3/30/2015 P-Day #21

Hi family!

Thanks Grandma Clark, Omie and Papa, Cami, and Mom for the letters/packages! I really appreciate it!

So I realized that I lost the envelope that Lauren and Tanner's letter came in and I don't have their address anymore... Can I get that so I can mail my letter to them? Haha I had a bit of a blonde moment!

So this is how last week went:

Monday: I went to the dentist down in Lake Elsinore and he basically told me to wait it out and see if my jaw improved on it's own. (I already wrote about that last week so I won't spend much time talking about it!) We had dinner with the Hogues, who are recent converts. They fed us country-style ribs and they were super good! They have a wheelchair sitting around their house and all four elders fight over who gets to sit in it at dinner time! It's a little pathetic! Haha

Tuesday: Today we had our district meetings. We have them every week, but I guess I don't' normally mention them in my emails. We talked about how to help people accept a date to be baptized and how to help them overcome concerns that they have with progressing towards baptism. We were on our way to lunch afterwards, when the Babcocks called us and asked us to come give Sis. Babcock a blessing. Sister B has been suffering from lung cancer and the doctors have told her that they can't do anything else for her. We walked in and you could just feel the tension in the air. They had some family over and they were all sitting around her bed. Brother B asked me to give her the blessing. It was an amazing experience. The spirit was really strong and after the blessing, the room felt really peaceful. Later that night we went to see Terry and talk to him about baptism. Since he lives in the same house as his ex-wife, he would have to move out before he could get baptized and we had to tell him about that just so we didn't drop it on him last minute! As soon as we talked to him about it, he threw up a wall and didn't want to hear any more. We tried to explain why, but he didn't want to listen... Hopefully that doesn't push him away from the church.. I guess we'll have to wait and see. 

Wednesday: Today was our weekly planning. We spend three hours planning and setting goals for the next ten days. I hate it. I'm not a fan of sitting around that long and just planning! We spent a lot of time trying to find people today, but not much happened. We talked with everybody we saw, but nobody was interested! It was also super hot, so not very many people were out and about!

Thursday: This morning we had interviews with President Mullen. He looked through our planners and talked to us about accountability. I think the principle of accountability is pretty interesting. It works alongside with agency. We are accountable to the Lord for our actions, and we are also accountable to our leaders in the Church. One thing he talked about, that I liked, is that we won't be held accountable for the results of what happened, but for the effort that we made. Usually if we give 100% of ourselves to a cause, then we'll see the results. But sometimes life happens and even though we gave our all, the end result may not be what we were expecting. All the Lord cares about is that we serve him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength! We had dinner tonight with a less-active family and their grandma was staying with them. He last name was Sutton! I feel really bad because I can't remember her first name, but I'll have to get it this week and found out if we're related at all! We also picked up two new investigators this week. Their names are Willard and Heather Ostler. They're both in their 80s. All of their family members are active members of the church, but they themselves have never joined. Since January, they have read all of the Book of Mormon, and almost all of the Doctrine and Covenants! They want to be baptized as soon as they can! The Lord has definitely prepared them to receive the gospel!

Friday: Today was our temple trip!! We went with Sister Budica again. I love love love going to the temple!! I love the spirit that is there! I always learn something new every time I go! I wish we got to go more often than once every three months, but I am grateful that we have the opportunity to go! Sister Smith invited us to her huge family night party tonight! All of her children and grandchildren were there! It was a lot of people for her tiny house. They had a fun new game that I think you guys would like! It's called One Night Werewolf and it's kind of like mafia, but there are some different twists in it! We had a lot of fun with her family!

Saturday: Today we read a chapter with Bob in the morning. He's already almost done with Ether! When I got here, he was still in 1 Nephi! I can't believe how much progress he has made! We finally saw Veronica again! It has been over a month since we've had a lesson with her. We helped her with some yard work (in our white shirts and ties!) and talked with her for a little bit. It sounds like she wants to be baptized, but she's not quite ready yet. We've made a lot of progress with her, but she still has a ways to go! I hope that she keeps progressing, though!

Sunday: Not much happened today. Since it was the fifth Sunday, all the adults met together during the third hour. They asked us to go and help out in the primary so that the teachers could go to the other meeting. We usually go to primary anyways! Elders quorum is  pretty boring.. We don't get to sing songs there! Haha I like going to primary because that's more of the level we're teaching people. We're starting at the basics. And the kids are a lot of fun too :)

Thanks everyone for the prayers, letters, packages, support, etc.. I truly love all of you! I miss you all too!!

