April 27, 2015

Dear family,

It has been another exciting week!  It seems like a lot of great things happened this week.  I'm not quite sure where to start.

We had a couple of lessons this week.  We met with one of our investigators on Sunday and we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They have to check his schedule, but he should have a date picked to be baptized by the end of this week.  He is doing well and he will probably be baptized at the beginning of June.  

We picked up a new investigator this week!  There are converts in one of our wards and the wife's mother lives in the ward.  Ever since I have been in this area, this convert's mother would come to church with them every once in a while.  For the past couple months she has been coming to church every week.  One time she brought her grandchildren when the parents couldn't come.  She has even read all of the Gospel Principles manual.  She watched general conference all by herself and loved it.  We have been trying to teach her for a while, and we were finally able to set up an actual lesson.  The lesson went well and she mostly wanted a couple of questions answered.  We answered her questions and taught about the restoration and she agreed to start meeting with us.  She says it will be hard for her to stop drinking coffee, but I'm sure she can do it. 

We also found a great potential investigator last night.  We just visited a member and we were on our way back to our apartment and we saw someone skateboarding at the park.  It must have seemed a little strange, but we pulled over and started talking to him.  Elder Anderson can skateboard so they talked about that.  We started talking about the church and he said he has been thinking about going back to church.  He said it was weird that we started talking to him because he was just thinking about that.  We taught him a little bit and he said that was something that he wanted to learn more about.  He was really excited about learning more.  So we have a lesson set up with him tonight.  Now the unfortunate thing is that he lives in California and is just visiting his dad for a week.  Hopefully we can teach him while he is here and the missionaries in California can finish teaching him.  It is one of those times where we were in the right place at the right time.  He just happened to be visiting in Arizona and just happened to be at the park and we just happened to pull over and start talking to him.

Something really exciting happened on Saturday!  Someone I taught my very first transfer in the Brighton ward was baptized.  Since the Brighton ward is in the zone and is right next to my area, I was able to go to the baptism.   She had been taught by a lot of missionaries.  She probably took lessons for three years or so.  Her baptism was great and the spirit was strong there. 

We had an expanded zone conference on Tuesday and Thursday this past week.  I was just in the musical number at the beginning, so we just had to be there at the start.  The last expanded zone conference is Tuesday this week and this is the expanded zone conference that our stakes are invited to, so this one we will stay the entire time.  This week we will have our actual zone conference on Thursday.  We also had mission leadership council this week, which is always a great meeting.  We talked about planning, Elder Holland's general conference talk, and all kinds of things.  We also had stake conference in one of our stakes this past weekend.  They had an incredible Saturday evening session.  They did a video slide show of all the missionaries from their stake.  They showed their picture and then showed a quote from one of their letters.  I knew several of the missionaries before they left on their missions and it's neat to see some of the things that they have learned on their missions.  I don't know if that made sense, but it was really cool.

Mom, sorry I didn't answer some of your questions from your letter.  For some reason the letter didn't come until Monday, so I didn't see it until after I emailed.  The weather here is still great!  The past weekend a rain storm came in and cooled things down for probably the last time.  April has been in the 80's and 90's, but this week it will probably be in the 90's all week.  It will only be like that for a little bit though.  I don't know when the mission is going to send you something, but I think I will be coming home on the June 23rd.  There is still a lot of missionary work to do, so I'm not going to think about that, but that should be the day. 

I wish I could include all the things that I'm learning and all the experiences that I'm having, but there are too many things to write and not enough time to write it all.  One of the things I learned this week was something Pres. Nattress taught at MLC.  He talked about how we always need to be testifying.  You can always testify when you don't know what to say and you should always testify when you teach.  When you share your testimony it can be the most powerful part of the lesson.  If you find a discouraged missionary, they probably are not testifying.  I know that Christ is our Savior and I know that this is Christ's church on the earth today.  It's incredible to have the fullness of the gospel in our lives and to know we have a prophet on the earth today.  Thank you for all of your prayers.  I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Joshua Gandy

April 20, 2015

Dear family,

It has been another great and busy week!  We had some great teaching opportunities this week and we reached some goals that we set, so it has been an exciting week.  Last Monday we got a call from someone in our singles ward and they said they had a friend that wants to take the lessons and to be baptized.  We had a lesson with them on Wednesday and we taught her the restoration.  The lesson went really well and we invited her to be baptized at the end.  She said yes and she had already been thinking about a date.  We were really excited and then she said that she is moving at the end of this month.  It was a little disappointing, but she will still be in the mission, and there will be some very happy missionaries in the area that she is moving to.  Even though she won't be in our area, it was still great to teach the first lesson. 

