Merriest of Christmas'

To all who have been curious about our mission choir here are some recordings of it! Sorry the quality isn't the greatest. We definitely don't have the greatest equipment but you can at least get a taste of it. We sang on the streets of Nellie Gail in front of the super Christmas Lights house that always ends up on you tube.

 http://goo.gl/wlmTv5

We also went with Foothill this Wednesday. It was great to get Elder G into a few investigator lessons because he is a brand new missionary VISA waiting for Brazil. We taught J a powerful lesson with he and Elder M helped out with getting her to commit to a baptismal interview. At the end of the Lesson she asked "Don't you just feel this positive energy! Does everyone here feel that?" in her middle eastern accent. It was hilarious and we pointed out AGAIN that what she was feeling was the holy ghost. Yesterday at Church we got President Lutz to come down after many scheduling conflicts and she passed her interview. The interview was during 2nd hour of church and right when she came out we kinda jumped on her and made her set a date so we could announce the baptism 3rd hour. :) She was happy with it though! SO WE ARE HAVING ANOTHER BAPTISM ON CHRISTMAS EVE!   WOOOoooooo! This one is going to be so cool like the last one!

 We were also able to help a complete stranger pray to God for the first time in their life with us during a first lesson during the exchange. The investigator, had each of us pray a number of times then after talking about if there is a God and what his nature is we had her pray. She at first was ok with it but when she went to do it she said she just felt so wrong and evil because she didn't even believe he was there. We explained straight up that that was Satan trying to stop her. We convinced her to at least try it and see what happened. She tried really hard and finally eeked out a prayer. Afterward she threw up her arms and said "I feel great! It is all gone! Now I just feel good!" Really cool experience.

Well last but not least Reggie got baptized on Saturday! It was an amazing baptism. We had old missionaries drive down from Salt Lake to be there and over 100 people showed up! When everyone showed up 5 minutes before hand and walked in all at once he was just in tears at the support he was getting.  The talks given were amazing, one of which was a member whose life had actually been saved by his wife's advice once and the other speaker the person who introduced their son to the church. The spirit was strong!  

The only downside is I woke up that day with the WORST Sinus Infection I have ever had. Thank goodness Elder Hegland has On Guard Essential Oil stuff that helped. It was gone in 48 hous but it was a hard day for me.

Well Merry Christmas Everyone! Mele Kalikimaka as we say in the Irvine Misison! 
 

--Elder Gemperline

White Christmas

It was an amazing week here in Santa Margarita and I have to start out by saying it is currently 83 degrees outside and sunny. Nuff Said.

On Tuesday we presented our Zone Training Meeting on extending effective baptismal invitations to the zone. It went great! We had a lot of excitment and zone interaction. With each of these meetings your goal is to have the missionaries leave the meeting excited to go out and do the work. It was awesome because afterward we had a missionary come up and explain that he had been dealing with some serious homesickness. He requested a blessing and then stated that at the moment he had absolutely no homesickness because of our meeting. It was a huge compliment to me though he had no idea I took it as such. We are dealing with a lot of depressed homesick missionaries right now but we try our best. It doesn't help that my companion and I are the ONLY missionaries in the entire zone who have been here for a Christmas. Later that night we had some elders use our training and set a baptismal date.  "ATTA BOY ELDER VQB"!

We continue to meet with our investigator who is scheduled to be baptized this Sat! 

Well this weekend was CRAZY hectic. We had the stakes Follow The Star Live Nativity festival where they had hundreds of creche's from around the world as well as a 15 minute live nativity show with real animals and all. I made sure that everyone in the zone was able to be in the show but didn't have time to get in it myself, sorry Mom! That was all due to the fact that I was singing with the choir in the chapel for most of the night. It was a great success though and  a HUGELY spiritual thing. Last night we had our 5th choir concert of the weekend. It was at the San Clemente Interfaith Christmas Concert. There were about 1000 people there and a few choirs from other faiths. It was the first time President Orgill has made it out to hear the choir. We sang "Far, Far away on Judea's Plains" "Joy to the World" and "Angels we have Heard on High." We added a 4th verse to "Angel's we have heard on High" by playing the lyrics of "Jesus Once of Humble Birth" to the tune of the first. We honestly have never come close to singing as well as we had and it was amazing! We were the only choir with a standing ovation and there were many people honestly crying as we left the room afterward. I don't know why that happens but I'm sure that there is divine help that goes into our little choir. We are doing some great things.