Love, Elder Warren

3/23/2015 P-Day #20

3/23/2015

Hola!!

Thanks to Danielle, the Deatons, Noel, and Adrienne for the letters!! Also, thanks to all the Young Women back home that made the poster! I thought it was pretty funny!!

I just got back from the dentist! The mission president's wife, Sister Mullen, drove me down to Lake Elsinore, which is about 40 minutes away! The dentist checked out my mouth and jaw, and told me that I should basically wait for 3-4 more weeks and see if the pain improves and if not, he can make a mouth-guard thing for me to use at night. That wasn't really what I had been hoping to hear! Hopefully I can recover over the next few weeks! It's hard because I want to work hard but I have a headache all the time! And there's not a whole lot I can do about it.

Things have been going alright with Elder Bangerter. His personality is so different from mine that it's sometimes a little hard to get along. I'm more quite and reserved. I like to keep to myself. Not Elder Bangerter! Haha he doesn't quite understand what "personal space" is! The nicest way I can put it is he has no problem making himself feel at home! For example, he is a little obsessed with musicals. And I have the sheet music for Les Miserables and Phantom. So Elder Bangerter just goes and takes my music and plays it! If he would ask me first, I would have no problem with it! Ugh well that's enough complaining! Haha I honestly do like him! He's really nice and understanding! I knew at some point I had to have a companion that I didn't get along with, though! 

I haven't heard from Elder Taylor, yet! I was going to email him today and see how he is doing! I have heard from other people in the ward that he's talked to already! I'm not sure if he's had surgery yet or not!

So last time, there were a few questions you asked me that I totally forgot to answer and I have felt guilty all week!! I'll try and answer them now :)

Alfredo's mom's name is Maria Galvez and her address is...

xxx

xxx

You asked if hearing that you miss me makes it hard.. I don't think it makes being away from family any harder or easier. I know that I miss you guys a lot!

We taught Matthew this week about the temple and why they're so important! He's a really smart kid! He seems to already understand most of what we teach him. His mom said that the trip to Hawaii when he's going to be baptized has been pushed back to September now. 

We also taught Mark! We had dinner at Sister Budica's house (again) and she offered to let us have the lesson at her house. We watched the Mormon Message: Waiting on Our Road to Damascus, and talked about taking small steps of faith! He said that he will try and make small steps by reading and praying every day. He called us a few days later and said that he had received some revelation! He decided to go back to the Catholic church because it's "easier". Hopefully he'll realize what he's missing out on and will reach out to us again soon!

We're helping Terry quit smoking! We went through a lot of trouble to get all the supplies he would need for the program we had and even invited a senior missionary couple to come with us! When we sat down to teach Terry, he was not interested AT ALL in our program we had! He wants to do it his way... He's actually been doing pretty well. He's gone from 20 to 2 cigarettes a day which is awesome! We've started teaching him, too! Hopefully he will be ready and willing to get baptized soon!

This week has been pretty slow. We didn't find anyone new this week! But there is actually an older couple who has been coming to church the three weeks that aren't members! We met them yesterday and they seem really interested! Hopefully we will be able to meet with them soon! All of their children are members. We met their son a few weeks ago when he came to visit from Utah!

Well I don't have much else to say.. I love you all and miss you lots! I pray for all of you every day!!

Love,

Elder Warren

3/16/2015 P-Day #19

3/16/2015  

Hola!

So I've decided that I miss having a spring season!! I used to complain that Utah only really had winter and summer, but that was better than perpetual summer! It's March and it's 95 degrees outside!!! I did not sign up for this! Haha it's really not that bad! I'm already used to it!

Well thanks Omie and Papa, Myra, and Danielle for the letters! I wrote y'all back so you should get a letter soon! 

So this past week has been a bit of an adventure! I'd been having headaches and earaches so the mission nurse had me go to and Urgent Care on Thursday, thinking I had an ear infection or something like that. Nope! Turns out I have TMJ (temporomandibular joint disorder). Which means the muscles/tendons in my jaw are all tender and sore. The doctor basically said to take motrin and hope it goes away! It hasn't really gotten any better, even though I've taken medicine, cut chewy/hard foods out of my diet, and try to relax my jaw. I'll probably have to go to a dentist this week or next to see what they say to do.

The new zone leader, Elder Muir, actually lives really close to Grandma and Grandpa! He just lives on the other side of Redwood on 6200 South! Crazy! He was at Bennion Jr High with me! I can't remember him really but he looks super familiar! It's crazy!

