Hey Everyone!
I hope all of the mothers out there had a wonderful Mother's Day! I
particularly enjoyed talking to my family and wishing my own mother a
happy Mother's Day. Calling home and meeting the families of other
missionaries helps us remember the true cause of why we are out here:
we want to share that same happiness that the Gospel brings with the
rest of the world.
Tuesday, May 6th, 2014:
We ran into a solid brick wall today, with regards to trying to find
people to teach during the afternoon. I think Elder Barnes and I tried
visiting at least fifteen or twenty people over the course of about
three hours, and not a single person was home. Days like today are
where we as missionaries show The Lord that we are willing to work
hard to find people to teach. We stopped by the Luquin family during
the evening to talk to them. It was the first time that I have visited
them since I have been here in El Molino. I absolutely loved visiting
with them and talking with them. They even fed us a meal! We committed
the whole family to read the Book of Mormon. To conclude the day,
Elder Barnes and I went to visit the Varela family. I ended up
teaching Alex and his brother, Luis, who is in town for about two
weeks. Elder Barnes split off and taught Chris, so we had two lessons
going at the same time, one in English and one in Spanish. The most
exciting part is that Chris said that he wants to have his baptism on
May 18th! We still need to get permission from Abel and Lucy, but I
think it is more likely to happen than ever.
Wednesday, May 7th, 2014:
Today just felt like it was a huge waste of time because our plans all
fell through and were replaced by activities that weren't in the least
bit productive. We set up a member present lesson with our
investigator, Wilson, but he ended up bailing on us after we were
already at the church waiting for him. The highlight during the day
happened during the morning when Hermano Silva invited us over to do
service for him. He is making a patio and had us help him carry up
nearly two-hundred bricks that weighed about thirty pounds each. I
love doing service for members, especially physically exhausting
service like we did today. The English zone leaders that work in our
same area needed help with a lesson, so I went to help them while
Elder Barnes went with one of them for a bit. They were teaching a guy
named Fernando, and the English sisters got some bad vibes from him
when he would randomly say things in Spanish during the middle of
their lessons. They wanted me to be present at the lesson so that I
could understand anything that he might say. He didn't speak in
Spanish at all during the lesson, but he basically came to Bible bash.
At the end of the Plan of Salvation, we dropped him right on the spot
because he really wasn't interested in learning more about the Church.
It was rather unfortunate because Elder Barnes and I ended up missing
the other appointments that we had set, so everything fell through as
a result of the poor lesson that I taught with the English zone
leaders. We stayed at the church to wait for mutual to start, and I
helped tutor a couple people with math homework. We then went to
practice our song for the Mother's Day activity on Friday. Elder
Knight combined two different songs together, and we are going to sing
them at the activity, in addition to recording them for all of our own
mothers.
Thursday, May 8th, 2014:
Elder Barnes and I had to leave really early to go to the Fletcher
building for zone meeting at 10 AM. Elder Fellows and Elder Perez gave
a fantastic lesson about the importance of urgency and about the
importance of teaching to understanding. It was one of the better zone
meetings that I have been a part of in quite some time, and I felt the
Spirit very strongly during the meeting. I felt like the whole meeting
focused on what I need to work on personally. Our district stayed to
practice the song that we will be singing tomorrow night at the
Mother's Day activity for the branch. Elder Barnes and I didn't make
it back to the apartment until about 3:30 PM, so we spent a little bit
of time with "The First Twelve Weeks" when we got back. We went to the
church to do visits with the Elder's Quorum after dinner, but only
three people showed besides the Elders in our district. Unfortunately,
we were only able to visit three different families, and Elder Barnes
and I went with Genaro Fuentes, a recent convert of about three weeks,
to visit the Ramirez family, who just moved into the branch about a
week ago. We shared the First Presidency message from April about a
strong anchor with the family. The Ramirez family has a son who left
on a mission about a month ago, so it was very touching to hear of how
much they were looking forward to talking to their son; it made me
think of my own family and the fact that I will be talking to them on
Sunday. At the end of the visit, I gave Hermana Ramirez a blessing. I
love being able to serve the members and helping them to strengthen
their faith.
Friday, May 9th, 2014:
Our zone leaders, Elder Fellows and Elder Perez, found a new
investigator named Erika in their area who actually lives in our area.
