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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