It Was a Great Week in Huntington Beach!

The brave Huntington Beach Zone and the Jabanero Challenge. I can't resist!

Hey family, what’s up! How was everyone’s week? It was super good to hear from you all again. I always appreciate all the emails and support from back home.

Well to begin, I want to start by saying this week was an awesome week! It was super cool and we truly had a lot of miracles and successes from the Lord. We set three new baptismal dates and found a young woman we are positive will be baptized on the October 24^th.  I will explain her story in a

Little pieces of dynamite!

second. We had a great week working with the members, but also had a good week on finding and really sifting out the investigators and dropping those who aren’t interested at the moment.

This week I received a letter in the mail from church headquarters with my "trunky papers"... wow, crazy!! I come home in less than 4 months and I only have two more transfers after this one. I honestly have no idea what to do with my life, so I had an interview with President T** to seek his counsel on what I should do or what would be best for my return date.

As for the work here in Huntington Beach, we had a great week! I want to say that A**’s baptism is set up for October 24th and it’s a 90 percent “yes” as of now! I’m super happy and excited for her! We also had an amazing find this week of a young girl named R**. We have seen this girl in the past, but she would always avoid us and hide whenever we would walk by. But, last Wednesday we went by her house and decided to knock on her door. It was early in the morning so she had just awakened and opened the door and started talking to us. She wasn’t super interested at first, however she allowed us to share a message. We set up a time to visit again later that afternoon when she would be properly dressed and ready etc. So we passed by again at 4:00 PM. She was home, but was clearly going through a rough situation at the moment. We talked to her sister outside when all of a sudden we heard this wailing and bawling coming from inside the house. We were shocked at what happened, but her sister ran in to see what was wrong. Five minutes later they both came out crying and told us how her boyfriend had called and confessed that he had been unfaithful to her with someone she was very close to, she was a mess! We told her that we would pass by on Friday when things weren’t so fresh and chaotic. On Friday we arrived at her house and taught an amazing first lesson! She started to cry and really opened up to us and explained how she felt good and that she had hit rock bottom and wanted a solution or way to happiness. We committed her to pray that night to God for the first time and to ask for answers and guidance, and she agreed. We then asked when we could see her again and she told us tomorrow morning. So on Saturday morning we passed by again. She was home and super happy to see us! We sat down and started talking when she opened up and said, "…okay, I need help. I have two problems, the first; I can’t forgive anybody, so I need help with forgiveness. The second, I have an uncontrollable pot addiction and can’t stop.... can you guys help me find relief and peace in my life?? “ Right then and there the Spirit came in and my companion told her the blessings that come from living the gospel and opened up baptism to her and invited her right on the spot! She didn’t even hesitate. She said, "Yes, I will do anything to get baptized and feel peace in my life.” So she accepted a baptismal date for October 24th as well!! WHOO!! Now, the bad news.... She doesn’t speak Spanish and so we will have to pass her on to the Young Single Adult elders.... ugh, frustrating! But it’s still cool how the Lord blessed us to find her!

I like running through the sprinklers, but this is ridiculous!

Right after that we went to dinner and heard that the U of U completely trounced the Oregon Ducks in football, haha, sweet!! Also that night, we had a very powerful quick lesson where we found a new investigator and her mother. Both of these ladies are named Lupe and are awesome! We had a very spiritual lesson on prayer and the love of God in our lives. They loved talking to us and were cracking jokes, it was just great. The daughter then asked why there are so many different faiths in the world and why we all don’t believe in the Virgin Mary. So we set up a return appointment for tonight to teach the first lesson!! So please wish us luck!

That pretty much sums up the teaching and major highlights of the week. We struggled finding our less active members this week because everyone was busy with work or school. Hopefully, we will have a better week with them next week. The work is going well, the people are awesome, and HB is beautiful! Also, the Blood Moon last night was freaking sweet, haha!  I’m sure you all were watching intently.

I hope for the best for you all. Please stay safe and keep working hard!!

Love Elder Woffinden 

The Power of the Atonement and Forgiveness.

