April 2016

April 4, 2016 

so this was a good week

we had transfers last week, but elder S and i stayed the same. later we found out that the reason is because the bishop called the mission president and asked him to leave us here for a bit longer. actually almost nobody had transfers, only the zone leaders, which is cool because the new zone leader is elder W, my mtc companion.

conference was great, i used to get bored of conference, but now i feel like I’m going to a rock concert or something. listening to the prophet is the best, I’m so glad to have the knowledge of living day prophets to guide us so we don’t have to live in the spiritual darkness and confusion that can be found so commonly in the world today.

i don’t have much time, but i would like to share a thought that i have been sharing with all the members. in mosiah 2, king benjamin teaches us how we should treat the opportunity to hear inspired council from our leaders, when he tells us that we should, "open your ears that ye may hear, and your hearts that ye may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view." there are many different applications of this, but one of them is the timing. preparation beforehand allows us to open our hearts to the spirit,  attendance and paying attention opens our ears to hear, the opening of the mind however, comes afterwards as we ponder and apply the council we have received. too often we come away spiritually recharged and then forget what we have learned until the next conference comes around. i would invite you to continue studying, pondering, and applying these inspired messaged for the next six months to truly reap the blessings that are available to us.

well, that’s it for now, be good, love you guys.

elder gandola

April 11, 2016

hmm, so this was one of those weeks that i don’t really remember too much, so I’m sure i have stuff to share. i guess I’ll just share a thought that i had while reading the scriptures.

the two thousand stripling warriors, not one of them was killed, however, all of them were wounded. this is much like life. we are in a war against sin, and while we will all receive wounds (some more grievous than others) we all have the choice to make it out alive. the miracle of their survival i will attribute to 3 things. 1. faith: we are told that their faith was strong and thus they feared not the battle. like them, if we remember who is our great leader in all things, and trust in his ability to make all right, we can do whatever he asks, which leads us to 2. obedience: they had a great leader and obeyed all his commands with exactness, we have prophets and apostles, and if we heed their council, we will be protected. 3. family: they had learned from their mothers. the home that is centered in christ is a powerful refuge. if we follow their example, we can also choose eternal life, and will be able to come to the aid of others, as the stripling warriors did.

anyways, sorry that this letter was short, but i honestly don’t remember much. but be good, love you guys,

elder gandola

April 25, 2016  2 for the Price of 1

hey guys, so i didn't actually forget to write last week, i just forgot to send it, so this week you get two letters. here they are

week 1:  (April 18,2016)

hey guys

so this week was good, maybe not a ton of super memorable stuff, but we worked well.

so this week i was a firefighter. we went to visit a member, and found him on front of his house. so we ask him, "hey, what are you doing?" "oh I’m just going to go burn a pile of trash in this dry field" so he did. but, surprise surprise, dry fields burn (it was small and surrounded by cement, don’t worry) and so he started commenting, "wow its burning more than i thought it would, oh hey, look, its headed straight for that car!" so we all ran off and grabbed buckets and threw them on the fire and the car was totally safe. so i guess elder z is back in town.

it’s interesting being a missionary, because you're just a 19, 20 year old kid, but the simple fact that you are a missionary makes people (members and nonmembers) trust a lot more in you. thinking logically it is a bit disconcerting at times to have people sharing very personal things with you only minutes after meeting you, or being asked to help with marital problems, or struggles with money, or a large number of other things that people really have no reason to consult a twenty year old kid about. the good thing is that the answer is always the same, it’s the gospel. really no matter what we are facing, the gospel is always the answer.

i realized this week that a lot of times satan doesn’t necessarily tempt us to do bad things, many times it is enough  to have us focus on things that are good, thus omitting things that are better. for example, money is not bad, providing for a family is good, but when we let that get in the way of keeping the commandments, or providing the spiritual things that our families need, something good can become a stumbling block for us. we should always seek to prioritize the things that are really important.

but anyways, that’s it for now, be good, love you guys.

elder z

week 2:  (April 25, 2016)

so this week was interesting, honestly it was kind of a chaotic week, but everything pulled together sunday, so it’s all good. we started out the week excited because we would have 2 baptisms saturday. so first we had to have their baptismal interviews friday. we were planning on having exchanges with the zone leaders that day, one would stay for the interviews, and the other would go to a town like forty minutes from fresnillo for some appointments. so then thursday in the night the mission offices call us and tell us that we have to travel to aguascalientes the next day for my companions visa. so we canceled the exchanges. then the zone leaders call because the assistants told them that there would be a training meeting for the district leaders. so my companion had to travel with somebody else and i stayed there with the zone leaders.

then friday one of the investigators called because he had to travel and wouldn’t be able to make it. so we had the other interview and he passed. we went to prepare the baptism and were waiting for him with the font filled when he called and told us that his parents opposed at the last minute.

so sunday he was there at church and told us that he would get baptised saturday, that it was, "his baptism, not theirs." so he is much more committed right now.

but anyways i don’t have time to finish, but i love you guys, be good

elder gandola