"God be with you 'till we meet again"

Dear Family,

This week has been... crazy. We hit 2000 miles on our car for the month. We are glad it gets 30 mpg which keeps us from filling up every other day. We were excited to attend two baptisms in the zone. We always get anxious when weeks go by without a zone baptism.

We are gearing up for a very special baptism this next weekend. Jesus Calderon is going to be baptized this next weekend. He is very excited. He is one of the last members of his family to get baptized. He especially loves the Plan of Salvation because he now knows that he can be with his wife again (she passed away a few months ago). His family is very supportive and excited for his decision. They told us that they never thought Jesus would get baptized. We are very glad for his family.

We have also been working very hard to help another very special investigator, Maria Franco. She accepted baptism this last week, but had some major doubts that arose. We were able to teach her about opposition in all things with her granddaughter, who leaves for her mission in a week. Her attitude has changed completely. In her prayers, she now prays that God helps her avoid those people who try to talk her out of baptism. It is a rare thing to teach an investigator about opposition, but it is sometimes necessary. When we realize that opposition exists, we can have our testimony built by the knowledge that God doesn't allow us to be tried beyond our ability.

The highlight of the week was the outgoing fireside. At this fireside we were blessed to hear the outgoing testimonies of the Jackson's. They don't return home for another month, but it was their time to bless us with their testimonies. The spiritual highlight of the night was the hymn "God be with you 'till we meet again." It began with an instrumental arrangement of guitar, flute, violin, and piano. On a cue, all of the missionaries stood up and sang the last verse of the hymn. At this moment, the emotions were too much for all of the 900 people present. I doubt there was a dry eye in the room.

President Jackson even sang his testimony, "Oh, if I were an angel." It was a very powerful fireside. We were very glad that our investigators were present. I hope to get the recording from the fireside.

Love,

Elder Badger

"Le ordeno que se ponga de pie y camine..."

Dear Family,

This week has been quite the experience. We are very pleased with our teaching pool right now. We are working very well with the Gavilan Branch and are very happy for the support we are receiving. The title of this email is a quote from the movie "Treasure in Heaven: The John Tanner Story." Look it up online when you get the chance or check out the Doctrine and Covenants visual resource dvd's. When you watch a movie enough time during the week, it gets to the point that you can quote the whole movie without help. (Ask me to quote all of the Restoration DVD when I get home.) Anyway, the movie was exactly what we needed as we taught Maria Franco, the mother in law of our branch president. She accepted baptism for June 25, 2011. We are very grateful for all of the support we have been receiving. We are very busy and working very hard to help all of our investigators make it to the waters of baptism.

Recently, we have encountered several obstacles that are impeding our work. Luckily they are all short term things such as hospitalization and deaths in the families of our investigators. We keep working hard and pray that the obstacles will be removed.

The mission conference with Elder Ballard, Elder Hinckley, and Elder Clayton went very well. We learned a lot about how we can better work with the ward council. We are excited to put the training into practice. It was kind of a whirlwind trip with many different meetings across the mission. We were blessed to have Elder Hinckley address us in the Morgan Hill stake. Before the main meeting, he held a special meeting for recent converts and returning members. We were glad to see several of our recent converts there. Also, several of the less-active families that we have reactivated were present and shared their testimony in this meeting. It felt really good to see that we are baptizing and rescuing, as we should.

This next week looks to be another busy one as we prepare for Zone leader council, host zone meetings, and make plans for the transition of mission presidents. It is weird to think that we will all have to adjust to a new mission president. As Elder Ballard said, it is the nature of the church for people to be released from callings. We hope that all of our missionaries deal with the transition with dignity and respect.

I was very glad to receive your letters this last week. I have recently mailed some newer pictures of Elder Smoot and myself. I hope you enjoy.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a wedding announcement for Taber's wedding. He is younger than me. It makes me feel weird.

Love,

Elder Badger

Another Baptism !!!

