JAN_7_19_MOM_TOW_From Mom
Hey Mom!!
I started writing my weekly email to the masses this week, then very quickly lost all motivation to do so. I don't know. Some weeks I'm all about sending emails and everything, while other weeks it's a hassle just sending one. But I figured I should email you first, while I still have the drive to email people. Because you are definitely the most important person that I email each week. And it's not just because you would kill me if I didn't say that.
This week has been pretty standard. Bill is still progressing, but not as quickly as we would like. We are still able to see him regularly, and have deep and meaningful lessons with him, but he still has not received his answer that the Book of Mormon is true, despite the fact that he's nearly done with 1st Nephi and is praying each night. We went through Moroni 10:3-5 with him, and made sure that he has real intent,a sincere heart, etc. We explained what the Holy Ghost often feels like, and helped him to recognize times where he's felt it in his own life. But despite all this, he still has been unable to recognize the Holy Ghost testifying to him that the Book is true. In all my experience as a missionary, it's never taken this long for someone to recieve an answer. I know, I probably just have to be patient and accept that it will happen in the Lord's time. But we don't want to go forward and teach him the commandments until he has a witness, you feel? Any advice for this particular situation, from your experiences as a missionary?
Elder Foster and I were trying our best to contact part-member-families this week, as that is usually a pretty good way to find Investigators. We tried contacting this one family, the Zwierleins, on New Years Day. Before knocking on the door, I saw through the window that they were watching football. When the dad answered (not a member), rather than saying hello like I probably should have, I said, "Who's playing?" I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I was just enamored by the TV, and totally lost track of where I was and what I ws supposed to be doing. Well, instead of telling me to get off his porch, he said, "You'd better come on in." We then spent the next half hour or so talking about college football and stuff, which was definitely fun for me haha. I miss conversations like that. It reminded me of when Braden and I used to have such long conversations about college football. Anyways, about a half hour in, we met his wife, who is the member in the family (but less active). They invited us over for dinner on Wednesday evening, and hopefully we'll be able to start teaching them! Even if not, it was still a cool experience lol.
I forgot to mention to you last week, but last week was transfer week! As expected, I'm staying here in Towanda with Elder Foster. Not really anything significant about that. Still District Leader. Still have no idea what I'm doing.
We also had another funny experience this week. As we were tracting a few days ago, we knocked into some guy named Charlie. Really nice guy. Former military, got injured on the job, and now spends most of his time at home making guitars and watching James Bond movies. Anyways, he told us that we could come back a couple of days later to share more of our message with him. Obviously, we did, and he was very forthcoming and nice. He listened intently for the first half, as we were talking about Jesus Christ and the apostasy, he started saying how he knew that was true, because of how many churches there are now. He told us that he used to meet with the Jehovah's Witnesses, but didn't agree with their beliefs, and so concluded meeting with them.
Then he told us that he was grateful that our beliefs were so similar to his, and that we weren't crazy like the Mormons and their 12 wives. He said it jokingly, but then it dawned on us that he didn't realize that the "Mormons" and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were the same church.
We hadn't mentioned the term "Mormon" at all up to that point in the lesson, primarily because we've been trying to avoid that term as much as possible due to President Nelson's admonition. But anyways, when he said that, I very quickly said, "We should probably clarify a little bit of confusion. We represent the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but a lot of people call us the Mormons. So yeah. We're the same people."
He looked so awestruck and embarrassed. It was quite funny. And really awkward at the same time. Obviously, he had some misconceptions about the church that we were able to clarify for him. And the rest of the lesson went fairly well, despite the initial awkwardness. We gave him a Book of Mormon, invited him to read and pray about it, etc. And we have a return appointment with him tomorrow.
This whole situation helped me to learn a valuable lesson. President Nelson truly is inspired of God. If we had knocked on Charlie's door and introduced ourselves as "the Mormon Missionaries", he would have told us to get off his porch right away. But since we heeded the counsel of the prophet, we were blessed with the opportunity to teach Charlie and clarify some misconceptions that he had. And hopefully continue to teach him.
