Missionary Work in the Digital Age - March 9, 2015

Hey Everyone!

After an amazing mission conference this past Tuesday, we have all
received the preliminary training about how to commence with
missionary work in the "digital age." There will be massive changes to
how the Missionary Department begins training and transitioning
missionaries all around the world to using technology to further
Hasten the Work of Salvation. All of the zone leaders and sister
training leaders in the Arcadia Mission will be receiving brand new
iPads to replace our current iPads when we have our Mission Leadership
Council next Thursday. We are looking forward to continuing to learn
more about how to use technology to improve missionary work.

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2015:

Presidente Villanueva announced last week that there would be a
mission conference today. It was one of the very best meetings that I
have ever been to because Elder Nielsen of the First Quorum of Seventy
and Brother Heaton, the director of administration at the Provo
Missionary Training Center, came to instruct us from on high. They did
just that. Elder Nielsen was throwing around some very heavy doctrine
left and right, and our mission was ready to receive it. He opened up
the heavens about the gravity and longevity of covenants with their
relation to our agency. I love learning about doctrine, and he
quenched our mission's spiritual thirst. The Missionary Department of
the Church and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are taking a huge
stand against Satan's initiative on the internet. They all presented
the idea of taking the internet back and promoting uplifting messages
in order to counteract the deteriorating material that is strewn all
over the internet today. The monumental changes that were introduced
relate to the conversion of the missionaries more than the manner in
which we perform our labor; the mission will now be set up in such a
way that missionaries will learn how to use technology to share the
Gospel for the remainder of their lives. I am very excited to continue
learning to how to improve our methods to continue reaching out to
those who need the Gospel. We had a few lessons set up during the
evening, but we ended up having to cancel them to attend our monthly
stake correlation meeting. We met with the stake presidency and the
East Los Angeles - South zone leaders to discuss the needs of the
stake, with regards to missionary work. I enjoy working with the stake
president, President Esquerra, because he has such a drive and passion
for preaching the Gospel. It was also his secretary's birthday, so we
ate cake in the middle of our meeting. Food always makes meetings more
fun.

Wednesday, March 4th, 2015:

Elder Corbett and I discussed a lot about how we can find the "elect"
who will accept the message of the Gospel, and that was the main focus
of our studies during the morning. We then went to Arcadia to the
mission office. We go every Wednesday to pick up the supplies for the
zone. Elder Corbett and I then went to go visit Wendi Martinez with
Mario Cortes. They are both doing very well, and we shared the story
in John 2 about Jesus turning the water into wine. We explained that
Jesus chose that to be His first miracle that He performed in public
because He wanted to show that He can change our hearts through His
atoning blood (which is almost the same color as wine), just like He
physically changed the water. During the evening, we went with Mario
to give a church tour to an investigator named Eric. He is a wonderful
person to teach because he has so many thought-provoking questions.
The chapel was a perfect place to teach about the Restoration because
the Spirit was very strong in the room. He accepted the invitation to
be baptized. Elder Corbett and I are both very excited to continue
working with him.

Thursday, March 5th, 2015:

For the first time this transfer, Elder Corbett and I were able to go
to the El Molino district meeting. Elder Stuart taught about the
attribute of charity and asking inspired questions. It was a great
meeting in which Elder Corbett and I received a lot of revelation
during the role plays. We drove Elder Flindt and Elder Garcia to the
doctor during the afternoon. It was fun to be able to talk to them for
a while; they are both excellent missionaries who know how to be
guided by the Spirit. During the afternoon, we found a new
investigator named Jose Garcia while we were looking for a former
investigator. Jose let us right in, and we began teaching him about
the repentance process. The Spirit testified to Jose that he needs to
change his nature, and he was very open to forsaking his sins and
following the example of Jesus Christ more in his life. It was a great
lesson. We ate dinner at Hermana Estrada's house. Her daughter will be
returning from her mission in about a week, and the craziest part is
that Hermana Estrada's daughter met Elder Corbett in the MTC and told
him that she was from the Arroyo Ward. It is a small world. Elder
Corbett and I concluded our day by going to teach Carolina, Elizabeth
and Hilario about the Plan of Salvation. Hilario showed a lot of
desire and interest as he committed to read the scriptures and pray
every day in order to see if that would increase his desire to attend
church on Sundays. Carolina told us that she was no longer interested
in learning from us, which was really sad to see. We have had so many
spiritual experiences while teaching her, and she knows that the
message is true. It is the most heart-breaking thing in the world to
see someone turn away from the truth after they have received an
answer that it is true.

