Last Week Of Wells

This week was CRAZY! I was actually like, beyond stressed this week. We feel like we worked SO hard this week to leave our area better than we found it. As a result, I'm exhausted, but we have a lot to show for it.

LUNES

This is usually our pday, but this last week it was only a HALF pday. we could only do our preparation things until like 1:00. (That's why I was so rushed last week.) After our half pday, Elder Wells and I had arranged to gather all of our District Leaders together to have a little "Zone Leadership Council". We talked a lot about moral authority and how important it is to set the pace and example for the district you're in charge of. It ended up being super rowdy and irreverent. We actually discussed it with our mission president and made plans of action to bring the spirit better during our Zone Training later in the week. **Jueves

MARTES

We arranged today to meet with our great Sister Trainer Leaders. (I love them) They basically are in charge of the sisters here in the zone. They can go on exchanges with them and they focus on their needs specifically more than we can, and they help us know what we can do to help meet their needs. The meeting went well!

MIERCOLES

Wednesday was our temple day! We also had a multi-zone BBQ! Both of which were super cool for obviously different reasons. :) After the BBQ, our district went to a science museum for the remainder of our pday and it was pretty cool too. But I think I preferred the BBQ. haha After our pday ended officially, we had some great lessons, including one with Rene, our investigator. He's progressing very nicely, and he should be getting baptized next month if all goes well.

JUEVES

Today, we had our Zone Training. Elder Wells and I had been thinking about this meeting for a while. Basically, our only goal was to make it a spiritual experience.. so we took a lot of precautions... We borrowed an iPod and got some nice professional prelude music going, we assigned seats in order to discreetly separate the rowdy people, we sat quietly up front before the meeting to set the example for reverence, and we even gave everyone a reminder text to come prepared to take notes and have specific personal focuses to pay attention to during the training. We really went all out. It went SO WELL! By the time we ended the meeting with departing testimonies, people were in tears. It was great. Best Zone Training meeting I've been to. Thanks spirit.

VIERNES

President Frandsen asked us to give yet another training today. We taught about the missionary purpose and how to connect Finding, Teaching, and Baptizing. We were giving the training to all the companions of the newly called trainers as their companions received their own training from the President. (Hope that make sense?) it went really well too. We had great participation. That night, I gave a baptismal interview to one of Elder Runco's investigators.

SABADO

Saturday we spent a couple hours designing and planning for our baptism on Sunday. Worked out all the details, and met with the future converts to plan out the details. That night, we met with Rene again and taught the Word of Wisdom and how obedience to the commandments relate to our life after. He accepted it all and is willing to make the change, but he didn't realize it was a commandment, so we'll have to adjust his date to accomidate his smoking habbit, but no worries. (Basically, you need to have not smoked for 3 consecutive weeks before being baptized... so we pushed it back a little bit to give him time to quit.)

DOMINGO

Rene came to church! We worked out final details for our baptism during the second hour, and then after church, WE HAD A BAPTISM! :) His name is Jared Gonzalez. (Picture attached) I may have mentioned him before, I'm not sure. He's 8 years old, his family is mostly member, we've been teaching him for a couple weeks. He was already living all the commandments and his family is reactivating, so they've been coming to church pretty regularly, so we were able to baptize him super fast. He asked me to baptize him, so this is the first time I've been in the font on my mission. All my other converts have asked their fellow shippers to baptize them. (It's better that way I think.) But I was still honored. :) Such a good turn out. We printed out 50 programs, and we were still pretty short. It was great!

Thats pretty much it for the week! We gave 4 trainings, planned and had a baptism, had a temple day and 2 half pdays. it was a great week! And it was Elder Well's last week in the mission.

Saturday night, we had our transfer calls, and they told me I'm staying in Oakland again, and my new companion is Elder WALLACE from England. :) I love him. He's one of my favorite missionaries in the whole mission. This next transfer is going to be great. But, I'll miss Elder Wells for sure.

Thanks for all the love!

Love you too!

Jared Gonzalez' baptism

Temple Day

Transfer 11 Week 4 (or something similar)

A couple of my friends have used this format before, so I'm going to steal it this week and see if I like it. SUPER LONG! (you're welcome/i'm sorry)

Welcome to Week 5!

