tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40732172859470055072024-03-13T05:36:49.858-07:00Elder GandolaPamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-38508068282926773472016-09-08T18:08:00.000-07:002016-09-08T18:08:05.669-07:00September 5, 2016 Reflections (Elder Gandola's Last Email)<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">hey guys,</span><br />
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so i guess this is the last time that i will be writing, from the mission at least, which is kinda weird, but i guess the end kinda had to arrive at some point. </div>
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well looking back the mission seems, well, both long and short. but i have learned so much, i guess that ill share a few of the main points</div>
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1. life focus</div>
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i have noticed that we make a lot of things a lot more important than they should be. i remember arriving in mexico and picking at all the little cultural differences, not quite as annoyances, but more of me looking for a new, strange experience. i came to realize that it really doesnt matter. for example, in my time in mexico, i have seen maybe 10 washing machines, 3 dryers, and 0 dishwashers. i have showered with heated water in a bucket for at least 9 months. yet i have never seen these things as inconveniences. actually i think that one of the biggest annoyances i will have when i get back is the unwarranted ammount of importance we give to "necessary" things. sure cars and phones and houses and work are nice, they are ok to have, but what really brings us true hapiness and true satisfaccion is our relationship with god and with our families.</div>
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2. service</div>
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human beings tend to think about themselves, what we want, what we need, how we feel. well if we think about what we need, we will always find more things to want and we will never be satisfied. if we stop thinking about ourselves and look at the needs of others, we will forget all about what we think we need.</div>
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3. trust in god</div>
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there are lots of things that qwe can do, and lots of things that we cant. God can do everything. if we look for what he wants us to do, he will use us to do what we cant. lots of times we wont be able to see exactly what he is doing, but we will keep moving forwards, and afterwards, we can see his hand in everything.</div>
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4. jesus christ is our savior</div>
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there are no words to express all that he has done for us. he has paid the debt that was never his, we caused him infinite amounts of pain and suffering that he did not deserve, and yet he loves us with all of his being and invites us to come home. truly there is no other path than through him, and there is nothing in our lives, no trial, no pain, so great that he cannot (and has not) overcome. our job? trust in him, do as he asks, and work to become as he is</div>
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well, i guess ill end with the person of the week. he has probably undergone the biggest conversion that i have seen on my mission. i have truly seen him come to know and love the savior, dedicate himself more fully to god, and learn how to follow him. he has had lots of trials, lots of ups and downs, and even though he is not perfect, he has worked hard to improve, and has become a better person. if you havent guessed, its me. i know that i have a lot to learn, and a lot of things to do in my life, but i know that these two years that i have been given to serve the lord have changed me more than anything else could have. i am pleased to say that i have been able to serve an honorable mission, and would never have changed this experience for anything.</div>
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well, i think thats it for now, see you all in a couple of days</div>
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Elder Gándola</div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-22910084246916427052016-05-22T20:23:00.002-07:002016-05-22T21:07:11.733-07:00May 2, 2016 Kid's Day and May 16, 2016<div class="MsoNormal">
May 2, 2016 Kid’s Day<o:p></o:p></div>
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hey guys,<o:p></o:p></div>
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so this was a good week, we were able to finish it with
three baptisms, so the bishop is pretty happy, and we are pretty happy too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3RqPe50nbmc77iF7_Y3l05ccFtd6IBKfHiZgfvK4z27Slr4K4A8uASOkSiCNCi-hQMeN8Lqmv_N89Bpn5dISKZ-Cbnt9J0Oeaga8XGuYT5wLe3R61np5FUhC6zMaWtyjz1FwrTvYf6T4i/s1600/2016-5-2a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3RqPe50nbmc77iF7_Y3l05ccFtd6IBKfHiZgfvK4z27Slr4K4A8uASOkSiCNCi-hQMeN8Lqmv_N89Bpn5dISKZ-Cbnt9J0Oeaga8XGuYT5wLe3R61np5FUhC6zMaWtyjz1FwrTvYf6T4i/s400/2016-5-2a.JPG" width="400" /></a>the first was C, who i have talked about a little
bit before. i was super excited for his baptism because he’s not just a good
investigator, but has become a really good friend. he has had to overcome a lot
of trials to take the step of baptism, but he is going super strong and already
has the priesthood, and already has plans of when he will go home teaching this
week, and is going to pass the sacrament this next week, and he also wants to
go on a mission! he’s basically super cool<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii32n6EWz9b3_mOZd3tztvZFIyjfxgneMKMUJTNF44XhzcM6NEtVH7gvjg29fX7vgtcbtmzCWQ6hMyYowmy4WAYIOdPK5wi__BBjd75m9FSUy-HeGQftzLiAh1o9sfeDkKImTS_BbroIhP/s1600/2016-5-2b.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii32n6EWz9b3_mOZd3tztvZFIyjfxgneMKMUJTNF44XhzcM6NEtVH7gvjg29fX7vgtcbtmzCWQ6hMyYowmy4WAYIOdPK5wi__BBjd75m9FSUy-HeGQftzLiAh1o9sfeDkKImTS_BbroIhP/s400/2016-5-2b.JPG" width="400" /></a>for the second baptism, we have to give a lot of credit to a
pair of sister missionaries, she’s a ten year old girl, daughter of a member,
who technically lives in our area but always stays with her grandma during the
week, so we could never teach her, except for after church, and the sisters
taught about half the lessons. lots of the time it’s hard for missionaries to
do work that will never be reflected in their own reports, but it’s good to
work like that sometimes, so that we can remember that it’s not so much about
numbers as it is about people<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZcj4ORzYaSi7iWxOtFZChLnQceNToJuGVNVEmuzpo-fQ6dohrRp3hFSG0vwQAj5J9QXIidFpCT23Qt9qAoXgqhtAWQyJGhuCACNPvj9yrINlVapaxbnO99lb4ogOTdLL0XKLEUZ1mUmjO/s1600/2016-5-2c.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZcj4ORzYaSi7iWxOtFZChLnQceNToJuGVNVEmuzpo-fQ6dohrRp3hFSG0vwQAj5J9QXIidFpCT23Qt9qAoXgqhtAWQyJGhuCACNPvj9yrINlVapaxbnO99lb4ogOTdLL0XKLEUZ1mUmjO/s400/2016-5-2c.JPG" width="400" /></a>the third baptism is not actually ours, because he is 8
years old, but his dad is not active in the church, so we did a lot of running
around talking with the bishop and his grandma and people to get it to actually
happen. we did teach him one time just to make sure that he was ready, but it
was great that he could finally get baptized and it will be a great blessing to
his family.<o:p></o:p></div>
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so saturday we were in the church basically all day, from
like 9 in the morning to 7 at night. one of the baptisms was at 12, so we had
to go fill the font, and we stayed there for our study and to get ready and
everything. then after the baptism the member family that was going to feed us
brought us lunch in the church (wow, i couldn’t get that sentence to work in
english) then we had to make the programs for the baptisms at 5, we are in
mexico and so the baptism started an hour late, and we finished at about 7,
right as the ward was starting an activity. <o:p></o:p></div>
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so you know how in the u.s. every mothers or father’s day
how the kids always ask "well when is kids day?" and the parents are
always condescending kill joys and tell their kids to get a job before they get
their own day? well mexico is less kill joy than you guys, here there actually
is kids day, so saturday they had the kids day celebration. ... i still can’t
believe you guys for completely ruining my childhood.<o:p></o:p></div>
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but anyways, that’s it for now, be good, love you guys,<o:p></o:p></div>
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elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
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oh yeah, parents, sunday we get to call home, so i will
probably call sometime between 3 and 5 (my time) sunday<o:p></o:p></div>
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May 16, 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
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hey everybody, <o:p></o:p></div>
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well this week was a good one. we had transfers last week, i
stayed here in my area and elder S got sent to my last area in san luis.
my new companion is elder R, from colorado. he`s my second american
companion and the probably the first one that i will have for a whole transfer,
because i was only with elder P for three weeks. we get along well, and
the best part is that he has one transfer more than i do, so i don’t have to
deal with dying jokes anymore. he’s kind of a big guy (not fat big, just big
big) so it was funny when he got here, we started carrying his bags up the
stairs (we live on the 4th story) and i ask him, "what do you have in
these bags? they weigh a ton" turns out that he had about fourty pounds of
weights in his bags, in addition to all the other stuff, so that he could work
out.<o:p></o:p></div>
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so we worked normally after that, not anything super
noteworthy, though we did have a meeting with the mission president (who has 5
weeks until he finishes his mission.) and afterwards he invited us to go eat
tacos. he commented while we ate that he really liked the cabeza tacos, but wasn’t
a huge fan of the beef ones. so we were finishing up and he only had one more,
a beef taco, and he tells us, "wow, I’m full, i can’t eat any more, who
wants to help me with this last taco? elder gandola, do you want it?"
