Week 41- May 21, 2014- Lincoln Hights, East L.A.

Dear Everyone,

 Not a ton happened this week, but the good news is we are going to be having a baptism this week! Vilma is super excited for baptism this upcoming week, her daughter is a bit iffy since we have not been able to teach her as consistently as we have Vilma. Her court stuff is getting resolved so she is a lot less stressed out and ready to jump in the water. So our focus right now is turning a bit to Clarissa to help her reach the date of the 25th of May.

Something pretty cool that happened on Sunday was that Jose, the one who got baptized a few weeks ago, got the priesthood! It's been awesome seeing him change so quickly. We can just see it in his face that he is someone completely different. He first came to church wearing an old sweater and some jeans and church shoes. This past week, he came in with some nice slacks and a nice button up shirt we gave him and that he took to the dry cleaners. He was pretty excited to get the priesthood too. But he was pretty tired and said I had contaminated him with his sleepiness haha. (There were sometimes I went over and it would be hot and I would almost fall asleep).

We also had zone conference this past week, which was great. Crazy to think that was our last zone conference with President Becerra. He is going to be having a farewell mission conference type of thing next month, and that will be the last time we see him and his wife. So for now, I am just trying to learn as much as I can from him before he leaves. Hopefully I get to go to the next MLC since we are having transfers this weekend, who knows what will happen.

Here are some ideas/thoughts that President sent us earlier today about the atonement that I wanted to share:

Dear Elders and Sisters:

This morning I woke up with the desire to understand the Atonement and Repentance in greater measure. Here are a few quotes that I came across that might be of benefit to you as you continue to work for the salvation of souls.

"Adam and Eve learned constantly from their often harsh experience. They knew how a troubled family feels. Think of Cain and Abel. Yet because of the Atonement, they could learn from their experience without being condemned by it."

"We need grace both to overcome sinful weeds and to grow divine flowers. We can do neither one fully by ourselves. But grace is not cheap. It is very expensive, even very dear. How much does this grace cost? . . . If we desire “all that [the] Father hath,” God asks all that we have."

"Our all by itself is still only almost enough—until it is finished by the all of Him who is the “finisher of our faith.” At that point, our imperfect but consecrated almost is enough."

"If I have any entitlement to the blessings of God, it has long since been settled in the court of small claims by His generous bestowals over a lifetime."

"The more I learn and experience, the more unselfish, stunning, and encompassing [Christ’s] Atonement becomes!"

"Jesus has already borne our griefs and sicknesses (see Alma 7:11–12). He knows them firsthand; thus His empathy is earned. . . . No wonder, of all the things for which we might praise Jesus when He comes again in majesty and power, we will praise Him for His “loving kindness” and His “goodness.”

"The divine gift of repentance is the key to happiness here and hereafter."

"Pretending there is no sin does not lessen its burden and pain. Suffering for sin does not by itself change anything for the better. Only repentance leads to the sunlit uplands of a better life. And, of course, only through repentance do we gain access to the atoning grace of Jesus Christ and salvation."

"This earth is not our home. We are away at school, trying to master the lessons of “the great plan of happiness” so we can return home and know what it means to be there. Over and over the Lord tells us why the plan is worth our sacrifice—and His. Eve called it “the joy of our redemption.” Jacob called it “that happiness which is prepared for the saints.” Of necessity, the plan is full of thorns and tears—His and ours. But because He and we are so totally in this together, our being “at one” with Him in overcoming all opposition will itself bring us “incomprehensible joy.”

Week 40- May 12, 2014- Lincoln Hights, East L.A.

Dear home,

Happy Mother's Day first off! Hope that went well for everyone! I had a good time talking with my family, even though it went by pretty quick.

This week we had zone meeting and MLC, where we got to hear from president Becerra for a good amount of time. He talked about how we can help people understand what we teach better so we can help them realize the importance of the restoration. 

