Dear Family,
This last week has been really amazing. We saw some miracles and just had a great time. A few days ago we had a zone conference and I really think the things they taught us will help us in our missionary work. One thing they suggested we might do is to spread the gospel through homework. Basically the idea is you leave someone with a small assignment and a place to read in the scriptures and teach them how they can find answers to their questions. Sometimes we ask people if they will do things that they might not know how to do. So we need to focus more on teaching them how they can keep their commitments. I felt like the training was good and was definately something that our investigators need.
While we have been finding we had a couple of cool experiences. We met this one man from Sri Lanka who was super nice and opened up to us immediately. After we shared our message with him he said he was super curious and wants to know more. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he promised that he would read it. We also met a guy from the U.S. who is an atheist. He has met the missionaries so many times but said that everyone told him he was wrong and just tried to force the gospel on him. He was super nice and respects religion. He started asking us questions about our beliefs and because our approach was that we invite people to learn and not force them to believe he decided to listen. It was interesting because it was more like discussing something with a friend rather than teaching a lesson. After talking with him for a bit he said that he wants to meet and talk some more even though he isn't interested in joining. So hopefully we'll be able to meet again and see how things go from there. Its funny we don't run into people to often that are from a different country. That is just a couple of things that happened this week.
I'm still keeping a journal and making sure it is more detailed. This last week we have been very blessed by the Lord in seeing miracles and people change. The work is progressing and just keeps getting more fun as time goes on. I love you all and am grateful for your prayers and support.
Love, Elder Joseph Gandy
Monday, May 27, 2013
Sunday, May 26, 2013
May 19, 2013
Dear Family,
Well I hope things keep going well for all of you. This last week has been another great week. The rainy season has started over here and it will probably be raining until the end of June. Even with all of the rain we are doing our best at going out and finding people. It makes it kind of hard to talk to people on the streets but we also have some good investigators that we are meeting with regularly.
Yesterday we had an investigator come to church for the first time. I felt like he had a good experience and he actually knew one of the members. It was great that now he has a couple more friends in the ward. We are helping him progress towards receiving baptism on June 16. It is super exciting seeing him progress. We hope that we will be able to help our other investigators progress as well.
We are always pretty busy and time just seems to be flying by way too fast. This week we have a lot more going on with zone conference and I'm preparing a talk for church next week. I'm thankful for all of your prayers. I love you all so very much.
Love, Elder Joseph Gandy
Well I hope things keep going well for all of you. This last week has been another great week. The rainy season has started over here and it will probably be raining until the end of June. Even with all of the rain we are doing our best at going out and finding people. It makes it kind of hard to talk to people on the streets but we also have some good investigators that we are meeting with regularly.
Yesterday we had an investigator come to church for the first time. I felt like he had a good experience and he actually knew one of the members. It was great that now he has a couple more friends in the ward. We are helping him progress towards receiving baptism on June 16. It is super exciting seeing him progress. We hope that we will be able to help our other investigators progress as well.
We are always pretty busy and time just seems to be flying by way too fast. This week we have a lot more going on with zone conference and I'm preparing a talk for church next week. I'm thankful for all of your prayers. I love you all so very much.
Love, Elder Joseph Gandy
Monday, May 6, 2013
May 5, 2013 - Hearts Being Opened
Dear Family,
Joshua's mission call really is super exciting news. I can't wait for him to experience mission life.
Well as for things here it has been another great week as usual. We are still working hard to find more people to teach. I feel like the work here has really started to progress and the people are opening up their hearts to listen to the gospel. This last week we met this college student on the street and talked a little bit about the gospel. It went so well that now we have an appointment to meet with him tomorrow. We also got a random phone call from this lady that we have never met. She called and told us how she was interested in learning English but then said how much more interested she was in learning about our church. So now we have an appointment with her on Wednesday.
Not only have we been able to find those who are prepared but they have been finding us. This next week we have a lot more scheduled appointments with our investigators. I'm looking forward to sharing the gospel with each of them. I'm so grateful to know that the Lord is blessing us in this work. Without His help it would be impossible to do on my own. My love for this work is growing stronger everyday. I'm beginning to feel a greater love for the investigators we have been teaching. I'm so very grateful for all of your prayers. I love you all very much.
Love Elder Joseph Gandy
Joshua's mission call really is super exciting news. I can't wait for him to experience mission life.
Well as for things here it has been another great week as usual. We are still working hard to find more people to teach. I feel like the work here has really started to progress and the people are opening up their hearts to listen to the gospel. This last week we met this college student on the street and talked a little bit about the gospel. It went so well that now we have an appointment to meet with him tomorrow. We also got a random phone call from this lady that we have never met. She called and told us how she was interested in learning English but then said how much more interested she was in learning about our church. So now we have an appointment with her on Wednesday.
Not only have we been able to find those who are prepared but they have been finding us. This next week we have a lot more scheduled appointments with our investigators. I'm looking forward to sharing the gospel with each of them. I'm so grateful to know that the Lord is blessing us in this work. Without His help it would be impossible to do on my own. My love for this work is growing stronger everyday. I'm beginning to feel a greater love for the investigators we have been teaching. I'm so very grateful for all of your prayers. I love you all very much.
Love Elder Joseph Gandy
Sunday, April 28, 2013
August 28, 2013
Dear Family,
Well I'm really looking forward to hearing where Joshua is going. It sounds like everything is going great back home. Thanks for sending the addresses.
Things here have been going pretty well. My new glasses are a bit of an adjustment but I'm glad I can now see better than I could before. This last week we had a great time. We found a new investigator that we are excited to work with. We also had one funny experience that really just made my day. While we were housing we met this old lady who was very happy. She also spoke a little bit of english that she learned from doing karaoke I think. It was funny because she started singing "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray." I felt like I just had to sing along. It was just one of those experiences that really made me smile.
Other than that things have been going extremely well. The work has been great and there is nothing better than when you can share your testimony of this gospel. I know that it is the power of the Holy Ghost that will touch the hearts of the people we meet. I hope that we'll do our best at keeping the Spirit with us always. I love you all so much and am grateful for your prayers.
Love, Elder Joseph Gandy
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
April 23, 2013
Dear Family,
I forgot to let you know that this week would be transfers so that is why this e-mail is a day late. Nothing is changing though. Elder Low and I will still be working together. I'll actually be going and getting glasses tomorrow so I'll take a picture and send it to you next week.
Well lets see if I can answer some of your questions. The daily schedule of a missionary changes depending on the area. But we always start the day with a few hours of study in the morning. Then if you have any appointments you go and teach them if not you might go visit people that you haven't been able to contact in a while or you find.
As far as food goes we get a lot of food from members on Sunday but we don't eat with them to often. Usually we make our own food which consists of some kind of noodles or something on top of or with rice. To clean up one exploded egg took about 5 minutes.
This last week has been great I had one experience that I would like to share. While we were finding we met this man on the street and started talking about religion. He was Buddhist but said that all religions seem pretty similiar. So he told us about some of his beliefs and then we noticed that one of the big differences that we believe in is revelation. So we testified to him that we really can receive a witness which comes from heaven. I went to share something from the Book of Mormon with him and then I had this thought to read a different part. So I did and after following that impression was when the spirit really came into our conversation. When we first contacted that man he wasn't really interested in talking about religion and it looked like he was going to run away when he first saw us. By the end of our conversation I felt like he wanted to know if we can receive revelation. That experience has strengthened my testimony that Heavenly Father knows each one of His children and their specific needs. I hope that I'll be able to keep trusting in the Lord as I help in this great work.
I love you all so very much and am extremely grateful for your prayers.
Love Elder Joseph Gandy
I forgot to let you know that this week would be transfers so that is why this e-mail is a day late. Nothing is changing though. Elder Low and I will still be working together. I'll actually be going and getting glasses tomorrow so I'll take a picture and send it to you next week.
Well lets see if I can answer some of your questions. The daily schedule of a missionary changes depending on the area. But we always start the day with a few hours of study in the morning. Then if you have any appointments you go and teach them if not you might go visit people that you haven't been able to contact in a while or you find.
As far as food goes we get a lot of food from members on Sunday but we don't eat with them to often. Usually we make our own food which consists of some kind of noodles or something on top of or with rice. To clean up one exploded egg took about 5 minutes.
This last week has been great I had one experience that I would like to share. While we were finding we met this man on the street and started talking about religion. He was Buddhist but said that all religions seem pretty similiar. So he told us about some of his beliefs and then we noticed that one of the big differences that we believe in is revelation. So we testified to him that we really can receive a witness which comes from heaven. I went to share something from the Book of Mormon with him and then I had this thought to read a different part. So I did and after following that impression was when the spirit really came into our conversation. When we first contacted that man he wasn't really interested in talking about religion and it looked like he was going to run away when he first saw us. By the end of our conversation I felt like he wanted to know if we can receive revelation. That experience has strengthened my testimony that Heavenly Father knows each one of His children and their specific needs. I hope that I'll be able to keep trusting in the Lord as I help in this great work.
