Hey Everyone!
This has been a pretty exciting week on many levels! Summer is around
the corner, and investigators are continuing to progress; I couldn't
be happier right now! We are all a little sad, however, due to the
fact that we will be losing Hermana Vellinga tomorrow. It is crazy how
fast a mission can come to an end. I still have plenty of time left,
so don't worry about me!
Tuesday, May 13th, 2014:
I was still pretty wiped out from P-Day yesterday when we played
ultimate frisbee and soccer, but Hermano Silva called us in the
morning, requesting our help again with moving more stones for his
patio. We moved about three-hundred stones that each weigh about
twenty-five pounds up a giant hill to get them all positioned for him
to begin with the patio. I was completely drained after finishing up
with service. Elder Barnes and I returned to the apartment to do some
more work with "The First Twelve Weeks" before heading over to the
Luquin family's home to eat lunch with them. They are such a
kind-hearted family and are very fun to talk to. Their daughter comes
home in about two months from her mission, so we talked a lot about
what they can be doing as a family to prepare themselves to be better
missionaries. We read a little bit out of the Book of Mormon with them
and recommitted them to read it every day together. During the
evening, we stopped by Santiago's house to check in on him and Hermana
Gonzalez. I shared a small message about Christ coming to the Americas
and instructing the people to pray about and ponder the things that He
shared with them; I related the story to Santiago learning about the
Gospel from us and how he will receive an answer as he prays and
ponders about what we share as missionaries. Santiago really needs to
act and utilize the faith that he has to begin reading and praying
every day.
Wednesday, May 14th, 2014:
I have been working pretty hard with Elder Barnes to get him up to
speed with Spanish. He has a lot of great ideas, but his Spanish is
behind where mine was when I was at the same point in training; I will
have to continually work harder to help him catch up with the
language. During the afternoon, we went to the library to let him take
the language assessment. I updated the Area Book app while he was busy
taking the assessment, and we spent nearly an hour and a half at the
library. Our only lesson of the day that we were able to teach was
with the Corona family, who are pretty less-active. The grandparents
were all in town visiting and really wanted to listen to us teach
them, even though the parents of the Corona family and the kids
weren't too interested in what we had to share. We shared the
Restoration with them, and it was a really good lesson. Unfortunately,
I don't think any members of the family have any desire to return to
the Church at any time in the near future.
Thursday, May 15th, 2014:
Every three months, we have a zone conference, in which two zones meet
up and our mission president, President Becerra, comes to speak to all
of us for the better part of the day. Today was the final zone
conference with President Becerra as the mission president. Sister
Becerra began the day by speaking about companionship unity and why it
is important to love your companion, even if it may be very difficult
to do so. She shared a number of very insightful pieces of advice that
I am going to try to be more diligent about implementing into what I
do on a daily basis. President Becerra tied in the quality of love to
a very deep analysis about the importance of planning and why planning
is essential to be able to hasten the work here in the California
Arcadia Mission. I love being able to listen to President Becerra talk
because it seems like everything that he says is divinely sent from
Heaven; he truly radiates with the Spirit. The assistants, Elder
Hoover and Elder Mancia, shared a very well laid-out plan of how to
conduct member visits. They also talked a lot more about how to get
investigators to get to Sacrament Meeting. These two problems are the
two biggest problems in all of Latino work; we run into them all the
time. After zone conference, we went out to work, but we weren't able
to find anyone to teach in particular. We did manage to contact a
couple of referrals and set up some return appointments, though. I
really want to teach a little bit more, but training comes first.
Friday, May 16th, 2014:
It has been incredibly hot the past couple of days, and our apartment
doesn't have any air conditioning. I think it was about 95 or 97
inside of our bedroom last night after 10:00 PM. It felt like we were
baking in an oven while we were doing our weekly planning today.
Weekly planning went a little bit slower than usual, but we were able
to finish everything before we had to meet up with the district at the
church. Hermana Vellinga is going home on Tuesday as she finishes her
mission. We are trying to make her departure a fun and memorable
experience, and President Muriel wanted to take all of us out to eat
so that Hermana Vellinga could enjoy the lat week of her mission. He
is such a nice man and so down to earth. We all went out to a local
pizza place in San Gabriel (unfortunately, I was unable to get any
pictures in front of any signs...), and the pizza was delicious!
Hermana Vellinga really enjoyed it, which was the most important part.
I think our district is really unified; it shows in the work that we
do. We have been hastening the work here in El Molino at a faster rate
than anyone previously: our district has had four baptisms in the last
two months, and we currently have six or seven baptismal dates as a
district. Things are on a roll here, and it is very exciting to see!
Saturday, May 17th, 2014:
Today was one of those days where we showed The Lord that we are
willing to work. The zone leaders came to our apartment to do studies
with us because it gave them an excuse to drive their car to our
district to deliver some supplies. It was fun having them around, and
we all learned a lot from one another. Once Elder Barnes and I got out
to work, we didn't have much success at all; in fact, we didn't have a
single person even answer the door, let alone say "no" to us. We
worked the entire afternoon in the heat without any success and then
met up at Alex Varela's house to eat carne asada with the Hermanas.
