Hey!! I Made It To Sacramento!!

December 30, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

HEY!! I made it to Sacramento!! Wow what a crazy day! All of the flights went great, no problems. I was hoping I would get to call you in Phoenix but I couldn't find a phone. Umm it’s been a long day so far. I finished packing everything at like 11:30 PM last night and we woke up at 1:45 AM. Hah, so not much sleep but I am doing good. We have kind of a busy schedule tonight getting all settled in and stuff. We are having a testimony meeting tonight so that will be sweet. I get my trainer in the morning, so I'm crossing my fingers for a good one! President Jardine is cool I get to go talk to him in a little bit and kind of get to know him. The other missionaries are cool. I drove with the Assistant to the president and talked to him a lot. Can't wait to tell you guys more next time I email!! Probably Monday I think.  I love you guys!!!

Thanks so much for all the love and support!!

Love,

Elder Gammell

Feliz Navidad Everyone!!!

December 24, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

It's been another great week! Can't believe I am almost out of the CCM. Its crazy how fast time has flown by? I only have like 5 days left here. I think we are all ready to leave though and get to work in the field.

This week was good. We had some great devotionals and learned so much!! Hah, everyone is getting packages of junk food from their families so we made a huge feast on the table this morning and that was great! We all did like a secret Santa for all the missionaries in our district. So we will all open and give those out tomorrow.

Hah, I have been playing a lot of cage soccer this week and it’s pretty fun. I am so bad at it but I kick the ball hard and so it’s all good. The Latinos here are so good at soccer. It’s insane!!

We are really trying to speak as much Spanish as we can in these last two weeks. I am pretty confident with teaching the lessons but the conversational words are a little bit harder to speak. I think it will just talk a while to get that stuff down.

I got to give a couple of blessings this week so that was really neat! My companion hurt his wrist playing soccer and one of the sisters here was having really bad anxiety and she wanted me to give her a blessing. I love being able to bless other peoples lives it really is a great privilege and blessing for everyone.

I heard a cool quote this week that I really liked. It says that there are three kinds of missionaries: 1.The Planters, 2.The Waterers, and 3.The Harvesters.  I really liked it because it means that baptisms don't determine your success on your mission. Sometimes we plant a seed or water it just enough for someone else to take over.

I miss everyone and love you guys too!! Thanks for all the love and support.

Have a great Christmas everyone!!!

Love, Elder Gammell

I Can't Believe It Has Already Been A Month!!!

December 18, 2014

Hola!!!

Well I can't believe it has already been a month!!!! Time is flying by!!  It's been so amazing here!!! I love how much we are all learning!

The Spanish is still coming along!! I memorized the first vision in Spanish and a bunch of scriptures too. It’s cool sometimes to speak Spanish and I don’t even realize it. Conjugating verbs into future past and present is kind of hard but I’m getting it slowly. It'll come eventually.

We had such a cool Christmas play the other night!!! The Latinos put on a play that is tradition and it was awesome!! They were dancing and singing and it was funny!! My favorite part was one dance they did where they put on old man masks and danced around with canes. I can’t really explain it but it was so funny!

I think everyone in our district is getting ready to get out in the field. Only like a week and a half left!! We are studying really hard and having allot of fun too to stay sane ha.

I have gotten to go and work out in the weight room so that helps blow off some steam, haha. It kind of builds up when you sit in a classroom all day!!

In my scripture study this week I read in Doctrine and Covenants in chapter 121 verse 7 and 8 it’s a great scripture and it helps me when I’m feeling down or frustrated.

Love you all so much!!! Thanks for all the prayers. Keep them coming haha we all need them as missionaries!!

Elder Gammell

Hah This Week Has Been Really Great!!!

December 11, 2014

Elder Gammell @ Mexico City Temple

Hola todos!!!  Google Translation: Hello Everyone!!!

este semana fue muy bien!!!!

Google Translation

This week was very good

Hah this week has been really great!!!! I am learning so much here and it is really amazing!!! umm besides Tuesday haha. I caught the bug that has been going around all the CCM and it was so bad!!!!  I woke up feeling kind of crappy but I went to class any way. Then around like 9 I hurried out of class and puked in the bathroom!! haha it was so bad! So then I went to the infirmaries and got some medicine and crackers and stuff and they told me to just go back to the casa and lay down. So I did and I slept from 9:30 am until 9 at night!! haha all the guys in the district took turns being my companion and so I was taken care of. I was going to get a blessing but I felt so much better in the morning I didn't need one.

The Spanish is coming along great! I am getting so much better at understanding and communicating. It’s incredible!! A 20-minute lesson in Spanish is like nothing now, ha. But we did have a lesson with this kid that talked really fast and kind of mumbled so we didn’t understand that much from him. So I think that gave us a little taste of what we are going to see in Sacramento.

The coolest experience I had this week was in one of our TRC lessons. TRC is where volunteers come in off the street and just learn or they can act like investigators. So we met with this girl named Janice. And she really is a member but she is acting like an investigator for us and we taught her last week and learned that her dad has cancer. For real he does and so that made the lesson mean that much more. Last week we taught her about prayer and eternal families. So the goal for this week was to teach more about the restoration. So when we went in to our lesson with Janice I said the opening prayer and somewhere in the middle I felt like we needed to teach her the plan of salvation and a little more about eternal families.

So I said in the prayer for her to learn about Gods plan for her and her family and the lesson went great!! The spirit was so strong there. She was crying and we knew what we were saying was just what she needed to hear. Its amazing how the spirit works and can guide us. I love it so much. So after the lesson Elder Nielsen said to me that when I started praying he had the thought that we should change our lesson to the plan of salvation.  Then right after he thought it, I said it in my prayer haha. Cool huh??

Anyways I’m doing great!! Time is flying by here and only less then three weeks left here!! Can’t believe it.

Love you all!!!

P.S. Elder Neilsen’s first name is Braeden.

Gracias por todos sus orraciones!! Yo sentio las

bendiciones todos los dias!!(Thanks for all the prayers!! I feel the blessings everyday!!)

My District at the Mexico City Temple

I'm So Glad It's P-day!!!

December 4, 2014

Look how small the beds are!!!

Dear Family & Friends,

Hey everyone!! I’m so glad it's P-day!!!

This week has been awesome with so many great spiritual experiences. The

Spanish is coming along so much faster then I expected. We have been teaching lessons almost every day. So it’s pretty cool to be able to teach 15 to 20 minute lessons in Spanish. I understand so much more then I can speak but that's all good.

I started running in the mornings and that has helped me so much. I was always kind of getting restless in class so it helps to burn some energy in the morning. It’s so crazy that I’m in Mexico but doesn't feel like it. The temperature down here feels so amazing.

So I forgot to say last week that me and my companion got called as District Leaders. So that has been pretty cool. He is the district leader right now and I will be next week until we leave. We each get 3 weeks so we get to lead our whole district and try to help everyone out and I love it.

The days are flying by here and I can’t believe I have been gone two weeks. It’s crazy because before I know it ill be in Sacramento.

So many cool spiritual experiences here and one that I really liked was on Sunday. We had another devotional from Jeffrey R. Holland and he was telling us that the most important convert we will get on our missions would be ourselves. And it is so true! We need to make sure we are growing our testimonies every day and always praying for the spirit to be in our lives.

I've been reading in our heritage this week. It’s been so cool to read about the early saints and Joseph smith and all them. I definitely have a new appreciation for what they did. They had so much faith and love for the gospel. It’s incredible.

Fast Sunday is coming up so I’m kind of dreading that ha-ha. No it will be good because we are fasting from Saturdays lunch until Sundays Dinner.  I think so that will be hard but worth it.

Anyway I miss and love you guys. I can feel your prayers helping me every day.

Thanks so much!!!

Love,

Elder Gammell

Here is all the other guys and me in my district 

but we have two Hermanas too. 

