Hey Everyone!
First off, happy Memorial Day to all! It is a wonderful opportunity to
remember the sacrifices of all of the military who have served on our
behalf, especially those who have lost their lives in the service of
our great country. Days like today are always tough because they make
me think of my father and his service in the military, too.
This week has been pretty good and full of the thoughts of close
friends that are finishing their missions. We are getting to the point
that half of the mission will be leaving; we lose President Becerra at
the beginning of July, we lose a large group tomorrow, we lose another
large group next transfer, and then the largest group of all departs
at the end of August (and with that, my trainer, Elder Knight, will be
finishing his mission, too).
Tuesday, May 20th, 2014:
President Becerra will be finishing his term as our mission president
on July 1st, so today was my last interview with him. It was a really
good interview because President Becerra helped me a lot with managing
my stress. I feel as though I try to work so hard all of the time that
I end up putting a lot of problems onto my shoulders that I don't
actually need to worry about. President Becerra gave me the advice to
"do what you can and then can the rest." When Elder Barnes and I got
out to work, it was another one of those days where we really
struggled to find people to teach. For whatever reason, it seems as
though it is very difficult to find people home, no matter how hard we
work. During the evening, we stopped by an English member named Ivana
to see if she can help us get in contact with one of our former
investigators named Martina, who happens to be a friend of Ivana's. I
am really beginning to see the benefits of working with the members
and how it is the only real way to find the "elect" people to teach.
Wednesday, May 21st, 2014:
I think that the advice that President Becerra gave me yesterday is
really going to serve me well because studies seemed much more
productive today. I have been helping Elder Barnes a lot on his
Spanish, and he seems to be making noticeable progress. When we went
to do Facebook today, I found out that friends back home have been
doing a lot of work to share the Gospel with others. I love seeing
that people are reaching out to friends and acquaintances to share the
Gospel. Elder Barnes and I went to go contact a guy in the afternoon
who was a referral. Raul Salazar was his name, and he is a man from a
very rough background. He talked to us for a while about all of the
crazy stories that go on in El Sereno, such as gang murders and
violence. The ironic part was that four police cars went by with
flashing lights while we were talking to him for twenty minutes, and
we then saw two bomb squad trucks pass by as we were leaving. The more
dangerous the area, the more likely that people are to listen to us.
At night, we went to the church for mutual. I then went to El Molino
Central to be with Elder Turner for exchanges.
Thursday, May 22nd, 2014:
For exchanges, I went with Elder Turner to spend the day in his area.
He is such an easy-going and understanding guy. He really helped me
with a lot of self-confidence issues I have been having lately. I feel
like the mission has been very hard on us about needing to be better
as missionaries, and I think I have been pretty hard on myself, not to
mention that training adds an additional level of stress. Elder Turner
gave me some great advice for how to relieve a little bit of that. In
the morning, we went to district meeting. Elder Knight taught what
would be his last district meeting, and the zone leaders came to join
us for the meeting, too. He taught about understanding our vision,
goals, plans and accountability for our endeavors in life. It was a
great lesson, and planning really makes all of the difference for
achieving everything that we set our hand to. Elder Turner and I
returned to eat lunch at his apartment before contacting a referral
and then going to go teach an investigator in the home of the Perez
family. The investigator wasn't quite home yet, so Antonio and Angie
Perez took Elder Turner and I out to eat kabobs. They are so nice and
very active in the Gospel. We returned after dinner to teach the
investigator, and I think Elder Turner and I taught the best Book of
Mormon lesson that I have ever been a part of. Rudy, the investigator,
felt the Spirit very strong and was quite excited to read the Book of
Mormon after we explained more about it. I hope to be able to build on
that teaching experience and continue to improve my teaching
abilities.
