Prayers on my behalf will be very sincerelly and especially appreciated!!!

 Hey family! I apologize that I didn't get to write to you last week! We arrived late to the Cyber last week and I only had enough time to write to Casey who after a few months has written to me an awesome message.

  I'm super glad to hear that you've all had an awesome 4th of July and that you've been able to have fun experiences as a family through out the weeks! Do me a favor and send my love to all our entended family members for me and shout out "salut" from my part to them as well. 

 

 Check it out! I've got some crazy news to share with you! I might not have had the pleasure of watching fireworks blazing magnificiantly through the night sky; however, while my collègue and I were with an investigator whom we brought with us to go to church for her first time to institute Saturday night, I received the phone call from one of our assistants to the president. After working for seven months in the same appartment in Adidogomé, I have been called to serve in a city not too far from here called Kégé. While there, I will be training a missionary from Samoa who does not speak French. I'm not sure if he is directly from Samoa or not, for all I know he could have been born there and was later raised in the US; however, it seems to be that I am about to open up a whole new chapter of responsibilty and a lot of hard work. 

I'm not scared of what's going to happen due to everything that I've already been through; although, I am a bit nervous and a little anxious all at the same time. I know I am not anything close to perfect, but I'm ready to take on this sacred task that has been placed upon me and I'm willing to face the challenges that are bound to come my way. Dispite my anxieties, I'm actually very excited to have been presented with this wonderful opportunity that I've been hoping to have one day to be able to take part in the start of a new generation of missionaries as a trainer.

 

 Prayers on my behalf will be very sincerelly and especially appreciated!!! 

 

 Thank you so much for the prayers that you've made on behalf of our investigators. I've sincerelly seen the difference in the progression of four of them who we've been really concentrating ourselves on since I've asked you to pray from them last week. Our friend Rodrigue who has struggled to get himself to church because of his work, whom we teach, see, visit, talk to, eat and hang out with, has started to become re-interested in the Gospel, especially when we had introduced to him the temple, eternal marriage, baptism for the dead, along with other blessings that come from going there. In fact, among these four progressing investigators, there are two potential baptismal canidates named Sr. Yeabli and Sr. Patience, to whom we have as well introduced to the temple.

Sr. Patience, I am completely certain, will be baptised while I'm gone. The only thing that has stopping her is the permission of her mother, who has declared that she is not in agreement with her daughter being baptised. We only hope and pray that one day her mother's heart will soften enough to the point that she will allow her daughter to be baptised. Even though Sr. Patience is twenty-five years old, she is living with her mother at this time, and if Sr. Patience were to leave her mother's church, she could be potentially kicked out of her mother's home with no where to go and no means to take care of herself nor her daughter, who, unfortunately, does not want to be baptised due to the lack of interest and understanding, having also been persuaded by persecution. At the end of it all, we are all free to choose whatever it is that we so desire to do; however, we will patiently continue to persist diligently in doing everything that we can to help her and all of our other investigators understand and simply realise the blessings that are waiting for them in the temple.

 Sr. Yeabli has become particularly interessted in the church since we answered her truly significiant soul-searching questions by introducing to her the Plan of Salvation along with the temple. I'm sorry, but based off of everything that I've learned from the hundreds of churches found in Togo is that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the one and only true church on the earth. The Bible and The Book of Mormon correlate in such a manner that it simply makes absolutely sense if not provide solid proof that this church is nothing but absolutely true. I'm living the story of Joseph Smith every day. Apostacy is real. However, the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ along with the power and authority to act upon His holy name, I tell you, has been restorated and is only found in the church that we are in this very day. The evidence is real and is there to be found by those who sincerelly search for it. Even then, proof can be fought by the cunningness of Satan by distoration, misconception, antichristianisme along with many other things. However, if we so desire to maintain the integrity and conviction of our testimonies, we must follow the instructions given to us in Moroni 10:3-5 because it is through the Spirit alone that we will be able to protect our testimonies from the Adversary and his attemps to destroy them (D&C 10:5).

