Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Sprint to the End!

Hello Everyone!
This week was another great week.
Elder Gilray and I have been continuing to work our butts off and give it all whenever we can.  We've done a lot of teaching and lots of finding.
 
We have been continuing to work with Brandon Owens.  He is going to get baptized this Saturday and I can't wait! It's going to be a great service. He is very prepared and loves to learn and study and he understands everything so well. This week we found out how old he is. He seems so mature that Elder Gilray and I both thought he was 22 or 23 but it turns out he's our age, 21 and turns 22 in May.  I'm excited to always stay in touch with him and see what's all going on in his life.  He is very much converted to the gospel and ready to be baptized this Saturday.
 
We weren't able to see Brandon Jones too much this week but he is working on quitting smoking. He still has plenty of work to do and we are helping him as much as we can.
 
Kenneth has been doing well as well. He went a few days without smoking but then had a cigarette the past 2 days. He really wants to get baptized and last night we set the tone with him so he can be ready for his baptism on January 26th.  Unfortunately he didn't make it to church because Josh was sick and he couldn't find his church clothes and we didn't know that was the problem until last night.
 
We have been working with a guy named Luis this week.  He really wants to get answers to his questions and keep learning. He feels the spirit every time we go over there, we just have to help him do his homework and make it to church at the end of the week.
 
We finally found Tara again. She was sick for a while and gone for most of the holidays but we found her and were able to talk to her again. On Saturday we helped put together some shelving so she can keep her snakes/cages more organized. She's excited to start meeting with us again and come to church and activities.
We also saw a huge difference in one of our new investigators named Nati. He changed completely in the week and a half that we didn't see him. He had almost completely stopped drinking and was very humble. He felt the spirit when we taught him and even committed to come to church yesterday. He came and hated it but that was OK. He was a little bit drunk and you could tell he felt very uncomfortable there (the Spirit/your own conscience will do that to you!).  He still wants to meet with us and tonight we will talk to him a little bit more.
 
We got to do two exchanges this week and that was a lot of fun. The first was with one of the district leaders in our zone and his brand new companion. They have been struggling the last 2 transfers to get anything done but we had amazing days with both of them. I brought the district leader to my area and showed him what we were doing and he was amazed and learned a lot. Elder Gilray went to their area with his companion and showed him all the work they could be doing in their area. The rest of the week they were on fire and were very productive and we were very happy to the be the spark.
 
The other exchange was with Elder Gurr, one of the assistants to the President. I always love being around Elder Gurr because he is one of the first people I knew in Sacramento. We sat next to each other on the plane ride from the MTC to Sacramento and got to  know each other very well. We had an awesome day with him and were able to learn a lot.
 
The end of the week was a lot of fun. It was Jovita's birthday so we went to their house to celebrate. We also had dinner with the Barajas family last night. They showed us all their pictures/videos from their trip to Mexico and continued to emphasize how much we missed out.  Hermana Barajas is trying to set us up with her family members too. She has a sister who's 21 and she said she's going to set her up with Elder Gilray some day because she's too tall for me but not for him. She said she's going to set me up with one of her cousins that's the better looking one of the two. Ha ha it was really funny to listen to that conversation because it's apparent how much they like Elder Gilray and I and want us to be part of the family.
 
We are continuing to work hard and are looking for more baptisms apart from the next two weeks so that when I leave it's the worst day of my mission because the area is doing so well that it will just kill me to have to leave.
 
I hope all is well! Les Quiero Mucho!
Elder Gaskill

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