Zone & Stake Conferences

Hello Everyone! 

This week was not too crazy, but we had a lot of meetings which was awesome! We had zone conference and Stake conference. Zone conference was great. For as long as I've been here we've only done zone conference online but last pday we got a email saying next zone conference will be in person. So that's going to be exciting. The email also included a lot of new things we are allowed to do which is encouraging. I feel like restrictions are finally starting to lift here in California and I'm looking forward to going out more often! 

During zone conference President Cordon emphasized the Sabbath day (Sunday). Nowadays this Commandment is commonly looked over and no one really thinks of it. It is probably the most broken commandment for both members of the church and non members. President Cordon showed us all the blessings that come from keeping the Sabbath day holy. I know it can be hard at times but the Sabbath day is truly the day for the Lord. Any common activities that we can do on any other day, we shouldn't be doing on the Lord's day. One way the Sabbath day has blessed me in my life is my family relationships. It's been a huge blessing to gather as a family every Sunday night and strengthen our relationship with each other and with our Heavenly Father. Overall it was a great zone conference! 

Stake conference was fantastic. It was virtual sadly but so uplifting! The whole stake conference was based off on missionary work. During the Saturday session it was all about how members can be missionaries and some of the missionaries got to do a training on helping missionaries in all aspects of the work. Sunday was great too. All the speakers were converts talking about how they were converted to Christ. 

There was one lady in particular who really stood out to me. At the beginning of her talk she said that her talk was specifically for people who are not members of the church and who are learning more about the Restoration of the Gospel. She shared a powerful testimony of missionary work. We were hoping and praying one of our friends(Bryan) who was watching was paying attention to her talk. We texted him after the session and asked him what he liked about it.... and low and behold he sent us a picture of her on his screen and said "I really loved this lady's talk! I really connected with her and I felt like that's exactly what I needed to hear." He continued to talk about how she was so committed to Christ even after her baptism! We're excited to talk to him more this week about what he liked :) 

It's crazy to think that's it's already been a year since I came home from the Philippines. I miss the Philippines and the people there with my whole heart. It was so painful leaving. During one of my personal studies this week I was reflecting about my mission. It's really been crazy 😂 As I studied I came across this scripture in the bible:

John 16:33 "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world"

I know this verse to be true. Jesus Christ overcame the world. We should feel peace as we go through a trial knowing He will help us because He knows how we feel.  

Immediately after I read this verse I was overcome with the Spirit and I was filled with so much love and comfort from our Father in Heaven. I'm forever grateful for my mission and for the people I've been able to meet. I'm excited to continue working and seeing the Lord's hand here in the Centinela 1st ward. 

-Elder Espiritu 

This was from a couple weeks ago 

when we went to Manhattan beach

Elder Zayas 

Counsel from An Apostle

What's goooood everyone! 

Elder Garlick and I had a really good week with so many funny and amazing experiences! I'll share a couple of them here. 

"Benjamin our very drunk friend"

So I'll start off with a pretty funny experience that happened at the beginning of the week. For the last couple of transfers President Cordon has asked all missionaries to do their morning exercise outdoors. So the 4 of us Elders always go to a park close to our apartment but we do our exercise at the same park as some of the Sister missionaries that live close by. 

While we were doing our workout all of them came running at us and told us there was a creepy man saying weird stuff to them so they decided to go on a "run" to get away from him, but the man followed them and walked up to us. We started talking to him as we continued to workout. We figured out his name was Benjamin. Benjamin was quite drunk and had a couple more cans of beer with him in his bag. He was telling us he wanted to start working out like us and stop drinking as much. We talked to him about the Word of Wisdom and told him he couldn't be putting stuff like that in his body. He said " yeah you guys are probably right" He then pulled out a can of beer and opened it and drank it hahaha. I told him " if you want to stop drinking right now you probably should just dump that can of beer right now." He hesitated for a second, looked at me then looked at the beer and then dumped the rest of it. We hyped him up and said good job. 

