July 20, 2015

Alrighty. So last week. Whoooa. Crazy!!!

So on Monday we had dinner with the Garcia family. It was really good. We had Quesadillas with ham. Afterwards we had a good lesson and we talked about forgiveness. It was a really good lesson. Then we had a NDH at the Toriz's home and talked about the importance of reading and praying, and going to church in connection to preparing to enter the temple. It was pretty good day.

Tuesday we had my Last District Meeting. It was fun. I played the opening hymn, Nearer, My God, To Thee. And we sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again. It was a good meeting. They had me bear my testimony at the end as well. After that we had a good lesson with Hno. Tapia about the priesthood. And we talked to Hno. Rochin, who we had dinner with, about the blessings of keeping the commandments. Then we had an English class and then we had tacos. They re-opened the store! I was soooo excited!! They were super good!

Wednesday. I got picked up and we went to the temple. It was really cool. All the missionaries going home were there and President and Sister Van Cott. After that we went to the mission office and had lunch and then we had a little meeting with Pres. and his wife and they gave us some advice and we just talked about their lives and stuff. It was really cool. I got some good notes I'll tell you about them later haha.

Thursday. We weekly planned. Ok.... so I feel really bad about this but Elder Juarez planned and I packed. Yeeeeaaahhhh..... That night we had dinner with the Moyas and they taught us back the Word of Wisdom. Then we taught the Plan of Salvation to the Garcias and it went super good. They are super ready and trying super hard to prepare. 

Friday. We had a cool lesson with Hno. Reza. And we had him teach us the Restoration. It was super cool because we were talking about why it’s so important that the members know how to talk about the gospel. Because they are the main source of finding, or at least they should be, so they need to know what we believe so that they can explain it. But more than just knowing they need to practice and as missionaries we teach but we need the members to help us find. It was a really powerful conversation and it made me think about how the mission has prepared me to be a member missionary when I get home and how I know how to talk about the gospel and I'll be able to help my friends and family members learn more. We had some really good Tacos at the Villagranas house and then we headed home.

Saturday. it rained...That was like the last thing I had wanted to happen on my last full proselyting day. But you know we went out and nobody opened the door or was home. So we decided to go to the Toriz's house and see hno. Tapia. When we got there hno Toriz told us to get in the truck and we took our bikes back to the apartment and then we went all over the place and ended up at the Larios's home and then the party started. It was really fun. There was tons of food and we just had a good time. It was a lot of fun. It was to celebrate Elder Juarez’s birthday and me going home.

Sunday. I had to give a talk, I spoke about missionary work and the importance of the members. How we don't knock doors anymore because statistically speaking it takes 1000 doors knocked to have 1 baptism compared to having 1 baptism for every 3 member referrals. so 1000:1 or 3:1. It’s easy to see which is better. But then it rained again after church and just with everything going on we didn't leave the apartment until I got picked up for my Farewell. 

The Farewell was cool. For some reason it was harder to share my 2 minute experience at the devotional then it was to give a 15 minute talk in sacrament meeting. It was awesome to see everyone that came. But I saw Max Martin and Andrew Barrus, 2 of my former companions. Seeing Johana, Gabriel, Ismael, ad Joseph was awesome too! I was super glad to see Brayan and Giovanni and hear that they have been going to church!!! Also Shout Out to Ernie for reading my letters!! Thanks for the jacket!! Love it! and well after that we went home.

That was the week everybody. I have to get going. But I’ll see yall pretty soon!! Hope you've been reading! I'm so grateful for this chance I've had to serve 2 years here in California. I have met so many awesome people and had such amazing experiences. I wouldn't have given this time up for anything. I know this church is true and I know that God is our Loving Heavenly Father and that Jesus is our Savior. If we rely on them and follow them then we have no reason to fear. I love you all. 

See ya on the flip side!!

Elder Zachary Gore

July 13, 2015

Hey so this week was pretty good.

On Monday we had a good Noche De Hogar with the G Family, at the T house. The R, R, and DeJ families came too. It was soooo many people but it was good. Some of the people shared experiences that we think really helped the G family. But Monica is still excited for her baptism on the 1st of August. 

