Homeward Bound

In the quiet misty morning
When the moon has gone to bed,
When the sparrows stop their singing
And the sky is clear and red,

When the summer's ceased its gleaming
When the corn is past its prime,
When adventure's lost its meaning -
I'll be homeward bound in time

Bind me not to the pasture
Chain me not to the plow
Set me free to find my calling
And I'll return to you somehow

If you find it's me you're missing
If you're hoping I'll return,
To your thoughts I'll soon be listening,
And in the road I'll stop and turn

Then the wind will set me racing
As my journey nears its end
And the path I'll be retracing
When I'm homeward bound again

Bind me not to the pasture
Chain me not to the plow
Set me free to find my calling
And I'll return to you somehow

In the quiet misty morning
When the moon has gone to bed,
When the sparrows stop their singing
I'll be homeward bound again.

A white Christmas after all....

Dear family,   It is always weird writing you right after we have spoken through skype. I told you this story on Sunday, but will tell it again for the sake of the blog.   On December 23rd, I was blessed to return to Gilroy for a baptism. However, I was surprised by who was getting baptized. I was confused and thought that an investigator that I had taught a few times was getting baptized. How great was my surprise when I found out that it was really Juan Moreno that was getting baptized.   Juan (or Juanon as we called him) was someone that Elder Smoot and  I had taught from start to finish this last summer. We had worked a lot with him. The day before his baptism, he got cold feet and disappeared.  We were super disappointed at the time because we cared a great deal about Juan and had really enjoyed teaching him the Gospel.    When I arrived at the Dunne building and saw Juan, I was shocked to see him.  I immediately went and shook his hand. As I did so, he told me, "Ya estoy listo!"  It was so great to finally hear those words.   It was Juan that sought out President DeSalmones and arranged his baptismal date. The missionaries were very blessed receive that call from President DeSalmones letting them know that they had a baptism in five days. All he needed was a baptismal interview and he was set for baptism.    It is really amazing how the Lord has His timeline and knows when His children are ready. I am very glad that Juan was ready and acted on the promptings of the Spirit as he felt them.   Love,   Elder Badger

Christmas time is here!!!

Dear family,   Can you believe it has been a year since last Christmas?  I can't wait to hear from you. We get 45 minutes this year to talk.  Ten days later, we can talk as much as we want.   We have set up a small Christmas tree in our apartment. It is always fun to see the lights at night right before bed. It reminds me of sleeping underneath the tree as children.   This week our work made a major shift. Instead of spending most of our time with less-actives and active members, we had a week packed with nonmember lessons.  On Tuesday night the ward rented a bus and headed up to the Oakland Temple Visitors center to see the Christmas lights. Irene and Franier had a really good time.  I think that the United States is quite a change for them.  Venezuela is currently run by the dictator Hugo Chavez. This has limited the amount of American cultural influence.  Radio and TV is heavily restricted there and portrays much propoganda against the USA. Fortunately, a good portion of the people there remember life pre-Chavez.  Over the last few weeks, they (Irene and Franier) have been beaten over the head with American culture.    On Saturday, the mission is doing a Christmas Eve breakfast.  Steak and eggs are on the menu. Every missionary is to bring a gift of $5 or less. I am trying to figure it out.   My scholarship applications are almost done. I am just waiting on a few letter of reccomendations then I can send them off.   I can't wait to hear from you on Sunday. Expect my call sometime after 1:00pm.  We have 11:30 church.  Brother Black in the Branham ward has offered his house for making phone calls. I get to see you in less than a week and get to hug you in just over two weeks.   Love, Elder Badger

Finding !!!

Dear family,
 
This week has been very good. We were able to find some new investigators that just kind of fell into our lap. They are family of an English family. Irene and Franier are visiting from Venezuela (probably one of the most unstable Spanish speaking countries). We have been able to teach them several time and are excited to teach them as much as possible before they return back to Venezuela on the 28th.
 
This next week is a busy one for the Los Alamitos ward. We have a temple visitors center trip, a ward sports night, and our ward Christmas party. It seems like every night this week is taken up by activities. This makes for good fellowship for our investigators.
 
I am doing well. I had my last appointment with Dr. T. Chen, marking my transition back to Dr. Senecal in Tacoma.  It is still weird to think that three years ago I was finishing up my last round of chemotherapy. Those were the longest six months of my life. The last six months have been tremendously faster.  I feel like I blinked and they were gone.
 
It is beginning to settle in that I will be with you in three short weeks.  Some of the colleges have begun letting out for Christmas break. When the students return to school, I will return with them.
 
We are excited for Christmas, but wish that San Jose looked a little more festive. San Jose doesn't put up as many "Holiday lights" as Seattle.  I enjoy the occasionally lit palm tree which is a bit of a difference from the Northwest.
 
I look forward to seeing you soon.
 
Love,
 
Elder Badger

Christmas Time !!!

As you know, I love the Christmas season. Last night's First Presidency devotional really got me into the Christmas mood. I have been listening to Christmas music since well before Thanksgiving. I got approval from President Watkins ... for our Christmas plans.

