Elder Corbin Moore-- August 20, 2012

Subject: Speaking Good Ol' English

       Well this past week has been pretty crazy. Tuesday was my last day in Downey so we went to the set appointments that we had and said goodbye to my investigators, and then came home that night so that we could plan for the next day, and then I got right to packing because my ride was going to be there early to pick me up. So I got all of my stuff packed, and it was very surprisingly fast. So the next morning I was out the door and on my way to San Pedro. I arrived early Wednesday morning, and then we got right to it. I brought my stuff in the apartment, and then we ate lunch. After that it was out the door so that we could drive up to Santa Monica to go to the new zone leader meeting. So other than that I have just been trying to get used to the whole English thing. It has been pretty weird lately but I'm sure that it will only get better so yeah.
        My companion's name is Elder Takogawa. He was my zone leader when I was up in LA 6th. He is from Japan, and is a really good missionary. Unfortunately this is going to be his last transfer so I will have to suck all the knowledge out of his brain before he leaves. His whole family are members, except for his dad. His mom is a convert, but he grew up in the church. He came to the states for high school in Virginia, so his English is really good. So we are going to kill it this transfer. Right now we are in finding mode, but it is all good we are just going to tract a lot, and we through the members so that we can find some solid people to teach.
         The area of San Pedro is pretty mixed. We work a lot in some ghettoer areas, but we also have part of the Palos Verdes Estates. So both sides of the spectrum. It is going really well though. They are a lot of Hispanic people down here, so I basically use my Spanish everyday to talk to people on the street, and then just refer them to the Spanish-speaking sisters that cover our area as well. There are even a couple of Spanish speakers in the ward. Returned missionaries and what not. Oh and there is this one brother here in the ward that served his mission in Melbourne, Australia. A couple years before Trent so I talked to him about that. Overall all the ward is really good, and it was weird yesterday to be sitting in an English ward, and not being the only blonde, white person there.
         Well other than that everything is basically the same here. Just our here doing the Lord's work. I am loving every minute of it. Even though there are hard times I just try not to focus on what is going on, rather what is it that I am supposed to learn. Well hope that it is going great for you all. If you need to get a hold of me, you know where to find me. Bernie keep up the football stuff, and hit the weights a little bit. Keyton do something fun this year in school, join a club or something. Alrighty well peace out and I will talk to you all soon enough.

Con Amor
Elder Moore

Everything.Happens.For.A.Reason
There.Is.No.Such.Thing.As.Coincidence

ELder Matthew Whittle-- Aug 13, 2012

Que pachuca por taluka!

Man Pres. Cook just let's the cat out of the bag everytime haha. Ya Elder Hall and I are here in Mission Viejo right now. About 20 minutes away from the Newport Beach temple. We actually just got back from the Newport Temple. It's an awesome temple! We like it here in Mission Viejo. It's a nice area, but really really hot! We're right inland from laguna niguel. It's fun though. Walking around in the 100 degree weather sweating to death haha. It's awesome. Elder Hall is a stud. He has really good spanish already. We're getting along really well. It's crazy we're white washing obviously so we don't know our area at all, but it's super fun, and I'm so glad I'm in an all spanish district. Now I can hold district meetings in Spanish, and talk on the phone all in Spanish. That's one thing I didn't like about being down in Del Mar, but I do miss that area too. I'm excited for you to meet Juana, Martin, y Brandon. They're awesome!

 

Elder Hall got his first Baptismal date set this week. It was awesome. We taught the restoration and Elder Hall invited the investigator to be baptized, and they accepted after we resolved their doubt. He's doing really well. This area is awesome. I feel like I'm back in Mexico again, how I felt in O side. There's a lot of hispanics around everywhere. It's actually a ward here too, instead of just a branch.

 

So I agree with Gertrude. We shouldn't sell Cherry until I get back;) haha, unless someone is willing to pay like 10,000 for her. I'm glad to hear that he's doing well in Argentina! I miss that guy. I'm so glad he's out serving, and I can't wait to hear his goofy argentine accent. It will be fun to all talk after the mission.

 

Man so what's new with the Choster? I miss that guy! I'm still waiting for his letter:) haha. I need to get him off another one as well. Have the missionaries been by to visit his parents yet? What's new with that?

 

So I might have lost my License..... ya I'm going to look for it more in the appartment today when we get back. I had it a couple of days ago when we checked in but I'm not sure where it is yet. I'll let you know if I find it.

