Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The rainy season is coming

Hello Everyone!
 
Today the rains came and it's starting to look a lot like fall (or so I hear).  It also looks a lot like Chicago in the spring when it rains a lot.  The best part is it's cooling down as well.  It's been hot since I got to Sacramento in April and at long last I'm stuck in colder weather.
 
The week started out interesting without a car.  We finally got back down to Elk Grove from Fair Oaks at about 7 in the evening.  The other Spanish missionaries dropped us off at our dinner and then we had a good lesson afterwards.  We left the lesson at about 9:10 and began the walk home. Our lesson was near the north border of our area and we live outside our area about in the middle but on the west side.  We arrived at our doorstep at 11:00 pm which wasn't too good because we're supposed to be home by 9:30 and in bed by 10:30.  The next day we didn't do too much teaching because we were walking most of the day.  It was pretty hot too.  I enjoyed being outside the whole day but I would have enjoyed doing more missionary work instead.  Luckily, after we had walked about 2 miles an investigator happened to drive by and he turned around, picked us up, and took us to our first appointment which was another few miles away.  We taught a lesson to the Lopez family that they really liked.  One of the girls when we were bearing our testimonies asked "what would happen if I 'knew,' like you guys do that these things were true?" It was the perfect question and we talked to her about the last paragraph of the introduction to the Book of Mormon and what that knowledge would lead her to do. Unfortunately we had to get out of there quickly because we were in the corner of our area, it was already 9:30, and the Hmong missionaries that we live with were waiting for us to give us a ride home (we didn't want to come home after 11pm again).
 
We got the Lopez family to come play soccer with us on Thursday night and it was a lot of fun.  The two older girls didn't move too much while they played but their 12 year old brother really liked it.  Stephanie, the 10 year old didn't like it very much because she's really shy.  I told her that next week I would put on a really cool half time show with dancing, music, and lots of flashing lights to make it more interesting.  I also told her I would bring her food and she was excited about that.  So sometime this week I will have to figure out a half time show where I can make people laugh by making a fool of myself while also obeying all the missionary rules.  It will be interesting for sure.
 
On Saturday we helped out a recent convert by washing, waxing, and cleaning out his new (old '89 Toyota) car.  It was great.  We also helped fix some roofing on his shed in the back which was good because it's going to be raining a lot this week.  That evening we went up to do a temple tour for Racquelle that also went very well.  The temple is always beautiful but it was great to see it when the sun was setting and at night with all the lights on.  We also met a really cool guy in his late 50s that served his mission in Central America.  He spoke Spanish really well still and was a really funny guy.  He told us he has a daughter that is serving a mission in Latvia that I probably met once or twice because she came to the MTC two weeks after I did, was learning a language that the only taught on the floor above mine, and was in the MTC Choir that went to conference.  The spirit is slowly putting up a veil of forgetfulness on my mind of anything that happened before I got to Sacramento but it was cool to see how small the world is.
 
The Elk Grove Stake had stake conference yesterday and it was really good.  It's hard to get investigators there but I learned a lot so it was great.  We found some new Spanish families that go to English wards but want to invite us over to eat and are also willing to go to lessons with us which is really cool.  We also got to spend the rest of the day in Wilton afterwards.  We had a really good time eating dinner with Bishop Almendariz and his wife and then looking for Spanish people out in the rich area of Wilton.  We actually found a lot of really cool people that are Spanish speakers that we'll be going back to find in the future.
 
This transfer is ending kind of slowly and there have been a few problems here but I'm trying my best to work on my patience.  The hardest part is that I have to be loyal to my companion even when he's wrong, and it's getting us into problems with our zone leaders and the assistants.  Luckily everyone knows that I'm trying my best to cooperate and be a good influence.  This last week is going to be long but I will get through it and be a lot better off afterwards.
 
I love you all and hope all is well!
Les Quiero!
-Elder Gaskill

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