Christopher's Letter Home

Dear Mom, Dad, and Lizzy,

What a crazy birthday week. Yes, I did get a cake. I had an awesome birthday party. From what I hear, it was quite the party. We were only at it for an hour, but the rest of the guests were there until 9:30 pm. We had a tres leches cake. After blowing out the candles everyone was saying “mordida, mordida.” (a bite, a bite). As is tradition, I bit the corner of the cake. I was surprised when our recent convert, Alicia Hernandez, pushed my face into the cake. It took a good 10 minutes to get the blue frosting out of my nose. The cake was very good, and the company was even better.

I haven’t told you much about our coolest new investigator. Eugenia Rojas is the type of investigator missionaries dream of teaching. I am lucky; Dina was the first golden investigator. Luckily, we have two more currently in out teaching pool. Eugenia is one and Jose Luis is the other. During the last two weeks we have learned a lot about Eugenia. She liked conference a lot and commented on Elder Holland’s talk. She even made reference to it the next week at church. After yesterday’s meetings, we had a lesson with her. As we talked, we learned why she is so methodical in her study of the church. She was a reporter in Mexico for twelve years. She covered everything from sports to politics to business. ASt her height, she was one of the best in Guanojuato, but the economy and political shifts in Mexico eventually caught her. As radio and newspaper reporting was replaced by internet news outlets, her coworkers lost their jobs. The first to go was her driver, and then her photographer. As she watched them leave, she was forced to learn photography to make up for the reduction. As this happened, she kept feeling as if God wanted her to come to the United States. She did so. Within six months, we knocked on her door.

During yesterdays lesson, she explained how we had answered questions she thought couldn’t be answered. We showed her a church established by Jesus Christ. She told us that she had never felt the spirit in such a way. She understood that because God told her the Book of Mormon was true, everything else established through the restoration really did happen. When we invited her to be baptized again, her answer wasn’t no, but rather “Give me a chance to ask God how to tell my family. This is something I must do; God will need to help me.” We were blown away by this answer. In 14 days, Eugenia Rojas gained a testimony of the restored church of Jesus Christ. She heard the testimonies of two 21 year old young men, apostles, a prophet of God, and the Holy Ghost. She now knows that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet, that Joseph Smith restored the Christ’s Church, that the Book of Mormon is true, and that he Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on this planet. I, too, know this to be true.

Love,

Elder Badger

Many Miracles

Dear family,

Life is beautiful. Thinks here in Gilroy have been wonderful. We keep finding prepared people. Between conference, the temple, and the investigators we have we are certain that the Lord is really watching over us.

I never know where to start when I write these emails. For some reason, the work is so much fun that I can't remember what we did the last week unless I check my planner or read my journal entries. Once I finally remember, my email time is usually all used up.

So, I will start with last week. Our week started well. We had a typically busy p-day sin nap. Although we prefer not to schedule appointments on preparation day, it is worth it if it means a strong start to the week. It was on Monday that we had an appointment fall through and decided to tract instead. As a result, we found Eugenia Rojas, a young grandmother of about 50 years old. She invited us in and let us share the message of the restoration with her. We were able meet with her later in the week and invite her to general conference. SHE CAME!!!!! We were super excited. She was able to listen to the closing session of General Conference. She really liked it and told us she had some questions for our next lesson. We gave her a tour of the Morgan Hill building and showed her the baptismal font. She told us that she was seriously thinking about baptism. I think conference and seeing the baptismal font really helped. It is amazing to get a new investigator and get them to church in the same week. It is always a wonderful sign.

Tuesday morning, we started off the day with a 7am conference call with the zone leader council, the assistants, and President Jackson. We were prepared with a zone goal, but decided to scrap it and focus on the special mission goal of 100 invites to general conference. It was really fun inviting people to hear the voice of a prophet. It really pushed us to talk to EVERYBODY. We worked on motivating the zone by issuing them formal challenge letters. We personally challenged each companionship to invite 100 people before we did. The stakes were a candy bar. We even made formal charges complete with a wax seal. We had a lot of fun. Our efforts paid off because the entire zone achieved the goal. We were very pleased. We beat some companionships, but ended up buying everybody their favorite candy bar for their efforts.

Later on in the week, we had a special training in San Jose to teach the new MTC curriculum that will be rolled out in the MTC in may. It is something we have been using since July, but still in implementation. It was really informative and helped us teach better later on in the week.

Friday we had our zone leader council meeting. President Jackson is making sure that this mission is perfectly ready for the day President Watkins steps foot into the mission. I think he wants to make sure that we don't lose anything in the transition. We will be sad to see him go. At the end of April we will enter his last transfer as mission president of the San Jose Mission.

I appreciate the birthday package, the cards, and the cookies. All are greatly appreciated. We have realized how much time we spend in the car. We get a little tired of being in the car. It feels like a mobile command center. We are always ready tor resupply our missionaries with copies of the Book of Mormon and extra pass along cards.

I hope everyone is well.

