Wow! I Can't Believe he didn't mention one thing about coming home in 10 days!

Hello everyone!

 

I'll be pretty brief in how things are going.

 

Bradon Owens' baptism was great! There were a lot of people there (because he is dating a Hmong girl in the Asian branch so lots of members from that congregation came as well). Elder Gilray baptized him and I confirmed him the next day.  We also sang "We'll Bring the World His Truth" at the baptism and that went really well.  The best part was when Brandon bore his testimony at the end.  He talked about the story in the New Testament when Christ's apostles were toiling in the storm trying to cross the Sea of Galilee when Jesus walked on the water and Peter came out to him.  He recounted the story so well and told how Christ calls out to each one of us but most of us want to stay in the boat where it's comfortable instead of coming out to him as Peter did.  He said that the Lord had been calling to him for about a year before a specific pair of missionaries came to him.  The spirit was so strong as he bore his testimony. 

 

Brandon received the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday and is going to the temple on Tuesday to do baptisms for the dead with the ward.  He is awesome! The night before his baptism we had dinner with him and his roommate, America at Casa Flores. It was fun to talk to them and talk about the baptism. Brandon had written something up that morning comparing what he has felt as a runner to what the scriptures say when they relate gospel topics to "a race".  It was really cool and Elder Gilray and I both got copies of what he had written to keep.  We also talked a lot with America. She is always interested to get to know the missionaries but never wants to stay and learn more. She considers herself Catholic but doesn't go to church. She sat in on one lesson with us 2 weeks ago and came to FHE last week. We convinced her to come to Brandon's baptism during her lunch break and also to come to church for Sacrament meeting the next day. We saw a big change in her over those 3 days. We're starting to teach her this week and we hope things will go well! She's great, just shy I'm sure because she doesn't know too much about the gospel and has fallen into the rut that many Latino people fall in by considering themselves "Catholic" more as a cultural thing than a religious thing.

 

We don't have any other investigators that are progressing too much right now. Brandon and Kenneth are both working on quitting smoking. We are looking for new people all the time.

 

I'm excited for this next week of missionary work and can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us!

Les Quiero Mucho,

Elder Gaskill

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

We're teaching Brandon and Brandon and...

Hello Everyone!

 

I hope everyone is doing as well as I am! Elder Gilray and I are seeing tons of success and I love it. I'm trying to "aprovechar" every minute of every day I can before my time runs out.

I will give a quick update on some things that are happening.

 

The coolest thing was that Brandon Owen (who is getting baptized on Jan 18th) got his answer this week. When we met on Wednesday he was really excited to sit us down and tell us "some news". He said he was driving this week and he felt really strongly to change the radio station to a Christian station called KLOVE. They were reading the scripture of the day and it was 1 Chronicles 16:11. As he heard that scripture and the song that followed, the Spirit touched his heart very strongly, even more powerfully than when he decided to become a Christian. He said "I knew then that I needed to be baptized into the Mormon church". It was amazing to hear the story and he was so excited to tell us.  He is such a great guy and he wanted to know so badly and he got his answer!

 

We are also teaching another Brandon that we met on Monday. He wants to change his life around and he's going to get baptized on January 25th. His biggest problem is to quit smoking which is a challenge because he does a lot of that. We will see how we can help him do that.

 

On Thursday we had a really spiritual experience in our Mission Leadership Council. We talked about goals we wanted to set for the mission this year. The last year our mission has kind of been on a decline. A lot of really new missionaries have come in and a lot of them have had to train new missionaries when they themselves don't really know what they're doing.  As a result we have really spiritual missionaries but they don't know how to baptize.  Luckily that transition phase is at it's end and now we can grow and progress. The last two years we have fallen short of our goal. This past year there were 651 people baptized in the mission. We set a goal of 801 for next year. It's a lofty change but I know it's not only accomplish-able but one that we can exceed. In 2012 when we had 2/3 the number of missionaries we baptized about 750 people.  Now we have about 75 more missionaries and it's about time we show it. Elder Gilray and I decided to start off the year by being the examples. This week we broke all sorts of records with lessons taught and people to church. We're being very blessed and I'm doing everything I can to continue it.

 

We are also teaching a new friend of Josh's named Kenneth. He agreed to be baptized on February 1st and loved church yesterday. I gave him a hair cut Saturday night too. He had long hair and always wore a hat to cover it up but I cut it short for him and it looks a lot better and he was a lot more comfortable at church.

We also are continuing to teach Carole. She came to church and brought a friend from Lodi named Eric. He actually lived in Riverton Utah for a while and graduated from Alta HS in Sandy in '07. He really liked church and has been before. He says he has friends that are on missions right now. We are going to try and teach him tomorrow.  He seems to already know a lot about the church.

 

I hope everyone is doing well back there and that things continue to go well.

 

Les Quiero a todos!

