Hemet Family

The highlight of the week was returning to Hemet to see Rosa get baptized. It was pretty awesome to see Rosa, Raquel and her son, Oscar after such a long time. Rosa and Raquel were the first people I taught on my mission and we were able to see Raquel get baptized in February of 2018. Rosa has really gained a strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ after passing through a lot of trials and everything fell into place, so that she could get baptized now in April of 2019. It was a little bittersweet when she told us that she invited her family, but none of them came (besides Raquel and Oscar), but we were able to help her see that all the missionaries and members were there as part of her family. There were a few other baptisms going on that day in Hemet, so it really was probably one of the biggest baptismal services that I have been to on my mission, and we were just cycling people in and out of the font, which was really cool to see. Now, Rosa and Raquel want to start working together on their next steps to go to the temple!

Outside of that experience, we had a really busy week. We did exchanges on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and then we had stake conference Saturday and Sunday.

On Wednesday, I was with Elder Heilbut and we spent most of the day teaching in lessons. We taught the Martinez-Mendoza family and we were able to follow up with Briana and her baptismal experience. She is going strong and we were able to invite her older sister, Natalie, to be baptized on May 11th. It was good to get some of the concerns out that we didn't really know about because we were able to address them with a member there as well. Now it should be easier to plan out our next few lessons as we help the whole family progress towards the temple. We also taught a YSA named Edgar and it was one of the most powerful Restoration lessons from my mission. The Spirit did all the work and Edgar has some really good potential if he decides to seek out truth from the Holy Ghost as he reads and prays about the Book of Mormon. We ended the night by teaching a woman named Maria who had answered the door as we were looking for someone else. Even though it was super late, she told us how grateful she was that we came because she was looking for truth. She unknowingly quoted Amos 8:11-12 to us, so we shared the Restoration with her and she was really excited to come to church with us.

On Thursday, I was with Elder Van Orman in his area. Elder Van Orman is a really awesome missionary who will be finishing up his first 6 weeks here in the mission. He has been waiting for his visa to go to Portugal and the very same day I was with him, he got news that he received his visa and will be leaving in a week to go to Portugal. We were able to see some pretty good success in their area and set up a good amount of lessons.

On Friday, I was with Elder Porrazzo in his area. His English area and our Spanish area don't overlap, but we were talking to a lot of Hispanics, so I was able to send over a few referrals to the Spanish sisters. We also taught a YSA that we found while street contacting. We were going to give him the Introduction to the Book of Mormon to read as some homework before we come back on Wednesday, but he was just ready to read it then, so we started reading together and he had some pretty good interest.

Stake Conference flew by. Elder Dundon and I helped out during the Saturday leadership session and we did a training on how we can improve our Missionary Correlation Meetings throughout the stake. The rest of it just flew by and now we are here! It'll be the last week of the transfer, so we will see this Saturday if there are any changes.

I read a quote this week from Gordon B Hinckley that reminded me of something that Elder Klebingat had told us this recently.

Gordon B Hinckley said

"Our individual testimonies of these truths are the basis of our faith. We must nurture them. We must cultivate them. We can never forsake them. We can never lay them aside. Without them we have nothing. With them we have everything."

To paraphrase what Elder Klebingat said, he had told us that without having consistent and sincere prayers and scripture study, then we are putting ourselves at risk for falling away very quickly from the church. He said that he has never met someone who has fallen away, that actually was sincerely praying and reading the scriptures. 

With a testimony of the gospel, we really do have everything. Without a testimony of the restored gospel, then "they have joy in their works for a season," but the end will come and they will have nothing.

Elder Moon