"yeah sure I’ll eat your taco" and then before i can even get it into
my mouth he pulls the waiter to the side and orders another one of
cabeza... turns out he just used me as a trash can so that he could eat what he
really wanted jaja. but that’s fine, because i love all tacos.<o:p></o:p></div>
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so i found a cool scripture in my study this week in mosiah
13:11. abinadi tells the wicked priests of noah, "And now I read unto you
the remainder of the commandments of God, for I perceive that they are not
written in your hearts." it’s interesting that it’s not enough to simply
know the commandments, or even to go through the motions of them if we don’t
have them written in our hearts. i think lots of times we think of the commandments
as things that God asks us to do in order to receive a reward of happiness and that’s
it, but we don’t really think about the fact that the commandments will never
change, that truly living and coming to love the commandments is the secret to happiness.
that’s why God is perfectly happy, because he obeys all commandments perfectly
and thus there is nothing that gets in the way of him being happy. if we can
stop trying to check the box of obedience and really learn to love obeying the
commandments, we can become likewise happy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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but anyways, that’s it for this week. love you guys, be good<o:p></o:p></div>
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elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-36092619395034579252016-05-22T20:12:00.000-07:002016-05-22T21:07:18.708-07:00April 2016<div class="MsoNormal">
April 4, 2016 <o:p></o:p></div>
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so this was a good week<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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well, that’s it for now, be good, love you guys.<o:p></o:p></div>
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elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
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April 11, 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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anyways, sorry that this letter was short, but i honestly don’t
remember much. but be good, love you guys,<o:p></o:p></div>
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elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
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April 25, 2016 2 for
the Price of 1<o:p></o:p></div>
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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<o:p></o:p></div>
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week 1: (April
18,2016)<o:p></o:p></div>
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hey guys<o:p></o:p></div>
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so this week was good, maybe not a ton of super memorable
stuff, but we worked well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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but anyways, that’s it for now, be good, love you guys.<o:p></o:p></div>
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elder z<o:p></o:p></div>
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week 2: (April 25,
2016)<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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but anyways i don’t have time to finish, but i love you
guys, be good<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
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Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-7596831910125476082016-05-22T20:11:00.000-07:002016-05-22T21:07:44.560-07:00March 2016<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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March 14, 2016 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hey guys, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so this was an interesting week, mexico can be very...
unpredictable sometimes. so the week started out pretty hot, but as the
temperature here does, it changed from one day to the next, and we actually had
a good amount of snow one day. two days later and its summer again. triste
mexico...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
these past few weeks we have been learning a lot about
working with unity, ourselves and seeing it in the families that we are
serving. we are told in the scriptures a lot that we should be of one heart and
one mind. i have come to realize that the trick is not that the heart or mind
is not our heart or mind, but the lords heart and mind, the trick to being
united is to stop trying to develop our own way of doing things, and start
looking for how the lord wants us to do things. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so sunday we were teaching an investigator, we haven't been
able to teach him very much because he works a lot, but we managed to talk with
him after church because he doesn't work sundays. we have seen a ton of progress
with him in the classes and all that stuff, and we have seen that he is super
ready to be baptized, so we were planning on working with him on how we can get
him there as soon as we can without being able to see him during the week. so
we start talking with him about that when out of the blue he lets us know,
"oh, by the way, i was baptized when i was a kid, and i just found my
membership record." ...well that was easy. it was super unexpected but it
was super cool. the lord works in mysterious ways and it was cool to see that
our role was not to get him to baptism, but to get him active, and it is a
great feeling to know that we were able to be an instument to bring somebody
closer to the lord.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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well thats it for now, be good, love you guys<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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March 21, 2016 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hey guys, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so this week was interesting, i guess ill start with today.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so there's this thing in the mission called a preparation day
where you can sometimes go and do recreational activities, except for that you
don't ever actually do that. in a year and i a half the only things i have
really done on p-day is go to the centro, or play sports (but soccer has been
banned, so we don't do that too often anymore) today we actually did something!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIZQnCHURLL5-GTutrtunjUjt3E257NsluJtIhKIYr0uI3qdurTWmTPKXKngsx3TU1vkY1dsuGsDxAMULMm9JSnKbFUNQq4zFPiPRrY0bjmQAvwfghyphenhyphenAiBosg42yuscZfIyyYEEc-JCIME/s1600/2016-3-21.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIZQnCHURLL5-GTutrtunjUjt3E257NsluJtIhKIYr0uI3qdurTWmTPKXKngsx3TU1vkY1dsuGsDxAMULMm9JSnKbFUNQq4zFPiPRrY0bjmQAvwfghyphenhyphenAiBosg42yuscZfIyyYEEc-JCIME/s640/2016-3-21.JPG" width="640" /></a>so fresnillo is the location of what is supposedly the
largest producing silver mine on a world wide level. there are tours and stuff,
but they are only open saturday and sunday. during vacations however, they are
open every day. so we got together with an investigator, his girlfriend (who is
a member) another young man and another companionship of missionaries and we
got to go tour the mine, which was pretty cool. there was also a zoo with
animals and stuff, which was also ok. the thing about zoos is that they always
sound so much cooler than they are, because when you hear that they have tigers
you just remember seeing them hunting a deer or something on tv, the actual
result is you just get to see a tiger sleeping and ignoring all efforts to get
its attention... at least the monkeys like showing off.<o:p></o:p></div>
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so this week we have been working a lot with the members to
strengthen the ward. its interesting to see how a lot of the time we have a
testimony of the things, but we dont really keep it a part of our daily lives.
i think that it is very easy to forget, if we are not working to remember. for
example, we have all heard of the title of liberty, when moroni rent his shirt,
wrote on it, and all the men came out and made a covenant to protect their
rights and their families. what we often overlook is what he does afterwards,
when, "he caused the title of liberty to be hoisted upon every tower which
was in all the land, which was possessed by the Nephites." just like
moroni, we should not look forwards to spiritual experiences just so we can go
and put them on a shelf somewhere, he putit on every tower. that way it would
be impossible to forget. we can also establish habits of righteousness in our
lives so that, unless we try, it would be imposible to forget.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
last of all, person of the week. C, he is a joven
that actually contacted us in the street, he is dating a member (actually he is
the one who we went to the mine with) and has gone to church a bunch of times
with her. but we started visiting him and he started progressing by himself,
this wek we were about to teach him about fasting, but he let us know that he
had already had his first fast like 2 weeks ago. he has been learning about how
the spirit speaks to us and has the talent that many life long members lack of
applying the scriptures to himself. basically hes a stud, and he is of age to
serve a mission to, so...<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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but anyways, that's it for now, hope you all are well. be
good, love you guys.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Elder Gándola<o:p></o:p></div>
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March 28, 2016 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so this week was interesting<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so we started out the week planning on having 3 baptisms, 2
investigators that have been progressing really well and a 10 year old girl who
is from a member family but was never baptized. but as luck would have it and
appointments fell through, it went down to 2, then to 1, and finally to 0. so
we didnt have a baptism this week, the zone leaders however, did have a
baptism, which was great because the 2 investigators were both able to go, and
afterwards they both felt really good about the step and a lot more ready. this
week is conference, so next week we are planning on having them baptised.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so fun story from this week, we were walking along a busy
road like tuesday, when suddenly we here this super loud scraping sound, so we
turn around to see what it was and my first thought was, "hey, why doesn't
that car have a wheel?" then i asked myself, "and who left a tire
sitting in the middle of the road?"" and then i connected the two
thoughts and yup, somebodies tire fell off as they were driving. we helped them
put their tire back on and it sounded like they had annoyed some lady while
parking, so she had come back and taken the bolts off from their tire... so
that was interesting.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this was a good week to share the gospel for easter week,
there is a video that the church made that you may have seen called hallelujah
that was cool to share. we were assigned to speak sunday five minutes before we
started the meetings, but luckily we had anticipated and prepared. i shared a
thought about something that the savior had said on the cross that really
struck me this week, when he pleaded, "father, forgive them, for they know
not what they do." its interesting to think that he said this about his
tormentors as they were in the act of killing him, and how he did it because of
the very real love that he felt for those same people who despised him so much.
its interesting to read about how he suffered so that we can experience mercy,
and to realize that as he tells us in the scriptures, that , "the merciful
shall obtain mercy." it is our duty to forgive those around us as a
requisite to obtaining that divine mercy. if we do not feel that love for our
enemies that the lord felt for his, moroni tells us that we can pray with all
the energy of our hearts to obtain this love. thus the atonement not only
offers us mercy, but can help us extend it to others.... there are an infinity
of applications<o:p></o:p></div>
of the atonement.<br />
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i have no time and have to go, but anyways, love you guys,
portuense bien<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
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Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-71197319439805162342016-05-22T20:07:00.002-07:002016-05-22T21:08:17.588-07:00Feb 8, 2016 to Feb 29, 2016<div class="MsoNormal">
February 8, 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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hey guys,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so this was another good week. we learned a lot of stuff
that is exciting to us as missionaries but doesn’t really apply to you guys, so
the letter might be short.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so first of all i got a new jacket this week, i went to a
members house and i hadn’t brought mine, and so she didn’t let me go without
one and it was too small for any of them, so she gave me a really nice coat.
the funny thing is that my companion has been looking for one just like it and
just bought one for like 700 pesos (like 50 bucks)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
but she said she has more and wanted to give him one too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so we came back this week to do a service for them and they
took us into the back room to see the jackets and they had a ton of really nice
clothes there. the thing is that this family has been struggling economically
and so we have been working with them to help them keep the sabbath day holy.
