Week 75 - Dec 21, 2020

 

Hola

This week was pretty cool. Last Monday we did an escape room with the district, the transfer ended the next day. Elder Shapiro and I are staying here until at least February. I got a surprise call from Santa while visiting a member this week, I'll include a picture down below. We had lots of visits with friends this week. We talked to our Iraqi friend again, he reads the book of Mormon, and last we visited he asked "do I need to be baptized again?" and "how can my wife find me in the next life?" It was incredible. He speaks mostly Kurdish and Arabic but he's working on his English, luckily we have resources to communicate with him despite the slight language barrier. We are still teaching our Filipino buddy, he fed us again and it was fantastic. We helped tear a fence apart this week, and got to virtually attend the baptism of our friend Les who lives just outside of our mission. Things are going good, it's cold and foggy most days but that's how it goes this time of year. We feel the work moving forward and it's a good time. It's Christmas this week, bound to be a good time. It's crazy how far we've come again, the year is gonna end soon. Y'all better have a merry Christmas. Thanks to those of you who sent cards and stuff, I really appreciate it.  

Stay chill, 

Elder Gneiting 

Week 74

 

Hello friends, 

It's been a few, thanks for staying tuned. It's been a good couple of weeks. Lots of work getting done. A few stories and miracles I'd like to share:

That friend I talked about last email, his name is Les. Over 5 days we taught him 3 times and committed him to baptism, and he asked me to perform the ordinance on December 19. However, it became apparent he lives outside of our mission, and it was with heavy heart we introduced him to his home ward and bishop. Elder Shapiro and I will attend his baptism virtually. I thank God for the privilege of meeting and teaching a man so prepared. 

After leaving a member lesson, Elder Shapiro and I passed a man cleaning his aquarium on his front porch. We waved and he replied "Hi Elders", we immediately turned around and asked him some questions. He has a member Sister, and she told him to find us to give him a Priesthood blessing. We took him inside, met his wife, kids, and mother, and blessed him. He and his wife were in tears. We set a time to return, and last Saturday they fed us a Filipino meal and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. He kneeled with us in prayer, and is anticipating our next return. 

Two friends I had lost contact with last time I was here have replied to us. One, a middle eastern man, returned our call, and virtually attended church. We will visit him tonight. A young man, the son of a member, was on track to be baptized last spring. We spoke to him yesterday, and will be baptizing him in January.  

We've met many new friends and taught even more lessons this last week. We're excited to deepen our conversion and the conversion of the people of Modesto. Thank you for the birthday wishes. 20 isn't all it's cracked up to be, yet. We saw an apartment building on fire yesterday, on our way to deliver the sacrament. It rained most of the day, we've still been biking it though. Love y'all, teach the gospel. 

Elder Gneiting 

 

Week 72

 

Hey hey

Another good week, had some cool visits and stuff.  Last Saturday, our friend got married and baptized, and so was three of his kids.  We had a lot of lessons and met some new people, we had exchanges and I got to hangout in the 6th ward with a trainee.  We had Thanksgiving and visited a few members, and played some pool with our favorite man Alan like the old days.  We've had a lot of success and it feels good to be out working more than before.  On Sunday, a man arrived at our chapel and spoke to the ward clerk outside, he was in town to visit a friend and said he had ordered a book of Mormon on Amazon and wanted to have a relationship with God.  He talked about his life and how things have been pretty good, but he was reflecting and felt that he was really missing something.  He learned he had some Mormon ancestors from Utah, and began his journey.  We met with him at a members house and talked for a while.  We started by learning more about him and he mentioned he was sure he'd declined missionaries at his door in the past and felt like a hypocrite and talked about being a stranger to God and some pretty honest stuff, we talked a little about God and taught him to pray.  He knelt down and prayed with us and then we taught him about the Restoration.  It was a crazy spiritual experience, and this man seems like he fell out of the sky.  It was hard to stop talking but we figured we gave him a book of Mormon to study with for now and asked him to keep praying.  God has been answering our prayers in miraculous ways.  I'm confident God's hand is in all this.  P days are usually some fun, we meet with other missionaries and play Frisbee or spikeball or football, Elder Greene sound a skateboard so we kick it around on the sidewalk, and we played some hackeysack today too.  Sorry I still don't have pictures, my phone's just built different. 

