Week 66 - Exchanges, Investigators, Car Issues, and Counting Tiles

Dear Mom,

So we've had some experiences this week! haha So we had 2 exchanges this week! One on Tuesday with the Fallbrook Spanish Elders. Elder Clark came with me in my area. and then on Thursday I went to the Zone Leaders area with Elder Wight. I had a wonderful time with Elder Clark, of course! haha When I went with Elder Wight, we had a good day! First, we taught this agnostic guy who agreed to take the lessons because his friend is a member. He had several questions that I don't normally deal with.  I've never taught a lesson like that before, I only have to deal with Catholic people!

but later that day, we taught a lesson to some not very elect people, but after we walked out, we ran into a member that lived across the street, whose wife 30 seconds earlier, said that she wanted a blessing. So we went over there and gave her a blessing. It was so awesome! :D

We taught our investigator Alan this past Friday, and he told us that was in chapter 10 in the Book of Mormon. We were thinking that he meant 1 Nephi 10, but then he opened to the middle of the book.
"What page are you on?"
"231"
We open to that page, and he was in ALMA chapter 10! We gave him that Book of Mormon a week ago, and he's read a lot! At first we didn't believe him, but then the spirit testified to us that he read that much! And he prayed about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith being a prophet, and he told us that God told him that it's all true!
We are so excited for him!

On Saturday, we went down to Escondido to get our car taken care of. We thought it needed new brakes, but it only needed an oil change and a tune up. But we were there for 3 hours!!! There were apparently pretty busy, and we kept thinking that they were gonna work on our car any second, but the seconds turned to minute which turned to hours. There were 14 windows, 12 medium ceiling tiles, 11 long ceiling tiles, 3 half size tiles, 3 sprinklers, 256 floor tiles, 22 tires, and 8 chairs. Needless to say, I was SO BORED! I'm pretty sure that's what Outer Darkness is gonna feel like for Satan and his cronies haha We went to Panda Express for lunch after that, we needed it haha

So we had an investigator come to church yesterday! But he left during the third hour, and we were looking everywhere for him, and one member finally found him walking on the road, and so took him home. He called the hermanas after he got home, and during their conversation, we all realized that he is legitimately crazy. Not like, maybe he's got a screw loose up in the noggin, but like he has one loose screw holding everything together... by a thread. So we're aren't teaching him anymore. plus, he said he doesn't want any missionaries to come unless it's the hermanas, which is not going to happen.

But in other wonderful news, Yolanda, my recent convert from Escondido, is asking me to come back and baptize her son Johnathon this Sunday!! :D I was so happy, excited, and humbled, that she asked me to baptize Johnathon. So next P-day, I'll send you pics!! :D

How's your week been? Anything exciting happen?

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

With much love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss

PS I haven't gotten the packages yet, they're at the Bobier building right now, I'll get them in a few hours when we're over there :)

PPS Tell Buddy and Mary I might not say as much in the emails today, I just got a phone call from a mexican guy who said that english missionaries wrecked into his car 5 days ago, and I was trying to figure out what to say or do, so I was making other calls to our Vehicle Coordinator, and others. So I've been a little stressed and out of energy right now. I don't understand car wreck terms very well. But I'm okay :)

Week 65 - Mother's Day Skype, The Whiplash Incident, a Baptism, and a New Homecoming Date

Skyping with Patrick on Mother's Day

Dear Mom,

Somehow we we've gotten away with 2 1/2 hours of skyping. I don't know how, but we have! haha the way I see it, this is only twice a year, and yesterday was my very last one. What're they gonna do? tell me I can't Skype my family again? :P well, I don't have any more "phone a friend" selections left haha :P

Thank you for sharing with me what you've learned from President Eyring's talk of the Women's Conference! It's always something good to think about! :)

Walmart shirts are just fine to me! They're gonna be brown by the end of the mission anyways! I don't need to spend a lot of money only to make something gross haha

So as to what happened to my neck the other day... It was Friday evening, at the Foothill building. We were waiting for the Mother's Day dinner to start, as Elder Clark and Sedgewick walk in the door. Since I was companions with Elder Clark before, I was excited to see him again! And since we are basically best friends, that also means we are pretty stupid around each other. I gave Elder Clark a big hug as we were walking... and spinning around.... 

