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