After he did that he started to walk away and then I said "make sure to dump that other one too" He stopped and turned around saying "what'd you say to me?" But he walked up to Elder Zayas ( one of my roommates) and literally was about to swing at him. But then he just took a step back and left. It was a really funny situation but it was cool to see him dump his beer. I'm super grateful to have the knowledge of the Word of Wisdom and not put harmful things into my body. Overall it was a funny/ great experience to start the week off. 

Update on our friends: Tamekia, Andrew, and Eduardo! 

Tamekia is great! She is our friend who has a baptismal date for April 24th! (we're trying to move it up a little sooner) We had a little scare with her last Friday-Sunday. We were supposed to meet with her on Friday. We tried texting her and calling her but she would not reply or answer. So we got a little worried that she was ghosting us. But on Monday we got a text from her saying she was sorry about the weekend and that her phone was broken. So that was a little tender mercy that Elder Garlick and I were so grateful for. 

We met with Tamekia this week over Zoom for the first time. So we got to see her and get to know her better. We taught her the whole lesson of The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She is very smart and understood it all, and the Spirit was so strong. We are still trying to get her kids in on the lessons, so hopefully in the future we'll be able to start teaching them. She came to church over Zoom yesterday and she loved it! 

Another one of our friends, Andrew, is doing great. The first week I got here we put him on a baptismal date for March 20th. We soon found out some of his concerns with baptism. This past week we had to drop his baptismal date which is sad. The good news is he still wants to meet with us and learn. He is such a good kid and really has a desire to know everything about the church before he commits to be baptized. He also came to church yesterday over Zoom and he loved it as well! 

Eduardo is a new friend that we started teaching. We found him over Facebook. He's a beast. He's been through a lot in his life and he truly wants to change. We got to meet him in person when we dropped off a Bible. He actually came to church in person yesterday and loved the experience he had. The members really welcomed him with open arms and made him feel at home. 

CHURCH IN THE BUILDING

This week we finally had in person church in the building! It was great! It's really been a year since I've been in a building for sacrament meeting. The last time I went was in the Santa Monica 1st ward when I was serving on Palawan in the Philippines. I really loved coming back to the building and worshipping with the ward and our friends who came. 

Our ward has to separated into two different groups. Group A and Group B. Group A meets on the 1st and 3rd Sundays. Group B meets on the 2nd and 4th Sundays. I'll never take for granted going to church in a building ever again. So happy to be back! 

Our members here in Centinela 1st ward are amazing. Something I thought was great here is how involved the members are in missionary work. There are quite a few recent converts in this ward. Usually for all recent converts the missionaries will teach the "recent convert lessons" which is just re-teaching all the lessons again. Here a member is assigned to be the one who teachings the recent convert lessons instead of the missionaries! I thought that was amazing.The members here are great and I love getting to know all of them so far. 

"Have a sense of urgency and don't just pass the time by" -Elder Cook 

Like it says in the title an Apostle came to our mission. Elder Cook came to our mission with his wife and with a General Authority named Elder Bragg. It was truly a blessing to hear from an Apostle and his wife. He gave us some amazing council. 

He talked to us about how missionaries are assigned to certain missions. He mentioned how it is a sacred expression to assign missionaries. He said the Twelve Apostles of the Church put in a lot of thought and prayer on where missionaries go. He promised us that we are assigned to a certain mission, area, companion, and even mission president for a reason. 

That gave me a lot of comfort knowing I am supposed to be here in LA, serving in Centinela with Elder Garlick, as we follow the guidance from President Cordon! 🤙🏼One thing he said that I really loved was "Have a sense of urgency and don't just pass the time by!" 

As a missionary I've learned to be urgent and remember I only have a short amount of time here. I love my mission and I love Jesus Christ. Thank you everyone for everything! Hope you all have a great week 

-Elder Espiritu 

Elder & Sister Cook