Decisions Determine Destiny

Howdy y'all!

 

Hope everyones doing well.  We're going to the big city market tomorrow so I'm emailing Monday instead of Tuesday.  Apparently it's pretty awesome and like out of a movie just cause it's so busy and what not. 

 

I've basically been here a month now.  Pretty nuts.  I already feel like I've learned so many lessons and I still have 23 more months to go!

 

So it's only been like 4 days since my last email cause of the weird scheduling but a few funny stories from this week... One was I was by the front desk and President Cox (the MTC president) was right there.  This Sister missionary came up to the front desk to ask for 2 envelopes and for whatever reason she thought "cervezas" was envelopes.  "Dos cervesas por favor"... she asked for 2 beers right in front of president and he kinda just laughed.  She's super ditsy which made it funnier jaja

 

Another one was while talking to the Latinos in our room we were talking about money and I said "Tiene un dalor de Honduras", asking him if he had money from Honduras but I really said "Did you bring the pain of Honduras" because dalor is pain not dollar.... so they just looked at me super weird until we figured it out lol.

 

We also had people on the street outside walking by with torches and shooting guns in the air.. like 40 of them so that was 'interesting'  as well as people riding out of the windows and on top of cars.  Apparently it's a tradition when they graduate high school and completely normal... jaja

 

These last two weeks have absolutely flown by, so much faster than the first two and in two weeks I'm going to be out of here with a Latino companion who doesn't speak any English and trying to teach the gospel in a language I still don't know very well, though I have to say I know way more in 4 weeks than I ever thought I would. 

 

I'm also constantly tired from lack of sleep and have been sick basically the whole time I've been here and although I have made some awesome friends it's still very lonely a lot of the time being so far away from my family.  But no matter how sad or lonely I feel, I know there is one that has been much lonelier than I.  I've been thinking so much about The Atonement and crucifiction of Jesus Christ lately.  How lonely must he have felt in his last moments?  One of his apostles betrayed him with a kiss on the cheek.  One of his most beloved apostles, Peter, denied him three times.  While his apostles were all suppose to be watching his back while he bled from every pore and suffered so much pain that it's incomprehensible to the human mind, they all fell asleep.  And as he is carrying his cross through the streets on his back, he even felt as his father had forgotten him. "O God, Why hast thou forsaken me?"  How lonely he must have been... My trials and tribulations are different from anyone else's but I know that there is one who has suffered for me and my sins and knows exactly to the T how I am feeling.  So who am I to complain?  He is always there to listen to my prayers and help me through those trials.  I try to think about Christ and his sacrifice now every time before I commit a sin and if I commit that sin I'm contributing to the pain he felt in Gethsemane.  I know that Jesus is my Savior and I love him with all of my heart.  And I know that he is there for all of us whenever we need him.  How great a blessing that is...

 

Anyways, didn't have much to write this week but hopefully next week I'll have some cool stuff to write about since we're going to the market and a few other cool things this week.

 

"Decisions Determine Destiny" Thomas S. Monson.

 

Elder Gurksnis

1/30th of the way done! - Week 3

Hey everyone hope everyone had a great week!  Just finished my third week here in the Guatemala MTC.  This week flew by.  After the first week everything has been going by super fast.

The MTC is very repetitive. I think I've said that a million times but it's been way better this week.  This week I was called as the District Leader of my district!  President Cox called me in his office last wednesday and he interviewed me and said he wanted to extend me the call of district leader!  So I thought that was cool.  It has it's extra responsibilities for sure, but I think I've been handling it well thus far. 

Sunday we had our first district meeting and it went great!  I got a few of the guys to open up and share some life experiences that have built their testimony and lets just say there isn't a single missionary here who doesn't have a story.  Elder C, my hitta, wasn't a very active member of the church for most of his life.  By his senior year he had already committed to West Point for soccer but didn't have the ACT scores to get in.  He needed a 24. Even though he had spent thousands of dollars on ACT tutoring, he got a 20 on his ACT FIVE TIMES IN A ROW. Elder C is the hardest worker I know and he mentioned all the extra hours he was spending during the day trying to learn the ACT test taking skills.  Finally, he called his dad one night and his dad told him "I want you to stop studying for the ACT and, for this next month before your final chance, I want you to spend all that time you would usually spend test studying, studying your scriptures and doing personal prayer."  So Elder C took his dad's challenge.  After the test, he felt horrible about it and felt he did worse than usual, but upon checking his scores a month later he saw he had jumped to a 24 in every single subject and even got a 25 in another, thus allowing him to play soccer at his dream school.  Shows you the power of scripture study and personal prayer!

