Hey Everyone,
This week has been absolutely fantastic because Elder Wandry and I are
seeing numerous miracles here in Azusa. We have been working to find
investigators "in the cracks." Before Sister Becerra left, she gave
the mission counsel that we must seek to find the light in the cracks
because it is through the cracks that the light can get in when it
would seem that there is no other way. Elder Wandry and I have taken
that advice and applied it to the missionary work in our area. All of
the miracles that we have been seeing in the area recently have been
coming from the parts of our area where there are few Latino people.
The Lord truly blesses us for our faith and diligence.
Tuesday, August 5th, 2014:
Tuesdays always seem to be our most productive day. We began the day
by going with Hermano Torres to go visit an investigator named Javier
that we haven't been able to contact for nearly two months. We were
able to review a little bit about the Restoration and about the Book
of Mormon with him, but we weren't able to meet for very long because
he was busy with work. Elder Wandry and I will meet up with him again
next week when he has more time to talk. Fred Peralta then went with
us during the afternoon and provided a lot of assistance as we went
around less-actives. He seems to know everyone and their grandma,
especially the less-active members. Fred showed us where six or seven
different less-active families live that we didn't even know about
before the day. As Fred was getting ready to leave, the idea came into
my mind that we should go by a potential investigator named Waldemar
Turcios that we haven't been able to contact. He lives in Glendora,
which is one of the "cracks" within our area. We had an awesome lesson
with Waldemar at his house and taught an awesome Restoration lesson.
His family was very welcoming and kind, and they even made us food and
horchata! Elder Wandry and I are hoping to extend a baptismal date
next time we meet with him. After teaching Waldemar, Elder Wandry and
I visited with a less-active member named Hermano Gomez. He had some
Gospel-related questions, so we spent a few minutes talking to him and
answering some of his questions. He wants to come to church, but he
doesn't have a ride to be able to get there. We finished up our day by
visiting the Magana family. Carlos and Kim were busy, so we spent the
time sharing a couple of Mormon Message videos with Hermano and
Hermana Magana. Their family is doing really well, and I really enjoy
helping them become more unified.
Wednesday, August 6th, 2014:
I am in total disbelief that today I hit a year on the mission. The
time has absolutely flown by, especially this transfer. Today was a
day of a lot of reflecting on the past calendar year for me, and I was
amazed as I wrote in my journal by just how much I have changed over
the past year (hopefully for the better). Helping others solve
financial problems, marriage difficulties, addictions and problems
with depression has truly helped me learn and grow more over the past
year than anything else. I think one returned missionary put it well:
"When you're just a kid sitting across from a lady that lost her
husband, doesn't have enough money to keep her family afloat and is
suffering from depression, and you need to help her resolve her
situation, you grow up fast." It is amazing to see how well The Lord
works through us to bring about miracles in the lives of the people
that we teach. This is truly His work, and it could not possibly be
done in any other way. I can testify to the truthfulness that I have
seen The Lord work through me in ways that I cannot physically
describe; I testify that it was The Lord speaking and not me. I hope
the coming year holds just as much as this past year. During the
afternoon, Elder Wandry and I went to go visit Richie Rios. We read in
1 Nephi 19 with him, and he gave us some surprising news: he will be
moving. He doesn't know where his is going yet, but I really hope that
he stays within our area. We later wen to teach Michael Martinez, and
we showed him a couple of Mormon Message videos. The Church has done a
wonderful job with making inspirational videos recently, which has
made inviting the Spirit into lessons much easier as missionaries. We
grabbed dinner with Michael at a teriyaki place before going to the
church to meet up for correlation meeting with Hermano Torres.
Everyone was a little surprised to see Elder White and Elder Nelson
with us, but apparently they are now part of our district! There were
problems elsewhere with ward leadership, so they moved Elder White and
Elder Nelson into our district to be in a companionship with both
Elder Marchan and Elder Chapman, meaning that the companionship they
are in has four Elders. Correlation meeting overall was a little
unproductive because it seemed as though everyone was complaining
about work not getting done in the ward. We now need to do a better
job of helping the members gain the desire to serve and magnify their
callings.
Thursday, August 7th, 2014:
Elder Merrill and Elder Perez, our two zone leaders, taught a quick
yet very powerful lesson about the importance of studies in the
morning, specifically the importance of role plays during
companionship study. I always love zone meetings because I feel like I
am able to hear exactly what I need to learn to improve my teaching
skills as a missionary. About half of zone meeting today was role
plays with little challenges incorporated in, such as teaching for ten
minutes by only asking inspired questions or using the Ten Points for
How to Begin Teaching; it was very difficult and helped me learn what
I need to become better at. It was really neat to see how well lesson
plans were able to be perfectly adapted to the needs of the various
investigators as we taught with the Spirit and sought to put ourselves
in the shoes of our investigators. During the afternoon, Elder Wandry
and I went to teach Obi Jimenez about the translation of the Book of
Mormon. He still hasn't been reading and even expressed to us that a
mission isn't in his future plans at this point in time. We need to
better help him have the desire to read the Book of Mormon so that he
will want to serve a mission. Our last appointment of the day was with
the Martinez family. The discussion turned into Michael's mother
chastising him for not being more mature. It was a little awkward to
sit there and listen to it, but I guess Michael needed it. I have
really come to understand the importance of patience as a missionary
because everyone needs time to improve their weaknesses. Elder Wandry
and I again emphasized the importance of daily scripture study with
them, especially study in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon
teaches plain and precious doctrine that, when understood, will change
an individual's attitude and behavior faster than the study of
behavior will change behavior.
