Hey Everyone!
As the title of this email states, this week has been a huge roller
coaster. It seems like life is normally like that, yet this week has
been even more extreme than normal. We have experienced a number of
very strong spiritual experiences and have seen a number of
heart-breaking occurrences with investigators not progressing like we
were hoping that they would. Nevertheless, the work of Lord will go
forth until God says that we are done.
Tuesday, January 20th, 2015:
We have interviews with our mission president every other transfer,
which equates to roughly four to five times per calendar year. As zone
leaders, we are given the responsibility of planning the interview
schedule and running the interviews. It was fun to have that
opportunity today. We got to the church early in the morning to begin
preparing for interviews with Presidente Villanueva. Elder Crosgrove
and I had to stay at the church building the entire day, and we didn't
even finish all of the interviews until after 7:15 PM. It was a really
long day; however, it was fun to be able to talk to all of the
different members of the zone while each person was waiting for their
companion in the interview. Presidente Villanueva focused the
interviews on family history work and how we can help inspire others
to catch hold of the Spirit of Elijah. I loved being able to talk to
Presidente Villanueva one-on-one because he seems to be really opening
up to me now. My favorite part about being in leadership is that the
leaders are able to see how everything in the mission works and see
everyone as normal people, including the mission president. I received
an immense amount of revelation relating to my future, and I gained
the testimony that Presidente Villanueva holds the keys and the mantle
to oversee the California Arcadia Mission.
Wednesday, January 21st, 2015:
For the second day in a row, Elder Crosgrove and I did not have any
time to be able to work in our own area, due to miscellaneous
meetings. We went to the mission office after lunch to go pick up
supplies for the zone. Elder Hamilton, the mission's vehicle
coordinator, also wanted to hold a meeting for all of the missionaries
that are driving. Elder Crosgrove and I stayed for the meeting, which
basically felt like a Driver's Education refresher course. It was fun
to practice all of the different driving maneuvers in the parking lot
outside of the mission office, but I would have much rather gone to
work in our own area. By the time that we got back, we had to go pick
up Elder Merrill from Boyle Heights so that he could do a couple of
baptismal interviews for us, seeing that Elder Carnahan was
unavailable. Norma and Guadalupe Vargas were both interviewed, and we
determined that Norma will wait a few weeks to ensure that she feels
comfortable with the decision that she is making to be baptized.
Guadalupe is still strong with her desires to be baptized this Sunday,
though. Hermano Cajina, the stake mission leader, later called an
unexpected meeting for all of the district leaders, zone leaders and
ward mission leaders in the East Los Angeles Stake to go over all of
the respective ward mission plans for the year. Elder Crosgrove and I
had to leave to go do exchanges with the El Molino - South Elders, so
we stayed for about ten minutes before we had to leave. Due to the
number of meetings, we have been unable to find much time to actually
help our own investigators and our own area progress.
Thursday, January 22nd, 2015:
For the first time on my entire mission, I had the privilege to go
back to a previous area that I had served in. I spent the day with
Elder Bishop in El Sereno, which was the second area that I served in.
We went to district meeting where Elder Perez taught about the
importance of companionship unity. He always has some very insightful
thoughts to share, and I always love the role plays that he comes up
with. We role played a typical lesson, but we had to alternate between
people speaking every thirteen seconds. It really showed us how often
we get into the habit of talking for too long and how important it is
to make sure that both companions are balanced with how much they each
speak. Elder Bishop and I went to a few different areas within El
Sereno that I had never visited before to look for some people.
Unfortunately, however, we were unlucky with our attempts. After
dinner, we went to talk with a man named Hector. His wife, Silvia,
recently began chemotherapy and has been struggling. We talked to him
about how they can use prayer and the Book of Mormon to be able to
feel the Spirit more during this difficult trial. We ended our evening
by going to visit Erika and Hector, two of my favorite investigators
from my entire mission. I spent months teaching them and helping them
become converted to the Gospel, and it was the first time that I had
seen Hector since I left. They are planning on getting married in the
coming weeks, which means that they should be able to get baptized in
the near future! I was really excited to hear that Hector finished the
entire Book of Mormon and that he has begun rereading it again. It was
the greatest feeling in the world to see how happy they are and to see
how much the Gospel has impacted their lives. Knowing that I could be
of help to them and seeing the fruits of my labors brought me the
greatest satisfaction that I have felt on my entire mission.