On Saturday night, Elder Bangerter and I went to go visit the Hogues, who got baptized a little over a year ago. The ex-husband Terry also lives there. He comes to church basically every Sunday, reads from the Book of Mormon, and believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet. But he won't get baptized. We had kind of stopped pushing him because he didn't want to give up smoking and drinking. BUT the other night he was out drinking and two guys beat Terry up pretty bad! He was telling us all about it on Saturday, and then said something really crazy. He told us that he saw that as a "wake-up" call from God. He wants to quit smoking and drinking and said that he might even get baptized one day! I guess the Lord got pretty tired of speaking with a still small voice! I think sometimes the God gets tired of us not listening to the promptings of the Spirit so things have to get a little more intense! We're going over on Wednesday with one of the senior missionary couples to get him started on a 15-step quit smoking program!

Now to answer some of your questions!

We tried to go over and teach the Naber girls last week, but Robert (the dad) told us to give him a call in a couple days and we'd set something up. Hopefully they'll let us start teaching them! We got the phone number for the grandparents who take them to church on Sundays so hopefully they will be able to help!

Spring cleaning was so much fun! We ended up cleaning the whole house because it's pretty small and I don't think Sister Smith can push a vacuum around or mop.

Today we got together with all the missionaries in the stake and played soccer! There were 30 of us, so we split up into teams of 10 and rotated around every game. It was so much fun! But we're all exhausted now because we played for over and hour and it was super hot!

Elder Bangerter and I haven't really exercised together. We both go and do our own things in the morning. Sometimes I'm just so tired, I'll give up halfway through a push up and go back to sleep! It's bad! It's been super different with Elder Bangerter than it was with Elder Taylor! Mostly because Elder Bangerter and I are complete opposites! It's kind of funny actually! Physically and personality wise!

The most exciting thing that happened to me this week was the progress Terry made! That was a huge break through! I couldn't stop smiling afterwards!

My favorite meal this week was a spaghetti-caserole thing that somebody made. It was basically lasagna, but with spaghetti noodles! It was pretty cool.

I don't think I was scared this week... Oh wait! Our neighbor has a demonic dog named Chucky who has chased us on many occasions and I am positive that he will bite us! Well we were walking past and the gate was open and out comes Chucky! We just kept walking and kicked at him if he got close! Eventually he left us alone! That was pretty scary! But for some reason, he has a cone of shame! I laughed pretty hard when I saw him!

Well that's all I've got to say...

I love you all and miss you lots!!

Love,

Elder Warren

These pictures are from the Chinese New Year Celebration that the Chinese Branch put on.  There were over 600 people there!

3/9/2015 P-Day #18

Thanks Danielle for the letter! If anyone else has sent letters this past week, don't worry, I'll get them within the next few days!

So I'm staying in Mira Loma with Elder Bangerter for another transfer! Elder Child is leaving and we'll be getting a new zone leader, Elder Muir. Everyone has said that he is just like me, except he's about 5'5" tall! 

I'm pretty glad I get to stay! I've truly come to love the area and the people here! I don't know if I could say goodbye to the Galvez family! They've basically adopted me into their family! We joke around that I have my white family in Utah and they are my Mexican family!! Every time we go over there, Alfredo's mom, Maria, introduces me to everyone as her son! I'm dreading the day that I will have to leave them! But I am extremely grateful for the love they have shown me. It helps lessen the pain of leaving my family!

We started helping Alfredo and his family members who were just baptized research their family history! It's cool being able to help them start from scratch. A lot of the work for our family has been done and researched, but they have a clean slate to work with! It's been really exciting! Alfredo was going to go and do baptisms at the temple last Friday, but he got stuck at work and couldn't make it. But he really wants to go, so the next free day he has, he'll drive out to Redlands! Or Los Angeles! Or San Diego!

There's a family in our ward, the Nabers, that have two daughters that are over eight and have not been baptized. We've tried over and over again to knock on their door, but they haven't been home or they just haven't answered the door. But this week they finally let us in!  The family is super cool! The dad, Rober, is super into drag racing and motocross. He also owns the largest repossession company on the West Coast! A few years ago, he was racing in Seattle and he crashed. He broke three vertebrates in his neck and the doctors told him that he would never walk again. But he said that he wasn't about to give up that easily, and now he can walk around without a problem! He knows that it was God who helped him. He says he cannot doubt that, but he just doesn't come to church. When the time is ready, though, he will come back! We are going to go back and start teaching the two daughters, Baily and McKenna! Their grandparents are members and take them to church in Colton every Sunday! I'm super excited!