Elder Gaskill

Investigaor Update

Hello Everyone!

I hope all is well back home. I didn't get to send an email last week but I'll update everyone on what's going on here.

Josh Jurado is progressing very well. He received the Aaronic Priesthood 2 Sundays ago.  He didn't get to participate in the Sacrament this past week because he was sick but he's excited to this next week. He is going to the Oakland temple tomorrow night with the ward to do baptisms for the dead for the first time.  He has a friend named Kenneth that has moved in and Josh is helping him stop smoking and trying to get him to come to church as well. He's doing great.

 

We are working with a lot of other people and the foremost is Brandon Owen.  He has been dating a Hmong girl that goes to the Asian Branch here in Stockton for about 6 months. He was taught before by missionaries and went to church a few times but started working every Sunday in the sheriff's department (he is going to school to be a correctional officer).  We stopped by one Saturday night and he told us his work schedule just changed so he will be coming back to church.  He has come to church the past 2 weeks and is preparing to be baptized on January 18th! He is very solid. He grew up in a Christian church and wants to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration so badly. I have never seen an investigator understand the scriptures as well as he has and have such a desire to learn.

 

We were working with a girl named Tara and she had a baptismal date for January 11th but we haven't seen her in about 2 weeks. Her phone got disconnected and we haven't been in contact for about 2 weeks. We think she's avoiding us so we probably won't be seeing her any more.

 

We met a really cool guy named Brandon this past week. The sisters in Lodi found him but passed him to us since he's Young Single Adult age. He's had a rough life but is humble and ready for the gospel.  We taught him about the Restoration a few days ago and invited him to be baptized on January 25th. His response was "What time? I have a birthday party for my nephew that I need to go to as well". Ha ha, he is great and will be an awesome investigator.

 

We are also teaching a friend of a returned missionary named Carole. She is baptist and just graduated from a Bible college and moved back to Lodi.  She has the belief that all you need to do to be saved is audibly pronounce "I accept Jesus Christ as my Savior".  We are working a lot with her to show her what the scriptures say and we hope she will accept what the Bible says. She really wants to find out more about the Mormon faith since her friend is such a great person but has trouble accepting anything that hasn't been put in her head by her church since she was born.  We invited her to read the first chapter of 1 Nephi and she thought we wanted her to read the whole book of 1 Nephi so she got through the first 10 chapters in 2 days, which was really impressive. Her friend is leaving today to go back to BYU so it will be interesting to see how the rest of the teaching process goes. She committed to come to church this Sunday and keep meeting with us.

 

We are also teaching 2 girls in Lodi that I taught when I was in the Spanish branch about a year ago. Their names are Rosa and Esperanza. They are really cool but they were hard to find last year and so we couldn't teach them.  They are really interested now though and we met with them once on Sunday and had to reschedule our appointment with them yesterday for Friday.  We are excited to keep teaching them.

 

We were teaching a guy named Paulo who is from Samoa.  He came to church 2 weeks ago and liked it but works from 6:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. and sleeps between so it's hard to teach him. He never answers his phone either. Last Sunday when we went in the morning to invite him to church we woke up his brother and he angrily yelled at us to get off his property. Hopefully we can keep teaching Paulo but we haven't talked to him since last Friday.

 

The last investigator we have is interesting. His name is Nati and he's friends with a recent convert in the Lodi branch. They grew up together but took two separate paths.  Nati is involved with bad people and loves to drink and party.  He is a typical teenager. His family is really worried about him and have been praying that something changes. About a month ago his cousin died from living the same lifestyle he's in and they're worried about him. Nati said he would be willing to listen to us and hopefully we can help him make some big changes in his life. His parents were crying when we left with gratitude that we were able to come and they are hoping we are the answers to their prayers.

 

I forgot to mention that 2 Sundays ago Elder Gilray and I sang in church. We sang "O Come, O Come Emmanuel".  We barely practiced but it went well. We showed up early to church to practice with an accompanist and I guess we sounded good because a lady came up to us and asked us if we would sing in a stake fireside that night.  We sang in Sacrament meeting and then sang later that night in front of the stake for a Christmas fireside. It went well, especially for not having practiced much.  Elder Gilray and I were both talking about how we enjoy singing but never did it before our missions.  Now as missionaries we have sung a lot of special musical numbers.  I thought about all the times between General Conference, Sacrament Meetings, Baptisms, Firesides, Confererences, etc and I have sung a lot. I never thought of it as a talent before my mission but I guess the Lord needed to draw upon something I enjoy as a missionary.

 

Things are going very well here. Elder Gilray and I are having a blast. He is definitely one of my favorite companions and we enjoy every second of every day. This transfer is flying by and we're doing a lot of good work as well.

 

I hope all is well back home.

Les Quiero Mucho,
Elder Gaskill

Josh was baptized!