Yeh yeh

Elder Gneiting 

Week 71

 

Boy-o-boy, 

I had quite the week. We've been having lots of lessons every day with members and friends, and I've gotten back in contact with many friends I taught in the past. It's cool to see so many familiar faces, and the places I've grown fond of. In fact, I finally went back to Dan's BBQ, and it was as good as ever, better maybe, considering I haven't had it since March. The area president, Elder Pearson, had a virtual mission tour, and we watched him and his wife talk for 8 hours over two mornings. It was kinda long, but they talked about good things and tried their best to motivate the missionaries to get back into the usual grind, before Corona. They asked us to do a bunch of stuff and so far it's been helping us stay productive and positive, I'm into it. We helped a friend move and introduced her to the YSA Elders, which would be Elder Greene and his companion, they're cool. I saw Alan again this week, we got a game of pool in, I also had a chance to play Elder Shapiro. It was a close game, but I choked to hole the 8 and I overtook him. It was sweet. It's Thanksgiving week, and we're trying our best to make plans and stay working all day each day, but we will see how those plans turn out. Tis the season for canceling plans, it seems, so pray for our success. I'm happy to be back, I hope y'all are flooding the internet with gratitude or whatever. Thanks for reading. 

Read more next week, 

Elder Gneiting

No pics this week, it went too fast

Week 70

 

Dear reader, 

It's been a few weeks since we were last in contact. Many good things were happening in Turlock, a friend was baptized, we met with others. I got a cool shirt. The transfer ended, however, and I am now serving in the Modesto 2 ward with Elder Shapiro from Kaysville. That's right, the ward I was in almost a year ago. Very exciting. Many people I visited from months ago have been preparing for baptism, and some were baptized since I left. We spent a lot of time getting reacquainted with members of the ward and others we are teaching. We helped an old man take out his trash. We've taught many lessons. We knocked some doors again. Things are going well. I'm happy to be out, still. The corona-level fluctuates out here in California, and there tends to be frequent changes to protocol. I wish I had some pictures to share. Elder Greene is up here, it's cool seeing him again. I wasn't finished with Modesto, and I'm ready to pursue diligence here once again.  

I can see my breath, 

Elder Gneiting 

Week 62

 

What's up everyone, 

The past couple weeks felt a little slow, but looking back I've noticed a lot of change for our area. We've had a bunch of random calls from people who want us to visit, so that's been really cool. We've helped prepare our young friend in the ward, she had her interview and wants to be baptized by Elder Wayment next Sunday. We've been eager to meet new people and teach more than we have before. With every new person to teach, there is usually setbacks, but we've managed to push forward, set new goals, and prepare ourselves for the best outcome. We did a couple service activities this week, helped a lady in her yard with the other missionaries and helped trim a tree for a man in our ward. The week before we did a community service event with our fellow elders in a nearby town, Delhi. We met their friend who was baptized a couple days ago. We've been swapping a lot with the sister missionaries, we tend to find people in each other's areas. Nonetheless, we find ourselves busier and busier with each day that passes, as we phase back into the missionary work we were used to before covid. Can't believe I've been doing something so different for 6 months. Let the Lord prevail in your life! 

Elder Gneiting 

Week 61

 

It got a little cooler this week.  It stayed mostly in the high 70s and low 80s, but this next week might be one last surge of mid 90s for the year.  Elder Wayment and I have been having a good time.  We've been visiting plenty of people and finding new reasons to get outside, using new tools and ideas to find people.  This week we got 2 calls, one from the Sisters who found a guy who wants to be baptized who lives in our area, and another man who is neighbors with a member and asked that we teach his family.  We teach them both this week and we're stoked to do it!  Last Monday when we were at Walmart, a man whistled and us and asked for our bishops number, we invited him and his family to church.  The guy said he'd been down on his luck and currently homeless, but when Sunday came around he called and told us he was at a doctor's appointment and couldn't make it.  We'll see if he's interested this week if we can schedule a time to visit him.  We had zone conference this week, we packed into the family history center at our church with the rest of the zone and listened to the president and his wife and some Fresno missionaries give us news or whatever.  It was cool to hangout with the other missionaries, we participated in the role play in front of everyone at the end, and after we went to Costco and got some food.  Good times!  We had a few visits this week, a member family, our young friend getting ready for baptism, and our less active friend.  We had church outside again, that was fun.  We saw a new group of members and set a couple appointments.  It's good to be back closer to normal.  Last night we took some scriptures to a funny guy in our ward, he was a convert, he grew up hindu and still lives with his parents, and he gave us some cookies.

