Called to Serve: A serious Mother's Day Party and kissing a baby.

Hello Family!

I really enjoyed the Mothers day call. Thanks for all being there and talking. I hope you all enjoyed that, it made me happy to be able to see and talk to you all. Dad, of course I read your emails, don;t worry. Also today I sent a letter off to Grandma and Grandpa so hope that arrives to them soon. I was laughing on the letter from Tyler about the people not committing to church. That is so how it is or they say, "Si dios quiere." Which is "If God wants." We always then say , "Of course God wants you to be there." Just was funny to hear that its not just here that people say things like that.

So for the things that happened this week. Not too much of an eventful week just because of transfers but it was a good week. Yeah I just don't find a whole lot of time anymore for my journal even though I record it, so these letters are going to be my journal. :)

On Monday we had a great lesson with the Garcia family. They are amazing. They have come back to church now and are solid he left his job so that they could attend church on Sunday. We brought a ward missionary with us to teach them the plan of salvation. I love this family so much, Veledia and Rosita the two little daughters are so funny and cute. They always put their chairs right next to us when we teach and love holding the pictures and always want to pray! We always have this joke too between us about chile (hot food). We eat with them sometimes and when we do they always put hot salsa on it. They always laugh, but I love it.

After that we went by an old investigator sister Regina and visited her. We just invited her to the mothers day activity and then asked her for a referral if she knew anyone that would be interested in coming to the party also. She actually gave us someone. We left her with a Family Proclamation and invited her to read it. It was good to see her again, she accepted that the sisters could come by. We tried to call the Rosales after because they have been out of the loop for a while due to not having a lot of money. We were able to get a hold of them and invited them to the activity. It was good to talk to them. That night we snarfled up to the mission office to pick up the truck so that in the morning we could pick up the Bike Elders for transfers.

On Tuesday it was transfers day. We got up and got ready and at about 9 we headed to Berkeley to pick up Elder Doney and Elder Ranquist. Elder Ranquist was getting transferred so we packed up their stuff and took them up to the mission office. I brought "Tacis" a Mexican hot chip and had them try it. They liked it but it was hot!

We dropped them off at the office and switched our car and then headed to meet with our Stake missionary representative at a Thai restaurant. It was really good. We talked about the indicators and some of the things that we want to work on as a Zone and how we can work better with the stake. I love being with Brother Fairchild. After we headed back to the apartment and had our companionship study and then started Zone planning. We planned out all of our exchanges for the transfer. We are doing a lot this transfer. We scheduled to have about 11 this transfer so we could really get to work with the Elders in the Zone. I am really excited for them all. Starting tonight we have one another on Thursday and another on Saturday. I started my mission with 2-3 a transfer and now I am doing 11.

After the planning session we went to contact Donato. It was a really good contact with him! We finally got to talk to him and he was doing good. We told him that we felt bad we hadn't seen him in a while but that we wanted to see him again soon. We set an appointment to go by on Wednesday for 15 min to read with him and then a Visitors center trip on Friday He still hadn't been reading and we just don't see much interest right now. After that we went to try to contact the referral we received the previous night from Regina. We couldn't find where she lived but as we were walking on the street we stopped and talked to a lady and her 2 kids. We had a good conversation about Mothers day and about her family and then tied it into the gospel. She was interested and allowed us to set an appointment. It was really good.

After her we headed out to west Oakland to visit the Garcias for dinner. We got there a little early and found the sisters there teaching them. So in the meantime we made a walk around the block because we saw a house a couple weeks ago that looked Latino We walked over to the house and knocked on the door. A lady opened it but spoke . Before we could even do anything she say, "I have been waiting for you guys to come back, I have a book that I think you left a year ago." We just looked at each other wondering what she meant. She ran inside and ran back out with a book of Mormon that was in a nice case. She opened it up and showed it too us. She said that she found it a year ago on her porch. As I looked at it, it was a missionaries copy of the Book of Mormon, with the pass along cards and all marked up. It even had the little bits of the old discussions in it. The most amazing thing was, was as I looked on the front page, there was a name, Elder Hallen, "December 23 1953" I couldn't believe it. As we talked with her more she said that missionaries could come back so we called those Elders (The assistants) and told them about her and they said that they will go contact her as soon as possible.

