DEC_10_18_MOM_TOW_From Mom
Hey Mom!
It has snowed quite a bit up here, but it's not overflowing with snow quite yet. We had an unusually warm day yesterday, and so a lot of the snow has since melted. But I hear it's supposed to snow today and Thursday, so I have that to look forward to.
It's gonna be weird coming back home and NOT have the bunk bed in my room. I'm gonna miss that thing quite a bit. What are you doing with all of the bunk bed parts? Just put them in the garage or something? Man, that thing has been in the room for as long as I can remember.
Braden emailed me this week and told me about the BYU basketball team's woes. Apparently they're 5-4 now, which is NOT good at all. We should definitely not be losing to teams like Weber State. And apparently the football team will be playing Western Michigan? That's not a super exciting match up, but at least we made it to a bowl game. That's an improvement on last year at least.
The work in Towanda is still not great, but it's improving! We were able to actually have two lessons this past week! I know, that doesn't sound like a lot, but when you go from tracting all week to having two lessons, you begin to count your blessings. We taught a boy named Tyler who is our age, and a man named Jason, who is the nonmember son of the Elders Quorum President in our ward. Both lessons seemed to go pretty well! Especially Jason's. Elder Foster walked out of the lesson already thinking about Jason's baptismal service, and I was like "Slow down Buckeroo. We haven't even put him on Baptismal Date yet."i admire his optimism, though! Jason is a cool guy who loves his family, and really wants to be sealed to them for eternity. Hopefully we can make that happen!!
I really like Elder Foster. We get along pretty dang well. I'm grateful that I have the privilege of serving with him. We are two very different people, but we still manage to have fun together, which is super important. I was a little bit skeptical of him at first, but as I've gotten to know him better, I've discovered that we have similar opinions and personalities. I've really been blessed in the companion department! I'd say the only companion that I haven't really liked that much was Elder Payne. And maybe Elder Jones. But they're both home now!
A lot of interesting and funny things have happened this week. I may use some of the same ones in my weekly email to the masses, but just know that I wrote them to you first.
A few nights ago, Elder Foster and I were spending some time contacting some former Investigators. We decided to go and contact this one individual named John. It didn't say much in his record, only something like, "Go and talk to John. He'll definitely talk to you." As we were walking to John's house, Elder Foster and I started talking about movies. Eventually, the movie Zootopia came up. We both really like that movie, and we're trying to remember the song that Shakira sings in it. For the life of us, We could not remember how it went!! It was driving us crazy! Like it was just on the tips of our tongues, but no dice. Anyways, we make it to John's house, and an old man answers the door. He was a super nice 85 year old, who was super overjoyed to have someone come and visit him. Anyways, we try to share the gospel with him, but every time we bring up a gospel principle, he goes off and starts talking about something else. Every time we try to interrupt him, he just keeps on talking. He tells us about his time in Vietnam, about how he met his wife, about his Christmas traditions. All good things, but not really relevant to our conversation. Before we know it, 45 MINUTES has passed by, and we still haven't shared our message. Elder Foster and I telepathically decide its a lost cause, and start to make our way off of the porch. Then, out of nowhere, we hear some music coming from inside the man's house! One of his granddaughters has just started watching Zootopia, and the song by Shakira starts playing! Elder Foster and I just look at each other and start busting up laughing!! Meanwhile, John just keeps talking and doesn't even realize that we're laughing. Eventually, after nearly an hour, we manage to get out of John's house. But it was definitely a tender mercy from the Lord that we were there at the precise time. Even if it wasn't to convert John, at least we figured out the name of the song in Zootopia.
We didnt do anything on Tuesday, because for whatever reason Elder Foster developed a rash between his legs and couldn't walk without causing him LOADS of pain. So we just stayed in and worked on cleaning the apartment. It was pretty dang boring, but I was grateful for the break.