The 4 pillars of truth that we help people understand is 

1) Belief in Jesus Christ and that He is our savior. 2) The reality of Joseph Smith's First Vision 

3) that the Book of Mormon is Another Testament of Jesus Christ 

4) and that the same priesthood authority that was on the earth during Jesus Christ's earthly ministry has been restored. 

I thought about it a bit and it's pretty cool to think how it goes hand in hand. Because of Joseph Smith's belief in the Savior, he prayed and really had the First Vision, which caused him to first bring light to the Book of Mormon and then restore the authority of God on earth. 

Which I thought was pretty cool how simply he put the differences between us and everyone else. We only have 1 MLC left with president Becerra, I'm definitely

going to miss hearing him!

The next day after MLC we went on exchanges with Tujunga. I stayed in Lincoln Heights with the district leader, elder Clark. I was pretty excited to apply what I had learned from MLC into our lessons. Our

first lesson was with Vilma. She was telling us that she still had to pay off her debt and still wasn't 100 percent sure about baptism. And on top of that she kind of got anti-ed a few days earlier, but she

didn't really listen to them so it went better than we thought. So we originally had something planned to teach her along the lines of faith/baptism. But I felt like that wasn't what she needed, I felt that she needed to hear the restoration again. So we started teaching her and a bunch of doubts came up. That's when we realized that it was more than the economic situation holding her back. That's when we started helping her understand a lot more, and she seemed to

understand more as well. She kept telling us she really wants to get baptized, but she needs to find the right place to do it. After we finished the lesson, she seemed to have understood pretty well, but

still wasn't completely sure. So we invited her to pray on the spot and ask God if it was true. 

So after she said an awesome prayer, we all sat in silence for about 5 minutes until the member we brought with us asked how she felt. She responded that she felt very blessed, she was feeling great. As she went on describing how she felt she started crying and said she wants to get baptized as soon as her court case (her economic setback) is over. It was amazing to feel the spirit there. We didn't even invite her at the moment, the spirit told her what it was she needed to do. And the awesome thing is that her court case ends this Thursday, so she is either getting baptized this Sunday or the next since we still have to catch her daughter up on some things as well.

So the main thing I learned this week is to listen to impressions I may have. This is something I still struggle with sometimes, whether it be talking to people, knocking a certain door, teaching a certain

lesson, asking a certain question. But I know that as we do follow these impressions, we will be blessed and guided into the way The Lord wants us to be. And that's what it's all about!

Love you all!!

Week 39- May 5, 2014- Lincoln Hights- East L.A.

Dear everyone,

This week was not the most eventful of weeks, but we still had some pretty cool stuff happen.

We started teaching our neighbors the other day and they are awesome. They are a young couple (about to get married) with a 1 year old baby. By first seeing them, I don't think many people would consider them

the "gospel type." The guy has tattoos all the way from the top of his head all the way down to his feet and has been in and out of jail a few times. But it turns out that they have actually been looking for a

church and a good place to go to especially for their daughter to grow up in. They were really receptive and excited to learn when we went over. So we are very excited to continue teaching them. Cholo people

are the coolest.

We also found a lady named Erika. We talked to her on the street, and it seemed like she was not interested at all. She actually even tried to give the card I gave her back to me, but I wouldn't take it. After

talking for a bit, she agreed to have us over at the shoe store she works at, but she still didn't seem all that interested. The time for her appointment came and we talked with her in her store. It turned out to be an awesome lesson! She started crying when she prayed asking God for guidance and if what we shared is true. She told us she wanted to go to church the upcoming Sunday. The only thing is, it turns out she lives in the El Molino branch area (Pasadena/El Sereno area). So we gave her the Pasadena building address and all the details. Along with that, we gave the el Molino missionaries a call so they could keep an eye out for her. We called later on Sunday, and it turned out

she did go to church! And on top of that, she brought someone with her as well! Even though she is not in our area, i am very happy that we were able to find her and help her out. Can't wait to see the el

Molino missionaries teach her and baptize her.