Elder Mg is definitely my best bud here.  He's the coolest dude and we're planning on rooming together at BYU when we get back.  He didn't think he wanted to go there but after we talked he told his mom to help him work on his application and he is absolutely set on getting in.  He's a convert and was baptized a year ago.  His parents and his whole family had always gone to a Christian church but he never believed in the trinity and always thought that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit were different people.  So he asked to go to church with his best friend who was Mormon.  Long story short his family didn't support him and his dad doesn't even talk to him anymore.  The day of his baptism his family members and people he didn't know were calling him all day and calling him ridiculous names and telling him you're stupid and wrong for doing this.  So he was questioning it a little bit and went to this mountain to go pray about it.  He asked Heavenly Father to help him to know if this was the true church and as soon as he said amen he said he felt the greatest feeling of peace and joy he'd ever felt in his life. He knew without a doubt he was supposed to be baptized and now here he his!  He's one of those guys you just know you're going to be friends for life with. He's awesome.

Another thing that I've been so grateful for this whole time are my teachers.  I lucked out.  Hermana Estrada is so loving and teaches us really well.  Hermano Ruiz is the coolest guy I've ever met.  You can just feel his love for you and for everyone else. He truly cares about everyone.  He's also the most knowledgeable person in the gospel I've ever met and has taught us some pretty cool things!!  He was the youngest AP in his mission ever and baptized over 3 times the average amount in his mission in Long Beach, CA.  I'm thankful for him so much and he's already planning a district get together at his beach house after the mission cause he's filthy rich jaja.

One thing I've also learned this week is there is no such thing as a good Latino singer... Our whole church service is in spanish and when we sing hymns it's literally deafening like I don't understand.  It's hard not to cry laughing honestly jaja

Last night was probably my best night at the MTC.  I had the idea of all three of our districts having a combined districts meeting and we all got together after watching a live devotional from M. Russel Ballard.  We all went around and talked about what we learned and at the end I thought it'd be a good idea to just give everyone the opportunity to say something nice or something you admire about a person in a different district than your own.  It was really spiritual and so awesome.  I told Elder D how I thought he's such a great "lead by example" type of zone leader and is an example to all of us.  And i don't remember if I told y'all about Elder M but yeah Elder M's companion punched him in the face and knocked him out like the 4th day in the MTC. idk must've slipped my mind jaja! But he handled it so well after his companion got sent home.  Then I told Elder Mg about how much I respected him for going through what he's gone through for this gospel.  It was just a great experience to boost everyone's morale and everyone was just super happy after the meeting.

I was reading in 2 Corinthians this week and a lot of what I was reading was talking about charity.  I don't remember exactly what the scripture said but 2 Cor 9:7 basically says 'If you do not give charity cheerfully, then it is like you are not giving charity at all'.  So I applied that to myself and thought about my attitude about this next two years.  Am I a cheerful giver of these two years of my life?  Honestly, when I first left, not at all. I had the feeling of "alright let's go do this and pray it goes by fast."  But my attitude has definitely changed since reading that scripture.  1 Cor 13 the whole chapter is about charity. And the last one was James 2:17 which says Faith without Works is dead.  People often question us about believing in works but  theres so many verses in the bible like that.  We are first saved through Faith in Jesus Christ.  We must have faith in his Atoning for our sins and we must have faith that if we repent of our sins we can live with him again.  But if that's all we do and we are not kind to others, then it's not showing faith at all.  But at the same time, we don't do works because we think it'll help ourselves, we do works because we want to bless the lives of others and make others happy. 

Anyways, not too many crazy stories that were appropriate for a mass email this week haha but I felt like sharing some of those stories that have inspired me recently.

