#StayTuned

Loving our Halloween packages

Hello everyone! I love Eastvale, I love the Chinese people, and I love this work. This past week has been another pretty awesome one. Elder Nelson and I were able to find 4 new investigators and we also had 4 investigators that attended church this past week! Heavenly Father continues to bless us everyday and I am so happy out here! 

Monday night we had another lesson with Angela, Annie's 9 year old daughter. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and it was another great lesson! She is currently on date for baptism for November 11th! Please pray for her. Also, that night, we had the opportunity to visit Ding Di Xiong! Ding Di Xiong has gone less active recently, and so we went by and were pretty bold with him and invited to keep God's commandments and to attend church. He is such a great guy and it is such a big jump but brings so much joy and peace. (More on Ding Di Xiong and cow tail, later!)

Tuesday morning we had our weekly "DLC" and "DDM" meetings. We received more awesome training and I learned a lot! That afternoon was spent doing our studies and doing a lot of Seeking With Faith, trying to find more prepared Chinese people to teach! That night, we also got to go with Brother Godinez (a member in the Eastvale Ward) to one of his neighbor's homes so that we could introduce ourselves to a Chinese family! Turns out, the house was the house of a former investigator, and so they let us in and we got to talk a little bit about the Book of Mormon with them. They said that we could come back in November so we are praying for that! Their names are Johnny Li and Yan Ni! 

Wednesday was awesome too! While we were out Seeking With Faith at Harada Park, we ran into Duan Di Xiong, a cool Chinese guy that we first talked to a while ago. We contacted him again, and he let us share a message with him! We shared a bit from the Restoration, and it was awesome! Duan Di Xiong is an Uber driver and closed out of the Uber APP so that he could meet with us! For those who know the Chinese, they are generally busy and industrious and getting them to slow down enough to hear the message and feel the spirit is difficult, so it meant a lot that he would quit working to hear about the Restoration. 

Imma play all these hymns #StayTuned

Thursday morning we had service again at the Jensen Alvarado Ranch. After that, Elder Nelson and I went to Ding Di Xiong's house because he invited us to eat lunch with him! We had some good Chinese food, including some cow tail, which was pretty good! That day, we did a lot of Seeking With Faith as well.

Friday afternoon we found a former investigator named Miao Di Xiong, and went to his house and taught him a lesson! He is a really nice guy. Pray for him and that he can understand the importance of the Gospel! That night, we had another great English Class. After our English Class, Elder Nelson taught Deng and Jing while I taught Xun and Sara. I finished teaching them the Plan of Salvation, and Li Di Xiong sat in on the lesson as well. It was a powerful lesson and he shared with them a little bit from his conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ which really brought the Spirit to the lesson! Share your faith with others. It changes everything.

Saturday morning we had another Weekly Blitz. Elder Dunn, Elder Porrazzo, and I went out together, and we were able to get 4 referrals for the Eastvale Elders. That night, we were doing some more Seeking With Faith in a local neighborhood, and ran into a Chinese man named Leo Liang! He invited us to go sit at a table right outside of his garage, and we also talked with Eric Yuan, who is a high school student living there with his family. We asked if we could teach them more about Jesus Christ, and they said that we could! So here we are with 2 interested souls and we realized that we didn't have any pamphlets or copies of the Book of Mormon with us. A missionary fail. So we made a full sprint to our car, all the way across the neighborhood, to grab some teaching materials. It was a another great lesson and a memorable experience for sure! 

Sunday was awesome again! We had 4 investigators that attended church! Deng and Jing, Diana, and Angela all came to church! Keep praying for them. It was awesome, and another great day, worshiping God the Father and Jesus Christ with everyone!

Elder Nelson, Diana and Elder Willes at church

This has been another awesome week, and we are super excited to continue to help our Chinese Brothers and Sisters Come Unto Christ. Love you all have a great week!

Elder Willes

猪大肠和猪耳朵

"I love the Lord and I love His work!"

Some tasty pig ear and intestine from our dinner appointment this week

Hello everyone! This week has been another pretty awesome week here in the California, Riverside Mission. Elder Nelson and I were able to find 3 new investigators and also 4 of our investigators were able to attend church! Heavenly Father continues to bless us with Miracles everyday. I am loving the work here!

