Don't Get Excited

Hey! Don't get your hopes up, this will be a quick email! My Pday is going to be on Friday this week. (CHRISTMAS DAY!) So I'm only aloud a couple minutes to check in and say that everything is going fine and that I'm excited to skype home this Friday! :) To those of you who have sent me packages lately, THANKS! I've had so much candy, I'm rolling around. And Mom and Dad, the 12 days of Christmas idea was AWESOME! I've been filming our reactions to each gift, so I'll have another card to send home soon enough. :) Love you all!

See you soon! I may get some time to email on Friday. :) Merry Christmas!

Oakland graffiti!

Me and Wallace. Merry Christmas!

Elder Larry R Lawrence and Sister Lara Lawrence

We had a visit from a member of the quorum of them 70 this week!!

If you watched conference, you may remember an awesome talk about "What Lack I Yet". That was Elder Lawrence. He is doing a mission tour across the whole West coast and was in our mission for about a week.

On Thursday we got together for MLC and he blew our minds with this incredible motivational and inspiration talk. He talked about faith and how it requires a sacrifice. He helped us analyze our potential as a mission and set a numerical goal for number of baptisms we're going to get in 2016. This was after about an hour long debate over what number would be attainable, but would still make us stretch to our maximum. Based on our previous years statistics, we're going to shoot for 400 baptisms before the end of 2016.

In line with his talk on sacrifices vs faith, he taught us that if we want to reach this goal, each missionary is going to have to make a sacrifice. Hopefully something big enough to keep this goal fresh on our minds for the rest of the year. I'm still debating what I want my big sacrifice to be... I want it to be good. But my companion and I have committed to include this goal in every single prayer we do. That should give us a boost.

With this goal heavy on our mind, we left that meeting totally pumped up and had two lessons later that day with our investigators. We (motivated by our desire to hit the 400) set 3 baptismal dates for January 24th.

We're taking this goal very seriously, so if any of you would like to join us in prayers to meet the mission goal, we're all on the same team, so we'd appreciate the support.

  

Also, Sister Lara Lawrence (his wife) is the most doctrinally literate person I've ever met. She blew our minds about the 12 tribes. Which led me to a question.... What tribe are you from??? when you read this email, could you reply right away with your tribe? That way you don't forget... If you don't know yet, it's ok. I'm from Ephraim.

Love you all!

Thanks for the love and support! Merry Christmas time!

This is my district. Elder Falcon (Mexico), Elder Broman (Utah), Elder Wallace (England), Sister Resendiz (Mexico) and Sister Nistler (Colorado)

This is Elder Wallace, my English comp. He's the best.

This Last Weekend....

I had a p-day mid-week, So you've heard about a few of the week's updates already. SO! Starting from Friday:

I had an exchange with Elder Johnson, from Jamaica. He's SO HUMBLE. I love him. He's fairly soft spoken and quiet, but he is just the greatest person with a huge desire to improve. We actually had a really cool experience together:

We gave a zone training last week about how to stay accountable to the goals you set, and we had a goal to find 5 new investigators before the end of our exchange because we had a lesson planned with a potential family. Unfortunately, that lesson fell through.. So there was no way we'd hit our goal of 5 new investigators without taking some action...

I was trying to demonstrate how to stay accountable to goals and that you have to work hard if you want to achieve them... SO, we stepped aside and said a prayer for help, and then started knocking doors! In our area, that's unheard of. We NEVER go tracting... But we had a goal to find 5 new investigators, and we knew that we had to show our faith that the Lord would help us if we put in our effort.

I'm happy to report that we now have a handful of interested people we plan to recontact this next week as a result of our desperate door knocking. :) Blessings? Yup.

Second big update is that we had another ward baptism yesterday. Not mine, but some of the other missionaries in our ward. It went well!

Here's a question:

In the vision of the tree of life... why is the great and spacious building FLOATING? I studied this the other day in response to an investigator question. If your looking for things to study this week, That's your new assignment. I found the answer this morning. But I'd love to hear your thoughts. Good luck!

Love you all! It's getting kinda cold here. :)

Elder Wallace and Grasshoppers

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Sorry I didn't get a chance to email you on Monday, but our p-day got changed to today! (Thursday)

This was my first week with Elder Wallace! It's been like 9 days total, but he is AWESOME! We get along great, and we've been doing work together!

Here are some highlights from this last week:

This last Saturday, we had a GENERAL AUTHORITY visit our mission!! We held a bonus MLC with the Zone Leaders and Sister Trainer Leaders and Elder Hamula came to "Light the Fire" in our mission. He gave us to most motivational speech ever about not being Grasshoppers, but GIANTS! (That's a bible reference. Check Numbers 13 if you're curious). Bottom line: If you see yourself as someone that people can walk all over, then you are! Rather, we ought to see ourselves as GIANTS.

Here are some pictures of Elder Wallace, he's the best.

I'm really thankful for all your love and support. Please know that I'm doing well, and I am well fed. Especially today being thanksgiving. Today is technically my pday, but we still have member meals all day long. I actually gotta get going to get to our next dinner on time. But I love you all!

Shout out to the family in Utah! Looks like a blast! Hope you're all doing great! Thanks for the picture! I may not have replied to many of them today cause I gotta go, but I really appreciate all the love! :)

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