This week went great.
The best
day of this week was when I went on exchanges with Elder Torres in
Rancho Cordova. I love Elder Torres and I always have the best
days with him. We taught a lot of people but one of my favorites was this: We taught 2 people about the Restoration and it went really great. The
Spirit was probably the strongest of any lesson I have felt in a long
time. We were teaching in English (which both of us prefer) so we were
able to 100% focus on listening to the Spirit, asking inspired
questions, and teaching to the needs of the people there. It was a
really good lesson and all of the family there felt the Spirit.
They had a lot of really good questions and really understood
everything. The dad came home and they all had to leave
with him all of a sudden but we had almost finished so it was still good
timing. We left the lesson feeling great and the family was excited
for us to come back. We visited a lot more people and taught a lot more
lessons but that was the highlight of the day.
This week we started teaching more of the Lopez family. We had
found the 19 year old daughter Susanna on Sunday and we went back on
Tuesday and started teaching her 2 sisters, her brother, and a
"roommate" that is living with the family. It was really interesting
how we started out with 2 of them and slowly the kids started
congregating because something caught their interest. We answered a lot
of questions regarding the Godhead, the Creation, "Santos" (in Latino
culture everybody is Catholic and worships the virgin Maria or a variety
of other saints), Baptism/baby baptism, etc and they were all really
interested. We went back on Thursday and just taught the 3 girls
outside but we were impressed that they stood outside with us for an
hour even though it was really cold that day. On Saturday they invited
us over for a big party they threw at their house. In the Spanish
culture there are a lot of parties, usually for kids birthdays but what
they do is rent a big bouncy castle, set up tables and make really good
food. Then the kids entertain themselves while the parents drink and
party into the late hours of the night. We went over there and met
their parents (finally) and talked to a lot of their friends and
neighbors. It was a lot of fun and good for meeting new people to teach
as well. Unfortunately the kids couldn't come to church because they
were leaving all day Sunday to go visit family but hopefully they'll be
able to come this next week.
This week I was really happy to get some news about our recent
convert Federico. We heard that he and his little brother are still
praying a lot and refuse to eat a meal without praying. They also read
the Book of Mormon too when they can (but they're pretty young still so
they don't do that a lot).
We met one of our member's neighbors named Mike last Saturday and
went back to teach him this week. His wife is Catholic and
usually doesn't let anybody in the house but she let us in and actually
stayed and participated. Mike told us the day after he had a
miracle that he knew was because of us. He had his license
suspended since 2010 because of inability to make child support payments
and the day after we came he went to try to clear it up and the person
decided to clear him completely and give his license back. He was very
happy with us and was excited to listen more to us. He came with us to
church this weekend and really loved it. We found a unique problem
though that I have never found before: someone who wants to come to
church but there isn't a ward to accommodate his needs. He doesn't
speak Spanish very well but his wife barely speaks English. He can only
come to church after 12 o'clock because he has to take care of his wife
and the only wards at 1:00 are Spanish and YSA wards. We talked to our
Mission President and determined the best thing for him would be to
have him come to our ward and just translate for him. He didn't
understand very much in church yesterday but loved it.
Elder Rivera and I sang in church yesterday as
well! We sang "Abide With Me" in Spanish. It went really well. We
didn't have any time to practice so we just figured out what we were
doing 10 minutes before sacrament meeting started. I sang the bass
line, Elder Rivera sang the melody, and our bishop's wife offered her
help and sang the alto line. We did it all acapella and it sounded
really good! If I could have recorded it I would have but the ward
really loved it so I'm assuming it was good.
This next week is going to be interesting. Today we are up at the
mission home and our car decided to break down on us. It's stuck in
reverse and won't switch gears because the shifter cable broke.
Apparently they have to special order that part and we'll be without a
car for about a week. That's alright with me except that 1) my companion
doesn't have a bike and 2) he's physically "incapable" of riding a bike
because of his knees. We cover a really large area that's an entire
stake so I have no idea how we're going to do our work but we'll figure
out a way. I'll let everyone know next week how it went (:
I love you all. Hope everything is well!
Les Quiero!
-Elder Gaskill
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