It's gonna be a good week!

Elder Gneiting

Week 60

 

This was a good week.

Our final Monday of the transfer we got the district together to play some soccer at a park, and we managed to borrow some spike ball nets from a member which made for more fun after. Tuesday was transfers, Elder Shuldberg was transferred down to Selma and I got my new companion, Elder Wayment. He's from Nashville, Tennessee, so that is pretty unique. We came back, had a lesson with our friend who's getting baptized in October, the next few days were spent contacting and trying to meet people in our area again, but we didn't have too much success. A couple evenings, we've gone walking in a park or neighborhood to try and talk to people, so far they haven't shown too much interest. Friday we did service at the food bank again, this time we made sandwiches and packed them for the trucks to take out, it was pretty cool, I really got the hang of bagging sandwiches. Afterwards we went to Perko's for breakfast, the first time since I was in Modesto! Saturday morning we helped a new member move into the ward, and missed the first session of conference. We did, however, watch the rest. Lots of inspiring messages! Saturday night we went to dinner with our member friend Harp, I met him when I was in my training, he took us to a taco truck and we got some sick tostadas. I asked the lady working there to hook me up with her favorite ingredients and she loaded me up with some bomb hot sauce, I downed that thing no biggy but my poor comp didn't fare so well. Sunday we visited a couple members, we ate cinnamon rolls and bacon for breakfast, then went with the zone leaders to a member to have sliders for lunch, and then after the final session we ate ribeyes in his backyard, it was awesome. We ate plenty of food, and when we got back, we called some people and tried Facebook finding. We didn't set any appointments but we will keep trying. I'm excited for today, Elder Greene is back up north so we're gonna try to meet up.

I wanted to share one insight I got from conference this weekend. A theme that continues to stand out in my mind is the phrase "Love your enemies". What I've found is I have a lot less to fear when I choose to love those around me, and love the situations I'm in, determining to stay positive and have an eternal perspective, I can make any circumstance a positive one. 

Love y'all

stay clean

Elder Gneiting

Week 59

 

Another week already? The transfer is coming to a close. Elder Shuldberg is going to Selma haha but to speak Spanish, so I'm happy for him. I'll have a new comp on Tuesday. We did a lot of good stuff this week. Lots of visits, new members met, new friends to teach, and we had church on Sunday! It was outdoor, behind the church in the recreation field. We got to meet a few more members and set some appointments for this upcoming week. Some highlights this week include helping a family move, they bought us some Habit burger and that was dope. We visited a guy who was baptized as a child but went through a rough time in his life and now helps people in similar situations, he was cool to talk to and we hope to start visiting him regularly. We met another member and she took us to her neighbor's place so we could teach her the gospel, sadly she wasn't home, so we'll try again this next week! I had another exchange to hangout with the district leader, we talked and watched a devotional and it was fun. That night we had another milkshake party with our fellow Elders. We also made a video with some members from the ward, we call it "Touring Around Turlock" and we showcase members in our city to show visitors to the page possible familiar faces. Yesterday we visited a nice family with the bishop, it's a convert couple and they are preparing their daughter for baptism, so we will teach them the lessons and grow their faith as a family, we're excited to get to know them better and grow in the Spirit! I'd love to hear from you all, how life may be going right now. What you're learning from the scriptures, what's got you excited for conference. Take care out there. 

Elder Gneiting 

Week 58

 