Elder Nelson and Elder Willes

We spent most of the day on Tuesday out and about doing some good old fashioned Seeking With Faith and trying to find more prepared Chinese people to teach. We also were able to do a home visit with a Chinese family in the Eastvale Ward. I love these people I get to serve. It was an awesome visit!! We also had a home visit this week with another great family, the Li family. And a visit and help from Miao Di Xiong. He helps us so much with the work in Eastvale.

We were able to teach Lucas this week. Lucas was someone that we ran into at Xun and Sara's baby celebration last week. Lucas was born and raised in China but studied in Germany. We taught Lucas about the Restoration and it was a great lesson! He accepted a baptismal date for November 26th, and we are really excited for him! He is a super cool guy. Directly after that lesson, we then went and had another lesson with Mary Kong. Mary has some questions and issues with Priesthood authority and so we are going to do our best to help her learn and feel of the Spirit to resolve that concern. 

English class is a great tool for us. We teach those on Wednesday and Friday evenings. We also were able to do some service again at the Jensen Alvarado Ranch. We also had exchanges with the Jurupa English Elders. I went with Elder Roper and Elder Lowry in their area. We had a good day together. 

This week we also had our multi-zones meeting, with our zone, and 2 others in the CRM. Elder Nelson and I gave a training to everyone on the Importance of Daily Planning, and it went pretty well! I love being a missionary.

Sunday was super super awesome! We had 4 investigators that attended church this past week. Xun and Sara, Diana, and Angela all came to church!!!!! It was so awesome. After church, we had the opportunity to meet with Diana! We taught her more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was an incredible lesson! She gave an amazing closing prayer. That night, we drove to the Archibald's home in Norco, CA, to meet with a Chinese couple that they are friends with! Their names are Joe and Tine, and they are from Shanghai, China. They are super awesome! We taught them the beginnings of the Restoration, and it was a really great lesson! 

This past week has been super awesome! The Lord continues to bless us, and I love it out here. I love the Lord and I love His work! Love you all have a great week!!!!!

Elder Willes

JUST LIKE MICHAEL JORDON PLAYING IN THE "FLU" GAME

I love being able to wake up each and every morning with the mindset of,

"I am going to change someone's life today." Such a blessing!!

Hello everyone!! This week has been another pretty awesome week here in Eastvale. Elder Nelson and I were able to find 4 new investigators and we also had 3 investigators that came to church this past week! Heavenly Father continues to bless us, and we are super excited for the great things that are happening in Eastvale!!! Here is how my week went down. 

Monday was super awesome!! We taught Sue Ren in the park! We taught her about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was a pretty good lesson! On Monday I had a migraine for the first time in my life! My head was throbbing with pain for the entire lesson with Sue Ren, but I felt like Michael Jordan playing against the Jazz in the "Flu Game" and we got through the lesson. Hurt so bad. Haha definitely a memorable experience!!

After our regular weekly DLC and DDM meetings we spent most of the rest of the day on Tuesday Seeking With Faith, trying to find more prepared Chinese people!! That night, we also had the opportunity to do a home visit with the Liang Jia Ting! They are so awesome, and we shared with them a message about the importance of repentance. 

This week we went on exchanges with the Eastvale English Elders. Elder Porrazzo and I worked in our area. We had a great day. That morning as Elder Porrazzo and I were out Seeking With Faith, we started contacting this Chinese man named Johnny Zhang. I felt such a strong prompting to share with him the importance of the Book of Mormon. As we continued talking, we asked Johnny if he had some time so that we could share a spiritual message with him. This is when someone tells you no or you schedule a time to see them. Next thing you know, Johnny invited us into his home. He has a strong desire to learn about Jesus Christ! It was an awesome experience as we shared with him the Restoration.

I was able to go to Lake Elsinore to visit with Evangel Sun again!! She is doing awesome! What an amazing convert. We tried to help her find a ancestor's name to take to the temple. Sadly, we had some difficulties with logging in to her account, and so we weren't able to help her with that. She is doing great though and is active in attending the Lake Elsinore Ward every week!! That afternoon, we got to meet with Miao Di Xiong again!!! He is a champ. After being in Asia for 40 days, he is finally back!! Miao Di Xiong helps us with the missionary work so much here!! He was greatly missed. We also attended the Stake MCM meeting where the Zone Leaders report on the missionary work in the Stake. It was a great meeting!!

