This Week Was Insane!

September Zone Conference 2016-Carmichael Zone

September 19, 2016

Dear Family & Friends,

This week was insane! Haha we did 4 exchanges in a row and it was awesome! I don't think I have even gotten close to as tired as I was on Saturday night when Elder Schenk and I finally met back up. We saw some great things and had a lot of cool experiences. I think one of my favorite parts of going on exchanges with the other elders is the opportunity to get to know them a little bit more. Whenever I leave an exchange I always feel a ton closer to that person and it's cool to be able to hold each other accountable to goals we set throughout our time together.

Elder Kristensen and I had a great opportunity to help a member of our ward that was going through a really tough time. He texted us and asked if we could meet him ASAP. We met at the church and eight as we sat down he started to break down and told us about how his life had just made a huge change of direction for the worst. He went from having a wife, car, and house but over the last 6 years he has lost it all. He told us how he felt like he didn't have faith in anything anymore and it scared him. We sat and listened and then we were able to help him by turning into the Book of Mormon. We read some scriptures with him and were able to help him see that he really hadn't lost his faith in God. He had lost faith in the people that used to be in his life and those that were currently around him. He wasn't willing to humble himself enough to ask for help from others so we talked a lot about that with him. We set some goals with him to make the changes he needed to move forward and we all were able to leave the church feeling so much better then it all started. He thanked us and he had a big smile. It was so cool to see just how much the spirit really does make the difference in lessons. Sometimes we have no idea what others need but our Heavenly Father does and as we listen to the promptings that come to us we are able to say exactly what God would have them know. And that's when the change happens. It was cool to see it happen with this brother.

While I was on exchanges with Elder Bingham in Rancho Cordova, we were able to teach a girl that I Contacted like 5 months ago when I was serving in the YSA Ward in Elk Grove. Her name was Rebecca and she remembered me. We passed her off to some other missionaries and we never heard what happened. Turns out she was able to meet with them once or twice but she had a ton of stuff going on in her life. She moved up to Rancho and the elders passed her off again. We sat down with her and talked about the restoration and it all clicked with her. We invited her to be baptized in October and she said yes! We were super pumped for her and hopefully she can stay on track.

Amiee is getting baptized this Saturday!!! We are stoked for her! She has been working really hard and is trying her best to be ready. All of the young women in the ward are excited to have another one added to the group. She has already been a part of them for a little while now but she will be official here pretty soon.

Sydnea will be getting baptized here in couple weeks as well. She is so prepared so we talked with her about possibly moving her date forward a couple weeks. She is praying about it so we will see what her answer is this week. We love meeting with her family. They are awesome. We have been able to teach a couple of Skype lessons to them so that has been really cool. It can't replace actually being there but it's nice when schedules aren't lining up to get a quick 20 minute lesson in.

It's going to busy week again. Crazy we are already doing transfers again. It seems like it happens like every other week! So that's about what this week will consist of. Hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Elder Gammell