Week 76- January 26, 2015 - El Molino 2

Dear home,

This week was another good one here in Pasadena.

We started off with interviews with President on Tuesday. My interview

with President was pretty brief. Nothing super eventful there. But it

is always great to see president Villanueva's great example of charity

and the warmth that he gives off. He is a great man.

We had a cool miracle this week. Mateo, the investigator, is still

doing awesome. He came to church and everything. But the last lesson

we had with him, we saw his wife walk past and we invited her to sit

down with us. I had never taught her or anything, but I had talked to

her on the phone a few times to see how she was doing health wise and

how Mateo was doing and we gave her a blessing of health once. She was

actually the one who was originally investigating the church but she

ended up not wanting to change. But she sat in with us! We taught

about temples and family history. I showed them my little "Mi Familia"

booklet with my family members, some pictures, and some stories. They

liked it a lot! Norma (Mateos wife), was talking about how she will

ask one of her family members for a family tree she has. It was

awesome! She wasn't able to make it to church because she was sick.

But it seemed to have surprised Mateo too, because he went to church

and he said that he will make sure he commits her to come next time.

We are going to be visiting them both as a couple now in a few days

(they are in their early 70s).

We also got to visit Jose Romero this week. He's been progressing

really well and been keeping all the goals that he had set with our

branch president. The branch is doing awesome at taking care of him as

well. Jose found a job and our Ward mission leader bought him work

boots without even asking. But last night we had a bit of a

heartbreaking lesson. He said he has been having flashbacks of some

pretty bad stuff he did when he was in a gang and on top of that he is

facing the possibility of having a pretty bad illness. To make matters

even worse, his mom and sisters he lives with don't support him or

really care for him at all and satan is making him doubt his

testimony. We sat and watched 21 year old Jose express all these

doubts and trials in tears. We really felt for him. Although, he has

all these whirlwinds and fiery arrows attacking him, he still wants to

serve his mission. We ended the visit by giving him a blessing and a

big hug as well.

This week we also had exchanges with the English elders. I stayed in

my area with the English district leader. It was pretty cool haha. We

had a lesson in English and then one in Spanish. We taught a lady that

we found recently named Maria Luna. We gave her the restoration

pamphlet to read and she read it! She was able to pretty much teach us

the restoration! It was cool, she has a date for baptism for the

beginning of March. But Elder Brown (the English elder) ended up

getting pretty sick so we had to go home a bit early. Nevertheless, it

was a cool experience.

I have been able to learn a lot this past week and I know I am in the

right place at the right time right now!

Love you all!

Week 75- January 19, 2015 - El Molino 2

Dear Home,

This week was another good one. I can't really tell if it's going fast

or slow anymore, but either way, it's going!

We started off by going on exchanges again. I went with Elder Bishop

again, but this time in his area, El Sereno. Not too much different

than the first exchange I had with him. Still thinks Americans are

dumb. Oh well! He's going to have to live with it whether he likes it or

 not haha. But overall, it was good. He is a pretty good missionary.

Later in the week, we had a lesson with Rudy and his girlfriend Fatima

with the help of Antonio and Angie. We had a plan to briefly

teach the restoration, and we only had like 15-20 minutes. Angie

invited her dad, which didn't really turn out too well... Anytime we'd

try to ask Rudy or Fatima anything, he'd butt in and go on a tangent

about what he thought and all this random stuff. It was getting a bit

out of hand, to say the least. Even though the lesson didn't turn out

how we wanted it, it was cool because Rudy was standing up for the

church to his dad. We had to leave but Rudy and Antonio gave us a ride

home. Turns out that the dad is kind of out there when it comes to

religion because he'll read one thing from one religion and then

another from a different one and he just ends up mixing it all

together into confusion. The cool thing too, is that Rudy and his

girlfriend have plans to get married in the upcoming month or so, so

that was cool to hear. And on top of that, they both came to church!

It seems like Fatima's heart is slowly but surely being opened to the

gospel.

I keep forgetting to take a picture with Jose Romero to send to you,

but he is doing really awesome. He is set on going on a mission! It's

 crazy to think just about 4-5 weeks ago he was homeless and aimless

and now he has been going to church without fail and wants to go on a

mission. He has been leaving smoking behind (a problem he's had for a

while) and our branch president talked with him and helped him start

with a plan so that he can get progressing towards his mission. So far

so good! He's been helping us with lessons and rides and such, as

well.

Mateo is also doing pretty well. He has a date for the beginning of

March so that he can have time to completely overcome alcohol. But

he's doing awesome. We have been able to find some cool p, new people

as well. Even though our teaching pool isn't huge, it has been getting

better thanks to the lords help in putting miracles along our path.

Love you!

