Little Slice

Hey guys! Well, I've been transferred to a Little slice of Los Angeles called Van Nuys. It's a nice place, Picture big apartment complexes with really tall but crooked palm trees with furniture and old TV's on the side of the street. Look it up on google earth. Most of the people here are Spanish speaking, and I am back in the full blown Spanish work. Which is AWESOME. My new companion is a newer missionary from Colorado named Elder Robison. He's pretty awesome. He's like a piece of steel, and I'm sure he'll be a mission president some day. He's super bold and we've already seen a lot of miracles. I like it a lot here. We are very very busy and spend a lot of time on the streets just talking to people, which just delights me. Anyway, I'd love to write more, but I have to renew my Library card in order to have more time. Have fun! Elder Call.

B.S.

Hey guys! Something really interesting happened to me. It's another one of those typical missionary stories that is typical yet extraordinary We decided to stop by this less active member for the first time She answers the door and says "Hey Elders! I'd love to talk to you but today is not a good day..." And so we get ready for some typical avoid-the-Elder B.S., but she tells us that a major crisis has hit her in the last couple of hours, and without skipping a beat my companion asks her if she wants a blessing. She says she would love one, and my companion obliges. Also, we've been meeting with a lady that hasn't been progressing, and she told us that it was frankly because she had enough faith to pray to the Lord and get an answer to whether all the things we had told her were true, but she was just scared about what the answer might be. I suspected as much, and I told her about a similar experience I had a long time ago. I was in one of our meetinghouses, and I frankly wondered if I should even be there. I had prayed about such things before, but it wasn't until I said: "Lord, I will walk straight out of that door if you tell me to, and leave it all behind." It was then that I felt the most peaceful feeling, and I knew that I should stay. I told her that the Lord wants to bless her, and give her direction, and if she does she'll find the most happiness that is possible. We finally seemed to come to an understanding right there. It was cool. Well, that's all I got. Elder Call

Name Tag

Hey Everybody! This last Friday, I hit my year mark. I have been a full time missionary for more than a year now. While I was getting dressed to go to church this Sunday, I put my suit jacket on and realized that I left my name tag on my other jacket due to the cold. As I looked at myself in the mirror, with my suit on, but without a tag, I thought that the sight before me was very strange. It was like I was a whole different person. I thought to myself, is this what I'm gonna look like in a year's time? I can't even imagine myself without the tag on. It's almost as if the tag contains my whole identity, and my identity is summarized thus: ELDER CALL LA IGLESIA DE JESUCRISTO DE LOS SANTOS DE LOS ULTIMOS DIAS Yep, that's who I am. It's interesting that my Dad and my older brothers all had the exact same thing written over their hearts like I do, although for one of them it was written in English and for another it was written in Cebuano. It marks or marked us as servants of the Lord, and soldiers in His army, continuing the battle on Earth as it was in heaven thousands or maybe millions of years ago. It's hard to imagine me as the sweaty wife beater and baseball cap clad stone factory worker or the long haired high school student. The change that has been wrought upon me is remarkable. Today I got an email from my Mission President. He said that our mission complement has increased from 190 missionaries to 250, and that every mission in California has been increased to that number. They haven't arrived yet, but still. He also said that "Elder Marcus A . Aidukaitis of the Seventy told us this past week that the average for missionary applications per week had been averaging 300 per week and there were 4500 the first week after General Conference, 4700 the second week and another 2700 half way through the third week!! Instead of about thousand applications since Conference, there probably have been close to 14,000!! Now that is a true hastening of the work!" It excites me to see that many warriors coming. Many of my friends have already applied or plan on it soon, and I am proud of them. This is a great time to be a missionary! I love you all! Joe

Age

Hey Everyone! So how bout that age change of missionaries? I feel like every girl I know is now preparing to go on a mission. We estimate that there might be 100,000 missionaries in the field in about a year or less. What a time to be in the mission field! My mission president gave us a talk about this, and it got me very pumped up. Good things are happening over here in Lone Pine. The work here is pretty slow right now, but I'm sure that with the Lord's help we'll get it going. There is a lot of work to be done out here. It snowed up on the mountains last week, and the weather is sort of Minnesota-ish. It's gettin kinda cold, but I am well prepared. I hear the work picks up here in the winter. By the way, I have not been transferred. I will stay here for another 6 weeks. Have fun everybody! Joe

The Hundred Jerks

Hey Everybody! Not a whole lot has been going on here in good old Lone Pine. My companion and I recently had one of those stereotypical missionary stories. We were knocking on doors in a small trailer park, and we talked to this guy who told me that the whole place was under construction, so we decided to leave because we thought the trailers were unoccupied. we walk past one, and my companion says that we should knock on the one that we just past. We did, and the lady invited us right in. We started teaching her, and she looks promising. It's amazing to see all these little miracles that happen all the time in missionary work. It makes you forget the hundred jerks that rejected you before that, ha ha. But, life goes on. Have fun, everybody! Elder Call

Cool Guy

Hello Everyone! I got a new companion, Elder Jensen, who is from Logan Utah. He's a really cool guy, I like how bold he is. This week we've been knocking on a lot of doors on the Indian Reservation. It was really fun, but we got chased by many dogs. My companion taught me that you can sometimes scare dogs away by reaching on the ground like you are going to pick up a rock. By the end of the night there was this dog "dogging" us. My comp had to pick up a big stick to keep it away, and I'm going to start carrying around a bike chain in my backpack. So pray for me that I don't get missionaries banished forever from the rez. Another thing, I was trying to get the mail the other day but there was a police barricade surrounding the post office. Apparently someone sent a mail bomb to the office, but luckily there happens to be a bomb squad about an hour north of Lone Pine, and there were able to disarm it with about 45 minutes left. That certainly doesn't happen everyday in Lone Pine, but they say it has happened once before. But don't worry, they also say that they caught the bomber this time. In less scary but more spiritual news, this week was kind of a bummer as far as missionary work goes. But, all this bad stuff happening just means that some good things are about to happen. Always there is opposition in all things, right? Still, I feel that through all these things my faith is growing. I came to a realization the other day. I think it would be easy for me to go to South America and Africa and sit on dirt floors and baptize someone every week, but that is not my calling. The Lord wants me to be over here, in Cali, where it's kinda tough (but not too tough) because he knows whats best and he knows that this is going to be the best thing for me. He knows that in the big, grand scheme of things, this is where the most good will be done. Well, adios muchachos! Elder Call

