Transfer 13, Week 6 June 17, 2013

 "Transfer Calls, Interviews, and Way too many Sisters"

We got  transfer calls this week!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it!!!!!!!.......................................drum roll please!.............................................I will be staying in Oakland for another 6 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I will be in a trio and I will be training a visa waiter!!!!!!!  8 transfers in Oakland! I'm so excited.

This week we had a rough start to our week.  We weren't able to get any lessons early in the week.  Elder Villa and I worked hard and just barely missed reaching our goal.  Wednesday we had an awesome district meeting!  Wednesday we had an awesome zone meeting!  Elder Packer, our Area Seventy was there and he talked to us about faith.  Thursday President Meredith called me to be a trainer and told me, I was going to be in a trio.  Friday I went to the Trainer's Training.  15 minutes before the meeting I thought to myself "there are so many missionaries here" but then 5 minutes I turned around and told another missonary, "there are so many sisters here."  The mission will soon be 50% sisters and 50% elders.  Saturday we did service at a school and helped clean stuff up.  Yesterday one of our investigators passed his baptismal interview and his wife will be speaking with President soon and we are pretty sure she will pass hers too!

 

Sincerely,

 

Élder Luis González

Transfer 13, Week 5 June 11, 2013

"Wedding Bells and Baptism by Fire"

Our week started out pretty rough on Monday night, we had only one lesson.  But it was really fun! It was a family home evening with the Marcial family.  On Wednesday we had district leader council.  After the meeting we walked out of the ISC and saw TONS of missionaries there for the new missionary follow-up training.  We continued to have canceled lessons throughout the week.  But on Wednesday we had a family home evening with the Rodriguez family.  They made us awesome milkshakes!  Then we taught the ward missionaries how to teach others how to pray.  The highlight of the week was that Los Mejia got married!!!! Its official!  Then on Sunday the other family we are teaching with a baptismal date didn't come to church and told us they aren't ready for baptism.   It was really frustrating. But altogether i LOVED this week.  I love serving the Lord in His vineyard and helping His children return to him.  I learned so much about what I need to do to be a more effective servant of Christ. 

 

Sincerely,

Élder Luis González

Alma 7:7 What is the most important thing?

Transfer 13, Week 4 June 3, 2013

 "The Miracle of Serving Both Sides of the Veil"
Having two P-Days pretty close makes things seem really weird, but it was a true blessing to go to the temple.  On Memorial Day we got to eat with Los Cruz who fed us some really good ribs.  That night we started exchanges with the Zone Leaders.  Elder Hill came with me.  I slept terribly because of 2 reasons. 1. The apartment gets super hot. 2. Elder Hill woke me up with his sleep talking.  But we had a really good dinner.  I made us tacos while Elder Hill read my mail that I got. Wednesday we went to the temple as a District and had dinner afterwards.  It was great!  But that night we had our Visitor's Center lesson fall  through. We weren't able to have a lesson with them all week, which is pretty frustrating because we are getting them ready for baptism.  But the interview with Los Roa went great!!!! Thursday we got to give some service as we helped a family move into their new house.  The hardest part was having to move a washing machine over a fence with only 4 of us.  On Friday we got some pretty bad news.  Los Mejia who are getting ready for their baptism broke the Word of Wisdom so they will have to put back their date one more week.  I was so sad.  I don't think I've ever been so sad in my life. Saturday we got to give some service again as we helped an investigator make fruit flowers for her children's birthday party.  We then taught a sister that told us that we were the first people that she had ever let into her home to learn about the Gospel.  At church yesterday it was pretty disappointing to see that one of our families with a baptismal date was not at church.  We're not quite sure what is going.  But we did have a new family at church.  The little kids loved it!

After church we scrambled to prepare everything for the baptism.  We had to look for a table for the programs and then we had to look for the family.  But we finally gathered everyone and everything.  We took some pictures and started the program.  The children asked that I baptize them.  So I did.  I baptized the younger brother first.  And then as I was about to baptize the older brother, the younger one started swimming in the baptismal font.  It made everyone laugh as he sadly got out of the font.