We also went to go contact this less active man named Keith Dimmick. I mean, Towanda is out in the middle of nowhere, but this guy REALLY lived out in the middle of nowhere. There were no signs of civilization for a few miles around his property. He lived in a small trailer with absolutrly no lights around it or anything. Thanks to the GPS, we managed to find it. We totally thought we were going to get shot, though. If you can imagine two scrawny missionaries, walking up to a secluded trailer in the middle of the woods with flashlights, you have a pretty good idea of what we looked like. We knocked on the door, and this big burly man opens the door. He's got a beard down to his stomach, a raccoon cap, and was wearing all brown leather. He looked like the living embodiment of Davy Crockett. I asked him if he was Keith Dimmick and he said he was. I told him who we were, and he just rolled his eyes and said this wasn't a good time. I asked him when we could come back and he said, "Erm... How about the second Tuesday of next week?" I was like, "There's only one Tuesday in a week." and he said, "EXACTLY." and slammed the door. It was pretty funny. Second Tuesday. That's pretty clever. But yeah. That's the kind of people I'm dealing with out here IN Towanda haha.
On December 1st for the Light the World Worldwide Day of Service, Elder Foster spent some time baking cookies for some of the members and investigators in our area. It was actually really fun! Apparently there's something called being "Boo'd" during Halloween time, which is when you bake some sort of snack for someone and leave it on their doorstep with a note that says, "You've been Boo'd! Now go Boo somebody else!" I had never heard of it before, but apparently it's a big thing out West. Anyways, we took that same idea, but adapted it to Light the World. Instead of 'Boo' d', we wrote "You've been Lit! Now go Light somebody else's day!" We left it on several members doorsteps, and some even posted it on Facebook, thanking whoever left the delicious cookies on their doorstep. Now we can only hope that they take the initiative and Light someone else! Even if they don't, it was a fun thing to do for the Worldwide Day of Service.
Anyways, that's about all I've got for this week. We've got a busy P-Day ahead of us, so I apologize if I'm not able to send too many other emails today! Just know that I love you! I'll talk to you next week!
Elder Jake Gonzales
It has snowed quite a bit up here, but it's not overflowing with snow quite yet. We had an unusually warm day yesterday, and so a lot of the snow has since melted. But I hear it's supposed to snow today and Thursday, so I have that to look forward to.
It's gonna be weird coming back home and NOT have the bunk bed in my room. I'm gonna miss that thing quite a bit. What are you doing with all of the bunk bed parts? Just put them in the garage or something? Man, that thing has been in the room for as long as I can remember.
Braden emailed me this week and told me about the BYU basketball team's woes. Apparently they're 5-4 now, which is NOT good at all. We should definitely not be losing to teams like Weber State. And apparently the football team will be playing Western Michigan? That's not a super exciting match up, but at least we made it to a bowl game. That's an improvement on last year at least.
The work in Towanda is still not great, but it's improving! We were able to actually have two lessons this past week! I know, that doesn't sound like a lot, but when you go from tracting all week to having two lessons, you begin to count your blessings. We taught a boy named Tyler who is our age, and a man named Jason, who is the nonmember son of the Elders Quorum President in our ward. Both lessons seemed to go pretty well! Especially Jason's. Elder Foster walked out of the lesson already thinking about Jason's baptismal service, and I was like "Slow down Buckeroo. We haven't even put him on Baptismal Date yet."i admire his optimism, though! Jason is a cool guy who loves his family, and really wants to be sealed to them for eternity. Hopefully we can make that happen!!
I really like Elder Foster. We get along pretty dang well. I'm grateful that I have the privilege of serving with him. We are two very different people, but we still manage to have fun together, which is super important. I was a little bit skeptical of him at first, but as I've gotten to know him better, I've discovered that we have similar opinions and personalities. I've really been blessed in the companion department! I'd say the only companion that I haven't really liked that much was Elder Payne. And maybe Elder Jones. But they're both home now!
A lot of interesting and funny things have happened this week. I may use some of the same ones in my weekly email to the masses, but just know that I wrote them to you first.