To be Happy

Hey Everyone! This week was pretty good. Elder Maxwell is getting transferred out, which I am kinda bummed about, but I know it is the right thing. It was cool to see the love that all the Branch has for him. It was Testimony meeting yesterday, and almost everybody talked about him for a little bit, and almost everybody cried. They announced that he was leaving in every meeting. He cried when he got up and bore his testimony. We've also been picking up some really cool new people. We got a referral for this one kid that asked for a Book of Mormon and asked for a meeting with us. He said he's been reading the Bible, the Koran, anything he can get his hands on because he's on this search. We asked him what he was searching for, and he paused for a little bit, and said: "To be happy". Hopefully we can fulfill that. So they are doing this new thing nowadays with transfers where they don't tell you where you are going or what new guy you are getting until the very last minute. Possibly to eliminate gossip I guess. So my future is very uncertain. But I have confidence I can get along with almost any of the missionaries in this mission (I better knock on wood right now). I had a companion that everyone told me was hard to get along with, and I was very surprised to hear that. We were homies. Speaking of homies, I love you all and wish you the best! Elder Call

Valley of Death

Hey Guys! This week was also pretty trying. But on the bright side, I got to visit the part of Death Valley National Park that is in my area today. Surprisingly, it was actually cooler there than it was in Lone Pine. We went on a really fun hike, and we saw some waterfalls. I got to see how much the gospel can really change people this week. It's really cool to see the Holy Spirit act in someones life to sanctify them and make them a better person.It's nice to see someone with enough faith to make that happen, which is rare. I hope you all have the opportunity to see it in your own life and help it happen in the lives of others. Well, nothing really interesting happened beyond that. I love you all!

Golden investigator

Blog Post: Well, I have a pretty good story for you. Remember that golden investigator I had a couple weeks prior? She's moving out of town. This is actually very fortunate. She was having trouble giving up bad habits because of her environment. She is moving in with a relative who just barely joined the church as well, and she didn't even know about it. That is a miracle and an answer to both of our prayers. Even though we don't get to baptize her, she'll be an answer to some other missionaries prayer where she is moving. I bet some struggling missionary is praying right now for someone to teach, and in a day or two he's gonna receive a text from his referral secretary saying: "(Investigators name), Moved from California, Taught by missionaries there. Wants to get baptized." He'll freak out. So I'm happy about that. Well, keep the commandments everybody. Elder Call

Cavetown

Hey Everyone! We had such a busy week that today, which is P-Day, we're gonna spend most of the day relaxing. Nothing really exciting happened. We got to have District Meeting in a cave. Well, it wasn't really a cave, but it was still really cool. I'm still loving it. I'm sorry that I don't have much to say beyond that. We are very successful. Ha ha, I love you all and wish you all the best! Elder Call

Happy Mistake

Hey Guys! This week was a good one. It's good when you meet someone who you think was just waiting for you to knock on their door and start teaching them. That happened to me a couple days ago. We were actually looking for one of the members of the Branch, but we made a mistake and knocked on this duys door instead. He said that he wanted to stop living the thug life so he moved up here, and he says he really wants to put his kid in church so that he can grow up not making the same mistakes as he himself made. I love to see people break those family cycles like that. I'm still loving my life up here. The Branch is supportive, my companion is awesome, I have a truck, and we have a lot of good people to teach. What more could I ask for? Well, I love you all and wish you all the best. Elder Call

Shorty

Hey Everyone! We had such a busy week that today, which is P-Day, we're gonna spend most of the day relaxing. Nothing really exciting happened. We got to have District Meeting in a cave. Well, it wasn't really a cave, but it was still really cool. I'm still loving it. I'm sorry that I don't have much to say beyond that. We are very successful. Ha ha, I love you all and wish you all the best! Elder Call

Explaining

Hey Everyone! I guess I say that I'm seeing a lot of miracles, and I'm being kinda vague as to what those are. Let me explain. Sometimes I see really little things happen that I consider miracles, and sometimes I see super huge things happen. One of those huge things is a new investigator we picked up. We knocked on her door, found out she was best friends with her Mormon next door neighbors, and we started teacher her at her house. The first lesson we decided to talk about The Gospel of Jesus Christ, or Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. We talked about this because we decided that this might be the only thing that would interest her. When we started talking about baptism, without us inviting her to be baptized, she said, "Well, I've already been baptized, but I think I need to be rebaptized." At that point we invited her, and the lady who's house we were at said, and I paraphrase a little, "WHOA, slow down, you need to know what you are getting into," ect. But she wasn't scared away by that and she still accepted to be baptized. The next time we talked about the restoration. The lesson before we had given her a Book of Mormon, but, due to time, we hadn't really explained what it was or asked her to pray about it. So, we end the lesson, she says it makes sense to her, we talk a bit more and she pulls out her Book or Mormon and a notebook. She tells us that whenever she reads the Bible, she prays so that god will help her to understand what she is reading. She also asks him to open up the Bible to what she needed to hear at that time. She opened up to some Psalm, which she read and just felt this amazing feeling, I had no idea how she got to this conclusion, but she said that the Psalm had been talking about us, the missionaries, and she said that she had decided that what we were talking about was true. She also said that she had read the first six capters of the Book of Mormon. The next time we talked about the Plan of Salvation, and she said, "This is the first time this has ever made sense to me!" Dang, she is the best. So there is my miracle story for the week. I love you all! Elder Call

