NOV_27_17_MOM_LEW_From Mom

 

Jacob Eric Gonzales <jacob.gonzales@myldsmail.net>	Mon, Nov 27, 2017, 10:10 AM
to perucalica, Tony, me, John, Jacob

Hey Mom!!

It has been such a dang good week. I mean, every week in the mission field is a good week, but this one in particular was good. As always, there's lots to tell. We'll see how much of it I actually get to. 

First and foremost, THANKSGIVING. President Bednar said in his weekly email that he wanted us to serve as much as possible on Thanksgiving. Elder Payne and I were looking frantically for places that would let us serve them, but all of the places in our area were CLOSED for the Holidays. The Senior Center, New Hope Food Pantry. All CLOSED. So we didn't really know what to do. We sure as heck weren't going to knock doors on Thanksgiving. So we asked our friends at the Senior Center if they knew of any service opportunities. One of the ladies who works there let us know about an annual 5k that happens on Thanksgiving, and that they might be in need of volunteers. We talked to the coordinator, and he was SUPER grateful for our willingness to serve.

So Thanksgiving started at 5:30am for us. We got up extra early, and headed over to the park to help out with the "Turkey Trot". We ended up helping out with the dessert table with a few other volunteers. Mom, it was just SO FUN.  Like, I loved being able to help out with these people, and just have fun while doing it. We were serving until about 10:30am, but it seemed to go by so fast. They kept us busy, forsure. We also talked to quite a few people we were volunteering with, and were able to spread the word with them about who we are and what we do. It was definitely something I'll never forget.

Next, comes the Thanksgiving meal itself. The Kauffmans know how to do Thanksgiving RIGHT. They invited a lot of their family and friends, and it was fun getting to know them a bit. We may have even found a potential investigator for the other Elders, which is always a good thing. The turkey looked super cool, primarily because it had BACON on it. Like seriously, that's awesome. But it was sort of dry. Dad, I'm sure your turkey was quite a bit better than theirs. At least, your turkey looked dang good from the pictures that John sent me. Just before we left their house, one of their friends started dancing to Celia Cruz. She was from the Dominican Republic. Man, it just totally threw me back. I absolutely love the Kauffmans and am so grateful for them and the kindness that they showed us for Thanksgiving this year. I'm gonna miss them.

Elder Payne and I have also been getting along a bit better. It's still usually pretty quiet, but we've been getting the work done, and seem to be transitioning a bit more smoothly in our lessons. We had a good time hanging up Christmas lights in our apartment the other day. Sister Reeves texted us this morning and said that she has an extra artificial Christmas tree that she'll be bringing by tomorrow, along with our weekly dinner drop-off. She's awesome. Our apartment is going to be absolutely DECKED OUT for Christmas. I'm excited, but kind of bummed because I won't actually be able to have Christmas morning here in Lewisberry. But I'm going to enjoy these decorations while I have them.

The work has been going pretty great as well. I'll go more into detail about it in my mass weekly email, but Brian, Alyssa and Ariel are progressing quite nicely!! In fact, Alyssa and Ariel and their parents, Stephanie and Charlie came to sacrament meeting yesterday!! It was just so great to see them there. We've been working with Alyssa and Ariel for a while, so it's nice to finally see them exercising their faith and keeping their commitments. Stephanie is the self proclaimed biggest Atheist in the world, but we hope she'll come along as we continue meeting with her girls. And Charlie is a progressing investigator in all but name. When we go to their house, we teach the girls, but he's always asking questions, has been reading the Book of Mormon, and came to church. I hope that I can be an effective instrument in the Lord's hands and that they feel the Spirit testifying to them that the church is true. 

Brian has not yet made it to church, but is interested in coming to Book of Mormon class this Wednesday (Oh yeah. We do that too. I don't know if I've ever talked about that before. It's my turn to teach again this Thursday, so that will be fun.) We're also teaching him the Word of Wisdom tomorrow, which is always fun, for lack of a better word. Pray for me! And for Brian!

