Hey Everyone!
This week has absolutely flown by, and it seems like time continues to
speed up with each week that passes. A weird thing about today is that
it marks exactly one year until I will be at my house, and I do not
want to think about that at all; I still feel like a new missionary!
Elder Wandry and I are really enjoying one another's company, and
things are going great. My only concern is that time will go even
faster because it is just so much fun!
Tuesday, July 15th, 2014:
Presidente Villanueva came into the mission on July 1st to replace
President Becerra, and we had not gotten to meet our new mission
president yet, formally at least. Today, we had the opportunity to
meet up as a zone in Pomona (back in my first zone again!) and meet
Presidente Villanueva and his family. It was incredible to feel the
spirit radiating from both Presidente Villanueva and Hermana
Villanueva. It was really nice that they talked in Spanish the entire
meeting so that we could hear everything that they wanted to say.
Their English is decent, but it will definitely need some time to
improve. I feel very privileged as a Spanish-speaking missionary to
have a Latino mission president. It was great to meet both of them and
their three kids and hear their life stories. Presidente Villanueva
was initially called by Elder Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve as
a mission president; he was then interviewed by President Uchtdorf of
the First Presidency; he was finally set apart by Elder Christofferson
of the Quorum of the Twelve. If anyone is ever wondering how a mission
president is selected, I can testify to you that it is through divine
revelation. During the day, Elder Wandry and I were unable to find
anyone at home, so our only teaching appointment of the day came with
the Magana family during the evening. They are a less-active family
that we are trying to help have the desire to come back to church.
Additionally, the girlfriend of their son, Carlos, is one of our
investigators, so we are able to knock out two birds with one stone by
teaching them! We decided to make our lesson a little bit more
interactive and ended up playing Uno with them to teach them the Ten
Commandments. It was really fun, and they all really enjoyed the
spiritual boost. They have been making significant progress in just
the two short weeks since I have gotten to Azusa.
Wednesday, July 16th, 2014:
We read in 1 Nephi 5 with Oscar Peralta during the morning. He hasn't
been reading very much lately, so we committed him to read every day.
We then stopped by Ritchie Rios to talk more about the Priesthood and
his duty to bless the Sacrament when he is ordained a priest in the
Aaronic Priesthood. He will be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood this
Sunday, so Elder Wandry and I are really excited for him. Later in the
day, we visited with Obi Jimenez and shared a talk with him entitled
"Why 1820." If anyone has any doubts about the validity of the Great
Apostasy, please read said talk. It outlines every significant date
from when the authority of the Priesthood was lost up until the time
of the Restoration of the Gospel. Obi's testimony seemed like it was
strengthened just through reading the talk, and he is continuing to do
very well. Hopefully, he will have the desire to serve a mission after
his freshman year at college. Elder Wandry and I then went to visit
Michael Martinez. He had not been reading in the Book of Mormon
either, so we went through 1 Nephi 1 and pointed out how the first
chapter of the first book of the Book of Mormon outlines every single
point of the Restoration of the Gospel lesson that we teach as
missionaries. It is not sufficient to merely read the scriptures; we
must search and seek the revelation contained therein. During the
evening, we met with Hermana Peralta again to help prepare her to talk
to Rosalia and Rosalia's mother. We are beginning to enlist the help
of the members in the missionary work, and I am anxious to see the
miracles that are imminent.
Thursday, July 17th, 2014:
I really enjoy listening to Elder Marchan teach district meeting every
week. He is an effective teacher and presents everything in such a way
that I earnestly want to become better. For district meeting today, he
gave a lesson about the importance of studies in the morning. I
thought it was rather interesting that he said that we would have more
success if we spent time to study after church, for instance, than if
we were to go out and start working right away. I love morning
studies, but it was a really good reminder to me of how crucial
studies are for us to be able to have the Spirit with us to help us in
our teaching during the entire remaining part of the day. After
district meeting, our district went to Pepe's Tacos for lunch. I enjoy
time with our district because everyone is so unified. Elder Wandry
and I went to go visit Ritchie Rios again in the afternoon. We read 1
Nephi 15 with him and talked about how the iron rod is symbolic of the
scriptures and how we must use the scriptures to help us stay on the
straight and narrow path. We then talked to Paula and Angel. We tried
to teach about how true faith constitutes actions, but it didn't end
up being the greatest lesson ever taught. Paula went off telling
pointless stories, and Angel repeatedly said that he already has
faith. Our next lesson with both of them will need to be more focused
and less of Paula "sharing her testimony" through telling
twenty-minute stories. To conclude the day, we went to Jose Garcia's
house to teach Karen and Yvette. Jose, Jr. came in to join us while we
read in 1 Nephi 2, which was very exciting and unexpected to see. It
was a really good lesson, and we were able to begin helping all of
them see and understand the importance of gaining a testimony of what
we share as missionaries.