We met with another investigator this week and taught him the plan of salvation.  He is doing great and is reading all of the assignments that we give him.  He also came to church on Sunday.  We were also able to teach a couple people on the street this week.  We met this one person on the street about a week ago, and he said that now wasn't a good time, but told us to come back.  We went back last night and he invited us in.  We talked to them for a while and we showed them the video Because He Lives.  We then invited them to learn more about the restoration.  We were really hoping they were going to say yes, because most people don't just invite us into their home after talking to them for a couple minutes.  They didn't accept the invitation to learn more, but they said they might come to one of our mission choir concerts.  We are still hoping something might happen there.  We talked to another man on the street for about a half hour answering his questions about what he has heard we believe.  He wasn't interested after we answered his questions, but I am amazed at some of the things people think we believe and all the misconceptions that are out there.

We were able to teach two recent converts this week.  Another gave a talk in sacrament meeting.  We didn't hear about it until after, and we ended up going to our other ward that starts at the same time.  I wish I could of gone, but we heard she did great!  We also had a lesson with a recent convert who is going to start coming to the singles ward.  She is a awesome recent convert and she is excited to do missionary work.

We have a couple of great potentials that we are trying to start teaching.  One member invited their neighbor to church.  They told their neighbor a couple of returned missionaries were going to speak in church (there were two missionaries in the ward that just got back and gave their talks) and their neighbor said yes.  We are also probably going to start teaching another lady who has been coming to church for the past several weeks with her daughter who is a convert. 

We went to the temple this week, and it's always great to go to the temple.  We get up early to go, but it is always worth it.  Most missionaries usually stop at Kneaders (which is really close to the temple) afterwards to get something to eat.  While we were there the cashier looks at my name tag and asks me if I had an older brother who served in Peru.  I guess this cashier served in Peru with Bryce.  He said they were in the same zone or something like that.  Small world.

We have another busy week ahead of us.  Our mission is doing expanded zone conferences (zone conference for members) again this month and I was asked to be in a musical number for all of them.  They are going to do three for the different parts of the mission and two of them are next week.  It should be fun!

I'm learning so much every day.  I have been thinking about this scripture and it has come to my mind lately.  It's Alma 5:26 " And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?"  I have thought back to those times where I feel the joy of the gospel.  Sometimes it can be easy to forget in the midst of the challenges and trials of life.  No wonder it is so important that we need to always pray and read our scriptures every day.  We always need to continue to come unto Christ and to live the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The gospel is truly a pattern for living.  As we continue to live the gospel we will be able to say "Yes, I can feel so now." 

I love you all so much and thank you for all of your prayers. 

Love,

Elder Joshua Gandy

April 13, 2015

Dear family,

It has been another busy and great week here is Gilbert!  It seems like we did quite a bit of service this week and found some new potential investigators! 

We were able to meet with our investigator who works out of town on construction jobs.  He's only home a couple days at a time.  Luckily this week it was raining where he was working so he was home for a couple more days.  We were able to meet with him this week and committed him to read the Book of Mormon every day.  We gave him several chapters to read.  Later in the week he texted us saying he finished the chapters and he wanted more recommended chapters to read.  His wife is a less active member who was baptized six years ago, so we have also been trying to help her come back to church.  We have also been teaching her.  We were not able to set a specific day for his baptism, but we are hoping he will be baptized in May. 

We found some great potential investigators this week that said we could come back.  Right now we are trying to talk to as many people as possible, and find people to teach.  We have found some of the potentials knocking on doors, talking to people on the street, and working with the members.  One night this week, we were walking down the street in one of our wards and started talking to someone that I recognized, but didn't remember she was.  After talking to her for a minute, I realized  I had talked to her at a park a couple miles away.  She wasn't very interested in talking to us, but we invited her to watch the new Easter video.  Afterwards she made the comment,  "I'll watch it, maybe there is a reason I keep running into you."  Our area is pretty small.  Sometimes I'm surprised we don't run into the same people more often.  Hopefully they would think the same thing this lady did. 

We contacted an old potential this week.  We probably talked to them a month ago, and talked to them at the door for a while.  We asked if we could come back, but they said they would give us a call.  Usually nobody calls us back, so we kind of took that as a no.  We decided to knock on their door again and we couldn't remember how interested they were, but thought we would try.  When they answered the door they mother of the family said they tried calling and left a voicemail.  We were confused because we never got the voicemail, but Elder Anderson and I were surprised because someone actually tried calling us back!  They got our number again and said they were going out of town this weekend, but that we could come back this week.  We saw that as a miracle that we decided to stop by since we couldn't remember if they were even interested.  That is one good reason to keep an area book!

