Hello Everyone!
I keep being asked how the weather is. Just so you all know, it's been either sunny and mild or rainy or rain mixed with snow. Just kind of depends on the day. I do just fine with my coat. It's not bad yet. I'll be buying boots at some point, but we haven't had snow stick since I first got here.
Yesterday was Stake Conference so we got to go to Sioux City. Today we get to...go to Sioux City, because the Corolla (we named her Kitty...long story) we drive has a brakes recall and that's the closest Toyota dealership. We just get to keep going back to that Sea'awks City, as some people pronounce their first time reading it. Anyway, along with Zone Conference came a visit to our apartment by President and Sister Talbot and the Assistants. That was nerveracking, but good. Meeting with President Talbot is always a good experience. President Talbot also informed us that there were two baptisms in Muscatine, Todd and Brandon, a ten-year-old we had started and committed to baptism just before I left, and that while we were not there for them, they very much were "Our Baptisms" as people think of it, or however he phrased it. That was good to hear.
Elder Nelson and I are going great here. We're working hard and are starting to see success. Not quite the success of Muscatine, but success in being able to teach people and gaining investigators.
Oh, and I most definitely thought of my ancestors while I was in Winter Quarters. It was great to go to the visitors center for a few minutes and see what it was like for them there. I also wish I could have visited the graveyard right smack dab behind the temple but was unable to. It's great to visit somewhere like that.
I love my mission.
Elder Charlie Gates
Monday, October 26, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Yankton: My Personal Winter Quarters
Hello Everybody!
OK, so, Mom may hate me for this, but I completely spaced it last week and forgot to mention that we were going to the temple this past week. So now I've visited both of the temples on either side of the mission, and I'm only in my second transfer out. This time, however, we were able to go to an endowment session, which was awesome to do with some members of the branch and our Branch President. Everything is in a different light in the Celestial Room. We were able to go because a member of the Branch was receiving her endowments. The poor sister stresses out very easily as it is, and seeing as she had been convinced by the catholic church her entire life that freaky things go on in the temple, she was pretty stressed, even for her. But to see her face in the celestial room was amazing. She looked so happy, probably from discovering that no creepy things go on there, and also because it's just a sweet experience to go through the temple. So that was an awesome experience.
Thanks for your email, Mom, it seems that a lot of what you said applies to my life right now. I've been in the middle of long carrides since leaving Muscatine, and can feel your pain. Between traveling from Muscatine here, to here to Des Moines and back, to here to Winter Quarters and back, to Sioux City again this week for district leader council, to just the fact that to get to anywhere in our area you have to travel forever. I don't know if that sentence is entirely correctly worded, but I don't really care anymore.... Anyway, point is, I spend a long time in cars now. Mostly sleeping, but still, it's a long time.
Also, your description of your branch in California years ago sounds a lot like the branch here. A lot of the faithful members are, in their own way, basically serving missions of their own to keep the branch off the ground. We've got our work cut out for us here in less active work alone.
And, congratulations mom and dad on your calling!! I think that's awesome for you two to do that and perfect for your situation and for the YSAs. It'll be cool to have you two in the program there for two months when I get back.
I won't lie, when I first got to Yankton, I was mad that I was here. I wish I could have had a normal mission, for once, and stay in my area. It also sucked when I got to see some people from my MTC District at Zone Conference and have them be so surprised at all the transfering and strange things I've been through. Even experienced missionaries that are going home soon are surprised by how weird it is for a missionary that's being trained to be in a spanish threesome and then whitewash and reopen an area. But after Zone Conference, I felt different on the matter. Sure, It's a lot of switching around and junk most greenies will never face, but I know there's a reason for me to be doing it. I knew that before, but I still was angry. I still worked hard, don't get me wrong, but I wasn't very happy. But I think Zone Conference helped me receive a more humble view on the matter.
Speaking of Muscatine, they now have five baptismal dates. A lady that had almost been baptized last transfer has a new baptismal date. So that's good.
And on the Yankton end, we have an official investigator! This week has been weird with all that's been going on with Zone Conference and trying to drive all over the place to visit people and meeting with members to go over the ward list, but there's a definite sense of antagonism against us here in Yankton. I don't know why, but there is, more so than Muscatine and the areas around there. So we're hoping to spend some more tracting time on the surrounding villages (glorified tiny neighborhoods is more like it. Yankton's only 12,500 or so as it is. Vermillion is 10,000, with school in session). The work's going well, tough, but well. I'm looking forward to the challenge in store for me here. It may be a long road ahead of us, but I can see things really coming together here. It just needs some elbow grease and a lot of work that can only come from one source.
Elder Wickman's address to us in Zone Conference was really good, and it was great to hear from a Seventy and shake his hand. He answered some questions very well, and also spoke of how commitments are the main reason we're here anyway, because without them there's no reason for us to teach. President Talbot also did a great training on an article by Orson Scott Card that was sent to him by an unnamed source concerning the fact that members aren't lazy in missionary work for the most part, they are just looking for the right missionaries to give their friends to teach. No pressure for the missionaries reopening an area.... And Sister Talbot did an awesome training on humility, which is probably what I needed to hear the most. It was also great to see the missionaries I served with in the MTC. I found out that apparently my MTC Companion has gone home from not being able to sleep. He's apparently planning on going to BYU-Hawaii now.
Last time I gave out my exact address, I moved and received a letter from Michaela right afterwards that I still have yet to receive from the other Elder Nelson, along with my jeans and my Muskies shirt that I left.
I know this gospel to be true. I know there's a reason I'm here and a reason why my mission is so crazy so far. I'm glad I'm here and doing the Lord's work. There's no place I'd rather be.
Love,
Elder Charlie Gates
OK, so, Mom may hate me for this, but I completely spaced it last week and forgot to mention that we were going to the temple this past week. So now I've visited both of the temples on either side of the mission, and I'm only in my second transfer out. This time, however, we were able to go to an endowment session, which was awesome to do with some members of the branch and our Branch President. Everything is in a different light in the Celestial Room. We were able to go because a member of the Branch was receiving her endowments. The poor sister stresses out very easily as it is, and seeing as she had been convinced by the catholic church her entire life that freaky things go on in the temple, she was pretty stressed, even for her. But to see her face in the celestial room was amazing. She looked so happy, probably from discovering that no creepy things go on there, and also because it's just a sweet experience to go through the temple. So that was an awesome experience.
