Baptism Week!!

Y was baptized!!

 Email from August 3, 2015 (The Woffinden family moved.  Thus the late post)

What’s up everyone!? Wow can’t believe that my family actually moved... ha-ha so weird! It’s for sure going to be weird for me coming home to a new house and adjusting to all that craziness. However, congrats on the move it’s gonna be a lot of work, but it will be worth it in the end! Also mom I am glad you received the package that I sent home for your b day!  I’m sure the picture will look good hanging up in our new house! But super excited to give you all a nice sunny SO CAL shout here from HB!

Elder H - heading home next transfer

To begin we had a very successful and fun filled Sunday! Where did I begin? Yesterday I was blessed with the opportunity to go back to Ximena to do the confirmation for Daniela! It was super good and it also makes my day going back to my old areas and seeing old friends and investigators etc. Daniela is a super awesome girl and will be a very strong example and member in the Ximeno branch. After talking and catching up with people we headed straight up to Pico Rivera for the Baptisms of Y** and R** (Elder T** and J's old investigator.) So it was pretty cool we both had a baptism on the same day from our old areas.  It was great to go and be a part of! The baptism was great and it was weird being back in Spanish Ville again.   I wasn't used to going to church or baptisms in Spanish so it made me miss it a lot. But the baptisms went great.  After the initial baptism, they all got dressed were able to bare their testimonies with all of us present.   It was amazing! R** was first to speak.  She was a complete Atheist before see met the missionaries and she didn’t believe at all in the Bible or in scriptures in general.  To see the change that has taken her and humbled her was incredible. After Y** shared her testimony, and to be honest, I almost cried it was so good! She expressed gratitude towards Elder B**and I being led by our Heavenly Father to her home to talk to her and teach her the Gospel! She also said she wasn't sure why she answered the door to us in the first place.  She used to be the girl who would see missionaries and go inside her room and not give us the time of day, but she decided to try it and look what happened!! She explained how she prayed and prayed but received nothing in return... not until we had her come to a church tour. At the tour we asked her to sit in silence in the chapel for as long as she wanted to just pray and listening for answers.   Sure enough, that was the key and she hasn't looked back since! Super happy. I was so happy yesterday it was unreal! The mission has been Hard, but it has also treated me very well and I have made relationships I will never forget which is amazing.

Elder J and I chillin and doing some shopping on P-day!

For the rest of the week, both Elder J** and I had a good week. We taught a lot and we both feel like we had a successful week. This week was full of more baptisms for other missionaries of our district and on one I was asked to translate for the baptism from Spanish to English which is a million times easier than English to Spanish. Ha-ha. Our investigators are doing really good! I would say only two of them are really progressing and that is A** and M**.   We are hoping to find more and teach more this week. We have been reading in the child’s Book of Mormon stories book with A** to help her understand and also enjoy the pictures. With M**, we have taught her everything and so have many missionaries before us… she just needs to get married! Unfortunately her "husband" doesn't want any of that which is sad. We have been working with the Pacific Shores ward to help L** come to church with the foot and eye issues that he has. If he can just come to church he will be baptized! So please pray for us and to help him find the desire and a solution to attend with us. This weekend I had a pretty fun surprise happen to me! Braxton Halford AKA Elder H**, my trainer, called me and took us to lunch with his GF!! Ha-ha   It was great being able to see him and talk and laugh with him just like the good ole times. But what made it better was that we went and taught two lessons together after lunch! And I could actually speak Spanish now when before I couldn't, so I hope that blew his mind away.  Ha-ha.

Sweet ride!

But I am doing well, the mission is great and I love being out here. Of course there are hard days, but it is always worth it in the end when we are patient with God and his timing. The end of the transfer is this week and it’s going to be weird having so many of my friends going home again... I’m jealous (jk) But crazy how fast time can fly!

Hope all is going well back home! Good luck with everything especially the move! Send more pics when you can.

Con mucho amor

Elder Woffinden