Huntington Beach Zone

Hey what’s up everyone! How’s everyone's week been? Mine has been super good minus the nasty cold I have had since Friday and now left with no voice to speak. Ha-ha. Hoping I will be better by tomorrow. Transfers were this week and both Elder J** and I are staying again for our third transfer together. We both we sort of shocked.  I thought it was going to happen… headed to round three!   Ha-ha. This will be the second longest companionship I have had second to Elder A**! HB is doing well and don’t listen to what you hear on the news about a huge storm.  It was a Tsunami that we had here from the earthquake that happened in Chile (keep them in your prayers).   We only had like 12 inches of water come up so it really wasn’t anything at all.

Elder Woffinden in disguise

As for the work here, we have been making small strides but things are looking up. We are going to teach A** tonight and have some good news from the mom. So apparently with her siblings the only time the dad agreed to allowing them to be baptized was when they came and asked him personally. Soooo we will be talking to her about that and helping build up the courage to do so. I really feel like it will be a huge turning point for her! We appreciate all the prayers on her behalf.  We have other investigators who are progressing well. M** is doing well however is incredibly skeptical of us and loves to let us know that she is Catholic. We took a member out with us who is from Chile and he just dominated the lesson. We didn't get to speak at all... it was good because she loved him.  She did say she would come to church this week so we will see! She has two full lists of anti-material that she wants us to have answered... so we are not going to waste our time since there is no point to it. Her son came home from the hospital he has Cystic Fibrosis and is in really bad shape...I felt terrible because that was the day I knew I had the sore throat and cold and mid lesson she brought up how he can’t have contact with anybody outside with colds, etc. and here I am sick as a dog .. It was bad. Que the quick exit!  But other than that we are still in the finding and sifting phase of the work. As for L** and the winery house we still haven’t been able to catch her at a good time... so I hope soon.

Elder O and Jason

P-Day Basketball Fun!

This Sunday was Stake Conference and it was super good. The Stake President gave a talk that really humbled me. A lot of people think that missionaries are without flaws or weakness. The reason I mention that is because earlier in the day I was reading in my journal from about a year ago. It was when I was in Compton white washing. Things that I had written out of frustration, disappointment, and anger really took a toll on me and as I read my remarks and I felt sick and ashamed of myself. I know we had a hard time then, but I couldn't believe how egoistical I was only thinking about myself. SO for the whole morning and majority of conference I was super depressed and disgusted with myself knowing that people may read my journal one day and think I was a horrible missionary. However, the President’s talk was on the atonement and forgiveness.  He mentioned a story about when he was a child and had to clean Tupperware containers for his mom to remove nasty spaghetti stains. He mentioned on how he didn't understand how some stains took longer to soak in the bleach because of the degree of the stain, but as he left it in there for more time and it always came out clean. I then realized that I have since learned from my "journal entry" mistakes and ever since then my journal entries and my attitude have been way more positive and uplifting.   As long as I keep doing better, my posterity will see the change and not make the same mistakes I did. So it reminded me of 2 Ne 4: 15 which went perfectly with it. So yeah that was something I learned this past week.

Our District

Other than that everything else is great, there was a baptism in our district and we had a bomb pancake study session at the Sea Point Ward Mission Leader’s home again (every Saturday).  I love it! I hope to report more next week on our new investigators.

I love you all and hope everything goes well back home! Thanks for all the love and support you all bring to me. Have a great week.

Elder Woffinden

A Pretty Good Week; 4 New Investigators and $100

The Newport Beach Temple

What’s up my family? How’s it going? Thanks again for the emails. Last week we went to the Newport Temple. It is like half the size of the LA temple, but is still a very beautiful temple! We all need to go there soon, and with Kobe, no? I wish! He lives outside the mission in Newport Beach, but there is a guy in our ward that took his Bentley to the one Bentley shop in LA and Kobe’s was there getting repaired, haha. I guess his wife totaled it, haha.

