Merry Christmas Everyone!

December 24, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

Sorry this will be kind of a short letter. This past week has been awesome though! It's such a great time of year to be a missionary.

Last week we had a temple conference and it was so good! Such a neat experience to be part of a temple session full of missionaries. The Spirit was there very strong. I didn't want to leave haha. But it was ok because after we joined up with some other zones in the chapel and had a music conference where tons of missionaries went up and sang musical numbers. That was really cool too. Overall the whole day was so incredible.

We saw some huge progress in our Ward this past week. Things are starting to come together and the feeling in the Ward is getting a lot better. It's cool to see all the work paying off. So hopefully we can get some new members added here pretty soon to keep the ball rolling. We have a guy that we were teaching a few weeks ago named Josue. We gave him over to the YSA Ward but he is getting baptized next week so that is pretty cool. We are excited for him.

Elder Hoskin got strep throat this week so we are doing our best to stay clear of it haha. That's the last thing we need. So the work has been pretty slow this week with all that's going on.

We are doing a really cool service project for a bunch of families that have been living in their cars because they recently got kicked out of their apartment complex because it got shut down. So we worked with one of the wards up here and a bunch of the members pitched in to buy the kids presents. Each kid wrote their wish lists and the members took care of them. So we wrapped all the presents for the kids and tomorrow we get to give them to the kids and see them open them up. That will be really cool.

I just wanted a share a little poem that I found earlier this week that I really liked.

Christmas is not a day or a season, but a condition of heart and mind.

If we love our neighbors as ourselves; 
if in our riches we are poor in spirit and in our poverty we are rich in grace;

if our charity vaunteth not itself, but suffereth long and is kind;

if when our brother asks for a loaf, we give ourselves instead;

if each day dawns in opportunity and sets in achievement, however small--

then every day is Christ’s day and Christmas is always near.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! Love you all! Thanks for the love and support!

-Elder Gammell

Funny video when Skyping with family on Christmas Day.

We Had Some Great Success This Week In Finding More Investigators!

Zone picture at District meeting

December 14, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

We had some great success this week! The Lord provided more investigators for us to visit this week after losing a few last week.

On Tuesday we went into the new part of our area to go visit some potentials. The person we were trying to go visit wasn't home so we just started knocking doors. It didn't take too long until we knocked on a door and met Arileni and her daughter. They were super nice and said they hadn't talked to the missionaries before but would like us to come back. She was busy during the last appointment we set, so we are heading back this Tuesday to teach the whole family. After we met them we knocked the door next to them and met a little family from Afghanistan. None of them could speak like any English except for the dad. We talked to him for a while and taught about the Book of Mormon. He showed a lot of interest so we asked if we could bring one by for his family and he said yes. So we went and got a Persian Book of Mormon from the mission office and took it to them. Second time I've given away a Persian BOM. They were very grateful for it. We challenged them to read and to pray if it was true. Hopefully they do it. We can't really teach them because of the language barrier. Plus we are Spanish missionaries but we gave them our number and told them to call if they want the English Elders to come back and visit.

Thursday was a great day! Plus it was Elder Brock's birthday. We went out and did some contacting in the park for a little while. We ended up finding a lady named Gabby and her 5 kids. She had been to church about 10 years ago in our ward. She remembered how much she liked it and said that she hasn't gone to church since she got so busy with all of her kids. She lives in North Sac but we gave her the address to the church over there. She said

Fruit cups from our new investigator Lorenzo

she would go so maybe one day when I go back and visit the Rio Tierra Ward she will be there. That would be sweet. After that we ended up running into a guy named Lorenzo that sells fruit on the corner of the street. We bought some fruit cups from him and shared the Christmas video. He liked it a lot. We added him as an investigator and he gave us a discount on the fruit so that's a bonus. :) 

Ice Cream at Leatherby's

Playing some Monopoly Deal

Later that night we went and celebrated Elder Brock's birthday at Leatherby's. It was so good! Plus our waitress was a member and she bought our ice cream. After ice cream we went home and planned out our next day. Then we finished off the night playing some Monopoly Deal. If you haven't played it, you should. It's a lot of fun. It gets pretty heated sometimes so be careful haha.

