Hot Mission Movie

Well it has been one of the hottest weeks of my life being here in the summer without air conditioning in our apartment. Every night the lowest it gets is 80 and I'm sick of sitting in my sweat. Oh well though, what are you going to do about it.

We had a great 4th of July/ mission birthday party! We all got together and had dinner at the mission office. Then President Or gill shuffled us all into a room. We watched a video with all the people baptized in the Irvine Mission and afterward we heard the all familiar, dun dun... dun dun... dunnnnnnnn dundun,  that begins so many movies. We were all so confused and then started playing the movie "Son of God." We watched it as a mission and needless to say... It was WEIRD! They didn't even quote the Bible and Jesus was all sexy and it was a whole movie. I guess everyone else enjoyed it though and it did give a great viewpoint of why the Pharisees and Pilot acted the way they did.

Well we had a great lesson Monday night with some young peeps who don't want to go to the YSA ward so they meet with us. We even had C come along from Coto! He recently returned from his own mission. We ended up teaching the first discussion to 4 people in a garage with Guacamole, Pomegranate juice and a disco ball. It was fun! Ha-ha my generation is crazy.

Well I am off and will see you all again very soon. Make plans and we will make it happen somehow!

--Elder Gemperline

The River

This was a strange week for us SBYSA missionaries. We had most of our ward go up to Blithe for a boating trip on the Colorado River so for 3-4 days we had pretty much nothing to do except reach out to people on lists we have never heard of. Despite all the difficulties we managed to get our 23 lessons in and saw some miracles with Less-Actives on the list we dropped by. 

This week I got to go to Newport Beach as part of a mission wide exchange. Our dinner cancelled half-way through the exchange so I convinced the missionary I was with to let me go to Ruby's Diner for dinner. I got to check one more thing off the bucket list. Pretty good meal! Pretty bad punch to the missionary budget XD. Oh well, I had to do it! As well on the exchange we were able to teach this surfer guy who was restoring a 150 yr old paddle board in his garage that he is going to surf in a competition that Saturday. He was like 50 yrs old and still going at it. Pretty hilarious guy. His entire house was full of antiques and cool old things. I walked away with a little piece of Disney land history myself. It was especially fun to find out his nephew is the NCAA downhill ski champion at the U of U and so he showed me all of his U of U stuff. Never too far away from home am I! and it gets closer every day.. snap. 

Well as a result of this exchange we also got a new investigator who we are pretty certain is going to be baptized in July. Her name is D and some Spanish speaking Elders picked her up during their exchange. She just started going to a non denom. church in the area and when she heard these Elders message she was touched by the spirit and is pretty committed at this point which is amazing. We had the pass of lesson and she really is golden. 

Elder G and Elder Epperson at Dana Point,  CA

Fun Stuff

Now the fun stuff:

So we met this crazy girl down campus who called herself a unicorn because she is Vegan. She invited us "Stallions" to come to dinner sometime. So we set up a time for this last Friday and invited a member who is a cop to come with us. We showed up to the home which was actually a shack labeled "Unicorn Palace" in Laguna Beach Canyon. Laguna Beach Canyon is known for having the world’s most interesting people so just pulling up Elder Epperson and I became very scared. We were invited in and we said we would just take a look around outside first and then called the member to find out where he was at. I will never forget Elder Epperson's face as he was told that the member was no longer coming. Sweet, a candle lit dinner with smooth jazz and a unicorn all by ourselves in the world's craziest place. We stayed out of the house and kept all the rules mind you! But, we sure had fun with it to and made it out safe.

The other story is simple, We had dinner on a boat in Dana Point Harbor with a super cool member. Really fun. End story.

Just got back from Big Air Trampoline park with the zone. Jammed my finger and feeling sore. Gooood Stuff though. I found a guy named Brother Grace earlier this week and he was selling Christian Apparel to feed the homeless. Elder Epperson and I couldn't resist and bought these hilarious shirts that say "I love to worship" and have some black Christians dancing in the background. We wore them to zone activity today. Super funny. 

