Iowa not so boring if you're never sober!!! (from June 18, 2012)

Hey ya family it's a good day today i guess that it's going to be 99 today with the humidity making it 105 so no biggy I'm a just going to die and get rolled under a giant tracker.

 

 

Dear President Jergensen

  It's been a busy week with service projects taking a good chuck of our time as well as the zone conference that we had. Elder Pope and I are doing good. We had a little talk about what was on our minds and we went over D&C 121 and talked about how we can let the Holy Ghost be in our companionship. I know that he has had some tough times, but now we are doing much better and are looking forward to this upcoming week.
  We had the Fakhouri family at church yesterday which is a big relief because they haven't been for over a month and they seemed to enjoy themselves very much. We are going to meet with them on Tuesday night and let the spirit really testify to them about the importance of baptism. Elder Pope and I will prayfully set a date for baptism with them and do everything that we can to make it possible.
  We received some good referrals this past week from investigators and from members and they are solid. A lady that we are going to start working with on a regular basis is a lady named Teresa. She has a deadly virus but is in good health. She was good friends with a member in San Fransico and wants to learn much more about the church. We are excited to have the ward help assist us in her conversion.
  Elder Pope and I have gone through the case study together and have picked out some of the priciples that we will impliment in our teaching and member effort. Some include trying to get a meal coordinator who can get us into the homes of part members and less-actives. We also want to have members give simple testimonies on fast and testimony meetings about the spirit that comes from member work. In all things we want to focus on the Doctrine of Christ and get things going even greater then what it now is.
                               Elder Gonzalez Des Moines 2nd Ward

 

 

  I like this place called Iowa it's such a good place to be.    I'm just having a good time

 

 

So we had a fabulous zone conference this tuesday and it went really well with some great trainings from the senior couples in the office and from Doctor craner who is the mission doctor over 17 missions here in the midwest.  It was really cool to have my posterity there it was Elder Harris(mytrainer) me and ELder Ashworth( my first born and birthright child) and Elder Pope my second born all in the same place.

 

So i do have some questions more for Dad.... We have bugs in Iowa and imparticular we have ticks and they are just unpreventable and so they are getting a few bites in..... how do I get rid of the s.o.b's for good because we vacuum and wash sheets all the time but they are just in the apartment and are probably from our neighbors dogs and cats that live next to us and above us and it doesn't help when we are on teh bottom level and we all know that shiz rolls downhill. so any advice would be much appreciated.

 

We gave about 24 hours of service in 3 days to the senior olympics here in Iowa and oh wow what a treat that was... nothing like watching old folks run the 100M and they fall and break their arms. It happened the paramedics had to come several times and it was sad to watch. It was really good though to get in contact with lots of people. We did shuffle board, granny basketball, high jump discus throw, javelin, softball and football toss, long jump, and other crazy crap to set up with the events. The whole zone was involved in it and it was just a blast.

 

SO not much work acually got done because we also helped a member tape and mud his newly replaced drywall and that was a new skill that I now have in the mindvault.

 

I don't really know what to say.... I hope that grandpa and grandma are doing alright and that they can get back on the road to recovery soon and that they will be able to enjoy the rest of their dry summer rather then a humid pool of chaos here in Des Moines.

 

 So this week we got in a weird situation with getting called up to go and help a gay guy move some random stuff out of his apartment. It was extremely gross and he was partially drunk and it was something that just reafirmed to me that without the gospel and prophets.....life really sucks and it's a no go with the spirit.

 

  I just want you all to know that I love you and I am doing just fine here in the fields of corn.... like the great movie Field of Dreams states   " is this heaven?!?........ No this is Iowa" WELL I testify that this is a little piece of heaven and that the Lord is very mindfull of us all.

 

                                                                 Elder Gonzalez Des Moines 2nd Ward

 

Elder Parker is a boss!!!! Elder Hallstrom is legit!!! and we are doing as family guys weather reporter would say...."pretty nice" (from June 16, 2012)

alright so it was a pretty good week with all the chaos that was going on with the mini missionaries and with all the meetings and different forms of service that we gave. I don't have all the time in the world because my other computer that I was on had some problems and so I have to start all over again...

