I Love Long Beach!

Preachin' to the penquins.

Hey! How’s everything going!? I hope everybody had a great week! Mine was pretty good! I freaking love Long Beach!! Ha it’s pretty sweet! My comp is Elder A** and he is a way cool kid.    He is from AZ and has like 3 more months left of his mission so I may kill him.  Who knows!   haha. This week has been a good one to start it off with the Aquarium on Monday.  It was awesome! It was so much fun going to downtown Long Beach finally. We saw the Queen Mary, and all the other cruise ships which made me miss the time when we went on our cruise! Good times.. Anyways, we had a great time there and got to touch all the sting rays, sharks (small ones) and other animals. There is a giant bird cage/house and they allow us to go in where the birds roam freely and just land on you at random times.  It was pretty funny!  I got some great pics from that.

Yeah, baby! Touching the sharks.

Well my new LB area is really good and covers Signal Hill all the way down to the beach, which is pretty small honestly. Some of the homes here are giant!  Enrique Iglesias has a home on Signal Hill that we want to go contact someday.   ha-ha We have some pretty good investigators here one named R** who was supposed to get baptized next week, but she didn’t go to church so we had to postpone it sadly.  She is really awesome!  We have had some great lessons and are sort of white washing in a sense that we had to drop a ton of people because they weren't progressing at all.

At night this place gets crazy!  Every night so far there has been police helicopters flying around with their spotlights over the neighborhoods looking for people, etc. ha-ha   There are a lot of ghetto parts where I am serving, which I love because that’s where the humble people are!  Elder A** is a good comp and we get along great.  This weekend he has been really sick though and yesterday we didn’t even leave the house because he slept ALL DAY LONG literally it was nuts. I have never been more bored in my entire life.  I watched Faith in Christ twice, the Restoration twice, and the Lamb of God once all in English and then in Spanish, ha-ha.   Plus, I did a ton of reading and language study which I really needed so it wasn't too bad.  I think he is sick because on Saturday night our Latino neighbor gave us these carne asada tacos at like 9:40 at night and they were beyond hot!! The salsa he put on them was one of the hottest things I have ever tasted and I have had a lot of crazy things out here!   So I think he got wrecked from this.

The P** Family

This week we are excited to finally get rolling and see what we can do! Elder P** is in my district for his last 5 weeks of the mission so that made me happy.    He is such a character!  Our Zone got white washed out and so we have the Cambodian speaking Elders as our new ZLs.

Well, that pretty much sums up my week!  I haven’t been to the church yet or met a ton of the members which I understand that there aren’t many? The branch has an average of 80 people and we will have to see how it goes.   I hope you all are doing great! I love hearing from you and hearing how life is going. Have a great week!!

Hasta Luego!!

Elder Woffinden

Transferred to Long Beach East.

Love this place!

Hola familia!? What’s up? How was everybody’s week?? This past week was really good! We had a lot of success and found some really awesome investigators.

I am going to miss this great family!!

Well transfers are here and sadly I am getting transferred... dang it!! I hate moving.  I love it here in Compton and I was really starting to get used to things.  I am going to Long Beach East which covers around the Signal Hill area.  I am in the Ximeno branch which I hear is pretty crazy!  Every missionary I have talked to said that they loved Ximeno and LBE.  I’m not moving to far away, but sadly out of Compton.  My companion is Elder A**.   Remember Elder W** from the CCM?  We are actually trading companions.  haha He was with Elder A** and now will be with my companion, Elder B**and I will be with his companion… so it’s really strange.

Crazy wall art in Compton

This week we had more special trainings, but just for the Spanish speaking Elders.  I got to see some of my past companions again and I was so excited to chill with them all Friday afternoon!  Elder H** was the ZL in Ximeno, but he just got transferred to HB North - dang!!   The training was great. The APs and President gave us awesome training on how to become more fluent in Spanish by working on the basics of the language pronunciation and diligent studies.  They also reminded us that we are learning a whole new language and that it is going to be hard, so stop being so hard on ourselves!  (I took that part to heart.)  The language is coming along, and I am hoping to apply their words into my everyday studies and communication with people to really see how I can improve.