--Elder Gemperline

Bye Elder Hegland

Tuesday night I attended the funeral of my good friend no longer Elder Ian Hegland. HE GONNNEEEE!!!! It wasn't that sad though cause I'll see him again soon. It was a really fun meeting to talk about all the funny times he had. To which he replied at the end "President, I've had a really weird mission." I would say so being reassigned twice. He is really missed though by many in the mission. I've never seen as strong a testimony as I have seen with him. Every time he would share it there was no denying he knew it and I knew it. I wish I could bear testimony like him.

Well it was honestly a pretty rough week. We had cancellation after cancellation but that's fine we had fun along the way. Went to MLC and received some pretty basic trainings on dress and grooming and simple teaching skills regarding Ch.10 in PMG.

Nothing special. It's been pretty hot as of late. Getting up into the mid 90's the other day.

Got in a bash earlier this week down campus that was actually effective and good. Those are rare few and far between.

OH! So Thursday night we had an institute activity where it was a super hero themed BBQ and Dance. It was sweet because B brought his swords from Medieval times that spark when you hit them together. We got some cool vids and pictures!

  Our investigator from Hollywood is really making progress. We were able to hear him bear his testimony that Joseph Smith is the Prophet Called by Jesus Christ in priesthood meeting yesterday. It was really cool cause he used to really question that and argue against it. It's cool to know our visits and efforts are actually making a difference.

I'm buying a bunch of Salmon patties and Quinoa from Costco today so I can be healthy when I return home! YAY HEALTHY! But first I need more free Golden Spoon... mmmmmmmm BYE! 

--Elder Gemperline

Turkey Shoot

             April 7, 2014   

We had numbers wise probably the best week of my entire mission this week! We really just pounded the pavement going down Saddleback Campus. We opened a number of windows down there and were able to find 3 new investigators in a 1 hour window! It was insane! Elder F and Elder B taught 2 of them while a Member and I taught the other. We ended up picking up 5 new investigators this week and 3 more for other companionships in the mission. We are tempted to just go down there all day every day and see what happens.

Elder Freeman, my youngest son has graduated and gone off into the world.  We yelled at him the other day while driving by him and his new companion riding their bikes up in the Mission Lake area which is still in our YSA area :D!  I’m such a proud daddy.

It was a really hard transfer meeting for me though. :/ Elder Hegland and Chandler, the two Mongolian Elders are leaving this transfer so they sang an awesome duet starting in English and ending in Mongolian. They bore their testimonies and I was dying inside. Elder Hegland's last day in the mission is tomorrow. He will be home on Wednesday. It won't be much longer before I see him again but it was just really sad to see this day actually came.

Last Monday, just after emailing, we left the library only to be contacted by a young man walking out at the same time. He's a less active member who has found himself at life's lowest points that day. When he saw us he knew from somewhere deep inside him that he needed to stop us and have us come visit him soon. We were able to get in with him this week and have a GREAT lesson and help him set up a time to meet with Bishop. It was a really cool moment to know we were here specifically for him.

I got to ride in another sweet BMW this week ;). It was a SUPER TRICKED OUT M3 convertible. It was pretty exciting.

I really enjoyed general conference. What more can I say. 

--Elder Gemperline

p.s. missionary pot-luck ---> success!

Stressed Factor

I've been pretty stressed this last week but I've also been super happy. Just a lot on my plate but I'm sure it will slow down. HA! Keep telling yourself that. =).

 Speaking of stress... Well we'll get to that.

Elders Gemperline, Belnap and Freeman

I'm with my Step-Brother Elder Belnap!  Because a trainer and trainee are father and son, a 2nd trainer is step-father step-son. Well Elder Tetuanui finished training Elder Belnap making him my step-brother. :) We have a lot in common to some degrees. Both of us played lacrosse and have similar personalities. We probably have the most positive companionship in the mission. When we walked into District Meeting to meet the zone on Thursday we walked in with Sun Glasses on and Mission Impossible music then wrote Mission "possible" Viejo on the board. It’s a pretty good example of our gooberness but hey, at least the zone likes us now!

