Avalon Week 13

I am doing well thank you! I'm a little tired because of the time change, but other than that I'm doing well. Elder Taylor and I are getting along well and striving to work hard here while the day lasts! The weather was starting to look good then it started to snow, then it melted, then it got really cold yesterday, now the sun is somewhat shining, so we're having somewhatofa roller coaster when it comes to the weather.  As to what we've been up to, just the same great thing we get to do everyday! Share the gospel! Here's what happened this week:

This week we had a successful week in helping people come out to church, as well as picking up new investigators. The investigators (3) that were able to come out to church said that they had a great time. One, Danielle S..., just randomly came to church last week and came again this week. She moved here from Altoona and has done A LOT of studying about the church and even the standard works. Apparently she had been taught a couple of times by missionaries in Altoona and since then she has read the whole Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and she’s almost done with the Doctrine and Covenants!!!! Not to mention she told us that she’s read Preach My Gospel as well!! I’ve never met a Non-Member who has done that much reading and studying!! So we set an appointment with her this Thursday and plan on setting her with a baptismal date for within the next 2 weeks because she's come out to church for 2 weeks now. So that is really exciting!

With the other 3 new investigators, one is an 11 year old girl, Abby R..., of an active couple that we started teaching (she had been taught in the past but hasn't been taught for some months) she’s really cool, she would have been baptized a while ago but her biological mother won’t allow it for now. The other 2 are a sister and friend of a former investigator, Kat F... (catfisher, get it? Like dad! J ) and her friend Jess. They are really cool, when we were teaching Julie F..., Kat’s sister, she said that Kat was an atheist and a lost cause, so when we met her and found that she is heavily involved with a church youth group we were a bit surprised. Plus, after talking with her she was interested in hearing about the Book of Mormon, so last Tuesday we were able to teach her about that. We dropped Jeff and Brian as investigators because they’re really not that reliable and didn’t seem like they wanted to change, so that was a bummer.

The C......s are doing well. Sis C..... talked to us about getting her children baptized!! Apparently her brother was re-activated and got the priesthood restored to him, so he’s able to baptize. So she wants them baptized by him out in Ohio, which is a little odd and we’re not sure if that’s allowed or not having them baptized not in the ward that they reside. It’s exciting that they want to get baptized but we need to figure out what’s going to happen where it takes place.

Our week was pretty great I would say. It was an absolute tender mercy and blessing that Danielle came to church and is so prepared! I was getting kind of down on myself and discouraged because I hadn't seen a baptism in a little over 10 months. I know baptisms aren't a measure of success but it's kind of hard when it's been that long. But I know that the Lord is aware of my situation and the desires of my heart, and I feel that this is a great blessing that was received from Him. Now I just need to do my part to make sure everything goes well. :) Please continue to pray for me, it is much appreciated!

I love you and miss you mom and hope that everything goes well for you this next week!

love,

Elder Benjamin Serrano

Avalon Week 12

Yes yes! it's the end of another Transfer, and I'm started number 10 of 17! So I'll be staying in Avalon with Elder Taylor for this up coming transfer! I'm pretty excited, he's a great missionary to work with. Being a ZL, we get told who is getting transferred in our zone and that's pretty much it (I asked him if he had any inside info regarding transfers since he's a zone leader). Not who's going where, which would be nice. You only get told that if you're really close with the Assistants to the President (AP's) and even they're told not to tell anyone. So usually it's an unknown thing as to who goes where. But I'm staying, and I'm happy about that. (I also asked him about ZL duties) Also ZL's collect all the numbers for their zones and report them. We also go on a lot of exchanges with other missionaries, where I would go and exchange spots with another missionary in a different area for about 24 hours and use that time to work in that area and train the missionary I'm with. So that's fun. We also get to meet with the stake president once a month to discuss the happenings in the zone (The zone boundaries are the stake boundaries): how many recent converts and their status, how the ward mission process is going, how many member referrals we received from people, etc. I actually haven't had the opportunity to go to one of those meetings in the 3 months I've been a ZL Things just keep happening to where it has to be canceled.

There's actually a missionary coming out to our mission that is one of my friends from back at MV!! His name is Keeton Stewart, and we graduated together. It's really cool because we receive a little paper that has all the people coming in and going out so we get to see the new missionaries' pictures and I was like hey I know this kid! And it said that he's from Orem!! It'll be pretty exciting to be able to see him because there's a slight possibility that we'll be going to the transfer meeting tomorrow, and there is a possibility that he'll be coming to my zone/district because there are 2 missionaries that have been assigned to be trainers, and there's only about 5-6 missionaries coming out. It's pretty cool!

