Hey Everyone!
My first week in Azusa has been really fun, and Elder Wandry and I are
having a wonderful time together. Azusa is a ward that has been
struggling a little to stay afloat, so it will be fun to work really
hard in this area to help build the ward back up. There will be a huge
obstacle ahead of us, but as we place our faith in The Lord and do our
part, the blessings will come.
Tuesday, July 8th, 2014:
It felt great to finally be able to get out and work at a normal time.
When training, studies last for an additional ninety minutes, so it
can get a little tiring mentally. We began the day by reading in the
Book of Mormon with Oscar and helping him relate the book to himself.
He seems to understand a lot, despite being a little bit less-active.
During the afternoon, Elder Wandry and I went to visit Paula and
Angel. Paula was recently baptized after being a Jehovah's Witness,
and Angel is currently investigating the Church. We again read in the
Book of Mormon with Paula, who is almost already through Alma. She is
doing very well, but Angel seems to be a little bit more stubborn. We
later went by Jose Garcia and read a little out of Preach My Gospel
with him. He is a really active member who has huge desires to share
the Gospel, so we are trying to focus our efforts on helping him reach
out to those that he knows. Elder Wandry and I then went to visit the
Jimenez family and read in the Book of Mormon with Obi. He will head
off to UCLA in a couple of months, and we are trying to help him gain
the desire to serve a mission. He is a very sharp kid, and he would
make an awesome missionary. To conclude the day, I went to my first
correlation meeting in Azusa. Hermano Torres, the ward mission leader,
seems like a very active and helpful ward mission leader, so I am
excited to work with him.
Wednesday, July 9th, 2014:
Elder Wandry and I began the day by talking to Oscar Peralta again. As
we read about slaying King Laban, we were able to help Oscar
understand that he can slay the figurative Laban in his life as he
undertakes the process of repentance. I enjoy reading with him because
he seems to understand everything very well. After reading with Oscar,
we stopped by Ritchie to check in on him. We are going to go to the
Alcoholics Anonymous class that the Church runs on Sunday with
Ritchie. He is doing very well, and he is such a humble guy who is
always ready to learn. Ritchie was baptized about a month ago and made
massive changes in his life to follow The Lord. Our final lesson of
the day that we were able to teach was with Michael Martinez. He will
be entering his junior year of high school this year and has huge
desires to serve a mission. He has gotten a little relaxed with his
reading of the Book of Mormon, so we read a talk by Elder Bednar with
him about the importance of reading in the Book of Mormon. I liked in
the talk that Elder Bednar made the point that as we read the Book of
Mormon, everything else in the Church and in life falls into place: as
we read it, more people will choose to go to church, more people will
choose to serve missions, more people will choose to live the
commandments, and most importantly, more people will choose to follow
the Savior in their lives. I am very impressed by the youth in this
ward because of the potential that they all have to continue strong in
the Gospel.
Thursday, July 10th, 2014:
Elder Marchan gave a great lesson today on the importance of extending
commitments and then following up. I very much enjoyed the lesson that
he gave, and I feel like I learned a lot. As we extend commitments for
the investigators to focus on, we are, in essence, inviting them to
repent and prepare themselves for baptism. Unless we extend a
commitment, they have no way of knowing how to repent and focus on
what God would want them to do. During the afternoon, we taught a
lesson to a couple of investigators named Yvette and Karen with the
help of Jose Garcia. It was a really good lesson in which we
introduced the Book of Mormon with them and read in 1 Nephi 1. They
both show strong interest in learning more about what we teach, so we
are optimistic that they will have the desire to progress in the
Gospel. To conclude the day, we were able to meet with Ritchie again
and talk to him about the Apostasy, as written in 1 Nephi 13. It is
great to see the progress with Ritchie and see how much better he
understands the doctrine every time that we visit him.
Friday, July 11th, 2014:
Elder Wandry and I are very dedicated and focused when we are
together, and it really showed during our time for weekly planning.
For the first time in a number of transfers, weekly planning was
finished in under two hours. It is usually a very long and tedious
process, but we were able to get everything done very efficiently.
