15th Week--December 19-25, 2011

Luciano Mendoza and grandson at  6th ward Christmas Dinner.

Back Row: Elders Cressman, Winterose, Penrod, Filiaga, Maddox, and Depew
Front Row:  Elders Carver, and Torres
Left side:  Elder y Hermana Petersen
This was Elder Filiaga's last dinner in the mission field.  The next time we see him will be in a
 University of Utah Football Game. 
He shared his feelings about his mission and bore his testimony with us. 
Everyone loves him.  He was a great missionary.

Elder Winterose, Natalie, Elder Filiaga, Evelin Ramirez, Elder Carver
This was Elder Filiaga's last Sunday in the mission field and he baptized these hermanas on Christmas Day.  Since the elders couldn't teach them alone, we were involved in all the lessons.  This baptism had special meaning to us also.

Merry Christmas Week!

          We tried to take a small gift, small ceramic bells, to everyone we have worked with since we arrived.  It was nice.  We got to just about everyone.  There were a few we missed.  Dale tried to pass out a whole packet of pass along cards—and he just about accomplished it.  I am a little more timid but I did pass out some.  My style is to talk to people and in the course of the conversation offer them the free Christmas video.  He will go up to groups of people and give them to everyone that wants one.  He is the true missionary.  I would have probably spent the rest of my life in the whale if I were Jonah!  One evening when we were finished with our appointments we went to a nice mall that had mostly Black people shopping there.  There were some Latinos there also.  I think we may have been the close to the only Caucasians there.  We passed out a lot of cards in about an hour.  The people were very polite and happy to get the free video about the birth of Christ.  Another day we went to an upscale mall in Beverly Hills.  We only gave one video away and that was to a Black lady.  Most of the people did not want to be bothered especially when we asked if they would like a free DVD.  Dale, could not even get the rest of the sentence completed when they would say no! 

          Monday night a Sister Pacheco invited all the 6^th ward elders and us to a nice dinner.  She shared how she joined the church and asked all the missionaries to share their testimonies.  Her daughter had made and stuffed Christmas socks for all the elders. Dale got one because she thought there would be another elder whose name she did not know.  It was a very nice evening.

          We found out that Maria Perez didn’t have cancer and she was on her way to Mexico for a month visit.  Beatriz De La Pena got back Christmas Eve from San Francisco from her surgery.  She was out getting groceries when we stopped by.  We didn’t get to talk to her.  We just visited with her kids.  By the time we got back on Christmas Eve, it was getting late so we ate at Sizzler and went home and watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Sound of Music” (in between commercials).  I made Christmas cookies for the baptism on Christmas. 

          Christmas morning we went to 3^rd Ward Sacrament Meeting. The Moran and Jaime Cruz family were there! We had given Hermana Cruz a bell on Friday and invited them to come. We had been by many times but never could get in, the gate was locked and their phone had been disconnected (not unusual).

We went to the Baptism of Evelyn Ramirez and her daughter Natalie following the 3^rd Ward Sacrament Meeting.  Following the 6^th Ward Sacrament Meeting we attended the baptisms of 3 young people whose parents were already members.  Upon returning home about 2 p.m. we made a sandwich and started calling all our kids on Skype.  We were able to visit with all our kids except Ray and Kerena who were trucking on Christmas Day.  Ray did call while we were in the 6^th Ward baptismal service. Dale went out and talked to him a while.  They were in the middle of Nebraska.  We talked to Brad and family the day after Christmas.  We got to visit with all of our grandkids.  That took up the rest of the day.  We ate  a Roast Beef dinner a little late.

