Solid Week!

Adama Baptism June 25, 2016

June 27, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

Solid week! We had a lot of amazing things happen over the weekend in our area. First of all, Adama got baptized!!! She loved it! Even though she kept joking with us before about how she was terrified of the water. She was smiling ear to ear when she came up out of the water and the spirit was there so strong. Its pretty cool just how much joy I felt seeing her take that step in her life. That's what missionary work is all about. Obviously it's important to invite everyone to better their lives through Christ but when you look down into a baptismal font and see someone you've grown to love standing in the water, there is no better feeling. Then to add on she bore a powerful testimony after she came out. We have only been meeting with Adama for about 3 weeks so we have gotten to know her pretty well but she is usually pretty quiet and doesn't have too many questions because she just knows that it's true. She very nervously stood up in front of everyone and started to cry as she bore her testimony. She looked right at us and thanked us for saving her life. She talked about how she was at a low point in her life and was praying for guidance and direction. She told everyone that she normally turns missionaries away but for some reason she felt like she really needed to talk to us that day. Then everything changed for her and she felt hope come rushing into her life. She was so grateful and you could feel just how much her baptism truly did mean to her. It was awesome! Something I will never forget.

Then later that night we were able to meet up with this guy named Victor that we met a couple weeks ago. He's been pretty busy but we were finally able to talk with him. We learned more about his family and how he was so close to getting baptized when he met with the missionaries before. We re-extended a baptismal invitation and he accepted it for July 30th! He also has a wife and 3 kids that could potentially be on board as well. So we are pumped for that!

Sunday was awesome too! Adama was late to church but made it just in time for her confirmation. Then after sacrament meeting one of our investigators named Brianna came up to us and said she had a secret for us. Little background on her. She is the only member of her family that hasn't been baptized and she has been meeting with missionaries for a while but just hasn't made the commitment to actually do it. She went to girls camp this past week with the ward and had an amazing experience. Her secret for us was that she wanted to be baptized! We set up a baptismal date for her on July 23rd and she is so excited! She is also going to EFY this next week so she is going to be so ready to go by the time she gets back. She is pretty good friends with Adama's daughter Fredica so we are hoping they will both be baptized on the same day. Great miracles are coming our way and we are loving them! Haha July is going to be such a good month.

Other than that, Sacramento is just blistering hot right now and time is cruising by way too fast. I'm excited for the upcoming week. It's going to be a busy one with transfers. Love you all and hope you each have a great

week!

-Elder Gammell

Missionary Leadership Conference at President & Sister Jardine's home.

Elder Lawerence Has Been Touring Our Mission - Sacrifice

June 22, 2016

Hey Everyone,

Things are going great here in Sacramento. This past week has been very busy. We weren't able to have pday on Monday or Tuesday because Elder Lawrence has been touring our mission and we were busy with conferences. Just about 24 hours total of meetings over the past 5 days hah. It was a lot but we all learned a lot from it. The trainings that were given were focused on sacrifice. It was just what we all needed as a mission. He focused on the line in one of the hymns that says, "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven". We decided that in order to receive help in reaching our goals as a mission, we each needed to sacrifice something of great worth. It was an awesome experience! Each of us had something come to mind that we could give up or do better. I know that when we make sacrifices in faith and for a righteous purpose, the windows of heaven truly can be opened and we can receive the blessings that we are in need of. It's something that each of us can do and I know the Lord is just waiting to send blessings our way. It just takes a leap of faith.

We had a few sweet lessons over the past week as well! Adama is doing so good! We taught her the Big 3 (Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, and Law of Tithing) and she totally accepted it all. It was so cool to see the faith that she has. We told her that God has commanded us to not drink coffee or tea and she was like, "Noo! I love coffee! But that's ok. I will trash it all. I'm done." Then we talked about tithing and she had no problem at all with that either. And they are pretty tight on money right now. Her only question was how to pay it haha. She is so humble and ready. We can't wait to see her get baptized on Saturday! Her daughter Fredica has been out of town so we haven't been able to teach her but hopefully she gets home soon and she will be baptized too.

We taught this 13 year old kid named Odin this week. He is friends with Jack Ruwan. The kid we baptized just a few weeks ago. We were originally going by to teach Jack the new member lessons but we ended up having a couple of his friends sit down with us, Odin being one of them. We taught the plan of salvation and they all loved it. Jack was teaching his friends and the spirit was so strong. We could see that it was impacting Odin a ton. His family isn't religious at all. Actually, his parents are atheist. So he hadn't heard almost all of the things we taught before. He told us that he had wondered before about why we were all here and what would happen if none of us were here. At the end of the lesson we taught him how to pray and he said a powerful prayer. Then we were able to teach him about the gospel of Jesus Christ a few days later. It was so cool to see how he is already growing and learning. He asked his parents if he could come to church with Jack and they said yes so we are excited for him.

Next week is transfers already so we are getting ready for that. It's going to be a crazy one.

Love you all!

~Elder Gammell

So This Week Was Really Good!

June 13, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

Hey everyone, so this week was really good. Spent some time over in Rancho Cordova with Elder Jensen and Elder Jaramillo. We had a great exchange. It was a cool experience to serve around Elder Jensen because we grew up around each other. He only has a couple weeks left of his mission so that's crazy.

We had a sweet miracle. We were contacting this lady in her front yard and she wasn't interested at all haha. Then we heard a guy yell down the street towards us. We turned and he was waving us over and told us to come over when we were done talking with her. We said bye to the lady and hurried over. The guy got in his car and started driving away right when we got there. He told us to go talk to his Mom and drove away. His Mom was in the front yard waiting for us. She was an older Spanish lady named Maria. Pretty lucky both Elder Jensen and I speak Spanish. We talked to her and found out she really just needed a little guidance and direction in her life. She wanted to learn more about God and His plan. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she was so happy! We set up and appointment and the Spanish Elders are going over soon to go teach her and a couple of her family members.

