54th–59th Week—September 17-October 22, 2012

This is a banana plant blossom and if you look closely to the left of the blossom, you will see some bananas starting to form.

These are our Korean neighbors--John, Hailee, and Evelyn Lee.  Little Evelyn is 100 days old in this picture.  Koreans celebrate when their babies are 100 days old.  They came to our apartment and gave us some rice cakes.  The wrapper on the cake had a 100 day sticker on it.

Trisha & Victoria, Jacob & Benjamin, and Zach Gourley

Grandpa Dale and Little Benjamin

This is the Los Angeles Stake Center.  It is a beautiful building--it looks almost like a temple.  I accidentally erased the best picture of it.  The chapel is beautiful.  It has stained glass windows and dark wood.  It has a beautiful pipe organ.  The chapel is big and very long.  We will be going here with 3rd Ward every other Sunday.

Bouganvilla Bush

October Birthdays

Happy Birthday Dear Catherine—October 9—30+ years old!

 

Missionary Work

Week 54

          Monday, September 17, was an unusual day in that most of what we did, was not planned ahead.  President Baker called us early that morning and asked us to meet an elder at the Mexican Consulate to renew his passport.  We hurriedly showered and got out the door.  When we arrived there we discovered he didn’t have any papers or documents, President Baker had them all.  The Consulate closes at 1 p.m. so we didn’t have time to drive to the mission office, pick them up,  and get back in time.  Elder Aguilar was going the temple Wednesday so he said he would pick them up at the mission office and go from there. 

          We then went to visit Miriam Godoy.  She was one of the people on the ward list no one knew.  She is in her 40’s and has had one of the most tragic lives I have heard of.  We ended up visiting 2 hours with her.  She lives with a family and they won’t let her bring anyone into the house so we met on her back patio.  It was shady and had a cool breeze out there and was actually quite pleasant for how hot the day was.  I am positive, it was much more pleasant than the house.  She was born in Guatemala and her father left her and her mother when she was 9 months old.  The man her mother married next abused her in every way imaginable.  She just cried and cried – I could hardly stand to listen to her.  She took all she could and finally when she was 13 years old, she ran away from home.  Life was very hard for her for the next few years.  Many more horrific experiences awaited her.  When she was 16 years old she joined the church.  She met the love of her life—he was 16 years old also.  They had had similar family experiences and were a source of support for each other.  When they were 19 years old they decided to get married and move to the city so he could get a college education.  While they were in the process of getting ready, he was killed in an automobile accident.  I felt so badly by this point in the story.  She eventually married another man and had a daughter.  He was very mean and unfaithful to her.  They eventually divorced.  He took everything leaving her and her daughter virtually destitute.  She struggled on for several years.  In the meantime, her mother had moved to the United States.  Her mother felt guilty and wrote her and told her she would pay for her papers and airfare to the United States.  She wrote back and said she would not come without her daughter.  Her mother offered to pay for the granddaughter to come also.  The granddaughter was a teenager at that time and chose to stay with her father because he was quite wealthy.  Sister Godoy came to the United States alone. When she got here, her mother refused to believe what she told her about her stepdad.  Sister Godoy looks like her real dad and her mother hates him so badly she told Sister Godoy she wants nothing to do with her.  Her mother is a very pretty lady and Sister Godoy’s sister looks like her mother and her sister is a model.  Sister Godoy is all alone—very poor, and has no friends.  Her birthday was September 17 so we decided to buy her a triple combination and candy for her birthday.  We wrapped it up and took it to her.  She said that is the only gift she will get.  She has great faith and a strong testimony.  We told the bishop about her.  He and his wife are going to visit her as well as the relief society president.

          We came back home for lunch and the phone rang.  It was Zamir Caudillo.  Zamir just graduated from high school—he is a real scholar and was offered some outstanding scholarships.  His mom and two younger brothers are members.  His dad is a really great guy but has never joined.  He allowed us to teach him once.  Maria Caudillo was in the hospital and needed surgery.  Zamir asked if Dale would come and help him administer to his mom.  Zamir had just been ordained an elder the day before.  We drove over to the hospital.  Zamir anointed her with oil and
Dale sealed the blessing.  His dad and younger brother were there also.  There was a great feeling in the room.  The next afternoon we stopped by to see her.  They had got her into surgery and cleaned out the infection and did not have to operate.  The doctor was surprised and asked her if she had prayed—she told him “Yes” and that she had had a blessing.  He told her she had better continue to pray to her God.

          Tuesday we were out again looking for members we did not know and we visited Marta Sanchez.  After we arrived we realized we knew Marta from church.  She lives with her daughter in law, granddaughter, grandson, and great grandson in a very tiny apartment.  Her granddaughter is 15 years old and her new baby was about 6 weeks old.  When we arrived she was literally hiding under a blanket on a bed with her baby.  She was trying to breast feed him.  Marisol was so embarrassed about having this baby, her head was even under the covers.  The apartment was very small, very dirty, and smelled terrible. The only things we could see for the baby was a box of diapers, a few clothes and a blanket.  The poor baby was lying flat on his back and kicking and was making sounds like he was completely uncomfortable.  When we first saw Marisol, I thought she was about 13 maybe 14.  That is what Dale thought also.  We were surprised when her grandma said she was 15.  She is just a baby herself and she has no idea how to care for the baby.  After a while I couldn’t ignore the baby’s call for relief anymore so I asked Marisol if I could please hold her baby.  She went farther under the covers.  I felt terrible.  Her grandmother went over and said, “It’s okay to let Hna. Petersen hold your baby Marisol. “She then came out and handed the baby to me.  The minute I had him in my arms, he sighed in relief and started smiling and “talking” to me.  After we told her what a cute baby he was, Marisol seemed to relax and started smiling.  She then started texting on her phone and seemed happy someone was taking care of her baby for a few minutes.  We felt like the Grandma didn’t help her much—she feels that is was Marisol’s baby and she needs to care for it.  She did say Marisol can’t go to school because she has to care for the baby.  The only other thing in the room was a big screen TV and video games.  There was nothing that would stimulate children.   I just felt the best interest for the baby was to be adopted.  I didn’t sleep very well that night.  We talked to the bishop and he is going over to see them.  He told us that Latinos very seldom will put their babies up for adoption.  She has no way to support this baby.