Hello Everyone!

 

This week was great. The best news is that Josh got baptized and confirmed. It was a great experience. He really wanted Elder Fulks to do all the ordinances since he is leaving this week and that was a great experience. He is really strong in the gospel and will be ordained to the Aaronic Preisthood next week. His situation at home is crazy and he has really bad influences all around him but he is the glimmer of light in that home. We are trying to help the rest of the family change and I think our presence has rubbed off a little bit.

 

We got our transfer calls and my new companion is Elder Gilray. I'm very excited.  I asked for him to get sent to me so I'm glad they made it happen.  Elder Gilray started his mission 6 weeks after me but had to go home for knee surgery after a football game in Galt in the summer of 2012.  He was only home for 3 months and has been back for a while.  He is a really good missionary (Spanish speaking) so I'm excited to work with him. He's a lot of fun. He's from Dallas, Texas and I'm pretty sure was going to BYU-I before his mission. Elder Fulks is really sad to be leaving. It's just barely dawning on him that he's actually leaving. I'm glad it's not me yet.

 

We are working with the members to find a lot of new people. We dropped or were dropped by almost all our investigators last week. We got down to 1 but she's still cool. She hasn't been to church yet but has seen how different she has felt meeting with us and in the ward function she went to.  She almost was admitted to the hospital last night which would have been bad but she got out of it and so now we can keep teaching her.

 

I'm excited to be here in the Christmas season and remind people what they should really be focused on. I continue to hope and pray that we can be lead to the people who are being prepared to meet us. I love this work!

 

Les Quiero Mucho,

Elder Gaskill

The work continues to roll forth here

Hello Everyone!

 

This past week went very well.

 

The highlight of the week has been continuing to work with Josh.  He is still getting baptized this Saturday and is very excited for it.  This week we will prepare the program and find out who he wants to do what.

We spent a lot of time in Galt of Tuesday which was fun.  We had to go all the way up to Rancho Cordova for a meeting in the morning so on the way back down we stayed in Galt to do some work there.  We were really excited for an appointment with one of Brenda's friends but she had to cancel because her parents didn't want us coming over. We ended up going over anyway because we listen to the Spirit instead of people as missionaries and it turned out well. We found out that they had a recent death in the family and were able to offer comfort. We are still looking for a way to teach Mariana but we have something set up at Brenda's house this week that we are excited about. 

 

Tuesday evening we got our Thanksgiving dinner just a little bit late. Hermana Cardona made a turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pumpkin pie.  She said it was our Christmas dinner but it seemed a lot more like Thanksgiving but it was really good! It was fun to spend some time with the Cardona family as well. 

 

Brenda finally got her mission call! We helped her finish her papers back in August before I left Galt but the branch president and stake president were slow in doing the interviews so everything didn't get turned in until a few weeks ago. Brenda has been waiting by the mailbox every day and the call finally came on Saturday. She opened it yesterday after church so we drove up at the end of the Spanish ward and watched her open the call. She's going to Baltimore, Maryland Spanish speaking! We were all very excited for her.  She reports to the MTC on January 29th, 2014.  I told her that since her mission starts the day before mine ends she will be taking my spot as a missionary just in a different part of the country and she will have to keep up the missionary spirit.  It was an exciting moment for everyone in the branch.

 

We started teaching a cool new person named Tara. She recently moved down from the Lodi hills to Lodi. She happened to move into an apartment complex where some Elders live and so when she asked for help from the apartment manager they referred her to the missionaries. They helped her and then passed her information to us. She has gone through a lot of rough things and is looking for more peace in her life. She's great and is getting along great with the ward. She came to our Christmas party and got to know a lot of people. She was supposed to come to Stake Conference yesterday but didn't make it so we'll have to find out why. She's great though.

 

We got to see the Rodriguez family twice as well. We were on splits with members of the stake high council and we went to see JJ but he wasn't there.  His parents didn't know we were coming either and they were with the teacher of the beauty school Jovita goes to and her husband. Right when we walked in they told us we had come at the perfect time because they were just talking about the church. Since I was the only Spanish speaker I was able to sit down and teach these people about the gospel and what we do as missionaries.  They live here in Stockton and so I am going to set them up with the Spanish missionaries here this week. Juan and Jovita were planning on taking them to the Oakland temple with the Spanish Branch to see the lights so we will have to see if that happened.

 

The work continues to roll forth here. It's getting cooler and closer to Christmas and I'm excited for this time of the year to be a missionary.

 

Les Quiero Mucho,

Elder Gaskill

Pouring out all my heart, might, mind, and strength into this work!

Hello Everyone

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

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello Everyone!

This last week went really well.

 

Zone Conference went great! Elder Baxter inspired us all and taught us a lot of great things.  The coolest part was afterwards we had a special meeting with the 6 of us zone leaders, President & Sister Lewis, and Elder & Sister Baxter. They gave us some instruction on how to be better leaders. The coolest part was at the end we all knelt down and he said one of the best prayers I have ever heard and left countless blessings with us.  After, we tried to remember what all was said and we couldn't. We decided it was like 3 Nephi 17 where the words of the Savior couldn't be written. We have very strongly impressed upon our hearts how we felt though.

 

We got to have dinner with 2 of my favorite families this week: the Rodriguez family and the Barajas family.  It was great to go visit with them. I felt right at home.  We have dinner again tonight with the Rodriguez family for Thanksgiving.  We also got to see a lot of the families from the Lodi branch on Sunday while we were waiting for the Barajas to pick us up.  We got to see the Cortez, Cazares, Cardonas, Sheldons, Lopez, etc and it was great.  I got ambushed and didn't even make it to the building, we just ended up talking to everyone in the parking lot.

 

I got to go to Sacramento for Mark's baptism on Saturday and perform the ordinance. That was great because he had overcome so much to be baptized. It was a very sweet moment. There weren't many  people at the baptism but the Spirit was there and that's the most important part.

 

Last night we got to play in the Turkey Bowl that the institute put on and people came from all over Sacramento, Lodi, Stockton, and Manteca to play so it was a fun event.  My team ended up winning it all so that was an added bonus. We hardly ever get to play sports so that was a rare delicacy.  I got sick from all the other elders in my apartments so my lungs were really congested and not doing so well but I ran through it anyway and pretended like it was normal and had a lot of fun.

 

We have been doing lots of teaching.  We have taught a lot of people that don't seem like they're going to progress too much. Josh however is doing great and progressing towards his baptismal date of December 14th very well.  It was hard for him to hear the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity being a 20 year old who's never had religion in his life. However, he's so humble that he readily accepted it and is trying his very best to do it! I gave him a pair of pants, a white shirt, and a tie so he would have church clothes to wear and he looked great at church; fit right in.  He has changed so much over the past few weeks since we first met him and he is very excited to be baptized.  He learned how to tie this really cool knot on a tie and taught it to us yesterday. In exchange we taught him how to tie a normal knot on a tie.

 

It's nice to have a break today to relax and eat some good food!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Elder Gaskill

Missionary Work Keeps Getting Better and Better!

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well! This was another great week in the mission.

 

Our investigator Josh has been progressing a lot! We introduced him to a recent convert named Carlos and they get along really well. Carlos can give him rides too since he has a car. We took Josh on a tour of the church and he loved it and was excited to come to church with us.  He is very willing to change and as soon as we taught him about the word of wisdom he made changes to  start living that commandment.  He came to church yesterday and loved it! Carlos brought him and he stayed  4 hours (Carlos had an interview after church to get his limited use recommend & get a calling).  He is doing great.

 

We also had Daniel, Tommy, and Lyn come to church yesterday.  Tommy is ready and has learned everything but has to get over one last thing first before he can accept a baptismal date. Daniel keeps moving around so we can't find him but we are working with him as well.

 

On Thursday we were with Elder Morley all day (one of the APs). It was good to be around him again and reminisce about good times we had together in El Dorado for 3 transfers.  We had a really productive day as well.

 

Earlier in the week we were at Hermano Ku's house (the Lodi Spanish Branch Ward Mission Leader) to get a referral. While we were there his nephew Diego walked in.  Hermano Ku's sister-in-law and family live 3 houses down the street and their family is very catholic.  Diego said he came home, no one was home, saw a missionary car and felt like he should come over and talk to us.  We talked to him about the Plan of Salvation and answered some of his questions for a while.  His family has had a lot of experience with the church and so he was interested in listening. We knew it was definitely a prompting of the spirit that got us and him there at the same time.  He didn't see it that way though. The next day, 3 more missionaries found an old referral for his mother and decided to stop by and they found Diego as well. We went back down with Elder Morley the next day.  It seems that the missionaries are all on the same wavelength (the Spirit) so we're hoping that Diego listens to the spirit as well.

 

On Thursday we stopped by the Barajas family and it was great to see them again.  Only Hermana was there with Andres so we had dinner with them and talked for a little while.  Andres had bought me a shirt and told me not to look at it until I got home. When we came back I looked at it and it's an awesome tank top that says "Most Dope"  haha.  We're having dinner with the whole family this Sunday and I'm excited to see them again!

 

We also found an old investigator up in Galt that we were teaching named Valerie and she has a lot more time now so we are going to start teaching her again!

 

I am excited for this coming Saturday because Mark is getting baptized! I will get to go back to North Sacramento and perform Mark's baptism. I'm excited for this weekend.