Alex wanted to say his final goodbyes to Hermana Vellinga, so he
invited all of us over to eat! I love Alex; he has such a big heart
and is so dedicated. The Hermanas loved spending the time with him,
and we are all going to miss Hermana Vellinga when she leaves on
Tuesday. Elder Barnes and I had a scheduled appointment during the
evening, but we both felt inspired to stay at the Varelas and use the
opportunity to talk to Abel and Lucy to see when Chris can get
baptized. I didn't know how to bring up the question, but Elder Barnes
just popped it out. I think they were both a little surprised, but
they were both excited for Chris, too! We set his baptismal date for
June 1st! It was the reward for a long, hard day of work. Miracles
always come after the trial of our faith.
Sunday, May 18th, 2014:
Church was pretty emotional for a lot of people because Hermana
Vellinga gave her farewell talk. She has been serving here for over
seven months and will be heading home on Tuesday morning. I have known
Hermana Vellinga since the very first day in the mission field because
we were both in Chino together. I will sincerely miss her. Elder
Barnes and I got asked to teach both Gospel Principles and Elders'
Quorum, so it was a lot of last-minute studying. After church, the
Hermanas had another baptism of a girl named Ruby Paz. El Molino has
had four baptisms in the past two months, and our district has about
six baptismal dates lined up currently. This branch is growing like
crazy, and our work here has turned this branch around from being a
"slow" area to an "active" area. After church, the Perez's had us all
over for dinner. I love their family! They are so much fun and so
sincere. Antonio told me that they specifically bought a ten-person
table to be able to have the missionaries over to eat. One of their
favorite things to do is invite missionaries over to eat as often as
possible. The best thing is that they are very active in sharing the
Gospel, too! Helping strengthen the faith of the members is one of my
favorite roles as a missionary. When we are truly converted to the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, we will have the desire to share it with
everyone that we know.
I hope everyone is doing well! This week has been a teaser of the
unbearable heat of summer, so I'm getting ready to step outside and
sweat. I'm hoping that our dedication to the work, despite whatever
obstacles may be placed in our way, will show The Lord that we are
ready to bring more sheep back to the fold. I know this Church is
true, and I know that living the commandments of God brings greater
happiness than anything else this world has to offer. Thank you for
all of your support, and I love you all!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
Sent from my iPad
Monday, June 2, 2014
Calling Home for Mother's Day - May 12, 2014
Hey Everyone!
I hope all of the mothers out there had a wonderful Mother's Day! I
particularly enjoyed talking to my family and wishing my own mother a
happy Mother's Day. Calling home and meeting the families of other
missionaries helps us remember the true cause of why we are out here:
we want to share that same happiness that the Gospel brings with the
rest of the world.
Tuesday, May 6th, 2014:
We ran into a solid brick wall today, with regards to trying to find
people to teach during the afternoon. I think Elder Barnes and I tried
visiting at least fifteen or twenty people over the course of about
three hours, and not a single person was home. Days like today are
where we as missionaries show The Lord that we are willing to work
hard to find people to teach. We stopped by the Luquin family during
the evening to talk to them. It was the first time that I have visited
them since I have been here in El Molino. I absolutely loved visiting
with them and talking with them. They even fed us a meal! We committed
the whole family to read the Book of Mormon. To conclude the day,
Elder Barnes and I went to visit the Varela family. I ended up
teaching Alex and his brother, Luis, who is in town for about two
weeks. Elder Barnes split off and taught Chris, so we had two lessons
going at the same time, one in English and one in Spanish. The most
exciting part is that Chris said that he wants to have his baptism on
May 18th! We still need to get permission from Abel and Lucy, but I
think it is more likely to happen than ever.
Wednesday, May 7th, 2014:
Today just felt like it was a huge waste of time because our plans all
fell through and were replaced by activities that weren't in the least
bit productive. We set up a member present lesson with our
investigator, Wilson, but he ended up bailing on us after we were
already at the church waiting for him. The highlight during the day
happened during the morning when Hermano Silva invited us over to do
service for him. He is making a patio and had us help him carry up
nearly two-hundred bricks that weighed about thirty pounds each. I
love doing service for members, especially physically exhausting
service like we did today. The English zone leaders that work in our
same area needed help with a lesson, so I went to help them while
Elder Barnes went with one of them for a bit. They were teaching a guy
named Fernando, and the English sisters got some bad vibes from him
when he would randomly say things in Spanish during the middle of
their lessons. They wanted me to be present at the lesson so that I
could understand anything that he might say. He didn't speak in
Spanish at all during the lesson, but he basically came to Bible bash.
At the end of the Plan of Salvation, we dropped him right on the spot
because he really wasn't interested in learning more about the Church.
It was rather unfortunate because Elder Barnes and I ended up missing
the other appointments that we had set, so everything fell through as
a result of the poor lesson that I taught with the English zone
leaders. We stayed at the church to wait for mutual to start, and I
helped tutor a couple people with math homework. We then went to
practice our song for the Mother's Day activity on Friday. Elder
Knight combined two different songs together, and we are going to sing
them at the activity, in addition to recording them for all of our own
mothers.