I thought alot about what it means to serve the Lord this week.  As I got to participate in the ordinances of the temple and also the ordinance of baptism,  I realized that the promises of the Lord are so much greater and beautiful than we can really comprehend.

Con Cariño,

 

Élder Luis González

Transfer 13, Week 3 May 29, 2013

"My Purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the Restored Gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, Baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End"
I take my title from the first sentence in Preach My Gospel.  I feel that this week I truly fulfilled my purpose as a missionary. The goal I did not reach this week was "referral contacted."  Things are going great!

Monday started out with Choir practice for zone conference.  We did ok.... but don't tell that to the sisters....That night we found 4 new investigators, it would've been 5 but we didn't count the husband of one of the families because he was drunk...  But the wife and one of thekids seemed really receptive.  We also taught a family from Guatemala.  They of course speak mam.

Tuesday morning Elder Bailey the mission vehicle coordinator asked us to help with car inspections all the way out in Danville.   I had never been there before.  It was so pretty.  Nothing like the city.  Our bishop came out with us to visit a family and he even invited them to be baptized.  After the husband turned it down 2 times the wife said "You know what brothers, I'll get baptized!  I have the faith that if I do it that my husband will follow soon after."

Wednesday was Zone Conference!!!!!!!  We are becoming a "running" mission (i suggested we call it a "jogging" mission so as not to offend us runners) , we will be required to run 3 times a week starting June 1st.  We got trained on how to back out our cars.  We watched one of the assistants back out President Meredith in the wrong direction. :)

We spent tons of time hanging up English posters this week.  We, and also the other companionships in the ward have gotten so many calls about it...

Friday we gave a blessing to a sister in the ward and taught her nonmember roommate.

Sunday we had 8 investigators at sacrament meeting!!!!!!  And afterwards we were invited by our investigators to have some yummy pozole!

Love!

Élder Luis González

Transfer 13, Week 2 May 20, 2013

No, Todavía Te Falta Morir" ("No, you still have to die")
Its one of those weeks where everything went right except the most important thing.

Donaldo who had a baptismal date, refused to set  a time for his interview so we had to drop his date. Made me so sad...

 

I did a baptismal interview for the sisters in my district, Hermana Ivey and Hermana Hunsaker.  Her last name was Gonzalez and she had also moved from Arizona!  It was such a blessing to get to hear her simple testimony!

 

We tracted on a street where we had been told "its all mexicans here!"  That guy is a liar.  I talked to a guy from Hong Kong and a bunch of black people and even a white family.  But only one latino.

 

We taught the Carrada family who is super prepared for baptism!!!!!!!!!!!  But the Husband is avoiding us for some reason.  Every time we go by he is either asleep or not home. 

 

On the other hand the Mejia family is doing great! They have committed to the 9th of June for their baptism.  They have gone without coffee for almost a week, the husband more.  We are giving them as much support as we can so that they don't fall back into the temptation.  

At district meeting I gave a language training on "The Subjunctive" and how to use it in spanish!

 

I went on exchanges with Elder Bradford in his area (West Oakland).  That part of town is so different! I feel out of place over there!  But we had a great day!!!! Tons of latinos found and talked to!

 

I had one of the craziest lessons of my my mission.  The mom of the investigators answered the door and she told us for about 15 minutes that she didn't like our church because of the Book of Mormon.  But she finally let us in and she even joined in the lesson with her family.  We taught the plan of salvation and needless to say they had questions at every step of the way.  They even had tons of questions that were off topic such as "Do you work?"  "Do you have a girlfriend?"  But i think my favorite part was when we taught the kingdoms of glory and one of the investigators said "The celestial kingdom, I'm nearly good enough to go there!" and her brother replied "No, you still have to die!"

Sunday right before church we had a lesson with Alberto our recent convert and his children where we were prompted to invite them to be baptized and they said YES!!!!!!!!  I'm so happy!!!!!!

