Email Jan 21 2013

WEELLLLLL I’m in O! yayy!!! If you pull out a map of the areas I’ve been in I’ve really seen the whole mission. It’s pretty crazy! My companions name is Elder B. He is from Canada!! I’ve officially now had a companion from not Utah or Idaho! haha He is really awesome and we get along really well! I’m still confused at our area but figuring it out as fast as I can. We have a total of 8 companionships in the zone including us which equals 17 missionaries because there is a sister companionship of 3. Yes we have 5 sisters in our zone.... that’s a lot haha. We have a lot of really good missionaries in the zone. I miss being in a singles ward. But don’t mind it here. Good things are starting to happen in the zone already though so we are excited. There are a lot of Spanish people here. There are even a lot of posters, stores, billboards, etc. that are all in Spanish only. We don’t have a TON of investigators but we have a few and we have 3 baptismal dates. We set one after I got here and it was a really awesome and powerful lesson but afterwards that Sunday she didn’t come to church so I’m not sure what to do with her. We have been really praying and fasting. Hopefully things will work out. We are planning on getting at least 3 new investigators this next week! And setting at least 2 more dates. Most of the people in the ward are young couples going into medical areas because there is a medical school close by in P. Met a lot of really nice people yesterday but it’s just still weird not being in a singles ward anymore. Our other 2 investigators M and C are both pretty awesome. Christina came to church on Sunday and liked it. Manuel had to work Sunday which was rough. So we have dates for M, C, and M. That’s like 3 weeks in a row! That would be soooo awesome! Oh yeah so we live with members again which is kind of awesome. We live in their upstairs which isn’t very big. But is pretty nice. The members are also Tongans! Cool huh? They are super awesome! Well that’s pretty much all for this week! Hopefully I’ll have lots to write about in the next letter! Love you tons! 

Email Jan 7 2013

I really like the picture! So I’m not going to write much again this week mostly because once again I have a really bad migraine but I want to write about R’s baptism. The baptism was yesterday and it was amazing! Stressful but amazing. So we forgot to find some keys to the building and we went to go fill up the font at 4:45 and realized we didn’t have keys so we were calling around and nobody was answering. FINALLY we got someone to come over and started filling the font about 5:30. We had waited in our truck in the pouring rain haha. Luckily it was filled in time but sadly it wasn’t warm haha. R’s best friend M baptized him which was really neat. He was so happy and so ready and there were a ton of young single adults there as support it was super super awesome and soooo spiritual. There was a girl in the ward that did a special musical number in it and it was awesome! He was talking before and was like "How do you guys know so much? I want to know as much as you and like teach a class." haha it is amazing to hear the person you helped get baptized say that. He was really really prepared and it was really really amazing to see him change is life yesterday and get baptized. Earlier today we went on a hike to an awesome little mountain called Mormon rocks and it was really fun but really windy and cold. We got some cool pictures. After that we went bowling and Elder C and I paid for a couple Spanish missionaries because they found 8 new investigators this last week and we were really proud of them. I REALLY love the missionaries in our zone they are soo awesome. After that I went and slept and tried to get my migraine to not hit me full on but oh well. So I will email a little more about our week and some interesting things in a couple of days but I need to email president about a couple problems we need taken care of. I love you tons! Have an awesome week!

 

Email Jan 2 2013

Well the libraries were closed on Monday so I’m sending you a quick email today. It was so good to see you guys! I’m sorry I wasn’t too talkative and everything it had been a really hard, stressful week. Hopefully things will be getting better soon. Starting with the baptism of R that is on Sunday! We have sooo much to do to prepare and its really neat because he told us about how his mom was really against it but he told her that it made him happy and it was his life and he said that he just always imagines himself getting married in the temple and that’s where he really wants to be. SUCH a neat guy! I’m so happy for him. I will let you know how that baptism goes when I email on Monday. Other than that things are good.  Satan is just trying to get in the way of our missionary work. We work hard but nothing seems to happen. It all just depends on the attitude we have. I love being a zone leader because I have learned so much and there is still more things I need to learn. W is still planning on getting baptized on the 19th which is really exciting and then that will be pretty much all of our investigators so we are trying to help our members do better missionary work and get them more pumped up. We had a really good lesson with a family about how to gain a desire to do missionary work because none of them really had it. They are working on organizing a breakfast where they will invite a lot of non-members and we are going to have a lesson with them. Things are going well and I’m just happy to start of this year with a baptism. My goal by the end of my mission is to have 26 baptisms total. I’m a little over halfway there. That means I get to work really hard but it should be a little easier the farther along I get because I know more of what I need to do to help people progress and how to REALLY do missionary work. Well that’s about it for the week. I have more to tell you but it will have to wait till Monday. I love you tons!