Another cool person we found was one of our member's good friends. The Giron family is the member family and they are awesome. We have been taking out the son, David, to lessons a lot and is really excited about missionary work. David is in his early 20s and is married with a kid. Anyways, David invited us over to his house along with his friend Carlos. Last week, Carlos messages us on Facebook off of David's

profile asking a lot of questions about the church. He was kind of rude about the questions, so we weren't super excited to go over and meet him face to face. But he turned out to be a super awesome guy. He

reminded me a lot of one of my friends from back home, it was kind of cool haha. He was really receptive and it all clicked for him. He talked about how he was looking for the truth and felt confused and lost for a long time now. He said he has been thinking a lot about this kind of stuff recently and has been feeling certain impressions and feelings to not do certain bad things. In other words, he was feeling the spirit guide him to not do dumb things.

So I guess the moral of the story for this week is to not judge a book by its cover. Although first impressions do last, it doesn't hurt to get over them and really get to know people. 

I am grateful that the spirit has been guiding us to these great people and also that it has helped us guide these people back to their Heavenly Father.

The church is true!

Love you all!!

Week 38- April 28, 2014- Lincoln Hights-East L.A.

Jose's baptism

Dear home,

So this past weekend we had a baptism, the guys name is Jose Mendez. I don't think I shared the story of how we found him so I'm going to share it. 

I told you how I met him at a a taco stand, but at that time I just got his information. One evening, we didn't have any idea where to go and we were with a member, so we decided to pray.

After we prayed, an address came to mind and we went to it, I didn't remember the guys name or anything, I just remember that there was someone I met there. So we went to the address and it was Jose (which

I later remembered his name). We had a lesson with him and he accepted a baptismal date on the first visit! 

This past week was probably the most stressful week ever. I told you last week how we were helping him

find a house, but it got more stressful this week, he had to leave by 2 days ago and we talked to just about everyone and called any for rent sign we saw. After all the house hunting we found one place that

was a small house in the back of someone's property. Jose was SUPER close to moving outside of the mission until we found this house. So we went to the house (a lady from El Salvador who's niece is an inactive member, who gave us the referral) and after some negotiating with her and a member that we brought, she let us have it! BUT it doesn't end there. The day after, I went on exchanges with the APs in

Boyle Heights and Elder Fellows called me with some bad news. The lady backed out on the house... That whole day I felt horrible and was praying that it would somehow work out. I went back home from

exchanges and Elder Fellows had just gotten home from talking with the house lady... And somehow, after talking to her after a while with a member, they got it back and now everything's ok. 

I think I caught a glimpse of how it is to house hunt for my dad. But I think if I could find a house in this man's budget in Los Angeles, I can find one almost anywhere hahah. So long story short, everything ended up working out and he got baptized. It was pretty cool to hear him bear his testimony after he got baptized. He was saying how when I was talking to him at the taco stand, he felt the spirit and that he should have us over.

Another cool thing that happened was when we taught Jose S.yesterday. We shared with him Alma 36, and the whole time he was smiling. It seemed to have answered a lot of his questions and helped him realize how he can repent and be clean. If you don't know what

that chapter consists of, read it! It was cool to see Jose put himself in the shoes of Alma. They had both done some pretty dumb stuff in the past. Only difference is that Alma finished his repentance process,and Jose is now starting it.

Not a ton of eventful things happened this week, still a good week Alma 36nonetheless, it was an awesome week. Love you all!

Week 37 -April 21, 2014-Lincoln Heights

Dear Everyone,

  Happy Easter first off! We didn't have anything too out of the ordinary happen. We did eat dinner with the English elders with a white older couple who's workers were investigators at one point. We had lasagna for the first time in forever! Kind of weird haha. But it was cool, the guy is a prospector so he was talking about gold and prospecting the whole time. Oh how I love being in Spanish work.

 

We had a ton of people go to church yesterday too! One family in particular that a lot of missionaries have struggled to get to progress in the past came! It was awesome. They are the Alvarez family. The dad is an inactive member, but his mom is really active and his younger sister was the one who we baptized last. They are an awesome family of four, one 14 year old boy and a 9 year old girl. So it was awesome to see them come. But they have another brother that we started visiting that is inactive, but he is a bit more stubborn. It's crazy because this family all lives on the same street. But the two brothers haven't seen each other in years! Hno. Alvarez (the one that came to church) said it's because they just don't get along and they get into big fights. Pretty crazy, they won't even talk to each other. Hopefully that will change one day.

This upcoming weekend, we are going to have a baptism! Jose M. will be getting baptized this week. He is doing awesome, just working on giving up coffee, which he is doing better and better at. He has to move out this week so we have been trying to find him a room or some sort of studio/apartment thing. We've spent a lot of time just talking to people and asking around and calling. But trying to find housing in Los Angeles is ridiculous. So we are still working on that.

Something cool that happened yesterday as well was that Pasadena (there is Spanish branch there which is in our zone) had 3 baptisms! And we invited Vilma to them and she took us, and Jose M. to go see them. It was awesome! Vilma has been doing awesome! She told us she wants to get baptized, but wants to wait a bit now to resolve some money situations so she doesn't fail on paying tithing. Which I am fine with haha,

This week, we also had exchanges with the Arroyo district leader: Elder Giles. Elder Giles is a bit older in the mission and is from Nebraska. He's a super cool guy. He has an awesome attitude which was good to be around and learn from. And we had some funny things happen hahah...

Well that is our week in a nutshell. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Love you all!

Back in Boyle Hights

Week 36- April 14, 2014- Lincoln Heights, East L.A.

Dear home,

For starters, this week was transfer week, but elder Fellows and I

stayed together in Lincoln Heights. There were quite a few changes

throughout the mission, but not really in our zone. Elder Ramos,

mijito, got called to be a zone leader in El Monte! Pretty crazy! He

is in the other Spanish stake in our mission now, so I probably won't

see him as much. President seems to be getting rid of all the old guys

one by one. I think it's to make sure that the new mission president

has good, young people in leadership by the time he gets here so we

can help him know what's going on.

Nothing too crazy or out of the norm happened this week. Jose S. Is

still doing awesome and is progressing very well. He missed general

conference, but he watched like half of it on his own and said he is

going to finish it soon. And he's been taking a lot of notes while

watching. We went over his house the other day and we sat on his couch

and all of a sudden he got really embarrassed. We asked him why and he said it was because he had a gun behind the couch we were sitting on

hahah. 

He told us how he has given up we pretty hard drugs since he's

met us, but still smokes the green every once in a while, but wants to

stop. He is super sincere and doing awesome. I think if I had met him

a year ago, or if anyone saw him without knowing him, they would not

really have a lot of hope in him. Heck, I don't think a lot of people

would have trusted him, knowing where he is coming from. 

But the cool thing about being a missionary is that a lot of times we are the only

people that believe in these people of east LA, or wherever it may be.

So it is always really cool seeing who we meet and help.

I don't think I've mentioned Rosy before. On my first day in Lincoln

Heights, we met this lady named Rosy, who let us come by. We thought

she was an investigator, but it turned out that she is an inactive

member from forever ago. But she has been helping us a lot and we have helped her get back to activity. Every time she comes to church, she pays her tithing hahah. And she always gives us money! 

They thing about people here is that they will not let you not accept their money and they get pretty mad if we don't take it... But we always take it

and end up hiding it in her stuff. And she keeps doing our laundry

when we leave it to wash, even though we tell her not to. But it seems

she won't stop no matter what we say, so we've given up on making her

stop her charity hahah. She has pretty much been our mom out here.