          About 9:30 Christmas night we started opening a few gifts and we received a call from Elder Torres.  He, Elder Penrod, the ward mission leader, Brother Ramirez and two investigators were returning from the Temple Visitors Center and were in a wreck.  Someone needed to take the two investigators home (Mother and daughter).  Could we come and do it?  After grabbing a blanket, water and the GPS we hopped in the car.  When we arrived the teenage daughter was very cold so I went to the car with her and tried to warm Alejandra up.  She had only been in the United States 4 months and spoke very little English but we got along.  She was nervous and afraid.  After visiting with the elders and Brother Ramirez, Dale came over to the car to call President Baker.  Brother Ramirez did not want to call the police because he was afraid he would be deported because he did not have his “papers”.  He was trying to convince the elders that the light was green and not yellow and the wreck was not his fault.  Elder Torres was in the front seat of the van and told Dale the light was yellow and he felt Brother Ramirez was at fault.  President Baker had told the Elders to be completely honest and not to make any judgments.  He asked Dale to stay there until everything was over to make sure the elders were not swayed one way or another.  The people they hit were Koreans and they did call the police.  (We felt there was enough damage, the police did need to be called.)  Brother Ramirez’s car was registered and he did have insurance but he did not have a driver’s license so they impounded his car.  He was so scared he was going to be deported.  He has a second family of two little boys and a baby girl who is only 2 weeks old.  We really do feel sorry for him.  We have no idea how this will turn out.  We took the investigators home and then went back and took the elders home as President Baker felt it was too late for them to be out on the streets.  The next morning Dale got a bike rack from Elder Filianga and got their bikes and took them to Elder Torres & Penrod’s apartment. 



14th Week—December 12-18, 2011

Christmas tree Connie won at the Relief Society Christmas Dinner.

Hermana Eva Vega, 6th Ward Relief Society President

Obispo Jose Estrada, Barrio Sexto

This sign is similar to many signs in L.A.--English, Spanish, and Korean

(Oops!  I forgot the December birthdays!)

So here they are:

Dec. 6 Happy Birthday dear Christi! (Are you 30 yet?)

Dec. 8 Happy Birthday Dear Charlie—5 yrs. old!

Dec. 10 Happy Birthday Dear Charles-- ???

Dec. 15 Happy Birthday Dear Grace—10 yrs. old!

(Eileen’s birthday is that day also—Happy Birthday!)

Dec. 28 Happy Birthday Dear Ben—18 years old!

          It has been a typical week with its ups and downs.  Monday was a “catch up” day because we were so far behind.  We (mainly Connie) cleaned the apartment, washed, ironed, studied, got groceries, wrote Christmas cards, etc., etc., etc.

          Tuesday we went to study with Jaime Olasaba and they weren’t home.  We called and no answer so we waited 30 minutes and left.  We had a really good visit with Jose Guzman and family.  He is really struggling with the beer addiction.  They came to church today and he looked better than he has in a long time.  We hope he can get over this problem. 

          Tuesday night after correlation meeting the elders taught Evelyn Ramirez. Her boyfriend has moved out and she now has a job.  She will be baptized Christmas day after Sacrament Meeting.  I sat by her in Relief Society.  She seems to be making friends in the ward. 

The 3^rd Ward had a Christmas program and then a nice dinner at 9 p.m.  That is late for me to be eating.

          Tuesday we met with Elder Panta and Elder Clements to visit Maria Perez.  She started crying and said she is going to the doctor for tests to see if she has cancer.  She is such a sweet lady.  Dale and the Elders gave her a blessing.  We stopped by Friday night to invite her to the ward Christmas Dinner and she said the lab results weren’t back yet.  She came to church today.  We will have to check on her.

          We went to see Xiomara Ramirez.  She has all but quit coming to church since she said she wanted to be baptized.  She said she still wants very much to be baptized and she said we would see her at the ward dinner and see her at church.  She didn’t come.  

          The Jaime Cruz Family has cancelled all their appointments with everyone.  We are wondering if they got their feelings hurt of if he is afraid to baptize his son or what. 

          Wednesday night at Relief Society I won a Christmas tree table decoration.  I was a little embarrassed because I felt others needed it worse than I do.  But I will keep it as a remembrance of our mission. 

