Hey Everyone!
It has been the start of another great transfer, and General
Conference made it feel like the week went by even faster! We are
continuing to make progress with the ward through our new bishop, and
things are always looking up in Azusa. I don't have a ton of news to
report for the week, so it may be a bit briefer than usual.
Tuesday, September 30th, 2014:
Jose Garcia came to pick us up in the morning to go with us to help
Hermano Sanchez and his family move. The whole family will be leaving
for Montebello on Thursday, meaning that they will soon be part of the
Belvedere 2 Ward in the East Los Angeles Stake. The other Elders
worked with us to clean out the shed out back and demolish it. We also
all worked on cleaning up a lot of the yard so that the house looks
very presentable when the family moves out. We spent the better part
of two hours packing up everything inside of the shed and thensmashing the metal shed with hammers and removing it. The service was a
It has been the start of another great transfer, and General
Conference made it feel like the week went by even faster! We are
continuing to make progress with the ward through our new bishop, and
things are always looking up in Azusa. I don't have a ton of news to
report for the week, so it may be a bit briefer than usual.
Tuesday, September 30th, 2014:
Jose Garcia came to pick us up in the morning to go with us to help
Hermano Sanchez and his family move. The whole family will be leaving
for Montebello on Thursday, meaning that they will soon be part of the
Belvedere 2 Ward in the East Los Angeles Stake. The other Elders
worked with us to clean out the shed out back and demolish it. We also
all worked on cleaning up a lot of the yard so that the house looks
very presentable when the family moves out. We spent the better part
of two hours packing up everything inside of the shed and thensmashing the metal shed with hammers and removing it. The service was a
lot of really fun, tough work, and destroying the shed made the work
that much more exciting. We all finished by eating some delicious
pozole for lunch. I love how generous and hospitable Latino people
always are; they always want to make sure that all visitors eat well
and are happy. Elder Crane and I later talked with Richie Rios about
continuing to stay strong with controlling his thoughts. Overcoming an
addiction is a process that lasts much longer than the initial three
weeks, or so, of overcoming the initial problem. He is doing great,
and Elder Crane and I are working tirelessly with him to make sure
that he stays strong and continues to progress. We later went to talk
to Jose Garcia about the responsibilities of an Elder in the
Melchizadek Priesthood. He is preparing to receive the Greater
Priesthood, and it is very exciting to see Jose Garcia's excitement to
learn. We concluded our day by having our weekly correlation meeting
with Hermano Torres. Hermana Moon is the new Hermana who will be
trained by Hermana Perez, and Hermana Moon appears to be a really good
missionary who is ready to learn and get to work. I am confident that
our district will see a lot of success this transfer.
Wednesday, October 1st, 2014:
At long last, we were able to teach Oscar Peralta about the Plan of
Salvation. It was a great lesson, and we were able to answer all of
his questions relating to where we go after we die. Elder Crane and I
later went to visit Paula Lopez and eat lunch with her. Even though
she wasn't feeling well, she still went out of her way to ensure that
we were fed. She made us some delicious mole for lunch, and we then
talked about testimonies and helped her learn how to bear her own
testimony. Elder crane and I then spent a good chunk of our day
finding. we had a very successful day with street contacting; we got
six or seven addresses of people to talk to, and there were at least
two or three that seemed to have some very solid potential. Elder
Crane and I stopped by Alex Serrano to help him with some AP
Statistics and AP Government homework. He was talking to the English
Sisters for a little while, but he dropped them. He did say, however,
that he would much prefer Spanish over English (who wouldn't?). We
decided it would be worth a visit to talk to him. We are hoping that
the service we offer and the option to attend a Spanish congregation
will help him gain interest in the Church again. We later stopped by
the Gasca family. It became apparent that they haven't been reading in
the Book of Mormon, so we were very direct with helping them
understand the importance of reading on a daily basis. If we want
every other aspect of our lives to work out, we will read the Book of
Mormon every day, study it and work to apply it; it is that simple. We
concluded the day by teaching Irene Gonzalez about the Priesthood and
auxiliary organizations of the Church. It feels a little different
teaching Lesson 5 (Laws and Ordinances) before baptism, but I think
that it will help investigators become more converted before they are
baptized.
Thursday, October 2nd, 2014:
District meeting today focused on the missionary purpose, and it was
full of revelation. I tried to focus the meeting on understanding our
purpose better to better help the ward fulfill its purpose. We, as
missionaries, are responsible for the first four steps of the Gospel:
faith, repentance, baptism and the Holy Ghost. The ward is then
responsible for the next four steps: Sacrament, Melchizadek
Priesthood, Endowment and Sealing. Missionaries and members are
exactly equal in the process of conversion to the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, which is centered around covenants and begins with baptism.
