20/24

wow its weird how fast this month has gone by. this last week was alright, lots of good and some bad. i went to rockport last monday night for exchanges. its about a half hour north of portland. the elders up there live in a trailer.. its pretty ghetto.. like its actually really gross. theres rats and lots of cockroaches.. haha its pretty bad. Rockport is just a giant trailer park hahah like seriously. there are some houses but its mainly just a big trailer fishing town haha it reminded me a lot of scofield lake in utah hahah. i then came back to portland the next day and tonight im going back to rockport for exchanges again but this time with elder Jardine hes super rad and funny. on tuesday we visited Todd with bro.muhammed this super rad convert of only a couple months. He talked the whole time and talk about his conversion. bro.muhammed is the best and always wants to help us. he feels like since the church was absent in his life for so long that there is lots of catching up he wants to do. So he is helping us every chance that he can get. we also visited holly and her son julian. julian is about 13 and is wanting to be rebellious like his older brother. we talked for a while about the importance of coming to church..it was a super good lesson. we visit their family a lot. then on Wednesday we had dinner with sister settle, she is in charge of genealogy and she is super good at it. She fed us so much chili dog it was amazing and i just almost exploded.. we did some genealogy and then went home. my stomach was acting up soo badly.. it was a bad idea to eat two chili dogs and a bowl of chili.. we were back in our apartment.. and my companion wanted me to call Todd and i was like yeahh.. just give me one second.. then idk what happened. i just then broke the biggest wind of my life.. it was terrible.. ive never seen so much anger and disgust in my companions face hahah it was hilarious hahah.. i felt a lot better after.
Thanksgiving day!
we went out and played football as a ward and then we went to the Dements house for a thanksgiving lunch. tried to watch what i ate cause i wanted to eat more later. we were all around the table and this little girl was eating a deviled egg..and then just starts throwing up... oh man.. everyone was done eating when that happened.. and thennnnnn she kept eating the egg..hahah after that i told my comp that we should leave before i lost my appetite hahah. so then we went to the church where a bunch of memebers who werent going to eat with family gathered together to eat lunch as a ward. lots of good pie. then we visited a sister and ate there and then went back to the dements. i dont know how we are still alive but we made it hahah. we had plans to meet with Todd at night.. we went to his apartment.. and he didnt open.. we then called him and nothing.. we were like thats weird. maybe something came up. we then decided to come back the next day and we did and still nothing.. we called him again and nada... that went on for the next couple of days.. and its kinda sucky.. like having someone super good to teach and then they just stop.. its weird but life goes on and my comp is still pretty bummy about it.. its kinda weird to me how butt hurt missionaries get.. like yeah someone just slammed their door in our face or we had a great lesson and for some reason they dont want us to come back.. but man... theres lots of other people we are going to visit and you cant be sad for them!! be excited!! i always am encouraging other people to not get so poopy!! we had some lady yell at us to get our car away from the front of her house haha we werent even going to knock on her door and she got so mad..i could not help but laugh..cause she was just so mad..we are searching hard right now and just trying to find the most that we can. thanks for all of the support. its seriously a battle out here. we are Gods army!

cute wiener dog name precious

christmas on pebble beach drive

someone is hungry.. hahaha

art..

