We have a new mission president :(

Hey good family

 

  So starting off we have news about the new mission president who will be here in July and who will take over the place. His name is John R. Jensen and he's a professor at South Carolina University and is in Geography( pathetic, at least President Jergensen is a really business man dealing the drugs like it's nothing in broad daylight). So ya he'll be here for like my last 9 weeks or so and will do my exit interview and will know nothing about me and it just won't be the same with the new guy.

 

 

  I don't have much time to write things out but i do want to talk about who we are teaching for a bit.

 

 We had a great lesson with a man named Jin He who is from mainland China and is a student here at ISU and he is just amazing. He doesn't speak the best english but the spirit spoke straight to his heart. We taught the message of the Restoration, and he was in complete agreement. He felt time and time again the spirit thoughout the lesson. He cooked us some food first and we had a great meal of crazy pork stuff and then had a lesson with  him that took until 11 at night to complete. He was asking questions that just took us off our feet, questions like " Some times I wonder what is the purpose of life and who created all life..... Do you know who created all life"? " Why do I feel good here and at the church". " If God is real does he know me"? WOW we were able to answer those questions for him and tell him about Heavenly Father and about Prophets and about Jesus Christ who is the Father of our salvation. We told him about young Joseph Smith who was wondering some of the same questions and the wonderful answers to those questions. I don't know how to speak Chinese but the spirit does and it spoke peace to his heart and it was so wonderful. His American name that he has is Sam and so that's what we call him but his real Chinese name is Jin He.

 

  Alyssa's baptism was so wonderful, and she was crying so hard when on Sunday Elder Herrin gave her the Holy Ghost. How powerful and what a testimony builder that was to have the Holy Ghost like a fire come down from heaven and help know of God's love for her. We are going to start teaching her cousin who is her roommate here soon hopefully.Yesterday Elder Herrin and I reset a baptismal date with Sara ( a 16 year old of less-active parents) for March 9th and she has asked that I do the Baptism. I DON"T HAVE ANY WHITE PANTS!!! I've never done a baptism before! It's going to be great though and she is so ready for the fullness of the gospel in her life.

 

  Yea it sucks having lots of snow and out here it's so ugly with all the gray everywhere.

 

Love much Elder Gonzalez   

 

   I'm still a hard core baller coming in at a perfect 6 foot 2 and 210 pounds

 

It's freezing right now, but my soul is singing for JOY!!

Dear Family

 

  Today is a great day even though the wind chill outside has it at like 0 degrees..... I love Iowa and it's my home!!

 

  SO this past week we were able to have 2 exchanges and it was great.. We have helped 2 areas get a game plan together and start working with members much better. Elder Herrin and I have been applying the principles for Abraham 4 into the work. We are organizing and creating everything spiritually before we actually go and do it. The Lord is blessing us  so much and it's just amazing.

 

We have Alyssa all ready for baptism on Saturday so the Lord is just so good. She is a college student that we have been working with and we just had to most spiritual lesson of my mission with her and it was just amazing. Like Elder Maxwell said" you know more then you can say" that lesson was just too good to put in this email. We sat down and seriously just said like 50 words and it was amazing. So alyssa has been looking into the church for several months now and was just too scared to tell her parents about it who are thick catholics, and we just prayed like crazy and went in there and were just silent and the spirit was just there off the bat. After talking to her about her feelingsfor Christ, we just paused and then the member asked her " so do you believe the Book of Mormon is true"? and she just broke  down and started crying like crazy. We were just crying all over the place. She said that she knew it was true with all her heart and so we said that she was ready for saturday and so she went home over the weekend and told her family. She was so nervous and  she called us on the phone and we had a prayer with her on the phone and she went and told her parents. They still don't like it but she is so excited to be baptized. She's just great.

 

  I love my mission

 

  SO thank you so much for the package it was great and I have already eaten all the jerky.  I love the cookies but I'm starting to get sick of desserts because every member that we eat with just piles on the brownies and ice cream blaah.

 We had a Zone training meeting on Saturday and we had 2 investigators there who are getting ready for baptism in the couple. Who would've guessed that if you actually use the tools in Preach My Gospel that you can actually do the work in the Lord's way and have success. In PMG is says to invite investigators to come to district and  zone conferences to role play with and it's amazing if you actually do it. We had 4 groups teaching at the same time. and they rotated every 15 minutes to another person to teach. It was like the MTC and it was amazing.

 

I hope that Austin is ready for a mission and that president chugg has  really gotten into his soul. I would hate for any of my friends to return early from there missions. Devin just got transfered to his 2nd area and is white wash training for his 4th transfer. 

 

Jared you may want to be aware of who your taking to school dances because I had dinner this past sunday with my prom date and it sucked. It's awakard trying to not show much emotion when she's sitting right next to you. SO the YSA put on a dinner for the missinaries and guess who had to sit right by me..... it's just weird so i have to remind myself that my eye is singel to the glory of God and that my  heart is locked solid and only feels the spirit and a LOVE for the people not girls.

 

So i want to know how everyone is doing? I love y our letters and all but I want to know  this next letter your experience from reading the Book of Mormon between now and Monday. I feel that everyone of you can have some great missionary experiences if you read the Book of Mormon and really focus on the chapters that focus on the Savior that it will come alive better. PMG  page47 is a great place to start.

 

  I love you all and will let you know how this week goes next week hahaha 

 

ONe LovE  Elder Gonzalez   Ames Iowa

Sorry but it's been a crazy week!!

Hey there good family

 

  SO i know that it's wednesday and that it's way latter in the week but I am getting an email off. So on Monday I was spending basically my whole time on the computer helping this old guy  get an email account all set up and having some struggles with getting all the information. So I was able to get all the emails read and I was able to email President Jergensen but just wasnt' able to get a note your way before it was time to leave.

