New Leaf

Mom, Dad, and the whole bunch,
It's sad to hear about Grandma, but it sounds like it was her time and it was for the better. I hope you all are doing well with adjustments. Mom, listed out like that it sure sounds like this year was one of the craziest. We never know what the future holds in store. It reminds me of a scripture I read recently in Ether 6 (verse 5 or 8 I think) which I mentioned before in an email when I was in the MTC. God used his "furious winds" to blow us toward the promised land. That has a lot of life parallels I think. The storms may seem to never end, but the end is rich which blessings. I hope we can keep that in mind as we go into 2013. And may we set goals that will help prepare us for whatever the Lord has in store.
We had some awesome experiences this week. One of which was with a guy named Miguel. Elder M and I were biking back to our apartment for lunch and saw a guy outside in his yard who we stopped to talk to. He said he was cleaning up a bit from a Christmas party the night before, so even though he declined our help, we got off our bikes and started picking up trash and putting it in bags. After a bit of talking he complimented our Spanish and made the comment that he doesn't know much English. So we told him about our free English classes like a half mile from his house. He was stoked! And he committed to see us there the following night. Well the next day when we showed up, 10 min early, he was already there! And it turned out that he was the only student because apparently the class had been cancelled by the member-teacher, but it was good because we got to focus on him. About half way through the class he said, "So you guys in your church, do you believe in heaven and hell?" Well that opened it up for us to talk about the plan of salvation and we gave him a pamphlet in English and Spanish. A member in the building poked his head in and invited Miguel to church on Sunday. To help him feel comfortable on Sunday, we showed him around the building a bit, and ran into another member who chatted with Miguel for like 15min and got him totally interested in church. He says he really wants to find a church where he feels like family and to draw closer to Christ, and he committed to come on Sunday. And he actually came yesterday! It was a miraculous series of events. What's even cooler is that missionaries from several months ago had already saved his number in our phone, haha. I know that God is watching over his children and guiding them - those that don't have the Gospel as well as those that do. He wants all His children to return home.
Well, we don't have much plans for New Year's Eve. There's a zone activity from 6-8:30 to keep us off the streets. I'm excited for the year ahead and these next few months as crunch time. Enjoy your activities tonight and stay safe. I love you all!

Elder Gathro

Merry Christmas!

Dear family and friends,
Merry Christmas! It's great to be in the Christmas season and to feel the special excitement it brings. We had our mission Christmas party this week which was a blast. After chatting with other missionaries and getting the giggles out, we all met in the chapel of a local church building and had a really nice program. Each zone was paired up with another and sang to the mission. Ours was embarassing- right at the end of the song when it switches into ocupella(?) the conductor dropped his music and we all just paused for a few seconds awkwardly. Haha it was funny though. Our area authority spoke to us as well. He always has inspiring words, and this time focused a little on how special the Christmas season is as a missionary. I really felt that I need to use this precious time - both as a missionary and simply around Christmas - to serve other people. I think that the "Chistmas spirit" is mostly about "love-inspired service." It can be hard to rotate your frame of mind and try focusing on the needs of others instead of yourself, but I know that it's rewarding and elevating. Christ is our ultimate example of such a life.
I'm excited to see and talk to you all tomorrow. If 5pm FL time is best, I'll hop on at 3pm here. I don't think it'll be possible to skype Tyler later on. Maybe I can talk to him for 5 min just before 3pm? And we're only supposed to talk to immediate family, so although Brandon is pretty much my blood brother I probably won't be able to say much to him. I guess it's cool if he listens in though. I'd like to at least call each of the other siblings like I did on Mother's Day. That was great.
Well the work took a few shallow dives and is surfacing again. We had an investigator show up at church that we weren't expected to come at all. During Gospel Principles class, the teacher was closing up the lesson and showed the class a photo of the soon-to-be-dedicated Gilbert Temple, then addressed the investigator and said, "This is the temple, the missionaries will be taking you here to teach you more about God's plan for us." So right after the prayer we jumped up and scheduled a trip to the temple this week. Things are always looking up :)
I love you lots! Thanks for all the packages. Enjoy this evening and this special time of the year. May you find ways to serve others around you and bring them closer to the Savior. Hasta pronto! Feliz Navidad!

