Monday, March 30, 2015

Week 7 in the California Carlsbad Mission

My Dear Family,
 
I'm glad that you enjoyed spring break! Spring break for the high school students starts this week I believe, so hopefully we can some of the youth to come out teaching with us!
That's so awesome about what you all did before the broadcast! It sounds like it would've been amazing to see!
 
I am starting today (I guess you could call it a Spring Time Resolution haha) to really really live within my budget and keep track of every purchase I make! So that way I don't spend all my money and wonder where it all went haha
 
The only oil that I can think of is a big bottle of Lemon oil if possible, it makes cleaning done really well! I think I could use some serenity oil as well, please and thank you! I did buy a toothbrush 2 weeks ago actually! So i'm on top of the game with that! :D
 
We absolutely LOVED the bubble wrap ties!!! (It arrived a couple weeks ago) Before I opened it, I was so confused as to what it could be, because it was so light. But once I opened it and realized what it was, Elder Garcia and I laughed so hard!! it was probably the best part about our day! We wore them in the car up until dinner time, then we put our regular ties back on haha
 
And we LOVE the Names of Christ flip books! They are so awesome!! I've started using it in personal study and it is awesome getting to know the names of Christ, and how it builds my relationship with the Savior! Elder Garcia sends a BIG Thank you for the flip book and especially for the Toadsuck shirt. He loves it to death!! haha
 
I can't wait to read Buddy's talk!! From the sound of it (like always) it's gonna be amazing!!
 
Spanish is still pretty hard for me! but little by little, everyday it gets slightly better. I just need to keep practicing!
 
No bike stories for this week, but I do love the bike seat I got! it makes biking so much better!
 
Elder Garcia and I were asked to give a lesson in spanish on the restoration for a baptism that happened yesterday, and after forever of me freaking out and messing up and practicing over and over again to get it right in spanish, I was ready to it.... and at the last minute we were asked to give it in english, because there was no native spanish speakers in the room, only english....Dang it! I did get to bear testimony in spanish at the end though, which was good haha I would've liked to have done it all in spanish, but maybe next time haha I almost didn't know the First Vision in english, because I've been memorizing it in spanish! but I was able to get it out in english! :)
 
I'm definitely looking forward to the April Tie :D I can't wait!!
 
I love you all so much! Please continue to write and email when you can!
 
With much love,
 
Elder Patrick Wockenfuss
 
P.S.  Mary told me of how you guys sang the rendition I told you about in FHE that night. I'm glad that you all loved it and felt the spirit! It definitely touched my heart and I felt the spirit very strongly.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Week 6 in the California Carlsbad Mission

My Dear Family,

Thank you for all the pictures! and I'm glad that you loved the pictures from last night! And yes I did get your message you sent her :)

I just picked the package you sent with our Easter goodies today from my district leaders apartment, and WE LOVE IT!!!! :D Elder Garcia loves his shirt! He's so happy with it! I love the hat! :D Totally wearing that during exercise time in the mornings now! We can't wait to get back to the apartment and start munching on that candy! Elder Garcia says that you love him more than his mom does (Only joking of course. His mom hasn't been sending him packages like how you've been sending packages to me with stuff to share.)

I've been praying for your schooling like you've asked me to, and I was praying every day this past week for it, and prayers definitely get answered!

The only thing I have to mention about bikes this week is that I replaced my bike seat with another one that looks and feels way more comfortable! I honestly hated the seat I had before, because it would always hurt my butt! Maybe it's because I'm not used to biking, but I wanted comfort!! haha so I bought a new seat today, so we'll see how it is! :)

I'm glad that everyone got a kick out of my siesta during daily planning! I love to entertain, even when I don't mean to haha I think I have a better picture of me sleeping in Daily Planning from my first week in the field. I'll try to send that one haha

The most spiritual thing that has happened this week, I think was a baptism that Elders Murdock and Ellsworth had yesterday. Throughout the entire service, you could feel the spirit so very strongly! Especially when she actually got in the water to be baptized, I could hardly keep myself from jumping with joy! And I don't even know her! But I do know that she is a child of God, and she has now started on the path back to Heavenly Father.

Our investigator Tommy came to church yesterday! I was so excited about that! He loved the sacrament meeting! He's never been to one before, and he says it's different than what he's used being in, but he feels like this is the right place! We're just helping him to overcome some fears before he gets baptized, but he has told us that baptism is what he wants. So we'll keep working with him and helping him :)

Also, a spiritual experience(/really cool thing that I did during sacrament a couple of weeks ago) was when I was sitting in sacrament meeting and I was looking in the hymnbook, and I was reading "A poor wayfaring man of Grief" and "I know that My Redeemer lives", and I decided to intertwine them a bit. I took the words of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" and put them to the tune of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" in my head. (in my mind) I sang the 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 7th verses, then I sang the final chorus to I know that my redeemer lives right after that 7th verse. Singing it intertwined like that filled my soul with the spirit so strongly that I nearly cried. I felt so... I don't know how to describe it... just filled with the spirit and filled with peace in my heart. When you (and anyone who reads this) gets the chance, please try singing it like that! It's so wonderful!

