February 27, 2012 - Transfer 2 Week 3

Bayron got baptized yesterday!!!!!! What a wonderful day!!!!! He even took off his cast (even though he isn't supposed to) and limped over on one foot to Hermano Olsen who baptized him.

He seemed so happy!!! Afterwards we went to a fireside called "Why I Believe" and we got to listen to recent converts speak and share their testimonies. Then we walked over to the Oakland Temple Visitor's Center and watched a movie with him. I was really happy to see the ward come out and support him!!! Also Hermano Olsen also baptized his son that day so his family was there, but they only speak English, so I got to translate the program into English. Although it still wasn't easy, believe me when I say that it was much easier than translating a General Authority into Spanish for stake conference.

Last week I also got to go to my first Zone Conference!!!! I absolutely love President Wade!!!!! All of us bicycle Elders get recognized at lunch and we get awarded with cookies. I, of course, turned to Elder Monson and told him "This should take one appointment to burn off." I learned so much that day and felt empowered with the will to go out and become a better missionary. Everyone was also excited about the new phones that we got. They are nothing to special, but a huge bonus is that the alarm that Elder Rodriguez likes to play to wake us up in the morning is no longer on the phone!

One of our new investigators is named Jose De La O. I love this man! He must be in his mid-60's at least, and although his eyesight is not the greatest he makes a great effort to read the Book of Mormon every day. And when we invited him to live the word of wisdom he admitted to us that he had a smoking problem, but he said that he would do whatever it takes to get baptized. He has gone from smoking almost a pack a day, to smoking once in the last week and a half. He has come to church the last two weeks and has started to make friends in the ward.

I cannot believe this transfer is already halfway over and soon I will hit my 3 month mark. Time is so crazy out here!!!!!

Remember:

"Obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles"

When ye do what I say, I the Lord am bound, but when ye do not what I say ye have no promise
-D&C 82:10

Godspeed,

Elder Luis Gonzalez

February 19, 2012 Transfer 2, Week 2

Never in my life have felt the need for my Savior Jesus Christ, more
than I do now.  I know He is the only one that we can turn to make us
worthy to live with our Heavenly Father.  Repentance is never easy,
but it is always worth it!
 
We contacted a referral this week that is super excited to make changes
in his life!  We told him it is necessary for him to quit drinking coffee
and smoking for him to get baptized.  But much to our pleasure he
replied with (roughly translated of course) "Well if that’s what I need
to do to get baptized, well then let’s do it!"
It makes me so happy to know that he wants to make changes in his life
to come unto Christ.
 
All the hard work that goes into finding and teaching people pays off
when people like Jose De La O (the man in the above paragraph) are
found and make drastic changes in their lives.
 
This upcoming Sunday will be Byron's baptism! He is the one that got
shot in the leg.  We are not quite sure how he is going to get
baptized with his inability to stand on his own and all, but I'm sure
we'll figure something out.
 
I finally got over the shyness of walking up to a total stranger and
asking them about Jesus Christ!  I find myself talking to people in
the weirdest places (like a mechanics office).  That doesn't mean I
don't always say the perfect words (especially in Spanish) but hey,
I've won half the battle right?
 
Sincerely,
 
Elder Luis Gonzalez
 
Joshua 1:9

February 13, 2012

What a hectic week!

The weather has decided to rain on us again!!!! At least this time its not as heavy! Having a bike with a crooked tire doesn't help much either. But at least I can get that fixed today.

I've been getting use to Elder Rodriguez. Its crazy how different missionary work is just because you have a new companion. He's only been out since July, and has just been called as the district leader, so we both are doing some adjustments. Although we are doing pretty good at reaching our weekly goals.

Its crazy to think that I have been a missionary for two months now!!!!! I find myself experiencing tons of "oh, I'm a missionary now" moments. But also I'm starting to have "I can't imagine not being a missionary" moments.

The people of Richmond continue to brighten my days with their crazy comments and ideas.

One of the hardest things about being a missionary is having this great and wonderful news and finding someone who is willing to let you share it. Then you invite them to read and pray to know if what you teach is true and then they say they will.......and then you comeback a couple days later and they haven't even read!!!! And then we ask why not and they always say "I'm too busy". How sad!!! There we are as Representatives of the Savior Himself, inviting them to be healed in Christ, and they say they are too busy. I'm sure the Lord feels the same way about me all the time:

"Elder Gonzalez if you only did this I could bless you!"
"Lord I'm too busy, there's not enough time"

I hope everyone is doing great!

Elder Luis Gonzalez

P.S. Someone let me know how Taylor Swift is doing!!! I have no idea what she's done for two months!!!!

February 6, 2012

Its been such a crazy week!!!!!!

I got to drive a car during exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I'm excited that I survived that the California traffic!!! I even went on the freeway (twice, in the dark!!!)
This whole week was a series of members and even some investigators saying bye to Elder Pettit. It seemed as if the "trunkiness" would never end!

While knocking this week we presented ourselves as Representatives of Jesus Christ to this nice lady and she replied that she also was a representative of Him. But that she was sick so she was taking a day off. But she assured us that she was "too blessed to be stressed." She then attempted to hug us, luckily I had enough time to react and get out of the way as she hugged my companion.

We took our investigator with a baptismal date to to the Visitor's Center on Saturday. Hearing him say that Joseph Smith is a prophet was such a testimony builder. I got to see the light come on in his eyes as he realized what that truly means. I was so happy to see him and church and see him make friends.

