Hello!
This last week has been great like
they all are! Here are some things that happened:
We had transfers. One of the sister missionaries that was
transferred was only one who could play the piano. So I might be playing the piano every once in
a while in sacrament meeting. Mom always told me when I was young that I needed
to learn to play so that when I went on my mission and nobody knew how to play
the piano that I would be able to play. I always said that would never happen
but it looks like I was wrong and she was right. Luckily they just installed
one of those new organs that play the songs by themselves and all you have to
do is press the key to give it a tempo. It is very loud though, and you
can't hear anybody singing over it so they are still looking for a
pianist. Right now I play all the
songs in district meetings and stuff like that but I'm not sure that I'm ready
for Sacrament Meeting yet. I can play probably 8 hymns that I know
already but I can't just sit down and play whatever hymn I want.
Last night I had to translate part
of a fireside into Spanish. So that was cool. We have lots of stake
leaders that come and speak in our ward and Bishop and Elder Guzman usually do
all the translating for that but last night was different. Instead of
standing at the pulpit and translating every sentence after he said it, we were
out in the hall with a microphone and we had to listen to what the speaker was
saying and translate it too. Some of the
members who came had headphones on and were listening to what we were
saying. It was really hard because while you are talking you also have to
listen to what they're saying and translate/say it at the same time. It
was really hard but they told me I did really well. We had 4 missionaries
there taking turns translating and it went pretty well.
We had a solar eclipse (or whichever eclipse is
the one that the moon goes in between the earth and sun) here in
California yesterday. It was pretty cool because I don't think I've ever
seen one before. You can only see it if you look at the sun but obviously
you can't just stare straight at the sun so a lot of people use mirrors (even
though that doesn't change anything), water, or a hole in a box to see the
effects. So we all put 4 pairs of sunglasses on and then you can look at
the sun because the only thing you can see through 4 pairs of sunglasses IS the
sun. So that was pretty cool. I tried to take some pictures so you will
be able to see those when I send them home.
This week my companion had to go to
a meeting and there was another missionary whose companion had to go to the
meeting so the two of us were companions for a day and we were in my
area. However, this missionary is brand new and is an English speaking elder
so doesn't speak any Spanish. So that was interesting. Even though
I am still in my 12 week training thing I was training another elder who had
only been in the mission for a day. Also I had a lot of responsibility
since he couldn't speak Spanish but I'm confident in my ability so it went
really well. We taught one lesson were I talked the whole time and it was
awesome. So that was a fun day! I
was glad to have my companion back later
in the day.
We also found out who the new sister
is in our district and she's the one from Colorado Springs! So that's cool, I
have no idea who she is though and we don't know any of the same people.
She lives up in Black Forest on a street named Snowman which I have no idea where
that is. I told her that one of my best friends lives off of Swan and she
said it was the next street over so I guess she lives pretty close to Michael!
So that was kind of cool that she probably only lives like 20 minutes away from
where I live.
I met my “Grandpa” in the mission this
week! In the mission your trainer is
your "dad" and so his trainer is your "grandpa". My
Grandpa's name is Elder Chirino and he just finished his service here in the
mission last week. He was going around with his dad and visiting all his
older areas and converts and when he came down to Stockton I got to meet
him. He's a really cool guy whose family is from El Salvador. He
thinks he'll probably be going to BYU soon so I'll get to see him more in a few
years when I go back to BYU.
We have an awesome member here who
was baptized in Honduras. She was
inactive for about 10 years after she moved here because she didn't know where
any of the churches were. We found here
last transfer and she is super awesome. This past week we had dinner with
her and her mother-in-law and sister-in-law who aren't members and a family
home evening after which was a lot of fun. During dinner we found out
that Jessica (the sister-in-law) and I are extremely close in age but I never
would have guessed that because she has a daughter who's probably about 4 or 5
already. She's going to school right now and studying English and she was
really surprised that I had started speaking Spanish 3 months ago because she's
been in English classes for about a year and doesn't speak that much. So it
sounds like I'm doing pretty well with the Spanish! Understanding people a lot
better these days!
Well that's about it! We're seeing
lots of progress here and are really optimistic about the area and doing
everything we can to find people who are "searchers" and have been
prepared to hear our message. Hope everything is well with everyone at home.
Les Quiero!
-Elder Gaskill
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