Love,

Elder Badger

Muchos bautismos

Dear Family,

This weekend we were blessed to have the baptism of Alicia Hernandez. It was one of the weirdest conversion stories ever. I still don't know what was so magical about being baptized on ones birthday, but I guess that was the selling point for Alicia. Either way, I won't complain about a baptism.

On Saturday, the same day as the baptism, we witnessed another miracle. We visited a man we had contacted on the street. His name is Jose Luis Rendiz. He had a pretty good job in the government in Mexico, but lost it when a new political party entered office. He is currently working at the grocery store chain Mi Pueblo as a panadero (baker). He is really intelligent and asks the best questions. It's weird how perfect he is. He reminds me of Dina. On Saturday, we taught him about the restoration, Sunday he came to church, and he is getting baptized on Easter weekend. It's perfect. We will have a baptism on the last weekend of Elder Cornaby's mission. He is super excited. When we talked to Jose Luis on Sunday at church, he had read all the way to 2 Nephi 28. He told us the only reason he yawned during church was because he had been up all night reading the Book of Mormon. It's way cool.

We are very excited about our current teaching pool. I have never had this many investigators with a college education. It requires us to teach differently. I like it a lot. On Monday we found another person that fits into this category. Eugenia Rojas is from Mexico and arrived about six months ago. It is amazing how quickly she is learning English. She is a sweet grandma of about 50 and loves to do volunteer work. It was cool to teach her last night because she told us that she didn't know yet if the Book of Mormon was true because she had just received it a few minutes before, but was certain that God would tell her it was. I don't think I have ever had an investigator with such faith. It's a pleasant change.

Everything is going great in the Morgan Hill Zone. We continue to baptize. Right now we are inviting everyone we meet to listen to a prophets voice this weekend. We are issuing a challenge to all companionships. Every companionship that invites 100 people before we do will receive two candy bars of their pick. We are really trying to get people to conference. We feel it is going to be a really good one.

Love,

Elder Badger

P.S. We are super excited to go to the temple tomorrow. I can't believe it has been six months since the last time we went. I am hoping to go again in late May or early June to see some recent converts.

The Perfect Referral

Dear family,

We have been super busy. I am sure you are getting tired of hearing that, but it's true. I am greeting you from an exchange in Morgan Hill. It has rained all week, but our work has gone very well.

This week we received one of the best member referrals of my mission. We were set to have an appointment with a less-active member, Ana we had been working with for the last six weeks. When we arrived we were surprised to see another family in the house. The member had arranged for her sister, Elena, and her family to take the missionary lessons. We started off by teaching the Plan of Salvation. It went well. We were really pleased to begin teaching such an awesome family. The Garcias are even planning on going to church this week. If we can baptize them that would reactivate Ana's family. That is the equivalent of bringing two active families, complete with priesthood holders into the church. To give you an idea of the branch, we only need about three families to become a ward. We are hoping that everything goes as planned. If so, I could be here for the conversion to a ward.

This last week was branch conference. I was in charge of making sure we had English translation during sacrament meeting. Let me describe language translation via microphone to you. Take scripture chase, grammar study, and listening to a book on tape and try to do it all at once and you will know what it feels like to translate. Thankfully, some speakers make our job much easier. The worst is when we have a speaker who lists off a scriptural citation in Spanish without listing the reference. We have to dash through the scriptures so we can quickly have the accurate English translation to send over the microphone. Other than that, it's really fun. So much of translation isn't about getting a word for word perfect translation, but rather a translation that conveys the spirit of the Speaker. I can't imagine having to do it the other way around. Translating to English requires me to just speak what I am thinking. Sometimes I realize that there are a lot of things that just don't translate. Jokes are hard. Also, Spanish has a lot of little words like "pues" and "entonces." They are kind of filler words you just have to ignore in order to translate.

I am jealous that you all get the chance to hold baby Victoria.

Love,

Elder Badger

The 26th is my birthday how about that day....

Dear Family,

I am well. We survived a transfer week and are happy to be still together here in Gilroy. First off, the missionaries here in this zone are awesome. All of a sudden our missionaries have begun baptizing long time eternal investigators or formers. We're not quite sure what it is. They keep saying that the only thing they are doing differently is asking people to be baptized. It is fun to get astonished calls from missionaries sounding surprised that their investigators said yes. As this happens more and more of our brothers and sisters will enter the waters of baptism.

We had a related experience this week. We had been working with our long term investigator, Alicia Hernandez. We were teaching a lesson, but nothing went the way we wanted. She had to leave to go somewhere, the kids were rowdy, and we just couldn't get her to focus. Because she was in a hurry she told us, "I have to go. How it. The 26th is my birthday. How about that day?" We were way confused as we said a prayer and let her take off. We picked our jaws up off of the floor and went in for the night. We were so confused by the way she accepted that we didn't count it as a baptismal date until last night when we talked to her and found out that she was completely serious.

Sometimes I think we, as missionaries, get to caught up in having everything perfect. That lesson was the case. It was one of the most distracting lessons I have ever taught.