The closes I'm going to get to swimming for a while!

So, this week we found 5 more new investigators!! And two of them are legit! We found J** while street contacting after Elder B** got a flat tire and we were walking his bike back home (flat tires are a daily way of life).  We gave him our number and told him to give us a call sometime and honestly, we didn’t think he would act upon it.   Two days later, he called!! haha  This never ever happens! Somebody actually called and it was sweet. He wanted to meet up that night so we did and we had a great “get to know you” lesson.  It turns out that he has always loved our church and how we always want to help people and how we don’t charge money just to attend church every week.  He accepted to be baptized after 2 lessons and said it with no doubts whatsoever!  He came to church yesterday and has a baptismal date for the 28th of this month.  So if all goes well, Elder B** will call me to come back and attend the baptism!

Elder B** - The dessert that almost killed me last week!!

We found P** when we were visiting referrals from the members. She has a son who is living in Utah right now and who is not living the way he should.   He actually was put in jail last weekend.  So this is really taking a toll on her mind. She has relatives in Utah who are members, and she told her son that he should join our church so that he could get out of the troubled life he has found himself in.  haha. We taught her last night and she loved it! She called her family members who are church members in Utah and told them about how she was impressed with our church and what we do and believe, etc.  This family member then called us and thanked us! Pretty cool!!

It’s going to be hard leaving Compton.  Honestly, this is one of the areas I wanted to serve in the most and I am sad I only got 6 weeks here.  There can only be one companionship here and it is rare to get to serve here as a Spanish speaking elder.   I was pretty lucky!   I am excited for LBE and what will happen there. I am glad to have been companions with Elder B**.  He really taught me a lot about obedience and how to be diligent in the work.  Yeah, we had our disagreements, but we made it work and did our best and hopefully we can have some baptisms this month!  Well that pretty much sums up my week.  It’s pretty hard to remember everything that happened, but those were just the highlights.  I hope you all have a great week! Thanks for all the love and support!!

Hasta Luego!!

Elder Woffinden

Site of the 1984 Olympics

Life in Compton is Sweet!

Sunny California!

Hey what’s up!! I’m glad to hear you all had a good week!! Mine was pretty good and stressful at the same time, but that’s mission life. This week we did a lot of fun activities such as parties and group get togethers which really helped lower stress levels and helped me relax. We went out to Bake n Broil for Elder J’s birthday on Monday and it was fantastic! The food is amazing there, but very pricey...  Elder B** at the end decided to get this brownie cookie ice cream sundae that was really good! Minus the fact that about a minute after I took a huge bite, I realized there were nuts in it as my tongue and throat started to go numb! It was super scary because the waitress took like an hour to get our bill and I was slowly just dying at the table.  We were able to rush back to our apartment to get meds, as I am clearly alive to tell the story, ha-ha but a close call.  

On Tuesday, we had our specialized training with all the LB missionaries.  I was able to see Elder H**, Elder W** and Elder P** again.  They are probably my best friends here in the mission.. It was great!! I was so happy to see them and to catch up on old times of the mish.

This week we have found 9 new investigators! Pretty sweet!!   We have been teaching a ton more this week, and I have seen my Spanish improve a ton.   No one is coming to church... it sucks! I don’t understand why they promise us they will come, but never show up.  I do not know what to change?   

On Thursday, we took a member out with us to go to a couple of our lessons. Sadly, all fell through, but I was determined to find someone to teach while we had the member with us so I said a silent prayer just asking for anybody to talk to.   Surely enough, the first door we knocked on turned out to be a guy and his mom who have been less active for a very long time and had wanted to come to church, but didn’t know where it was located.   Their Spanish ward got changed to an English ward a while back so they stopped going.   They aren’t new investigators but we did teach a lesson and they said they were going to come to our ward, so that was sweet!