          Thursday we had a little excitement here.  We were studying and getting ready to go out when we heard many gunshots.  A little while later I went down to get something out of the car that was parked on the street because they were stripe painting the parking lot.  There were many policemen and police cars everywhere.  We found out that someone had shot at the guard to the Chinese Consul across the street just one building south of us.  Luckily with all the shots the guard wasn’t hurt.  . They had the street roped off and closed; we couldn’t park our car in the garage until 10:30 p.m.  They later arrested the man that was responsible for the shooting 

We attended two ward Christmas Parties this week.  Friday at the 6^th ward we had two tamales, a roll, a very thick drink, and squash and cooked raisins for dessert.  The tamales gave us both upset stomachs and we turned down the dessert.  The 3^rd ward party Saturday we had stewed chicken and carrots, potatoes, rice, roll, and salad.  For dessert we had a very tiny piece of apple pie.  Needless to say we enjoyed the latter dinner much better.  They put on a terrific Christmas program.  They did the nativity and they asked the missionaries to be the angels.  Elder Filiaga, a football player from the U of U played the angel Gabriel who appeared to Mary.  He did a wonderful job.



13th Week—December 5-11, 2011

 These first three pictures were taken at a French Restuarant, Mimi's, near Costco in Glendale, CA.

These last two pictures are taken on Olvera St. in Los Angeles, CA. 

                                                                                                                   

          Monday, December 5 we decided to do something fun.  We haven’t taken much time since we arrived here 3 months ago to sight see.  We went down to Olvera Street.  We saw the first house built in Los Angeles.  There were lots of outdoor shops where Latinos can sell their wares.  The café we ate at had singers with guitars, etc.  We went to an old cathedral and saw a huge nativity scene.  On weekends there is more going on but we didn’t get to see everything anyway.  It is a fun place to go and a very pleasant day.

          Victoria Olasaba told us she has a very strong personality and wants things her way.  We asked if it would be better if we taught Jaime alone and she said it might be.  Our visit with him went much better this week.  He opened up and we felt we had a great meeting.  He said he is very interested in the church (He has had the missionary lessons before.) and if he joins, he wants to share the message with others like we do.  He wants to be very involved.  Dale encouraged him to keep reading the Book of Mormon. 

          When we saw Beatriz de le Pena she was quite sick.  Bishop Estrada is going to help her so she can have her surgery.  We are so relieved as we have never felt such despair and didn’t know what to do for her when we met her.  Her mom is going to help her with the kids.  I hope all is successful for her.  We put her name on the temple prayer rolls.  Remember her in your prayers.  Those little kids need their mother.

          When we met Evelin Ramirez and the elders Saturday she told us she wants to be baptized.  Her boyfriend is moving out the end of this week and she has a job lined up.  She is giving up a lot and making some big commitments.  We are so happy for her.  Her sister, Xiomara, is withdrawing.  We don’t know what is happening with her.  She seemed like the strong one all along. 

          Sunday as we were leaving church, we had the feeling we should go back and talk to Maria Guzman and her daughter, Jeanette, who is home from college for the holidays.  José did not come to church and we think that he is struggling in his efforts to stop drinking beer.  After discussing his problem we decided to visit with him at 5:00 Sunday evening.  We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to come up with something to help him. Finally I (Dale) found an article about the LDS Addiction Recovery program and printed Spanish and English copies. We both read and highlighted our copies. Then discussed what we should do.

