SEP_18_17_MOM_LEW

 Dear Mom,

Thanks so much for your email!! I look forward to getting it every single week. You always apologize for telling me about all of the "mundane" things that go on in your life, but in reality, that's exactly the stuff I wanna hear. So no worries!!

I know that you really want to hear some good news from me. And I want so desperately to give it to you. But in all honesty... This past week has been pretty difficult. I've been taking the medication for over a week now, and I've been trying to be patient as I get through this initial hump that the doctor said might occur. Well, the hump occured. And I don't feel a whole lot better now. I had a headache hit me last night when I wasn't even stressed. I was feeling pretty bad on Saturday, as well. Elder Marcum and I just took a break and talked for about two hours about what I was feeling. I don't know what to do at this point. Just continue to be patient? I don't want to call the doctor and tell him that the medication is not working, when I've only been taking it for about a week, and he predicted that this would happen. So I'm thinking I'm just going to wait another week, and hopefully things start to improve. I hate just waiting. I've been trying to change my thinking, to be more optimistic, to just fake it till I make it, you know?? But that's getting exhausting. We had zone conference this last Thursday, and it was all about the enabling power of the Atonement. In Mosiah 24:15, it talks about how to access it. It says that we need to submit cheerfully and with patience. So that's what I'm going to continue to do. I know you must be so sick of hearing me complain about these headaches and feelings of anxiety I've been experiencing. I hope you know that I'm REALLY trying to get better. I can't wait for the day where I email you and tell you that I'm cured. I'm sure you're probably anxiously awaiting that day as well. 

Some days are better than others. LIke, yesterday wasn't too bad at all. I was consciously trying to be more upbeat and optimistic yesterday, and that seemed to help a bit. And I haven't been having any real difficulty sleeping at night. I have been having a hard time taking naps, though. I want to take naps on P-day so bad, but it's like impossible to relax my body and mind for that to happen. I meet with Sister Waterbury every Monday night, and she talks with me and tries to help me out. Mornings are usually worse than afternoons and evenings as well. And I'm not just talking about the physical symptoms, but also the mental and emotional ones. I would say the feelings that I experience on a regular basis are comparable to those I felt when I had to take the drivers' test multiple times. Gosh, it's so hard to explain it. But yeah. I'm trying to be patient with myself so that I can get better. But it's hard, Mom. It's like one of the hardest things I've ever done.

On that happy note. let's start talking about the things that made this week AWESOME, shall we?? Well, you already know this, but I went to the Philadelphia temple with Carolina and the Kauffmans this past Wednesday, and it was awesome!! I'm going to tell you ALL ABOUT IT. 

The temple is like right smack dab in the middle of the city. LIke, it appears out of nowhere, and is surrounded by tons of tall buildings. The grounds are not very big at all. It truly is an absolute GORGEOUS temple, though. The Colonial architecture is pretty unique. The outside is a heck of a lot like the inside. 

Baptisms for the Dead with Carolina was great. Brother Kauffman had to baptize her, since Elders can't be in the font with women for some reason. Brother Kauffman was having difficulty with the words of  the prayer, and kept adding the word "the" at unnecessary parts. The temple workers kept correcting him, and I felt a little bad about it. But I think Carolina had a good time, nevertheless. She's always smiling, it's one of the best things about her.

I got baptized as well, for 30 names. It was quite the experience. It was sort of cool to have Elder Marcum baptize me. Kinda helps with comp unity, you know??

We also did confirmations shortly after baptsims, and I had the opportunity to confirm Brother Kauffman for a few names. It felt great and surreal to exercise my Priesthood in the temple like that.

After confirmations, Carolina went outside and took a nap in the car (she was exhausted, she hadn't slept at all the night before) while we stayed inside and did an endowment session, which was AWESOME, as usual!! The Celestial room was unlike any I had ever even in before. The continued the colonial style with lots of ornate molding and Ionic columns on the wall. There was beautifully crafted dark furnitre, with feathers carved into them to symbolize the quills that signed the Declaration of Independenc. And a massive multicolored window on the far side. I'm so glad I got to see it :)

The design of the rest of the temple was very similar. In the front room, by the destk, they have a painting of the declaration of Independence being signed, to indicate that it was an inspired document. Next to the Baptistry they had a painting of Oliver Cowdery baptizing Joseph Smith. And elsewhere they have a piece that shows Christ appearing to Joseph and Oliver in the Kirtland temple. Man, it was cool.

