Alex is home!

After a long travel day, engine troubles in Quito, and missed connections in Miami, Elder Gomez is finally home and he has completed his two year mission!

His flight left Quito, Ecuador 50 minutes late on Tuesday the 16th due to engine troubles.  When they arrived in Miami they had to go through United States customs and by the time that was completed he had missed his connection to Dallas-Fort Worth.  He was traveling with a Hermana and the airline put them up in a hotel for the evening.  Separate rooms of course.  The missionary travel department booked them on a flight the next day for Atlanta, then onto Salt Lake City.  The flight was scheduled to leave Miami at 6:30 in the morning.  Elder Gomez was ready and waiting in the lobby of the hotel for the taxi to take them to the airport.  No hermana!  They called her room and knocked on her door and no answer.  After waiting for more than an hour he decided he better get to the airport so he doesn't miss his flight.  He arrived in Atlanta and went to the gate for the Salt Lake City flight.  Minutes before the flight was to leave, the hermana that he was traveling with made it and boarded the flight.  Apparently she had not slept for two days and was in a deep sleep and didn't hear the phone or the knocks.

He arrived in Salt Lake City at 12:45 pm.  All of his family was waiting to greet him.  And because this was his birthday, everyone sang Happy Birthday to him as he rode the escalator down.  We are so happy he is home and are proud of him and the way he served and fulfilled his mission!

Congratulations Elder Gomez!  Mission accomplished!  We love you!

Semana 94

Hi everyone! I hope you´re all doing good back at home. We´re doing great here in Riobamba!

We have the baptism for M this week and A is still doing good for his baptism the 20th. Things are progressing well. All the missionaries in the district are bringing people to church and there should be more baptisms this month of June and July. Asistence in church hasn´t changed too much but we hope that that can change in the following weeks. We´re working hard to hasten the work here in Riobamba. We have a lot of ideas this week. Starting Saturday, we set out a table with pamphlets in front of the chapel and gaves tours of the chapel to the people passing by and it went well. This week we´re going to do it a few more times and also try contacting the people in the buses. We have a lot of things we want to do.

I´m coming home this next week and there´s a lot of mixed emotions. It will be nice to see everyone again. But I´m going to miss the mission and Ecuador so much. Yo he aprendido bastante en mi mision. Yo he podido crecer y mejorar. He logrado un testimonio y una conversion verdadero acerca de la Iglesia y de Nuestro Padre Celestial y Jesucristo. Se que esta es la Iglesia verdadera de Jesucristo y que este Evangelio nos ofrece una felicidad verdadera y perdura por toda la eternidad. Testifico que todas las personas que con sinceridad preguntan a Dios si estas cosas son verdaderas, reciben una respuesta por medio del Espiritu Santo, el cual nos ayuda a comprender y aclarar las cosas, quitar la confusion y duda y ayudarnos a tener paz y tranquilidad y guia en nuestra vida. 

I´m thankful for all the support that you´ve all given me while I´ve been on the mission. God will bless you a lot. Well that´s about it for now. Hope you all have a good week. And I´ll see you next week in Utah. 

-Elder Gomez 

Amo ser misionero :) 

DyC 4 Nosotros somos parte de una obra maravillosa. :) 

Semana 93

Hi everyone! I hope you`ve all had a good week. We`re doing great here in Riobamba!

We went to a museum today. It was cool. They had a mummy that they discovered in ecuador. But they didn`t let us take pictures of it.

We`re starting to find some more investigators. We found one that asisted church yesterday. His name is A. He`s listened to the missionaries a few times before and almost got baptized many years ago but it didn`t happen. He was so happy to see the missionaries again and he accepted a fecha for the 20th of June. M still doesn`t have a baptismal date but just says that he`s going to get baptized before I go home. 

We`ve been seeing a lot changes in the branch. We`ve started out a missionary plan for the branch and the goal of our branch president is to qualify for being a ward by the end of the year. We`ve put some good goals and plans that will help to encourage the members to start participating in the work. They asked me to talk about this in sacrament meeting on the in two weeks on the 14th, which will also be my last sunday in the mission. 

That`s sad that the Apostol Elder L. Tom Perry died. I know that all of the prophets and apostols are inpsired men of God and that if we follow them, we will be blessed with success. 