more miracles

Hey Everyone! I guess I say that I'm seeing a lot of miracles, and I'm being kinda vague as to what those are. Let me explain. Sometimes I see really little things happen that I consider miracles, and sometimes I see super huge things happen. One of those huge things is a new investigator we picked up. We knocked on her door, found out she was best friends with her Mormon next door neighbors, and we started teacher her at her house. The first lesson we decided to talk about The Gospel of Jesus Christ, or Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. We talked about this because we decided that this might be the only thing that would interest her. When we started talking about baptism, without us inviting her to be baptized, she said, "Well, I've already been baptized, but I think I need to be rebaptized." At that point we invited her, and the lady who's house we were at said, and I paraphrase a little, "WHOA, slow down, you need to know what you are getting into," ect. But she wasn't scared away by that and she still accepted to be baptized. The next time we talked about the restoration. The lesson before we had given her a Book of Mormon, but, due to time, we hadn't really explained what it was or asked her to pray about it. So, we end the lesson, she says it makes sense to her, we talk a bit more and she pulls out her Book or Mormon and a notebook. She tells us that whenever she reads the Bible, she prays so that god will help her to understand what she is reading. She also asks him to open up the Bible to what she needed to hear at that time. She opened up to some Psalm, which she read and just felt this amazing feeling, I had no idea how she got to this conclusion, but she said that the Psalm had been talking about us, the missionaries, and she said that she had decided that what we were talking about was true. She also said that she had read the first six capters of the Book of Mormon. The next time we talked about the Plan of Salvation, and she said, "This is the first time this has ever made sense to me!" Dang, she is the best. So there is my miracle story for the week. I love you all! Elder Call

Miracles

Hey Everyone! We saw some miracles this week. It was really, really cool. It was roasting hot over here, we were happy when we saw the thermometer hit 99, ha ha. We were also happy when we saw like 4 drops of rain hit our windshield, but I guess we've hit our quota until next year, because that was all we got. I'm loving things up here, as always. But I've talked about that enough for now I think. So here is a deep spiritual thought for you. When some people fall away from the Gospel, they might think to themselves, "Well, I'm just not going to endure. I'm too weak." BUT, when they do that, they aren't choosing to not endure, they are just choosing what they are going to endure, does that make sense? Another missionary pointed that out to me. I thought it was interesting. Sadly we have to deal with people not enduring to the end all the time. Transfers are rolling around the bend already! It seems like I took the 5 hour drive from Burbank just yesterday. I called my old companion yesterday and apparently they are still hanging on to the people I found in my long 5 months there. Well, actually they closed down my area due to a shortage of misisonaries and combined it with the area of the Sister missionaries. They are usually better at everything, so I'm sure the people I know and love are in good hands. Well, I better go clean my apartment. I think my MIssion President is going to inspect it one of these days, ha ha.

He teared up...

Hey Everybody! This week was interesting. This area is so far away from everything the whenever there is a zone conference or temple trip or anyhthing, we have to make it a two day trip and stay the night at another missionaries pad. Which is fun, but it hinders us a little bit. Every week this transfer we've had to do that. Last week it was because we were saying goodbye to the old mission pres, President Martin. He gave us a training that he usually gives to the departing missionaries on how to make money and get married. It made me a little trunky, ha ha. But at the end of the training we sang the song "God be with you till we meet again", #152. I wrestled for 5 years and never cried. I worked at a stone factory for 5 months, and never cried. Incidentally there was a guy there that cried every friday. They say that I didn't cry a whole lot when I was a baby. But as we were saying the prayer in that training, I started sniffling and tearing up. I'm gonna miss that guy a lot. He was a true man of God, and we all loved him. But things are still going good in this area. I hope I get to stay for a good, long time. Also, on Saturday as we were eating dinner, we got a call from a memeber of the Branch, who said that we needed to drive about 20 minutes and give this lady a blessing. So we did, and we talked to this lady who had been broke down in this little town in the middle of nowhere, who also happened to be having some health problems. She told us that she went to the gas station and asked the attendant if he knew any Mormons. The attendant was the guy who called us, which is pretty crazy considering that there are not many in that town and she was the first person she talked to. My compaion gave her the sweetest, most spiritual blessing ever. He didn't know anything about her but nailed down a couple of other things she was worried about the didn't have to do with her health. Apparently she got better after that. It was a really cool expirience. But anyway, I wish you all the best!

What's gonna work?

Hey guys! I don't have a whole lot of time to write this, so I'll put the most important things first. We had a Zone Basketball Tournament, and guess who's team won almost every match? Yeah that's right, the one I was on. I'm pretty proud. Things are still hopping up here. I still love it. With the help of God, we may baptize some people. Interestingly enough, apparently, they were about to close this area because nothing was happening. I saw in my area book that things really picked up as soon as the missionary before me came up. The improvement was so drastic that I called him to find out what he did to make such a difference. He told me that just before he had been sent home curtesy of a broken foot, and that expirience humbled him a lot. He said that all he did was be humble and rely on the Lord. Not exactly what I was expecting, and I'm sure it was more than that, but I guess there is a good life lesson in there. I hope you all take it to heart. REPENT!!!!!!! Ha ha, just kidding. I love you all! Elder Call

