Hey Everyone!
Like it says in the title of my email, my mission president will be
leaving tomorrow to begin his service as a member of the 5th Quorum of
Seventy for the Church and will be a General Authority. My new mission
president will be President Villanueva from Oaxaca, Mexico. According
to President Becerra, President Villanueva will be the very first
mission president from a foreign country to be the president of a
mission in the United States. I am very anxious to meet him and begin
serving under his direction!
Tuesday, June 24th, 2014:
Elder Barnes was finally able to get a library card today so that he
could begin working on his blog, and we spent a little bit of time
there before we were able to go eat with Silvia Recinos. Silvia and
her son, Jose, have both been doing very well, and I can tell that
their trust in us has increased immensely. Silvia began to recount her
conversion story to us while we were eating dinner, and it was
absolutely incredible to hear the chain of events that occurred to
help her come to know that this Gospel is true. Hearing her conversion
story just increased my own testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
that much more. The Lord truly does show His hand to us in our lives
when we are most ready for His help. The only thing we need to do now
is get her ID card here from the consulate so that she can be married
and then baptized. I really want to be around here in El Molino long
enough to see her be able to get married and then baptized. Elder
Barnes and I also went by Hermano Ramirez's house to talk to him for a
little while during the evening. He is very proud of his son's
decision to serve a mission, and he is making the effort to try to be
a better member-missionary. He also shared his conversion story with
us and offered to help us teach Erika and Hector tomorrow evening. I
can see the level of trust that our members and investigators have in
us; it is very humbling to see that they trust us enough to help them
progress in the Gospel. Missionary work is the most rewarding when the
miracles can be seen, and I love hearing about the countless miracles
in the lives of those we work with.
Wednesday, June 25th, 2014:
Elder Barnes and I went to go eat with Santiago and Hermana Gonzalez
today and were pleasantly surprised that Hermana Gonzalez had invited
her cousin over to talk with us and eat dinner with us! His name is
Benito, and he has a solid Christian background but is totally open to
listening to people talk about religion. We ate some delicious food
with all of them and then shared the message of the Restoration of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was great to see Hermana Gonzalez so
involved in the discussion and to also see how well Santiago
understood the basic principles that we share about the Restoration,
such as the importance of prophets and the Priesthood. Benito agreed
to keep staying in touch, and he was more than happy to listen to us
again; I'm hoping that we can continue teaching him here at Hermana
Gonzalez's house when he isn't busy with his long trucking jobs. The
only other lesson that we were able to have today was with Erika and
Hector, and Hermano Ramirez came with us to help teach them. We talked
about the revelation that comes from reading in the scriptures,
praying and attending church each Sunday. As we do those three basic
things, we are entitled to receive personal revelation and answers to
our individual problems. As we obey God's commandments, He will always
bless us; revelation is His blessing for praying, reading the
scriptures and attending church services. Hermano Ramirez understood
their situation perfectly and was very bold with both of them, which
was needed. Hermano Ramirez had to get married before he ended up
getting baptized in 2005, so he was able to help them understand that
what they are doing is very possible. I was really grateful for his
help because Erika and Hector began to understand the importance of
marriage and baptism much more after listening to him. Small miracles
like the perfect match of a member friend make missionary work more
exciting each and every day!
Thursday, June 26th, 2014:
The missionary department had to switch the security software that
they use for our iPads, so all of the missionaries in our zone had to
meet at the South Pasadena building (the building where our branch
meets) to update all of the software. It was a huge pain to do it, but
I was able to keep all of my study notes and photos, fortunately; a
number of people lost all of their study notes from the past five
months. After finishing up with our "emergency zone meeting," everyone
branched off into their various district meetings. Elder Merrill and
Hermana Lopez both taught our district about developing the faith to
find new investigators. Elder Barnes and I have really been struggling
with finding in past weeks, so it was really helpful for both of us.
Later on in the day, the Luquin family invited us over to eat with
them. We invited them to join us in our "Purification Challenge." We
are going to try to spend forty days changing a few specific parts of
our behavior that aren't in line with our calling as missionaries, or
don't help us fulfill our calling as missionaries. It will be tough,
but I am looking forward to seeing the changes in everyone! During the
evening, Hermano Monzon invited all of us over for correlation
meeting. Because it was the last correlation meeting of the month, he
decided to buy us food; today, he ordered Domino's Pizza for us. It
was the first time in a few months that I have had pizza, and it was
so good! Every time that our district has a meeting, I can tell how
close and unified we are in our goals.
Friday, June 27th, 2014:
Weekly planning was really good today and may have been one of the
better sessions that I have been a part of on my whole mission. Elder
Barnes and I had a really good companionship inventory, and we were
able to give each other some very positive advice and feedback about
how we can improve. Regardless of how similar or how different we are
as missionaries, companionship inventory is always necessary to make
sure that the communication between companions is there and that any
problems can be fixed. During the evening, we contacted a referral
named Julio Pulido who had apparently moved. We talked to his sister
who still lives at the address, and she expressed interest in our
message! It's interesting to see how talking to everyone can lead to
success as missionaries. The best part was that she already has a
member friend from the South Pasadena English ward, so we are hoping
to begin teaching her in the near future.
Saturday, June 28th, 2014:
Today was the 55th annual Independence Day here in El Sereno. It is
the longest-running parade in any community in Los Angeles. Elder
Barnes and I got asked by Abel Varela to help out with the parade, so
we spent eight hours setting up stuff and moving stuff around to help
out at the event. There were a number of people that commented about
how hard we worked, so I think we left a good impression about the
Church. It was really tiring, but it was such a fun day. Our whole
district helped out at the event, and Hermana Vellinga even showed up
to visit all of us (she has now been home off of her mission for over
a month). I think that the people in charge of the parade will
definitely want our help in the future with other community service
projects. I also had the opportunity to work with a couple of people
that I worked with back in March during a community garbage clean up.
During the evening, Elder Barnes and I went to go eat dinner with the
Caceres family. We had a really good lesson with Hermano Caceres to
try to get him back to church. He seems like he is so close to coming
back, and he seems to be making progress every time that we go by. He
has such a strong testimony, too. To finish off the evening, we went
to visit Erika and Hector again and confirm our appointment to go to
the Los Angeles Temple Visitors' Center with them tomorrow. It was a
really good lesson, and I'm really excited to go tomorrow.
Sunday, June 29th, 2014:
Church was really good again, but no one showed up until midway
through Sacrament Meeting, and I think it was because everyone stayed
home for a while to watch the Mexico game for the World Cup. It's
hilarious to see how big of soccer fans Latino people are. After
church ended, Elder Barnes and I met up with Antonio and Angie to go
with Erika and Hector to the Los Angeles Temple Visitors' Center. It
was a really fun trip, and I think the segments about the family
really impacted Erika and Hector. We are trying really hard to help
them want to take the step and get married so that they can be
baptized thereafter. They loved the temple and could feel the Spirit
really strong at there on the grounds. I'm very anxious to see how
they progress in the coming weeks; they will need a push, but I
believe that they have the potential to be great members of the
Church!
This week has been really productive, and we have a lot of momentum in
our area! I am really enjoying serving here in El Molino, but I don't
know if I will be leaving next week or not. It is likely that Elder
Barnes or I will leave, and I think that it is more likely that I
leave than he does, seeing that I have been here for longer. I will
find out Saturday night what will happen. Thank you for all of your
love and support! I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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