As for the week I had here in Sunny HB, it was pretty good!! It was an incredibly hot and humid week which made it horrible walking around... my clothes are at that point where it shows I have been out 19 months, haha. All the pants keep getting holes, tears, stains, etc. and my shirts are pretty much gray, haha. It’s useless. I’m just looking forward to the big bon fire I am going to have when I leave to destroy all my nasty clothes!

We had a good week of finding since we found four new, pretty solid people to teach and had a lot more lessons than the past two weeks, so that is always good and positive news! In my district we did what is called a "blitz" where the other Spanish elders came into my area for a whole afternoon to help us find and teach more lessons to speed up the work here. It was very successful. We found two new investigators by doing it and have more pretty good potentials to try and go by this week.

As for everyone else we are teaching, they aren't really progressing at all. A** is awesome but still needs permission, and everyone else won’t keep commitments. However, on Saturday night we had a really good finding experience! For some reason every single time I don’t want to contact or knock on a door but overcome that urge and do it, something good happens. So, we passed by the house of a woman named L** to see if she still lived at the address written down. It was 8:00 pm and I didn't really want to be there at that street. However, she was home and answered the door and was showing interest within seconds, which caught me by surprise. When we asked her if we could share a message, she gladly accepted and opened her door to come outside. When I looked into her house I saw hundreds of wine bottles throughout the whole house! I asked her how many she had and she replied around 600 or more.... Wow, the Word of Wisdom is going to be an issue here, haha. But, we taught her the Plan of Salvation and as we did, she broke down in tears explaining the loss of her father and how he meant so much to her and how she wanted to know where he was. We explained it all to her and had a great chat. We will be returning tonight, so please pray that all goes well!!

Transfers are this week.  I can’t believe how fast that time flew by. Six weeks seems like nothing now when it used to feel like years! I am confident I am going to stay but have a feeling Elder J** is going to leave. I’m not sure, that’s just my opinion. We both have done good work down here, so I am grateful to be his companion and whatever happens, happens.

Good news! I don't have to translate at Stake Conference this Sunday! I thought for sure I was going to have to, but they said I don't have to this time, haha. Yes!! However, I have improved a ton by doing it and my partner, Elder P**, is killing it as well, so it is all good.

We had another week of service also! We got to help a guy named Mr. Huntington (yes, that is his last name, haha, and I already asked him if he owned HB, haha) move into his house by moving very heavy furniture up his 3 story house, yea...I love couches and treadmills, also a gun vault. Yeah, it nearly killed us, haha. As we were leaving, he asked us if we wanted lunch?? And we said, sure sounds awesome. He opened his wallet and hands us a one hundred dollar bill, haha! We were all, uhhh...are you sure?? He just said; please go somewhere nice, haha. Okay! It’s good being in HB.

Well, I am not sure what else to report, that’s pretty much all that has happened, but all is well here. We’re just trying to keep our heads above water. Thanks again for everything. I love you all very much!! Have a great week!!

Elder Woffinden

Newport Beach Temple

Temple P-Day at Newport Beach Temple

Hola Mi Familia!! Sorry I didn’t email yesterday it was Labor Day and it was not our p-day because we had temple p-day today!! And to start I am exhausted..... I didn’t get any sleep last night and we woke up at 3:50 am to make it on time to the Newport Beach temple session.  I love that temple! It’s pretty small, but it is beautiful and looks a whole lot different in person than in the photos for some reason. I hope you all get the photos that I send home of the temple trip. So if I fall asleep during email today, I am sorry.  Ha-ha.

Elder J and I

We had another rough teaching week here in HB. We did have some great things happen, but the work is still in a little rut. However we had two very cool experiences happen to us this week which I will explain.

First experience: On Saturday night Elder J** and I had just finished a lesson with L** when we received a text from the Sisters saying they had received a call from a woman in the hospital and she needed a blessing ASAP. They asked if we could go do this for her.  It was 7:45 pm and we were a little ways from the hospital and visiting hours closed at 8 pm. We had a dilemma here.  Do we go all the way to the hospital or go in the morning? We ended up going.  Upon arrival, we got to the front desk and the guy there said there was no one in the hospital by the name we gave him.  Then a woman came down and was so happy to see us. She was, "Elders!" “I can’t believe you actually came! I was praying that you would come here tonight to visit my friend who is struggling at the moment."  This woman was from Anaheim and asked us to come upstairs.  We ended up talking with this woman who is in the mental ward because of the recent death of her 21 year old son.  She has no desire to keep living and says her life is worthless.  We sat there and talked to her for a little while and gave her a blessing to help her situation. It was an amazing experience and I am so glad that God trusted us to be where we were able to answer his message and help someone in need.

