This Week Was A Long One

Christmas Temple Conference

January 4, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

This week was a long one. We knocked a ton of doors and not very many opened up for us. Which can get really frustrating sometimes. It definitely makes for longer days. We did have a few open up and we had great experiences with those people so it makes it all worth it. I'll just share a few of them.

Something really cool happened the other day in a Home Depot parking lot. Our Ward mission leader has been doing some renovations on his house and the other day he noticed how a bunch of Latinos always stand out by the entrance, waiting to see if anyone will hire them on for a job. He told us that we should go by and try to talk to them sometime. So we did. We pulled into the parking lot and there was about 20 guys standing there. It's always tricky trying to walk up to a big group of people to teach them. It goes one of three ways. We single out one or two of them and they listen. Or we get a little group of four or five to talk with us. Or we walk up and they all scatter in all different directions and it gets awkward hah. So anyway, we were able to single out a couple of them but they were pretty preoccupied with the cars passing by and trying to run off and get work. So nothing really happened there. But as we were walking away we passed a little truck with a Spanish guy sitting in there. He did not look like talking with us so we were just going to walk by but as we made it to the front of his car, I felt a strong impression that we needed to talk to him. So right away I turned around and walked around the front of his car and up to his window. We introduced ourselves to him and just started talking with him. His name was Antonio. He looked like he was probably 25 and had been through a lot. He opened up to us and told us about how he had been struggling. He had been baptized in a few other churches but fell away because of some wrong decisions he had made. He didn't say really too much but it was easy to see that he was at rock bottom and didn't know how to get out. We testified of God's love for him and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Then we asked him if he was ready to change his life around and feel forgiveness for what he had done. He broke down and started crying. We stood there silent as he cried in his truck. The Spirit was there very strong. After a while he looked up and said that he didn't think he was ready to change. We then shared Ether 12:27 with him. It was just what he needed. He asked us if we had a card with the church address and our number on it. We gave him one and testified that if he came to church he would feel peace and hope enter his life. He thanked us and we walked away. I can't really explain the feeling after we walked away. It just felt good. Like we did exactly what God needed us to do at that moment. Sadly Antonio didn't come to church but we hope that he doesn't push away that spirit that he felt. One day he will be there.

Another cool experience from this week. On Tuesday we were out trying to see some potential investigators. We found ourselves on a street that we have been working on quite a bit over the last 2 transfers. We had this little family we found last transfer that moved away. We saw that there was a new car in the driveway. So we felt like we should go and introduce ourselves to them. We knocked on the door and met his guy named Robert. At first he wasn't very interested in talking to us and said he wasn't religious. We asked him why he considered himself non-religious and he told us that he had studied all kinds of religious text and nothing ever really stuck out to him. So we took that and transitioned into the restoration and taught him about why there are so many churches and how Christ's true church had been restored through Joseph Smith. Then we showed him a picture of Jesus Christ visiting the Americas and we had him read the beginning of 3 Nephi 11. He was just amazed by it. It was kind of funny because he just kept reading and reading. He told us that he really liked it and he had a Book of Mormon but never read from it. We testified to him that the Book of Mormon was true and then challenged him to pray and ask God if it was. He accepted the challenge. And then we felt like we should invite him to be baptized. So we did and he said yes!! We set a date for Feb. 3rd and he told us he would work towards it. We were so pumped after that! Hah too bad we had to send him off as a referral to the English Elders in North Sac. But it's all good because we are all on the same team.

New Year's Eve was fun. We had a little get together with all the missionaries. We had a goal setting meeting for 2016 in the East Sac Zone. Which was really good. It's always good to set a vision for ourselves to help us strive to become better and work harder. After the meeting we ate a ton of treats and played some games so that was fun.

Only a week left of the transfer. Which is crazy. I feel like I am going to be transferred next week but we will see.

Love,

Elder Gammell

P.S. No new pictures this week. Sorry.