Hey Everyone!
As my title states, this week was the first time ever that I was able
to eat authentic paella! Paella is a special dish from Spain that
acquires its unique yellow color from saffron and has a unique flavor.
It was delicious and was definitely the highlight of this week. There
wasn't a whole lot to report as far as unusual events or updates. We
will find out about transfers on Saturday night, but my guess is that
I will probably be the only one leaving Azusa, seeing that I have been
here for the longest time.
Tuesday, October 28th, 2014:
Elder Crane and I began our day by reading Alma 32 with Oscar Peralta.
He has expressed to us that he has had a few doubts about various
principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so we talked about the
experiment of faith that Oscar can conduct in order to learn for
himself about any principle of the Gospel. We must walk by faith
before our knowledge can be made perfect. We then went to talk to
Richie Rios again about the eternal significance of decisions that are
made on a daily basis. He is making significant improvements every
day, and he is the epitome of someone who knows how to apply the
Atonement in his life. We then went to eat lunch with Paula Lopez. She
began crying as she was explaining some of her problems. It kind of
made me realize how much people trust as uneducated, ignorant
teenagers to help them solve their complex life problems; in the words
of the Imagine Dragons singer, who served a full-time mission, a
mission "helps you grow up fast." Elder Crane and I later stopped by
Jose Garcia to teach him about performing Priesthood blessings. He
seems very ready to receive the Melchizadek Priesthood, and I am very
grateful to be able to work with him. Elder Crane and I went to eat
dinner with the Reina family during the evening, and they went way out
of their way to make paella for us. It is an expensive dish from Spain
that takes a long time to prepare. They are from Spain and only make
it about twice per year, but they wanted to make it for us. I felt so
humbled that they enjoy our company and visits enough to go out of
their way to make it for us. We shared a video with them entitled
"Elder Bednar in England" that talks about the importance of finding
"The One." To conclude the evening, Jose Garcia came with us to teach
Irene Gonzalez and Rosie Garcia about the Restoration. It would have
been a great lesson, but Irene got a little too excited when she began
talking. It is wonderful that she is so excited to share her
testimony, but it made it difficult to keep the lesson on topic.
Wednesday, October 29th, 2014:
Elder Crane and I began our day by reading in 1 Nephi 21 with Oscar
Peralta. Anything relating to Isaiah is difficult to understand, so it
wasn't the greatest lesson that we have ever had; however, the
important thing is that we are reading in the Book of Mormon. We then
went to show another video to Richie about the effects of choices that
we make every day in life. The video contrasted the long-term ripple
effects of one small decision and how making the correct decision
leads to a much happier style of life several years down the road than
making the wrong decision. Missionary work is full of highs and lows,
and today was definitely one of the low days. We rode our bikes to
every single one of our appointments, including all of the double and
triple back-ups that we had planned at every half-hour time slot of
the day without any luck as we tried to find new people to teach. We
ate with Mayra Lopez during the afternoon and talked to her more about
how she can continue inviting her friends to church to help them
become more interested in the message of the Restoration of the
Gospel. When we thought that things couldn't get worse, our
correlation meeting was canceled, meaning that we had nothing else
planned during the entire evening. We stopped by the Gasca family and
talked to them about prayer. Elder Crane and I both felt inspired to
talk about not using vain repetitions. Hermana Gasca told us that it
was the "perfect" thing that they needed to hear. She asked how we
knew that her family needed to be taught that, so Elder Crane and I
responded by saying that the Holy Ghost will let us know if we are
willing to listen. To end the day, we met up with Elder Nelson and
Elder Nielsen for exchanges; I went to Azusa - West to be with Elder
Nielsen, and Elder Crane stayed in our area with Elder Nelson.
Thursday, October 30th, 2014:
For district meeting today, I decided to teach the topic of
"Revelation Through Prayer" by using the stories of the Israelites
crossing the Red Sea and Joseph Smith's search for the truth. I think
it helped change up the style of the meeting, and I believe that
everyone got something out of the meeting. Elder Merrill, one of the
zone leaders, commented afterwards that the two stories that I shared
mirror the exact same situations that they have been experiencing in
Pomona lately. After district meeting, everyone stayed to make
pancakes together for lunch. Everyone was low on money for the month,
so we figured pancakes would be a cheap, tasty alternative to our
weekly run to Pepe's Tacos. Our district always seems to be more
unified as the weeks pass by. Elder Nielsen and I went with Arturo
Hernandez to teach an investigator named Alex about the Book of
Mormon. Alex is about twenty-four and is very receptive to what we
teach. He understood the importance of the Book of Mormon very well
and committed to begin reading it. Elder Nielsen then extended the
baptismal invitation with a baptismal date for the 16th of November.