 

Email Dec 10 2012

Well my new companion is.............. Elder C! He was my roommate last year when I was companions with Elder H. It was crazy that we got put together and we are going to get a lot accomplished. At church yesterday we got a list from bishop that has the names of people who are single and between the ages of 18-30 and there are 900 names!! Some of them are on missions and some of them really are married but still that is going to be one heck of a list to try and contact! Our goal is to double sacrament meeting attendance! It shouldn’t be extremely hard since we average about 40 people. So we need like 40 names out of 900. Not bad at all. Our zone is still really awesome. We got some new greenies who seem like they are going to be really good workers. Not really too much happened this last week. We were trying to get things ready for the upcoming weeks and we helped in a Nativity that our stake put on and we had a booth with missionary stuff, mormon.org playing, and a table with a big sheet of paper across it that said "what does Christmas mean to you?" and people could write on it. That had the most success of anything we had but it was really really fun to be there and our investigator C came and we sat with him and had a good time. So we also taught R again and invited him to be baptized he said he doesn’t feel 100% ready yet but he had his friends there with him and they bore their testimonies and it was really powerful.  I talked to his friend M on Sunday and he said that R said he does want to get baptized but he wants to really know it’s true when he does so that "When people ask why he got baptized he would know what to say." He is really solid and we are planning on having a really good lesson with him this week. We found out W is going to be staying here over the break! Her family all got sick so she’s not going down to see them yet which gives us more time to teach her.   Her Boyfriend actually took her to church the week she was with him out at a Marine Ball which I thought was a cool thing for him to do.  She is super super awesome and I can totally see her being an awesome member of the church. Not really too much else right now. Just holding down the fort here in S B. Glad to hear you had such a good time in Disney world! Love you tons!

Email Dec 3 2012

Good to know that all the college stuff is taken care of. Well first off I guess I will write about transfers... I’m staying! But sadly Elder H is leaving. It wasn’t really unexpected though because he has been in this ward for 9 months. I’m very anxious to find out who my companion is. Usually there is just a small variety of choices for zone leaders but for some reason every zone leader companionship is changing except for 1 that means that I have 7 people who could possibly be my companion. Some are exciting and others not so much. Kind of anxious because I don’t like getting new companions (I can’t wait to get married and have the last companion forever ;) haha )

 We had a pretty good week. I went on exchanges with Elder M on Tuesday and we taught 3 lessons and got 1 new investigator who is super super solid! I’ve talked a little about him and this was the first time we got to teach him. On Sunday our investigator’s grabbed me and said. "Elder He's ready. Talk about it with him on Tuesday." So we are going to have a baptism in this ward before the year is done! The only one so far! He has already been coming to church for about 9 weeks so church is no problem we just have to teach him now and baptize him! Also on Tuesday we taught W and she said she had been thinking a lot about baptism and wants to get baptized when she gets back from winter break. I was a little worried about that but for the last week of her winter break she will be at her boyfriend’s home with his family and they are all members so she will have a lot of support from that! Things are rolling forward and hopefully will go faster and faster!

 We also got to have a cool experience this morning and go help our ward clean the temple! They do such a thorough job at it! It was really funny because the temple is locked and so we rang the bell for a worker to let us in and the man who let us in was Brother Garcia from Chaffey ward! That is where we had Thanksgiving dinner last year! I also saw Brother Nielsen, our ward mission leader in Big Bear! It was super cool to see them all and we got some good pictures outside the temple.

Email Nov 26 2012

I’m pretty excited for Christmas! Transfer calls are on Saturday and then after that I will know where I will be for Christmas! Hopefully still here! I can’t believe that Preston is home! That flew! How was his mission? Did he enjoy Japan? I think it would have been crazy to be out of the country but I’m glad that I’m here! Not really much happened this last week... so I don’t have much to write about. So I’m just going to write my paragraph for the ward news

I’ve now been out on my mission for 15 months and am loving every moment of it. I am one of the few missionaries who has been in each of the diverse areas. I’ve served in the city (the middle class, the high class, and now the lower class) I served in the High desert and also in the mountains and now I’m serving in a Young Single Adult ward. I guess all that is left is a Polynesian ward! It has been a great experience that I wouldn’t take back for the world. I would highly suggest that everyone who is able to serve a mission should because it will bless your life in so many ways! Love you all!

