JAN_28_19_MOM_TOW_From Mom
Hey Mom!
That talk from that German General Authority did NOT sound too pleasant. I wish I could have been there so I can understand more fully what you are talking about. But yeah, I agree, he probably should have been a bit more courteous to us Californians. President Bednar mentioned this week in Zone Conference that when he was on his mission in the Netherlands, a member of the Seventy came and spoke to his mission as part of a mission tour. He told us that for the entire conference, the member of the Seventy basically just yelled at them the whole time, telling them they they were terrible missionaries and that the reason they weren't having baptisms was because they weren't obedient enough. When I was reading your paragraph about this member of the Seventy, it made me think of that guy. Sometimes people have good intentions, they just go about it the wrong way.
It HAS been rather cold here in Pennsylvania. On Thursday, the high is expected to be 8 degrees. The low is - 10 degrees, with a wind chill factor of -30. We are planning on having exchanges with the Assistants this week (I must've done something wrong) on Thursday, but are wondering if we are going to have to reevaluate that due to the weather. We're not supposed to be out for longer than 10 minutes at a time in frigid weather like that, which means not a whole lot of tracting. So we'll see what happens. Elder Hopkins is actually one of the Assistants right now. I normally hate exchanges, but I'm excited at the prospect of seeing Elder Hopkins again and spending the day with him. It'll be just like old times!
Our Investigators are doing... Meh. Not much has happened this week, to be honest. We haven't been able to see Jason and Chelsee at all, or Bill for that matter. Bill was doing so good for a while, reading the Book of Mormon EVERY day, saying his prayers, etc. Then he reacted badly to some medication that he takes and got super depressed. So we basically lost contact with him for like a week and a half. We're hoping that we're able to start teaching him again this week. He's expected to move soon, though. So I don't know how much longer we'll be able to keep teaching him.
Mom, to tell you the honest truth, I haven't even thought about school at all. That all just seems like another life to me right now. It's a good thing you reminded me otherwise I probably wouldn't have even thought about it until it was too late. I'll have to talk to President Bednar and recieve permission to do that stuff online. I have no idea how to do it, though. I don't know if I'm just supposed to go on the BYU website, log into my account, and will be able to do it from there? I forgot how to do all of that stuff. All I remember is that I deferred my scholarships until the Fall Semester of this year. Im probably going to have to sign up for classes pretty soon too, although I'll probably just have Sarah do that for me as it is a time sensitive process. If you want to log into my BYU account and find out some of this stuff for me, I'd really appreciate it. If I remember correctly, my username should be "jacobg17" and my password should be "hill4heisman". I'll talk to President soon (I have Interviews with him tomorrow) and recieve the necceaary permission to start doing this stuff. Thanks for the reminder.
A couple of things happened this week. I'll start with the sucky one and finish with the cool one. How's that?
So, about a week ago, Elder Foster and I were tracting in an apartment complex. This was one trashy complex, but we were able to find 4 people to teach in this one complex! So we were pretty stoked. As we're walking out after tracting the whole place, a dude approaches us and tells us he's the landlord. He says that we're not allowed to solicit in this place. Well, we had already knocked every door in the complex, and had gotten some return appointments, so we basically just told him, "Sorry. We won't knock any more." The seeds had been sown already! So then we just got in our truck and left.
Anyways, fast forward to Thursday. We go back to the place to teach one of the people we had a return appointment with, Nicole. We figured it wasn't a problem if the people were inviting us into their home. We already had an appointment with them. Anyways, as we're knocking on Nicole's door for our return appointment, the landlord comes up the stairs and gives us a furious look. Here's how it went down:
Landlord: "Guys, I told you last week that there's no soliciting here. GET OUT.
Elder Foster: " We're not soliciting. We know this woman. She told us to come back to her home. "
Landlord:" Oh yeah? You know this woman? Well then WHAT'S HER NAME? "
Me: " Nicole. "
Landlord (furious that I got the answer correct): "Do you know these people?"
Nicole: "Yeah, I met them like a week ago. I said they could come back to my house and teach me."
Landlord: "Well, I don't care. I said no soliciting. Get out."
Me: "Dude, we're not soliciting. We're not selling anything. This woman invited us into her home."
Landlord: "Fine then. No Proselytizing."
Me: "You literally just made that rule up."
Landlord: "I'm the landlord. I can make the rules. You need to leave. I told you no soliciting, and yet you came back. I consider this trespassing at this point. Leave now or I'm calling the cops."