We helped pick grapefruit again this week for the food bank, helped at a nursing home and we helped out at the special Olympics like we did last year. 

We found out yesterday morning that a young man we taught and who was baptized was speaking at a stake youth fireside last night.  We had appointments already scheduled so we couldn't go, but we heard that he did great.  When we asked if he wanted to share his testimony at his baptism he did not want to do it.  He isn't a big fan of speaking, but we heard that he did a great job.  He talked about how he was grateful for the persistence of his friends.  One of his friends would invite him to church every week.  Before he started coming to church he would have never imagined himself joining the church.  He talked about how he was grateful that his friend kept inviting him.

We have a great week ahead of us, and I'm excited for all the opportunities we will have this week.  I'm grateful every day for the chance to be a missionary.  Sharing the gospel and serving others brings so much joy and more blessings than I could ever imagine.  I'm grateful for all of your prayers.  I love you all so much! 

Love,

Elder Joshua Gandy

April 6, 2015

Dear family,

It has been another great week, especially with general conference!  It was a perfect way to celebrate Easter, by hearing the prophets and apostles bearing their special witness of our Savior.  There is always so much to learn from conference, so I'm excited to study all the talks!

It was the start of another transfer and a new month!  The first part of the week we were in a trio because one of the elders in the zone finished his mission.  So we had his companion with us until transfer meeting.  It was a great chance for us to go on splits!  On Tuesday afternoon I went with a priest in one of our wards and Elder Anderson went with the other missionary.  The priest in the ward actually got his mission call.  That would have been awesome to go on splits before my mission.  If anyone is wanting to prepare for a mission, can't think of a better way to prepare than to go do missionary work with the missionaries.  We went on splits later in the week and we both went with two returned missionaries in the singles ward.  They both got home not too long ago so they were both super excited to come with us for a couple hours.  It's great for us because we get to stop by twice as many people and we get to learn from them.  That is one great benefit from serving where there are lots of members! 

We currently have only one investigator, but we have lots of potentials.  Our investigator is back in town.  He has been out of town for work for almost a month strait.  He came home this weekend and we have a lesson with him tonight.  He will also be home for half of these next week so we are hoping that we can teach him a couple times before he leaves again.  He is a great guy and wants to be baptized and have an eternal family.  We are excited to teach him.  

We taught a kid in high school this week on the street and he wants to meet with us, but his mom is not too fond of the church.  We probably won't be able to teach him because of that, but we are hoping the priests in the ward will help fellowship him.  We also have a potential that is the mom of a convert in our ward.  She has come to church many times and loves to come.  She has even come by herself and brought her grandkids when the parents couldn't come.  We invited her to watch general conference and she was already planning on it.  I have no idea why she hasn't been taught yet, but we are hoping to figure that out this week.  We also had a couple potentials go to the Easter pageant this week.  We are hoping to start teaching all of these potentials this week. 

We helped pick citrus again this week for a food bank that provides food for children that don't have food on the weekends.  I believe we are going to do that service project every week for a while.  There is a new institute/church building on the ASU polytech campus which is in the Gilbert mission, and they had an open house this week.  The church is only used for YSA wards so they asked all the missionaries in the YSA stake to help at the open house.  We went to that and helped with that.

We have a zone meeting tomorrow and we are going to be talking about the role of the Holy Ghost and how important it is in missionary work.  I noticed in general conference how many times they talked about that.  In Preach My Gospel they have a quote from Pres. Benson, “The Spirit is the most important single element in this work. With the Spirit magnifying your call, you can do miracles for the Lord in the mission field. Without the Spirit, you will never succeed regardless of your talent and ability” I'm not perfect at recognizing and responding to the Spirit, but I feel I have learned how to better follow the spirit.  There have been a couple of talks about recognizing the spirit that have really helped me, but I don't remember what they are called.  Maybe I'll have to tell you the names of them next week.

It's great to be a missionary!  I'm grateful for every day that I have to be doing missionary work.  Thank you for all of your prayers.  I love you all so much!

Elder Joshua Gandy

March 30, 2015

Dear family,

It has been another great week here!  This week is transfers and I'm staying!  I'm been in the same general area for a long time and I'm to the point where I definitely do not want to leave.  I'm hoping I can just stay in this area for the rest of my mission.  Not a lot of changes are happening in our zone and I'm excited for another great transfer! 

