Hey Everyone!
I hope everyone has been enjoying the longest days of the year and is
taking advantage of all of the extra sun! It has been steadily warming
up here in Southern California, and I love being able to enjoy the sun
nearly every single day of the year. There definitely seems to be a
happier vibe that people give off during the summer time, but it might
also be that the World Cup has commenced!
Tuesday, June 17th, 2014:
President Becerra now wants the district leaders to do exchanges
during the afternoon to help the district leader see how well the
missionary works during the tougher parts of the day. We did exchanges
today during the afternoon, so I went with Elder Turner to work in
Pasadena while Elder Merrill came to El Sereno to be with Elder
Barnes. Elder Merrill has helped turn that area around tremendously,
and I was pleasantly surprised to see how much momentum their
particular area has currently. Two of the appointments that we had set
up to teach during the afternoon and the evening ended up falling
through; however, we were able to have a lesson with the Meza family.
Myra was baptized on my third Sunday in the El Molino Branch, and her
husband, Israel, now has a baptismal date for next month, even though
he hasn't been taught any of the lessons yet (long story there). Elder
Turner and I taught him about the Restoration. It was a very spiritual
lesson, and I could tell that Israel could feel the Spirit testifying
to him to know of the truthfulness of what we share. Towards the end
of the lesson, he even commented that he knows everything we share is
true! Myra also shared a story about how she decided to be baptized:
she prayed at the bus stop one day, got onto the bus and then saw
Elder Steffen and I sitting on the bus! It was really neat to know
that I was in the right place at the right time to be able to help her
receive an answer. It will be wonderful to see the whole Meza family
together in the Church.
Wednesday, June 18th, 2014:
Elder Turner and I had a lesson set up in the morning, but it ended up
falling through. We tried contacting about five different people, but
no one was home, unfortunately. It was getting close to lunch time, so
we decided to go towards the church and grab a hamburger to eat. We
exchanged back companions after lunch. It was really interesting to
hear Elder Barnes talk about his exchange with Elder Merrill because
it would appear that we are forgetting to do a couple of minor things
that may impact our ability to find new investigators. There are a
million things to remember every day, which can make it difficult to
remember to do every little thing all of the time; that said, we are
in the process of trying to be more effective and efficient in
everything that we do. During the day, we went by the Luquins to eat
with them, and we really tried to be conscious of time. It felt a
little weird to be teaching in less than ten minutes again, but I
think that it will be better overall. We have been in the habit of
teaching for about twenty to twenty-five minutes per lesson, but we
should be trying to keep it down to ten, or at most fifteen. We then
went to talk with Hermano Velasco to commit him to invite his
neighbor, Rodolfo, to listen to us. Hermano Velasco has been doing
very well with trying to be a member-missionary, and it is wonderful
to see his testimony. During the remainder of the day, we managed to
set up a few return appointments to help us have greater potential for
new investigators in the near future.
Thursday, June 19th, 2014:
I always enjoy Elder Merrill's district meetings because he always
seems to know what is needed as a topic and always asks great inspired
questions. Today was also a little unusual in that the assistants came
to our district meeting; that was the first time ever in my mission
that the assistants have ever been in a meeting with me, aside from a
zone conference or mission conference. The meeting was very good,
however, and Elder Merrill chose to focus the meeting on teaching for
understanding. I find that my vocabulary and understanding often
hinders me in missionary work, so this lesson was beneficial for me.
After the conclusion of district meeting, our whole district decided
to stay after and begin planning for a pioneer activity that will be
coming up in the middle of July. Everyone was pretty tired, so it
wasn't the best planning meeting that I have ever been a part of. We
should be able to get everything figured out in the coming weeks,
though. During the remainder of the day, Elder Barnes and I tried to
begin to implement a few changes to help us do better with contacting.
Even though we weren't necessarily able to have a lesson with anyone,
we talked to a few interesting people during the evening. We are doing
better with our goal to try to talk to more people each day.
Friday, June 20th, 2014:
President Becerra will finish his time as president of the California
Arcadia Mission on July 1st, so he hosted a mission conference today
to say his farewell to all of the missionaries in the mission. It was
probably one of the saddest meetings that I have ever been a part of.
