Thanksgiving and stuff...

Last Sunday!!! So to set up this story: We tried to visit the P______ family like almost every week of our fist transfer here and we were never able to find them. But one day like three weeks ago we had an 8:30 miracle, which is when at 8:30 you decide to try one more family, one more house, or talk to one more person instead of going home. Its 8:30 we don't know what to do but we don't feel like going home yet so we are sitting in the car and thinking trying to figure out what to do and suddenly we get the idea to go try this family one more time. So we head on over and we get there and guess what happens!!!! Hermano P opens the door and lets us in. He is actually a really cool guy. He is a priesthood holder, he loves his family, and he has even been to like five temple dedications!! He just hasn't been to church in like years because he got a job and he works every Sunday. He's just a cool guy and it was nice while we were there because when he heard how new I was he did his best to focus on me and ask me questions so that I could practice my Spanish. But it was like 9:10 and like the latest we can be home is 9:30 so we pulled out Nefi 3:7 and shared with him an experience that Elder C. had about the Lord providing a way for us to keep the commandments, this one focusing on going to church, and then we left. And we just felt good that we had been able to find and meet this guy but we weren't feeling very good at the same time because we didn't know if we had actually done anything to help him. But two weeks went by and we are at the church greeting people and suddenly I'm shaking hands with Hermano P!!!! Elder C. and I were SHOCKED!!!! He hasn't been to church in years and then he is there with his 2 kids. We asked what had changed and how he had managed to get the day off. He told us that after we had shared Nefi 3:7 he experienced a great change in his heart and that he decided he was going to actually do something about the work situation instead of just pray about it and hope something happened. So he went to his boss and said he didn't want to work Sundays anymore, I’m sure he said it differently to his boss but this is what he told us, and then he got a call 2 days later and his boss fired him. At this point we are like feeling awful because we lost this man his job and we start to like apologize and he stops us and says there is more to the story. He said after the call he had felt worried but that in an instant he suddenly felt peaceful and he knew that everything would be ok and that this was good because it meant he could be where the Lord wanted him and so that’s where he was. He was at Church. It was super cool. I wish I had that kind of faith!!! 

Our days seem to be filled with a lot of driving and not a lot of like teaching. I’ll talk to Elder C. about that so we can work to fix it. Our investigator Juan is coming to church every Sunday and is singing in choir and he plays volleyball with us on Tuesday nights and he is just super solid and it’s awesome!!! It’s not a question of if he gets baptized it’s when he gets baptized. Which might be a while because it’s been hard to have lessons with him cause of his work schedule. But we are going to keep trying. 

Wednesday we were driving home from dinner and we called C., the youth in our ward who we are trying to prepare for a mission and find out he is at the bus stop so we are close and we go pick him up and take him home and we teach him the Restoration and it’s in English so it’s like the first lesson I can really participate in because I know how to express these concepts in English but it was really good and C. was grateful. He is such a cool kid.  

Also one of the less actives we have been working with, M., has been doing a lot better since we have been going over so often to read The Book of Mormon with him. He seems more alive. He comments a lot and he reads louder and talks louder and he just isn't the same man we met that first or second week we were out here. It’s totally awesome. He even said on Saturday when we last saw him that I could read in Spanish better then he could!!! And asked how I was getting so good and I said, "pues. practicamos mucho. cada dia leimos de El Libro de Mormon durante nuestro estudio de idioma". (well. we practice a lot. every day we read from the Book Of Mormon during our language study) and we told him that he would get better and better to as he read more and more. 

It rained on Thursday!!!!! It was soooooooooo awesome!!! Nothing serious. But it was good. We got to wear our jackets.

Saturday was Hermana D. Birthday. So we made her a cake. (I lost the pictures but I’ll try to get some of the ones the sisters took so that you can see it.) But we made it to look like the Mexico City Temple and like it was pretty lame but we tried and Hermana D. loved it so it doesn't really matter. I even made a little paper Angel Moroni to go on top!! It was sooo cool!!!!

Soooo Special Shout Out to my Dad!!!! It’s his birthday today he is now... I'll just say old. I'm just kidding!! He's only 47. Not that old at all!!!! But thank you dad for supporting me and helping me get ready for my mission and teaching me and for everything you have done to help me get here and keep me alive. You’re the best dad ever and I hope someday I can be as good of a father as you are!!!!

