Elder Tucker Gammell

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