Alex seemed hesitant about it, but we helped him see the importance of
setting the goal of a baptismal date to work towards it together.
After helping him understand, Alex became very excited about the idea
of being baptized by the proper authority. It is such a blessing to
work with people like Alex because we, as missionaries, are able to
see the changes that they make in their lives; there is truly no
greater reward or satisfaction. Alex later told us that he followed a
prompting to take the bus, as opposed to his usual routine of biking,
on the day that he met Elder Nelson and Elder Nielsen. He said that he
believed that God intended for the three of them to meet. Elder
Nielsen and I later ran into Alex at Subway when we were eating
dinner. He gave us a ride down to Arcadia, and I was able to get to
know him a little bit better. Alex has a younger sister with Cerebral
Palsy who is fifteen, which immediately made me think of my younger
sister, Dorian, who is sixteen and has Down Syndrome. We instantly
clicked, and it helped Alex appreciate what we do as missionaries even
more in helping families become united. Elder Nielsen and I dropped by
the Espinoza family during the evening, and it was great to be able to
talk to them again. They remembered me very well from when I went to
visit them on exchanges two transfers ago. Elder Nielsen and I
finished the evening by going to visit a less-active family named the
Herrera family. They are from Colombia and were baptized nearly
fifteen years ago, but they haven't been to church together in nearly
two years. Regardless, they graciously let us come in and talk about
the Plan of Salvation with them. It was a little difficult to get them
to open up at first, but we were able to help them understand the
importance of coming to church as we continued to talk to them. We
then met back up with the other Elders to finish the exchange. I love
exchanges because I feel like I always learn so much from everyone
else; I feel bad because I probably learn ten times as much as they
ever learn from me.
Friday, October 31st, 2014:
Elder Crane and I read in the Book of Mormon with Oscar Peralta again
and finished 1 Nephi with him. He had a few questions about the Church
and its political standing. Oscar continues to progress rather slowly,
but I am optimistic that he will decide to return to church in the
coming weeks; the quality of his questions demonstrate his
understanding and interest, too. Elder Crane and I then commenced with
our weekly planning session. We are helping all of our members gain
the vision of wanting to make more covenants so that they will
understand our missionary purpose better of helping others make the
covenant of baptism. As we help the members understand that vision, it
will become natural for them to want to share it, which will help us
find the quality investigators through the progressing members -- that
will build up the Church long-term more than anything else that we can
do. After finishing weekly planning, Elder Crane and I went to visit
Yolanda Castillo again. She seems to be feeling a little better and is
optimistic that she can come to church this Sunday. We read a chapter
with her in the Book of Mormon and finished the day by talking to
Paula Lopez about the virtue of patience. She needed the reminder
about patience when her life seemed to be rather hectic. Elder Crane
and I then returned to the apartment for the remainder of the night.
Presidente Villanueva didn't give anyone permission to go out and work
past 6 PM on Halloween night, so every missionary was confined to
their house during the evening hours. It felt really weird to actually
have free time. I used the time to transfer all of my General
Conference notes from my iPad into my paper journal, which took up the
better part of all three hours of free time that we had. It was weird
having some time to relax, but I feel like I made the most of it.
Saturday, November 1st, 2014:
As my title states, this week was the first time ever that I was able
to eat authentic paella! Paella is a special dish from Spain that
acquires its unique yellow color from saffron and has a unique flavor.
It was delicious and was definitely the highlight of this week. There
wasn't a whole lot to report as far as unusual events or updates. We
will find out about transfers on Saturday night, but my guess is that
I will probably be the only one leaving Azusa, seeing that I have been
here for the longest time.
Tuesday, October 28th, 2014:
Elder Crane and I began our day by reading Alma 32 with Oscar Peralta.
