SEP_10_18_MOM_PITT_To Mom
Hey Mom!!
Gosh darn. I was hoping I'd receive some good news regarding the BYU football team this week. Apparently not. Sounds like the offense is struggling yet AGAIN this year. Which probably makes them feel pretty stupid about firing Ty Detmer. I still feel like that was a mistake, but what are you going to do? At least we were able to get his autograph and take a picture with him while he was still offensive coordinator. Like you, I won't hold my breath for good news this next week as they go into Wisconsin and try to beat them at home. That's gonna take a miracle. We'll see if Mangum has any miracle juice left in him from 2015. I still can't believe he's a senior. I'll always see him as just a freshman.
They actually have a Peruvian restaurant here in Pittsburgh that I've been wanting to try for a while. My guess is that it's not anywhere near as good as Lucho's, though. I'm glad that you were able to get in contact with him again. I have a lot of fond memories of eating Sopa a la Crillolla at that place. And MAN they had some good bread and butter too! Dad told me in his letter that we'll definitely go to Lucho's new restaurant when I get back, so I'm gonna hold him to that. Lucho is such a good guy, and he deserves nothing but the best.
Wow. The fact that I was on the mission blog this transfer is a miracle. Probably just in the Zone Conference pictures. Oh. And maybe the one when they came to our apartment and did interviews with us three.
The fact that Dana and Susan were here for the Pirates game this past week is just WEIRD. That's MY area. PNC park is in the Northside! I go past it every single day! I wish they could have stopped by and said hi, but I can understand why that's probably not a good idea, and they actually sorta condemn that in the white handbook. But STILL. I could have totally passed them on the street and not have realized it! I'm pretty sure the Pirates have won their last couple of games, so hopefully they got their money's worth. The roads are crazy whenever there's a game going on, so I'm always hyper aware of when they play.
Speaking of games, there was a BIG rivalry game going on in Pittsburgh this weekend, Penn State vs. Pitt. It was so fun to be here for that. Pitt plays at Heinz Field, where the Steelers play. There was so much commotion going on, tons of college students walking the street wearing either their Pitt or a Penn State gear, going at it. The college GameDay atmosphere felt familiar, and made me really miss Provo and LaVell Edward's stadium. Especially since I knew BYU was playing that day as well! I'll be honest, Elder Toomer and I may have walked past the Stadium and watched a couple of plays on the Jumbotron. Seems like Pitt got their buyers handed to them, though, as they lost 51-6. So much for the home team.
Aw man. I miss Brother Johnson. I'm glad he's still thinking about us, cuz we're definitely still thinking about him. I can't believe he's already got my homecoming talk scheduled this far in advance. That's still a pretty good ways away. I guess I'd better start preparing? HA. Just kidding. I probably won't prepare until like the night before.
This has been a pretty terrific week. Elder Toomer and I have really begun to hit our stride as a companionship. We do a good job at keeping each other accountable and obedient. We both have a desire to work hard, and yet have fun simultaneously. The long days of tracting and finding don't seem quite as unbearable when you have a fun companion to be with. I'm grateful for him and for his attitude! Even though I'm the one who's supposed to be training him, I feel like he's training me!
I officially hit 15 months this past week! I'm down to single digits in terms of how many months I have left! That's crazy to think about! I think that having sent home my past two companions, I had begun to feel like I still had forever left. But now that I've started training a new missionary who's only been out for a month, it's put into perspective how fast the time has gone, and how little I have left to go. Obviously, 9 months is still a long time, but compared to the initial 24 months, it's nothing. By the time I'm done training, it will only be 6 months left! Yay for progress!!
Every week, we set goals for various key indicators that we want to accomplish. These goals are associated with a number, for example, "2 Investigators at church" or "3 new investigators". WElll, this week we accomplished all of our goals! I don't know why that makes me so happy, but it DOES. Probably because we haven't been hitting all of our goals recently. Although success is not measured by accomplishing our goals, it still feels pretty dang good.
Things are starting to pick up a bit. We were able to teach Paul, our new investigator, and commit him to be baptized. We're not sure how much he actually understood, but he kept telling us that he felt SO GOOD and that something was different about us. He told us that he knows that we're men of God, and that the blessing that we gave him last week was absolutely true.
We also started teaching another guy named Kurt this past week who has been a catholic his whole life. However, he somehow got his hands on a copy of the Book of Mormon, and has been reading it ever since. He is now at the end of Alma, and shows no signs of slowing down. He called the church building to find out when our "Masses" are, and that's how we got his information. We were able to have a really good Restoration lesson with him last Tuesday, and plan on teaching him again tomorrow. Understandably, he's a little apprehensive about leaving the Catholic church, especially since his family doesn't have great stuff to say about Mormons. But he told us that if he finds out for himself that this church his true, he will definitely join. So we're hoping he has a spiritual experience soon!!
Anyways, that's about all for this week! Hope you have a good week! Love you and miss you!
