April 21

It’s been a slow week for us here to. But we are happy and working so I can’t complain.

On Easter I taught the youth during Sunday school - the 14-18 year olds - about learning the difference between Truth and Error and how to know which is which. It was Hard. I don't think I did a good job but my companion said I did. :/

Alright sweet!!!! Oh and I don't have much to say about this week. Not much super exciting happened. I cut Elder Renovato’s hair. I cut Hermano Rodriguez's hair. I cut Elder Baer’s hair today. And we had a bunny cake at the Peralta’s for Easter. Oh, and I taught the 14-18 year old youth in Sunday School. It was scary >.<

But like the sisters are in our area all the time and they are visiting because Hermana S. used to work in our area so she knows all the members.  We are coordinating with them to make sure we are effective and not duplicating work or missing people.

Ummmm. We built a trampoline. That took forever.

Favorite thing I've eaten. It’s all been a lot of American food lately and I don't like it. I just want my tortilla, frijoles, arroz, and carne, and then throw it all together and eat it.

For this week - I'm working on reading the Bible. I read the Book of Mormon in about 4 weeks. So I was like well. What the heck. Why not.

No dreaming in Spanish yet.

Maricela is the girl that took the picture. She is a 16 year old in the branch. She wants to serve a mission and their family invites us over and they try to have something for us to do every week to serve, so it’s nice.

Elder R. burns everything he touches. He knows how to make it. It’s just he burns everything that he cooks on a stove. Or at the very least it’s always smoking. But if its microwave or anything else yeah he can make it and it’s good. I'm going to learn sometime this week how to make hecho en casa tortillas de harina. (home made flour tortillas).

Dinners have been hard lately, because we no longer use a calendar and so like we have to make all our appointments and it’s hard because the most we can do is a day ahead, and in our area that's not enough time for most. The (branch) presidency should be in the process of calling someone to help fill our calendars for us. So we'll see how it goes.

We do zone sports every other week or so. President doesn't want us having tons of contact with the sisters on a regular basis. Just because there are so many now. And it’s just better if nobody has a chance to start forming feelings.

We offer service at everyone’s house, but nobody ever wants us to do anything. And it’s like they don't want us to clean our dishes and they get mad at us if we try to. Latinos are wonderful people. It’s cause we are on bike and they say no because we need a break from working. But then it’s like but we are losing blessings and you are too. But nobody really understands that we really just want to serve and help people.

Mom’s musing on the subject: I am the same way about the dishes etc., but I think you have helped me see another perspective, I need to let them help more! 

It’s true. Because it’s a blessing to them because they are serving and it’s a blessing for you because you don't have to do them. At the very least let them wash their own dishes. Have them come help one day with the house for an hour, or build something. It doesn't have to be big and extravagant. Ask them to come on a Saturday and help weed or trim the bushes or something, paint a wall, move furniture. They need the service. It's in our handbooks. And it's hard to give service to non members sometimes. So the members need an attitude of giving them something to do.

Today, we will:  

Cut hair 

email 

shop at walmart.....

And write some letters. I need to write to some of my mission friends and to Uncle Roger and them. And I'll probably start shipping some stuff home to you (to make transfers easier, not because he is preparing to come home!). I can't keep everything I have. Mostly clothes are going home.

It’s that I don't have space. Cause now I have to fit everything into 2 suit cases and a carry-on. I had like 2 or three other boxes last time I moved and I have a lot of clothes I don't need yet. Like my thick shirts. I'm probably never going to wear them. And I only wear long sleeves to the temple.

We are working with the young men and less active members. We have figured out that the ward at this point really needs our help. Only a certain number of people are willing to take responsibility and initiative and they all have the most important callings. So we are trying to help all the other members get moving. We can't bring more people into the ward if the ward isn't doing anything. My time is up so I have to go Hope you all have a good day and week! Love you! Talk to you later!

Elder Zachary Gore :)

Slow Week

April 14th, 2014

Below is a series of emails sent back and forth. 

Elder Gore: I don't really have much to upload (pictures) or much to say this week. It was a good week but it was kind of slow. So I don't really have a good email. We can just chat if that's ok?

(I think he wasn’t sure what to write about, or was a little down, or tired, I am not really sure....so I asked him a bunch of questions and below are his answers)

Mom: How is the progress going with the young men you are working with?

It’s going. It’s hard because they don't have tons of support or have crazy excommunicated parents who started their own church but I mean other than that….We are slowly getting them back.

That does sound like a challenge!  Change is hard and takes time. 

So have you seen any progress with any of them?  

Yes we have made progress they see us as friends right now at least. We do stuff with them like bike rides and just try to help them trust us so that we can help them come back. So we are making progress.

Did you meet any new investigators this week or teach any good lessons?

Nothing really this week :/

Have you provided any service lately? 

Yeah we moved some people and we cut someone’s lawn. It took 3 hours!

Ugh. The computer didn't extend me today! Naaaaaah! Alright, I have to go now. It was nice to talk to you! You’re the best mom! Tell everyone I say hi!

8 months out!

