OCT_9_17_MOM_LEW

 Hey there Mom!!

I'm so sorry that I didn't give you a report on my doctor's visit this last Thursday.  Immediately following the appointment, I called President and Sister Bednar to fill them in, and didn't even think about sending him an email that he could forward to you, as he already knew all of the details. Then I completely FORGOT to send him an email on Saturday night, because Elder Payne and I were so busy filling out lesson reports for the day. So I've sort of been slacking, and I apologize for that. I plan on sending President Bednar another health report on Wednesday night, so you can expect one then.

OKAY. So. Thursday's appointment. I told the doctor about everything that went on, with the fact that it DEFINITELY got worse, that I was super low. But then I received a new companion, and things got better after that. I told him that I wasn't sure if it was the medication that was making me feel better, or the new companion, or both. The doctor couldn't really tell either. He went ahead and increased my prescription to 10 milligrams of Lexapro, as he believes that is the right thing to do.

I told him that the headaches and jaw pain and other symptoms have continued to linger, and his solution was to temporarily put me on a drug called Xanax in addition to the Lexapro. I am to take this medication to help get rid of the symptoms of anxiety (the headaches and whatnot). Apparently this medication is on the red list of drugs that Missionary Medical does not generally cover, but President Bednar was able to coerce them into allowing me 30 tablets. I can take up to 3 a day, and President Bednar encouraged me to not be hesitant to take them, as this will help get rid of the headaches faster. The dosage that the doctor put me on is extremely small, only 0.25 milligrams. He says that on average, he gives his patients 1 milligram. I am to see the doctor again in one month.

I have been taking the new dosage of Lexapro and the Xanax for a few days now, and have not seen any major differences, except that I've been pretty sleepy. I don't know if those two are correlated or not. I will continue to keep you updated.

The good news?? I've continued to be doing pretty good emotionally. I enjoy working with Elder Payne, who is very relaxed. We still definitely get our work done, but I don't feel overly rushed or inadequate with him, which is nice. Sure, leading out the area has been a little bit stressful, and there's always things that I could be doing better, but I'm comfortable with the pace that I'm going. I'm doing the best that I can, and that's all that matters.

We have been searching eagerly for new investigators, which means that we are doing lots of finding and asking for referrals. We have a decent amount of investigators to work with, but none of them are truly progressing towards baptism, EXCEPT our main man, Carlos. Carlos is just amazing. He's going on 19 days without coffee now, which is EXTREMELY impressive. He hasn't smoked for the past three days, and is determined to quit. During out last lesson with him, he gave us all of his remaining cigarettes to throw away. So yeah. I had cigarettes in my pocket for a few minutes until I could find somewhere to throw them away. So that was kind of weird. But yeah. He is doing GREAT. He's been to church each of the last 4 weeks, and is loving it. He has had absolutely no problems with any of the commandments we have taught him (other than the Word of Wisdom) , which is just astonishing. We're teaching him about Temples and eternal families tomorrow, which I'm extremely excited about. He saw a picture of the SLC temple while we were watching Conference, and kept on remarking on how beautiful it is. So I'm super stoked about that.

He is set to be baptized October 21st, and everything is looking good for him to be baptized on that date. During our last lesson, he asked if I would be the one to baptize him, which kind of took me back. But of course, I accepted and was totally honored. :) He's kinda a heavier man, though, so that'll be an experience. Hopefully the Lord will give my feeble arms the strength necessary to put him in and take him out of the water.

I think I mentioned this last week, but Elder Payne and I made a transfer goal to get 10 new investigators. Well, this week alone, we got 4. We have seen SO MANY miracles this week, it's astonishing how the Lord puts those in our path who are open to receiving the gospel. Elder Rasbands talk from the recent General Conference has been exceedingly prevalent in my mind over these past few days. There are NO coincidences. Everything happens for a reason, according to God's divine plan. It is our job to take advantage of those opportunities to share the gospel when they arrive. And they DO arrive, so long as we are praying for them, and continually exercising faith in Christ.

You are right, I was on Facebook yesterday, and went ahead and changed my cover photo. I will be changing my profile picture soon enough, as I need to have one of of me with my missionary name tag on, dressed in full missionary attire. I also had to unfollow all groups and things not affiliated with the church. Let me tell you, being on Facebook after all these months just felt WRONG. We are receiving a training at Zone Conference on Wednesday on how to utilize Facebook in our proselyting efforts, as well as those things that we are not allowed to do on it. I am excited for this opportunity to use Facebook in proselyting, but not so excited at the same time. But yeah. I'm still kind of fuzzy on what we're going to be using it for, so hopefully this Zone Conference answers a lot of those questions. President Bednar has already had to reprimand some missionaries for doing things on Facebook that are inappropriate and not allowed, so this will definitely be a major adjustment. But I don't think I'll be contacting you guys on Facebook anytime soon, so please don't reach out to me even if I am on there. I'll let you know.

