Hey Everyone!
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this time leading up to
summer! I'm still shocked at how fast time seems to fly by. I will hit
nine months on the mission in about a week from now, and I can't
believe it! This week has been full of miscellaneous things and
success, so there is always a twist to the day!
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014:
Elder Barnes has now been in the mission field for a full week, so
today was the day to go to the new missionary training meeting. The
meeting was held at the mission office with all of the trainers and
trainees. Elder Barnes said he really enjoyed the meeting and learned
a lot from it. He said that he particularly liked role playing the
Restoration, the Book of Mormon and a church tour while there; we
haven't had as much time as is preferred to role play in the mornings,
so it gave him a good opportunity to learn how to teach a few
different lessons that we often teach as missionaries. As a trainer,
it is my responsibility to balance the practice teaching that we do in
the mornings with the actual lessons that we teach to investigators
and less-active members. We didn't get back to the apartment until
after dinner time, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading
out to work. We were really hopeful to have a lesson with Chris Varela
tonight. We decided to go help him with his homework and then teach
him afterwards. His homework ended up taking up the remainder of the
time that we had, so we were unable to teach him anything
Gospel-related. He will need more help from us with school if his
mother is going to give him permission to be baptized.
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2014:
During the morning and early afternoon, our whole district went over
to do service for Hector and Julia. They are the couple who was
baptized on Sunday (I performed the ordinance for Julia). There was a
lot to be done in the yard, so we spent about three hours helping them
clean up. When we finished, the Hermanas and Hermana Velasquez, a
member from the branch who came to help us, went to go grab pizza. The
other Elders and I practiced a birthday song in Spanish that we would
sing to Hermana Lopez that evening for her birthday. Elder Barnes and
I had to go to the doctor to help Elder Barnes, who is doing well.
Upon returning from the appointment, I made some tacos de chorizo for
Elder Barnes and I. They were really good and pretty close to the same
quality as the ones on the street! Elder Barnes wanted to go give Alex
Varela a Priesthood blessing to help him heal up from his flu-like
symptoms; I did the anointing and then let Elder Barnes do the
blessing, which was his first one in Spanish. His Spanish is
progressing quite nicely, and it was a great opportunity for him to
practice using more Spanish. During the evening, we went to the church
for mutual. Elder Knight made a cake for Hermana Lopez, and we picked
up some candles. We gave her the cake and then sang the birthday song
out of the Children's Songbook for her in Spanish. She loved it and
was really happy.
Thursday, April 24th, 2014:
As a follow-up to the doctor's appointment yesterday, Elder Barnes
needed to get some blood work done. We went up to Pasadena to get some
blood drawn, which will be sent back to the doctor in a few days.
Elder Barnes and I then went to district meeting at the church. Elder
Knight's lesson on our missionary purpose had a very interesting
perspective and take on the joys and struggles that are written into
what we do on a daily basis as missionaries. I enjoyed the lesson and
learned a lot from it. After district meeting, we returned to the
apartment to get some more studies in. I have really been struggling
to get enough studies and time with the "Twelve Weeks" program that
new missionaries are supposed to do. It's difficult to find enough
time in the day to get everything done that I want to get done!
Studies are essential for learning and practice so that we can teach
to the best of our abilities as missionaries. The only other thing
that we had time for during the evening was going to visit Alex and
Chris Varela. Elder Barnes and I focused the lesson on the importance
of reading the Book of Mormon because it has become apparent that
Chris hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon or praying as much
lately. We focused on Mosiah 18 so that Chris understands more of the
baptismal covenant; reading from the chapter in Mosiah also helped
Chris understand more about the importance of reading every day from
the Book of Mormon. Chris committed to read and pray every day, which
should show his mother that he truly desires to be baptized. Our
actions reflect the desires of our hearts, so we must act on our
faith.
