MENTONE MISSION

Wow, this week was amazing. Started the week off with a Bible study at Ramzi Issi's house. It was so cool. They had a great Bible along with pistachios. They fed our group and we had a great time laughing and talking about Jesus. Later on this week we had a great retreat at the Mission Inn. Spa treatments, pool, free stuff, comfy room, the whole enchilada. Teddy really knew how to treat us out for all the hard work. Thanks for being a great man of God and a fun one to Ted. This Sabbath was the cherry on top. We had to say goodbye to church members that we have built lasting relationships with. God is great. He has blessed us with a great church family. He has shown His character through them and we have learned valuable lessons that will do much good in this life and the life to come. Happy week family. This is my last post so lates!

So Esperanza (my bible study contact) gave me a gift before I left :') I'm so thankful for having the privilege to see her grow in her understanding of the Bible, I'm going to miss studying with her. :')

We have had so much fun putting this series on for the Mentone church. It was so cool to learn how to work with church members along with learning more about getting a crowd excited. However, the best part about the entire thing was seeing new people come in our doors. Some came from fliers. Some came from a personal invitation but they all learned something new and convicting. I am glad to see many of my friends now set on the road to baptism. How awesome it is to meet someone at a door, see then come to church, then see them make decisions to follow Christ against their own beliefs and traditions (So much nail biting). Please continue to pray for the contacts that we are leaving here. They need much following up and encouragement as they make more decisions to follow Jesus.

The one to the left is Esperanza, she is one of Abraham's bible study contacts and the one to the right is Monica Rivas a church member at Mentone. Monica's first bible study with Esperanza after being introduced at church and becoming very good friends went awesome! They have a lot of things in common and one of them is the love for the Bible.

In this picture she is doing visitations with me and inviting people to the series.

Pray for our contacts. The one at the bottom is Adrian, I've been studying with him prophecy, Daniel 1,2 and we talked about what makes the SDA church different: the Sanctuary and the 2300 day prophecy, he was intrigued and made a decision to want to be part of this movement. He has come for 6 out of 7 meetings and is really enjoying them as well. I was really exited when he said he was going to take the challenge the Evangelist made to read the Bible every day for 30 days. He is looking for God, even though he is agnostic he is looking for an experience with Him so keep him in your prayers. This picture was a night that we didn't have a series, we celebrated his birthday and played the king of the jungle. 

Mythbuster: How to get to heaven. Powerful Message!

This week we finally started out evangelistic series. My bible study contact, Juan Espinoza, came and enjoyed it so much he said he would keep coming. Even after earlier in the week having to be taken to urgent care due to a chest pain he still made it a point to come to the series because i had invited him. He is accepting adventist teaching and even though he is just a baby christian he is understanding out doctrines at the series. He love to take notes and is holding onto everything. We are praying for his eventual decision for baptism even though Satan has made attacks on him.

Day off was amazing. Had a Bible study in the morning and went to Kasee's good bye party in the evening. Good bye Kasee! We're gunna miss ya!

Weekend was awesome! Had outreach with the church and on Sunday Loma Linda Academy students came to help pass out more flyers.

Week 4 in brief: We played settlers of Catan for the first time while spending time with church members on Saturday night. I can see why so many people love it. On Monday Jessica and I went to visit Hilen at the leadership practicum. It was truly a blessing as I got to work with Taja and Tina. We spent most of the week passing out fliers and on Thursday I (Gabriel) was able to have another bible study with this guy. I know its sort of weird that I took a picture of this guy over his shoulder while filling out his bible study guide but he is so awesome. His name is Juan Espinoza and he is barely learning the Bible. He is so open to what I am teaching him. Please pray for him as he is asking questions about the Sabbath already.

One more beautiful Sabbath at Mentone! :)

Bringing in the Sabbath with Larry.

This week has been tons of fun.we had lots of door knocking at the beginning, followed by some powerful Bible studies, then ended off with Larry Carter, Teddy, and David. Chinese food! Larry didn't get to go to a Bible study with either of us like he wanted but we enjoyed simply spending time with him. Check out our video.

Inviting everyone to the cooking seminar! Bridge events!