Week 74- January 12, 2015 - El Molino 2

Dear Home,

Well this week went by fast...

We had a really awesome week. We worked pretty hard and had some cool

things happen.

Mateo, the older gentleman we are teaching, is doing really well. He

has been going to AA to help with his alcohol problem and he has been

doing super well on reading the Book of Mormon. It's been awesome to

work with him, because all the changes he makes will not only affect

him, but his family. Right now, they aren't really opening to listen,

but they are seeing the change in him. He wants to do more service so

he can keep himself busy from alcohol and temptations. Every Saturday

morning there are assigned members that go clean the church and we

told Mateo he could go and help too. And he went! It was kind of funny

for me to think that it can be hard for the branch to get members to

help with the clean up but we had an investigator want to help.

Later in the week, we had a family home evening with Antonio and Angie

(elders quorum president and his wife) and Angie's non member brother,

Rudy, and his girlfriend Fatima. Which was a miracle that she joined

because Fatima is the one that's been against the church. We taught

about the Book of Mormon and the importance it has in our lives and

what it means to us as members of the church. It was pretty nice to

see all the family together listening and accepting the message. Then

we played a charade game, which was pretty funny. Angie was pregnant

and was due for the 6th of February, but she laughed so much that she

ended up having her baby this past Saturday hahaha. But it was great

to be with them and feel the spirit that come from being together with

the family. Antonio and Angie have been a great example to me of how a

couple can be. (Plus, their last name is Perez, so of course they are

great ;).

We also found an inactive lady that was a referral from other

missionaries in the mission. Ironically enough, elder Lane and I had

actually contacted her like the first or second week we were together!

So we decided that we needed to visit her. She is the only member in

her family, and she has quite a few kids. She just moved from another

part of the mission to our area. Her family was giving her and her

kids a pretty hard time about going to the church which discourages

her kids a lot from going, except the youngest one. We are pretty

excited to start helping them get back on track. The youngest daughter

(10) is pretty sharp and almost got baptized with her brother. So

things are going!

I feel like this week I need to work a lot on patience and trusting

the Lord's timing. I think it will help me a lot with having faith in

our Savior. Just really trusting that the things I am going through

now, good and bad, are going to result for the better if I do my best

to put in my part and follow the Savior's teachings.

Love you!!

Week 73- January 5, 2015 - El Molino 2

Happy New Years to everyone!

Just in case anyone was wondering, we got to watch the Rose Parade. It

was pretty cool. The first and last time I'll ever be there as a

missionary. It was funny to see people's reactions when they

recognized that we were missionaries. People from all over the world

were there. Overall, it was a fun experience.

At the Rose Parade

Super Heroes at the Parade

Earlier in the week we had a District Leader meeting. It was good to

see a lot of missionaries I hadn't seen in a while. It was pretty

good, though. Got to learn a lot. Just a reminder that I still have a

lot to learn!

Even earlier in the week, I got to go on exchanges with the zone

leaders to my old area in Lincoln Heights. It was awesome to see some

people that I used to work with. I got to see Rosy (the less active

member who did our laundry), and Jose Mendez, in specific. Rosy was

being very tremenda, as usual, and would only call me by my first name

hahah. I don't know how she got it, though. Jose is doing really

awesome, too. He has progressed a lot spiritually, and physically

since I first met him. Interestingly enough, his neighbor was actually

a less active lady who Elder Ramos helped get back to church and on

top of that baptized her non member daughter. It's crazy how the Lord

puts things into place. It was nice to be back! Only downside was that

my exchange companion and myself were both stuck with the gripa and it

was raining pretty hard the whole day. But I enjoyed it!

Later in the week, Elder Lane and I did a booth on one of the major

streets in our area with one of the English companionships that live

next to us. It was a pretty fun experience! It didn't turn to be very

successful, but we found what we need to improve on and we are

planning to give it another shot. Later in the night, I went on

exchanges with Elder Bishop, the new Elder from England that I

mentioned in the Skype calls. It was a pretty fun exchange. All I have

to say is that whatever stereotype you have about english people, is

probably true. He is a very talented person, though.

Sunday came around and we got to go to church, yeah! A lot of people

were still out of town and doing things else where so we weren't

really overwhelmed with the amount of people that came to church. But

another miracle, Rudy came to church on his own. The lesson we were

going to have with him last week canceled, but his sister invited him

and he went, so we are planning a family home evening with them. Jose

Romero keeps coming as well! (The returning less active we met on the

train). We finally got to have a lesson with him when I was there. We

shared with him top he Book of Mormon. It was such an awesome lesson.

He shared with us some spiritual experiences he had had in order to

help him change and be better. When he was investigating in the church

as a 14 year old he fasted for 4 days in order to find out that it was

true!

