Hey Everyone!
I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas on Thursday and that
everyone was as stuffed as we were here in the mission! It is always a
blessing to be able to spend Christmas in the homes of those we work
with so closely. Being a missionary truly helps me see just how much
of a family we all are here on the Earth. We are able to break down
cultural barriers and be united as we live the Gospel of Jesus Christ
to the best of our abilities. Christmas is the happiest time of the
year because it is the closest that each and every person on the Earth
gets to living the way that the Savior would want us to live.
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014:
Elder Crosgrove and I went up to Tujunga again to study with the
Tujunga Elders. Things have been getting resolved up there, albeit
rather slowly. Being a zone leader has helped me see how serving
others as we work with them is the biggest demonstration of our love
and desire to help them grow. Leadership as a missionary has also
helped me see how every leader's motives are always aimed at helping
the individual missionary grow and learn; everything that is done is
intended to elevate and lift other missionaries to a higher plane.
Elder Crosgrove and I later went to the mission office to pick up
supplies. It was crazy to see how many Christmas packages there were.
It is very humbling to see how much our families and friends think
about us and support us while we are away from home serving the Lord.
When Elder Crosgrove and I got back to our area, we went to talk to
Wendi Martinez at the park for a few minutes. She is working on
getting a new place to live, so we are trying to help her keep the
Gospel as her top priority. After eating dinner, Hermano Chavez, Elder
Crosgrove and I all went to a church tour with an investigator named
Jorge Perez. Hermano Chavez led the tour, and it was great to see how
involved a few other members at the building got. Jorge felt very
welcomed and became very interested in learning more about our church.
To end the evening, we began exchanges with Elder Carnahan and Elder
Van Wagenen.
Wednesday, December 24th, 2014:
It was difficult doing exchanges on Christmas Eve, but it gave a
really good impression of how Elder Carnahan works when the work
becomes difficult. Most people aren't really interested in talking to
us on Christmas Eve and Christmas, so we were able to focus a lot on
contacting and working with the members. The day itself didn't really
feel very much like Christmas Eve, just because it was a regular work
day for us. Elder Carnahan and I spent a good chunk of the day talking
about various doctrine and learning from one another. He was really
interested in reading the list of talks that I have compiled, and I
believe that it helped him become even more motivated to put even more
effort into his studies. I have personally found that Elder Holland is
correct: the hours of 8-10 AM dictate how our day, our week, our
month, our year, our mission and our life will go. What happens during
the hours of 8-10 AM dictate our success as missionaries and our
success as people. At the end of the evening, we met up with the rest
of the district to sing Christmas carols to Tonya Snowden. She has
muscular dystrophy and always appreciates us coming to sing to her. It
was a very spiritual experience, and I always feel so happy going to
visit her.
Thursday, December 25th, 2014:
Elder Crosgrove and I began our morning by opening up all of the gifts
and cards that we received before we began our studies in the morning.
It was one of the more fun "workouts" that I have done on my mission
so far. It made me very happy and humbled to see how many people were
thinking about us during this Christmas season. We then went to Elder
Carnahan's district meeting with the Arroyo district. We alternate
between districts every week as zone leaders so that we are able to
see how all of the different districts are doing. He taught about
finding through former investigators and about always have the faith
to be able to get into the door. For being relatively new as a leader
in the mission, Elder Carnahan is doing very well as a district
leader. It was fun to spend a few minutes taking pictures with
everyone from the Fletcher and Arroyo districts after district
meeting. Christmas just makes me so happy as a missionary to be able
to serve the Lord and serve with all of my friends here in the
mission. Elder Crosgrove and I wanted to do something nice for all of
our investigators, so we made homemade doughnuts. It was a really easy
and quick way to prepare a nice gift for our investigators, recent
converts and less-active members that we went to visit during the day.