I got to see a few other famous Philadelphia landmarks, but only from the car. I briefly saw Independence Hall, and the place where the Liberty Bell is currently being held. And also the steps to the Library from the Rocky movie. So that was cool. I didn't get to actually get out of the car and see any of this stuf, but I take solace in the fact that I might be able to tour it  more in depth SOMEDAY.

After that, the Kauffmans took us to Pat's, who have arguably the best Philly Cheesesteak in Philadelphia. I ordered a "Cheesesteak Wit", which apparently means "with onions". It was dang god. Apparently there's this massive rivalry between Pat's and Geno's, which are across the street from eachother. We tried Geno's as well. Pat's is better, hands down. I think they have a 'Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" episode on the rivalry. You should totes watch it. But yeah, it was pretty sweet to have an authentic Philly Cheesesteak. I can cross that one off of the bucket list.

We went home after that. It was a pretty awesome day. I don't if I'll have the opportunity to go to the temple on my mission again, so I enjoyed it as much as I could. Seeing Carolina in the baptismal font was such an awesome moment. I hope she enjoyed it as much as we did :)

Like I mentioned earlier, we had zone conference on Thursday, with Elder Brent H. Nielson presiding. It was awesome. The dude was such a good speaker, and had so much wisdom for us as missionaries. The biggest announcement?? Sometime in the relatively near future, we are going to be receiving Smartphones in our mission. Now THAT is just crazy. I don't know what that means for our tablets. Like, are we going to have both? He never really clarified. I'm not really looking forward to it, to be completely honest. I predict we'll probably start using social media like Facebook as a finding tool pretty soon as well. That just seems like too much to me. But he told us that we need to go where the people are, and in this day and age, the people are online. So that'll be a crazy adjustment. But if it helps further the work, which I believe it will, it will be totally worth it.

Gosh. So much news to write about this week. My hands are getting cramped. But Cheryl was baptized this Saturday, and I can't leave that out!! It was SO COOL to see her make that covenant with our Heavenly Father. The best part was her testimony at the very end. She started tearing up, and said, "I know that this church is so true." Oddly enough, that was the first time that we had ever heard her say that out loud. So that was a proud moment. OH, and I also almost fell into the baptismal font as we were filling it up. So that happend. My entire right shoe and sock were soaked for the entire service. You know how much I hate wet socks.

Mom, I commend you for your missionary work. We love it when the members get involved, so thanks so much for doing that. I'm sure the missionaries were really appreciative that you helped out. It ain't easy finding members that are willing to take time out of their busy schedules, so you're awesome for doing that. Even if it did mean waking up early on a Saturday.

Gosh dang. Sorry about these stupid pipes. You're right, though. Brother Murrish is a skilled guy. He'll figure it out. Hopefully it doesn't end up costing that much. For now, just enjoy the built in feet warmers in the floor.

I don't even know what to say regarding the BYU football team right now. I had heard that they had suffered yet another beat down from one of the Sister Missionaries I serve with. 40-6?? At home?? The team is just having an off year... Sarah wrote in her letter that it's a good time to be on a mission, so I don't have to watch these terrible games, and I 100 percent agree. Poor Kalani. It's been a while since the team has been this terrible. Hopefully we can at least get to a bowl game at this point.

The weather is pretty inconsistent. It hasn't really been super cold yet at all. In fact, it's been pretty warm. I haven't thought about buying a coat, which must mean it's not cold enough for me to be having those thoughts. I don't really know how much money I have in my account. I haven't bought anything with my personal money for a while, not since the ukulele fiasco of 2017. So you'd know better than I would how much is on there. 

I'll try that headache technique you were talking about. I'll try anything at this point. 