When we arrived we started some lighthearted conversation, but José was not even looking up. You could tell that he was deep in thought.  So I asked him about his problem. As he had told others he said that it helps the pain in his back and his right leg go away if he drinks a couple of beers.  We asked Jeanette to translate every so often for Connie.  We talked about taking something like Aleve. That didn’t work so I asked about the Addiction Recovery Program to his reply he said that they had only missed two times since starting.  After some talk about this I completely departed from the planned lesson and started talking blessings of being sealed in the temple to his wife and their three children really emphasizing the joy that he will be able to receive when this happens.  The best part of the whole discussion was when we began reading about Alma’s description of the sorrow he felt for his sin.  Here we talked about the many times when José had decided to quit and then took just one more beer and how he felt.  (Alma 36:6-13)  Then we examined how the Savior’s atonement was for all of the sins of everyone who has ever lived or ever will live. This especially included and the beer drinking of José. Finally we read about and discussed Alma’s joy in being forgiven (verses 18-21). This is expressed so well I did not have to say very much except that this is the kind of feeling José can expect when he has his family sealed to him for eternity! We immediately knelt in prayer and José asked me to say it.  I had such a wonderfully spiritual feeling as I said the prayer.  It was great!

A very wonderful way to end one more week in the mission field.



12th Week—NOVEMBER 28-DECEMBER 4, 2011

Los Angeles Temple at Christmas 2011 

Desk where we worked at the L.A. Temple Visitors Center.

(Letter written by Dale November 29.)

Our visits and other meetings went so well today (our best so far) that we decided to tell you about it. There are times when I don’t feel so great when planned visits fall through and when contacts (miembros menos activos) don’t come to church as they committed to do. But there are other days that everything goes great! We had a meeting with Jaime Olasaba, nonmember husband of an active member, Victoria. We have been reading and discussing with him the scripture in the Book of Mormon that have the word ‘Jesus’ in a verse (There are 168 in the Book of Mormon.) along with adjoining verses that are pertinent. We were up to Helamán 3:28, so I decided to do a review of the teachings that we had covered up to that scripture. Most everything went well, but there were a couple of times when I was encouraging him to talk about why he was delaying being baptized and Victoria jumped in and wanted to force him to make some definite commitments. You could feel this was not the right thing to do. He told us that he felt that things were going well, but that he was not going to be baptized until he was sure of everything. We are meeting with again next week. (Here again, as you can see most of the teaching falls on Dale’s shoulders. He puts a lot of time and preparation in on the lessons he gives.)

We had some time before our next visit so we decided to call to see if we could motivate Matthew Perez to come to mutual. Fortunately he was home and the Grandmother (who has cancer) was feeling pretty well and they said come over right then. We had a good visit with them. However he does not want to come to mutual because he has to get up at 6:00 AM to catch a bus for school. They say that they would come to church on Sunday. (I am not holding my breath.)

Next we visited a non-member mother with her two member daughters. The elders gave them the discussion on the 10 Commandments. It went well. They also committed to come to church on Sunday. After the 3^{rd ward} missionary correlation meeting we met with Obispo Estrada and discussed Hermana Beatriz de la Pena problem of having pre cancer not being to pay the $5000 cost. He immediately told us to have her come in to talk to him and he would probably be able to help her, but that he would have get approval from Presidente Chavez, our Stake President.

Our last meeting was with Hermana Evelin Ramirez and her boyfriend. This was first lesson on the restoration for him. She had received many of the following lessons with her sister Xiomara, so this got her caught up with Xiomara. I had the opportunity to bear my testimony of Joseph Smith, which is one of my favorite things to do. Connie also did a wonderful job of inviting them to read the Book of Mormon and asking Heavenly Father if it is true. It was especially well done considering that she did not understand anything of what went on before.

Finally we went to 21 Flavors, a frozen Yogurt place next to the campus of USC. We had gone many times and the girl who waited on us knew us and so asked her if she would like to receive a DVD about the Birth of Jesus. She said yes. Then just before we left a guy began serving so I asked if he wanted one also, which he was very happy to get. It was so easy to do at this time of year.

The Rest of this Week's Story

Just so you don’t think we have been translated—two days later all our appointments fell through so we picked ourselves up by the boot straps and kept working.         

