JUL_24_17_MOM_LEW_From Mom

 Well goodness gracious...!! 

Sounds to me like y'all had the time of your life this last week!! I'm so happy that you were able to spend time together and just HANG OUT. It's too bad that Dad couldn't be there, but it sounds to me like he's where he needs to be right now.  And OBVIOUSLY my presence was going to be missed. I mean, who else was going to spontaneously release a monstrous burp at the dinner table?? That role will ALWAYS belong to me. Briana can get pretty dang close to matching my intensity, but she'll never have the HEART that I do. 

I honestly have no idea what I'm talking about. It's still early here in New Cumberland, so perhaps my mind still isn't totally awake. This is gonna be a strange letter lol.

 You guys did SO MUCH this week, I don't even know where to begin. I wish I could have been there to see Britt Maynard and her new husband. Mom, you're right. Their family is LEGIT. I'll always have a special place in my heart for them. 

It's so weird to think that you're all in Utah right now, chilling around my old stomping grounds in Provo. Have you gotten used to my absence yet?? I mean, it's been a month and a half already. I wonder at what point on my mission NOT having me around will become second nature. Or maybe you're already there and you're just pretending to miss me for my benefit. Haha either way, I miss you plenty. I think about you every day and I absolutely LOVE receiving emails from you, telling me about your life. 

I know I say this every week, but I can't believe Braden is almost in the MTC. It hit me like a truck past night at dinner. Only two more days, and he'll be doing much of the same thing that I'm doing, with a few minor differences. I wish I could be there to watch how he reacts to various things. He's gonna have his work cut out for him, that's for dang sure. 

This week has been full of ups and downs, as usual. Story of my life. But lots of great things have happened, and I'm legit so blessed to have Lewisberry be my first area. This area is buzzing, hopefully due to my hard work, but also through the efforts of Elder Marcum before I came here. 

We talked to an awesome girl named Brittany on the street on Tuesday, and had a lesson with her on Wednesday. We taught her the restoration, and in the most humble way possible, I thought I did pretty good!! Probably the best lesson I've taught since I've been out on my mission. We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, and plan on visiting her again this week to follow up. So yeah. Hopefully she actually reads!! 

I had my first companion exchange this last Thursday, and I was paired with Elder Cowan in the Camp Hill area. Let me tell you, it was SO NICE to not have to bike everywhere. It was a great day. We got to visit TONS of members, and had TONS of members present in each of those lessons. One of the lessons was with the Ramirez's, a Mexican  family that has a daughter being baptized soon. I felt right at home. Everyone here is white, so it was nice to interact with a good old fashion Latino family. They reminded me of the Mondragons quite a bit. 

On exchanges, I met an investigator named Kerry Williams. Except he's a dude. And has a serious weed and drinking problem. And is kinda crazy. So yeah. Nothing like Aunt Kerry. But it was still sorta weird. 

Got to go my first zone conference on Friday!! Great things to be learned all around. President Bednar is going to be so awesome. My favorite thing I learned?? "Faith isn't believing that everything is going to be okay. Faith is knowing that everything is already okay." - Elder Waterbury. 

Stephanie and Tyler are still progressing nicely, and we will be figuring out the logistics of their baptism during our next visit. I'm like SO stoked. 

Carolina is doing AWESOME as well. She's golden. There's no other word for it. She seems so excited to be baptized, and LOVES learning about the gospel. So yeah. August 19th can't come quick enough. 

Well. There's so much more I could tell you, but for the sake of my thumbs, I'll stop now. I'm typing all of this on my dang tablet. We're to lazy to go to the library, even though it's just down the street. Having access to xfinity is a curse and blessing, I guess. 

I trust everything is going okay with you, and that you don't have any more bombs to drop on me. Love you Mom. Keep on keeping on. 

Elder Gonzales

On Jul 24, 2017 2:36 AM, <perucalica@aol.com> wrote:

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Hi Buddy Boy,

Yet another week has passed and the room where we are sitting has just gone  quiet. We actually just finished playing a game of Taboo and you will be happy to know that Sarah and I were victorious. We beat Tony and Briana out by 2 cards so now we have bragging rights.

It has been a fun few days. So far everything has worked well except that I must admit that it hasn't quite felt exactly right because you are missing. We are staying in a home in West Jordan  and have rented out the entire basement. The house is fairly new and the basement is really nice. We have 3 bedrooms, a living room and kitchen. The only thing that would make it better would be if it had more than one bsthroom. There always seems to be a line up at the bathroom,

Last night we all attended Brittney Maynard's wedding reception. It was held at a building owned by the City of Riverton. It was a very nice venue but they had so many people there that it made for a pretty tight squeeze. Her husband seems as if he is very nice. It was great to see the Maynards again. They are such a nice family.

We got up this morning and decided to attend Sacrament Meeting and so we just picked a random chapel that is close to where we are staying and went to the 11 o'clock meeting. It was a big ward and I noticed that they had 10 boys passing the sacrament. It was certainly different than being in our ward. We also decided to go and visit my aunt and uncle today. They live in Taylorsville. It was great to catch up with them and they were kind and fed us dinner.

Tomorrow is the 24th òf July here and so we're going to try and find something fun to do.  I'm not sure exactly what that is but I guess that we will figure it out. On Tuesday, Sarah will be headed back to Provo, Briana and Tony will be headed to Rexburg and John and I will head to Hurricane for a couple of days. We should be back in Fontana on Thursday and then the rat race starts again. I go back to work on Tuesday the 1st but I'm sure I will have to head over to school on Friday to start getting ready.

Dad is still in Peru for another few days. Hopefully he is accomplishing everything that needs to be done while he is there .

Well, I think Braden is leaving Fontana tomorrow. Sarah got a text from Kali asking her if she wants to go with them on Tuesday to the reservoir . I don't think she's going to go because she needs to get back and work. So the clock is ticking until he goes into the MTC.  By the way, I got a friend request for Elder Franz on Facebook the other day. I think he just got home.

We'll that about sums up life for the present. I hope things are going well for you. I love you soooooo much and am so proud of you. Be good and do good.

Love,

Mom