Thursday, May 8th, 2014:
Elder Barnes and I had to leave really early to go to the Fletcher
building for zone meeting at 10 AM. Elder Fellows and Elder Perez gave
a fantastic lesson about the importance of urgency and about the
importance of teaching to understanding. It was one of the better zone
meetings that I have been a part of in quite some time, and I felt the
Spirit very strongly during the meeting. I felt like the whole meeting
focused on what I need to work on personally. Our district stayed to
practice the song that we will be singing tomorrow night at the
Mother's Day activity for the branch. Elder Barnes and I didn't make
it back to the apartment until about 3:30 PM, so we spent a little bit
of time with "The First Twelve Weeks" when we got back. We went to the
church to do visits with the Elder's Quorum after dinner, but only
three people showed besides the Elders in our district. Unfortunately,
we were only able to visit three different families, and Elder Barnes
and I went with Genaro Fuentes, a recent convert of about three weeks,
to visit the Ramirez family, who just moved into the branch about a
week ago. We shared the First Presidency message from April about a
strong anchor with the family. The Ramirez family has a son who left
on a mission about a month ago, so it was very touching to hear of how
much they were looking forward to talking to their son; it made me
think of my own family and the fact that I will be talking to them on
Sunday. At the end of the visit, I gave Hermana Ramirez a blessing. I
love being able to serve the members and helping them to strengthen
their faith.
Friday, May 9th, 2014:
Our zone leaders, Elder Fellows and Elder Perez, found a new
investigator named Erika in their area who actually lives in our area.
They wanted to meet up with Elder Barnes and I to have a lesson about
the Book of Mormon to be able to pass her off to us so that we can
start teaching her. The lesson went extremely well, even though we had
four missionaries trying to split up time teaching in the back of her
shoe store. Erika committed to reading the Book of Mormon and said
that she will prepare for baptism on June 1st! She said that she will
need to pray about it first, but she has a ton of potential. Elder
Barnes and I returned to our apartment after the appointment to
conduct our weekly planning session. He is really beginning to adjust
to the routine of everything, so we were able to get through weekly
planning much quicker than in previous weeks. After finishing up with
weekly planning we headed over to the church to help the Elder's
Quorum begin cooking all of the food for the Mother's Day activity
that the branch was having. Hermano Perez got there at 11 AM to begin,
and we didn't even show up until 4 PM. They made chicken cordon bleu,
which was actually a lot of fun to help prepare and cook. I really
enjoyed getting to know a few of the Hermanos in the ward a little bit
better. The branch went all out for the activity, which turned out to
be absolutely fantastic. Not as many people came as they were
expecting; however, the activity was still successful. Our district
sang a group song for the activity, and Elder Barnes sang a solo after
our district sang. The people who came really enjoyed it. I am just
more excited than anything else to talk to my own family on Sunday and
wish my own mother a happy Mother's Day!
Saturday, May 10th, 2014:
Elder Barnes and I spent a little bit of time during the morning
figuring out a good plan for him to be able to monitor his progress
during his training; he was feeling a bit worried, so we worked
together to figure out a good plan about how to tell where he should
be at and where he should focus his efforts. Training as a missionary
is often very stressful, due to all of the changes when coming into
the mission field. As a trainer, it is my responsibility to make that
transition as smooth and quick as possible. After lunch, we went down
to the church to sing a song for Hermana Lopez's family in Mexico, but
we were too late! The rest of the district sang without us because
they thought that we weren't coming. I was a little disappointed that
we couldn't help make her mother feel a little more special having the
whole district together. While at the church, however, we spent a
little bit of time recording a video for Mother's Day that we are
going to send to all of our mothers tomorrow as a surprise. It took us
about an hour, but we got it all worked out. Elder Barnes and I
returned to our apartment to do change and do service for the Salgado
family. They are a less-active family that hasn't been to church in a
while, so we figured that we would go do service for them to try and
motivate them to come to church. We helped out Hermano Salgado in his
garden for a little while to help prepare the dirt to plant some
flowers. He didn't sound too excited when I invited him to come to
church, so I'm assuming that we probably won't see them there on
Sunday, unfortunately. During the evening, we were finally able to
meet up with Silvia Recinos and Jose Chavez. Silvia made us chiles
rellenos! It took her about three hours of cooking to make them, and
they were delicious! She is making really good progress on obtaining
her ID card to be able to get married and then baptized, and I think
she will be able to get the ID card this coming week, which
consequently means that she will be able to get baptized in the coming
two or three weeks! I am more optimistic every time that I talk to
her. There is more and more potential each and every day here in our
area!
Sunday, May 11th, 2014:
It was a very strange day in that everyone was calling home for
Mother's Day from the church, both English and Spanish missionaries.
Elder Barnes called home to begin with in the morning; I decided to
wait until my family got home from church in the afternoon to call.
Church was very nice, and the branch made an extra effort to give out
roses to all of the mothers in attendance. The role of motherhood is
truly a celestial virtue. After church, we had our weekly correlation
meeting with Hermano Monzon. He couldn't stop thanking us for the work
that we do and saying how proud he is of all of us and the effort that
we put into the missionary work here. I was very appreciative of his
commendation. We then all went to call all of our families. I was the
last to call home out of everyone. I loved being able to meet all of
the families of the other missionaries in my district; it helps me
remember that every single one of us who is out here serving The Lord
is sacrificing two years from our family to help others have the
opportunity to spend an eternity with their own family. Talking to my
family nearly brought tears to my eyes again. I loved talking to them,
and the time went by way too quickly. After church, we all went to the
Monzons for dinner. We celebrated Hermana Vellinga's farewell for a
little bit because she is going home in a week from Tuesday. The
Monzons are really nice and went all out to make the day special for
her. It was amazing to me when I reflected today on the role of women
in the lives of men; we would be nothing without the assistance of
women helping us learn and grow each and every day.
