Elder Gandy and his companion, Elder Jameson

So, do they look like they could be brothers?

September 8, 2013

Dear Family,

Well it sounds like it has been a good week back home. I enjoyed the pictures that Bryce sent to Joshua and me.  It is so fun to look back on how we were back then. 

To answer some of your questions, the hospital was actually really nice and to fix my toenail they had to cut off a portion. It wasn`t bad even though I`m not very good with medical stuff. After that it was just taking the medicine which I finish taking today. 

Miyakojima definitely is a vacation spot.  I have met a couple people that have come for travel. I think it depends on the time of year because there haven`t been a lot tourists yet.

This last week has been great.  We have been meeting and finding some great people to start teaching.  A lot have a hard time understanding because not very many people know anything about God or Jesus Christ.  We have been talking to people a lot about Heavenly Father`s love for all of us. Everything seems to be working out super well.

We also had 19 people at church the other day which is the most I have seen so far. That kind of gives you an idea of how small our branch is but all of the members have strong testimonies. 

Well I love you all so much and hope you have another great week.

Love, Elder Joseph Gandy

P.S. Some people have been saying Elder Jameson and I look a lot alike. My previous companion also said I look like Brad Pitt. I think Daniel had someone tell him the say thing.

Note from Gayleen:

This is the picture that Bryce found and sent to Joseph and Joshua.  It was taken while Bryce was on his mission to Peru (2004 to 2006).  They asked me to take the picture and send it to their big brother on his mission so he could see how much they looked like missionaries.  

September 1, 2013

Dear Family,

Well there is no surprise but yes my new companion is Elder Jameson right from the MTC. He is has great faith and a strong desire to do the work. I`m sure that we will have an amazing transfer. If I remember right he actually entered the MTC the same day as Joshua. 

I have now been on Miyakojima for about 3 months. It has been a really fun area so far. We spend most of our p-days playing ping pong because it is mainly too hot outside to do anything else. I have actually been getting pretty good except for the fact that Elder Nara (Elder Nakabe`s new bean) has played for 12 years so it is impossible to beat him. 

Also typhoon season is pretty long but the most typhoons come in during september I think. 

Things however have been going really well the past few days. Elder Jameson and I saw a lot of miracles in these past couple of days. We went to visit a lot of investigators who ended up not being home so we did finding around those areas. The miracles were that there were people in those areas being prepared to hear the gospel. We found so many people that seem interested in learning more. It is really exciting and I`m excited to work with them. 

I think I`ll mention how a couple of them have been prepared. One was a man who met missionaries ten years before and liked Christianity so he sent his kids to a Catholic Preschool. Another had a friend in college who introduced him to the Book of Mormon but never got a chance to actually read one. I know that the Spirit leads us to where we need to go and helps us know what to say.  

I love this work and I know that the Lord is pushing it forward. I love you all so very much.

Love, Elder Joseph Gandy

P.S. I also had my first experience at a Japanese hospital because I actually had a pretty bad hangnail. Although now things are all taken care of. 

August 26, 2013

Dear Family,

Thanks for your e-mail it sounds like everything has been going super well back home. 

This last week however has been just amazing. We did switch apartments but our new apartment is super nice. At the beginning of the week there was also a small typhoon but it wasn`t too bad so we still got to go out and work. Its funny the people here are so used to typhoons that if its weak it is just like any other normal day. 

Even though this week was busy with the move and typhoon we still had many great experiences. We met with many of our investigators. Most of them really opened up and some showed a lot of interest in learning more about the church. The big miracle however is that a couple of youth from part member families went to an EFY activity a couple of weeks ago. When they returned they both had a strong desire to be baptized.  This last week we have been working closely with them so that they can be baptized in the upcoming weeks.

The people in Miyako are honestly being prepared to accept the gospel. This next week we expect to become a four man apartment and the week after that some volunteer missionaries from the stake should be coming down as well. A few days ago I got a call from Pres. Gustafson giving us a special assignment and he has some great plans for this area. I know that the Lord is hastening His work. 

