Week 11 - Baptism Commitment, Reactivation, a Testimony

My Dear Family,

Thank you very much for the pictures and for writing me! I always love it!

Mission life out here is great! There are hard days, but there are also good days. Last Monday, we were actually able to set a baptismal date with an investigator named Griselda for this Saturday! :D She's 19 and has a 2 year old daughter, and quite a while ago, she had an amazing spiritual experience, so that she knows deeply that the Book of Mormon, and the church, is true. I'm so excited for her to get baptized! And I'm hoping and praying that she continues strong to her baptism! Yesterday, we were able to get one of our Less-Active members to church! He's about 15 and has been in some serious trouble with the law, but he's starting to turn his life around and is starting to come to church again! So exciting!! :D Our other investigators are still struggling to commit to baptism. They're scared of falling away a few years down the road, or that they're still gonna make mistakes and get judged by people. But our Ward Mission Leader is awesome and I'm wanting to get his help with these people so that they can overcome their fears and concerns. The next time that we see Tommy, we're going to teach him about how the Bible and the Book of Mormon really are equally important and that they help each other and testify of Christ. Because right now, he wants to just read the Bible and get an understanding of it and then get into the Book of Mormon later, instead of reading out of both at once. But we're wanting to teach him that honestly reading out of both really answers the questions that he has about different concerns that he has.

Spanish is coming along better! I've learned a lot in these past 11 weeks here in California! I'm very grateful for the missionaries that have taught me all that Spanish! It's definitely making a lot more sense now! Understanding people when they speak is still difficult, but I'm trying the best I can to understand them, and little by little, it's becoming easier.

There are days when I doubt myself or things that I want to say or do, and that's something that I have been honestly struggling with since the start. I try to get better at not doing that, but it's hard sometimes. I can only pray and rely on the Lord that He will help me and take away my fears.

I know that God lives. I know that Book of Mormon is true and is the word of God, like the Bible. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that he Restored Christ's church again on the earth. If it had not been taken away in the Great Apostasy, there would have been no need for a restoration, but it was taken from the earth along with the priesthood, and it has been restored to the earth again in these days by Joseph Smith. I know that Thomas S. Monson is God's prophet on the earth today, and that he leads and guides us according to God's will.

Please continue to write and email when you can! I love hearing from you all!

With much love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss

O yeah, and that Less-Active member that came to church yesterday drew my last name in a pretty cool way on a tie!! I thought it was super cool!!

Is that cool, or what?

Week 10 - Car Inspectors, New Investigators, and German Skywalkers

My Dear Family,

I'm glad that you got to see the pic of me at Spanish Zone Conference! If you look at pics of other Zone Conferences from that same week, you might see me in 1 or 2 of them. Because Elder Garcia and I got picked to become a couple of the Car Inspectors for the mission. Car inspections happen at Zone Conferences when we have them, so at the first one, Elder Garcia and I got trained to do the Car Inspections, and they needed us at the one for the next day, because there were a lot of cars at that one haha And once we finished the Car Inspections, we joined those Zones for lunch both days, and at least one of them, we got our picture taken with other missionaries.

We picked up 2 new investigators this past week! :D Super awesome! They want to start coming to church and everything! Hoping for baptisms soon! :)

Mission life is going well! There are rough days, but there are good days as well! It's a growing experience all around! Understanding Spanish is still hard, but I'm trying the best I can to listen intently and to understand.

I got the tie for the month of April today! I love it!! It looks so cool! :D I'm actually wearing it right now! I would take a pic and send it, but I actually forgot my camera today :( But I'll show you next week! :)

We played Ultimate Frisbee for District activity today, which was super fun! I always love that game haha

I can't say much more today, but remember that I love you all! Please continue writing and emailing when you can!

With much love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss

PS: I found out this past week at one of the Zone Conferences actually, that "Wockenfuss" literally translated means "Cloud Foot" and I also found out later on (from a missionary that I think knows about German stuff) that it basically means something like "Skywalker"... How cool is that?? :D We're Star Wars people!! haha Random, I know, but super cool! Elder Wockenfuss (far left) and Elder Garcia at lunch during Zone Conference where they were Car Inspectors In line for lunch at Spanish Zone Conference! Elder Wockenfuss on left, third elder from front. ~~ Here's a video of the missionaries at the English speaking Zone Conference singing to missionaries with April, May and June birthdays. Elders Wockenfuss and Garcia went as Car Inspectors and stayed for lunch. Thanks to Donna Shauers for the video! Video of them singing to the April, May and June birthdays! Posted by Donna Schauers on Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Week 9 - Exchanges, First Contacts, and the Restoration in Spanish

