Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Lots of Great Missionary Work Happening!

Hello Everyone!
 
I hope everyone is well! I haven't had a chance to send anything for the past two weeks so there may be a lot of information here.
 
2 weeks ago we were playing basketball and I popped my companion's shoulder out of socket.  He had done it before so we tried to put it back in but it wasn't working so we had to give him a blessing and then take him to the ER. We drove pretty quickly since he was in a lot of pain and almost blacking out but we eventually got him there and they fixed him up. Unfortunately hospitals are really slow so it took a huge chunk out of our P-day but he was OK which is the important thing.
 
Last week we did a couple service projects and one of them was cleaning the church.  It just so happens that the people in charge of organizing it own a professional cleaning business so they are very on top of things.  The church got very deep cleaned and air fresheners were even put up in the rafters as a finishing touch.  The next day the church was extra clean and even smelled better than normal and I felt like it made a difference in the day that was very noticeable.  We did another service project that involved taking a lot of yard waste to the dump.  I have never been to a dump before and I never want to go back! It was hard to breathe it smelled so bad.  It was very dusty and we had to breathe anyway so I spent a while when we got home cleaning out my nostrils an mouth of all the crap that I had to breathe in.
 
That night we had dinner with a family that has a son serving in Hermosillo, Mexico.  It was really fun to talk to them since Daniel Woolley is in that mission.  Their son reported to the MTC on February 8, 2011 (one week after I did) so I probably saw him at the MTC as well. They were a really nice family.
 
The past 2 weeks have been interesting working with a man named David Gaines (known as Dave the Philosopher).  Dave has been taught by missionaries for over a year and hasn't been baptized because he is an analytical, fact-based thinker and isn't very well acquainted with the faith and spiritual side of things.  My first week in the area we challenged him to be baptized on September 21st.  We have been working with him a lot and it is amazing to see the change he has made.  We've helped him out a lot and even did his laundry (full of cat hair) to help him come to church.  Last week he was interviewed by a member of the mission presidency and was approved for baptism.  He was baptized Sunday the 22nd and is going to be confirmed next Sunday.  It has been a miracle and I'm amazed at the changes that he's made in his life.
 
We've had a couple miracles the past few weeks. About a week ago we got a call from our bishop and he told us of a less active family he just heard about through a bishop in San Francisco and said we needed to go see them.  We met them and they were awesome! They have a 13 year old unbaptized daughter that we are going to baptize in October.
 
We met another lady named Theresa through the referral system.  We knocked on her door, she came out, we told her who we are and asked if she would be interested.  She surprised us both by saying "yes, I've been waiting for you".  We came back and taught her on Friday and the lesson went really well! She accepted the invitation to be baptized on October 19th! She loved everything and even cried. We got an interesting message from her on Sunday that may slow things down a little bit but she was definitely a miracle.
 
We have still been working with Mark Duanez. He is getting baptized on October 4th and is really excited. He came to church for the 2nd time on Sunday and is a great person. I love teaching him!
 
The last cool spiritual thing that happened to me was I got a letter from the Barajas family this past week. Haydee told me things were going really well and that her husband is starting to come to church and listening to the discussions! Andres and Grace have backed off a little bit which was sad to hear but I know sooner or later they will come around.  At the end of the letter Haydee bore her testimony to me very powerfully.  She followed up with me and told me that at her baptism she felt exactly the same as she had dreamed about.  She said she felt completely clean and wished she could go straight to heaven right then but knew it wasn't her time.  It was an awesome letter to get! I can't wait to see more good things happen with that family!
 
The end of the week was also the BYU v Utah game! Last year I didn't know about it since I was in Spanish work but this year being in English work everyone talked about it. We wore our red ties, and patiently awaited the ending results of the game and then screamed and yelled when we found out we won. It was a great week overall.
 
That's about it, hope everyone is well back home!
 
Les Quiero Mucho!
Elder Gaskill

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