Friday, April 25th, 2014:
As is usual on Fridays, Elder Barnes and I began weekly planning
shortly before noon. What is unusual, however, is spending over five
hours on weekly planning. President Becerra gives us three hours every
Friday to do it, and I think the five hours that we spent today may
have been the longest weekly planning session that I have ever been a
part of. We got through planning for all of our investigators in a
fairly quick amount of time, but we ended up spending a lot of time
trying to figure out how we can help Elder Barnes with his health. He
has been pretty stressed with trying to maintain it, so I felt it was
necessary to implement an effective plan of what we can do to help
him. After weekly planning, we went to contact one of the referrals
that we were given a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, it was a fake
address. After trying to contact that referral, it was time to go to
correlation meeting with Hermano Monzon. Hermano Monzon took Elder
Barnes, Hermana Vellinga, Hermana Lopez and I to get helote (it's kind
of like corn on the cob with a lot of other things on it) while we
went to go pick up Elder Knight and Elder Turner. Hermano Monzon
continually expressed how grateful he is to be able to work with us;
he is such a nice guy and really loves missionary work.
Saturday, April 26th, 2014:
I felt like our full time spent studying made all of the difference
today. Due to miscellaneous things that come up every day, we haven't
been able to devote as much time to our studies in the mornings as I
would like. We had a full four hours of studies today, and we had a
ton of success as the rest of the day went along. We went to the
pharmacy for Elder Barnes after studies, which put us in the area of a
couple of investigators named Gloria and Fernando. I haven't taught
them in a little while, and we were lucky to find them home. We
started sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but it quickly became
apparent that we needed to go back to the beginning and clarify more
about the Restoration. Elder Barnes shared a very powerful testimony
that what we were sharing was true. Fernando prayed at the end of the
lesson, and I think they are becoming more interested in what we have
to share. As we were leaving their house, I had the thought come into
my mind that we should stop by Santiago Garcia and Hermana Gonzalez.
We found them cleaning up from a yard sale and began to help them. We
then sat down and started talking about how we can help them in their
garden. Elder Barnes and I then shared Alma 32 and related how a seed
is a good analogy for Santiago's testimony to begin to grow; however,
he will need to water that seed by beginning to pray and read the Book
of Mormon more often. I feel like we are really starting to develop a
better relationship with them. Silvia Recinos and her son, Jose
Chavez, came to pick us up when we got back to our apartment. They
took us back to their house to eat pupusas with them, which were
really tasty! We talked to Silvia about what to do to obtain a new
birth certificate because the current one that she has apparently
isn't valid. She is going to try to get her sister to send it to the
States for her to be able to use to get the ID card to ultimately be
able to get married and then baptized. We talked to Jose for a while
about missionary work and about his responsibilities as a
member-missionary. It is incredible to hear about the changes that he
has made in his life through the Gospel. I love being able to hear the
experiences that people have in changing their lives.
Sunday, April 27th, 2014:
Church was pretty good, but one of the members of the branch
presidency kind of called out the entire branch for not showing up to
help out at a Mormon Helping Hands activity yesterday morning. I felt
a little awkward when he called everyone out, but it goes to show that
we need to be more proactive about doing service each and every day!
Elder Barnes and I were fortunate to have three investigators come to
church today, and each of them is progressing quite well! Alex Varela
should be able to get the Aaronic Priesthood next Sunday, too. There
are a lot of things happening in this little branch; I love seeing all
of the positive movement! After church ended, Elder Knight, Elder
Turner, Elder Barnes and I all went to the Perez family's house for
dinner. Their cousin was at the house, and she has been investigating
the Church for four years. Valerie has been waiting to get permission
to be baptized from her father, and it sounds like she will be able to
get baptized on her birthday in two months from now! It was nice to be
able to help answer some more of her questions as she prepares for her
big day! To conclude the evening, we stopped by the Varelas again to
say hello to Abel. Sunday is the only day of the week that we are ever
able to visit him, so it was good to see how he has been doing. We
didn't have time to share anything, but we will be able to go do
service for them on Saturday.
For P-Day today, our zone is having another zone activity! We are
going to play dodgeball at our church building in South Pasadena; it
will be my first time playing dodgeball as a missionary, so I cannot
wait! We are going to play at 1 PM, so Elder Barnes and I are trying
to get ourselves all ready to have some fun! I appreciate all of your
love and support! I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
Sent from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment