Moved to a BIG house

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(We got to skype with John on Sunday and it was great to talk to him and see how he's doing.  He mentioned that they moved in with a former NFL player and his wife, so I guess their new place is pretty nice!)

Hello Everyone!

 

This week was another good one.  There's nothing too out of the ordinary so I'll just include a few little details.  We are now settled in our new house which is great! Probably the biggest house I will ever live in in my life and doing it while I'm a missionary.

 

We met a really cool lady named Susy Q this past week.  She works at the hospital with a couple of spanish speaking members.  They invited her over and were teaching all of us how to make pozole and morirsonando/jugo de la muerte and it was a lot of fun. We're hoping she accepts the invitation to learn more about the gospel because she is an awesome lady.  She taught me how to make my favorite kind of salsa as well as some other Spanish foods.  We are going to do service for her this week and hopefully learn to make some good food!

 

I got to go on exchanges this week and it was the first day I've had out of my area in the last 4.5 months so it was relaxing to do things in English and not be responsible for the lack of success that has been found in our area for a really long time.  We met some cool people that have not let the missionaries in for years that got along really well with us and let us start to build a relationship with them.  We had a lot of common interests and they liked our sincere personalities so we were happy to help them in that way.  We also had dinner with a family that I had a lot of coincidences with.  The wife is a non-member and when we walked in and she saw my tag she said "I used to work for a Jeff Gaskill in Colorado for 9 years, do you have any family there?".  We discovered that we were both from Colorado Springs although I do not know a Jeff Gaskill and that she also lived in Naperville, Illinois before she came to Colorado.  It was really nice to meet another person from Colorado Springs because that doesn't happen very often!  This lady is flying out on Wednesday because she has 2 granddaughters graduating from Coronodo and Air Academy high schools so she will be pretty close to my family.

 

Friday was zone conference which is always really spiritual and we learned a lot there.  Those are always really inspirational and it was great to see some old faces although most of them are really new faces.

That's about all for this week! I miss everyone and hope everyone is doing well.

 

les quiero mucho,

Elder Gaskill

Lots of investigators named Maria

Hello Everybody!

This week was another great week!

We continued to do a lot of teaching this week. We added a new lady named Maria Ramos who cleans houses for a lot of members and she's really great! She understands everything really well and the importance of it.  Her husband is catholic and works all week so we can't ever talk to him.  They drive all the way to Sacramento to go to church every week which is different because most people can't even take an hour out of their day to go to church and they plan their weekend around it. I'm excited to teach her more.

We didn't get to teach Jose and Fabiola until Saturday night but they had lots of questions.  They loved everything at church the week before and wanted to know more about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.  The one thing that Fabiola didn't like was that in the 2nd hour they talked more about Joseph Smith than God.  It was ironic because the lesson was about "the gospel of Jesus Christ" and I don't remember Joseph Smith's name being mentioned once. We will keep teaching them though.

We had a tough lesson with Maria (but not Antonio) this week, it kind of turned into an argument.  She doesn't believe that any man can see God and so we read Moses 33:11 and she still didn't budge.  Then we moved on to the end of Revelations that said "and he who shall add or take away from the book of this prophecy shall be cursed".  Most people use that as an argument against the Book of Mormon but they don't understand that it is just referring to the Book of Revelations, not the whole Bible, because plenty of books in the Bible were written after that, it just so happens to be that someone decided that THAT particular one would be the last in the order.  Also it says the same thing in Deuteronomy so if it were true almost the whole Bible would be void.  She didn't budge on that either.  Then we talked about lots of other things and Maria didn't want to listen to our testimonies.  We're hoping to keep teaching them and that the Spirit will soften her heart.

Maria Preciado was progressing nicely and was going to come to church but then got sick again on Sunday.

We are going to start teaching Lupita (the sister of the Rodriguez family) and her family again.  Lupita's husband almost got fired because he was way too drunk and sick to work this week so he has changed a little bit and we're hoping it's enough to open him up to the gospel.  More to come on that next week.