My fellow Americans, 

Last Monday was sweet, we had a zone activity at a members home. They had a big property with a small pond and a ping pong table and can jam and a sand volleyball pit, so we did a lot of fun games and they made us a bunch of spaghetti and smores around a campfire. It was a good time, pics down below. Elder Shuldberg and I have been working on a self-reliance video, we hope to have it posted this week, we recorded some shots at our local Walmart and in our apartment kitchen, it was a lot of fun. We drove to Ceres again a couple times this week with the zone leaders, once for a service project, it was cool to see some friends and familiar faces once again. One night this week we went out to ice cream with a friend from Modesto, who I reached out to when I got back to the north end of the valley. It was cool to talk again and catch up. Thursday evening, a member invited us to mow his recovering neighbor's lawn, and it was fun! Good to get in the grass again. We talked to the neighbor and he said he wanted to meet with us again to learn more about what we believe. Cool! We met a new friend at a park and taught her two teenage sons, we hope to start teaching them regularly, so it'll be great to have a new regular. Saturday was a technology training, sisters from Fresno came up and the zone met together again, we discussed goals and practiced our online communication, it was fun to meet together in person again. That night members had us over for hotdogs and smores again, a treat I didn't mind having twice this week, haha. My old companion from my Modesto days sent me a text with a screenshot of a conversation he had a with a friend that totally ghosted us. Neither of us had heard from this guy in months, but apparently he was hospitalized for ever but he's out now and wants to meet missionaries again. Nice! A couple wards in our stake had church on Sunday, which means our ward will attend next week! I can't wait to meet the members! And to break bread in the company of fellow saints again! We talked to the youth in a BYC this morning and helped them set goals to invite friends to youth nights and family home evenings with the missionaries, they were awesome! We'll be seeing some of those goals met this week. We hope to meet more people in this community. Life is good, transfer gonna end next week, wonder how that'll go.  

Love, 

Elder Gneiting 

Week 57

Dear reader,

I'm currently alive in Turlock, California.  There's lots of smoke but it's okay, because we're still mostly inside!  We did have a handful of appointments this week, and we met a bunch of new members.  I finally met the bishop yesterday, we had dinner with their family.  Come to find out, his brother taught my seminary class when I was a freshman!  What a cool connection that was!  I hope my old teacher gives me a good recommendation for his brothers ward.  Last Monday I went to a couple stores and thrift shops to find some cheap ties, along with my comp and the zone leaders.  We saw some cool old stuff, old Pepsi merch, guitars, cool shoes, and I found a few ties.  It was a good time.  We biked to district council this week, we got to meet in person at the church, but it was so smokey we couldn't see more than a few feet in front of us.  That evening we visited some members, we talked about sharing the gospel, and they gave us a bunch of Costco muffins.  Wednesday we helped a member of the Spanish ward move with some other Elders, it took us a couple hours, and then the member gave them some money to get dinner so we stopped by The Habit and it was awesome.  We had exchanges the next day, I went with Elder McArthur from Saint George, we made some calls, talked about music, and when we were walking around the complex some guy walked up and gave us his name and number and said he wants to meet some families from our church for his kids to hangout with.  Nice! We got a couple other referrals this week, a couple people asking for book of Mormons, and a member up in San Jose called us and asked that we visit a friend of his, they both work for a trucking company and spend a lot of time talking, and the member had given him a book of Mormon before.  We hope to start teaching him soon!  Saturday morning we joined almost our whole district in cleaning up this spot in town called "First Street" and it's super ghetto.  It's by a railroad track, and if you look farther down there's a tent city of a bunch of homeless people.  Lots of sketchy stuff over there, but it was cool to meet other people from the community and to do some service.  Sunday went as usual, we had a couple visits and dinner, as I mentioned earlier.  Bishops family gave us pork chops n stuff and a Klondike bar for the road, it was nice of them.  We're hoping to have outdoor church soon, but it's just rumors for now.  Life is groovy in California, man.  Hope you're doing well.

Elder Gneiting

 

Week 56

 

Welcome to September,

Had a good couple of weeks. Last Monday we took a trip to Yosemite, it was a lot of fun. We hiked to a couple cool views, one of which let us see the other peaks from the top of the canyon, because we didn't have time to go through everything in one day. It was a fun drive, a good hike, met some cool people while we were up there. Had zone conference and interviews with the president, it was alright. Good to hear some updates and get a grip on what the mission is doing. We had a technology training and we're feelin better about using facebook, I made a post in a local group that had over a hundred comments in under 2 days, that was crazy. We talked to a few people but we didn't start teaching any of them. We've been having lots of member lessons again, we've met plenty of ward members, we've been fed a few times, we visited a family that had a pet pig, it was huge, and they let it hangout inside. At one point they were trying to corral it and it freaked out and starting screaming and then their kids started screaming and the neighbors were probably losing it but it was fun, they gave us ice cream after the visit. We came back later in the week to do service for them, we helped lay some brick and stuff for a walkway and helped him fix up this pumpkin patch he's trying to use as a way to get his neighbors to come over. Great idea! We went on exchanges with the zone leaders this last week, I went to the YSA ward with a good friend from my last zone, Elder Wallis, we got to talk and visit some members from the Ceres ward, they fed us and I caught up with them and got to hear about the ward and some of the people I had taught there. They let me play their guitar for a little bit as well, it was good to feel it again. The zone leaders went to Fresno earlier in the week, we gave them some money and they brought us back some Krispy Kreme Donuts that we don't have within a 1 hour driving radius, made for a good breakfast a few days in a row. Had a busy sunday, visited members, had meetings, made a calendar for visits with the ward, feels good. I've been practicing my Spanish with my comp as well, we speak in Spanish for an hour a day, and my goal is to teach the first lesson by the end of the transfer (or this week if that gift of tongues will finally kick in.)