President Becerra invited a former mission president from Salt Lake
(where President Becerra served as a member of the mission
presidency), Brother Miller, to speak to all of us before he and
Sister Becerra said their final goodbyes. Brother Miller spoke about
the importance of reading the Book of Mormon to try to find the hidden
meanings behind it. Sister Becerra followed him and spoke about always
being happy and positive. It was sad to see Sister Becerra so
teary-eyed. We were all pleased to hear President Becerra speak to us
one final time before he begins his service as a General Authority. He
spoke about his role as a member of the 5th Quorum of Seventy, the
"Ideal Growth Cycle" in the Church, and the changing of the mantle
(see 2 Kings 2:1-15) when President Villanueva assumes the position as
mission president of the California Arcadia Mission. To President
Becerra's knowledge, President Villanueva is the first mission
president in the history of the Church to be the mission president of
a United States mission and not be from the United States. President
Villanueva will be coming to Arcadia on July 1st from Oaxaca, Mexico.
When we all began to sing "Arcadia United" at the end of the meeting,
nearly everyone in that chapel, including President Becerra, began to
cry. Elder Barnes and I returned to our apartment, and I began feeling
a little under the weather. We had to postpone weekly planning because
I wasn't feeling well. Hopefully, I start feeling well soon.
Saturday, June 21st, 2014:
Because I was a little under the weather, we had to do weekly planning
today. We were pretty efficient with it before we had to get out to
work. Elder Barnes and I have been making a big effort to try to
contact more and more people every day, but it seems like people just
don't ever want to talk to us in our particular area. We went to teach
Santiago about revelation and how praying, reading the scriptures and
attending church are all methods in which we can receive personal
revelation. Santiago seems to know that the Church is true; he just
won't act on anything that we share with him. Hermana Gonzalez said
that she is working on getting the marriage process going, so we are
hoping that they will be motivated to get married, which will then
motivate Santiago to act on what we share and get baptized. He has
felt the Spirit and received an answer, so we aren't totally sure what
to teach him at this point. During the afternoon, we had correlation
meeting with our district and with Hermano Monzon. Our whole district
is making progress, and this branch is growing consistently. Hermano
Monzon then took us out for burgers at In-N-Out. It was a fun little
bonding time. Hermano Monzon loves working with the missionaries, and
he is really helping us to help the branch.
Sunday, June 22nd, 2014:
It seems like the branch always starts on time whenever anyone from
the stake shows up. Today, President Esquerra, the stake president,
was there, so they decided to start right on the hour. I was a little
worried when only twenty people were there at the start of church;
after the administration of the Sacrament, however, about one-hundred
people showed up, raising the total attendance to over 125 for the
day. Even though most Latinos tend to show up a few minutes late, this
branch is on the verge of becoming a ward! I was asked to share my
testimony and a short experience of why I decided to serve a mission.
Hermana Lopez and I both talked for about five or seven minutes, and
then we had the second counselor in the stake presidency talk about
the importance of missionary work. That Sacrament Meeting was one of
the better ones that I have been to in quite some time. Church was
really powerful, and Hermano Monzon taught a wonderful lesson on the
gift of the Holy Ghost in Gospel Principles. When we have everyone
unified with one purpose, the work of The Lord will progress faster.
Elder Barnes and I had to stay and talk with President Muriel to
discuss how we will go about teaching a few less-active families, so
that used up the better part of our afternoon. We have been struggling
to work with our less-active families because it seems like they have
zero desire to even listen to us, let alone come back to church.
During the evening, Antonio and Angie came with us to teach Erika and
Hector about the Word of Wisdom. They seemed to understand it very
well. Antonio Perez shared a really powerful testimony of how the Word
of Wisdom has helped him change everything about his health before and
after he came back to Church after being less-active. Erika and Hector
are doing really well, and I love teaching them.
Today for P-Day, we met up with some English Elders and some
less-active members, in addition to some non-members to play a lot of
basketball. It was a really fun, tiring day with some good
street-style basketball. Everyone had a great time, and the best part
was that there were no injuries. I still can't believe that I have
been out on my mission for nearly one full year. Time absolutely flies
when you are having a wonderful time and doing the work of The Lord!
Thank you for all of your love and support! I hope everyone has a
wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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