Elder Jake Gonzales
Gosh darn. I was hoping I'd receive some good news regarding the BYU football team this week. Apparently not. Sounds like the offense is struggling yet AGAIN this year. Which probably makes them feel pretty stupid about firing Ty Detmer. I still feel like that was a mistake, but what are you going to do? At least we were able to get his autograph and take a picture with him while he was still offensive coordinator. Like you, I won't hold my breath for good news this next week as they go into Wisconsin and try to beat them at home. That's gonna take a miracle. We'll see if Mangum has any miracle juice left in him from 2015. I still can't believe he's a senior. I'll always see him as just a freshman.
They actually have a Peruvian restaurant here in Pittsburgh that I've been wanting to try for a while. My guess is that it's not anywhere near as good as Lucho's, though. I'm glad that you were able to get in contact with him again. I have a lot of fond memories of eating Sopa a la Crillolla at that place. And MAN they had some good bread and butter too! Dad told me in his letter that we'll definitely go to Lucho's new restaurant when I get back, so I'm gonna hold him to that. Lucho is such a good guy, and he deserves nothing but the best.
Wow. The fact that I was on the mission blog this transfer is a miracle. Probably just in the Zone Conference pictures. Oh. And maybe the one when they came to our apartment and did interviews with us three.
The fact that Dana and Susan were here for the Pirates game this past week is just WEIRD. That's MY area. PNC park is in the Northside! I go past it every single day! I wish they could have stopped by and said hi, but I can understand why that's probably not a good idea, and they actually sorta condemn that in the white handbook. But STILL. I could have totally passed them on the street and not have realized it! I'm pretty sure the Pirates have won their last couple of games, so hopefully they got their money's worth. The roads are crazy whenever there's a game going on, so I'm always hyper aware of when they play.
Speaking of games, there was a BIG rivalry game going on in Pittsburgh this weekend, Penn State vs. Pitt. It was so fun to be here for that. Pitt plays at Heinz Field, where the Steelers play. There was so much commotion going on, tons of college students walking the street wearing either their Pitt or a Penn State gear, going at it. The college GameDay atmosphere felt familiar, and made me really miss Provo and LaVell Edward's stadium. Especially since I knew BYU was playing that day as well! I'll be honest, Elder Toomer and I may have walked past the Stadium and watched a couple of plays on the Jumbotron. Seems like Pitt got their buyers handed to them, though, as they lost 51-6. So much for the home team.
Aw man. I miss Brother Johnson. I'm glad he's still thinking about us, cuz we're definitely still thinking about him. I can't believe he's already got my homecoming talk scheduled this far in advance. That's still a pretty good ways away. I guess I'd better start preparing? HA. Just kidding. I probably won't prepare until like the night before.
This has been a pretty terrific week. Elder Toomer and I have really begun to hit our stride as a companionship. We do a good job at keeping each other accountable and obedient. We both have a desire to work hard, and yet have fun simultaneously. The long days of tracting and finding don't seem quite as unbearable when you have a fun companion to be with. I'm grateful for him and for his attitude! Even though I'm the one who's supposed to be training him, I feel like he's training me!
I officially hit 15 months this past week! I'm down to single digits in terms of how many months I have left! That's crazy to think about! I think that having sent home my past two companions, I had begun to feel like I still had forever left. But now that I've started training a new missionary who's only been out for a month, it's put into perspective how fast the time has gone, and how little I have left to go. Obviously, 9 months is still a long time, but compared to the initial 24 months, it's nothing. By the time I'm done training, it will only be 6 months left! Yay for progress!!
Every week, we set goals for various key indicators that we want to accomplish. These goals are associated with a number, for example, "2 Investigators at church" or "3 new investigators". WElll, this week we accomplished all of our goals! I don't know why that makes me so happy, but it DOES. Probably because we haven't been hitting all of our goals recently. Although success is not measured by accomplishing our goals, it still feels pretty dang good.
Things are starting to pick up a bit. We were able to teach Paul, our new investigator, and commit him to be baptized. We're not sure how much he actually understood, but he kept telling us that he felt SO GOOD and that something was different about us. He told us that he knows that we're men of God, and that the blessing that we gave him last week was absolutely true.
We also started teaching another guy named Kurt this past week who has been a catholic his whole life. However, he somehow got his hands on a copy of the Book of Mormon, and has been reading it ever since. He is now at the end of Alma, and shows no signs of slowing down. He called the church building to find out when our "Masses" are, and that's how we got his information. We were able to have a really good Restoration lesson with him last Tuesday, and plan on teaching him again tomorrow. Understandably, he's a little apprehensive about leaving the Catholic church, especially since his family doesn't have great stuff to say about Mormons. But he told us that if he finds out for himself that this church his true, he will definitely join. So we're hoping he has a spiritual experience soon!!
Anyways, that's about all for this week! Hope you have a good week! Love you and miss you!
Elder Jake Gonzales
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