He has expressed to us that he has had a few doubts about various
principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so we talked about the
experiment of faith that Oscar can conduct in order to learn for
himself about any principle of the Gospel. We must walk by faith
before our knowledge can be made perfect. We then went to talk to
Richie Rios again about the eternal significance of decisions that are
made on a daily basis. He is making significant improvements every
day, and he is the epitome of someone who knows how to apply the
Atonement in his life. We then went to eat lunch with Paula Lopez. She
began crying as she was explaining some of her problems. It kind of
made me realize how much people trust as uneducated, ignorant
teenagers to help them solve their complex life problems; in the words
of the Imagine Dragons singer, who served a full-time mission, a
mission "helps you grow up fast." Elder Crane and I later stopped by
Jose Garcia to teach him about performing Priesthood blessings. He
seems very ready to receive the Melchizadek Priesthood, and I am very
grateful to be able to work with him. Elder Crane and I went to eat
dinner with the Reina family during the evening, and they went way out
of their way to make paella for us. It is an expensive dish from Spain
that takes a long time to prepare. They are from Spain and only make
it about twice per year, but they wanted to make it for us. I felt so
humbled that they enjoy our company and visits enough to go out of
their way to make it for us. We shared a video with them entitled
"Elder Bednar in England" that talks about the importance of finding
"The One." To conclude the evening, Jose Garcia came with us to teach
Irene Gonzalez and Rosie Garcia about the Restoration. It would have
been a great lesson, but Irene got a little too excited when she began
talking. It is wonderful that she is so excited to share her
testimony, but it made it difficult to keep the lesson on topic.
Wednesday, October 29th, 2014:
Elder Crane and I began our day by reading in 1 Nephi 21 with Oscar
Peralta. Anything relating to Isaiah is difficult to understand, so it
wasn't the greatest lesson that we have ever had; however, the
important thing is that we are reading in the Book of Mormon. We then
went to show another video to Richie about the effects of choices that
we make every day in life. The video contrasted the long-term ripple
effects of one small decision and how making the correct decision
leads to a much happier style of life several years down the road than
making the wrong decision. Missionary work is full of highs and lows,
and today was definitely one of the low days. We rode our bikes to
every single one of our appointments, including all of the double and
triple back-ups that we had planned at every half-hour time slot of
the day without any luck as we tried to find new people to teach. We
ate with Mayra Lopez during the afternoon and talked to her more about
how she can continue inviting her friends to church to help them
become more interested in the message of the Restoration of the
Gospel. When we thought that things couldn't get worse, our
correlation meeting was canceled, meaning that we had nothing else
planned during the entire evening. We stopped by the Gasca family and
talked to them about prayer. Elder Crane and I both felt inspired to
talk about not using vain repetitions. Hermana Gasca told us that it
was the "perfect" thing that they needed to hear. She asked how we
knew that her family needed to be taught that, so Elder Crane and I
responded by saying that the Holy Ghost will let us know if we are
willing to listen. To end the day, we met up with Elder Nelson and
Elder Nielsen for exchanges; I went to Azusa - West to be with Elder
Nielsen, and Elder Crane stayed in our area with Elder Nelson.
Thursday, October 30th, 2014:
For district meeting today, I decided to teach the topic of
"Revelation Through Prayer" by using the stories of the Israelites
crossing the Red Sea and Joseph Smith's search for the truth. I think
it helped change up the style of the meeting, and I believe that
everyone got something out of the meeting. Elder Merrill, one of the
zone leaders, commented afterwards that the two stories that I shared
mirror the exact same situations that they have been experiencing in
Pomona lately. After district meeting, everyone stayed to make
pancakes together for lunch. Everyone was low on money for the month,
so we figured pancakes would be a cheap, tasty alternative to our
weekly run to Pepe's Tacos. Our district always seems to be more
unified as the weeks pass by. Elder Nielsen and I went with Arturo
Hernandez to teach an investigator named Alex about the Book of
Mormon. Alex is about twenty-four and is very receptive to what we
teach. He understood the importance of the Book of Mormon very well
and committed to begin reading it. Elder Nielsen then extended the
baptismal invitation with a baptismal date for the 16th of November.
Alex seemed hesitant about it, but we helped him see the importance of
setting the goal of a baptismal date to work towards it together.
