May 18, 2015

Ok soooo this weeeeek. 

I didn't take many pictures sorry. or take many notes for the week :( We are super busy. Going all over the area. Well not like crazy but we are trying to cover everything. But we are moving quickly and always planning and trying to be as efficient as possible with the car and everything. Its hard work. The only time I have for myself is when I'm sleeping haha. So not really even time for me. It kind of strange how not focusing on yourself and focusing all your time and attention on other people and their needs just makes you so happy. 

But anyway for the week.

So Monday was good. We had dinner with the Espindola Family and we talked to them about their missionary work and they are starting to work with a family friend that they invited to the Mothers Day Lunch/Dinner that was the next saturday. Then we had a lesson with the Martinez family and taught them the Restoration as part of the new Member Lessons for Recient Converts, since Caroline got baptized 3 weeks ago.

Tuesday. We had Zone Meeting and we were told that it is no longer our job to strengthen the members or less-actives by going and sharing a faith building message, president says that when we go into anyones home the purpose is to find. We go to members homes, we are there to find. We go to a less-active, we are to help them become active but at the same time, Find. It was kind of like mind blowing, but at the same time it made perfect sense. In the Redlands California Mission we Baptize. We help people develop faith in Christ, and Repent so that they can be Baptized. We help members go to church and endure to the end so they can renew the covenants they made when they were Baptized. We Baptize so that we can help our brothers and sisters get to Heaven. You can't get there any other way but by Faith in Christ, Repentance, and Baptism. Its the Beginning not the End. Baptism is the gate that will allow us to get to Heaven. And I could go on and on about all that we learned haha. But I don't have time for that. So we took this new outlook and went to some members homes and talked to them about missionary work and everything and they are all very excited to work. We've set up 2 FHE's for tonight and both families are going to invite some friends over to participate. It was super cool. That night we had our english class and that went very well. We had a great turn out and everyone loved it. We also noticed that Noelia wasn't doing so good. She didn't go to her class she just sat in the foyar. So we talked to her a bit and we found out that she had heard that some of the young men had been saying bad stuff about her and she felt attacked. She didn't want to talk to us then so we left it at that. Hopefully we can figure it out. 

Wednesday we drove up and picked up Jose, one of the sisters Recient Converts, and took him out with us. He is a really cool kid, just likes to have fun but is also willing to work and share his experiences. It was really cool because Jose got to witness 2 Priesthood Blessings that we gave to some members, and he was also great help with the Pacheco boys.

Thursday it rained so i got to drive in it! It was super fun. reminded me a bit of home haha. Except i was in a corolla instead of a truck, but it was an alright day. Not to many people were home but we taught the Pacheco boys again and they are progressing well.

Friday was a good day. We were on exchanges, so it was Me, Elder C, and the English Speaking, Elder B. We did some service at the library. Then we stopped by Familia D's house and he told us that he didn't want to come to church so that was pretty rough but we saw A who is an investigator and the boyfriend of a member and that was pretty sweet!

Saturday we had the Mothers Day Dinner/Lunch thing. It was really good. Everyone enjoyed it. We had chicken tacos and there was music and dancing. After that we had a crazy 3 part miracle, or 3 miracles that happened all in the span of 30 minute! When i first got to this area we had an investigator named Rey and there was a family that lived next door and they were out pretty often and we'd talked to them and we had a pretty good relationship but they weren't interested in having us come by and teach. So after a couple months of not having seen them we were in a appartment complex and the mom see's me and asks if we can help them move. we helped them move and then they invited us to dinner! We are going this tuesday! It is super cool how the Lord puts you in places so that you can start to prepare people and then how everything works out perfectly so that they can be more open to accept the Gospel. While we were helping them move, some members from Upland stopped us and told us to go visit a friend of theirs who lived in that complex, Member Referral, and then we went over and contacted him and he told us that he'd been hoping we'd stop by to give him the direction to the church and everything. it was super cool!!!

We had a great lesson with the M Family on Sunday and Hna. told us why she didn't really want to come to church. So we are going to work with them on that because Hna knows its important and wants to be able to have the guidance of the Spirit and be clean. So hopefully we can start moving forward now. And that was the highlights of the week! 

So I hope everyone is doing good! I hope everyone had a great week and that this next one is awesome too!

I'll talk to yall later!

-Elder Zachary Gore

May 11, 2015

Ok so this week was kindof interesting.

On Monday we had a lesson with the Pacheco boys and a FHE with the Martinez Family. In the FHE we watched a couple parts of the Preach My Gospel DVD's that we use and we talked about preparing to go on Missions. It was super fun. The Rodriguez Family was there and Hno. Rodriguez asked if he could borrow the DVD's.