Hey Everybody! LONE PINE IS THE BEST! A picture is worth a thousand words, right? (Insert picture of scortching desert here. Should be 0016. Delete this) This is %99.6 of my area. Completely uninhabited, scortching desert. The Jack Rabbit population far exceeds that of humans. Sometimes when we walk up to our truck 3 or 4 Jack rabbits come out from underneath the tires and go running in every direction. (0021) This is my district minus me. We're at district meeting. Can you believe that? (0025) This is me and my new comp. The guy is a STUD. (0029) This is me next to my truck. And wearing a cowboy hat. This is what happens when you come up to an area like this. (0040) This is my first Pday. We went and hiked up the Onion Valley. That's not a misnomer, wild onions grow everywhere. They are pretty good. So yeah, I'm turning into a cowboy. Nah, just kidding. But it is really really cool up here. I pretty much love it. The work is hopping. I'm in an English branch, but we have plenty of Spanish work up here. There were some Spanish sisters who would come down here and work, and we're picking up their old investigators like nothing. This is the busiest I have been. By far. I hope I get to stay up here for a good long time. It's a small town, but the missionaries have a good reputation around here. The Branch seems to love us. It often gets over 100 around here, but this little patch of the desert is like paradise for me. The place is a haven for tourists, so the stores around here are extortionately expensive. But I can deal with that. I used to spend $15 or so dollars a week in Burbank, I think I'll make it up here. Anyway, I feel really happy and sunburned. I wish you all the best! Elder Call Sorry, guys i can't get these images onto the blog. You are just going to have to take joe's word on the discriptions.

Lone Pine

Hey Everyone! I've finally gotten transferred. I am now in the middle of the scortching desert, in a small town called Lone Pine. The place is exactly like Chihuahua. The ride up took like 5 hours. I have a truck now! I feel like a boss. My comp and I are the first spanish elders to come around to this area so I'm excited to go to an area that's pretty untouched. I'm now serving in an English branch of about 30 active people. My new comp is a really cool guy named Elder Maxwell, who is from Utah. We had a really good week last week. We ran into this lady that lost a daughter about a year ago, and has very recently regained her faith in god. We had a really intense lesson with her. But now they are shutting down my old area, and the sister missionaries are taking it over. They are going to have a lot of work to do with those two areas together. I'm kinda jealous. I'm still doing well, and I am excited for the change. Change is good. I sincerely wish you all the best! Don't do anything I wouldn't do, Elder Call

Tough Week

Hey Everyone! I apologize for not putting anything on here last week, the library was closed. We had a pretty tough week. I'm not going to give you exact numbers, but rougly 15/17ths of our appointments cancelled in the last 4 days, and my comp ran over a nail. Believe it or not, today while we were shopping he got offered a job as a one time actor playing a super hero. Some people would give their left arm and every ounce of honor they have for that chance, but he turned it down. He's doing the work of the lord, which is way better than fame and easy money. The Lord is probably humbling our district for our pride or something, because the rest of the missionaries have been having tough luck too. But I figured that by the end of all this I'll be able to say that I can do anything! Of course, I said that after I wrestled 5 years, worked 5 months at Boulder Creek, and spent 6 weeks in the MTC. Dang, maybe the Lord is punishing me for my pride, ha ha. But those things were successively harder. But they were all fun in their own way too. We had a zone wide soccer/ultimate frisbee match today, and guess who won? Yeah, my district. Because we are the best. Dang, here we are with the pride thing again. My pride cycle lasts like 4 minutes. But anyway, even though right now sucks, I'm sure everything will be worth it in the end.

Hosed

Hey Everyone! Sorry I didn't write anything last week, it was because it was mothers day and I called my family, and the rest of my district didn't want to do email so we didn't. So this week we knocked on many, many doors because almost every appointment we had fell through. We're supposed to write down the numbers of people we taught, found, ect. in our planners, and one day I just wrote the word "hosed". But good things came out of that doldrum. We gave out something like 4 or 5 referrals to the English missionaries, and one referral to the Armenian speaking missionaries, which is a first. In fact, the referral secretary said that that hadn't happened since last July. We also knocked on a door of a lady who started crying after we said we were missionaries because she was really looking for God. It kinda freaked me out. We're gonna stop by again today and see what happens. I'm pretty excited. At least now I think we've found enough people where we can start stopping by them and have that take up a significant portion of the day. I still feel really happy to be here. Actually, there was a solar eclipse yesterday, and I got to see it for the first time! It was pretty cool. But unfortunately, that's all I got. Con Carino, Elder Call

Earnest

Sup guys!
Sorry I've been kind of neglecting all of you. I apologize. Well, I saw Jay Leno the other day, and I found out that the place where they make that super gross show "1000 ways to die" is in my area, and I bike past it every day. Not that I'm proud of that or anything. But yes, I do live in california, and Hollywood is just over the hills from me.
This past couple of weeks were kinda tough. I was kinda sick the whole time, and we didn't have much success. But near the end we found some really good people. We get to do a Family Home Evening with one of the parents of a recent convert, which I am very excited about.
We've been knocking a lot of doors lately. But it's tough when there are lots of JW's that live around here, and lots of people who don't speak Spanish (or English), and another pair of English missionaries. But we still have success. Through the grace of God, we find people.
Also, something really cool that I found out is that the Holy Spirit is like a tiny taste of what Eternal Life feels like. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10. Check it out. The Apostle Paul, in Ephesians 1:13-14 and 2 Corinthians 1:22 calls the holy spirit an "Earnest", which is, according to dictionary.com:
ear·nest

2    /ˈɜrnɪst/ Show Spelled[ur-nist] Show IPA
noun
1.
a portion of something, given or done in advance as a pledge of the remainder.
2.
Law . earnest money.
3.
anything that gives pledge, promise, or indication of what is to follow.
Pretty interesting, eh? I thought that was super cool. But my comp is looming over my shoulder, I gotta go. I love you all!
Elder J Call

Shorty

Hey, So I'm not getting transferred. I'm staying here in Burbank. I admit I was kinda discouraged about that, but I know that I am here for a reason, and I'm gonna go forward and find out why. It has to be good. I got to give a talk yesterday about the "Pure love of Christ". It was really cool, if you guys ever want some motivation go ahead and look in the topical guide under "love". Well, that's what it was in Spanish anyway. I'm sorry I have to cut this short, but I'm out of time. I hope you all are well and I wish you all the best. Elder Joe Call.