55th, 56th, 57th, 58th Weeks

          It has been so long since I last wrote.  The days and weeks are all lumped together in my mind so I am going to write a few of the highlights.  We are still working with Jorge Arzu.  He told the elders and us that he is praying to the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe because he has heard of many miracles that have happened by praying to her.  We haven’t made connections with Andres Ascencion.  He has been busy helping to move the space shuttle, Endeavor and moving the equipment for his company.  We are teaching a new lady, Irma Xicaparic.  The Relief Society President told us about her.  She has had the missionary lessons and most of her family are members.  We are going through Christ’s teachings in the Book of Mormon with her.  She seems very ready to hear about the gospel. 

          We have been busy “mapping.”  That is a word we coined.  There are many, many members who are on the ward lists in our wards who have moved and their membership hasn’t moved with them.  We got the maps off the church website that shows where all these people live and we have been trying to determine if they are there or if they have indeed moved.  Many of the phone numbers are obsolete.  It is a slow deliberate process and sometimes discouraging but we are forging forward.  

          The Shumans have been substituting in the mission office for the last 6 weeks so we substituted for them while they went to zone conference.  We went to zone conference October 10.   President Baker challenged us to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year.  This time we are to look for characteristics of great missionaries and apply them as we serve.

HUNTINGTON BEACH WEST STAKE IS DISSOLVED

          We were very surprised Sunday, October 16, that our Spanish Stake was dissolved and the Spanish speaking wards were put back into English speaking Stakes.  Our two wards were put into the Los Angeles Stake.  The two wards will still have Spanish speaking sacrament meeting, adult Sunday School classes, Relief Society, and Priesthood meeting.  Young women, Young men, and primary will meet with an English speaking ward and of course, they will be taught in English.  After much contemplation the church felt this was the right thing to do at this time.  The 6^th Ward will stay in the Jefferson/Vermont building and the Adams Ward (which is an English speaking ward.) will move into the Jefferson/Vermont building.  The 3^rd Ward will move to the LA Stake Center and they will share the building with the Wilshire Ward which is English speaking.   A Korean ward will also be in the building.  Since the two wards we are assigned to aren’t in the same building, we will not be able to attend both wards every Sunday like we have in the past.  We will trade back and forth every other Sunday. We will have only 3 hours of church on Sunday instead of 5.  If there was a baptism, we had over 6 hours of meetings.   

          This past week was the Los Angeles Stake Conference.  Following a 1 hour meeting on Saturday night they had a get together with the wards in each building.  People visited and got acquainted and ate pie.  It was very nice.  Sunday President Bragg said that in 1964 two women from San Salvador came to the United States and wanted to know more about the church.  A Spanish speaking brother asked for permission to teach a Sunday School class in Spanish to these two sisters.  By 1968 they had a Spanish speaking Branch of 70 members.  By 1985 they formed the Huntington Park West Spanish speaking stake.  It has been a stake almost 28 years.  President Bragg welcomed them back to their “roots.”  He is certainly the “man of the hour.”  Who would have known we needed a bilingual Stake President at “such a time as this.” This is going to be wonderful for everyone. 

          Ever since we have been here in California our health insurance has tried to make us go on California insurance which is $400 more a month than Idaho’s insurance.  We have argued we are still residents of Idaho, own a home, have Idaho driver’s licenses, etc.  They finally said we could keep our Idaho insurance if we could prove we have been back in Idaho in less than a year.  Our mission president let us go home for a few days. While we were there we had our annual physicals, eyes checked, dental checkups, etc.  We also got to see most of our family, celebrated our birthdays, and see our new grandbaby, Benjamin Roy, blessed.  It was a whirlwind trip but it was very nice to see everyone. 

          We had a companion ticket that had to be used or we would lose it so we flew to Salt Lake City and rented a car.  As we were getting ready to go we talked that hopefully we could share the gospel with someone.  When we left LA a man boarded the plane and sat next to me.  He promptly put his bag under the seat and leaned back and went to sleep.  He didn’t wake up until we landed in Salt Lake.  On the return flight a man sat next to me.  I asked him where he was from, etc.  He asked me about my name tag and I explained we were missionaries.  Dale asked him if he would like to learn more about us by going to Mormon.org.  He took our pass along card.  Dale then asked him if he would like a copy of the Book of Mormon.  He said he would be interested in reading it.  We gave him a card for a free Book of Mormon.  In our conversation he told us that his parents had immigrated from Italy to New York City.  He told us he loved NYC and had lived there his entire life except for 5 years he had lived in New Mexico during his career.  He didn’t share with us how this happened but he had found Jesus Christ at that time.  He had prayed and committed his life to Jesus Christ and tried to do what Jesus would want him to do.  Dale remembered we had brought the latest Ensign so he shared that with him.  The man started reading it from cover to cover.  When he was a little over half way through it, he fell asleep.  He awoke when we landed in LA, and he asked if he could keep the magazine.  We gave it to him and exchanged email addresses and phone numbers.  He told us he did not believe in coincidences—that there was a reason we were together on the flight.  That was such a defining moment for us and we agreed with him.