 

Dear President Jergensen
 
  Great Stake Conference yesterday. I really felt the spirit during the session, and enjoyed the talks given by Elder Parker and Elder Hallstrom. Although we didn't have any investigators there, we did have Chris with us who is married to Sheri. He enjoyed the session and will meet with us this week to teach some more to Sheri and really commit her to baptism.
  We have had some success with trying some potentials in the area book and that has brought a new investigator named Bill.  He seems very interested with the Book of Mormon imparticular. He has a family and it seems that for him it will be key for him to read on his own and for us to have very prepared lessons and committments for him. Our ward mission leader is helping with his fellowship.
  I like how the Stake was using the mini missionary program. It was so much fun and Elder Pope and I were able to have some good appointments with some less active and part member families. We met a lady named Nancy who is in need of some service and seems willing to listen to our message if we lend her a hand with her yard.
  Something that I will focus on is the accountability training that the Zone Leaders presented. I know that accountability has been a problem in the district in the past and that will be a major priority every district meenting and call in summary report.
  Elder Pope is doing well. He finished another week as being the senior companion and that went very well. I will make him the senior companion starting again next week and for the rest of the transfer. We have started the case study and are going to impliment the short, brief, but powerful messages with our members to get them into a missionary mindset.
                                       Elder Gonzalez    Des Moines 2nd

 

 

  I love the people of Iowa and I love the good members who show their faith by attending stake conference and really soaking up all that the general authorities of the church have to say. Elder Fred A. Parker is from Atlanta Georgia and he was a funny guy. He diffinantly has a southern draw and it's a good thing that he is on our side because if he wasn't then he would make one heck of a southern baptist pastor and would prob hate the church, but he's legit and he has a very strong testimony of the Savior... He used to be the stake president of the Atlanta Georgia Stake and that covered a geographical area that has more people then the whole state of Utah! Crazy!

 

  SO Elder Hallstrom spoke and he's a man that doesn't have any notes and he just told the people his love for them and how they are so great and how the work is moving here and then he layed down some fire and just told the people to hometeach or else " it will not be well with them in the last days" and that will help open the door for us the missionaries as we try to get into some splits with the elders Quorum in the ward.

 

 One of our mini missionaries was a kid named Jerom and he is leaving next month to go to Armania on his mission and that's like right next to Iraq and Georgia and whatnot and so I really let this kid just have it with what is expected of him because he is taking it so lightly and is just really immature for what is going to be demanded of him and so I had a little talk with him and let him know how it really is. I think that after I laid it out for him that it's not a game and it's not a joke how he will have a very serious mission to open the door to those who have never heard of a Mormon and who God has prepared for quite some time. His mom had to forwarn us on his status and I can see why now, and so hopefully 12 weeks in the mtc will allow him to staighten up and God knows that he needs it but I just hope that he is a little more aware of what is expected of him.

 

   SO no email from Tony which prob means that I have a book on it's way in the mail.    I;'m glad to hear that Jared is doing some running... I really want to know what his fastest mile time is.   Mine is 6:12 back in 9th grade.   I'm also glad to hear that you are doing good mom I plan on sending out a envelope with the memory chip and pic of my shoes today so that they can look at it. From what I can see it's prob just wear and tear on the back sole. and it's a hole and it sucks..... these ecco's sure are nice but don't last worth crap.

 

  So rumor has it that this week is the US open........... wow I could care less you know why because that has nothing to do with my purpose as a missionary and i guess that the finals are going on but you know what WHO CARES It doesn;'t mean anything is the life to come so it doesn't really matter to a missionary here in Iowa who is giving his will up to the will of the Father.    ... man it kills me to say all of that but it's the truth I love it here and I know that the Lord will help me in this area as I obey and work hard it's just that simple..... every conference... every training meeting.... every prophet always refers back to...... keep the commandments. it's just the way it works and I love it.   what a perfect system......... obey=blessings..... what more could you ask for.

 

    I love my mission and It's weird to think that it's already starting to seem like I'm coming up on a year... oh golly look out Elder Gonzalez is here to make it rain

 

                                 One love my friends          Victor

 

 

You would not believe your eyes if 10 million fireflys lit up the world as I fell asleep....... Literally they're everywhere

So it was a good week and It took forever to read Tony's emails because they were a novel sized hunk of junk and i couldn't print it because I don't have any quarters..... so It's all good.

