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