Another Good Week in Banning, CA

This last week has been interesting. I mean not because we did a lot. It was just a good week on account that nothing bad happened. We had some good lessons and have been working with the less active families’ a lot. We visit them almost daily. Giving support and teaching and talking and trying to get to know them so that we can figure out who in the ward can help them. Its hard work sometimes, especially for me, some people talk really fast and it’s hard for me to understand sometimes. But I'm getting better and I'm doing a lot better at asking people to explain something they said in a different way and asking what things mean. I admit I don't like asking for help. But I'm trying to let go of that and my self-consciousness and just put myself out there. I'm getting more confident and sometimes, well often I find-myself thinking in Spanish. Which helps me focus because it’s like I only can say certain things in Spanish so if I'm thinking it then I can only be thinking about teaching, finding, and the people we are teaching. So that's nice. I still haven't had any dreams in Spanish. But I'm hoping soon I will. 

Elder Baer

In other news: Elder Baer (pronounced Bear) is a boss. He is funny but also knows how to be serious. His Spanish is good. But he seems to like speaking English more. It’s an interesting difference between Elder Moore and Elder Baer. He is also my "brother". As in he was also trained by Elder Cebreros except he has been out for 11 months and I've only been out 7. Holy Cow!!!! I've been out 7 months. That is sooooooooooooooooooooo weird!!!!!!

Our investigators: Well we have two really good ones and one that we haven't seen in a couple weeks and well a lot of people have this phrase which is "Si Dios quiere" which basically means "if God wants" or "if God is willing". Basically it is a way to get out of making a decision to go to church or not. These people believe in God and they believe in Him a lot but they use that phrase to be an excuse and if something happens and like they wake up late or its too hard to get everyone ready to go they say well obviously God didn't/doesn't want me at church today.  It’s like come on people. God wants you at church. It’s a commandment. He is going to help you do it if you make the decision and then try you’re very hardest to do it. Which means you'll be at church. It’s kind of rough sometimes but we are trying. 

Elder Renovato and I are good. We are working together well and he gives me tons more opportunities to speak Spanish.

Elder Renovato

Oh and yesterday (Sunday) Elder Renovato and I went to Primary with one of our less actives. It was a lot of fun. I miss primary. I don't think I could really teach it but it was fun to be in there and do all the dancing and singing and hearing the powerful testimonies of the little kids. It’s really amazing if you think about it. Who really are the best teachers? The little kids, because they grasp the concepts and ideas of the gospel at such a basic and simple level. It’s so cool to listen to them.

Oh and we haven't had planners for the last week. That was really fun. Were there planners back when Dad was on his mission? Were they not allowed to keep them like we do? Cause I've never seen any of his. But weekly planning is pretty tough without a planner. But it was ok. We made it work and we finally got planners yesterday. So things will be a bit more smooth on our side at least.

I hope everyone has a great week and has lots of missionary opportunities!

I'll talk to you next week!

Elder Zachary Gore!

Lots of Rain

Ok lets see. Not a whole ton has happened this week.

Well I mean other than the rain. It was bad, really bad. We got drenched. We were all soaking wet for about 10 hours of Thursday, and for a while on Friday it rained and Saturday too. It was pretty awful. I'm not complaining. It’s just this is really all that happened. And because of it nobody was outside and it didn't help that nobody was home to let us in. But it was... fun :/ . Probably going to get sick but you know it’s worth it. We were able to have some good lessons. We also went on exchanges. Elder Renovato went to Banning with Elder Moore and I took Elder Gonzalez with me to Beaumont. It was good. We almost died in some rivers. But we had a good day. A couple people got baptized and they were really sweet! We also helped one of our recent converts fix his bike so we can pick him up before church if nobody goes to get him. We also went over to a returned missionary’s home for dinner and Elder Renovato gave a thought at the end in English!!! and it was awesome!!!!!!!!! He is always saying he doesn't teach in English and that he doesn't know how and well I made him do it and it was the first time he'd done it! So props to Elder Renovato for English!!!!

Now to the not so happy stuff. 2 of us are being Transferred. :'-(

We are losing Elder Moore and we are losing Hermana Southwick :(

But Hermana Derouch is coming in! So that’s really exciting!! :)

But man am I going to miss Elder Moore. It was a total blast having him in the apartment. But now he is going to be a district leader in Palm Desert, in the Branch over there. He is going to do an awesome job!

Hermana Southwick is going to Fontana and is going to be with Hermana Howe which will be great for their Spanish.

Speaking of which. Mine is getting better. It’s slow still. But I think I’m starting to get over the idea of word for word translation and moving into the idea translation. Hopefully it will help.

Well that’s what we got for the week. I hope everyone has a great week and has fun in all the snow while I’m here in the sun. Humph. So much snow. It’s ridiculous!!

Well I love you all!

Elder Zachary Gore

Finally!!!!

 Guess What!!!!

We got an Investigator!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. We are so excited!!!

We met him on Saturday. He is the father of an inactive family member and he is awesome! He has read from the Book of Mormon and believes it’s true! He believes that Joseph Smith was a Prophet! He believes that the Priesthood that Christ had and all the prophets and apostles in the past have had has been restored to the earth! Its sooooooooo Sweeet!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!

We have to wait until Saturday to teach him. But that’s ok!

And then it gets better!! We were at church yesterday and 3 members of our ward said they had people for us to teach! We are going to go and visit them this week! We think that we were being tested the last 5 weeks to see if we would continue pushing and working even though life kind of stunk. But we areee soooo excited!!!! AHHHHH!!! WOOHOO!!!!!

In other news I can now wear my gray suit again! I ripped the pants and so I couldn't wear it. But (Shout-Out to Hermana R.) a Hermana in our ward fixed them for me which was perfect because on the way to her house I shredded the front of my black suit pants….which I’m sorry about; there was a baptism and we were only there because I was asked to sing.  I sang "Yo se que vive mi Senor" (I know that my Redeemer Lives). It was good, I guess. But the baptism was super, super sweet. The spirit was very, very strong. The two kids that were baptized are total bosses!

But yeah that’s my email for the week! I hope you enjoy it and I hope everyone has an awesome week!

I love this Church and this Gospel! I know it is true and that I am on the Lord’s Errand doing the Lords Work!

Elder Zachary Gore!! :)

Zone Conference

YUCAIPA ZONE CONFERENCE

February 19, 2014

Look at those handsome Elders sitting at the table behind the sisters. 

So the last 5 weeks really have been pretty tough. Biking is really, really hard especially in a large area where it takes at least 20 minutes to get to anyone's home. It’s slightly frustrating because we could at the very least be talking to every person we see but we have nobody to talk to. We can literally go a whole day and the only people we will see are in their cars driving. Nobody is outside and nobody wants to talk to us.  Everyone is always working. The nice thing though is that we have some really awesome members. They have all told us that their homes are our homes and if we don’t have dinner appointment we can just call and come over. But I’m running out of time because we have to go out and work so I’ll talk to everyone next week!

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

Elder Zachary Gore!