 

 

Dear President Jergensen

  It was a great week in the aspect of having the Mulhern boys at church for the 2nd and 3rd hours. I know that they had a enjoyable time and we were able to attend gospel principles class with Brother Mulhern. Elder Pope and I had a sit down with the parents and talked about our goals and what we need out of the parents to have the family united with the gospel. It was discussed that we are going to be helping the boys get to church more by having some of the young men and young women invite the boys and we are going to walk with them to church. This is going to be a process for sure because we don't want to force them into baptism, but allow more spiritual experiences to let them make the choice to be baptized. Something that the parents expressed is that they don't want to force them into doing something they don't want to. This comes from the fear that they will push to hard and so what happened to their older children, that is forcing them into the church and then having the kids hate it as soon as they turn 18. Many prayers are in their behalf and we'll keep you updated.
  We did have a lesson with Chris and Sheri and Quentin this Saturday. They don't have a baptismal date as of the moment. They didn't make it to church this weekend but I'm going to try my hardest to have them at the new and returning members meeting with Elder Hallstrom during Stake Conference.
  We lost a couple due to them moving to Ankeny and we're getting their address to send to those elders.
  Finding is still a big problem for us. We are going to be putting it on the pavement this week to find and set up appointments for Friday and Saturday so that our mini missionaries will have those teaching oppurtunities. We're excited for them and will do all we can to let them get motivated for their missions.
  Elder Pope is doing well and he is once again senior companion this week. We are focusing our studies on the pamphlets and getting very familiar with the lessons.
  I like what 3rd ward is doing with all the baptismal dates that they have. I know that the work there has greatly improved and that the members are giving referrals more and that is resulting in more teaching oppurtunities with them.
  I am pleased to have Sister Little with us know, I can tell that she is doing well with Sister Thompson.  I hope that Stake Conference will help get the members to start more with their missionary work so that these areas can see more fruit.
                                     Elder Gonzalez   Des Moines 2nd

 

 So glad to see that all is well with the family back in Utah I wish that you could be out here in iowa to see all the fireflys because it just makes it so magical. I have to always remember that God has such a good sense of humor and is so aware of what makes us happy so he such variety to us to enjoy like the simple firefly. It's cool to catch them and to watch them light up and just buzz off with their friends.

  SO i like to hear from everyone and I like how you Tony are getting with good friends who have such a common influence on you.   Do you have a job yet?

  So things have been good here..... we have been hitting up all our potentials and are running out so we're finding this week and it's going to be so much fun. We have a lesson tonight with an african family and we are way excited for that.

  So I like to start all my paragraphs with so so I'll do the next one the same.

  SO the Stake is having this thing called mini missions where some youth in the stake between 16 and 19 go with us for a couple of days all day and just get to have a taste of what our missionary life is like. Elder Pope and I are going to have 4 young men with us and we will be in 3somes all day for those 2 days so we are going to be scheduling everything for those 2 days which is Friday and Saturday. I am way excited for Stake Conference and for Elder Hallstrom to come on in and rebuke all the members for not doing home teaching and missionary work. I know that he will mention how we need another stake here and that's not going to come from move in but from more convert families here in Des Moines. President Jergensen has really been on us, the Des Moines Zone, to get to the family neighborhoods and find that family that is ready for the message of the Restoration.

  I love the gospel and I know that it is true with all the political crap that is our here right now it's just insane. It's not uncommon for us to walk down a street and stand at an intersection and have 3-4 cars drive by and yell some serious stuff at us. At times it does strike right to my soul how much these people need the gospel and I try my hardest to not get mad and start thinking of things to yell back.  I can definantly see why nephi cried at night for the welfare of his brethern. My love for the people of Iowa and Des Moines is so great that I even tear up a bit to see how much they don't have. Yes there is a lot of rich folks here that work for these big banks and insurance companies and drive all the nice cars they want, but until they humble themselves and give ear to our message that we freely give then they will never know true happiness. It just wrecks me inside.

  The truth is, Christianity is dying. The young generation doesn't have a belief in a God and those that do just don't see the big picture. Many of these churches are struggling with money and it's a shame that they can';t see the higher light. I never brag by saying " we have the truth and they don't haha" but at times that's what needs to be said when we are asked why " why should i listen to your so called message of truth" and ya know the truth hurts for those that ain't ready just like Matthew chapter 3 says." the evil hate the light"

    My testimony is this ...... God lives.  His son lives... the Holy Ghost is real and it teaches all men to do good. I know that this is the truth and that by learning of Christ's restored gospel is the only way to true happiness, a happiness that I am and will yet experience.   and as the apostles in the new testiment say   ....... Grace be with you!!

 

 

                                                                                       One love   Elder Gonzalez   Des Moines 2nd Ward