Thanks for your email, Mom, it seems that a lot of what you said applies to my life right now. I've been in the middle of long carrides since leaving Muscatine, and can feel your pain. Between traveling from Muscatine here, to here to Des Moines and back, to here to Winter Quarters and back, to Sioux City again this week for district leader council, to just the fact that to get to anywhere in our area you have to travel forever. I don't know if that sentence is entirely correctly worded, but I don't really care anymore.... Anyway, point is, I spend a long time in cars now. Mostly sleeping, but still, it's a long time.
Also, your description of your branch in California years ago sounds a lot like the branch here. A lot of the faithful members are, in their own way, basically serving missions of their own to keep the branch off the ground. We've got our work cut out for us here in less active work alone.
And, congratulations mom and dad on your calling!! I think that's awesome for you two to do that and perfect for your situation and for the YSAs. It'll be cool to have you two in the program there for two months when I get back.
I won't lie, when I first got to Yankton, I was mad that I was here. I wish I could have had a normal mission, for once, and stay in my area. It also sucked when I got to see some people from my MTC District at Zone Conference and have them be so surprised at all the transfering and strange things I've been through. Even experienced missionaries that are going home soon are surprised by how weird it is for a missionary that's being trained to be in a spanish threesome and then whitewash and reopen an area. But after Zone Conference, I felt different on the matter. Sure, It's a lot of switching around and junk most greenies will never face, but I know there's a reason for me to be doing it. I knew that before, but I still was angry. I still worked hard, don't get me wrong, but I wasn't very happy. But I think Zone Conference helped me receive a more humble view on the matter.
Speaking of Muscatine, they now have five baptismal dates. A lady that had almost been baptized last transfer has a new baptismal date. So that's good.
And on the Yankton end, we have an official investigator! This week has been weird with all that's been going on with Zone Conference and trying to drive all over the place to visit people and meeting with members to go over the ward list, but there's a definite sense of antagonism against us here in Yankton. I don't know why, but there is, more so than Muscatine and the areas around there. So we're hoping to spend some more tracting time on the surrounding villages (glorified tiny neighborhoods is more like it. Yankton's only 12,500 or so as it is. Vermillion is 10,000, with school in session). The work's going well, tough, but well. I'm looking forward to the challenge in store for me here. It may be a long road ahead of us, but I can see things really coming together here. It just needs some elbow grease and a lot of work that can only come from one source.
Elder Wickman's address to us in Zone Conference was really good, and it was great to hear from a Seventy and shake his hand. He answered some questions very well, and also spoke of how commitments are the main reason we're here anyway, because without them there's no reason for us to teach. President Talbot also did a great training on an article by Orson Scott Card that was sent to him by an unnamed source concerning the fact that members aren't lazy in missionary work for the most part, they are just looking for the right missionaries to give their friends to teach. No pressure for the missionaries reopening an area.... And Sister Talbot did an awesome training on humility, which is probably what I needed to hear the most. It was also great to see the missionaries I served with in the MTC. I found out that apparently my MTC Companion has gone home from not being able to sleep. He's apparently planning on going to BYU-Hawaii now.
Last time I gave out my exact address, I moved and received a letter from Michaela right afterwards that I still have yet to receive from the other Elder Nelson, along with my jeans and my Muskies shirt that I left.
I know this gospel to be true. I know there's a reason I'm here and a reason why my mission is so crazy so far. I'm glad I'm here and doing the Lord's work. There's no place I'd rather be.
Love,
Elder Charlie Gates
Hi From Yankton
Hello from Yankton, South Dakota!
Yep, that's right, I moved from one extreme corner of the mission to the other. I no longer even touch Iowa in my area, but I did move from one famous river to the next. The Missouri is not as exciting, but it means I get to see Lewis and Clark stuff all over the place. Brings back memories of Washington.... Transfer day was interesting. As always, I'm guessing. The van picked us up in the morning, 945ish, and we arrived in Yankton sometime after 7 that night. A long time to be on a Mormonmobile packed with missionaries. Yankton is an area that has been closed for a transfer and is a lead competitor for the largest area in the mission. Basically, for those who are able to see my mission map, it goes basically from just past a town called Gayville (poor place) to the edge, and way down south into Nebraska and up to the top of the mission. It can take over an hour to drive some places. There were no investigators when we arrived. The area is huge, one of the biggest in the mission, and yet there are only about 30 or so active members of the branch. A HUGE less-active pool. So we end up with all sorts of time tracting and attempting to contact old Potential and Former Investigators. The branch has some interesting quirks about it, but altogether not a bad place to be. The Branch President (I'm getting used to calling my church a branch. I keep saying "Bishop" and "Ward." Also, none of our Iowa jokes work anymore, and I also keep accidentally referring to Muscatine as "Home"....) is extremely helpful and so is the Branch Mission Leader. And the people are really excited to have us here, and we should be having meals about five times a week, something the president and branch mission leader are pushing for so we can get referrals and get to know the members. So we're stoked for that.
And it snowed last night and friday night. Friday night it didn't stick much, but it started while we were tracting, and last night it stuck on the grass pretty well and accumulated a little, but not on the roads. I'll be buying boots soon, but no real need yet. And yeah. It's a bad place to be for the winter. I'm already layering up a bunch.... Elder Nelson says this is a sign of trust from President Talbot, that he knows not only that we can basically restart missionary work here, but that he can be ok with us being hours and hours away from Des Moines. Elder Nelson had already told me that Prez was impressed with me last Zone Conference. Back then I thought it was a good thing....
Some facts about Yankton:
It is the cow capitol of South Dakota.
It is jam-packed with Catholics, as they like to inform us before closing the door....
It is home to a Federal Prison Camp.
It is home to a monastery.
It is home to a Psychiatric Hospital.
It has a population of, I believe, 20,000 or so, according to the sign.
It may just be one of the largest cities in South Dakota....
South Dakota, it seems, is the same state of the Nonexistent North Dakota, a fact brought to my attention by the Maps for South Dakota. You can't buy a map for just South Dakota, you have to get one with North Dakota included.
It's been hard not to get a little frustrated with my situation, as you can probably tell by my thick sarcasm in this email. I'm still working hard and doing fine, but it's not the best of situations, especially since I'm still green and learning. But if there's nothing else I haven't learned from The Elders Nelson, it's that you never stop learning.
