Training and Corrupting… muahahaha!

To start with my funny moment of the week I woke up Tuesday and took off my shirt to go take a shower and passed by the mirror and naturally couldnt pass by the mirror without stopping to look and I realized I had a 6 inch long stick bug taking a nap in my chest hair.  So that was a classic freak out and honestly wished there was a camera rolling.

First off, shout out to my dad who has a birthday today!  I know how lucky I am to have him as a father and he knows how grateful I am for him.  So be sure to call him or write him to say how awesome he is!  Love you pops.

Well, had my first week as a trainer!  It was different to say the least. At first when I was told last Sunday that I'd be training, I was a little worried.  But most of my worries and doubts have since left.  It's just A LOT of responsibility especially in my area.  Our ward just doesn't help us out very much.  I have a ward mission leader who hasnt served a mission.  Not much help from that department.  I have a class to teach every Sunday on my own as well.   With Elder F it wasnt too bad because we both were able to work together with ideas and we always had the same ideas and were good friends and were always there for each other.  But to be completely honest my companion came as a less active recent convert so naturally doesnt know much about the lessons or the mission haha.  So its difficult really having to do literally everything in our area.

At first my new comp came somewhat errogant and a little prideful (as did I and the majority of missionaries who enter the field). But after making him try to teach the majority of the lessons a few times, he realized he's got a ways to go, he humbled down a little bit haha.  Now he has a desire to learn and is studying hard so I'm proud of him!  We are different... lol.  Which again is challenging because Elder C and I were buds for the most part and Elder F and I were super tight, but I still love him and am trying to be there for him and teach him well.

So my cool experience for the week was this: so we worked our butts off this week!  Elder F and I had baptized a lot of people in our last change and had constantly looked to find new solid investigators but didn't find too many.  So our difficulty this week was finding new people.  So the end of the week we had had a ton of lessons and new investigators and we showed up to sacrament meeting and realized that none of the people that had committed to go to church were there.  I was really down... just kind of doubting myself of how I'm gonna help this area with really not much assistance... as well as train and do all this stuff on my own.  About half way through sacrament meeting I just kinda closed my eyes and said a really heartfelt prayer.  I asked to be able to feel Heavenly Father's love in that moment and be confident in myself to be able to know that I could do it.  I was almost to the point of tearing up when I said amen.  About 5 seconds later someone from behind tapped me on my shoulder.  I looked back and one of our investigators, Martha, who we weren't expecting to be there, had walked in and sat down during my short prayer.  She had this big smile and her and her son waved at me and I waved back at them.  It was honestly such a spiritual experience and I know it was Heavenly Father answering my prayers and thanking us for the work that we had put in that week.  Even though it was just two people!  I also began to be more and more thankful when I looked around and saw Fredick sitting with his girlfriend and her family who we'd been trying to activate and how awesome he has been in the last few weeks.  As well as Molly and Milagros in the pews as always continuing to endure and be some amazing converts.  As well as Kevin who got to pass the sacrament this week.  And seeing Paty and her daughters, who couldn't pay their light bill this month, filling out a tithing envelope was quite a tear tugger as well.  She is awesome.  I really didn't realize that I could do this on my own until I was asked to do it on my own this past week and I feel we did a really good job.  My prayers and my studies are now better because i have to be on my A game always. I realized how many blessings I've seen in my time in Limon as a missionary and it was just a great experience.

Well anyways I hope all you have a great week! 

Tough week of goodbyes

Hey everyone!  Short on time this week but everything's going well! Welp my time with Elder F ended all too quickly and he had a change.  He is now a zone leader outside the capital in Chiquimula :(  Really bummed because we are great friends and a super solid companionship I felt like.  We had a few rough days like any companionship but we were really great buds and I wouldn't hesitate to say he'll be my best companion in the mission.  I also had to say goodbye to Elder Turley and Elder Farr in the changes meeting which really sucked to be honest.  That's the pretty crappy part about the mission.  They were my two best buds in the mission and now they're going home and I just feel pretty limited on friends now.  I teared up pretty good saying bye to both of them because I guess I got really close to them these past months and really respect and look up to them.  But I guess that's just the mission.

So I didn't have changes but I'm now training a brand new missionary named Elder C from Puebla, Mexico!  Not really sure how I feel about it yet other than I just feel a ton of pressure.  Being with a companion that has time and experience, you both contribute equally. But now I know I'm basically going to have to do everything for our area for at least the first 4 weeks.  He came in pretty prideful like they all do lol. He's definitely not the most normal guy in the world. But I know Heavenly Father put us together for a reason and I'm going to try and train him well to be a great missionary as well as learn what I can from him.  It's a new but scary opportunity and I would definitely ask for all of your prayers to help me out! 