Well that’s it for this week!!!

The Church is true and this Gospel is Amazing!!!! I'm so glad to be a missionary during this great hastening!!! Its sooooo awesome!!!

Well with that..

Love you all!!! Your the coolest!!! Write me letters!!!

Elder Zachary Gore :)

Week 9

Not much has really happened since last Wednesday. This will be kind of short I think. But I guess we'll see…

So Thursday. Thursday we didn't get tons of "work" done in the lessons sort of sense. But that’s ok and normal cause that was weekly planning. We spent a good 3 hours on it and we feel pretty good about the stuff we want to do this week and what the Lord wants us to do. Since it’s his work and we are just the servants working in the Vineyard. (Anyone know the passages of scripture I’m talking about?). The only other thing that really happened was that I called Elder B_________, who is one of the new AP's and is like the bike man, and asked if there was any way I could get my bike when we were up at the office on Saturday. He said of course and I was really excited, I'll get to more about my bike on Saturday when we got it and put it together but not until I talk about that day.

Friday. I got the package from my mom with muffins and a CD and lots of candy and it was awesome!!!!!! The muffins were moist and chewy and smelled just awesome!!! I'm trying to make them last as long as I can. We taught a couple lessons but not really all that much else happened.

Saturday was the missionary conference and it was the coolest thing I’ve ever been too. It felt like a spiritual bomb had been dropped we are all just so pumped to work!!! It was really cool because president mentioned me in the conference about the email I sent him last week and the 8:30 miracles. There is too much to say about it and not enough time. I'll prepare some stuff to type up about it for next week!!! Now to the last bit about my bike :) we assembled it and we found that a part was bent, we managed to straighten it but that was all we did after the conference was put together my bike. I can't wait to ride it!!!

Sunday was sooo cool but I don’t have time to share the story... ugh I’m sorry I’ll work to email better next week. I'm really, really sorry. But I have to go.

Everyone be good and remember who you are!!!!

I love and miss you all!!!

Elder Zachary Gore

Week 8

For this week we will share a couple of special letters from Zach. One is a letter to his Mission President. We won't normally see these but Zach shared this one with us, for which we are grateful. We see evidence of his faith and action, and the Lord's loving response to him. The other is a letter he sent to his Branch President at the Mexico City MTC (CCM), who sent Zach an email inquiring about his welfare  (The missionaries are divided into 'branches', or small congregations, while in the CCM). We are grateful for this leader who reached out to a young missionary who is no longer under his watchcare. To us, this is further evidence of the truth and value of the work which Zach is doing.

As a note, we think that "8:30" miracles are related to work which may happen as the missionary curfew - 9pm - approaches and, without a scheduled appointment, the missionaries may be tempted to go home early. The principle and blessing of 'enduring to the end' is manifest in these experiences. We look forward to sharing some of these, too, along the way.

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President V.,

These last couple weeks have been really good! I've been working on the Christ-like attribute of Faith and I have been working to increase mine in the Gift of Tongues. I've been having, at least what I feel to be, a lot of improvement. When I first came out into the field Spanish sounded like a huge slurred rush of sounds and words. But now I have found that I can pull it all apart. I don't know what everything means but I can hear where all the words start and end and sentences actually sound like sentences now. So I'm really excited about that.

With the area things are going alright. I guess that could be going great I just have no other area to reference stuff that happens here too. But our investigator Juan is super solid. He wants to be baptized, he wants us to be at his house so he can teach his family, he reads the Book of Mormon and prays at our lessons. He is even in the ward choir now! He is so eager and ready to learn its awesome!!! Its hard because of how much people work but we are doing our best and asking for help in all that we do. And we see those blessings of humbling ourselves and just asking for help with something.

We've have also experienced many "8:30" miracles. Most of them have involved a less active family being home and welcoming us in. We have found quite a few people and have set up appointments. Just another testimony builder and a witness to staying out and working for all the time in the day that we can.

