Arret

I made a full blown homemade Guatemalan meal for my companion and me!

This week was pretty good. We had a great week teaching our recent converts/ less active members so that was great! By the time Monday rolls around I can never remember what I did during the week! Haha! :) We went to the soup kitchen this week and it was great! So many people were asking us questions about who we are and what we do as missionaries; it was so great! On Sunday the Mahafees, a senior couple who severed here in Cornwall, came up for a visit and it was great! We got some people out to church to see them! We have been looking for people to teach and we had some really great things happen. We had lunch with Sister Mcdonell after district meeting and we asked her if she knew anyone we could teach. She was like, "Not off the top of my head". Later in the week at church, though, she told us she thought of someone and that she was going to invite her to the ward picnic! Tthat was a huge miracle!

I thought this chocolate's wrapper was pretty funny!

We went knocking on this street that the Hynes helped us find and we found this guy, Kyle, and he remembered some missionaries from like 5 years ago! Hopefully something good comes out of that! Yesterday was the first time someone ever yelled at us while knocking! Haha, boy, that was an experience. A good lesson in having charity and loving those that despise you. This week I really learned the importance of dating/marrying someone who is a member. While there are great people out there who aren't members, dating/marrying someone who doesn't have the same beliefs as you is just something that hardly works out well and a lot of the time they end up taking you away from the church. This week I really felt that it is in the small and simple things that great things come to pass. Missionary work is just so amazing, it can be hard but it is so worth it.

 

Love, Sister Gonzalez

Baptism

Jennifer got baptized on Saturday! It was so amazing; it was such a beautiful service! SO many of the members came to show their love and support for her! She had to be baptized twice because Bishop Hynes didn't say her complete name! It was so amazing to see her get baptized, though! Sister Heninger and I did a musical number for her baptism! I sang in front of people, aaaaand it wasn't my usual whisper singing either! I actually sang! I was so nervous; I was praying that people would feel the spirit and not pay attention to how I can't sing and just feel the Spirit! They all said we did a good job and I think they were mainly listening to Sister Heninger; she has the voice of an angle:) We sang a melody thay was the music of "come thou fountain of every blessing" but we sang the lyrics to "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" and then at the end the song changed to "If you could hie to Kolob". It was really cool.

This week we mainly focused on Jennifer and making sure that she was ready and that there would be no opposition. It was funny, on Friday morning I was thinking "hey this week has gone really smoothly for Jennifer" and then we get a call during weekly planning from her sister and she was like, "Why is Jennifer getting baptized?" We explained to her why Jennifer was getting baptized and that it was her choice, that she was interviewed before hand, and that baptism was free. That seemed to calm her down but I was a bit worried that she would try and convince Jennifer to not get baptized but she didn't so it all worked out well :)

 

On Wednesday, at district study, they had a cake for me! Elder Mena made it for me and it was really good and it was gluten free so that was good. It was super sweet of the Elders to do that for me! We had some really amazing visits with Brother Holland from the stake high council with some of our less active members it was really awesome we always have really good lessons when brother Holland comes down. We did some knocking this week and we found some potentials so we are going to follow up on that this week. We did service at the Agape center at the food bank and the guy that was volunteering with us did not want to talk to us! It was so awkward we would ask him questions and he would like give us one word responses it was bad! That is all that happened this week! We had a great week:) 

 

Love Sister Gonzalez 

 

Funny moments this week: We were visiting this family and the daughter was telling us that she could read minds and it was just so funny i couldn't control myself I started laughing! I felt terrible but it was just to funny.

Whelp, I Turned 20!

 First off, one of our investigators is getting baptized on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so happy that she is getting baptized! When the scriptures say that your heart will be full of joy by bringing someone unto Christ they aren't lying! My heart is so full of joy! She had her interview on Tuesday and she was deemed as worthy and ready for baptism and we set up her program on Saturday!! We are really hoping for a large turn out for her baptism! I really cant wait till Saturday! We had exchanges and the sisters who came to pick up Sister Heninger got stuck in traffic. They got there late so we had a sleep over with them which was super fun! Then we had exchanges and the amazing Sister Cutler bought me tacos for my birthday! It was so sweet of her! Then we slept over at their house and went to zone training meeting on Friday. It was an amazing training, they really focused on how we need to teach by the Spirit and there is this quote from "how to be a Preach my gospel missionary" by Elder Bednar that says that if you aren't teaching by the spirit you are just talking to yourself in front of an investigator. It's super powerful! They also taught about how we need to use the Book of Mormon in our teaching and how essential it is to conversion. 

The Bradys invited us over for the "American rebellion", which is what they call the Fourth of July hahaha!  Now, on to my birthday celebrations! On Saturday we went out with the money Mom and Dad gave me. We went to Schnitzels and had an entire gluten free meal! It was really delicious! I opened my presents in the morning in my pjs and I loved everything I got! Thank you so much for everything! On Sunday everyone in the ward was wishing me a happy birthday and I just felt some much love from the members here in Cornwall! I am so blessed that I got to celebrate my birthday here! I bore my testimony about how back home I would have had an existential crisis on my birthday but since I am on the mission and doing the Lords work I am ok and how much I love being a missionary. At church sister Hynes was like, "Sister, stop by my house after church", so we did. She gave me the flowers that you sent me and I almost cried! I was so happy and it was such an amazing surprise! Then we went and had my birthday dinner at Sister Sheedy's house and she made me lasagna and gluten free chocolate cupcakes! It was so amazing! Her daughter Erin bought my flowers and she picked them because of the colors of clothes I wear! It was super sweet of her! Then tonight the Hynes are having us over to celebrate my birthday! 

I had an amazing birthday and I just felt so loved! I know that there is nothing better than being a missionary and dedicating my entire 20th year of life to being a representative of the Lord is the best thing that I could be doing! I love the Lord and I love serving Him!

Love, Sister Gonzalez