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