Love these guys!

Temple P-day - with the Sisters

Second experience:  Last night we had dinner with the ex- mission president of the Salt Lake City South mission.  We were talking with President Miller about our work situation and how it’s a real struggle. He gave us a tip and an idea to try out. He advised that with our next contact or door approach we should try asking the people if they would like a free English class right there and then in their home. After an English lesson, and when we have built some trust, we could then teach a gospel lesson.  So we ended up trying that and it was amazing! Worked like a charm! We met a woman named M** and she was not openly talking at first, but when I asked her if she would like to learn English her facial expression was pure shock then turned to excitement. She allowed us to come inside and we ended up teaching her some English.  Her whole perspective of us completely changed and she opened up so much!   She told us she has a son age 15 who is dying in the hospital and she can barely visit him because she has no car and can’t leave the house because of her other little kids. So we shared a gospel message with her and will visit her tomorrow!! It was awesome.

Sister companions with the same last name!

So those are some of the really cool and great things we had happen this past week. As for A** she is doing awesome! I love that little girl she is so awesome! Super smart and is a testimony builder to me as to how we need to live the gospel no matter what age we are. Her dad is getting a little better and I have a gut feeling he is going to let it happen, but still not sure. Just keep them in your prayers please.

Everything else is going good though. The area is a great place to be even though the work is hard.  I love it here and the members are awesome! We had a pancake study session on Saturday morning at the Seapoint Ward mission leader’s house.  It was awesome!   He made us chocolate chip pancakes which are my favorite, and we had a joint study group with the other elders.   We were able to study together and share insights with a super bomb family. They speak Spanish in their home and English outside of their home because the wife is from Spain and Brother S** served his mission there.  All his little girls are completely fluent in Spanish which I thought was super cool!
I hope you all have a great week this week and keep working hard! Good luck finalizing the move into the new home and I’ll keep you all in my prayers! Gracias por todo!!


Love Elder Woffinden

A Miracle Find!

Love Huntington Beach!

Email from August 31, 2015

Hola mi familia!! How’s everyone doing this fine day?? Thanks again for the emails.  I love receiving them. From what everyone talked about it sounds like I missed a very stressful moving weekend getting all settled into the new house! I will say I am glad to not be home for that so sorry. Ha-ha. But I’m glad to hear that all is going well and everyone is healthy and happy.

As for me, I am doing good! I had a super hard week, but that’s normal to have at times. It’s not like I haven’t had one before, I just have to keep going like all the rest. We have been having to drop more investigators and also had a couple drop us which we thought had real potential.  We are pretty much left with nothing again and back to square one. A** is our bread and butter and is amazing! The most prepared 9 year old girl and will be baptized soon! We are planning with her mom for the middle of September since her husband who is anti baptism is starting to loosen up more and more so keep her in your prayers please.

Money found while out on the streets

Speaking of prayer, I would like to share an experience that I had this week with God answering my prayers. I had an experience that helped strengthen my testimony.  So I have a good friend Elder R** here in HB and he lent me his "SD" card to his camera because I wanted to copy some photos he had on it.  However, we went to a dinner appointment and then I ended up misplacing it that night. I assumed it had fallen out of my pocket.  I was a nervous wreck and felt horrible! Here I lost one of my good friends mission pics... well over 600 pics.  All I could think was wow, I am a horrible human being! So I decided to pray and pray and pray. Hoping that God would give me a “get out of jail free” card immediately.  Boy, I was wrong. For two days I kept on praying and hoping, but things were starting to look bleak and slim.   Friday afternoon came around and we went to the library to do mormon.org and midway through the session, I received a text from a woman in the Seapoint Ward.  She said, “Hello, I believe you dropped a SD card outside in the street by our home! WOW! I got it back by a pure miracle and was so glad that God heard and answered my prayers! Super cool.