Well, there's so much more I could be telling you, but I'll just go ahead and stop here. Thanks for the interspersed emails throughout the week. I hope you know that I love you as well, and that I'm trying SO HARD to just enjoy myself and get better. I know my Savior lives and that He loves me, and wants me to get better just as much as I do. And I will. I will.

Elder Gonzales

On Sep 17, 2017 10:46 PM, <perucalica@aol.com> wrote:

Sunday, September 17, 2017

Hi Jacob!

It is time to sit down and write you another letter and I always feel a bit bewildered because I never really know what to write you about.  I’m sure hearing about the mundane things that go on around here gets old but life doesn’t change much on this end.  We get up, go to work, come home and go to bed.  That about sums up life day to day. Oh well, I’ll do my best to try and figure out something to tell you about.

Well, I guess the big question of the moment is, how are you doing?  I hope that there is good news to report.

I had my opportunity to help with missionary work here yesterday.  The Elders called and asked if I would play the piano for their baptism which was at 10 a.m.  You know how much I like doing things like that (not!) especially on Saturday mornings after a hard week of work but I thought of you and how much I want the members in  PA to support you in what you’re doing.  I can’t ask them to do something that I’m not willing to do myself and so I rolled out of bed yesterday when I would have much rather stayed in it.  The Elders baptized a 15 year old boy named Justin Meza.  Perhaps you remember him.  He’s the one that would always come and sit by Gunther Castrillo.

The most exciting thing that we have going on here at home is that we have hot water pipes leaking under the floor of the house and so (like the Knudsens before us) we now have warm spots as we walk in certain places in the family room.  We had Brother Murrish come and look at it yesterday and he said that he can come and fix it but first he will need to get a hold of the blueprints for our house so that he will know where all the pipes are in the home.  He’s going to try and do that tomorrow and after he gets the plans, he will decide exactly what needs to be done and how much it will cost.  He’s going to try and avoid having to jackhammer into the floor by capping off the existing pipes and establishing a line through the ceiling of the family room and in through the back wall to the kitchen sink area.  Obviously, he’s going to have to rip open the ceiling although he’ll patch it again when it’s done.  Maybe it’s a good thing that I’ll be at work while all of this is happening.  I trust Brother Murrish though and I know that he will do a good job.  This is the part where I say, “It really sucks to be an adult!”

Well, here goes your commentary on the BYU game for the week.  Let’s just say that we have nowhere to go but up!  We played Wisconsin yesterday without Tanner Mangum because Tanner injured his ankle in the last play of the Utah game and so is currently nursing a sprained ankle.  Beau Hoge was the starter yesterday for this game against 10^th ranked Wisconsin.  It wasn’t pretty.  It was as if Wisconsin’s quarterback had a homing device on all the passes that he threw.  He couldn’t miss.  BYU’s defense made it pretty easy for him, though.  Even they sucked yesterday.  The final score was 40-6.  I know that it’s getting tough for Kalani Sitake to go before the press every time after the games now.  I was listening a bit to the interview that he did after yesterday’s game and you could just see it in his face.  I would hate being him right now and I would really hate being Ty Detmer.  He has taken a lot of heat from all the disgruntled fans lately.  Somehow Ty keeps on smiling. Next week is a bye week and so maybe some magic will happen in the two weeks they have before their next game.  I think we play Utah State next.  Maybe with them we can get something going.

We have been having some cool, beautiful weather lately.  How is the weather at your place?  You’ll probably have to be buying a coat soon.  I know they were saying that they got snow in the mountains this last Saturday in Provo so I know that cooler weather is lurking just around the corner.  Let us know if you need more money in your account.

Well, I’ve exhausted my supply of news.  I’m sure that you’re glad about that so I’ll just finish by telling you that I love you sooooooooo much.  Be good and do good.

Love,

Mom

P.S. I was thinking that there is a technique that you could try in order to help with the headaches.  When you have a headache if you put a cold rag on the back of your neck for about 20 minutes that may help to ease the pain.  You can get a rag, wet it, put it inside a ziploc bag and throw it in the freezer for a few minutes.  You can use this over and over again and so you don’t have to use a new rag all the time.  It doesn’t hurt to try.