The Easter pageant at the Mesa temple started this week and we having been trying to get as many people to it as possible.  On Thursday night, the Highland West stake did something called "get on the bus."  The stake got a couple of buses and had the members invite their friends to get on the bus to take them to the Easter pageant.  It makes it really nice because they avoid the parking and they reserve seats for you.  People come a couple hours early to find a good seat, so it made it really nice.  They stake ended up taking four buses.  It was pretty cool. 

We did a couple service projects this week.  I don't know if I have told you before or if you have already heard about the justserve program?  I think I told you, but if not you can look it up at justserve.org.  It gives us a great opportunity to serve in the community and serve along with non members.  On Wednesday we helped pick fruit off citrus trees for a food bank for children.  On Saturday we helped at a easter egg hunt for children with downs syndrome.  On Sunday we helped do a non denominational devotional at a nursing home.  It felt like we did a lot of service this week, but it was a lot of fun.

Right now we have one investigator that is consistently meeting with us.  Right now he is traveling for work and is out of town during the week and home for the weekend.  It makes it a little hard to teach him, but we were able to meet with him yesterday and we are meeting with him next Sunday.  We also found a couple a great potentials this week.  We were out on our bikes one day and we started talking to three high school age kids.  We talked to them for a while, but they didn't seem really interested.   Before we left we asked if we could watch a video with them.  We had one of the kids pull out his iphone and find the new video that the church came out with for this Easter season.  We watched it and afterwards we briefly taught and bore testimony of Jesus Christ, and we asked them how they felt after watching it.  One of the kids said he felt refreshed.  We talked to them a little more and set up a time to come back this week.  It's amazing how when we bear testimony of Christ in simple ways it invites the spirit. 

That video is an easy way to share your testimony with others and help them feel the spirit.  It's really cool all that the church is doing to hasten the work of salvation.  I'm guessing you have already seen the video since it is probably all over social media by now, but if not, it's called Because He Lives.  It is an awesome video to share with everyone!

Last night we had an interesting experience.  Usually on Sunday nights we have a couple of appointments or a fireside, but last night none of our appointments worked out.  We found a couple of other people to stop by.   Earlier in the day we had a lot of things to do and after dinner I didn't really want to ride around and try to find someone to talk to.  We prayed before we left that evening and went out.  We were riding our bikes and we passed by a house and I had the thought to knock on the door.  We passed by it and went to the person we were going to, but on the way back we passed by it again and I felt we needed to knock the door.  I've learned you might as well knock on the door rather than wonder later what might have happened.  A man opened the door and we ended up talking to him for about 45 minutes.  While we talked to him he asked some great questions and we talked about prophets and the Book of Mormon.  He took the Book of Mormon, but didn't want to set up a time to meet with us.  We said a prayer before we left.  We ended up having a great lesson on his door step.   After we got home that night I was tired and ready to go to bed.  While I was thinking about our day I realized how much the Lord blessed us that day.  It might not be easy to see the blessings throughout the stress of the day, but it's good to look back on the day and recognize those blessings.

I'm so grateful to be a missionary!  Thank you Mom for sharing that missionary experience.  It's always exciting to hear all the missionary experiences going on.  I hope that I continue to always have that desire to share the gospel with everyone.  The gospel of Jesus Christ brings us so much hope, peace, and joy.  Hope you all have a wonderful Easter and enjoy general conference!  Thank you for all of your prayers.  I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Joshua Gandy

March 23, 2015

Dear family,

It has been busy week!  It seems like a lot of different things have happened this week.  Including interviews, choir performance, family home afternoon which we do with our zone once a transfer, a couple of baptisms, and a mini missionary.  It has been exciting!

The over-age youth that we've been teaching was baptized this week!  One of their fellowships invited them over for FHE and dinner last Monday night.  The non member husband was also there and we were able to share a message.  We were also able to have a lesson with them on Tuesday night to review what baptism is and to talk more about what was going to happen at the baptism.  The baptism went really well.  Her dad came a little late, but he got there just in time for the baptism.  At the end of the baptism her mom bore her testimony.  It was a wonderful testimony.  She talked about how she knew she needed to come back to church, and how it was through her daughter that she would start coming back.  It was a great experience for their family.  We also ended the baptism by singing I Love to See the Temple.  It was perfect!

A high school student we've been teaching was also baptized this weekend.  It was actually a really busy Saturday morning because we had to run from one baptism to another.  At the first baptism we were in charge of teaching while she was changing so we couldn't leave until after that.  It ended up working well and we got to both of the baptisms on time.  There were a lot of people at the high school student's baptism.  She has been coming to church for 3 or 4 years and she is a senior in high school so she had a lot of friends there. 