Life here in Compton is pretty sweet! I love it here! It’s hard and some of the people are insane, but it’s just a thrill living here. The area hasn’t been too successful for a really long time and we have seen that from our work, but I am confident with the end of the transfer coming up next week that our next transfer will be better! We are teaching more and finding more every day and our contacts are still just the wildest experiences ever.  Ha-ha   You would not believe the questions people ask us and what they believe "Mormons" are or do in life.  It’s crazy!  Since today is Labor Day, I do not have a whole lot of time to email since all of the LB Elders have to come to one church to email because the libraries are closed.  So I apologize that my email is short. But thanks again for everything and I hope you all have a great and safe week!  I’m praying for you all daily, and I am so grateful for the love and support.

Hasta luego!

Elder Woffinden

No time for pictures this week!

Positive Attitude Brings Success

Elder B's new hair cut.  Probably a good idea not to cut it yourself! 

Hey everyone! How was everybody’s week??  Mine was a lot better than last week that’s for sure! This week we did a lot of work in the old area book by going by formers or potentials that were recorded in hopes that we could find people to teach. We came to realize that a lot of them don’t live at the address that was given or they had recently moved.   We did find a couple of people this week that are showing good signs of wanting to learn more! We are teaching a guy named B**and his mom L** and currently they are our most solid investigators.  B** is very skeptical of God and doesn’t really believe that He exists or answers people’s prayers. He is very willing to talk and listen to us, but he doesn’t believe that prayer really works.  So this week we prepared some really good lessons on how prayer blesses our lives and how through faith in God and His son, we can be blessed even more.  We had some great talks and we both testified and shared some personal stories about prayer that I could tell really opened his mind to wanting to give it a try.  Well, that’s what he did and his prayers have been awesome! He even taught his little sister about prayer and how to pray which was really awesome to hear!  He hasn’t said if he has gotten an answer to any of his prayers yet, but he does tell us he feels peace and comfort when he prays so that’s always good to hear from an investigator.  It’s going to be hard teaching him and a lot of the other teen kids we have been teaching because of school starting. 

Typical Compton street

C** is another kid we have been teaching and that we had set a baptismal date for on Sept.14^th, but we haven’t found him or been able to get a hold of him for about 10 days now so I hope he didn’t get “anti-ed” or fall off the face of the earth.  He is a real solid kid! Hopefully we hear from him soon or we are going to have to drop him which is never an enjoyable task to do, but is necessary at times.

Elder B** and I are doing better together this week, we have been working hard and have been trying our best to have lessons with members present!   This past week has been full of dropped appointments and a whole lot of street contacting which is where we always find the strangest of people.  haha.   We were frustrated because we had not found anyone new to teach or who wanted to talk to us.   One night at like 8:30 pm we stopped and talked to this lady for 20 minutes when all of a sudden the family we had tried to visit a little earlier came home and we were able to stop them, talk to them and pick up 4 new investigators! Sweet!   You never know when you will find people to teach it just happens sometimes at random!

  

My favorite new butter.  YUM!

This week we have been trying to work on being more positive and point out some of the good things that we do throughout our day during each hour. It’s been hard to remember to do at times, but I can tell that when we focus on the positive things and not the negative, our work goes by a whole lot smoother and our attitudes shape up.   Let’s be honest, we all know I could use that! haha   The week went by pretty quickly and I can’t believe it’s Monday already! We are going out to a place called Bake N Broil in downtown Long Beach today for an Elder’s b-day lunch so I’m excited for that!   

We are hoping to have great success this week and are going to continue our efforts in staying positive even when all the pressure and stress is on the line. We have an additional training tomorrow at the mission office, and I am excited to be able to see "ZL" H** tomorrow!  I know it will be great to see and talk to him and I’m sure it will help lift and brighten my attitude as well.  It’s amazing to hear about all the love, prayers and support you all have shown for me over the course of my mission, words truly can’t describe my gratitude towards you all. Thanks for everything you do and I hope you all have a great and safe week!

Hasta Luego entonces!

E. Woffinden

Street Contacting this Week

(This is Jason's email from last week.  We were out of town and couldn't post it.)   No pictures this week.