Members and missionaries then work together on the final step of
enduring to the end. I feel like everyone enjoyed the lesson and
received a lot of revelation for how to help the ward. Our district is
full of "veterans" to missionary work (five out of six of us have been
missionaries for more than eleven months, and the only one who hasn't
is a brand new trainee), so we are trying to help the ward become
converted so that we can work hand-in-hand with the ward to push the
work forward. We don't want baptisms; we want eternal marriages of our
own grandchildren and eternal marriages of the grandchildren of our
investigators. Missionary work is not about baptisms; it is about
conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that begins from within.
After district meeting, the other Elders, Elder Crane and I all ate
lunch at Pepe's Tacos. It was a fun time together enjoying each
other's company and talking about what we can do, specifically, to
continue to help the members learn how to share the Gospel. Elder
Crane and I got to work right away and began visiting a number of
different houses. Even though we had a number of different
appointments fall through, we found a number of different people at
home who appeared to have a lot of potential. I have recently noticed
how we have been in the right place at the right time, which is
wonderful to know that we are being guided by the Spirit as much as we
are. During the evening, we were able to have dinner with the Jimenez
family. They were having a video call with Obi, so we had the
opportunity to talk to him. He is doing great at UCLA, but I miss
being able to work with him. We are trying to continue to strengthen
him by helping him remember what is most important in life as he is
surrounded by so many worldly influences at college. We were also able
to help the Jimenez family catch the bigger picture of missionary
work; they suddenly had the idea that they need to begin
fellowshipping the recent converts. We have something special going on
right now, and I'm really excited to continue working with this ward.
Friday, October 3rd, 2014:
Elder Crane and I began our day by reading with Oscar Peralta in 1
Nephi 16. It was a great lesson, but it is quite difficult to get
Oscar to commit to act on anything that we share. Elder Crane and I
then commenced with weekly planning. We have been thinking a lot about
how we can work with each of our individual members to help them
progress in the Gospel and prepare to take the next step, whether that
be preparing for the temple or something as simple as reading their
scriptures on a daily basis. I believe that our desire to work with
and through the members will help the missionary work immensely moving
forward. Elder Crane and I then went to help Alex Serrano with some
more Statistics homework before sharing a Mormon Message with him
entitled "The Hope of God's Light." We talked about faith with him,
and it is quite clear that he is searching for something but that he
doesn't know what exactly he is searching for. Elder Crane and I
quickly stopped by Paula Lopez's house to help her prepare to watch
General Conference at her house. We later ate dinner at the Reina
family's home. He was the previous clerk and is now the first
counselor in the bishopric. We talked a lot about the big vision that
we have for this ward and how we can begin with "small and simple
means" by reading the Book of Mormon to "bring about the salvation of
many souls" through uniting as missionaries and as a ward in the work
of salvation. There is a different feeling in Azusa, and all of the
members are ready to work to push this work forward. We then met up
with the new bishop, Obispo Martinez, to go visit Irene Gonzalez. We
talked with her for a few minutes about any last questions before her
baptismal interview, and then Elder Merrill came to do the baptismal
interview. He was absolutely blown away at how converted Irene is and
how she has an eternal perspective; she understands that baptism is
just the first step along her path to the temple. She also has the
desire to share the Gospel with some of her friends and plans to
invite them to her baptism. She is a prime of example of the kind of
convert in the Church that Elder Bednar was referring to during
General Conference; we all need to be like that.