Feel free to write, hope life is well, stay cool out there, wherever you are.

Elder Gneiting

Week 55

 

Dear home,

It's a good week. I'm in Turlock, as you know. The melon capital of the world, so I've been told by the Hemming family over dinner yesterday. Last Tuesday was epic, the Selma bois had one last hoorah as we drove down to Fresno that morning, we went thrift shopping and found some dope ties, traded them around, went to Chick-fil-A, and then to transfer hub.  It was a sad goodbye but the work ain't over yet.  My companion is Elder Shuldberg, reassigned from Paraguay, originally from Colorado. We're fourth cousins, cool!  This week was a lot of fun, we had service for 3 mornings, including orchard work, prepping food, and painting! We had a couple lessons with progressing friends and recent converts, the work is moving much faster here in the north! On Thursday we met the zone leaders at Ike's Love and Sandwiches for my sake, and it felt good to be back. I got the 111 with banana peppers, as usual. It reminded me of the days w Elder Greene, some good times. We had dinner Saturday and Sunday with members of the ward, they're all very cool! They miss church a lot, but they're happy to have us over and we're happy to talk with them. Saturday morning we piled wood with the zone leaders and their branch president, then picked up metal rods from the orchard and moved them out, and they fed us chile verde pork tacos with chipotle salsa and jalapeños, it was a good lunch. Elder Shuldberg is really cool, he likes to be normal and do normal things. I might be a little louder than he's used to but we get along in spite of it. It's just us in our apartment, it stays nice and clean. We have a couple couches, it's awesome. We run most mornings, and during the day we try to get the other Elders in our complex to come out and play frisbee, they did a couple times. I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for the people of Turlock. In my studies I've learned a lot about suffering, I've been reading in Mosiah in a couple places and between King Benjamin's sermon and King Limhi's rejoice at Ammon of the 16 strong men, I've come to the conclusion that life is suffering. This isn't groundbreaking, but it's helped me get my head on straight and tighten a couple screws as I've made choices to be more consecrated this week. Jesus taught us to pick up our cross, and just bear it. Sure, it's sucks, but if you don't pick it up it's going to hang around and you're not going to move. Christ will help us lift it. When we feel like dropping the whole thing and walking away, he'll push us a little farther down the road. Just enough to see the sun on the horizon again. It just started raining, this is maybe the first time I've seen the rain during this time of year out on the mission. God is definitely aware. I've thought about a phrase I found recently, it says, "God hath sent his holy prophets... that thereby whosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might... rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though he had already come among them". Isn't that a beautiful thought? The prophets teach us how to be happy, as though Christ were already among us. People often talk of the happiness that will attend the second coming, and while it'll be a good time, there's no reason we can't be that happy even now. Life is suffering, but I'm happy.  

See you next time,

Elder Gneiting

Post service lunch and castle house around the corner from our apartment. 

Week 53

 

Yeoww,

Today's a good day.  The past couple weeks have been alright.  We haven't found many new people.  A number of our friends have rescheduled multiple times and we haven't been able to teach them.  There's a lot going on in people's lives right now, so it's easy to understand their priorities doesn't always include a visit or to read the scriptures, but we keep going.  Yesterday we taught a family and brought a member with us to share his experience with addiction, it was a good time and we committed our friends to live the word of wisdom, so we'll see how it goes.  This week was Elder Bramall's birthday and another Elder in the apartment, so we had cause to celebrate.  The other elder got a bag of hackey - sacks for his birthday so we've been kicking those around.  I had an exchange earlier this week, got to hang out in Reedley for the day, it was fun.  We had Reese's waffles for dinner, it was spectacular.  We had service this week, we were helping give out food again and that was a good use of time.  You meet a lot of different people.  My brother got married, everyone tell him congratulations.  Can't wait to meet her!  Haha just kidding, I've met her over video call.  Y'all make the most of your last month of summer now, before you know it'll be cold again.  Time is flying!