Right now I'm actually emailing from the University of South Dakota in a "city" called Vermillion. It's the closest area, and the only other one in our district. They're also fancy because they have a ward building for their branch, while we're stuck with the equivalent of a large relief society room, half a gym, and a few other rooms as a building. Anyway, we're here because tomorrow is Zone Conference, and this time we have a seventy visiting us, Elder Lance B. Wickman. So there are only two zone conferences, one in Iowa City, and one in Des Moines. So we get the awesome opportunity to drive all the way to Des Moines! Woo. Tonight we're staying in a missionary apartment in Sioux City.
Speaking of apartments, we live in an actual one now. (mom, it's right next to the water tower that's west of the monastery. And yes, I would like letters from Brad and Tyler. And Tyler Russell if possible. Troy's the only one who's written me, besides Brad, and Brad only did it once while i was in the MTC.) We had to clean it up a bit when we moved in. It's not a bad apartment, I like it enough, but as all apartments do, it has its quirks.
Life is going well. We're doing all sorts of finding, but that's even going pretty well. We have set up five return appointments already, but one has also already been dropped. You'd think that if you say you want us to come back once you wouldn't say I'm not interested the second time around. But what do I know. Just keeping faith and hope up and I know all will work out. I know the Lord will bless me as I keep working hard.
Love,
Elder Gates
Yep, that's right, I moved from one extreme corner of the mission to the other. I no longer even touch Iowa in my area, but I did move from one famous river to the next. The Missouri is not as exciting, but it means I get to see Lewis and Clark stuff all over the place. Brings back memories of Washington.... Transfer day was interesting. As always, I'm guessing. The van picked us up in the morning, 945ish, and we arrived in Yankton sometime after 7 that night. A long time to be on a Mormonmobile packed with missionaries. Yankton is an area that has been closed for a transfer and is a lead competitor for the largest area in the mission. Basically, for those who are able to see my mission map, it goes basically from just past a town called Gayville (poor place) to the edge, and way down south into Nebraska and up to the top of the mission. It can take over an hour to drive some places. There were no investigators when we arrived. The area is huge, one of the biggest in the mission, and yet there are only about 30 or so active members of the branch. A HUGE less-active pool. So we end up with all sorts of time tracting and attempting to contact old Potential and Former Investigators. The branch has some interesting quirks about it, but altogether not a bad place to be. The Branch President (I'm getting used to calling my church a branch. I keep saying "Bishop" and "Ward." Also, none of our Iowa jokes work anymore, and I also keep accidentally referring to Muscatine as "Home"....) is extremely helpful and so is the Branch Mission Leader. And the people are really excited to have us here, and we should be having meals about five times a week, something the president and branch mission leader are pushing for so we can get referrals and get to know the members. So we're stoked for that.
And it snowed last night and friday night. Friday night it didn't stick much, but it started while we were tracting, and last night it stuck on the grass pretty well and accumulated a little, but not on the roads. I'll be buying boots soon, but no real need yet. And yeah. It's a bad place to be for the winter. I'm already layering up a bunch.... Elder Nelson says this is a sign of trust from President Talbot, that he knows not only that we can basically restart missionary work here, but that he can be ok with us being hours and hours away from Des Moines. Elder Nelson had already told me that Prez was impressed with me last Zone Conference. Back then I thought it was a good thing....
Some facts about Yankton:
It is the cow capitol of South Dakota.
It is jam-packed with Catholics, as they like to inform us before closing the door....
It is home to a Federal Prison Camp.
It is home to a monastery.
It is home to a Psychiatric Hospital.
It has a population of, I believe, 20,000 or so, according to the sign.
It may just be one of the largest cities in South Dakota....
South Dakota, it seems, is the same state of the Nonexistent North Dakota, a fact brought to my attention by the Maps for South Dakota. You can't buy a map for just South Dakota, you have to get one with North Dakota included.
It's been hard not to get a little frustrated with my situation, as you can probably tell by my thick sarcasm in this email. I'm still working hard and doing fine, but it's not the best of situations, especially since I'm still green and learning. But if there's nothing else I haven't learned from The Elders Nelson, it's that you never stop learning.
Right now I'm actually emailing from the University of South Dakota in a "city" called Vermillion. It's the closest area, and the only other one in our district. They're also fancy because they have a ward building for their branch, while we're stuck with the equivalent of a large relief society room, half a gym, and a few other rooms as a building. Anyway, we're here because tomorrow is Zone Conference, and this time we have a seventy visiting us, Elder Lance B. Wickman. So there are only two zone conferences, one in Iowa City, and one in Des Moines. So we get the awesome opportunity to drive all the way to Des Moines! Woo. Tonight we're staying in a missionary apartment in Sioux City.
Speaking of apartments, we live in an actual one now. (mom, it's right next to the water tower that's west of the monastery. And yes, I would like letters from Brad and Tyler. And Tyler Russell if possible. Troy's the only one who's written me, besides Brad, and Brad only did it once while i was in the MTC.) We had to clean it up a bit when we moved in. It's not a bad apartment, I like it enough, but as all apartments do, it has its quirks.
Life is going well. We're doing all sorts of finding, but that's even going pretty well. We have set up five return appointments already, but one has also already been dropped. You'd think that if you say you want us to come back once you wouldn't say I'm not interested the second time around. But what do I know. Just keeping faith and hope up and I know all will work out. I know the Lord will bless me as I keep working hard.
Love,
Elder Gates
The Three Muscatines' Last Ride
Hey Everybody,
So, as you can tell by the subject of this entry in the log of Elder Gates' travels, the Three Muscatines will be no more as of transfer day, tomorrow. The way things work here is that we don't know that we're being transferred for sure until right before we are, and we don't find out where we're going until we basically get there. That's to hold back on negative rumors and all that. It seems to work, but it kind of causes confusion. For example, let's just say that there is a tri-companionship of two English speakers, one who's being trained, and one that is Spanish. And, to go along with the example, the companionship finds out that something will change a couple days before they know for sure. They think it over and say that the Trainee's official trainer will be transferred, for that is the only thing that would make sense if a transfer were to happen. Instead, tuesday night they get a phone call saying that, sure enough, the Trainer is being transferred and becoming District Leader of his new area, but is also taking his trainee with him, even though his trainee has only been there one transfer, and will be whitewashing (a delicate term which means they will be moved into an area with no companion from the area who had been there the transfer before to update them on everything, and thus have to completely rely on the area book and notes left by the old missionaries). It may surprise you after hearing this farfetched possibility to discover this is exactly what's happening. So tomorrow morning, Papa Nelson and I are headed off to who-knows-where. Mom, go ahead and check my account the next couple days to find out where I bought things from. And it also means today is an awesome packing day. Especially great since i had no clue this would be the case.... We thought I'd be the most likely to stay!