A few nights ago, Elder Foster and I were spending some time contacting some former Investigators. We decided to go and contact this one individual named John. It didn't say much in his record, only something like, "Go and talk to John. He'll definitely talk to you." As we were walking to John's house, Elder Foster and I started talking about movies. Eventually, the movie Zootopia came up. We both really like that movie, and we're trying to remember the song that Shakira sings in it. For the life of us, We could not remember how it went!! It was driving us crazy! Like it was just on the tips of our tongues, but no dice. Anyways, we make it to John's house, and an old man answers the door. He was a super nice 85 year old, who was super overjoyed to have someone come and visit him. Anyways, we try to share the gospel with him, but every time we bring up a gospel principle, he goes off and starts talking about something else. Every time we try to interrupt him, he just keeps on talking. He tells us about his time in Vietnam, about how he met his wife, about his Christmas traditions. All good things, but not really relevant to our conversation. Before we know it, 45 MINUTES has passed by, and we still haven't shared our message. Elder Foster and I telepathically decide its a lost cause, and start to make our way off of the porch. Then, out of nowhere, we hear some music coming from inside the man's house! One of his granddaughters has just started watching Zootopia, and the song by Shakira starts playing! Elder Foster and I just look at each other and start busting up laughing!! Meanwhile, John just keeps talking and doesn't even realize that we're laughing. Eventually, after nearly an hour, we manage to get out of John's house. But it was definitely a tender mercy from the Lord that we were there at the precise time. Even if it wasn't to convert John, at least we figured out the name of the song in Zootopia.
We didnt do anything on Tuesday, because for whatever reason Elder Foster developed a rash between his legs and couldn't walk without causing him LOADS of pain. So we just stayed in and worked on cleaning the apartment. It was pretty dang boring, but I was grateful for the break.
We also went to go contact this less active man named Keith Dimmick. I mean, Towanda is out in the middle of nowhere, but this guy REALLY lived out in the middle of nowhere. There were no signs of civilization for a few miles around his property. He lived in a small trailer with absolutrly no lights around it or anything. Thanks to the GPS, we managed to find it. We totally thought we were going to get shot, though. If you can imagine two scrawny missionaries, walking up to a secluded trailer in the middle of the woods with flashlights, you have a pretty good idea of what we looked like. We knocked on the door, and this big burly man opens the door. He's got a beard down to his stomach, a raccoon cap, and was wearing all brown leather. He looked like the living embodiment of Davy Crockett. I asked him if he was Keith Dimmick and he said he was. I told him who we were, and he just rolled his eyes and said this wasn't a good time. I asked him when we could come back and he said, "Erm... How about the second Tuesday of next week?" I was like, "There's only one Tuesday in a week." and he said, "EXACTLY." and slammed the door. It was pretty funny. Second Tuesday. That's pretty clever. But yeah. That's the kind of people I'm dealing with out here IN Towanda haha.
On December 1st for the Light the World Worldwide Day of Service, Elder Foster spent some time baking cookies for some of the members and investigators in our area. It was actually really fun! Apparently there's something called being "Boo'd" during Halloween time, which is when you bake some sort of snack for someone and leave it on their doorstep with a note that says, "You've been Boo'd! Now go Boo somebody else!" I had never heard of it before, but apparently it's a big thing out West. Anyways, we took that same idea, but adapted it to Light the World. Instead of 'Boo' d', we wrote "You've been Lit! Now go Light somebody else's day!" We left it on several members doorsteps, and some even posted it on Facebook, thanking whoever left the delicious cookies on their doorstep. Now we can only hope that they take the initiative and Light someone else! Even if they don't, it was a fun thing to do for the Worldwide Day of Service.
Anyways, that's about all I've got for this week. We've got a busy P-Day ahead of us, so I apologize if I'm not able to send too many other emails today! Just know that I love you! I'll talk to you next week!
Elder Jake Gonzales
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