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Presidente C., 

I'm doing great!! I'm in Southern California in C----. Its totally awesome!! 97% of the people here are from Mexico so I have lots and lots of practice. The Spanish is getting better. I'm a lot further in my knowledge of the language then I was when I left the CCM but its still slow. Only a couple new words each day and with it a little better comprehension of the language. The work is moving along. The ward I'm in hasn't had very good missionaries in our area for a while so we are just starting to get the ward excited about the work. Its really cool though we have 4 companionships in the ward. 2 sets of sisters and 2 of Elders. On of the Sisters actually was at the CCM with me! Dinners are kind of crazy cause we all go to the same house but the members are very accommodating and we have been able to create a system of how to all be there and eat and include the members. There is a lot of potential here too. The people are very humble so we are very excited and happy to be here.

I'm glad to hear things are going well at the CCM! I really miss it at this point and wish I had studied and worked a bit harder. But I can't do anything about it now haha.

Presidente C.,  do you think you could send me the ordinances and other things we worked on during our Sunday meetings? I have realized they would be very useful!

Thank you for the email and for being an awesome president,

Elder Gore

Yo sé que!
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Week 7

Hey Everybody!!!! How’s it going?? My Week has been pretty good :) Better than last week I think.

Monday. Was just another P-Day and I have nothing really written down. Basically: Get up, Go shopping, Play Sports, Do laundry. Email, Go to Dinner, Become a missionary again!

Tuesday.

We were going around to talk to some members and set up appointments but nobody was home so we decided to walk around. We met this guy named G______ who was working on his car. We found out he knows the bishop’s family and that he has been to church before. We got his number and we are going to call and set up an appointment.

In other news we lost Elder H. He got transferred out. But we now have Elder B he's really cool and funny. He's been out a year and we get along great. It’s kind of weird cause like our families are the same. Our dads served missions the same years, and graduated the same year, we both have 3 younger sisters and no brothers and our sisters are the same age. He's 20 but it was like whoooooa when we realized this. It was pretty cool.

 

Elder B.

Wednesday.

So Wednesday we were kind of bad missionaries.. Well not bad. We just spent a lot of time doing something that wasn't necessary. Elder C decided we needed to make fliers for the Fiesta on Saturday. So we went to the church, broke into the Family History Center and made fliers, then we went to the library and made like 200 copies and all in all it took us about 4 hours of the day. Then we passed them out to the other missionaries and ummm yeah that was the day.

Thursday.

Halloween. So not much happened this day. We decided we were going to go to Hermano  M_____'s, he is a less active in our ward who hasn't been to church in a long time, we go to his home every day and read with him one chapter in the Book of Mormon. Because if a person isn't reading the scriptures they aren't going to feel like they need to go to church and he really needs to go. We have been working with him for a while now and we keep inviting him and telling him we can set up rides and we call in the morning but he just never comes so we are going to try a different approach and see if the Spirit will push him and influence him to want to go. So we'll see what happens.

The night of Halloween we had to be inside. We weekly planned. Elder C fell asleep for about 10 mins and his leg started twitching it was really weird but then we watched The Testaments before bed as our reward for being quick, but not rushing, through weekly planning. :)

Friday.

Day didn't go as planned at all. Nobody was home and we were kind of like what are we going to do?  I had the idea to go try at another of our less actives. So we go to the house and Hermano P______.  He comes out and says something in Spanish and for some reason my head didn't translate it and so I was confused but then we got invited in and we had a really good conversation. It was nice because he actually tried to talk to me!!! Which is unusual because basically everyone just talks to Elder C and I’m quiet. I don’t like forcing my way into conversations especially when I’m not 100% sure what is going on. But at some point during the half hour with Hermano P______, Elder C took over and I was quiet most of the rest of the time we were there.

Also a fun thing, we stopped at a sisters home who we hadn't been able to get in contact with and we stopped in and talked for a half hour or so. But like at some point she mentioned how she got free clothes from a bunch of places and she asked if we wanted some new shoes. And we were like cool!!! So Elder C got 2 really nice pairs of dress shoes which was good because his were falling apart and I got a pretty nice pair of Nike tennis shoes.

Saturday.

Saturday was the fiesta. We had a bunch of lessons planned but what ended up happening was we helped Hermana G_____ make the fruit juice for the fiesta. Basically you take a blender, pour in the fruit, this time being pineapple, cantaloupe, and some purple fruit that I don’t know the name of.  You pour sugar in and water and you blend it and then you drink it. We went through like 4 pineapples it was crazy. It’s alright in taste but I don’t really like it. I usually have water at dinner if it’s an option, otherwise I drink some soda or whatever drink they have for me.