I’ll send a picture with all of us another time.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!! I love and miss everyone so much!!! I can’t believe it has already been a week!!! I have felt Heavenly fathers love every single day. He helps me to focus on my work and not to worry or miss you guys too much. I really wish I was home eating thanksgiving and watching football. But i wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

I love the CCM!!! It is so amazing here!!! The spirit is so strong and I love feeling it all day. The food is pretty good. Not near as good as home cooking :) it'll have to do though.

So this week has been crazy!!! My companion is Elder Nielsen. He is from

Gilbert, Arizona. He is a good companion. haha he loves to sing so I’m getting used to hearing that all the time. We definitely have our differences but we are getting better at looking past them.

OK so guess what?!? The second day we had to teach a 25-minute lesson to our investigator Erika in Spanish!!!! When they told us that I was so nervous!!! Everyone in our district was ha. We all were scrambling to get something put together and we just kind of got thrown in there. Our lesson was... horrible haha!!! My companion doesn’t know any Spanish so it was all me just looking through my book trying to find something to say. We were really down on ourselves after. We knew that we had only been here for two days but still we thought we would do way better then that. But we improved so much since then!!! We have taught her 4 times now and the last one we rocked it!!! We went in with hardly any notes and we just kind of followed the spirit and it was great. We have this little red book that is awesome that has a bunch of phrases and stuff to say so we looked in there. But other then the lesson part I was just talking to her!! It felt so great. We committed her to be baptized and it just felt great. Obviously she isn't a real investigator but we treated her like one and it helped so much. I can’t wait to get out in the field and actually teach real people who are looking for the gospel.

MTC Companions
Elder Nielsen and Elder Gammell

Our district is so cool. It’s crazy how close we have all become in just a week. We all know each other so good. We laugh so much here!! It’s crazy how much fun you can have while learning how to be a better missionary. All the people here are so nice. It’s fun to walk around and try to talk to the Latino workers and missionaries. They all laugh at our Spanish haha. That’s all good though we are trying our best. :)

We had a little tie trading party in our house the other night and that was fun. So it really is true when all the guys say "make it to Sunday" This Sunday was an amazing day!! We had so many great lessons and watched some amazing devotionals and videos. We were all kind of stressed out and Sunday really helped out a ton. But now we are all getting into a groove and its awesome to have the system down and just focus on the work here.

Gym time is so much fun here. We play sand volleyball like every day and that is so fun. I have also got to work out in the weight room and couple times so that felt really good, but I am sore though. hah

So overall it’s been an amazing first week and it is so cool here. I’m loving all of it. I wish I could tell you everything but there is so much to say in so little time ha.

To end on a spiritual note I just want to say how important prayer is. I can't believe how much I pray here!!! I haven’t prayed this much in my life!!! It is amazing how much prayer actually does help. I have felt comforted and guided every day. Prayer is our way of talking with heavenly father and his way of giving us our answers. When we go to Him with real intent He will bless us and we will feel his love.  I know that we can come closer to heavenly father through prayer. i have grown closer to him this week then i ever have been before.

I love being a missionary and serving my heavenly father because Its such a blessing and a privilege.  I love and miss you guys so much. I have felt your prayers every day. Thank you so much!

Love you all,

Elder Gammell

P.S. I do know how to capitalize and punctuate it just takes too long and I don’t have much time, haha.

I Made It!!!!!! Finally!!!

November 24, 2014

Just got in!!! That was a long day!!  I am so glad I waited for the 9 o’clock flight or I would’ve been by myself.  It feels so good to be done for the day. Ha ha I don’t want to wake up in the morning at 6 :/

It was so nice getting to call you guys throughout the day. It definitely helped me with the 12 hours of sitting around hah.  So anyways I am here safe and sound.

Thanks for the letters I needed them.  I love you guys so much!! I’m going to bed haha.  I’ll tell you more about it when I get to email you again.

Love,

Elder Gammell

Farewell Talk and Celebration November 16, 2014

Mission President Letter

Family Pictures 2014

The Call - July 7, 2014

California Sacramento Mission