1-21-14

Hellooooooo Everybody!!!!

Anthony is 6.. What did I tell you guys about growing up too fast while I'm away!!!

Sorry if you guys were expecting an email yesterday, the libraries were closed due to Martin Luther King Day so our P-day is today. This week has been swell. We taught Mindy and her husband Jason again on Thursday and focused on prayer and on the scriptures. They are progressing, just very slowly, we are all on different levels and I'm alright with that. I just don’t want to get transferred out of Murrieta right after we found these awesome people! Transfer calls are actually this Saturday, so I'll let ya’ll know if I’m leaving or not next week. We did service at the horse ranch again yesterday and last we did some more service at the sports park sanding gates around a swimming pool and repainting them. Next week will be torture because, guess what? We get to sand the fences around the skate park and repaint them! haha. Should be fun. We have been getting to know the members of our ward a lot better too. We stopped by one of the members of our ward and found out she has cancer, so we’ve been talking with her a lot and boosting her spirits, trying to help her through it and put a smile on her face. Last night the primary president, Sister Baak, invited her friend over for dinner and she brought her whole family with her too, there was about 10 of them plus the whole Baak family. We just happened to be there too, so we gave a short little spiritual message using the scriptures. It was awesome! The spirit was super strong and we planted a seed with that whole family. Sister Baak is amazing, if it weren’t for her we would have starved multiple times because she feeds us when we don’t have any families scheduled for dinner, she would seriously feed us every night and be okay with it, but not only that she’s an awesome member missionary. I could go into further detail but for the sake of time I'll just leave it at that, if there were more members like her the world would be a better place.

Well my time has been come to an end here.

Stay strong, stay true, and look after one another while I'm gone, alright?

I love you all,

-Elder Daniel

-Went on our Santa Rosa Plateau hike we do once every transfer this morning.

-More from our adventure.

 

-Caught Brother Smedley off guard

-A tree blooming in Brother Smedley's yard and it was 80 degrees when I took this last week.. sorry guys, haha

My first time driving in 7 months, oh how I miss the Cougar

1-13-14

Hey Everybody!!

I got the picture of Walter and my boy Elder Lealiiee, where did you guys see him at?! Looks like he's doing work where ever he's at. 

 

 

 

 

 

This week has been pretty awesome! So we taught Mindy the Gospel of Jesus Christ on Wednesday and her husband joined in too. We found out that her husband actually used to be a member and was baptized by someone in one of the wards in our building. So now were working on getting both of them into activity and helping build their faith and testimonies stronger and stronger. We still haven't been able to meet with Robert, his family is all sick with the flu :/ But we've had a ton of success with talking to people on the street. On Tuesday we ran into a guy named Mosiah.. yeah like from the Book of Mormon, haha, we started talking to him and we found out he's a music producer, he writes music, and he raps. He travels to different parts of the world for work and he was back visiting his family for the holidays. So we ended up teaching him the whole first lesson on his front porch right after we talked to him. It was so awesome!! We gave him a copy of the BOM and told him there was a book in it with the same name as his, so he was super stoked about that and told us he would definitely read it. We also gave out about 6 other Books of Mormon to other people on the street and had similar contacts like Mosiah. We’ve also been helping a bunch of members get set up with their family history. One member we helped was Joe Scott who is only a convert of about 7 years, is in his 70's and always tells us stories about when he was a kid in New York and New Jersey, let me tell ya, this old man has been around the block a time or two, haha. Anyway there was nothing on his family tree because he and his wife are the only members of their family. After a few hours we helped him find a bunch of his relatives from back in the 1800's from Naples and Catania Italy, it was so cool. He has never been to the temple either and now he's got a ton of names he can take when he goes. So it has been a good week. I hope everything back down south is in order and things are starting to warm up a bit. 

Well guys, stay strong, stay true, and look out for each other while I'm away, alright?

I love you all,
-Elder Daniel

 

Walter! I found a picture of you in the Ensign!! Your famous man!!! haha

 

 

 

 

1-6-14 Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!!!!

Where did 2013 go?! It was a great year, lots of great things happened, the only thing that stinks about it is it went by waaaaay too fast. As of now I'm still in Murrieta, it is the farthest north our mission goes and borders the Riverside Mission. I’m half way through my 3rd transfer here, and a transfer cycle is 6 weeks, so I’ve almost been here for 4 months now. I’m thinking I’m leaving the area after this transfer. I've been here for a little bit. Thanks for all the Christmas gifts you guys!! It was so great to see all of yall!! You guys are growing up way too stink'n fast!! 