So that was a good experience that happened to me!  We had a lot of hard ones by getting dropped by more investigators. One of which was M**.  We were making good progress with her, but then the second lesson she just says, “Hey guys, look I’m not gonna change and I just wanted to let you know”  We asked her what was going on and so she gave us this huge 10 minute lecture/excuses and then told is we could continue to talk to her??  I asked her if she had any intentions on ever taking our message to heart??    She said, “No” so we said alright.  We said goodbye and wished her luck with everything.   We are trying to find people to teach this week. Our potentials and formers are exhausted in our area book so it looks like we will just be finding by knocking or doing other methods. There is one method that worked for a good friend of mine.   He and his companion called on a ‘lost cat’ sign and when the woman answered and asked if they had her cat, they said, “No... But we do have a message for you about Jesus Christ and how he loves us and wants us to be happy.  She ended up having them come by. Ha-ha   We are going to have to try that.

Every penny adds up!

We have been making good progress with all the recent converts and less actives in the Pleasant View and Seapoint Wards.  It’s super hard covering four wards because we can’t be in all areas working at once and some areas have more Hispanic than others. Thus, we clearly spend more time there. But On Thursday, we had the bishop of the Pleasant View Ward come talk to us while we were at the church teaching a lesson. He told us of a family who has been less active for quite a while and he asked if we could go by.  When we received the address we were shocked because we had no idea that a family of members lived in the house that we go past all the time. So the next day we went by and contacted the mother. We had a good talk and then she broke down into tears and told us how her daughter is going through some hard trials and how she needs more spiritual help. She then asked us, after we shared a spiritual thought, what time church started and said she would come. However she didn’t, but we are hopefully for next week!

Church was good yesterday, Elder J** gave a really good talk on how companionship study affects us as missionaries and how we can do "comp study" as a family to strengthen the family. Of course I was translating the talk into Spanish.

But things will be better this week.  I hope to keep changing and learn how to be a better missionary/man. I hope all is well for everyone who reads this.  I love you all!! Have a great week!!

Elder Woffinden

A Week of Finding!

A friend in the Care Center we serve at!

This email is from August 24, 2015.  We are finally into the new home with a working internet!

Buenas tardes mi familia! como estan??

Hola! How’s everybody doing this week? Thanks again for another week of emails!  They are always appreciated. But I can’t believe that you have all moved out into our new house! I am here in Sunny HB and I am dreading the move so I’m glad that Brian, Ty, and Tanner are there to move things with dad.  Ha-ha If we ever move again, I will be of service because I have done my fair share of moving people here.  So yeah, pretty well prepared.

Well here we are again another week down here in HB Cali. It was a slower one, but a lot better than last week for sure. However it was a week full of meetings so we didn’t have as much time to work as a normal week. We had combined zone conference and our usual district meetings so we spent a ton of time in suits which I LOVE.  I actually do like it a ton.  Ha-ha  I could wear a suit all the time if I wanted to, but whatever I guess. The work has been improving slowly but the translating at church has been killing me! People need to understand to not talk about the world’s craziest things when they talk especially when there is a translator behind them. Talking about war stories or how they fell in love and decided to pick the names of their children and then somehow tie it into the gospel just doesn't work very well for me translating. Ha-ha

Okay so this week we had Zone conference like I mentioned earlier. It was super good and was one that I actually really enjoyed! I usually love all of the, but sometimes six hours of sitting and talking just slays me.  This one was on getting our investigators to "Do" meaning to act on commitments and make changes in their lives. It was perfect for us here because that is exactly the problems we are facing right now with all of the people we are teaching.  They just won’t commit to church or anything. It really helped me out personally so I hope to apply what I learned into our everyday work.