 

Also this week is Zone Conference. Once a year a general authority comes and tours the mission and so Elder Baxter from the Seventy is coming to all the conferences and to tour the mission.  Instead of the AP's conducting Conference they are asking the Senior Zone Leader to conduct so I will have to introduce Elder Baxter and that is kind of intimidating but it will be a cool experience!

 

This week will be awesome! Missionary work keeps getting better and better!

 

Les Quiero Mucho,

Elder Gaskill

Getting Reaquainted with Stockton

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

Going back to Stockton

Hello Everyone!

This past week was another great one!

The big news this week are transfers. My transfer call came and I am getting transferred to the South Stockton Zone in the Pacific Young Single Adult ward.  My new companion is Elder Fulks (another Spanish speaking missionary). He goes home at the end of this transfer so I will be his last companion.  Our zone is pretty small (there are 2 in Stockton).  In Our zone we have 3 English companionships, 1 Hmong, 1 Lao, and 1 Cambodian.  All the other Spanish companionships are in the North Stockton zone. I am sad to be leaving such a great zone and companion in North Sacramento but I'm excited to go back to the valley.  One of the things I'm excited for is our YSA ward also covers Lodi and Galt.  That means I can go visit the Rodriguez and other families in Lodi (and JJ will be in the YSA) and also the Barajas and other families in Galt! It will be fun. I feel like I get to go home for the holidays (:

 

This week was a lot of fun! It was a little bit slow because of some meetings we had to do and other trainings but it was a lot of fun. On Halloween we got together as a zone and watched a new movie that came out from Deseret Book called "Ephraim's Rescue".  It was pretty good and about a man who was prepared his whole life to help rescue some of the pioneers in a handcart company that wouldn't have made it to Salt Lake otherwise.  Afterwards Elder Ross and I did our zone training.  We made it a lot of fun.  We started out by bringing everyone into a room with the lights out filled with fog (from a fog machine). Elder Ross and I had blankets on so we looked like something creepy.  We had flashlights shining up at our faces and creepy music on in the background. We welcomed them to zone training and then moved into another room to actually do it.  We were training on commitments so at the end we practiced by trick or treating.  Except we had the missionaries dress up in costumes (mummies with toilet paper, ghosts with sheets, crazy hair wigs, etc) and go "trick-or-treating" by teaching the people behind the doors and giving them a pre-decided commitment.  They were rewarded with candy if they did a good job. It was a lot of fun.

 

The most exciting thing that happened this week was with Mark. We didn't hear from him all week so we used our secret agent skills and found out where his parents live (which is where we moved).  We were waiting for him to contact us and just listened to the Spirit in the meantime.  On Saturday we felt prompted to go to his old place of residence where Kelly was.  She was there crying and in a lot of pain because she was really sick.  We offered to give her a priesthood blessing but needed a guy to come over.  She told us Mark was on his way over so we waited for him.  When he got there he told us he was sorry but his phone was out of minutes so he wasn't able to get in touch with us all week.  We gave Kelly a blessing and it went really well.  She told us all day she had been praying that someone would come over to help her out and we told her we were prompted to go over there.  Mark also told us he was prompted to pick up the phone and call her that morning and that's why he had come over.  It looks like we were all on the same page and things worked out!

 

Mark came to church yesterday and now he is 100% ready for baptism! We set a new baptismal date for November 23rd with him! We are all very excited!

 

That's about it for this week. New adventures to come in Stockton!

 

Love you all! Les Quiero!

Elder Gaskill

Unexpected Blessings

Hello Everyone!

 

I don't have a lot of time to email this week but we had an amazing week!  We found so many solid new people and things are going well.

 

We found a lady named Leah who has a 10 year old daughter named Heavenly.  They used to meet with the missionaries and she loves everything she hears.  She accepted the invitation to be baptized on November 23rd and we are trying to start teaching her daughter as well.

We also got a referral for some really cool people on Saturday named Kisa, Uriah, and Jai.  It is a mom and her two kids and they were really excited to come to church.

 

Unfortunately Emmanuel and Alexandria both dropped us this week.  Emmanuel is too stressed out with not working and so many bad things going on in his life so he put us on hold until some things get worked out. The same situation happened with Alexandria's mom so she doesn't want us coming over anymore.

We also met with RJ & Jessica and they were really excited to come to church.

 

We had 9 people lined up for church this week but not a single one came.  RJ was in the hospital sick so they weren't able to come.  Kisa, Uriah, and Jai had some family troubles and weren't able to get ready on time.  We're not sure what happened to Leah and Heavenly but we had a miracle even though so much DIDN'T happen:   We were only able to see Mark once this week.  On Monday we got a call from him and he told us that his "wife" that he's lived with for 8 years is actually still married from a previous relationship so they can't get married right now anyway.  He was really sad and said it looked like he wasn't going to be able to be baptized for about a year.  We said so many prayers trying to know how to help him and felt like nothing happened all week.  He was busy with midterms so we didn't get to see him until Saturday and read 1 Nephi 17 with him.  Sunday he didn't show up to church but during Elder's Quorum he texted us and said "I broke up with Kelly this morning and moved out. That's why I didn't come to church".  It was definitely a miracle that made up for the rest of our investigators not coming to church.  We haven't been able to get in touch with him yet to find out where he moved to but we are hoping to get in touch with him today and have a miracle baptism this week! My testimony of faith and prayers coupled with good works was definitely strengthened this week and I know that miracles happen!