But anyway the fiesta was cool! There was a mariachi band and tons and tons of food!!!! Awesome music. Good, good day.

Sunday.

Sunday was fast Sunday. That was rough and painful but dinner at the end of the night was good. We had Pasoli. It’s like soup and you put meat, corn, lettuce, rice, chips, and cilantro, and basically anything else you want, I usually squeeze a lime of 2 into it. It’s not my favorite food but it was really good. It’s fun learning how to eat soup out in the field.

Well that was my week!!! Hope everyone else had a good one too!!!

I love you all!!!

Be Good, Remember who you are, and…

Missionary Work is Awesome!!!!!

Elder Zachary Gore

Week 6 in California

Alright so I just finished week 6. It’s been an eventful week I suppose by the standard of some of my other ones.

.

Monday!! We played some Gator Ball. I almost died and had an all-around blast on our P-Day.

Tuesday. Tuesday we had training with Elder Walker of the 70. He is in charge of like all the temples. So if you watch almost any of the dedications in the last couple years he is the man standing right behind the prophet. It was really cool to meet him!! Unfortunately I forgot my notes at the apartment so I'll tell you about it in a letter or next week. Something I wrote in my regular journal is that we sang with Elder Walker in a spontaneous musical rendition of the Hymn, ‘Nearer My God To Thee’. Here is how it went …we are taking our break from the training and we go in and have lunch. It was pulled pork and it was actually really good. I was talking to Elder M. and Elder C. is talking to another sister missionary named Sister L. And they are talking and singing was brought up and Elder C. goes. "Oh!! Elder Gore Sings!" and Sister L. gets excited and gets my attention and asks if I do and I say yeah I like to sing, and Elder C. kind of goes on about how much I'm singing and so Sister L. is like "Hey lets go to the chapel I want to hear you sing!!" and I’m like uhhh ok. So the 4 of us go in, Elder C., Me, and Sister L. and her Companion, Sister B. And she plays a hymn and I sing it by myself and then the sisters are telling me I’m a lot better than I think I am, and then she starts playing,’ Nearer My God To Thee’, and I sing it and then she joins in and when we finish Elder Walker stands up, cause he had been quietly sitting on the stand, and comes over and asks if the 4 of us would sing that at the beginning of the next training session. And we are like uhhhhh ok. And so how we do it is First the 5 (yes, Elder Walker sang with us) of us are in unison, then it’s the 2 Hermanas on Melody and the 3 of us Elders singing Tenor and then for the 3rd verse Sister L. and I dueted with her on Harmony and me on the Tenor Melody. It was super nerve wracking but I’m glad I did it. Then we drove home and that was basically the day.

Wednesday. We went on exchanges!!!! Elder C. went out with Elder H. to the English area and I took his companion, Elder T., who has been out the same amount of time as me and we were in the Spanish area. That was a crazy day of faith. I had no idea what we were going to do but then what popped into my head was the revelation challenge that our elders (Centreville Elders) gave us. To pray to know which of your friends we can teach or help. So I made that the base of the lesson. I translated it into Spanish and found a good scripture and we then had 9 lessons that day and I gave the challenge to a bunch of members. That was the day this week that we had the most lessons. Usually we have 1 or 2. But there are a lot of days where we have none. So that made me feel really good. But also it was super cool because like people would talk and I was understanding most of what they said!!! It’s been in the last couple weeks that I have noticed that I can differentiate between every word whenever anyone but Elder Cebreros is speaking; he talks at like a thousand miles an hour. But It was so cool cause people would make some comment and I was like, "I understand you!!!!!!" In my head but yeah it was super, super cool!!! It was a super Faith and Confidence building day!!!

On to Friday!!!