Well this last week wasn’t too bad.... haha pretty much EVERYTHING fell through. Probably one of the worst weeks I’ve had out here. Thanksgiving was even lame. The only fun part of Thanksgiving was the turkey bowl that morning. We played for about 3 hours then went home and cleaned up and relaxed and went to our dinner. Turns out we had some miscommunication and we were supposed to be there at 12 but we got there about 1:45 so most of the food was gone and what was left was cold. I get more full on my every day dinners than I did on Thanksgiving. After that we went by to see Elder U and his companion and then went to a member’s house that night about 6:30 for pie. That was all that happened on our Thanksgiving. I was feeling pretty homesick a lot of the day wishing I could be with the family.

 

On Tuesday we had exchanges and I went on bike with Elder A who has been out about 3 months. Everything fell through. We tracted a little bit of an apartment complex and had some decent success and I also learned how to bunny hop on a bike which was fun! Then we went to institute that night and had a really awesome lesson about how grateful we all are about the gospel. President Andrews who teaches used a comparison that I thought was really good about sharing the gospel. For the people who are afraid to share the gospel because they might offend their friend he said. "Would you be offended if I offered you a glass of Orange juice? Even if I didn’t want the Orange juice I still wouldn’t be offended that you offered it." I thought that was very well put and I’m probably going to start using that when people use that excuse.

Wednesday we did find a new person to teach and it went really well. She is the friend of one of our members and she was coming over to bake with the member and so we were also invited to share a message and to try their food they made! We taught the first half of the plan of salvation talking about pre earth life, the creation, Adam and Eve, and why we are here on Earth. She was paying really good attention and we were able to set up another appointment to finish the lesson the upcoming Wednesday.

Sunday we got some good news! A member has been bringing his friend to church and activities for the past month or so and he said that this last week he took him to the LA temple and they watched the Restoration movie and he really liked it and that he wants to meet with us and take the lessons!! We are teaching him tomorrow and he will hopefully get baptized very soon!

Well that is about all from the last week! Love you tons have a great week this week!!

Email Nov 20 2012

I’m really excited for Thanksgiving! We got invited to a few people’s homes. We are playing football with the stake in the morning and then there are a couple people who are having late Thanksgiving meals on like Saturday that invited us. We even had a Thanksgiving meal last night! ahhh it’s so good!

 

I can’t believe it’s already week 5 of the transfer! It’s going way fast. Today we are going up with some other missionaries to Lake Arrowhead to go visit around the village and look at all the shops and just have a relaxing pday. It’s been kind of funny because Elder H and I have been trying to work on our Spanish. I can now pray in Spanish. Not well. But it’s getting there! haha I’m going to keep practicing. It will be useful if I can learn Spanish.

There’s another Kevin Graf??? woah!

 

Well this week was pretty good! We had a couple really awesome experiences. One was when I was tracting with Elder N. We go up to our first door and Elder N knocks. Nothing. He knocks again. Nothing. He knocks one last time and waits and then goes to put a card on the door and all of a sudden somebody knocks from the other side. It took us by surprise but I thought it was funny so I knocked back in a little beat. Then he knocked again. After that we just waited for a minute and a younger guy opened the door and was like "hey you didn’t finish the beat." We all laughed and then started to share a little about our message. He told us he is a big believer in Jesus and asked if we had any reading material so without hesitation Elder N asked him if he had heard of the Book of Mormon. We then explained what it was and asked him to read Moroni’s promise and then got his info to come back. We bore our testimonies to him and Elder N stuck a pass along card in the Book of Mormon on 2 Nephi 33 and asked him to read it and he asked if we were thirsty, got us some water and while we drank the water he stood there and read the chapter. After he finished he said he really liked what he had read and wanted us to come back. It was sooooo neat and the Spirit was sooo strong. After that a little ways up the street there were a couple of kids trying to get a couple of balls out of a tree we asked if they wanted help. Turns out they had a basketball, a soccer ball and 3 footballs all stuck in this big ol tree. So Elder N got one football out and the basketball out and then Elders H and P showed up and Elder H got one of the other footballs out and was working on the soccer ball and I was trying to get the highest football. Finally we were going to just give up and go but we both gave them one more shot. I threw the basketball up and hit the football out! But that’s not all. The basketball came back down, bounced twice and swooshed into the basketball hoop! Haha that couldn’t be repeated if I tried the rest of my life!

 

Not too much else was really neat this week. We did get to go with our ward down to Redlands temple and set up the manger scene they have out and that was super fun. Sadly I forgot my camera but when we go back to the temple to help clean it in a couple weeks I’ll take some pictures. Well that was pretty much the highlights from our week! Love you tons!