It's a beautiful day in Hollister

Dear family,

I send you my love from Hollister, CA. I am on exchange with Elder Carpenter, an English elder from Orem, UT. Life is good. We just taught a lesson to an new investigator named Daisy Luna. She accepted a baptismal date for April 2. It's not even lunch yet. I can tell that today is going to be a good day.

I hope all is well with the family. I hope you expressed my love to all of the family in attendance at Uncle Glen's funeral.

Our work is going well. We are beginning to really teach a lot of our investigators in our large teaching pool. We have really begun to see who is really interested in baptism and who isn't. The gap between the first and second lesson tells us a lot as missionaries. If our investigators have kept the commitments we give them early on, we usually see them in white at baptism.

In other news, we found out that our new mission president will be Lincoln Watkins from Alpine, UT. From what we know it looks like he has a business background. It is really weird to think that we will have a new mission president in July. It's amazing how much the Jacksons have really shaped what the California San Jose Mission is.

This last week, Elder Cornaby and I were very busy meeting with all of the companionships in our zone. We are really trying to help the missionaries rely on the Lord more heavily. It's something that we will need if we are to continue to see baptisms increase in the Morgan Hill Zone and in the mission.

The only really bad thing that happened this last week was the flu that hit me. It hit me hard. I woke up Thursday morning throwing up. I thought I was ok to go to Hollister to attend the district meeting down there, but realize that that probably wasn't the wisest decision on my part. After taking my temperature and calling Sister Jackson, we concluded that it was the Flu. I slept for the rest of the day and was back on my feet the next day. I am glad it is over. I didn't realize your muscles got sore from throwing up, but they do. Luckily, it only put me out of the count for the day. Exchanges allowed us to make all of our appointments with investigators.

Love,

Elder Badger

Zone Conferences Survived!!!

Dear Family,

Guess what....

Life is beautiful. We have been seeing a lot of success this week as we teach are large teaching pool. Two weeks ago, we had about two investigators. Since then, we have found ten new investigators and plan on picking up a few more in the upcoming week. For some reason, I feel like finding in one of the keys to being successful. It can be really discouraging to have a small teaching pool without a lot of excitement. Many of these new investigators are eager to learn more, they are reading from the Book of Mormon and want to know more.

One of our strongest sources of new investigators has been our branch mission leader, Brother Arriola. He seems to know everyone. Five of the investigators we tracted into are related to him. It makes it really powerful when he says, "Primo, este evangelio me cambio. Quiero que lo tenga. Lo necesitan." (Cousin, this gospel has changed me. I want you to have it. You need it). Literally, the man knows almost everyone in Gilroy. If they work at Christopher Ranch, the garlic farm, they know his wife. If they are from Vera Cruz, Mexico, they are probably his cousin. It is fun to call the man and ask him if he is related to any of our investigators. It's even better when he says yes.

Our next strongest source of investigators has been the Catholic Church. We volunteer weekly at St. Josephs Family Center in the administrative office. We help those in needs by creating records for them so they can receive food from the food pantry downstairs. We are able to use our Spanish a lot. They really appreciate the help of the Spanish missionaries. This opens many doors because much of the relationship of trust has already been established. I am grateful for the missionaries who set up this volunteer work, years ago. The citizens of Gilroy know that the Mormon missionaries are good people and actually aren't that different from them. When we ask if they have met missionaries before it is nice for them to say, "Si, me ayudaron hace..." It helps me realize that what we do will have an impact for years to come.

Last week we hosted our first zone conference. It was fun, but a little stressful. We couldn't use the chapel because of direction we have received from Salt Lake City, so we crammed 50 missionaries into the primary room. We hope it was a learning experience for all. It was very powerful to hear President Merrell of the Morgan Hill Stake tell the missionaries that there are 2000 people that will join the Morgan Hill Stake in the next three years. They are excited to have members that are so eager to baptize. Missionaries love getting calls from members in their areas saying that they have people for them to baptize. It makes us smile like it's Christmas morning

This upcoming week we are facing three days of district meetings. Elder Cornaby and I are teaching. We have taught one thus far. It is actually really fun. It is a great time to cultivate discussion and teach. I definitely didn't give enough credit to my leaders before I got to the Morgan Hill zone. It is a lot of work. We are constantly planning, calling and teaching. It is the first time I have seen the test tube of teaching used with missionaries. So much of our attitude reflects in the missionaries we work with. Even though we may be exhausted and it's 10:20 at night, we have to sound chipper, awake, and excited. Attitude reflects.

One of our big focuses as we meet with the companionships in the upcoming week is tapping into the Spirit. This zone is doing very well. They are working harder than I have ever seen a zone work before. They have the fundamentals down. We are working on helping them plug into the Spirit. It will be interesting. We are talking about a shift forward. It hasn't really been done before on a zone level. Elder Cornaby and I have been praying a lot and feel that this is what we need. We are looking a lot to Helaman 5 to see how we can help people catch the fire of the Spirit. It will be hard work at first, but once we break through this barrier, we will find that it is actually easier to work in such a manner.