so we instantly told them that they should start a clothing shop and they would
be set. it’s interesting to see that god often gives us all the blessings we
need and many times we simply cannot see them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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also this week i made good use of my christmas packet. there
was a family that was going to give a baby blessing sunday and they had a white
shirt for him but couldn’t find a small tie. so i thought, "hey, i have
one from that stocking that i just got" (i got a stocking from my mother
that was shaped like a white shirt and tie) so i detached it and put it on a
string and gave them a cool little tie. oh, quick note about future packages, don’t
send me candy. i decided that i was eating way too much candy and so i have
decided to give it up for this year, i would be more than happy to receive recipes
however, preferably quick ones.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSHhw775dkC1u3sWP4RswSRtUfic0SGXiHfedTygUJbrpCNyzapb2eJraGMPScdyd0LRueGovNeA-pV0yF7WsS1Nruqt7oM6e8aR5H7-6DdrYvnyHRJiJowQC0X4YwlJ_Fk8jZ8hcSvrOD/s1600/2016-2-15.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSHhw775dkC1u3sWP4RswSRtUfic0SGXiHfedTygUJbrpCNyzapb2eJraGMPScdyd0LRueGovNeA-pV0yF7WsS1Nruqt7oM6e8aR5H7-6DdrYvnyHRJiJowQC0X4YwlJ_Fk8jZ8hcSvrOD/s320/2016-2-15.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so this week i have been improving in my prayers, we can
always improve. i saw a quote that says, "true worship is giving
thanks" or something like that translated into english, so i decided to be
more grateful in my prayers. i would invite all of you in this week to offer at
least one prayer where you only give thanks, for as long as you can. it has
helped me a lot.<o:p></o:p></div>
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well gotta go, but i love you guys, be good<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
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February 15, 2016<o:p></o:p></div>
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hey guys,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ummm i actually have no idea what we did in this week. umm,
so i guess I’ll just pretend like I’m short on time and can’t write to you
guys.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i guess I’ll just share something that i have been learning
this week. the center of everything that we believe and do is the savior,
therefore we should center our lives on the savior, and especially on the
atonement. this week i have spent a lot of time studying his life, and i
realized that we will never understand all that he has done for us, and
therefore should never stop studying it. as we grow in our understanding of and
love for the savior, we will feel a natural desire to serve others, and to do
his will. i would invite you all to take some time this week to study and
ponder the saviors ministry and sacrifice, and to see how you can apply it to
your life (a wonderful, easy way to do this is through the church´s bible
videos which are really spectacular)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i guess i have gotten lazy with the person of the week, this
week is Ana. we were walking along and all of the sudden a truck pulls up and a
man rolls down the window and yells to us, "hey elders! hey I’m a member,
but i live in zacatecas and am only here for the weekend, but you should go
visit my sister in law." only he didn’t know the direction very well, he
just knew that it was a blue house in a street, so we went and checked all the
blue houses until one lady answered the door and asked us,"hey why did you
guys stop coming to visit me?" the previous missionaries stopped visiting
her, but she accepted us very well.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
also this week I’ll send you 2 pictures because i forgot
last week<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
but anyways, that’s
it for now. be good love, you guys<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Elder Gàndola<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqcV3IYvMTateZ7_TvQKie2nF-LXAeFPfPUk_CZBA_2dY1judMeuGc3pxNmHU6pmALYzOKwk9_0QdYaOteKVZkzy6nzCF8ecHYBKw-VeUL5b9Aj-OdRY7IADkAYmNCgelfoOYzYzVedjhX/s1600/2016-2-15a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqcV3IYvMTateZ7_TvQKie2nF-LXAeFPfPUk_CZBA_2dY1judMeuGc3pxNmHU6pmALYzOKwk9_0QdYaOteKVZkzy6nzCF8ecHYBKw-VeUL5b9Aj-OdRY7IADkAYmNCgelfoOYzYzVedjhX/s320/2016-2-15a.JPG" width="320" /></a><o:p> </o:p></div>
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February 22, 2016
Mexican Moonshiners<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hello hello,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
well lucky for you guys this week was a bit more
interesting, starting monday.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so monday we had transfers (we stayed the same) and there is
a new companionship that they are going to stick in valparaiso (our second
area), so they told us, "hey, it would be great if you guys got here at 9
in the morning, that way you can take them over and show them around their
area." so we did, but they told us, well actually, they won’t get here for
4 hours... so could you come back at like 1? so we did, but then they told us,
"...well actually they won’t get here for 2 more hours, can you come back
at like 3? so we did. this time they were actually there.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so we took them to valparaiso and showed them around. we
planned on coming back in the night to see if we could work a little, and because
their house isn’t really equipped for 4 missionaries, and because i was wearing
my contacts and didn’t have what i needed to take them out. but wouldn’t you
know it, there is a bus that goes back to fresnillo every hour of the day...
except for 7, so we had to stay there. (don’t worry one of the other elders had
contact solution, and there were enough blankets to make the ground somewhat
comfy)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Ls0t_Ygn1PpaAuV2C6qM67SK7JnG9jaal3nEL0Cg57Gpuxmeld6lP9AlYZc4d1GtGqzy1B2vg5NY6sz8kcUDtJJesLnBi4HWBElXQrNraRDLlfcuyLkyrd9bZX7va0v_kpX4j5KVo9rn/s1600/2016-2-22.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_Ls0t_Ygn1PpaAuV2C6qM67SK7JnG9jaal3nEL0Cg57Gpuxmeld6lP9AlYZc4d1GtGqzy1B2vg5NY6sz8kcUDtJJesLnBi4HWBElXQrNraRDLlfcuyLkyrd9bZX7va0v_kpX4j5KVo9rn/s400/2016-2-22.JPG" width="400" /></a><o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
we did come back tuesday and where able to work normally,
but it was pretty uneventful.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
wednesday was super cool. so we went to a meeting in the
church in the morning, and we were coming back when all of the sudden a car
pulled over and rolled down the window (no I’m not just retelling last week’s
story, it’s a different guy) and the guy told us, "hey, I’m a member from
another ward, if you have time i can take you guys to visit a couple of
references." we did have time, and he gave us like 10. it was super cool
because that morning i had been praying specifically to notice the unplanned
opportunities to help people, and this was definitely one of them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
thursday was an interesting day. so there’s this drink here
that they sell in the streets called tepache that is basically made by
fermenting pineapple skin. we don’t buy it because that is how alcohol is made,
but if you make it yourself you can take it out before it makes alcohol and its
fine. so we let some sit since last week. we remembered and went to check on
it, but we both decided it smelled a little too risky, so we threw it away. and
that is how we brewed alcohol here in the mission.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the rest of the week was pretty cool too, we actually had a
couple of experiences like the one with the member, and actually in one of the
meals this week we did a roleplay activity with the bishop and his wife to help
them invite a friend to learn more, and they actually brought her to church on
sunday. we could really see this week the lords hand guiding us to be able to
do stuff that we couldn’t have done alone.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
last of all, person of the week. gerardo flores. he is the
dad/husband of some investigators that we have been teaching, and he hasn’t
really approved, he has kinda been an obstacle and that is how we have seen
him. but this week we realized that if we want to make any progress with the
family, we need to make progress with him. so we prayed that we could find him
alone, and one day we knocked on his door, and he answered us. the only thing is that he answered the door
and told us that he didn’t want us to pass by any more. i just remember
thinking, "i am not leaving without teaching this guy," and I’m not
really sure how we did it, but eventually he opened the door and said,
"alright, come on in." so we taught him a lesson and he completely
changed, when we left he gave us hugs and said sorry. it was kind of a humbling
experience. i realized that God loves all of his children equally, and that really
we should not judge others based on how we see them, rather we should seek to
see them as god does, and then we gain the ability to help them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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anyways, that’s it for this week, be good, love you guys.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Elder Gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
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February 29, 2016 One
man’s trash is another man’s Breakfast<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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hey guys,<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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so this week was pretty good, and most of the interesting
things happened were related to the fact that we had absolutely zero money. (don’t
worry, our money came today, so all good) and consequently we had no food this
week<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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but anyways normally in the world having no money and food
is a bad thing, but here in the mission those are some of my favorite weeks,
because we get to see how the lord works everything out for you. one thing i
have learned here is that the more we give god what we have and want, the more
he can bless us with what he has and wants( not that i condone obedience for
blessings, but it is a happy side effect of an obedience born from a love of
god) and what he has and wants is always better.<o:p></o:p></div>
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but anyways we were walking somewhere on monday, when this
lady pulls up in her car (we´re on a three week streak of that happening now)
and tells us, "hey, I’m not a member, but my son is a missionary, and i
want to feed you guys sometime." so she asked us for our number and told
us she would call us to arrange it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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wednesday the person who had planned on feeding us couldn’t
and had to cancel, so we were trying to figure something out when we get a
phone call, and it was the same lady, and she wanted to give us lunch in like
half an hour. i would call it a coincidence but i think we all know that it
wasn´t<o:p></o:p></div>
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one of the things that actually isn’t so great about living
in mexico is that they don’t really have a concept of garbage cans, or i suppose
you could say that the world is their garbage can. but this week that kinda
worked to our advantage. i was walking along and kicked a food package and saw
that there was a sticker inside, so i picked it up and we realized that the
food company has a promotion right now where there are stickers inside of the
packages that are exchangeable for other products, so we started kicking the
packets as we walked to see if there was any more, and in just one day we found
like 6 bucks worth of cookies and stuff, which was enough for dinner saturday
and breakfast sunday. we haven’t really found any more after that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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sunday we started walking to lunch and a member offered us a
ride, we called while we were in the car, and we were actually wrong, it wasn’t
with the member we had originally thought, it was with the daughter of the guy
who was giving us a ride. she lived right in front of him, but she had
forgotten and wasn’t even home, so he let us come and eat with them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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anyways, i guess the message of this letter is that we all
need to learn to trust in god more, we have been sharing a scripture with a lot
of members, in mathew 6<o:p></o:p></div>
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31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or,
What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?<o:p></o:p></div>
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32 (For after all
these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye
have need of all these things.<o:p></o:p></div>
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33 But seek ye first
the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added
unto you.<o:p></o:p></div>
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i have seen that this is true, if we really want security
for us and our families, we should put God first, and he will take care of the
rest<o:p></o:p></div>
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that’s it for today, be good, love you guys<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
elder gandola</div>
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<o:p></o:p>Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-50056086634849977052016-02-07T15:15:00.005-08:002016-02-07T15:15:55.773-08:00February 1, 2016 Rat Soup<br />
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well this week was pretty good, and pretty eventful<o:p></o:p></div>
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first of all we got another companionship in our district,
which is good because the zone leaders have to leave a lot and so at least we
will have somebody else there. but this week in addition to them we had a
combined district meeting with another district, and president and his wife
came and visited us too, so there was lots of people there... that probably doesn’t
actually mean anything to you guys... but it was interesting nonetheless.<o:p></o:p></div>
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after that it was pretty normal, until friday. friday we had
to travel to go give a baptismal interview in a little pueblo called c.