Well Merry Christmas all!  

Blizzard in Southern Cal

It has been a great but busy week! In fact it has been so busy this month we really need to start cutting some things out. We had Mission Leadership Council again on Thursday which was alright. It was all good stuff and the spirit in the meeting was fantastic and it was edifying but at the same time it was just so basic and dry that it became very hard to stay focused. It also was 8 hours long. That's never helpful. Anyway, we have spent this last few days preparing with the things we learned on how we can help our Zone with Zone Training Meeting tomorrow. It should go good but it is coming up fast.

            We got a new High Counselor over Missionary work here in Santa Margarita. Bro Hobbins is so awesome! He helped us figure out how we can get these Christmas activities a little more productive with finding those who want us to teach. We are working close with him and it is going to really be great. We have set a goal and committed to doubling baptisms in the zone next year with him.

            We had many more choir performances this week. We were able to perform in Los Alisos Sacrament meeting where there wasn't a dry tear in the chapel and it was really remarkable to see how strong the spirit was present with us. Brother Huntington the world renowned bass was even in tears and impressed! We also got to sing in Laguna Beach and Christmas Carol there which was fun cause people there are crazy indeed!

Elders Gemperline and Hegland touring Blizzard

            NOW FOR THE EXCITING PART OF MY EMAIL. WE WENT TO BLIZZARD TODAY! It was so fun! Like a dream come true. I couldn't believe it was actually happening. We showed up and they had to do a background check on both of us at the gate with armed guards. Then they finally let us in and valet-ed our car. We got up the the  head desk and they made us sign all these confidentiality forms and finally let us in to see Jayson. He gave us a VIP tour of the campus. So cool! We got to go through the museum and see the library which are included on the usual tour. Then he called the Team 1 manager and got the permission to take us into the "Top Secret" section of the campus and I got to walk around the Team 1 stomping grounds. Team 1 being the StarCraft  team. I was introduced to the head Audio Director of Blizzard. The guys who balance the units, a few graphic artists at work who were amazing, and the team manager in the end. I was telling the team manager how much I loved StarCraft II and how I hadn't been able to play Heart of the Swarm yet because I was on a mission. He told me he would give me one of his copies and sign it. Jaw Drops.  One of the coolest parts though was when Jayson who is the Lead Composer for Blizzard took us to his office and showed us the 100's of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and took us into the actual recording studio and mixer room. He showed us how he writes the music and comes up with the ideas and then records them. He honestly has probably one of the coolest jobs in the world. One of his co-workers then offered us an internship after our missions. Pretty silly but really cool! Elder Hegland keeps making fun of me for being so geeky and yes it is true. one of the 6 pillars for Blizzard is "Embrace your inner geek." It's written in their sidewalk. What a silly place.

 Merry Christmas all! 

--Elder Gemperline

BFF x3

Well transfers were exciting! I had some spiritual manifestations just before the meeting and everyone went where I thought they would! Elder Donohue went to my old Laguna Hills ward and Elder Shiu to Newport Beach again. Then the final and last thing! I got the companion I thought I might, but it was also just wishful thinking! Guess you'll just have to find out through the pictures I send. 3rd times a charm eh? :D super happy.

Thanksgiving was good. We had a fantastic dinner at the Thomas home in Coto de Caza. They invited over our entire district so it was a little district party of 10 missionaries. We played badmiton and shuffle board and all sorts of games. 

My  companion and I also got to go to Starbucks this week to see Jayson Hayes. Yup... Two missionaries at Starbucks with a crazy awesome Blizzard gamer guy... HEY! Dont' judge me. Their Apple Cider is amazing K? Anyway, we tried our best to get him to start asking questions while we also asked him questions. He has worked for Valve and Blizzard. He wrote all the music for the Protoss Campaign in Brood War. His wife is the narrator voice, the voice of medic, vocie of the wraith and "Nuclear Launch Detected." He is the voice of the "corossair, the overlord, the firebat and much more. He offered us a tour of Blizzard and President gave us the ok to go so I might be going next week! Yippie!

Well I'm loving life. Everything is looking mighty fine for this Christmas season. I might even get to go back to Temecula for a night! We shall see. Love you all! 