So yeah. We left. We weren't about to get the cops called on us. The last thing I need at this point in my life is a police record. We have an ordinance from the city that says that we are allowed to Proselyte and go door to door, but I don't know if that applies to private apartment buildings. I don't know if the landlord can just come up with rules like that and have it be in force. We talked to President Bednar and he said it wasn't worth arguing about. He's the lawyer. I'm sure he knows what he's doing.
So yeah. That was a fun time this week. Poor Nicole got deprived of hearing the Restored Gospel because she has a dumb landlord. I'm sure God will understand in the afterlife.
Wanna know the cool thing that happened this week? Remember waaaaay back when I was in Lewisberry I was teaching the LaFountain family? Specifically Alyssa and Ariel, the teenagers? Well, I got a message on Friday that Stephanie, the mother, agreed to take a lesson IF and only IF Elder Marcum, me, Elder Fraughton, and Elder Nuttall were able to Skype in. This is kinda a big deal because Stephanie is super atheist. But anyways, to make a long story short, I was able to Skype into that lesson last night. It was SUPER amazing seeing the LaFountain family again, even if it was only through video chat. I've missed them so much. They were one of the best parts of Lewisberry.
It was even weirder seeing Elder Marcum in street clothes (he's been home for like 6 months now). Hearing him teach brought me back to my training days. Elder Marcum is without a doubt one of the best teachers I've ever met. I remember why I looked at him in awe and held him in such high esteem while I was being trained. Even as a civilian, that dude is an awesome missionary.
So yeah, that was my cool story of the week. I was able to see one of the people I remember most fondly from my first area :) also, Charlie, her husband, is getting BAPTIZED in a month!! I can't believe it! When I was there, we were focused on primarily teaching the daughters, and he was only sitting in and occasionally participating. Now, he's going to church every week and no longer drinks coffee!! It's amazing the changes the gospel can make to a person. My heart is full to the brim of gratitude to the Lord for that family and the things that are happening to them. I hope Stephanie continues to take the lessons and that eventually, her heart will be softened. If any family needs to be be forever, it's that one.
Welp, that's about it for this week! Thanks for all you do for me! I love you! Until next week! :)
Elder Jake Gonzales
That talk from that German General Authority did NOT sound too pleasant. I wish I could have been there so I can understand more fully what you are talking about. But yeah, I agree, he probably should have been a bit more courteous to us Californians. President Bednar mentioned this week in Zone Conference that when he was on his mission in the Netherlands, a member of the Seventy came and spoke to his mission as part of a mission tour. He told us that for the entire conference, the member of the Seventy basically just yelled at them the whole time, telling them they they were terrible missionaries and that the reason they weren't having baptisms was because they weren't obedient enough. When I was reading your paragraph about this member of the Seventy, it made me think of that guy. Sometimes people have good intentions, they just go about it the wrong way.
It HAS been rather cold here in Pennsylvania. On Thursday, the high is expected to be 8 degrees. The low is - 10 degrees, with a wind chill factor of -30. We are planning on having exchanges with the Assistants this week (I must've done something wrong) on Thursday, but are wondering if we are going to have to reevaluate that due to the weather. We're not supposed to be out for longer than 10 minutes at a time in frigid weather like that, which means not a whole lot of tracting. So we'll see what happens. Elder Hopkins is actually one of the Assistants right now. I normally hate exchanges, but I'm excited at the prospect of seeing Elder Hopkins again and spending the day with him. It'll be just like old times!
Our Investigators are doing... Meh. Not much has happened this week, to be honest. We haven't been able to see Jason and Chelsee at all, or Bill for that matter. Bill was doing so good for a while, reading the Book of Mormon EVERY day, saying his prayers, etc. Then he reacted badly to some medication that he takes and got super depressed. So we basically lost contact with him for like a week and a half. We're hoping that we're able to start teaching him again this week. He's expected to move soon, though. So I don't know how much longer we'll be able to keep teaching him.