For P-Day today, we are having another zone activity and will be
meeting up at the Fletcher building. Our zone is going to go play
ultimate frisbee, so Hermano Perez is going to take our district and
come play with us! I'm really excited to go get some good exercise in
and enjoy spending the time with the rest of the zone. Zone activities
are always a highlight, and I think it may be partially due to the
fact that I was never really able to have much of a real "P-Day" while
serving in Chino for nearly six months.
I hope everyone is doing well! I appreciate all of your love and
support, and I hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
Sent from my iPad
I hope all of the mothers out there had a wonderful Mother's Day! I
particularly enjoyed talking to my family and wishing my own mother a
happy Mother's Day. Calling home and meeting the families of other
missionaries helps us remember the true cause of why we are out here:
we want to share that same happiness that the Gospel brings with the
rest of the world.
Tuesday, May 6th, 2014:
We ran into a solid brick wall today, with regards to trying to find
people to teach during the afternoon. I think Elder Barnes and I tried
visiting at least fifteen or twenty people over the course of about
three hours, and not a single person was home. Days like today are
where we as missionaries show The Lord that we are willing to work
hard to find people to teach. We stopped by the Luquin family during
the evening to talk to them. It was the first time that I have visited
them since I have been here in El Molino. I absolutely loved visiting
with them and talking with them. They even fed us a meal! We committed
the whole family to read the Book of Mormon. To conclude the day,
Elder Barnes and I went to visit the Varela family. I ended up
teaching Alex and his brother, Luis, who is in town for about two
weeks. Elder Barnes split off and taught Chris, so we had two lessons
going at the same time, one in English and one in Spanish. The most
exciting part is that Chris said that he wants to have his baptism on
May 18th! We still need to get permission from Abel and Lucy, but I
think it is more likely to happen than ever.
Wednesday, May 7th, 2014:
Today just felt like it was a huge waste of time because our plans all
fell through and were replaced by activities that weren't in the least
bit productive. We set up a member present lesson with our
investigator, Wilson, but he ended up bailing on us after we were
already at the church waiting for him. The highlight during the day
happened during the morning when Hermano Silva invited us over to do
service for him. He is making a patio and had us help him carry up
nearly two-hundred bricks that weighed about thirty pounds each. I
love doing service for members, especially physically exhausting
service like we did today. The English zone leaders that work in our
same area needed help with a lesson, so I went to help them while
Elder Barnes went with one of them for a bit. They were teaching a guy
named Fernando, and the English sisters got some bad vibes from him
when he would randomly say things in Spanish during the middle of
their lessons. They wanted me to be present at the lesson so that I
could understand anything that he might say. He didn't speak in
Spanish at all during the lesson, but he basically came to Bible bash.
At the end of the Plan of Salvation, we dropped him right on the spot
because he really wasn't interested in learning more about the Church.
It was rather unfortunate because Elder Barnes and I ended up missing
the other appointments that we had set, so everything fell through as
a result of the poor lesson that I taught with the English zone
leaders. We stayed at the church to wait for mutual to start, and I
helped tutor a couple people with math homework. We then went to
practice our song for the Mother's Day activity on Friday. Elder
Knight combined two different songs together, and we are going to sing
them at the activity, in addition to recording them for all of our own
mothers.
Thursday, May 8th, 2014:
Elder Barnes and I had to leave really early to go to the Fletcher
building for zone meeting at 10 AM. Elder Fellows and Elder Perez gave
a fantastic lesson about the importance of urgency and about the
importance of teaching to understanding. It was one of the better zone
meetings that I have been a part of in quite some time, and I felt the
Spirit very strongly during the meeting. I felt like the whole meeting
focused on what I need to work on personally. Our district stayed to
practice the song that we will be singing tomorrow night at the
Mother's Day activity for the branch. Elder Barnes and I didn't make
it back to the apartment until about 3:30 PM, so we spent a little bit
of time with "The First Twelve Weeks" when we got back. We went to the
church to do visits with the Elder's Quorum after dinner, but only
three people showed besides the Elders in our district. Unfortunately,
we were only able to visit three different families, and Elder Barnes
and I went with Genaro Fuentes, a recent convert of about three weeks,
to visit the Ramirez family, who just moved into the branch about a
week ago. We shared the First Presidency message from April about a
strong anchor with the family. The Ramirez family has a son who left
on a mission about a month ago, so it was very touching to hear of how
much they were looking forward to talking to their son; it made me
think of my own family and the fact that I will be talking to them on
Sunday. At the end of the visit, I gave Hermana Ramirez a blessing. I
love being able to serve the members and helping them to strengthen
their faith.
Friday, May 9th, 2014:
Our zone leaders, Elder Fellows and Elder Perez, found a new
investigator named Erika in their area who actually lives in our area.