Another interesting thing that happened-- We met a guy named Stu a few weeks ago while tracting. Stu is a great guy, but he's a lot like a ton of other guys I've met on my mission. He's the type of guy who loves missionaries and the church, and will allow missionaries into his house any day of the week, will allow them to teach him, but really just wants to hang out. He's not really a sincere seeker of truth, but will keep commitments just so that the missionaries will keep coming back.
Anyways, we've been seeing Stu off and on for these past couple of weeks, trying to determine how we can motivate him to read from the Book of Mormon and ask sincerely if it's true. The problem is, every time we go over there, all he wants to do is talk about how he can get us to have a little bit of "fun" on our missions. Here's the thing. Stu is RICH. Like, SUPER RICH. He's got a ton of sports cars, a Home theater in his basement for him and his family, a full size pool and deck. He owns a local hotel and is looking to start a burrito restaurant soon as well.
Anyways, in the process of talking, he once again told us that he wants us to have fun on our missions. He said that he talked to his wife, and they agreed that they would buy us a hotel room for the night at the local casino so that we could have a night off and enjoy the pool, the hot tub, gambling, etc.
Yes, you read that correctly. A guy that we barely know wanted to buy us a hotel room at the casino to go and have some "fun" for a night. We had to explain to him that 1) We can't leave our area. 2)We're not allowed to sleep anywhere else besides our apartment 3)We can't swim. 4)We can't gamble. Needless to say, he was pretty disspaointed. I was just still in shock that he has the money to do something like that for two kids he barely knows. It was crazy. Obviously, we probably won't be seeing Stu for much longer unless he starts taking us more seriously.
Tons of other stuff happened this week. I could honestly write for 30 more paragraphs. But here's the highlights.
- a couple were teaching, Jason and Chelsee, came to church yesterday! Those are the first people I've had come to church since I've been here! They're not progressing too much right niez but hopefully they liked church and will begin to start progressing more rapidly.
- We went to go visit another less active member who is quite possibly the most disgusting individual I've ever met. I don't even want to talk about it. We have a follow up appointment with him this week
- We taught a Catholic woman the Restoration yesterday. She only bashed with us a little.
I heard about Utah losing to Northwestern. MWAHAHAHA HAHAHA. I gave the Hardings a hard time about that one. But BYU has sucked this year too, so I really couldn't gloat that much.
Today is my 19 month mark! Only 5 (and a half) months until I get to hug you!
I hope Alabama loses today.
I love you!
Elder Gonzales
I started writing my weekly email to the masses this week, then very quickly lost all motivation to do so. I don't know. Some weeks I'm all about sending emails and everything, while other weeks it's a hassle just sending one. But I figured I should email you first, while I still have the drive to email people. Because you are definitely the most important person that I email each week. And it's not just because you would kill me if I didn't say that.
This week has been pretty standard. Bill is still progressing, but not as quickly as we would like. We are still able to see him regularly, and have deep and meaningful lessons with him, but he still has not received his answer that the Book of Mormon is true, despite the fact that he's nearly done with 1st Nephi and is praying each night. We went through Moroni 10:3-5 with him, and made sure that he has real intent,a sincere heart, etc. We explained what the Holy Ghost often feels like, and helped him to recognize times where he's felt it in his own life. But despite all this, he still has been unable to recognize the Holy Ghost testifying to him that the Book is true. In all my experience as a missionary, it's never taken this long for someone to recieve an answer. I know, I probably just have to be patient and accept that it will happen in the Lord's time. But we don't want to go forward and teach him the commandments until he has a witness, you feel? Any advice for this particular situation, from your experiences as a missionary?
Elder Foster and I were trying our best to contact part-member-families this week, as that is usually a pretty good way to find Investigators. We tried contacting this one family, the Zwierleins, on New Years Day. Before knocking on the door, I saw through the window that they were watching football. When the dad answered (not a member), rather than saying hello like I probably should have, I said, "Who's playing?" I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I was just enamored by the TV, and totally lost track of where I was and what I ws supposed to be doing. Well, instead of telling me to get off his porch, he said, "You'd better come on in." We then spent the next half hour or so talking about college football and stuff, which was definitely fun for me haha. I miss conversations like that. It reminded me of when Braden and I used to have such long conversations about college football. Anyways, about a half hour in, we met his wife, who is the member in the family (but less active). They invited us over for dinner on Wednesday evening, and hopefully we'll be able to start teaching them! Even if not, it was still a cool experience lol.
