Hey Everyone!
For Elder Crosgrove's final Sunday as a missionary and for our final
week together, we were blessed with the opportunity to help Lisseth
enter the waters of baptism and make her first covenant with our
Heavenly Father. Our concerted efforts to find and teach by the Spirit
have brought about a host of miracles and have helped us be the
instruments in helping Lisseth reach this monumental step in her life.
I am now working with Elder Corbett, who came out to the mission field
the same day that I did. He is from Orem, Utah, but he is
half-Salvadorean. I am really excited to work with him because we have
been good friends for the majority of our mission.
Tuesday, January 26th, 2014:
Elder Crosgrove and I began our day by going to teach Jorge Perez
about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He has been reading a large amount
out of the Book of Mormon, but he is not connecting all of the dots
with the implications of the Book of Mormon. We decided to stop
teaching him for a few weeks to let him read more, and we will return
to teach him in a few weeks. Lisseth called us to tell us that she was
no longer interested in being baptized. Elder Crosgrove and I prayed
that we would know what to say to help her see God's perspective of
her life. As we taught her about the Plan of Salvation, she broke down
crying and expressed the loneliness that she feels in life. We
testified of Christ's love for her. She instantly understood the need
to be baptized and now wants to continue through with her decision to
follow Christ's example and be baptized this Sunday. During the
afternoon, Elder Crosgrove and I contacted what may have been one of
the most prepared people that I have ever met on the street during my
mission. His name is Richard Asias, and he lives in Boyle Heights. It
will be really exciting to hear how his progress goes in Boyle
Heights. The only other teaching appointment of our day was with the
Garcia family and Jose Mendez. We talked about the difference between
testimony and conversion. A testimony is knowledge of the Gospel, but
conversion is acting upon the testimony that one receives.
Wednesday, January 27th, 2014:
We went to go pick up supplies at the office today. Elder Hamilton
needed us to take the car into the shop for a moment. While getting
ready to go to the shop, we saw Elder Merrill and Elder Ramos at the
mission office. We immediately knew that they are the new assistants
to Presidente Villanueva. I have really enjoyed working around them
during my mission, so it will be really fun to be able to continue
working with them during the upcoming transfer. During the evening, we
went to eat dinner with Rosie at a pupuseria. The unfortunate thing
was that the pupuseria was really slow and caused us to miss an
appointment that we had right afterwards. Fortunately, however, we had
a great lesson with the Vargas family during the evening about the
Book of Mormon. We shared John 14 with them and talked about how the
Book of Mormon helps us to be able to feel the Holy Spirit.
Thursday, January 28th, 2014:
Elder Crosgrove and I went to the Arroyo district meeting where Elder
Carnahan taught about finding through less-active members. It was a
really creative lesson because he did a role play that demonstrated
the importance of working with ward leadership to be able to find the
prepared less-active members. After district meeting, we went to teach
Lisseth Martinez about the repentance process. We answered a lot of
her questions about what sin is and how it can be washed clean through
go the atoning blood of Christ. We then went to do service at a local
church in Lincoln Heights. We moved a lot of canned food and bagged it
to give out to those who need it. It was a really fun service project
and was a great way to get our name out in the community. We don't
look to proselyte while we do service at community or religious
places, but we have the opportunity to answer questions if people
approach us and ask about what we do. More important than anything,
however, is being able to help those who are in need of food. During
the evening, we went to eat with Lorena Garcia and her family. She
taught us how to make pupusas and invited some friends over. The
really neat thing was that the friends that she invited over were from
El Sereno; I had taught them on exchanges last week. I was able to
teach Martin about the Plan of Salvation and answer a lot of his
questions relating to the Restoration, too. It just goes to show that
this work is all one work; even though we cover an individual area, we
are all working together to help individual people progress in the
Gospel.
Friday, January 30th, 2014:
For the second morning in a row, Elder Crosgrove and I went running
with Joel Cortes. We have been trying to stay in shape, physically, to
hold up with all of the labors of missionary work. Elder Crosgrove and
I have been working more and more tirelessly to try to continue to
find and teach, but we have been struggling, despite the fact that we
continue to work more and more efficiently. We had a great weekly
planning session in which we talked about how we can continue our
success and work ethic into the upcoming transfer, even though Elder
Crosgrove will be going home. After weekly planning, we went up to eat
with the Gonzalez family. As we were sitting down and eating, a
lightning storm passed through. It was the first time that I had seen
lightning on my mission. It was foreshadowing the remainder of our
day. We had a number of appointments cancel on us during the evening.
We concluded the day by helping Carolina Garcia with her calculus
homework. It is wonderful to be able to use our talents and abilities
to bless the lives of others, and the Lord calls on us to use all of
our previous life experiences from the past to be able to do so.
Saturday, January 31st, 2014:
Hermano Ojeda's car broke down on the way to correlation meeting, so
we met with Obispo Diaz for the meeting. It was much more efficient
and productive because Obispo knows all of the needs and strengths of
the ward. It sounds like we are struggling as a district and as a zone
with maintaining the solid, progressing baptismal candidates. One easy
trap to fall into as a missionary to fake success with numbers and not
worry about true, lasting conversion. That is a need that I believe
our zone needs to focus on. Elder Crosgrove and I met with Lisseth
Martinez to finalize all of the plans and the program for her baptism Sunday.
It is a privilege to be with her to make this step in her
life. We were really unlucky, once again, with contacting people. We
have been contacting nearly double or triple the amount of people that
we had been contacting before, and we have been finding about half or
one-third of the amount of interested people. It has been a little
difficult to maintain the enthusiasm, but we are continuing to
persevere. We taught Jose Mendez about Mosiah 4 and the atoning
sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He has huge desires to continue learning
and growing as he studies the Gospel. We were teaching Carolina Garcia
when we got the call from Presidente Villanueva about transfers. As
zone leaders, we receive calls from President, instead of the
assistants, and he tells us what will happen. Elder Corbett will be my
new companion, and there will be a few minor changes in the zone.
Sunday, February 1st, 2014:
Baptisms are usually very stressful, but our planning in advance made
the day quite enjoyable. We left church early to begin filling up the
baptismal font at the Wilson building. On the way there, we had to
pick up Elder Ramos so that he could have a ride for the baptism.
Lisseth has been investigating for quite some time, so there were
about six or seven missionaries that all came back for the baptism to
show their support during this special day. It was an extremely
spiritual service that left Lisseth extremely happy. She had invited
her friend to come, and her friend seemed very interested in learning
more about our church, too. Baptisms are one of the very best ways to
share the Gospel because they are one of the most important ordinances
that are performed in the Church. After the baptism, we went with Joel
Cortes to eat at his house before leaving to go to the despedida. I
was surprised to see how many departing missionaries there were and
how many members and investigators were there. The restored Gospel of
Jesus Christ changes us and unites us together.
We are having another movie day at the church with a number of
missionaries from the zone. I believe that we will have a very unified
zone with a lot of upside and progress this transfer. We were united
last transfer, but I believe that this transfer will lead to even more
progress and success with both missionary work and with the progress
of each individual missionary. I am grateful for all of your love and
support, and I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
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