 

We were really disappointed this week because we were supposed to have 5 baptisms in the zone and not a single one happened.  One of the investigators is having trouble believing in modern prophets and went back to her old church.  Another is getting deported to Mexico this Saturday because his work just ended. Two we found are involved with relationships where either them or their spouse is married to someone else and living with a person who is already married, and the last one didn't get permission from her mom to get baptized.  It was a really great week for Elder Ross and I but it's been a sad month for the zone.  Luckily I've learned to roll with the punches and can share my experiences and I don't get down when bad things happen in the work.

We are looking forward to more success in the coming weeks.

 

I forgot to mention that we have another investigator named Johny with a baptismal date for November 23 as well.

 

I love being a missionary!

 

Les Quiero,

Elder Gaskill

Everything is Great!

Hello Everyone,

Another great week is in the books!

 

We're still continuing to work with Mark. We're trying to help him get baptized this Saturday and help our zone/missions reach the goals we have.  He still has the issue of not being married. Right now he doesn't have the money to buy a ring and he can't move out and leave his girlfriend alone because her health is really bad. So we're hoping that some money comes out of the sky this week.

Other things went really well this week.  We found a few new people to teach that sound really promising. After we left a lesson with Mark we had an appointment for dinner 15 minutes later and it was about 10 minutes away. We decided to go visit one more person first even though we didn't have much  time.  We stopped at the house of an old referral from almost a year ago.  The lady who opened the door wasn't the name we were looking for.  We continued to talk to her anyway and tried to share the gospel with her.  It turns out that this lady's mom got baptized when she was a little girl but she wasn't involved in the church very much since her parents were split up.  She only spent about 3 months of the year with her mom and the rest of the year she spent with her dad and step-mom who are Jehovah's Witnesses.  She got really confused between the two churches and now as an adult has distanced herself from any specific church.  She said her LDS mom is great and the church might be something missing in her life.  She told us that recently she has been praying for change.  We said a quick prayer with her and then she told us she felt that we were definitely an answer to her prayers and were sent from God.  It was an awesome contact that most missionaries only dream about.  We are teaching her for the first time tomorrow and are very excited! Her name is Lauren.

 

We also found a couple that is really cool and loves learning.  They aren't very good at keeping commitments or appointments.  The guy's best friend growing up was a member of the church so we are going to see if we can track him down and have him help us.  The names of these two are RJ & Jessica.

 

Our investigator from Ghana named Emmanuel also came to church for the first time and loved it.  He wore his clothes from his home country and he looked really good all dressed up in gold.  He definitely stood out because he was also wearing khaki shorts and sandals but it was good because the ward members actually noticed him and then were able to come up and introduce themselves to him so he has more friends in the church.

 

We are also working with a few more people that have been coming to church and things are going really well with them right now.  Everything is going great. My health is good, my schedule is busy, and I don't have time to think about anything but missionary work.  As a zone we are struggling to meet our goal of baptisms for the month of October so any free time I have is spent finding ways to help the zone achieve our goals.  My companions continue to remind me that my mission clock is running down so it's a good thing I don't have any time to notice how fast the time really is going by.  The holidays are coming up soon so hopefully we can continue to get more people to teach as moods begin to lift and members invite their friends to the ward activities.

 

Les Quiero Mucho,

Elder Gaskill

October 14, 2013

Hello Everyone!

 

This week was an interesting week and not a whole lot happened but I'll share the most important parts.

We worked a lot with Mark this week trying to get him married so he could be baptized this week.  Things didn't end up going through.  When he talked to his "wife" about getting married she told him that she wasn't going to marry him until he got her a ring.  He was a little disappointed that he couldn't be baptized but was excited for one day down the road when he could.  However, missionaries aren't nearly that patient, especially when they have such a little time to make a difference in people's lives.  We asked him to pray about if he still needed to get baptized.  This first time he got a weird answer that he wasn't comfortable about because he felt like it wasn't an answer that came from God (which he was right about because it was really negative).  We tried to get him to pray with us again the next night but he felt like a lot of bad spirits were keeping him from being able to do it so we helped calm him down and he committed to do it again that night.  The answer he got the next night was better and we were able to help him recognize the spirit and the promptings it was giving.  The big thing that we are working on now is to be able to talk to his wife so we can help her understand why they need to get married.  They're "anniversary" was this past weekend so they were going out and Mark was going to sit her down and have her watch the Restoration DVD and then try to talk to her.  We were letting him get up for church and over there completely on his own, but he didn't show up so we'll have to figure out what happened and get him married and baptized by the end of this month.  More to come on Mark.  He's awesome but he needs lots of support to make it sooner rather than later to this step.

