AUG_6_18_MOM_PITT

 Mother!!

WAIT. WHAT. There's going to be a new ceiling fan in my room when I get home?? No more red, blue, and green blades of the fan?? But it brought so much character (said no one ever)!! It's gonna be pretty sweet to have a different fan when I get home. I don't know why that makes me so happy, but it does haha.

Dad has a gladiator action figure? You're right, I have no idea where he hides all of this stuff. It seems to me like he has an endless assortment of knick knacks, I don't know how he keeps track of all of it. Yes, I remember the Santamaria boy very well. He can be a little bit difficult at times, but he's a good kid, with a good heart. He probably gets it from his father. 

I wondered what it would be like to have you teaching in Primary. Don't worry about what all of the other teachers think of you. They're probably only feeling guilty that they didn't have the guts to tell their kids to be quiet themselves. On the inside, they're secretly grateful that you were brave enough to do what they couldn't.

Yeah, Briana did send me that video. It made me laugh as well, and cry a little bit that she had to clean all of that up!! That little boy has got a mischievous streak to him!! Briana always does a fantastic job of sending me a ton of pictures and videos of him, which makes me feel good. It's hard, being this far away from the action, but seeing those videos makes me feel like I'm not really that far away at all.

This week has been kind of slow. Probably the highlight of the week occurred on Tuesday. I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, which ALWAYS makes for a full and interesting day. My good friend from Lewisberry, Elder Stratford, is now my Zone Leader here in Pittsburgh. So he came here to the Northside and spent the day with me. It was fun to catch up on old times, and to fill each other in on this past year. He came out on the mission a transfer after me. Last time we were on exchanges, we were just two young bucks. Now, we're a little bit more seasoned, but we STILL have no idea what we're doing. We had a good day, even though it spontaneously decided to rain on us, causing us to be DRENCHED at 3 in the afternoon.

We weren't able to see Alisa at all this week, as she had to watch 7 kids ALL BY HERSELF for the majority of the week, so she's been busy. We will be seeing her tomorrow, however, and hopefully have her come to Church again!! We also hadn't seen Tammy at all this week, but we were able to get in contact with her last night, and set up a lesson for tonight!! So we have that to look forward to!! 

Yeah, it's been kind of a rough week. Sometimes, when you do Daily Planning in the morning, and realize you just have a day full of Contacting and tracting, it can get a little overwhelming. It makes you think that you haven't really done too much to get this area kickstarted. We've only got like two good investigators, the rest are not progressing. I have to remind myself that I'm doing what I can, and that the Worth of Souls is great in the sight of God. Alisa is IMPORTANT to him, and I'm doing a great service by teaching her the restored gospel of Christ. Same with Tammy. 

I'm beginning to realize that most of the investigators that I've taught on my mission have been women. It seems that women are much more open to the gospel than men for some reason. So kudos to you, mom. You're the winning gender. 

I've taken to reading "Jesus the Christ" a lot, recently. That book is the closest thing that we as missionaries have to a novel, so I decided to take advantage of it. It's really good, actually!! I'm enjoying it quite a bit!! It really does a good job of magnifying the life of Jesus Christ, and allows us to recognize all fot he little lessons he taught through example and word. I'm almost done already, so I have no idea what I'm gonna do to entertain myself one I've completed it. Look out the window, probably. 

As you can tell, I'm kinda lacking in news this week. Basically just a whole lot of finding and tracting. Not exactly the most interesting thing in the world. Hopefully I'll have something better for you next week. I love you!! 

Elder Gonzales 

On Sun, Aug 5, 2018, 11:31 PM <perucalica@aol.com> wrote:

Sunday, August 05, 2018

Hi Buddy Boy!

You are the proud recipient of a letter that will be written just before I put myself to bed.  Tomorrow is the beginning of a new school year and so my life of leisure has ended.  Actually, it ended on Wednesday of last week but tomorrow is our first day with kids.  It will be interesting to see who actually shows up and also to see what kind of year it is going to be for me.  When I’m back to getting up for work, I have to be in bed by 9:30 at the latest or I can’t survive. It sucks to get old!

It has been a pretty uneventful week.  I spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at work and so that pretty much sums up the highlights.  Brother Murrish came over on Thursday because our dryer has not been working.  He pulled the dryer apart so he could see what it was that wasn’t functioning and amongst all of the lint that we pulled our of the inside of the dryer we found approximately $9 in loose change.  Dad was happy to call dibs on all of it.  In addition to the boat load of lint, we found a key to who knows what and one of John’s guitar picks as well.  So, you never know what you will find if you pull your dryer apart.  He actually didn’t finish cleaning it completely because he didn’t have the proper tool with him.  He said that he will come back tomorrow to finish it and also, we are going to have him install new ceiling fans in your room, the girl’s room and in dad’s office.  He is also going to replace the lights in the upstairs hall that haven’t worked in a while.  So, in order for him to do all of this, Dad and I spent a while at Home Depot yesterday.  Hopefully, everything will go well.

Dad and I went to Sonic last night because we were in the area and were thirsty.  They were swamped with people and it seemed that no matter what they did, they couldn’t work fast enough nor could they get any orders right.  When we finally got our food and drinks, I discovered that they didn’t give me what I had asked for and so I had to bother someone to go and replace my drink.  I guess that’s what you get when you have a bunch of high school kids working for you.

Dad and I taught Primary today (of course).  Our lesson was about David and Goliath.  Dad pretty much took charge today and he did a good job.  He had a lot of visual aids that helped to get the kids enthused about the lesson.  One of the things that he brought was a gladiator action figure that he said he bought a long time ago.  Your dad never ceases to amaze me with the things that appear out of his closet or various nooks and crannies that I never knew he had.  We have Matthew Santamaria in our class. As you know, he is autistic.  He has been doing pretty well, however.  He has been sitting down and listening and even participates in the lesson at times.  I knew when I saw Dad’s action figure that that would get Matthew’s attention and sure enough it did.  He was enamored with it.  I told Dad that he should give that to Matthew sometime.  I know that he would love it.

I think that I am getting a reputation in Primary as “the mean one” as I won’t let the kids sit and be rude while someone is trying to teach.  I’ve gotten more than one dirty look today!

Your sister Briana sent me a video the other day of Baby Cohen that made me laugh.  I hope that she sends it to you so that you can see it.  Briana said that Cohen woke up and so she went to change his diaper.  In the process of the diaper change, he peed all over the changing table cover that she had just washed and all over himself.  So, Briana decided to put him in the bath.  Before she did that, however, she decided that she better feed him first so that he wouldn’t be grumpy in the bath and so instead of putting a diaper back on him, she just wrapped him in a blanket.  After feeding him, she took him in the bathroom to put the water in the tub and he vomited all over the floor so she put him down on the floor on top of the blanket and left to go get something to clean up the floor.  In the meantime, he proceeded to pee again on the floor and then he pooped all over his blanket.  She said that when she went back in the bathroom he was just laying there contentedly covered in poop.  I guess all of that made him feel better.  That kid makes me laugh.  I love him!  He is the most serious kid on the planet and always seems to have a scowl on his face but he’s just so dang cute that you can’t help but just be happy because he’s part of our lives.

There are only a few weeks left and the BYU football drought will be over.  I am excited.  I’m getting in the football mood and have my fingers crossed that they will do better this year.  We can always hope!!

I hope that the missionary work is going spectacularly.  You are my absolute favorite missionary in the whole wide world and I love you bunches (just like I love Cohen)!

Have a great week!

Love,

Mom