They wanted to meet up with Elder Barnes and I to have a lesson about
the Book of Mormon to be able to pass her off to us so that we can
start teaching her. The lesson went extremely well, even though we had
four missionaries trying to split up time teaching in the back of her
shoe store. Erika committed to reading the Book of Mormon and said
that she will prepare for baptism on June 1st! She said that she will
need to pray about it first, but she has a ton of potential. Elder
Barnes and I returned to our apartment after the appointment to
conduct our weekly planning session. He is really beginning to adjust
to the routine of everything, so we were able to get through weekly
planning much quicker than in previous weeks. After finishing up with
weekly planning we headed over to the church to help the Elder's
Quorum begin cooking all of the food for the Mother's Day activity
that the branch was having. Hermano Perez got there at 11 AM to begin,
and we didn't even show up until 4 PM. They made chicken cordon bleu,
which was actually a lot of fun to help prepare and cook. I really
enjoyed getting to know a few of the Hermanos in the ward a little bit
better. The branch went all out for the activity, which turned out to
be absolutely fantastic. Not as many people came as they were
expecting; however, the activity was still successful. Our district
sang a group song for the activity, and Elder Barnes sang a solo after
our district sang. The people who came really enjoyed it. I am just
more excited than anything else to talk to my own family on Sunday and
wish my own mother a happy Mother's Day!
Saturday, May 10th, 2014:
Elder Barnes and I spent a little bit of time during the morning
figuring out a good plan for him to be able to monitor his progress
during his training; he was feeling a bit worried, so we worked
together to figure out a good plan about how to tell where he should
be at and where he should focus his efforts. Training as a missionary
is often very stressful, due to all of the changes when coming into
the mission field. As a trainer, it is my responsibility to make that
transition as smooth and quick as possible. After lunch, we went down
to the church to sing a song for Hermana Lopez's family in Mexico, but
we were too late! The rest of the district sang without us because
they thought that we weren't coming. I was a little disappointed that
we couldn't help make her mother feel a little more special having the
whole district together. While at the church, however, we spent a
little bit of time recording a video for Mother's Day that we are
going to send to all of our mothers tomorrow as a surprise. It took us
about an hour, but we got it all worked out. Elder Barnes and I
returned to our apartment to do change and do service for the Salgado
family. They are a less-active family that hasn't been to church in a
while, so we figured that we would go do service for them to try and
motivate them to come to church. We helped out Hermano Salgado in his
garden for a little while to help prepare the dirt to plant some
flowers. He didn't sound too excited when I invited him to come to
church, so I'm assuming that we probably won't see them there on
Sunday, unfortunately. During the evening, we were finally able to
meet up with Silvia Recinos and Jose Chavez. Silvia made us chiles
rellenos! It took her about three hours of cooking to make them, and
they were delicious! She is making really good progress on obtaining
her ID card to be able to get married and then baptized, and I think
she will be able to get the ID card this coming week, which
consequently means that she will be able to get baptized in the coming
two or three weeks! I am more optimistic every time that I talk to
her. There is more and more potential each and every day here in our
area!
Sunday, May 11th, 2014:
It was a very strange day in that everyone was calling home for
Mother's Day from the church, both English and Spanish missionaries.
Elder Barnes called home to begin with in the morning; I decided to
wait until my family got home from church in the afternoon to call.
Church was very nice, and the branch made an extra effort to give out
roses to all of the mothers in attendance. The role of motherhood is
truly a celestial virtue. After church, we had our weekly correlation
meeting with Hermano Monzon. He couldn't stop thanking us for the work
that we do and saying how proud he is of all of us and the effort that
we put into the missionary work here. I was very appreciative of his
commendation. We then all went to call all of our families. I was the
last to call home out of everyone. I loved being able to meet all of
the families of the other missionaries in my district; it helps me
remember that every single one of us who is out here serving The Lord
is sacrificing two years from our family to help others have the
opportunity to spend an eternity with their own family. Talking to my
family nearly brought tears to my eyes again. I loved talking to them,
and the time went by way too quickly. After church, we all went to the
Monzons for dinner. We celebrated Hermana Vellinga's farewell for a
little bit because she is going home in a week from Tuesday. The
Monzons are really nice and went all out to make the day special for
her. It was amazing to me when I reflected today on the role of women
in the lives of men; we would be nothing without the assistance of
women helping us learn and grow each and every day.
For P-Day today, we are having another zone activity and will be
meeting up at the Fletcher building. Our zone is going to go play
ultimate frisbee, so Hermano Perez is going to take our district and
come play with us! I'm really excited to go get some good exercise in
and enjoy spending the time with the rest of the zone. Zone activities
are always a highlight, and I think it may be partially due to the
fact that I was never really able to have much of a real "P-Day" while
serving in Chino for nearly six months.
I hope everyone is doing well! I appreciate all of your love and
support, and I hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
Sent from my iPad
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