Dear family,

Once again, I can't believe I only talked to you ten days ago. Time flies by rapidly. I try to avoid saying how long I have been serving as a missionary.

This last weekend we had the baptism of Carlos Escutia. It went very well. We were pleased with the Spirit that was present at the baptism. President DeSalmones performed the baptism. We were unable to find someone to play piano so I was left with the task. Immediately after the baptism, David Desalmones (President DeSalmones just adopted him from El Salvador) approaches me at the piano bench, sits down, and proceeds to say, "Muchacho, que cancion me va a ensenar?" (Young man, what song are you going to teach me?) I taught this very precocious three year old to play the first line of Nearer My God to Thee. It felt very good to see all of the branch members supporting Carlos as he made this important decision.

After the baptism we gave a church tour to Maria Franco, the mother in law of President DeSalmones. We focused on the blessings of the sacrament. We then invited her to be baptized. It was one of the most interesting invitations I have ever extended. She said she couldn't be baptized because she couldn't read. We then explained how we were baptizing someone from the same pueblito in El Salvador in two weeks. She asked us how old he was. We replied that he was 75. Her response was classic, but doesn't quite translate as well as I would like. She said, "Setenta y cinco anos y no sabe leer. Pobrecito!!!" (75 years and he doesn't know how to read. Poor guy!!!) This came from a woman of about 70 years. The irony. The invitation was even more interesting as Sister DeSalmones, her daughter, said yes, she would like to be baptized on June 25, 2011. Maria then told us "No, I said no." Daisy- "Yes, mama, you say yes." It went like this for about five minutes. I still don't know whether we should fill the baptismal font on the 25th or not. We will see. Surprisingly, this was progress. She actually was considering baptism this time. We are very grateful for her fellowshippers, the DeSalmones.

What else is new. We were finally able to get some long term investigators with baptismal dates. They even came to church. The Orduna family has a history that goes back about three years. For some reason, they never really progressed. After teaching them about baptism using some honey, pepper, soap, and water, they finally made the decision to be baptized. We will be baptizing the sons in two weeks. In the means while, Anaberta is working on getting married.

In case you ask, it is raining. I like it much better than the heat. All the dust and pollen was killing us and our investigators. It is nice to have the relief from the heat that will be coming our way as we approach summer. Gilroy is very hot in the Summer (+100).

Mucho Amor,

Elder Badger

What a nice call....

Dear family,

It was so nice to hear from you. I especially liked that Snickers came to join us in the Skype session. Everyone looks happy and healthy. As you already know, it has been a very good week. We have seen much success in our own area and across the zone. We are looking forward to several baptisms in the next few weeks.

I hope you know that I love you all very much. This week we will be having our outdoor zone conference at Uvas Canyon park. It will be nice to get out and enjoy the great outdoors a little and feel the Spirit as we receive direction from the Jackson's.

Yesterday was Joe Hank's funeral. I hope it was beautiful. He will be greatly missed. I am sure his grandsons on their missions feel the same way.

What else is going on that I didn't tell you about?

Our meetings with the general authorities have been combined into one big super meeting that will happen on Saturday the twenty first. We aren't sure if the changes that are happening will be applied to just two stakes or the whole mission. We will see.

Love,

Elder Badger

Andamos Muy Ocupados

Dear family,

What a week? To give you an idea of what our week looks like you would have to imagine taking a to do list the length of a football field and squeezing it into twenty four hours. It is busy, but we are enjoying every minute of it. We have taken to setting appointments during p-day; it's the one place with a little bit of free time.

Yesterday's lesson during p-day payed off. Eugenia Rojas accepted baptism for the fourteenth of May. We are planning two other baptisms that day and are anticipating attending many other baptisms across the zone. We always love baptisms so I have no complaints. It is amazing how ready Eugenia is. She has kept every commitment and told us that her life has been different since the time we knocked on her door. She even told us that she had looked for the right church years ago in Mexico and had given up hope that there was something for her. She is so glad that she has found it. We are too.