Saturday was California's Mormon Helping hands day so we got to go be a part of that and it was a lot of fun. The English ward we're a part of went to do a lot of landscaping at a local middle school and we helped a lot with that.  It was great to be a part of the Mormon helping hands group!

Yesterday the mom of the family we had dinner with asked me how long I had been on my mission.  After I told her about 15 months and asked why she told me "I can tell, it sounds like you have a Spanish accent when you talk".  I thought that was an interesting comment.  My English isn't as good now because I had to erase a lot of it to make room for Spanish in my head.  At least the Spanish is doing really well!

Things are continuing to go well here and we are looking forward to more fun and spiritual experiences in the weeks to come!

Les Quiero Mucho

Elder Gaskill

April 22, 2013

Hello Everyone!

This last week went really well.

 

We started to teach a family called the Tejeda family last week and we got to sit down with them and have a great lesson this week.  The wife knows the Bible really well and the husband is a great guy but doesn't know too much about the Bible.  It was really fun to teach them about the restoration because we kept asking them if they understood everything and if they had any questions. The wife would always say she didn't understand too well and the husband would turn to her and say "this is how I understood it... is that right?" and he always understood everything perfectly.  It was amazing to see how the soil the seed is planted in makes all the difference, just as the Savior said.  The lady who thought she knew a lot already and didn't need much more didn't get it but the one who was all ears and listening with the spirit planted the seed of faith deep into his heart.  We didn't get to teach them the second half of the week because we couldn't get a hold of them but they loved everything and had lots of questions for us.

 

We are also continuing to teach Maria and she is getting closer and closer.  This past week we talked about the priesthood because she has received blessings by missionaries in the past and been healed miraculously.  We talked about how the priesthood is only held by God's authorized servants which he invests to those worthy in His church and she made the connection that The Church of Jesus Christ of LDS must be true because it has the priesthood of God.  She told us she fears what will happen because the rest of her family is Catholic and she wants to read more of the Book of Mormon but we are still working with her and trying to get her to come to church so she can get closer and closer.

 

This weekend Jose and Fabiola (the relatives of the Rodriguez family) came to church!  They are the 3rd group of investigators besides Heriberta and her family to come to the Spanish group in the last 6 months to 1 year so we were very excited about that.  It's hard to teach them because Jose works in San Francisco during the week but we had a miracle with them this past Saturday. The Rodriguez family had a bbq and invited us over.  We wanted them to invite their family so we could try to teach them.  When they got there they said they weren't able to reach them by phone, but right before we started to eat they showed up anyway.  They said, "We were coming home and thought we would stop by (the Rodriguiz's new place) since we haven't seen it yet" so they stayed and we got to talk to them and make sure they were coming to church.  We're excited to keep teaching them.

 

The work continues to progress here and we are excited to be a part of it.  We've heard plenty about what's going on in the world and I'm very content to be focused on what's truly important and bringing that to people's lives than seeing and hearing about the bad choices others are making as the days and years begin to wind down...
 

I hope everyone is well and continues to share the gospel wherever they may be!

Les Quiero,
Elder Gaskill

Rebuilding

Hello Everyone!

I hope all is well! Another great week in the mission.

We have been doing lots of work here to rebuild the area and trying to find new investigators.  We were teaching a 9 year old kid named Luis that was progressing towards baptism but he moved back to Mexico  so he's gone.  This week we started teaching two great families: one in Camino that went to a Christian church in Mexico but go to a 7th day adventist church because that's the first one they found here, and a family that is related to our one family of members.  We are excited to teach them more and get some other ideas in place!

