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