As my feet drug limply around the floor, I accidentally tripped him... let's put it this way... Have you ever had a 300 pound black man fall on you before?... You don't want to... it's not fun! But it certainly adds flavor to life haha Now I suffer from a little bit of whiplash, and can't run for a week, I have to use a smaller bag for proselyting for a bit, and I don't go back to riding my bike until tomorrow. But I'm just fine! Don't worry about me! I'll be back to normal -well, as normal as I can be- pretty soon! To quote the Joker: "I believe that whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you.... stranger." haha :P

I'm pretty sure I talked to ya'll about pretty much everything else that's happened in life recently, so I can't think of anything to say really. Sorry about that!

O wait! I remember something exciting! The son of my recent convert in Escondido is getting baptized on the 22nd!! :D And I've been invited to come back to see it!! :D I was so stinkin excited to hear that news! I literally jumped for joy haha

O and btw, I'll actually be coming home either a week before December 21, or a transfer before. It depends on what the new mission president wants to do. The First Presidency has apparently announced that no missionaries will be going to or from their missions on December 21, because of the crazy holiday season traffic, and hustle and bustle. SO we'll see what happens! I'll let you know when I find out!

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

With much love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss

Week 64 - New Investigators, Guidance From the Spirit, and Fasting

Dear Mom,

Man! So much stuff has happened from what it sounds! I'm sorry about the bad things that happened, but we continue to endure and press through life with a smile, not caring what others may think. I'm trying to get to that mind set as well.

For the skype call next sunday, we're thinking about doing it after church, probably like at 1 or 1:30. so probably like 3:30 your time, I think. Does that sound good to ya'll?

 This past week, we went on exchanges with the spanish elders in Fallbrook, and we picked up 2 New Investigators!! They seem to be elect so far! We gave them a Book of Mormon and they accepted the invitation to read it, pray about it, and to be baptized once they find it to be true! We'll be meeting with them again on Thursday, so hopefully we'll see progress with them soon!

We talked to a couple weird, creepy people this week, but we got over it, and are never going to talk to them again! Just too weird for me haha  [Note: Mom sent a quick e-mail asking what made them weird and creepy, and what made him never want to see them again. His reponse:]  Basically, we faced down a demon. And I got the strongest impression from the spirit to leave, and we got out of there as fast as possible.   [Eek!!!]

I'm in the process of writing another poem, about how there are angels around us, so we'll see how that goes!

[Note: Mary had asked him what he's learned this week. His response:]  I've been learning about why and how to fast this week. I realized that I wanted a stronger testimony of fasting, because I've always heard of miracles from fasting, but I haven't personally recognized or seen many miracles from it. So i'm trying to learn more about it, and understand it more. I've only read 2 talks so far, and read some scriptures about it. I'll write down more of what I learned and tell you next week! But I have learned why we do fast offerings! It's to help not just those around us in our community, but because of our donations, it can reach as far as Africa, and help and heal wounded souls. And so by donating fast offerings, we are fulfilling our responsibility to care for others.

I'm sorry that I can't think of anything else to say right now!

Please continue to write and email when you get a chance! I love to hear from you!

With much love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss

Week 63 - Stake Conference, Angels and Music

Dear Mom,

Thanks for the money! I'm gonna go shoe shopping today after emailing! :D 

Not really anything much has happened this week! Yesterday we had stake conference, and there were good talks in it! Our mission president and his wife spoke about keeping the spirit, sharing the gospel, and going to church, Reading the Scriptures, and Praying. They were really good talks! But there was a talk that kind of bothered me... It was a good topic behind it, but the man told about his experience when his wife had cancer and eventually died. He went into a good amount of detail about it, and it brought to my mind many flashbacks when Dad fought cancer those 2 years. Some memories I had forgotten about until the man described things that brought the memories back. One of my fellow missionaries saw that I was struggling with the memories, so I received a sticky note that said "'Peace be unto thy soul' ~God" and it made me feel better. I just stared at the sticky note for a little bit as the man continued his story, and I found the scripture associated in D&C 121:7-9, and it brought me comfort. 

God does send angels to people in moments of need. They may not necessarily come down in pillar of light and be wearing all white, but they may be your friends or maybe even people you don't even know. If you get prompted from to help someone, in that moment, I feel like you become an angel. That's my opinion haha maybe I'm wrong, or it's not doctrine. If it's not, then sorry.

I've been practicing guitar in the early morning before studies and after planning at night, and I think I'm getting better! I'm able to learn songs quicker and with more ease now! Maybe it's because of the ADD Medication, and I can focus more? Either way, I'm learning more music! :D

But anyway, not much else has happened! We found a few more part member families that we haven't met in the past! So we got to meet them and hopefully we'll get to teach them more in the near future!