On Tuesday we had Zone meeting. It was the last one. That was really weird. It went over so I didn't bear my testimony at the end. But that’s ok I don't like talking in front of big groups of people anyway. I'm going to die at my despidida >.< But I've been working on a hymn on the piano. Nearer My God to thee and I can play it pretty decently now. I can sing while I play it. So I'm going to play it at my last district meeting. After that we went with the Zone Leaders (Elders R, and N) to DQ and got some burgers, and ice cream. After that we went back to the apartment changed and headed out to work. We were supposed to have English class, but nobody showed up so we went to the *M(South) families home and read in the Book of Mormon with Hno & Hna. We decided to start in Mosiah because everyone starts at 1 Nephi and so it was actually really cool because randomly in the first chapter it says.

1 And now there was no more contention in all the land of Zarahemla, among all the people who belonged to king Benjamin, so that king Benjamin had continual peace all the remainder of his days.
2 And it came to pass that he had three sons; and he called their names Mosiah, and Helorum, and Helaman. And he caused that they should be taught in all the language of his fathers, that thereby they might become men of understanding; and that they might know concerning the prophecies which had been spoken by the mouths of their fathers, which were delivered them by the hand of the Lord.
3 And he also taught them concerning the records which were engraven on the plates of brass, saying: My sons, I would that ye should remember that were it not for these plates, which contain these records and these commandments, we must have suffered in ignorance, even at this present time, not knowing the mysteries of God.
 4 For it were not possible that our father, Lehi, could have remembered all these things, to have taught them to his children, except it were for the help of these plates; for he having been taught in the language of the Egyptians therefore he could read these engravings, and teach them to his children, that thereby they could teach them to their children, and so fulfilling the commandments of God, even down to this present time.
5 I say unto you, my sons, were it not for these things, which have been kept and preserved by the hand of God, that we might read and understand of his mysteries, and have his commandments always before our eyes, that even our fathers would have dwindled in unbelief, and we should have been like unto our brethren, the Lamanites, who know nothing concerning these things, or even do not believe them when they are taught them, because of the traditions of their fathers, which are not correct.
6 O my sons, I would that ye should remember that these sayings are true, and also that these records are true. And behold, also the plates of Nephi, which contain the records and the sayings of our fathers from the time they left Jerusalem until now, and they are true; and we can know of their surety because we have them before our eyes.

And then it comes to verse 7 and it says 

7 And now, my sons, I would that ye should remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby; and I would that ye should keep the commandments of God, that ye may prosper in the land according to the promises which the Lord made unto our fathers.

Elder J and I were just like whoooo. That was cool … and so we talked about it and so they committed to read the rest of the chapter.

Wednesday. Basically everything fell through until we had a lesson with the G's. It went super good. We taught the Restoration and Monica is still going good towards her baptism, Felipe is having some doubts just because he doesn't "feel" it yet. He has desires and he is reading the Book of Mormon and praying so it’s just a matter of time. 

Thursday. So we went over to the *M (Recient Converts). And Hna. L from the San G ward in Beaumont was there, I guess Hna. M is going to house an exchange student. But I had gotten permission to call Hno. Lizama to give him some invitations for my despidida, but I wasn't going to give them to him until Friday, so I was just like dang it, haha. Could have given them to Hna. but I'd left them at the apartment. But after that the day was alright. We had a good dinner with hna, V, and a good lesson with the M family.

Friday. So we met up with Hno. L by the hospital and I gave him the invitations. It was really cool to see him again. After that we booked over to the Church because Elder J was going to have his interview with President, cause we weren’t able to go to our last ones. But it was cool. Sister Van Cott was there and we just talked. She said that out of all the transfers of incoming missionaries she remembers Elder M and I at her home the most vividly. We talked about how it was crazy how fast the last 2 years had gone by and how their last year is going to be like a blink of an eye. And then President told us that I was one of their favorite missionaries because I didn't cause problems. I just do what I'm told to the best of my ability and yeah. So that was really nice to hear. But then president told me my final interview was gonna be like a half hour long, which is an eternity when my longest interview was maybe 7 minutes. haha. But it'll be good. After we went back to the apartment for dinner and then it was time to go to the Charla Foganera (Fire Side) and we got to the church and opened it up and were inside waiting and the sisters called and told us it had gotten cancelled. So we went and tried to stop by some less-active families and talk to people, but nobody was out and nobody was home so yeah haha. Our day ended. 