Transfers

Well, transfers are rolling around again, and if I had to take a guess, I'd say I was getting transferred. So my fate is uncertain for the next week. We found a really cool new family. Well to tell the truth, the mom more or less contacted us and said, "Hey, I'm moving in on the tenth, can you come visit me?" so we helped her move in and we've been teaching them. It's funny, like 3 of the families that we teach live in the same apartment complex. Every time we walk by all the kids come out and give us high fives. It makes a missionary feel good. Being a missionary is really hard, but for that it is really rewarding. It's very heartbreaking when you know someone has a spirtual witness of the gospel but they deny it anyway. I remeber in the MTC, I was taking a test, and one of the questions was, "T or F, everyone who has a spiritual witness of the truth will be baptized." and I said to myself, well of course! And I clicked on the little button next to the T. I was a little naive, and I maybe I still am. I guess I'm finding out what it means to gather the wheat from the midst of the tares. Well I don't want to leave you all on a depressing note, so I will say that really good things are happening in this mission as a whole. We are doing fantastic! I know it's not about the numbers, but lets just say that everybody is doing really, really good. This is a choice place to be a missionary, and I'm happy to be here. I love you all! Joseph Call

Noble and great ones

Blog post:
Well, yesterday was the baptism of Alex. It was very, very spiritual. I'm sure that he is one of the noble and great ones that it talks about in the Pearl of Great Price. He doesn't speak good spanish, so he attends an English Ward. It was really weird attending a service in English. It actually made me kind of nervous.
Things have been a little slower lately, but I'm sure that this is temporary. I still feel really happy about the work. It's really cool to see how much an effect the words you say can have on people as a missionary. We were teaching this teenage girl, and every time we said something, she looked as if she was really taken aback, almost like our words cut deep into her soul. Unfortunately, in her case, all of her worldly doubts kept winning out. It's really sad to see someone who gets a spirtual witness of the truth turn it down. We'll see what happens with her. It's aspecially fun to pause for a little bit after you tell the Joseph Smith story, or the first vision, and observe their responses. You can use that to see who has deaf spiritual ears, or to see who isn't listening with their real ears.
But yeah, the Gospel is true. When the spirit carries words to somebody who isn't a pharisee, it will show them the truth. I've seen it. I love my work, and I hope all you that are thinking of serving missions do it. I love you all!
Elder J Call

Really Cool Pday

Hey everyone,
I still feel really happy about what I'm doing. Not a whole lot happened this week, although the lord continues to bless us. For instance, we had this appointment set up, but it totally got shafted, and we were walking outside, thinking something along the lines of, "Dang, what now?" when this lady drives up in her van, and says, "Hey, I'm new to the area, and I'm moving in. Can you guys come visit me?" Which of course we said yes to. It was pretty cool.
Today was also a really cool Pday, we went for a hike. My district is pretty adventurous. It was so nice to get away from the constant noise. There is ALWAYS some kinda car speeding by and there are sirens a couple of times a day. For that it was really nice to go up to the mountains, and chill out. I realized that I have to run up and down those hills, because if I stop and think about what I'm doing too much, I'll get scared and fall. I kinda have to let my instincts take over. I don't know how good of a life metaphor that is.
Well, I suppose I should say something Easter related. My favorite song by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is "This is the Christ." It gets me every time. I want to tell you that I know that Christ lives, and he loves each and every one of us. I know this for two reasons. Number one: The historical evidence is undeniable. The Old Testament prophsies of Jesus something like 300 times. Every one of these prophsies were fulfilled to the letter. We have all of the testimonies of the apostles, who saw the living Christ with their own eyes. They were willing to die for their testimonies. Can you imagine dieing for a lie? After Jesus was resurrected, the Sanhedrin wanted to cover it up, and they said that the dsiciples went and stole the body out of the tomb while the 4 soldiers guarding the tomb slept. This is highly improbable, as sleeping while they were on guard duty carried the penalty of death. All four of them being asleep is laughable.
But, we never base our faith on historical facts or calculated arguments. I had an investigator who didn't believe in Jesus, he was agnostic, but still professed to know a lot about that kind of history. Reason #2: I have felt his hand in my life abundantly. I have used the atonement to heal my sins. I have felt his love for me. He has lifted me up when I have felt dejected. I have felt him change me and seen him change other people. He is my Lord, and I am his man forever. Would I base my life on a lie?
God lives. His kindom on the earth is known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Yeah, those two young punks who knock on your door every once in a while. If you listen to them, and apply the gospel in your life, you will have the most happiness in this life that is possible, and joy you can't imagine in the eternities. That's why I'm here in sunny California.
Well, I love you all. Have a good week!
Elder Joseph Call

General Conference

Hey guys,
It seems that satan has been trying hard to keep us home, because last week between the two of us we had 3 or 4 flat tires and one half sick day. We were not very lucky. But things are still plugging along. I'm having fun.
Was General conference awesome or what! It was kind of like a vacation for me as a missionary. It was nice to sit down for like 10 hours. Especially since I am back on bike, which is giving my energy level a beat down every day.
I want to thank the Murphy family, you guys have been consistently cheering me up every week for the past 6 months. Thank you kindly.
Well, I don't really have much else to report. I love you all!
Elder Call.

Texan Piece of Steel

Well guys, we've been doing pretty good over here in sunny California. I'm getting along well with my new companion. He's like a Texan peice of steel. He told me he doesn't like doing pull ups because they are too easy and it's like jogging for him. We're about the same height, so I think we just intimadate people into letting us in. Ocassionaly people think we are the FBI. But we do pretty good work together. Our district is pretty new too, and I really like these guys.

That guy that I told that miraculous story about last week faced some opposition from his family, and for awhile I thought we lost him, but I think he's back on the right track now. Which makes me very happy.