Love all y'all! 1/30 of the way done ;)

Adios and Texas Forever,

Elder Gurksnis

Lessons in Obedience

Hey everyone!

Week 2 is now over and holy crap it went by so much faster.  Thankfully.  Always just counting down to the next P day.  

 

So I have some solid stories for this week... first,  I told yall about all the nicknames last week. Well, I thought I had mine already but now it's changed.  Everyone started calling me Gurk Nowitzki which was bomb cause go Mavs MFFL (Mavs Fan For Life).  But then we were sitting at the lunch table with the Latinos the next week and just working on my spanish and trying to have a casual conversation.  My one problem with spanish is that I cant roll my "r's".  So I said "Tengo un perro" which means I have one dog.  But since I can't roll my r's to the latinos it sounded like "tengo un pedo".  Pedo means fart.  My nickname from the latinos is now Elder Fart... Elder. Fart.  Thankfully they all left today so I can hopefully muster up a better nickname with the new shipment of Latinos. 

 

I was thinking how last week I said we all shaved our heads and then I realized that half of the people receiving this email think I'm in a cult so that probably wasn't a good idea hahaha!  But it was voluntarily done lol

 

Btw both my teachers had Hayden P., my roomie at the Y and my homie, as well as Shad P., who was another good friend from BYU, and they both went here to the Guatemala MTC.  Hermana Estrada said they'll both be good missionaries!  

 

I guess I didn't talk about the food last week.  It's not horrible but it's no Tejas bbq either LOL.  I'd compare it to the Cannon Center but worse jaja.  They put pico de gallo on almost all the lunch and dinner foods which is good.  It's doable but we went to the small market today just to reload on toiletries and supplies and whatever.  We passed about 3 street corner grills and oh my gosh they just smelled like heaven.  So I don't think I've had any 'real' Guatemalan food yet.

Me and my comp, Elder D., are still getting along good.  I honestly don't think I've heard anyone tell more detailed stories than anyone in my life haha.  It's funny to watch because as soon as he starts talking everyone gets reaaaaal comfortable in their seats b/c they know it'll be a while jaja!

 

But I've made some great friends already.  Me and Elder Chabreis, the west point dude are real good buds.  He's just so funny and we have similar backgrounds.  We talk a lot about if we're companions out in the field cause he's going to City East as well.  Me and Elder Manning (Micah?) from Reno are also good buds.  He's going to the Quezeltenango mish however.  Still love my district too.

My spanish is still progressing well and I can speak better this week, but understanding spanish is still my achilles heal.  They talk so. fast.  jaja but i know it'll come with time.

One week, our teacher got mad cause I think we were all pretty tired that day and the next day President Cox came into talk to us.  I didn't think I liked President Cox at first but that talk really inspired me.  He talked about the importance of obedience and following every single rule and how we will be blessed if we do so...

I think all my life Heavenly Father has been making points to me about obedience.  Whether it was just being a stupid high school kid and doing little things that got me in trouble a lot, or not following every rule at BYU.  Whatever the case, I always paid the consequence.  But I think now I've realized that I never got away with it, or always got what seemed to be a harsh punishment at the time because God was teaching me a lesson about obedience and preparing me for this time in my life.  To be an obedient missionary.  I've realized that we all have our agency to decide what kind of missionary we're going to be, and I've definitely made the commitment to obedience, even out in the field when it's just me and my companion and no one else but Heavenly Father watching.  Obedience is the key to being a good missionary. 

Hope everyone's doing well back in the Lone Star State.  My Cougars and Texas AM Aggies are still killin it apparently so that's good to hear!

I love all y'all and miss all you guys a bunch!
Until next week,

Adios and Texas Forever

Elder Sam Gurksnis

p.s. I'm at Mosiah chapter 2 in the Spanish BOM by the way...

What's up Merica?

Oh my gosh… What's up U.S. of Merica? How is everyone doing?  Ya boi officially has one week of the MTC under his belt! Thank you all for your emails unfortunately I'm super limited on time so I can't write anything other than this main one but please continue to let me know how y'all are doing back in the states!