They wanted to meet up with Elder Barnes and I to have a lesson about
the Book of Mormon to be able to pass her off to us so that we can
start teaching her. The lesson went extremely well, even though we had
four missionaries trying to split up time teaching in the back of her
shoe store. Erika committed to reading the Book of Mormon and said
that she will prepare for baptism on June 1st! She said that she will
need to pray about it first, but she has a ton of potential. Elder
Barnes and I returned to our apartment after the appointment to
conduct our weekly planning session. He is really beginning to adjust
to the routine of everything, so we were able to get through weekly
planning much quicker than in previous weeks. After finishing up with
weekly planning we headed over to the church to help the Elder's
Quorum begin cooking all of the food for the Mother's Day activity
that the branch was having. Hermano Perez got there at 11 AM to begin,
and we didn't even show up until 4 PM. They made chicken cordon bleu,
which was actually a lot of fun to help prepare and cook. I really
enjoyed getting to know a few of the Hermanos in the ward a little bit
better. The branch went all out for the activity, which turned out to
be absolutely fantastic. Not as many people came as they were
expecting; however, the activity was still successful. Our district
sang a group song for the activity, and Elder Barnes sang a solo after
our district sang. The people who came really enjoyed it. I am just
more excited than anything else to talk to my own family on Sunday and
wish my own mother a happy Mother's Day!
Saturday, May 10th, 2014:
Elder Barnes and I spent a little bit of time during the morning
figuring out a good plan for him to be able to monitor his progress
during his training; he was feeling a bit worried, so we worked
together to figure out a good plan about how to tell where he should
be at and where he should focus his efforts. Training as a missionary
is often very stressful, due to all of the changes when coming into
the mission field. As a trainer, it is my responsibility to make that
transition as smooth and quick as possible. After lunch, we went down
to the church to sing a song for Hermana Lopez's family in Mexico, but
we were too late! The rest of the district sang without us because
they thought that we weren't coming. I was a little disappointed that
we couldn't help make her mother feel a little more special having the
whole district together. While at the church, however, we spent a
little bit of time recording a video for Mother's Day that we are
going to send to all of our mothers tomorrow as a surprise. It took us
about an hour, but we got it all worked out. Elder Barnes and I
returned to our apartment to do change and do service for the Salgado
family. They are a less-active family that hasn't been to church in a
while, so we figured that we would go do service for them to try and
motivate them to come to church. We helped out Hermano Salgado in his
garden for a little while to help prepare the dirt to plant some
flowers. He didn't sound too excited when I invited him to come to
church, so I'm assuming that we probably won't see them there on
Sunday, unfortunately. During the evening, we were finally able to
meet up with Silvia Recinos and Jose Chavez. Silvia made us chiles
rellenos! It took her about three hours of cooking to make them, and
they were delicious! She is making really good progress on obtaining
her ID card to be able to get married and then baptized, and I think
she will be able to get the ID card this coming week, which
consequently means that she will be able to get baptized in the coming
two or three weeks! I am more optimistic every time that I talk to
her. There is more and more potential each and every day here in our
area!
Sunday, May 11th, 2014:
It was a very strange day in that everyone was calling home for
Mother's Day from the church, both English and Spanish missionaries.
Elder Barnes called home to begin with in the morning; I decided to
wait until my family got home from church in the afternoon to call.
Church was very nice, and the branch made an extra effort to give out
roses to all of the mothers in attendance. The role of motherhood is
truly a celestial virtue. After church, we had our weekly correlation
meeting with Hermano Monzon. He couldn't stop thanking us for the work
that we do and saying how proud he is of all of us and the effort that
we put into the missionary work here. I was very appreciative of his
commendation. We then all went to call all of our families. I was the
last to call home out of everyone. I loved being able to meet all of
the families of the other missionaries in my district; it helps me
remember that every single one of us who is out here serving The Lord
is sacrificing two years from our family to help others have the
opportunity to spend an eternity with their own family. Talking to my
family nearly brought tears to my eyes again. I loved talking to them,
and the time went by way too quickly. After church, we all went to the
Monzons for dinner. We celebrated Hermana Vellinga's farewell for a
little bit because she is going home in a week from Tuesday. The
Monzons are really nice and went all out to make the day special for
her. It was amazing to me when I reflected today on the role of women
in the lives of men; we would be nothing without the assistance of
women helping us learn and grow each and every day.
For P-Day today, we are having another zone activity and will be
meeting up at the Fletcher building. Our zone is going to go play
ultimate frisbee, so Hermano Perez is going to take our district and
come play with us! I'm really excited to go get some good exercise in
and enjoy spending the time with the rest of the zone. Zone activities
are always a highlight, and I think it may be partially due to the
fact that I was never really able to have much of a real "P-Day" while
serving in Chino for nearly six months.
I hope everyone is doing well! I appreciate all of your love and
support, and I hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
Sent from my iPad
Playing Tennis for the First Time in a Whole Year! - May 5, 2014
Hey Everyone!
I hope everyone is excited for Mother's Day and had a fantastic week!
I'm quite excited to be able to call my family on Sunday and wish my
mother a happy Mother's Day. This week was pretty crazy, seeing that I
probably talked to a dozen different drunk people and listened to
their life stories. California is full of crazy people, but I love it!