It proved to be a good idea because the doughnuts turned out to be
pretty tasty. Elder Crosgrove and I went to Carolina Garcia's house to
eat a light meal and wish them a very Merry Christmas. They really
enjoyed our company and were happy that we stopped by. They all
committed to coming to church again this Sunday. Elder Crosgrove and I
later went to visit Lorena Garcia and her family, who are all
returning less-active members. They fed us a delicious meal of
Salvadorean tamales and rice and beans (called casamiento). We then
called our families from their massive television, which made for a
really neat way to talk to our families. With Christ at the center,
the time spent with the family is the absolute best part about
Christmas. God sent His Son so that we could be with our families
forever; that is truly the "good news" of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Friday, December 26th, 2014:
Elder Crosgrove and I went to deliver some supplies for a booth for
Elder Perez and the El Molino district before beginning our weekly
planning session. I find that Elder Crosgrove and I are extremely open
with each other and that we get along wonderfully as a companionship.
I love serving with him, and we are both able to learn a ton from one
another, especially because the areas and experiences that we have
both had on our missions are extremely different. I also really
appreciate the fact that he is the first companion that has been out
longer on his mission than I have in nearly a year of being with
different companions, so I am able to see how a lot of his experiences
have helped him become the excellent missionary that he is today.
Right after weekly planning ended, we received an unexpected phone
call from the assistants, informing us that we would be in a trio for
the weekend. Elder Ramirez would be coming to stay with us for two
full days in a trio. The assistants then came to drop him off right
before dinner. I was really excited to hear that he would be joining
us for a couple of days because he is a fantastic missionary with a
ton of energy to work hard and talk to everyone that he sees. We were
all really diligent about contacting during the evening and set up a
few appointments with several street contacts. All three of us went to
teach the Rojas family during the evening. They were found a few weeks
back and are a very prepared family of eight people. We reviewed the
Restoration lesson and then focused on the blessings that come about
from family prayer. The Spirit was very strong and helped everyone be
edified from the lesson. The unexpected trio seems to have been
divinely planned.
Saturday, December 27th, 2014:
We had an extremely busy day today, which began after we finished our
personal studies. All three of us went with Jorge Perez to read with
him in the Book of Mormon. We read in 2 Nephi 9 and helped him see how
the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ and Christ's atoning sacrifice.
It was a powerful lesson, and Jorge committed to coming to church
tomorrow. After the lesson, we all stayed at the church to have our
correlation meeting with Hermano Ojeda. Elder Crosgrove, Elder Ramirez
and I then all drove over to El Molino to pick up Elder Perez for a
district leader meeting. We all met to be able to discuss what we need
to improve and focus on during the upcoming zone meeting in less than
two weeks so that we can help the East Los Angeles North Zone
progress. We focused more on the progress of the missionaries than the
goals, and it is really becoming apparent to me how important it is to
really teach people and not lessons. I haven't once taught "The
Restoration" or "The Plan of Salvation" in a number of months; rather,
I have been focusing on applying the doctrines that we all know and
study often to the specific needs of specific people going through
specific trials that can be overcome through specific doctrines. The
end goal is the same, but the path to reach the goal is different for
every single person; that is why God made all of us different. Joel
Cortez came with us to do splits during the evening so that we could
get double the amount of work done. Elder Crosgrove went with Joel to
teach the Vargas family, and I went with Elder Ramirez to go contact
some less-actives and street contact along the way. We talked to a
number of different people, and we found one person who seemed
extremely interested when we talked to him. His name was Jose, and he
was the person placed in our path that we were supposed to find. We
had prayed to find at least one person while walking between the two
houses that we were supposed to talk to, and Jose was the exact person
that the Lord placed in our path.
