Hey Everyone!
I hope everyone has had a fantastic week! It's crazy to believe that
March is nearing its end already; it seems like time goes faster and
faster with every passing month. This week has been full of service
opportunities, which may have ended up cutting into our work time a
little bit more than we would have liked; however, I love doing
service, and service demonstrates charity, which is the pure love of
Christ. Imagine how much better this world would be if everyone could
just do one nice thing for their neighbors!
Tuesday, March 18th, 2014:
Elder Steffen and I got up a few minutes early today to be able to go
play basketball at a local park. It was actually a lot of fun and made
me feel better going throughout the day. The amount of exercise
(especially fun ways to exercise) that we have done over the past two
days has really made me miss home. During my studies today, I finished
the Book of Mormon in Spanish for the first time! It has taken me
about four months (just shy of three full transfers) to make it all
the way through, but I finally completed all 642 pages in a second
language, including color-coded underlining as I went. I read the Book
of Mormon twice in English on my mission before doing it in Spanish,
and I think I will read it through again in English before starting
again in Spanish. During the afternoon, we spent a great deal of time
searching for a very old lady lady from the ward named Nellie. We
listened to her and read a little bit from the Book of Mormon to her.She's very nice. During the evening, we stopped by Elias again to see how
I hope everyone has had a fantastic week! It's crazy to believe that
March is nearing its end already; it seems like time goes faster and
faster with every passing month. This week has been full of service
opportunities, which may have ended up cutting into our work time a
little bit more than we would have liked; however, I love doing
service, and service demonstrates charity, which is the pure love of
Christ. Imagine how much better this world would be if everyone could
just do one nice thing for their neighbors!
Tuesday, March 18th, 2014:
Elder Steffen and I got up a few minutes early today to be able to go
play basketball at a local park. It was actually a lot of fun and made
me feel better going throughout the day. The amount of exercise
(especially fun ways to exercise) that we have done over the past two
days has really made me miss home. During my studies today, I finished
the Book of Mormon in Spanish for the first time! It has taken me
about four months (just shy of three full transfers) to make it all
the way through, but I finally completed all 642 pages in a second
language, including color-coded underlining as I went. I read the Book
of Mormon twice in English on my mission before doing it in Spanish,
and I think I will read it through again in English before starting
again in Spanish. During the afternoon, we spent a great deal of time
searching for a very old lady lady from the ward named Nellie. We
listened to her and read a little bit from the Book of Mormon to her.She's very nice. During the evening, we stopped by Elias again to see how
he has been doing. He is on parole for threeyears; he did tell us, however, that he may be able to cut off a year of the parole if he
behaves well for the first year-and-a-half. To finish off the day, we
stopped by the Varelas. Abel was still working, and he has been
working an insane number of hours lately. Elder Steffen and I went
around back to talk with Alex about the Book of Mormon. We shared a
segment from Elder Holland's talk, "Safety For the Soul," and talked
about the importance of always reading the Book of Mormon. It was
really neat how I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish today and was
able to testify of its power and importance.
Wednesday, March 19th, 2014
After many hours of working on the Area Book since I arrived in El
Sereno, Elder Steffen and I finally finished the very last of the
former investigators today, so we are now all finished. While walking
out and about, we were able to contact two referrals. We need to do a
lot of finding right now because the current investigators aren't
really at a spot where many of them can progress. This area reminds me
a lot of when I first got to Chino with Elder Knight. There were a
number of "eternal investigators" who we ended up dropping to see if
there was more potential elsewhere. During the evening, we helped out
the Dias family with some service in their plot in a community garden.
Elder Steffen and I got the chance to dig up a lot of weeds and
prepare the garden to be planted. I love doing grunt work because it
allows for some much-needed exercise. It was a wonderful opportunity
to meet the Dias family and help them strive to become even more
self-reliant. We ate pizza with them before heading back to the
apartment to call it a day. Service opportunities are honestly some of
my favorite activities as a missionary. If everyone in this world
tried to do one small act of serve for others around them, this world
would be a different place.
Thursday, March 20th, 2014:
Elder Knight taught district meeting again, and it was a very
interesting lesson. He had gone to the training meeting in Arcadia
yesterday, which happens about every two transfers. The lesson was a
recap of what President Becerra had talked about during that meeting:
learning how to say "no" to investigators and members so that they
learn how to become more self-reliant and not so dependent on the
missionaries for every single one of their little needs and problems.
