Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Happy 19th Birthday Elder Gonzales!

Cher famille:
J'espère que c'est ça va si je peux écrire à vous un peu en Français.

Merci beaucoup maman et papa pour vos messages! Je suis très heureux de vous écouter et de vous parler!

Vraiment, c'est très bizarre que je vais avoir dix-neuf ans demain!

Donc, c'est très bien ici-bas; parfois, il a été un peu difficile, mais, ça va aller, c'est la mission. Comme j'ai dit avant, je n'ai plus faim parce que nous avons achetés beaucoup de la nourriture maintenant de ce qui est merveilleux. L’œuvre missionnaire est une grande bénédiction et je suis très content d’être ici.

Well, I'd write more in French, but writing in English is faster and I'm running out of time. The days fly by it seems, seeing that it has already been a month since I've been here in Adidogomé, and two months altogether in Africa. I guess I say that now, but I've got a looooong ways to go.

The French is coming along quite nicely; I still struggle understanding people when spoken to, but at least now I'm more capable of sharing my testimony, teaching the people and expressing myself.

The weather over here has changed and apparently it's now the "winter" season. In the morning and at night it actually gets pretty chilly; that, or I've just acclamated to the heat so much that anywhere from sixty to eighty degrees feels really chilly. Oh man, coming home is sure going to be a shock to my body.

On New Years, I had a cold and a slight fever due to the season change. Before I continue on that, Pres. Morrin came over New Years day as well. While his wife went over how to handle medical and situational emergencies, each member of my district had an interview with President. I'm so glad that I was able to speak with him because it really helped me out. We discussed how I've been, how I'm handling the many stresses, along with my effectiveness and so forth.

Also, towards the end, he offered to give me a Priesthood blessing. He blessed me with good health, to be patient with and to understand the behavior and culture here and the ability to be able to express myself in French. Two days later, I was healed from my sickness. I've become so much more patient and tolerant to the way that things are around here and how I'm treated, and it's blowing my mind on how much French I've learned since then and how much I've been able to say.

I honestly believe that your prayers on my behalf have certainly added an incredible amount to my welfare. Not only that, but since you've been demonstrating your faith by reading the scriptures so often, it has also been generating an amazing abundance of blessings for our family.
I'm so unexplainably happy to be able to write to all of you. Quite honestly, it always fills my spirit with hope and strength.

Oh, by the way, I recieved a letter from the Seidels and a package from brother Phipps today. It was so great! The package was really small and it took about two months to get here, but it had bag of chocolate, a bag of laughy-taughy and skittles. It costed $25, which is really expensive considering it's small size and weight, but it was still super awesome.
Well, I'm afraid I have to leave right now, but it has been so nice hearing from you and I genuinely hope that everything continues to go well for our family. Tell Jacob that I'm really proud of him, he's super awesome and he's doing an absolutely great job and tell the girls thank you for their absolutely wonderful messages and to keep them coming!

I love you all so much and I'll write to again soon :)
Avec amour,
Elder Gonzales

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