 

Man The Corbster is going to feel really awkward in english work for the first little while. It's really weird to teach in English, but It's fun too. It's cool to experience it both ways. I really liked being in the Single's ward. It was a blast!

 

I got the package by the way. Thanks it was great. Tell Josh that he has to wait until I get back to go to Powell so I can come with again. Maybe I'll just fly to like St. George and then head over to Lake Powell for the week;) haha. Tell Josh hi and I love him and I'm praying for him.

 

Well love you all. Things are going great. Have a good week!

 

Con amor,

Elder Witle!

Elder Corbin Moore-- Aug. 13, 2012

 Well this week has been a pretty good week. And it would have to be, because it will be my last week here in this part of the mission. The Lord has called me another way. I will be heading down to San Pedro, the southern part of the mission, and I will be a Zone Leader. So no more Downey and Santa Fe Springs, for right now. I was kinda bummed because I was just beginning to warm up to this area, and the people, and my investigators. But with new changes and responsibilities comes the opportunity to grow and be a better missionary. I'm just going to hold on tight and enjoy the ride. I will no be serving in an English area, but I will have plenty of opportunities to practice my Spanish with the Spanish companionships that are in my zone. It will be weird to go to an English ward, because up to this point in my mission I have only been going to Spanish wards. Overall I'm a little nervous for all the changes but the Lord knows better than I do. So yeah those is the big changes that are going to be happening this week.
       Our week was pretty good we focused a lot on some of the training material that we received and that really helped us to help our investigators. We visited with R and A a couple of times this week. They are doing wonderful, they have a lot of great questions, and are wanting to follow the Savior. A..a is still doing amazing, and they girls are liking the lessons as well. They came to church this week, and really loved it. It was hard for the daughters last week in church, because they are getting used to the Spanish but this week they understood and had a great time. They also went with us to the departing missionary fireside with us last night and they really liked that. Overall it was a pretty good week, and looking forward to another great one this week.
       Well sorry this one was short got to go because there is some stuff that I need to finish up on. Hope to hear from you all, and have a wonderful week.

Con Amor
Elder Moore

Everything.Happens.For.A.Reason
There.Is.No.Such.Thing.As.Coincidence

Elder Matthew Whittle-- Aug 7, 2012

CUMPLEANOS PAPI!

Que pachuca por Taluca! Cuantos anos tienes ahora papa? Como 30 algo? haha espero que lo disfrute! Gracias por ser un buen ejemplo para mi. Al seguir con mi mision me doy cuenta de todas las cosas buenas que me has ensenado a mi. Estoy agradecido por tu paciencia con migo y por tu amor. Espero que pueda andar en motocicleta o algo con M. Seria muy bien para el. El no es miembro todavia. Ha tenido un pasado muy deficil, pero el es uno de mis mejores amigos que tengo aqui en Del Mar. Se me hace muy deficil de salir de este area. Hemos fijado siete bautismos que vienen en esta mez y la mez que entra. Ojala que pueda yo regresar por esos bautismos.

 

The Moores are such a great family. I miss them all a bunch. I got a letter from Elder Moore the other week. He said he's doing really well. Seemed really positive. Tell them all hi and I love and miss them.

 

So something really sad happened this week, but in a way it was good as well. We have an investigator who all his brothers and sisters are members, but live in S M. He has 3 daughters, and he hasn't been progressing towards baptism at all. He already has a testimony of the church, and joseph smith. Well we've been praying a lot for him, and what happened is he just found out his wife, who is super catholic, has been cheating on him. So they're breaking up. It was really really sad to hear about it, but he's now is coming to church, reading, and praying a lot, and wants to be baptized as soon as he can. It's sad that it took that, but now he's really serious about putting forth the effort to be baptized. Kind of a crazy story huh?

 

Things are on fire down here. It's going so great. I've never seen so many miracles on my mission as I have this transfer. We taught a girl in the singles ward for the first time last week, and we taught her the restoration. We invited her to be baptized and she immediately said yes I will. She then asked us what do I need to do to get ready. We've taught her twice since then and she's understanding everything and keeping all her commitments. She's awesome. We taught her the law of chastity on the second lesson and told her she needs to either get married or stop living with her boyfriend. She agreed to do that as well. She has definitely been prepared. I love it down here in Del Mar. Oh ya by the way I am getting transferred. I don't know to where yet. Transfer meeting is today. The family S. are going to take me up to Vista to the transfer meeting. It was really hard to say goodbye to everybody here, but that's how it goes. I can't wait until you meet J. and M. They're so awesome. Some of the greatest people I've ever met. It's going to be really really hard to say goodbye to them.

