上周我们在教会有七个慕道友

Thankful and Grateful

Hello everyone! This past week has been another awesome week here in Eastvale, and the Lord continues to bless us every single day with Miracles! This past week, we were able to find 1 new investigator, and we also had 7 investigators that attended Church this past week! 

On Wednesday morning I had the opportunity to interview the University Chinese Elders' candidate for baptism! His name is Yang Di Xiong. It was super cool to have that opportunity. He should have had another interview this past week with President Hammon and I hope that he is able to be baptized! Soon after a weekly miracle came our way when we received a phone call from Jenny Jackson. We first taught Jenny all the way back in June and since then we haven't been able to teach her. We continued to call her and text her, and after multiple attempts, we were about to give up, and then she called us and said that she wanted to meet! We went over, and had a conversation with her, and answered a lot of her concerns about the church. Over the past couple of months, Jenny has had a couple of anti-influences and friends who have ditched her because she was attending church and learning about the Gospel, so please pray for Jenny that we can continue to help her learn of the truth! 

This week we also went to Corona, CA and had lunch with Du Di Xiong and Du Jie Mei! They are awesome, and they gave us some super good Chinese food. That night, we met with Mary Kong at the Harada Park again. We taught about the importance of the Book of Mormon, and invited her to church! It was a busy day because right after that, we had another lesson with Xun and Sara. We met with them at the Li's house, and taught them the about the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom. We are pretty sure that we will teach them about Tithing this next week which has been a real concern for them, so please pray for them! 

Friday afternoon we got to meet with Shannon! We reviewed the Restoration of the Gospel with her, and she is such an incredible member of the Church already. She has a strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She is doing awesome! 

Saturday afternoon we had a lesson with Crystal again! We met at the Serendipity Building (our chapel), and we taught her the Plan of Salvation. We invited Shannon (recent convert) to the lesson, and she came and helped us! It was an incredible lesson, and Shannon talked about the importance of baptism, which was super cool! The Spirit was really strong, and Crystal accepted a baptismal invitation for December 24th! Wouldn't that be the best Christmas ever? We are super excited for her.

Sunday was another awesome day! We had 7 investigators that came to church. 7 at church baby which was truly another miracle. Xun and Sara, Angela, Mary Kong, Li Feng (who we recently taught a couple of weeks ago), and Aileen and Linda all came! It was incredible, and we are going to try and meet with all of them again this next upcoming week. 

I have been pretty sick this week, but the work must go on. Our English classes were both great. We also had a Correlation Meeting with Hua Di Xiong and discussed the work in our area! And as usual, any spare time we spent out and about doing some more good old Seeking With Faith, which is awesome!

This week I am so grateful for this time of Thanksgiving, and the happiness that gratitude and thankfulness can bring into peoples lives. I am so grateful for my family and your amazing example to me. You have helped me so much to become the missionary that I am today. I am so grateful for your unconditional love and support that you show to family and also those around you. You truly are an examples of Christlike love, and that is such a great example to me. I am so grateful for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I have to be here, and to be serving the Lord at this time. The mission is truly the greatest and happiest time of my life. I am so grateful for the extended time that I have left, and I am so excited to give it all that I have to serve the Lord! I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father and for the Savior, Jesus Christ. They have given me so much. I love that I am out trying to teach others about them. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve my Chinese brothers and sisters, who I love so much. They are amazing! My Chinese has been improving, and I can say most things that I want to now. I can write and read a little bit too now! It is pretty awesome, and I am going to work my hardest to improve my Chinese. 

I am so excited and grateful for this opportunity to serve my Heavenly Father at this time. The Mission is the best! Love you all have a great week! Happy Thanksgiving! Eat lots of turkey for me.

Elder Willes 

DIANA WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!

Words cannot begin to express how much I love the Lord's work. 

This is the best experience of my whole life. THE MISSION IS THE BEST!!!!! 

Hello everyone! This past week has been an incredible one in the good old California, Riverside Mission. Elder Nelson and I have seen a lot of miracles this past week, including Diana Sun's baptism this past Sunday. That was a special day. It is a day I will never forget. Elder Nelson and I have had another incredible week here in Eastvale! We are working so hard and the Lord is really blessing and helping us.

Elder Crowther, Elder Nelson, Diana, & Elder Willes

We were able to teach Xun and Sara again this week! They are a great family. We read through Alma 32 with them and we all really felt the spirit. Xun and Sara came to church again this past week and are slowly progressing. Please pray for them!

Elder Willes and Elder Nelson with Xun and Sara and their baby

Wednesday morning we had another lesson with Diana and that afternoon, Diana had her interview and was found worthy for baptism! This week we also had some good old service time at the Jensen Alvarado Ranch. After doing service, we whipped out some homemade tortillas and also apple turnover things that were super good! Any spare time this week we spent out and about Seeking With Faith. We also attended a Stake MCM Meeting, where we discussed the missionary work in the Jurupa Stake. Our Zone has improved a lot over the last transfer. I love that we are all digging in and working hard. That is awesome!

This week at one of our English classes, (Friday night) we had a lot of new Chinese people come, We had about 12 people there which is a great turnout for us! On Saturday morning, we had our Transfer Breakfast at President Jergensen's home. That was pretty cool! We also had the opportunity to teach Sharon Yang, someone that we met while Seeking With Faith last week. We taught her in her garage with the garage door open (because her husband wasn't home) and it was an awesome lesson! I am always reminded that the Spirit can reach us any place at any time if we just have a willing heart. Sharon Yang accepted a baptismal date for December 17th! It was an awesome lesson. We also had our Chinese Ward Group Activity for Thanksgiving and had a food contest! Jing, one of our investigators, brought some NiuRouMian, and won 2nd place for the Best Dish! It was super good and we had a lot of investigators come! 

