Conferencia!

Hola a todos!

Hey how was your week? We're still not boiling but little by little it's starting to simmer. But it's still a blast down here. These week was pretty miraculous and at the same time challenging. We went into it trying to have a lot of appointments set with the members and being involved with the branch. Last Sunday a sister randomly brought her recent fiancee to the church and now we're teaching him. He's a really smart guy and pretty religious, but he's interested in what we teach. He asked us how it works for marriages to happen in the temple. He came to a session of General Conference yesterday and seemed to really like it. We'll see how it goes. Did I ever tell you guys of the member family we found a couple weeks ago just because we decided to knock one door? They were baptized in Los Angeles and stopped attending church when the moved here years ago. Well the dad never got baptized, even though, as we found out, he was suited up to get in the water with his family but backed out. Well we went by to visit his wife this week and she was asleep but he was outside so we started to teach him. We set up a return appointment and he and his wife were waiting for us when we came again. Then we set up another appointment for last night and there he was sitting outside again. We taught the Restoration (the Gospel Art Book is fantastic!) and talked a lot about the Doctrine of Christ and the flow led us right into helping him accept a baptismal date for the end of this month. The Spirit was really strong and there was an excitement not just in us but in him too. Even better, the lettuce season just ended and he'll be able to come to church ever week. It was terrific: I mentioned church, he asked what time it started, I said 9am, and then he said with a smile, "That's a good time." With a similar grin I agreed :) 

So we kinda got the feeling this week that there's a lot that the branch needs to boost the enthusiasm again. After hearing General Conference we're stoked to apply what we learned, especially of selfless service. Too often we look inward and focus on our own struggles or weaknesses and maybe feel some pity for ourselves. Dwelling on the negative aspects of our lives to the point that we feel hopeless or kinda give up. But we can follow the example of the Savior, who in His moment of greatest difficulty and suffereing thought about others and was motivated by a love manifested by service. We're trying to be an example of service as well that will help the members think of Jesus Christ and in how they too can look outward to the needs of others. Please pray that the members here can feel desires to serve faithfully to the end. And may we all look for ways to do so. 

I love you all. Thanks for everything!

Elder Gathro