 

Well things are all good here with me. I love the mission! It's definitely the best thing I've ever done. Hope everything is going great with all of you. Keep praying for missionary opportunities, and then Lord will give you them. There's a lot of Joy that comes from missionary work. I never want to stop doing it. Love you all. Cuidense mucho! Adios

 

Con Amor,

Elder Witle!

Elder Devin Oviatt--Aug 6, 2012

Man this week has been awesome but probably my slowest of my mission so far. We have been waiting for move calls. We think that Elder Manga is moving and I'm saying some where. But I really want to stay. OH yea  So elder Manga's Parents are going to go to Utah in october for the conference. They were wondering what they should go do and see while there. We thought it would be kinda funny if you guys met up. So yea that might be cool. OH yea so now i can officially say that Iv'e been attacked by a dog on my mission. haha We we're at Isabels visiting with her and her family and when we we're getting ready to go. Marcus Her younger brother had got the dog all worked up and he bit me on my arm. Not hard but enough to break the skin. The family was freaking out and I was Like I'm fine. It's not the first time I;ve been bitten and how Iv'e been around dogs all my life. They felt really bad. But hey for the time being I have some really cool bite marks. (: Also we might be moving apartments. We think some one broke into our flat. Its fine but yeah. We went to the London Eye again to go contacting. Thats still so much fun. Its funny how much of the Olympics Iv'e been seeing. Every ones house we go to is watching the Olympics. So yea We actually see alot of it. GO USA!!! haha. Iv'e never been so patriotic till I got on my mission.

  Oh so for P day we played football(soccer) and because we are in England we had to say a harry potter spell every time we kicked the ball. That was hilarious.

 We havn't been able to see N. t. this week. M. flog on our appointment. so yea its just been a okay week. We have been doing a lot of finding and trying to talk to as many people as possible on the bus and just where ever we are. I stil am amazed at how many people I meet from all over the world. Im loving that part of it. I want to stay here cause I love the members and our investigators but It would be cool to go somewhere else. So The end of this transfer signals the end of my training. I cant wait till I get to. I feel Like that would be really fun. But we'll see. :) I love you guys and I miss All of you. Love

Elder Oviatt

Elder Corbin Moore--Aug, 6, 2012

  Well we had a good week this last week. We were able to focus on finding more investigators through using our area book. Working with the formers investigators, and the potentials. We had picked out a couple to focus on this week and then passed by during the week. Well one of the days, it was late out and we decided that we were going to try and contact one more to see if we would be able to contact. So we checked out the address and we couldn't make out the number. We figured it was probably a 3 and then we drove to the respective area. We arrived and knocked the door, a woman answered the door and asked if she could help us. We told her who we were looking for, but she replied that no one lived there by that name. So we just proceded to tell her about our message. She said that she was busy then but that we could try to come back another day in the afternoon. So we found a potential through misreading the number. So the following day we decided that we were going to try and visit the same person but to try the other number that we thought it was. So we parked to the car and started walking to the house. As we were walking down the street, a man that was sitting out on his porch called out to us. He told us that he was a member from a different city. We continued talking to him, and found out that he was actually an investigator from a different mission that had recently moved into our area. He invited us in and we got to know him a little bit more and his girlfriend too. His name is R. and her's, A. He had been receiving missionary lesson up in the Valley, and wanted to continue with the church. Turns out one side of his family are all members and so that is going to help also. Not that he is not already prepared, because this guy has a Quad (the standard works) of the church, and he also has the missionary library and is reading, Jesus the Christ. We are going to be seeing them later tonight so I wlll keep you posted on them.

       Also this week we have been able to continue working with Al., and her two girls. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they loved it. They had so many questions and couldn't even believe that we actually exsisted before this world. That is now their favorite question to ask their other extended family members, "Do you know where you were before this life?", it is super funny. They are progressing amazingly and are prepared to hear the Gospel. We will continue working with them and help Al.prepare for her baptism, on the 2nd of September. It funny to think that Al. was also from the Valley and just fell right into our hands. Mine I love have a good quarterback that knows how to throw the good passes.

       Well other than that Elder Stinson and I have been doing amazing. We were able to help the Relief Society president with an activity that they had for the women of the ward, and the woman investigators that we have. We are thinking about starting up an english class here in our ward. And just searching for more people along the way. Elder Stinson and I are working out every morning and then to finish the workout, I always have myself a nice smoothie that is pack with protien.