We had a really cool miracle on Friday. We went to an investigator appointment and it got cancelled again!!!  Just answer your door! ... we digress. So anyway, we were walking back up the street to get to our car and we have to pass by the entrance to Saddleback College and we came across a young woman. Elder Belnap and I nudged Elder Freeman assuring him "you got this one! Oh buddy! Dooooo it!!!!! Make that contact!" So we finally convinced him to speak up. He asked if she would be interested in our message and she said "I've already talked to you. I remember your red hair." (Tee hee) He replied with a little laugh and just asked her with a so do you want to hear us or not kind of thing. She responded with a quiet yes as he shy personality kind of played off. Elder Freeman just stood  there silent, ... awkwardly.... forever in silence completely lost as to what to do when someone actually says yes. I Remember that when I was a greenie! =) good times. Anyway, we got her to join us on our walk and we went up to the institute building. Inside we introduced her to the institute teachers.  They welcomed her in and opened a room for us to teach in. Then a member of the ward just randomly showed up and we were able to teach her the first discussion. We came to understand that she was on her way to the hospital when we bumped into her because her Dad was terminally ill. She had been praying for a miracle to strengthen her faith the night before and "this is where it has led me." Well we taught her quickly the Restoration and had her say a prayer at the end. It went very simple and well. :) She prayed out loud for us and it was beautiful! She specifically told our heavenly father in her prayer that she was so glad she could have her prayer from the day before answered and that she now knew he was there. We set up a time to meet with her again and sent her off with a promise that we would prayer for her father in his time of need. The next day we were coming back from Frisbee and we texted to find out how her father was doing to find that he had passed away the night before. We rushed home and prayed for help in knowing what we could respond to this girl in such need of our message. In the end we had to cancel our appointment for later that day but we hope to be able to get in and teach her the plan of salvation sometime this week.  It was a tender moment for our companionship though.

Speaking of Tender... We'll get to that.

Elders Gemperline and Risk

This last weekend I had to say goodbye to a good friend and loved missionary. Elder Risk, who has never been in the same zone as me but  has been a good friend from the beginning of the mission. In fact he was the one who left a picture of my little pony in my first apartment that made me laugh so hard. He has also been the choir’s conductor and president. We had a giant concert Saturday night and sang in an Episcopalian church in Laguna Beach Sunday morning. One particular lady in the front row at both concerts was extra emotional and I noticed Elder Risk avoiding eye contact with her. I came to find out that this was his mother! President Orgill had invited her out to see the last choir performance with him here. (don't be getting ideas mom not happening.) Last night I was invited to the Orgill's home for a farewell dinner. It was fun to recount the stories and experiences he had had. Love that kid. I'll include a picture of him and I. My entire mission people have told me I'm exactly like him.

It was fun to go to an Episcopal church though and half- take their communion and read creeds and prayers and stuff. Super different. I had a few of them memorized surprisingly, like the Lord's Prayer and  a few others I have no idea how I know them. Fun purple priestly robes too!

Speaking of purple..... we'll get to that.

Alright fine. I'll just get to it. I broke my toe Saturday playing Frisbee =) LOVE YOU MOM! :D

I just wrapped it with some medical tape and it will be fine. No big deal, just a little pain and less running. The biggest problem is I have been so SO.. SO busy this week I haven't had a chance to get a blessing yet. But I will. Don't even worry about it. It’s Just a stupid appendage that I've never been able to move anyway!

Happy Days !

--Elder Gemperline

Slump Day

We had a hard week work wise in our ward but I still felt pretty accomplished at the end of it. We had Mission Leadership Council again and this one went really well. People were lively. They were excited. They were open and prepared for what was to be given. We discussed and counseled how we could better implement the new teaching method. We discussed how we could be better leaders in the mission. All of it was good and applicable especially to me today in the transfer I am in. The real sad part was hearing Elder Risk Bear his testimony. He leaves in a little less than 2 weeks and has been a good friend my entire mission. The choir is also going to really miss him as he has been its lead conductor throughout its existence.

            Well, I woke up this week on a particular day and realized it was my Slump day. Freak! How can it be slump day!