You had a question about transfers. So, transfers are on Thursday, December 14th. I will let you know where I'm going on Monday, December 11th. Thanks so much for thinking about me and being willing to send me packages!! Packages are the best. But I think it would probably be best if you wait until I send you the address for my new apartment before you send them. Because I want to open them on Christmas, but don't want to have to lug them in the car from one area to another. We are only allowed to bring the two suitcases when we're transferred, primarily because we usually have to fit them in Corolla's and cars of that size. 

I'm probably in my last few weeks of my time here in Lewisberry. I love this place so much. It feels like home at this point. But I'm excited to go wherever the Lord sends me. Hopefully a college town. We've got zone conference this Friday, and they're going to talk about proselyting on college campuses for a little bit. So that should be fun.

I hope your birthday was awesome. Just think. Only one month until we get to talk through skype or facebook!! Crazy how fast time has gone. Like, seriously.

This Light the World initiative is the best thing since sliced bread. I'm so excited to show the video to everybody and to try to Light the World a little bit this Christmas season. Man, I still cant believe it's almost Christmas. I'm excited as heck. Can you tell?? 

Alright Mom, that's it for this week. I hope you're doing okay and that you have a great rest of your week!! Pray for me, as always. I'm praying for you. 

Elder Jake Gonzales 

On Sun, Nov 26, 2017 at 8:03 PM, <perucalica@aol.com> wrote:

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Dear Buddy Boy,

As I was writing the date on the letter it dawned on me that we are almost in December.  It’s hard to believe that it will be Christmas here in a few short weeks.  The best thing about Christmas this year is that we will get to talk to you.  I am looking forward to that phone call.  We also will have the rest of the kids here for a few days and that will feel good as well.  And of course John’s wedding will help to top off a busy holiday season.

Speaking of holidays, we spent Thanksgiving with Lucy, Jesus, John, Sarah T. and of course dad and myself.  It was a pretty quiet holiday as there were no little kids to run around.  We had dinner and then played a few card games but then Jesus and Lucy left pretty early to go home. I think I like it better when you are all here to do things with.  It makes for much better company.

Today is the last day of my Thanksgiving break.  It’s always hard to go back to work when I’ve had any time off.  I’ve found that even just a normal weekend finds me slipping back into my vacation mode.  It certainly takes a lot more of an effort to slip out of vacation mode than to slip into it.  I have to keep telling myself that there are only 3 weeks and then we can go back on break for a while.

We had the missionaries over for dinner today after church and one of them is from  Mesa, Arizona. He was asking us about you and which mission you were in.  He was saying that he knows a girl who is currently serving in your mission.  Her name is Sister Anderson.  The Elder’s name is Elder Lewandowski.  The missionaries are really going full force promoting the #LighttheWorld campaign.  They were handing out bumper stickers today at church for the cars.  They are also going to be marching in the Fontana Christmas Parade which is on Dec. 9 so they can promote it further.  I’ll have to look at the calendar and figure out what I can do to #LighttheWorld this Christmas season.

Well, I know that you have been waiting for the BYU news for the week and so I will make you wait no longer.  BYU played Hawaii this week in Hawaii.  We actually won the game 30-20.  Squally Canada actually came alive and ran over 100 yards rushing in the first half of the game.  He went out, however, about 2 minutes before halftime with a suspected concussion and so that was the end of that.  They put Austin Kafentsis in as running back as well as Riley Burt and they both did fairly well.  They were saying that they have had something like 37 players go out with injuries on the BYU team this year.  They’re definitely playing with second and third string players this year.  BYU has used 5 different quarterbacks over the course of the season.  The positive in all of this is that next year if they can get their first string players healthy then those players will have experienced people to back them up as a lot of them have gotten playing time this year.

The basketball team played two games this week, one against Alabama and the other against UMASS.  They lost against Alabama but won by 2 points against UMASS.  They seem to be semi-decent this year.  I’m not sure if they’ll make it to the NCAA again this year or not but we can always hope.

I know that you said that you will most likely be transferred this next transfer.  When, exactly, are transfers in December?  We need to get your Christmas packages to you before you are switched.

That about sums up all my exciting news for the week so I’ll sign off.  I love you so much and think about you all the time.  Thanks for the birthday card and your kind words.

Be good and do good!

Love,

Mom