Last night we were able to go to the Live Nativity at the Sacramento Temple! It was really cool. We took Juana and Isidro and their 3 little girls. We stood out in the cold and rain for over an hour but it was worth it. They said there was around 3,000 people there last night. So it was a good turn out. The spirit was very strong there. It's so cool that so many people were able to go and remember to true meaning of Christmas. During the show they played a part of a talk by Thomas S. Monson that was really good. I can't remember it very well but

Nativity at the Temple with Juana, Isidro, Jaqeline, Juanita, and Chalita.

kind of what I got out of it was how we need to put away the things of the world and really focus on our families during this time of year. It's a time of gratitude and giving. Also a time of reflection of how we can grow closer to our Heavenly Father and receive strength through Christ's example and atonement. He also said that we should be doing these things more then just in the month of December. The spirit of Christ can and should be with us all year. And it's something we need to share. I really loved that and I know that it's true. And it's something all of us can strive to do better.

We have a temple Christmas conference this Thursday with President and Sister Jardine. It will be my first one so I am pretty excited. I've heard it is always really good. It's going to be a great week. I won't be emailing next Monday because we don't have Pday until Christmas.

Love you all!

~Elder Gammell

A Lot Happened This Past Week.

Ugly wool ties at District Meeting.

December 7, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

A lot happened this past week. We basically cleaned out a pretty big chunk of our teaching pool this week because people were either not keeping commitments or they moved away. Dropping someone is a hard thing to do to. We want them to understand and live the Gospel because we know how much it will bless their lives. But sometimes they just aren't ready for it and we understand that. It's all good though because we knew those gaps in our teaching pool would fill up soon. It's always a cool thing to see when we lose someone promising the Lord always provides someone new that needs us at that time. And even if we don't baptize them we still leave a lasting impression on them that they will always remember. We talk to so many people who tell us that they were at their absolute low when we found them and the message we shared with them helped get them through that time in their life. That's the cool thing about missionary work. We have the opportunity to share a little bit of that light to help them get through a world that is so dark. 

Dropping off all of the Elders
after the Christmas Devotional.

I really liked David A. Bednar's talk last night in the Christmas devotional. He talked about some symbolism of light in the story of Samuel the Lamanite preaching to the Nephites. Those people had been taught about Jesus Christ and they were told he would come. Even though many people forgot or didn't believe the things Samuel said, many people still remembered. And they held on to that when there were days of darkness. And that's when Jesus came and blessed them for their faith. He taught them and showed them the way to return to Him and our Heavenly Father again. So I guess that's what I got out of this past week. That even if we don't see the fruits of our labors, we can still hope that somewhere down the road it will bless them. I know for many people we have met out here it will.

We had a great experience last night. So we were going to go visit a less active member. We pulled up to his house and there were three guys sitting in the garage having them a couple beers. Normally when we see this it's probably a better idea to come back another day because it's never too effective talking to people when they are drunk. But for some reason I just felt like we should go talk to them. So we weaved our way through the mess of cars in the driveway and started talking to them. They were friends of the less active member we were there to visit. So anyway, we started talking to them and they were pretty friendly to us and they hadn't been drinking for very long so we were actually able to talk for a while. We talked about football and soccer and all kinds of stuff. Then we asked if we could show them the new Christmas video. They were up for it so we pulled out the iPad and showed them it. It was cool to watch their faces as the video went on. At the end they all said they loved it. We testified of the truth of the video and how they can come to know the Savior more by coming to church with us. They gave us their addresses and said we could come by this week and that they would try to come to church next Sunday. Too bad two of the guys didn't live in our area so we sent them off as referrals to the Sisters in our Ward. One of them did live in our area so we are excited to go back this week. Pretty cool to see the blessings we receive when we just open our mouths. And also the power of the  story of Jesus Christ's birth.

We are taking a few of our investigators this weekend to the temple to watch a live nativity. I heard they go all out on it so I'm excited for that. It's always a great experience when an investigator makes it up to the temple and feels the spirit. So we are hoping that we can invite more people this week to come as well.

Have a great week everyone! Love you all so much!

-Elder Gammell

Transfers Again This Week

Saying bye to the Hermana Webb and Thompson at transfers.

December 1, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

Transfers again this week. I will be staying here in East Sac for another 6 weeks with Elder Hoskin and Brock. I'm glad we are sticking together for another transfer. We have a lot of work to do. We did get our area combined this transfer so we are covering like double the area now. That's going to keep us even more busy which is good. I know there are a ton of good apartment complexes in that area so we are excited to get over there working this week and the coming transfer.