I love you all so very much and am extremely grateful for your prayers.
Love Elder Joseph Gandy
Monday, April 15, 2013
April 14, 2013
Dear Family,
This week has been a super fun week. Especially with the chance to see general conference. It was very uplifting.
We did have some interesting funny experiences though that I would like to share. On Wednesday we went out with four other missionaries and passed out over 2000 flyers for our English class so hopefully it will continue to grow. While we were doing that this dog started chasing my zone leader that I was with at the time. It was kind of scary at the moment.
Another thing that happened which I thought was unbelievable was that I blew up an egg. I had been told that it is impossible to take an egg in your hand and then brake by just trying to make a fist. I had tried before and couldn't do it but last week I did. It was actually super unfortunate because egg got everywhere. So it wasn't terribly fun to clean up. Those were just a couple of random funny things that happened.
As for the work though we keep pressing forward doing our best to find those who are prepared. I know that the Lord will be able to guide us. This week we spent the last part of the week in another area to watch conference. It was a lot of fun I had the chance to work with Elder McConnell who was in the MTC with me. I enjoy the mission so much.
I'm going to make my guesses for where Joshua will be spending the next two years. Foreign: Fukuoka Japan. Stateside: Boston. Those are my two guesses. I can't wait to hear where he is going. I know that Heavenly Father has a purpose and a plan for whereever he sends us. I love you all so very much.
Love, Elder Joseph Gandy
This week has been a super fun week. Especially with the chance to see general conference. It was very uplifting.
We did have some interesting funny experiences though that I would like to share. On Wednesday we went out with four other missionaries and passed out over 2000 flyers for our English class so hopefully it will continue to grow. While we were doing that this dog started chasing my zone leader that I was with at the time. It was kind of scary at the moment.
Another thing that happened which I thought was unbelievable was that I blew up an egg. I had been told that it is impossible to take an egg in your hand and then brake by just trying to make a fist. I had tried before and couldn't do it but last week I did. It was actually super unfortunate because egg got everywhere. So it wasn't terribly fun to clean up. Those were just a couple of random funny things that happened.
As for the work though we keep pressing forward doing our best to find those who are prepared. I know that the Lord will be able to guide us. This week we spent the last part of the week in another area to watch conference. It was a lot of fun I had the chance to work with Elder McConnell who was in the MTC with me. I enjoy the mission so much.
I'm going to make my guesses for where Joshua will be spending the next two years. Foreign: Fukuoka Japan. Stateside: Boston. Those are my two guesses. I can't wait to hear where he is going. I know that Heavenly Father has a purpose and a plan for whereever he sends us. I love you all so very much.
Love, Elder Joseph Gandy
Thursday, April 11, 2013
April 7, 2013
Dear Family,
Well it has been another great week full of work. This week we spent a little bit of time making cookies to give to investigators and ward members. It has been a lot of fun just doing small nice things for people. We have also been riding all over town talking to everyone we see. This week I felt like the Lord has blessed us in a few ways for all of the work we have been doing. One of the blessings is that a couple of less actives came to church yesterday who we haven't been able to contact in a while. The other one was at our english class we had 8 new students show up which was super exciting. We also had to find some more chairs so everyone could sit down.
This week we also got a DVD from the APs which had a talk that Elder Holland gave at the MTC. It was similiar to his talk in last conference but more directed to missionaries and the work that they do. In the talk he says a mission should change your life. In order to be an effective missionary you need to have the gospel already planted in your heart. It was just an amazing talk and helped me want to continue to do my best. I'm grateful for all of your support and prayers. I love you all very much.
Love Elder Joseph Gandy
Well it has been another great week full of work. This week we spent a little bit of time making cookies to give to investigators and ward members. It has been a lot of fun just doing small nice things for people. We have also been riding all over town talking to everyone we see. This week I felt like the Lord has blessed us in a few ways for all of the work we have been doing. One of the blessings is that a couple of less actives came to church yesterday who we haven't been able to contact in a while. The other one was at our english class we had 8 new students show up which was super exciting. We also had to find some more chairs so everyone could sit down.
This week we also got a DVD from the APs which had a talk that Elder Holland gave at the MTC. It was similiar to his talk in last conference but more directed to missionaries and the work that they do. In the talk he says a mission should change your life. In order to be an effective missionary you need to have the gospel already planted in your heart. It was just an amazing talk and helped me want to continue to do my best. I'm grateful for all of your support and prayers. I love you all very much.
Love Elder Joseph Gandy
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