I forgot to mention to you last week, but last week was transfer week! As expected, I'm staying here in Towanda with Elder Foster. Not really anything significant about that. Still District Leader. Still have no idea what I'm doing.
We also had another funny experience this week. As we were tracting a few days ago, we knocked into some guy named Charlie. Really nice guy. Former military, got injured on the job, and now spends most of his time at home making guitars and watching James Bond movies. Anyways, he told us that we could come back a couple of days later to share more of our message with him. Obviously, we did, and he was very forthcoming and nice. He listened intently for the first half, as we were talking about Jesus Christ and the apostasy, he started saying how he knew that was true, because of how many churches there are now. He told us that he used to meet with the Jehovah's Witnesses, but didn't agree with their beliefs, and so concluded meeting with them.
Then he told us that he was grateful that our beliefs were so similar to his, and that we weren't crazy like the Mormons and their 12 wives. He said it jokingly, but then it dawned on us that he didn't realize that the "Mormons" and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were the same church.
He looked so awestruck and embarrassed. It was quite funny. And really awkward at the same time. Obviously, he had some misconceptions about the church that we were able to clarify for him. And the rest of the lesson went fairly well, despite the initial awkwardness. We gave him a Book of Mormon, invited him to read and pray about it, etc. And we have a return appointment with him tomorrow.
This whole situation helped me to learn a valuable lesson. President Nelson truly is inspired of God. If we had knocked on Charlie's door and introduced ourselves as "the Mormon Missionaries", he would have told us to get off his porch right away. But since we heeded the counsel of the prophet, we were blessed with the opportunity to teach Charlie and clarify some misconceptions that he had. And hopefully continue to teach him.
Another interesting thing that happened-- We met a guy named Stu a few weeks ago while tracting. Stu is a great guy, but he's a lot like a ton of other guys I've met on my mission. He's the type of guy who loves missionaries and the church, and will allow missionaries into his house any day of the week, will allow them to teach him, but really just wants to hang out. He's not really a sincere seeker of truth, but will keep commitments just so that the missionaries will keep coming back.
Anyways, we've been seeing Stu off and on for these past couple of weeks, trying to determine how we can motivate him to read from the Book of Mormon and ask sincerely if it's true. The problem is, every time we go over there, all he wants to do is talk about how he can get us to have a little bit of "fun" on our missions. Here's the thing. Stu is RICH. Like, SUPER RICH. He's got a ton of sports cars, a Home theater in his basement for him and his family, a full size pool and deck. He owns a local hotel and is looking to start a burrito restaurant soon as well.
Anyways, in the process of talking, he once again told us that he wants us to have fun on our missions. He said that he talked to his wife, and they agreed that they would buy us a hotel room for the night at the local casino so that we could have a night off and enjoy the pool, the hot tub, gambling, etc.
Yes, you read that correctly. A guy that we barely know wanted to buy us a hotel room at the casino to go and have some "fun" for a night. We had to explain to him that 1) We can't leave our area. 2)We're not allowed to sleep anywhere else besides our apartment 3)We can't swim. 4)We can't gamble. Needless to say, he was pretty disspaointed. I was just still in shock that he has the money to do something like that for two kids he barely knows. It was crazy. Obviously, we probably won't be seeing Stu for much longer unless he starts taking us more seriously.
Tons of other stuff happened this week. I could honestly write for 30 more paragraphs. But here's the highlights.
- a couple were teaching, Jason and Chelsee, came to church yesterday! Those are the first people I've had come to church since I've been here! They're not progressing too much right niez but hopefully they liked church and will begin to start progressing more rapidly.
- We went to go visit another less active member who is quite possibly the most disgusting individual I've ever met. I don't even want to talk about it. We have a follow up appointment with him this week
- We taught a Catholic woman the Restoration yesterday. She only bashed with us a little.
I heard about Utah losing to Northwestern. MWAHAHAHA HAHAHA. I gave the Hardings a hard time about that one. But BYU has sucked this year too, so I really couldn't gloat that much.
Today is my 19 month mark! Only 5 (and a half) months until I get to hug you!
I hope Alabama loses today.
I love you!
Elder Gonzales
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