Members especially rely on the missionaries way too often for their
callings, for help teaching lessons and for blessings when there is
almost always a different person who should be stepping up to fill
each one of those roles. What ends up happening is that we get asked
to do much more than we should, and we are consequently not fulfilling
our main purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ. As we become
better at saying "no," we will have more time to work, and we will
also be able to help others struggle and grow in the process. After
finishing district meeting, Elder Knight, Elder Turner, Elder Steffen
and I all walked down to In-N-Out Burger to get lunch. I always feel a
little uncomfortable walking into restaurants to buy food because
everyone there turns around and stares at you. It was a good little
bonding activity, but I would have rather saved the time and money foranother occasion. During the evening, we stopped by Hermano Magdaleno
to see how he has been doing. He told us that it has been about three
or four years since he has gone to church because he got offended the
last time that he tried going. Hermano Magdaleno also told us that no
one from the branch goes to visit him (besides us) or even used to go
visit him in the past. Members need friends in the Church if they are
going to remain active. All of our other appointments during the
evening cancelled, so we didn't have a ton of work today. We need to
find a few more solid investigators.
Friday, March 21st, 2014:
The morning went by like normal, and we went into weekly planning
again, like usual for Fridays. It was a good weekly planning session,
even though it went a little bit longer than we would have liked.
Weekly planning with the iPads seems to be more productive than weekly
planning ever was before the iPads. After we finished weekly planning,
we visited Stan and Gloria again, and we were finally able to have a
lesson on the Restoration with them. The lesson actually went very
well because the Spirit was very strong during the time that we were
there. Stan and Gloria both said that they believe Joseph Smith was
called of God to perform His work. Stan was also really big on wanting
to come to church this Sunday, so I invited him to the stake
conference that is happening this weekend. Stan was really excited,
especially when I told him that Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of
the Twelve Apostles will be speaking on Sunday. After we visited with
Stan and Gloria, we went over to the church for our correlation
meeting. It was the first one that I have been to where Hermano Monzon
was actually there, due to various reasons. He seems to be up to speed
with all of our investigators and their respective needs, and he seems
like he is very involved with helping us. To conclude the night, I
headed up to El Molino - Central (downtown Pasadena) to work with
Elder Turner on exchanges. Elder Turner seems really nice and all, but
I'm honestly not sure how much we really have in common; hopefully, it
will be fun to mix things up tomorrow.
Saturday, March 22nd, 2014:
I was expecting exchanges to be like a normal day of finding and
teaching, but we ended up helping Hermana Morales move the entire day.
It was honestly the first day of my entire mission that I did not put
on a shirt and tie for the entire day. Elder Turner and I were
expecting to help Hermana Morales out for just a few hours in the
morning and then return to work in the afternoon. She hadn't packed up
anything, and there was a mountain of trash in her small room to sort
through before we could even begin to start loading everything into
the U-Haul moving truck. Even though we started with everything before
noon, we didn't end up finishing with the packing of the truck until
about 5:30 PM. During the moving process, Elder Turner and I spent a
lot of time talking to Hermana Morales' son, Ricardo, about life and
really getting to know him better as a person. I invited him to come
to the English stake conference tomorrow where Dallin H. Oaks will be
speaking, and he even seemed open to bringing his girlfriend to it,
too. I later found out that I will probably not be able to go to the
English stake conference tomorrow to hear an Apostle of The Lord
speak, but I hope Ricardo at least has the chance to be able to do so.
We took the moving truck to Hermana Morales' new place, which is a big
complex of apartments for retired people. Elder Turner, HermanoPerez, Ricardo and I all unloaded the truck in the course of
about two hours and dropped everything in Hermana Morales' room. We
did not have time to help her get all settled in because it was
getting late, but we did manage to get all of her stuff moved in one
trip. I was shocked that she was only expecting the move to take two
hours, and it ended up taking more than ten. We switched back
companions, and it sounded like all of us had busy days but were
unable to find any lessons to teach. It wasn't quite what I was
expecting to do during exchanges, but we were able to do service for a
full day.
Sunday, March 23rd, 2014:
Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to the English stake conference
where Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was
speaking, but i did get to go to the East Los Angeles Stake conference
(Spanish stake) where Elder Craig C. Christensen of the presidency of
the Quorum of the Seventy was speaking. It was probably the best stake
conference that I have ever been to because it was a lot more like a
General Conference session: we had President Esquerra (stake
president), President Becerra (mission president -- I think he will be
a member of the Seventy or the Twelve in the future, too) and
President Christensen (presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy) all
speak in the course of a little more than an hour. It was also really
neat to hear all three of them speak in Spanish and to be able to
understand every single word that they said! That meeting left me
feeling really inspired. During the afternoon, President Esquerra
actually came out with Elder Steffen and I to a lesson with an
investigator named Santiago. I love working under President Esquerra
because he has an immense love for missionary work. He is a convert of
about thirty years and has an awesome testimony of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. We taught Santiago about the Book of Mormon, and President
Esquerra shared his conversion story; it was so powerful to learn
about the dream that he had that confirmed everything about the Church
for him. When we have the desire to know of the veracity of the
message of Jesus Christ, in addition to having the desire to act upon
whatever answer we are going to receive, it is in that moment that we
will receive a knowledge of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and
of the Church which so testifies of it. Santiago wants to read the
Book of Mormon before accepting an invitation to get baptized, so he
committed to read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon before our
next visit with him. To finish off the evening, Elder Steffen and I
went to go visit a few potential investigators and set up some return
appointments for the upcoming week. This area seems to have tons of
potential; it is up to us to start harvesting some of it and reap the
rewards that come from sustained hard work.