Elder Taylor leaves to go home on Tuesday :( I'm super sad that he's leaving but I'm also really glad that he is going to get surgery so he can start recovering! He's an awesome missionary!

Since today is the first day of the new transfer, I decided that Elder Bangerter and I will be deep cleaning the house today. When I told him that, I just saw this look of horror on his face! Apparently he was scared about cleaning (just a little unhappy!) but was more terrified at how excited I was to clean! I definitely inherited Grandma's cleaning obsession! 

Well there's not much else new that has happened... We have a lot of people that we are going to start teaching so they'll be talked about in future emails home! Thanks for all the love, support, and prayers! I truly do appreciate it!

                    

Te quiero y te echo de menos todo!!

Elder Warren

3/2/2015 P-Day #17

3/2/2015

Dear Family,

Thanks Omie and Papa for the package and the letter! 

Transfers are next week! I'm probably going to leave Jurupa because I've been here for 4 months already... I'm kind of sad! I really like it here! I've come to love the people and all the dogs, goats, chickens, ducks, etc... But next Monday I will let you know what's happening! Since there are transfers, will you send any mail to the mission office this week?

This has been a super good week! Our mission has a goal for a certain number of lessons, new investigators, and investigators at church on Sunday each week. Up to this point, I had never hit the goal... But Elder Bangerter and I hit it this week!!! It was awesome to know that we have worked hard and we were able to see the results of it!

We have put an extra effort in to putting people on date to be baptized! We met with Veronica and shared some scriptures about how keeping the commandments is how we can be happy and baptism is a commandment. When we were reading the scripture about baptism, she just looks over at me and says "I know where this is going.."!! Haha! She was a little reluctant to set a specific date because she wants to take her time and learn more and she has to quite smoking. But we told her that she needs to have a goal in mind, or it's never going to happen. Hopefully things continue to go smoothly with her. We are going to help her quit smoking this week!!! 

We started teaching Alfredo's "fiancee" this week. She's learned a lot and seems to believe it all! She said that she feels good when we teach her and she's noticed a change in Alfredo since he got baptized. She has a seven year old son, Gael (I'm not sure how to spell it.. but it's pronounced guy-ell), and he loves learning, too! They came to church and loved it! Gael had such a fun time in Primary and Lizette really like Relief Society and sacrament meeting! 

We also started teaching Alfredo's nephew, Gerardo. His family got baptized the week before Alfredo did. He has a lot of problems and has had a rough past. He said that he really wants to change for his two daughters and is really committed! Unfortunately he is moving to Bloomington in the next few weeks so we won't be able to keep teaching him :( 

The other day we were at our bishop's house talking to him about Alfredo getting a temple recommend to go to baptisms (which he will be doing on Friday!!!!) and we asked him what we could do to help the ward and in all seriousness, he said: "baptize more"! Haha so I guess that's what we'll do!

So I noticed last Monday that I was running low on medicine and took my prescription in to get filled. I only had enough to last me until Wednesday so I was kind of panicking! The pharmacy told me that they didn't have my medicine in stock and they wouldn't have more until Friday night.. So I went Thursday and Friday without my medicine.. I've now decided that I'm never going to let that happen again! It was awful!!

Well that's everything that happened this week! Sometimes I feel like I write way too much and other times I feel like I don't have enough stuff to write about! hopefully this isn't too short! I love you all! Thanks for all your support!!

Love,

Elder Warren

3/2/2015

Hi Mom!

How is life going? Sounds like you guys have been really busy with sicklies, work, and play!

It's about time the started working on my plaque!!! But... I haven't thought about what scripture I want to put on my plaque.. There are a few I have in mind, but I'm not sure. The ones I'm thinking of are:

3 Nephi 12:14-16

Ether 12:27

Moroni 7:48

I'll think and pray about it this week and have a decision made by next Monday!

So Elder Taylor just emailed me and told me that he is going home on March 10th to get surgery on his knee. I feel really bad for him but this is all part of our Heavenly Father's plan for him! I hope everything goes well and he can start recovering soon!

So if you send some shorts soon... do you think you could throw in a couple pairs of black socks? Not the church kind because those aren't as comfortable to wear all day and they don't last as long. But could you find some that are either Nike, or some like that? Those are a lot better for my feet! 

Thanks so much, momma! I love you all the way to the moon and back!

Love,

Elder Colito Leche