Friday, July 18th, 2014:
I have really been enjoying my time working with Elder Wandry, and I
can tell how similar we are in that we are both very easy-going and
both like to work efficiently. We had our second weekly planning
session together, and we were able to be very efficient in the process
once again. Elder Wandry is a really good missionary who doesn't like
to sit and waste time, so we were able to work really good together at
planning out the upcoming week. Upon finishing weekly planning, we
went out to work during the day. Unfortunately, it was one of those
days where it seemed like everything was falling through. We weren't
able to teach a single lesson for the entire day. On our way to visit
Michael Martinez, a random kid who was stoned came up to us and
started talking to us. His name was Kingdom, and he said that he had
an appointment to talk to the English Elders later in the week at the
church. He invited us to play basketball with him for a few minutes at
the park, so we took him up on it if was willing to listen to us, too.
We played with him for a few minutes and then ended up setting up a
time for next week to meet with him again. I don't know how much
potential he has, but we can always see. At night, we began our
exchanges. Elder Marchan came to my area in Azusa - East, and I went
with Elder Chapman in their area of Azusa - West.
Saturday, July 19th, 2014:
Exchanges was a bit crazy because of everything that was going on
today. Elder Chapman and I got up at 3 AM to make a trip to the temple
with a recent convert to do baptisms for the dead. I was a little
surprised we were able to get permission from Presidente Villanueva to
go, but we were able to. We met up with the rest of the ward early in
the morning to go to the 6 AM session at the Los Angeles Temple. It
was really cool to be able to perform the confirmations; it was the
first time going to do baptisms and confirmations and not be a youth.
Both of the recent converts that came, Gabriel and Miriam, felt the
Spirit very strong in the temple. I wish I could just live inside;
there is such an incredible feeling that can only be felt within the
house of The Lord. We all got breakfast on the way back together, so
it was a wonderful opportunity for me to be able to meet quite a few
members from the Azusa 2nd Ward. In the afternoon, Elder Chapman and I
met up with the rest of our district and most of the ward again to
play our weekly game of soccer at the park. There were a number of
less-actives that came (including the Magana family!) and a few
investigators, too. It was a really fun game that wore all of us out,
especially considering that the majority of us playing had gone to the
temple so early that morning. After playing soccer, one of the members
began grilling a lot of carne asada for everyone. It was a ton of fun
and a great fellowshipping activity for all of the members and
investigators. I love activities that are a ton of fun and help us
bring people back to Christ. Elder Chapman and I only had time to go
visit the Espinosa family for dinner during the evening after the
temple and soccer activities. It took a long time to get to their
house, but their family is so sweet and loving. We talked to them
about all of the experiences that we can gain as missionaries and
related it to how they can gain similar experiences through doing
member-missionary work. Even though we are set apart as full-time
missionaries, the same blessings are available to all who help labor
in the Lord's vineyard to bring souls to Him. We finished the night by
exchanging back.
Sunday, July 20th, 2014:
Church was really good today, and I was excited to see Hermano
Cardenas, one of the high councilors from the stake, come to speak.
Hermano Cardenas was a former professional soccer player on the
Argentinian national team and is the Chino Ward. I talked to him for a
few minutes about how Chino has been; it was wonderful to exchange
stories and hear some updates. Ritchie was also ordained a Priest
today, and Elder Wandry had the privilege of ordaining him. Ritchie
has been progressing really well and is continuing to grow and learn
every single day. After church, we went to teach Michael again. We
shared a talk with him by Neal A. Maxwell entitled "Lessons to Be
Learned From Laman and Lemuel." Michael has been struggling to really
apply the principles in the Book of Mormon to himself, so we used the
talk to discuss how he can better learn from each character. Michael
also set the goal to finish the Book of Mormon before Christmas. We
then went to teach Obi Jimenez. We read in Jacob 6 to help him
continue reading in the Book of Mormon as well. It is always the most
difficult task to develop that habit of personal scripture study, but
it makes all of the difference in the end. Later in the afternoon, we
went to visit Paula Lopez. She has been doing very well with reading
in the Book of Mormon and asked us if we could talk to her a little
bit about Preach My Gospel. Elder Wandry and I were delighted to
introduce her to the best manual in the Church, of course, so we spent
a few minutes introducing her to the missionary lessons contained
within the manual. She is really anxious to help us teach her husband,
Angel, so we are really excited to hear that she is beginning to take
the initiative to study the doctrines that we share that will help
Angel progress spiritually. We finished off the day by visiting the
Magana family again. They said that they have been praying to know
what ward to come back to because they want to be active and meet the
needs of spiritual growth for their entire family; the great news is
that they said that they have received an answer that they should
return to the Spanish ward! I was so excited to hear that they will be
coming back and be really active in the Church again. They are a
wonderful family, and I love getting to know them better.
Our whole district is going to Chinatown and the mercadito for P-Day
today, so we are all really excited to go eat some delicious gorditas!
I am loving the time that I have spent here so far in Azusa, and
everything is going really well. I appreciate all of the love and
support that I receive from every one of you. I hope that you are all
well and happy, and I hope that you have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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