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

With much love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss

I also just wanted to say I love you and thank you for everything you've done! 

[pictures of our Elder at Stake Conference, shared on the Missionary Moms Facebook group]

Elder Wockenfuss in the back, the tallest of the bunch, his comp, Elder Emerick,
and some sister missionaries in their district

Week 62 - Private Stuff

Elder Wockenfuss shared some deeply frustrating experiences of his mission. We're keeping it private this week.

Week 61 - New Investigators, Staying in Vista

Dear Mom,

I LOVED the wockenflockite pics!!!! I can't believe I forgot to comment on them!! They were SO funny! I showed them to my district, and they laughed out loud!! very very creative! What was the inspiration for it?

The original Wockenflockite photo

The Wockenflockites watching General Conference

"Burying" our swords after Conference

The training for District Meeting was just for my small district and the Zone leaders :) 

I got the package!! :D It had Batman bandaids, wickles, a bunch of candy, goldfish, chocolate orange, talks, YOUR essay (Super funny XD), and Mormon Guitar music. Your essay was SOOOO funny and awesome! I just laughed all through out it!

Elder Emerick and I picked up 2 new investigators from a part member family. This was the first time I met this family, and they were very welcoming to us! We talked for a while and shared the Mormon Message about the hope of God's light with them. I could tell that they felt the spirit that night. They gave us a ton of food after the lesson! So that's sure sign when hispanics like you here haha We are very excited to go back and help them progress!

I really liked the forgiveness talk because there were some things that happened on my mission that I was kinda bitter about for a while, but that talk helped me out. 

[Mom's note: Unfortunately, moms don't get to know everything.]

I'm sorry that pics from me have stopped. I can't really think of anything to take pics of that I can't just get from someone else. Plus, I don't know what I was thinking getting a big camera for my mission! It's so bulky and heavy to carry in my bag all the time, so that's why you haven't really seen any pics from me of the outside world.

I will be staying in Vista for another transfer!! :D I honestly would love to stay here for a while longer!

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

With much love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss

 P.S. People tried scamming us on Saturday. These 3 hispanic teenagers had stopped at the church we meet at, and they were claiming that their mom died from cancer 3 days ago, that they have no place to stay, no food, that they needed to get to mexico, and other parts of the story I don't know. So they told their story to the hermanas, the hermanas called the bishop to come help, and then they called us to ask us to get a couple of burgers and bring them to the church for these people. We went right away, and I got the prompting from the spirit to call our mission president about this, because I thought, if anyone know what we should do in this situation, it was him. He didn't pick up the first few times, so we continued waiting for the bishop at the church with the hermanas and the 3 teens, since people shouldn't be alone there without a priesthood holder around. The bishop shows up eventually and the teens relay their story to him and his counselor, and they start trying to figure out how to help them. Our Mission President calls me back, and I start to explain to him the situation, and then He cuts me off, and starts to relay the story to me that I was about to tell him. He said that it's a scam. Don't help them. They've been doing this for at least a few weeks, scamming money off of bishops and stake presidents in the area. He had me explain it to our bishop, and had me tell him to not help them. So we eventually had to leave because it was getting late, so we left the bishop take care of it. It got it all worked out, and the 3 of them ended just leaving. So that was quite a night haha

[A member took Elder Wockenfuss' district to When Pigs Fly to celebrate Hermana Young's birthday this past week.]

Week 60 - Really Really Loved Conference

Elder Wockenfuss, Elder Emerick, and the Hermanas they serve with

Dear Mom,

I don't have my general conference notes on me, but I really really loved it!! I especially loved the "leaders being followers" talk in the priesthood session! It helped me understand a little better about my responsibilities, and how I can be better. I also really enjoyed the talk on forgiveness! It helped me understand and let go of wrongs that have been done :)

In several of the talks about priesthood, and fatherhood responsibilities, I often did think about Dad and how well he did with us :)

I haven't made the coca-cola cake yet, but I plan on it this week!

This past week, we had an exchange with our Zone Leaders on Monday. It was a good time! I was a little frazzled by the end of the day, because I had to do almost everything, because the Zone Leader that was with me couldn't speak Spanish, but he was fun to be with, and it was still a fun exchange!

I also got the opportunity to plan and prepare the training for this past District Meeting! I decided to have the training on Street Contacting, because I believe that was something that we all needed some help on. The Zone Leaders said that it went really well!! :D So I'm happy about that haha

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

With much love,

Elder Patrick Wockenfuss