Well that`s all for this week. Hope you have a great week and stay safe! Pray for missionary oportunities and don`t be afraid to share the gospel. 

-Elder Gomez

Amo ser misionero. Se que esta es la Iglesia verdadera y que Jesucristo vive. :)

Semana 92

Hi everyone! I hope you all are doing good and that you had a great week! We´re doing great in Riobamba!

We hiked Chimborazo today for p-day. The top of the mountain is the highest point on earth. We only hiked to 5000 meters (i don´t know how much that is in feet). We saw snow higher up on the mountain. It was cold but I wore my poncho which was warm and gave my coat to my companion since he didn´t have one. 

Our investigator M had a baptismal interview on Wednesday and it went all well. He may get baptized this Saturday but it´s been hard to visit him since he´s almost never at his house and doesn´t answer the phone much. We´ll be praying a lot for him to help him accept the baptism date. 

Our new branch president is excited to work hard and help us. We´re seeing some changes here and we hope that these changes can keep going forward. Now, we´re trying to teach the branch council leaders to know how to work with the Work of Salvation. 

After this we´re going to Quito for the new missionaries and trainers verification meeting that we will have tomorrow. So that´s about all for this week. I love being a missionary and I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ and that this Gospel brings us hapiness and teaches us how we can have a personal relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Somtimes there are doubts, but I know that if we sincerely pray and ask God if these things are true, He will help us know for ourselves by the power of the Holy Ghost to know that these things are true. 

Have a great week. Happy birthday to my dad this Wednesday. I love you, Dad! 

-Elder Gomez

Amo ser misionero :)

Semana 91

Hi everyone! I hope you´ve all had a great week! We´re doing good here in Riobamba!

We had district conference (stake) conference yesterday and the district presidency and mission presidency gave really good talks. We also had a zone conference on saturday before the sessions. 

We´ve been working hard and we´ve found some new families that we´ll be working with. We´re hoping that things start changing. We talked with our branch council after a video broadcast we had on sunday that the area presidency did. We talked about what we need to do to improve and help retain the less actives and converts and work together to have more baptisms in the branch. We got a new branch president and we´ll be helping him as well so we can all work together. 

Well that´s about all for this week. Hope you have a great week and I hope to hear from you all next week!

-Elder Gomez

Amo ser misionero :)

Semana 90

Hi everyone! I hope you´re having a great week! We´re doing good here in Riobamba!

My new companion that I´ll be training is Elder Morales from Trujillo, Peru. He´s 24 years old. He´s really excited to work and learn all about the mission. 

M is progressing well but everytime we plan an interview for him, it falls through, so that´s been a challenge for us to find a time when he can have his interview. 

We´re working hard and focusing more as a zone on talking to families that we pass by on the street. It´s more effective that way than knocking on doors. Many times, God puts the people we need to help in our very path, but sometimes we´re not paying attention to the people that we pass by. I know that we are all children of our Heavenly Father and that everyone should have the oportunity to learn about the plan that God has made for all of us. I testify that the plan that God has given us gives us true happiness in this life and helps us learn how we can come to know Him and Jesus Christ. 

Well that´s about all for this week. Hope you have a great week and stay safe and I hope to hear from you all next week!

-Elder Gomez

Amo ser misionero. Se que Jesucristo vive. :)

Semana 89

Hi everyone! I hope you`ve  all had a great week! We`re doing good here in Riobamba!

We had our transfers today and I`ll be staying and training a new misionary. I`m excited that I`ll be able to train a new missionary for my last transfer. We`re going to Quito tomorrow for the new missionaries meeting that willl be on Wednesday. 

We`ve been working hard here in Riobamba and yesterday we had a lot of less actives come to church and asistance at sacrament meeting is going up as well. We had 93 yesterday and we`re that it can start to increase more and more every week. We`ll be working very hard. There`s no reason to stop working or being lazy. We promised God that we would keep our covenants in every moment of our lives. Not just when it`s convenient or until we`re at the end and want to stop, but in every moment. 

That`s about it for next week. I hope you all have a great week and I hope to hear from you all next week!

-Elder Gomez

Amo ser misionero. Se que Jesucristo vive y que esta es la Iglesia verdadera de Él. :)