With the losses of L** and R** last week, it really was hard for me because I was investing all in them, and then to have it crumble.  We did make up for it a little bit when we received a referral from the bordering mission with a guy named R**. So on Thursday we decided to pass by to meet him and see if we could get in contact with him. As we knocked a guy answered the door and his first response was oye guerros!! Sale de aqui ustedes estan perdiendo su tiempo aqui haciendo la obra para alguien se llama jesucristo quien no existe. He pretty much said, “Hey white boys leave here and go home! Stop working for a Christ who doesn't exist.”  He then grabbed my planner out of my pocket which has a picture of Christ and starts yelling at us and pointed to it and saying, “He doesn’t exist” etc... Then he starts getting in my face and pocking my chest with his finger. I didn't know what to think honestly. Ha-ha  I was mad that he was attacking us verbally, but was trying not to laugh as a small Latino man is pocking a white guy who is easily close to a foot taller than him and has like 50 lbs. on him. Ha-ha it was just sad.  We tried our best to not argue with him but he wouldn't stop. I’ll be honest, I did start to contend a little bit, but then just told him to leave as I saw a young kid about 20 walk into the room behind him and surely enough it was R**! ha  So R** came to the door and we actually ended up having a really good half of a first lesson. R** is 20 and moved here from El Salvador about a year ago and he speaks not a lick of English.  We got to know him pretty well and he expressed a lot of interest in what we do considering he has no experience with missionaries at all. So we are both looking forward to teaching him some more this upcoming week.

Nissan GTR - Oh the cars we see here in HB!

G** is another person who we are focusing a lot of time on right now. She is 20 yrs old and has no belief in God whatsoever, but still believes in the Virgin Maria...................... Yeah, makes no sense! We have had a couple great lessons with her and on one of them she just asked us a question about prayer.  She said, "Do you ever pray for people to leave your life?" and we're all um... no? And she responded, "I do" then just broke down into tears. We sat there for a little bit in silence hoping that she would elaborate on her answer and she did. She wants her boyfriend to leave because she doesn't love him anymore and he just uses her and she feels horrible. For the next hour we sat with her outside her apartment and let her just vent her heart away which was perfect because she opened up so much. I can’t think of any better way to build trust with somebody then by listening to their problems and giving insight. It brought to my mind the story of the adulterous woman in the new testament. I’m not sure why, but it just reminded me of her situation and we just tried our best to relate to her and help her out. So I pray that she will be more open and receptive from now on whenever we come over.  That’s about it for exciting investigator stories.

On Tuesday we were able to teach English class again which is always tons of fun! We both try to make the lessons fun and we even brought a LA with us to get her involved and she helped us teach and did a great job. It was a successful night.

Elder J** and I did have a miracle LA find on Wednesday. There is a woman named C** and she is 31 and lives with her mom.  Both are from Guadalajara, Mexico and have been members for about five years, but are completely inactive. After leaving a dinner apt one night, I was driving to our next area when Elder J** says to me, “We should try by C**’s” and I respond, “Nah dude, she is way back in the other direction and we have tried by a couple times already with no success, so let’s just keep going.”  But right after that I also had the prompting to turn around and go to her house.  Upon arriving there we were able to catch her getting ready to take her two dogs out for a walk. Instead of bringing up the church and trying to get down at her for being less active, we were all can we walk with you?? ha-ha She responds back, “Claro que si como no! Les gustarian caminar por 20, 30, o 40 minutos??” Which was of course, “Would you like to go for a long or a short one?”  ha-ha We ended up walking with her and just talked about her life. I didn't bring up the church once and we just had a great casual convo with us. As we returned to her home, she asked if we would like to sit down and "talk".  So we ended up teaching her and it was awesome!

Well that's about it for today. One last thing, at the old folks home there is a woman named H** who is 97 years old and she is the grandma to a famous NFL football players who is soon to be Hall of Famer tight end. Ha-ha   At first I didn't believe it until I saw her room with all his pictures and signed footballs, etc.  So of course, I took a pic with her and talked for a while that's freaking dope!!

But anyways.. love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Con mucho carino
Elder Woffinden

Baptism In Ximeno Branch

Another great baptism in Ximeno Branch!