Saturday. So we had a great day planned and we had things set and all of a sudden at about 1 everything fell through, so we walked around and talked to some cool people until it was time for our Ward Correlation Meeting. It was super weird cause I wasn't going to be there for most of the stuff they were planning. But then we had tacos. And that made me super happy. I love tacos soooooo much. We had tacos de Pollo (chicken), Carne Asada (steak), Al Pastor (lamb), and Chorizo (pork). They were soooo bomb. I ate like 13 or so. Sooooo good!!! I'm gonna miss tacos >.<

On Sunday we had dinner with the V family and they gave us Tacos a Vapor. So they are tacos that are cooked using steam. They were amazing!! I need to ask for these recipes. We also had a good lesson with the S family. It was cool Hno. S actually prayed, well sort of, he helped Charlie do it but he was telling the words to Charlie so that was really cool! After that we went to the M family’s (south) house and we had a good lesson. We read from the Book of Mormon some more and it was really good.

That was the week! I know this church is true. It’s been a great 2 years. I'm gonna make this last week count. I'm grateful for all the support and help I've gotten from everyone. I hope you have a great week! I'm in Moroni 8. But I started Moroni like a week ago. So I've been reading like a column every day haha. So we'll see how I finish. But I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Gore

* We have 2 M families. The North and the South, as in they live in the north and south. The Norths are Recent Converts and the Souths are less-actives.

July 6, 2015

So this week was pretty good.

On Tuesday we had a good lesson with Hna. Martinez. We talked about the Book Of Mormon and the importance of reading it and we promised her that if she would commit to reading the Book of Mormon everyday she would have more strength and energy to get up and go to church. But with the craziness of the week and we were never able to follow up and she didn't come to church so maybe next week. Also we uh caused a car accident haha. We were riding down the street and we came to a parking lot and normally I go behind the first car that's waiting but this guy put his car in reverse and bumped into the car behind him. and Me quede como "Dang?!". ( And I was like "Dang!?"). It wasn't that bad he just sort of tapped him we kept going though because I didn't want to get involved.

Wednesday. We went and tried to visit a couple people in the morning and as we were heading to our next house my tire started to go flat. Which I thought was really weird because I didn't run over anything. But it seemed kind of slow so I figured that maybe the slime could seal it and I could pump it up after our next appointment so I stopped and got off and put some more air in just so I could make it and when i got back on within 3o seconds the tire was completely flat. So we walked back to the apartment, cause we were still pretty close and I was able to fix it. It turns out that the stem had broken. So that was fun. We had dinner with Monica that night. It was Pozoli, which was a little insane since it was like 100 degrees outside >.< But the Pozoli was really good. We ate Taquitos with it. 

Thursday. Was super weird. Everything just sort of fell through around 3:30 before we finished weekly planning. So we went to our dinner and everything was good but then when we came out of dinner my tire was flat. So we got a ride over to the old apartment and I was able to get a tube off of an old bike. But really we didn't teach anyone. We had to fix some stuff on Elder Juarez's bike too and that took forever and so yeah. The day just sort flew past us :/

Friday. So Friday we decided to go walk. It was hot. Like Super hot. Way to demasiado hot >.< But we found some good potentials and also some referrals for the English missionaries. So that was cool. I got super sun burned though :/ We basically didn't see anyone for most of the day. But we had a really cool experience. So during weekly planning we planned to have somebody else on date for next week and we didn't have a name but we decided to pick a date for this person we were going to find. Then we are riding not sure what to do and Elder Juarez suggests going to try someone we had met a while back. So we went and he was home and he let us in and we shared Because He Lives and he really enjoyed it and they we invited him to be baptized and he said yes and then we invited him for August 15, the day we had planned for and he accepted. it was pretty crazy! Super cool experience how the Lord prompts us and guides us. After that we didn't have much else until we went out with a member that night and we helped 2 little ladies move into a complex and they were actually interested in having missionaries come by so we gave their info to the sisters. So we'll see what comes of that.