BTW, I love that Captain America Shield! It's so awesome! :D

Thanks for the picture of Granny, tell her I miss her!

I can't write much more this week! But I love you all so much! Please continue to write and email when you can!

With much love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss


** We received a text on Sunday Night from the Bishop's daughter (he's serving in the El Norte Ward). She sent two pictures, which we're sharing below.

 


Dinner with Bishop and Sister Parra's family. Photo taken by Jessica Parra (Bishop's daughter). This text came with the pics. "We love your son. He is one of the best Elders we have had in our area. He is a big blessing to our lives and we are very grateful that we were able to meet him." Nice. You gotta love that face.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Week 5 in the Carlsbad California Mission

My Dearest Family,

It is definitely summer time here! it is never cold here at all! I never have to wear any of my sweaters or anything anymore! it's weird to me because it 's March and it gets close to 100 sometimes! haha

TELL ALEX THAT THE JANKY BIKE WAS NOT HIS! IT'S ELDER MURDOCK'S BIKE! DON'T WORRY MAN!

I do have a bike story this week though haha I feel like president Uchtdorf always sharing plane stories, except I share bike stories haha

So I was replacing the brakes for my bike because it was basically metal on metal grinding when I would stop. Definitely had to change that! so I was trying to change them, but I didn't have proper tools to replace them, so for the meantime I had to use Elder Ellsworth's bike (Which is a lot better than ELder Murdock's janky bike). We were biking to an appointment we had not too far from our apartment, and we were going down a slight grade, and it felt unusally harder to pedal than before. I looked and saw something wobbling on the back tire, but I was thinking it might snap back into place with time. I went a bit farther and the bike starting randomly drifting to the right and about to fall, so I just stopped immediately and walked it to where Elder Garcia was. It turns out I popped the tire tube in the back and I was going on a flat. We had just arrived at the house of our appointment when this happened too! so we turned around and went back to the apartment and had Elders Murdock and Ellsworth take us to the store to get stuff to fix our bikes. We ended up fixing 3 bikes in one night! It was awesome! I now know how to fix a flat, change a tire, and replace bike brakes! Awesome skills! haha

I also actually got water dumped on me at a members house. It was so funny! Didn't expect that to happen at all haha it was an accident of course! The mom went to get me a cup of water, and one of her kids was giving us donuts. When the mom came back with the water, the daughter brought the donut box up too quick, it smacked the cup, and water went all over me! and only me too haha but it was super funny though! I wasn't mad or anything, I just laughed!

My Spanish is starting to come along! It has definitely improved since day 1! But I still need a lot of work! but it's at least getting better! I still struggle to understand people when they speak to me, but with time, it'll improve.

We haven't baptized anyone yet, but it's getting there! We gave a church tour to our investigator, Tommy, yesterday. He felt good being there in the church and especially when we showed him the baptismal fount. We told him about how all the meetings worked, the importance of the sacrament, why we have it, and other things. He feels like this is the right place, and he's gonna attend church this Sunday! And he wants to start meeting with us at least twice a week, and wants to feed us dinner when we meet with him. BONUS! haha

The pic I included this week.... is when I fell asleep during our daily planning, and Elder Garcia took my camera and snapped a lot of pictures of me haha





I love you so much! please continue writing and emailing when you can! I love reading your emails!

With much love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss


BTW, here is a pic of me at a members house with a GIANT tortilla thing that I was about to eat! And to answer your question of the awesome tie, I traded for that tie in the MTC! the cool design is actually Samoan style artwork that someone at the MTC had drawn on there.

BTW, a little side note, I'm not sure if Sister Megan MacNeil has told you, but she told me that Chuck Norris lives in her zone!! How cool would that be if she got him baptized??




Monday, March 9, 2015

Week 4 in the Carlsbad California Mission



My Dear family,

Thank you so much for all the packages and the letters and pictures you send! it means so much! I can't wait to get these packages that you've sent this week!

I was able to get the package with my shoes from my ZL's the day after p day, and they are SOOO much better than my other shoes! Thank you for sending them! 

These are the old ones haha really bad as you can see!



Thank you for the pics of my other brothers! That made my day too! Tell those bums to write me, please and thank you! I wanna hear from them! haha

I definitely need more Lemon oil, We used it to clean the house for an apartment inspection, and it worked great! I don't think I need any other oils right now, but I'll let you know if I do need more!

I got more Concerta this past week, and with my missionary medical, I had to pay $141! That kinda freaked me out a bit, and I prayed about it, and I felt that the Lord is telling me that money will not stand in the way for me to accomplish what he has for me to do. Because this stuff really does help me, I've tried going a day without it, and it wasn't great. So what are your thoughts about this? I know that's a lot of money for just one months supply, but I feel the Lord said to not worry, that everything will be taken care of.