It's funny because she literally knows everyone. We've taken her to

lessons sometimes and walked around so she can tell us where her

friends are and she literally knows everyone in Lincoln heights. So we

are helping her be a good missionary as well so she can use that to

her advantage.

Vilma, the lady we found by me using her bathroom, is doing awesome

as well. She has been going to church, reading, and everything! So we

are very excited to see her progress. We have found a lot more quality

people recently who are actually willing to do their part. So that has

been fantastic.

Tell Jakob that we went penny boarding all day so I am working on the

weight loss thing hahah. Cuz the collars around my neck are starting

to get a little tight... Kamilla and Valentina look a lot bigger! That's awesome, love you all!

Week 35- April 7, 2014- Lincoln Heights, East L.A.

Dear home,

This week felt so long but yet it went by so fast. We started off by

going to the Los Angeles temple with the MLC and our mission president

(or our general authority now haha). We had to get up really early,

and we barely made it. My companion thought he set the alarm, but he

forgot to actually turn it on... So we were zooming to Arcadia from

Los Angeles and midway I realized that I didn't have my temple

recommend... I thought I was going to be that guy in the group, but I

wasn't the only one. Luckily, president Becerra has the hook ups and

talked to the workers there and they gave us a temporary recommend.

After all the stress, lack of food, and hustle of the morning, it was

nice to be inside the temple and feel the spirit. It was amazing! If

you haven't gone yet, you need to go, because it is just amazing. I

learned a lot. 

Right after the session, we all stayed in our white

clothes and went to the chapel inside and the temple president talked

to us. We had a Q and A and a lot of people asked about certain temple

processes but a lot of his responses consisted of "I don't know." He

said that not even president Thomas S. Monson knows, they have just

received revelation that that's how it needs to be so that's how it

is. Pretty interesting... After the temple session, we went to the

visitors center to have the MLC meeting. We pretty much spent the

whole day there! We focused a lot on planning and a relating planning

to God planning the creation, fall, atonement. Needless to say, after

all was done, I was very tired and hungry... Which seems to happen

consistently ahaha.

There is a lot I feel like I could say, but I am just going to focus

on what has happened in the area.

We have been finding a lot of great investigators who are very

prepared, we set 3 new baptismal dates this week and each on the first

lesson! I love finding those humble, ready people haha. Jose S. Is

doing great too! We only got to teach him once this past week, but

when we did, it was awesome. We gave him a church tour and he asked alot of questions about baptism. Such as, what he needs to wear, what

he needs to do, how it is, etc.. It seems like it is still running

through his mind, which is awesome! He asked if he could by his own

clothes when he gets baptized to cover his arms since he has tattoos

from the wrists all the way up to his chest and back. We were so

impressed with all his questions! The member we brought with us even

dropped a hint of Jose getting married (he lives with his girlfriend)

and he said that is something he wants to do and has actually been

thinking about! So cool! It's been really cool to see him each visit.

He just keeps looking happier and happier.

One of the baptismal dates we set this week is a man named Jose

(another Jose, you find a lot of people named Jose, Jesus, and Maria).

Very humble guy I met at a taco stand and accepted a visit from us and

was very open and ready. We introduced the Book of Mormon to him the

second lesson and he loved it. He was on the verge of crying as we

shared it, so awesome!

It has been a really great week! This is the last week of the

transfer, elder fellows and I will probably stay together for another,

but we'll see!

Something kinda interesting that happened as well is that we had a

nice dinner with our episcopalian neighbors. There is an episcopalian

church down the street and the "Franciscan brotherhood" of that church

live by it. So they actually invited us to dinner this past week. It's

a really nice house with 5 episcopalian priests from all over the

world. When we first walked in, they were reading scriptures and

reciting prayers haha, so we sat and read with them. And then one of

the priests who is from England, made us some delicious food. Only

thing is that there were no tortillas... It was a pretty cool

experience haha. But anyways, all is well in arroyo, love you!!

Making salsa and eating it!