Tuesday.

So we decided to make the greatest map that had ever existed in the Rialto 4th Ward. We went to the Library and we starting copying the maps and fitting them all together but we didn't have time to do much more then put them all onto a file in order. It took about an hour and a half to do it all. After that we went over to the Camacho's home. They recently moved into the Ward and one of the daughters has a boyfriend who is 19 and is interested in the church. So we had our fisrt lesson and got to know him and what he expected and so forth. His name is Anthony, please pray for him.

Wednesday everything fell through sooooo yeah. I don't have any notes for that day..

 Thursday. We had a great lesson with N and M! We talked about Baptism and about how they feel the spirit and they shared some really cool experiences. Maggy told us that she feels a good, warm feeling in her chest every time we talk about Baptism. She wants to do it, she is ready. N told us that she feels/hears a small voice in her head that is like whispering to her that she should get Baptized. We talked about Baptism and how we can be clean from all of our sins, all of our mistakes, and have those burdens lifted off of us and Noelia really wants that, so we invited her to pray and ask if she should get baptized. She said she would and she's been praying about it the last couple days. Hopefully she'll get her answer soon. 

So Friday we went back to the library and printed out all the maps. We walked around in the rain a little bit and then we had dinner. After that we had a lesson with a guy named W, he is the brother of a member, that went super well and then we had another lesson with the Familia P and taught them the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom.That went super well and we found out that the boys have some problems with drinking ice tea so we are going to work on that.

Saturday we did some service for the Cub Scout Day Camp and we did a bike safety station. We taught them how to ride a bike safely, with hand signs, and stuff. I even simulated a wreck and basically threw myself off my bike. Mom i'm sorry about the Columbia Jacket >.< After that we picked up Jose who just got baptized and he came out with us. It was fun he bonded really well with the people we were visiting and he had a lot of fun!

Sunday.

So Sunday was interesting. So we called everyone trying to set up rides and make sure our investigators were coming to church but nobody answered and we were just like "awwww" (sad face) so we get to church and there are maybe 50 people there. Thats like not even a quarter of usual. 

(Edited)

Then as everyone knows we skyped our parents. So crazy thing that we hadn't planned. There were 5 of us on skype at the same house at the same time. So the connection was a little bad but it was really fun to see my family again. It makes you a little trunky but its not tooo bad or anything haha. After that we had our crazy car adventure where we were trying to visit a family and we got stuck inside the gate and we were so lucky that somebody came in because otherwise we might have been stuck there forever!

But thats been the week! I hope everyone has a great week! And enjoys the last bit of school and stuff before the summer starts. I know this church is true! I know I'm out doing the Lords work and that He is guiding us. 

I'll talk to you later!

-Elder Zachary Gore

May 4, 2015

Ok so as everyone knows we all stayed in our areas with our companions. Weeeeelll that didn't actually happen. So Tuesday everything was fine and dandy. We had our last district meeting thing as only Spanish and we rededicated the chapel for the missionary work as a district. After that our district leader called us and we did a emergency exchange to go give a blessing in the hospital and then that night we went to mutual to wait for an investigator family and we played a little game of soccer with the youth while we waited.

On Friday we did some service at the library and then we went and had a couple good lessons with people up in the North part of the area. I'm not really sure who they are yet. So in a week or so I should have most of it down haha. Then we had dinner at the Familia C. and we had some really good carne asada and hot dogs and rice. We also saw the new mothers day video. That was cool. After that we had a bomb lesson with the Pacheco boys and we role-played them asking their dad if they could get baptized. It went really well so we are looking forward to see tonight how it went. After that Elder C got sick. He ate to much food. So he was struggling through our last appointment with Familia M. But then we got back to the apartment and Elder C threw up everything and he's been fine ever since. 

Saturday. We got up had studies and did another 4 hours of weekly planning. Its super hard to combine 2 areas >.< So much work. But that night we had dinner with Hermano G and it was super good I don't know what you'd call it but it was a bowl of beans and chicken. You just scoop it out with tortilla chips and its pretty dang good. Then that night we had the second English class. Nobody showed up :( But thats ok. Its a saturday night. Thats kindof hard for people. So we'll see what happens next week.