After helping him understand, Alex became very excited about the idea
of being baptized by the proper authority. It is such a blessing to
work with people like Alex because we, as missionaries, are able to
see the changes that they make in their lives; there is truly no
greater reward or satisfaction. Alex later told us that he followed a
prompting to take the bus, as opposed to his usual routine of biking,
on the day that he met Elder Nelson and Elder Nielsen. He said that he
believed that God intended for the three of them to meet. Elder
Nielsen and I later ran into Alex at Subway when we were eating
dinner. He gave us a ride down to Arcadia, and I was able to get to
know him a little bit better. Alex has a younger sister with Cerebral
Palsy who is fifteen, which immediately made me think of my younger
sister, Dorian, who is sixteen and has Down Syndrome. We instantly
clicked, and it helped Alex appreciate what we do as missionaries even
more in helping families become united. Elder Nielsen and I dropped by
the Espinoza family during the evening, and it was great to be able to
talk to them again. They remembered me very well from when I went to
visit them on exchanges two transfers ago. Elder Nielsen and I
finished the evening by going to visit a less-active family named the
Herrera family. They are from Colombia and were baptized nearly
fifteen years ago, but they haven't been to church together in nearly
two years. Regardless, they graciously let us come in and talk about
the Plan of Salvation with them. It was a little difficult to get them
to open up at first, but we were able to help them understand the
importance of coming to church as we continued to talk to them. We
then met back up with the other Elders to finish the exchange. I love
exchanges because I feel like I always learn so much from everyone
else; I feel bad because I probably learn ten times as much as they
ever learn from me.
Friday, October 31st, 2014:
Elder Crane and I read in the Book of Mormon with Oscar Peralta again
and finished 1 Nephi with him. He had a few questions about the Church
and its political standing. Oscar continues to progress rather slowly,
but I am optimistic that he will decide to return to church in the
coming weeks; the quality of his questions demonstrate his
understanding and interest, too. Elder Crane and I then commenced with
our weekly planning session. We are helping all of our members gain
the vision of wanting to make more covenants so that they will
understand our missionary purpose better of helping others make the
covenant of baptism. As we help the members understand that vision, it
will become natural for them to want to share it, which will help us
find the quality investigators through the progressing members -- that
will build up the Church long-term more than anything else that we can
do. After finishing weekly planning, Elder Crane and I went to visit
Yolanda Castillo again. She seems to be feeling a little better and is
optimistic that she can come to church this Sunday. We read a chapter
with her in the Book of Mormon and finished the day by talking to
Paula Lopez about the virtue of patience. She needed the reminder
about patience when her life seemed to be rather hectic. Elder Crane
and I then returned to the apartment for the remainder of the night.
Presidente Villanueva didn't give anyone permission to go out and work
past 6 PM on Halloween night, so every missionary was confined to
their house during the evening hours. It felt really weird to actually
have free time. I used the time to transfer all of my General
Conference notes from my iPad into my paper journal, which took up the
better part of all three hours of free time that we had. It was weird
having some time to relax, but I feel like I made the most of it.
Saturday, November 1st, 2014:
The Gascas were having a huge birthday party at the park that was
combined for each of their three kids, so we volunteered to go help
them with the set up in the morning prior to soccer. We helped Hermano
Gasca put up chairs, tables, decorations and preparations for food for
about one-hundred people. They were holding the party at a very nice
park, so everything looked great when it was all set up and complete.
The party was to the theme of "Despicable Me." After setting up,
Hermano Gasca took Elder Crane and I to go play soccer with the ward
at a different park. It wasn't the biggest turnout, likely due to the
rainfall from the night before, but it was still very fun and
competitive, as always. Hermano Sanchez told us that he and his
family, including the previous bishop here in the Azusa 2nd Ward, will
be moving back into the Azusa 2nd Ward from Montebello in the coming
week, which was awesome to hear. I have missed their family. Elder
Crane and I had a lot of appointments fall through during the day.
During the evening, we once again struck out with trying to visit some
former investigators and potential investigators. During the evening,
Hermano and Hermana Torres came with us to go eat at Roselia Garza's
house. They made us some delicious enchiladas in the way they are made
in Michoacan, Mexico. We shared a message about the Atonement and how
it relates to the temple so that they can begin thinking about the
symbolism behind Christ's atoning sacrifice as they prepare to enter
the temple.
Sunday, November 2nd, 2014:
Church was really awesome today because the entire Sanchez family was
there, including the former Obispo Martinez (the current bishop is
Obispo Martinez, and the previous bishop was also Obispo Martinez,
even though they aren't related). Hermano Magana also gave me a very
nice compliment while teaching Priesthood; he was talking about the
importance of learning and mentioned that I am the only missionary he
has ever met that has such a huge desire to learn new things. I was
very appreciative and grateful. Elder Crane went to a baptism in El
Monte while I stayed in Azusa with Arturo for a couple of hours, but
we had a few appointments fall through. After Elder Crane and I met
back up, we found a couple of new investigators named Maria and
Esmeralda Estrada. They seem very solid and want to come to church on
Sunday. We established expectations and discussed about our purpose as
missionaries. After dinner, Elder Crane and I went to the Magana's
house where we had a lesson with the Maganas and with the Rodriguez
family, who are returning from being less-active. We talked about
missionary work by using Ether 3:1,4-6 and relating the white stones
to the purity of those who have been selected to receive the Gospel
but haven't yet been "touched" by the Lord to produce light. There are
many people in the world who are white / transparent and are ready to
receive the light of the Gospel but who haven't yet received the
light. We then concluded the evening by going to teach Irene Gonzalez
and Rosie Garcia again. It was late, so we had to end the lesson right
as we were getting to the First Vision. I then called everyone for our
Sunday call-in reports.