--Elder Gemperline

Fantasy Zone   November 21, 2013  Taylor Gemperline

            Missionaries don't play fantasy football. They play fantasy zone. We have spent so much time this week trying to gather information on what might happen tomorrow at transfers. Before we got transfer calls we already knew Elder Donohue and Elder Shiu would be leaving, who the AP would be and ... We still don't know who my next companion is going to be but it is a good chance it will be ELDER HEGLAND OR ELDER GREMILLION! You should be acquainted to E. Hegland and E. Gremillion is from my home stake in Farmington! It could be neither though. You never know.    Well we are out of time because of transfer day but here is a cool story.

           
 I'm doing well.  I’m having to say bye to my comps.

OH! We sang as a choir at a Methodist church in Laguna Beach yesterday. It was fantastic! There were a few other pastors of other churches that showed up just to see what the fuss was about with this mission choir and before the end of the night we had 8 pastors asking us to come to their congregations. We are booked out every Sunday until March now. HOLY COW! It has been a great success. One particular pastor from the Unitarian Universalist Church said "They are not real people" Referring to us because of the way we acted and conducted ourselves.  Quite a compliment right? 

--Elder Gemperline

Keeping it on Oct 26th 2013

Enjoying the days as they go by as always. President told Elder Shiu and I we need to be having fun or we won't stay ZL's for long. Better be obedient! DODGEBALL IN THE APARTMENT! = sprained finger.

We had many miracle happen this week.  

 We had a fun week where Elder Shiu went on exchanges and Elder Donohue and I went out and were able to get to know the area much better. We hit up a lot of the potentials lists and Elder Donohue learned a thing or two about appointments falling through that he has never known before. Haha he has had a pretty easy first part of his mission.

I'm often times feeling like a third wheel in the companionship because my companions have been together for so much longer but I'm just sucking it up and dealing with it as I should. Force my way into things and they understand. Not a problem even worth worrying about.

I got some awesome new shades to wear in the car when I drive everywhere. AHHHHhhhhh ya. Well out of time. Peace!

Oh and Happy HALLOWEEN!

This letter is dedicated to Granny Smith who I never find time to reply to but love dearly. :p

Into the Mixer

Well this throws me into the mixer. I have been called to be a Zone Leader in the Rancho Santa Margarita Stake. It is a pretty neat area. We work in the Santa Margarita Ward which includes the neighborhood Coto de Caza. It is the most up scale, pricey, gated community that I know of in Southern California.  A famous NBA player lived here until he got too many complaints about his helicopter being too much noise for the rest of the neighborhood. The bad part about it is we are not allowed to talk to ANYONE or we get kicked out. Its also basically covering 2 sides of the Las Flores area. I can see the Webber's house from here! We can only go to homes of members and those who we have appointments with. Despite the difficulties though we had 2 baptisms this last Saturday that were just marvelous and we will be having 3 more before the end of November if everything goes according to plan. It is super exciting!

I am happy to say that I also love my companions.  My Co-Zone Leader  is from Hong Kong. His first language is of course Cantonese but he also knows Mandarin and now English.  He is SUPER smart. Probably one of the smartest persons I've ever talked to. We have very different styles of leading people but I think we will be great together and I love him. Together we are training an Elder from Lehi Utah. He is a good ol' Utah boy. He is basically like Sam Callister for those of you who know him in personality and mannerisms. He is doing great as a new missionary. The bad thing is we expect  way too much of him sometimes. We dish a lot on him and he takes it and grows.

Well being a ZL is different. I've spent maybe 6 hours this week actually out doing missionary work. Otherwise it is running to the mission office for forms, going to District meetings of different District Leaders. Holding our own zone meetings. Going to meetings with the stake leaders. I mean for goodness sakes I put 500+ miles on our car this week! I am going to go buy myself some sun glasses now. :P At least I am 1 of 7 companionships that  has a full-time car. Elder Kempton my DL way back when is in my Zone as well as other missionary friends I have meet in the past but I am really looking forward to getting to know them all a lot better. I can tell I'm going to have to mentally exert myself and be ready for the spirit more than ever before. President Orgill needs our help in getting the Carlsbad/Anaheim culture to go away and an Irvine culture to form.