I love Muscatine. I hate that I have to leave. Things are going amazing here. We just started teaching a solid family that Papa Nelson has been trying for 8 weeks to set up a lesson with. We just got our fourth baptismal date with a ten-year-old boy last night, just a few hours before the phone call. We are really a pretty solid companionship in a very solid area. The members are amazing and so willing to help. It's great being right next to the Mississippi. And to smell what smells like burned tuna melts coming from GPC and the smell of catsup from Heinz. Mom and Dad, if you're going to be able to pick me up, we have to stop by Muscatine.
In other news, we did something I wanted to do all transfer, go to Illinois to do work. Our ward goes over there quite a ways, but missionaries have never really gone there to do work. I had always picked out a place called Illinois City to go work in because it looked pretty big from the dot on the map. And so we went this last sunday. It is officially one of the smallest towns I've seen yet, and that's saying something. We nearly tracted the entire town while there, and nothing really came of it in the way of new investigators. But at least we got to go there!
I have pictures I could probably add here, but seeing as how the last time I tried that it all fell apart, I won't try again....
Conference was incredible. I loved being able to go to the ward building where it was broadcast to and watch it. I gained a lot out of it. Just like you, Mom, I saw a big emphasis on following the Spirit, and that has also been our transfer emphasis these last 6 weeks. We had it more as the Spirit being not only our third companion, but our senior companion, from a talk given by, I believe, Jeffrey R. Holland at the MTC. Following the Spirit is essential to missionary work, and is vital to missionary work, or else "Ye shall not teach" (from D&C, and meaning we CANNOT, not should not). I could go over a few different talks that I loved, but that would take awhile and I don't think would be too fruitful. I did love Elder Holland's talk about the Book of Mormon. I wish I could have him on doorsteps or in lessons with us. That was powerful. But I suppose that we are blessed to have a member of the Godhead with us in our lessons, and with faith and firm testimonies we can be powerful as well. And we are, and should be, just tools in the Lord's hands to be led by the Spirit. It's a tough but extremely rewarding deal.
I really don't know what else to add in this email. I'm really getting to the point where stuff is all sort of melding together into one big mass of experiences. I guess that's just going to happen more and more the more I'm out here. I guess that means I should work harder on that whole journal writing thing....
I guess that's it. Oh, and Team Fire won our game last weekend. We weren't able to go because of conference, so we had a parent coach for us. Apparently it worked out. And no worries, I'm still in high spirits, I trust God and know He's got things under control, even if they seem pretty hectic to me. The gospel's true, this Church is Christs' true church, and the Book of Mormon's true.
Love,
Elder Gates
So, as you can tell by the subject of this entry in the log of Elder Gates' travels, the Three Muscatines will be no more as of transfer day, tomorrow. The way things work here is that we don't know that we're being transferred for sure until right before we are, and we don't find out where we're going until we basically get there. That's to hold back on negative rumors and all that. It seems to work, but it kind of causes confusion. For example, let's just say that there is a tri-companionship of two English speakers, one who's being trained, and one that is Spanish. And, to go along with the example, the companionship finds out that something will change a couple days before they know for sure. They think it over and say that the Trainee's official trainer will be transferred, for that is the only thing that would make sense if a transfer were to happen. Instead, tuesday night they get a phone call saying that, sure enough, the Trainer is being transferred and becoming District Leader of his new area, but is also taking his trainee with him, even though his trainee has only been there one transfer, and will be whitewashing (a delicate term which means they will be moved into an area with no companion from the area who had been there the transfer before to update them on everything, and thus have to completely rely on the area book and notes left by the old missionaries). It may surprise you after hearing this farfetched possibility to discover this is exactly what's happening. So tomorrow morning, Papa Nelson and I are headed off to who-knows-where. Mom, go ahead and check my account the next couple days to find out where I bought things from. And it also means today is an awesome packing day. Especially great since i had no clue this would be the case.... We thought I'd be the most likely to stay!
I love Muscatine. I hate that I have to leave. Things are going amazing here. We just started teaching a solid family that Papa Nelson has been trying for 8 weeks to set up a lesson with. We just got our fourth baptismal date with a ten-year-old boy last night, just a few hours before the phone call. We are really a pretty solid companionship in a very solid area. The members are amazing and so willing to help. It's great being right next to the Mississippi. And to smell what smells like burned tuna melts coming from GPC and the smell of catsup from Heinz. Mom and Dad, if you're going to be able to pick me up, we have to stop by Muscatine.
In other news, we did something I wanted to do all transfer, go to Illinois to do work. Our ward goes over there quite a ways, but missionaries have never really gone there to do work. I had always picked out a place called Illinois City to go work in because it looked pretty big from the dot on the map. And so we went this last sunday. It is officially one of the smallest towns I've seen yet, and that's saying something. We nearly tracted the entire town while there, and nothing really came of it in the way of new investigators. But at least we got to go there!
I have pictures I could probably add here, but seeing as how the last time I tried that it all fell apart, I won't try again....
Conference was incredible. I loved being able to go to the ward building where it was broadcast to and watch it. I gained a lot out of it. Just like you, Mom, I saw a big emphasis on following the Spirit, and that has also been our transfer emphasis these last 6 weeks. We had it more as the Spirit being not only our third companion, but our senior companion, from a talk given by, I believe, Jeffrey R. Holland at the MTC. Following the Spirit is essential to missionary work, and is vital to missionary work, or else "Ye shall not teach" (from D&C, and meaning we CANNOT, not should not). I could go over a few different talks that I loved, but that would take awhile and I don't think would be too fruitful. I did love Elder Holland's talk about the Book of Mormon. I wish I could have him on doorsteps or in lessons with us. That was powerful. But I suppose that we are blessed to have a member of the Godhead with us in our lessons, and with faith and firm testimonies we can be powerful as well. And we are, and should be, just tools in the Lord's hands to be led by the Spirit. It's a tough but extremely rewarding deal.
