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Yadira's sister, Janet got baptized! It was a great day!

Hey everyone! So this week was awesome! I am going to try to be as short but specific as possible...this week things here in Huntington Beach are amazing! The work here really is blowing up. Jorge and Xochilt and Emilia are all getting baptized for sure on January 23rd!!! Its official and we have their interviews this Friday at the church with President Tew.

It was great to see old friends and missionaries from Pico Rivera.

Jorge and Xochilt have come to church 3 weeks in a row and the most recent lessons we have had with them have been some of the best while I have been here in HB. We finished up teaching all of lesson 4 and the Commandments and we had the Bishop there (he speaks Spanish). Jorge bore his testimony and it really was one of the best I have ever heard! He expressed his gratitude for our examples and our persistence with him and his family, and also for the blessings God has given them. The said they wouldn't drink coffee anymore and that they wanted to go through with their goal of being baptized! We are currently teaching their youngest daughter, Naylea, right now and we are trying to get her up to speed with her parents. I am guessing she will be baptized sometime in February along with her two other sisters that we passed off to the YSA elders.

My good buddies, Elder Jumonville and Jorge.

Emilia is also super super solid! Probably one of the most prepared people I have ever seen. On Wednesday we were teaching her the Word of Wisdom and she chimed in with questions about the Law of Chastity and tithes and offerings! Her husband has been a member for 2 years, so with the help of the bishop of their ward, we taught her all three of those lessons in just 1 hour.

The Romero family.

Yesterday I was invited to go to the baptism of Yadira's younger sister Janet!! Back in Pico Rivera, Elder Brown and I found her while we were looking for Yadira. We started to teach her all the fundamentals, then we found Yadira, Yadira's baptism has impacted their whole family (except the mom--shes hates us, haha), but it really is amazing!

Ruby, a new member, and her daughter.

Since there are no longer any Despedidas in the mission, yesterday at the baptism I was able to say goodbye and take photos with a lot of friends and other missionaries I haven't seen in a really long time, and probably won't for a while either. Overall, it was a great afternoon up in Pico Rivera.

It as fun to see Elder Brown again.

This week was also a very wet week. It literally dumped rain here!! I haven't seen it rain so hard in a really long time. All streets were flooded and to be honest, it was a blast, haha. Elder Garcia, one of the elders  that we drive around, wrote the following in his email,  "OH HOW COULD I FORGET, El Nino hit on Wednesday, haha. That was kinda nuts...so much water...so much water, haha. Jason Woffinden (Elder Woffinden) was driving us home in it and he hit every puddle he could find. Lemme tell you...there was a point where we were hydroplaning and water was spraying on both sides of us...it looked like we had wings...so dope!"

So yes it was super fun, haha. But, due to the large amount of water, there was some serious flooding here in Huntington. So on Saturday we as a zone went to a couple local fire stations and helped fill sandbags for people to come pick up and use as a boarder around their homes and garages. It was a lot of work and some real manual labor--those things are pretty heavy, haha, but we are scheduled to do it again on Thursday and Saturday of this week.

Well, that's about it for this week!! I love my mission! I have seen so much change in myself, but mostly in others, and it will forever be a foundation block for me and my life after the mission. Thanks again for everything and for all your love and support! Keep it real and para siempre Dios este con vostros!!!

Elder Jason Woffinden