Semana 42-Transfer Week

Hi everyone! I hope you´re all doing good!

I´ve got 11 months now!!! Almost at the top of the mountain, as they say. Then in two weeks I´ll be 19 years old. Unfortunately in this zone, when someone has a birthday or finishes their mission, all the missionaries in the zone whip them with their belts. One Elder turned 21, so we all took turns giving him a whip until we got to 21. Then two Elders finished their missions this transfer, so we gave them 24 whips. So I´ll probably be getting 19 whippings....

Today we had transfers and I´m staying here with Elder Batista. He is from Brazil and speaks Portuguese, so he´s been learning Spanish but he speaks very well. He´s 25 years old and has 3 months in the mission and just finished his training. He´s really good and has a great attitude about working hard so I´m really excited to start working and I know that we´ll have a lot of success this transfer.

We were in the bus station for a few hours today and while we were waiting we were able to see a lot of missionaries. I was able to meet up with some of my companions that I haven´t seen in a long time, including some of the companions that I trained. All of them are doing good and it was great to hear that. I also heard a little what´s happening in my last area; Pelileo. A lot of the people that I started teaching there finally got baptized, including the Family G!!! That made me really happy to hear that. I´ve learned that a lot of times, we work really hard and are diligent and obedient, but sometimes we won´t have success or baptize. That doesn´t mean we´re doing something wrong or not working. Sometimes the Lord gives us times of difficulty in the mission to test our faith and it allows us to become more converted to Him. Also, many times we´re only there to plant seeds and to prepare the area for future missionaries to have success.

J came to church yesterday! He has his baptism on the 14th of June and he is really excited for his baptism. He´s progressing great. Even though he has epilepsy and also was in an accident years ago that affected his brain, he still understands everything we teach him, and the Spirit has been working through him, testifying that these things are true. The only problem is that he drinks coffee every now and then. He knows that he needs to stop drinking and even his doctor is telling him to not drink coffee because it´s messing with his nerves and can cause problems with his epilepsy. He´s trying to stop and he´s made progress. We just need to give him a lot of support and help and daily visits to help him to stop drinking.

We have another family that that came to church named the Family C. We´ve taught them a few times, but they always say that they just want to learn more and don´t want to get baptized and don´t want to find out if this is true. We told them that if they never pray to find out if this is true then what they´re learning is just information and won´t help them at all. After that they realized that needed to find out if this is true, and showed up to church on Sunday! My companion sat with them and I wasn´t able to talk to them after, but I really hope that the Spirit was able to testify to them in the fast and testimony meeting. We have an appointment with them this week and we´re going to see if they read and prayed and invite them to baptism. If we never read, pray, or asist church then we´ll never know if this is true. You can´t learn for yourself if something is true unless you live it. You can´t say that pizza is delicious unless you eat it. That´s how the Gospel is. You can´t say it´s true or not unless you live it, then ask God if it´s true.

We´re really excited to start working this transfer. We´ve been working hard to have success, and even though we haven´t had all the success we wanted, I know that we´ve been preparing the area and that Chillogallo is ready to be harvested. ´´The field is white and ready to harvest.´´

Sé que Jesucristo vive. Amo ser misionero y amo servir a mi Padre Celestial y a Jesucristo.

¡Tengan una exelente semana!

-Élder Gómez