the interview went all right, but afterwards the third best thing of my week
happened... i found a store that sells A&W root beer! i was so happy i
bought everybody a free round, and two for me. now i know where to buy it, i
just have to take an hour long bus ride to find it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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that night was pretty interesting too, they came back with us and we had a sleep over, which is ironically named because
sleep overs usually involve very little sleeping, ours involved none. we
actually have to be prepared to travel again at 1:00 am at the
church, so with four missionaries, and no gas, we stayed up all night getting
ready (and also drinking root beer)<o:p></o:p></div>
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you are probably wondering why we had to travel at 1:00 in
the morning (or maybe you aren’t wondering that because you read my letters)
but anyways, it’s because for the second time in less than a year we had an
apostle come to visit us. Elder Renlund, accompanied by bishop cause, presiding
bishop of the church, held a devotional specifically for our mission, but he
held it in the area of another mission (he didn’t even speak to them).<o:p></o:p></div>
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it was really cool, we learned a lot about real conversion,
and a lot about how to help our investigators, but that would probably be
boring to you, so I’ll just share something that i learned about praying with
real intent. we basically shouldn’t pray that god does our work for us. we
should pray so that we can receive guidance and strength to do our
responsibility and our part in receiving the blessings we are asking for (see
David A. Bednars 2008 General Conference talk <a href="https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/04/ask-in-faith?lang=eng" target="_blank">ask in faith</a>)<o:p></o:p></div>
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coming back from the conference was interesting because our
bus broke down so we sat around for like 2 hours waiting, but we made it back
in time for interesting thing number 3, baptism.<o:p></o:p></div>
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we had a lesson sunday with an investigator who has a long
time investigating, but he finally committed to baptism, so we had a baptismal
service saturday. we weren’t there most of saturday to organize everything and
we couldn’t announce it sunday, but we worked hard during the week and
managed to have a lot of people there.<o:p></o:p></div>
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ironically, sunday a lot of people weren’t there
for the confirmation, mostly he wasn’t there. his mom was hospitalized in
zacatecas early that morning, so he had to go, but next week well make sure that
it happens.<o:p></o:p></div>
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other than that i had a food adventure on sunday, we
went to visit a less active and she had made a soup with rat and snake... so we
ate it! rat tastes like chicken and rattlesnake tastes kinda like fish... only
more poisonous (but the poison is boiled out, it’s not fatal, obviously...
nacho libre style high five to whoever gets that reference) oh and the rat is field
rat, not house rat, don’t worry about it, i would never eat anything gross. oh
and also i found a place that sells cow brain tacos, so i might eat them this
week.<o:p></o:p></div>
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well that’s... a lot. love you guys, be good,<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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peace<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-45451648848693688532016-01-31T20:34:00.002-08:002016-01-31T20:34:27.032-08:00January 25, 2016 Footless Footie Pajamas<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;">January
25, 2016 Footless Footie Pajamas<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;">hello
everybody,</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;">this week was awesome, one of the best that i have had in the
mission. last week was ok, but we both felt like we could have done better and
had more, so we recommitted ourselves and worked our tails off and practically
doubled everything we had last week. i think i already mentioned that the
culture here could use some changing, in that normally the missionaries don’t
get as much done here as in other parts of the mission. but anyways most areas
here are struggling to have 20 lessons in a week, we managed to get up to 37.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;">this week i learned a lot about the lords promises, mostly from
teaching people about them. our ward is small. well, its big, but the
attendance is small (to give you an idea we got a congratulations from the area
presidency a couple of weeks ago for having an assistance of 76) and while the
majority have testimonies, there is a lack of conversion. but anyways, we, with
the bishop, have decided that now is the time to change that, so we have been
working with all the members to strengthen their conversion. it’s interesting
to see that lots of the time we think we have other stuff that keeps us from
doing what we should, but i really liked what a sister said this week, she
said, "i go to church for convenience. it convenient to have the blessings
of the lord in my week, therefore it is convenient to go to church"
basically, being obedient is the most convenient thig we can do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;">other fun stuff that happened this week. there’s a sister in the
ward who told us that she would make us pajamas if we bought the cloth. i
actually have a burning hatred for entering fabric stores, but i braved it, and
i am now the proud owner of new dinosaur footie pajamas (but without the feet)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;">that’s basically all im going to write you, so be good, love you
guys,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt;">elder gandola<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-74384070341853505212016-01-31T20:34:00.001-08:002016-01-31T20:34:11.031-08:00January, 18, 2016<br />
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well <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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this week was good, but i don’t really remember what we
did... so i guess I’ll just share some basic stuff.<o:p></o:p></div>
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1. we had an interesting trip to valparaiso this week. usually we go and come
back in 1 day, but it takes a lot of time in the bus, so we decided to go and
stay for 2 days and just sleep in the house that the elders still rent there.
that would have been a good idea, had it not been for the fact that we forgot
our area book in fresnillo two and a half hours away. we don’t actually know
the area there very well, so we couldn’t plan for the next day, and we had to
come home the next morning. in the night we found out that the light had not
been paid, so we got to make do with candles, but at least there was still hot
water.<o:p></o:p></div>
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2. we managed to get a lot of service in this week, service
is great. the biggest project we had was we got to paint a lady’s house, it was
a good thing that they accepted our offer, because they had no idea what they
were doing, but it turned our pretty well, well... at least it turned out a lot
better than it was before (before and after pictures below.) but the best part
is the effect it had on their family. it was cool to see the difference in
their attitudes when we started and finished. their family has a number of
problems, which i won’t go into, but for a number of reasons there is a lack of
unity in the family. but even though they started out not working together very well, by the end they were all
laughing and playing around and looked more like a family. service is awesome,
go do more of it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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and to finish, person of the week, them. their
son came to church too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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that’s all for now, be good, love you guys<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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elder gandola</div>
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Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-70643516344143297382016-01-13T22:16:00.001-08:002016-01-14T00:14:44.549-08:00Januray 11, 2016 Wheel Chair Tune Up<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">hello
all,</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">so this week was crazy. not sure if it went by fast or slow, but
thus is the mission life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">it started off well enough, i got to the house and saw the most beautiful
thing, about 6 pounds of american candy. the elder before me just finished his
mission, but his parents had sent him pounds of the good stuff. and then to top
it off i got another 4 pounds in my christmas package that arrived, this is
like Halloween level amounts. so it’s possible that satan is making an assault
on my teeth, but I’m happy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the area has not been very well taken care of, and has had kind
of a bad reputation for not progressing. but working here i can see that all of
that is just culture, they hear it enough that they believe it. but i decided
early on that i don’t want to follow that culture.s o we worked ourselves hard
in this week and have seen awesome results. the only bad part about this area
is the weather. it’s very... microwave burrito, frozen solid on the outside and
boiling lava hot on the outside. there is a lot of sun, so it’s hot, but there
is always a freezing breeze, so it always cold... both at the same time. but
thus is the mexico life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">but anyways, we started working with the members, serving them in
any way possible. we found a lot of opportunities and it really helped us gain
their trust, especially the bishop. he is young and has about a month as
bishop, but he is great. so we started working with him and helping him with
his plans for the ward, and we could see a lot of progress in just one week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the interesting thing about our area is that it is actually 2
areas. one got closed down and we took it over. the fun part is that the second
area is about two and a half hours out of the city, a little pueblo called
valparaiso. so we get to travel by bus every week, squeeze in what we can, and
come back to take care of fresnillo.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">this week we went and met up with an investigator in valparaiso
who is in a wheelchair. it was bent out of shape, so he couldn’t go to church,
but we saw that he had two more, also messed up, but with good parts. so we got
to work and i think we must have replaced every part of that wheelchair, but he
ended up with a pretty sweet ride. funny enough, i already knew how to do it,
turns out longboards and wheelchairs are built basically the same. the whole time
i was thinking, "all right, here are the ball bearings, we need to find a
spacer, and.. oh wait! i almost forgot the speed rings!" ...yeah,good
times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">then later this week we got some exciting news. for the second
time in less than 10 months, an apostle is coming to visit us. the 30th of
january, elder renlund is coming to visit. president viareal says that this
kind of thing is virtually impossible. especially since we will all be
traveling out of the mission to see him. he will be in the mission queretaro,
but he is only going to speak to us. not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad
thing, but it’s exciting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">last but not least, person of the week. the familia B. they are a family that had received a few visits before i got here,
but we have taught them twice. we had some super cool lessons with them, and
they helped us complete a goal that my companion had. the 6th here is the day
of the wise men. and everybody celebrated by eating this large bread called
rosca de reyes. my companion had never tried it (i did last year) and really
wanted to, but it’s expensive. so we finished the lesson, ad left. we got half
way down the street when we heard somebody shouting at us, we turn around and
the investigator was running after us to invite us to share their rosca... it’s
a wisemen day miracle! but anyways, four of them came to church this week, and
they all felt really great.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">anyways, that’s all folks. be good, love you guys.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">elder gandola<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-66826332718589699422016-01-10T14:00:00.000-08:002016-01-10T14:00:06.793-08:00January 4, 2016 Just Do It<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEXRJvLwGEIhuS4ZlWjPFt0yHB3H277DXGcK2HR1W6SJ6M6hvvvtAqi1whv8vjdrVze8Ju2ySgJYut-w3dp5p43-Xi6qv2b0UCkluHRajH6NP8yxu_UIo3zuoezCDnmKREZ1-U1Kx72w77/s1600/2016-1-4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEXRJvLwGEIhuS4ZlWjPFt0yHB3H277DXGcK2HR1W6SJ6M6hvvvtAqi1whv8vjdrVze8Ju2ySgJYut-w3dp5p43-Xi6qv2b0UCkluHRajH6NP8yxu_UIo3zuoezCDnmKREZ1-U1Kx72w77/s400/2016-1-4.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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well this week was one of the better weeks i have had in
these past few months.<o:p></o:p></div>
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we started out in a meeting with the assistants, who came to
talk to all of san luis. the whole state of san luis has been kinda low in
baptisms, and has been kinda desanimado (you’ll have to put that one into
google translate, not sure what it is in english.) so they came to reanimate
them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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they talked about a lot of stuff, but what really affected
me were a couple of questions they asked. the first was, "who wants to be
an assistant?" (for those who don’t know, an assistant is the highest
leadership position in the mission.) a couple missionaries raised their hands,
and then he asked them, "what are you doing to make it happen?" i
thought that question was interesting because the people who raised their hands
were mostly the same people who had raised their hands to a different question,
"who has been sleeping in later than they should?" i realized that
what we do shows our real desires, in the moment, sleeping in is a bigger
desire that being a leader. we need to
make our desires happen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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so i decided a few things. 1 i don’t necessarily care if i
am called as assistant or not, but i want to be the kind of missionary that
could be called as an assistant. (for those of you wondering, i had not raised
my hand to the question, because i didn’t want it then. my companion actually asked me afterwards why
i hadn’t raised my hand, which i thought was kind of funny.) and 2. we haven’t
had people at church for a couple months, we have a bunch of investigators, but
none have come to church, so my desire this week was to have people at church.