Mom, to tell you the honest truth, I haven't even thought about school at all. That all just seems like another life to me right now. It's a good thing you reminded me otherwise I probably wouldn't have even thought about it until it was too late. I'll have to talk to President Bednar and recieve permission to do that stuff online. I have no idea how to do it, though. I don't know if I'm just supposed to go on the BYU website, log into my account, and will be able to do it from there? I forgot how to do all of that stuff. All I remember is that I deferred my scholarships until the Fall Semester of this year. Im probably going to have to sign up for classes pretty soon too, although I'll probably just have Sarah do that for me as it is a time sensitive process. If you want to log into my BYU account and find out some of this stuff for me, I'd really appreciate it. If I remember correctly, my username should be "jacobg17" and my password should be "hill4heisman". I'll talk to President soon (I have Interviews with him tomorrow) and recieve the necceaary permission to start doing this stuff. Thanks for the reminder.
A couple of things happened this week. I'll start with the sucky one and finish with the cool one. How's that?
So, about a week ago, Elder Foster and I were tracting in an apartment complex. This was one trashy complex, but we were able to find 4 people to teach in this one complex! So we were pretty stoked. As we're walking out after tracting the whole place, a dude approaches us and tells us he's the landlord. He says that we're not allowed to solicit in this place. Well, we had already knocked every door in the complex, and had gotten some return appointments, so we basically just told him, "Sorry. We won't knock any more." The seeds had been sown already! So then we just got in our truck and left.
Anyways, fast forward to Thursday. We go back to the place to teach one of the people we had a return appointment with, Nicole. We figured it wasn't a problem if the people were inviting us into their home. We already had an appointment with them. Anyways, as we're knocking on Nicole's door for our return appointment, the landlord comes up the stairs and gives us a furious look. Here's how it went down:
Landlord: "Guys, I told you last week that there's no soliciting here. GET OUT.
Elder Foster: " We're not soliciting. We know this woman. She told us to come back to her home. "
Landlord:" Oh yeah? You know this woman? Well then WHAT'S HER NAME? "
Me: " Nicole. "
Landlord (furious that I got the answer correct): "Do you know these people?"
Nicole: "Yeah, I met them like a week ago. I said they could come back to my house and teach me."
Landlord: "Well, I don't care. I said no soliciting. Get out."
Me: "Dude, we're not soliciting. We're not selling anything. This woman invited us into her home."
Landlord: "Fine then. No Proselytizing."
Me: "You literally just made that rule up."
Landlord: "I'm the landlord. I can make the rules. You need to leave. I told you no soliciting, and yet you came back. I consider this trespassing at this point. Leave now or I'm calling the cops."
So yeah. We left. We weren't about to get the cops called on us. The last thing I need at this point in my life is a police record. We have an ordinance from the city that says that we are allowed to Proselyte and go door to door, but I don't know if that applies to private apartment buildings. I don't know if the landlord can just come up with rules like that and have it be in force. We talked to President Bednar and he said it wasn't worth arguing about. He's the lawyer. I'm sure he knows what he's doing.
So yeah. That was a fun time this week. Poor Nicole got deprived of hearing the Restored Gospel because she has a dumb landlord. I'm sure God will understand in the afterlife.
Wanna know the cool thing that happened this week? Remember waaaaay back when I was in Lewisberry I was teaching the LaFountain family? Specifically Alyssa and Ariel, the teenagers? Well, I got a message on Friday that Stephanie, the mother, agreed to take a lesson IF and only IF Elder Marcum, me, Elder Fraughton, and Elder Nuttall were able to Skype in. This is kinda a big deal because Stephanie is super atheist. But anyways, to make a long story short, I was able to Skype into that lesson last night. It was SUPER amazing seeing the LaFountain family again, even if it was only through video chat. I've missed them so much. They were one of the best parts of Lewisberry.
It was even weirder seeing Elder Marcum in street clothes (he's been home for like 6 months now). Hearing him teach brought me back to my training days. Elder Marcum is without a doubt one of the best teachers I've ever met. I remember why I looked at him in awe and held him in such high esteem while I was being trained. Even as a civilian, that dude is an awesome missionary.
So yeah, that was my cool story of the week. I was able to see one of the people I remember most fondly from my first area :) also, Charlie, her husband, is getting BAPTIZED in a month!! I can't believe it! When I was there, we were focused on primarily teaching the daughters, and he was only sitting in and occasionally participating. Now, he's going to church every week and no longer drinks coffee!! It's amazing the changes the gospel can make to a person. My heart is full to the brim of gratitude to the Lord for that family and the things that are happening to them. I hope Stephanie continues to take the lessons and that eventually, her heart will be softened. If any family needs to be be forever, it's that one.
Welp, that's about it for this week! Thanks for all you do for me! I love you! Until next week! :)
Elder Jake Gonzales
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