Take care, 

Elder Gneiting 

Week 52

Ya know,

It's been a minute, but thats alright.  Not a whole lot going on, as is anticipated.  We're in contact with some friends again, made some calls and set up some appointments, we met with a former friend who dropped us when I got into the area, but decided they wanted to start meeting again, we read the book of Mormon with them and they want to get back on track to be baptized, good for them!  We've been playing lots of baseball, maybe I mentioned that, we found some equipment in a church (that isn't being used) and we go out to the park most days to take turns batting and running bases.  Another elder in the apartment had his spikeball set, from home, shipped out so we've been playing some of that too.  It's really hot outside, over 100 degrees for a few days at a time haha but it's fun.  I got a good tan going.  I sweat a lot.  I feel good.  I met the President this past week, we had an in-person interview, he's a sweet man.  His wife is fun.  It might be weird to be thrown into this sort of situation but I'm sure they'll be fine.  We spent some time making a music video, I'm playing guitar in it, very softly, I was mostly jus tagging along so I could say I put something on Facebook.  We watched a devotional, Elder Clayton and his wife spoke.  His wife said something really interesting, she said that people are motivated by 6 things, on a spectrum, it looks like this:

Force, Fear, Punishment/Reward, Duty, Faith, Charity.  

To do all things out of charity is the goal, but it is also perfection.  That is what Christ did.  For one reason or another, we waver in the reasons we serve God.  I like this list, I think anyone can evaluate themselves upon this standard and ask "why do I do this?  Why do I read scriptures?  Pray?  Minister?  Go to the temple?  On a mission?"  You'll notice once you get to the "reward" part of the spectrum, things are positive, you do things for a positive reason.  All of which are noble, and it's best to be on that side.  Sometimes we are afraid, sometimes we don't want to be punished, but hopefully, we all take steps to do things simply because we want to be charitable.  Just because it helps other people.  I'm not there, but I'm happy.  I want to be there.  Life is weird.

Keep me in your prayers, I appreciate the sentiment.  Pray for the world.  Summer is gonna close soon, hard to believe I'm coming up on August again.  I hope you all have time to love.  Enjoy the pictures.

Ka-chow

Elder Gneiting

Week 51

Good Monday,

We sent off Elder Grant last Tuesday, but not before he said goodbye to some of our friends in Selma.  We spent last Monday afternoon at the home of a pastor in town, we had taught him on and off, he has his reservations but we consider him a good friend.  Tuesday we packed up and drove to Fresno.  We waited in our car for our turn to switch around missionaries, and when we got into the church parking lot, I saw Elder Greene!  I talked to him for a few minutes, he was getting sent south of me, to a town called Exeter.  I also saw a buddy from high school, Elder Day, who's been reassigned to our mission, what a stud!  My new companion is Elder Bramall, he's from Bountiful, and he's a great guy.  It's nice to have some change here in Selma and he's definitely helped me raise our standard of conduct.  We've been calling people as usual, we've got a lesson set up for every day next week, and I'm feeling motivated.  I had exchanges with our new district leader this week, a reassignee who lives in West Jordan, who was previously laboring in Peru.  It was a good exchange, had some good talk and played some ball.  We play basketball about every day, outside of our regular exercise, which has been nice when our schedules have been so open.  We had another service project at a church food bank again, it's good to help people and talk about the gospel.  I had a conversation with this guy who had "found his ministry" and felt inspired to share his thoughts with me about visions and other things.  Great guy!  Elder Bramall and I expect to teach some new people this week in addition to our scheduled appointments, so I'm excited. Things are good.  Keep up the good work out there.