We are trying to get an English class started here and a soccer night to be able to find more Hispanic people.
There's not too much else going on up here.  A lot of the Hispanic people up here already know the missionaries or are very "hard-hearted" and "stiff-necked" and don't want to hear us.  They run away from us and hide and are afraid to make commitments with God, that's what our member says at least.  Yesterday we had a conversation that is very typical.  The kids answered the door and talked to us for a while in English, then we hear voices from the back saying in Spanish, "tell them to go away and that we're not interested".  Eventually we get to talking to the parents and they tell us they don't like our religion or that "they're catholic and that's that".  When we ask them what they don't like they never have anything to say and just say "we all worship the same God and that's really all that matters.  My parents raised me Catholic so that's how I'm going to stay".  We then usually bring up points such as "well if it doesn't matter which church you go to as long as you worship God, why are you so against listening to our message?" or "so what you're saying is if you happened to be born Protestant you would die Protestant just because that's the religion your were born in".  Usually by then they have nothing more to say so they just turn us away and don't listen to us any more.  It's really sad to see how little people are committed to God and how far off they are but we keep searching for the people that God is preparing to accept the truth.

One cool experience we had this week happened with two different people.  One night we were talking to an older guy and we got to talking about ourselves and he was asking why we take time out of our lives to serve the Lord.  He thought it would be better that we study and go to school and then get into a really good career.  We kept telling him that we were called by a prophet of God to be there and knew that that's where we needed to be at the time and that there would be time as soon as we go home to finish studying and get started in our careers.  A few days later when we met the 7th day adventists, when we were leaving we asked if there was anything we could do to help them out.  She said no because anything else we could do for her wouldn't be nearly as important as what we were doing then.  She related it to the story of Martha and Mary, where one was doing honorable things in cleaning/chores but the other sitting at the feet of Jesus was doing something more important.  That really made me think and be grateful for the time I have to serve the Lord.  I know there's nothing better that I could be doing in my life right now and am very grateful for the experiences I've had and everything I've learned.

I hope the week goes well at home and I'll try to have more to say for the next week!

Les Quiero Mucho,
Elder Gaskill

Obedience Brings Blessings

Hello Everyone,

This week was great, as are they all. Especially because of conference! One of the lessons I've been learning lately that was emphasized in conference was that of obedience.  President Monson and Elder Perry both focused on it and I thought it was really interesting.  One of the prophets stated that "obedience is the first law of heaven" and so we definitely need to be prepared for that by being obedient in every way here: by obeying commandments, governmental laws, etc.  One scripture that has really stuck out to me is Mosiah 2:41 that says more or less "I would that ye would consider the blessed and happy state of those who keep the commandments of God".  I testify that that is true.  The support and blessings we get from keeping the commandments are all that we could ever need.  I have been thinking a lot about the Hispanic people with whom I work.  Most of them live in humble circumstances and I am convinced that it is because they are a people that because of tradition and a lack of knowledge to the things of God break a lot of commandments.  They LOVE their alcohol and coffee, most of them "get together" with a spouse and start a family and never get married, work almost every Sunday and hardly ever go to church, etc.  Breaking these commandments is part of the reason why they are in such humble circumstances.  Those that obey the commandments of God are so much better off having all of His blessings.  So the lesson of the week is BE OBEDIENT.

A new transfer is starting tomorrow and Elder Russell and I will be together for another transfer and we are very happy about that!

Les Quiero Mucho,
Elder Gaskill

Happy Easter

Hello Everybody,

This week was another great week and it amazes me how fast it is going by.

This week we had a cool miracle.  I pray all the time that the Lord will help me recognize the people that he is preparing and putting in my path so that I can recognize the opportunities when they arise.  Up here it's harder because there aren't very many Spanish people so anyone I see could be that person.  One day this week we were exploring a city called "Coloma" that is just north of Placerville and is where Gold was discovered when the Gold Rush started.  We were driving around and not finding anything that looked remotely Spanish.  All of a sudden we ended up outside the city and heading back towards Placerville driving in between a lot of really big houses when in the middle of it all there were two little houses with Spanish people standing outside! So we parked around the corner and then walked back to them to talk to them.  We started talking to a guy named Adrian and he was really nice and interested.  He's been in jail and has some smoking problems but he really wants to learn and come to church and everything.  We haven't been able to teach him yet but we are excited to do so soon.  The Lord really helped me out by putting a situation as distinct as black and white in front of me so that I couldn't miss the opportunity.