This email is from August 17, 2015

What’s up!? Another week has come and gone by.... its crazy right? Time is a very interesting thing, but it also scares me.  At times you have so much of it and then you blink and it dwindles down.  This past week for Elder J** and I was honestly a hard one for us.  We had to drop three really solid investigators who just wouldn’t keep commitments.  We have also been struggling to find here. However, I am going to start on a positive note!

The Ximeno branch is blowing up!! Especially La familia Huerta!! On Friday night at 9:58 pm, I received a call from Elder M** (who is in my old area of Ximeno).  He told me that D**'s mom has decided to get baptized after seeing her daughter baptized and confirmed! WOW I was past pumped. I couldn’t believe it.   I had no a clue that she was even investigating the church at all because when I was there she had no desire to talk to us. Look at her now, she is a changed woman and will be blessed forever for the decision she just made. God always has a time and a place for everyone. Whether it’s today or tomorrow or a year from now it doesn’t matter. If God wanted to baptize the whole world I am pretty sure he would do it, but the great thing is that he patiently waits for people to grow and eventually make the decision themselves, and it is amazing.

Okay so for the rest of my week. We had a lot of great lessons taught and thought we were making some great progress with R** who was a new we picked up from a referral from the sisters. We had a great lesson of Friday night with Hna A** and she bore her testimony for like 15 minutes which was fantastic! She even offered a ride for Rosa to church and she accepted and said she would be there. SO while at church on Sunday, I have to sit on the stand to translate for the members who need translation.  I see the A** family come in without R**... so I thought they had forgot to pick up my investigator, but it turns out that they passed by and she said that she wasn’t ready to go.  So they had to leave.  After Sacrament meeting, we left the church to go by and see what’s up. When we arrived we saw her and she immediately said, "esta bien si yo no ir a tu iglesia??  Which means is it okay if I don’t attend your church?? And we were all what?? And then she dropped us... she was very nice about it, but honestly it crushed me because I really thought she was ready, but I guess not.  Her time will be later in life.

Elder H (my first companion) comes to visit!

Okay, to answer your questions about L**.  We passed by him on Wednesday night with Hno M**. We had a great discussion and Hno M** was awesome! He was super helpful and offered all the help he could to help L** get to church.   He offered him a ride in his specialized vehicle which transports people who are in wheel chairs because that is his business he owns.  He also offered to stay with him at church to help him out even though he is in a different ward in the Stake, and many, many more things.  But in the end L** said No!  He wants to get baptized, but honestly lacks the faith and the desires to do something about it.   We pretty much dropped him and said we would pass by every now and then until he gets better. So the work has been struggling a lot, but we still were able to find a couple of news this past weekend.  We are hopeful to meet with them more, but still don’t know enough about them to determine if they are "golden" or not.

On Friday night, we were able to attend the wedding of all weddings!  Not even joking. If you have ever seen the movies where the boyfriend or girlfriend go and visit the "in-laws" and the house is ginormous and the party is just super, super fancy with nice cars, decorations and incredible things…. that was the wedding I went to at the M**’s home.   It was crazy! Ha-ha  We pulled up into the gated community and I swear we were maybe one of five cars that wasn’t either a Porsche or nicer.  The food was amazing and it was just a great Seapoint party. The M**’s home is the biggest lot in HB and it overlooks the Pacific Ocean and is a real amazing site to see and experience. I wanted to take photos, but figured it would just be weird so I’m sorry.  It was super fun being with all the members and getting to watch the reception and the "dance party" afterwards which really threw me through a whirlpool of memories. Ha-ha  Oh well, there was a ton of music I have never heard before so it was whack.

Anyways, I know this email was maybe not the most joyful one, but Elder J** and I are still doing well and are hopeful to succeed and see on how we can turn HB around. I love and appreciate you all and hope to hear from more of you next week :) Gracias por todo lo que hacen por mi!!


Los amo a todos

Elder Jason Woffinden

Pride of the World!

Elder T goes home!  Going to miss this guy.

We are back in business.. We haven't had internet for several weeks during our move.  