I really don't know what else to add in this email. I'm really getting to the point where stuff is all sort of melding together into one big mass of experiences. I guess that's just going to happen more and more the more I'm out here. I guess that means I should work harder on that whole journal writing thing....
I guess that's it. Oh, and Team Fire won our game last weekend. We weren't able to go because of conference, so we had a parent coach for us. Apparently it worked out. And no worries, I'm still in high spirits, I trust God and know He's got things under control, even if they seem pretty hectic to me. The gospel's true, this Church is Christs' true church, and the Book of Mormon's true.
Love,
Elder Gates
A letter from Elder Gates
Hello Home!
Ok, so I apologize for this being so late in coming but the server or computer or something there is messed up. So, here is my email...kinda.
Things ae going well here. I really frankly don't have much to update on this week, no huge breaking news or anthing, just some good stories. First, I realized what company that is that you have their binder from. I'll try to get a picture by it. Stewart is a busy road so it could be slightly awkward. But it's cool, MUSCO is a pretty big company. There's a strange amount of big companies in this town that I'm sure, is smaller than Auburn. You have MUSCO, HON (not centered here but lot's of factories), Kent Feeds (that GPC lant I mentioned), a company called Stanley or something, its got stuff in the Middle East, so it must be big. We even have Iowa's richest woman, and the best sunsets according to Mark Twain. Just a little Muscatine pride.
We visited on of our investigators who is getting baptized this week. He's an amazing guy. He knows and understands so much and knows it to be true! It was the first time I'd ever met with him and it was great to see that in an investigator. I may have never taught him, but it really showed me that this work really can pay off evenually.
We also stopped by a couple towns, Columbus Junction and Columbus City, on the way back from district meeting this week to do some Spanish work. While there we had our first dog attack! It's surprising to me this was the first one in my time here, since it seems like nearly every home has at least one dog. It might have been that way back at home, too, but I never noticed it. Anyway, there was a football-sized dog on one doorstep that was yapping around like crazy. When Senor Nelson went up to know on the door, the dog pulled the metal chair it was chained to across the porch and bit into his pant leg. Senor Nelson, scared by the growling football attached to his pants, used the dog's size, and his other foot to his advantage and sent the dog back half-a-foot or so. The dog seemed fine, as it kept barking, but we left quickly.
We also went to an appointment that Senor Nelson had set up earlier in the day when we were on splits with the Elders in Washington. But she wasn't there. So we were about to leave the Columbus Area but decided to go ahead and tract the street she (the person the appointment had been with) lived on, since there had to be some reason why we had gone to that street. That was fruitless and fairly uneventlful, owing in part, to the fact the street was long with few houses; that is until we came back to the house of the lady we had had the meeting with. She was home this time so we came in and Senor Nelson taught her the first lesson. I can usually follow along fairly well if I focus really hard, but apparently I wasn't focusing hard enough (imagine that), for when we went out to the truck to grab her a Book of Mormon, Senor Nelson let me know she had accepted a soft baptismal commitment (when you come to know this to be true, will you....) which is HUGE for a first lesson that almost didn't happen. I can't believe I didn't hear it; "baptismo" is fairly distrinctive. A couple other things went down in the lesson which make her pretty solid.
Also, that couple that I think I updated you on who committed to baptism and marriage set their own dates for these two things, and the date they set for baptism is the same one we had prayed about and had decided to commit them to. Nice little testimony building on prayer.
We also knocked into a modern-day Job of sorts. She had been divorced by the her husband a couple years ago, had had her fiancee call off the wedding that was supposed to happen a couple weeks ago, had surgery and had just barely gotten out of the hospital and her friends had deserted her or something like that. Anyway, all sorts of junk was going wrong for her, and yet here she stood with a smile on her face and faith in God. She rejected our message, but couldn't turn down our offer to mow her lawn for her. She said the Lord would provide and I just pointed out that maybe the Lord was providing through us. She seemed to like that, and referenced the good ol' parable of the guy in the flood who was waiting for God to help him and then turned down people who were trying to help him three different times. So this, but mostly the Elders Nelsons not allowing her to say no, allowed us to go to work. And so us three missionaries in our white shirts, ties, and dress pants and shoes mowed her front lawn for her. We even came back a second time and mowed again so it would look better. By the way, now that I've mowed with both bag and bagless mowers, I now know that bags are MUCH better!
So we went to a place called West Liberty this week, as we usually do at least once a week due to the loads of Spanish work there, and there were car races going on at the track there! I felt home! Sort of. Plus we had amazing El Salvadorian food at a restaurant there. Good stuff, and inexpensive!
The weather is starting to change here. Temperatures definitely feel different here than in Washington or Idaho.
I know this to be Christ's true church restored again through modern-day prophets and am glad to be a part of this great work.
Elder Charlie Gates
Ok, so I apologize for this being so late in coming but the server or computer or something there is messed up. So, here is my email...kinda.
Things ae going well here. I really frankly don't have much to update on this week, no huge breaking news or anthing, just some good stories. First, I realized what company that is that you have their binder from. I'll try to get a picture by it. Stewart is a busy road so it could be slightly awkward. But it's cool, MUSCO is a pretty big company. There's a strange amount of big companies in this town that I'm sure, is smaller than Auburn. You have MUSCO, HON (not centered here but lot's of factories), Kent Feeds (that GPC lant I mentioned), a company called Stanley or something, its got stuff in the Middle East, so it must be big. We even have Iowa's richest woman, and the best sunsets according to Mark Twain. Just a little Muscatine pride.
We visited on of our investigators who is getting baptized this week. He's an amazing guy. He knows and understands so much and knows it to be true! It was the first time I'd ever met with him and it was great to see that in an investigator. I may have never taught him, but it really showed me that this work really can pay off evenually.
We also stopped by a couple towns, Columbus Junction and Columbus City, on the way back from district meeting this week to do some Spanish work. While there we had our first dog attack! It's surprising to me this was the first one in my time here, since it seems like nearly every home has at least one dog. It might have been that way back at home, too, but I never noticed it. Anyway, there was a football-sized dog on one doorstep that was yapping around like crazy. When Senor Nelson went up to know on the door, the dog pulled the metal chair it was chained to across the porch and bit into his pant leg. Senor Nelson, scared by the growling football attached to his pants, used the dog's size, and his other foot to his advantage and sent the dog back half-a-foot or so. The dog seemed fine, as it kept barking, but we left quickly.