April 7, 2014

Ok so this week has been kind of well, slow. Mostly because my companion was sick for 3 days so we were stuck inside. But I mean it was alright. But I don't have tons to talk about today.

I'll start with Happy 43 Years Old Mom!!!!

So with the pictures. First we have Nelson. He is the son of the family that is always sending you pictures (moms cell phone). The Rodriguez family (you can put their name they don't mind) But he asked for a missionary hair cut. So I buzzed his head last Monday. It was quite a lot of fun haha.

I wrote a long letter to president today so I used a lot of time and it’s not giving me any extra today. I hope you like the pictures. I'll explain them in a letter or next week. And I’ll let you know about transfers.

Have a great week everyone!!!

Elder Zachary Gore

The sister missionaries made lasagna and brownies for us in between General Conference sessions on Sunday.

Helping the Young Men

March 31, 2014

This week we had some good lessons but here are the highlights.

We have a nice little family of 6 that we are working with.  We are excited because they have been taught before but by sisters. And I mean sisters are awesome but for some reason this family was never taught about faith which is the first step to well everything. So we had a good lesson about that and the youngest son, who is 11 is like awesome and they must think I'm like the coolest person in the world because he always want to be around me.  We are excited about them and the progress they are making.

Another really exciting event was with Francisco. He is a less active member of 4 years and well he has kind of lost it. He is going to have a kid this month and he is 18 and she is 15 (I think maybe 14) but regardless we got into his trust. We are buds with him now. Its part of what the president was saying, that with the sister missionaries here we kind of lost a lot of the young men and so president (branch president) told us we should work more on becoming their friends so they trust us and see that missionaries are regular people and then we can gain their confidence and help them come back to the church. So we went on a bike ride with Francisco on Thursday. It was sooooooooo Legit! It’s like dirt biking trails but we took our bikes and man were these things scary to go down. We are probably going to go again this week and bring some of the other youth and do like a ride-and-study and they will invite their friends. But I'll make a video of us doing some parts of this thing! But anyway…. Now we are cool with Francisco so we are in a position to help him. The rest of his family has been coming back to church and so now it’s just him and his older brother we have to help back.

We go to the primary every week and we have started attending the Sunday school with some of our less active youth. So I haven't been in Priesthood meeting in about like 4 weeks buts that's ok. I like Sunday school and primary so much more haha.

(he sent this in a separate email and asked that we put it into the blog somewhere)

We are really pushing to help our less active members come back to church and it’s been a struggle but we are seeing good progress. We are working to get our young men active and worthy so that we can have as many of them as possible participating in the Sacrament whether it be preparing, blessing, or passing. We are seeing success and now have priest age priests (instead of adults- priests or Melchizedek Priesthood holders) blessing every Sunday. We are working with our other Priest-age and 2 Teacher-age young men and working hard to help them come back.

Pictures for this week!!!!! Yeah Yeah Yeah!!!!

Elder Renovato after I pulled all the sheets off his been when he wouldn't get up one morning. He fell like that haha.

Three little kids who only speak Spanish that we go to primary with to translate for them. They love Elder Renovato.

Elder Gore eating a quesadilla. (it was really really good)

 Elder Gore sad because the quesadilla is almost gone (Brayan made me another one)

Primary!

Hey so I don't have a super ton to say about this week! But I have some fun stuff.

On Friday we had an FHE¹ with the branch and it was really, really cool!! We took a plane to the Celestial Kingdom². We moved from room to room in the church building and in each room we taught a different part of the Plan of Salvation³. The Hermanas (Santiago and Deroche) both said they were really impressed and excited when they heard me teaching in Spanish. I taught basically the Gospel of Christ. Which is that we have to have Faith, Repent of our Sins, Be Baptized, Receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Endure to the End. It wasn't that good. I get really nervous in front of big groups. >.< But all in all it went good. My favorite part was when we crashed the plane and I was in charge of the lighting and sound effects in the gym for the crash and it was super intense. It was awesome!!! I wish I could explain it but you had to be there.

Yesterday - Sunday. Elder R and I went to Primary⁴ so that we could help three of the sister’s investigators kids go to primary. They won’t go unless we are with them because the twins who are 7 and the youngest boy who is 5 don’t really speak any English so they go and we sit next to them and translate. Which is really, really hard. But it’s fun.  Because they help me translate for them. I sit with the twins and Elder R is with the 5 year old. But no joke these are some of the most well behaved kids I have ever seen in my life!! They just sit and listen because they understand a little and if they have a question they lean over and quietly whisper it to me. Why can’t all kids be that good!!!!! After the sharing time I taught the 7 year old class. It was really fun actually. The kids had fun and the sisters came with us because we couldn't be alone with them. And they said I did a really good job teaching. So I’m happy about that.

That's all the time I have though. My companions have all just been kicked off the computers so I'm going to get off so we can go and they don’t have to wait on me. I'll write everyone something today though :)

I hope everyone has a good week and that you all have opportunities to share the gospel with your friends, family and neighbors. And it’s as simple as inviting them over for a dinner with your family or just being a good example.

I love this gospel and know this church is true!!