Monday:

We are teaching some of our Recent Converts and they are not really grasping much. SO we gave them the challenge of teaching US about the gospel. :) On Monday, we taught them all the bullet points to share a missionary message about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Namely Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. and then we invite them to study it on their own and then have the kids teach us (as fake investigators) the next time. also. I designed a zone shirt for my zone. :) Pics attached.

Tuesday:

Exchanges with Elder Vawdrey. He is probably the most faithful missionary I've ever met. He lays it all on the table, he talks to every single person he sees, he praises God's power rather than his own, and you can feel the spirit whenever you're near him. He's great. We had a great day together and he taught me a ton about reliance on the Lord.

Wednesday:

We did Service at St Mary's community center and we basically run that joint now. We go there every Wednesday and they totally rely on us there. It reminds me of my old Waiter job because we mostly work in the kitchen preparing meals for homeless people. Most of our lessons fell through, but we did find a new investigating family of 4! Pocasangre family. (in english: Little Blood) They're great.

Thursday:

Exchange with Elder Ainu'u. He's a fun guy.. We had to have a talk about obedience though... He had a similar question that I used to have about obedience and receiving blessings. (I'll table that for a second. keep that in your minds though.)

Friday:

We did service in the Redwood forest up in the Oakland hills. Basically we cut down these giant Pine trees and carried them off the mountain. HOO RAH! But I ended up getting Heat stroke and having a massive head ache for the rest of the day. But that didn't stop the work! :) We had a sweet lesson that night and COOL STORY ALERT! My head was throbbing before and after the lesson, but as soon as we entered, it completely vanished. I think it was just one of those sweet tender  mercies you always hear about when other people have them... but this time it was me. He healed me for just long enough to spread the gospel, then it came back. and my head hurt until I went to bed.

Saturday:

HALLOWEEN. Remember monday? with the recent converts? well we were going to see them again to have them teach us a missionary lesson.... but the mom broke her leg. :( so... we gave her a blessing, and then rescheduled for another day because of medical complexities.... fue una lastima. After 6:00, we were stuck in the apartment for the rest of the night to CLEAN! and I gotta say... it was fun and all... but I probably won't do much of the whole "cleaning" thing back home.

Sunday:

Last minute, they asked me to teach the Gospel Principles class. And when I say last minute, I mean like.... Last second. I literally had to just open up the book and share the lesson. But about 2 minutes in I decided to just split up the class and assign them each a couple paragraphs from the book and have them become "MASTERS" of the subject and then explain it to the class. So I weaseled my way out of standing up front and talking for an hour. I think it went a lot better that way anyway. :)

Remember Thursday with the obedience Question?? (continue reading for a life lesson)

Why should we try to be obedient if we see other disobedient people receive the same blessings?

We had a long talk about that. But if you look back in my emails/blog to December or January, that's when I went through my own mini crisis with the same question. But I found the answer, and I was prepared to help this Elder when he asked!!!

Here's what I found:

"If you love me, keep my commandments." That's the request. The motivation behind following the commandments should be to show your love and respect to the all-knowing Father that gave them to you. If you are only keeping the commandments in order to "earn a blessing as payment" then you are missing the point. and most likely won't even see the blessings that follow because you did it so grudgingly. Bottom line. Just do what you're told because you want to. and If you DON'T want to, pray until you do.

*drop the mic*

Love you all!! Thanks for the Halloween stuff, and for the cookies and as always, your love! :)

Love you all!

Elder Webster

You all judged me because of my random skills on "Paint" but look at me now.

Should be made into an actual shirt sometime before the 14th.

Check me out

Rat Race

So I have some dreary news for the week. Prepare yourselves.

We had SUCH a great lesson with one of our investigators (Alcira). She told us she believes the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. Which. Is. Huge. SO! We invited her to get baptized and she said NO.

Why? Well, she has a testimony, she accepts Christ's teachings and wants to continue to read the scriptures. But She doesn't like coming to church and doesn't want to get baptized in the foreseeable future all because of the members and the "clique culture".

She has come to church several times before, and none of the members even act like she exists. She runs in to them at stores some times and no one even says hi. :( And that attitude and that clique mentality is what is keeping someone from having an eternal family and having the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. :'( I was so sad to hear that.

I think the dream member would ask the missionaries if there are any investigators at church when they get there on Sunday and make an effort to say Hi and show them around. And at the very least, introduce yourself with a handshake to anyone you don't recognize. It could lead to someone getting baptized and could help in the conversion of generations to come. you never know, right? This is your new assignment. God Speed.

