I'M 20 BIG WOOP............NAAAAAAAAAAAAAA IT'S A PARTY IN THE USA!!!!!!! (from August 20, 2012)

Hey yall it's another beatiful day here in Peoria Illinois the good ole' Land of Lincoln. I woke up this moring a little taller 6 foot 2  and 5/16th. a little heavier 214 pounds and a little happier because I had the " it's my birthday grin" on my face. I did do the normal study routine and it was great and they we had our comp study and we practiced for our investigator anthony and we set a baptismal date with him this morning for the 29th of September. 

 

Here's Presidents letter..........

 

    Dear President Jergensen

  I'm very happy with the time that I have had to serve with Elder Manwaring, I'm sad to see him leave but excited to serve with a new companion and hit this area running.
  We have had a slightly disappointing week trying to make contact with Hyland and Dedra. We had a lesson scheduled with them for Thursday and we rescheduled for Friday but had their phones turned off when the time for the lesson came around. We will continue to try and make contact with them and have some members try to make contact with them as well.
  We did set a baptismal date with a man named Anthony this morning for the 29th of September. He is trying to find some answers in his life and comes from a rough background. We plan on having a church tour with him on Thursday.
  We are very excited to have Pontiac open back up and to get some new excitement in this zone and continue implimenting the Spiritual vs Social conversions in the wards and branches.

 

  So I'm so glad to hear every week that Mom is doing better and that things on the homefront are stable.

I can't believe that another school year is about to start and that it really means nothing to me besides all the little g-units will be in school and off the streets here. Jared still hasn't sent me a list of his classes and who his teachers are... I want to know.

 

SO i got to do some fun stuff this past week. We went on an exchange out to Bloomington( my home turf) and that was awesome. the elders out there are in some major help. they are piling out and that's not good. SO i gave one the talking to while we were out finding (very similar to a Tony rebuke) and so he didn't like that I stepped on his toes for not getting in with members and not even making a concious effort to really find by the spirit. He's been there every since i left there and so with a little email to president he's now packing his bags and heading to a new area.

 

  I only had one transfer with Elder Manwaring and it's been great by far the best companion that I've had my whole mission. He will be at my homecoming so no worries you'll get to meet him. I do get a new fresh zone leader and so I'll have my hands full with all the assighments that i have to get done before sunday which is a stake coordination and then this next transfer I'll be organizing a Zone Conference, Interviews with 3 districts and a ZLC all the way to Des Moines and another Stake Coordination meeting in Bloomington. I'm a little stressed out by all the changes. We have 2 new missionaries coming into the zone fresh from provo and so we will be excited for fresh meat and there is going to be a big change with companionships here. 6 leaving the zone. 8 coming back because we are opening a new area. which will bring out total number of missionaries to 24 in the zone.

 

Yesterday we sang a song in sacrament meeting in the ward just the missionaries up on the stand. 2 sisters and 3 elders singing with Elder Manwaring on the piano. We sang joseph smith's first prayer to the tune of come thou fount. tears were all over the place. it was sweet i didn't know that i could sing that way. First I learn to ballroom dance now I'm singing............... what's wrong with me GET ME A GOLF CLUB GHAAAAAAAAAA.

 

 

Family I love you all so much and I know with every fiber of my soul that the work is true and it brings salvation to the children of God.

 

Pray for the Peoria ward they could use it. 6 missionaries in one ward and not a whole lot of missionary work going on.

 

Love yours truly Elder Gonzalez   Peoria Illinois 

My last mission email as a teenager... I'm super sad :( (from August 13, 2012)

So family it's been a crazy day. It is P-day but it also is the week before transfers and so we have to help arrange who will stay and who go. Oh and I also got to play some golf today so that always takes the biggest chunch out of your afternoon and we helped load up a U-haul truck for our investigator Delores who is moving to Detroit and that makes me really mad.

 

So Delores has been the investigator that we have made the most progress with this past transfer. She has progressed to a baptismal date and had that moved because she still was living with her boyfriend and so we moved to to August 25th and she is now one the spur of the moment going to Detroit and that is a real bummer because we've taught her everything and she is excited for her baptism but it will have to wait for some lucky A missionaries in Detroit to have her fall right into her hands all prepared and ready for the font so that's a "Shot though the Heart" for sure.

 

I did get some good letters in the mail this past week from some friends on their mission and a record setting 2 chick mail letters for a cherry on top.

 

We had Zone Leader Council on Tuesday which was the most spiritual meeting that I've ever been in. Our baptismal goal is for 400 this year and we are only at 202 as of the moment so we really are just going to buckle down and keep the faith that we will be able to get all the baptismal dates that we can get so that we can see some more baptisms in this area and in the zone and in the mission.

