November 25, 2013

Dear family,

 

It's has been quite the eventful week here in the mission field.  We had a mission tour with Elder Bruce D. Porter.  It was a great meeting.  He talked to us for about two hours about the doctrine of Jesus Christ.  He talked about each part of the gospel and what it really means to us.  

We also had stake conference and Elder S. Gifford Nielson spoke.  He was so fun to listen to, and he really likes his exclamation points!  The adult session on Saturday night was all about missionary work and President and Sister Nattress also spoke at that session.  Elder Nielson talked about how this is a historic time in the church and about how it's our time.  They talked about so many different things and I hope that it helped excite everyone in our area about missionary work.  In the general session of stake conference they talked about the temple and they president of the Mesa temple spoke.  

It also rained for the first time in the past two months or so.  Now that's it cooler I'm glad it only happens every couple months.

 

We have a couple of great potentials that we have appointments set up with.  There is a young women who has come to youth conferences, girls camp and trek for a couple years and her dad just gave her permission to get baptized.  Her mother also wants to get baptized.  We also have another member who invited a friend to take the missionary lessons and they accepted.  Right now we are just showing as many members as we can this video presentation about the temple.  We hope that they will invite their friends over to see the presentation before they take them to the open house.

 

I was talking to a member the other day who had a son just leave on a mission to Washington D.C.  Before their son left I told him that if he ever met an Elder Hansen to see if he knows an Elder Gandy.  It turns out that his new companion Elder Tanner Hansen.  That was a fun connection to make!  I was also talking to another member in one of our wards who was friends with aunt Cayla in jr high school.  There are just a few random connections I've made with some of the members.

 

Thank you for all of your prayers!  Love you all so much!

 

Love,

Elder Joshua Gandy

November 18, 2013

Dear Family,

 

It's been a great and busy week!  We had a baptism on Saturday.  The person being baptized was Dawn.  She became friends with this family in one of our wards and she just fit right into their family.  She started coming to church and she loved it.  She was excited every week to come to church.  We started teaching her when we stopped by one Sunday to talk to Sis. Johnson about one of her other friends that she invited to learn about the gospel, and Dawn just ended up being there when we stopped by.  Sis. Johnson told us later that that day when we stopped by she was wondering how she was going to invite Dawn to meet with missionaries and then when we came it was the perfect opportunity.  She has been very prepared to accept the gospel into her life.  The baptism went very well and some of her family was able to come.  I ended up singing I Feel My Savior's Love.  We were also able to get one of our investigators to come to the baptism.  This is a huge step for this investigator. 

 

This Sunday we sang the second verse of If the Savior Stood Beside Me in one of our wards primary program.  It went really well.  I never thought I would be part of a primary program again.  Another one of our investigators came to church and stayed for all three hours.  They have come before but left right after sacrament meeting.  They also came to a new member fireside which is for investigators, recent converts, and less actives.  There were a lot of exciting things that happened this week.

 

This next week is also going to be very exciting.  Elder Porter in the seventy is coming to do a mission tour on Thursday and Friday.  So we get to hear him speak for an hour or two.  The stake that I serve in, the Highland East stake, is having stake conference this weekend.  The presiding authority at the stake conference is going to be Elder S. Gifford Nielson.  He spoke in general conference last month.

 

It's amazing how our Heavenly Father knows us and wants to help us in all that we do.  With Holy Ghost we can be directed in this great work!  Thanks so much for all your prayers.  I love you all so much!

 

Love,

Elder Joshua Gandy

November 11, 2013

Dear Family,

It's been another great week!  Yesterday was transfer calls, but I'm staying in the same area with Elder Gardner.  I'm excited to see what will happen this next transfer.  One of our investigators had her baptismal interview yesterday and she is already to be baptized this next Saturday.  She has been very prepared to accept the gospel.  I also found out that I'm going to be singing at her baptism.  So yes I am getting many chances to sing on my mission.  

We went on exchanges this week with Elder Whitecar since he is my district leader.  It was fun to be with my old companion for a day.  We also got the Ensign with all the conference talks and I'm excited to go back and read some of them.

It's amazing how our Heavenly Father helps us with everything.  One day this week we did not have a scheduled dinner appointment so we were just planning on eating at our apartment.  While we were riding around we ran into one of the members in one of our wards.  He asked if we were still planning on coming to dinner.  Somehow we had a dinner appointment that we didn't know about and we were in the right place at just the right time.  We also saw that when we stopped by to see an investigator and we got there just as he was coming out to wait for his ride.  So we got to talk to him for a couple minutes.  We were also having some scheduling conflicts for the baptism this Saturday, but everything worked out perfectly.  

It does not feel like November here.  It's strange to have the highs in the 70's and the 80's still and it's snowing in Utah.  

Thanks for all your prayers and support! Love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Joshua Gandy

November 4, 2013

Dear Family,

 

It has been a busy week!  Last Tuesday was that extended zone conference that I was telling you about.  There were three zones there and they invited all the ward councils to attend.  It was really crowded because there were seven or eight stakes there.  I sang a solo at the beginning of the conference, and now everyone knows I sing.  The conference was all about the temple open house and the 15 minute video presentation that the missionaries want to show non members before they actually go to the open house.  The idea is to have the members invite their friends to their house for ice cream, a barbaque or some kind of get together and ask if they would be willing to watch a short video presentation by the missionaries while they are there.  This way they will feel the spirit of the temple before actually going to the temple.  Right now we are trying to get all the members excited and to invite their friends to watch the video presentation.