Friday, March 6th, 2015:

Elder Corbett and I went to go teach Jose Mendez during the morning.
We talked to him about maintaining the desire to keep the Word of
Wisdom because he mentioned that he has struggled lately. Once we
returned back to our apartment, we began our weekly planning session.
We both felt like weekly planning was not as effective in the past, so
we decided to change the way we went about weekly planning so that we
would both be more engaged and excited to plan. I would love to say
that I enjoy planning, but it isn't exactly my favorite part of the
week; it is something that I am working on changing. We then went to
our weekly correlation meeting with Hermano Ojeda. We all stayed to
help clean the church and then ate burgers with the Ojeda family.
After finishing up at the church, we went to visit the Jaimes family.
They are all progressing well, and we really enjoy working with them.
Elder Corbett and I then taught the Padilla family about the
importance of reading the Book of Mormon every day. We shared Alma
17:2 and talked about how to diligently search the scriptures. They
have been seeing their questions answered as we read together. We
concluded our day by going to give Joel Cortes a blessing. He wanted
me to give the blessing, and it was the most spiritual blessing that I
have ever been a part of. I was guided word by word to say exactly
what the Lord wanted Joel to hear. Elder Corbett and I later found out
that Joel had a huge spiritual experience with a dream that he had
that evening, and he was able to then come to church on Sunday for the
first time in nearly eight months. The Spirit changes people's hearts.

Saturday, March 7th, 2015:

In preparation for ward council tomorrow, we did visits with all of
the leaders from the stake. One of them went with each missionary, and
the remaining people formed groups. We all went out to teach
investigators and visit less-active members. I went with the stake
mission leader, Hermano Cajina. It was a great experience because we
were able to teach the family of a lady named Leticia Preciado who
recently passed away. She was baptized about a year ago, so we went to
teach the family about the Plan of Salvation. None of them were
members, but they all felt the Spirit very strong as they learned
about the role that Jesus Christ plays in helping them be united
forever as a family. Elder Corbett and I then met with all of the
district leaders in our zone to discuss the strengths and weaknesses
of the zone, in addition to planning how we can all help each of the
individual missionaries and investigators progress in their conversion
to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We like to meet with the leadership in
our zone before Mission Leadership Council so that we can receive the
proper revelation for the zone. Elder Corbett and I later began
teaching a man named Telesporo Avila. He was receptive to our message
and had been taught in the past. I believe that he has a lot of
potential. During the evening, we went to a stake training meeting
with all of the Elders Quorum Presidents, Ward Mission Leaders and the
zone leaders from East Los Angeles - South. The meeting addressed a
lot of the issues related to the retention of recent converts.
Retention of recent converts seems to be an ongoing problem, so we
were trained on how to utilize the tools that we currently have to
ensure that recent converts are given a responsibility or calling and
that they are visited regularly by other members of the Church, not
just the missionaries. I often say this, but the work can only
progress as fast as members and missionaries begin to work together in
every facet of the Work of Salvation.

Sunday, March 8th, 2015:

It has been a little bit of a struggle to get investigators to church,
and today was no exception. We are working with a lot of new
investigators who are almost to the point of doing a church tour or
coming to church, so Elder Corbett and I are very optimistic that we
will be able to change this in the near future. Today was Arroyo Ward
Conference, so the leaders of the East Los Angeles Stake came to our
ward. The main theme of the day was the Sacrament and the importance
of the Sacrament. I really enjoyed listening to the stake president
break the legs of people who are involved with gossip. For those who
are not familiar with Spanish wards, gossip ("chisme" as it is
referred to in Spanish) is one of the most destructive things in the
Church. The stake president addressed the problem, which has been the
culprit of many people becoming less-active in the Arroyo Ward. Elder
Corbett and I went to go teach a lady named Malena during the
afternoon, but she ended up being very hostile. She used to be
Christian and then changed religions to some form of Islam or Judaism
(we aren't quite sure). It ended up turning into a bash when she began
attacking our religion, and Elder Corbett and I completely tore her
apart. We avoid bashing at all costs, but in the words of Bruce R.
McConkie, "Don't bash. Don't bash. Don't bash, but if you do bash,
win." I would say that we won. It goes to show that proving that the
Gospel is true will not do absolutely anything; the Spirit is the only
teacher. The Lord counsels us that "[we] shall not teach" if we don't
have the Spirit. We were able to contact a few potentials who seem to
be very interested, so we are looking forward to a lot of success in
the following week.