We had a pretty good week. Not too much new happened. I ended up getting sick on Tuesday along with my companion Elder Hoskin. So that was a long day haha. Probably longer for Elder Brock because he had to just sit around most of the day. There's been a flu bug going around to EVERYONE out here so I guess I'm glad I caught it and got it over with. Cross our fingers that's the end of it.

Can't beat ham, potatoes, 

and corn. With a little egg nog.

Thanksgiving was interesting. It wasn't a Pday for us but they told us to just go around and visit members all day and share a message with them. So we did that and it was cool because we were able to find quite a few people home that we hadn't before. We had a Thanksgiving dinner scheduled for 5 o'clock. It was with a single lady in our Ward so we had to find someone to come with us because we can't go into a home if there is only a women there. Which gets kind of tricky sometimes especially on Thanksgiving. We ended up finding a member that was able to go. We showed up at five and waited for like 30 minutes and then he texted us that he couldn't make it so that was frustrating. So we shared our lesson really quick on the front porch and she just packed up some food for us to take home to eat. Then we went and picked up some tamales that another member in our Ward made for us.

Thanksgiving dinner at 9:30

By that time we had to hurry home and change into our suits because we had a Zone Training at 7. At the training everyone was talking about how they had eaten like 3 or 4 dinners and they were so full. I was pretty jealous ha. Anyways, finally after the training we got to go home and eat at 9:30. We hounded down all the food our member gave us. We have been joking around with people saying that we fasted on Thanksgiving haha. It's all good though. It still was a great day and I was thankful for the food that we did get and the success we saw in our work that day.

Seemed like almost nobody was home towards the end of the week which was kind of frustrating. That's how it goes sometimes though. We did have one of our investigators Josue come to church on Sunday again. He is progressing really well. Hopefully he can recognize the need to be baptized again here in the next week or so and we will have a December baptism.

There is a new initiative from the church called "A Savior is Born". They have a website and a new video which is awesome. We have been sharing it with everyone we meet and it's been cool to see what has happened because of it. Excited to keep using it to bring people closer to Christ and help them recognize why Jesus Christ came to the earth specifically for them. Quick invitation for everyone back at home to share the video and their testimonies with their friends and families. It's easy to do and can leave a huge impact on others.

Love,

Elder Gammell

We Had Some Great Success This Week!

November 23, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

Elder Brock and I switched suit coats

Hey everyone. We had some great success this week! We were able to add a couple of really solid investigators. We also had an awesome new missionary meeting on Thursday with our mission president.

One of our new investigators in named Josue. He has been talking to the English missionaries for a couple weeks but they talked to him and he wants to be in a Spanish Ward. He came to church on Sunday and we got to meet him. He's a really cool guy. He works night shifts 7 days a week and he still made it to 9 o'clock church! Hah he was pretty tired but hey we were just happy he was there. We talked to him for a while and we have a pretty good relationship with him now. He invited us to come back later this week so we are really excited to get this going.

Getting colder her is Sac.

Another cool experience from this past week. About 3 or 4 weeks ago we were walking past this apartment complex and we saw this girl out back. We walked up to her and saw that she just looked sad. We walked up to her and asked if she was alright. She told us she was not in the mood to talk and basically just walked away. So we didn't really think anything of it. Well on Friday we were walking past the same apartment and she was out front this time talking to another girl. We didn't recognize her but as we walked up and started talking to her she reminded us that we talked the other day. Things were different this time though. She was happy to talk to us and her sister as well. She said she has has been going through a lot and the other day was just a bad one for her. We talked to them for about 45 minutes haha. We taught them the Restoration and they both accepted Copies of the Book of Mormon from us. She recognized it wasn't just a coincidence that we ran into her again. They are staying with a family that doesn't like missionaries I guess so we couldn't send the English Elders over to visit. But she told us anytime we see them outside to come over and teach them. Also when they move out and get their own apartment they said the other Eders can come by. Pretty cool little miracle. Just goes to show that we shouldn't give up on anyone. You never know when someone is just having a bad day. All we need to do is try and try again and the Lord prepares a way for something amazing to happen.

