September 9, 2013

Dear Family,

 

It's been a very eventful and exciting week!  To start off we got a new investigator and have been able to teach him twice this past week.  We taught six lessons this last week with non- members.  That is my record so far, but hopefully we will get more this week.  

Having four wards definitely keeps us more busy.  Along with those teaching opportunities we got to go to the temple again this last Wednesday.  The temple is amazing and I'm so grateful I get to go once a transfer.  I'm so excited for the Gilbert temple to open.  

We also had zone conference this past week.  The highlight for the week was having Elder Anderson come.  He talked to us for about two hours.  Everyone got to shake his had and we got a big group picture with the whole mission.  It was a great meeting and I wish I could tell you everything that he said.  He talked a lot about how unique the Gilbert mission is because it is so small and about 20% of the population are members.  The percentage is even higher in some places.  The other unique part is that every missionary will be assigned to one or two wards.  He also talked about how we need to build relationships with all the members and get to know all their names.  He said that we will most likely stay in areas longer so we can build those relationships.  He didn't want to give a specific length of time, but he said generally 6 months would be a good length of time to spend in one area.  

He told us that we are doing missionary work in the way of the future.  It's really all about working with the members especially when you work in neighborhoods where the people are well-off and are not as willing to open their doors to strangers.  The most powerful part of the meeting was when he gave our mission a blessing and bore testimony of Jesus Christ.  I know after hearing his testimony that he is a special witness of Jesus Christ.  I know we have a propeht on the earth today, and I'm so excited for general conference in a month.  It was an amazing experience to shake his hand and sit ten feet away from him while he taught us.  

 

I'm so excited to hear that Cassi is going to Italy.  She is going to love being a missionary.  I'm also excited to hear who got the leads in West Side Story.  You'll have to tell me all about it.  

I'll have to find out the mission blog for my next email.  Everything is going great here!  Yesterday was my two month mark for being in Arizona and we have about another month until it starts to cool down to a nice temperature.  I will probably be really cold here in winter since I'm use to it being over 100 every day.  It is raining right now so hopefully this next week will be a little cooler.

 

Thank you so much for all your prayers.  I love you all!

 

Elder Joshua Gandy 

 

P.S. Mom, you asked how many Elders and Sister are in my district and zone.  There are only two companionships in my district and the other companionship are sisters. There are two districts in my zone and there are 4 sisters and 8 elders. 

 

P.P.S. Another interesting fact about my mission, by next transfer about 93% of the missionaries will have been out less than a year.