so the whole week i worked hard to make it happen, i studied all thirty of them
and studied why they haven’t come and how to help them, and when i had other
desires, i decided what i wanted more and went right along. we had four people
there this week. and a fifth arrived out of the blue who had investigated
online and showed up by himself.<o:p></o:p></div>
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today we had transfers, and after 6 months, i left españita.
i was sent as district leader to fresnillo zacatecas, with elder S. as my
companion. he only has three weeks here, so he doesn’t know the area super
well, but he is a good elder. there is a
lot of work to be done, so it’s time to put in practice a lot of what i have
learned this week, but I’m excited.<o:p></o:p></div>
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but anyways, quick challenge for you all. 1 what do you
really want? 2. what are you doing to make it happen? now go make it happen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
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ps. I’m going to try to include a picture in all of my
emails now, this resolve will probably last like 3 weeks<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-83156911792919849742016-01-10T13:42:00.000-08:002016-01-10T13:42:07.215-08:00December 28, 2015 Goals for New Year<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
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well this is gunna be short because i just talked to most of
you.<o:p></o:p></div>
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just a quick thought.<o:p></o:p></div>
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new years is this week, and with new years comes new year’s goals (i forgot what they are
called in english) we usually put goals and drop them within a month, that is
for lack of commitment and planning. i would invite you all to include these in
your goals.<o:p></o:p></div>
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also, i would like you to put missionary goals for this
year. the church membership is currently 15,372,337. imagine how wonderful it
would be if each member had the goal of just 1 baptism this year, the results
would be incredible. now I’m not telling you what your goals should be, nor if
it should be with nonmembers or less actives, or anything else, nor how many
the goal should be, that is between you and the lord, but i do invite you to
prayerfully put missionary goals for this year. i don’t think that this short
email will reach and affect all those members, but for those of you who do see
it, i hope it affects your actions in this next year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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that is all<o:p></o:p></div>
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elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-16374357316991899092016-01-10T13:36:00.002-08:002016-01-10T13:36:19.731-08:00Dec 14, 2015<div class="MsoNormal">
Dec 7, 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
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what the heck, why does lucas look tall?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dec 14, 2015 <o:p></o:p></div>
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hey guys,<o:p></o:p></div>
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well i guess I’m a bum for not writing you guys last week. i
actually just managed to forget somehow. i read all the emails and just
thought, "hmm, guess i finished with my emailing business for this
week." ...oh well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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only really remember one thing from last week. i canceled
the zone leaders lunch appointment. our lunch thursday couldn’t make it, so the
relief society was going to work something out, and wednesday they did, they
called and told us who we would eat with somebody. but thursday morning
somebody else called us to verify that we would eat with her. i wasn’t exactly
sure who it was, so i told her we would check. we did and it wasn’t with her so
we told her not to worry about it. then we got a call from the zone leaders,
"hello? who is this? elder gandola? oh... why did you cancel our lunch?"
still not sure, but I think the sister has us as "the elders" in her
phone when we aren’t in her ward, but... oh well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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this week the most interesting thing that happened was
saturday and sunday. the tiajuana temple was just finished, so we got to watch
the cultural event and dedication. elder uchtdorf and oaks came down to visit
us. things i learned/remembered from the dedication. temples are awesome.<o:p></o:p></div>
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no but seriously all of you people out there who don’t have
area restrictions, when was the last time you went to the temple? why has it
been that long? i would invite you all to take time as soon as possible to go
visit the temple. if you can only do baptisms, go do baptisms. if you aren’t a
member or cant enter right now, just go and visit the beautiful temple grounds
(even more so decorated for christmas.) to ponder and think and just sit.
whatever you do, i invite you to make a temple visit part of your holiday
activities. i promise you won’t regret it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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last of all, person of the week. L. she is actually
somebody that i have never taught, she was an investigator that the other
elders in our ward had, who was baptized this past week. she progressed rapidly
from the start and actually got baptized before the normal 5 sundays required, by her own request. my
only involvement with her was that i contacted her. i just found her, but it’s
great to see the little things that we can do that make big differences in the
lives of others, even without our further involvement.<o:p></o:p></div>
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anyways that’s it for this week, love you all, be good,<o:p></o:p></div>
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elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
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ps about the skype call. I’ll call you on the 25th. not sure
when, but mom, send me your information again just in case.<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-326973021228030412016-01-10T13:29:00.002-08:002016-01-10T13:29:29.753-08:00November 30, 2015 Thanksgiving Sandwich Part II<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
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so this week was busy, i guess. first of all, it was good
because it is now after thanksgiving, so i have been listening to the christmas
music every morning that i got in my package. i like christmas music.<o:p></o:p></div>
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speaking of thanksgiving, it’s not really a thing here. not
really sure why, i mean why wouldn’t the mexicans want to celebrate the day that we started populating the united
states... i guess maybe once we figure out what day lehi landed we can start
having a mexican thanksgiving. but this
year was a little bit better than last, though i still celebrated with a
sandwich. this time our last visit sent us off with tortas (not for
thanksgiving, just because everybody loves us) and as we were eating them i
realized, "hey, i think this is turkey" so there you go, thanksgiving
turkey.<o:p></o:p></div>
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this week i also made another claim to my claim as dog
whisperer (or dog terrorist, they´re more or less interchangeable) we went to
visit a contact that we did and when we got there and knocked on the door, the
door opened... but just enough to let out two angry hell hounds, foam spewing
from the mouth. ok so maybe they weren’t hell hounds, they may have been
chihuahuas... but they were still barking, and angry. luckily i am always prepared
for situations like this, so i pulled out my powerade bottle and sprayed them
both with water. they actually calmed down and started licking up the water
from the ground, then let us pet them. so we knocked again and the woman came
out and let us in.<o:p></o:p></div>
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the other exciting thing that just happened is that the
church released another christmas initiative. you should all go and visit
christmas.mormon.org to see the video a savior has born. it’s a really good,
easy, unthreatening way to share the gospel in the christmas season. everybody
knows that christ is the reason for christmas, but the invitation that we are
sharing is, "discover why." i would highly encourage you to share it
on social media and with friends in person (and mom you should post it on my
facebook.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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last of all, person of the week. m. d.is a contact we did about three months ago but haven’t been able to find. but
as we were passing by her house we felt like we should visit her. she was there
and very interested. the has some health problems and isn’t able to see well
enough to read, so i thought of something that i hadn’t ever thought of before
(because that is actually a very common problem here) and so we went and bought
her a magnifying glass to be able to read. <o:p></o:p></div>
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well that’s all for now, be good, love you guys.<o:p></o:p></div>
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elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
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ps ponderize scripture this week was mathew 5:7-10<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-6980582546825019742016-01-10T13:22:00.001-08:002016-01-10T13:22:24.309-08:00<div class="MsoNormal">
November 23,2015 Hot Glue<o:p></o:p></div>
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well this week was.. interesting i think, i don’t really
remember it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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but one thing i do remember is that we got to travel this
week. our visa was expired and so we had to travel down to Aguascalientes to
give fingerprints and all that good stuff to not be illegal anymore.<o:p></o:p></div>
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it was kinda cool to see the elders that i arrived with
again, it was the first time I’ve seen elder win like 6 months too, so
that was cool. we all got to talking about the mtc experience, which is weird
to think was more than a year ago, but also good to remember fun memories. but
i was kinda thinking, the mtc is a good way to start the mission, partly to
learn what we need to, but it also gives the new elders a place to kinda unload
all the stupid things that they may otherwise be immature enough to pull in the
field were they sent straight there. (i think it would be better if the young
men were just mature enough to not do dumb things, but i think it’s probably
one of the many reasons that the lord was wise enough to give us the mtc.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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you can kinda tell when you have some time in the mission
because all of the sudden all of you clothes decide to malfunction at the same
time. this week the big problem was one of my shoe soles has a big hole in the
heel and is basically hollow. I’m pretty proud of my fix. i bought a hot glue
gun and just completely filled the sole with hot glue. i guess we’ll see if it
holds but if not i have a lot more hot glue sticks.<o:p></o:p></div>
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side note: i like hot glue guns better in spanish, the
literal translation into english would be something along the lines of,
"silicon weapon."<o:p></o:p></div>
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anyways to finish up i guess I’ll go back to the long
forgotten person of the week. this week, v. she is a reference of her