Elder Gneiting

Week 50

Welcome back to Sunny Selma News,

As some of you might have noticed, I took a brief, unannounced hiatus last week to go on vacation.  I hope you weren't disappointed.  It's been a blast of a week and I've been enjoying the adventures each day brings.  Well, that's what I might be saying if I wasn't stuck inside.  We have a new car, back to a Malibu, I call him Dark and Handsome.  Last Monday we went to Sequoia National Park, which was cool, and saw some big trees.  It was good to go for a drive again, it took us a few hours and was worth the better part of our preparation day.  Oh, we also have a new President, he's pretty cool, we haven't heard from him much.  Some Sisters borrowed a guitar from one of their members and I have been playing it some, it only took one day to remember some good tunes, and then to learn some Hymns of course.  Elder Grant and I made a video for Facebook again, this time he testified about the scriptures in front of a park, we'll see if it goes anywhere.   It was Independence day this weekend, I'm sure the personal artillery rounds across the neighborhood were a pleasant reminder.  We drove out to a church in another small town nearby to have some hot dogs with our fellow missionaries, and we played some basketball, but we weren't allowed to drive back because of rules or something, so we biked the 10 miles back to our apartment before sundown.  What a ride!  (Worth it!)  We visited some other friends of ours earlier in the day, we had pizza with a member and played foosball with a new friend of the Spanish Elders.  It was a good time and a good weekend.  Transfers are tomorrow, I will be staying in Selma.  Elder Grant and I are swapping companions with some Elders in Atwater, which is also small and can smell pretty bad depending on the season, so good luck to Elder Grant, it's been a fun ride.  Pray that the world gets healed soon, I don't know how much longer our AC is going to last.  Write me something uplifting you saw this week, I could use it.

That's All Folks!

Elder Gneiting

Pictures of the good-times

Week 49

Good morning,

This week has been exciting, kinda.  Stuff is moving along as usual.  We're coming up on our last week with the current mission president.  It'll be cool to see what the new guy does, change is fun.  President Mackay has been awesome, I think he deserves a break.  3 years is a long time.  This week Elder Grant and I tried calling the Africans he met on Facebook, it didn't really work but we still talked to them about the gospel over messenger.  We had an in person zone conference thing, we met at a stake center and had interviews with the president and had a training from the zone leaders, it was awesome to see other people again and to feel the Spirit in a group setting, they also got us lunch and that was bomb, some fresh tacos from a nearby taco truck.  Some Elders found a guy who lives in our area so we joined them in a video call to introduce ourselves so we can begin teaching him, he's a cool guy, he's a competitive Spike Ball player and he knows Jon Schmidt's son, so it'll be cool to get to know this guy and hopefully bring him closer to Christ.  Elder Grant and I were able to meet with our ward mission leader for the first time since I've been here, and he's excited about some of the goals we made and plans for him to bring to ward council, we also had a service project towards the end of the week, we cleared an orchard of dead leaves and miscellaneous sprouts and put them in a compost pile.  We've had a Tacoma all week which has been fun, it's one of the nicest vehicles in the mission, we aren't really supposed to be cruising with it, but I find every other reason to use it. Happy Father's day to all, but especially my Dad. He's so cool. Such a good guy. A real friend. Miss you man, you stay healthy out there. Pray for me y'all it's getting hot out here.

Love,

Elder Gneiting

Week 48

Dang son

This week sorta flew by, don't have too much to report on, a few of our friends said they wanted to stop meeting haha but that's fine.  Elder Grant met a bunch of people from Africa and the Phillipines on Facebook, he wants to start teaching them so we'll see how that goes.  We had a mission tour this week from Elder Klebingat, he talked with a few missions over video call here in the North America West Area, he was pretty firey as I'm sure some of you may remember from his conference talk in 2014, he's kind of a stud as well.  He explained that if there's anything wrong in your life you just need to try harder, and he talked about that for 4 hours.  Very cool!  I'm sure somebody on this side of the planet needed to hear that.  He talked about goals and memorization, that's something our President has really wanted us to focus on while we're quarantined.  Last Monday we went to the flea market, I got some sick leather shoes, straight out of Mexico, we got ice cream at a nearby creamery too, that was fun.  That might be all that happened.  Oh, and Elder Grant got hit by a car yesterday, he totally slammed into the hood and rolled off onto the road.  We were riding our bikes on the sidewalk, and a car was turning right, we were coming on his right side, he didn't see companion and I guess my comp thought he was gonna move or stop or something, anyway that didn't happen and Elder Grant just went *WHUMP* on the front corner of this guys car.  They were both pretty shaken up, my comp was fine, the other guy was kinda shocked, Elder Grant tried to give him a book of Mormon but that seemed to scare him off, so we finished the ride home and Elder Grant laid down for a minute.  That was crazy.  Sorry y'all, that's as exciting as it gets in this part of California, I hope you're staying safe out there.  Congratulations to my older brother, he's engaged!  Nice job man!  I still have over a year before I'm back, but if you want to wait that long, I'm not gonna stop you.  I hope y'all are finding something to do while the weather is nice, hopefully life where you're at is a little more normal than before.