Saturday, October, 4th, 2014:
The zone leaders were supposed to pick us up to drive to Covina for
General Conference, but they got stuck in traffic on the way to our
house. We would have all been late if we went to Covina, so we decided
to watch the first session at our house on our iPads. It was fun to
watch it with the zone leaders, and we were able to enjoy a nice,
comfortable couch. The first session focused a lot on personal
conversion, which I noticed was a theme throughout the entire first
day. When we all got to Covina, we decided to get lunch at Wendy's. I
was able to meet up with Elder Low again, making it the third General
Conference in a row that I watched with Elder Low. The second session
was really fun and neat because we sprinted into the main room at the
stake center to listen to a talk in Spanish (without the translator)
and then sprinted back to the Relief Society to listen to Elder
Holland in English. No one was hungry after the second session before
the Priesthood Session, so we decided to go and get some McFlurrys at
McDonalds. I love General Conference weekend because it is so edifying
and is a great opportunity to spend some quality time with other
missionaries that we don't always get to see in the mission. There
were some wonderful talks during Priesthood Session, including the
very profound talk by President Eyring. Overall, I felt that our
initiative about greater conversion was really reinforced by the
message of the Brethren; I hope that we can help the ward continue to
catch the big picture. Once we returned, Elder Crane and I stopped by
a potential investigator named Fausto Vidrio who told us the story of
how his son had lost his life. We testified of the Plan of Salvation,
and he was anxious for us to return to teach him. When we truly live
the Gospel and follow the teachings of the living prophets, people
quickly recognize us as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sunday, October 5th, 2014:
The second day of General Conference was just as mind-blowing and
heated as the first. The Brethren are becoming increasingly more bold,
which is reminiscent of the General Conferences of the '70s and '80s.
When the members don't act, audacity is required; the principle is
very similar with investigators and missionaries. Many of the talks,
including Elder Scott's, made me think of Brother Donaldson's
million-dollar question: "Are you willing to put your eternal
salvation at stake?" If we aren't willing to put our eternal salvation
at stake on not following the counsel of the Apostles and Prophet,
then we must shape up now and actually sustain them in their callings
by adhering to their counsel and magnifying our own callings. After
the first session, everyone went outside to eat lunch together,
members and missionaries alike (foreshadowing of things to come? I
sure hope so!). Meanwhile, Elder Merrill and Elder Perez brought Elder
Tovar, the Pomona district leader, and I aside to discuss about the
upcoming zone meeting. It sounds like the "veteran" missionaries in
the zone understand our vision very well; our next challenge is
helping the five trainees in the zone see the same big picture. We
will focus a lot on personal conversion and consecration and the
importance of converting ourselves before we strengthen our brethren
(see Luke 22:32). The final session of General Conference was awesome,
mostly because Elder Bednar "[lit] it up" as he normally says about
Elder Holland. That talk should be read by every person on this
planet. If we don't have the desire to go out and share our testimony
with everyone we see, we aren't converted to the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, and we also don't understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Yes, that implies that you and I both need to repent. After returning
from General Conference, Elder Crane and I visited Richie Rios again.
He loved General Conference and has been reading a lot. We finally got
him a copy of the Doctrine and Covenants to begin using as he studies
in the scriptures. We then went to visit the Magana family. We read
through 1 Nephi 1:1-5 and went into incredible depth with them. Each
one of us learned something very profound, and it was a good reminder
of how we should study the scriptures: reading the scriptures doesn't
mean reading to finish the book; it means reading to understand and
have Heaven open itself.
Overall, the week was awesome, and the messages from General
Conference were definitely the highlight. This upcoming week will just
as great, and perhaps better! Irene Gonzalez will be getting baptized
this Sunday and is progressing wonderfully. We are very excited for
her decision to follow the Lord's example and begin preparing herself
to enter the temple one day. I miss each of you dearly and appreciate
your love and support! Have a wonderful week, everyone!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
that much more exciting. We all finished by eating some delicious
pozole for lunch. I love how generous and hospitable Latino people
always are; they always want to make sure that all visitors eat well
and are happy. Elder Crane and I later talked with Richie Rios about
continuing to stay strong with controlling his thoughts. Overcoming an
addiction is a process that lasts much longer than the initial three
weeks, or so, of overcoming the initial problem. He is doing great,
and Elder Crane and I are working tirelessly with him to make sure
that he stays strong and continues to progress. We later went to talk
to Jose Garcia about the responsibilities of an Elder in the
Melchizadek Priesthood. He is preparing to receive the Greater
Priesthood, and it is very exciting to see Jose Garcia's excitement to
learn. We concluded our day by having our weekly correlation meeting
with Hermano Torres. Hermana Moon is the new Hermana who will be
trained by Hermana Perez, and Hermana Moon appears to be a really good
missionary who is ready to learn and get to work. I am confident that
our district will see a lot of success this transfer.