Hey!! How’s it going!? Another week down crazy how time flies by so quickly but slowly too. Well this week was one of those slower ones, but it was pretty good. Elder B** and I are still having a very hard time finding people to teach here we had two investigators A** and N** drop us this past week so we were left with not a whole lot to stand on.  On Tuesday, we found a new guy to teach named C** and he has a baptismal date for the 14th of September!! So pray and let’s hope that he comes to church and continues to listen to the lessons. He is a 19 year old kid we met while going by some formers in our area book and he is a solid guy! Super humble and was nice for wanting to talk to us when clearly his family made it clear that they didn’t want anything to do with it.  We are excited to work with him and hope we are able to help him in any way possible towards setting his life towards God and the Savior.

Compton has been good!   I love the area here!  It’s exactly how I imagined it.   Tuesday I was able to get into some of the more rough parts of town when I was on exchanges. While we were trying to contact people in the streets, we had 2 cops pull us over off our bikes to "talk" to us. They were demanding, “Why are you here?? Do you guys know where you are at?" ha ha We were all yeah.. in Compton?  They just stared at us and said, "Guys.. people get shot all the time here please be careful and go home early.”  Then they left.. it was super funny!  But it’s true there have been a couple of times while being out here where I knew we had to get out of an area due to certain circumstances that were starting to happen.   But it’s all good and I love the ghetto.

So, a couple of weeks ago we found a girl named A** while we were contacting on the street. She was English speaking so we had to pass her off to the YSA ward elders here in the area.   We found out a couple of days ago that she has a baptismal date also coming up! So that’s sweet even though it’s not with us.  We still can see how passing off and giving referrals still helps the work move along. We haven’t been doing a whole lot of teaching and have mostly just been trying to find people this whole week so it’s been a super slow one, but I had some good exchanges with some elders this week in their areas.

On Saturday, we had a big BBQ with an investigator and the food was awesome! Everything was going great until his neighbor decided to come over hammered to go for a swim in the pool. His neighbor was beyond drunk and came and started causing all kinds of crazy things.  She was calling us out for our faith and asking us to read her something out of the Book of John.    She was saying how our Mormon book doesn’t even have the Book of John.   I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy her making a fool out of herself.   haha   But anyways we left and left her a card with our number asking her to call us in the morning. haha.

It was good being on exchanges, but now I’m back and need to go to work.   I am hoping for a good week! Just like I hope you all have a great week too! I appreciate all your love and prayers for all the missionaries… it means a lot. I hope you all have a great week and stay safe! Thanks for everything.

Love, Elder Woffinden

Oh, our ward since we have so many LA members is now turning into a branch starting next week so that’s a big change!

Week Two in Compton

Jamba Juice Run after District Mtg.

Hey what’s up everyone!! How is it going?? Sounds like you all had a pretty good week! I know it’s crazy for me to think that Jared and Tanner are home!! WOW their missions flew by so fast for me!! I am so glad for the example they both set for me by going on a mission.  It truly helped me out in so many ways!  I am sure they were a 100 times better as a missionary than I am, but I just want to say thanks and welcome home to them!

Compton

Okay, week two in Compton! It was a little better than last.  Elder B** and I have been having great success on bringing out the members of the ward to lessons. It’s been really good to build relationships with the members and our investigators. We are still struggling with our area considering we are white washing and we have no real solid leads.  We are still not confident in what we do every day, but we are doing our best!   Getting to know the members as much as possible will make the work 10 times easier for us as they become involved.  

Greatest "church" wall

So this past week we have had a ton of bike issues.  I had another two flats on my bike and then another one on another Elder’s bike (I was using his bike because my tires were flat and I didn’t have time to fix them.)  On Wednesday, we were teaching a recent convert named M** at her trailer park home about how to use “Preach My Gospel” to help her in her studies.  We showed her how she can apply this knowledge of the gospel in her life. The lesson went great and we were just about to head out to our bikes to go to dinner.  We noticed our bikes looked different than how we had left them locked up.  It turns out that we got all four of our tires stolen. It’s very frustrating and we now have to buy new tires sometime this week which blows!  There are just a ton of crazy people here and lots of theft.  