Love,

Elder Badger

P.S. Thank you all for the Valentine's Day package. The cookies were perfect. How did you get them to stay so soft?

Gilroy is great!!!!

Dear Family,

First off, let me tell you that it smells like Garlic. A lot of garlic.

We have had a great week. Since arriving we found six new investigators and have been teaching a ton of lessons. It feels great to be busy. We are even busier because we have zone conference on wednesday (tomorrow). Between all of the lessons and the preparation work, we are swamped. I love it.

Much of the mission focus is on getting each companionship to baptize monthly. If we can do this, the mission would double what we are achieving now. It really isn't beyond reach when we think of it that way. The Los Angeles mission achieved this benchmark last year, we can start doing it soon.

Elder Cornaby is great. It is the first time Ihave been with an older missionary since I was trained by Elder Tidwell. I forgot how much fun it is to teach with a missionary that has a lot of time out. We should see a lot of miracles. He wants to end his mission in April baptizing. We are currently set to baptize on the weekend of the 20th. I can't wait.

I hope all is well with you all. It is interesting to note the differences in areas. Gilroy is chalk full of Latino's. It has an advanage because it is very close to San Jose, but is fairly inexpensive in terms of cost of living. This makes it a great place to be a Spanish missionary.

The Gavelin Branch has the fire. They are eager to become a ward and receive the blessings that come from being a ward. If all continues to go well, they could make the change by the end of this year. I am eager to help them do so.

Love,

Elder Badger

PS We are in car. WooooHoooo!!!! I don't have to buy another bike.

Dientes de Ajo?!?!?

Dear Family,

Let me preface this letter by reminding you of my extensive pre-mission Spanish vocabulary. It consisted of one phrase I could remember from High School Spanish, dientes de ajo. Directly translated, it means teeth of garlic, but a more accurate translation is a clove of garlic. I didn't think I would ever use this phrase on my mission. I found out about transfers. I will be going to Gilroy, California, Garlic capital of the world. I have driven through the city once and know very well that they grow garlic there. It reeks of garlic. I am very excited to be serving there. I will be serving in the Gavelin branch. They whole stake is very missionary motivated. The branch is really pushing to become a ward and has been growing like crazy. The stake has very ambitious goals, they want to almost double in size in the next year. They have been doing very well at achieving this goal. My companion will be Elder Cornaby from Utah. I don't know much about him other than the fact that he baptizes like crazy and is going home in six weeks. I will arrive Tuesday after transfer meeting.

Also, I have very good news. I found out about some baptisms that happened in Redwood City. Dina Pena's husband Santiago got baptized the same day as Valentin. They had 90 people at his baptism. That is twice as big as the Mocho branch. If you look at the picture from Dina's baptism you will see a cute little eight year old named Ashley. Let me tell you that she is very cute, but equally cunning. When teaching her the new member discussions I taught her about eternal families. I explained what was necessary to make an eternal family. She then asked me if that meant her Dad would need to get baptized. I told her yes. Right before she left I told her that her mission was to get her Dad baptized. At the time, he wasn't really interested in taking the lessons. His heart was softened as Dina battled Hodgkin's. He took Ashley to church every week during this time. Eventually he invited the missionaries over to teach him. As the sisters taught him the word of wisdom, Ashley was eager to help by throwing away his cigarettes and alcohol. On the day he got baptized, Ashley told the sister missionaries that her mission was complete. Good job Ashley. I even got permission to call Dina. She is doing very well. She feels 100 times better than she did before. She is back to work helping her husbands drywall business. Even better, her 24 year old son Anthony is taking the lessons from the sisters. Dina is excited to enter the temple in a year and get sealed to Ashley and Santiago. You know what that means... I have to book a flight back to San Jose in a year.

Also, Adonay Luna's wife is getting baptized next weekend. He didn't even introduce us to her. He said that his decision to join the church was a very personal thing and didn't really want to get any of his family members involved. With time, she wanted to know more and began asking questions. He gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and she began investigating the church. It is amazing to see the blessings enter the lives of the recent converts.

Finally, one more baptism. While waiting for an appointment in my first area,Elder Tidwell and I decided to knock doors in the mean time. The first door we knocked contained the Flores family. We began teaching them and referred them to the missionaries who covered that area. Naomi, the mother, has a baptismal date and is excited to make the covenant of baptism.

I am constantly amazed at the way the Lord continues to work in the lives of his children.