We then came in contact with a man named, "The Old man." He said that's what his name was. He was dressed in nice slacks, a white Afro disco glasses and a vest. He didn't allow us to take down his info but he recognized us and said he just wanted to thank us for our work. Only in West Oakland. WE then returned back to the Garcias and ate dinner. It was really good! After dinner with them we met Brother Lopez at Edwins home (Pocasangre). He is the new investigator that we found this week, and a part member family. Rosa is a inactive member from Hayward. We had a really good lesson with them. We were able to set expectations with them and he was very interested and open. She was helping us as she testified to him of her change and the spirit that she feels at church. We weren't able to teach anything other than a summary of lesson 1. He allowed us to return back and said that he wants to learn more because he has always had the question about why there are so many churches.

After Edwin he went to our appointment with Alma E. She was going into surgery on Thursday for her shoulder so we gave her a blessing. Afterward we taught her the restoration with the Doctrine of Christ. It was a very powerful lesson and the spirit was there with us. She cried on many times and told us that she has never had the missionaries at her house to actually teach her. She thanked us and said that she loves having representatives of Jesus Christ in her home. We are helping her share the gospel with her atheist husband William.

Wednesday morning we had a district leader council that went really well. We were able to go over all the details of the Mission Leader Council and some of the things for the Zone. We had the Elders take out their planners and we got all the exchanges all planned. After the district leader Council we made nice fliers for the English class that we want to us to do our finding this week. After the fliers we went back home and did our studies. After studies we headed to make out 15 min contacts with Donato and Edwin. Edwin was not home and Donato either. It was a bummer but we went over to Irma and Manuel to invite them to English class.

With that we were able to re-arrange some lessons and line up our ducks for later that night. We ran home and ate so we could get back out. We went and were able to visit Edwin. Victor, a member, came out with us. It was a quick 15 min lesson where we read in the L1 Pamphlet with him. It went really well and he committed to reading it before next Monday. We also had talked to a younger kid earlier that day and set an appointment with him for 7. We went to go visit him but he wasn't there, wasn't too much of a surprise. I decided to knock there and we actually found a guy that was really interested in reading the Book of Mormon. We left him a copy of it and set an appointment for next week. It was really good and we were excited to see that!

After we ran by a potential investigator that we have been trying to visit for a while now. His name is Armando. Victor our member knows him from work so that was good. He was busy at the moment but we were finally able to contact him. After dropping of Victor in Berkeley we dropped by Walgreen's to buy some tums because my throat was burning.

Thursday we had a lot of planning today. We did our weekly planning in the library of the stake center...Not my favorite. I hate that library because its so small and distracting. We did it there because we had district meeting right after at 3. District meeting went really well. elder Gonzalez the district leader gave a training on "inviting members to come unto Christ." It helped us work with members better and help them share the gospel with their friends. I was able to use some of my member work things that I made back in Concord. The missionaries I practiced with really liked my idea and wanted some copies. I was able to give them some.

After district meeting we had to run to an appointment with the lady we found on Tuesday We had trouble getting into the apartment complex but finally were let in and talked to her. We didn't have a man with us so we couldn't t go in. No one is available at that hour to help us. We had to reschedule the appointment for another day. We then ran over to a quick Taco Truck and grabbed a chicken burrito. We then taught one of my favorite members, Andres A. He is so great, very short was a big heart. It went really well. He had a lot of questions about the plan of salvation like what is sin and about Adam and Eve. He is getting confused by his brother who is a baptist We were able to teach him from the Book of Mormon and the spirit was there, which comes as we teach truth.

After teaching him we ran to our class with the ward missionaries. It went really well. I did a class on how to fellowship investigators. They loved it and we are excited for them to be able to do that now more effectively with our investigators.

