Hello Everyone!
I hope all is well.
This
week was another great one! It's been full of memories. It's good to
be back in Stockton. The last time I was here was July of 2012 so it's
been a while. It's weird to drive around some of the same streets. We
mostly work on the northern side of the city, a different part than
where I served the first time. I know the main streets but am getting
to know everything a lot better. It was really weird to drive down to
the southern area to visit some people. We stopped by a few of the
Spanish members homes because they have kids that are YSA (Young Single Adult) age and we
wanted to invite them to some activities. It was great to see
everyone again. Elder Fulks and I both served in Delta South near the
beginning of our missions so the members remember both of us.
The work is very different
here. We work almost purely by referrals. Ideally we want the whole family to be interested so
we only get to teach them once the parents have expressed their
disinterest and then we take over teaching the YSA age young adults.
It's a lot harder to fill our time so we have to find ways to find new
people. There are two colleges here: Delta college and University of
the Pacific, however it's not very effective to walk around on campus
contacting people so we're trying some other ways.
We are working with a few cool
people. My first appointment in the area was with a young guy named
Josh. He doesn't really know anything about God or Jesus Christ so we
have been teaching him a lot. He loves everything we share with him and
after saying it a couple times it sticks with him. He accepted the
invitation to be baptized on December 7th
so we are excited to help him work towards that date. There is another
investigator named Tommy who was supposed to be baptized a few weeks
ago but had some problems come up so we are continuing to work with him
and help him get baptized the end of this month.
We also met a really
cool guy named Steve who is
dating a girl in Modesto who is a member of the church. He used to be a
Jehovah's Witness growing up but distanced himself from the church a
few years back because of "the politics". He loves everything and had
trouble accepting that Joseph Smith saw God because of the scriptures in
Exodus 33 that says "no man can see God and live". We hear that a lot
so it's easy to help people understand what the scriptures mean and
explain the First Vision a little better. There is also another guy
named Daniel who the missionaries were teaching but he disappeared for a
while. He showed up to church by himself yesterday and was really
excited to be back. He has figured a lot of things out and we are happy
to start working with him again.
I also got to see a few members
of the Lodi branch recently. Last night we went up and visited with
Juan, Jovita, and JJ Rodriguez (luckily JJ is in the YSA ward so it
gives us good reason to go visit the family). It was a very sweet
experience because yesterday was November 10th, exactly a year after the
day Juan and Jovita were baptized. I love that family so much and I am
so happy to see the progress they are making and the strength of their
testimonies. JJ's year anniversary is coming up on December 29th
so I will also be here for that. I think the plan is for the whole
family to go to the temple in January to get sealed. I hope the plan
sticks so I can still be here to accompany them to the temple!
Yesterday I also got to confer
the Aaronic Priesthood on a new member of the YSA ward named Carlos. He
was baptized about 2 weeks ago and I was surprised that he
picked me to perform the ordinance since I had only known him for 4 days. It was a really cool experience.
Things are going great and I am very happy to be a missionary!
Les Quiero Mucho!
Elder Gaskill
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