We also went to an appointment that Senor Nelson had set up earlier in the day when we were on splits with the Elders in Washington. But she wasn't there. So we were about to leave the Columbus Area but decided to go ahead and tract the street she (the person the appointment had been with) lived on, since there had to be some reason why we had gone to that street. That was fruitless and fairly uneventlful, owing in part, to the fact the street was long with few houses; that is until we came back to the house of the lady we had had the meeting with. She was home this time so we came in and Senor Nelson taught her the first lesson. I can usually follow along fairly well if I focus really hard, but apparently I wasn't focusing hard enough (imagine that), for when we went out to the truck to grab her a Book of Mormon, Senor Nelson let me know she had accepted a soft baptismal commitment (when you come to know this to be true, will you....) which is HUGE for a first lesson that almost didn't happen. I can't believe I didn't hear it; "baptismo" is fairly distrinctive. A couple other things went down in the lesson which make her pretty solid.
Also, that couple that I think I updated you on who committed to baptism and marriage set their own dates for these two things, and the date they set for baptism is the same one we had prayed about and had decided to commit them to. Nice little testimony building on prayer.
We also knocked into a modern-day Job of sorts. She had been divorced by the her husband a couple years ago, had had her fiancee call off the wedding that was supposed to happen a couple weeks ago, had surgery and had just barely gotten out of the hospital and her friends had deserted her or something like that. Anyway, all sorts of junk was going wrong for her, and yet here she stood with a smile on her face and faith in God. She rejected our message, but couldn't turn down our offer to mow her lawn for her. She said the Lord would provide and I just pointed out that maybe the Lord was providing through us. She seemed to like that, and referenced the good ol' parable of the guy in the flood who was waiting for God to help him and then turned down people who were trying to help him three different times. So this, but mostly the Elders Nelsons not allowing her to say no, allowed us to go to work. And so us three missionaries in our white shirts, ties, and dress pants and shoes mowed her front lawn for her. We even came back a second time and mowed again so it would look better. By the way, now that I've mowed with both bag and bagless mowers, I now know that bags are MUCH better!
So we went to a place called West Liberty this week, as we usually do at least once a week due to the loads of Spanish work there, and there were car races going on at the track there! I felt home! Sort of. Plus we had amazing El Salvadorian food at a restaurant there. Good stuff, and inexpensive!
The weather is starting to change here. Temperatures definitely feel different here than in Washington or Idaho.
I know this to be Christ's true church restored again through modern-day prophets and am glad to be a part of this great work.
Elder Charlie Gates
Friday, September 25, 2009
The Three Muscatines and the Voyage to Worshington
Dear Apparent Fans,
Remember that both with the 116 pages lost with the translation of the Book of Mormon and my letter, the part we do have basically sums up what was lost. I just told a little story or two that was lost and took up a good portion of time to write and I didn't feel like reiterating.... I may this email, we'll see.
First I'll address a couple concerns Mom asked me about and go from there.
1) It's not that cramped in the apartment with three elders. It's really a good sized place and is about right for three. The only one that really thinks it's cramped is Sister Chapman, who was kind of "wiggin out" when Senor Nelson first moved in about space and clutter. This only really added to the large amount of stress we were under. Sometimes after a hard day's work or on a P-Day where I just want to relax it's hard to smile and say "Sure, I'd love to scrub all the mold from the corners of the walls of the bathroom (that's been there for long before any of us moved in) right now." But it's a blessing that she lets us live there and she's a well-intentioned good sister.
2) This month we have had more meals with members than most missionaries have in a transfer. When I first got here the meal calendar was barely full, but the last couple weeks it's been jam-packed. Like every day and then some somedays. It's awesome, and the meals are almost always incredible. A lot of times we have to cut them off short because we have so many plans. The other two say that the loads of food means that they love us. I like to take all the credit there.
So, updates on the work: things are going...well. We haven't kill each other or any more dogs yet. (Ok, the story about the dog: back when there were two spanish elders here, they had an investigator with a sick dog, so they did everything they could to help. A veterinarian suggested giving it Peptobismol. So Elder Poulsen and Elder Nelson ran to get some and ran back to the investigators' house to admister it to the dog. They burst in, acting in their best EMS ways, and, ignoring the fatal appearance of the dog, tilted its head back and administered the peptobismol with a syringe into its mouth. When they were finished, they let go of the dogs' head and watched, in horror, as it just limply fell to the side. The investigators are still meeting with us, which is good. Good enough story that for their one sentence update in the zone's newspaper it said "We killed an investigators' dog with Pepto Bismol," while ours was "Elder Gates is as green as the forests of Oregen. Or Washington or wherever he's from." Yep, he spelled Oregon that way, something we don't let him forget.) But yeah, things were less exciting this week. We were dropped by the seventeen-year-old kid that seemed promising, and a lot of appointments with other promising investigators has fallen through. So, to skip over the sad parts, I'll update you on the good.
For one thing, Senor Nelson, having learned from a role play that was done during District Meeting this week that was done solely to help him on this matter, successfully committed a couple to marriage and baptism, which was way cool.
We have a baptismal date! Technically, we've had it for awhile, but can't count it until it's less than three months away, and so now we can count it! He's basically a member, he's even come to lessons, he just is waiting for marriage and a time when family can be in town.
I went on splits this week with a member and taught the first lesson basically by myself! Granted, it was to a member because my appointment with Todd, our Dry Mormon mentioned earlier, fell through, but it was still cool.... Won the love of the members there, I guess. They seemed impressed with me. I don't say it to brag, because I'm as surprised at them being impressed as they were with me.
We also took a trip to Washington, or as Iowans call it, Worshington, for district meeting. It was really good and felt like a miniature Zone Conference, since it was half the zone and nearly as spiritual. Afterwards, we went to Pizza Ranch, an awesome buffet place, and pigged out. Last Monday we ran into a Senior Missionary Couple from Nauvoo here in Muscatine at Wal-Mart because they were going to a place nearby to help out at a festival thing. They gave us $40 for lunch, which we used at pizza ranch. I considered it a blessing. We also went to a swinging bridge on the way back that went over a ravine. It was kind of like the ones that you see in Indiana Jones or whatever, but made out of heavy duty cords so it was safe.