Friday, August 8th, 2014:
Elder Wandry and I had set up a return appointment with Waldemar
Turcios for the morning, but he wasn't at home when we went by. We
came back to the apartment to begin weekly planning after that. It
seems like Elder Wandry and I are really good working together and
that we are always on the same page with everything, so we are always
able to get things done very quickly. We were able to plan for all of
our investigators and their needs, set up a number of different
appointments for the upcoming week, as well as do a few miscellaneous
things. It is incredible to see the impact that effective time
management and companionship unity can have on missionary work; when
we are unified and productive, everything flows together and falls
into place, but nothing seems to work when there is disunity. After
weekly planning, Elder Wandry and I went to go eat with a less-active
family named the Hernandez family. We both really enjoyed their
company and were able to break the ice quite easily. The Hermano
wasn't there, but all three kids, Eduardo, Wendy and Eric, were there.
The kids are all graduated from high school, and we were able to
relate to them very easily. They all expressed to us that they need to
go back to church but that they work on Sundays. The whole family
seemed to have the desire to become active again and begin
strengthening their testimonies. The only other lesson that we were
able to have during the day was with Richie Rios. He told us that he
found out where he will be moving to: he will be moving ten feet to
the left and will be living in the house right next door! We were
excited to hear that, and Richie showed us the new room that he will
be renting. It is going to be a much better situation for him, and he
won't have the constant temptations around him from the other people
that currently live around him. We shared a Mormon Message video with
him about a man that went through similar struggles before he came to
realize the importance of God's love. Richie is doing great, and Elder
Wandry and I have plans to help him move into his new room on Tuesday.
Saturday, August 9th, 2014:
Once a year, our ward does a large activity where the bishopric makes
breakfast for everyone at the park and then the whole ward plays a
variety of games and sports together for the remainder of the day. We
went with Hermano Peralta in the morning to go set up at the park and
help everyone start preparing breakfast. It was a huge breakfast and
was a great way to start off the day. There was a rather large
turnout, and it made the activity really fun. All of the missionaries
were able to talk to a lot of the members and play a variety of
different games with them during the day. One of my favorites was
playing volleyball with four nets; there were four teams playing, and
the ball could go into any of the other three areas whenever it was
hit. The activity definitely created some positive experiences for all
of the recent converts and investigators that attended, especially
Richie Rios. He was able to meet a number of other members that he
would not have otherwise interacted with if it weren't for the
activity. During the afternoon, the whole ward joined together in
playing a large game of soccer. We were able to get a number of
less-active members to also come play with us. The activity ended a
little before dinner time, and Elder Wandry and I got a very
unexpected phone call when we came back to the house to eat dinner. A
man by the name of Guadalupe Diaz called us, requesting that we come
over to his house that evening to help him find an apartment and begin
his conversion to the Gospel. It was a huge miracle to have someone
else reach out to us and request our help. We went over there to talk
with him for a bit, but his daughter said that he was feeling dizzy
and that she would be taking him to the emergency room. We were a
little confused as to why he called us and requested us to come over.
We didn't ask any questions, but Elder Wandry and I later realized
that Guadalupe was perfectly fine and that his daughter just didn't
want us to be talking with him. We are going to call him tomorrow to
see if we can set up another time to meet with him.
Sunday, August 10th, 2014:
It was my first Sunday ever as a missionary serving in a ward where
eight missionaries were present. I felt a little weird and felt like
it was too many missionaries for such a small ward, but that is the
nature of our mission. Church was good, and there wasn't really
anything noteworthy that happened. Elder Wandry and I visited Obi
Jimenez after church ended and talked with him about the Restoration
and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. On my mission, I have had
the privilege of learning some very profound doctrine about the Book
of Mormon. That book is true. I have no doubt in my mind, and the Book
of Mormon was written for our day; everything that it teaches us helps
us grow closer to Christ so that we will be able to return to His
presence by emulating his perfect example. After visiting Obi,
Guadalupe Diaz called us back, requesting that we come over to visit
him that very night. We changed around our plans to be able to meet
with him during the evening. After dinner, we went to the Magana's
house and had a wonderful lesson with the whole family and with Kim.
We taught about the importance of the Holy Ghost and how baptism is
the prerequisite for receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. We can feel
of the presence of the Holy Ghost before baptism, but the ordinance of
receiving the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands grants the ability
to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost all the time, as long as
we are worthy of it's presence. We finished the day by going with
Hermano Torres to visit Guadalupe Torres. He was home by himself and
opened up about his situation. He isn't in the best family situation
at the moment, and he has seen the changes that his uncle has made in
his life through living the Gospel. Guadalupe wants to make those same
changes, and even more than that, he wants to join the Church to be
able to serve other people. Elder Wandry and I extended the baptismal
invitation; he readily accepted the invitation, saying that he will do
whatever The Lord asks of him. We invited him to be baptized on August
31st, and he said that he is ready and glad to set that as the goal!
The Lord places miracles in our path after we give of ourselves to His
will. Elder Wandry and I have been searching in the "cracks" of our
area for the prepared people, and Guadalupe Diaz is an answer to
prayers.
This week has been absolutely wonderful, and I have done a lot of
reflecting of the past calendar year. It is incredible to me of how
the efforts that we make each day amount to such monumental changes
over the course of time. We don't see the changes on a day-to-day
basis, but the differences from day to day make up a huge difference
over the course of two years. I am thankful for all of your love and
support! Have a wonderful week, everyone!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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