with
a member and role playing with the member about talking to their
friends via Facebook. That means that we role played a role play,
almost like "Role Play-ception." That was the joke for the remainder
of the day. After failing to find some potential investigators
available, we went and decided to put those potential investigators in
the Area Book We are so close to being done! Emma Rodriguez, a
less-active member, invited us over for dinner. We ate with her and
her less-active daughter, Cynthia. It was a really good visit, and we
got them both thinking about how to do missionary work with their
friends. Once we left their house, we were unable to find anyone to
have a lesson with; however, we did set up a few return appointments.

Friday, February 28th, 2014:

In the morning, I woke up to quite the storm. It rained more than I
have ever seen in California and more than I have ever seen anywhere
in quite some time. The great part is that we had to bike in it! It is
supposed to be one of the worst storms in a number of years, and I can
see why. It was BAD. Streets started flooding, and the church actually
started flooding a little bit before the leak was discovered. Elder
Knapp and I tried to stay indoors as much as possible to avoid the
weather. We managed to finish putting in all of the records, too!
During the evening, we went to teach a family of former investigators
named the Iniguez family. They seemed pretty interested, and it was a
good lesson on the Restoration.

Saturday, March 1st, 2014:

What happened to February? The storm today made it difficult to do a
whole lot. Javier joined us for a lesson with a less-active member
named Hermano Ferrufino. It was interesting that his doubt ended up
being proxy ordinances, which is a thing mentioned in the Bible that
was practiced by early Christians. We had quite a discussion about it
and got into some pretty deep doctrine. Elder Knapp and I also stopped
by Valentina Flores (the widow of the late Miguel Flores) for the
first time this transfer. It was good to see her doing well two months
after the funeral. Not a whole lot happened during the day, due to the
storm, but we ended up playing volleyball during the evening. I love
ward volleyball; however, we ended up having two injuries, one of
which may have been a broken ankle. Hermano Mendoza landed on Elder
Knapp's foot, and Hermano Mendoza likely broke it. On the way out of
volleyball, I was carrying my stuff to the Hermanas' car when the
Spanish APs called. Oh, no... I'm getting transferred! Elder Mostert
told me that I will be serving in El Molino - South. The crazy thing
is that Elder Knight is the district leader there and that Hermana
Vellinga is still there, too. Half of my original district in Chino
will be in El Molino!

Sunday, March 2nd, 2014:

It was a really sad day for me. I really came to understand truly how
much I love this ward. I was also surprised how many people came up to
me to tell me that they are sad to see me leave and wanted my home
address to be able to write me! It was really encouraging to see how
much of an impact I have left on this ward, and I almost cried when
the day was over because I don't want to leave. After church, Elder
Knapp and I went with the Hermanas to the Chino Hills building to help
set up for the baptism of their investigator, Aurora. The baptismal
service was wonderful, and the Spirit was very strong there. We have
gotten Chino to the point of baptizing monthly again. We have had
three baptisms in the past four months, and there are some
investigators who are coming along in Chino that will likely be
baptized in the coming weeks and months. It's wonderful to see the
changes that have happened there. At night, Elder Knapp and I taught
Joseph and Jo-Jo about the Ten Commandments, in addition to committing
them to read, pray and come to church! It was the first time that they
both were totally open to coming to church. To finish off the evening,
we went to visit the Montanez family. I love them so much, and they
all really love having me over. I got a picture with all of them and
gave Hermano Montanez a blessing. It was such a nice visit, and I will
miss them dearly.

As I think about being transferred, I think about the transition from
elementary school to middle school. I began my mission in Chino and
felt comfortable there, but I know that the new place will be quite
different; however, it will be a challenge that will help me grow. I'm
excited to be here, but I won't forget the work that I did in Chino.
Hopefully El Molino has some great people to meet and some wonderful
experiences to enjoy. Thank you all for you help and for all of your
support! I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley

Sent from my iPad