Hello Everyone!
This week went pretty well. Elder Hernandez and I are
getting along really well and doing some good work. I don't know if I
wrote very much about him last week but he is from Orange County in
Southern California. He was born in Sonora, Mexico and came to the
United States when he was 3 so he pretty much was raised here and just
knows Spanish from speaking it at home with his family. He's a cool
guy, doesn't really play any sports but is a nice guy, the
stereotypical California kid.
We had a really good lesson with Arturo this week. We keep challenging
him to get baptized and he always says he's not really sure and doesn't
want to make any decision until he's sure and he can talk it over with
his family. Elder Hernandez and I went over there and we taught him
about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he understood it really well. At
the end of the lesson we all knelt down and took turns saying a prayer
and then being quiet and listening. There were 3 ladies in the other
room being really loud and laughing but the Spirit was still there. At
the end we sat down again and bore testimony and I could tell something
had definitely changed in him. Normally he always looks at us as we
talk to him but this time he was just staring down at his hands and
listening to what we said. Afterwards I told him I knew he was going to
get baptized and he told me it was true, so I made him promise me that
he won't deny the Spirit and that when it tells him he needs to get
baptized that he will listen, to which he said he would. He goes back
home in about 2 weeks and I hope he decides to get baptized before then
but if not I know he will get baptized back in Mexico. His family is
coming up on the 21st to spend the rest of the year between L.A. and
here and so I'll get to meet his family soon too. If Arturo doesn't get
baptized here some missionaries in Ensenada, Mexico are going to get
really lucky because he'll get baptized really soon and he has an
awesome family so they'll get 4 more baptisms on top of that. The most
important thing is that he gets baptized and I just hope we can stay in
touch after he goes back.
We also have a really solid investigator that will probably get baptized
in Mexico too. She loves the church, and loves anything you tell her
about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. She just has trouble coming to
church because she's an old Grandma that has lots of physical health
problems so she can't be by herself. We taught her about the Word of
Wisdom a few days ago and the only problem she had was with coffee
because that's how she gets the medication she needs (through a special
type) for her bone health, but she told us that she would stop drinking
that and start taking the pills that do the same thing even though she
doesn't like taking them. She is a really solid investigator but lives
in Mexico and is going back in 2 weeks as well. She is just going home
long enough to get her VISA renewed but she might very well get baptized
while she's there. She wants to get baptized but she needs to come to
church more first and hasn't been able to in her situation. She thinks
it will take about 2 months to get her VISA renewed so she might come
back here to get baptized too because she really liked Elder Martinez
and I and wants one of us to baptize her. We'll see how that plays out.
There were lots of Ward Christmas Dinners this weekend and that was
fun. We went to our branch's dinner and an English ward's dinner and
there was definitely a huge difference in the livelihood and "alegria"
that was there. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to go back to
an English Ward after my mission. It was a lot of fun and the member's
brought a couple friends that we're going to start teaching and
hopefully they'll be really interested in the gospel.
Last night we had a big fireside that we have been planning for a
while. Our ward mission leader's son served a mission in Ukraine and
married a girl from out there, so him, his wife, and his sister in law
flew out from BYU for a weekend to do this fireside. He is a really
good singer and they are really good on the piano and on the violin so
the fireside was a musical fireside with Christmas/Classical songs that
featured a combination of voice, violin, and piano. It was really good.
They recorded the fireside so I am going to try to get a couple copies
of it to keep and send home. It was a whole stake event and they
advertised it in the newspaper so there were a lot of non-members that
came. Hopefully some of those people were touched by the
fireside and decide to listen to the missionaries and accept the gospel
that will make them truly happy.
This week has been great, Christmas time is coming up and I hope you all are remembering the true spirit of Christmas!
Les Quiero Mucho!
Elder Gaskill
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