Sunday, December 28th, 2014:
Church was awesome today, and we were able to get all three members of
the Vargas family, in addition to Jorge Perez to church. We had the
potential of getting eight investigators to church, but four showed up
who had never been to church before. During Priesthood, Hermano Avila
gave an amazing lesson that focused on finding the "hidden gold" in
the Old Testament. He used the symbolism of the Ark of the Covenant to
show how everything testifies of Christ's Atonement. Here is the note
that I made from his lesson that shows how the symbolism relates to
the Atonement: "The acacia wood used on the Ark of the Covenant is a
type of wood which has roots that grow towards the water; this wood is
symbolic of us as people. The acacia wood was coated in gold, which
was symbolic of Christ; Christ covers us, helping us become "at one"
by providing us with the living waters. The lid on top of the Ark
represents God and holds the mercy seat. The Ark was sprinkled with
blood, showing us that none of us can receive of the Father's infinite
and everlasting mercy, unless we are purified and cleansed through
Christ's atoning blood. The bar on the side of the Ark is symbolic of
the resurrection, preparing us for the judgment bar of God. The
Israelites placed a cup of manna and a cup of olives on the bar of the
Ark, symbolizing the body and blood of Christ that would be
sacrificed." Truly, the Atonement is at the center of everything that
we do. During the day, we tried to contact a lot of different
potential investigators and former investigators, but we were really
lacking the zeal and excitement that we needed. We finally concluded
that our lack of excitement was coming from the fact that the
excessive sugar that we have been eating over the last few days has
really been messing with our system. It showed me how important it is
to maintain a healthy diet every single day so that we are able to be
examples of the happiness that comes about as a result of living the
Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Today has been a nice, relaxing P-Day, at long last. I feel like the
two weeks that I have been in Arroyo have lasted about two months
because of how busy we have been and how much we have been running
around. We dropped off Elder Ramirez in Tujunga in the morning, and we
have been able to sit back and relax today for P-Day. I am normally a
person that cannot sit still and have to be doing something all of the
time, but it has been great to be able to sit back and not have to
worry about being stressed with things to do. I am optimistic that the
upcoming week will be filled with success and that Elder Crosgrove and
I will be able to continue seeing miracles here! I hope that everyone
has a wonderful week and has a very Happy New Year!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas on Thursday and that
everyone was as stuffed as we were here in the mission! It is always a
blessing to be able to spend Christmas in the homes of those we work
with so closely. Being a missionary truly helps me see just how much
of a family we all are here on the Earth. We are able to break down
cultural barriers and be united as we live the Gospel of Jesus Christ
to the best of our abilities. Christmas is the happiest time of the
year because it is the closest that each and every person on the Earth
gets to living the way that the Savior would want us to live.
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014:
Elder Crosgrove and I went up to Tujunga again to study with the
Tujunga Elders. Things have been getting resolved up there, albeit
rather slowly. Being a zone leader has helped me see how serving
others as we work with them is the biggest demonstration of our love
and desire to help them grow. Leadership as a missionary has also
helped me see how every leader's motives are always aimed at helping
the individual missionary grow and learn; everything that is done is
intended to elevate and lift other missionaries to a higher plane.
Elder Crosgrove and I later went to the mission office to pick up
supplies. It was crazy to see how many Christmas packages there were.
It is very humbling to see how much our families and friends think
about us and support us while we are away from home serving the Lord.
When Elder Crosgrove and I got back to our area, we went to talk to
Wendi Martinez at the park for a few minutes. She is working on
getting a new place to live, so we are trying to help her keep the
Gospel as her top priority. After eating dinner, Hermano Chavez, Elder
Crosgrove and I all went to a church tour with an investigator named
Jorge Perez. Hermano Chavez led the tour, and it was great to see how
involved a few other members at the building got. Jorge felt very
welcomed and became very interested in learning more about our church.
To end the evening, we began exchanges with Elder Carnahan and Elder
Van Wagenen.
