Transfer Week...I am staying in Indio!

This week we did a lot of searching and trying new things so that we can get some more people to teach, which is hard because nobody works in Coachella so most of their friends either live out in Indio or Thermal or the other side of Coachella which we don't cover. And well a lot of the people here are members of another church, but not really practicing. A lot of them don't go to church or really do the things they say they believe, they are following tradition and they don't really want to listen to us. They say they already have their religion and they don't want to listen to what we have to say. We are just asking people to listen and then decide. So it’s kind of hard but we are working on it. On the bright side we had a really exciting thing come out of all this searching.

We decided we needed to try something new. So we decided to go Area Booking. The Area Book is a binder where we keep all our records about the area we are working in. It has the ward list, map of the area, and some other things. The "Progress Record" which is where we record who we are teaching each week, what they were taught, what they need. We have the "Teaching Record" which is where we record what we teach people on an individual level. It has space for notes and info about the people and past appointments. So Area Booking is this: when we go into the Potential or Former Investigator Section and we pick some of the people and go visit them. So that's what we did. The first house we went to we made contact with the lady on the record and we talked to her for about 20 mins. We testified and taught and the Spirit was there with us and we invited her to pray to know if the Book of Mormon (which she had read already) was true. And we promised her that if she prayed sincerely and with a real desire to know the truth that she would receive that confirmation, that feeling of peace and comfort and warmth, from the Holy Spirit. We put it into her hands. We invited and that's all we can really do. So we'll see what happens when we go back this week.

 This former investigator happened to live across the street from a less active member of our ward that we had never met. We saw as we were leaving the formers house, the family going into their own house so we decided to go and knock the door and we did and we met the grandpa and we found out that his daughter, the member, gets off at work around 6 so we are definitely going to go back and visit them this week.

 And finally the last like really exciting thing is... (Drum Roll Please) We have a new investigator!! So a girl named Julie in our ward had like a "Gospel Party" and she invited a bunch of her non-member friends over and all the missionaries and we just hung out and talked and played like group games. I think I've already talked about it. But one of the kids there was named Abraham. (Ah-bram(bram rhythms with ham))(For if you want to say it like we do) He is about 17 and he is a really cool kid. But he is the only one that had any questions about the church and what missionaries are and so we went over and talked to him and had a lesson. It was mostly a get to know him because we didn't really have much prepared. Something that morning had messed with our study times. But the lesson was good. It’s tough because well I've never taught any of the lessons before. Because we just haven’t had any investigators this whole time we've been here. Well other then Juan. But really I've had no practice. So that was really throwing me off. Because Elder C said I was in charge and I'm like "...fine". I had no idea what I was doing but we managed to get through it. Hopefully I'll get better as I muddle my way through.

We did a bike day and that was pretty good. I was dying. I'm so out of shape, 30 minutes really isn't enough time, and there isn't really a way to do much cardio. But I'm going to keep working at it and see if I can get myself back into shape. The funny part is I still haven't gained any weight. I'm just getting weaker.

Yesterday we all came back to the house after dinner because one of the 4 of us wanted a blessing. To help him have energy and focus. And then another of us asked for one too for similar things. And we all ended up receiving blessings, I had been feeling I needed one for a little while and this was a good opportunity. But the Spirit and the peace and energy we felt in our apartment was just incredible. I don't have words to describe it. It was like a great burning in my chest and I just felt at peace and I felt comfort and it was exactly what I needed to hear to help me. Now we are all crazy energized and ready to have a really good strong transfer and we feel like we are doing the things we are supposed to so we are happy.

 Well that's the email for the week. I hope everyone has a good week and is successful in their endeavors. Make good choices! Remember who you are and that you have a purpose. Your Heavenly Father Loves You and wants You to be Happy. Read the Book Of Mormon Everyday and through its pages you will be able to feel the Love and Guidance from your Heavenly Father. Pray every Morning and Night and you will be able to have the Spirit and know what You and supposed to Accomplish. I Know this Church is True and that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet et of God. I Know that through him the Church that Jesus Christ Established while He was on Earth was Restored again to the Earth with all the same Power and Authority. I Know that the Book Of Mormon is True and that through Studying it we can Draw Nearer to God. I Know that I have a Purpose and that Heavenly Father has a Plan For Me and because of that I Don't have to Worry. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Our Brother, Our Savior, and Our Redeemer. Amen.