I shaved (buzzed) my head the first day along with everyone else here and my fear and thought that I already had a receding hairline is now gone cause the buzz doesn't look too shabby and my hairline is solid. But shoutout to Zach Kubala for making me worry about it for the last few years!!! They took our cameras cause apparently some Latinos were "not doing good things" with them so we get em back when we go to the field.  I would've had a pic of my whole branch but in the ultimate Gurksnis move I stood in the wrong branch line and got in the wrong pic.. but its all good we take another one next week when the newbies come!

First off, absolutely no one warned me about how hard the MTC is.  We really are in class from 730am til 930pm at night other than meals and an hour of sports time.  It's stressful to say the least.  I think Michael Gleason was the one who said it was a necessary evil and I think that's the best way to describe it.  But I've actually had so much fun too... way more than I thought I would after the first day!  I've been blessed with an awesome district of 8 dudes that I'm with all day.  It's seriously crazy how different we all are. None of us are the same in the least.  But we get along so well and I've honestly laughed more and harder in the last few days than I have in a longgggg time jaja!  It's myself, Elder Duncan, Dawson, Flygare, Chabreis (West Point dude), Aubrey, Kanold and Elder Jarvie aka Elder Woody because he looks like Woody from Toy Story.  So much so that all the Latinos sing "Youve got a friend in me" in their very very broken english to him as they tuck him into bed every single night which is one of the funniest things i've ever witnessed. 

As far as spanish goes, I know more spanish in one week here than I learned in three years of high school.  I can pray in spanish, bare my testimony, and even have short conversations already. My accent is pretty good too. My problem is understanding what theyre saying.  But I can speak fairly well! Tu madre. (yo momma)

Theres a lot of rules to say the least.  Following them isn't too bad though.  Other than being with your companion (Elder Duncan) at all times and not really talking to girls here.  There's a couple girls (hermanas) where typically I'd be like, "yo shawty whatcho name" but I don't think that really flys here jaja.  but yeah not having any time to yourself or to relax is rough at times but it's not as bad as I thought. 

I heard my Cougars opened another caaaaaannnnnnn of whoop trasero (dont translate that one) on UT this past week and there's Taysom Hill talk for Heisman thats whats up!!!  Mom and dad I seriously need the sports updates every week.  Cowboys Mavs Cougars Aggies need em all!

My mtc president is an intense guy.  He reminds me of one of the characters Jeff Dunham the Achmed the dead terrorist comedian guy does... not the terrorist thankfully but that old guy, Walter.  you'll have to look it up haha

Guatemala itself from what I've seen is beautiful.  Small, green mountains with random monster valcanoes.  When it's not raining its awesome weather but it rains a lot. 

My comp is Elder Duncan and he's a really nice guy.  He's our district leader for the next two weeks.  He's from the bubble that is Utah... Very straight and rule following guy to say the least haha. I don't think he gets most of my "thats what she said jokes" which is probably for the better.  He tries really hard and is a good guy.  E. Duncan and I also made a goal to read the entire Book of Mormon in spanish by the time we're out of the MTC (5 more weeks).  I'm already on 2nd Nephi 5 and if we do complete it, which we're on pace to do, we'll be the first ones to do it in the Guatemala MTC! (as proud tears from moms face roll like the Rio Grande).

I'd be lying if I didn't say that I don't have a "What the heck am I doing here I wanna go home" thought every single day.  But every day I get some sort of confirmation as to why I'm here.  Last night we had a devotional and listened to a talk by Elder Holland a while back... How selfish would it be for me to go home because of a little discomfort or stress or do something stupid to get me sent home, and keep all those people I would have shared the gospel with from hearing it.  I miss my family so much and have definitely had my share of tears already, but I can sacrifice a few years of my life so that I can tell entire families that they can live together for eternity with their Heavenly Father.  I love this gospel and I love and miss every single one of you! 

Mom, dad, gray, abby I love all you guys.  I pray every day that y'all will be comforted and I know you guys miss me but I promise this is what I'm suppose to be doing! I loved all your letters and I love all of you so much.  I'll write again next week!  Mom I'm sorry I literally dont have time to even read emails so please just try to send letters so i can read them and then respond on my p-days!