Well I would like to share one more experience. Saturday we had a baptism in our area.  At 7 in the morning a pipe that had burst was found in the room of the baptismal font at the Stk Cntr. Our investigators were still sick and it was just getting crazy how much opposition there was trying to get the baptism to loose its power.  A plumber fixed the leak and the investigators got well enough to come after much prayer and then  we got there to set up. Everyone came in and thing seemed to be going well. We planned to set up a DVD to show during the changing period after the ordinance. Elder D gave an intro to the video and bore his testimony on the restoration. When he was done I clicked the play button and the TV flickered and went out. We tried for about 3-4 minutes to figure out what was wrong in front of the 70-80 people but nothing was working. It worked 5 minutes ago darn it! I finally just dropped it all and went up on the pulpit and looked blankly at the audience. "well.... I guess I'll describe what the video says." I then recited for 12-15 minutes the Joseph Smith story in detail from the start. I went through as delicately as I could. I gave the first vision and set it up and it ended up being a GREAT thing to bring the spirit. We had investigators there who said they were very touched. It was also a great introduction to the ward. I am really happy here and will see much success. Until then though, got to go!  Love ya. 

--Elder Gemperline

Bounce

Well this week was a game changer. I got the call on Saturday night that I'm getting transferred again. I've only been here 6 weeks with Elder Swejkoski and Elder Bartell. Now Elder Bartell and I are leaving again. There is definitely a good reason. We just don't know what that reason is. Haha in fact 5 of the 8 Elders in my district are getting transferred. 4 of them have only been here 6 weeks. It’s going to be a crazy transfer meeting tonight. 

I had a good last week here though. We had Elder Falabella of the 70 come and visit our mission. It was awesome to be able to rub shoulders again with a GA. He taught us all about a strew of things. I can't really point out the overarching theme but I guess if I had to it would be doing missionary work through Family History invitations. It was a very revelatory meeting and I got lots of answers to questions and pages and pages of notes to look through when I can find the time. 

We had a fantastic experience Friday night . I turned a corner and saw a young man washing his car and decided to go talk to him about it. It’s a fun little car and one I actually know some things about thanks to Elder Bunker and after getting to know the kid and his plans to have the car for a few months he said he would have to give it up after that. I asked what then and he explained that he was going to join the Marine Corps. He talked about all he had left to do to join is "swear in" and graduate High School. Well I took the opportunity to talk to him about how he feels a relationship with God could help him in the battlefield. It was a perfectly smooth transition and after talking about his relationship with God helping him we shared a few scriptures in the B of M that showed him the protection and comfort that could come from having the gospel while away from home. We talked about how the fore-front of that relationship with God would be making a promise with him which is baptism. He agreed with an invitation from us to be baptized in November. It was very exciting! It was just as our leaders and Elder Falabella have instructed. The greatest expression of love we can give as missionaries to our investigators is the invitation to be baptized. 

Saying good-bye to the Kubats was pretty hard. They are an awesome family, as many families I have met have been. Bro Kubat is just so in tune with what the Lord wants done with the work here in LH3. I have seen him countless times, again and again, gain an impression on our investigators and carry it out with diligence to see such great blessings reaped from it. I will be leaving this ward with the potential to baptize 5-6 people before the end of the year. 

Praying Mantis Wars are scary and gross and cool. Boys will always be boys. We made a giant tent of blankets (again) and had a "campout" in the living room 2 nights ago which was fun. It rained HARDCORE this Wednesday. We were in the rain for a total of about.... 8 seconds and we were drenched from head to toe! There was a river in the street shin high and we spent a lot of the night picking up people's trashcans that had been washed away. It was pretty awesome! 

Well I'll talk to you in my next area! More pictures but I already packed the camera cord so later. Thx! ttfn

--Elder Gemperline

  

General Conference is always a treat. I really soaked it up and just ate every word given. I felt like I really walked out of the meetings with just such a determination to be better and like I just hadn't given my all quite yet. I also walked out with a full belly because of our awesome zone lunch but that is another story. 

I went to the first official Irvine Mission Choir meeting last Wednesday as an official member. It was fun but I feel like I'm getting lost at the moment. Suddenly choir classes would have come in handy. Haha good thing most of the choir is lost with me. :P

Last Tuesday night we found a Praying Mantis in our bathroom. We captured it and named it "She-Bear" after the story of the she-bears eating the kids after they laughed at Elisha's bald head. We keep it on our front porch and feed it crickets and Daddy long legs. It's really disgusting to be honest but it really entertains my companions  :P. 