Have A Blast in the SNOW!!!!!

Love,

Elder Zachary Gore

It's December in Indio, CA

It’s December!

There were a lot of people out of town as it was Thanksgiving so not much work got done….

Monday night we had dinner with the T____ family and they are really fun! They are like the best missionary family in the ward. They both served missions and they just love sharing! Also HMA. T is trying to learn English so she understands what we are going through. She doesn't speak Spanish any slower because of it but she tries to talk to us and help us practice. Then we went to the Bishops home for FHE and we shared with them a card and list.  It’s a list of twenty-two things that members can do to be missionaries and we have a little card and we challenge the members to pick 5 of the things as goals to do for the week and try to do all five but at least do three. We haven't had much success but we haven't been doing it for very long. But we are hoping to motivate the ward in missionary work.

Tuesday. We had a district meeting. Then we spent 4 hours shoveling rocks to cover some ones yard. This is what is destroying my shoes. I'm sorry I forgot to take any pictures :/ But then we had a really good dinner with the less-active family L__. They make really really good food.  

Wednesday.  Elder M. and I went on an exchange because he needed to fill out some forms for his visa to Brazil. But it was a good hour and a half drive and then standing around trying to figure everything else out. We left at noon and we didn't get home until after 6. It was long but it was a lot of fun. We talked about Virginia (Elder M. is from Stafford, VA) and about cars, work, bikes. It was a pretty good day.

Thanksgiving was good. Elder C. made me a really good cake and we hung out and I opened all my presents and they are awesome! I'll get pictures of me in each of the new ties next week!!! But we had a long weekly planning and then we tried to go visit HMO. M______ but he wasn't home so we went to dinner. There is the cake video and the gifts I got. But it was really good. Turkey, potatoes, like 200 rolls, 30 or so people and we just talked and had fun. The cake was sooooo good!!! It was 3 or 4 cakes stacked on top of each other. I think I'm going to be really fat at the end of the Christmas season. But that's ok. We are doing the Insanity Workout videos every morning. But after the dinner we dropped off cookies to a bunch of the families we are working with :)

Friday we went on exchanges! Elder Mo. (one of the zone leaders) came with me down into Cochella. It was a lot of fun. We didn't really get a lot of work done though. Which I guess is normal for Elder Mo., he said he has only been on 2 really productive, missionary work wise, exchanges. He thinks it’s so he can really get to know the missionaries and figure out what he can do to help them. But basically everything we tried fell through until after dinner. We decided to go visit this way less active family. Who live at like the bottom of our area. It was kind of on a whim because Elder Mo. told me about the daughter who had flirted with him the last time he'd been there and I was like oh! Hey lets go see if she's there and we go to this home and it was awesome!! Not because she was there. It was awesome because it was just the guys in the family, the dad and the sons. We had a really good talk and I talked to them about the promise in Nefi 3:7 and we invited them to church and they said they would come!!! It was super sweet!!!! Then we went and had a lesson with C. and we talked to him about studying and we did some practice and it was a lot of fun and we hope we were able to help him out. :)

Sunday. Sunday was Elder C.'s birthday. We made a cake and the Hermanas gave him a lot of party stuff and we took pictures.  We were on sugar highs the whole night because like we've had 6 cakes in the course of a week or so. It’s CRAZY!!!!! But it tastes so good. 

The Elder's made the chocolate cake & the Sisters made the rainbow cake for Elder C.'s birthday!

So that is my week! Thank you everyone that sent me letters and presents I love them and I will get on the thank you cards and send them out as I have time. Which isn't a lot but I promise they will come. 

 

Birthday wall

Until Next Week!!!

Elder Zachary Gore

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