Things are starting to pick up here a little bit since the holidays are winding down. We actually picked up a new investigator this week while we were on exchanges, her name is Mindy and she seems super solid. I've been thinking a lot about the work here. I’ve felt like my entire mission I’ve been working so hard teaching people and helping them to progress towards baptism only to be transferred out of my area or we've had no one to teach and have been working super hard with members or through talking to people on the street and not have any results from our efforts of finding people. And It is been a little discouraging, but then I remembered what you told me about your visiting teacher in New Jersey who helped you find your way back to the church. I realized that if it wasn't for her, I probably wouldn't have grown up in the church, I probably wouldn't have met all the amazing people in my life that I have, I probably wouldn’t have learned all the things I know now, I definitely wouldn't have been an eagle scout, I probably wouldn't be the person I am today and I probably wouldn’t be serving a mission right now writing you this email from southern California. I remembered some very specific revelation I received while I was at the MTC. I was praying very hard to know why I had made this decision in my life and why I was there, I didn’t know what I had gotten myself into. I received a very clear impression that I was here to bless the lives of others, to help them, to bring them back, to help them find their Savior, to ease them of their pain. No matter how unprepared or inadequate I felt. I realized it is not all about baptizing people, but it is about helping others come back to their Savior, whether that be through helping investigators, recent converts, less actives, or whoever it may be. I have the amazing opportunity to influence future generations, just like your visiting teacher in New Jersey did for us. 

I hope everything back home is going smoothly. Jeffery said it was getting pretty nippy down there, heard you guys are having weather in the single digits. Stay warm ya hear!!

Alright, Well I love all you guys, stay strong, stay true, and look out for each other while I’m gone okay?

-Elder Daniel

Page 11 in the white handbook says elders need to shave everyday...)

 

12-30-13

Hello Everybody!!

 Thank you guys for the presents, the ties, the music, the CTR rings, the flag, the watch, the money AND the date filled cookies. I only need about one of those a week or I'll go into a sugar coma, haha. It was great to see all you guys! I still can’t get over how deep Walter's voice is. He might be able to beat me up by the time I get back. Looked and sounded like everyone was doing great! I can’t wait for Mother’s Day now, it is right around the corner, haha.

 This week has still been very slow due to the Holidays, especially this week because of Christmas. We managed to get a lesson in with one of our former investigators, Mike. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I don’t know if I already told you about him before, but he has been taught by the missionaries for a while and he still has some issues with things. We are still working with him trying to find out how we can help him feel the spirit and provide him with what he needs. The best things for him right now that were working on with him is building his faith in Jesus Christ and helping him understand that God is his loving Heavenly Father. 

            I went on exchanges with one of my zone leaders at the beginning of the week, Elder Roundy. He's quite the character, haha. He knows how to make missionary work fun and still get things done. I went to his area and the work was pretty slow there as well, but we got some awesome contacts and potentials from talking to people on the street. We also had to make a mail run before Christmas so everyone in the zone got their presents on time, so we took a road trip all the way to Vista, picked up the mail, went to lunch at a burger place called The Habit, then dropped off everyone's mail in the zone.

            Yesterday at church the topic for sacrament meeting was Patriarchal Blessings. It was a good refresher about what they are and how much of a blessing and personal guide they are in our lives. Every worthy member is entitled to one, so get worthy and get it if you haven't already! I wish I would've gotten mine way sooner than I did. You don’t really have to be a certain age either, one of the speakers said that her dad, who was the Patriarch of the Irvine Stake, gave a Patriarchal blessing to an 8 year old before, it really just depends on when you feel ready. Another cool thing is our Stake, the Murrieta Stake, was chosen out of 14 stakes in the entire world to pilot a family history program and using it in missionary work, helping others feel the spirit of Elijah and getting them interested in the church. That’s another thing that you guys can do as well, start getting involved in family history work, genealogy, and feel'n the spirit of Elijah.

Well I gotta go. Like I always say, be strong, stay true, and look out for each other while I'm gone, alright?

I love you guys,

-Elder Daniel

(One night we went exploring and found this sign at the edge of our area.)

 

(Oh ya know, just doing some weekly planning..  Feliz Navidad!!)

 

 

Madison Missionary Elder Fellows

So many great kids from our area that are out in the field. Great story here is the link.
http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2013/12/mormon_missionary_christmas.html