Elder Gathro

Estar al tanto

Hey family,
I haven't heard from Brandon yet, but WOW! He sounds like he's become twice the stud he was before the mission. I'm happy for him. And glad to hear that you were able to Skype a bit yesterday. I heard from a member about some civil unrest in Egypt. I'm glad Tyler's out of there and chilling in Bethlehem for the holidays. In some ways it hadn't really felt like the Christmas season yet for me, but I've been wishing everyone I meet a merry Christmas and I can feel the excitement in the air. And tomorrow we're having a mission Christmas party, temple trip on Wednesday with half the mission in my session. Our ward Christmas parties are also this week, and I'm looking forward to meeting all the friends of members that come along. I feel like good things are soon to happen in our areas. Our talks a week ago in sacrament meeting were bomb, and then yesterday one of the members gave us a huge compliment. It was a high councilman who came with us to a lesson this week and at the start of priesthood meeting he kept going on about how impressed he was with our teaching skills and whatnot. Some members are starting to get things going with their friends, which is wonderful. I hope I'm one of those members who's always inviting my friends to church, firesides, FHE, activities, to read from the Book of Mormon, etc. "Fear not to do good."
So last night we had a mission president's fireside at the institute in my area, so my companion and I got to translate the fireside into Spanish. It was my first time officially translating and it was actually pretty fun. We just sat back in the corner and switched back and forth. Occasionally another Spanish missionary who was listening would look back at me because of how I translated it. Haha it was fun.
We kinda had a rough week with the church attendance. We invited so many people and got several commitments that we felt were solid, but only one lady showed up. And she can't be baptized right now because she's not married and her husband doesn't want to get married any time soon. It's a sad situation that unfortunately has happened a lot on my mission. And there's only so much we can do. But I know that God is working with us and our investigators. A friend of the investigator who came to church has a lot of depression, so the investigator told her friend, "Well come to church! It'll help you." Amazing! She's already a missionary.
Yeah, we can Skype at the time that you mentioned, Mom. That'll work. I'm looking forward to it. You can see how much my hairline has receded...just kidding, it's not too bad :) I pray that you will all be safe and well. I love you all!

Elder Gathro

Life at the "Table"

Hola hola!
Wow, it always seems like a load of news when I read your emails. I pray for the family, Grandma and Grandpa included. It's always fun to have the Rich and Kathy gang over for the holidays. That'll be a blast.
Some of the biggest news from this week is the mini mission tour that we had. Elder Quentin L. Cook, Walter F. Gonzalez, and Gary Stevenson came to visit our mission this past Friday. We all got together at a local chapel and they addressed just our mission. It was really cool. And they had great things to say, of course. And what they said actually wasn't anything new. Bishop Stevenson talked about Preach My Gospel's counsel to extend an invitation, promise blessings, and bear testimony. Then Elder Gonzalez (who has a funny Uruguayan accent) talked about the power of the Book of Mormon as a tool in finding, teaching, baptizing, and retaining. Elder Cook talked about removing foolishness from our lives, especially as younger missionaries enter the field. Then he said more about making powerful invitations to help people progress in the Gospel. And he also commented toward the end about how we are in the right place in our lives right now. Our family now and in the future will be blessed as a result of serving a mission. And actually typing that just now reminded me of a verse I read this morning in Mormon 3:1-2. As all the people were preparing for war and trying to make sure they were ready in every way possible, God tells Mormon that if they people will live the Gospel, He will preserve them. It's like saying, "I know you're guys are busying yourselves for war, and now you really need to give emphasis on religion." Seemingly they don't have a relation, but God will bless us in every aspect of our lives as we live the Gospel.
My companion and I spoke in our English ward sacrament yesterday and had a terrific response from the ward. A convert also shared his conversion experience and it really made sacrament meeting spiritual. All in all we had a decent week. Oh check this out: A few years ago, the Spanish ward I'm currently in had 68 baptisms in a year! This year it didn't get close to that, but it's crazy to think about the potential it has. I hope to be here for a long while.
Well, I love you all. I hope I answered your questions. Good luck with work and school and merry Christmas!

Yours truly,
Elder Gathro

My 3rd Area!

Family!

Whoa, what a change! I don't know if you got the letter from President Howes yet but in case you didn't, I'm now serving as a zone leader. And even cooler, my current companion is actually the same elder who trained me when I was a greenie. He's a much better companion this time around, which is probably just because my attitude and perspective is more mature compared to a year ago. This is his last transfer before he goes home, so he'll have to train me how to be a zone leader before he ends his mission. And we'll be spending Christmas together again. I'm excited for the transfer!
There are some really good pockets of Hispanics here which is fun. The members have had bad experiences with missionaries in the past so we're trying to build up the trust and I was doing my best yesterday to greet everyone and make a good impression. I told everyone at the pulpit that because my last name sounds like "gato" that they could call me Elder Gato (Elder Cat), which they all loved. And they already tell me that I have good Spanish. Hopefully I can make a difference here. And weirdly enough, this could be my last area if it's anything like the time I spent in my first area.
So I'm still adjusting to the area and catching on to locations and names, and I don't have a whole lot of stories yet. BUT, last night we had a pretty cool experience. While walking through an apartment complex we started offered to help a young guy with some groceries from his car. We actually let us help, and even invited us to eat dinner with him. We respectfully declined but he invited us into his house either way so we went up and met his fiance and 11-mo-old baby as well. At first we were a little weary of the guy because he seemed unusually friendly for a street contact. But it turns out that his soon-to-be-wife has a best friend who's Mormon, and she has been thinking about converting but wants to get her life in order before getting too involved. We asked more about their family, experiences at church, testified of how the Gospel blesses families, and they agreed to have the English elders stop by. After the visit we passed the referral off and the other elders gave the family a call and set up an appointment for Wednesday. It was a miracle contact and a family that seems really promising. I know that God's hand is in this work. He's closer than we think He is. And He will help us. I'm excited for the Christmas season as more people will be thinking on Christ. I hope each of you may feel closer to Him as well. I love you all!

Elder Gathro