Friday was another awesome day!! That night, we had another great English Class. After our class we had another lesson with Xun and Sara, and also taught Deng and Jing, who all came to our English Class. Please pray for all of them!!

Keeping with Chinese tradition, when someone has a baby that has been born for 100 days, they all get together and have a potluck or a gathering type thing. Since Xun and Sara (our investigators) recently had a baby, they invited us to attend their celebration! It was a super awesome Saturday night. They fed us a lot of Chinese food and it was a great opportunity to be with them and meet more Chinese people who need the Gospel! I started playing the piano and a Chinese guy, who wasn't a member, came over and sang Nearer My God To Thee, while I was playing. I will remember that night for a long time.

We had 3 of our investigators at church this past week; Xun, Sara, and also Angela!! It was super awesome and I was so grateful to be there and be a part of helping them find the Savior. 

I am so grateful for my mission. It is definitely the most rewarding experience of my life. I have developed such a love for the people here, and am so grateful for all of the blessings that a loving Heavenly Father has given me. I love being able to feel the Spirit so easily and I love being able to wake up each and every morning with the mindset of, "I am going to change someone's life today." Such a blessing!! Love you all have a great week!!

Elder Willes 

这个星期我们有很多的奇迹

"It has been another great week here in Eastvale! I am so grateful for this amazing opportunity to be here and to serve my Chinese brothers and sisters. I love them so much and I love this work!"

Elder Willes and Elder Nelson (thank you to Elder Nelson's mom for the pic)

Hello everyone!! This past week has been pretty awesome and Elder Nelson and I have seen a lot of miracles!! This week we have been able to find 3 new investigators and we also had 4 investigators that came to church on Sunday! The Lord has blessed us immensely and the work is really starting to pick up here. Elder Nelson and I are excited to continue to work hard and to help as many Chinese people as we can to truly Come Unto Christ.  

Thank you all for your letters and prayers. Thank you for sharing all of the things that I can pray for to help you at home. For my mom-My health is doing super awesome and I feel great! I am sleeping pretty well too! Much better than before which is good. 

This past week, right before Elder Nelson and I were about to head home for the night (because it was 9 pm), I felt really prompted that we needed to stay and talk to a Chinese lady that was walking around the park. We started talking and walking with her and she was really nice! We ultimately navigated the conversation towards the Gospel and she agreed to let us to share a message with her! We are meeting with her tonight at 8 pm. Isn't that cool? Her name is Sue Ren and she is really awesome! Please pray for her and all of our investigators! 

Here is how my week went. It started off pretty awesome because we were able to visit with Tony and Tina, a Chinese couple living in the Eastvale Ward, who are going to the temple this Saturday (October 14th) and being sealed. They are really excited and it will be an awesome day for them. 

Elder Nelson and I are trying to improve the missionary work in our Zone. We had our Zone Accountability [meeting] and things are looking up for us!! At English Class we had the opportunity to meet with Mary Kong, a lady that we contacted in the park just over a week ago. We taught Mary about Jesus Christ and His earthly ministry and also we talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon. It was a great lesson! Please pray for Mary that she can read from the Book of Mormon! We only had one person that night show up for our English Class, so that was kind of a bummer. 

Thursday we had our Mission Leadership Conference, where all of the leaders in the mission gather together for one big meeting and we received various trainings from President and Sister Hammon, and also from the Assistants. I learned a lot and am excited to implement what I learned into our Daily Missionary Efforts!! That night, we had the opportunity to teach Jeff and his wife Sunny. We first tracted into Sunny's house in August, and haven't been able to meet until this Thursday. We taught them the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and invited them to read from the Book of Mormon. Please pray for them that they can read from the Book of Mormon and know it is the Word of God.

Friday morning we had some good service at the Jensen Alvarado Ranch. We cleaned out irrigation lines again and that was pretty cool!! That night, we had a pretty awesome English Class! After our class Elder Nelson met with Annie Zhang and her 10 year old daughter Angela. I got to teach Xun and Sara along with Li Di Xiong. It was a great lesson and Angela accepted a baptismal date for November 12th. We are really excited for that!! Please also pray for them.