I`m so grateful to be able to see how Heavenly Father works with all of His children. This last week I also got a call from the assistants telling me about when I`m going home. I`m not going to say the date because I don`t want to think about it. But it made me realize that I have been out for 18 months already. It is crazy how fast time flies especially when you're having a good time. I`ll keep doing my best and love serving the Lord. I love you all and am grateful for all of your prayers.

Love, Elder Joseph Gandy

P.S. Today we have our transfer calls. All let you know what happens next week.

August 18, 2013

Dear Family,

Thanks for the e-mail it sounds like everything is going great and that the Yuzawa group had a good time. I`m a little jealous of the grits and eggs because I don`t think you can buy grits over here. 

Well things here have been going really well. To answer some of your questions about Miyako there are about 10 active members here. It is probably one of the smallest branches in the mission. Our church is on the first floor under someone's house. So it is pretty different than most of my other areas. 

This last week we actually had a companion exchange with some of the other elders in our district. So in order that we could do the exchange we had to get on a plane and fly to a different island. We went and worked with the elders in Ishigaki. As we were about to go over there our plane got canceled because of bad weather. So we ended up taking a detour. We flew to Okinawa and from there flew to Ishigaki so it took more time than we wanted it to. However it was a fun time and we saw so many miracles. We found a couple of great people that said they would come to English class there which is awesome because they have been trying to start it up for a while now. 

At the end of the exchange we came back to Miyako on a really small plane. The plane fits around 40 people at max but there were only about 20 on it. So that was a new and exciting experience. It is only about a 30 minute plane ride from there to here. This transfer I have been on so many planes that it is kind of hard to believe. 

We also had our stake conference here so we got to watch it online. This week we are also going to be moving into our new apartment which is kind of exciting. Some new missionaries should be coming to Miyakojima as well in a couple of weeks. The mission is definitely increasing in size which is super exciting. Well I love you all so very much.

Love,
Elder Joseph Gandy

P.S. Some elders in our district just met a kid that came back from an exchange program in Utah who said he wants to learn more about the church and go to BYU for college. It's interesting the many different ways people are prepared to receive the gospel.

August 12, 2013

Dear Family,

Thanks for the e-mail it sounds like everything is going really well and that you are having a good time. As for here it has been a pretty good last few days. 

For zone conference we went up to the island of Okinawa which has two different zones there. One half of the island is the zone I was in before and the other half is the zone I`m in now. My zone consists of 12 elders and 5 sisters. Everyone in my zone is on the island of Okinawa except my district we are all on three different small islands. 

Zone conference was a lot of fun and I learned so many different things. We talked quite a bit about faith and if we exercise that faith how it will help us in our missionary work. We also read some scriptures in Ether 12 which is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. We also talked about accountability and the Doctrine of Christ. It was a very spiritual and uplifting conference. 

While I was there I got to see some of my previous companions. It was amazing to see how much they have grown and become the missionaries that they now are. I was just super happy to see that they were all doing really well. Right after the conference we had to go as fast as we could to the airport to catch our plane we were lucky to make it with just a few minutes to spare.So that was a little bit of an adventure. 

Thanks for all of your prayers. I love you all so very much.

Love, Elder Joseph Gandy

August 7, 2013

Dear Family, 

Well I'm sorry for e-mailing kind of late this week. Our p-day was changed to Thursday this week so our entire zone could spend p-day together. Next week it will be back to normal though. Everything has been going super well we have so many investigators that we are teaching every week. We are trying to do our best in helping all of them. Everyone is different so we are really trying to figure out there needs. This would be so hard if we had to do it all by ourselves which is why the Spirit is so helpful in our everyday work. 

Well I'm sorry for the short e-mail I don't have to much time today. Tomorrow is our zone conference so I'm looking forward to learning a lot then. I love you all so very much.

Love, Elder Joseph Gandy