cousin. she is a catholic and has been very active her whole life but has
stopped going for a while because of complications with divorce and moving
states and all that jazz. but she is very receptive and actually reads and goes
to church and all that good stuff. (we leave her assignments and come back and
she tells us "sorry i didn’t read too much, it’s just that i finished the
assignment, and then i liked it a lot and so i read it a couple more times, and
then i went back and read the other stuff you guys had left me, and so i didn’t
really have time to read very much new material" ... yeah that’s fine) the
only thing that is impeding her progression right now is receiving an answer,
but she has felt and recognized the spirit very distinctly in a few occasions,
so if she keeps on working, we aren’t too worried about it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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well that’s all for now, love you guys be good<o:p></o:p></div>
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elder Gàndola<o:p></o:p></div>
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ps. ponderize scripture this last week was D&C 20:37. doesn’t
overly apply to non-missionaries, but it helps us focus on how to truly prepare
people for the covenant of baptism<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-54213865500903079412016-01-10T13:20:00.000-08:002016-01-10T13:20:37.244-08:00November 9, 2015 I’m going to purposely refrain from including a witty title with this one<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
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so this week was interesting, I’ll start with the second
half of the week.<o:p></o:p></div>
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we had a zone conference, pretty basic zone conference, but
i got my gummies!!! oh and my contacts too, but mostly the gummies. the package
got here all right, so thanks for that. and our new phone got here, so we have
a phone again<o:p></o:p></div>
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but other than that the week was pretty normal, until
Thursday when the other elders in our district passed by to let us know that
the stake president had just died. he was killed in a car accident on the
freeway. it was really sudden because he was in our ward on sunday. i didn’t really know him to well, but we
rented our house from him, so we spoke every once in a while for that..<o:p></o:p></div>
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its always kind of an eye opening experience when something
like this happens, it seems like he was spiritually prepared when the time
came, and it kinda reminds you that you never know exactly when "the
end" is, so endure to the end could be interpreted, "endure
always."<o:p></o:p></div>
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there was a lot of people there at the funeral services,
their stake center was filled to overflowing. it makes me think, that’s what i
want my funeral to be like. <o:p></o:p></div>
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sunday they let us know like 2 minutes before that we had
the talks. so i kind of managed to peg some of these thoughts together,
(probably a lot better than i did here) with some scriptures and stuff too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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so basically that’s it for now, just, endure always i guess<o:p></o:p></div>
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be good, love you guys<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-40450376209007095042016-01-10T13:19:00.001-08:002016-01-10T13:19:21.437-08:00November 2, 2015 Orange Flowers<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
well this week was interesting, which one of the very (i
won’t say apostate but i guess unspiritual would do it) holidays will i start
with. well let’s just go in chronological order.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wednesday, Saint Judas day. so for those of you not familiar
with catholic beliefs (maybe it’s just Mexican catholic I’m not really sure)
they have a lot of saints that help get their prayers to god(something along
those lines but I’m not really sure so don’t take my word as 100% accurate),
but one of the main ones is saint judas, so there is a church of saint judas
super close to our house and so they celebrated it on wednesday. it was
interesting to see because a bunch of people brought in carnival rides (only
big enough for small children) and games and stuff. it’s funny though because
I’m positive that not all of the vendors were from the church, i know because a
member of our church took advantage of the celebration to sell food (but it was
good food she gave us some for free) not gunna lie i always like catholic
celebrations because they always have really cool tribalish dances. we walked
past them a couple times in the day (during heavy sun and heavy rain) and there
were the same people doing the same dance all day long, i was impressed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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saturday, Halloween. mh it was kinda lame to be honest. in
the u.s. a witch hat or chucky mask or painted face with completely normal
clothes doesn’t pass off as a costume (people do it but there are good costumes
too) and there are only a couple houses that give candy. oh well.<o:p></o:p></div>
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sunday, day of the dead part 1. fun fact there are two day
of the deads, one to honor the deceased children and another for the adults.
they all go to cemetery and make offerings of food and flowers to their
ancestors. it was funny because all of them bring orange flowers. now i
understand why orange flowers were considered a death threat in Shakespeare’s
day. because apparently that’s still what you bring to the dead.<o:p></o:p></div>
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other things that happened this week. 1. we passed by the
house of the other elders to get their results for the week because we don’t
have a phone. they had a bunch of bamboo poles so i asked them why. they
weren’t bamboo. turns out that sugar cane is in season, so they gave us some. i
like eating sugar cane....<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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also, we were planning one night and there was a bunch of
teenagers sitting in front of our house laughing and being vulgar and all that,
so we were wondering how we could get them to go away. guess how? yup you
guessed it we went out there and kicked in their little faces... no we
didn’t (though we totally could have) we did something even better. we blasted
the mormon tabernacle choir. they didn’t even make it through two songs which
is really a lame because the sopranos really kill it at the end of come come ye
saints. oh well at least i enjoyed it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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well i don’t really have a lot of time, so I’m gunna call it
there for this week<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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love you guys be good,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-90916865232132305082016-01-10T13:17:00.000-08:002016-01-10T13:17:22.284-08:00October 26, 2015 Hurricanes and Ghost Towns<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
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hello once again,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so this week was pretty crazy, so you all saw how there was
a big hurricane? well it came straight through san luis and everything was
going to be completely flooded, so they evacuated us to monterrey. we are
supposed to head back down tomorrow...no I’m lying the hurricane was super
lame. it actually rained a good couple times over here in the beginning of the
week, and then we got a call from the zone leaders telling us that if it rained
a lot to get home, because a hurricane was coming. (i had never actually heard
the word in spanish before, so at first i thought that they called us to tell
us that a ukranian was coming... he wasn’t) so we were anticipating a lot of
rain and wind and stuff, but san luis decided to react to the hurricane with...
sun. we walked around sweating in our short sleeve shirts... poop.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
but one of those days in the beginning of the week when it
was raining, we got caught in the middle of it and ended up running to get to
the buildings to hide. only we didn’t notice that when we ran our phone fell
out of my pocket and into the water, we realized like an hour later and went
back to look for it. we actually found the back cover, but the phone was gone
(probably picked up and sold to buy some more beer) so we had all sorts of
interesting situations while we are waiting for our new phone.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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the weirdest experience without it was sunday. we have church at 8 in the morning, but
without the phone we only had my watch for an alarm, and neither of us heard
it. so long story short we wake up late and don’t get to church until like
8:45. only one thing, we were the only ones there. we got there an hour late
and nobody had come to church. no members, no investigators, nobody but the
bishop and his family. we thought that it was probably because of the
hurricane, but it was pretty sunny, so we were pretty confused. then we talked
to the bishop and apparently we are just idiots and didn’t realize that there
was a time change. oh well, at least we were early.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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we found a lot of new investigators this week, which is good
, with people who are actually progressing, which is also good. so it’s nice to
see that the lord will do his work in his time, and that if we keep doing our
part that we can help him do his work.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this next week should be interesting because its Halloween,
which they kinda celebrate, and its the day of the dead, which they really
celebrate and we live behind a cemetery, and its saint judas day, which is a
catholic saint that they worship and they have a whole carnival set up right
outside our house. but for this week, that’s all, love you guys, be good<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-4421594896785093652016-01-10T13:15:00.004-08:002016-01-10T13:15:53.832-08:00October 19, 2015 Blood Sucker (well, chewer and swallower…)<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
welll this was a good week, we started it out with divisions
with the zone leaders, i stayed here in our area with one of them and my
companion went to work with the other. we found a bunch of new investigators,
which i will talk about in a minute, but we had an interesting food adventure,
the sister who gave us lunch fed us moronga, which is pure blood that has been
concentrated and then cooked. actually not bad, it’s basically the same as
eating meat. kinda like tofu, but not vegetarian friendly. there’s a woman who
works in a tiangis (like a street market) who gives us free food every monday,
and she had moronga there, so i ate a blood quesadilla today again. so that’s
twice in one week that i break the law of moses.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so we didn’t get to go to conference sunday, and so i have
been listening to the talks at night to catch up. i finally got to the
ponderize one, and decided to join in on the party. thursday we had interviews
with president and he shared a scripture with us that i decided to use for the
rest of the week, D&C 24:12, "y en todo tiempo y en todo lugar, de dia
y de noche, abrirás tu boca y declararás mi evangelio, como con voz de
trompeta, y te daré fuerza como no se conoce entre los hombres" ok so i
memorized it in spanish, so use google translate, no, even better, look up the
scripture, no, even better, learn spanish.
(D&C 24:12 And at all times, and in all places, he shall open his
mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night.