On Tuesday we got a random call from another missionary.  This missionary was calling to ask if I could take his spot in the choir performance on Thursday.  So I ended up singing a solo at the performance on Thursday.  I was a little nervous because I hadn't sung the song for a long time and I went through it twice on Thursday morning.  It ended up going well and of course the spirit is the most important part.

Something really cool happened this week!  One of our recent converts, was called to be a ward missionary just a couple weeks ago.  This week he taught the gospel principles class!  It wasn't a small class either.  There were probably around twenty people in the class.  He seemed nervous before the class, but he gave an awesome lesson.  It just happened to be lesson one which is about Heavenly Father and he asked great questions and led some great discussions.  It was really cool to see.  We joked around later that he can teach us the new member lessons.  It actually sounds like a great idea.  I also saw another recent convert again just today.  Several of the elders in the zone went to the church this morning to play basketball and there were several members there playing, and he (the recent convert) was playing with them.  It's great to see he is doing great and being very well fellowshipped.

We ended up getting a mini missionary for this past weekend.  He was with us from Friday evening to Sunday evening.  He was a great guy and is excited to do missionary work.  We took him street contacting at a park the first night and he did amazing.  It sounds like they have a great mission prep in his stake!  We were able to teach several people on the street while he was with us and found some new potential investigators.  We also met some interesting people so now he also has some great stories to tell people. 

It is going to be another busy week!  One of the stakes is doing something they call Get on the Bus.  The stake rented a couple of buses and these buses are going to take people to the Easter pageant on Thursday night.  It's great because you don't have to worry about parking or trying to get a good seat.  The only trick is if you are a member you have to bring a non member or less active friend to get on the bus.

It's great to be a missionary!  I'm so grateful to have this opportunity.  It's amazing all the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It truly changes lives.  Thank you for all of your prayers.  I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Joshua Gandy

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March 16, 2015

Dear family,

It has been another exciting and great week!  It has been spring break here for all the schools.  We were expecting a lot of people to be gone on vacation and not a lot would happen, but we saw some great things happen.  All the missionaries in the zone also had a great week! 

We were able to have a lesson with our over-age youth investigator this week.  Her mother had to work all weeks so they were not out of town luckily.  They didn't come to church the past two weeks and we were a little worried.  The lesson we had this week, we finished the last two principles in lesson five, which ended up being perfect.  We talked about the importance of learning at church and also enduring to the end.  The lesson went great!  I'm always excited to go over there because the lesson always goes great.  At the beginning of the lesson the mother offered to say the prayer, which usually does not happen.  It was neat to hear her pray and express thanks for all of their blessings they have because of the gospel.  They came to church and met with the bishop and they are all ready to have their daughter be baptized this Saturday.  I'm really excited to see her be baptized!  Their fellowship invited them and us over for a family home evening tonight. 

On Wednesday we went to the temple early in the morning.  I'm so grateful that we get to go to the temple so often.  We are quite lucky!  It's amazing to go and feel the spirit there.  It truly is a place where you can feel close to Heavenly Father and feel peace and joy.  Later that day something similar happened like what happened last week.  We took time to read the Book of Mormon that day like we usually do.  Afterwards I just felt like I learned so much, and as we left to go out to work I was ready to find those prepared people!  We decided to knock some doors and no one answered.  We stopped by a potential and that went okay.  Just before dinner we decided to go to a member who brought a non member friend to church.  We were just going to see if they invited the friend to learn more.  As we got to their house they were just pulling into their garage.  They just got back from taking their non member friend to the Mesa temple visitor center.  They invited us in and we were able to teach their friend.  Their friend doesn't live in our ward so we will have to pass them off to other missionaries, but we were able to have an unexpected lesson and found someone to teach.  Every time I feel like I had a great study of the Book of Mormon that day, we always see a miracle later that day.  Remember to read the Book of Mormon everyday! 

We have two baptisms this weekend!  It will be really exciting.  We set a goal for baptism in March as a zone and we are getting really close to reaching it.  Even if we don't reach it we will be closer to our goal than we usually are.  We also challenged our zone earlier this week to see who can talk to the most people.  We unfortunately didn't win the challenge, but together as a zone we talked to a lot more people than we usually do.  I love where it talks about talking to everyone in Preach My Gospel.  Everyone is a child of our Heavenly Father and he loves them just as he loves us. 

We have several people we are trying to work with and we have a great week ahead of us.  It's going to be another great week full of miracles.  We were able to teach a couple people around my age this week.  We taught them about the Book of Mormon and we were able to give it to them.  I just love being a missionary and being able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here and to be a missionary.  I know Jesus Christ is our Savior.  Thank you for all of your prayers and all that you do for me.  I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Joshua Gandy