Hey Everyone!
This has been another wonderful week in Azusa, and it seems as though
the time has been flying by these past four weeks. The craziest
thought is that I will hit one full calendar year as a missionary on
Wednesday of this week! I honestly cannot believe that I have already
been out for that long and that the time has gone this quickly. It is
quite a privilege and a blessing to work with the many amazing people
here in Azusa, and I look forward to the many wonderful experiences
and miracles that lie ahead!
Tuesday, July 29th, 2014:
Elder Wandry and I spent a great deal of time in the morning and early
afternoon visiting a number of different houses with absolutely
nothing to show for it. We have been trying to walk more and walk to
different places in the hopes of finding more people on the street to
talk to. The unfortunate part is that the heat has caused everyone to
want to stay inside with their fans and AC, making our goals to talk
to more people a little difficult to achieve. Regardless, I have
really been focusing on trying to remain positive, even when it seems
like there isn't a whole lot going our way. I prayed the whole morning
that I would be able to see some sort of small miracle after the mini
trial of my faith in the morning. My prayer was answered. The first
small miracle came while we were teaching Richie Rios. After we read
in the Book of Mormon with him for a little bit, he shared an
experience with us when the Holy Ghost told him very distinctly that
he shouldn't buy any beer for his friends, even though they had
requested the favor from him. Elder Wandry and I were both really
excited to hear that he was able to follow the prompting and felt
inner peace through following it. We then went to the Magana's house
to eat dinner and have a lesson with the family. We talked about faith
and made an effort to include Danny and Carlos more in the lesson by
actually getting them to help us teach, and it was very powerful. I
could see the whole family grow closer together and learn from one
another as we helped them see the difference of "believing in Christ"
and "believing Christ." Many people have a belief in Him, but they
don't believe IN Him; that is, to say, they don't heed to His
teachings and let the Gospel change them and help them become the
individual that God knows that they can become. To end the day, we had
a lesson with Jose Garcia and his daughter, Karen. She had not been
reading, so we read a little in the Book of Mormon with her and talked
more about the importance of gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon
and of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Every honest seeker of truth will
come to know that the Church is true through the power of the Holy
Ghost, if they are willing to act and exercise their faith in The
Lord.
Wednesday, July 30th, 2014:
Due to interviews tomorrow, we had district meeting today. Elder
Marchan focused on the importance of having the third companion, the
Holy Ghost, with us as we teach (in addition to having it in every
other aspect of missionary work, too) in order to be able to go about
doing the work of The Lord in His way. When we don't have the
companionship of the Holy Ghost, we begin teaching our own doctrine,
rather than inviting the Spirit to teach the Doctrine of Christ. We
cannot be the means of helping anyone come unto the Savior if we try
to teach; our sole purpose as missionaries is to invite the presence
of the Spirit to touch the hearts of the people and teach them
according to their individual and unique needs. What we say isn't near
as important as the revelation that the investigator will receive
through meeting with us; that is how investigators come to feel and
know that the Book of Mormon and the Church are both true. Elder
Wandry and I visited with Michael Martinez during the afternoon to
talk about the difference between testimony and conversion. We really
stressed to him how much The Lord needs his help and how much The Lord
needs him to become converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that he
can help strengthen others, resulting in another member-missionary. I
find it interesting that the more converted a person is to the Gospel,
the greater the desire that they will have to do missionary work and
build up others. The only other lesson that we were able to have today
was with Richie Rios. Elder Wandry and I decided that it would be best
to review the Plan of Salvation with him. He is making wonderful
progress, but we need to do a better job of reviewing everything with
him instead of always moving ahead. I love seeing all of the changes
that he has made in his life, and it is motivation for me to do better
about changing and improving every single day.
Thursday, July 31st, 2014:
Every two transfers, or so, we have individual interviews with the
mission president. Today was our first scheduled interview with our
new mission president, Presidente Villanueva. Before interviews,
however, our district met up to discuss a "forty-day fast" that we
will be conducting to change some habits in our lives that we want to
improve. We talked for a few minutes about a few things that we can
work on and change to become better missionaries over the next forty
days and convert those past habits into good habits. We then had
interviews with Presidente Villanueva. It was really fun to have the
whole interview in Spanish; I much prefer speaking in Spanish with him
so that I can really hear what he has to say. I was really
appreciative of all of his advice about working with the less-active
members. He is very knowledgeable and has a huge desire to go out and
get a lot of work done. I get the impression that our mission will be
progressing immensely in the coming weeks and months. Once again,
Elder Wandry and I went by to visit Richie Rios. He was baptized just
a couple of weeks before I got here, and we are really trying to help
him understand all of the basic doctrines and keep him strong in the
Gospel. We talked with him for a little bit about how God will never
forsake us and that He is always there, even when times seem tough. It
is amazing how much the understanding of the true nature of God can
change our attitudes and behaviors; God loves us with an infinite
love, and that understanding gives us the strength and determination
to press forward, regardless of what struggles or circumstances may be
placed in our path. We also visited with Jose Garcia again. No one
from his family was home, so we talked with him about what we can do
to help his kids progress the most in the Gospel. We all agreed that
we will focus on the Plan of Salvation to help them understand the
vision behind our goal of helping them enter the waters of baptism.
Although we, as missionaries, focus mostly on the importance of
baptism, we know that baptism is the first step along the journey of
eternity towards the ultimate goal of being with our Father in Heaven
once again. Baptism is the gate towards the ultimate goal of eternal
life, and it is central to our purpose as missionaries.
Friday, August 1st, 2014:
Elder Wandry and I have been doing very well with finishing up weekly
planning in a timely manner and being very efficient and effective
with our plans for the upcoming week. Today was no exception, except
that we spent a lot of time on the phone contacting people. We were
very lucky in that we were able to get a hold of about fifteen
different people and set up appointments with almost every single one
of them, some of which we haven't been able to contact since before I
arrived in Azusa. After finishing up weekly planning, we read in the
Book of Mormon for a little bit with Oscar Peralta. We read in 1 Nephi
8 about the vision of the Tree of Life, and Oscar really liked the
chapter. He is doing really well, and our next big challenge with him
is helping him gain the desire to come back to church. The big chunk
of our day was spent in Glendora trying to contact former
investigators and other potential investigators without a whole lot of
luck. We have been visiting a number of different houses, but it seems
as though no one has been home when we go by. Once again, we visited
Richie Rios during the evening. He gave us a bottle of Gatorade and
told us that he bought it at the store while he was thinking of us
walking in the sun all day long. It seriously made my day to hear that
he was thinking of us and went out of his way to brighten our day. I
love how Richie is always looking to put others first, and I hope to
be able to learn and grow from his example. He exemplifies the trait
of humility.
Saturday, August 2nd, 2014:
As usual, we met up with the ward at the park to go and play soccer.
There wasn't a huge turnout, but we played five-on-five anyways. I am
really enjoying the opportunity to learn a new sport, and I would
never choose to play soccer if I wasn't with Latinos; however, they
seem to know how to make the sport a ton of fun, and I really enjoy
playing with them. When Elder Wandry and I returned from playing
soccer, the Peraltas were having the party for their granddaughter,
Natalia. They invited some members from the Church to come to the
party, in addition to their entire family. Latinos really know how to
party, and it isn't a party unless there is a giant jumper with a
slip-and-slide. We spent about an hour grabbing some food and talking
with a few of the members. I really like how friendly and outgoing the
members in the Azusa 2nd Ward are. We later visited Paula Lopez for a
few minutes and talked to her about maintaining a positive outlook on
life, despite the trials that we all face on a daily basis. We also
talked for a little while about the common question of why God tests
good people with bad things in life. Elder Wandry and I then spent a
couple of hours running by different people; once again, no one was
home. We ended our day by visiting Richie Rios again. He is such a
great guy and loves having us come over to teach him. As we talked
with him, he shared an experience about how he came to find the Bible
while confined in prison. It was really moving and strengthened my own
testimony about how God never forgets about us. He is always watching
over us, and He will always extend a helping hand, even in the most
difficult of times.
Sunday, August 3rd, 2014:
Church was really good, and Elder Marchan and I got to teach
Priesthood. It seems like the ongoing problem in every ward is a lack
of home teaching, so we taught a lesson on the importance of home
teaching. To be honest, I never appreciated how effective home
teaching is until I left for my mission because missionaries end up
visiting a lot of the families that should have been visited a long
time before by their assigned families. Home teaching also builds ward
unity and friendships among members. After church, Elder Wandry and I
met up with Obi Jimenez to go down to Glendora. We drove around and
visited at least a dozen houses and were unable to have any success
with people letting us in. It has seemed like one of those weeks where
we are showing The Lord that we are willing to work. We then went by
the Magana's house to try to have a lesson with the whole family and
focus on inviting Kim to be baptized. Unfortunately, she was busy, so
we talked with Hermano Magana for a little while about what we can do
to help expedite the teaching process. I love this family so much, and
I already feel really close to them after a short period of just a
month. To end the day, Elder Wandry and I visited Paula Lopez again.
We were pleasantly surprised to run into a man by the name of Saul who
also lives in the same house. He is really hard to catch at home, so
we started talking to him for a little bit and explained that the
Gospel of Jesus Christ can help him overcome the struggles that he
faces in life. Unfortunately, Paula began to dominate the whole
conversation and it kind of killed the Spirit that was present. Elder
Wandry and I were both prompted to invite Saul to be baptized, but we
couldn't extend the baptismal invitation without the Spirit present.
It was a reminder to me of the importance of preparing our members to
help us teach before we teach so that they are clear that the
missionaries can do the teaching. Hopefully, we will have another
opportunity with Saul, but we learned our lesson.
We went to the mercadito in East Los Angeles today, and we bought some
of the famous gorditas that are sold there. They are basically the
Mexican equivalent of a hamburger, but they are way better than a
hamburger. I honestly think that those gorditas are the best thing
that I have ever eaten in my life! I appreciate all of your love and
support, and I hope that you are all happy and well. I hope everyone
has a great week!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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