This week we also had to do two exchanges with other missionaries.  Since I have only ever been companions with DLs, I go on them constantly!  On Friday, I was with Elder P** who is a greenie from NC.  He is an English speaking Elder and he came with me to my area.  This was pretty hard for me because I truly got the feel for what it would be like to be a trainer!  I was now reliable for all the Spanish that was spoken and for teaching all the lessons which was a huge transition for me.  Usually, I am the guy who just sits back smiles during the lessons. Ha ha.  Now the spotlight was all on me. Thankfully the day actually turned out really well and we had a lot of success! I honestly feel like it helped my Spanish out tremendously because I was forced to use all my attention and focus on what was being said and apply what I know to help them.  We taught a couple people and the lessons were great!   Elder P** didn’t say anything because he doesn’t speak any Spanish, but I am sure he got a feel of what it is like to teach in a different language… it’s tough!   He is a solid kid and will be a great missionary! 

Throwin up the deuces

Yesterday Elder B** had a baptism in Cerritos that he was invited to so that’s where we spent our afternoon.  It was a nice break to go to a baptism! After, we went and had dinner where they served pig noses and some other weird looking thing all blended into a soup... ha-ha   Yeah it was different!  They also served us water with tad pole eggs in it! ha-ha way weird!  I can’t remember the name of it, but it was just like drinking a slimy, gushy green & black smoothie.  New food adventures!!  We got some good referrals from them.   

To end our night, we taught a girl named J** who is a single mom with two kids. She has been looking for a church to take her kids to so they don’t get involved in the gang life of Compton.   The lesson was awesome and I can tell the she will be one of our interested and progressing investigators very soon!  We just shared with her a couple of scriptures from the B of M and bore testimony of the truth.  I could see it really hit home to her which is great!   That’s about it for this week! I hope you all have a great week and stay safe and have fun!  I am so grateful for you all and for all the time and love you show me.  You all are awesome!! Thanks again!

Love,

Elder Woffinden

LA - West Side

I Am in Compton

Y and JC and their children

Hey family how’s it going!!   Well I am here in Compton and it’s insane.  I love the fact I am here because I have always loved the image of Compton from all the gangster rap music I listened to back home etc. And believe me, the city lives up to its name! It is very ghetto here and there is trash, graffiti, homeless people everywhere!!  We are white washing which means we don’t know a soul here. It is a new area that opened up so we have to create our own area book from other Elders and just from street contacting.  I have already gotten two flat tires in four days.  The streets here are filled with thorns and broken glass which is a problem for our old missionary bikes.

We have found a couple of people who might show some potential in becoming investigators, but we won’t know until tonight when we go by to see how they are doing.   Church was interesting yesterday.  We have a ward roster of about 700+ people, but only like 100 are active.  The people have been very nice and receptive, and they are willing to do their very best at coming out and helping the missionaries teach the gospel.  We had about six member-present lessons in four days which is crazy!  I never had that in Whittier, Elder B** is a very good Elder at getting people to come out to lessons and to share their testimonies with their neighbors. There is a lot I can learn from Elder B**.   He has the best Spanish among the white boys and is probably the most obedient person I have ever met.

S and her mom, A

 We have met some super humble people here and they are very willing to let us talk to them in the streets! We taught a guy and his family in their broken down RV which is right underneath the I-91 overpass. These people have nothing at all, their house is a wreck and yet they are still willing to let us come in and talk to them.  Crazy!

It is very humbling to me how blessed most of us truly are and how we need to realize that there are people in this world that really don’t have anything.  Yet, they all seem to have the answer to the key of life.  That happiness doesn’t come by material possessions, it comes by the relationships we make and the help we give to others. That is one thing I have learned out here on my mission that I am very grateful for.  

Ja and Hermano C

Jason, T and his brother E

Well I hope you all had a great week!!  Make sure to let me know how you all are doing and send me photos! Thanks again, you are all the best!

Hasta Luego

E. Woffinden

Elder H and I doing our "bike" thing!