Love,

Elder Badger

Me bane en cueros

Dear Family,

This week was pretty darn good. We baptized!!!! That makes it really good. Valentin's baptisms went very well. It was simple. He looked very happy during the whole thing. He told me after I pulled him out of the water, "Bien Mojado, pero limpio" (very wet, but clean). I forgot how good it feels to baptize. It had been a while. Way too long.

The good news is that we have two other baptisms scheduled for February with a possible third if we can find Ernesto a job. It should be a god month for us. We really would like to see more of our brothers and sisters enter the water as we work on building the Mocho Branch.

Now, to explain the title of this email. So..when we were filling the baptismal font we realized that the drain plug o-ring wasn't quite in place. By the time we realized it, the font had about two and half feet of water and the baptisms was supposed to start in 45 minutes. As usual, I was the one who saved the day. Heroically, I locked the door and stripped down to.. well.. to the point that there was nothing left to strip off. I put the o-ring in place and the font resumed filling. My clothes were dry, the baptismal font was filled, and no one in the Mocho branch was any the wiser.

The branch already has plans to use Valentin as soon as possible. He has home teachers and will get a returned missionary to show him how to begin home teaching others. We are hoping for a calling very soon. We have been doing everything we can to make sure that he stays active in the church for a long time, no matter whether he ends up serving a mission our not.

Oh, just in case you're wondering. All of my oncology blood work came back normal. No worries.

I hope all is well with you. I pray for you daily.

Love,

Elder Badger

It's almost always sunny in Livermore

Dear Family,

I hear it has been freezing up in Washington. All Latinos think Washington is the North Pole for some reason. I tell them that we don't even get snow that often. As for here, it has been in the upper sixties and beautiful. It would be perfect for riding a bike.

This upcoming week is an exciting week for us. It is a baptism week. It feels like it has been a little while since I have had one of those. Our investigator Valentin is completely ready. He knows it too, which makes it even better. He can't wait to become a member and be able to pass the sacrament. He knows practically everyone in the branch. We have taught everything we know how to teach, right now we are just working on making daily contact with him as he prepares for baptism this Saturday. Keep him in your prayers. I hope to send you pictures from the baptism next week.

As I mentioned last week, we are in a tripanionship. It has been fun, but interesting. Our area doubled overnight. I was just getting used to being on bike. I forget how fast you can get from point A to point B. On bike we found that our work tended to concentrate itself to certain areas depending on how our finding had been going recently. We now cover the entire tri-valley (Dublin, Pleasanton, and Livermore).

I hope dinner with Sister Mills went well. She is lucky to have had rolls. I have eaten burritos three times this week. I am ready for a nice big salad with lots of vegetables. V8 is about the only vegetable I am getting on a regular basis. Luckily, fruit is very popular after meals.

Love,

Elder Badger

Another busy week...

Dear Family,

First off, may I remind you all that I love you a monton. That's Spanish for heap.

This week has been very busy. It's been colder than all get out, but not too bad. Carmex keeps our lips from getting chapped, but and everybody says our hands are cold even though we wear gloves.

We continue to find new investigators which is awesome. I really want to get this are to the point where it is baptizing monthly. We are just about to that point. February should be a really good month for us if all goes well.

Now for the first bit of news. As I already told you, Sister Mills has been transferred to Lakewood. I told her she missed out on an awesome Christmas Eve. She has heard that it is one of the best areas in the Tacoma mission. Hopefully she finds out that all the talk is true.

Secondly, my companionship is getting changed around a little bit. Elder Russell and I are still together, but we will have a third missionary with us this afternoon. It should last until transfers. I will be honest and say that I don't exactly think tripanionships are the best for missionary work, but I will make the best of it. It is really hard to teach when there are so many missionaries. It gets even harder when we involve members in our lessons because it means that we have four people we are bringing into an investigators home.

On the bright side, it does get us out of the cold for the next three weeks and puts us into a car. That will be a little nice. Elder Russell made the comment yesterday that it took until priesthood for the circulation in his feet to finally kick in after riding our bikes to church that morning.

I am glad you are well. I have especially loved all of the Christmas cards I received lately. I ran into someone in the English ward that knows Grandpa and Brian Norton. I guess he was baptized into the singles branch in the early nineties. His name is Jerry Holst or Hurtz. I don't exactly remember. I gave him Grandpa's number and told him to call him.

Also, I was on exchange with the Zone Leaders this week and had the chance to teach a lesson on inviting friends to church to the Badger family. I really wish I knew my genealogy going back to the pioneers. This is the second area I have served in with a Badger family.

Valentin continues to progress. We finished teaching him all of the required lessons for baptism. He is still set for the 22nd of January. It looks like he should make it. It has been really cool to see the changes he has made since we knocked his door. He has overcome a drinking problem and has told us that he now believes in God. He even wants to serve a mission. He is 24, but should still be able to if he remains active over the next year.

Love,

Elder Badger