I do enjoy it down here in Cali. We're having success and I like it. I love how each week we play soccer with a bunch of latinos and they kill us every time. It's kinda cool, they all put on their Jerseys and pretend to be injured just like the pros. I also have the best mall in the mission in my area so me and my district go there on pdays and eat chipotle and pretend to shop. It's pretty nice. My life is good.

Well, that was short, but I hope you all enjoyed it.

Elder Call



P.S.

Dear Karrine Manning,

I lost your adress, and for that have not written you in a long time. Is there any way you can get it to me? Sorry about that...

Story time

Wow. This last week was the best of my mission. I'm going to relate to you a story.
A little background: a couple of weeks before this me and my companion kind of made a deal with the lord that we were pretty much gonna work really hard and the lord would reward our efforts with 2 baptismal dates. The time to complete this deal was almost up, and we had one guy, a really good friend of ours, and probably my favorite person in a 10 mile radius, agree to be baptised. That was a miracle in and of itself, and I was more than satisfied with that, but then this happened:
So Saturday night it was cold and rainy. We took one of the members of the ward, pat, out with us to go visit a few people. We all get in the car at like 7 o'clock and my companion says that we should pray about who to visit before we left. We prayed, and my companion thought that we should go and visit a guy named Javier, who is one of our weakest contacts. He felt really stupid saying this, but he says that the spirit told him something along the lines of "Don't counsel me". I thought it was a dumb idea but I rolled with it anyway.
We get to driving, and on the way there I thought to myself about one of Javier's neighbors, a lady named Juana that the sister missionaries had taught but we had never met. For some reason the thought of knocking on her door just really excited me. So we decided to go there instead.
We get to the door, pitch dark, rain falling on our heads, and this guy opens the door and we see that the whole family is together. We ask for the lady, Juana, but she says that she doesn't know us and doesn't want to talk to us. The guy at the door is kind of rude to us, and he says goodbye and almost shuts the door. At that moment, Pat, the convert who's been in the church for 3 months and is also preparing for his mission, says something like, "Well you opened the door, didn't you? Would you like to talk to us?" And the guy says, "sure, why not?"
He comes out with his raincoat and umbrella while we just stand there shivering. We start talking, and don't ask me how we got on this subject but we talk about how he is having a hard time with his girlfriend and he asks us all for advice. We all take turns giving our opinions, Pat even pulls out a scripture in Proverbs that relates to this, and somewhere along the way, Alex (The guy) says that he notices that Mormons are always so happy and that he really wants to be like that. He asks us what he needs to do to become a Mormon, and my companion looks at him and smiles, "What a wonderful question."
After talking for about an hour or maybe an hour and a half, Alex agreed to be baptized on April 8th. He also said that we changed his life and that he wants to go on a mission when he graduates high school.
WE MAKE JOKES ABOUT THIS SORT OF THING! Like if we're contacting as a group, and two groups of missionaries meet on the street we say, "How'd it go?" and the other one will say "Oh yeah, he agreed to a baptismal date," AND THEY BOTH LAUGH. Can you believe that? How God led us to that guy, and how all three of us had to be sensitive to make it happen? I also grew to love that guy in the space of an hour, for obvious reasons. He even took off his cross! We told him that having a cross wasn't a sin but he took it off anyway.
I was completely blown away. The interesting part is that when we made that deal with the lord we didn't quite complete with our part, but the lord still gave us this. I tell you what, I'm gonna be faithful with this sort of thing from now on. I'm not messing around after what happened.
Well, on a far less exciting note, due to a complicated situation my companion, Elder Souza, is getting transferred to be a Zone Leader, but I will stay in Burbank. I'm getting a Missionary named Elder Fike, who I can already tell I'm gonna get along with. This guy's awesome. But Elder Souza was probably the best missionary I've seen so far. I'm sad to see the guy go. We would play soccer and he would always kill everybody because he was Brazillian. Ah, good times. I'm going to have a hard time topping this transfer.
I love you all! Stay on the straight and narrow!

Representative of Jesus Christ

Hey guys!
This week has been amazing. We decided we were going to step up our game as missionaries by making little mini covenants with the Lord. We kind of promise to do something and ask for a result from the Lord. It seems to be working really well. I guess now I really know how willing the lord is to bless us. Like 15 minutes after we decided to start doing that we got a call from a less active girl we're trying to get to go to church, and she scheduled a lesson with us.
A really tender thing happened with that. She talked about how she didn't feel like she was worthy to pray to god and go to church. After we said a prayer, we said something to her along these lines. "As representatives of Jesus Christ, we have the responsibility to say what he would say if he were here. God told me to tell you that he's not mad at you, and if you go back he will welcome you with open arms. Not only that, but he will help you every step of the way." It was very spiritual. I almost cried.
So if you are in that situation, I'm pretty sure those same words would apply to you.
I'm out of time, unfortunately. I wish you all the best! Stay strong, Move on!

Fear Not

Hey Guys!
We had a really good week this week. We got a lot of stuff done.
Also, I love the food that these Latinos make for us. It's frankly fantastic. But, I guess that I reached that point in every missionary's career where he has to eat something gross. Yeah, I ate some chipulines. Those are grasshoppers. I admit, after I tasted one, they aren't that bad, they put lime and chile on them. but I still ate a creature that I thought was only fit for survivorman.
I guess the spiritual thing that happened to me this week was that I woke up one morning and just felt down in the dumps. My hands were down by my knees and my feet were dragging. My shoulders were round, all that jazz. So, like a good missionary, I got on my knees and prayed. Somehow, by the end of that plea to god, I stood up feeling ecstatic. Which is very important, because people are way more likely to let you into their houses when you don't look like you want to hurt them, which apparently happens to me sometimes.
So yeah guys, this is how God works. We do what we can, and he'll bear us up the rest of the way. Like the song says, "Fear not, I am with thee, o be not dismayed, for I am thy god, and will still give thee aid. I strengthen thee, help thee and cause thee to stand. Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand."
That is one of my favorite songs. I sing it a couple times a day usually.
So I feel pretty optimistic about everything. Maybe if I'm lucky, one of these transfers I'll get moved up to the mountains. I just can't get used to the LA nature sounds. I'm gonna buy some earplugs today to block out all the sirens and speeding cars. Yeah, that was a bit of a tangent, but I hear sirens right now.
So, everyone, be happy!

