6 IS OUR LUCKY NUMBER

Hello everyone! :) Ah, I love this work! This week has been another amazing one here in the California, Riverside Mission. We have seen a lot of miracles this past week, and we are excited to continue to work hard. This past week, we were able to find 6 new investigators, as well as having 6 investigators at church! It was amazing. 6 is our lucky number!

We have been so busy this week and I love it! We had a lesson with Bao Jie Mei on Tuesday. Sister Bao has been coming to our English class recently, and has become interested in learning about the Gospel. She told Elder Nelson she wants to be missionary one day! We taught her about the Restoration, and it was a great lesson where was spirit was strong. We are really excited for her! That same afternoon, we had another lesson with Shanon! We followed up on her commitments, and also taught her the importance of making the Gospel your #1 priority. When we show Heavenly Father how important the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to us, we can expect to receive answers to our prayers and a great feeling of peace and joy. It was a really great lesson!

We also had another awesome lesson with Christine this week. We taught her more about the plan of salvation, and she loved it! Christine is so smart, and she is so ready for baptism. We are really excited for her, and to see her progress is super amazing! Her new baptismal date is July 16th. Wednesday night, we also had an awesome English class. Our English classes have been so great lately! We are getting around 10+ people every time. We have worked really hard to build this wonderful tool and the Lord is really blessing us. That night after class, we had the opportunity to visit Ding Di Xiong, one of the less-active members in the Eastvale Ward. It was awesome and I am always reminded that the Lord is mindful of each one of us wherever we are. We taught Ding Di Xiong about the importance of the Sacrament. That guy is super awesome and we are going to do our best to help him come back to church!

Thursday morning I had the opportunity to attend the District Leader Meeting for all of the DLs in the mission. Right before the meeting started, President Mullen called Elder Ly and I out to talk to us, and asked us both to give 7 minute trainings -  pretty much on the spot! I gave a training on receiving revelation through church attendance. It was an awesome experience, and my message went well! 

This week we also had another lesson with Vivian who is in Riverside. Vivian is progressing and is praying everyday! She also brought her friend, Sunny Sun, and her 10 year-old daughter Isabella to the lesson. We picked them up as new investigators and taught them a couple of points about the Restoration. It was a great lesson! We had the opportunity to teach Michael Xu again. We followed up on his commitments, and also taught the Word of Wisdom, and the Law of Chastity. He agreed to obey these commandments and we changed his baptismal date to July 23rd. Please pray for him! 

Saturday morning we had a lesson with Sadie, and her mom. They have attended our English class before. Sadie used to live in England, so when she speaks English, she has a British accent! It is funny and a little unexpected. We taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel and it was a pretty good lesson! Please keep them in your prayers. Sadie is having a baby soon and they are leaving to go back to China soon.

Sunday was so awesome. That morning, we went and visited Winter! She is doing pretty good. We invited her to pray everyday, and she agreed! After that, we raced to church, which was amazing! We had 6 investigators come to church! Shanon, Michael, Christine, Steven, Jerry, and Jacky all came to church!!! It was amazing to be there and worship together with each of them. What a special experience. When we got to the church we quickly setup for translation, I started translating (it is an English service) and Elder Nelson was coordinating with and helping all of our investigators get in and settled. That afternoon, we drove to Hemet which is a pretty long drive, to visit Cher and Wendy again! We finished teaching them about the Restoration! Vicky Vu, their friend, who also works at the restaurant China Garden, also sat in on the lesson, and is interested too! It was awesome, and we have seen so many miracles from this past week. Overall, it was an amazing day!

President Hammon is our new Mission President. I haven't met him yet but we have a meeting tomorrow where I will. I am super excited! He seems like an awesome guy. Elder Nelson and I are doing well. We are often tired and hungry and always hot, but I am grateful I get to serve with him and love him lots. We know Elder Crowther is out there doing awesome stuff.

This week has been amazing. I am so excited to continue to labor in the Lord's vineyard, and to help the Chinese people Come Unto Christ. I hope that's what you are all trying to do too. Love you all have a great week!

Elder Willes