Elder Gesselll

Hola!

Hope everyone had a great week this week. We have had a full week!

This week President Carlisle came to La Ceiba so we had a Multi Zone conference and interviews. We were given a few new "methods" in the conference. The first was that we are going to start focusing more on inactive families. The objective is to first, reactivate the family and then second, ask for references from the families because almost always there is a nonmember living in the home of an inactive family. The second method is a change to the way we contact houses. Now we dont go into houses to teach. We ask if we can leave a blessing on their house and that is it. We "knock" (yell) at their door and ask if we can leave a blessing. Of course they say yes and then we begin to ask them a little bit about their families. It is amazing how much a person will tell you about their problems and family after only 5 minutes. It really helped me see that everyone can use some help. Everyone has their problems and really are looking for help.

In respect to the subject line. About 2 weeks ago I got a letter from my Grandma Gessell telling me that our family name Gessell used to be "Gessel." Apparently my great  Grandpa Alton Gessel changed it to Gessell so that his name appeared more balanced haha. I have been thinking about that a lot lately and I have decided to changed my last name to "Gesselll" to carry on that tradition. It is a start of another Gessel generation! haha (not really)

This week we have been teaching one of our investigators named Jason. I forget if I have talked about him yet but he is awesome. He is a 20 year old college student that had a friend at school who shared the gospel with him. We got the reference through President Carlisle and we began to teach him. It is  so awesome to teach him. Well we hardly even have to teach anything. We just drop off a pamphlet he reads it and we come back to answer whatever questions he might have. He has read up to 2 Nephi in The Book of Mormon and prays everytime to know if it is true. He has attended a baptism and 2 Sacrament Meetings. Awesome I know! When we invited him to be baptized he said "no".... Well "not yet." He explained how he wanted to be prepared and that he doesnt feel ready yet. Which is great. I would much rather have him take things slowly and really be converted rather than passively take all of this in and not be truly converted. So we are going to continue working with him and will be ready when he is.

 

Lastly, we had Ofelia´s baptism this week! It all worked out smoothly. Her father performed the ordinance for his first time and was a great experience for them both. Ofelia has been a testimony to me that people are ready to be baptized. Lots of people are waiting and are ready to be baptized and all they need is a few lessons and an invitation.

Also! Happy Birthday to my sweet mother! I think she turns 25 again this year! Mom I love you so much and thank you so much for all the love and the support! I cant express how grateful I am to have such an awesome Mom like you! Love you tons and happy Birthday!!!

Elder Gessell