AUG_21_17_MOM_LEW

 Dearest Mother,

So I'm sure you're pretty anxious to find out just WHAT THE HECK the doctor said on Thursday. I told him all of my symptoms and things like that, and he determined that I have.... a sinus infection. And also allergies. So that was kind of anti climactic. He put me on a ton of antibiotics that I've been taking for the past few days. To be completely honest with you... I don't feel a whole lot better. The headaches haven't gone away. My jaw still hurts at times. I stilll have another week of antibiotics pills to take, so we'll see if there is a marked improvement by that time. The doctor wanted to see me three weeks from now to follow up, so I guess if things DON'T improve by then, we'll reevaluate the situation. But for now I'm just going to suck it up and continue working. I'm hoping that one day I wake up and the headaches are just GONE. That would be GLORIOUS. 

Remember how I told you that I hit my head on the shower head and thought that might be the cause of the headaches? I didn't bring it up to the doctor when I visited with him on Thursday, but I'm thinking I'll bring it up this next time, just to cover all of my bases. Because all of my headaches are in that same spot that I hit my head. And it hurts to touch that spot, like there's bruising there or something. I don't know. I'm probably just being overly paranoid. But I just WANT TO GET BETTER ALREADY. I'm sick of being sick. I want to be a healthy missionary. LIke, is that too much to ask?

BWAHAHAHAHA I can't believe you started a war on Facebook lol. I really hope that all of those mean commenters didn't make you lose your faith in the BYU football program as a whole. I'm kinda disappointed that these fans reacted in that way. BUT the important thing to remember is that Kalani Sitake did the right thing in penalizing Francis Bernard for his behavior, whatever it was that he did. So although some members of the fan base are less than perfect, at least the program itself is remaining true to the honor code that they've set. 

YES. I DID GET YOUR BIRTHDAY CARD IN THE MAIL. Thank you so much for the kind note and for all of the gift cards!! Like seriously, thank you. They will be used. The next time I eat a Chicken Bacon Ranch sandwich (which will undoubtedly be soon), I'll think of you. My birthday ended up being pretty good, although it was unlike any birthday that I've ever experienced. I didn't have any cake. Nobody sung to me. Nobody really knew it was my birthday, except for my companon, and a few members of my district. And you know what? It wasn't too bad. 

Elder Marcum started off my birthday well with a cool gift: his old Bluetooth keyboard, encased in an awesome Batman v. Superman backpack for P-days. I am typing on the bluetooth keyboard RIGHT NOW. It works pretty dang well, so I was really appreciative.

We also went out to eat with the two new Elders in our ward, Elders Stratford and Torgerson. We went out to this place called Bob Evans, which is sort of like Dennys. It was pretty good! I was kinda nervous about serving with two other Elders in our same ward, but they seem like they're going to be GREAT. Elder Stratford is BRAND NEW, straight out of the MTC. So yeah. I am no longer the youngest missionary in the district. So that's kind of nice. The best part?? Elder Stratford plays TENNIS. And he WATCHES TENNIS too. And plays ping pong. We are gonna have some fun P-days from here on out. I can't wait to go on exchanges with him, and we can have an intense set of tennis during our exercise time. Gosh dang. I miss tennis. 

OH YEAH. Something else momentous happened this week. CAROLINA WAS BAPTIZED. It was amazing!! I had a a lot of the same emotions this week as I had last week. Once again, it was like watching by baby grow up and leave the nest. I have a special place in my heart for Carolina. She is the first person that I've baptized that I was able to be there for the entire teaching experience. She was baptized just one month after beginning the missionary lessons. Like, that's ridiculous. She's just amazing, and was so prepared to receive the gospel. She knows that the church is true, and is SUCH an example to me of humility. She's gonna be Relief Society president someday. Or even GENERAL Relief Society President. Watch it happen.

We filled the water up WAY too high in the font. There was also a MASSIVE Spider floating around that we had to fish out. To make matters worse, apparently it was SUPER cold. After Carolina was baptized by Elder Marcum, she was shivering so much that she tripped going up the steps out of the font. Fortunately, she was okay. I had the honor of being the witness, along with Marcelo, the Angolan man who introduced her to the church. It's so funny. No baptismal service goes by without incident. BUT SHE'S BAPTIZED. HALLELUJAH.

We also committed another one of our investigators to baptism last night, Cheryl. She always talks about how much she LOVES coming to church and feeling the Spirit and camaraderie that's there. We've been working with her for a few weeks now. We just finished teaching the third lesson to her, which means the commandments are next, beginning with the Word of Wisdom. So yeah. Prayers would be appreciated. Her baptismal date is set for September 16th. Fingers crossed!!

I'm trying to remember if there's anything else that I ABSOLUTELY need to tell you. I mean, there's so much more I wish I could tell you. I wish I could tell you everything that goes on in my life. Because there's SO MUCH. I love my mission.  Miracles happen every day. But I'm just content to tell you that I love you. Thanks again for all of the birthday wishes. This week was definitely a memorable one. 

Until next week!!

Elder Gonzales

P.S . If you ever want to reply to any of my emails on p-day, I'm allowed to reply until 6pm, or 3pm your time, I guess. So if you ever have any follow up questions or anything, feel free to ask, and if it's within that time slot, I'll try my best to reply. 

On Aug 20, 2017 9:31 PM, <perucalica@aol.com> wrote:

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Hey Buddy!

How goes the mission in the Great State of Pennsylvania?  Well, I hope!

Life here in the State of California continues about the same as always.  Jerry Brown is still Governor, there are still a million and one liberal celebrities who are expounding their liberal views on every subject under the sun, and traffic is still way out of control and so I guess that you could say that everything here is normal.

As for the weekly health report which seems to make it into my letters constantly  now, I didn’t go to church today as my stomach wasn’t cooperating this morning.  This medicine that they have me on doesn’t help matters any.  I actually feel OK now so I guess that my stomach has decided to behave.  Speaking of health reports, what did the doctor say to you when you went?  I’ve been praying for you everyday so I hope that you’ve felt the effects of those prayers.

As you read this, you’re probably thinking about the effects that the solar eclipse has had or is having on you day.  I know that tomorrow morning I’ll be feeling the effects of the solar eclipse as they’ve already declared it an “inclement weather” day at school and we won’t be able to let our kids out for recess in the morning so the effect of having kids cooped up in a classroom will definitely be part of my future.  That’s not something I ever look forward to.  I have training that I have to go to on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and so I’ll be planning for a sub for those days.  That’s always a lot of work too.

I loved the pictures of Tyler and Stephanie.  You have become the “computer screen saver” and so I hope that you appreciate the honor that that is.  I hope that they’re progressing and loving being part of the saints there in that ward.

I guess that this last Saturday you had another payoff since Carolina should have been baptized.  How did that all go?  It’s always so exciting to see people turn their lives around and see how the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes people for the better.  It doesn’t get better than that.

I guess the most newsworthy item this week is that I kind of started a war on Facebook.  I belong to a closed group called BYU Cougar FanatYcs  and they were talking about how Francis Bernard is not going to be playing this year because of an Honor Code violation.  There were so many men on that site who were saying that the Honor Code is out of date and that they should do away with it and they didn’t think that it was fair that Francis can’t play.  So, to make a long story short, I posted about how Francis knew what he was signing on for when he decided to go to BYU and how in my opinion those who are not willing to abide by the Honor Code should step aside for those who want to attend BYU but aren’t able to only because there is no room.  Let’s just say that there was one particular person who basically responded that I have a “holier than thou” attitude, that Francis made a mistake and that I was ruining his life by saying that he should have to obey the Honor Code in order to play football.  After reading this person’s  response I decided that I really don’t need to be a member of a group that thinks that football trumps all, including moral decency and values. So, being the person that I am, who can never just walk away quietly,  I decided to tell them that I was leaving the group and I basically called every member of the group out by telling them that I was ashamed that Church members would even want to do away with the Honor Code just to win a game.  You should have seen the ugly comments that popped up within seconds of me posting that.  I hate to break it to you Jacob, but it appears that some BYU fans are no better than the Ute fans to the north of us.  If I had wanted to continue the fight, I could have posted that on the site.  That would have been the most insulting thing I could have said to any of them.  But, I took the higher road and walked away.  I think the whole thing is funny.  Dad was worried that I was insulted by the things that they said and I told him that if you’re going to put something like that online you have to be able to take the heat.  BTW, there are unofficial reports that Francis Bernard has said that he’s being treated unfairly by the university and that he wants to be “released” so that he can go play somewhere.  He named Utah specifically. LET HIM GO! If he transfers now, he won’t be eligible to play for a year as per NCAA rules so in my opinion, he may as well stay where he is, sit down, shut up and take it like a man.  Enough about BYU football.

I hope that by now you have received your birthday card from your Father and me.  I know it isn’t much and not very creative as birthday things go but it was sent with a lot of love.  Back in the day, coming up with exciting and cute packages and letters was something that I enjoyed.  Not anymore.  So, I guess you’ll have to rely on your brother and sisters to spoil you with “cute and exciting”.  I feel good when I can just get something in the mail, period!

Well, that’s life in a nutshell.  Not very exciting but that’s the best I can do for this week.  So, I’ll just finish by telling you that I love you sooooo much and pray for you everyday .  Follow the doctor’s advice, talk to those counselors and go out and work, work, work.  Be good and do good.

Love,

Mom