 

This week was also Halloween.  We had a mission conference from 11 to 4.  Most of the conference we were practicing the video presentation.  After the conference we had to be back to our apartment at 5.  Our zone got permission to go to a member's house and watch Ephriam's Rescue.  We had dinner there and they had a table full of candy and treats, so I got plenty of sweets this halloween.  It was a lot of fun to just spend time with our zone!

 

Yesterday we taught the last lesson to our investigator who is being baptized on November 16th!  She has been prepared to accept the gospel, and she is already seeing the blessings.  She wants to read the entire Book of Mormon before her baptism.  She is in Helaman right now so I think she is going to be able to do it.  

We also met with one of our investigators 6 times this week!  She is a single lady who currently doesn't have a job and wants us to come as often as we can.  Every time we read from the Book of Mormon she says that it is beautiful and she loves it.  She met with missionaries 10 or 15 years ago, but never read out of the Book of Mormon.  She is still a little hesitant to come to church, but she said she would come this week.

 

Thanks for all your prayers! I love you all so much!

 

Love,

Elder Joshua Gandy

October 28, 2013

Dear family,

 

It's been an amazing week!  On Saturday I got to go to the baptism of two people I taught in the Brighton ward.  Since I'm still in the stake and Elder Whitecar is just in the next stake over we both got to be the witnesses at the baptism.  The mother was a less active and the two daughter (ages 11 and 14) were not members.  It was amazing to see them welcomed into the ward.  It was also fun to see members in the Brighton ward again.  

I had another great experience this week.  We went to a members house for dinner and they invited their aunt, who has been an inactive member for years, to dinner.  At the end of dinner we shared a short lesson with them and shared the scripture Alma 38:5.  At the end of the lesson I noticed that the aunt was almost in tears.  We found out later that the aunt said she wanted to come back to church.  It's neat to see the miracles that can happen when you are doing the Lord's work.

 

I'm excited for this week!  Tomorrow we have one of those expanded zone conference.  I found out that an expanded zone conference means that they are inviting stake and ward leaders to the conference.  On Halloween we are having a mission conference from 10-4 then we have to be back to our apartment by 5 and stay in for the rest of the night.  It's really nice to have a small mission because then it's really easy to have mission conferences.

 

Sorry I don't have as much time to write today.  Thanks for all your prayers! I love you all so much!

 

Love,

 

Elder Joshua Gandy 

October 21, 2013 - Temple Announcement

Dear Family,

 

If you have not already heard the Gilbert Temple will be dedicated on March 2!  The open house will be from January 18 - February 15, and the cultural celebration will be on March 1.  They just announced it last Saturday so we are still waiting for more announcement on what this will mean for the missionary work.  In our letter from President Nattress this week he said they will be training us on how to prepare everyone for the temple.  The letter also said that we will have three expanded zone conferences in the next month.  We have interviews this week so I'm sure he will tell us more about it then. It's exciting times here in the Arizona Gilbert Mission! 

 

Our past week has been great! Last P-day we had a zone activity and we went to Elder and Sister Thompson's (the senior couple in my district) apartment and had lunch and played games.  Three missionaries in our zone had a birthday this month so this activity was kind of like a big birthday party.  We were also able to teach one of our investigators three times this week.  We don't think she has a job so it's really easy to find a time to meet with her.  We were also able to have a lesson with another investigator last night.  The lesson went great and it's amazing to see how she has been prepared to hear the gospel and to accept it.  She is going to be baptized on November 16. 

 

One thing I've learned this week is that the Lord's hand is in everything that we do, especially as missionaries.  It's amazing to see how the Lord times things perfectly so that we are able to talk to people.  While we were riding our bikes we stopped to talk to this lady getting her mail.  We came to find out that she was a former investigator.  We don't know why the last missionaries stopped meeting with her, but she told us that we could come by next weekend.  I know our Heavenly Father helps us through everything that we do no matter what we going through.  Something that I've noticed a lot in my scripture reading is how many times it says to trust God and we can get through anything that is put before us.

 

Thanks for all your prayers and your support! I love you all so much!

 

Love,

Elder Joshua Gandy

October 14, 2013

Dear Family,

 

The work is going great!  The weather is also starting to feel really nice, and I hear it will just get better from here.  The beginning of the week started off a little slow.  We weren't able to teach a lesson until Friday, but we were able to teach three lessons this last weekend.  We have one investigator who we haven't been able to contact for the past couple weeks, but we were able to talk to them and invited them to come to church.  Yesterday he came to church!  Coming to church can be a big step for people, but it's a very important step to take.  We were really excited to see him there.  

We are working with several investigators right now, so were are really excited to continue teaching them.  We also found a couple of potentials investigators this past week that we hope to start teaching soon.  This week we are going to focus on teaching a lesson every day.  That is something that President Nattress has asked us to start doing.  We should teach a lesson every day, and if you can't teach an investigator or a less active member than we should teach active families. 

 

This last week I got to do family history training again since Elder Gardner needed to do it.  After the training we got to work on the computers for a little bit.  One of the things I tried to do was sourcing and finding records.  I did not realize that there is still a lot of things to do on familysearch even for the ancestors that you already now about.

 

My companion, Elder Gardner, is great!  I think I already told you that he also graduated high school this year.  He did theater in high school and was in his schools glee club, so we did a lot of similar things in high school.  We are getting along great! 

 

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support!  I love you all!

 

Love,

Elder Joshua Gandy