Elder Zachary Gore

1-      FHE =Family Home Evening                                                                             

2-      Celestial Kingdom - Where God lives, and where He wants us to return

3-      Plan of Salvation - our Heavenly Father's plan for His children

4-      Primary - Sunday school for children ages 3-11 

The Work Continues

This week we had some good lessons and taught some good stuff. The most exciting thing was that we had a combined mission conference with the Rancho Mission and we all heard from Elder Neil A. Anderson.  (to read more about him - https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/what-are-prophets/bio/neil-l-andersen?lang=eng)  It was super cool he shook every single missionaries hand and spoke to us for about an hour. I don’t have any pictures cause we were in the chapel, so obviously we weren't supposed to take pictures, even though we saw some people take them :/ but also I was in the very, very, very, very, last row, all the way at the back of the gym. But it didn't really matter. We could feel the spirit regardless of how far away we were. Something that I really liked that he told us is that when the Apostles are doing the Missionary Calls they purposefully reserve some of the best missionaries for the United States. He said they did this because the United States is the "bread basket" of the Church. If the Church isn't growing here then it’s not going to grow in other places of the world. I really liked that. I have more notes from his talk but I don’t have them with me.

On Monday (last week) we were at the store and this guy walked pass me, stopped took a step back, looked at me and asked "are you a Mormon?" and I said "yes I am" and then he asked "are you on your mission?" and I said "yes I am" and then before I could say anything else or ask him anything he goes "that’s chill" and then walks out of the store and I couldn't follow or stop him cause my companion was buying something. But it was just kind of a weird, cool, interesting experience.

Tuesday we had Zone Meeting, which is when all the missionaries in the Zone, as in the missionaries that cover the branch and the 2 English wards all meet and have some training. It was good. We talked about setting expectations with investigators through the How To Begin Teaching Points. It was cool. A lot different than the Zone and District meetings in Coachella but I liked this one a whole lot more :)

Wednesday I crashed my bike, not going to go into any crazy details. But I flipped over the handlebars and luckily landed on some grass and I had my bag on so that cushioned my fall. I just got back up and started riding again. I'm fine, the bike is fine, no injuries. Just a little embarrassment cause I flipped in front of a big RV with like 20 or 30 people on it. But it was kind of fun.

Thursday we rode past the bike shop and decided to go inside since we had nothing really to do for about an hour; and we were looking for the pant straps to hold your pants from getting stuck in the chain and also Elder Baer asked if we could pick him up some new brake pads. We got that stuff and then I asked the guy that owns the place if they had any handlebar extenders. Like the bars that stick up to give you more leverage when you ride. And he started looking around and he found a pair and said they were used and asked if that was fine and I was like yeah sure that’s fine. And then he said "They are free". And I was like "Woot Woot!!" Cause I mean like they are really nice ones too. So I was excited. Then he gave us a discount on everything we bought. It was sweet! We found out that he is good friends with a member who owns a bike shop in Fontana I think so he gives all the missionaries pretty sweet discounts :)

Saturday. After the conference I couldn't find my odometer and I was looking and looking and looking and I asked the other Elders if they had seen it and Elder Baer asks me "Have you prayed about it?" "Have you prayed all night like Enos did?" Which is funny because that’s something that Elder Anderson told us. I can tell you about that one later but I was like nope. And so I walked into our study room and I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help me find it. I stood up and then I realized I hadn't looked in my bike bag and so I walked over to it and opened it and the very first thing I saw was my odometer. And I was just like. Wooooow.  I then went back into the study and said another prayer thanking Heavenly Father for helping me find it. It wasn't anything important. I don’t need the odometer. I spent the first 2 weeks of the first transfer here without it. But I like having it on and see how fast I’m going and how far we have gone and I really liked this experience showing me that Heavenly Father cares about us and the things that are important to us. It was just an odometer but He helped me find it, and for that I am very grateful. It’s a testimony builder of the power of Prayer. It does work and God is Listening and He will Help Us.

Sunday. We were able to help David, a less active Priest¹ in the branch, come to church and he was able to help bless the Sacrament. It was super awesome because most weeks it’s either the missionaries or adult members. And we actually have 4 Priest age youth in the branch and they all live in our area. We have decided we are going to kind of make that our focus, also the Branch President told us to, help the youth; because we have all 4 of the priests, 2 of the 2 Teachers², and both of the Branches 2 Deacons³ in our area. So that’s kind of the work right now. Is to help get these youth back to church, fulfilling their priesthood responsibilities and receive the blessing.

The picture is of me and a boy who just got baptized, everyone says I look like him when he grows up and is a missionary.

I love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Zachary Gore!

11-  Young men who are 16 years old and all male converts 16 and over. They help the bishop or branch president watch over Church members by giving service and assisting with temporal matters; on Sunday’s they bless the sacrament.

22 -   Young men who are between 14 and 16 years old; they also help give service including preparing the sacramental bread and water on Sundays.

33-  Young men who are between 12 and 14 years old; they do the same as above and on Sunday’s they pass the sacrament to members of the congregation.