Today, our district is meeting up with the rest of the zone in Pomona
to have a zone activity. Hermana Lopez, my favorite missionary in the
whole mission, will be going home next week, so we are all throwing a
party for her. I spent three transfers with her in El Molino and have
been in this zone with her for two transfers; Hermana Lopez is the
epitome of a consecrated missionary. I'm excited to meet up with the
rest of the zone, and it will be the last time that our zone will meet
up before transfers. We are going to play some big group games and eat
pizza, so it should be fun and relaxing. I hope everyone is doing well
and that no one has gotten too sick from too much candy on Halloween!
Have a great week, everyone!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
combined for each of their three kids, so we volunteered to go help
them with the set up in the morning prior to soccer. We helped Hermano
Gasca put up chairs, tables, decorations and preparations for food for
about one-hundred people. They were holding the party at a very nice
park, so everything looked great when it was all set up and complete.
The party was to the theme of "Despicable Me." After setting up,
Hermano Gasca took Elder Crane and I to go play soccer with the ward
at a different park. It wasn't the biggest turnout, likely due to the
rainfall from the night before, but it was still very fun and
competitive, as always. Hermano Sanchez told us that he and his
family, including the previous bishop here in the Azusa 2nd Ward, will
be moving back into the Azusa 2nd Ward from Montebello in the coming
week, which was awesome to hear. I have missed their family. Elder
Crane and I had a lot of appointments fall through during the day.
During the evening, we once again struck out with trying to visit some
former investigators and potential investigators. During the evening,
Hermano and Hermana Torres came with us to go eat at Roselia Garza's
house. They made us some delicious enchiladas in the way they are made
in Michoacan, Mexico. We shared a message about the Atonement and how
it relates to the temple so that they can begin thinking about the
symbolism behind Christ's atoning sacrifice as they prepare to enter
the temple.
Sunday, November 2nd, 2014:
Church was really awesome today because the entire Sanchez family was
there, including the former Obispo Martinez (the current bishop is
Obispo Martinez, and the previous bishop was also Obispo Martinez,
even though they aren't related). Hermano Magana also gave me a very
nice compliment while teaching Priesthood; he was talking about the
importance of learning and mentioned that I am the only missionary he
has ever met that has such a huge desire to learn new things. I was
very appreciative and grateful. Elder Crane went to a baptism in El
Monte while I stayed in Azusa with Arturo for a couple of hours, but
we had a few appointments fall through. After Elder Crane and I met
back up, we found a couple of new investigators named Maria and
Esmeralda Estrada. They seem very solid and want to come to church on
Sunday. We established expectations and discussed about our purpose as
missionaries. After dinner, Elder Crane and I went to the Magana's
house where we had a lesson with the Maganas and with the Rodriguez
family, who are returning from being less-active. We talked about
missionary work by using Ether 3:1,4-6 and relating the white stones
to the purity of those who have been selected to receive the Gospel
but haven't yet been "touched" by the Lord to produce light. There are
many people in the world who are white / transparent and are ready to
receive the light of the Gospel but who haven't yet received the
light. We then concluded the evening by going to teach Irene Gonzalez
and Rosie Garcia again. It was late, so we had to end the lesson right
as we were getting to the First Vision. I then called everyone for our
Sunday call-in reports.
Today, our district is meeting up with the rest of the zone in Pomona
to have a zone activity. Hermana Lopez, my favorite missionary in the
whole mission, will be going home next week, so we are all throwing a
party for her. I spent three transfers with her in El Molino and have
been in this zone with her for two transfers; Hermana Lopez is the
epitome of a consecrated missionary. I'm excited to meet up with the
rest of the zone, and it will be the last time that our zone will meet
up before transfers. We are going to play some big group games and eat
pizza, so it should be fun and relaxing. I hope everyone is doing well
and that no one has gotten too sick from too much candy on Halloween!
Have a great week, everyone!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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