OCT_29_18_MOM_PITT_From Mom
Hey there Mom!
It been kinda a rough week. I'll get to that later. But for now I just want to focus on what has been going GOOD! And also take a little bit of time to reply to the things that you told me.
Yeah! The shooting that went down in Squirrel Hill has been the talk of the town. I talked to a lady at the bus stop yesterday who was a witness. She was completely and totally shaken up. I feel so terrible for her and everybody else that was involved in a hate crime like that. It was a little bit too close for comfort as well. I remember when the shooting went down in San Bernardino, and that was only like 30 minutes away from us. And now this one happens about 5 miles away from where I'm at. It just keeps getting closer and closer
. I found out about it on Saturday night, but our mission president didn't tell us to come in for the night or anything. Then again, it wasn't in our area, so I guess I can understand. The missionaries in our zone that are in that area are the Swissvale Elders. But I didn't hear anything about them having to go home either. Rest assured, I'm safe, and grateful for it.
I hadn't heard about the dude who jumped out of the 16th floor building until you told me about it. That's kinda troubling news. So much crap going down in Pittsburgh recently. This place is home to me now. It doesn't feel THAT dangerous. You always imagine this stuff happening somewhere far away from you. Gosh.
Ugh. Northern Illinois? Wow. We're terrible. I don't even understand how we got this bad. It sounds like a really boring game, so you didn't miss much. I'm sorry you have to go through this terrible season. AGAIN.
Yay!! You get to see Briana, Tony, and Cohen again! That's awesome! I'm a little bit jealous of you. And I'm sure Sarah will be there as well. And maybe John and Sarah? Sounds like it's gonna be a full house! Those new ceiling fans in our rooms are going to be put to good use!
Transfers are on November 20, two days before Thanksgiving! I've already spent nearly 6 months here, so I hope now is my time to go! I'm hoping we can get Rose baptized before I leave, but that is a selfish goal more than anything. Right now, she's set to be baptized on November 24th. But I think that she is so dang prepared, she could easily be baptized before then.
Some great things happened this week. We had a new investigator named Yvonne come to church, and she loved it! She even stayed all three hours, and didn't complain ONCE that it was too long. We had the primary program yesterday, which she absolutely loved, since she loves children. She was really impressed with how organized it was and how disciplined the children were. I mean, I didn't think they were all that disciplined, but to each their own I guess haha
We haven't even really taught Yvonne anything. Last time we went to teach her, she just talked our ears off, and it was difficult to get a word in. But, she did come to church, and loved it, and wants to come again next week. I think that's a good start, and hopefully everything else will fall into place based off of that. We have a teaching appointment with her next week, which is good, but a little too far off to be comfortable. Hopefully everything works out with her!
In terms of Rose, we were only able to see her once this week, on Tuesday. But it was a great lesson!! It was only me and Elder Toomer there, with no translators or anything. We were really skeptical as to how it was going to go, but it went great!! We taught her the last part of the Plan of Salvation, regarding the Spirit World and the Three Kingdoms of Glory, and she understood almost all of it perfectly! I walked out of that lesson feeling so pumped. As you know, I've struggled these past few weeks trying to find out what my role was in Rose's conversion, since I don't know French and she doesn't know English very well. I didn't think I could teach her anything. But this past week, despite the language barrier, and through the Grace of God, we were able to proficiently teach her! It just felt so good to have a "Gift of Tongues" like experience, even though I am serving an English speaking mission.
Alright, now to the rough part. There has been a lot of drama in my district for these past few days. It all started on Thursday, when we went on Exchanges. I went with Elder Wang to the Morningside area, while Elder Toomer got to lead out the Northside area for the first time with our district leader, Elder Ifopo. Everything went okay on our end, but some bad crap went down here in the Northside. I don't understand the whole story, because Elder Toomer won't tell me, but apparently Elder Ifopo made a bad mistake on exchanges, felt guilty about it, and called President Bednar to confess. The mistake was so bad, in fact, that they had to cancel our lesson that was scheduled with Rose that night, because Elder Ifopo didn't feel worthy to teach. Elder Toomer also got on President Bednar 's bad side as well, because apparently he allowed the mistake to occur and didn't attempt to stop Elder Ifopo.