Sounds to me like things are going great for you guys back home! I hope you have an awesome time at the family reunion!! Let me know how that goes! Also, good luck with the wedding preparations. Sounds like a good time for the Gonzales family (minus the fact that the BYU football team is sucking)!!

This has just been a miracle filled week. Without getting into too many details (because there's a LOT), we reconnected with former investigators who we have been trying to get ahold of for forever, we ran into a very nice guy who we met a month ago whole getting our hair cut and got a follow up appointment with him, we had a complete stranger recognize us as missionaries and take us to Subway for dinner. We went to go visit a former investigator, and met her whole family, who said we could come by on Thursday and teach all of them. And of course, Carlos. It's been a busy but awesome week. I'm loving this whole missionary work thing!! ;)

Once again, I wish I could tell you everything that goes on in my life, but my thumbs only have so much energy.  Please continue to pray for me and my health, as well as for Carlos and that we can find some new progressing investigators!! I hope you know that I truly love you and am grateful for everything that you do for me!!

Elder Gonzales

P. S. As always, if there's anything that I've forgotten to tell you, I may email you again later today. But that's all I have for now. Let me know if you have any questions. 

Well hello there my favorite youngest son in the whole wide world!

How are you this fine day?  I hope that things are going spectacularly for you and your fine companion.  It makes me happy that there have been some improvements in your health and your emotional state in the last little while.  As I told you before, that does your mother’s heart good to hear that.  I am, however, still curious as to what happened at the doctor this last Thursday.  I’ve been scouring our email account hoping to receive a report from you before now, but no such luck.  Dad just showed me that President Bednar texted him this morning saying that he had spoken to you last night and that apparently things are busy, but going well.  That still doesn’t let you off the hook.  I still want to know details.

Everything here is going well.  As I’m sure that you heard, John got engaged this last week to Sarah T. (or to Trefflich as we’ve been calling her as it gets very confusing when we talk about Sarah your sister and Sarah, John’s girlfriend).  I guess that we’ll have to be getting some kind of wedding reception together for them.  It is hard, however, to know exactly what our role is in this whole matter since we are now the parents of the groom instead of the bride.  We’re still waiting for some kind of indication as to what she wants us to do.  Hopefully we’ll be able to iron out those details soon.  I know that they’ve already called the temple (Redlands) and they are trying to get a hold of the people that are in charge of scheduling the Stake Center so that they can schedule the building for their reception.

Dad and I will be taking off on Thursday to go to Hurricane for the family reunion there.  I think that none of your siblings will be there as they’re all busy with school, work, etc.  This is the first time that I think Dad and I will have ever gone to Hurricane without having other family members there.  I am looking forward to just being able to visit and chill for a while.  We will be leaving Thursday and should return on Monday.  So that means that I will be writing you from Hurricane next week. Of course, I’m taking two days off work in order to go and so there’s always work to be done before I can just take off.  Having to make lesson plans for a sub is half the reason that teachers always just go and teach their classes even when they’re sicker than a dog.  It’s a pain in the butt.  It’s easier just to go in and do it yourself.

I see that you changed your profile picture on Facebook.  That must mean that you have access to Facebook again.  I’m sure that you have limits as to how you can use it, however.

The BYU news continues to be bleak.  They lost to Boise State on Friday 24-7.  I actually had a glimmer of hope there for a few minutes because BYU actually scored first.  Tanner played again this week but his ankle was heavily taped and so he wasn’t his best self as far as mobility goes.  Towards the end of the game, they put a guy named Critchlow in as quarterback whenever they would call any play that required the quarterback to run and then when they would call a passing play, they would put Tanner back in.  Whenever they would show Kalani Sitake on camera, you could see the veins bulging out of his head.  This definitely has not been his best season.  They do have a new running back on the team named Ula Tolutau that is pretty dang good.  He’s so big that nobody can tackle him.  He runs down the field with several guys hanging off of him.  It’s questionable as to whether or not Beau Hoge will be back to play at all this season.  Apparently, he sustatined a concussion during the Utah State game.   

Sarah T. sent John something on Facebook the other day that I thought was kind of funny. 

Layton, UT(AP) -A seven-year old boy was at the center of a Utah courtroom drama yesterday when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of him.
The boy has a history of being physically beaten by his parents and the judge initially awarded custody to his aunt, citing child custody law and statute requiring that family unity be maintained to the highest degree possible.
The boy surprised the court when he proclaimed that his aunt beat him more than his parents and he adamantly refused to live with her. When the judge then suggested that he live with his grandparents, the boy cried and said that they had also beaten him on numerous occasions.
After considering the remainder of the immediate family and learning that domestic violence was apparently a way of life among them, the judge took the unprecedented step of allowing the boy to propose who should have custody of him.
After two recesses to check legal references and confer with the Utah Division of Child Welfare, the judge granted temporary custody to the BYU football team, whom the boy firmly believes are not capable of beating anyone.

That should give you your laugh for the day.

Well, that about sums it up for this week.  I love you sooooooo much.  Keep on hanging in there.  Things are getting better.

Love,

Mom