So on Friday I went on another exchange. But this time I took Elder H., the senior companion and trainer of Elder T., with me into the Spanish Coachella area. Why I went there twice with English at first I didn't know why but now I do. So the night before we had planned the day and had a bunch of lessons and it was going to be pretty good. We had some empty space in the day and I was trying to figure out what to do and Elder H. says pick a name. Don’t think about if they are going to be home or not. Just pick a name. And even before he had said that the name Rubio popped into my head. I knew the husband, who was a member wasn't going to be home but that’s where we decided to go. We went and talked to the wife for a little, she isn't a member but she said she'd talk to her husband to set up an appointment. After that Elder H. said lets go for a walk. I was a little confused and he said, “You and Elder C. don’t do much street contacting do you”  It was a question and a statement really. It’s true we don’t. I explained that the 2 times at the park that we've talked to people Elder C. told me to start teaching as soon as you start talking to people. That didn't seem right to me and that’s probably why my first 2 times were so rough. I talked to Elder H. about that and he sort of chuckled and said that was the culture of one of the Missions but in another Mission the culture was to just talk to people and become their friends. That’s also the culture that our Mission President wants. He told us that it took about 7 positive contacts with the church in order for someone to become interested. He wants us to just talk to people about everything but the church to start and if the church comes up then we talk about it but if it doesn't that’s ok because the people will have had a good experience with the church.

That’s what we ended up doing the rest of the day. Because all of our appointments fell through, so I learned how to talk to people the right way. We haven't had the opportunity to do it since then but I’m ready now.

That night we also had the wards Trunk-n-Treat. It was a blast Juan our investigator and his family came and we hung out and we found some ward members to socialize with him. He was having a great time talking with the older men it was really good. We hung out with a bunch of the youth.

Saturday. Ok so Saturday I had another really cool personal experience. I'm in personal language study trying to figure something out for a lesson with a less active and I really was struggling with it. We had decided to do a little 20 min lesson about prayer and I had this super strong feeling to tie it to the Atonement.  That is the most important thing we teach about. Repentance and the Atonement. Everything leads to that, everything begins with it and it’s what allows us to live with our families forever, and ultimately live with God and Jesus Christ for all time and eternity in Exaltation. So yeah it’s pretty important. So I’m struggling because I wasn't sure how to link the atonement and prayer together. The first road that I decided to follow was that it had something to do with closing "in the name of Jesus Christ." But I wasn't sure where it all connected. And I’m searching the scriptures and I text Elder H. because he is like the scripture wizard!!! The Book of Mormon like really is his favorite book in the world and he knows so much about it. It’s crazy!!! I'd almost want to take his scriptures for a week just to see all the connections he's made. It’s like super deep and stuff and I can tell you some of the stuff I’ve learned from him but maybe in a letter I don’t have enough time here. I’m looking and looking and I can't find anything. Then Elder C. goes out to our little “porch" area, and sees a family moving out of the apartment complex  So we go help them load their truck and then we come in and I sit down and I finish the little sentence for the lesson I was working on and then the word "Mediator" pops into my head!!! And then like words just start flowing and I figure out how to connect it and I have to write them down so I don’t forget them and it was super-super cool!!!!.

That night we went to the ‘P.’ Family's secret Halloween Dinner Party. It was super cool!! Fantastic Food!! Music!! We hung out with the older kids and the ‘P.’ Sisters who are the 3 adult women in the picture. They are such a cool family. 

Sunday. Sunday was good we had church and we were going to go and meet with this new investigator and the plan was to use the ‘How to Begin Teaching Points’. And I don’t really know any of those so 20 mins before we have to leave and Elder C. is taking a nap, I went into our study room and I knelt down and said a quick prayer that I would be able to learn and memorize and remember these points. And then I grabbed a spare dry erase board and I went to work and I was able to memorize 3 of them in about 15 minutes!!!! I memorized...

- "Nuestro mensaje, el cual se centra en Jesucristo, es de gran valor e importancia."

 - "Nuestro mensaje no se puede aprender en una solo visita. Comprension llegara con el tiempo mediante la oracion, el estudio y la experiencia, y al guardar los mandamientos de Dios."

 - "Al esforzarse sinceramente por entender nuestro mensaje, es posible que tengan desafios, pero Dios les ayudara."

We ended up not teaching them. Cause we drove by and the husband saw us and, because like everywhere, there was nowhere to park on the side of the road even though everyone has a driveway so they were able to pretend like they weren't home. So I didn't get to use them but I had a powerful experience with the Spirit and its ability to strength our minds and abilities.

Well that was my week.

  

We have to head out now. It’s almost time for dinner. But Write Me!!! Or email!! Or something!!!

Have a great week!!! I love you all!!!

Elder Zachary Gore :)