We had a rough lesson this week. . He has taken discussions with missionaries for almost 15 yrs now and still doesn't know if he believes in God. Of course no missionaries prior to us had actually discovered this. We really well described what faith is and how he can act in faith but when it came to inviting him to really search the scriptures daily and pray to find out. He said he just isn't ready. It is going to take a lot of time to soften his heart to that point. 

We also had a lesson with a family where the  daughterhas not yet been baptized but really wants to be a member of the church. We went over for dinner, had a short lesson on baptism and the holy ghost and invited her to be baptized. We extended the invitation and she said yes. We tried to set a date to do it on and the Mom said "we will talk about that later." In other words she doesn't plan on it happening anytime soon.  . 

So a sad week but fine because at least we are making steps of progression in the area of sifting through who isn't yet ready! We are trying hard to find one of the Lord's Elect to teach. The goal is 3 baptisms before the end of the year. I'm fully committed. We're going to do it. We already have 1 planned for November. Her name is Nat. She is at BYU as a non-member and is being taught up there but she is getting baptized down here so we will technically be counting it.

Well we are really crunched on time because it was a temple day. I love you all. Love the weather cooling down finally. It was a high of 73 today. Isn't that just awful? :P Spoken like a true Californian. 

 

To da Beach                                                                                                                                              Sept 23rd

Mmmmm Now I know why Laguna Beach is the coveted area in the mission. Elder Merrit my Zone Leader took me on an exchange in his area to the city of Laguna Beach. It’s a city built into the mountain right on the coast and I spent the next 24 hours there. We met this super drunk guy who had multiple degrees from Princeton. He gave us 20 copies of his self-published book on mothers that was just awful to read. We gave him a B o fM in return. Just lots of stuff happening. Spent the last hour teaching in a home with the greatest view from the top of the mountain just looking down the coast. Couldn't get the greatest shot but I can send you pictures that give you an idea. They even have their own little 12 x 12 shack to live in which was pretty sweet and quiet in the woods. 

I joined the new Irvine Mission Choir this week.  Pretty crazy. 

We had a great exchange with Elder Heglands last companion Elder Jung and his new companion Elder Stevens. They are both pretty new missionaries co-training Elder Merril.

Last night Elder Richards of the 70 dropped into the mission for just 2 hours. During that time he gave us an on the spot talk and said he felt impressed to tell us something important and then really NAILED us with a talk on being obedient. Oh it was so beautiful and refreshing to be scolded. I'm so glad I can improve there and hope missionaries around me also got that desire. At the meeting I saw Elder VQB and he seemed to look real well. It was nice to see.

Last night we had a really cool miracle happen! We were on our way to an investigators home that we STILL haven't been able to get in contact with since we got here and we then realized we didn't have his house number. We gave up and went to our back up plan that was a less active that has been on my mind. Honestly just a name in a book. Never heard mention of her from anyone. We showed up and B came out and just expressed she was so glad to see us!  She wanted to come back to church greatly because she sees the happiness of the LDS people. She begged us, literally got on her knees and begged us to take the discussions! "Well, I guess if you're going to ask that way we HAVE to submit and let you have the discussions." OF COURSE! We testified of the atonement and got to know her a bit more. It is so sweet to save a soul and help it get rid of that awful guilt. During the meeting you could tell the spirit really buoyed her up and let her know she could do it and it was right.

While walking back to the car I was on the phone with our WML Bro Kubat. I was explaining the miracle until I yelled STOP ELDER BARTELL! Elder Bartell freezes and I run up to him and pull him about 5 ft. backwards and point. Then he sees the spider he almost ran into. It was the size of my hand almost! Just chillin on its web. I continue to give our message to Bro Kubat and divert myself 20 ft around the web while Elder S and B take pictures of the spider.  Suddenly I hit something and hear this awful scream from my companions and I start flailing my arms and hissing because I realized too late a spider that big can make a web the size of a house. Snap! I wish I had a recording of that voice message. 

Love you all! I'm happily staying here for a while. 

Three is a magic number and The Flood

Elder Bartell, Elder Gemperline and Elder Swejkoski in Laguna Hills 

Sep 9th 

I am now in the Laguna Hills 3rd Ward with 3some in appartment 3. Making 3 ways 3 is a magic number. I am with Elder Bartell from Idaho Falls and Elder Swejkoski (S'why - cos - ski) from Lansing Michigan. Both of them are new missionaries. Elder Bartell just came out last Tuesday and Elder Swejkoski has been here for 6 weeks.

