Transfer 3 Week 1- March 26, 2102

      It’s one thing to read "Missionaries are not to go swimming" in the Missionary Handbook and another to live 2 minutes from the beach and not going swimming. Because "the mission ends where the sand begins" there are some times when we are toeing the line, literally. There is a Taco Bell that has an entrance on pavement, but an exit on the beach!!!!

I am now serving in the Half Moon Bay Ward. Which is primarily an English ward, with a small group of Spanish speakers. So I am currently called to serve in both English and Spanish. Que barbarro! The people out here can, for the most part, be split into 2 groups: The wealthy people who own huge houses and say that are too busy to talk about God and the lower class people who work on ranches and green houses and things like that who say they are catholic, with the qualifier of "aunque no siempre vamos cada ocho dias."

Needless to say, this week passed by quite differently. I think being in car and being the senior companion made the biggest difference. We cover the cities of El Granada, Moss Beach, Half Moon Bay, Pacifica, and a couple others that are super far, like La Honda, and thus rarely visit. Having an area that is so much more spread out makes planning so much more important, especially since every moment can be used to find more people that are ready to receive the Gospel. I taught about half as many lessons this week as I usually taught in Richmond.

But despite all these hardships, the week ended on an awesome note. We taught the boyfriend of a young woman in the ward last night. And at the end of the lesson we invited him to be baptized and he gladly accepted. He told us that he had already read parts of the Book of Mormon and that we would love to continue to read from it. He already has an awesome testimony from going to things such as youth conference and even church!

Never forget how blessed we are to have the priesthood authority in this the Restored Church of Jesus Christ. One of the things people most noticed about Jesus' teaching is that "he taught as one having authority." There is a power that resonates when an authorized representative of Jesus Christ speaks truth. That power allows the Holy Ghost to teach truths that one personally needs. Strive to listen to those teachings as we prepare to listen to the Brethren this upcoming weekend.

Sincerely,

Elder Luis Gonzalez

March 19, 2012 Transfer 2, Week 6

Where to start....
If you lack an understanding of missionary organization, this might be a bit confusing but here it goes...

One of my Zone Leaders got to be called an Assistant to the President.  And if one gets called to be an assistant they have to transfer areas a couple days early.  The reason this matters is because the Zone Leaders are in my district and I am companion to the District leader.  So because one of the Zone Leaders had to leave a couple days early that means the other Zone Leader joined our companionship.  So I got to be in my first Trio out in the field.  Hope you managed to understand all that missionary talk.  But it only gets better, the Zone Leader that stayed in the area is also Mexican.  So that means Elder Reyes, Elder Rodriguez, and Elder Gonzalez are The Mexican Trio!!!!  We thought it was pretty cool!  We even took pictures and we are looking for a Mexican flag to join us in our pictures.  The downside to all this is that we had to split our time between two areas.  We weren't able to teach as many lessons s we would have liked or find many new investigators.  But the small little fact that we got a car for the last couple of days almost made up for it.  The car would not have mattered much, but last week it rained almost nonstop from Tuesday morning to Saturday morning.  The Lord truly heard my prayers to help keep me dry.

Saturday night was transfer calls!!!!!! (You have to love the Missionary Lingo)  I was about 1000000000000000000000% sure that I was staying in Richmond. Usually one stays in an area for about 6 months (or 4 transfers).  I have only been here in Richmond for 3 months.  So when we got the transfer call and the first thing we heard was "Elder Rodriguez, your new companion will..." To be honest my ears didn't hear much after that.  Then when my head stopped spinning I found out that I will be going to......(Drum roll please)........HALF MOON BAY!!!! (Look it up, i hear its a pretty nice area). My new companion will be Elder Brogyay from Argentina (YES! Another Latino, well if you can call Argentines Latinos...).  He has been out of the MTC for 6 weeks.  We will be in car and I will be the driver (SCARY!).  And I will be the senior companion (SCARY! x 2).  Long story short, nothing on a mission is 1000000000000000000000% sure.

I will be in Half Moon Bay by tomorrow night!!!! Its crazy how fast things can change.

"Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast..." Hebrews 6:19
Hope is an attribute of Jesus Christ.  He had had so much hope in the Father and His promises that while on the cross Christ cried "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me." Jesus, who had been completely obedient, had a hope that His Father would never leave Him (And as Elder Holland teaches "The Father was never closer") because He was sinless.  But we know that The Father had to withdraw His Spirit so that it could be an "infinite and eternal" atonement.  Christ's hope was so perfect that he did not anticipate for the withdrawal of the Spirit.  I know Christ's hope did not falter, for he said "Father it is finished."  When in life you do not understand, and think you can no longer bare it, know that there is always hope. Hope is the necessary anchor.

