Great Baptism!

Love Temple Day!

Hey how’s it going everyone!? As you are all aware, this week was a temple week so hence why I am emailing on a Tuesday and not the usual Monday. It was super good to receive all your emails and support from home it truly means a lot and always is a big help for me to get through each passing week. Life here in So. Cal is for sure heating up! The temperatures are getting super-hot and it’s making me want to never go outside and do anything. Ha-ha  But duty calls! Elder B*** and I had a pretty good past week. It was like any other week that we have had here in Pico Rivera so I will try to keep this as short as possible.

So excited G** was baptised

To begin, we had a baptism this Sunday!! G** got baptized and I was so proud of his decision to join the church!!  I was surprised this week when he called us after a lesson at like 8:30 at night asking if he could stop by our apartment to talk for a bit. We agreed and decided to just talk outside by the common pool area. He said that he loved reading in the Book of Mormon and then invited us to his baptism! Sweet!  He asked me if I would do the initial ordinance of the baptism. Of course I accepted! I was honored when he asked me to baptize him. The baptism went great.  I did forget an extra white shirt to change into after getting drenched so I had to wear a wet shirt under my coat for all the pictures. Ha-ha. I hope you all enjoy the photos I will send home,
\

Great new member!

We had some small successes this week by finding more people to hear the gospel. We have added yet another "J**” to our teaching pool and he is a super chill dude! He keeps telling us that he wants to go inside our temples.  We found out later that he doesn't know the difference between a church and a temple so we set up a church tour for him tomorrow night with el obispo! He is very excited to feed his curiosity and actually see what a church looks like inside. Sadly, this week we had to cut out a lot of non-progressing people again since nobody will take the time to actually act upon what they learn from us.  It’s rare to get people who keep commitments faithfully out here. Our teaching pool is pretty small once again, but we have set up a new bap date for a new guy for July 26th! However he needs to stop smokin’ the refer so we have some work to do with him. However, he understands the scriptures perfectly since he used to be a JW so he is used to scripture studying and preaching etc. I shared with him my favorite chapter out of the BofM.  This is the story of Alma the Younger found in Mosiah 27 and he loved it! It struck home to him, and his summary of how he imagined the chapter was hilarious. You all had to of been there… sorry I can’t repeat half of what he said. So pray that we have success with the new investigators we have because the fruits are starting to dry up right now :) ha-ha

Driving in the car!

Also great news!! Elder B** and I are parents! Ha-ha We came home on Friday night to a couple of great surprises on our 3rd floor balcony. There were two baby birds that had fallen from the nest of the roof and were stuck wounded on the floor. One of the birds was about to die anyways and as we tried to help it, it died. We had to get rid of him, but we have a baby bird that we watch over in the night since the momma bird can’t bring him back in the nest since he is too big. So we fed the bird bread water and it was the craziest thing of my life. ha-ha I was woken up at 2 am by the screaming baby bird so I went out and fed it some more food. ha-ha There, now I am prepared for real parenting! What’s good is that we place him outside each day and the mom bird comes and feeds him so he won’t die so it looks like he will be just fine! Super random story I know, but it’s pretty funny! But the work is moving along well. I am not looking forward to the summer again here in Whittier since it gets hot as the Arabian desert!  I am continuing to hope and pray for success from the Lord and I see his hand each day in my life.

Jason's "Crib" - Nice to see the Laker's blanket is still around!

I have a goal this week for myself which I set last Friday. The goal is to strengthen my testimony in the BofM and to be better able to testify with more power and conviction.  I decided I was going to read the whole book in a week. So that's what I have been working on and it is hard! Tons of reading but I will let you all know next week if I made it or not.

Thanks for all your love and support for me each week! It’s pretty hard being away sometimes since you just want to start your life, but I know I am here for a reason and God will provide the way for me and for others in my life as well.  Nunca te des por vencido!

Con carino
Elder Woffinden