This week Elder Nelson and I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the AP's, Elder Dew and Elder Anderson. I went with Elder Dew and we had a great day. We were able to pick up 3 new investigators for them in their area. I had a similar experience as what happened in the park earlier that week. Elder Dew and I were walking down this sketchy street and it was almost 9 pm. We walked by this one guy, and I felt prompted that we needed to go back and talk to him. We went back and contacted him. He rejected us and wasn't very nice about it either. But I know that Heavenly Father wanted me to do that. I know that that was inspired of God and that if our promptings propel us to do good, they are from Him. 

Sunday was pretty awesome too!! We were able to have 4 investigators come to church! Xun and Sara, Diana, and Angela all came to church! The Spirit was really strong and it was really awesome to be there and worship God the Father and His Only Begotten Son, the Savior, Jesus Christ. Also, we got to teach Elders Quorum on the spot, so that was pretty fun! We taught about faith. It went pretty well! The rest of the afternoon and night were spent doing some good old Seeking With Faith, trying to find more prepared Chinese people to teach. 

It has been another great week here in Eastvale! I am so grateful for this amazing opportunity to be here and to serve my Chinese brothers and sisters. I love them so much and I love this work! Love you all and hope you have the best week ever!!!!

Elder Willes

THE WEATHER IS FINALLY COOLING DOWN BUT NOT THE WORK

"General Conference is like Christmas. It is seriously the best couple of days. 

I learned so much and felt the Spirit so strongly."

Hello everyone!! This week has been another great week here in Eastvale. Elder Nelson and I have struggled a bit this past week with finding more people to teach, but we are going to continue to work our very hardest to help as many Chinese people as we can to truly come unto Christ! We currently have 5 investigators and are working our hardest to find more people to teach! We will find them! The weather is finally cooling down a bit (but not the missionary work) and it is so nice. It has been a super hot summer! My Chinese is still pretty decent. :) I am so grateful. I don't think I had much language loss through the last English transfer, but I may have forgotten just a few words. We have 6 companionships in the Jurupa Zone. It is a great zone and is pretty fun! Elder Crowther went to serve in the UCR area with Elder Yang. Elder Sorensen stayed in Hemet when I transferred to Eastvale. Hank and Tina [previous converts that have been in Northern California for the summer] moved back too so that is exciting!!!! 

Last Monday, which was also transfers, Shanon's son, Elder Xiao (who is serving in Boston, MA), called us!!! [Shannon was just baptized]. It was so cool having the opportunity to talk with him, and rejoice together because his mom was baptized. Shanon's story is such a miracle. It is a huge blessing that I have been able to get to know her!

We met Christine Xiong again this week! Keep praying for her. On Thursday we spent a full day doing some good old fashioned Seeking With Faith, trying to find more prepared Chinese people in our area!!

We still teach our English Class every Wednesday and Friday. It is really fun. On Friday after class we had the opportunity to meet with Xun and Sara, a couple that has been coming to English Class. We taught them the first couple of points from the Restoration. Christianity is a big leap for the Chinese culture but the Spirit was really strong during the lesson. We invited them to be baptized, but they declined, and want to continue to learn. Please pray for them! 

Saturday and Sunday were two awesome days of General Conference. General Conference is like Christmas! It is seriously the best. I learned so much and felt the Spirit so strongly. What a blessing it is to have the opportunity to hear from our modern-day prophets and apostles. 

I really loved President Uchtdorf's talk from Priesthood Session about Light. I loved how he said that darkness always vanishes in the presence of Light. We need to constantly CHOOSE THE LIGHT, and follow in the Light of Jesus Christ. 

I also loved Elder Hallstrom's talk from the Sunday morning session about Miracles. Having faith that God can save us, but having faith in His plan if it is not His will. I love that! Being a child of God, receiving a body, the Gift of the Savior and His Atonement, and the possibility of Eternal Life is a Miracle!!! Love that. 

I LOVED Elder Andersen's talk to finish up General Conference in the Sunday afternoon session. What a powerful experience that he shared about President Nelson and the Chinese people, the words of Elder Hales, and the words from the Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. Read the Book of Mormon. It will make your life better. It has made my life better. 

Time and time again General Conference provides such a spiritual experience, and strengthens my testimony of modern-day Prophets and Apostles. Conference is the BEST!!!

Thank you for all of the updates, letters and prayers. They mean more than I can explain. 

It is super super awesome to think that Kenz is a missionary now!!! She will bless many many lives and will be an incredible missionary. Bummer about WX and BYU Football! Honestly, sports don't mean nearly as much to me anymore.

Love you all have a great week!

Elder Willes