Friday morning we had a service project and the Greek Cathedral. We had to move all the school equipment from downstairs to the upstairs to make room for the Greek festival. It was a lot of fun to do service and the Tongan Elders came which was a big help. The lady in charge bought us Round Table pizza. She has family members that are members so we were able to talk to her a little bit about that. Elder Bradford knows too much about Greek history, and everyone was lost. After service we had our studies.

That night we didn't have much success. All of our appointments fell through because it was mothers day for central America. Everyone was out at dinner or parties and things. At 5 we went to visit a less active member but he wasn't home. We found his grandma though and began to talk with her. I asked her home many children she has and she said I have 6 but the 7th not any more. When she said that it caught my ear but my companion continued with another question. After a bit I jumped in and asked her what she meant by having 6th kids but not 7. She got emotional and said that her 7th passed away a few years ago. That was a perfect moment to be able to testify and teach of the plan of salvation. She was very receptive but she was going to be leaving back to Mexico on today (Monday).

We had a lesson set with Donato and the visitors center that night. We told him that we were going to focus on the family and the mothers and that it was going to be a really good experience for his family. HE committed to coming but when 6:15 came around and he still hadn't showed up we called him and he said he left out to dinner with his wife. We totally understand its just he committed, told us he would be there, and then has other plans. We will give him another week and if we don't see commitment we are going to drop him.

The Weises invited us over for dinner for next Wednesday which is going to be great! We went for a back up to visit some old investigators by 23rd street. We went over there but they weren't interested. We knocked the apartment complex but found no one but people that yelled at us. We stopped by a recent convert that's less-active, Juana B. and were able to talk to here and set up an appointment which was good. not much happened though.

Saturday went well! We stopped by at noon to drop off the Visitors center schedule/ videos to Alma so that she could pray about them and pick one that would help her husband change. We then did some intense finding. We did street contacting from 1:30 to 4 on Fruitvale. We were talking with everyone we could and giving out the English class fliers to everyone. We found quite a few very interesting people. One of them was a little little guy. He spoke so fast in Spanish We gave him a flier for English class but he just said that why would he need to learn English if he lives in Mexico.... He said that everyone here in Oakland speaks Spanish He was super small though.

We contacted a lot of people though as we walked up and down, but didn't find anyone in our area that was interested, just one that lived outside of the mission. After contacting we went to go contact a referral but of course the address was wrong. We were able to knock there and found a guy that the first thing he said was, "When do you want to come back and visit me." We set an appointment but we still think that he thinks we are Jehovah Witnesses He didn't have a lot of time to talk so we couldn't explain much.

Our lesson at 4:30 fell through because we couldn't get into the apartment complex. We were going to try to visit an old investigator in the apartment complex next door but there were some people blocking the entrance and we didn't want to approach.

That night was the ward Mother's day party. We felt very uncomfortable. It was really good though, because there was tons of non-actives. We were able to talk to a ton of people. The food was good, they had a salad of strips of pig fat, (The English people thought they were onions.) After we had carne asada with napalis, Cactis. That was good. The show afterward though was interesting. I got a picture with Mickey mouse. They always have big costumes and things. After that they had a show with midget people. That was one of the weirdest things I have ever experienced. They dressed up as midget people and then danced around. After that all the men tried to sing a mothers day song. It was good for not practicing. It was really good.

The Mexicans in our area are really into Mickey Mouse, so he came to the party. It was cool.

After the party though when we got home we got a call from some elders that lost their apartment key. We had to drive to the mission office to get a key and then to their place. We got back by 10:30 and got right to bed.

Sunday So to explain the title of my letter. We had a zone focus of using our time more wisely in church meetings. Elder Bradford was saying that if we want to be intensely engaged with the members we have to be like the politicians, shake some hands and kiss some babies. That is what we did, not really but yes. We were engaged in the work and with the members. We did not kiss any babies but we just used that as our key words. After church though we had a ward dinner thing with everyone. We had our calls and then went to the mission office after some fallen through appointments to do indicators.