And I will give unto him strength such as is not known among men.) but it really helped me in this week. as i
said we had a lot of new investigators in this week, and this is one of the
reasons why. at first i just applied it
to street contacting, but then i realized all the situations we are in that we
can invite people to here our message, and just
by inviting everybody to listen, we had a lot of people who
accepted. so I’ll probably start sharing
my scripture with you every week, sometimes with commentary, sometimes without.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
last and least, person of the week. (ok probably not least,
that would probably be the blood thing cause it doesn’t really have a spiritual
application) this week is g. f.. she actually contacted us. we were
eating tortas (that we get cheaper because we know everybody) and the woman at
the next table asked us if we could bring her a video of jesus christ. so we
did. turns out that she has family that are members, and she is interested to
learn, she even came to church this week, though she arrived an hour late
because she thought it was later and she got lost, thought that a metal shop was
our church, it wasn’t. but she came and that’s what’s important.<o:p></o:p></div>
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anyways, that’s it for now, be good, love you guys,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-12478931853193910452015-10-06T13:01:00.003-07:002015-10-06T13:01:32.593-07:00October 5, 2015 Lights out<div class="MsoNormal">
so we had another interesting week</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i think it started out on tuesday, we were walking along and
i look down and what did i see? popcorn popping on the apricot.. no i saw a
bill for 200 pesos on the ground (literally a bit less than 20 dollars, but i
would say that its worth more here, because everything is way cheaper) so at
first i was pretty excited, that’s a lot of gummies you can buy with 200 pesos,
but then a thought popped into my head, you know, what if it belongs to the
people who live here in front and they are prepared to listen to the gospel and i found this to be able to contact them?
so i knocked on the door and asked them if they had lost any money, turns out
they had, so i gave it to them and started to contact them...they basically
just slammed the door in my face. so here i am 200 pesos poorer. i feel like i
should feel good because i did the right thing or something else like that that
mom would say... but i guess I’m still not quite good enough to prefer that over
200 gummies.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then wednesday was
interesting as well, we were studying and all the sudden all the lights went
out, we looked outside and the guy from the power company had just disconnected
our electricity. usually the lady in charge of our little gated community
brings us our mail, but this time she didn’t so we didn’t realize that we
already had the electricity bill, and we forgot to pay it. so thursday we did
and just lived with flashlights for a while, which was fine. what wasn’t fine was the water. here the water system uses
a pump to fill a tank on the roof, and then just uses gravity to distribute it.
so that worked for a little while until the tank ran out and we had no more
water, so luckily we still have access to elder M´ house and so we just
stayed there for a few days until they connected it on sunday.<o:p></o:p></div>
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the funny thing is the reason they took so long to connect
it. we called them after 2 days, and they told us that the guy had already
passed by but that our counter was inside of our house, so they couldn’t do anything.
it’s not inside of our house, but we live in a gated community, so apparently
the guy thought that the whole gated community was one house... oh well, at
least we have electricity again.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
every first friday of the month we have started having a
family home evening with the ward, an activity where we can bring our
investigators to help them get to know the members. our ward mission leader
just got a job and was working, so we were left alone to plan it out, but it
actually turned out really well, we taught about prophets to prepare for
general conference, and so we divided into 3 groups to go to different stations
to learn stuff about prophets.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
group 1: we had a puzzle, while they had to put together,
but we only let one person see the picture of what it was supposed to be. we
taught them that the prophets have a much wider view of the picture than us and
that they can help us see what to do. this one was fun to buy, we went to a
little shop and asked for their puzzle with the least amount of pieces, she
brought us one with like 19 pieces, a puzzle of a little kid princess show just
to show us the size, we told her, yeah that’s fine... we´ll take that one. i
think she thought we were crazy, but we just bought it for the pieces and
covered it with a picture from the liahona.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
group 2:we had 2 seemingly impossible tasks, get a hard-boiled
egg into a bottle, and stack 14 nails on top of one nail. none of them could do
it until we showed them how, so we taught them that the prophets can guide us to help us do things we don’t
know how. (i won’t tell you how to do them, you can try it if you want, and
then when you fail, ask the missionaries and they can teach you how)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
group 3 (my group): we gave them the option to choose
between oreos and peanuts, but i told them that the peanuts were better to
choose. some of them still went with the oreos, and when they went to eat them,
realized that we had taken out the cream and replaced it with toothpaste, the application
was pretty simple, when the prophets give us counsel we should follow it, so we
don’t end up with bad stuff like toothpaste (though actually most of the young
men liked them...cada quien)<o:p></o:p></div>
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then saturday we obviously went to conference, crazy that we
had 3 new apostles called at the same time, but they just seem like the right
people to take the position, so i guess the lord knows what he is doing. the
conference was great, i got more out of it by following advice that elder
bednar gave us, that when taking notes usually we just kinda write a summary of
their talk, but it is better to just write down the spiritual impressions that
we receive as we listen, that way it is applied much better to what you need
and they will continue to help you in the future (i don’t think I ever went
back to read my notes when i did it the other way.) just another quick thought,
i think the general authorities are reading my blog, because they totally stole
a bunch of ideas from me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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sunday.. we didn’t actually go, which was a bummer, but
elder m was pretty sick all of the sudden, so he was puking and stuff, so we just stayed at home. funny thing is that i think it was my
birthday pizza that did it, because i also had a bit of a stomach ache (but
without the puking and stuff) while elder m2, who ate no pizza was fine.
we went to the doctor today and got him some medicine, and i guess we´ll see if
he feels better tomorrow to go work.<o:p></o:p></div>
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well, that’s it for now, love you guys, be good.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-81075204850285266372015-09-28T17:49:00.002-07:002015-09-28T17:49:13.051-07:00September 28, 2015 Working overtime (and undertime)<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
hello all,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
im gunna start out with a general thank you for all the
letters i got, i would love to respond
to each individually, but 1 hour is a lot less time that it would seem. but it
seems my christmas list of letters passed on to my birthday. i wasn’t really expecting much because i
forgot that you guys actually know when my birthday is. no i haven’t told my
companions, they think it’s in january. but don’t worry we will celebrate it. i
sneakily mentioned that lunch would be complicated saturday because of general
conference, then i told them that we could talk to the relief society
secretary, or we could just order two pan pizzas from dominoes (they are having
a special and our money comes this week) so we will celebrate without them
realizing. also we´ll probably buy churros or something thursday for my 1 year mark.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and well other than that i can’t stake my usual claim on
the, "this will be short because this week was normal." so i guess
the question is, where to start?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
how about tuesday, so there we were, in an average district
meeting.. side note, i now have the smallest district in the mission... 3
elders,(i´ll explain, don’t worry.) when we got a phone call that a few elders
in the mission got sent home, and so there was some filling in to be done until
we get more missionaries, and one of the elders in my district was given
special transfers to go fill in. so we sent our companions to go work and i
went back with the elder to go pack and get ready to leave.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
they were working out the travel plans and everything, and
so we didn’t know exactly when he would travel, so they just had us waiting in
the house for 2 days so that we would be ready at any moment, waiting in the
house is kinda poopy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
but anyways he got transferred and the three of us were
kinda just standing around wondering, "well, what now?" so we talk to
the zone leaders about how we manage everything, and they let us know that the
three of us will stay in a trio for now, and that we now have both of the areas
to work in. the only thing is that elder matos (our new companion) doesn’t
really know his area very well. for like a week and a half they were in the
house because his companion had an infected toenail and then we had exchanges and
stuff like that, so basically he only has like a week in his area. so basically
we are opening an area, but we have another area as well, fun stuff.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so then thursday we went and worked. to complicate things
even more, lots of stuff is changing in
our area which was progressing a lot in these last few weeks. thursday we had to drop 2 investigators, one
of which had come with us to church twice, and then friday in the morning
during our study 2 more (some of my favorite investigators) dropped us out of
the blue.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
needless to say (but i will anyways) i was feeling pretty
stressed. i had no idea how to keep up with all this stuff being piled on me.
but then i studied that morning a lot about faith, and i realized something. i
have no idea what i am doing, but the lord does. the lord has charged me with
this right now, and it’s his work, i don’t need to be stressed out, i just need
to work, and it will all work out.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i also found much comfort in a scripture in mathew 25:23
which tells us, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things" now I’m
not claiming that i have two areas because I’m better or anything like that,
but it doesn’t matter what the lord gives me, i want to prove to him that i
will be faithful in any situation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so friday i worked feeling a lot better. saturday i felt a lot worse. we started
working and i felt kinda not so good, so we went back to the house so i could
puke. i did, and then i felt a little better, but i slept to recuperate my
strength, afterwards i tried eating a yogurt in the night, the result was more
puking. so that night i prayed pretty hard. i understood i needed to work and i
wanted to work, so i prayed that i could get better to be able to work. i got
the impression, "why are you asking me, you have two priesthood holders
there and you haven’t asked them for a blessing yet." so i did. the next morning i felt normal, went to church
gave a talk, worked all day, and didn’t puke.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so if there is any advice i can give to all of you from this
very hectic week, trust in the lord. you may not know what you are doing, but
he does, and that’s enough.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
anyways, that’s it for now, be good, love you guys, peace
out<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Elder Gándola<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-83176987856026650612015-09-27T18:41:00.003-07:002015-09-27T18:41:26.062-07:00sept 21, 2015<div class="MsoNormal">
September 21, 2015<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so this week was pretty normal, so i don’t really have too
much to write about. but i guess there’s a couple things i could comment on.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
elder M, not my companion but from the other elders in
my district had an in-gown toenail that got infected and so he couldn’t walk or
anything, so they stayed home, but we passed by to give him a blessing, and he
he can work now.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
well actually this week was a bit different because in these
past two weeks we have started having more progress. this past transfer has
been hard at times because, even though we are working well, we have hardly had
anything. but these past two weeks we have seen progress in everything. first
of all we have found some super ready new investigators, which is something we
have really needed recently, we also had some people in church, only one
investigator, but a lot of less actives too. we always have the occasional less
active that shows up, but some of the people we have really been working with
in these last weeks came for the first time, so it was great to see them
refocusing themselves on what is important. so it just goes to show that when
we do our part, the lord will do his. it’s not us that gets to determine how or
when, but it is our efforts that determines whether or not we will permit that
the lord can do his part (at least right now. we can’t stop the lords work, we can only
postpone it and decide if we are the ones to do it. i say it’s better that we
do our part so that it’s us and not somebody else.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
anyways, person of the week goes to R (sr) and R (jr)
and E. elder M and elder
C contacted R (sr) during exchanges, and we visited them sunday. when we got there they were working, they make
uniforms, but they said that we could come in for a couple minutes while they
iron the stuff. they never got to ironing because we started teaching them. I’ve
gotten very good at sneakily slipping lessons in with people. (i did the same
with another woman, we visited her and her husband in their shop, he started
telling us that it’s too hard to find time between customers to be able to
talk, and he was so busy saying that to my companion and a member, that he didn’t
even notice that i got a full lesson in with his wife before he knew what
happened) but anyways, they are Catholics, but for tradition and have never
really heard anything else, but they just ate everything we gave to them (not
literally) and accepted baptism. you know it always kinda surprises me when
people accept so easily, but when we have the spirit it happens again and
again. but we will see what happens with them, we both think they will progress
rapidly<o:p></o:p></div>
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anyways, that’s it for this week. love you, be good.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
elder Gándola<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-79864287779243351792015-09-27T18:28:00.002-07:002015-09-27T18:28:57.531-07:00September 14, 2015 Mate<div class="MsoNormal">
September 14, 2015
Better than Drugs<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so this week we started out interestingly. Remember L
the investigator of the week a couple weeks ago. well her son turned 3 years
old on monday. we didn’t know but we passed by, and they were a bit busy so we
just kinda said hi and left. she had had to work, so they hadn’t really done
anything for him. so later elder M had the idea that we buy him a
pinguino (like a hostess cupcake) and some candles and go throw him a little
makeshift party, so we did. he was super happy. we didn’t get to teach them,
but it just goes to show you that it’s always good to do service, even when you
don’t get anything immediately in return. but hopefully this will help them
organize their priorities so that they can progress a little bit more. she has
tried reading the book of mormon with her son, but he hasn’t really listened,
but we also gave them one of those book of mormon stories books with pictures
to help them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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after that we had exchanges with the other elders in our
district. i was with elder MA, who just arrived here and has has like a year
in the mission. he is from brazil, but lives on the border of argentina, which
means he drinks, and has all the equipment for... mate! so we may have drank a
lot of mate in the exchanges, including,
dad, mate dulce. which is drunk with juice or something else sweet, we drank it
with sprite. (but if you do that dad do it in the metal cup or a normal cup
because it will ruin the other one. i forgot my camera today, but for those of
you who don’t know what mate is, you can look up pictures but i swear it’s not
drugs. but when we got back elder M asked me, "elder... why do we
have drugs sitting on our counter?" but it’s not. its better<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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you know what else is better than drugs? temples. we had the
rededication of the mexico city temple this week. saturday we watched an
awesome cultural celebration, and sunday the dedication. it was nice because i
have really been wanting to go to the temple recently, and we didn’t, but the
stake center was considered an extension of the temple, we needed a recommend
to enter, and the spirit was very very close.<o:p></o:p></div>
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elder eyering and
elder holland came, and gave some awesome talks. one thing that really struck
me is that elder holland said, "i thank all of you for your dedication to
this gospel, or in this instance, your rededication." and it’s true. we
are also temples of God. we have dedicated ourselves through covenants (well,
the majority of those reading this) but we all must find times to rededicate ourselves.