 

This week Elder Gurr came down from the mission office to do exchanges with us and other Elders in the zone.  What we do on these exchanges is we do quick "team ups" with most of the companionships in the zone.  We meet up with the companionship, the AP goes with new missionary/younger companion and we go with the other missionary.  They are supposed to set up as many appointments as they can and we go with them and make the time we have with them as spiritual and motivating as possible to help the missionaries learn and get to know them better.  We went on 6 exchanges throughout the day and it was amazing to see the work that was done in just an hour or two.  At the very beginning of the day we found a girl name Sabryna who was supposed to get baptized that weekend but the missionaries hadn't been able to get in touch with her for about 2 weeks.  We found her, recommitted her for baptism in October, and put the fire back in her that had been lost for a little while.  Later in the day we found a few new investigators, invited them to baptism, and taught some really good lessons.  My favorite part of the day was when we were able to split with the Spanish missionaries and I got to speak Spanish again! We taught a  few people, and committed an investigator named Maria to be baptized on November 16th.  It was a lot of fun that day.  

 

Those days are the most draining physically because you have to be on your A+ game for every minute of the day to lift and inspire the missionaries you're with. Normally on a typical day of missionary work you will teach 2-3 lessons and maybe find a new person to teach and then have lots of other contacts and missionary activities during the day.  When we totaled up all that we had done, we taught 9 lessons, got a few referrals, added 3 new investigators, visited 4 less actives, and committed 2 people to baptism on specific dates.  It was an amazing day and filled with miracles.  It was a great opportunity to be able to help so many missionaries.

 

This Sunday was probably one of my favorite Sundays of my mission.  The talks that were given in Sacrament meeting were by a new couple in the ward that have young kids and are both returned missionaries.  They talked about receiving revelation and it was really inspiring.  Our gospel principles class talked a lot about modern day prophets and that was great as well.  In Elder's Quorum we talked about missionary work to top it all off.  Sundays are always the best and so refreshing!

 

It was a great week and as always I'm looking forward to this next one!

 

Les Quiero Mucho,

Elder Gaskill

Believing, Bold, Baptizing California Sacramento Missionaries

Hello Everyone

Hope the last week went well.

This past week we had lots of exciting things happen in the mission. On Tuesday we had our Zone Leader Round Table meeting and talked about how the mission was doing.  We were disappointed at some of the recent outcomes of baptisms in the mission so we decided to make a training for all the leadership positions in the mission that Thursday.  It turned out to be a great meeting and was really inspiring.  We heard lots of great ideas on being "Believing, Bold, Baptizing California Sacramento Missionaries".  The thoughts that were presented were really cool. We took the same training to do it in our own way for our zone.  One of the interesting things we did had to do with believing.  We talked about the word "believe" meaning "to allow" because you can't exceed the limit of what you believe you can do.  We gave an example of having everyone write down how many cups of water they thought they could drink in 30 seconds and then we did the challenge.  It was a lot of fun and really instructional as well.  Some of the missionaries were able to drink as much as they could and had extra after 30 seconds while some weren't able to reach their full potential because they were only given the number of cups full of water that they thought they could drink.  One elder managed to chug 5 cups of water (about 80 fluid ounces) in 30 seconds which was really impressive.  He almost threw up after but he didn't so everything turned out OK.  We're excited to see a lot of success in our zone in the months to come.

One thing I forgot to mention about my companion.  The first time I met him was his first couple months in the mission.  We were both in the Lodi zone.  My companion was Elder Martinez and Elder Ross was in the Lodi Hills with Elder Gurr. After a zone training we were driving back to our areas. While my companion was driving we were side by side to Elder Ross and his companion.  I motioned for him to roll down the window.  After he did I pulled out a little nerf gun I had in the car and shot him in the ear.  They continued down the road and we turned away to where we were going.  We were never really around each other so we never talked about it but the first day we were companions (a year later) he brought it up to me and we had a good laugh about it.  It seems like we're always laughing and we get along great which is awesome.

We've been working a lot with Mark and he has been progressing nicely.  We have one last kink that we have to work out though.  We found out that he's not married, he's just been living with his "wife" for 8 years.  We told him he needs to be married and so he decided to ask his wife to get married.  However, she said no because she wants a ring and he doesn't have one or money to get one because of his financial situation with school and everything.  Mark's baptismal date is this Saturday so we're working with him a lot to either figure out how he can get married or how he can move out so that he's not breaking the law of chastity.  It will be a lot of work but I have the faith that the Lord will help us so that we can meet our goals and Mark can receive these blessings.