I went on another exchange out in El Dorado with Elder Wilkins and Elder Kahle. I hadn't been up in the hills my entire mission and it was sick! Haha they get to drive around up in the mountains and there are some gorgeous views. Their house was over looking this huge valley and there were some deer around the house in the morning. We had to drive a ton in between appointments but it was sweet.

Yesterday we did a big blitz with a few of the members of the ward council. We are trying to get 100 percent home teaching this month so we are helping them out. We each split up with a different leader in our ward. I went with Brother Kanzler, our ward mission leader. We each had a list with 22 names and went out right after church. Most of the names were people that hadn't been to church in a long time. We ended up catching just about everyone home and we were able to invite them back to church and to our 4th of July pancake breakfast coming up. While we were leaving one of the homes we passed a house with a couple people in the front yard. I started to talk to him. His name was Victor and he had met with missionaries a couple years ago in Los Angeles. He was getting ready to be baptized but lost contact with the missionaries. He moved out here not too long ago with his girlfriend and their three kids. I asked him if we could come over and help them prepare to be baptized again and he said yes haha. We got his info and we are going back this week. I'm so excited to start teaching them!

Adama, Fredica, and Zainab are still doing great. The girls are out of town but Adama still came to church this week. We are meeting with her a lot to get them ready for next weekend. They are so ready to be baptized! The only holdup is that they are looking to move her pretty soon so we hope they stay here a while or move not too far away.

We have a big week coming up! Thanks for all the love and support. Hope you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Gammell

Only One Word Can Describe This Last Week...HOT!

Went To Coloma Again Today!

June 6, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

Only one word can describe this last week........hot :/ haha Summer is definitely here! It's been between 90-100 degrees all week long. Super glad we have a truck so we can enjoy the A/C! It's been a super good week besides the weather.

We were able to work in our area quite a bit. Megan, Ron, and Jack were our top investigators so we were kind of starting back at square one. We started going through some of our potentials and also our prospective Elder list. On Wednesday afternoon we were going to the house of a member in our ward. As we pulled up we spotted two women sitting in their garage. We got out of the truck and walked up to introduce ourselves. We met a lady named Adama. Also her friend but I can't remember her name because she wasn't too interested in talking to us. But Adama had us sit down and we were able to talk to her for a while. She is from Nigeria and she has two daughters named Fredica and Zainab. Their Dad recently passed away so they have been going through a lot. We told her a little bit about the gospel and she gladly invited us to come back. The next day we came over and we met both her daughters and a new friend that she invited to come over named Masa. We shared the Restoration with them and the spirit was so strong. We could tell that they were feeling it too. She recognized that the Spirit was confirming the words we were sharing. She also told us about how much peace and comfort had come into her life since we met her the day before. She also said that she has recently been praying for guidance and help. We invited them to be baptized and before we could even finish the sentence they all said yes. They accepted a baptismal date for June 25th! We are so excited for them. We met with them again on Saturday and they came to church on Sunday as well. 

Zainab's Note

Here's a funny story about the little girl named Zainab. So on Saturday after we finished our lesson she pulled Elder Greenwood over towards the door and handed him a cookie with a note on it. It said, "I can't wait to go to church on Sunday." It was so cool to see that especially coming from a seven year old girl. She loved church too! It was testimony meeting and she kept telling us, "This is fun!" We had one of the little boys in her primary class coming introduce himself to her and take her to class. He grabbed her hand and walked her all the way there. Adama was trying to walk with her but Zainab told her Mom it was ok and also to have fun in class and learn a lot. Haha she's funny. They all had a great experience and we are excited to keep working with them.

We are meeting so many great people and it’s cool to see how the Lord is guiding us to those that really are ready to hear what we have to share.  Even though we get really busy sometimes, the Lord always consecrates the time that we do have to go out and work and sends miracles our way.

We have quite a few exchanges coming up this week so I'm excited for that. Hoping that I will get to take a trip over to Rancho Cordova with Elder Jensen. Haha we haven't had a chance to serve around each other the entire time we have been here. We will see what happens.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Gammell

Megan, Ron and Jack Got Baptized This Week!

Megan, Ron and Jack Baptism May 28, 2016

May 30, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

Megan, Ron and Jack got baptized this week!! Everything just kind of fell into place and it all worked out so that it could happen this week. The adversary definitely threw some curveballs at them this week but they were able to overcome and push forward. It was a great testimony builder for me to see just how faithful and truly converted they have become in so little time. That's the beautiful thing about the gospel. Just by living the simple principles that Christ taught to us we start to be the people we were sent here to be. We just have to be willing to take the first steps. Then our testimonies are confirmed by the Power of the Holy Ghost. And that's exactly what happened with Megan, Ron, and Jack. The spirit was so strong there! During the talks that were given on baptism and the Holy Ghost Ron and Jack kept answering all the questions that were asked. It surprised everyone just how much they know. It was funny. They all had a great experience so it was a big success.

We are basically starting over with our teaching pool this next week so we will be doing a lot of finding through the members to get some solid people to teach. So this next week is going to be pretty busy like always haha. Our missionary leadership council is tomorrow. We are going to be setting some goals for June so it's going to be sweet. We are also getting ready for a mission tour coming up soon. Larry Lawrence from the Seventy will be coming to our mission in the middle of June. We are excited for that.

Everything is going really well. I just can't believe it's already June. Starting to hear about people back home getting back from their missions. Crazy to think that is coming right around the corner. Just trying to make the most of the time I have here.

Love,

Elder Gammell

President Bruce Jardin & Sister Jardin with the AP's.