 

Yesterday at the Interstake auditorium there was some orchestra star wars things going on. We saw these two guys having a light saber fight in the gym after church.

 

Well thats all from the Center Stake of Zion!

Sincerely,

 

Élder Luis González 

P.S.  My next pday is next wednesday, whenever we go to the temple, that becomes our pday, so you wont here from me til then!

Transfer 13, Week !May 20, 2013

A great week to what is gonna be an awesome transfer!

On Monday, Elder Watkins called Alberto to say goodbye and Alberto (our recent convert) told him a little saying from his "pueblo".

 

Tuesday was Transfer day, I said goodbye to Elder Watkins and put him on the transfer van and off he went to San Francisco.  While I waited for the Transfer van to come back, I went with Elder Greenawalt ( from Arizona!) to buy a $3 burrito.  When the Transfer Van I took a picture with Elder Reyes and Hermana Croft, who both went home.  They were both in my first district!  I am the only one left from my first district!  So crazy!

 

We taught Los Carrada this week and the mom told us that she knows the Church is true.  She has seen the changes in her family.  But they still won't accept a baptismal date.  

Friday we helped with some service at the Greek Orthodox Church right below the temple.  We helped them move tons of desks upstairs in preparation for a Greek Festival!

 

Los Rodriguez came up for a Visitor's Center lesson.  We invited the mom to prepare to enter the temple and invited the children to one day get married in the temple. We asked the 6 year-old daughter "What is a princess?" and she said "Someone who gets married in the temple"

The Mother's day activity was AWESOME!  There  was some crazy dance moves that i will want to replicate when I get home.

And the great miracle of the week....: The Mejia family got their marriage license! They committed to stop drinking coffee by friday!  If they do they will be baptized in JUNE!!!!!!!!!  

 

That's the work here in Oakland!

 

Élder Luis González

Transfer 12 Week 6 May 6, 2013

We got transfer calls this weekend!!!!!!!!  At the end of 9 months in Oakland I still not want to leave and Elder Watkins was positive I was leaving. I wasn't quite sure what to think.  So the Spirit of the Lord has called me to.............................................................................................................................................................(drum roll please)............................................................................................................To stay in Oakland! My new companion will be Elder Villa from Ecuador!  He has been out just as long as Elder   Watkins.  

 

On Monday we had a FHE lesson with a less active we had helped return to activity.  The father will be receiving the Melchizedek priesthood soon and soon after that they will be getting sealed in the temple!!!!!!  It made me so happy!

 

At district meeting we had our stake high councilor over missionary work.  He talked us about how the ghetto is the best place for baptisms!!! It made me so excited for the work!

 

Wednesday was a windy day which really got my allergies going.  I had a headache from sneezing so much.  But as we were walking down International Blvd we saw all these flyers for a protest.  And sure enough later that night we were we told to stay away from the Fruitvale Bart Station.

 

Below the temple there is a Cerebral Palsy Center.  We were asked to help with a gardening service project.  We were told that it would take 2 hours but were pretty much done after an hour.  And then a whole bunch of sisters missionaries showed up and shared the credit for the work.

 

Our apartment gets super, super hot.  We did our weekly planning and it was so miserable.  I wish we had air conditioning. 

 

Saturday I was on exchanges with Elder Bradford.    We were tracting in West Oakland and we found this crazy weird apartment complex.  In one building there was apartments 1,2,3, 4,10 and 13.  And the other building had 7,8, and 11.  I'm still confused. 

 

Sunday we had our eternal investigators Los Carrada come to church.  Elder Watkins and Hill taught them with Bishop and he was just straight up with them and asked them what is keeping them from getting baptized.  And all at once all their concerns came out.  They had problems with baptisms for the dead and gay marriage and plural marriage and kinds of crazy things.  But they were resolved and they came to church!!!!!!!

 

That was our week!

 

Sincerely,

 

Élder Luis González

 

3 Nephi 26:9