Lessons Learned

Hello everyone!

 

I've realized recently that every week I sit down and try to think of what to write in an email and everything seems really repetitive and I get bored of writing it so I think I'll start sharing the out of the ordinary experiences and some of the lessons I've learned.

 

This past Saturday I got to go back to Lodi again to see the baptism of Martin Diaz (Hermana Diaz' son) that we were teaching and that was great.  I was very happy to see him getting baptized.  He has a few problems because of an accident when he was about 10 years old but he still is very intelligent and has one of the sweetest spirits that I've ever met.  The greatest joy of all was seeing my recent converts and learning  that everyone is still active in the church.  Jovita and Juan are doing great and getting ready to go to the temple.  Their son Alan in Florida is 20 and getting married in the Tampa temple in May so unfortunately they won't be able to go because they were only baptized in November but they are very excited for the day they can go to the temple!  Their son JJ was drifting away for a little bit but now he's back and strong and even has interest in a girl in the Young Single Adult ward and he wants to serve a mission! Jorge Guzman moved to Stockton but he is going to church either in Lodi still or Stockton every week.  The missionaries told me they gave him my phone number so he could call me but I haven't heard from him yet.  Arturo and his family are doing great in Mexico.  The Mendoza family is still active and working towards the temple.  The Ortega family is probably the strongest of them all.  It was a great experience to see all the people that I feel like are part of my family doing so well!

 

The lesson that I learned (that I've learned before but was reminded of again) is that a lot of the most solid people we meet will be getting baptized by other missionaries.  On Saturday we helped move a Spanish lady out of her house because she doesn't have work or a home anymore (long story) so she's moving back to Fresno.  We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and I was prompted to write my testimony in it that hopefully she'll read soon in Fresno.  Her friend from Sacramento came up to help her and it turns out she is really interested in the message.  She wants to find the truth and loved everything we shared with her.  She lives in a private area that missionaries would never be able to get into unless they had someone's specific information.  I can't wait to hear some day down the road that she got baptized.  It's hard when you don't have a lot of success but it seems like the baptisms each set of missionaries get come through the hard work of other missionaries and they may not get to harvest the fruits at the end of it.

 

Well that's my lesson learned for the week.  Hope you enjoyed it! Everything is going great up here! I am very excited for Easter this week and General Conference the following week!

 

Les Quiero Mucho!

Elder Gaskill