Friday we met Adrianna and Jaime Cruz.  They have been recently baptized and have the cutest most well behaved kids—Brandon 8, Matthew 4, and Sarah 4 months.  Brandon offered the nicest prayer without any help.  The dad is going to get the priesthood so he can baptize Brandon.  We are also going to work with them to get ready to go to the temple.

Sunday we met at the Visitors Center at 9 p.m. and the brother over security took us on a tour of the temple.  We walked through the tunnel from the Visitors Center to the temple.  We saw the assembly room that seats close to 2500 people.  We went up on the roof and looked all over the city.  We went inside the highest tower and saw where you can go up to the Angel Moroni. It was dark, windy and cold so no one chose to go any higher.

11th Week—November 21-November 27, 2011



Our good friends that we are working with--Jose and Maria Guzman and their son.
Thanksgiving night 2011 at their home in Los Angeles .

A friend, Jasmine and Jeanette Guzman.

Luciano and Maria Mendoza

 A couple with great faith--very humble good people.

6th Ward Thanksgiving dinner--Dale with Victoria and Jaime Olasaba family.

Thanksgiving Week

          Our week started off with a Family Home Evening with the Morans.  They had some bad news.  Freddy, the dad lost his part time job washing dishes when he cut his finger very deeply and had to go to the emergency room.  Before he left the restaurant, his boss fired him and refused to pay the medical bills.  Freddy isn’t covered by workman’s compensation because he has no “papers.”  His boss has even refused to pay him for the two weeks of work he has coming.  These illegal immigrants are treated so badly.  I wish someone would come up with an equitable solution for their problem.  Little Freddy seemed to enjoy the game we made up for him.  They all love Marshmallow Krispy treats.  They came to church Tuesday and Sunday so that is good.

          We met again with Victoria Olasaba and her husband, Jaime.  He seems to be enjoying reading the Book of Mormon with us (really Dale).  He seems to be quite interested but he still says he isn‘t ready for the missionary lessons. 

          We met with the Mendoza Family.  They are such stalwarts to the church.  They live in very humble circumstances but they are great examples of enduring to the end.  They are temple workers and they want so badly to serve a mission.  They figure if they save for 5 years, they will be able to go. 

          We met with the Elder Filiaga and Elder Winterrose to teach the Ramirez sisters 3 times this week.  I previously called them cousins but found out since then, they are sisters.  They are planning on being baptized Sunday.  Evelyn invited us for fish and salad.  It was actually really good.  The fish was tilapia and it was way overcooked but that is better than raw. 

          Thanksgiving Day we left the apartment about 8 a.m. and drove to the L.A. Temple Visitors Center.  As we drove down Wilshire Blvd. we were astounded—very few cars on the streets.  We never thought we would ever see this in L.A.  We made it there and were way early.  It was a very quiet morning.  Between 9 and 3 we had 23 visitors.  All except 4 people were “regulars.”  Some very lonesome people come to the visitors center to “visit” several times a week.  We feel so sorry that the people at the visitors center are their support system.  We know them by name and they talk and talk.  The sisters are so good to them.  Again, we all have been so blessed all our lives. 

          Earlier in the day the Guzmans invited us for Thanksgiving dinner that night at 7 p.m.  Since we didn’t think we would get a traditional Thanksgiving dinner we ate at the Sizzler at 4.  That was a mistake.  We were still very full by 7.  They had their 3 children home for the holidays and two couple friends from the ward.  It was a lot of fun and delicious.  They had two turkeys—one was roasted and the other was deep fat fried.  They were so good.  They had a sausage dressing, carrots, green beans, candied yams, rolls, mashed potato salad (It is mashed potatoes and applesauce and it is served cold.)  Dale and I put gravy on ours and I am sure they thought we were nuts.  It tasted good anyway. For dessert there was Pumpkin Pie.  They also had a warm apple drink with lots of cut up fruit—it was very good.  All in all it turned out to be a great Thanksgiving.