Elder Gonzalez

March 12, 2012 Transfer 2, Week 5

Whoever invented Daylight savings time was obviously not a missionary... I kept yawning all of Sunday because of that hour of sleep I did not get to enjoy. I fail to comprehend the whole idea of Daylight Savings, but maybe that is so because I grew up in Arizona.

Elder L. Tom Perry highlighted my week! It just boggles my mind how there was an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ coming to visit and only a few people even were aware. I just feel like that should be headline news! He spoke with an amazing power. When he testified of the Book of Mormon and of the Prophet Joseph Smith and of The Restored Church of Jesus Christ, there came forth an unexplainable power and he talked with such an excitement that no one could deny that he truly knows those things as fact. Sadly, we did not get to shake his hand or ask him questions because he needed to attend to other things. Although he did say "Hi" to Elder Monson as he walked out. (Elder Monson and I started our missions at the same time, and I've talked to him a couple of times. He is serving in the English program and rumor has it that the Prophet is his great grandfather.)

We found tons of good investigators this week and were excited to see them all at church. But then Sunday came, and none of them were to be found. Also the baptism we were going to take our investigators to, got canceled and so we had a rough night of setting up last minute lessons to teach. We haven't been able to contact our investigator that stopped smoking!!!! We have no idea what has happened, and every time we go by his family has no idea where he is at. At top it all off, one of investigators with a baptismal date told us that he no longer felt ready to be baptized and that he didn't want to come to church. It broke my heart in half to hear him say those words.

As for the Spanish department, I can finally say "misericordia" without skipping a beat. Just ask my mom, that use to be a tough one for me. I can have a conversation about just about any church topic at this point... Espero el dia enque mi espanol este bien!

Yo se que vive Jesucristo. Si vinimos a El, con un espirtitu contrito y un corazon quebrantad, El nos va dar todo que neccisitamos, y mucho mucho mas.

I know that Jesus Christ lives. If we come unto Him with a contrite spirit and a broken heart, he will give us everything that we need, and much much more.
Moroni, in his final word of testimony exhorts to ponder the and pray about the Book of Mormon, he exhorts us to remember the power and gifts of God, and he exhorts us to come unto Christ and enter into a covenant relationship with Him. This is the only way, Moroni counsels, in which we can be "perfected in him."

Elder Luis Gonzalez

Pictures!

 in the MTC

 my district in our classrom in the MTC

 Nieves baptism- my first weekend in the mission field

 the Oakland Temple at Christmas with Nieves and her family

 Oakland Temple

 

 

 at the Oakland Temple Visitor's Center with Bayron

 Bayron's baptism

March 5, 2012- Transfer 2 Week 4

·         This morning at around 5:30 am there was a huge rumbling...turned out to be an earthquake. That is my first one!!! According to President Wade (and I trust pretty much everything that man says) there is a fault line that runs adjacent to the Temple and Mission home. It wasn't anything major but enough to wake me up...
The more time spend out here the more I realize the Latinos are right when they say "cada cabeza es un mundo" (translate at your own risk). We talked to a guy that kept telling us about how he worships the moon, pretty interesting stuff, although I am quite sure most of that "interesting" came from alcohol...
This last Sunday we were able to get tons of investigators to come to church! It made me made so happy to see them where they needed to be! For next Sunday we hope to have the Azua family at church. They have friends who are in the ward. They are going thru a hard time right now and seem very accepting of the Gospel. They said it was very "logical." Sadly, the mom was unable to read The Book of Mormon because she lost her glasses... but she says she loves to read, so we are hoping that problem will be solved soon.
Also at Church, a less active who hasn't come to church for 20 years came. We have a lesson with him and his family tonight! It was such happy sight to see him with his family at church.
Yesterday someone said something to the effect of "Good luck out there, it’s gonna be a hot one, it’s supposed to be like 70 degrees" I almost laughed right there on the spot. But the weather continues to be a mystery, I'm never quite sure if I'll need my coat, or to wear my short-sleeve shirt...
I'm happy to say that I have seen a definite improvement in my Spanish!!! And I have almost stopped talking in the "tu" form and can without much thought talk in the "udsted” form.
Everyone seems to be excited (and I guess I am too) for this Wednesday. Elder L. Tom Perry will be coming to speak to our whole mission, as well as the Santa Rosa Mission!!! We MIGHT get to shake his hand!!! I guess I'll get to find out if he really is 6'3''!!!!
        

·         Espero que todos estan bien!

Elder Luis Gonzalez