Until next week,

Adios and Texas Forever

Elder Gurksnis

Weekly advice from Elder Gurksnis: "Yo, it's up to you to put a smile on..."

Sam flew from Dallas to LA on his own.  I stayed up until 2:30am Dallas time so I could make sure his flight from LA took off safely (I was stalking on a flight tracker app).  I knew he was going to meet up with some other missionaries in LA to fly together down to Guatemala on a flight that left around midnight.  As I was waiting, I happened to check my email and saw the most wonderful thing!  A picture that Sam had sent me from LAX with 9 handsome, smiling faces!  We left him in tears and it was such a blessing to see him happy and smiling with all of the other great young men!

There were 25 missionaries in total all flying together to Guatemala.  And to top it off, in the morning I received my first email from Sam.  WARNING: I am posting his letter without any editing.  My son has apparently forgotten how to use punctuation or capital letters.  He blames it on a Spanish language keyboard.  I frankly don't care... it is like Christmas has come early!  I love that boy!

Hey mom! Yes i am here safely everything is muy bueno!

i dont have a ton of time, or a cap button that works jaja but ill give you a quick update!  i flew into LA and met up with about 25 other guys.  it was so comforting seeing other albinos in suits and ties. the flight was long and i'm running on about an hour of sleep for about 32 hours jaja but guatemala is beautiful.  when we flew in you could see everything and it's a ton of singular random volcanic looking mountains.  you could see the smoke coming out of a few of em.  we all took a bus this morning to the mtc.  in our group its about 10 missionaries going to city east and 10 more going to quetzaltenango and about 5 other randoms.  the guys are great.  my companion is elder duncan.  he's a nice guy.  we should get along great.

we met the mtc president this morning.  his wife spoke to us first and she was really sweet and then he talked and it was like holy mary what he's a super intense guy.  i don't have my scriptures on me but i read something in doctrine and covenants that basically says "yo it's up to you to put a smile on."  its 14 hours a day in classrooms and little sleep but im going to do it.  a lot of the guys already know a lot of spanish which was a little discouraging but i'm not gonna focus on them and just focus on my progress. 

i want yall to know that i love you all so much.  don't worry about me because i'm going to be fine.  i love all you guys.  i should have a tad more time to write next time. 

i love all yall so much you guys are the world to me.  miss you and love you.

Adios! 

Elder stealyogirl

And He's Off!

The bags are packed, paperwork is all completed, he has been set apart as a missionary, and now we are headed to the airport.  It is hard for me to even put into words how difficult it is to say goodbye to your child knowing you won't see him for 2 years.  But as sad as it is, I feel at peace and Sam does too. I can see his resolve and I stand back and admire his faith and selfless decision.  I know he is worried, but he is putting his trust in the Lord.  As I watch this young man, who is still my boy, walk on his own through airport security, give us one final wave and smile and then disappear around the corner, I thought about something I read recently:


"He knows everything about you... He knows what keeps you up at night. He knows what weighs on your heart. He knows your longing to become something more. If the Lord can do great things with a single loaf, imagine what He can do with a single life." – "The Peter Potential" by David Butler and Emily Belle Freeman.


Although the goodbyes are more difficult than I ever imagined, I'm so excited to see what Sam, with the Lords guidance, will do with his life these next two years!  

I love you Sam, infinity and infinity and even more than that!  Now go change the world!

Last week bucket list ...

We had such a great last week with Sam before sending him off!  It began with an early birthday surprise... He has wanted to go skydiving for a long time so we took him out to the middle of nowhere to jump out of a perfectly good plane.

2.5 miles up in the air!

And I'm freeeee, free fallin!

We had a great day at the lake with the fam.

He had lots of requests for favorite meals but he wanted his last night to be at Hutchins BBQ with his family.

Sam with his grandparents

His Uncle Erik (and aunt Chelsey and Uncle Kevin and the Sandersons
were there in spirit:)

Sam's Aunt Brooke, Uncle Matt and cousins Peyton and Bailey

Family Selfie

Saying goodbye is so hard!

The rest of the time we just tried to have as much time with him as possible.  The highlight was probably game night playing Balderdash.  My dad never disappoints with the most hilarious definitions!    Most of them I cannot repeat in this public forum:)