In other news: Since President Summerhays is going home in July, there are some missionaries that are excited for the music restrictions (only MoTab, hymns, and classical music) to be lifted upon the arrival of the new mission president, President Topham. Due to that concern, myself, another missionary and the AP's have been assigned to be on the music committee to determine a new set of rules. This has been established in the hopes that we can come out with a new, more "relaxed" set of rules, that are specific and defined, so that it will reduce the anticipated explosive effect of removing this particular restriction. The restriction was put in place because missionaries in the past had abused the mission standard of music as far as to listen to bands like "The Killers" on grounds of "the lead singer is a Mormon." Ridiculous. So we are establishing a new law so that we can slowly drain the reservoir, as opposed to removing the dam completely. It's hard determining what music will be appropriate or not so we'll be having a conference call later tonight to brainstorm ideas and boundaries. Fun!

This week was a relatively good/odd week for us! We received 11 referrals this week which was an amazing thing that we got 10 of them from one of our members. We had dinner with this family, shared a lesson, then a couple days later tracted their street. We reported our findings which weren't very much. Then on Sunday the Mom from that family came up to us and handed us a little piece of paper that had 10 addresses of people in her neighborhood that she wanted us to go and visit! It was incredible! From those 10 names we received we were able to contact 9 of them; 1 was said that we could come back and another wasn't home at the moment. That was a wonderful blessing that we received from that member! What a great experience! We also had one of our part member families come out to church this week! They are the C......... and they are a great family. Sis. C........ is the only member in the family and her husband, Jeremy and their 2 kids aren't members either. It was great to see them out to church and they said that they really enjoyed it! We've been working with them for the past couple of months and we have discussed baptism with them a few times, and they said that they would like to but need to discuss it as a family more. However it is something that they want for their kids.

I think I'll wrap this one up, it's relatively long. :)
The church is absolutely true! I love it! I love being a missionary!

Love,
3LD3R 83NJAM!N 53RRAN0
These are from his memory card with no explanation so I'm guessing at the caption.

Elders Serrano and Lee on their way to work.

Day of Transfers-Good Bye Elder Lee

The district or zone or maybe just a group

Snow Day in Wexford

Snowy apartment parking lot

Avalon Week 11

It sounds like you had a pretty cool week this past week. My week hasn't been as eventful, so if this e-mail sounds very bland, it's because our week was relatively bland.

-At one of our investigators house, Brian, we went to an appointment and were going to watch the Restoration DVD with him as a part of our lesson. He had a couple other people over at his house that were just completely drunk. And during the movie one of the ladies, who is probably in her 50's or so started yelling and cussing at our investigator and he ended up getting mad, and then that lady gets up and starts smacking our investigator in the face! He just took it because, I think he knew better than to hit her back. Anyway, when that started happening, we just up and left! The Spirit was NOT there and we thought it would be best if we got out of that house before anything else happened. We left the DVD playing and got out of there. On the way out to the car we started laughing like, what just happened in there? So I think it will be a while before we go back there. Hopefully when we do it'll be a quiet environment.

-Oh yeah, I just got your email about the new mission president! Yeah we're going to get a new mission president! President Summerhays will go home in the beginning of July so we'll be getting Pres. Topham here to govern the work in this mission. It's pretty weird and exciting at the same time. I'll have a new mission president for the last 6 months of my mission. I wonder how much it will change. Guaranteed they have completely different ways of doing things and it will take some getting used to especially for the Zone Leaders since we work so closely with the President in our callings. So that will be exciting. :)

-Today and last night we got A TON of rain! This morning we got a call saying that Stephine's house's basement was getting flooded out and that we need to get over there and help move some things. We got there and there was at least 3-4 inches of water in one part of the basement and we got some buckets, stood in the freezing cold water, and started dumping all the water into this big washing sink that was in the basement. Now we just got a call from one of the older ladies in the ward that her basement is flooded too and we need to help her out. At any rate we were driving home this morning and we saw big parking lot off the side of the road that got completely flooded too in the middle part of it. So we decided to take a few runs through the big puddle :) You'll see it on the memory card that I plan on sending off today. :)

-None of our investigators came to church this week which was a bummer... The ones that we are working with have some potential but not a whole lot. The A... family is doing okay. We have a good relationship with them, they love the church, they love the people, they love the Book of Mormon, but they said that they won't get baptized because the church they go to is in their language and it's the one that they know the most. We're still going to help them out as best as we can on a weekly basis. They said that they'll still come to church and what not but they don't think they'll get baptized... yet. They're awesome, I just wish I could speak Arabic....

Well mom that's about it for this week. Like I said, not much has happened. I am loving the scriptures more and more everyday! It's really a bummer if there ever is a morning that I don't get to study as much as I would like to have, like today. They are the best! They are true! I love you and miss you Mom!

Love,
Elder Benjamin

Avalon Week 10

So our investigators are doing well. Stephine finally came to church again! It was so awesome to see her there! There is a member that moved into our ward that is really close friends with her dad. So she will be a great influence on getting her out to church! She'll be baptized soon I hope. She called us up last Friday and asked if she could be baptized the next day/Saturday! We were happy that she really had that great desire but when I asked how long she had quit smoking for, she said 8 hours, which isn't long at all. I had to lovingly explain to her that one has to be ready and worthy to get baptized and 8 hours clean of smoking isn't enough. She understood and was able to make it out to church. Hopefully that will give her more strength to overcome the temptations. It's incredible what church will do for someone's ability to resist temptations. Emil and Mona weren't able to make it to church due to some family visiting so we'll be meeting with them this Saturday and they'll for sure be coming out to church more. Emil really loves the Book of Mormon and said that he'll have most of it read by the time Saturday rolls around so that's really exciting! Some of our investigators we haven't been able to see in a while so there's not much to report there but we were able to find 2 more investigators this week, so that was exciting.

Other than that this week really wasn't that eventful. There weren't too many things that happened of note. So I
guess I'll just close this letter for this week. Well that's all for this week! love you! Take care!

Love,
Elder Benjamin Serrano

Avalon Week 9

Elders Taylor and Serrano

It sounds like you had a pretty good week over there in the west! This week was pretty much awesome as well!  It's so crazy that Nate is going to be 22! Wow!  I remember last year when I was in the MTC I got him a box of teddy grahams! And I think that sister.... oh man I forgot her name. but she delivered it for me! I feel bad that I forgot her name, it's in my brain somewhere. Anyway you know who she is. :) (Sister Church-SS)

We were able to pick up 3 new investigators and we were able to have 5 investigators out to church this week!! We would have had Chis with a baptismal date but his grandma, who is a member, discouraged him from coming because his kids were sick. That was a bummer because we can't set him with a date unless he comes to church consistently.  Emil and Mona A..., came to church and the ward did a wonderful job at welcoming them and helping them feel at home. They said that they real enjoyed it and hopefully we will be able to see them out next week. The other 3 are some eternal part-member families that came this week. We're still working with them and finding ways to be able to help them to progress. The 3 new investigators that we picked up are cool people too! We got 2 of them last night when it was about 8:15pm and we were out and Elder Taylor wanted to get 2 new investigators. He wanted to tract but I thought it was too late for that right now so we brainstormed. A name of a guy that I had talked to 2 days back came into mind so we decided to try him anyway. We get to his house and some guy answers the door (not Jeff who we are looking for) and we ask if Jeff is there, he says no, and I proceed to do a regular Door approach, (we're missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ.... etc.) And he says, hey guys why don't you come in, it's cold outside. So we did and guess who was sitting on the couch? Jeff!! The guy that answered the door said that he doesn't let just anyone in who is looking for his brother Jeff, but once we started talking about Jesus he was more than happy to let us in. We were able to teach them and it turns out that Brian, the one who answered to door, had met with missionaries about 20 years ago, but didn't want to stop smoking and drinking at the time. He knows about the Book of Mormon and we gave him a new copy because he had misplaced his. It was a wonderful opportunity because we accomplished our goal of getting 2 new investigators last night because of the Spirit's influence!

 I'm really enjoying serving with Elder Taylor and hope to be able to serve with him another transfer, we're working hard and are starting to see some success here! I'm also really enjoying reading the Book of Mormon more and more everyday! I'm a little behind but am working hard to catch up on it. I really feel the Spirit when I read it and I love it. Things that I haven't noticed or things I forgot, come back to me and it's true when one says that they are living scriptures. The church is true! I know it is!

Happy Valentines Day mom!

Love.
Elder Benjamin Serrano

Avalon Week 8

Too bad for the Steelers.... It's a gloomier day here in Pennsylvania. Nobody is smiling, and outside, you could hear men, women, and children crying on the streets after the game, fanatics yelling at their TV to help the defense out. But sadly they lost the Super Bowl XLV. Well maybe next year. Last night the mission President asked us to be inside by 6 pm. because of the super bowl. He didn't want us out doing stuff while
the Pittsburghers are watching their form of General Conference.

Alrighty! So this week was a great week! We had a great time at church yesterday because 3 of our investigators came out to church! 2 of them missionaries have been working with for a long time and they are
progressing slowly. They've come out to church many times before and they're doing okay. The third one though was way awesome! His name is Chris M and he's a great guy. He's married to a less active member of
the church, and we've been meeting with him for a while. I don't know if I've told you about them before or not. Anyway We've been trying to get him out to church for the past 7 weeks or so and he hasn't come, each
time he promised to come too. Anyway, the whole family showed up! Chris, his wife Charmaine, and their little kids! The ward did a great job friendshipping them and being way nice to them. And another thing that
was way awesome that happened this week! I want to share an experience that really strengthened my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. We have an investigator family called the A... family. They are from Egypt and moved here to America about a year and a half ago. We tracted into them and found that were very receptive. Since they are Egyptian they don't speak english very well. It's broken and we can somewhat communicate but there is a barrier there for sure. The hardest part was that they couldn't read english well at all; one line per day is what they said. So we called the office and had them get us a copy of
the Book of Mormon in Arabic and it just so happened that they had one on hand in the office. We got it and delivered it. On Saturday we went to see how their reading went. Mona (the mom) expressed to us that she
read the introduction, testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and 16 pages of 1 Nephi. She said that she felt in her heart that the book is true! Though we have a language barrier, the Spirit speaks in all languages and testified of the truthfulness to her. It was a wonderful experience! They promised to come to church this next week and I'm positive that they'll progress and eventually enter into the waters of baptism :)!!!!!!!

So for my year mark, Elder Taylor took me out to eat at Applebees! He's a great guy and I really enjoy serving with him! It's a wonderful blessing to be able to have a companion that cares and has great faith. We're having a great time together and are positive that we'll see some great things happen this transfer. Not much else happened this week. I've been out for a little over a year now! How fun is that! It has been a great first year! I have learned so much when I look back on it and I have experienced a lot too while I've been in the few areas in my mission. I love it very much! Serving a mission has been the best decision I've made!

Love,
Elder Benjamin Serrano

Avalon Week 7

WOW one year already?? That's a cool picture of the shirt (Ben's countdown shirt). It looks like you wrote some comments by some of the dots. I'm guessing those are transfers and what not? At any rate it's half way filled out! I like the tie especially. :) It looks like the Steelers! (of course).

Oh speaking of Steelers! So this Tuesday was transfers and I got my new companion Elder Taylor, and guess who was feeding us that Tuesday night? Chris Hoke, #76, Defensive Tackle for the Steelers. Yup! There's a Steeler in the ward here and he's really nice! His family is really energetic and nice as well. He played for BYU and went on a mission to France. It was way awesome, and we had a great time there. He's probably on his way right now to Texas for the Superbowl next Sunday! Too bad I get to miss it this year, hopefully I'll get to catch it next year.

So my new companion is Elder Tyler Taylor from North Carolina. He's way awesome! He has a lot of faith, works really hard, and is a health/exercise nut. So I'll be eating healthier and getting buff this transfer :) We've already started doing this workout call P90X.  I don't know if you've heard of it but it's super intense. He's got me getting up early every morning and after the work out, protein shake! We're getting along great and we teach together well too. We're way happy to be serving together, and pumped to get working this transfer! We're going to see some good things happen, that's for sure!

So as for our investigators... They're doing okay. Stephine seems to be avoiding us which is a bummer, same with some other people. We had some good things set up last week but things just fell through and we didn't really find any new investigators... but we did get the Arabic copy of the book of Mormon! We took it by the Aziz family (that's their last name) and dropped it off. They were very excited to be able to read it. Mona, the mom, said that Emil, the dad, could read a book in 3-4 days and that's what he expected to do with the book of Mormon. We're very excited to find out what happens with them! They're probably the most promising out of all the people we're working with. And that's fine! I really like them, they're a great family! I hope that they gain a testimony of the book of Mormon that would be great!

Well that's pretty much it for this week. The church is true and I love it!  I'll be thinkin of you on Thursday :)

Love

Elder Benjamin