Last night we had family home evening with some recent converts. They invited their friends over to take the missionary discussions. Last night there were a total of six nonmembers in the lesson. There are five more in the family that will be meeting with us this Friday. We are very exciting. There are two adults and nine kids between the ages of 9 and 13. It is the grandma who wants us to teach them. This may surprise you, but I was very glad I learned how to teach swim lessons. Elder Smoot asked me if I had ever taught that many kids before because it looked like something I was used to. I think it was the swim lessons that paid off. It was a pretty funny lesson. After talking about the first vision we quizzed the kids on what we had talked about. I learned that moses was in the Sacred Grove as well. I never knew.

I am excited to get to skype you this Sunday. I don't have an exact time other than sometime after four. Our church gets out at four so expect me to call sometime in the evening. I will let you know more details via a short call on Sunday.

I am very sorry to hear of the passing of Joe Hanks. He will be waking us all up awfully early on the morning of the resurrection. I was thinking about all of the people that have passed away since I have been gone: Joe Hanks, Cliff Aalona, and Uncle Glenn. It is always tough to hear this news.

This last weekend was Mormon Helping Hands Day across California. We spent the day painting a sound wall at Christmas Hill Park where they hold the garlic festival. It was fun to spend the day working side by side with the members of the branch. We were also excited that Jose Luis was in attendance as well. Unfortunately some missionaries ran into poison oak. Fortunately, I was not one of them. I had never seen poison oak this bad. It looked like blisters from a burn it was that bad. Common sense should be called uncommon sense because little had been done until last night to treat the rashes. Sister Jackson will change that.

I hope all is well. Express my love to the Hanks family.

Love,

Elder Badger

I've been transferred... kind of

Dear family,

Once again I greet you from Garlicky Gilroy. All is well. This last week was especially fun. We sent Elder Cornaby home with a baptism.

On Easter we held the baptism of Jose Luis Resendiz. After just four short weeks of lessons, he was ready for baptism. He is was one of the most prepared investigators I have taught since teaching Dina Sanchez Pena in Redwood City. It was really fun. Elder Cornaby had never taught anyone like that before. At one point in the process, he asked me how you help investigators like this progress towards baptism. My response was, "we try not to screw it up." Luckily we didn't. It required some fasting and lots of prayer this last week, but everything went well. He had arranged his schedule so that he could be baptized Friday night. When he received his schedule on Tuesday, everything was different than he had arranged with his boss. We had to scramble to find away to solve it all. At first, it didn't look like there was a solution. Fortunately, we taught him about fasting and immediately began fasting to find a solution. His fellowshipper even joined us in the process. By the time we met with him the next day he had cleared his work schedule for Sunday. With the permission of President DeSalmones we held the baptism Easter Sunday immediately after church. It was amazing to feel the Spirit as he came up out of the water. I had never anticipated celebrating easier this way, but was happy with the outcome. Jose Luis even shared his testimony at the baptism. He told the branch how he had felt like he had known everything and everybody before. Everything was familiar. I guess that is the way the gospel is. Nothing is ever new, but only forgotten. Eventually we will all have the chance to have our memory jogged. Even Jose Luis's wife was very happy for his decision to be baptized and told us so through a phone call of gratitude.

So, this morning I received my new companion, Elder Smoot. Elder Smoot has been serving in the Morgan Hill half of the Gavilan Branch. Because of a small shortage of missionaries our areas will be combined and we will cover from San Jose to Gilroy, a distance of thirty miles. We will still be living in Gilroy, the center of the zone, but will be spreading our work throughout the entire branch boundary. Both of our areas are hopping. We are looking at a potential of six baptisms in the month of May. We are very excited for this.