Elder Corbett and I are enjoying our P-Day today, and he is currently
working on his college application. It is crazy to think that college
is just around the corner; I will be working more on my housing
details for the University of Michigan in the coming week(s). It just
goes to show that there is always something new in life that lies
ahead, and our eternal progression means that we will never cease to
learn something new. I hope that everyone is enjoying the
near-commencement of Spring and that everyone is beginning to think of
the Savior as we begin to approach this Easter season. That single act
was the greatest act in all of history, and I will be forever indebted
to my Savior for His unfeigned love. I hope that everyone has a
wonderful week! Thank you for all of your love and support!

Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley

PICTURES!!!! February 2015

Conducting Zone Conference - March 2, 2015

Hey Everyone!

I apologize for not getting around to sending off my weekly email last
week. We went hiking in Pasadena, which did not leave sufficient time
to be able to spend a great deal of time emailing. It was a rough week
the previous week, but this past week has proven to be much more
productive and full of miracles. Elder Corbett and I have been
discerning much quicker when we teach, which has helped us drop people
who are not willing to progress with a much faster rate.

Tuesday, February 24th, 2015:

We had zone conference today, and Presidente Villanueva asked me to
conduct the zone conference. I was a little anxious going in because
it was my first time ever conducting a missionary-related meeting, but
I feel like everything went well. Presidente Villanueva has the zone
leaders make the program for zone conference, so we planned everything
with the East Los Angeles - South zone leaders, Elder Cobb and Elder
Alcaraz. During our portion of zone conference, Elder Corbett and I
taught our zone about the Christ-like attribute of humility. We shared
Mosiah 3:19 and talked about how the process of becoming a disciple of
Christ is related to being humble and fulfilling our missionary
purpose. It was a powerful meeting, and Presidente Villanueva made
some very powerful comments during our meeting. Overall, zone
conference was very uplifting, and it was a very neat experience to be
able to plan and conduct the meeting. After zone conference, we taught
Carolina Garcia. She had been thinking about dropping us, but we began
asking a number of powerful inspired questions about why she wants to
be baptized. Carolina began to see how much she has already changed
and why she truly wants to follow Jesus Christ more fully in her life.
Inspired questions can help someone see the bigger picture of how the
Gospel can bless their life.

Wednesday, February 25th, 2015:

We did exchanges with the assistants today, so Elder Fellows came to
Lincoln Heights to work with me while Elder Ramos stayed in Boyle
Heights with Elder Corbett. It was my first exchange with Elder
Fellows, even though he was my zone leader for a large portion of my
mission. We got right to work and had a successful day after we got
supplies from the mission office. Elder Fellows is very easy-going and
is great with all kinds of people. We began our day by teaching Maria,
Maria Ofelia, and Mateo Lopez. We contacted them on the street, and
they let us right in to their home to share a message. They were
willing to listen when they weren't trying to preach their own
message. They were very involved in their Christian church, so we
decided that it would be best to not continue to teach them. We later
went to teach Juan Jaimes with the help of Jose Mendez. We taught
about the Plan of Salvation and how Juan can be together with his
family forever. Jose shared a very powerful testimony, which invited
the Spirit to testify to Juan about the power of the Atonement in his
life. I learned a lot from Elder Fellows during the exchange about how
to enjoy life and do missionary work at the same time; I seem to
struggle with having fun and being happy while doing missionary work
at the same time because I often am too serious while I am going from
appointment to appointment. The exchange was very successful overall,
both in Lincoln Heights and in Boyle Heights.

Thursday, February 26th, 2015:

Due to zone conference, there was no district meeting today. We still
went around to the different districts to deliver supplies and mail,
though. Elder Corbett and I went to teach Jorge Perez during the
afternoon for the first time in a couple of months. We were very bold
with him about the importance of baptism, seek that he already knows
that the Book of Mormon is true. Jorge understood the need to be
baptized, but he doesn't want to leave behind his family traditions
because his whole family is Catholic. It amazes me that people will
forego the truth that God tells them for what other people think of
them; the first Commandment was to love God, meaning that we must love
His will more than our own will and more than the will of our friends.
Elder Corbett and I then went to teach Wendi Martinez. She is doing
extremely well and has been progressing wonderfully since being
baptized just a few weeks ago. We taught about the principle of
forgiveness and how she can forgive others in order to become more
patient and charitable. We concluded our day by teaching the
second-most prepared person that I have ever taught on my mission
(only behind Ruben Torrado from Chino). His name is Eric, and he had a
lot of great questions of the soul. As we testified to him about how
much God loves him, he remembered an experience of when a man came up
to him to tell him how much God loved him. It had only happened two
weeks prior, and we knocked on his door just two hours after he had a
lengthy discussion about religion with a girl that he went on a date
with. Everything caused us to show up at that exact moment, and the
lesson was extremely powerful. I am very excited to see Eric's
progress over the coming weeks and months.