Also, our district meeting got interrupted because half way through, we saw a rat in the blinds to the window. It was just spider-manning to the wall and eaves dropping on our spiritual experiences! We stopped the whole thing and disposed of the little guy. I have a couple of pictures, but the videos are the best part, so you'll have to just watch those next year. haha That was so crazy though. #OaklandLife.

Lastly, I designed a Zone T-shirt last week after emailing. Ijust spend an hour or 2 on the computer using Paint. I think it turned out alright. But the shirt process should take a couple weeks. Finished product to-be-announced another day. :)

Thanks for all the love and support and emails and videos! Love you all!

Zone T-Shirt

Spider-rat

Emergencia

So, I don't remember how much I talked about last week, but one of our District Leaders ran away from his companion a couple weeks ago. it was kind of a big deal, because.... that just doesn't happen. I don't even think I've been out of sight of my companion in like a year and a half. So hearing that one elder ran away from his companion was ground breaking. Elder Wells and I were asked to do a rescue mission to find him like a week ago to no avail. But our President took care of the whole thing last week... and it was pretty much a done deal. RIGHT? no.

This week, our Saturday was interrupted because we were asked to "Emergency Transfer" these two Elders. along with like... half of their district. everything got changed around. It took up most of our day just because of rides and stuff... but that was exciting.

I feel like I talk too much about the missionary side of things, which is the boring side. So I'm gunna move on to my AWESOME investigators.

We seriously have the most solid set of investigators ever. They love learning, they read, they pray, some of them have testimonies already. The only thing that is preventing them to get baptized is their church attendance. We still have a few baptismal dates set pretty soon, but it's been sad lately because the ones we used to have set have all had to be pushed back or canceled. Which would usually be very upsetting, but they have made a lot of personal progression and a few of them have as much of a testimony as your run-of-the-mill member. So it's just a matter of getting work off. Which is hard in the Oakland Latino community for some reason.

Love you all!

Thanks for the videos you all sent me this week! :) I love those things. They're so fun. Keep em coming.

Have a good week!

Elder Webster

This Week Went "Well"

The subject line is a pun... but let me explain.

This was my first week with my new companion, Elder Wells! I know him a little bit better than before. He's from Nebraska, he's been out for 23 months, he like to read and spends most of his free time reading or listening to conference talks. He's also a very intelligent person, just in terms of practicality and strategy.  I feel that our week together has been a very focused and productive week! He's very non-confrontational, so I can't imagine us getting in a fight or anything. plus, we usually just tend to agree on stuff because it's the most logical thing to do anyway! :) I actually like him a lot. We're gunna kill this transfer. Plus, he likes Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and Psych. Soooo... we tight.

I don't know what to write about. I have some bad news though.... :(  a couple weeks ago, we set like 4 baptismal dates. But none of those investigators are on track to get baptized when they said they would. SOOO... That's a little upsetting. One of them actually ran away drunk to Hayward and no one has seen him since. So... We had to drop him. It's been a bit depressing. I guess that's what you get for serving in the most liberal city in the world!

One thing Elder Wells and I trying to work on is teaching clearly and simply.

I remember one time at a "Bring-your-son/daughter-to-work-day", they did an activity where one person draws a picture. (something simple like an apple tree) and then explains to his partner how to draw that same picture. It's harder than you would think because you have to take into account much more than you'd think when you want someone to understand something the way you understand it. For instance: The color of the trunk/leaves/apples. How many apples? The placement of the apples? the size of the apples? the thickness of the trunk. The trunk/leaf ratio. The thickness of the ink you used. The placement of the tree on the paper. ETC. It can be hard to explain yourself clearly enough for someone to understand EXACTLY what you are imagining in your head. Even more so with abstract concepts like the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Wells is a very smart person. We have been working on finding the balance between explaining things CLEARLY and explaining things SIMPLY. We actually used that activity^^ in one of our companionship studies. :) I guess Bring your kid to work day WAS spiritually significant. Thanks dad. haha

Anyway, that's what I got for the week. Thanks a lot for the emails!

If you want to make me a happy Elder, you would send me a video blog of a funny story or a life update. Ethan sent me one this week, and I loved it. :)

Love you all!

Conference Weekend!

So just a little bit of follow-up from last week: Operation Sabbath Jackhammer finally paid off! We had 2 investigators join us a conference this week! :) And conference was pretty good this time around. Everyone's been asking how they translated "Ponderize" into Spanish... hahaha The word they used was "Meditizar" combination of "meditar" (ponder) and "memorizar" (memorize)

I watched it in the Oakland Temple chapel this time!