As for this week, we picked up 2 new investigators last night!! :D and they really really wanna get baptized!! :D

Spanish is still a struggle, but it's coming along slowly haha Elder Garcia and other Elders in my district are helping me to learn Spanish.

We had a star wars themed zone activity today, which was so super fun!! lightsabers, blasters, and pod racing! I may have smashed into the wall in pod racing, but I'm not deathly injured haha I'm perfectly okay and still walking haha

Thank you for Katie's artwork! it means a lot to me! And thank you for getting a shirt for Elder Garcia! He's excited to get it haha

Please continue to write and email when you can!

With Love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss

** Here's a picture of Elder Wockenfuss and his companion, Elder Garcia. They had their ZL take the picture.


Monday, March 2, 2015

Week 3 - A New Investigator and a New Bike

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for writing! I really do love reading about the things that are going on in your lives! And I totally would love letters! I feel like I would have more time to absorb the things you write me that way haha

Funny story about the package/another bike story (it's a good one this time)! On Friday, we had to go to the Mission Office so that I could buy a bike from another missionary that either has gone home or doesn't use it anymore. I ran into this Elder that had recently become a Zone Leader somewhere in the mission, and I told him about how I needed to get a bike. As a Zone Leader, you don't use bikes at all, so this elder told me that I could have his bike for free! So that was an amazing miracle this week! I got a good bike for free! Yes, the brakes work haha. And since we were at the mission office, our Zone Leaders gave us the mail to distribute around (we just had to give it to the district leaders), but the package you sent with shoes hadn't arrived yet I suppose. But about 5 minutes after we left, the mission office called and said that a package had arrived for me, and I assumed that it was either Shoes, or it was Girl Scout Cookies. Either one I would've loved! But we were all so super hungry because we hadn't eaten yet that day (it was like 2:30), so we went to go eat instead of turning around to get the package. I kinda feel dumb for not turning around to get it, since we were so close. But I'll see if the Zone Leaders can go get it sometime soon.

We picked up a new investigator this week named Tommy. He's a really cool guy that wants a positive change in his life, and wants to rely more on God, and become a better person. He seems like he will be very receptive. So pretty soon you'll be hearing about his baptism! We're going to commit him to baptism in our next visit this week! So excited!!

The Spanish is still a struggle, but some missionaries in my district are trying to help me learn better.

The Concerta is still doing pretty well I think, I don't believe I have any side effects. I have to get a prescription refill this week, because I'm almost out, but I'm getting that taken care of.

Tell Michael that yes I did get his letter, and I thought that the picture effect was awesome!!

My almond milk is almost out, but I bought a carton today to get me through the week. It cost me $2.98 for a bigger carton.

Please continue to write and email! I love reading them! Thank Katie so much for the Saint Patty's card, I love it!!

I'll write more about my investigators next time!

With Love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss


P.S. Before I forget, My companion would like a Toadsuck shirt in size XL please and thank you!! He loves that I'm from Toadsuck! in Spanish it's ChupaSapo! Thanks a bunch!!

Week 2 in the Carlsbad, California Mission

My Dearest Family,

Thank you so much for the pictures and for telling me of home! I love seeing and reading the emails! I just wish I had more time to write back!

I'm glad everyone loves the Janky Bike story! That was a pretty interesting day! And the reason my companion let my leave the apartment with that janky bike was because neither one of us knew that it had so many problems until we were riding down the hill that our apartment was on and I was pulling the brakes and nothing was happening and I was just speeding down the hill. Luckily, the brakes worked for an instant, just in time so that I didn't crash into the road. So my companion and I took it pretty slow with that bike for the rest of the day. Then after dinner, I got another missionary's bike, and it was so much better! The brakes actually worked, and the seat was way more comfy, so it's pretty awesome! I have not seen that Janky Bike since I parted ways with it, and I kinda never want to see it again either haha.

I'm so excited for these girl scout cookies now! and everything else haha. I'm not sure if I asked last week, but could you send my other pairs of church shoes to me? or I could just buy a pair here, it doesn't matter to me.

The language is still struggling, but some Elders in my district are gonna be helping me and teaching me tomorrow during language study.

The ADD meds are still working, I think. I'm getting ready to get a refill pretty soon. I do still use InTune as well.

Teaching people is still mostly in English, but we have had some Spanish appointments too. I hope we get more Spanish lessons in! Since that's what I'm called to teach in.

I love the Snow Ghost Pictures! If it ever snows here, (which it never does) I'm totally gonna do that!

I'm so happy to hear about Mary and that the oils are working!

Thank you for the tie, the soups, and the shampoo!

I can't write more right now, I'm sorry!

Please continue to write and to send pictures!

With much love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss