WELCOME to Elder John-Gregory Sierra's mission blog! For the next two years Elder Sierra will be serving as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the California Sacramento Mission. We hope you will enjoy his experiences, shared through weekly letters. We will post his letters each week and any pictures he may send.

Write Elder Sierra

WRITE ELDER SIERRA!

Missionaries love to get letters (and care packages)! If you'd like to write to Elder Sierra, please use the following addresses:

MISSION OFFICE:
Elder John-Gregory Sierra
California Sacramento Mission
8267 Deseret Ave
Fair Oaks, CA 95628

EMAIL:
john-gregory.sierra@myldsmail.net


Monday, October 13, 2014

THE FRUITS OF OUR LABOR
Letter from Sept 8, 2014

Hey Dad,

I'm doing great. Just realized in a few days I only got 5 months left, so its killing me inside. The finish line is getting ever more visible and it's a little scary. Not that I am dreading going home, but Sacramento Mission has been my home. I have a great family here, too. Of course, it's not the same, but I love them, nonetheless. It's been pretty crazy here in Stockton. We have a lot of families progressing and we are averaging about 25 lessons per week. For a couple weeks (for Spanish work) we were leading the mission for the amount of lessons we had. I was pretty proud of myself and my companion :) 
 
I love being able to work hard and see the fruits of my labor come alive as I work. The other day, we saw a kid walking from school and I just decided to stop him and talk to him about the gospel. His name is Treyvon Skelton. He is a senior in high school and was having a rough day. Ironically enough, he has a good life and nice family, but his problem is that he didn't understand what his purpose was in life and had thought several times about ending it. He couldn't find God in his life so he had wondered, "Then what's the point?". I felt impressed to say, "The point of it all is to be tested. This is our training ground Trey. Here we hone our talents and skills so that we can become joint-heirs with Christ. It's a monumental challenge bro, but its through Jesus' sacrifice that allows us to press forward. We weren't sent down here to fail. Our Father in Heaven has been guiding you and has heard your cries. His answer is the message of the restored gospel that we share. That is why I stopped you, so you could listen to what the light of his restored gospel brings." To make the story short, we taught him the Plan of Salvation and passed him off to other English elders. He has a date for the 4th of October and is very solid. That is the umpteenth time I have sent a referral and it automatically turns into a baptism. Kinda makes me want to do English work sometimes, but I love teaching in Spanish so much. I've gotten really good at it ( I can say that since I have become more fluent). I have gained a lot of confidence in my language lately. I have been speaking words that just flow off the tongue. Everyone just thinks because I'm half Cuban that I just learned it growing up, just to be utterly shocked when I tell them I learned in the field. I am pretty proud of what I have learned. I look forward to speaking Spanish to you all when I return home. That is the jist of what is going on right now. I love you very much and am trying to immerse myself and then some in the work, so I won't notice the time. But the problem is that I lose track of time and then realize that it's all slipping away!!! Love you all.

Elder Sierra
 
Mom got:
 
no jafarin joke!! (using disney to cover slang and bad words)...  the entire zone thought it was clever so they are doing it too.
You will hear "Son of a Pumba" or "You're a Mufasin' Rafiki" 
My favorite is, "Oh SIMBA"
 

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