General Conference was great and I was very inspired by it! I can't wait to apply the messages I've heard.  I hope a lot of members get the hint about what so many church leaders talked about (member missionary work)! It's an exciting time to be a missionary and I love every minute of it!

Les Quiero Mucho!

Elder Gaskill

Elder Russell, Elder Gaskill, Elder Guzman: Three Generations

Elder Gaskill dying his companion's hair brown from red

Finished Product: Brunettes!

Martin Camillo's baptism

Elders got "heart attacked"

Barajas Family

Saying Goodbye to Hermano Ku, ward mission leader and Hermana Ku

Saying goodbye to Nara and Lopez families

Haydee Barajas baptism

Still Busy!

Hello Everyone!

Hope this last week went well. We had a great week here!

I guess I forgot to talk about my companion so I'll tell about him.  His name is Elder Ross and he is from Grand Junction, Colorado (and his family has since moved to Montrose, Colorado).  He is 24 years old and has been out about 13 months in the mission.  He actually just got an email right now and his parents are moving to Texas very soon. Anyway he's a good missionary.

This past week was awesome!  Wednesday morning I dropped Elder Baryshnikov off at the mission office and picked up my new companion.  It was really interesting seeing good missionaries that I am close to in their final moments as a missionary. I've had good friends leave throughout my whole mission but I was at the office for a few hours and it was interesting to see how everyone was.  A lot of them seemed excited but at the same time really nervous and sad to be ending a great time in their life.  I was grateful that I was dropping one of them off instead of being the one dropped off.  It was also really cool to see the two ends of the spectrum. At the same time one group of missionaries prepares to leave, another one is just arriving in the mission. We stayed and watched the trainers get their new trainees and that is always an emotional experience. 6 new Spanish speaking missionaries came to the mission and I am so excited for each one of them! I hope I can share my testimony of the Spanish work with as many as them as possible. 2 of them are in our zone and I look forward to being with them a lot.

Since Elder Ross and Elder Thompson are the new elders in our apartment, we had to put them through the initiation process. There is a snowboard mounted on our wall with all the Elder's names that have ever lived there. We get dressed up in hoodies/blankets, use a fog machine to fog up the room, turn all the lights out and our flashlights on, turn on the Halo song (a creepy Monk sounding song) and then have them come in and give them a speech and then have them sign the board.  It's a fun tradition.

We have some cool investigators we are working with:

Mark is progressing greatly towards his baptism on October 12th. He has learned about almost everything (from the missionary lessons), has come to church 3 times, and is really excited to get baptized. He always has really good questions and is willing to make the necessary sacrifices. The biggest things for him have been quitting coffee and coming to church since he works in the evenings. He got a cool blessing that he got a job interview for the same type of job at a different place that will let him off 2 hours earlier so he can get more sleep before church! He's really excited about that. I love Mark a lot and am excited to continue working with him.

We are still working with Alexandria but her dad doesn't want her to get baptized (according to the mom) so we are trying to work with both of her parents on that. She will keep coming every week with a friend (to a different ward) but can't be taught the lessons or get baptized right now.

Our biggest disappointment is with a lady named Theresa.  She has an uncle that is a member and referred herself to the missionaries.  She loved hearing about the restoration and was very excited to be baptized.  However, her husband told her she has to choose between him and the church.  That's one of the most shallow things anyone could do and it really hinders her progress. She told us that she has to think really hard about it before she makes her decision and has no idea how long it will take.  I've been doing a lot of praying and fasting and will continue to have people try to encourage her but we definitely don't want her family to split up.

We are working with a few other people and I'll share more about them as they start to progress. We are teaching a guy from Ghana named Emmanuel that really has the desire to learn and study. There is a guy named James who went to a Bible school and used to be a minister at a Baptist church but is really open to learning more. A couple other people too!

Yesterday we got to participate in a missionary training academy that the Stake puts on.  It was really cool to help youth preparing to serve missions develop missionary skills.  It was funny to try to think about where I was 2 years ago and I'm glad I couldn't remember very well because I probably wouldn't have been a very good teacher to people that depend on me to learn about the restored gospel.  As my companion and I talked about it after, and discussed the little to no preparation we did before being missionaries, we realized how much the setting apart changes a person and how much the Lord really blesses us and molds us amidst our imperfections. I'm grateful for everything the Lord has done to change me, especially at the latter end of my mission to help me become the person I want to continue towards becoming throughout my life.

Well the work is going great. We've been very busy and I don't have time to do anything but think about my investigators all day and then all night I have to figure out the things I forgot about or did wrong so I can do them better the next day. The weather is starting to get a little bit cooler, it's getting a little bit closer to the end of my mission, but I am excited for each new day that I wake up a missionary.

Les Quiero,

Elder Gaskill