Anyways I love you all and hope you have a great week :)

5 1/2 months

Baptism of Paty and her two daughters.

Valentine's Day with Elder F.

"Can you help us change like we've seen our brother change?"

Welp we had a great week this week!  This past six weeks with Elder Funes have been the fastest of my life its ridiculous how fast the weeks go by.  I have a feeling that I could have a change this change and go to a new area.  We'll see.  But either way, Elder Funes and I had a lot of success together and worked super hard.  

I was reading the Liahona (church magazine) and read something i thought was funny about choosing the right friends lol.  This one girl shared, "I was trying to change my friend so much but she wouldn't and ultimately I just stopped being her friend... and my testimony grew SO MUCH!" hahah then it said "From: Margaret Denise K. Bountiful High School".  That friend just read that in the Liahona and everyone knows it's her!  haha! Like, what the deuce Margaret?? lol

Anyways... we baptized Paty and her two daughters this past saturday and it went great.  When they were confirmed yesterday Paty started just bawling and it was very spiritual and cool to see the impact the gospel has had on her life. 

The coolest thing this week really has been Fredick, who was my first baptism back in November.  He is so animated and awesome.  He goes with us every day from 3 to 7 to be with us to teach lessons so he can learn and prepare more for his mission.  We were talking about it and realized that we were gonna be on missions at the same time together and how awesome that is.  At first I didnt really know his whole story and transformation.  But he opened up to us this week and told us how he was in a gang before and everything.  Never killed anyone, but robbed and dealt weed and just a ton of stuff and I had no idea.  He has been sharing the gospel with his family and we started teaching his sisters this week.  The coolest thing was when they asked us, "Can you help us change like we've seen our brother change?"  That was maybe the most satisfying moment of my mission so far.  His sisters are freaking awesome and I have no doubt they'll be following in the footsteps of Fredick soon.  

I was reading an article this week lying in bed talking about the grace of Jesus Christ by Brad Wilcox.  Christ's suffering for our sins was more than just a big favor for us. He gave us an opportunity.  An opportunity to be able to repent and live forever in His presence.  We don't earn our way into heaven, but by living the commandments, we practice living in heaven.  If you bring a person that commits big sins with no desire to repent to church camp, would he feel comfortable?  No. He would be begging to get out of there.  It's the same with Christ in Heaven.  We need to try to be like Him.  Live like He did so that when we get to Heaven it feels like we belong there. We will be able to remember everything we did on the earth on judgement day.  How comfortable will we feel?  Will we feel excited and happy because we repented and always tried to walk the path of Christ?  Or nervous and scared because we never did.  Our job on Earth is to try our best to become like our Savior and Redeemer.  We will never be perfect as He is but thankfully He doesn't require us to be.  He just asks us to try and to do better tomorrow than we did today!  

Have a good week yall!

Elder Gurksnis

Living the gospel is not just for Sundays

Hit 5 months today!  Whatssss gooood back in the united stizates? 

We had another solid week and the baptism went great with Kevin this past Saturday.  It went great!  His aunt Dianna (my mom in the misión) and I, did a song after his baptism... a mix of Spanish and English that was super tight of "Oh My Father" (O Mi Padre).  It was a special baptism and almost the whole ward was there for it.

Me and Elder F are doing great.   He's a great companion and probably the companion I'll learn the most from in the mission.  Right now the only hard part is I'm just kind of sick of this junior comp thing and taking orders.  Its a big test of patience but I'm learning!  But that's a small problem compared to what a lot of companionships go through.  And for the most part were solid and having success.  Paty and her two daughters will be baptized this Saturday which will come up to be 6 pretty amazing converts in one change.  In our mission that's just unheard of unless it's one big family. But I'm just grateful for what we have right now and our obedience that we're striving for and the work ethic that we have together.  Because of that, when we teach, the spirit is so strong.  Every night I'm absolutely dead exhausted but I can never say "man, we could've done more today". 

My quick spiritual thought for the week.  So missionary work here is obviously completely different than what it is in the states.  The problem here is there are so many inactive members of the church, but at the same time all the active and involved ones are incredible. The amount they sacrifice for the church and how they ALWAYS put Heavenly Father first is inspiring.  So I would just leave you with a thought of, How active are you, truly? Are you truly converted to the gospel?  It's easy to go to church every Sunday.  But I've realized that's not really the meaning of being "active" in the gospel.  I went to church almost every Sunday for 19 years of my life but looking back now, I realize I wasn't "truly active" nearly enough.  Being active to me really means sacrificing and ALWAYS putting Heavenly Father first and always growing and strengthening your testimony in any way possible. Daily. Not just Sundays.

I hope everyone is doing great!  Have a great week!

Love Elder Gurksnis

Walking miles everyday and playing soccer = calves for days