The new videos, one of which was shown during devotionl, are pretty amazing. They are all geared towards being application based devices. You wouldn't believe how multi-faceted the Church's marketing campaign is. We are meeting with Elder Clayton as a zone leader council on Saturday to discuss a new website they are piloting in San Jose called "Just Serve". The Church is really working hard to get it's name out in positive ways.

Our work is going well. We are still shooting to have a baptism by the end of the year.  I don't know how to work any harder. We are busy. This upcoming week is a little interesting because Elder Manning will be going back to Yerba Buena for a few days. An elder broke both wrists while riding a bike. He has to have surgery and his companion will need someone to help keep their area up and running.  He should be back to Los Alamitos by the end of the week.
 
Elder Rodriguez keeps us laughing every minute. I think I got the only companion more talkative than myself. The only diffrence is that he can do it in two languages a lot better than I can.
 
Love,
 
Elder Badger
 

Turkey Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday

Dear Family,
 
Many of you have asked if I had the chance to catch a bite of turkey.  The answer is yes. I definitely ate more than a few bites. 
 
I was glad to see your Thanksgiving pictures. It sounds like you had a blast on Thursday. Our Thanksgiving was pretty exciting too. Thursday morning we picked up Elder Rodriguez.  You wouldn't believe how much work we are able to accomplish with three.  Training Elder Rodriguez is very different from the last time I trained. Since last Christmas, the mission department has introduced a special training program that outlines almost everyday of companionship study.  New missionaries do not learn the Preach My Gospel lessons in the MTC. Instead, they learn how to identify concerns and teach to the needs of investigators. This means that we are giving Elder Rodriguez his first exposure to the lessons.
 
We anticipated a slow week with Thanksgiving, but were surprised by the amount of work that we had.
 
To give you a little background on Elder Rodriguez.... Elder Rodriguez submitted his papers from Ensenada, Mexico so he was able to submit at age 18. He doesn't turn 19 until April. He went to middle school and high school in San Diego where his parents live. His dad is currently serving as a branch president in San Diego.  He spent the month before his mission with his grandparents in Ensendada.  Much of his time growing up was spent split between Ensenada and San Diego so he speaks both Spanish and English.  We are really glad to have him.  The members love talking about Mexico with him. There is a certain level of camaraderie that only "paisanos" can have.
 
Today Elder Rodriguez got his first chance to invite someone to be baptized. I realize I still have the "greeny fire." I remember my first week in Redwood City and how scared I was to invite someone to be baptized in my broken Spanish.  He is eager and anxious to teach. The investigator we taught, Lucia, is progressing very well. We are hoping to have a baptism by the end of the year. She asks the "golden" questions.
 
While teaching her the Plan of Salvation, she commented that it all seemed familiar. As if she had heard this all before, but she didn't know where. It is really cool to hear that when we teach people.  Nothing we teach is new or different. The Spirit reminds people of truths that they once knew, but have forgotten.
 
I love you all and am anxious to open your packages and letters (and see you soon, but I don't like to talk about going home).
 
Love,
 
Elder Badger

Training !!!

Dear Family,
 
I am very happy to report that I will be training once again.  Elder Manning and I will be staying together as Zone Leaders in San Jose South, but we will be training a new missionary from Ensenada, Mexico.  We will pick up Elder Rodriguez on Thanksgiving Day.  His first experience in the mission will involve three holiday meals. He is currently in the MTC as an advanced Spanish speaker. This means that he already speaks English.  We are very excited for the chance to train. It will also give me someone to provide me updates on all of the new mission stuff after I am released. 
 
This last week was the perfect precursor to training.  We began teaching a part-member family within our apartment complex. We ate dinner with them on Friday night. If we can reactivate the mom and two daughters, it is likely that we can baptize the dad.
 
Ward council was perfect. I haven't seen it this good since Gavilan. The rescue moves forward. We are teaching many less actives and seeing results as they begin to make their way back to activity in the church. The members of the ward council are beginning to see the results and are eager to help us as we build the kingdom in Los Alamitos.
 
The week continued to get even better. Sunday, during the start of sacrament meeting, Jaron, an RM, approached us asking us if we could teach his nonmember girlfriend after church. She asked him if she could take the missionary lessons. She has been coming to church with him for a year and a half and this is the first time she expressed any interest in taking the lessons.  Elder Manning and I must have looked like a loaf of manna had just fallen from the sky when we thought about teaching her after church.
 
The lesson went really well. We were bold, but loving. Lucilla knows a good deal about the church already, but needed us to put together the "Why?" of the Restoration. I think we helped her a lot.  We are excited for our next appointment.
 
After Sacrament meeting we were approached by Rigo Garcia, who had been sealed to his family the day before, telling us that he had invited a family that was at his reception to take the missionary lessons. We are hoping to set an appointment this week.
 
It is amazing how going the extra mile really brings forth the blessings.  This week we achieved the "perfect week" as planned. We talked to 20 people a day and taught 20 lessons in the week. It was amazing to see the blessings just come. We have been working our tails off for the last three months, but it wasn't until we pushed ourselves beyond what we thought possible that we saw the blessings we have been seeking for months.  We now know what we are capable of more. We also learned how to better manage our time to accomplish all of the things we can in the week. The Lord really does bless us when we seek to grow and stretch. Sometimes he does the stretching, at other times, he makes us do it, but the blessings come. 
 
Love,
 
Elder Badger