Only one week left in this transfer. Crazy that it's almost over. Pretty sure things will stay the same because we are in training. Never know though. Loving the area and my companions. They are great missionaries. Lucky to have them with me.

Found something really cool this week. I was studying in the Doctrine and covenants 18 and read in verses 15-16....

15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

Our Ward dinner for la día de acción de gracias.

I was using a study guide for Doctrine and Covenants and it used a cool connection for this. It talked about how the souls we need to give our all for and labor with all our might to save is our families. If we all keep that goal in mind and nothing else, then our joy will be so amazing when we can rest in heaven with our families. I really like the connection he made. And it's so true. Satan is attacking the family and if he can make his way in then he can cause so much pain and sadness. Something we are challenging our investigators and members to do is pray as a family and ask God what they can change in their lives to be more protected and fortify their homes against the world. It's something we can all do individually as well. God will always show us what we can do more right.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Gammell

Elder James J. Hamula of the Seventy Toured Our Mission This Week

November 17, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

We had an awesome opportunity to have Elder James J. Hamula of the Seventy come and tour our mission this week. We had a great zone conference yesterday with him. It was 7 hours long!! Packed full of good stuff too! The main focus of the training was how we can keep the California Sacramento Mission "On Fire". I think it was just what all the missionaries needed. We have been working really hard and the finding has been kind of slow. He gave us great council on how to keep ourselves anxiously engaged in the work even when it's tough. The cool thing about the training was that it not only applied to us as missionaries, but every single one of God's children. I know we all go through times where we are on fire and also times when we are burnt out. When we just don't feel like our efforts are enough or it seems like the whole world is trying to drag us down, that's when we need to focus on our savior. We need to look to Him and nothing else. That's what will get us through those times. A story that I have grown to love on my mission is in Matthew 14:27-31. It's about when Jesus is walking on the water and Peter asks if he can walk out to him. Peter had great faith in taking those first couple steps but as soon as he took his eyes off of Jesus he began to sink. Then he quickly looked back and asked for help. That's when the savior caught him and brought him back to safety. All it took was looking to the Savior with faith. I loved the conference. It was a good boost and I can't wait to take it out into our work this coming week.

Last week we worked really hard to find some new people to teach. We found this guy named David. He has never talked to missionaries before! Which is crazy! Almost everyone here has talked to or has some connection to missionaries but he doesn't. He just moved here a couple years ago from Guatemala. He has a true desire to learn and come to church. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he is excited to read and study in it. We have a great feeling about him and we hope he progresses well as we continue to meet with him. We found several others that said we could come back so I will let you know if anything happens with any of them.

We have building our relationships with the members in the Ward and it's been so cool to see the progress. We have a few families that absolutely love us coming over. We are trying our best to help the members progress and start doing their own missionary work. That will change so many things here in our area if they do that.

My companions are doing great. It's so cool to see how much we have all learned together. Crazy that we are getting close to halfway done with the training. Time is cruising by. Enjoying every second of it though. :) we have a meeting this Thursday in Rancho Cordova for all the trainers and trainees. I'm excited for it! It's always good to receive some extra guidance and council.

I started studying more in the Doctrine and Covenants this past week. How have I gone my whole life without reading it all the way through?! I am learning so much! I'm excited to keep going with it.

Sorry don't have time to write too much today. Thanks for the prayers and support.

Love you all,

Elder Gammell

Jill Got Baptized This Weekend!

Jill's Baptism!  With Elder Ross, Jill, Elder Puckett and Elder Silva

November 9, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

Jill got baptized this weekend! It was awesome to see her take this step in her life. We found her just like 5-6 weeks ago and now she is a member. Haha she was prepared that's for sure! You never know when you're walking through a parking lot and stop to talk to someone what it can lead to. Her life is changed forever. You can see the difference in her already. After the baptism she bore her testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She knows it true. It's cool too because she LOVES family history! She is going to have so many names to take to the temple! I think she said she traced her line back to 500 AD so there's some great work for her to do. It was cool to go back and see some of the members from Carmichael. That was a great Ward.

Finally starting to rain in Sacramento

Elder Hoskin, Elder Brock and I worked really hard this week. Spanish is coming along well. Learning more every day. We found this awesome street in our area! We went there trying to visit a potential investigator and we ended up finding so many people there! The potential investigator wasn't home so we started tracting. We found this cool guy named Robert. Actually he found us haha. We were talking to this guy and Robert rolled up wearing a pair of roller skates haha. It was kind of funny. So anyways we started talking to him and he opened up to us. He lived with a Mormon family for a while when he was going through some hard times in his life. He had some great questions for us. We taught him about the restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. We testified of the truth of the Book of Mormon. He told us that he could feel that we truly do know that it's true. He was excited very excited to start reading it. We passed him off the to English sisters so we can't wait to hear back from them how he is doing. Then the next day we went back to this street and found two more referrals to send off to the sisters and we found three Spanish people that said we could come back and teach them! We are going back to knock the rest of the street and see what happens.

I finished the Book of Mormon this week! I learned so much this time reading it. I took a little longer and I really tried to understand and take in everything. It was so cool to see how my knowledge of the Book of Mormon and my testimony grew so much! I learned and felt things that I hadn't before. I know without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true. The words in that book are not from any man on this earth. They are straight from our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. They love us so much that they allowed the prophets to write those things down for us so we could enjoy the guidance and direction that we need to one day return with our families to live with them again.

Love you all!

Elder Gammell

Lots Of Great Things Happened This Week Right Here In East Sac.

After a long day of biking with Elder Hoskin and Elder Brock

November 2, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

New Apartment

Lots of great things happened this week right here in East Sac. The week started off really slow because we moved into a brand new apartment. It is so nice!! Haha luxury compared to the other apartments I've been in the rest of my mission. It's so much better living here with just the three of us instead of 5 elders crammed into one apartment.

We were able to settle in and get to work this week. Rode our bikes a ton so that is always fun. I love just being out on the streets talking to people. It's something That has really grown on me during my mission. At the beginning of my mission it really wasn't my favorite because it's kind of awkward. But now I feel comfortable just walking up and talking to everyone and that makes it so much more enjoyable. It's cool to see how people open up to us and really just trust us with everything they have been going through. It's eye opening to hear some of the things people are going through. For example we tracted into a man the other day. He definitely looked like he had been through the ringer. He was covered in tattoos and he just looked like life was beating him down. As we talked with him he told us all about how he has been trying to fight his way out of the rough situation he has been in all his life. He told us about how he was abused when he was little and about how his fiancé got shot just a few months earlier and they lost their baby that was on the way because of it. It was so sad to hear. We testified of God's love for him and shared some scriptures with him from the Book of Mormon. He said he felt peace with us and he really wants to talk to us again. Too bad we will have to pass him off to the English elders but it's all good. Living the gospel will change his life forever.

We found a lot of new investigators this week! We found this guy named Edgar. He was standing on the street corner. We stopped and talked to him for just a second. The first thing he told us was that he had met with missionaries before and he really wanted to be baptized haha. We were like hey we can help you with that. He gave us his address and he hurried and walked away. The next day we tried to visit him but it turns out the

address was wrong. We were so disappointed. But tonight we were walking around and we switched the numbers that he gave us up and ended up finding an apartment complex and we found where he lives! He wasn't home tonight but we are going by tomorrow night to see him. Hopefully things go well.

We also found a couple named Fred and Evalin. Evalin speaks Spanish and she has already read the Book of Mormon and she loves it! I have no idea how she isn't a member already. But we are working with them. They are thinking about moving soon so hopefully we can leave an impact on them and hope they stick around for a while.

Monster Macs for lunch!

Elder Hoskin, Elder Brock, and I are getting along really well. It's fun being in a trio. We are really trying to strengthen the Ward we are in. It's kind of been slow for a while so we are doing all we can to leave it better then we found it. Haha we are all working hard to learn Spanish. This is the first time I haven't had companions that are fluent so it's

different being the one that has to understand everything and do most of the talking. It's stressful at times but it's good for me. It's cool teaching people in Spanish because even though we don't speak the language perfectly we can still share what we know and the spirit can tell them it's true. That's the most important part. Most people don't even remember specifically all that we teach but they do remember how they feel.

I get to go back to Carmichael this week for Jill's baptism. She is so excited! I ran into her today at the family history center and she told me all about how she can't wait and she feels so ready for it. She really was a miracle find. It will be so cool to see her baptized.

I studied a lot this week about the character of Christ and his attributes. It's cool to learn more and more about who he actually was and all of the things he did in his life. My testimony has grown doing this. I think most people know who Jesus Christ is or at least they think they do. But when you go deeper into his life you can see the selflessness and the true love he had for everyone around him. It's something that I am really trying to focus on this week. I want to continue to develop that attribute more in myself.

Tomorrow I only have a year left of my mission which is crazy! A lot has happened in this first year and can't wait to see what the next one brings.

Love you guys!

-Elder Gammell

I Am A Trainer With Two Missionaries!

Cowtown Buffet with Elder Brock and Elder Hoskin

October 26, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

Hey everyone! Can't believe it's already Pday again! Haha they just come and go so fast. So many great things happened this past week. I went and picked up my boys Elder Hoskin and Elder Brock on Wednesday. That was awesome! I definitely was blessed with two great companions. Here's a little bit about both of them. Elder Hoskin is from Boise, ID. He did band in high school and played the clarinet. He wants to go into the medical field studying the brain. So he is a smart kid. He is definitely fired up about the work. He is always ready to go and work. Elder Brock is from Saratoga Springs, UT. He did band as well. I'm not really sure about all the terms and stuff but from what they have talked about it sounds like he was pretty good. He played the trumpet and did drum-core. He took like 3 years of German so he is trying to transfer over to Spanish haha. He wants to be an aerospace engineer when he goes home. He has that excitement to go out and talk to people as well.

It's awesome being a trainer. I feel like I am being trained because I have learned so much this week. It feels good to go back to the basics and focus on them. We have done so much practicing together to help them feel more comfortable with contacting and teaching. We have also gone out and put it to use in the streets haha. The first night we were here we went out and walked around talking to people. We ended up finding several people that spoke Spanish that said we could come back and teach them. We also ran into one of the members of our Ward and he invited us in to eat some quesadillas and chicken haha. So they had an awesome first experience going out and working. Then on Thursday we took the bikes out. :) That was a blast! Haha we talked to some crazy people!! Also to some really cool people. My companions loved it so we are going to be biking around a lot this transfer.

Morning Glory with the Zone

So we are "shotgunning" the area so we didn't know anyone here at all. Plus we didn't have an area book until this weekend. So it was kind of tough for a couple days. We basically just tracted and talked to people. Once we got the area book we were able to see who the sisters were reaching here last transfer as well as the addresses for all of the members in our Ward. That saved our lives haha.

My Spanish is starting to come back little by little. Ha, doing my best to teach my companions how to speak it as well as learn it myself. It was funny yesterday in church we all got called up to bear our testimonies and talk for a couple minutes. Elder Hoskin and Brock were pretty nervous. They did a great job though. We have such a small ward! I think there was maybe 50 or 60 people there on Sunday. Hopefully we can add a few to the ward these next few transfers.

We met a couple named Juana and Isidro. They have been talking to the missionaries for like the past 8 months. They invited us over for lunch and we were able to share a message with them. We established a good relationship with them so hopefully we will get to see them baptized here pretty soon!

So anyway things are good here in East Sac. We are learning lot and working hard. Hoping to see some miracles here in the coming week.

Love you all!

-Elder Gammell

Well We Had Transfers This Week!

Zone Breakfast at Annie's Diner

October 20, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

Hey everyone! Well we had transfers this week. I had to say goodbye to Carmichael and all the great people I met there. I had such a great experience and I feel like I learned so much from my time there. It's always hard leaving an area that you love. Elder Ross was a great comp. We had a blast and we became great friends. Wish I could've served one more transfer with him but it's all good. One thing I have learned on my mission is that there is no growth in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the growth zone. So it will be good to have a change. This next transfer will definitely get me out of my comfort zone haha. I'm in East Sac now. I am back in Spanish work again! I have also been called to train two new missionaries. We will be shotgunning the area because none of us have served here before. So basically means we are starting everything over. It feels like a lot right now. Kind of overwhelming but I know who I am working for. Haha so I am excited to see what these next two transfers have in store. I don't have my new companions yet because they are flying in today. We will go to the mission office tomorrow morning to pick them up. It's going to be awesome.

Saying bye at the transfer meeting.

Last week was such a great week! Our investigator we found about a week and a half ago named Jill came to church on Sunday again. There couldn't have been a better Sunday to come to church. Our Stake President spoke on how to know God loves and cares for us. It was seriously one of the best talks I have heard in a sacrament meeting. Jill was listening so closely to what he was saying. Now here's the cool part. She pulled her father's wedding band out and was spinning it on her finger. She said as she was listening and looking at the ring she felt the strongest feeling come over her that everything she was hearing was true. It gave her goosebumps and she said she felt a relieving sense of peace and love. She said she has never felt the spirit that strong before. After the meeting we had to rush to go give the gospel principles lesson. We left her with our Bishop to talk for a little bit. After we came out of our lesson with her our Ward mission leader came up to us and told us some great news. He said that Jill told the bishop that she really wants to be baptized! Our jaws hit the floor haha! Elder Ross and I were so pumped. She had to leave church early so we didn't get to talk to her until later that night. When we saw her later the first thing she said was, "well did he tell you guys?" Haha. We talked to her and she told us about how she had talked to missionaries before and they shared their message and prayed for her in the streets but she never felt anything. But she said there was something very different about when we found her. She said after we left that day she couldn't stop thinking about what we told her. Then everything in her life started turning around. She was at her lowest and didn't know where to go. I think that's what prepared her to receive such a strong answer from our Heavenly Father at this time. She thanked us and told us how excited she was. Then we gave her a baptismal date for November 7th and she gladly accepted it! So that will be coming up soon! What a great way to end my time in Carmichael. Plus

right after that we went to a member's house and did a tri-tip eating challenge. Haha we beat it ;)

Last comp picture with Elder Ross.

I’m very excited for this upcoming transfer. It is going to stretch me quite a bit but I know it will help me grow. The scripture I pondered last week really helped me out. It's in D&C 101:16. It says, "Therefore, let your hearts be comforted concerning Zion; for all flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God." I really like this scripture. It always gives me peace in knowing that God has a plan and if we trust in it everything will be ok. I think sometimes we make things harder on ourselves because we try to do everything on our own. He wants to help us. We just have to let him.

Thanks for all the love and support from back home.

Love you all!

~Elder Gammell

We Were Pretty Busy Earlier This Week...

Zaira Got Baptized

October 12, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

We were pretty busy earlier this week moving some of the other Elders in the Zone into a new apartment. We helped them move all the furniture over and cleaned the apartment out. You would be surprised how many things get left behind by missionaries. Haha years of stuff. We sifted through it and saved the good things and threw away the garbage. We ended up scoring a bench press and a bunch of weights. We were happy about that. Now we can work out with more than just one 50 lb. dumbbell!

Tuesday and Thursday we went on some exchanges. I went on an exchange with one of the office elders. One thing I learned from our exchange is that I would not like to be an office elder haha. They have to deal with so many little problems. Fixing the printer, iPads, phones, everything. It would get pretty annoying after a while. We had a really good exchange on Thursday with one of the Assistants. We ended up finding a solid investigator named Jill. We were walking through a complex and she was getting stuff out of her trunk. We started talking to her and she was so nice. It's crazy how fast people just open up to us hah. She started telling us about how her father passed away and she has really been struggling with it. We shared Alma 40:11-12 which talks about what happens after we die. It brought a lot of peace to her and we could tell she needed to hear that. We invited her to church and got her information so we could come back again. Yesterday she came to church so that was awesome! The youth did a program where they sang and gave talks. She really enjoyed it. She said she is coming back next week for sure so hopefully she keeps progressing!

Zaira got baptized this week! I was so excited to be able to go back to my old area in North Sacramento. I missed the Rio Tierra Ward and all the members. I hadn't spoken Spanish in a little over 4 months so that was cool too. I was a little rusty but it is still there. Zaira was so excited and nervous before the baptism. She has been meeting with us for over 7 months haha. She always took the invitation to be baptized very seriously. She told us when she makes this promise she wants to keep it so we are glad she took her time. The spirit was there so strong throughout the entire baptism. This will bless her life so much! Grateful I could be a part of her conversion.

Only a week left in the transfer! So I won't be emailing next Monday. Might be moving to a new area because I have been in Carmichael for 4 1/2 months. We will see.

Have a great week everyone.

Love you all!

-Elder Gammell

-President and Sister Jardine, Zaira and Ethan, Elder Ackley, Me, Elder

Poulton, Elder Tena, and Elder Radmall.