This email is from August 10, 2015

MI familia!!! Como estan!?  What’s up everyone its super good to hear from you all again! I thank you all for your love and support you send me from home each week it really helps out a lot. This past week was a quick one and surely enough transfers have come and gone again.   Elder J** and I are both staying together for one more here in HB so that should be good! We both are excited to continue to work the area and really want to get a baptism this transfer with A** and L**! This week was the despedida again and it was another hard one for me because I had to say my final goodbyes for a while to some of my best friends here. Elders T**, H**, and B** are all deucin out and it makes me sad but it also reminds me that mine is right around the corner! I think I have 4 more transfers left!! WOW that’s crazy! Ha-ha

P-Day Fun

Hanging out with our district

But okay so to start we had some good success this week teaching our investigators. We were finally able to sit down and teach A** with her dad present! He is the reason why she isn’t baptized and never ever listens to us, but he did this time and the lesson went great! To keep her focused we watched some bible videos. Ha-ha she is doing great and comes to church weekly so we are just in the waiting stages now. We finally talked to Preidente about helping us with L** (our investigator with the leg issues) Pres L** owns a transportation company for people with wheel chairs etc. and he said he would come to our lesson with us this Wednesday to meet L** and try to offer his services etc.!! SWEEET!! This would be huge if we could get him a ride to church because then he could get baptized!

Elders and Sisters having fun!

 This week we also had a super cool finding story. So we got a referral from the sisters here in HB of a woman named R** they had contacted in the streets who was Hispanic. So we decide to pass by the address which they gave us, but it did not exist at all. We said a prayer to help us find this woman and then decided to walk down random streets. We came to a street that had the same address as they had put on the text but on the wrong street. So we decided to knock on the door. This crazy shirtless white man comes to the door and I’m all crap!!....... But I still ask, "Hey man! Is R** home!?" He groans and leaves then a Hispanic woman comes to the door! Ha-ha what luck! She speaks perfect Spanish and English so it was great because it was her! We started talking to her and she blew us off at first and was, “Hey look, I’m Catholic guys just so y’all know”... and I went, “So??? We just want to talk.”  She says, “Okay then talk!” ha-ha. SO we do and we had a pretty good convo. We came to find out that she has a super rough life and actually hates her husband (the white shirtless man) because he uses her and treats her like garbage. So she was all do you all speak Spanish? SI CLARO! and she goes Gracias a Dios que quiero hablar en español así que mi esposo no puede entender jaja which means of good I don’t want my husband to understand us! So she tells us about him for the longest time. Finally I stop and ask her Hermana Esta Feliz?? And she pauses and responds no... then it opened a huge door for us to teach her about what we do and how we can help her find peace in this life of trials. She liked it so much she said she wanted to learn more and come to church!! Whoo!! However she has no car, phone or email since her husband doesn't allow her to have these items. So it’s hard to get a hold of her... but still a miracle!! 

Lamborghini Aventador

So the work is going well for us here in general! However, I do have a funny story that happened to us while we were going to a dinner appointment in the Sea Point ward aka "richville".  We pull into this gated community and I start driving into the complex when this black Lamborghini Aventador zooms past me to my left. I decide to follow it and do all the way to his house. ha-ha.  He pulls into his garage gets out to have me contact him. I go, "Hey bro! that’s a boss car!  Is that the Aventador??” (completely knowing it, but just wanting to make convo) and he responds.... "Yes, it is the Aventador” (in an Italian accent) ha-ha. And he asks, “Who are you and why are you dressed in this attire??”   I explain that we are missionaries and then he just laughs and walks away and says, “LOOK WRONG GUY, I HAVE A LAMBORGHINI AVENTADOR, I DON'T NEED GOD" and then goes inside... ha-ha wow piece!!! I was super upset, but oh well the pride of the world in action. 

But yeah that’s about it for me this week! I’m doing well, but I am super nervous since now I am full time translator guy at church for the Hispanics that come.  It is super hard… ha-ha please pray for me!! But anyways love you all tons!! Have a great week!!

Elder Woffinden