christmas in rockport

elder russell and I. There are jelly fish in the water

Week 3

started the week off with dinner at the Lunas, it was the greatest meal ive had. we also sat near the ocean and watched people kite board as my comp and I wrote letters. we've been trying to meet with this lady name Anita but i swear everytime we make plans to meet...something happens and it drives us crazy!! haha It was about 49 degrees this morning. super cold and very windy.. its a little unreal for south texas but it is what it is. we have been trying to meet up with part member familys or less actives to try and brind everyone back to church and also find new investigators. we've also been trying to meet with a less active part member family.. and as we walked up to the door i told my comp," today shes going to open the door" anddddd she did. we met August for the first time. talked to her for a little bit and found out.... that her husband walked out on her a few days before.. it seriously breaks my heart cause they have a little 2 year old. so we are going to try and visit her more often and try and get her back to church. thats something ive really noticed as the days go on here in Portland, is just how happy and blessed we are to have the gospel in our lives. I've seen too many familys that are just torn apart because they dont have the gospel, family members hating each other and just the family being unhappy with everything... and its hard cause we talk to them and try and help them and tell them there is a way to be truly happy and as a family... but they dont want the gospel..!!!! oooo it grinds my gears.. but we have to be loving with them and in time have faith that they'll understand that they need this and that it will help them. on tuesday it was about 8 at night and we didnt have any appointment or someone to visit and didnt know what to do... and i was like hey lets say a prayer.. so i said a prayer seeking guidance on where to go and i could feel a burning in my chest... so then we pulled forward and my comp was like... woah we are infront of an old investigators house. i was like rad lets go talk to him.. so we get out and just as we get out someone walks out of the house and just walks off... i was like nooooo wayyyy this is it man we have to go talk to him. my comp " the investigator wen to jail so i dont even know if thats him."
i was like sooooo what lets go talk to him we have to!! and my comp said no.... and for the rest of the hour we could not find anything at all.. it made me pretty sad and i seriously couldnt stop thinking about that guy.... the sheep that got away.. we have been trying to go back but no one is ever there. the next day we went to this assisted living center to visit this sister that lives there and we've never met her before... well we went inside and ask where she was. they pointed toward this very very very veryyyyy elderly lading that was sleeping in this chair.. we were kind of hesitant to wake her up.. cause i mean who likes being woken up from a nap. the lady sitting next to her said that she sleeps all the time.. so we woke her up.... and ive never seen such joy and happiness in someones eyes before... she was sooo happy to see us, no one ever visits her and she just almost started crying.. it made me sad but happy.. sad that no one visits her but happy that we could bring happiness to her, from now on i told my comp that once a week we have to visit her and sing her hymns cause thats seriously the best. a few miricales happened this week. we have been trying to visit gilber and stephanie this week and everytime we go there, there is never anyone home. well this one day we went to their house and no on e was there.. but there was this girl from across the street looking at us.. i waved and she started walking over asking us what we were doing. i look at my comp and in my head im like YES!!! her name is myra and we start talking to her about the gospel, she is super curious and has been looking for the true church and im just like no way this is perfect hahah. we walk to the park and keep teaching her there. everything is going good..... then.... one of her friends walks up and sits down, we start to teach both of them... but her friend... is a very.. strong catholic... and just start bashing us with random stuff that didnt even make sense and was really testing our knowledge and faith.. it was a little rocky... i bore my testimony and she just stopped talking.. she just kept laughing and then walked off with myra.. ahhh it was so crazy and a little frustrating... but we are hoping she calls us.. later that night we are walking around our plans kept failing. and while my comp was trying to call someone... i said a prayer.. cause i seriously just wanted to find someone and talk to them... as we start walking down the street. someone starts talking to us about our bikes... but he got weirded out when we asked for referrals hahah. we had a zone meeting on saturday and it was super good.. idk theres so much to say and my fingers hurt too bad.. when i get home in like 2 years ask me about it cause it was good hahahah.
that night we were going to contact some referrals and before we went and knocked on the door, i said a prayer again.. like i just really hoped these people would open their doors. the first door we walked to. they opened their door and it was seriously a miracle that we had just gotten there. they were having a super rough day cause their son was just arrested.. and so we shared some scritpures and everything seemed good but then bam! they didnt want anything else and so we left a card. they also gave us some spanish olives and they were amazing! we then wen to their neighbor and hey instantly let us in. we were just getting to know them, he is an oil rig lawyer, his house was massive but he was super humble and loved the bible. we have them the book of mormon but wanted nothing else. it was super great!! and then last night, people have been telling us about this guy who just moved into these apartments that wants to go to church with a member that lives near by. well his name is tod and we tried to visit him before church but he didnt answer. we then went to church where i gave a talk and cried because it was just so great haha and Tod came to church it was super awesome. last night we were like okay we neeeeeed to visit him. he is interested and we need to visit him. so we go to his apartment and pray outside his door and then we knocked on his door. he let us in and just told us his life story and that he just got out of jail and is really trying to change his life for the better.. right now is just a dark time and he is really trying to change.. he told us that he really didnt want to open the door for us.. but something told him too... like he has never really been into church for like 20 years.. but something has been telling him to listen to us.... my chest was burning so bad.... i talked to him about his challenges hes been having and how ive gone through the same things as well... he almost cried... i could see it in his eyes.. that he could feel the spirit as well... we are going to meet with him again soon. he is super interested and really wants to learn everything.... this week was just been a week of thanks. im just so thankful for everything i have and im seriously wroking hard to bring the same things into the lives of everyone else. the gospel is a wonderful blessing!! enjoy it, love it, learn from it. please dont forget that our heavenly father is there and that he does listen to us..and remember that a prayer can go a long way..just have faith theres so many lost sheep out here in portland..im doing my best to bring them back.

birthday shout out to my papi!! yeah today is his birthday!! I love you big guy!

Loco

another rough week went by.. and its all better now.. idk why i was freaking out the past couple of weeks. I can barely even remember what even happened during the week. haha at coordination we had like a 15 bean soup and it totally wrecked our stomaches but it tasted so good! we also had Gumbo after eating whataburger and i was seriously about to throw up cause i was so stuffed hahha we eat so much with members its amazing!! So we Gilbert and Stephanie got married on saturday!! it was super rad and everything worked out great!! they are so happy and then Bam! they get baptized the next day!! it was so sick and just a great blessing to be there and even baptize my 2nd week being here. that was seriously like the highlight of this whole week and just first transfer so far. we dont have any investigators right now but we are going to meet with Anita and Javon tonight and they are super great people they just need to be taught the lessons, Javon is 15 and is amazing at playing the saxaphone, he is trying out for the state band and he played for us and it was just so beautiful and amazing i couldnt even explain it. they also have weiner dogs so i love going over to their house hahah but its super hard to find a good time for them. ive also tried really hard to love christian music cause thats all missionaires listen to here.. and they hate classical.. it sucks but whatever hahaha. we also got a new referral just barely so thats rad. his name is Ron and we are going to go meet him today. its been pretty chilly the last few days and today is super hot so maybe itll rain tomorrow, I think next week i will have more to say but for right now this is it. sorry..:/ write me letters yo,, missionaries love letters

first week...