We live in a Beautiful Condo with nice hardwood floors, a fireplace and windows and a large kitchen. Mirrors everywhere making it so very vain. :P The downside is our dryer exploded and our fridge went out and all our food spoiled... crap. We are going to go shopping today and buy stuff you don't have to freeze. Hopefully we can get it all fixed soon. We got lacrosse sticks from some members. We play in the morning where one of us will be offense and one defense and one the thrower and we try our best to fulfill our roles in a pass. It is super fun! I miss playing lacrosse. Great exercise too! Even if I can't lift anymore. :(


Sept 16th

Well it has been another busy busy week. I honestly don't know where to start... Lets start Monday. 

Monday I went on an exchange bringing Elder Merril who is just brand new out over to my area to see how he is doing. We saw SO MANY miracles throughout the exchange I have to say I was actually really surprised which usually... I'm not! One of these miracles is that we were going about trying our best to get into some houses we had on a list and we were also making an extra effort to contact everyone. We contacted into these 2 ladies who were sitting in their backyard (which in this part of the world is just a fenced off section of their front yard) and they told us to come on in. We sat down on their rock path up to the house and began to teach them the restoration. As we were going through the lesson everything made sense to them. They were some interesting people. One of them had been crushed by a bus and was on house arrest. Just the most approachable people on the planet. SARCASM PUNCH! Anyway, I was loving them because for some reason I have gained the capacity to do away with judgment... or so I thought. We got to talking about Prophets and I asked "How does God answer our prayers and questions?" One of them answered, "Well through others oftentimes." I asked for an example and she pointed to the other lady and explained she believed God had introduced them. 

"Great! So God gives us the greatest of friends to help support us in times of need sometimes" 

"Actually, we're married"

*Awkward Silence

I may have judged a little teeny tiny bit in that moment but I overcame it best I could!!! Don't judge me. 

Anyway, I love them all the same and I legitimately in all seriousness want to help them. We finished off the lesson without going down that dangerous path and they really liked the message of the restoration. They said to come back so we will go back tonight to see if we can build their faith a little more in the savior before..... frankly, all hell breaks loose and we have to call them to repentance. I don't know how else to say it. That's exactly what we do as missionaries. Truth will always be truth and no matter how terrifying it will be we must call repentance and look upon sin with no degree of allowance. We will do so in love, it will just be interesting. 

Planning on Friday night we began to hear a weird dripping sound. We checked to see what it was only to find the light fixture in the restroom was dripping. Great. *puff*  another apartment living problem. I undid the light and emptied it out as all this water drained from our ceiling for the next few hours. The people upstairs say they don't know anything about it but they also had  a son in the bathtub at that same time. I've been calling plumbers and the housing people and trying to make decisions. When the next morning it had all stopped I told the plumber to just not come out since it seemed fine. Then the housing people yelled at me, not because they were angry but to get the point across that I need to get the plumber out so I called the plumber and he said he would have to charge me now, but i needed to coordinate the people upstairs to be home at the same time so I talked to them and they gave us their renters number so I called housing to figure out what to do with the situation and it is just way way way too much extra stress I don't need at this busy time! I need the time to figure out what I'm going to be teaching in meetings and studies and lessons. Ah well. Ain't no rest for the wicked like me. Pah. I wish our apartment would just be ok. :P Thanks for letting me vent. 

So that is the basic scenario for this week. The ward seems to be very receptive to us now. We are expecting baptisms soon and the work carries on. 

-Elder Gemperline

Leaving Las Flores

District of Las Flores  

So I found something this week that I didn't realize I didn't learn all that great as a child or teenager and that is how to take flattery and lots and lots of compliments. I'm being transfered out of Las Flores and I arrived to church rather early Sunday morning. Many people quickly caught on that I was leaving because I had previously announced I would signify it by wearing a green tie. The Perkins, a couple from Hawaii brought me a Cocona Shell Lay from Hawaii. They said it is always given to a departing guest of honor and that I must hang it over a picture of my "ohanna" - family to bring them luck through our lives. Not necessarily approved to wear but I wore them proudly. The meeting was wonderful and I was touched by so many testimonies. Rob got up who we have worked with very closely in keeping him active since he had been baptized in April. He explained how his love has grown for the Book of Mormon Exponentially with our meetings and meals together over the past months. I love him. One member of the ward, Bro. Keawakane got up and bore testimony that recent converts truly are the life blood of the church. They are so powerful in their testimonies and their activity. Everything they do takes such leaps of faith but they always tend to follow through. He ended with stating that it was because of faithful and persistent missionaries. He then said the blasphemy that "If I was in the Irvine mission and had the opportunity to pick one companion as a trainer from amongst them all I would pick Elder Gemperline. He is one sharp young man and I have had the greatest experience with him in my home." Yet again I still have no idea how to react to that... 