This week has been great, even if my teaching numbers weren't where I
would have liked them to be at. Our sole purpose as missionaries is to
invite others to come unto Christ, which is best fulfilled through
teaching. As members of the Church, we have the opportunity to be
teachers and missionaries at the same time through acts of service
that we perform, which can be as small as offering a smile. My
favorite quote was given by St. Francis of Assisi: "Preach the Gospel
at all times, and, if necessary, use words." I hope everyone can look
for the service opportunities around them and exemplify the love of
our Savior, Jesus Christ, through their actions. I appreciate all the
service and the support that all of you have been so gracious to offer
me, and I hope to be able to show the same love back to each and every
single one of you! I hope everyone has a great week and is getting
ready for General Conference to come in the very near future!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
Sent from my iPad
behaves well for the first year-and-a-half. To finish off the day, we
stopped by the Varelas. Abel was still working, and he has been
working an insane number of hours lately. Elder Steffen and I went
around back to talk with Alex about the Book of Mormon. We shared a
segment from Elder Holland's talk, "Safety For the Soul," and talked
about the importance of always reading the Book of Mormon. It was
really neat how I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish today and was
able to testify of its power and importance.
Wednesday, March 19th, 2014
After many hours of working on the Area Book since I arrived in El
Sereno, Elder Steffen and I finally finished the very last of the
former investigators today, so we are now all finished. While walking
out and about, we were able to contact two referrals. We need to do a
lot of finding right now because the current investigators aren't
really at a spot where many of them can progress. This area reminds me
a lot of when I first got to Chino with Elder Knight. There were a
number of "eternal investigators" who we ended up dropping to see if
there was more potential elsewhere. During the evening, we helped out
the Dias family with some service in their plot in a community garden.
Elder Steffen and I got the chance to dig up a lot of weeds and
prepare the garden to be planted. I love doing grunt work because it
allows for some much-needed exercise. It was a wonderful opportunity
to meet the Dias family and help them strive to become even more
self-reliant. We ate pizza with them before heading back to the
apartment to call it a day. Service opportunities are honestly some of
my favorite activities as a missionary. If everyone in this world
tried to do one small act of serve for others around them, this world
would be a different place.
Thursday, March 20th, 2014:
Elder Knight taught district meeting again, and it was a very
interesting lesson. He had gone to the training meeting in Arcadia
yesterday, which happens about every two transfers. The lesson was a
recap of what President Becerra had talked about during that meeting:
learning how to say "no" to investigators and members so that they
learn how to become more self-reliant and not so dependent on the
missionaries for every single one of their little needs and problems.
Members especially rely on the missionaries way too often for their
callings, for help teaching lessons and for blessings when there is
almost always a different person who should be stepping up to fill
each one of those roles. What ends up happening is that we get asked
to do much more than we should, and we are consequently not fulfilling
our main purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ. As we become
better at saying "no," we will have more time to work, and we will
also be able to help others struggle and grow in the process. After
finishing district meeting, Elder Knight, Elder Turner, Elder Steffen
and I all walked down to In-N-Out Burger to get lunch. I always feel a
little uncomfortable walking into restaurants to buy food because
everyone there turns around and stares at you. It was a good little
bonding activity, but I would have rather saved the time and money foranother occasion. During the evening, we stopped by Hermano Magdaleno
to see how he has been doing. He told us that it has been about three
or four years since he has gone to church because he got offended the
last time that he tried going. Hermano Magdaleno also told us that no
one from the branch goes to visit him (besides us) or even used to go
visit him in the past. Members need friends in the Church if they are
going to remain active. All of our other appointments during the
evening cancelled, so we didn't have a ton of work today. We need to
find a few more solid investigators.
Friday, March 21st, 2014:
The morning went by like normal, and we went into weekly planning
again, like usual for Fridays. It was a good weekly planning session,
even though it went a little bit longer than we would have liked.