OH! I almost forgot! I keep forgetting to mention that we are volunteer coaches at the Y for a 9-10 year old soccer team. I tell you, I would be awesome on a team like that. I'd be a bad goalie, though. Something's scarier about it being kicked instead of thrown. Anyway, we have won our last two games, the first 2-0 and the second 12-1. We rock. The parents love us, too, even, it seems to some extent, the one that seems like her kid's soccer team is her entire life. One said, after telling us we were great coaches, that she didn't know how we had so much patience with them. You kind of want to say "It's the Holy Ghost, want to learn more?" Probably should have, it didn't seem like a good time.
I'm slightly inundated with the letters from everybody. Those who are still waiting for a letter back, please be patient, I'm trying my best. We're pretty busy out here.
And the humidity here isn't bugging me too bad. It's definitely turning into Fall, which makes it easier, and the humidity is just kind of like some parts of washington, especially in the mountains or near the coast.
Ok, real quick story that was left out of last week's email. So we were tracting in a nearby town and when we knocked on one door, a girl in her twenties came around the corner and got really excited, grabbed her bible, and invited us into her backyard, where she began talkingreallyfastkindoflikethisinreallyjumbledquicksentencesthatdidn'ttietogethertoowell. We tried our best to answer her questions and teach her. It was amazing to watch her as she learned, for she considered herself to have studied religion very well. She got upset when we mentioned that the authority had been lost from the earth, saying she didn't think God would allow so many people to have been lost, so I told her about Christ ministering to people in the next life who had not received the gospel and sending forth missionaries to go and do more and about baptisms for the dead, two things talked about in the New Testament (the latter in...thessalonians? and the former in 1 Peter 4:6 and also in 1 Peter 3, in case you were wondering). This really pacified her, which was cool to watch how her whole demeanor changed.
The gospel's true. This work is of God, and while it may not be easy, is lead by God. I know so, and love being a part of it. Keep strong in the truth.
Love,
Charlie
Remember that both with the 116 pages lost with the translation of the Book of Mormon and my letter, the part we do have basically sums up what was lost. I just told a little story or two that was lost and took up a good portion of time to write and I didn't feel like reiterating.... I may this email, we'll see.
First I'll address a couple concerns Mom asked me about and go from there.
1) It's not that cramped in the apartment with three elders. It's really a good sized place and is about right for three. The only one that really thinks it's cramped is Sister Chapman, who was kind of "wiggin out" when Senor Nelson first moved in about space and clutter. This only really added to the large amount of stress we were under. Sometimes after a hard day's work or on a P-Day where I just want to relax it's hard to smile and say "Sure, I'd love to scrub all the mold from the corners of the walls of the bathroom (that's been there for long before any of us moved in) right now." But it's a blessing that she lets us live there and she's a well-intentioned good sister.
2) This month we have had more meals with members than most missionaries have in a transfer. When I first got here the meal calendar was barely full, but the last couple weeks it's been jam-packed. Like every day and then some somedays. It's awesome, and the meals are almost always incredible. A lot of times we have to cut them off short because we have so many plans. The other two say that the loads of food means that they love us. I like to take all the credit there.
So, updates on the work: things are going...well. We haven't kill each other or any more dogs yet. (Ok, the story about the dog: back when there were two spanish elders here, they had an investigator with a sick dog, so they did everything they could to help. A veterinarian suggested giving it Peptobismol. So Elder Poulsen and Elder Nelson ran to get some and ran back to the investigators' house to admister it to the dog. They burst in, acting in their best EMS ways, and, ignoring the fatal appearance of the dog, tilted its head back and administered the peptobismol with a syringe into its mouth. When they were finished, they let go of the dogs' head and watched, in horror, as it just limply fell to the side. The investigators are still meeting with us, which is good. Good enough story that for their one sentence update in the zone's newspaper it said "We killed an investigators' dog with Pepto Bismol," while ours was "Elder Gates is as green as the forests of Oregen. Or Washington or wherever he's from." Yep, he spelled Oregon that way, something we don't let him forget.) But yeah, things were less exciting this week. We were dropped by the seventeen-year-old kid that seemed promising, and a lot of appointments with other promising investigators has fallen through. So, to skip over the sad parts, I'll update you on the good.
For one thing, Senor Nelson, having learned from a role play that was done during District Meeting this week that was done solely to help him on this matter, successfully committed a couple to marriage and baptism, which was way cool.
We have a baptismal date! Technically, we've had it for awhile, but can't count it until it's less than three months away, and so now we can count it! He's basically a member, he's even come to lessons, he just is waiting for marriage and a time when family can be in town.
I went on splits this week with a member and taught the first lesson basically by myself! Granted, it was to a member because my appointment with Todd, our Dry Mormon mentioned earlier, fell through, but it was still cool.... Won the love of the members there, I guess. They seemed impressed with me. I don't say it to brag, because I'm as surprised at them being impressed as they were with me.
We also took a trip to Washington, or as Iowans call it, Worshington, for district meeting. It was really good and felt like a miniature Zone Conference, since it was half the zone and nearly as spiritual. Afterwards, we went to Pizza Ranch, an awesome buffet place, and pigged out. Last Monday we ran into a Senior Missionary Couple from Nauvoo here in Muscatine at Wal-Mart because they were going to a place nearby to help out at a festival thing. They gave us $40 for lunch, which we used at pizza ranch. I considered it a blessing. We also went to a swinging bridge on the way back that went over a ravine. It was kind of like the ones that you see in Indiana Jones or whatever, but made out of heavy duty cords so it was safe.
OH! I almost forgot! I keep forgetting to mention that we are volunteer coaches at the Y for a 9-10 year old soccer team. I tell you, I would be awesome on a team like that. I'd be a bad goalie, though. Something's scarier about it being kicked instead of thrown. Anyway, we have won our last two games, the first 2-0 and the second 12-1. We rock. The parents love us, too, even, it seems to some extent, the one that seems like her kid's soccer team is her entire life. One said, after telling us we were great coaches, that she didn't know how we had so much patience with them. You kind of want to say "It's the Holy Ghost, want to learn more?" Probably should have, it didn't seem like a good time.
