圣诞节快乐

MICE EVERYWHERE

"Despite having no investigators at church this past week, 

I was grateful for the amazing opportunity to partake of the Sacrament, 

and renew my sacred covenants with a Loving Heavenly Father." 

December 18, 2017

Hello everyone! Another incredible week here in Eastvale. Transfers came this past week, and Elder Nelson and I will be staying in Eastvale together! I was so excited as we are working hard and trying to help a lot of people here. We are excited to help as many people as we can truly Come Unto Christ. This past week, we were able to find 5 new investigators, which truly was a Miracle! Here is how it all went down!

I had a cool experience this week. Last Monday night we were out and about doing some good old fashioned Seeking With Faith. I felt a really strong prompting to go and knock on the door at a house that we have already knocked on before. Hua Di Xiong, our Ward Mission Leader, had told us that the people living in the house were Chinese. We went and knocked and met He Di Xiong, an awesome Chinese man. He invited us in and we shared a couple of points from the Restoration with him. We taught him how to pray and we are excited for him to continue to learn! We are going to try to see him again this weekend. It was a small little miracle for me this week. 

We had another lesson with Angela Zhang this week and it was another great lesson! Please pray for Angela, and also her mom Annie, that they can recognize the importance of baptism! Our English classes this week were great and on Friday, Tom, one of our students, taught me about the name of the company, North Face. One of my favorites. Pretty cool stuff!

The Elders with the Li family from the Eastvale Ward

Aileen and Linda giving us some Christmas gifts

Thursday was so so awesome! Because we had absolutely NO time that day, we ate dinner at like 9:40 pm. A good sign of an awesome day. :) That afternoon we went by and visited Pius and his son Arthur. Pius was a referral from some other Elders in the Corona Zone. Pius is from Taiwan, and is super cool! He loves camping, and the outdoors. We were able to teach him and his 15 year old son Arthur. They were super excited about reading from the Book of Mormon, and it was an awesome lesson! Right after that, we went and visited Brian Chen. Brian was a referral, and we first contacted him through a doorbell contact where we rang the doorbell and set up an appointment. Brian knows the Jiang's (a Chinese family in the Eastvale Ward), and is super cool! We taught him a little bit from the Restoration and about the importance of prayer. It was a great lesson! Soon after that, we went to Wang Jie Mei and Yang Di Xiong's house to have another lesson with them! We taught them the Plan of Salvation and it was a great lesson too! We brought Jiang Di Xiong along with us, and the spirit was really strong. Directly after that lesson, we went and taught Cliff Yang, another super cool Chinese guy that recently moved into Annie Zhang's house. We first met Cliff when we went over and taught Angela this past week, and set up an appointment with him. We taught him the Restoration, and he accepted an invitation to be baptized on January 21st! We are super excited for him, and please pray that he can continue to progress towards that baptismal date! 

Pretty funny story...Wednesday morning we had a cool service project and moved a ton of gifts into the Stake Center for them to be wrapped for Christmas. These gifts had been stored in storage units. Our job was to move them from storage units to the church. Funny thing about this, when we were opening up some of the boxes, there were mice! Mice everywhere! We chased some mice around, inside the building and all over the parking lot. We caught like 11 of those babies! Of course, we let them free later, but it was super funny! 

Saturday was another day full of service! We did an awesome service project at Roubidoux High School, where we gave out a bunch of presents, blankets, books, and other awesome things to the kids there. I love the Spirit that comes from serving others! That afternoon, we had another lesson with Crystal Cui! We taught her about the Law of Tithing, and it was another great lesson! Crystal is doing so awesome and has read to 1 Nephi Chapter 14 in her personal Book of Mormon reading!

Elder Willes and Elder Nelson with their investigator Crystal

Sunday was another great day! Despite having no investigators at church this past week, I was grateful for the amazing opportunity to partake of the Sacrament, and renew my sacred covenants with a Loving Heavenly Father. 

*Mom note - (Elder Nathan and Elder Willes became companions January 23, 2016.
Since then, they have served together as companions except for a 6 week period of time. Crazy unique huh?? We are so grateful for Elder Nelson and how hard he and Elder Willes are working together. They are planting seeds
all over the Riverside Mission. Picture "borrowed" from Elder Nelson.)

This week has been amazing. Love you all have a great week! Merry Christmas!

Elder Willes