Hey everyone!
I hope that everyone has had a wonderful week! We have been seeing a
number of different miracles and surprises as we go about seeking to
be exactly obedient and focus everything that we do on the Savior
Jesus Christ, including helping a few different people prepare to be
baptized in the upcoming weeks. It has been hectic and exciting at the
same time, and I am loving the time here in Lincoln Heights.
Tuesday, January 13th, 2014:
Due to the fact that the office will be closed tomorrow, Elder
Crosgrove and I went to go get supplies from the office. I always love
seeing all of the people who work in the office; it reminds me of how
many people are backing us up as missionaries and are helping us
preach the Gospel away from home. When we got back from picking up
supplies at the office, we went to teach Wendi Martinez. She still has
a little bit of a doubt about Joseph Smith as a prophet, but she has
been reading, praying, and attending church. Wendi is progressing very
well towards her baptism on February 1st. The remainder of our day was
relatively slow up until we went to teach the Vargas family about the
principles of tithing and fasting. They are getting ready for baptism
and are committed to being baptized on January 25th. I'm really
excited to be able to help the Vargas family get ready to experience
the joy of making a covenant with God as a family. We then began
exchanges with the Fletcher - East Elders. I went to Fletcher to be
with Elder Meisman, and Elder Crosgrove stayed in Arroyo with Elder
Taylor.
Wednesday, January 14th, 2014:
I was really excited to be able to do exchanges with Elder Meisman
because he is such a great leader and such a dedicated missionary.
Elder Meisman served for four transfers as a zone leader and has a
great understanding of how to do effective missionary work. We set the
goal together to work on focusing all of our lessons on the divinity
of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. We started off our day by going to
teach a man by the name of Lazaro about the Book of Mormon. He was
thinking about dropping Elder Meisman and Elder Taylor, but we decided
to teach about how the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ. It was a
really powerful lesson, and Lazaro began to see the importance of
reading the Book of Mormon and how it will enable him to strengthen
his testimony of Jesus Christ. Elder Meisman and I contacted a lot of
people throughout the day with marginal success. During the afternoon,
we went up to Glendale to do service at an senior home. They ended up
having us run the Bingo game for all of the senior citizens. Service
is one of my favorite things to do as a missionary, and it was a
really fun opportunity to get out into the community. At the end of
the evening, we went to teach a recent convert family named the
Barrios family. They were baptized about three months ago, and they
invited their friend, Jose Figueroa, over to eat with us. We shared
the "Because of Him" video with him. We explained how faith in Christ
will enable Jose to grow closer to his family. It was a powerful
lesson, and the Hermanas in El Molino will be able to begin teaching
him.
Thursday, January 15th, 2014:
We received a call that told us that we would be involved in a
temporary exchange for a few days with the Tujunga Elders; Elder
Israel would be coming to be with Elder Crosgrove and I for a few
days. We dropped him off at the Arroyo district meeting on the way to
the El Molino district meeting. Elder Perez taught the district
meeting about the Atonement and how our purpose as missionaries helps
us to help other people access the Atonement of Jesus Christ in their
lives. Elder Crosgrove, Elder Israel and I all then went to teach
Wendi Martinez about the pattern of calling prophets in every
dispensation to help her understand how Thomas S. Monson was called in
the same manner today. It was a good lesson, but I am not sure if it
was exactly what Wendi needed to progress spiritually. During the
evening, we went to teach a less-active family named the Alvarez
family about the importance of family prayer. They have desires to
come back to church, and I look forward to working with them more in
the future. We then concluded the day by going to teach the Padilla
family about their relationship with God. We shared the "Earthly
Father, Heavenly Father" video to talk more about how they can
understand God better as they come to church every week.
Friday, January 16th, 2014:
We went up to Tujunga in the morning to continue helping the Tujunga
Elders, and it seems like the trip up there made a huge difference.
The majority of our role as leaders is to help strengthen and support
others as they continually make the changes in their own lives as
missionaries to be able to, in turn, help others make those very same
changes. Elder Crosgrove and I were pretty burned out as we did our
weekly planning session, but we got a lot of planning done for the
upcoming baptisms over the next couple of weeks. We then went up to
the church for our weekly correlation meeting with Hermano Ojeda. I
have been really stressed over the past couple of days with so much
happening, and I find that it is hard to focus when we are so
stressed. The highlight of our day, however, was being able to go
visit the Giron family. It was the first time in a little while that
we went to go visit them, and they invited their friend, Omar, to come
listen to us. We shared a short message about the Atonement and how it
can help Omar overcome his smoking addiction. It was a good lesson
that left Omar wanting to learn more.
Saturday, January 17th, 2014:
In preparation for our interviews with Presidente Villanueva on
Tuesday, we need to do a lot of work with our family history. Elder
Crosgrove, Elder Israel and I all used our online proselyting time to
work on our family history workbooks so that we are ready for Tuesday.
We had a number of appointments cancel during the day, which made it
hard to focus on finding. We ate dinner with Wendi Martinez during the
evening. She is doing well and is preparing for her baptism on February 1st.
We then all went to teach the Vargas family about the
Ten Commandments. Norma and Guadalupe are all ready for Sunday,
and Mario will be progressing towards baptism in the coming weeks. We
are growing very close to their family, and I can see the changes that
they have made in their lives to have the Spirit more abundantly in
their home.
Sunday, January 18th, 2014:
Church was really good, and we were able to help four different
investigators come to church. It is really helpful to have it at 11 AM
because it gives us the ability to be able to round everyone up and
get them to church. After church, we went searching for a few former
investigators that we didn't know, and we ended up in an area that we
weren't familiar with. We knocked the doors of all of them to little
avail, and we then ran into an English member. They graciously invited
us in to eat with them, and we shared a message about the Atonement
and how it has blessed our lives. They didn't know anyone who spoke
Spanish, which was unfortunate, but I believe that we fostered the
relationship so that we can work with them to find other investigators
in the future. At the end of the evening, we had a very spiritual
lesson with Evaristo and Amalia Moreno, who are new investigators that
we found recently. They have a lot of potential, and I look forward to
working with them more in the future.
Today for P-day, Elder Crosgrove, Elder Israel and I all went to the
church to play basketball and ping pong with Lalo, Carolina and Liz,
in addition to Elder Flindt and Elder Bautista from the Fletcher
district. It was a lot of fun and was a great opportunity to relieve
some stress by playing a really fun sport. Despite the fact that the
mission changes us immensely, I still have yet to lose my love of
sports! It is also interesting to see how much more effective we are
as missionaries if we keep ourselves physically healthy as we engage
in the Lord's work; we cannot help anyone else if we are unable to
help ourselves. I hope everyone is remembering to strengthen their own
testimony and conviction of the restored Gospel so that we can all
share the "good tidings of great joy" with those who are seeking the
truth. Have a wonderful week, everyone!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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