Monday, January 27, 2014

January 27, 2014

Dear family,
 
Well it's been another great week like always!  It's always a great week when you're a missionary.   

So I found out earlier this week that we actually can go to the temple open house if we go with an investigator.  Right now we only have one investigator so we might be able to go with him next Tuesday.  I'm excited that our investigator and his girlfriend get to go to the temple.  They are planning on getting married and they really want to be sealed in the temple.  I hope that I get to go with them to see the inside.  I'm super excited to see it!  Well almost everything we do and talk about is the temple.  We have not received any referrals from the temple yet, but hopefully soon. 
 
Right now we have a lot of potential investigators.  It almost seems like potential investigators have just been falling from the sky!  We probably have close to ten potential investigators.  Some of them are so close, but we are having a hard time contacting and setting up appointments with all of them.  We hope to start teaching most of them this week.
 
This is the last week of the transfer so next week I'll tell you if I'm leaving or staying.  I've been in the stake for almost seven months and this area for almost six months, so I feel like I might be leaving.  Elder Gardner and I have been together for almost four months so I'm guessing at least one of us will be leaving.  I really want to stay in this area because I know everyone and we have so many potentials, but at the same time it might be nice to see another area.  It will be interesting to see what happens.  Either way I'll be happy!
 
So kind of a random thing that has happened this week.  I had spaghetti for the first time at a members house.  Everyone thinks we get spaghetti so they never make it for us when we come over for dinner.
 
I'm so grateful for this chance to be a missionary at this time and this place.  This week I was just thinking about all the people that I've met and have taught.  I've learned so much and I am so grateful that I've been able to serve these people.  I'm grateful for the Gospel in our lives!
 
Thanks for all of your prayers! I love you all so much!
 
Love,
 
Elder Joshua Gandy

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

January 20, 2014

Dear family,

The open house started on Saturday!  That doesn't really change anything for us since we are not helping at it, but it's all really exciting!  I'm really excited to see the temple, but we probably won't see it until after it's dedicated.  We're hoping to see some referrals coming in and finding more people interested in it.  Last week one of the news stations did a half hour program about the temple and the open house, so hopefully we will have some people asking us questions or wanting to know more.


We had a really great week!  We didn't have a lot of lessons planned this week, but we ended up having ten teaching opportunities.  We had one lesson with our investigator, and the rest were with recent converts and less active members.  Earlier this week I was reading Elder Ballards talk in this last general conference and in the talk he said, "If you want to teach more, you must talk to more people each day."  So that is what Elder Gardner and I worked on this week.  Normally we try to talk to at least ten people every day.  Since our area is mostly just neighborhoods we sometimes don't see a lot of people especially in the morning and at night (I think people think it's cold at night so they don't come out side usually even though it's only like 50 degrees).  So every week we have a goal of talking to 70 people, but this week we talked to 81.  This week we had a lot more teaching opportunities than we planned and we found 4 potential investigators.  I know that was because we talked to more people this week.  We also had a less active family invite us over for dinner, which usually doesn't happen.  The bishop asked us to visit this family but we have been unable to set up an appointment with them until this week.  One of our investigators also agreed to meet with us twice a week.


We visited the person that was baptized last week and as we met with her you could tell there was something different about her.  Ever since her baptism there is this new light about her and she is so happy even though she is going through a hard time with family and not having a job.  She came to church all by herself this week and she participated in class and everything!  Another investigator is also doing great and you can tell he wants this so much for his family.


I'm amazed every week at all the things I learn being a missionary.  There truly is no greater work than this!Thank you for all your prayer.  I love you all so much!


Love,Elder Joshua GandyP.S.  How is the missionary work going in our ward?


Monday, January 13, 2014

January 13, 2014

Dear Family,
 
It has been a very exciting week!  First, we had an unexpected baptism!  We had this investigator who wouldn't commit to a date and she kept on telling us she wanted to learn more because she wanted to be a good member.  We kept on trying to resolve her concern and help her feel ready for baptism.  It seemed like nothing we said would work.  Last Monday we met with her and out of nowhere she said that she decided that she did want to be baptized on Saturday.  I can only imagine the expression on my face because I was not expecting it!  Earlier that day and the day before she was helping another member in the ward get things ready for a funeral.  As they were putting things together they had a couple hours to talk.  This member helped her feel the spirit and helped her realize that she didn't need to know everything.  At every lesson we try to have a member there so they can have fellowships.  That just showed me how important it is for an investigator to have a fellowship.  This week we got everything ready for her baptism and I got to baptize her and Elder Gardner got to confirm her!  It has been amazing to see her change as we have taught her.  We first met her at the end of August and started teaching her at the beginning of October.  We found her when I accidently switched two numbers in the apartment number of a referral.  I think she is one of the people I would have missed if I didn't come on my mission at the time that I did.  
 
We also had the multi mission conference with the Mesa and Scottsdale missions.  Elder Holland was going to come, but last minute he was unable to make it.  We still had a seventy come to speak to us and it was an amazing meeting.  All of the mission presidents and their wives also spoke to us.  I also saw Sister Willahan!  

This week we were also able to give service to a less active member.  We have been looking for service opportunities for a long time and we finally found someone that would let us help them.  So we raked a yard full of leaves.  We've had a really great week and showed a couple of less active and a part member family the temple presentation that we have been showing people.  We also set up a time to show a non-member the temple presentation.
 
The citrus trees are full of fruit and we have more oranges and lemons then we can eat!  There is so much citrus that I'm not sure what everyone does with it. 
 
Thanks for all your prayers! I love you all so much!
 
Love,
 
Elder Gandy
 
P.S. I was wondering have you heard about the book The Power of Everyday Missionaries by Clayton M. Christensen?  All of the members here talk about it and say it's a really good book, but of course it's not on our approved reading list.
 

Monday, January 6, 2014

January 6, 2013

Dear family,
 
It's been another great week!  It's weird to think it's already 2014.  On New Years Eve we went in at 6 and studied.  It was a pretty normal day on new years eve and new years.  We had interviews so we got a little training from Pres Nattress.
 
We taught one of our investigators  several times this week.  She really wants to serve and learn more about the gospel.  The ward is finding ways that she can serve.  She always tells us about how much she loves coming to church.  She is doing really well, but she doesn't want to commit to a date to be baptized.  We also taught another investigator who has a great desire to serve and be baptized.  Every time I meet with them I'm always amazed at how well they have been prepared to accept the gospel at this time.  Yesterday we met a recent convert that moved in a while ago but decided to come to church for the first time.  We hope to work with him and help him stay active in the gospel.  We also have several potentials that we are working with.  There have not been a lot of exciting events this week, but we continue to learn and we see miracles every day.
 
We are really excited for this coming week!  We are going to the multi-mission conference with Elder Holland on Saturday and the director of proselyting is coming to tour our mission for a couple days. 
 
Thanks for all your prayers!  I love you all so much!
 
Love,
Elder Gandy