JAN_8_18_MOM_GBRG_From your mother

 Hey Mom!!

Sorry for taking so long to respond to you today!! It's been a CRAZY P-Day, full of shopping and ping pong and whatnot. I FINALLY got a haircut!! It's about time, amiright?? Except now I have to wear a hat to keep my head warm, so that's kinda lame.

Sorry that you have to go back to school tomorrow. Goodness I know how that feels. Except I really don't because I've never had to teach a class full of bratty 7 year olds. You have my sincerest condolences. This year has gone by pretty quickly, though. Like, can you believe that it's already halfway through the school year? I'd bet you can. But these past SEVEN months have been so ridiculously FAST, it's INSANE. 

But at the same time, my time here in Greensburg seems to have gone pretty slow. It's so weird. I feel like I've been here for an eternity, but it's only been three weeks. I think it's because I'm just so comfortable already. I was at the Stanley's yesterday and Sister Stanley could not believe that I have only been here for three weeks. She said that I was basically apart of the family, which made me feel good. :) I love them to death.

Actually, I haven't gotten a letter from Braden at all for the past few weeks, so I've been TOTALLY in the dark regarding all BYU sports. That's kinda lame that we lot to Pacific. I SWEAR that team has had our number for the past several years. Which SUCKS because they're not even good. If they're the reason that we don't make it to the NCAA tournament this year I'll be bummed. But then we'll end up beating number 1 Gonzaga at the Kennel, so it'll be no problem, right? Man. Sports.

Were you and Dad looking at upright pianos or like a legit baby grand?? Or... A GRAND? Is that what you guys are doing with my room while I'm gone?? It all makes sense now. I give you my permission to change my room into your own personal concerto room. As if you need my permission haha. If you're gonna redo the backyard, then put endzones in it!! Or like a tennis court!! The possibilities are endless. 

OH YEAH. It's been crazy cold here. It was - 6, with a windchill of - 12 the other day. President Bednar sent out an email to everyone in the mission, telling us that we need to stay indoors as much as possible this week, and not be outside for longer than 10 minutes at a time. So no tracting. Darn it. But that's okay. But yeah, it's been COLD. And I feel alot more comfortable driving now... But not necessarily in the snow. That's still scary. 

This week has been... Kind of hard, to be quite honest. Like, nothing seemed to be going right. We had absolutely NO lessons. Everyone kept canceling on us, and it was so frustrating. It got kinda discouraging. But then I realized I've been looking at it all wrong. Mom, miracles happen EVERY DAY. We just need to look for them. When we are keeping the commandments, blessings will come. I know that for a fact. Elder Lin and I started taking a good, long look at some of the things that we were doing, and have been trying to be EXACTLY obedient, not just MOSTLY obedient. And the Blessings have just been FLOWING. For example:

-We have been wanting to proselyte on the college campus next to our apartment, Seton Hill University. It's a Catholic school, and is absolutely beautiful. We have called there several times, and always get forwarded to the same woman, Maureen Obrien. She's the president of the campus ministry. Unfortunately, shes never in her office, so we've never been able to get in contact with her. FINALLY, we decide to actually go over to the campus to talk to her, and that's when THIS happened (excerpt from my email to President) :

Unfortunately, she was nowhere to be found. HOWEVER. We talked to a very friendly student who showed us how to get to her office, and were able to fellowship her and get to know her. After she showed us to her vacant office, she left. We could have followed her, but decided to linger for a little bit longer. As we were wandering the halls, we came across a woman who immediately recognized us as Mormon missionaries. She said that she has a few nephews who have served missions and are now attending BYU. Right then and there, she called the campus minister and told her that we were there to meet with her. The campus minister could not meet with us right then, but said that she was anxious to meet with us. The woman we met also told us her name and said that she would be sure to give the campus minister a good impression of us. 

THAT was just so awesome. No coincidences in that story. If we are able to begin Proselyting on that campus, it will all have been because of the Lord's will. 

-We were also able to get in contact with a woman yesterday who is TRULY prepared. I don't know if I told you this story, but a few weeks ago, we were trying to find a Church Headquarters referral. Apparently this woman has cancer, and was considering joining the church. It sounded plenty promising to me, so I decided to take Elder Lin and head over there. When  we get to the house, we knock on the door. No answer. Then again. No answer. It took a lot of miles to get there, so I wasn't about to give up. Then, on the third knock, a woman comes to the door. We tell her who we are, and ask if Bree was there. She said she wasn't, but asked us if she could have a Book of Mormon. We gave her one (of course). Then, she asked if we gave away complimentary copies of the Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants as well. I was like "WHO ARE YOU WOMAN." Like, THAT was weird. We told her yes, but we didn't have a copy with us right then. So we told her we'd stop by and give her one. 