Experiences like this make me realize how important small and simple

gestures and actions go a long way. I love The Lord. Love you all!

Week 72- December 29, 2014 - El Molino 2

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This past Christmas was great. I am very grateful for all the gifts I

got from all my friends and family. And of course it was great to talk

to my wonderful family :)! I am glad to hear about the awesome stuff

going on back home.

We had some nice dinners which was awesome. It was a bit slower due to the fact that a lot of people went out of town and people were busy.

But it was still nice to be with all the people we were able to visit.

We got to go to our Branch President's house for dinner as a district,

which was super nice.

This week, we also had exchanges. I went with Elder Elm down to El

Sereno. Elder Bishop and Elder Lane had gotten to visit Jose Romero

(the less active/used to be homeless guy) and he said it went great.

He came to church as well, so that was awesome! This is a little out

of order, but the day before exchanges, Elder Lane and I planned to go

to the supermarket to contact people. We went around and had talked to

a few people but nothing great. And then we turned the corner into

another aisle and boom! There was Margarita Contreras and her two

sons! Margarita is a recent convert that Elder Blanchard, Christensen,

and I had baptized in Arroyo. I had been messaging her a month or so

ago and she had been going through a pretty rough time.

After a bit, she had stopped responding so I was a bit worried. But it

was an awesome miracle that I got to see her again. She had moved to

Glendale and is actually planning on moving to El Sereno, which is in

our branch boundary. That would be cool!

I have really grown to love going to church out here. The more I have

been able to understand the sacrament and its, the more I have come

look forward to taking it. I have really been able to feel the spirit

when I take it as I think of Jesus Christ's suffering and how it helps

me.

We had a pretty cool miracle at church. We have an investigator named

Rudy who is the brother of a really strong sister in the ward. He has

told us he knows the church is true and would get baptized. The

barrier is that he is not married and his girlfriend is not quite into

 the church because all her family is really catholic. But long story

short, Antonio and Angie (that is the name of Rudy's sister and

brother in law whom they live with) invited them to church and they

came! That was pretty cool.

> I love you!!

Christmas dinner at the Branch President's House

President Villanueva, at the mission Christmas Party

Christmas Party

Week 71- December 22, 2014 - El Molino 2

Dear Home,

Merry (almost) Christmas! We had a pretty cool week. The weather has

been perfect.

I just want to hit on two cool things that happened this past week

since we will be talking on skype in a few days.

The first thing: I'm sure my mom already knows, but I had a surprise

visit from an ex missionary friend that I had served around. It was

kind of a funny story actually. We had the mission Christmas party in

the morning, which was pretty cool. There are a lot of new

missionaries so it makes me feel old seeing all the people I used to

know in the mission gone. But anyways! We were waiting for our ride

home with the English elders that live by us. All of a sudden we got a

call from someone we didn't know. I tried to get to know him and he

said his name was Ricardo Carbajal and he was a member that had just

moved into the area. So we were pretty excited to hear we had a new

member in our area since we don't have a lot of members in our area. I

invited him to the branch Christmas party and he was down to go. We

had to get dropped off at the train station, which is kind of far, so

I asked Ricardo if he could give us a ride from there. And he was good

to go. We waited for a while and we had no idea who to expect so we

just sat at the street waiting. We thought we saw him a few times, but

no. Then all of a sudden a Mazda pulls up and Elder White pulls up and

yells, "I am Ricardo!" It was so awesome! It turns out he was tricking

me in order to surprise me haha. He had a super strong spiritual

prompting to come down to the mission (I'll explain later) so he

decided to visit me as well. He gave us a ride and was at the dinner

with us. Interesting how life works.

The other cool thing was a fruit that saw from a little over a week

ago. About over a week ago we were at one of the train stations and we

talked to a young guy about 21 years of age named Jose. He asked if we

could pray for him and went on to explain that he had actually been

baptized in Arizona about 8 years ago when he lived in Arizona with

his uncles and cousins. But now he was in Pasadena, homeless. So we

said a prayer with him at the train station and gave him and gave him

the address and time for church. He didn't have a phone or anything so

we had no way of staying in contact with him. The next day was Sunday

and he didn't come, so we didn't think much of it. Fast forward a week

and we are at church. Elder Lane was sitting next to an investigator

and we didn't see Mateo at church, so elder White and I went to go

drive to knock on his door. We were walking out and amidst all the

white English members (we share the building with an English Ward) was

Jose walking around! I ran over and pulled him into the sacrament room

and had him sit with Elder Lane. It was so cool seeing him! He came in

a white shirt and slacks, he is staying with his sister now. It was

really awesome to see him, we are going to visit him later in the

week.

I am thankful for the great opportunity I have to be here and bless

others family's with Gods love. Love you!