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