During my new missionary training we had a small testimony meeting. As I felt the Spirit I had another one of those "Oh, I'm a missionary now" moments. The Lord truly continues to give me more than I could ever give Him.

I continue to grow to love the people here in Richmond as they tell me about their crazy Latino stories.

Not much is new here in Richmond, California....

However, I find out on Saturday that my new companion will be Elder Rodriguez! We will start serving as a companionship tomorrow morning!

Elder Luis Gonzalez

January 30, 2012

The last week of my first transfer!!!!!!! It went by so fast!!!!! By next Wednesday I will have a new companion!!!!! I inherited tons of cool stuff from my "trunky" companion.

Last week we got a referral for someone named Byron. We tried contacting him but we got no answer at the door. I had to look at something on my bike so we ended up staying an extra 5 minutes outside that door. We were just about to leave when the door was opened and they asked us if we knocked. 5 minutes later we were teaching Byron!!!!! Byron makes me so happy!!!! He already accepted a baptismal date and currently is preparing himself to make that covenant relationship with God. He was in an accident and is a victim of a gun fight so he has been unable to walk since July. But his faith in the Lord did not disappear. He trusts in the Lord and has changed many of his old habits. He exemplifies humility!!!!!

Oh and he is from Nicaragua so he never pronounces the final "s" on words. (Spanish accents are fun!!!!! I always make sure to use them while singing.)

Since Elder Pettit will be gone soon and my companion will not know the area I have started leading us to appointments so I can learn where everything this. That way we don't get lost.
That also means I get to start conversations with people. Which is easy fro me because everybody knows how much I like to talk.... But it never ceases to amaze me the stories hear. Just when think I've heard it all I hear something crazier. I gave a man a card with the Oakland temple on it and he told me that he had seen that same card in a vision...I'm pretty sure he was what Californians call "medicated." Then a man told me story about how his dog (that was barking at us during our conversation) had been brought back to life by his pastor. In his own words (translated of course) he said, "it was as if electricity had struck the dog, and then he came back to life"

The rain finally cleared and we are again enjoying beautiful California weather!!!

Hope all is well back in the AZ.

Sincerely,

Elder Luis Gonzalez

January 23, 2012

I saw more rain in the last 4 days here in Richmond, than in the last 4 years in Queen Creek. The rain refuses to stop pouring on us. And it goes through cycles of hard and soft rain. Unfortunately we go stuck in one of those hard cycles on Friday when my bicycle decided to get a flat. We get home each night and have to change before we are able to do daily planning. I found out today that having a rainy P-day on bike is very comparable to having it rain for a straight week and having that week be spring break.

Besides the rain and the flat bike the other great hinderance to the Lord's work was the 49ers game. 4 out of 5 of the houses we knocked were watching the game and told us "right now is not a good time..." Even later into the night people were distracted by the game. We found out that the game had gone into overtime...

Elder Pettit and I are excited about our current investigators, they are reading the Book Of Mormon and are asking lots of questions. One of our investigators, Raquel, is from Brazil but speaks really good spanish. She seems very excited to come to church and is always happy to see us. However she lives in North Richmond and can only see us later at night. We're not too scared of North Richmond we just prefer to not tract there after dark. But the police officer that pulled us over is apparently very concerned for us. He flashed his lights at us and said "Do you guys know where you are at?" My companion and I almost laughed right there on the spot.

Elder Pettit got his "double trunk" this week. The double trunk is the letter the mission ofiice sends to you a couple weeks before you go home and it gives you an itenirary of your last days here in the mission. Thankfully, Elder Pettit is able to control his trunkiness and is able to do a good job as my trainer.

Sincerely,

Elder Luis Gonzalez

Purpose as a MIssionary:

Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them recived the restored gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, reciveing the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endring to the end.

January 17, 2012

So many crazy things happened this week! I know the 49ers won on Saturday because I heard people yelling "9ers! 9ers!" through their screen doors. And I also know they beat the Saints because this one was running out in the middle of the street yelling "49ers won!" as cars drove by. So when we rode our bikes by him he stopped us and gave us a weird high-five kinda thing and then he hugged us. Then he told us "We marched all over those Saints!"

Up in North Richmond Elder Pettit and I have a friend that we call La Santa Muerte. Its a cat that has been lying dead on the side of the street for 2 weeks now (possibly more). One day we found a guy from Brazil that had very little Spanish knowledge. He actually invited us in and let us teach right there and then. I had the hardest time trying to figure out what he was saying and I'm not even sure he understood what what we taught him. But he seemed interested. Right after talking him we talked to some one in Spanish and I was amazed out how clear that Spanish sounded!

We found tons of new investigators this week. After weeks of doing tons of knocking and street contacting we finally found some solid investigators. We were super sad that none of them came to church though. I realized this week how big our area is, we biked for a good twenty minutes (uphill) to get to a recent converts house. There is plenty of Latinos to talk in our area that's for sure. Although lots of then just like to talk to us for a half hour and then tell us that they are not interested. Then one day the Jehovah Witness missionaries actually knocked on our apartment door. We had a nice little chat and then declined the Watchtower they offered us. We are thinking about offering them an Ensign next time they come.

The weeks go by so fast. I can't believe I'm halfway through my first transfer. Elder Pettit has started to pack and he is awaiting his "double trunk". That's the letter you get form the mission with all your travel information before going home. I'll be getting a new companion soon which means we'll both be lost in Richmond together!!!!! Just kidding, I only get lost half the time now.

That's all for now!!!

Elder Luis Gonzalez