We just set another baptismal date last night with the husband of a member. We had been working with the Quintero family for quite some time and were very happy that Miguel made the decision to be baptized. We will help him along the way, but he made the decision that this is the church that he wants to raise his family in. We had been working with his family since the first week I arrived in Gilroy. It was a long process of trust, dinners, spiritual thoughts, lessons, brownies, and lasagna rolls. All of these things led him to eventually trust us missionaries and accept the church. We even spent a P-day teaching the Quintero's how to make lasagna rolls. (They are kind of my specialty. When people ask what I can cook I always tell them Lasagna rolls. I have since taught quite a few members to make lasagna rolls. Yum)

I am excited for the work that awaits us. We are very pleased with the exceptional missionaries that the Lord has sent to the Morgan Hill zone. We expect to see more and more miracles. We just began a process of covenant planning that will really help us to progress our ability to baptize and see our brothers and sisters make covenants with God.

I am grateful for all of the mail that I just received at transfers. I even received a really surprising letter. I will tell you about it in December. I'm sorry, but you have to wait.

Love,

Elder Badger

<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->
<!--[endif]-->

Many General Authorities

Dear family,

Another week gone. It's sad to realize that the short time on a mission flies by so fast. Elder Cornaby is going home next week. I feel like I just got transferred to the Morgan Hill zone. It goes by so fast that I am just going to claim from now on that I am at 15 months. It will keep me from dealing with the point in my mission when people begin to say "you go home soon." Also, fifteen months is perfect to let them know that I actually know a little bit of Spanish and have a halfway decent chance of being able to communciate a little more than "pass the tortillas, please." Please make it published if you desire, but I will no longer grow old as missionary. 15 months it is.

We are excited to baptize Jose Luis Resendiz this friday. He is very excited. He even introduced us to his wife via telephone. She is very excited that he is getting baptized and wishes she could be here to see it. They are planning on getting sealed once he has enough money to move his entire family from Mexico. It was amazing how the Lord led us to someone as prepared as Jose Luis. We feel like we did nothing. We just invited someone on the street to church and he accepted. His life will be forever different because he accepted a simple invitation.

We had an awesome lesson with Eugenia Rojas. She continues to progress and is excited to see a baptism this weekend. She has accepted all of the major commandments and already feels as if she has been a part of the church her entire life. She was raised in a convent in Mexico and knows that everything we teach is true. She is surprised she never found out more about the church before coming the the United States. We are shooting for a May baptism for her as well.

We have begun to roll out something new I have been using in other areas. Covenant planning is something we are teaching our missionaries so that they can truly find out what the Lord wants them to do to baptize. Simply, it requires missionaries to find out, through prayer, how many people they are supposed to baptize in the upcoming month. They then find out what they must do to receive that blessing. By the time they are finished, they have formed a binding promise with the Lord to know how to baptize in the upcoming month. It is amazing how many times this last week we have received a confirmation that this is exactly what our zone needs. It is something that I have done from time to time in my mission thus far, but have had troubles maintaining. It is hard spiritually, emotionally, and physically but worth it. It will help our missionaries develop a one on one working relationship with the Lord because a covenant has been made.

We are really excited to see all the miracles that are to come in the next few weeks.

The Gavilan Branch continues to grow and improve. We are hovering at just below 100 members in sacrament meeting. With a few more priesthood holders we can become a ward. We were excited to welcome back President DeSalmones, our branch president, from El Salvador where he finalized the adoption of his three year old son David. We had a good time being involved in the surprise party that was help upon their return. The Branch is glad to have three year old David as a part of the primary. The Desalmones are anxious to enter the temple and get sealed to David as well. It really is a blessing to have such strong leaders guiding the work here in the Morgan Hill Stake. There are some changes in the air that make us very excited.

In preparation for these changes we will be having many visits from General Authorities. The weekend of May 20th Elder Clayton and an apostle will tour the mission. The following weekend we will receive special stake training from Elder Hinkley and Elder Allen of the missionary department. I can't say much now, but we are super excited. Elder Cornaby would give his best tie to be able to extend a month.

The work progresses wonderfully. Peace be the journey.

Love,

Elder Badger