Christmas in July

July 28, 2015

Hey Everyone!

Transfers again! It seriously feels like we have them every week. But it has been 6 weeks since the last one. Good news is I will be staying here in The Carmichael Ward for another transfer. But Elder Parker will be leaving. He has been a good companion. I will miss working with him. Won't miss all the healthy food he eats in the fridge ;) My new companion is Elder Wright. He's from Orem. This is his last transfer of his mission. I'm excited to see what this next 6 weeks has in store for us.

My new companion, Elder Wright

So they did transfer call outs a little bit differently. They call us on Saturday nights instead of Monday. Which is nice because then we can say bye to the members at church. There's a twist though. They don't tell you where you are going or who your new companion is, just if you are getting transferred. Then on Monday morning, all the missionaries moving around will meet at the mission office. Then we will have a big meeting and be told what our new areas are and who our new companions are as well. Big change from what we are used to but it will be good because then after the meeting you just hop in your car with your new comp and drive to your new area.

We had lots of cool experiences this week. We had the opportunity to give quite a few blessings this past week and we added an awesome investigator! His name is Remember Remember. No joke! That's his legal name. His parents named all their kids unique names. So anyways we were trying to visit a former investigator and she ended up not being home. As we were walking away from the door a younger couple sat down on the staircase ahead of us. You could tell it was probably a bad time for them. They were arguing about something. Usually we would just say hi and walk right on past them in that situation. But for some reason we stopped and started to talk with them. The guy started telling us about all of their problems and she didn't like that too much so she walked away. But he stayed and talked with us for like an hour. We taught basically the entire restoration, gave him a Book of Mormon, invited him the church, and set a baptismal date for August 15^th all in our first time meeting him. He was so happy. Remember he had never learned about our church. He just heard a couple of rumors. As we talked with him he told us that we answered almost all the questions he had. He also said he could feel what we were saying to him just fill up what felt empty before. It was so awesome! We have met with him almost every day since we met him. He has a lot of things to overcome but he is so committed to changing his life. We are so excited for him.

There's been a scripture that I have that came across quite a few times in my studies the past week. It's found in Mosiah 24:13-14. In these verses the voice of the Lord comes to the people of Alma. They were under a lot of persecution coming from Amulon. The Lord tells them that he will support them and strengthen them even though they are going through a lot. I really liked these verses because it shows us that even though we might be going through trials and challenges in life, our Savior has been through it before so he knows how to comfort and sustain us through those times. He won't take the trials away but give us the ability to go forward.

Thanks for all the support and prayers. I can feel them every day.

Love you all!

-Elder Gammel

It's Unreal How Fast Time Is Cruising By...

July 20, 2015

Hey everyone!

Officially hit 8 months yesterday! Can't believe it. And we get transfer calls next week! It's unreal how fast time is cruising by. I wish it would slow down a little bit.

This week had its ups and downs ha-ha. It was kind of a slow week work wise. We had quite a few appointments cancel on us or they just weren't there (which is very frustrating) and we got rejected (more then we usually do ha-ha). Plus some of the other missionaries in the zone are struggling and we are trying to help them out so it’s just been a lot to deal with. Some weeks just go like that. On the upside, we went on exchanges this week. I got to go out with one of the new missionaries named Elder Talley. We had a great time. We were able to see a lot of people and had some really good lessons. He hadn't been on bike yet on his mission so we went biking all day. He was pretty tired by the end of the day ha-ha. The highlight of the exchange was probably right before we headed home that night we stopped to talk to this guy working on his car. His name was Lloyd. He's from Tooele, UT. He knew quite a bit about the church but he asked us a lot of questions about what we do as missionaries and stuff like that. We talked for probably 30 minutes and then we had to go but he told us we could stop by another time. So we are excited to go back and teach him.

On Wednesday this guy invited us into his house and as we walked in he locked the door behind us. That was kind of sketchy hah. Then he went on to try and  bible bash with us for like an hour. He tried to explain to us every reason why our church isn't true. We tried to explain things to him but it wasn't going anywhere so we just sat there and nodded our heads because we knew there was no point in arguing with him. After he was done with his rant, we stood up, unlocked the door, and walked out. Crazy experience but it was actually a testimony builder as well. The whole time he was "preaching" to us, not once did I feel anything. The Holy Ghost testifies of truth. It's Heavenly Fathers way of leading and guiding us. It's how we know when something really is from him. That's how I know that the message we share as missionaries is true. When I am teaching or being taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I feel the spirit.