Anyways, when we exchanged back at the Church building, Elder Ifopo called the four of us into a room and just starts YELLING AT US. Like HARDCORE yelling at us. He starts criticizing every little thing that he has observed we are doing wrong. Things as simple as cleaning the bathroom. It was insane. The thing is, Elder Ifopo has never been very obedient, and so him yelling at us for our minor Shortcomings seemed VERY hypocritical and frankly made me very heated. I managed to bite my tongue and not retaliate, but he made me angry for the rest of the day. In his lecture, he essentially called me a bad missionary and a terrible trainer. He told me that he perceives so many weaknesses in Elder Toomer and practically blamed them all on me as his trainer.
Anyways, this situation has left me feeling very resentful towards Elder Ifopo. I recognize that he is my district leader, and therefore, is authorized to give me correction when necessary. But the way that he went about it was TOTALLY wrong. I felt no love from him whatsoever, only a dictatorship. I tod President Bednar about it, and he basically just told me that he is extremely dissapiinted in Elder Ifopo, and that I shouldn't take anything of what he said personally, and that we just got the blind retaliation from the mistake he made on Thursday. Like I said, I don't know what it was, and Elder Toomer won't tell me, but I guess it wasn't terrible enough that either of them are going home.
Anyways, that whole situation put a large damper on my week, and left me feeling unmotivated and angry. I have lost all respect for Elder Ifopo. I will make the corrections he reccomends, but only because he's district leader and I know the Lord called him for that purpose.
I'm grateful that today is P-Day and I have a little opportunity to take a break, and get a fresh start on the rest of the week. I don't like any of this drama, and would prefer to just get back to business as usual.
Anyways, I love you so much and am grateful for all of the sacrifices you're making for me! I wish I could adequately explain how much I love you! Next June can't come soon enough!
Elder Gonzales
P. S. WOW I JUST GOT YOUR PACKAGE! Thanks so much! I was not expecting that! I've been looking for earmuffs everywhere and had practically given up! You're the best parents in the world! Don't worry about sending me a Christmas package this is more than enough! Love you!
It been kinda a rough week. I'll get to that later. But for now I just want to focus on what has been going GOOD! And also take a little bit of time to reply to the things that you told me.
Yeah! The shooting that went down in Squirrel Hill has been the talk of the town. I talked to a lady at the bus stop yesterday who was a witness. She was completely and totally shaken up. I feel so terrible for her and everybody else that was involved in a hate crime like that. It was a little bit too close for comfort as well. I remember when the shooting went down in San Bernardino, and that was only like 30 minutes away from us. And now this one happens about 5 miles away from where I'm at. It just keeps getting closer and closer
I hadn't heard about the dude who jumped out of the 16th floor building until you told me about it. That's kinda troubling news. So much crap going down in Pittsburgh recently. This place is home to me now. It doesn't feel THAT dangerous. You always imagine this stuff happening somewhere far away from you. Gosh.
Ugh. Northern Illinois? Wow. We're terrible. I don't even understand how we got this bad. It sounds like a really boring game, so you didn't miss much. I'm sorry you have to go through this terrible season. AGAIN.
Yay!! You get to see Briana, Tony, and Cohen again! That's awesome! I'm a little bit jealous of you. And I'm sure Sarah will be there as well. And maybe John and Sarah? Sounds like it's gonna be a full house! Those new ceiling fans in our rooms are going to be put to good use!
Transfers are on November 20, two days before Thanksgiving! I've already spent nearly 6 months here, so I hope now is my time to go! I'm hoping we can get Rose baptized before I leave, but that is a selfish goal more than anything. Right now, she's set to be baptized on November 24th. But I think that she is so dang prepared, she could easily be baptized before then.