Friday, February 27th, 2015:

Elder Corbett and I have been very physically exhausted lately, due to
the fact that we have been getting up one hour early every morning to
go running. As a result, it was a little difficult to focus and be
alert during weekly planning. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum
of the Twelve Apostles made a remark once that said that the success
that a missionary has during morning studies and in planning will
affect the success of the day; I can honestly say that our struggle to
focus during weekly planning made it a little difficult to find very
much success during the day of work. We both received the impression
to visit a less-active member named Leticia Preciado. She was baptized
in our area about two years ago, so we decided to stop by. We
discovered that she had passed away about two days ago and that the
family was all mourning her death at her house. Leticia had been a
heavy drinker, but the death still came as a huge surprise to her
loved ones. We talked with a few members of the family about God's
Plan of Happiness, and they expressed interest in learning more about
how they can all be together forever. It always amazes me how people
only seem to turn to God in times of despair, yet people always ask
the question about why God lets bad things happen in the world. If
nothing bad ever happened, humanity would be way too prideful to ever
remember its Creator.

Saturday, February 28th, 2015:

We went to correlation meeting with Hermano Ojeda during the morning.
We talked a lot about how we can all be more united with our vision of
missionary work here in Arroyo. Elder Corbett and I then went to teach
Hermana Padilla, a less-active member, about how to apply the Book of
Mormon to her own life. She expressed a little bit of depression, due
to the fact that her sons are studying in Arizona and that she feels
lonely. We read 1 Nephi 4:1-7 with her and helped her see the
connection between her life and that of Sariah's. It is incredible to
see how the Book of Mormon can answer any question or problem that we
may encounter in life. We then went to teach another less-active
member named Oscar Zavaleta. He was baptized in Canada as a teenager
and then went less-active when he became an adult. We talked with him
a lot and helped him see how the Church was a source of strength for
him as he grew up. Oscar expressed that he would like to come back to
an English ward, so we are going to pass him off to the English
Elders. Elder Corbett and I then saw a wonderful miracle with the
Vargas family when we went to teach them during the evening. We shared
the Sacrament prayers with them. The Vargas family then began to get
really close together on the couch and asked a number of questions
relating to the Commandments and what we have to do to truly follow
Jesus Christ. The Spirit was very powerful, and they received their
own testimony that the Gospel truly does bless families. I love that
family more than any investigator family that I have taught on my
entire mission, and I am very excited to be able to watch their
spiritual progression.

Sunday, March 1st, 2015:

Carolina Garcia came to church today for the first time in several
weeks, which was very exciting to see. Church was uplifting, and a few
members shared their simple, powerful and heartfelt testimonies during
Sacrament Meeting. The power of a testimony comes from the conviction
of a person's belief and the sincerity of their belief. True
conversion comes when we act upon the testimony that we receive from
the Holy Ghost. The purpose of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to help
us gain a testimony and then become converted so that we can return to
live with our Father in Heaven again. Elder Corbett and I went to
teach a former investigator named Antonio Sanchez. He had expressed
interest in having us come by, so we went in with the excitement and
anticipation that he would be ready to act on our message. He seemed
like he had no desire to change, so we were extremely bold with him.
The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ helps us change the desires of our
hearts, so we must act in order to increase our faith and change our
inward desires. Elder Corbett and I also taught the Giron family. He
has been trying to understand the repentance process better.
Repentance requires sincere and lasting change, both within and
outside of the individual. If one is to repent, he or she must change
both inward desires and outward behavior. We ended our week by eating
with the Jurado family. They seem to be opening up to us more and
more, and I love visiting them on Sunday evenings.

For our P-Day today, Elder Corbett and I are going with Elder Flindt
and Elder Garcia to the mercadito in East Los Angeles. It should be
really fun, and we are all looking forward to the gorditas that they
sell there. We are looking forward to a tasty lunch, in preparation
for the monumental changes that will be coming tomorrow. I have heard
rumors about exchanging the iPads for some special "pens", but we will
see what that is all about tomorrow when we have our training meeting
in Arcadia. The head of the Missionary Department and a member of the
First Quorum of Seventy, Elder Nielsen. I am really excited to see how
the Church has completely changed its vision of how technology will be
used in the Hastening of the Work of Salvation. I hope everyone has a
wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley