We Have Seen The Lord's Hand In Our Work!

February 23, 2015

When I first got to Sacramento 8 Weeks ago!

Dear Family & Friends,

Hey! We had a great week this week!!!  We have seen the Lords hand in our work that's for sure. We put two people on date this week:

Janelle - She is 10 years old. We have been helping her dad Jorge come back to church. She has caught interest and told us she wanted to be baptized so on March 7th she will be!

Maria- she is 15. Her mom is Marina. The lady we just baptized this month! She has progressed a lot and yesterday she accepted the 14th as a baptismal date!!

We are so excited for them!! It is amazing to see people accept the gospel into their lives. It will bless them so much.

This week we got a referral from a guy in our ward. Their daughter had cancer. He told the dad that they should fast for her. So they did and a week later the dad came up to him and said she was completely cancer free!! Then he was like what church do you go to? So our member kind of told him about our church and gave him a Book of Mormon. They read it all in like 3 weeks and even read all the pamphlets and went and got clothes for their baptism.  We haven't even talked to them yet! There are 4 in their family that are ready to go and also get this! They have 10 other people living in their house too! Hah, we are going to teach all of them on Thursday this week.  We are so excited!! Good things happening here!!

Love you all!!

Elder Gammell

At a tree planting service this week.

Crazy Week This Past Week

Elder Gammell & Elder Padilla

Hey everyone!

Crazy week this past week. We had transfers so we got some new people in our zone. It is crazy seeing people with new companions or people leaving. I guess you just get used to seeing the same missionaries all the time. Change is good though. Helps us to learn and to grow in different ways.

Elder Padilla was sick on Wednesday and so was Elder Snow. So me and Elder Behan went on exchanges all day and let them sleep and get feeling better. We had a good day! Hah it was cool to not have Elder Padilla there and really test my Spanish. It helped me see what I need to work on and that I actually know a lot more then i thought i did. We went to dinner at the Bravo family’s house and we talked like the whole time in Spanish. it felt

really good.

We got Janelle Mungia on date yesterday!! She is going to be baptized on March 7th! We are so excited for her and her family. It has been really cool to see the change in her dad and it is going to bless their family so much!!! Hopefully everything goes as planned and it will be awesome.

Working with a couple more people too. So we have a lot of good things going on here in Lodi.

I finished the Book of Mormon this week!! I love the Book of Mormon. My testimony of it has grown so much out here. I know that is was brought forth for us in our day to help us grow closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It provides us with the path to eternal life. I am so grateful for it. Thanks everyone for the love and support!! Love you all!!

Elder Gammell

That is my room and desk. Hah I don't think I
 have sent that home yet so that is where
 I live in the mornings and at night.

We Had A Baptism This Week And It Was Amazing!

February 10, 2015

Elder Gammell, Elder Mortensen, Elder Padillas,
Marina, Maria and ?    

Dear Family & Friends,

We had a baptism this week!!! It was amazing. Her name is Marina. She is the short lady towards the middle of us. The Elder in the middle is Elder Mortensen. He was Elder Padillas last companion and taught her one or two times then got transferred. But he wanted to jump in the picture. Hah. The spirit was really strong at the baptism. She was so happy!! Then on Sunday I got to confirm her a member in Sacrament Meeting. Everyone told me my Spanish is improving really fast so that is good hah.

We have some really good investigators. Jorge the gang member I have talked about a few times has a daughter named Janelle. She is 11 years old and she wants to be baptized!!  So we have been teaching her and she is starting to understand. We want Jorge to baptize her so he is working with our Branch President to get the priesthood so he can do that. We are really excited for them!

Maria is another one. She is actually Marina’s daughter. She is in the picture. She had a baptismal date and then stopped coming to church. She is kind of shy and didn't like church too much. But we have been befriending her with the young women in the ward and she finally had a good time at church this last Sunday!! So hopefully we will be able to baptize her soon!!!

Any ways everything is going great. Can't believe I have made it through my first whole transfer!! I am still in Lodi with Elder Padilla. By the way, everyone is telling me that the first one is the longest too. I sure hope not because that was too fast!

Love you all!!!

Elder Gammell

Heavenly Father Will Help Us And Carry Us Through The Hard Times.

February 2, 2015

Elder Gammell at Big Trees

Dear Family & Friends,

Well it was kind of a rough week. Wednesday after our zone conference my mission president called me into a room and told me that my Grandpa Ballard had passed away. It was really hard to hear that. It didn't really sink in until that night and the next day. Prayer has helped me a lot this week. It really is true that when you feel like you can't stand, kneel and pray.

Heavenly Father will help us and carry us through the hard times. We have a baptism this week!!!! I am so excited!! Her name is Marina. She is awesome!! It was funny we were meeting with her the other day and she was all worried about her baptismal date because she just got a haircut that she doesn't like and was embarrassed. Hah we are like Heavenly Father doesn't care what your hair looks like. She was like ya I know hah. But ya this Saturday will be cool. Hopefully her daughter Maria gets baptized soon too. She kind of wanted to but backed off. We are going to work on her next ;)

I can't believe I have been out in the field almost a full transfer this next week! Crazy. Ha time is flying by!! I bore my testimony is sacrament meeting yesterday so that was cool. First time I have gotten up in front of our ward and spoke in Spanish. They all said I did really well and they can see my Spanish is improving. I noticed this week I understand the language better. Sometimes I don't understand anything though haha. It is funny.

Everyone look up the talk "Conversion of a Catholic Priest" Bill Carpenter. Great talk and it strengthened my testimony so much!!

Love you all!! Have a great week

Elder Gammell