Tuesday, April 29th, 2014:
The housing inspectors came to our apartment in the morning to do the
monthly inspection. We then went down to Walgreen's to pick up some
medications before getting back to work. During the afternoon, we ran
into a number of different people who didn't really want to talk to
us. Fortunately, however, a man by the name of Wilson came up to us
and told us that he is really interested in turning his whole life
around. He was carrying two beers in his hand, which made me think he
was just another drunk on the side of the road that wanted to stop us
for no reason. Wilson was different, though. He recently separated
from his wife and four kids and wants to now clean up his life, and I
think we might be able to help him at least find peace with the
situation in which he currently resides. Hermano Perez came to pick us
up to eat dinner with him, and we ate dinner with his family and our
whole district. I definitely feel like our district and their family
are really close and that we are beginning to build a really strong
friendship. To conclude the evening, we went to go visit Alex and
Chris Varela. We talked to them about the importance of keeping the
temple as their ultimate goal in everything that they do. Everything
should be a step forward towards the vision of going through the
temple someday in the future. We set the goal for Alex of doing
baptisms for the dead in the near future and the goal for Chris to
continue reading his scriptures in order to be ready for baptism. I
always love visiting the Varelas, and they always remind me of what
humility personified looks like.
Wednesday, April 30th, 2014:
We went by a lot of people today; we have been trying to focus on
finding more inactive members because there are a lot of inactive
members in this branch. We have about twelve active Melchizadek
Priesthood holders in the branch, and we have about forty or fifty
inactive ones, depending on how updated the list is. One big piece of
working with Latinos is reactivation. During the afternoon, Elder
Barnes and I went by Wilson's house to teach him about the
Restoration. I was surprised with how well the lesson went, aside from
the fact that his little kids were a little bit distracting during the
middle of the lesson. He accepted a soft baptismal invitation, so we
will try to set a date with him in the future. He seems like a very
interested investigator, and I am very excited to see how he turns
out. During the evening, Elder Barnes and I went to help Santiago and
Hermana Gonzalez in their garden. They have a lot to do out back. It
looked a million times better after we worked with them for just over
an hour. We then went to mutual for the evening, and I was quite
disappointed not to see Chris Varela or Jose Chavez to be able to help
them with their homework. I find that tutoring on Wednesdays is
actually a really good way to talk to investigators.
Thursday, May 1st, 2014:
Elder Knight gave the district meeting lesson on the "How to Begin
Teaching" bullet points. It was a really good lesson because Elder
Knight used the David and Goliath story to illustrate the principles
of how we should begin teaching as missionaries. Elder Barnes and I
then went to teach Wilson again. We taught him about the Book of
Mormon, even though the majority of the time talking to him consisted
of him telling us about all of his problems. I think he can progress,
but we will need to help him understand that the Book of Mormon is
something that he will really need to utilize. After teaching Wilson,
we went to go teach Fernando and Gloria Martinez again. They really
like to talk and use up a lot of our time. I enjoy teaching them, even
though they try to tell us that they are Catholic and won't change; I
personally think that they know that the Church is true and just say
that they don't want to change at this point in time. It can be a
little frustrating as missionaries when we know that people know the
Church is true and won't always act on what we share. They committed
to reading the Book of Mormon, however, so that should help them see
the truthfulness of what we share for themselves.
Friday, May 2nd, 2014:
Our weekly planning was pretty productive and helpful; I feel like the
amount of work that is taking place in our area is increasing by the
day. We currently have about seven referrals that we need to contact,
which means that we are working hard with the members and with other
missionaries to talk to more and more people each and every day. After
we finished planning, we went to go eat with Hermana Caceres and her
family. She is one of my favorite members to go visit because she is
so active and hard-working. Hermana Caceres is the perfect example of
someone who is humble, teachable and diligent in everything that she
does. She truly inspires me to be a better missionary and an overall
better person. After we ate with her, Elder Barnes and I hopped on the
bus to go to the church for correlation meeting with Hermano Monzon.
The meeting was really good. After correlation, Elder Knight came with
me for exchanges in my area, and Elder Turner and Elder Barnes headed
up to Pasadena to work there. I love being able to spend more time
with Elder Knight again.
Saturday, May 3rd, 2014:
The exchange with Elder Knight went very well, and I really learned
the importance of focusing on asking more inspired questions while I
teach. I will need to focus on studying inspired questions more in
order to be able to ask more while I teach. During the day, Elder
Knight and I probably got stopped by five or six drunks (borrachos as
we call them in Spanish). During the afternoon, we went by the Varelas
to go do service, but Abel ended up not being there. Elder Knight and
I helped Alex, even though Abel wasn't present. We got about an hour
and a half of yard work in before we left. I was really looking
forward to being able to talk to the whole family together and
hopefully schedule a date for Chris' baptism, but it wasn't meant to
be today. After doing service, Elder Knight and I went to go contact a
couple of referrals. One of them wasn't home yet, so we went to talk
to the Alvarez family and Hermana Cota, a lady that they take care of.
It was a really nice visit, and I forgot how active the Alvarez family
is with the Gospel. We have some awesome members in our area! Before
heading back to the church to finish exchanges, another borracho came
up to Elder Knight and I and took us with him to his sister's house.
It was really hard to say no to him, and I felt very uncomfortable the
entire time. He eventually led us back to his house, where we taught
him about the importance of coming to church. He said that he would
come to church tomorrow, but I think that he was just too drunk to
really remember anything.