we can all look for what else we can do, and like the temples before their
rededication, what we can change. the sacrament is something that is for our
rededication every week. we learned that may times we don’t appreciate temples
until they are closed, and i would add that many times we don’t appreciate the magnitude
of this rededication that we all partake of every week. just something to think
about.<o:p></o:p></div>
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well. that’s all for now. be good, love you guys<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-8912571333110003992015-09-01T13:11:00.002-07:002015-09-01T13:11:34.069-07:00August 31, 2015 Churros are Kosher<div class="MsoNormal">
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hey guys,<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so this week was a little different, we worked normally
until wednesday, when we had a 3-zone wide health conference. basically we all
got together and they taught us the, "10 commandments of health." it
was pretty basic stuff like drink safe water and take baths and stuff like
that, but the guy was a good speaker and made it fun, and it’s always nice to
do something a little bit different. also none of the commandments said
anything directly against 1 peso churros, so i won’t complain.<o:p></o:p></div>
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guess the stake and the doctor must have been on the same
wavelength, because we had stake conference this week too, so saturday and
sunday we got to go listen to stuff that was really more directed at the
members than at us, but it was still good, especially to see how we as
missionaries can help the area progress in their specific needs right now. its
super cool to be here right now, because (the church in) mexico is really
starting to make progress and is on the verge on becoming completely self-sufficient
as a country, which means that it will be providing all of the funds necessary
to cover its own needs, and the church will be able to use the excess to help
other countries where the church is not quite as well established.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the work this week was a bit tough, didn’t find a whole
bunch of people, but we could definitely see that the lord is guiding the work.
we didn’t really plan on having anybody at church, because they were all busy
and such, but at 11:30 saturday night, we received a text from unknown number
asking us what time church started. we didn’t see it till the morning, and
explained the stake conference and all that, but still didn’t know who it was
or if they were coming. so we stuck around after the first session hoping and
waiting to see if anybody showed up, they didn’t. well we didn’t have money for
a taxi, so we started walking home, and about half an hour later we got a text
from another compañonship telling us that an investigator we hadn’t been able
to visit that week showed up with her boyfriend. so that was pretty cool.<o:p></o:p></div>
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the person of the week this week is actually not an
investigator, or at least not a current investigator. so in the health
conference we got to talk with the elders in matehuala about my old area. i don’t
know if you guys remember, but i had a convert there, A, a young man who
was baptized and wants to serve a mission. well he is currently living in
monterrey. he lives like 3 blocks from the temple. he goes there almost every
day. but he is not the person of the week. we also started teaching his dad, also
A, who is one of my favorite investigators, but who stopped progressing
for a situation he was in. we he has since managed to change that situation and
has accepted a baptismal date, I’m so happy for him.<o:p></o:p></div>
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anyways, that’s it for now, love you guys, be good.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Elder Gándola<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-56813130516377054662015-08-24T17:12:00.001-07:002015-08-24T17:12:32.150-07:00August 24, 2015<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
everyone<o:p></o:p></div>
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so this week was interesting. but I’m short on time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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i will make the theme of this letter phillipeans 2:13
"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good
pleasure."<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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so we had a zone conference this week with president, and he
showed us that us as a mission have amazing potential, but we are honestly not achieving
as much as we could be doing, he gave us some awesome council, but i realized
that it doesn’t really do much unless we apply it. so this week we worked on
applying the stuff and it worked amazingly well and were able to bless many
more people.<o:p></o:p></div>
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for example we received training on how to ask for referrals
from everybody. it really wasn’t anything new, though they did clarify some
stuff. and we received 20 referrals in this semana, when the average is like
3... in a good week. and that’s just from applying well and working hard in
basic stuff, we need to do it, God helps us with that, but even before that, we
need to want to do it, God helps us with that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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friday we went on divisions with the other elders in our
district. they are great elders, but this transfer they have been discouraged
and have hardly been contacting people. so after trying many things to help
them, i gave them a very simple assignment, pray in every prayer for the desire
to contact. this week was so much different for them, and overnight they
completely changed how they were working. why? because of anything i did? no.
because of anything they did? no. it was because they wanted to, because of
what God did.<o:p></o:p></div>
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so it is with each of us, we all have things that we should
do, but we won’t do anything effectively unless we want to, and the desire
comes from one source, God. i like to look at it from the scripture stories, we
read about amazing missionaries like alma and ammon. but they were not great
servants because their dads told them to be, it tells us that they were filled
with burning desire to share the gospel, the sinners that they were before
would not have wanted that unless they had been filled with the desire by the
spirit. i guess the message is that to magnify our callings and
responsibilities, we should do the stuff, but first, we should seek the desire
that will drive us.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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that message was kinda convoluted and I’m not gunna proofread
or anything, so I’ll end with something a little less confusing, the
investigator of the week.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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se llama R. we found her by just talking to her in the
street. she is a teacher of kindergarten and a super happy energetic person.
she has been listening to us for about a month. we haven’t really been sure how
to help her progress, but this week we visited her with a member, and turns out
she taught the members kids in school so they already know each other. the
sister invited her to come to church this sunday and... she did! (yaaay! party!
confetti! but more reverent than that!) our ward is pretty small, but all the
people are awesome, like 7 people came up and started getting to know her,
sitting with her in the class, and even walking home with her, so we think that
she felt pretty comfortable there, and we hope that it will help her to want to
receive more of the gospel.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That’s all for now, love you guys, be good<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073217285947005507.post-70978404913590017222015-08-24T17:09:00.003-07:002015-08-24T17:09:49.490-07:00August 17, 2015 Back-up Plan<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back-up Plan </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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hello all,<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
well this (the title) doesn’t really give me a lot to tell
you about. to explain that better, sometimes when we have an appointment that
seems too sure to fall through, i put, "cry" as the backup plan.
...we cried a lot this week.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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so we didn’t really have a ton of lessons this week, and we didn’t
have anybody in church, but like i told the zone leaders while reporting our
weekly progress, "we haven’t had to much success, but i honestly feel like
we are doing our part, and giving our best effort, so maybe it won’t happen right
now, but i know that the blessings will come." so don’t worry about it,
all is well over here.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
like i said, this will be short, but i want to end with
something that i almost started a while ago, but want to actually do. so the
investigator of the week is L. she is a single mother, has 2 kids, 15 and 3
years old. the 3 year old has adhd, and is very hyperactive, but they are all
great. she is a contact that elder
P did in divisions with the other elders, we visited her once with him,
and she was very interested. we passed by again like 3 weeks ago with elder
M, but then for like 3 weeks, we completely lost contact with her. we
managed to reach her by phone like a week later, but she told us, "I’m not
sure when i can, I’ll call you" for
those of you who don’t know, they will never call us. even if they have tons of
interest (that doesn’t really work in english does it?) they don’t call. but
last night we felt like we should just pass by and whadya know, she was there
and we could teach her again. her big problem right now is she can’t come to
church for work, but she is looking to see how she can make it work.<o:p></o:p></div>
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well, that’s it for now, but be good, love you guys,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
elder gandola<o:p></o:p></div>
Pamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14515541171118519011noreply@blogger.com0