I guess the spiritual point we can draw out of it didn't come until last night when we talked to her. She had told us how she had been seriously praying and seeking to know about baptism. The night she told us she wanted to be baptized, we just took too long to invite her. She was ready after the opening prayer, all we needed to do was invite.

In other news, I am sure you have heard about the earthquake and tsunami. We are glad to here that all of the missionaies are safe and accounted for. We actually reviewed our emergency action plan for the zone the morning the tsunami hit, not knowing the news. The missionaries in Santa Cruz were moved out of their apartments to the Stake center. Luckily, no one was in danger. The only damage that happened in the mission occurred in the Santa Cruz marina. A few boats are no more but a mast sticking out of the water. Thank goodness a boat can be replaced, a life can't.

I loved the pictures of Victoria Bailey Mugleston. I would love to have a photo mailed to me so I can put it in my family picture album I use for teaching the Plan of Salvation. Give her a big hug from me.

Love,

Elder Badger

We keep going, and going, and going....

Dear Family,

I send you my love from Gilroy. I expected to find out about a new cousin. I guess not yet. It really isn't one of those things you can force.

We have been yet again busy beyond belief. Last week we were into exchange mode. This time I brought Elders into my area for the exchange. Exchanges are always interesting. I get so attached to my area that I prefer when I can stay. I have always had great companions, but always feel anxious leaving my area. I guess it is a stewardship thing. I still feel responsible for anything that happens in my area even while I am on exchange. We finished off the week with a zone leader council in San Jose. I am still getting used to leadership. The weirdest part is the amount of communication that happens between us and President Jackson. We receive phone calls or place phone calls to him multiple times a week. The struggle is always about communicating information to the missionaries down the line.

Our work has been going well. We have had to drop the majority of our teaching pool. It was needed. We have been needing to spend more of our time finding and dealing with our progressing investigators. We saw a lot of progress yesterday. We had an appointment in the middle of our Preparation day with Andreaz and Nancy a young couple that is related to our ward mission leader. We taught them the Plan of Salvation. It was an awesome lesson. One of the best of the transfer. They committed to going to church and talked about how they had been thinking about baptism non stop for the last two weeks. They said that they just want to go to church before they commit to baptism. The tough part is that they will be moving to Fresno March 28. With the help of the Lord we are hoping to baptize them on the 26th and line up the Fresno ward to receive them with open arms as they move down there. We are really excited because we thought that a lack of contact had allowed bad influences to change their minds. They have been reading and praying and receiving answers. They even talked about how they let in missionaries from other churches (testigos) teach them this last week. They realized that the spirit is there when we teach, but not there when they listen to others. Yay for the Spirit.

I have been busy sending cards. I realize I have been behind on writing since I left Livermore. If you have any suggestions of people to write, let me know. I should be better with a little reminder.

Love,

Elder Badger

Snow!!!

Dear family,

I never thought I would see it, but this weekend it snowed in Gilroy. It was the first time in fifteen years. For many members of the Gavilan branch it was the first snow storm of their lives. We were at a primary carnival on Saturday when it hit. When the announcement came, everyone immediately ran outside to snap photos. It wasn't really real snow. It was more like a cross between hail and snow. It didn't even stick. Still, I put it in my journal. It was snowing even harder when we drove to Hollister to see a baptism.

We have been having a great time. A lot of our personal area work is centered again on finding. We had a decent amount of investigators, but none were really willing to attend church. We are looking for those that are ready to go to church. It is such a huge step for investigators to attend church. It really requires them to excercise their own agency.

Everything else has been wonderful. Our zone is on fire. The mission is set to make March one of the best months in history. Our zone is set to baptize a lot in the upcoming month. We are very pleased. So much of our focus is on helping the other missionaries increase their ability to baptize. To give you a typical idea of what happens I will run you through a Sunday night. Sunday night is a reporting night so it is crazy.

On Sunday night, we arrive home at 8:30 to get prepped for numbers. We receive the numbers from our three district leaders. Much of this time is spent focussing on the names of the people that will be baptized. This is important. These are people not numbers. We must always remember that they are our brothers and sisters. We then report these number to the assistants. By the times we get all of the numbers from all of the companionships, it is almost ten o'clock. We report our number and upcoming baptisms to the assistants. The following morning we conference call with all of our district leaders to talk about the needs of their districts and set a new goal for the upcoming week. This happens after each district leader has conduted a district conference call with all of his district members. Sunday night, in preparation for the conference Elder Cornaby and I spend a good chunk analyzing the numbers and looking at the needs of our zone. We begin to decide what we want to accomplish with our zone goal. Lately, we have been using simple, yet specific goals to teach missionaries how to improve. This last week, every companionship achieved the zone goal. This was an immense success. Their is something behind the psychology of an achievable goal. It really helps the zone to be united. All of a sudden, the missionaries become more concentrated on missionary work than the other little distractions: home, girlfriends, school, and sho knows what. Amazing things are happening. We love getting calls from the missionaries in our zone telling us about the miracles they are seeing daily.

Love,

Elder Badger