Howdy

Dear Family,

First of all, pass the message along to the firstborn in the family that I wish him a very happy birthday! I hope it results in cheesecake loaded with cherries and a crazy activity with no one hurt :) Thanks for all you do, Ben!

The photos you saw, Mom, are probably accurate. This is a great little town down here. I remember telling people 2 weeks ago that I might be sent here and they said, "What did you do wrong??" But for the missionary lifestyle it's a blast! The weather is absolutely perfect by the way. It's a pretty old city with a lot of history it seems. Yeah it's got a slight western feel, and about half the population is Hispanic (score!). I went to California this week too! A portion of my area extends to a small indian reservation town just across the border. I'm hoping I'll be down here for the rest of my mission. My companion finishes his mission after the transfer following this one, so in May. I'm hoping I'll just stay for my last 2 transfers after that. Oh, you may have noticed in Church News recently that there will be 50+ missions created this year, and two of them in Arizona! Our mission president talked to us about it a few days before it was published. They will be creating the Arizona Gilbert and Arizona Scottsdale missions on July 1, which will naturally affect my mission, Mesa, and Phoenix. So for the last month of my mission I will have a new mission president and possibly be in a new mission. That'll be crazy. But back to the area, the members are terrific. I forgot to tell you that I'm in a YSA branch as well, which is kinda different. But we had a baptism in that branch this past weekend. It was for a 20 yr-old young man who had been invited to church and over several weeks recognized the difference it was making in his life. Just one invitation and the Spirit did the rest. (By the way, how did it go with inviting Clem to that church concert? I forgot the name of the singer.) But after his baptism Saturday night when everyone left he wanted to play the piano a little bit, and he's really good. We started our fast all together as well. Neat experience overall.

We took all day Thursday to drive up to the mission home, have a meeting for the zone leaders, and drive back. It was a long trip, and we had to find someone else to do the driving. I hate asking people to make so much sacrifice, but we found someone who was terrific. He just talked the whole way about life, telling us stories from his experiences (some funny some spiritual). He took us to grab a bite to eat on the way back down, and by the end of the day, we had all really enjoyed ourselves. Our meeting was actually worth having as well :) Though it seems like there's always so much to work on. "Little by little the grandma paints the coconut." Apparently that's a Guatemalan phrase which means it takes time.

One more thing, the young man that got baptized and confirmed this weekend shared his testimony yesterday and said that hard work is kinda deceiving. Because there's no guarantee that the result will be a success or not. But he said it really doesn't matter, because we still worked hard, and grew along the way. We should just work hard all the time. I'm trying to get better at that. Just an idea for the road. I love you all so much. I'm kinda jealous that over the next few months you guys will be together so much as a family. I'm with you in spirit :) Thanks for your tremendous examples of love and faith. Keep on keepin' on. Hasta la vista!

 

Love,

Elder Gathro