On Saturday we had a zone pow-wow. We got together Saturday morning at 11 o'clock. We had a short devotional and then we all headed out to our own areas. We worked until 1 o'clock then we came back together and had pizza and talked about what had happened. It was amazing. There were so many miracles in the zone. Which was exactly what we knew would happen. Before the pow-wow we had the zone pray about where they needed to go and what finding techniques they needed to use. It's so cool how when we pray specifically it makes the biggest difference. It shows us using our faith a little more then we usually do and we saw the blessings from it. Elder Parker and I found 5 people and we didn't even hardly get 100 yards away from the car ha-ha. The pow-wow was a big success. Even though there are tough times I'm still enjoying it. Loving my time out here in the field.

Love you all!! Have a great week!!

-Elder Gammell

The Weeks Are Just Blending Together

Playing some basketball with these two kids we met on the street the other day.   

July 13, 2015

Dear Family & Friends,

Can't believe it's p-day again. The weeks are just blending together.  This week was a good one though! We had a lot to do but we saw many blessings given to us.

So we started stage 2 of our iPads. Which means we have been entering all the information from our area books manually into the iPad. It takes FOREVER! We have to enter in their name, address, phone number, personal information, teaching history, and other stuff too. I am honestly not a fan of the iPads yet. I think once we are done with this part it will be better. Hopefully haha.

We had an awesome experience on Saturday morning! So we had a lesson in the morning with one of our investigators. It was kind of a tough lesson for us. He would not take in anything we were trying to teach him. So we left his house pretty frustrated. Then we went to the church to sync our iPads really quick. As we were sitting there a guy rolls up to the church on his bike. He walks up to the door and knocks. I walked over and let him in. Right away he asked us what time church started tomorrow. We told him 9 o'clock then as we talked with him he explained to us that he has been investigating the church for a while and had met with the missionaries where he lived before. He made some mistakes in his life recently and that's why he is living in Carmichael right now. He told us he wants to fix what he has done wrong and live a better life. He then told us that he would like to be baptized! We were in shock hah. We asked him what day he would like to set a goal to be baptized. He said, '"on July 22nd, my birthday." Then we were really in shock! That was like a week and a half away. So we explained to him that we would have to make sure he is ready and we would work with him to help him reach his goal of being baptized. It was so cool to see how he was guided right to us. If he had stopped by 5 minutes before or after that time, he would've missed us.  I learned that even though we might go through tough times, there is always a miracle around the corner. Heavenly Father is always mindful of his children and will put them in our path or put us in theirs.  Matt came to church yesterday which was awesome! Our bishop met with him for a while and called us later last night and told us that he has a lot of things he needs to work through so he probably won't be baptized that soon but he does have that desire to change and we are going to do our best to help him on his way.

Elder Gammell, Angelica, Jonathan, and Jesus

I had a great day on Saturday! I had the chance to go back to North Sacramento! I got a text a couple weeks ago that I was invited to go back because the kids wanted me to baptize them. I am so grateful I was able to be a part of that. The Ivarras are such an amazing family. The kids were smiling big and they all looked so happy. There was a great turnout from the ward. It was so cool to see all the members again. I love all the people there. It was cool to speak Spanish again too! I've missed it ha-ha. I really need to study my Spanish more so I don't lose it.

So many cool stories and experiences I wish I could share them all. So grateful I get to be out here serving a mission. It's blessed my life so much over the past 8 months. Wouldn't trade these things I've learned for anything.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Gammell

Another Busy Week!

July 6, 2015

Another busy week! We had so much to do! We have something called a zone training every month and this past week we had one. To start it all off on Tuesday we had a meeting down in Rancho Cordova. All the sister training leaders and zone leaders go and get trained by the Mission President and Assistants. Then we all take what we learned and prepare a training that applies to the missionaries in our zone. So we spend a couple hours on Wednesday and Thursday to prepare this training. We focused on becoming more like our savior and how we can develop his attributes. Then we moved in to talking about finding, teaching, and baptizing. We had a couple missionaries share experiences from their lives and their missions. It was amazing the spirit that was there. The training went really well. Everyone loved it. So we were happy about that. Glad that it's over until next month ha-hah. Just kidding.

We had a couple of really cool experiences this week. On Thursday night we taught a couple of new investigators we found the week before. Missionaries were teaching the girl before when she lived in Salem Utah! Hah, small world huh? But then she moved to Sacramento and lost her way a little bit. When we met her she said she would like to learn from us again. So we taught her, her boyfriend, and their friend. We taught the restoration and she was really taking it all in. We gave them a Book of Mormon and she hurried and grabbed it and said to her friends, "This is mine. You guys can get your own if you want one!" It was funny. Anyways they were really cool people and we are hoping to go back this Wednesday again to teach them.

4th of July was so fun! We had a pancake breakfast with our ward and another one. Then later we had a zone BBQ! We had all the missionaries from our zone and all the office workers and President and Sister Jardine too. We had tons of good food! Then we played some games. It turned out great. The zone bonded a lot and that's just what we wanted to happen.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love you guys!

~Elder Gammell