Saturday. So the English ward was putting on a Pancake Breakfast so we went. It was ok. We went at 11 because they said they'd be making pancakes from 8-12 but they had stopped a while before we got there so we each got one and there was like nobody there. So we decided to go walking again. That was really good. We met a cool guy named Carlos Santos, he is a trucker, but really humble and receptive. Its really annoying that so many of the best people are truckers and so they are almost never home. But  i figured out I'm probably gonna feel pretty uncomfortable in an English ward to start off. They are just so different. But we'll see how it goes. We also had a cool lesson with the Sanchez Family. We used the Bible and Book of Mormon and they took it very well. Their questions were pretty focused and they were able to understand what we  were sharing with them. Hna has been reading and praying about the Book of Mormon so we just need to get them to church. Hopefully this next week. After that we went to our ward mission leaders house for correlation but he wasn't there and then the sisters called and told us he had cancelled the meeting and dinner so we rode up to Subway and had dinner and then headed to the apartment to start putting the area book into the iPad. That took forever. In the 3 hours we only got like 5 records done. This is going to take forever since an area book can have upwards of 100-150 if its been kept well. So we'll see how that goes the next couple weeks haha

Sunday. Was pretty good. Nobody came to church but we had a good lesson from bishop about making our Sacrament Meetings more spiritual and we watched a video from part of the training that was given in prep for General Conference. We had dinner with the Rosas family and it was really good. Carne Asada, and they had a salsa that they said was super spicy but I tried it and I couldn't taste anything but tomato and then the hna. tried it and she got burned a little. It was pretty funny. Then we went to the Fireside and it was pretty good. I've been teaching myself how to play Nearer My God to Thee on the piano so I was playing that hymn over and over and I guess everyone thought I could play the piano because they started and announced the first hymn and looked at me to play and I was like I only know that one hymn. So we sang accapella. The fireside was good the youth spoke about the importance of education. And well that was the week. 

I know this church is true. I know we are lead by a living prophet. I know God is our loving Heavenly Father and that Jesus Christ is our Savior. this work we are doing as missionaries is real and important and we have to work hard and never stop working to bring others unto Christ. There is no way to heaven but by Jesus Christ. Let us work diligently and invite all we know to come, see, and experience the Restored Church of Jesus Christ. 

I love you all have a great week!

-Elder Zachary Gore

June 29, 2015

Ok so this week was pretty good. Some very interesting things happened. 

So on Monday as we were leaving the library we saw L.!!! It was crazy! We walked over to talk to her and it was like she really didn't recognize us and then she did but she was acting like she didn't want to talk to us and that was sad. We know where she lives though so we'll probably stop by. We also had a good dinner and lesson with the C. Family and we talked about temples. We made some goals with them to be able to go back and hopefully we can help them do that.

Tuesday we had a good dinner with the S. family. and we had a good conversation with them and talked about what we do as missionaries and set some expectations about the visits. They told us they want to learn but that they needed us to show them in the Bible where everything is about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. So we are going to work with them on that. Our English class was pretty good  we had a very good turnout. They are enjoying it and are trying to use what they are learning.

Wednesday I went on exchanges and I went to the English area. It's been over a year since I did that. I almost flipped a switch though. My goodness I might have died in an English ward – English is hard now! But I controlled it and we got through everything. 

Thursday we had a good lesson with J. V., the Taquero (Taco Vender) that lives in the Toriz's neighborhood. We did some how to begin teaching and he took everything well. We are going to try and set up a lesson with him for this week and get his whole family together. After that we had a great lesson with M. and we actually starting to teach her husband too. His name is F. They are both very interested and we were also able to put them on date for Baptism!! They are going to go to R3 though because that is where their son is going and they are going to support him as he prepares to serve a mission.

Friday we went to the temple! it was awesome!!! We took some pictures quickly and left cause we needed to get back to our areas. We had a good dinner at the M. family home and the mom  gave us like 5 people to go visit. Well names of people to go see, we are still waiting on their addresses. 

Saturday we finished weekly planning and then we had our correlation meeting with Hermano. T. and we coordinated some things about baptismal services. It is interesting to learn about how Priesthood keys operate in the Church. Bishops and Stake Presidents have them, and our Mission President has them, so it is interesting to see how those can work together to move the work forward.

Sunday. Nobody came to church!!!! It was super sad.  We had dinner with the Villagranas and that was really good. We talked to them about missionary work and they are going to try and be more proactive in talking to their neighbors about the gospel. 

That was the week! I hope everyone has a good week. I know this church is true. I know Jesus Christ Lives and that he guides us in this work. I know God loves us and wants nothing more than our happiness. I know that if we rely on them we will be able to get through any trial, or problem we might face in life. 

I love you all!

-Elder Zachary Gore