I'm slightly inundated with the letters from everybody. Those who are still waiting for a letter back, please be patient, I'm trying my best. We're pretty busy out here.
And the humidity here isn't bugging me too bad. It's definitely turning into Fall, which makes it easier, and the humidity is just kind of like some parts of washington, especially in the mountains or near the coast.
Ok, real quick story that was left out of last week's email. So we were tracting in a nearby town and when we knocked on one door, a girl in her twenties came around the corner and got really excited, grabbed her bible, and invited us into her backyard, where she began talkingreallyfastkindoflikethisinreallyjumbledquicksentencesthatdidn'ttietogethertoowell. We tried our best to answer her questions and teach her. It was amazing to watch her as she learned, for she considered herself to have studied religion very well. She got upset when we mentioned that the authority had been lost from the earth, saying she didn't think God would allow so many people to have been lost, so I told her about Christ ministering to people in the next life who had not received the gospel and sending forth missionaries to go and do more and about baptisms for the dead, two things talked about in the New Testament (the latter in...thessalonians? and the former in 1 Peter 4:6 and also in 1 Peter 3, in case you were wondering). This really pacified her, which was cool to watch how her whole demeanor changed.
The gospel's true. This work is of God, and while it may not be easy, is lead by God. I know so, and love being a part of it. Keep strong in the truth.
Love,
Charlie
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Three Muscatines and the Internet of Doom
Hello Everybody,
I wrote a long, amazing, spiritual email, and it was erased, either because MPC computer (whoever heard of MPC?) erased it or the server here at Muscatine Community College got overloaded (who knows how, there's ten computers maybe in this tiny podunk college, my high school was bigger) or because myldsmail.net screwed up. Take your pick.
I really don't have much time to waste on here anymore, and I'm fairly frustrated. Not to mention if I make it too long again it'll probably erase it all again. So just consider it my personal 116 pages.
So here's the gist:
Really busy but good week. Didn't do much missionary work throughout because of moving out the old spanish apartments' stuff and moving in Senor Nelson and Zone Conference which took most of wednesday and thursday. Zone conference was cool, the lesson was to have the Spirit be your 3rd, or in our case 4th, companion and be the senior companion. It's something I'd tried to do before, but it was an awesome lesson to learn even more about it and something I've been trying to apply. I also had a good interview with President Talbot there, he gave me some good advice about having courage to open my mouth and also to make sure not to say too much, for too many missionaries fall into that habit too. It's been awesome trying to apply those things these last couple days where we've been running around trying to finish our 10 hours of tracting we've committed to do each week. I had some awesome experiences during the 4.5 hours tracting on saturday and sunday each, and I learned a lot from them. Nonmembers reading this, just try it out for yourself. Just read a little of the book of mormon and pray about it to know if it's true. For God won't punish you for asking. God loves us and wants us to know. Members, don't be afraid to open your mouths and share the gospel too. You might think you don't have enough time, but it says in the scriptures that God will provide in all of the commandments He gives us, and is member missionary work not a commandment?
Bought myself a shirt for the local high school. There's only one high school in town, Muscatine High School, and their colors are purple and gold, their the home of the Muskies, and their symbol looks like the UW "W" just upside down and italicized slightly. So when I saw a shirt that looks just like the purple with yellow lettering Huskies shirts that said Muskies instead, I had to get it. It cracked me up. [My bike isn't being used much right now cuz we're not on car share. It's doing well, but I gotta do some work on the gears cuz my pant leg got caught in them once and it won't shift into anything other than the middle gear, but it will shift into 1-7 in that middle gear, if that makes any sense. thank you for the package and everything in it, I got it saturday, and I got the Dear Elder last tuesday. Probably normal mail would be the best option now.]
This church truly is the church of Christ again on the earth. I know this for myself. It has blessed my life so very much, as I know it will all of yours too.
Love,
Elder Charlie Gates
I wrote a long, amazing, spiritual email, and it was erased, either because MPC computer (whoever heard of MPC?) erased it or the server here at Muscatine Community College got overloaded (who knows how, there's ten computers maybe in this tiny podunk college, my high school was bigger) or because myldsmail.net screwed up. Take your pick.
I really don't have much time to waste on here anymore, and I'm fairly frustrated. Not to mention if I make it too long again it'll probably erase it all again. So just consider it my personal 116 pages.
So here's the gist:
Really busy but good week. Didn't do much missionary work throughout because of moving out the old spanish apartments' stuff and moving in Senor Nelson and Zone Conference which took most of wednesday and thursday. Zone conference was cool, the lesson was to have the Spirit be your 3rd, or in our case 4th, companion and be the senior companion. It's something I'd tried to do before, but it was an awesome lesson to learn even more about it and something I've been trying to apply. I also had a good interview with President Talbot there, he gave me some good advice about having courage to open my mouth and also to make sure not to say too much, for too many missionaries fall into that habit too. It's been awesome trying to apply those things these last couple days where we've been running around trying to finish our 10 hours of tracting we've committed to do each week. I had some awesome experiences during the 4.5 hours tracting on saturday and sunday each, and I learned a lot from them. Nonmembers reading this, just try it out for yourself. Just read a little of the book of mormon and pray about it to know if it's true. For God won't punish you for asking. God loves us and wants us to know. Members, don't be afraid to open your mouths and share the gospel too. You might think you don't have enough time, but it says in the scriptures that God will provide in all of the commandments He gives us, and is member missionary work not a commandment?
Bought myself a shirt for the local high school. There's only one high school in town, Muscatine High School, and their colors are purple and gold, their the home of the Muskies, and their symbol looks like the UW "W" just upside down and italicized slightly. So when I saw a shirt that looks just like the purple with yellow lettering Huskies shirts that said Muskies instead, I had to get it. It cracked me up. [My bike isn't being used much right now cuz we're not on car share. It's doing well, but I gotta do some work on the gears cuz my pant leg got caught in them once and it won't shift into anything other than the middle gear, but it will shift into 1-7 in that middle gear, if that makes any sense. thank you for the package and everything in it, I got it saturday, and I got the Dear Elder last tuesday. Probably normal mail would be the best option now.]
This church truly is the church of Christ again on the earth. I know this for myself. It has blessed my life so very much, as I know it will all of yours too.
Love,
Elder Charlie Gates
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