The Yablonovski family (the family John and his companion live with) had some of their kids home for the Easter weekend so that was a lot of fun.  On Saturday it was Brother Yablonovski's birthday so we had a big birthday dinner and then on Sunday we had a big Easter lunch.  I am teaching Elder Russell to stuff a lot of food away even when you're not hungry at all but you have to eat to be respectful.  We had a huge lunch and dessert at 3 and then had pozole and more cake at 4 and Elder Russell struggled through it but now he's more prepared when he's in a more Spanish area and has to eat a lot more Spanish food.

I also had an experience this week where I kind of chastised the mom of one of the families we're teaching.  She and all the kids like what we teach and want to come to church but the husband is really shy/ashamed and is reluctant to go and just says they'll go to the Catholic Church instead of none at all.  The mom is ok with that because she just wants to do everything as a family, no matter what it entails.  On Saturday night I kind of lost my patience a little bit and started lecturing her and it lasted about an hour.  When I started it was really dark in the house and it was just her and I talking with my companion on the couch.  By the end of all that there were 12 kids that had come in, 2 uncles, 1 aunt, and they were all just listening intently to what I had to say.  I didn't even notice it happening but when I stopped for a minute and looked around I realized everyone was focused in on what I was saying.  I was amazed because we have trouble keeping the kids' attention for a few minutes but they were all listening intently.  I don't know what motivated them all to come in but something had interested them.  Unfortunately this family isn't going to be able to progress until they make it a priority which is saddening to me but at least we've been making a difference in their home.

I hope everyone is well at home and had a great Easter!

Les Quiero,
Elder Gaskill

Lessons Learned

Hello everyone!

 

I've realized recently that every week I sit down and try to think of what to write in an email and everything seems really repetitive and I get bored of writing it so I think I'll start sharing the out of the ordinary experiences and some of the lessons I've learned.

 

This past Saturday I got to go back to Lodi again to see the baptism of Martin Diaz (Hermana Diaz' son) that we were teaching and that was great.  I was very happy to see him getting baptized.  He has a few problems because of an accident when he was about 10 years old but he still is very intelligent and has one of the sweetest spirits that I've ever met.  The greatest joy of all was seeing my recent converts and learning  that everyone is still active in the church.  Jovita and Juan are doing great and getting ready to go to the temple.  Their son Alan in Florida is 20 and getting married in the Tampa temple in May so unfortunately they won't be able to go because they were only baptized in November but they are very excited for the day they can go to the temple!  Their son JJ was drifting away for a little bit but now he's back and strong and even has interest in a girl in the Young Single Adult ward and he wants to serve a mission! Jorge Guzman moved to Stockton but he is going to church either in Lodi still or Stockton every week.  The missionaries told me they gave him my phone number so he could call me but I haven't heard from him yet.  Arturo and his family are doing great in Mexico.  The Mendoza family is still active and working towards the temple.  The Ortega family is probably the strongest of them all.  It was a great experience to see all the people that I feel like are part of my family doing so well!

 

The lesson that I learned (that I've learned before but was reminded of again) is that a lot of the most solid people we meet will be getting baptized by other missionaries.  On Saturday we helped move a Spanish lady out of her house because she doesn't have work or a home anymore (long story) so she's moving back to Fresno.  We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and I was prompted to write my testimony in it that hopefully she'll read soon in Fresno.  Her friend from Sacramento came up to help her and it turns out she is really interested in the message.  She wants to find the truth and loved everything we shared with her.  She lives in a private area that missionaries would never be able to get into unless they had someone's specific information.  I can't wait to hear some day down the road that she got baptized.  It's hard when you don't have a lot of success but it seems like the baptisms each set of missionaries get come through the hard work of other missionaries and they may not get to harvest the fruits at the end of it.

 

Well that's my lesson learned for the week.  Hope you enjoyed it! Everything is going great up here! I am very excited for Easter this week and General Conference the following week!

 

Les Quiero Mucho!

Elder Gaskill