Wednesday, October 1st, 2014:
At long last, we were able to teach Oscar Peralta about the Plan of
Salvation. It was a great lesson, and we were able to answer all of
his questions relating to where we go after we die. Elder Crane and I
later went to visit Paula Lopez and eat lunch with her. Even though
she wasn't feeling well, she still went out of her way to ensure that
we were fed. She made us some delicious mole for lunch, and we then
talked about testimonies and helped her learn how to bear her own
testimony. Elder crane and I then spent a good chunk of our day
finding. we had a very successful day with street contacting; we got
six or seven addresses of people to talk to, and there were at least
two or three that seemed to have some very solid potential. Elder
Crane and I stopped by Alex Serrano to help him with some AP
Statistics and AP Government homework. He was talking to the English
Sisters for a little while, but he dropped them. He did say, however,
that he would much prefer Spanish over English (who wouldn't?). We
decided it would be worth a visit to talk to him. We are hoping that
the service we offer and the option to attend a Spanish congregation
will help him gain interest in the Church again. We later stopped by
the Gasca family. It became apparent that they haven't been reading in
the Book of Mormon, so we were very direct with helping them
understand the importance of reading on a daily basis. If we want
every other aspect of our lives to work out, we will read the Book of
Mormon every day, study it and work to apply it; it is that simple. We
concluded the day by teaching Irene Gonzalez about the Priesthood and
auxiliary organizations of the Church. It feels a little different
teaching Lesson 5 (Laws and Ordinances) before baptism, but I think
that it will help investigators become more converted before they are
baptized.
Thursday, October 2nd, 2014:
District meeting today focused on the missionary purpose, and it was
full of revelation. I tried to focus the meeting on understanding our
purpose better to better help the ward fulfill its purpose. We, as
missionaries, are responsible for the first four steps of the Gospel:
faith, repentance, baptism and the Holy Ghost. The ward is then
responsible for the next four steps: Sacrament, Melchizadek
Priesthood, Endowment and Sealing. Missionaries and members are
exactly equal in the process of conversion to the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, which is centered around covenants and begins with baptism.
Members and missionaries then work together on the final step of
enduring to the end. I feel like everyone enjoyed the lesson and
received a lot of revelation for how to help the ward. Our district is
full of "veterans" to missionary work (five out of six of us have been
missionaries for more than eleven months, and the only one who hasn't
is a brand new trainee), so we are trying to help the ward become
converted so that we can work hand-in-hand with the ward to push the
work forward. We don't want baptisms; we want eternal marriages of our
own grandchildren and eternal marriages of the grandchildren of our
investigators. Missionary work is not about baptisms; it is about
conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that begins from within.
After district meeting, the other Elders, Elder Crane and I all ate
lunch at Pepe's Tacos. It was a fun time together enjoying each
other's company and talking about what we can do, specifically, to
continue to help the members learn how to share the Gospel. Elder
Crane and I got to work right away and began visiting a number of
different houses. Even though we had a number of different
appointments fall through, we found a number of different people at
home who appeared to have a lot of potential. I have recently noticed
how we have been in the right place at the right time, which is
wonderful to know that we are being guided by the Spirit as much as we
are. During the evening, we were able to have dinner with the Jimenez
family. They were having a video call with Obi, so we had the
opportunity to talk to him. He is doing great at UCLA, but I miss
being able to work with him. We are trying to continue to strengthen
him by helping him remember what is most important in life as he is
surrounded by so many worldly influences at college. We were also able
to help the Jimenez family catch the bigger picture of missionary
work; they suddenly had the idea that they need to begin
fellowshipping the recent converts. We have something special going on
right now, and I'm really excited to continue working with this ward.
Friday, October 3rd, 2014:
Elder Crane and I began our day by reading with Oscar Peralta in 1
Nephi 16. It was a great lesson, but it is quite difficult to get
Oscar to commit to act on anything that we share. Elder Crane and I
then commenced with weekly planning. We have been thinking a lot about
how we can work with each of our individual members to help them
progress in the Gospel and prepare to take the next step, whether that
be preparing for the temple or something as simple as reading their
scriptures on a daily basis. I believe that our desire to work with
and through the members will help the missionary work immensely moving
forward. Elder Crane and I then went to help Alex Serrano with some
more Statistics homework before sharing a Mormon Message with him
entitled "The Hope of God's Light." We talked about faith with him,
and it is quite clear that he is searching for something but that he
doesn't know what exactly he is searching for. Elder Crane and I
quickly stopped by Paula Lopez's house to help her prepare to watch
General Conference at her house. We later ate dinner at the Reina
family's home. He was the previous clerk and is now the first
counselor in the bishopric. We talked a lot about the big vision that
we have for this ward and how we can begin with "small and simple
means" by reading the Book of Mormon to "bring about the salvation of
many souls" through uniting as missionaries and as a ward in the work
of salvation. There is a different feeling in Azusa, and all of the
members are ready to work to push this work forward. We then met up
with the new bishop, Obispo Martinez, to go visit Irene Gonzalez. We
talked with her for a few minutes about any last questions before her
baptismal interview, and then Elder Merrill came to do the baptismal
interview. He was absolutely blown away at how converted Irene is and
how she has an eternal perspective; she understands that baptism is
just the first step along her path to the temple. She also has the
desire to share the Gospel with some of her friends and plans to
invite them to her baptism. She is a prime of example of the kind of
convert in the Church that Elder Bednar was referring to during
General Conference; we all need to be like that.