Some of our investigators at the Chinese Ward Group Activity

Elder Willes & Liang Di Xiong

Elder Willes and Deng

Another highlight from the week was the visit from Elder and Sister Keetch. He spoke to us yesterday, which is why I'm a day late in emailing. It was such an amazing experience and I really felt the Spirit. He also taught us how important our callings as missionaries are and how much the Lord trusts his missionaries when we really give our best to Him. 

Elder Willes, Elder and Sister Keetch & Elder Nelson

Sunday was so awesome. We had 6 investigators at church! That was incredible. It is so cool when investigators come to church. Right after church, we had the opportunity to have Diana Sun's baptism! It was a special day. Liang Di Xiong spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Li Di Xiong spoke on the importance of baptism. I had the opportunity to baptize Diana which was super amazing! Diana bore a powerful testimony that day! President & Sister Hammon attended her baptism, So did our investigators Aileen Xu and her sister Linda!! We met them at the park this past week! Aileen and Linda came to English Class, church on Sunday, and Diana's baptism! It was so cool, and we are looking forward to teaching them more about Jesus Christ. That night, we went with Hua Di Xiong and taught a referral, Crystal. Crystal just moved here from San Diego and is super awesome! Please pray for her, and all of our investigators. 

Words cannot begin to express how much I love the Lord's work. This is the best experience of my whole life, and THE MISSION IS THE BEST!!!!! I love you all and hope you have the best week ever!

Elder Willes

我很喜欢我的传教

We continue to see miracles and blessings everyday. I am loving the work here!  

Hello everyone! This past week has been another great week here in Eastvale. Transfers came around this past Saturday, and Elder Nelson and I are both staying in Eastvale! We are really excited to continue to help our Chinese brothers and sisters Come Unto Christ. This past week, we were able to find 3 new investigators and also we had 3 investigators that came to Stake Conference this past Sunday! It was awesome. Here is how our week went! 

Elder Ly and Elder Willes catching up at MLC. Elder Ly is now a Zone Leader in Lake Elsinore

Monday Night we got to visit with the Li Family again and they are so awesome! They are doing well and are going to Utah sometime over Christmas vacation! They are strong members of the Church, and Li Di Xiong loves helping us out in our missionary work!

Tuesday morning we had our Weekly DLC and DDM Meetings. We received great training and learned a lot about becoming better missionaries. That night, we had our Zone's Halloween Activity. We had the opportunity to watch (with President Hammon's permission) The Other Side of Heaven, which was a pretty good movie! Our Zone did a Blackout which was pretty cool!

The Halloween Blackout

Wednesday morning we had the opportunity to have another lesson with Diana. She is doing awesome and progressing and learning more about the commandments. It was a great lesson. Diana has such an incredible understanding and willingness to keep all of God's commandments! She is an example to me of someone who willingly acts upon her faith. We also met with Annie Zhang, the recent convert who moved into the Eastvale Ward from Diamond Bar. She is awesome! 

On Thursday we had our MLC (Missionary Leadership Conference) with all of the Zone Leaders, STL's, the AP's, and President and Sister Hammon. I was asked to play the piano for the meeting and everything went pretty well! Later that evening President Hammon called me, and asked me to be in charge of playing some hymns when Elder Keetch (a member of the Seventy) comes to visit our mission next week! That evening, we also had our first Chinese Correlation Meeting with our new Ward Mission Leader, Hua Di Xiong, and also with our recently called Ward Missionaries!!!!! Hua Di Xiong served his mission in Leeds, England, and is from Shanghai, China. He is super awesome, and it is so great to see all of the Chinese members receiving and accepting callings and progressing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Friday night we had another awesome English Class. After our class we had another lesson with Xun and Sara! Hua Di Xiong was with us and as we taught them we were able to find out one of their concerns. It turns out they Xun and Sara feel that they won't be able to pay their tithing. Please pray for them. I know that if they can commit to obey God's commandments, He will bless them. They are a great family.

Saturday was another pretty awesome day. That morning, we had another Weekly Blitz. Elder Fairbanks and I went out together. Elder Fairbanks was my Zone Leader in the Mt. Roubidoux Zone a while ago. It was fun to be working side by side with him again. We were able to get 2 referrals for the other missionaries in their area. The rest of the day we were really struggling. No one wanted to talk to us and nothing seemed to be happening in our area. All missionaries have these days and they can be long and hard. We kept trying to have a good and positive attitude but we were having a hard time. While we were Seeking With Faith, and trying to be patient in our trials and afflictions, the Lord blessed us. We met an awesome Chinese guy named Leao Li, or Li Feng. He is from Beijing, and a really nice guy! We taught him specifically about  having faith in Jesus Christ and also about prayer. It was awesome and truly a miracle!

Sunday we attended Stake Conference and it was awesome! Diana, Xun, and Sara all came! President Hammon came right up to all of our investigators after the meeting to introduce himself. President Hammon is awesome and was so good to our investigators! Sunday afternoon we had the opportunity to teach Jewel Ge and her son Vincent Liu. We taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel. They currently attend another Christian church, but please pray for them that they can read from the Book of Mormon! Are your reading daily from the Book of Mormon? It will bless your life too. Love you all and have a great week!

One more from our blackout

Elder Willes