July 22, 2013

Elder Gandy has now been in Arizona for two weeks.  Last Monday they moved to a new apartment.  I have updated his address above although he is still in the same apartment complex so the only thing that changed was the apartment number.

He found out this last week that he and his companion are the only companionship in the Gilbert Mission that are assigned to an area that consists of only one ward.  His assessment:  "I think we are the test to see how it will work."

They spend most of their time working with members and have been asked by the bishop to teach a 15 minute lesson on the restoration to as many people as they can, including members of the church.  Here is what Joshua had to say about that:

"It's really been good practice teaching members, and I'm getting better at it every time I teach.  Teaching that lesson invites the spirit into the member's homes and I can tell it increases their desire to be better member missionaries.  We really rely heavily on the members because tracting doesn't really work anymore.  We could also tract my whole area in one or two days if we really wanted to.  I counted the number of houses we have in our area on a map we have, and there are only around 250."

Here is a little more from this latest e-mail:

"Sometimes I feel like my mission is really close to what it is like to serve in Utah.  We have dinner with members every night and people are always honking and waving at us while we ride our bikes.  Also a lot of people have friends that are members and think they know all about the church."

"I got the chance to perform yesterday at a Mission President's Devotional.  Saturday night they asked me if I wanted to be in a quartet.  We sang Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy, and I sang the baritone part.  It went pretty well for only having a half an hour to practice before it started."

For anyone who thinks that 9:00 a.m. Sunday meetings are early, Joshua was surprised to find out that Sunday meetings in the ward there start at 8:00 a.m.