Wednesday, December 24th, 2014:
It was difficult doing exchanges on Christmas Eve, but it gave a
really good impression of how Elder Carnahan works when the work
becomes difficult. Most people aren't really interested in talking to
us on Christmas Eve and Christmas, so we were able to focus a lot on
contacting and working with the members. The day itself didn't really
feel very much like Christmas Eve, just because it was a regular work
day for us. Elder Carnahan and I spent a good chunk of the day talking
about various doctrine and learning from one another. He was really
interested in reading the list of talks that I have compiled, and I
believe that it helped him become even more motivated to put even more
effort into his studies. I have personally found that Elder Holland is
correct: the hours of 8-10 AM dictate how our day, our week, our
month, our year, our mission and our life will go. What happens during
the hours of 8-10 AM dictate our success as missionaries and our
success as people. At the end of the evening, we met up with the rest
of the district to sing Christmas carols to Tonya Snowden. She has
muscular dystrophy and always appreciates us coming to sing to her. It
was a very spiritual experience, and I always feel so happy going to
visit her.
Thursday, December 25th, 2014:
Elder Crosgrove and I began our morning by opening up all of the gifts
and cards that we received before we began our studies in the morning.
It was one of the more fun "workouts" that I have done on my mission
so far. It made me very happy and humbled to see how many people were
thinking about us during this Christmas season. We then went to Elder
Carnahan's district meeting with the Arroyo district. We alternate
between districts every week as zone leaders so that we are able to
see how all of the different districts are doing. He taught about
finding through former investigators and about always have the faith
to be able to get into the door. For being relatively new as a leader
in the mission, Elder Carnahan is doing very well as a district
leader. It was fun to spend a few minutes taking pictures with
everyone from the Fletcher and Arroyo districts after district
meeting. Christmas just makes me so happy as a missionary to be able
to serve the Lord and serve with all of my friends here in the
mission. Elder Crosgrove and I wanted to do something nice for all of
our investigators, so we made homemade doughnuts. It was a really easy
and quick way to prepare a nice gift for our investigators, recent
converts and less-active members that we went to visit during the day.
It proved to be a good idea because the doughnuts turned out to be
pretty tasty. Elder Crosgrove and I went to Carolina Garcia's house to
eat a light meal and wish them a very Merry Christmas. They really
enjoyed our company and were happy that we stopped by. They all
committed to coming to church again this Sunday. Elder Crosgrove and I
later went to visit Lorena Garcia and her family, who are all
returning less-active members. They fed us a delicious meal of
Salvadorean tamales and rice and beans (called casamiento). We then
called our families from their massive television, which made for a
really neat way to talk to our families. With Christ at the center,
the time spent with the family is the absolute best part about
Christmas. God sent His Son so that we could be with our families
forever; that is truly the "good news" of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Friday, December 26th, 2014:
Elder Crosgrove and I went to deliver some supplies for a booth for
Elder Perez and the El Molino district before beginning our weekly
planning session. I find that Elder Crosgrove and I are extremely open
with each other and that we get along wonderfully as a companionship.
I love serving with him, and we are both able to learn a ton from one
another, especially because the areas and experiences that we have
both had on our missions are extremely different. I also really
appreciate the fact that he is the first companion that has been out
longer on his mission than I have in nearly a year of being with
different companions, so I am able to see how a lot of his experiences
have helped him become the excellent missionary that he is today.
Right after weekly planning ended, we received an unexpected phone
call from the assistants, informing us that we would be in a trio for
the weekend. Elder Ramirez would be coming to stay with us for two
full days in a trio. The assistants then came to drop him off right
before dinner. I was really excited to hear that he would be joining
us for a couple of days because he is a fantastic missionary with a
ton of energy to work hard and talk to everyone that he sees. We were
all really diligent about contacting during the evening and set up a
few appointments with several street contacts. All three of us went to
teach the Rojas family during the evening. They were found a few weeks
back and are a very prepared family of eight people. We reviewed the
Restoration lesson and then focused on the blessings that come about
from family prayer. The Spirit was very strong and helped everyone be
edified from the lesson. The unexpected trio seems to have been
divinely planned.