My Dearest Family,

My week has been pretty good! I actually contacted someone while we were out walking all by myself! That was a super awesome thing for me! Because honestly, I have not initiated contact with anyone on my own, for some reason I've been scared to talk to people out on the street. But I was able to overcome my fear and I feel super awesome! And the next day, I contacted someone is Spanish! :D Even better!! So I was super happy with myself! And yesterday, Elder Garcia and I were able to do the "halftime show" for an investigator's baptism (Not ours, but Elder Ellsworth and Elder Rodriguez baptism). We got to teach the restoration in Spanish, like we had planned on for the last baptism, but everyone spoke English at that one so we couldn't haha and I was able to do it without freaking out this time! So my Spanish is coming along better! But I just need to work on understanding when people speak to me in Spanish. I'm getting a little better, but I still need work haha

I'm glad that you all loved the postcard and sticker! I thought that you, Mom, especially would love the flamingoes! haha

Yes, my beat up quad is the one I want! It's because of all the markings and references I made in it, and because I know those scriptures like the back of my hand (pretty much). But if you all ever can find my mini flap quad with my name on it, that would be awesome if you could send it to me someday!

Batman - er, Elder Wockenfuss - Elder Flores, and Siberian Husky pillow

I'm glad that all is well back home and that you're all having fun! I absolutely love the pictures you send me! The picture I'm sending this week is of me and the Zone Leader I went on exchanges with. His name is Elder Flores, and he's a great missionary and a great guy! And yes that is his Siberian husky pillow! I want one haha :P

I got the refund on the ADD Meds, I'm not sure if I told you. But everything got all worked out now, so that all I have to pay when I get more is $10. Not a bad deal! Especially compared to $141 haha

I love you all very much! Please continue to write and email when you can, it always makes my day and week! 

With much love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss

P.S.  sigh...... I really gotta stop falling asleep in daily planning, but at least this time it was after the end prayer haha..... 

Amen... ZZZZZzzzzz...

 But, I got Elder Garcia back a few days later hahah his positioning was so perfect, I couldn't resist taking a picture! 

Heehee!

Week 8 in the Carlsbad California Mission

My Dearest Family,

Thank you for writing to me, I got that copy of Buddy's talk and it was amazing!! I loved it! I can definitely attest that that was one of the most fantastic talks ever! Buddy is truly a missionary! He doesn't mince his words and speaks the truth simply, clearly, and to the point, like all missionaries need to! That is one thing that missionaries try to work on here is teaching simply and by the spirit, which Buddy definitely did in that talk!

Elder Garcia and I actually were able to share the spiritual message at a dinner on Easter Sunday. I was able to use all the words that I wanted to use, and testified of what we shared how I wanted to! It was super amazing to me, because I've honestly been struggling to that lately, but yesterday I did it! The spirit helped me to do what I needed to do! And I am very grateful for that!

I'm so glad that you were able to go out with the sister missionaries and to help her to come closer to Christ! Reading your story brought the spirit to my heart and helped me to see the miracles that are happening back home :)

I have been working at eating that Zombie Jerky! haha I thought it was so funny seeing that and reminded me of the Zombie Hunts haha it's actually not that bad!

General Conference was amazing!! I actually didn't write a billion notes like I used to do, but this time, I just wanted to listen and learn and feel the spirit. It was wonderful! I loved the talk about the brothers John(older) and Jimmy(younger) on the cliff, and John jumped and was sure he was going to fall to his doom, but Jimmy, who he had told to go and get a branch, had never left that spot and took hold of his arms and pulled him up. The speaker compared Jimmy to the Savior, but what the spirit overwhelmed me and whispered to me during that talk that I was once like John and thought I was going to fall, and yes Jimmy is the Savior, but through the Spirit, the Savior can influence people in our lives to be our Jimmy to pull us. So Jesus Christ is Jimmy in that story, but he uses people in our lives to do His will and they are in His place. The spirit spoke to me strongly of people in my life that the Savior has worked through that have been Jimmy to me and have pulled me up when I was sure and afraid that I was going to fall. I almost cried because I knew what the Spirit spoke to me was truth, and I am very grateful for all the men and women that have been Jimmy in all my life, and I wish I could really describe the depth of my gratitude to everyone for being there and for helping me.

I was able to listen to some of general conference in Spanish, especially the speakers that were native Spanish speaking. At one point, I grabbed one of the translation thingies and listened to conference in Spanish in one ear, and English in the other ear.

Please continue to write and email when you can! I love all the pictures and postcards you send me!

I love you all very much!

With much love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss

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.

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.

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??