Elder Wandry seems to have a similar way of working to mine, which
makes working together extremely effective and easy. After we finished
weekly planning, we went over to visit Obi Jimenez and talk to him
about the relationship between the Atonement and baptism, and how
those two doctrines relate to missionary work. As an investigator is
baptized, they are able to access the mercy of Jesus Christ that only
comes about through his atoning sacrifice; they cannot access that
mercy if they are not baptized by the proper Priesthood authority.
That is the very message that we teach: all must come unto Christ by
being baptized for the remission of sins so that they can have access
to the blessings of the Atonement from our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Obi is doing really well, and he really enjoys learning more
about the Gospel. Our big challenge is getting him to have the vision
of wanting to serve a full-time mission. During the remainder of the
day, we were very unlucky and unable to find anyone else to teach,
despite trying to visit a large number of different families.
Saturday, July 12th, 2014:
During the morning, we went to go play soccer with the Azusa Ward at
the park. I was able to meet a lot of different ward members and learn
how to play a sport that I have never played in my life before. I was
pleasantly surprised to see that I was playing okay and learning
rather quickly; it may be the first time that I actually enjoyed
playing soccer! It was a good turnout by the ward, and we were able to
get about three or four non-members to come to the activity. After
finishing the game, Hermano Sanchez took all of the Elders in our
district out to lunch to get a Costco hot dog. I have really enjoyed
getting to know the ward members here, and tomorrow at church will
really help me meet a lot of different people. During the afternoon,
we went by to teach Ritchie again. We focused on how the Bible has
been translated numerous times and how the Book of Mormon has only
been translated once. He has been focusing all of his time reading in
only the Bible, as opposed to reading the two together. We later went
with Obi to go teach a referral from the Hermanas named Leocladia. She
is an older Christian lady who loves to talk about her grandchildren.
It was tough to teach her about the Restoration because she
continually told us that everyone is a prophet. We think that she can
progress, but it may be a little bit slow to help her overcome a few
misconceptions relating to the importance of the Priesthood. To
conclude our day, we again visited Paula and Angel. We read in Helaman
1 with both of them, but Angel continually interrupted us to try to
talk about the World Cup. It's quite funny to see how obsessed all of
the Latino people are with the World Cup, but it makes for a difficult
time trying to teach lessons to investigators.
Sunday, July 13th, 2014:
Church begins at 9 AM, which is the first time that I have attended a
ward that started at 9 AM since Chino switched times back at New
Year's. It was a little different, and it definitely caused a number
of people to show up late to Sacrament Meeting. It was a really nice
meeting, and a couple of very powerful talks were given. The Azusa
Ward feels very small, however, and we need to work on strengthening
it so that the ward doesn't eventually become a branch again. After
church, I had the opportunity to give two Priesthood blessings to a
couple of different Hermanas in the ward, and they were both very
appreciative. I enjoy being able to serve people in any capacity that
I can, and it was a great way to get to know both of them just a
little bit better. After church, Elder Wandry and I went to Angel's
house to talk about prayer. He was again preoccupied with the outcome
of the World Cup, so it was a little difficult to help him understand
that he can receive personal revelation to his questions through
prayer. We are trying to work with him slowly because we think he has
great potential but that he just needs a little bit of additional time
to understand everything. We later went to visit Michael Martinez
again. We read the talk entitled "Why 1820" with him. The talk focuses
on the magnitude of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and
why the Restoration could not have happened until that point. I would
encourage all of you to read it, too. During the evening, we went to
visit a less-active family named the Magana family. They are awesome
people and were very welcoming to us. They have just felt a little
saddened by the fact that no one from the Church goes to visit them,
making them feel slightly unimportant and not included in the ward
family. It was a reminder to me of the power behind home teaching and
visiting teaching. The programs of the Church are set up in such a way
as to allow us to all learn from each other and grow in the process.
Today was really fun because Elder Wandry and I went hiking for P-Day,
in addition to going to a zone activity at the park where we played
basketball and frisbee. I am so physically drained, but it was totally
worth it. We don't often have times as missionaries to get some good
cardio in, so I took advantage of the time today. I am really enjoying
my time here in Azusa, and I hope that this email finds each of you
well and enjoying life. I am grateful for all of your love and
support, and I hope that you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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