Editor's note:I love grasshoppers...

Baptism and Catholics

Well guys, last night a funny thing happened. I was talking to one of our solid investigators, who is catholic, and he was asking about infant baptism. I start out trying to be all diplomatic about it, saying that I could see why someone might think a baby needs to be baptized, and such. Then my companion pipes in and says something to this effect: "No. It's an abomination." and then he breaks out Moroni chapter 8 and reads it to him. I was kinda scared, but it must have been the influence of the spirit because the investigator actually said he was going to read that passage to his priest. Mercy me.
Other than that it was kind of a slow week. We had a lot of cancellations. But, this is how it is sometimes. Next week looks good. But I love you all and wish you all the best.

Busy

We've been very busy lately, we've been contacting less because we have more people to teach. I also am coming to love the Spanish language. I feel like such a boss when I speak it. I suppose I could say that things are looking up over here in my tiny area. I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but here in southern California, it's a lot like a mini united nations. You never know what kind of people are on the other side of the door. I've met Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, whatever religion pretends to speak in tongues, atheists, you name it. I guess that's what comes with being in a predominantly non-Latino, yet predominantly non-American area. There is actually an Armenian orthodox cathedral in our area. It's pretty interesting. I always wanted to get called to some exotic far off nation, and hey, I've got it all right here. The Lord always listens.

Productive day

Hey guys,
We had a pretty productive week. We started handing out meal calenders, which means that I get to eat awesome Mexican food almost every day, and I can afford fruit now. It's pretty exciting.
My new companion is a pretty cool guy. In Moroni 10 it talks about spiritual gifts, such as the gift of tongues, and the gift of the spirit etc. He seems to have the gift of getting free stuff from people. My first day with him, he got us a box of free doughnuts and a free sandwich. He simply said "I know the guy". But all jokes aside, he's a great missionary. The zone leaders encouraged us to have a "Companionship statement" that kind of defines us, and we chose: "Git er done, do work." We've been living up to that pretty well.
Also, true to his Brazilian nature, he hurt his foot playing futbol, and for that I am in a car now, which makes my life a lot easier. Life is pretty good right now.
So... everyone: go to church, okay? Okay!
Elder Call.

Editor's note: Mexican food every day, I wonder what you'll say when you get back.

"I was a fighter"

Dear friends,
This week we made some progress. My companion is leaving me today, and I'm getting a new one today also. I don't really know anything about him except that his name is Elder Souza and he is from Brazil. Yesterday was my companions last day of proselyting, and the lord first blessed us with getting invited into a house and the opportunity of giving a sick man a blessing, and then also getting invited into another house of a really nice guy who had been drinking a little bit. The Superbowl was playing in the background, so we started talking about sports, and I mentioned "Yo era un luchador" Which means "I was a wrestler" in Spanish, but it can also mean "I was a fighter", so all the sudden he gets up and starts pretending to throw karate chops at me, making all kinds of weird karate noises. After that, someone gave us pupusas, which is a delectable Salvadorian tortilla cheese ball thing, which was an awesome end to an awesome Sunday.
I'm gonna miss Elder Vazquez I think. He was an awesome missionary. Throughout the course of six weeks we didn't even have one disagreement. The guy who had been drinking was even surprised at that. Also, during his last 6 weeks, even when I was teasing him about going to school and girls, he still didn't get trunky and still worked hard all the time. What a guy.
Anyway, that's my peace.
Elder Joseph Call

Editor's note: Delectable Salvadorian tortilla cheese ball... *mouth water*

Cavemen

Well, this week kind of sucked. We uh, discovered what we needed to work on ha ha. But hey, this is the way it is.
Also, my awesome companion is leaving next monday, I'm kinda interested to see what will happen after that. I wonder if they will have enough missionaries to keep my area open. I'm sure they will. It's been kind of interesting watching this area go from almost nothing to what it is now. To motivate myself I often look over at the whiteboard that has the names of all our potentials and investigators on it, and remember the time when it was almost blank.
Another thing that motivates me is going to baptisms. For some reason, at both of the baptisms I have attended my companion and I have had to speak, and we never have time to write out a talk so I often write like 3 sentances in my planner and wing it in Spanish. For some reason I can always rattle it off when I'm planning but during a baptismal service, you get nervous and sound a little like a caveman. I thought I botched the talk, but everyone else seemed to like it. Ha ha, that's the way it is, I guess.
I'm always impressed with what I hear the missionaries in North Branch are doing. Someone give them a big congratulations. And food.
Well, nothing really exciting happened this week. I'm anxious to see how this area is going to turn out.
Goodbye,
Elder Call

Editor's note: sorry the blog was late this week, it's been hectic.

More Success

Hey guys, nothing too exciting happened this week. Things slowed down a little bit because we spent a lot of time in interviews and other stuff. I'm also pretty stoed that I get to work with my companion from the MTC this week, because my regular companion is going home in two weeks and therefore has more interviews.
The thing that I successfully cooked this week was: Chinese rice, although it wasn't as good because I can't afford peanut oil. I know most of you guys probably don't care about this, but my mom told me that she likes to hear about these things.
So here is my story of the week. We were biking on a path that we normally don't take, and we heard this guy shout "Mormons! Over Here!" so we stowed our bikes, and went out and talked to him. He was a very flamboyant man who had talked to the missionaries many times. After making friends with him, he introduced us to his friend, who had recently hit a bt of hard luck and was homeless. We ended up giving him a blessing and then the number for the English speaking missionaries. Overall it was pretty awesome
Well, that's all I got.
Have fun!
Elder Joseph Call

Editor's Note: Hey Everyone! Joe needs peanut oil! We need to get it to him as quick as possible. Come on, lives are at stake!