Tune in next time, 

Elder Gneiting 

Week 47

It's June!

Summer has officially hit, and it's not so bad here in the Fresno area!  It's been a good week, things are still crazy and quarantined but we're slowly returning to normal.  Elder Grant and I have been finding on Facebook and meeting new people, teaching lessons.  Elder Grant and I go out walking and biking around town, it's good to get our image back out I'm sure people were asking themselves where the Mormons went when the quarantine hit.  One morning, we were on a street corner, and some guy called out of his truck "It's the Facebook guys!", so looks like it's working!  We met a new guy this week, he's retired, he said he recently found out he had cancer, and he wanted to hear the message of the Restoration.  We met him at a park to give him the book of Mormon, it was so sick.  Elder Grant and I found a masonic lodge, that was cool.  I ate at Betos this week, I had a huge "California Burrito", packed with french fries, asada, and guacamole.  There were nice sunsets, yoga sessions, I had an exchange and hungout in Reedley for a day, that was fun.  We got some good family history time in this week, not a whole lot of new stuff.  The work is moving forward.  I'm doing another church history study, I'm reading the Revelations in Context on Gospel Library, it's very interesting to see into the lives of frontier New York and surrounding areas.  I've felt the Savior's love this week.  I've felt the Atonement change me.  I know that as we rely on Jesus Christ, we can be changed for the better.  I love Selma, and I love the people.  God's children are everywhere and people are being prepared NOW to receive the gospel.  The church is true.  Jesus is real.  Families are forever.  I love you all.  Write meeeeeee!

Love 

Elder Gneiting

 

Week 46

Good morning,

I hope all is well, wherever you are.  Life is moving gently forward in Selma, I hope you're all finding ways to stay focused on what's important.  This week was not bad.  We've been having more lessons, we have a progressing friend, she's cool, she likes to learn and her friends join our video call, we've had over 20 people contact us this month out of the blue, it's crazy to see how many people have been looking to connect with God during this time.  It's definitely a good time, if you ask me.  I know that I've had moments on Mount Sinai as I've studied the scriptures and asked God what His will is for me.  Times are strange, there's no doubt, but this is the Lord's plan.  I hope you all have an opportunity to look at your life, where you are with your family, with God, and make adjustments where necessary.  Now is the time.  I read Elder Eyrings talk This Day earlier this week, and thought about what I should be doing now to be more Christ-like.  We had a conference call with the Area President last night, Elder Pearson and his wife, they spoke to us about the principle of alignment.  Power from on high comes as we align our will with God's, we have to understand His WI and make adjustments.  He defined faith as the result of obedience.  It was cool to hear his perspective, I've been thinking about God's will for me.  I've been doing some repenting, you know how it goes, to pray better, to be more kind to my fellow missionaries, to align my will again.  It's not easy.  It really isn't.  I was reading in Alma when Aaron teaches Lamoni's father, and he converts to the gospel, I've been trying to follow his example in identifying the "wicked spirit" and having it "rooted out of" me.  We all have vices, large and small, but we also have resources to cleanse and purify us.  I have a testimony of the Christ's Atonement, I know we can feel changed when we ask the Lord for help.  Elder Grant and I are still trying to figure out the Facebook thing, it's still foreign, but people are seeing our posts and we're teaching people so as far as I'm concerned, it's working.  We had plenty of walks and bike rides, it was over 100 a few days this week, that's been fun.  We have a re-assignee in our apartment now, he was serving in Chile, he and I do yoga to end the night and it is insane, I've never sweat that much from standing and bending, but I've also never felt better.  It's nice we have so much time to workout through out the day.  One evening this week, there was a local church having a small concert in the parking lot across the street, they were rapping for Jesus, it was very cool.  We stood out there for a good part of the performance, watching from our balcony, they had speakers blasting, and you could hear it throughout the city.  That was fun.  Please stay safe out there, I'm doing fine where I'm at, pray for peace, and ask yourself what you can do today to show you're a disciple of Christ.

Love ya, 

Elder Gneiting

Some pics of me, just for fun, the Hanford flea market, and baby Yoda gang