Weekly planning with the iPads seems to be more productive than weekly
planning ever was before the iPads. After we finished weekly planning,
we visited Stan and Gloria again, and we were finally able to have a
lesson on the Restoration with them. The lesson actually went very
well because the Spirit was very strong during the time that we were
there. Stan and Gloria both said that they believe Joseph Smith was
called of God to perform His work. Stan was also really big on wanting
to come to church this Sunday, so I invited him to the stake
conference that is happening this weekend. Stan was really excited,
especially when I told him that Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of
the Twelve Apostles will be speaking on Sunday. After we visited with
Stan and Gloria, we went over to the church for our correlation
meeting. It was the first one that I have been to where Hermano Monzon
was actually there, due to various reasons. He seems to be up to speed
with all of our investigators and their respective needs, and he seems
like he is very involved with helping us. To conclude the night, I
headed up to El Molino - Central (downtown Pasadena) to work with
Elder Turner on exchanges. Elder Turner seems really nice and all, but
I'm honestly not sure how much we really have in common; hopefully, it
will be fun to mix things up tomorrow.
Saturday, March 22nd, 2014:
I was expecting exchanges to be like a normal day of finding and
teaching, but we ended up helping Hermana Morales move the entire day.
It was honestly the first day of my entire mission that I did not put
on a shirt and tie for the entire day. Elder Turner and I were
expecting to help Hermana Morales out for just a few hours in the
morning and then return to work in the afternoon. She hadn't packed up
anything, and there was a mountain of trash in her small room to sort
through before we could even begin to start loading everything into
the U-Haul moving truck. Even though we started with everything before
noon, we didn't end up finishing with the packing of the truck until
about 5:30 PM. During the moving process, Elder Turner and I spent a
lot of time talking to Hermana Morales' son, Ricardo, about life and
really getting to know him better as a person. I invited him to come
to the English stake conference tomorrow where Dallin H. Oaks will be
speaking, and he even seemed open to bringing his girlfriend to it,
too. I later found out that I will probably not be able to go to the
English stake conference tomorrow to hear an Apostle of The Lord
speak, but I hope Ricardo at least has the chance to be able to do so.
We took the moving truck to Hermana Morales' new place, which is a big
complex of apartments for retired people. Elder Turner, HermanoPerez, Ricardo and I all unloaded the truck in the course of
about two hours and dropped everything in Hermana Morales' room. We
did not have time to help her get all settled in because it was
getting late, but we did manage to get all of her stuff moved in one
trip. I was shocked that she was only expecting the move to take two
hours, and it ended up taking more than ten. We switched back
companions, and it sounded like all of us had busy days but were
unable to find any lessons to teach. It wasn't quite what I was
expecting to do during exchanges, but we were able to do service for a
full day.
Sunday, March 23rd, 2014:
Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to the English stake conference
where Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was
speaking, but i did get to go to the East Los Angeles Stake conference
(Spanish stake) where Elder Craig C. Christensen of the presidency of
the Quorum of the Seventy was speaking. It was probably the best stake
conference that I have ever been to because it was a lot more like a
General Conference session: we had President Esquerra (stake
president), President Becerra (mission president -- I think he will be
a member of the Seventy or the Twelve in the future, too) and
President Christensen (presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy) all
speak in the course of a little more than an hour. It was also really
neat to hear all three of them speak in Spanish and to be able to
understand every single word that they said! That meeting left me
feeling really inspired. During the afternoon, President Esquerra
actually came out with Elder Steffen and I to a lesson with an
investigator named Santiago. I love working under President Esquerra
because he has an immense love for missionary work. He is a convert of
about thirty years and has an awesome testimony of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. We taught Santiago about the Book of Mormon, and President
Esquerra shared his conversion story; it was so powerful to learn
about the dream that he had that confirmed everything about the Church
for him. When we have the desire to know of the veracity of the
message of Jesus Christ, in addition to having the desire to act upon
whatever answer we are going to receive, it is in that moment that we
will receive a knowledge of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and
of the Church which so testifies of it. Santiago wants to read the
Book of Mormon before accepting an invitation to get baptized, so he
committed to read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon before our
next visit with him. To finish off the evening, Elder Steffen and I
went to go visit a few potential investigators and set up some return
appointments for the upcoming week. This area seems to have tons of
potential; it is up to us to start harvesting some of it and reap the
rewards that come from sustained hard work.
This week has been great, even if my teaching numbers weren't where I
would have liked them to be at. Our sole purpose as missionaries is to
invite others to come unto Christ, which is best fulfilled through
teaching. As members of the Church, we have the opportunity to be
teachers and missionaries at the same time through acts of service
that we perform, which can be as small as offering a smile. My
favorite quote was given by St. Francis of Assisi: "Preach the Gospel
at all times, and, if necessary, use words." I hope everyone can look
for the service opportunities around them and exemplify the love of
our Savior, Jesus Christ, through their actions. I appreciate all the
service and the support that all of you have been so gracious to offer
me, and I hope to be able to show the same love back to each and every
single one of you! I hope everyone has a great week and is getting
ready for General Conference to come in the very near future!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
Sent from my iPad
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