Dear Mother,
How the heck are ya?? It sounds to me like y'all are doing great! The family reunion was probably a nice little reprieve from work, amiright?? I read Granny's letter, and she seemed to be in a really good and happy mood. I'm sure that she really enjoyed having the whole family back together again. Wish I could have been there!!
Haha that Amazon Dot joke about Rafael Nadal really made me smile. I doubt anyone in the room got it except for you. I'm so proud of you!! You're growing up into quite the little tennis fan. Okay, maybe that's wishful thinking. But still.
You're right in saying that the Xanax does not seem to be helping much. The truth is, these past few days have been kind of difficult. The initial improvement that I saw after Elder Payne arrived seems to be quickly dissipating. I basically have feelings of anxiety throughout the day again, and of course, those physical symptoms come right along with it. The doctor told me to be patient, and not to come see him for another month. But yeah. Increasing the dosage of the Lexapro to 10 milligrams has not illicited any significant difference, at least so far. I'm still dealing with anxiety and headaches and jaw pain pretty much every day, which is really frustrating. I had a very intense conversation with God last night, asking him to make it stop sooner rather than later, but not my will, but His be done. I know he's testing me, and hopefully I'm proving to him that I want to be out here so desperately. I think you're right. In the most humble way possible, the Lord is blessing me for my dilligence. Despite these emotional and physical difficulties I've encountered, I've been able to have lots of visible success. I couldn't have done ANY of this without Him and His help. I love HIm.
Yeah, I've been on Facebook quite a bit this past week. They didn't really train us all that well on it at Zone Conference. Basically, they just gave us a few guidelines, and told us to be creative with it. Elder Payne and I have been trying to figure out ways in which we can use it in our Proselyting efforts, but we're not very creative. We've basically just been using it to get in contact with potential investigators that are difficult to get ahold of. Also, we've been sending uplifting messages and Scriptures to some of our recent converts. I'll attach some of the rules that President Bednar outlined for us. But yeah. I can't use it to contact anyone back home, except under certain circumstances, which I won't get into because they're irrelevant. The best way to get ahold of me is still through email, as I can't respond to you. Although you're still my friend on Facebook, I had to unfollow you, so none of your stuff shows up on my news feed. This is to ensure that I don't get distracted throughout the week. So yeah. Using Facebook only to fulfill my missionary purpose, which is totally okay with me.
Carlos is getting baptized this week, on the 21st!! OMG OMG OMG OMG I'm so excited for him!! I love that guy to death. He shows SO MUCH faith. He hasn't drunk coffee for like a full MONTH now, and has gone without cigarettes for 9 days. I don't know if I mentioned this or not, but he asked me to be the one to baptize him, and I'm so honored. His baptism is yet another testament to me that God prepares people to receive His Gospel. I am so grateful that Elder Stratford and I went to go visit him (we were on exchanges) a couple of months ago, and set up a follow up appointment with him. That's how this started, and it's just snowballed from there. If that's not a miracle, I don't know what is. God allowed us to be in precisely the right place at the right time. HALLELUJAH.
Elder Payne and I are working with a few other investigators, but none of them are really progressing. So I would really appreciate it if you would pray that we can find some new investigators soon, or that our current investigators will start progressing, or BOTH. And as always, prayers for me would be great too. I'm still sorta strugglig. I just take it day by day, really.
I've got quite a few others to email today, so I guess I'll let you go for now. If you have any additional questions, feel free to respond. I'll get to them. I love you so much!! Thank you for all that you do for me!! You're the best mom in the whole world. You should hear President Bednar talk about you. Every time I talk to him, he's always like, " YOU have some great parents, Elder Gonzales." and I'm like, "Yeah, I know. They're the best."
OKAY now I'm done.
Elder Gonzales
P.S. I'm going to be buying some pullover sweaters and possibly a jacket sometime soon. It's starting to get a bit chilly over here in Pennsylvania. I'm not sure how much money I have in my account, but I wanted you to be aware of that. If you could check for me, I would really appreciate it..
Comments
Post a Comment