ELDER GESSELL:YEAR TWO

Well on Thursday I make it to the halfway mark. I have had 4 different areas and 5 companions and lots of interesting experiences.

This week went by way fast! At the beggining of the week we had divisiones. Elder Hafoka came to our area and Elder Bohorquez went to the area Satelite. Elder Hafoka is a Tongan but he lived in Los Angeles for most of highschool so he speaks English and Tongan and Spanish. We had a good time on divisions. I like divisions for two reasons. One, you get to meet someone knew. After about 3 days with a companion you got just about all the basics down. And within one or two weeks you know him pretty well. So it is always nice to be able to talk to someone knew. Second, I usually learn a lot from other missionaries. I enjoy seeing how other missionaries teach and adopting certain things that I like into my own teaching style. I have learned a lot from divisions throughout my mission.

This week we have had a decent amount of success. First we got Kenier. Kenier is 18 years old and was a former investigator that we found in the area book. He is pretty awesome. He has read and prayed and everything. He has a baptismal date for February 10th. The only thing is that he hasn't been able to come to church because he has been working with his mom. But this week he was able to find work in which he WONT be working on Sundays. Just a mini miracle to make my week.

Second we got the Villanueva family. They are also former investigators from the area book. They are a family of 4. The mom Dunia, the dad, Johnny, and their two daughters, Mayte and Anahi. Yesterday we were able to get the family except for Johnny to church. And it just so happened that the other missionaries from our ward had a baptism planned during church. It was awesome because they were able to see the baptism. Later that day when we passed by their house to see how they felt in church, they said they loved it. It was pretty perfect.

I love the new 3rd hour classes. Before Elder's quorum every week was pretty boring especially if we didnt have an investigator there. Sometimes I would catch myself zoning out thinking about what happened in the new Star Wars. But now with this new program the class feels way more involved and active.

We talked about the talk that the Young Women's president gave about Losing ourselves in service of others. I remember when I was watching her talk for the first time and she explained a story about how her kids always asked what they could get out of the church activties and if they didn't think they would get something out of it they wouldn't want to go. Then Sister Oscarson (I think that is her) said that it isn't always about what WE are going to get out of it but it is about how we can help OTHERS get something out of it. That sort of just blew me away back into my mutual days. Back then I thought the same. "What am I going to get out of this young men's activity?" But now I can see that here in the mission it is never really about me. It is about how I can help others feel great in every single activity.

Anyways, that is mostly it for this week. I love you all! Hope you all have a great week!

Decorated for Christmas