Sunday, May 4th, 2014:
Church today was amazing because it was Fast and Testimony Meeting.
One of Angie Perez's cousins, Valerie, has been investigating the
church for three years, waiting for her father's permission to be
baptized. She got up and bore her testimony today. It was the most
powerful testimony that I have ever heard from a non-member and one of
the most powerful testimonies that I have ever heard from anyone. It
brought the Spirit to the room and touched the hearts of countless
people. I love seeing how the Gospel can change lives for so many
different people. During Priesthood, Elder Barnes and I had the
opportunity to be able to stand in the circle for the Priesthood
ordination of Alex Varela. He has been waiting for about two months
for the Aaronic Priesthood, so it was great to finally be able to help
him receive it. Alex will be a great member of the Church. After
church, we came back to the apartment, and we worked more in "The
First Twelve Weeks" booklet. We use that book for trainees to help
them adjust to the mission field; as a trainer, it is my
responsibility to make sure that Elder Barnes learns the fundamentals
now to be able to become an awesome missionary in the future. He is
doing really well and making significant strides each and every day.
Hermano Monzon invited us all over for dinner to eat carne asada with
his family. We talked to Flor's boyfriend for a little while about the
Church because he is a non-member. He seemed interested in learning
more about the Church, but I don't know if he will really end up
converting or not. To conclude the evening, a new member of the
branch, Hermano Ramirez, asked us to come help him move a couple of
appliances. He just moved here to El Sereno from Hollywood about four
days ago and needed help with a few small things. It was good to meet
him and learn more about his family; he has a son that just left on a
mission about a month ago for Mexico. I love meeting families with
missionaries out serving because it makes me think of my family often.
As the title of this email says, I was able to play tennis for the
first time today since State Tennis last year! It brought back a lot
of memories, and I really enjoyed spending the time with the other
Elders in our district and the Perez family. Our P-days this transfer
are much more fun and exciting, and I love the physical exercise that
we get from playing sports.
I hope that everyone remembers to thank their mothers on Sunday for
the remarkable role that mothers play in the lives of every child. I
am personally grateful for the compassion and love that my mother has
shown me, despite my countless imperfections. A mother is truly the
personification of mercy and charity that the scriptures constantly
command us to be. Motherhood is a role that is ordained of God, and
only a truly humble and Christ-like person can perform that role.
I love you all and thank you for your continual support and
friendship. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
Sent from my iPad
I hope everyone is excited for Mother's Day and had a fantastic week!
I'm quite excited to be able to call my family on Sunday and wish my
mother a happy Mother's Day. This week was pretty crazy, seeing that I
probably talked to a dozen different drunk people and listened to
their life stories. California is full of crazy people, but I love it!
Tuesday, April 29th, 2014:
The housing inspectors came to our apartment in the morning to do the
monthly inspection. We then went down to Walgreen's to pick up some
medications before getting back to work. During the afternoon, we ran
into a number of different people who didn't really want to talk to
us. Fortunately, however, a man by the name of Wilson came up to us
and told us that he is really interested in turning his whole life
around. He was carrying two beers in his hand, which made me think he
was just another drunk on the side of the road that wanted to stop us
for no reason. Wilson was different, though. He recently separated
from his wife and four kids and wants to now clean up his life, and I
think we might be able to help him at least find peace with the
situation in which he currently resides. Hermano Perez came to pick us
up to eat dinner with him, and we ate dinner with his family and our
whole district. I definitely feel like our district and their family
are really close and that we are beginning to build a really strong
friendship. To conclude the evening, we went to go visit Alex and
Chris Varela. We talked to them about the importance of keeping the
temple as their ultimate goal in everything that they do. Everything
should be a step forward towards the vision of going through the
temple someday in the future. We set the goal for Alex of doing
baptisms for the dead in the near future and the goal for Chris to
continue reading his scriptures in order to be ready for baptism. I
always love visiting the Varelas, and they always remind me of what
humility personified looks like.
Wednesday, April 30th, 2014:
We went by a lot of people today; we have been trying to focus on
finding more inactive members because there are a lot of inactive
members in this branch. We have about twelve active Melchizadek
Priesthood holders in the branch, and we have about forty or fifty
inactive ones, depending on how updated the list is. One big piece of
working with Latinos is reactivation. During the afternoon, Elder
Barnes and I went by Wilson's house to teach him about the
Restoration. I was surprised with how well the lesson went, aside from
the fact that his little kids were a little bit distracting during the
middle of the lesson. He accepted a soft baptismal invitation, so we
will try to set a date with him in the future. He seems like a very
interested investigator, and I am very excited to see how he turns
out. During the evening, Elder Barnes and I went to help Santiago and
Hermana Gonzalez in their garden. They have a lot to do out back. It
looked a million times better after we worked with them for just over
an hour. We then went to mutual for the evening, and I was quite
disappointed not to see Chris Varela or Jose Chavez to be able to help
them with their homework. I find that tutoring on Wednesdays is
actually a really good way to talk to investigators.