Then Sunday came. We had a super crazy Elders Quorum Class. It was about The Law of Chastity. It was definitely a guys only class. One hno said "Hablando de los casados y no casados, Los que estan adentro quieren salir, y los que estan afuera quieren entrar!" Which means- Speaking of those who are married and not married, those who are on the inside want to leave and those who are on the outside want to come in! It was so funny. After that we had a super good lesson with the Familia S. I was mostly focused on N and M and Elder J and Elder C were focused on C, and it was super good. We found out a lot of the doubts and problems and N even told us what her main concern was about Baptism. We talked about it a bit and she is feeling better about it now. M really wants to get baptized so we are working hard with them.

That was the week really. It has literally been one of the most hectic of my whole mission. Craziest thing I have ever been through. Could never have imagined this would happen. I'm sorry about the lack of pictures. I'll take more this week i promise! I hope everyone has a great Mothers Day. Watch the new video that church made its super good! http://mothersday.mormon.org/

April 27, 2015

Hey so to start off with Transfer News. Everyone is staying the same in the Rialto 4th Ward!!! Only weird thing is that we are getting a new English District leader, it should be interesting. 

Monday. So Monday everything we had planned fell apart at the last minute so we decided to go see the P. Family. We had a really good lesson with the boys. We went over the plan of salvation and they took it all in really well and are starting to understand that what they do here on earth really effects where you go after you die. We invited them all to church and their mom said that she would take them this Sunday!

Tuesday I went to the doctors at 8:30 in the morning. I had my last meeting with my doctor and then we went down to the pharmacy to get my meds. While we were waiting a lady walked up to us with water and muffins in her hands and handed them to us and introduced herself. She was a member from the Prospect Park ward in Redlands. It was super nice. We hadn't really eaten breakfast that morning because we had to leave around 7:30 that morning. Then we went back to Rialto and had District Meeting. After that we had a lesson with Daniel in his office. His office is what we call his car, which is normally where we have lessons. We had a good talk about faith. He really is starting to get that we have to act in order to receive help. That Faith is more than just believing, you have to do the things God has asked us otherwise you really don't have faith. We had tacos with the J. family for dinner they were really good. I love tacos!!! I literally have no idea what I'm going to do without tacos!! >.< Then we visited hermano R. We shared with him about reading the Book of Mormon and about how we can receive answers to our problems and challenges as we seek for revelation. 

Wednesday. Wednesday we got up and ran again. We have been doing a flip flop in the mornings between running and lifting weights. We had a little lesson with Hermana. M. about reading the Book of Mormon. She said she'd start reading again. So we are hoping that maybe it'll be a good starting place to get her back to church.

Thursday. We had set up a lesson with L. at the church but when everyone showed up L. was a little drowsy from her medications so we didn't teach anything but we gave her a blessing because she has been having some health issues and she is really worried about her family. Then we went back to the apartment and did weekly planning. We had dinner with the M. family and it was a miracle! They actually all sat down and ate with us!!!

Friday. Friday was sweet! We found N.!!! She's back!!! We were just going to stop by the S. families house to invite them the FHE that night and when we knock on the door N. answered!!! It was crazy!!! So they came to the FHE and the Relief Society was in charge of the lesson and we were in charge of the games. So we started with a game where you flip the cups it was fun but not like super good, then we tried a game where you had to pull a card out from in-between 2 staked cups so that they would fall onto each other, that didn't go so well either so then we decided to do my game which was a race, where each team had a towel and they had to pull the members of the team across the gym and back. It started off as a race but very soon turned into a free-for-all of everyone getting pulled across the gym, including the bishop, I'll see if I can get a hold of the videos and pictures from the other missionaries!

Saturday. There was a baptism that night for 3 of the sister’s investigators and for one of the investigators of the other elders. It was crazy and started late but there were about 80 people there and all-in-all it went well. The sisters had never been in charge of putting together a baptism but they did a pretty good job for not having that much help. 

Sunday was good too. A little crazy in the morning but good. Elder Juarez got invited to a Baptism that was going to happen in San B at 12:15 so he got picked up and I got dropped off with the other elders and Juarez went to church in San B and so I was with the other elders all morning. It was fun. We got to church and we were scrambling around trying to get everything set up for the confirmations and how to get our investigators to church. I'm just glad that it all worked out. We had all the P. family boys come and all the S. family kids! It was super awesome! I saw the P. kids walk in about 5 minutes after church started and I almost jumped out of my seat from excitement! 

I'm super glad I get to stay another transfer here. This area is awesome! I love the people and I'm so excited and happy to be a missionary and get to help people find more happiness through the Atonement of Christ. This church is true. Jesus Christ is at its head and we are helped and guided in all that we do as we do His Work. 

I hope everyone has a good week! I'll talk to yall later!!!

-Elder Zachary Gore