Wednesday, January 7, 2015

January 5, 2015

Dear family,

It has been another incredible and crazy week!  Just to let you know, we moved to a new apartment in the same apartment complex this week.  The lease in our apartment was ending, but the church had another apartment that was vacant so they decided to have us move to that one and close the other apartment.  We knew we were going to move at some point, but last Monday the housing coordinators called us and said we had to be out by Saturday.  We had mini missionaries for the beginning of the week so we decided to not start until they went home.  So we did a lot of cleaning and moving this week along with all the missionary work.  I have lived in three different apartments in the same complex.  Also we have transfers this next week and I'm staying with Elder Rich.  It is going to be his last transfer.

We had an incredible experience with the mini missionaries this week.  They stayed with us until Tuesday evening and it ended with a testimony meeting.  It was amazing to see them grow and have their testimonies strengthened in just the few days we were with them.  We seemed to see a lot of miracles with them.  One day we went to a park in our area and street contacted with them.   I went with one of the mini missionaries and Elder Rich went with the other.  Usually we don't find too much success in finding people at this park, but there are always people to talk to there.  We thought it would be a great experience for them.  It started really rough and people didn't even stop for us.  As we were walking back to where we were going to meet the other missionaries I saw someone over by the lake fishing, and I felt we needed to talk to him.  Talking to fisherman is always the best because they can't walk away from you.  We were able to briefly teach him about the restoration and give him a Book of Mormon.  He seemed genuinely interested and wanted to learn more.  He doesn't live in our area (not even our mission) and he didn't want missionaries to come by right now, but I feel we were able to teach him and help him feel the spirit.   We also stopped by one of the mini missionaries non-member friends.  They were not interested, but they were very nice.  We had a short lesson with them and they told us about how much they liked the church and told us that we could stop by the mother's sister.  So we didn't start teaching them, but we got a referral. While they were with us we were also able to put two people on date to be baptized.  It was just awesome to have them with us. 

One of our investigators was baptized on Saturday!  The baptism went very well.  The most exciting part was her non member husband came to the baptism and her confirmation at church the next day.  We were not sure how supportive he was of her decision and we didn't know if he would come.  He was surprised to see how many people were there to support his wife.  I think he felt the spirit and his heart was softened.  We hope that he will want to sit in on the new member lessons.  We had a lesson with another investigator this week and she is set on being baptized on February 7th.  I think she is excited for it.  We also had two lessons with another investigator this week.  We invited him to be baptized and he had some concerns about what his family will think.  Later on in the week his fellowship texted us and told us that he decided to be baptized and that he was going to talk to his family.  We had a lesson with him yesterday and his parents are not excited about it, but are supportive.  He also seems really excited with his decision.  He doesn't live in our ward so we will try to transition him to his home ward. 

New Years Eve was a normal day for the most part.  We had a short zone activity after dinner and everyone had to be in at 8:00.  Other than that it was a normal day.  We had a meeting with President Nattress a couple days before and he read to us Luke 2:52.  It is the only scripture in the scriptures (that he can think of) that talks about Jesus' growth.  He told us that his family would make goals every year for all four of those things mentioned in that scripture:  wisdom, stature, favour with man, and favour with God.  So that is something to think about when setting goals for this new year. 

It is amazing to be a missionary.  I'm very grateful for this opportunity to be here and to do this.  Every time we have a lesson it is reminds me of how exciting it is do be apart of missionary work.  This truly is the Lord's work and he will help us every step of the way.  I'm grateful for the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I know it's true.  It has blessed me in more ways than I know.  Thank you for all of your prayers and all that you do for me.  I love you all so much! 

Have another wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Joshua Gandy

P.S. Daniel, what are some things that are working well in the singles ward?  Is the missionary work going well in your ward?

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