Some great things happened this week. We had a new investigator named Yvonne come to church, and she loved it! She even stayed all three hours, and didn't complain ONCE that it was too long. We had the primary program yesterday, which she absolutely loved, since she loves children. She was really impressed with how organized it was and how disciplined the children were. I mean, I didn't think they were all that disciplined, but to each their own I guess haha
We haven't even really taught Yvonne anything. Last time we went to teach her, she just talked our ears off, and it was difficult to get a word in. But, she did come to church, and loved it, and wants to come again next week. I think that's a good start, and hopefully everything else will fall into place based off of that. We have a teaching appointment with her next week, which is good, but a little too far off to be comfortable. Hopefully everything works out with her!
In terms of Rose, we were only able to see her once this week, on Tuesday. But it was a great lesson!! It was only me and Elder Toomer there, with no translators or anything. We were really skeptical as to how it was going to go, but it went great!! We taught her the last part of the Plan of Salvation, regarding the Spirit World and the Three Kingdoms of Glory, and she understood almost all of it perfectly! I walked out of that lesson feeling so pumped. As you know, I've struggled these past few weeks trying to find out what my role was in Rose's conversion, since I don't know French and she doesn't know English very well. I didn't think I could teach her anything. But this past week, despite the language barrier, and through the Grace of God, we were able to proficiently teach her! It just felt so good to have a "Gift of Tongues" like experience, even though I am serving an English speaking mission.
Alright, now to the rough part. There has been a lot of drama in my district for these past few days. It all started on Thursday, when we went on Exchanges. I went with Elder Wang to the Morningside area, while Elder Toomer got to lead out the Northside area for the first time with our district leader, Elder Ifopo. Everything went okay on our end, but some bad crap went down here in the Northside. I don't understand the whole story, because Elder Toomer won't tell me, but apparently Elder Ifopo made a bad mistake on exchanges, felt guilty about it, and called President Bednar to confess. The mistake was so bad, in fact, that they had to cancel our lesson that was scheduled with Rose that night, because Elder Ifopo didn't feel worthy to teach. Elder Toomer also got on President Bednar 's bad side as well, because apparently he allowed the mistake to occur and didn't attempt to stop Elder Ifopo.
Anyways, when we exchanged back at the Church building, Elder Ifopo called the four of us into a room and just starts YELLING AT US. Like HARDCORE yelling at us. He starts criticizing every little thing that he has observed we are doing wrong. Things as simple as cleaning the bathroom. It was insane. The thing is, Elder Ifopo has never been very obedient, and so him yelling at us for our minor Shortcomings seemed VERY hypocritical and frankly made me very heated. I managed to bite my tongue and not retaliate, but he made me angry for the rest of the day. In his lecture, he essentially called me a bad missionary and a terrible trainer. He told me that he perceives so many weaknesses in Elder Toomer and practically blamed them all on me as his trainer.
Anyways, this situation has left me feeling very resentful towards Elder Ifopo. I recognize that he is my district leader, and therefore, is authorized to give me correction when necessary. But the way that he went about it was TOTALLY wrong. I felt no love from him whatsoever, only a dictatorship. I tod President Bednar about it, and he basically just told me that he is extremely dissapiinted in Elder Ifopo, and that I shouldn't take anything of what he said personally, and that we just got the blind retaliation from the mistake he made on Thursday. Like I said, I don't know what it was, and Elder Toomer won't tell me, but I guess it wasn't terrible enough that either of them are going home.
Anyways, that whole situation put a large damper on my week, and left me feeling unmotivated and angry. I have lost all respect for Elder Ifopo. I will make the corrections he reccomends, but only because he's district leader and I know the Lord called him for that purpose.
I'm grateful that today is P-Day and I have a little opportunity to take a break, and get a fresh start on the rest of the week. I don't like any of this drama, and would prefer to just get back to business as usual.
Anyways, I love you so much and am grateful for all of the sacrifices you're making for me! I wish I could adequately explain how much I love you! Next June can't come soon enough!
Elder Gonzales
P. S. WOW I JUST GOT YOUR PACKAGE! Thanks so much! I was not expecting that! I've been looking for earmuffs everywhere and had practically given up! You're the best parents in the world! Don't worry about sending me a Christmas package this is more than enough! Love you!
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