            I went on another exchange with the Assistants as well. For some reason every time we do an assistant exchange I end up in their area and never mine. That's alright though. It's a whole different world up there in Santa Anna. I got a lot of good ideas from Elder Wall as to how I could improve my relationship with my companions and my zone and I have set the goals I need to help us all out. :)

            I finally bought some new slacks last week. Actually,   I'm completely broke for this month :). I borrowed a Costco card from Mama Webber and we went and spent all our money at Costco on Rice, Protein, Chicken, SALMON PATTIES!  and then at Burlington Coat Factory for slacks. Now I have 20 bucks to survive the rest of the month. :) I should make it though. I am super happy to have the new slacks. Did you know Nordstrom is REALLY REALLY REALLY EXPENSIVE!?!?!      I didn't believe Elder McGary but he was right. :P

          

            Last, but not least, this last week Elder Mackey and I came up with the idea to set a goal as a zone to get 165 lessons total. This would be record breaker if we accomplished it and would really help our zone members realize their potential to teach. As incentive we set up with the stake presidency to get us into a trampoline park for free if we get the goal. Wish us luck! We are setting up as many appointments as we possibly can.

Well love you all! Keep up all the good work and stories of successful missionary moments.
I really enjoyed getting the letter from you Beau and will play StarCraft with you when I get home.

--Elder Gemperline

Buffalo wings and Fiberglass Girlfriends

This week went well. Crazy as usual but you get enough of that from me.

            We were able to get a lesson set up with M for yesterday. We met up with him and his friend who was baptized  and is coming back to activity. We met up with them and M has broken his leg in a longboarding accident. Boy did we relate well. :P. We went to a park overlooking the ocean because their home is a little less conducive to the spirit. There, we were able to teach M the first discussion and commit him to be baptized. He is really making a lot of changes in his life right now and he wants to really include a relationship with God to all the changes. He is so prepared it is crazy. I love him.  

 We had a crazy dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Those wings get hot. Forewarned.

            I have had the opportunity to re-teach a less active,, who lives in the Las Flores ward boundaries. He is YSA age now and we finally got him out to an activity! The sad part is he didn't show up until we had to leave so we don't know how he liked it or if anyone connected with him. I have put so much energy into this kid. I want him to come back so bad!  We'll get him.

I went on an exchange in Ladera Ranch again. It was like returning to a former area which was pretty fun. I'm getting along well with my companions. We all just have completely different personalities so it is pretty funny.  

            Forget the future. Can't I just come back to California and live on the beach for a few months like so many people do here? It sounds like a great fun way to blow 6 months of my life. All I hear in the YSA ward is….. the best girlfriend is about 5'10, and fiberglass.  Surfing.  I'd enjoy it. :P

--Elder Gemperline

Mission Viejo YSA

Well our research was correct and I am back in Mission Viejo Stake but this time as a ZL. We are in the Saddleback YSA ward. It is a very interesting dynamic. The bishop and 1st counselor I know well already since they are from Las Flores and SM wards. I keep running into old familiar faces as well. Lots of the people I have interviewed for baptism are in this ward so that is pretty fun.

My new Companions are Elder Mackey and Elder Freeman. I apologize profusely for no picture. We honestly haven't taken one yet. I don't have any excuse for that other than it just hasn't happened yet.

Elder Freeman is from sugar house in SLC. He is a happy jolly guy. Excited to do the work. Well prepared. We are glad to have him along. He also has bright red hair just like Elder Hegland predicted a week before we met him :P

Elder Mackey is from Manti UT. He knows many people from Delta so that would be a name to bounce to the kin folk there. Jordan Mackey. Got it? Good. He is a good missionary at least. We are doing our best to keep the zone on a good course. We disagree on a lot of things but it is all about compromise. We will see what happens.

Being in a singles ward is interesting. We spend a lot of time at the saddleback college institute. We attend different ward activities. We  have a lot of fun in the process. I mean I got to play ultimate Frisbee on Saturday morning for the first time in almost 2 years! I was so happy! The ward mission leader Scott Sylvia is like a second me. It's pretty interesting how alike we are.

Well that is a good idea of where I'm at now. Really looking for some new people to teach.  Love you all!  

--Elder Gemperline

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