Friday, January 23rd, 2015:
Due to how busy Elder Crosgrove and I have been recently, we had a
difficult time focusing during weekly planning. We planned all of the
baptismal program for Guadalupe Vargas' baptism this Sunday and for
Wendi Martinez's baptism next Sunday. It was a productive weekly
planning session, but we are feeling really burnt out and anxious to
go work. I believe that it has been nearly two full weeks since Elder
Crosgrove and I had a full regular day of work together in our own
area. We went to correlation meeting with Hermano Ojeda at the church.
He is really sarcastic, which makes correlation really entertaining.
During the evening, Joel Cortes invited us to go eat dinner with him.
I feel like I am getting to know Joel better. He is one of the best
members in the entire mission because he actively lives the Gospel
every day of his life and has experienced one of the most remarkable
conversion stories that I have ever heard. During the evening, Elder
Crosgrove and I went to go teach Carolina Garcia and Elizabeth
Rundles. We wanted to focus on the ordinance of baptism and how it is
only a step towards a greater goal: everlasting joy and happiness with
our family. Carolina realized that she just needs a bit of a push and
that she is more ready than she initially thought. It was a wonderful
lesson that helped Carolina put everything into perspective. She is
understanding more about how the ordinance of baptism fits into the
Gospel plan, which is helping her desire to learn more continue to
increase.
Saturday, January 24th, 2015:
Elder Crosgrove and I went with Mario Cortes and Wendi Martinez to the
church in the morning to do Wendi's baptismal interview. Elder
Carnahan interviewed her, and everything went really well. She is all
ready for her baptism next Sunday, and I feel very blessed to help her
reach this monumental step in her life. Elder Crosgrove and I went to
go contact a lot of people in their northern part of our area. We
don't work up there very often, but we decided to try working up there
today. We also decided to stop by the Rojas family for the first time
in over a month. We both received the impression that it wasn't the
right time to teach them; unfortunately, however, we neglected the
prompting and taught them anyways. Suffice it to say that it wasn't a
good lesson at all, and it reaffirmed our previous decision to stop
visiting the Rojas family so frequently. Hermano Chavez invited us
over for dinner. He is a wonderful member who is very humble and very
sincere. Elder Crosgrove and I were able to talk to the Vargas family
during the evening and finish the preparations for Guadalupe's baptism
tomorrow. She is doing really well and is very excited to be able to
reach this step in her life.
Sunday, January 25th, 2015:
To go along with the theme of the roller coaster, our pattern of highs
and lows yesterday continued today. As we were walking to church, we
got a call from the Vargas family; they told us that Guadalupe will
have to wait to be baptized because she will need to read more of the
Book of Mormon before she takes the step to be baptized. The Book of
Mormon is the center of conversion, and it is essential for someone to
have a sure testimony of the Restoration by knowing that the Book of
Mormon is true before getting baptized. That being said, it was still
sad to see that Guadalupe will have to wait to receive the blessing of
the Holy Ghost in her life that comes after the ordinance of baptism.
Elder Crosgrove and I made a concerted effort to find some new people
to teach, and we ended up teaching more people in Evaristo and Amalia
Moreno's house tonight. We taught the Restoration to all of them.
Hilario had a tough time believing that the Church fell and then was
restored, but he was really interested in learning more from us. We
ended the night by visiting the Jurado family again. It sounds like
the zone is doing well and that we will all need to work on finding.
We are going to the church to go play volleyball with the Arroyo
district and some members of the Fletcher district. Despite the fact
that I terrible when it comes to volleyball, I am looking forward to
the opportunity to play sports with the other members of our zone.
This is Elder Crosgrove's final P-Day of his mission, seeing that he
will be going home at the end of the transfer. It will be really sad
to see him leave, and it will be really weird to adjusting to a new
companion again, too. By this time next week, I will have more updates
with all of the news relating to transfers. There will be a huge group
going home this transfer, including four zone leaders (between English
and Spanish) and three assistants. Leadership in our mission will also
look very different. I hope that everyone has a fantastic week and is
prepared to watch the Seahawks dominate in a second consecutive Super
Bowl!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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