Anyway, the point is I am really going to miss this ward. The Webber family got to give us a fantastic goodbye dinner with delicious ribs on Saturday. We  enjoyed the fantastic dinner together. 

This week was also the HOTTEST WEEK OF MY LIFE. It has been 100+ degrees with 90% humidity for 8 days straight now and I am SOOOO SICK OF IT>. Some random people we tracted into were super kind to give us really well working thermos' to keep Ice water in so we can have cold water all day long. It isn't even that I don't like the heat as much as just the fact that I am always wet and sweat drips down my back and face way too much and then we smell awful and feel awful. But I'm in SoCal... So I should probably stop complaining. :D 

I have been really reminiscent this week as I have been travelling about with Elder VQB . Him taking over the area will be a fantastic thing and It will give himgrowing opportunities. I will miss him but I am also looking forward to my new companion and son. Elder VQB is going to have a brother again. 

This transfer is weird because I could be White Wash Training, or even becoming a Zone Leader and Tri-panionship training though the later is much less likely. It will be exciting to see. Well I love you all and will tell you all about it next week! Goodbye Las Flores! <3

Webber Family

Geis Family

Bike Squad

One Hot Cold

Taylor Gemperline	1:09 PM (58 minutes ago)
to me, Andrew, Allison, Daniel, Heather, Hanna, Lorene, sam, Sharlie

Well this week was another busy good week. We meet with almost every one of our investigators which doesn't ever really happen since most of them are so busy! The greatest thing is I wasn't even there for half of them. I had planned an exchange for Wednesday to Thursday and during that exchange Elder V was able to take lead in 3 Lessons with investigators without me there. It was great and he handled it like a champion so I was proud and know that now we are done with his training it is time for me to leave and him to step up to the responsibility. It will be fun to see.

During a Zone Conference on Wednesday in which we got to see President Orgill Teach for the first time to us I began to really get a headache. It grew to the point where I began to get dizzy and since the meeting is 7 hours long almost by the end of it I could tell it was too late for Emergen-c and I was sick. Just a common cold I'm sure but I've been about sniffing and swallowing funny in the middle of a heat streak. Its really just been an annoyance and I've continued to work just as hard. Sunday I couldn't speak much cause my voice has been going but today Ill get some good rest and see if it helps. 

When I got home from the exchange with Elder Chlarson from Kanosh UT I came into the presence of an excited  Elder VanQ. Haha I guess he was trying to find a male over the age 16 to come with us to the appointment. It was an important one cause this is the family who came from Mexico who is really ready to hear the gospel. Well the reason he couldn't get anyone he explains to me was because it was Mutual night. As soon as he told me this the phone rang and a member of the ward explains to Elder VanQ that he should just take the investigators to mutual instead because they have the 13 yr old daughter who needs to meet the girls.  We got the Webber father and twins to come with us and we picked up the family from the apartments and walked to the church all together. We did our best to make sure the family was comfortable and as we got to the church tension became pretty tangible. Especially when we walked into the room oh combined young women. There was this awkward 15 seconds of silence and me saying hi to people while everyone just stared at us until Dear Sister Elliot ran across the room and just gave them a big hug and then it was all over. We got some Lego's for their 9 yr old son and played with him while the mother and daughter were engrossed in the activity and message of the young women. We walked away having showed them the church and establishing new friendships. She never stopped thanking us as we walked home and it was honestly one of the sweetest success of my mission for some reason. I just hadn't heard a sincere thank you for my efforts in a loonnnnggg time from someone I've been trying to help. 

Other than that I'm just realizing my time in this ward is far spent and there is little remaining. Getting permission from President Soon to look and see if I need to do anything to keep my schooling in order online. Applications for Fall semester when I'm home are coming up. Time is just flying way too fast sometimes isn't it? These are things I pondered as last P-day I made the impulsive decision to buy a new suit from H&M. I love it so much. It fits nice and snug and is gray instead of black and basically I can now say I'm one step closer to Californian.

 Stay cool everyone.