I really like the 3 new apostles! They're awesome. :)

Transfer calls came in this last week! I was pretty surprised actually! Elder Castleberry goes home tomorrow... :( So I knew I'd be getting a new companion, and I had my guesses of who it might be, and I basically narrowed it down to 1 of 3 possible elders. Whoever I would get, I would have to teach them how to do Zone-Leader stuff.. My new companion is Elder Wells. I was not expecting him. He's been out for about 23 months, which means he's coming to a NEW area with a NEW companion and a NEW calling during his LAST transfer of his mission. Usually, that makes people not want to try as hard because the end is so close in sight and it feels useless to get to know all this new stuff because you're ending soon. (It's called getting "Trunky")

Honestly, I hope it's not like that. But I'm excited to get Elder Wells! He's a big goofy guy who no one could ever get made at, and he's a wiz on piano, so I'm excited.

Oh, before I forget. Look up my mission on Facebook! California Oakland San Francisco Mission. We have our own page and they post pictures and stuff. So you can add them or follow them. :)

Most of my weeks are full of meetings now-a-days. So I'll spare the details of MLC and Stake coordination meeting... But the preparation for those meetings took up a big chunk of our proselyting time this week, which is unfortunate. But it's gotta be done. :) I've found out I'm actually pretty good at using Excel! But... that's more like a post-mission skill. haha

Thanks for everything! I finally sent my mom/sisters gift home this week. I hope you like it.

Happy Birthday Grandpa! Love you!

Today, pday, we drove through a cemetery! Kind of an accident... haha

E. Castleberry, E. Webster, S. Nistler, S. Diaz, E. Runco, E. Broman

Operation Sabbath Jackhammer

This week was pretty good! We went on 3 exchanges again this week! this is the good stuff:

Wednesday - I went with Elder Pululasi into Berkeley. He's from Australia and is suuuper relaxed and cool. Everyone likes talking to him in the streets because he's got such a sweet accent. I was on bike again... humph... and we had did service with this pot smoking guy and we went into his bedroom and it was basically like a "hot topic" store. a little bit scary and overwhelming, but he's got so many collectors items and video game memorabilia, it was just sorta cool looking around! Then the guy bought us some pizza! So... good day! :)

Thursday - I went into the Chinese program with Elder Zhang. I swear, every time I go into the Chinese program, all I do is walk around and talk to people. the thing is... most of Chinese culture is Buddhist, and slightly rude to strangers. They have such a hard time finding people to teach... I was grateful to go back to my lovable Spanish area afterwards. But the Elder Zhang is just the most charitable person in the worlds. He was found, taught, baptized confirmed and retained in 48 hours while on vacation in Washington. Apparently there was a district of missionaries that tag-team-taught him all of the lessons in one single day and he got special permission to be baptized that night! Then he went back to China with his non member family and he remained active and then served a mission a year later, and he's good at it! He's the best.

Saturday - Elder Allison came to my area. He doesn't speak spanish, so I did most of the heavy lifting by myself... But we had a fairly successful day! Elder Allison is relentlessly positive..... toooo positive.... But I love the guy. He's got great taste in music, so we tight.

Operation Sabbath Jackhammer is a covert operation that we initiated this week to get our investigators to church. It has four phases. It's not meant for the public eye, and meant to be top secret... But I trust you.

Phase One: contact and invite each investigator to church on Sunday.

Phase Two: resolve any concern or problem they may have about coming. (find a ride, give the address, reminder text in the morning, etc.)

Phase Three: help investigators have a spiritual experience at church.

Phase Four: follow up with those that didn't come, even though they were invited, (consider dropping the investigator if necessary) and re-invite them to the next week.

IT. IS. FOOL-PROOF.

We unfortunately ended up dropping a few of our investigators as a result, but it's all in an effort to weed out those that are not interested or prepared to make a change in their lives. So we thought it was productive whether or not people came.

This next week will be Elder Castleberry's last week in the mission field. Pretty crazy. He had his last "Prque Yo Creo" yesterday (monthly spanish testimony meeting at the temple) and he ended up conducting it, and I translated it. It went well. I should be getting a new companion next week. Weiiiird.

Thanks for all the emails and the love!

Webster Street!

Chinese exchanges

Golf on pday

Oops