Thursday, May 1st, 2014:
Elder Knight gave the district meeting lesson on the "How to Begin
Teaching" bullet points. It was a really good lesson because Elder
Knight used the David and Goliath story to illustrate the principles
of how we should begin teaching as missionaries. Elder Barnes and I
then went to teach Wilson again. We taught him about the Book of
Mormon, even though the majority of the time talking to him consisted
of him telling us about all of his problems. I think he can progress,
but we will need to help him understand that the Book of Mormon is
something that he will really need to utilize. After teaching Wilson,
we went to go teach Fernando and Gloria Martinez again. They really
like to talk and use up a lot of our time. I enjoy teaching them, even
though they try to tell us that they are Catholic and won't change; I
personally think that they know that the Church is true and just say
that they don't want to change at this point in time. It can be a
little frustrating as missionaries when we know that people know the
Church is true and won't always act on what we share. They committed
to reading the Book of Mormon, however, so that should help them see
the truthfulness of what we share for themselves.
Friday, May 2nd, 2014:
Our weekly planning was pretty productive and helpful; I feel like the
amount of work that is taking place in our area is increasing by the
day. We currently have about seven referrals that we need to contact,
which means that we are working hard with the members and with other
missionaries to talk to more and more people each and every day. After
we finished planning, we went to go eat with Hermana Caceres and her
family. She is one of my favorite members to go visit because she is
so active and hard-working. Hermana Caceres is the perfect example of
someone who is humble, teachable and diligent in everything that she
does. She truly inspires me to be a better missionary and an overall
better person. After we ate with her, Elder Barnes and I hopped on the
bus to go to the church for correlation meeting with Hermano Monzon.
The meeting was really good. After correlation, Elder Knight came with
me for exchanges in my area, and Elder Turner and Elder Barnes headed
up to Pasadena to work there. I love being able to spend more time
with Elder Knight again.
Saturday, May 3rd, 2014:
The exchange with Elder Knight went very well, and I really learned
the importance of focusing on asking more inspired questions while I
teach. I will need to focus on studying inspired questions more in
order to be able to ask more while I teach. During the day, Elder
Knight and I probably got stopped by five or six drunks (borrachos as
we call them in Spanish). During the afternoon, we went by the Varelas
to go do service, but Abel ended up not being there. Elder Knight and
I helped Alex, even though Abel wasn't present. We got about an hour
and a half of yard work in before we left. I was really looking
forward to being able to talk to the whole family together and
hopefully schedule a date for Chris' baptism, but it wasn't meant to
be today. After doing service, Elder Knight and I went to go contact a
couple of referrals. One of them wasn't home yet, so we went to talk
to the Alvarez family and Hermana Cota, a lady that they take care of.
It was a really nice visit, and I forgot how active the Alvarez family
is with the Gospel. We have some awesome members in our area! Before
heading back to the church to finish exchanges, another borracho came
up to Elder Knight and I and took us with him to his sister's house.
It was really hard to say no to him, and I felt very uncomfortable the
entire time. He eventually led us back to his house, where we taught
him about the importance of coming to church. He said that he would
come to church tomorrow, but I think that he was just too drunk to
really remember anything.
Sunday, May 4th, 2014:
Church today was amazing because it was Fast and Testimony Meeting.
One of Angie Perez's cousins, Valerie, has been investigating the
church for three years, waiting for her father's permission to be
baptized. She got up and bore her testimony today. It was the most
powerful testimony that I have ever heard from a non-member and one of
the most powerful testimonies that I have ever heard from anyone. It
brought the Spirit to the room and touched the hearts of countless
people. I love seeing how the Gospel can change lives for so many
different people. During Priesthood, Elder Barnes and I had the
opportunity to be able to stand in the circle for the Priesthood
ordination of Alex Varela. He has been waiting for about two months
for the Aaronic Priesthood, so it was great to finally be able to help
him receive it. Alex will be a great member of the Church. After
church, we came back to the apartment, and we worked more in "The
First Twelve Weeks" booklet. We use that book for trainees to help
them adjust to the mission field; as a trainer, it is my
responsibility to make sure that Elder Barnes learns the fundamentals
now to be able to become an awesome missionary in the future. He is
doing really well and making significant strides each and every day.
Hermano Monzon invited us all over for dinner to eat carne asada with
his family. We talked to Flor's boyfriend for a little while about the
Church because he is a non-member. He seemed interested in learning
more about the Church, but I don't know if he will really end up
converting or not. To conclude the evening, a new member of the
branch, Hermano Ramirez, asked us to come help him move a couple of
appliances. He just moved here to El Sereno from Hollywood about four
days ago and needed help with a few small things. It was good to meet
him and learn more about his family; he has a son that just left on a
mission about a month ago for Mexico. I love meeting families with
missionaries out serving because it makes me think of my family often.
As the title of this email says, I was able to play tennis for the
first time today since State Tennis last year! It brought back a lot
of memories, and I really enjoyed spending the time with the other
Elders in our district and the Perez family. Our P-days this transfer
are much more fun and exciting, and I love the physical exercise that
we get from playing sports.
I hope that everyone remembers to thank their mothers on Sunday for
the remarkable role that mothers play in the lives of every child. I
am personally grateful for the compassion and love that my mother has
shown me, despite my countless imperfections. A mother is truly the
personification of mercy and charity that the scriptures constantly
command us to be. Motherhood is a role that is ordained of God, and
only a truly humble and Christ-like person can perform that role.
I love you all and thank you for your continual support and
friendship. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Gabriel Valley
Sent from my iPad
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