The last week was another great one!
Thanksgiving
was a great day! We went to Lodi and had Thanksgiving dinner with
the Rodriguez family. It wasn't a traditional Thanksgiving dinner but I
enjoyed it. We had a good spicy chicken in a red sauce instead of
turkey, and had lots of pasta/potato salads on the side with pumpkin pie
at the end. We ate a normal amount instead of stuffing our faces and
still felt good afterwards. Later on I missed the yams from the
traditional dinner we have at home but the most important part was
there: being thankful and being around the people you care about. It
was fun to be in the same home for both Thanksgivings on my mission.
Their extended family was there as well and it was good to see all of
them again. None of them are members so I enjoy exercising my influence
on them so hopefully later down the road it will add up and make a
difference.
We came home at about 7:00 and it was really weird not
having anything to do. As a missionary it kills me not being able to use
my time effectively and efficiently. My companion went to bed really
early and I spent a lot of time reading the Book of Mormon, going
through our area book, and cleaning. I still had time and had nothing
to do so I ended up tying every tie I have with a new knot I learned
from our investigator Josh (called the Trinity knot). I was really bored!
Eventually I sat down and began to look over pictures of my mission,
pictures from before, pictures with my family, etc and had a really good
reflective moment to think about all that I have in my life and
especially the many blessings I've seen on my mission. I was able to
notice a lot of changes that I've seen and then make plans to continue
to improve and set goals for where I want to be in the future. It was a
good, relaxing evening.
We were able to work hard the rest of the week. On Saturday
it was the last day of the month and we had a lot of miles saved up so
we decided to drive up to Galt and work there. We went through our list
of people to visit and no one was home. We decided to stop by the
Cardona's house to see if Brenda had any friends for us to go visit.
When we arrived she was anxiously awaiting to mailman because her
mission call is in the mail and she was waiting for it to arrive any
second. While we were there on the doorstep with her the mailman came
but sadly she didn't have her mission call. She decided to come out
with us and introduce us to one of her friends named Mariana. She was
nervous because she thought she was really Catholic but we talked to her
on her front porch for a while and she was really interested in our
message. She told us she had kind of distanced herself from the
Catholic church recently because she didn't feel comfortable there and
has started going to a few other churches with her friends and said she
would like to go with Brenda! Right now Brenda goes to the Lodi Spanish
branch so we'll have her come to the YSA a few times to help us out. It
was a great contact. Unfortunately about 20 family members were on
their way over when we showed up so we had to set up another appointment
for tomorrow that we are excited about. Brenda also took us to meet
another member who used to go to the branch but moved to Yuba city a
little before I got there. Between the two of them they thought of
about 8 more people in Galt that we should teach and we are excited to
meet them this week!
The rest of the week went
really well. Josh has learned almost everything from the missionary
lessons and is excited to be baptized at 1:00pm on December 14th.
He even fasted with us yesterday and made it the full 2 meals. He is
such an awesome guy and I feel very privileged to be one of the
missionaries teaching him.
Last night we didn't have a
dinner so we went to the Hixon's house. The Hixon family feeds all 8
missionaries in the Delta Spanish ward every Sunday
so Elder Fulks and I were excited to go back and see the family as well
as the current Spanish missionaries. Everyone in the family remembered
both of us, even the kids so that made us both happy. They Hixons have
a picture up of every missionary that has ever eaten dinner at their
house (starting from about 4 years ago) so they have pictures covering
the space right below the ceiling that goes all around their kitchen and
living room. It was weird to see how many missionaries have come since
I left Stockton in June 2012. It was also weird to see the pictures of
missionaries that I knew very well that finished their missions a long
time ago. It also felt like coming home and it was good to be back.
Things are going well in our
area and Elder Fulks and I feel very blessed. I feel especially blessed
because I have more time left than he does (he has 2 weeks left). We both
freaked out a little bit yesterday when it became December 1st because
with every new month comes the beginning of the end. I think I might
have a heart attack on New Years but I hope not. Right now I'm just
focused on one day at a time making each day the best it can be and
pouring out all my heart, might, mind, and strength into this work!
Les Quiero Mucho,
Elder Gaskill
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