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
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
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