 

  I was able to have one of the biggest miracles of my mission on Saturday was Jared Veach baptized. He was looking so good in his suit and having so many members there to support him. Elder Herrin and I invited a ton of non-members there and were able to have several of our investigators there to witness that powerful moment. While Jared was getting changed Elder Herrin and I were able to teach the Restoration lesson the everyone there in the chapel and had pamphlets for everyone to follow along with. We gave the really shortened version and it was very spiritual. He was confirmed on Sunday and it was amazing. I was able to be in the circle and he said that as soon as we put our hands on his head that he felt a "shock" just  go through his body and it was great to  hear that he was baptized by water and of fire.

 

  We picked up a new investigator named Ben who is a friend of a member that just went on a mission and he is a student in computer engineering over at the university and he's so  sweet. He's the most prepared investigator that we have right now and we're having dinner with him at a members tonight witha lesson.

 

  Last week was transfers and we have some new additions to the zone and we unfortunantley had to take a missionary that was only out for 6 months to the airport to go back to provo. It put a giant rock in my stomach to see the airport. I'm scared out of my mind of that place. I don't want to leave and it put things into a little more perspective when I saw the planes and realized that I have to leave everything on the table here. I might only have 4 more weeks here in Ames and i want to it to be the best 4 weeks ever. I will never be more tired then ever before in my life but it's going to happen.

 

  we did have a black out week this past week and the numbers looked like this  1 1 4 2 9 4/3 3 6 2 2 2 2

 

I love my mission and I did put in the mail my card with pictures in it. I don't know when it'll get there but please send it back because i made a goal to take more pictures and will fill the other one up soon.

 

  We had a stake Priesthood meeting this past week that we as elders taught the Priesthood holder in the stake in smaller groups how to give the NML's has been a bit of a problem in the stake. It was so much fun and we had such a good spiritual experience with our recent convert Tom who is trying to have his family come to the knowledge of the gospel. I just love this ward and I love  Bishop Thacker who has our back in all the things that we are doing.

 

We had zone leader Council yesterday and me and another elder are the oldest ones in that council ( as far as who has been there the longest) and it's crazy to know that things are coming to a close). We had texas  road house and both were paid for by members haha the Lord is blessing us so much and now I'm getting fat haha but not really just muscle and a little bit of fat haha

 

We have an exchange with the story city elders tomorrow and then have a zone meeting on Saturday where we'll try to get some good investigators there to role play with. The work of God is moving forward here.

 

 

I love you all and hope that you all have a great Valentine's day and remember mom that I have a pin on my suit that is a heart/breast cancer awareness pin and You're always on my mind.

 

 

  Elder Gonzalez  Ames Iowa

The Fruits of Our Labors are Coming!!! (from Feb. 4, 2013)

Dear Family\

 

  I am so thankful for all the blessings that the Lord has been able to give to me and to Elder Herrin. This past week we were so busy that it wasn't even funny these were our numbers for the week  0 0 4 3 13 2/2 7 6 3 2 2 2  Never in all my mission have we had 13 member present lessons it was just flat out crazy fun. I've never had so much fun in the work of the Lord then what I've been experiencing here in Ames. I love it here the people of this ward and stake are great and they are so willing to help us out because we are here to work very very hard. Jared is all ready for baptism on Saturday and his good friend is going to baptize him. He's so excited and today we are going to go fit him for his clothing and get him comfortable with the font. Last night we were at the Stott's house and they were watching the super bowl and they paused it ( God bless DVR)  and we filled out his baptismal record and we ate tons of wings and it was awesome and yes I didn't watch any football, but next year I'll be all over that football game.

 

  We had a member from a neighboring branch bring a friend to church and he is a student at ISU and he's very interested in the gospel and so we taught the Gospel of Christ for Gospel Principles class and he just ate it up. We meet with Ben on Wednesday and will set a baptismal date on the first lesson. We were snowed in for 2 days out on exchanges in Marshalltown and that didn't let us get down on ourselves we just did all the phone work that you could imagine and the Lord blessed us wonderfully. Elder Herrin and I will be together for another 5 weeks. This next transfer is only a 5 week transfer due to all the missionary department changes. I hope that I can stay here for at least 2 more transfers because it's just an awesome place.

 

The Ward that we are in is a family ward and there's a bunch of YSA which is where a big majority of our investigators are coming from. If you do the work right then you never have to knock on doors. Elder Herrin and I haven't knocked on one door since we have been here, and we don't plan on doing any of that. There's just more work to do then that. You see we are teaching the members to do our job for us. We teach them how to study from PMG and when we are out of town 3 days a week then they need to be finding for us, and so far it's been working out pretty good. We are in the business of changing people ya see. If your going to be a leader you need to teach others how to be a leader and that's what we're doing with our missionaries and especially with the members. We're teaching members to be effective missionaries since we can't be there and we're not knocking doors to find people to teach so you find them for us and it's working just amazing. You see people changers need to be people recruiters and we're recruiting our members to be missionaries and our missionaries to be leaders in God's holy work. 

 I don't much time left but i do love everything that you all send. I'm doing just fine out here. We have a full time car so don't worry about me getting hit by a truck anytime soon, although I do want to hit some of the college students when they just go walking all over the place without any sense.

 

God's work is true because it's his work and God is true and the gospel is true and me being out here is true and just to let you know I don't want to come home I'm 17 months out and now and it's the worst thing to think about.

 

May God bless you in this great enterprise is my prayer    Elder Gonzalez  Ames 2nd