Success

Blog Post:
Hey guys, I only have about ten minutes to write this, so I'll skip right to the awesome part. I was on exchanges with my district leader, and one of the things he does is if he tracts that day, in the morning him and his companion pray in front of a map as to where he should go. He chooses a place and narrows it down very specifically from there. If him and his companion don't agree on the place, they pray again to try and get it right. So me and him were doing this, and I was thinking "Wow, this is kinda weird, I don't like this, but I'm gonna try it because I like trying things". So we did, it was kinda weird, but later on in the day, after 2-3 hours of rejection, we found this really nice lady who was very receptive to the gospel. we were very happy about this.
So the next day me and my companion decided to try it too. We prayed in front of a map. At first we disagreed, and talked about it for a little bit, and we realized that the borders of the area had changed, so we got out a new and improved map, and we prayed some more and decided to go to this area that wasn't on the map before and we weren't even sure if any Spanish missionaries had been there before. We got there that night, and found out that everyone was American, which we were pretty bummed about. Later on, we were walking down the street, all of the houses looked American, so we decided to go to Monterrey st because it sounded Mexican. while we were walking down the street, a house caught our eye and we decided to go knock on it. Mind you, this was the only house on that side of the whole street we wanted to knock on. We met this American lady who said that she had read a part of the book of Mormon, without ever talking to the missionaries before, asked us if there was a Mormon church nearby that she could go to, and who just that morning had an argument with her husband about "getting back in touch with god". She said that she thought our coming to her door might have been a sign. I told her that we had prayed that morning where to go and we came here. I had to send the English missionaries over there, because she spoke English. They were stoked.
On a much less exciting note, I got a package of gold-I mean cooking stuff from my mom. My quality of life just doubled I think. See how I think now? I think that doubling my quality of life is much less exciting than sharing the gospel with a really cool lady. Speaking of quality of life, I know I'm in California, but it is January, and our little house doesn't have any heat, and we saw our breath inside of our house this morning. Ha ha, my companion is from Mexico and he doesn't like it at all. Well, that's about all I got. Things are continuing to pick up.
With Love,
Elder Call

Editor's Note: I must say, this is quite a development in our organization that is entirely dedicated to Joe. He is very lucky things are going that way. Maybe...

LOST

Hey guys, the work here is picking up slowly but surely. My cooking repertoire is expanding, and thus I am becoming happier. I don't know what it is, but for me it seems that food equals happiness. Anyway, you can make doughnuts by frying biscuit dough in oil and then covering it in cinnamon, and when I saw that biscuit dough was only 50 cents a can, I pretty much died of giddiness. I bought enough to make 40 doughnuts. Having good food to eat makes everything easier in my opinion.
I still love it here, but our big problem is that we show up to appointments and our investigators aren't there. I'm sure there is something we can do about that, but I don't know what it is. We are finding lots of people to teach though. In fact, one time we were walking down a dark street (Because my tire popped on my bike) and I started talking about a guy that we had looked for like a week ago, and my companion says "Where does he live?" and I said, "I dunno, wait a minute, doesn't he live right here?" And we saw the guy sitting on his couch through the door. He was right in front of us. That may not seem all that miraculous, but when you consider how bad I am with directions, it was definitely revelation. Well have to see next week if anything comes of that. I'm having fun, and learning a lot. But unfortunately, I don't have all that much time. So I must be going.
I love you all!
Elder Joseph Call

Editor's Note: Joe is learning to cook, need I say more?

Out In the field

Hey everybody! Oh what a week! I spent the last two days of the MTC alone with my companion, and we studied really really hard. I woke up to fly out to the Burbank airport at like 3 AM, and when I stepped off the plane it was like love at first sight, which was surprising, because I thought I would hate it here. It was very very nice weather. On the car ride over to the mission office I noticed that southern California looks exactly like Mexico, except with freeways and rich looking houses looking down at you on the hilltops.
I got assigned to work in the North Hollywood 4th ward, and I live in Burbank now. We are actually reopening this area after about a year of no missionaries. That means that I haven't taught a lesson to anybody yet, I've spent all of my time knocking doors, which I hope to get used to someday. I also got an new companion, a Latino named E. Vasquez. It was really ironic, he's from Guano Juanto, and all of my buddies at the stone factory were from that city too. IT HAS TO MEAN SOMETHING! But anyway, he's a pretty cool guy. It also helps a lot that we don't typically speak English.
Although it's difficult to learn another language, I am grateful that I get to preach to the Latinos. they are much more friendly and receptive. Sometimes when we tract into Americans, they almost look like they want to hurt us. But yeah, it can be kind of challenging trying to find a Latino house in North Hollywood. But I'm pretty sure next week will be good, we have a bunch of people who told us to come back and talk to them later, we'll see how that goes. I also love it when Latinos cook for you. OH MAN, I had some fantastic barbeque.
I also discovered that I enjoy cooking. My mom and grandma must have impressed this on me, I kinda have the urge to cook for everybody. I even fed like 4 missionaries yesterday, a bunch of clam spaghetti. Except the pan was too small and when I tried to drain the noodles, less than a quarter cup of water came out. Ha ha, good times. It turned out pretty good. I think I'm gaining a reputation for liking to cook. We'll see if that matters at all later.
Although the work right now can be difficult, it is still intensely spiritual. I kinda feel like I'm swimming upstream, and each day I am very very tired. But I still love it. Or at least I know that I will come to love it soon. As far as being tired goes, I bought some vitamins, and they seem to help. (I'm sure all of you wanted to know that). I guess the point is, I feel very close to God. Hungry, but close to god.
I love you all!
Joseph

Editor's note: I guarantee everyone will love him, now that he's cooking.