Saturday, October, 4th, 2014:
The zone leaders were supposed to pick us up to drive to Covina for
General Conference, but they got stuck in traffic on the way to our
house. We would have all been late if we went to Covina, so we decided
to watch the first session at our house on our iPads. It was fun to
watch it with the zone leaders, and we were able to enjoy a nice,
comfortable couch. The first session focused a lot on personal
conversion, which I noticed was a theme throughout the entire first
day. When we all got to Covina, we decided to get lunch at Wendy's. I
was able to meet up with Elder Low again, making it the third General
Conference in a row that I watched with Elder Low. The second session
was really fun and neat because we sprinted into the main room at the
stake center to listen to a talk in Spanish (without the translator)
and then sprinted back to the Relief Society to listen to Elder
Holland in English. No one was hungry after the second session before
the Priesthood Session, so we decided to go and get some McFlurrys at
McDonalds. I love General Conference weekend because it is so edifying
and is a great opportunity to spend some quality time with other
missionaries that we don't always get to see in the mission. There
were some wonderful talks during Priesthood Session, including the
very profound talk by President Eyring. Overall, I felt that our
initiative about greater conversion was really reinforced by the
message of the Brethren; I hope that we can help the ward continue to
catch the big picture. Once we returned, Elder Crane and I stopped by
a potential investigator named Fausto Vidrio who told us the story of
how his son had lost his life. We testified of the Plan of Salvation,
and he was anxious for us to return to teach him. When we truly live
the Gospel and follow the teachings of the living prophets, people
quickly recognize us as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sunday, October 5th, 2014:
The second day of General Conference was just as mind-blowing and
heated as the first. The Brethren are becoming increasingly more bold,
which is reminiscent of the General Conferences of the '70s and '80s.
When the members don't act, audacity is required; the principle is
very similar with investigators and missionaries. Many of the talks,
including Elder Scott's, made me think of Brother Donaldson's
million-dollar question: "Are you willing to put your eternal
salvation at stake?" If we aren't willing to put our eternal salvation
at stake on not following the counsel of the Apostles and Prophet,
then we must shape up now and actually sustain them in their callings
by adhering to their counsel and magnifying our own callings. After
the first session, everyone went outside to eat lunch together,
members and missionaries alike (foreshadowing of things to come? I
sure hope so!). Meanwhile, Elder Merrill and Elder Perez brought Elder
Tovar, the Pomona district leader, and I aside to discuss about the
upcoming zone meeting. It sounds like the "veteran" missionaries in
the zone understand our vision very well; our next challenge is
helping the five trainees in the zone see the same big picture. We
will focus a lot on personal conversion and consecration and the
importance of converting ourselves before we strengthen our brethren
(see Luke 22:32). The final session of General Conference was awesome,
mostly because Elder Bednar "[lit] it up" as he normally says about
Elder Holland. That talk should be read by every person on this
planet. If we don't have the desire to go out and share our testimony
with everyone we see, we aren't converted to the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, and we also don't understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Yes, that implies that you and I both need to repent. After returning
from General Conference, Elder Crane and I visited Richie Rios again.
He loved General Conference and has been reading a lot. We finally got
him a copy of the Doctrine and Covenants to begin using as he studies
in the scriptures. We then went to visit the Magana family. We read
through 1 Nephi 1:1-5 and went into incredible depth with them. Each
one of us learned something very profound, and it was a good reminder
of how we should study the scriptures: reading the scriptures doesn't
mean reading to finish the book; it means reading to understand and
have Heaven open itself.
Overall, the week was awesome, and the messages from General
Conference were definitely the highlight. This upcoming week will just
as great, and perhaps better! Irene Gonzalez will be getting baptized
this Sunday and is progressing wonderfully. We are very excited for
her decision to follow the Lord's example and begin preparing herself
to enter the temple one day. I miss each of you dearly and appreciate
your love and support! Have a wonderful week, everyone!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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