       What's new back home? It was good to hear that you all are still rocking out to that good old 80's music. I love that stuff and miss it dearly. How was the Iron Maiden concert? Amazing I bet, with a horrible atmoshere. How is J-dogg doing? Tell that kid that I want to hear from him. Also if you could talk to Josh, and let him know that I am still waiting for that letter he said he was sending?.....Glad Brayden is doing well. What is next on the agenda for him? Any progress on the papers or anything? Bernie how is the football going? Tell me what is going on. Are you playing running back? Are you playing safety? Are you 6'6", 225lbs, and ready to crush someone? If not you'd better get on that one. You got to get ready for high school ball. That is going to be next year, and you'll want to be ready for that. Make sure that you don't get lazy during the off season. Get out of the house, any from the TV and go running or something. Keyton, what is the story? I heard a little from you but it was only about priest's camp. What is going on in your life? Are you getting ready for your junior year in high school? This is the year you just have to bust you butt, trying to get everything ready, so that during your senior year you can do the things that you want to do. Always remember to keep the grades up, and that you are preparing for a better future. I wish you the best of luck. Study hard, work hard, play hard. Have a wonderful week.

 

Con Amor Elder Moore

 

Everything.Happens.For.A.Reason

Elder Matthew Whittle-- August 3, 2012

Well transfers are coming up soon. I can't believe I've been here in Del Mar for 6 months already. Time flies by super fast out here. The days just blurr together. Next tuesday are transfers. I think I'll probably be getting transferred, but you never know with Pres. Cook. I'll know by this saturday wether or not I'm getting transferred. It's really hard to leave an area. I don't like it at all. I feel like I'm leaving my family all over again. Remember the family sanchez? J and M? They're the ones I was talking about a little while back. Well they're probably going to be coming up to Utah in December this year. I told them that if they wanted to they could stay at our house. Hope that's ok:) They would only be there for a couple of days. They might just stop by and visit though instead.They're such great people. J. is a member, but her husband M. isn't yet. He's had a pretty rough past, but we're really good friends! He wants to come to Utah with me after and go camping up in the mountains, and hunting. Dad and him would get along really well. If they came by in December that would be a great opportunity for some missionary work:) and for dad to brush up on his spanish;) It's pretty good though. And we've been teaching english classes in the church each week, and Juana comes, and she speaks it pretty well now so mom won't have to learn spanish or anything;) haha. They're awesome. They have a son on a mission right now in Nicaragua.

 

 

Things have been going great recently. We've set a couple more baptismal dates, and found a lot of new people to teach. It's been really neat. It's really neat how when you work hard through the hard times the blessings start to pour out. I've definitely seen that on my mission. There have been times when you talk all day long to people and all you get back are no's, but if you just keep working hard the Lord see's that and he blesses you. You recieve no witness (blessings) until after the trial of your faith.

So last night we did a family night with the family sanchez and the family tadeo. We met the the house of the family sanchez and we had some carne asada y pollo con tortillas, salsa, aros, nopales, cevolla, enselada y jugo de sandilla mmmmhhhhhmmmmmm. estuvo muy rica! Then we played a game after. Remember the game helicopter? The one where you have a blindfold and a board and the person has to stand on the board blindfolded and then you pretend to raise the person up and then they fall. We did it to H.T. It was hillarious to see him and then we talked about the gospel and how in 3 nefi 27 Christ talks about the Gospel and how he says in .... I want to say like verse 31.. Christ says that which ye have seen me do that shall ye do also. He actually uses the word do 5 times in that verse meaning that the Gospel is what we do to follow Jesus Christ. It was probably one of the best Family Nights I've ever had.

 

Tell Josh Hola and that I'll be back in one year and then we'll basically just rock up missionary work together wherever we decide to go! We'll just teach everyone the gospel and give out Book of Mormons everywhere! It'll be awesome! There's definitely a reason behind Josh's sickness. The Lord know's what he's doing. Trust in the Lord in all thy doings and lean not unto thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths for good. I know that as Josh just keeps going, and stays strong in living the Gospel that the Lord will direct Josh to do what he should be doing. Tell Josh I love him, and I'm praying for him......... and that he's a stud!

 

Well the church is true! Love you all Que Tengan muy buena semana eh!

Con Amor,

Elder Witle