Week of August 14, 2008 -- To Mom

 Dear Family and friends,

What a long week and a half it's been; and tomorrow is transfers.  Fortunately I am staying in Marshalltown for at least one more transfer with Elder McLaws.  Marshalltown English-Elder Hewitt is going to Centerville, and Elder Curtis is going to Iowa City as Zone Leader.  They are not being replaced.  Elder McDonough (my old District leader serving in Newton, Iowa) is going to Oscaloosa and is being replaced by Elder Jones.  Our district is going from 6 to 4.  My companion, Elder McLaws has been called to be the new district leader.  Cool stuff....tomorrow is transfers.

Well, my last letter about Allison was somewhat in vain.  It makes me very sad to say that we have had the hardest time getting ahold of her.  It seems the situation has turned into a Doctor Jekyll/Mr. Hide situation.  I don't know what's the matter with her.

But...before the news gets too terrible, we are having success with a couple other investigators.  It kind of goes with that addage (with a minor addition) "When one window close, a couple more are opened.

Sarah and Jacob---HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!  I love you guys soooo much.  Keep on making correct decisions everyday; you know what's right and what's wrong.

Grandpa, Happy Birthday and I love you too.  Thanks for all you've done for me, and sorry your card is way late.

Briana, I'm sooooo excited for you.  I hope you can get all the changes you want.  It might be hard at first, but you will get use to it.  And remember, the Lord is always there to help-he is just a prayer away.  You always have seminary, too.  Thanks for the letter.  I'll try to write back with at least some of my experiences, that way you can write me with yours.  Deal?  Cool.....

Back to Marshalltown.  The weather has been relatively nice here.  Not too humid, not too rainy...just right.  I am sooo happy to be musically talented.  We had an awesome experience at a member's home in Eldora: the Pences.  Before we've gone to eat there and I've had a good time on their piano before, but we didn't have any investigators.  Well, this time it was all four missionaries at her house, and Trent Stimpson (Bishop's son and ward mission leader for one more week [way cool guy]) gave our investigator Patrick a ride.  We had a nice dinner; what am I saying?  It was wayyyyy good.  Then the Pence's neighbors came home and they called them over.  Their names were Bill and Dorothy.  I remember because Bill said "Dorothy from the wizard of oz and I'm the wizard."  Turns out, Bill has a couple, Not just one, A COUPLE of guitars.  I asked if we could do a number for him.  We sang Families can be Together Forever- the four of us accompanied by the guitar.  It was cool, words can't describe it.  Later, the rest of the family got together to sing "This is the Christ," another way cool song.  It made me homesick for music, that's how good it was.

It's been a good week, other than the ammount of investigators/less active members that we had at church on Sunday.  It's really dissappointing and makes me sad.  We visit so many people on saturday, to Remind them to come to church-and still none show up.  Last week was way better in that aspect.  Now, we are trying to build good relationships and have good fellowship happening with the less active members (because the same missionaries will not always be there).

Missionary work is so much fun.  It's not easy, but it is interestingly fun.  Just the weird experiences that we get from tracting can be cool.  President Talbot has asked all companionships to get 10 hrs of tracting a week.  So we do have our fair share of experiences.  

A good one though, Elder Hewitt and I were on exchanges.  We were doing what we call potential tracting.  We knocked on this one guys house.  The person answers but wasn't that interested.  So we went upstairs to knock the other apartment.  Nobody was home, but as we started walking down the stairs, another person came out of the door we had knocked previously and invited us in, holding the pass a long card we had just given him.  We talked with him about a lot of stuff and just tried to help with concerns that he had.  But he was really receptive.  Hopefully, things go well with him.  The crazy thing is we didn't expect anything more from the door that wasn't interested, and then the guy tells us to come in.  It was really cool.

I hope all is going well everywhere else in the world.  Dad, my companion wants you to send more letters to me that are in spanish.  Not only does it help him out, but it also helps me learn a whole lot.  I love hearing from you, and I hope your last 48 hours in Peru are awesome.

I love you all...

Elder John Carlos Gonzales