Saturday, December 27th, 2014:
We had an extremely busy day today, which began after we finished our
personal studies. All three of us went with Jorge Perez to read with
him in the Book of Mormon. We read in 2 Nephi 9 and helped him see how
the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ and Christ's atoning sacrifice.
It was a powerful lesson, and Jorge committed to coming to church
tomorrow. After the lesson, we all stayed at the church to have our
correlation meeting with Hermano Ojeda. Elder Crosgrove, Elder Ramirez
and I then all drove over to El Molino to pick up Elder Perez for a
district leader meeting. We all met to be able to discuss what we need
to improve and focus on during the upcoming zone meeting in less than
two weeks so that we can help the East Los Angeles North Zone
progress. We focused more on the progress of the missionaries than the
goals, and it is really becoming apparent to me how important it is to
really teach people and not lessons. I haven't once taught "The
Restoration" or "The Plan of Salvation" in a number of months; rather,
I have been focusing on applying the doctrines that we all know and
study often to the specific needs of specific people going through
specific trials that can be overcome through specific doctrines. The
end goal is the same, but the path to reach the goal is different for
every single person; that is why God made all of us different. Joel
Cortez came with us to do splits during the evening so that we could
get double the amount of work done. Elder Crosgrove went with Joel to
teach the Vargas family, and I went with Elder Ramirez to go contact
some less-actives and street contact along the way. We talked to a
number of different people, and we found one person who seemed
extremely interested when we talked to him. His name was Jose, and he
was the person placed in our path that we were supposed to find. We
had prayed to find at least one person while walking between the two
houses that we were supposed to talk to, and Jose was the exact person
that the Lord placed in our path.
Sunday, December 28th, 2014:
Church was awesome today, and we were able to get all three members of
the Vargas family, in addition to Jorge Perez to church. We had the
potential of getting eight investigators to church, but four showed up
who had never been to church before. During Priesthood, Hermano Avila
gave an amazing lesson that focused on finding the "hidden gold" in
the Old Testament. He used the symbolism of the Ark of the Covenant to
show how everything testifies of Christ's Atonement. Here is the note
that I made from his lesson that shows how the symbolism relates to
the Atonement: "The acacia wood used on the Ark of the Covenant is a
type of wood which has roots that grow towards the water; this wood is
symbolic of us as people. The acacia wood was coated in gold, which
was symbolic of Christ; Christ covers us, helping us become "at one"
by providing us with the living waters. The lid on top of the Ark
represents God and holds the mercy seat. The Ark was sprinkled with
blood, showing us that none of us can receive of the Father's infinite
and everlasting mercy, unless we are purified and cleansed through
Christ's atoning blood. The bar on the side of the Ark is symbolic of
the resurrection, preparing us for the judgment bar of God. The
Israelites placed a cup of manna and a cup of olives on the bar of the
Ark, symbolizing the body and blood of Christ that would be
sacrificed." Truly, the Atonement is at the center of everything that
we do. During the day, we tried to contact a lot of different
potential investigators and former investigators, but we were really
lacking the zeal and excitement that we needed. We finally concluded
that our lack of excitement was coming from the fact that the
excessive sugar that we have been eating over the last few days has
really been messing with our system. It showed me how important it is
to maintain a healthy diet every single day so that we are able to be
examples of the happiness that comes about as a result of living the
Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Today has been a nice, relaxing P-Day, at long last. I feel like the
two weeks that I have been in Arroyo have lasted about two months
because of how busy we have been and how much we have been running
around. We dropped off Elder Ramirez in Tujunga in the morning, and we
have been able to sit back and relax today for P-Day. I am normally a
person that cannot sit still and have to be doing something all of the
time, but it has been great to be able to sit back and not have to
worry about being stressed with things to do. I am optimistic that the
upcoming week will be filled with success and that Elder Crosgrove and
I will be able to continue seeing miracles here! I hope that everyone
has a wonderful week and has a very Happy New Year!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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