This first week was really rough, but good. asoooo I hopped on the plane and slept the whole way here. as soon as i got here i could feel the humidity.. it wasnt too bad and it almost felt like Chicago. it was great. I went to the mission presidents house he is from chile, he is very nice. we ate and it was good. i also met the missionaries from the mtc at the airport. so we talked about the mission at the presidents house and it was pretty neat. then we went to the church and checked out our bikes, it was super rad i love my bike, and then we went over some rules and stuff like that. Later we went to the AP's house and found a bed to sleep on. i quickly found a top bunk and threw my heavy bag on top. I jumped up, said a prayer and opened up my journal.. i quickly wrote something and started reading my scriptures and then went to sleep.
the next morning all of the missionaries were talking about the best area in the mission.. not because there is lots of baptisms or you get to speak spanish.. but because it was just a very calm place, almost like bountiful or centerville. they wouldn't stop talking about it...its name is Portland
then we went back to the presidents house for breakfast, it was nice. then we all sat on the couch and were going to be told what area we were going too. everyone was getting named off and then it was my turn, and i guessed it would be the one all of the missionaries were talking about. Portland texas, in an english speaking ward. and i guessed right. I was called to Portland in Corpus Chrisiti
i was like sick rad!! english!! hahahah
then we went to the church where we had transfers.. and where i met my trainer. his name is elder anderson from north ogden utah. hes very quirky but nice and hes been here for about 4 months already so he knows everyone here hahah which is great. we went outside and loaded up the van, yeahh we also drive around in a van. how cool hahah also portland is about 3 hours away from the offices.
so we set out to portland. it was a great car ride full of sleep we finally got to portland and dumped my stuff and went straight to work to meet people. we have a baptism for november 15, of gilbert and stephanie, they are getting married on saturday and with permission from our bishop they are the getting baptized on sunday!! how sick!! hahah they are great people and they have a 2 year old name bradly he is very loud hahah
they are both way into the church, at first gilbert wasnt sure about getting married because his family keeps saying not to.. but when we went to go visit them again.. he was all of a sudden super excited to get married. what a miracle!! we've been visiting everyday and they are just doing great!!
by the way i am not really using my spanish at all when i am talking to people.. no one speaks spanish here.
we have been visiting a recent convert a lot named alfredo, he is 9 with very bad a.d.d. he is hilarious he lives with 3 other boys, julian, jess and issac. issac and jess are twins, and they live with their moms in this small apartment. one day we were visiting and talking to holly, the mother of jess, julian and issac.. she took us outside.. to tell us something about her twins, apparently one night when they had friends over, alfredo saw that one of the friends had a pipe.. by the way these boys are like 16, holly got up and searched the friends back pack and found a few paraphernalia and a bag of drugs... she was very upset and told everyone to leave.. she then took her boys and made them take a drug test.. jess came out clean and said he never did it.. and issac came out dirty..
after she said that... i could see the pain in her eyes..it made me very sad, because i could feel her pain..she started to cry and i really could feel her pain..she reminded me of my own mother.. just trying to do what is right for her sons... it was very sad and hurt a lot..but also made me super grateful to have a mom that i had. a very strong women and just very appreciated she never gave up on me. since then holly has brought her sons to church and we have visited with them more and just helped give them the guidance we can. its crazy to see how this happen. holly is a very strong mom just like mine, and so far things have slowly improving for them. they were going to get evicted for some bogus reason and the day after she paid her tithing, she got a call from the owner of the apartments that she lives in and he said that he is going to move them to a basement apartment and not evict them and actually move the manager that wanted to evict them to a complex in new jersey.. not all blessings and miracles are super huge like this. but this honestly helped me know that our heavenly father is real and he does bless us for doing the things he asked..
i have so much to write about but like no time.. this sucks..
well through out this week i've really been struggling with anxiety and i just feel like i want to explode.. but i love being here..  the president and I talked and he gave me some scriptures to read.. all i ask from you guys is to pray.. there are many miracles that are going on right now and i just need to keep pushing on.. i'm blessing peoples lives.. so its worth it..
we were walking down this street looking for a house and saw a young kid playing football by himself, i ran right over and started throwing the ball and we just started talking. well we kept talking and he says to us, that he's been wanting to get baptized in a church and he knows the bible from front to back.. his name is nathan. he's great, we gave him a book of mormon and are going to visit him soon, last night we wen to go visit holly and no one answered but i saw a man in the courtyard of the apartments sitting alone.. so i told my companion i wanted to talk to him, we walked over and i started talking to him, yeah super rad cause he only speaks spanish. so we started talking to him about the church and asked him if he wanted to get baptized in a month, he said yes!! how rad... so thats whats going on right now...  just taking it a week at a time... have a rad day...

thats all.. you can write me letters to my apartment at
no packages though..

Elder Gonzalez
1404 Moor Avenue apt 708
Portland TX, 78374

we can see the ocean from our place how rad!!

mami... check out my slacks i brought.. hahhaha my companero and i