JUN_18_18_MOM_PITT_From Mom

 Hello Mother!!

Welp. You're absolutely correct. I found my wallet!! It was the miracle of the century!! Elder Jones got back to our apartment on Wednesday afternoon. I was in the process of changing my pants, taking everything out of my pockets. Then I realized. MY WALLET WASN'T THERE. I cleaned the entire apartment for it (which afforded us a better score on our apartment inspection, I might add), I went out on the streets scanning the ground. NO LUCK. Finally, I called the bus company and asked if anyone had turned it in. I did it halfheartedly, as there are many homeless and needy people that ride the bus, and even if they had found it, the odds of them turning it in seemed low. But by the grace of God, somebody had found it and turned it in!! With my license, insurance card, debit cards, and cash all intact!! I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT. THERE IS A GOD.

Now, every time that I feel the weight of my wallet in my pocket, I think of the Lord and his boundless mercy. Seriously, losing my wallet would have been devastating. Like you said, I wouldn't have been able to get a license back, which would have deemed me incapable of driving for the rest of the year (and I do NOT want to be in a walk area for that long!!). I would have needed to cancel all of my debit cards, as well as gotten yet ANOTHER bus pass (which would have hindered the work quite a bit for several days). Not to mention another insurance card, and tiwi card. So needless to say, I was extremely grateful that evening in my prayers, and continue to be grateful every day for that small miracle.

Yeah, I read Granny's email before I read yours, and got a little teary eyed at the story about Grandpa's wedding ring. I'm grateful that you were able to recover it. Thats actually a pretty awesome story. I know that Grandpa meant the WORLD to you, as he did to me. Yesterday during Sacrament Meeting I spent a lot of time reflecting upon the various father figures in my life, and Grandpa was towards the top of that list. In a way, he's the reason why I have the gospel in my life, and for that, I'll always be indebted to him. 

Elder Jones and I have not experienced bad weather, so it seems like we dodged that bullet pretty well. I mean, it is 93 degrees today, with like 90 percent humidity. But other than that, we're doing pretty okay. Just slowly melting over here. No biggie. 

The missionary work is going pretty well, I suppose. Elder Jones and I have not taught many lessons, but have been doing a LOT of finding, which is kind of fun, but also leads to LONG and grueling days. Our district had a goal of finding 10 New Investigators this past week, and we hit it, right on the money!! So that was pretty great. I know me and Elder Jones worked plenty hard this week to find 5 of those 10.probably the most promising amongst those was a young mom named Deazia. She has been to our church before, with a friend in the singles ward. We were able to teach her a bit about the book of Mormon, and she gave a very sincere prayer at the end of the lesson. Listening to the inexperienced pray is always such a pleasure. She thanked God for her family, and for these two nice gentlemen who have come into her life. I'm grateful for the sincere prayers of Investigators.

Other than that, not much else has been happening. If you can imagine two young adult men in white shirts and ties walking through the projects of Downtown Pittsburgh, knocking doors and talking to EVERYONE, you have a pretty good idea of a standard day in this area. It's different in a lot of ways. I'm starting to feel a little bit better about it. This bus system still has me so confused, though. So I'm hoping I can get the hang of it soon. 

Our mission president recently went to a conference of mission presidents in the Northeast part of the United States. They came out with some new rules regarding P-Days, where essentially we are not allowed to fraternize with any other missionaries at all. So no more going to the church to play basketball. We're also not allowed to leave our areas without express permission from the mission president, as opposed to the district or zone leaders. So it sounds like me and Elder Jones are gonna be spending a lot more time together. There are lots of cool things to see in Pittsburgh, though, so hopefully you'll be getting some sweet pictures shortly. 

Anyways, that's all for today!! Please send me any crock pot recipes that you have!! Especially estofado!! Me and Elder Jones have been taking full advantage of our crock pot lol

Elder Jake Gonzales 

On Jun 17, 2018 10:01 PM, <perucalica@aol.com> wrote:

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Hi Buddy Boy,

How are you doing now after a traumatic week of losing your wallet?  Hopefully the rest of the week was good after that. Tell me how you got your wallet back.

It has been a good week for me. I left Thursday to come to Hurricane to spend some time with Granny. We really haven't done anything spectacular except sit around and visit. Dana and Susan came by yesterday and again today  and it was good to see them. I think they love living here. I know that Granny has enjoyed having them in the area. I also saw Ian for a few minutes the other day when he came through. I need to decide when I'm coming home. Dad gets back on Monday, June 25 so I need to be back by then so I can pick him up. Other than that, my schedule is pretty open.

I talked to Briana today and nothing seems to be happening on the baby front. I'm not sure if she would even know something was happening. That's the way it is with your first. You learn by experience. I know that I am getting anxious to get the baby heree. Dad said that he had been shopping at the Mercado Indio  for baby things.

I heard that Pennsylvania  was hit by some pretty  rough weather this last week. Was Pittsburgh affected by that at all? It has been windy and a little overcast at times here in Hurricane  but there's been no rain. It was over 100 degrees  here the day I arrived. I made Granny lower the tee rate on her air conditioner  because I was sweating to death. The struggle is real as Granny says that she is cold.

If you read Granny's letter then you'll know that I found Grandpa's wedding ring that he lost shortly before he died out in the shed in a pile of sawdust that I was sweeping up. I wasn't sure who the ring belonged to when I first found it but I suspected that it was his. It kind of made me teary eyed to think that that ring had been sitting there for almost 3 years and that I was the one who found it. I've been missing Grandpa lately. I think that it was a tender mercy for me and for Granny that the ring was found.

I noticed online that Peru lost their first game in the World Cup. I'm sure it was a somber day in Peru yesterday for everyone. Hopefully things will go better for them in layer gsmes.

I have heard no tennis news so I can't help you there.

How's the mixing work going?  Any prospects?  All I can tell you is just keep working hard. The teacher in Sunday School today wax talking about King Saul from the Old Testament speaking about when he was commanded to destroy all the spoils of war and he did not do it. The teacher said that his son's mission president used to tell his missionaries "Obedience brings blessings but exact obedience brings miracles." Just something to think about.

Well, that about sums up my whole life about now so I'll close. I love you so much.
Love,
Mom