Friday, May 23rd, 2014:
Weekly planning went pretty long today because we began to plan for
Chris Varela's baptism, which will be happening on June 1st. I think
we did a pretty good job of selecting people and speakers for the
baptism to make it a really spiritual event. We are going to go over
to the Varelas on Sunday to make sure that they are good with the
program suggestions. Elder Barnes and I had companionship inventory at
the end of weekly planning; every week is just a reminder of how
different we are. Although our personalities might be absolute polar
opposites, we can still put missionary work as our primary focus and
put aside our differences. Upon finishing weekly planning, we went to
the home of the Caceres family to have dinner. Hermana Caceres has
been helping us out by getting some referrals for us. She is such an
active member with a desire to really understand the Gospel. We shared
a lesson after dinner with her less-active husband. He still has a
testimony of the Book of Mormon, but he hasn't been to church in a few
years and doesn't really have the desire to return right now. We
finished off the day with correlation meeting at the church. I think
the Hastening of the Work of Salvation is really beginning to show in
each of our individual areas here in El Molino.
Saturday, May 24th, 2014:
The English zone leaders who live right above us have been having some
serious cockroach problems; our apartment has been seeing them every
so often. As a result, our apartment manager brought in an
exterminator for all eight apartments. We had to leave the apartment
at 8:00 AM to let the exterminator come in and spray our apartments
down. We went up to the church with the English Elders to do studies
while we waited for our apartment to be done. Elder Barnes and I
decided to use the opportunity to catch up on "The First Twelve Weeks"
again. His bus card ran out two days ago, so we haven't been able to
utilize the bus very much as we wait for the money to show up on his
card. We decided to stay at the church for the majority of the day
before we had a church tour with a new investigator named Pastor.
Angie Perez brought him to the church to learn more about what we
believe. It was such an awesome lesson, and the Spirit was present
during the full tour. Pastor loved it and said that he would commit to
be baptized if he comes to know that everything that we share is true!
When we got back to the apartment, we had to put everything back after
the cockroach extermination. We ended up eating dinner, putting
everything back and then trying to visit a couple of people before
coming back for transfer calls. Neither Elder Barnes nor I got a call,
so we are staying put for another six weeks. Elder Knight will be
heading to Boyle Heights, which is one of the most ghetto areas of the
mission (as a translation, that means it is the best area to be in as
a Spanish missionary). Hermana Lopez will be training and find out who
her new trainee is on Tuesday, and our new district leader will be
Elder Merrill. I'm excited for this upcoming transfer, but I am going
to miss Elder Knight and Hermana Vellinga.
Sunday, May 25th, 2014:
President Muriel was out of town, so church seemed a little chaotic
today. We actually started right on the hour, so more than ninety
percent of the congregation showed up about twenty minutes late (when
we normally start). Most people joke about "Mormon Standard Time," but
we joke about "Latino Standard Time" as missionaries. Elder Knight and
I were assigned to teach the youth today, and we gave one awesome
lesson. We related the Tree of Life vision by Lehi in 1 Nephi 8 to our
new method of planning: we must have a vision and have goals to reach
that vision that are achieved through plans, and the only way to
ultimately be successful is to be accountable to the plans, goals and
vision that we have. The youth really liked the lesson, and I think a
few of them now have the motivation to make their dreams and visions
for their futures a reality. During the evening, Elder Barnes and I
talked with the Varelas about the program for Chris' baptism next
Sunday. They are all very excited and are going to be inviting their
whole family to come! I'm excited to be able to have the opportunity
to perform the ordinance and participate in a monumental step for
Chris. It will also be a great chance to show the whole family what
the Church is all about!
Thank you all for all of your support and love that you continue to
show me each and every day! I am enjoying my time here in El Molino
and really feel like I am beginning to have a great love for this
little branch. We have a baptism coming up next Sunday, so Elder
Barnes and I are very excited for him! We also found out some very
exciting news on Tuesday: Silvia now has everything that she will need
to be able to get her marriage license! She has been waiting for three
years for the opportunity to get married and then baptized, so we will
be able to help her finally achieve that goal when she gets a paper in
the mail from El Salvador in about three weeks!
I hope you all have a wonderful day and remember the reason why we
celebrate Memorial Day! I love you all and appreciate all that you do
on my behalf! Have a great week, everyone!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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