So after each ZLC there is a new Zone Training Meeting or ZTM and that's where the whole Zone gets together and had basically a super District Meeting and the trainings are done by the Zone Leaders and they are the trainings that where given at the ZLC. We have had 2 since I've been here and so ZLC happens on the first tuesday of each month and then 2 days later the Zone Training meeting will occur and that takes over district meeting for the week. Our meeting was great and we had a trainging on the Holy Ghost in conversion  and then had a training on the Atonement and how that needs to be the focus of our missionary efforts. If an investigator is spiritually converted to the Atonemant and feels the power that it has then they will never leave the church ever. Our Purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ through Faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement.... If that doesn't take place then they truly aren't converted to the main message that we are trying to get across. The Book of Mormon is the greatest resource for the What, Why, and How the Atonement works. I have been focusing my studies this past week on all the chapters in the Book of Mormon which talk and testify about Christ and his mission as the Savior. The best place i was able to find this was in Preach my Gospe Chapter 3 at the Beginning of Lesson 2 of the Plan of Salvation. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that testimony keeps getting stronger every morning when I prepare and build my testimony of the Savior in my personal study and then later on in the day I do my best to share the testimony with those that I come in contact with.

 

On Saturday I got to be on a specialized training with President Jergensen, he was in town and was going to be interviewing Dedra for her baptism and because she has done some time behind bars President has had to do it well in advance. It went very well and I know that she is truly put she past behind her and is striving for a deeper testimony of Christ. Being with President was get he is definantly someone that I want to be like when I grow up.

 

So I do have some comments for the family..... Does the Gonzalez family have a family mission plan?...... If not I know that Tony will be an expert at helping develop one and getting the Gonzalez family to be a missionary oriented family.

 

It is sad to think that I'm down to my last few days as a teenager......................... I really do feel like I'm leaving something behind. All of my greatest memories have happened in the past few years and now I have to grow up and be a man. The apostle Paul wrote.... When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. This is how I feel in a very real sense I know that I can't do and act the way that I once was. I have learned what it means to give up everything and to put D&C 4 to the test and to apply the " eye single to the glory of God" in my everyday life. Although this area isn't seeing the success that it needs I feel something inside of me starting to swell I cry often in my scriptures and in my pondering when I think about the great blessings that I have an how that can effect all those around be but they won't listen because they are spiritully blind at the moment.

 

I have been reading through a talk this past week called the 4th missionary.... if you haven't read it READ it and this a passage from that talk.  Paraphrasing C.S. Lewis the Lord says to us: "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work: I want You. All of you. I have not come to torment orfrustrate the natural man. but to kill it. No half-measures will do. I don't want to only prune a branch here andanother there; rather, I want the whole tree out. Hand it all over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them all over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a newself in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. Myheart, shall become your heart." I know that  this is so true and I'm trying my hardest each and everyday to put away all the desires of my heart, which might not nesessarly be bad but are keeping me from having my focus on 400 and from having the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. 

 

When I return Home, which is a long time from now, I want to be different. I want to act different. I want others to see in me the Savior. I desire the change that Alma 5:14 talks about. I want Christ in my image and to have a lasting change of heart. Over a year left and I feel that it's not enough time.  

 

I love you all I a pray for you morning and night 

 

                               Elder Gonzalez Peoria Illinois   

 

Personal Revelation.... I just suck at it (from August 6, 2012)

What's up yall     it's a good day because it's P-DAY and it's always good if it's p-day hahaha

Dear President Jergensen

  It's been a great week with a good exchange with Galesberg. I went out with Elder Beck and it was a good experience to see how his training is going, he's doing a very good job. They are working on getting a couple of their investigators a baptismal date as they are able to make it to church.
  We have been trying to help Delores with her progression, and she has a strong desire to be baptized, but it will probably take more time since she is living with her boyfriend. Elder Manwaring and I had a good Plan of Salvation lesson with her this past week and she enjoyed church this Sunday. On Wednesday we will be teaching her the Law of Chastity and seeing where she is from there.
  Dedra has been diffucult to contact this past week and so we will try as hard as we can to get her ready for an interview on Saturday and ready to get on the path towards baptism.
  I'm learning tons and I'm excited for the meetings this week which will boost the motivation missionwide.

                               Elder Gonzalez Peoria Illinois

  So it's been a fun week with an exchange out to Galesberg which is a drive of about 45 minutes. Out there is Elder Beck who is in the training process of a young elder. It was awesome that area has a lot of potential and has seen like 8 baptisms in the past year or so and it looks like they are going to be getting some more. We then had district meeting with that district out in Kewanee and that was a little bit of a hastle. There was a ton of road construction in those little narrow corn field roads and that made for a wait of about 25 minutes in our sweet mini van haha

 

We have to leave town today for a zone leader council in Iowa City tomorrow which will take up a majority of our day. To prepare for that we have been coming up with a zone report and all the necessary paperwork and that's quite the hastle when you don't have much time to do much at all. Our week is filled with exchanges with areas that are about an hours drive away and with meetings and preping that we only have so much time to acually go out and work that it's kinda taken some wind out of my finding and preaching sails. We usually pray over a map and really see where the Lord would have us go to find one that is prepared to hear the message. Usually a prayer will be like this. " Heavenly Father we only have an hour to find this week, where do we need to go to find someone to teach"? It usually turns out good and feel inspired to go to a certain street to find. How can I improve on my Personal Revelation??

      Sorry this is short but I love you all Vic