Fast forward to yesterday. We stop by, and there she is, once again. Her name is Jennifer. She's been sick, hence the reason why she didn't let us in, but REALLY wants to meet with us. We're going to her house on Friday for dinner and a lesson. HECK YES. we're so excited!! 

-We're also teaching a super promising couple tonight, after P-Day!! They're friends of a family in our ward!! EVERY MEMBER A MISSIONARY, amiright?? 

-We're also gonna be teaching another promising investigator tomorrow afternoon, Teri. 

I guess the moral of the story is that Obedience REALLY does being blessings. I knew that before, but I really know that now. 

Lots of other things happened this week as well, but in sorta getting down to the wire. Just know that I love you so much, and am so grateful for everything that you do for me. 

Elder Jake Gonzales 

On Jan 7, 2018 9:36 PM, <perucalica@aol.com> wrote:

January 7, 2018

Hey there Buddy Boy!

Yet another week has passed and I wish that there was something interesting to tell you.  It has been a pretty quiet week as compared to the 2 weeks that preceded it.  I have spent the majority of this week just trying to recover from both Christmas and the wedding.  Part of that recovery has included just trying to put the house back together.  It pretty much resembled the aftermath of a bomb blast after both John and Briana left.  John has been moving his things out slowly and has the majority of them out but there are still things that we are finding tucked here and there that he needs to take and so we have a “John” pile going on.  So, he comes every couple of days to collect what is left in that pile.We went to take a dresser drawer and a night stand that he had purchased to his apartment the other day and noticed that they are in the process of "moving in".  It has been hard for them as she has been working every day and I totally understand that after working all day the last thing you want to do is come home and clean.  I’m sure that they will eventually get it pulled together.

We put Sarah back on the plane on Thursday to go home.  I guess that she got her fill of us while she was here as I haven’t heard a word from her since other than “I made it.”  I’m sure that she has been having fun being off for a few days before she has to start school again tomorrow.

Well, it’s back to the grindstone tomorrow.  I so don’t want to go back to work.  The thought just makes me sad.  Oh well, the sooner we get back, the sooner the year will be over.

We spent some time yesterday and today at Stake Conference.  We had a visiting area authority come, Elder Paul Watkins.  We attended the adult session last night and it felt like the longest church meeting of my life.  The talks just went on and on.  It was also very warm in the chapel last night which has a mind-numbing effect.  The talks again today were very looooooong.  It seemed that every person that spoke thought that they had been assigned a minimum of 20 minutes per person.  Needless to say, by the time they all spoke, there were about 15 minutes left in the meeting for the visiting authority to say what he had to say.  I guess that the new presidency needs to focus on emphasizing the time limit for each person’s talk.  In spite of everything, the talk that I liked best was President Stacey’s talk which taught us that we need to keep an eternal perspective in our lives and prioritize the things that have eternal significance.  He was saying that he was part of the FBI team that was assigned to work on the terrorist attack that occurred in San Bernardino a couple of years ago.  I did not know that he worked for the FBI.  They also had a Children’s Choir from the two spanish wards that sang today.  They did really well.  I actually was impressed and that brought the spirit to the meeting.

I realized after I sent the letter to you last week that I hadn’t mentioned anything about BYU sports in it.  I assume that you are getting better reports from Braden as well as pictures to go with it but anyway, we watched a game between BYU and Pacific last night.  It was a nail biter and unfortunately, Pacific came out on top by 1 point.  BYU had the ball at the end of the game with about 15 seconds on the clock but they couldn’t get their act together and missed the first shot and had to jostle about before Zac Selljas got the ball in his hands.  He shot the ball and it went in which would have given BYU the win but after reviewing the video, they discovered that the ball did not leave his hands before the buzzer.  That was a heart breaker.  They didn’t play well last night.  Yoeli Childs only had 1 point in the whole first half in spite of being in the game almost the whole time.  Oh well, what can you do?

Dad and I went to look at pianos a couple of days ago.  We’ve been talking about getting a new piano to replace the one that we have.  We’ve only gone to one store.  We found one that I like (of course it was one of the most expensive ones of its type) but after talking to them about the price and how much payments would be on it, I’ve decided that that money could better be spent on something else like getting the backyard back into shape.  Who knows?  If the right opportunity came along at the right time then maybe I can replace the one that we have here.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the weather where you are.  Have you turned into a popsicle yet?  I can’t even imagine that kind of cold.  Just be careful walking and driving in it.

Well, that pretty much sums up the week.  I warned you in advance that it was pretty boring so sorry about that.  I’ll just finish by telling you that I love you sooooo much.  I hope that you know that.  We always think about you, talk about you, and remember you in our prayers.  It’s safe to say that you are this family’s favorite missionary and we’re rooting for you every minute of every day. 

Until next week,

Mom