 Well family, I pray that the Spirit of the Lord stay with you at all times and in all places that you may be protected from physical and spiritual harm. Have another wonderful week and take good care of each other!!!

 

 P.S. -- Fr. Rodrigue and Sr. Patience were super sad when they found out that I'm going to be transfered. I'm not going to lie, it really put a knife in my heart to tell them that in a few days I'll be gone. It's really going to be hard to leave them. My collègue and I taught them so much and spent so much time with them these past three months. It's crazy just how fast the time has gone. They've become very good friends of mine and I'll never forget them. Thankfully I have their contact information so we'll be able to keep in contact throughout the entirety of my mission along with after as well.

 

 Parents, congratulations with your 20th anniversary! I sincerelly hope you two had a wonderful time in celebrating such an awesome day.  

Avec amour,

Elder Gonzales

"Working with members totally rocks!!!"

 -So, for the first time in almost seven months, I went to an outdoor gym with my companion and our district. It wasn't anything like Gold's, but still got the job done. 

 Transfers came in, but I'm not going out. My comp and I will be working together in our new secteur, which is fine with me because after a nice few weeks of hard work we've finally started seeing progress.

 By the way, on Sunday night, we had been invited by our neighbors -- of whom we frequently buy our bread from -- to assist their father's birthday party. It went super well! The party took place on the roof of the family's house, there were a lot of people who came (and I was the only white person), we ate a lot of free and awesome tasting food and we watched a dance performance by four super tall dancers who were dressed up as ninjas.

  We had three investigators come to church! One of which named Sr. Brigitte, whom we met through tracting, came for the first time since we've known her. As for the others, our friend Naomi, who comes every single Sunday, came again and a young man, who's name escapes me, came to church as well. By the way, I met a Nigerian investigator of the other two Elders at church this Sunday who actually lived in Georgia, US for ten years. I got to sit next to him during our investigator class and it turned out to be an awesome experience because I got to translate the French to English for him.

 We worked with a member during the week named Sr. Eugenie and she really helped us out a ton. It's so awesome having members with us because they are able to really relate to these people because they speak the same language, come from the same country, understand the culture, and are able to relate conversion experiences and then bear testimony.

We saw Sr. Naomi a few times throughout the week with Sr. Eugenie and a recent convert named Sr. Alice. We fixed her a baptismal date, and now we're encouraging her to ask her father if she can be baptized because she is not yet eighteen. She hasn't asked yet because African fathers are not always, but sometimes very solid in their traditions. But we continue to support her by visiting her with her neighbors (Sr. Alice and Fr Robert [a potential new investigator]), by answering the ton of questions that she poses and by helping understand the things that she questions.

We saw Abigel and the family a couple times during the week. We've decided to start concentrating more on the family by visiting them more throughout the week. In fact, just this passed week we were able to fix a baptismal date with one of the mothers in the family named Sr. Patience who frequently comes to church. If we could help her get baptized by the end of the month or sooner, that would set an excellent example for the family! 

 We're still working with our friend Rodrique, who has been having difficulty coming to church because of his work, but we'll keep hoping and praying that his patron will let him have Sundays off so that that he'll be able to start coming to church.

Oh hey, check it out! My comp and I met some investigators of the other Elders who come from the neighboring country to Tanzania, the country where my comp comes from originally, and they were able to speak to each other in their native language. It was pretty cool to see and the investigators themselves are actually really cool to hang out with. One of them named Jimmy has been coming to church the past few Sundays and I can see him becoming a missionary someday if he's able to progress and accept the gospel.

 All sorts of experiences are taking place all around me every single day. I'll be honest when I say that this has been one of the biggest stresses in my life being on a mission, the reason being is because one's integrity, faith, patience, intellect, knowledge of the doctrine and scriptures, communication, progression, and testimony are tried every day. However, the mission is only as stressful as one allows it to be, and the more one acquires Christ-like attributes as listed in Ch. 6 of PMG, the easier the mission gets and the more enjoyable this life becomes.

 Besides, this mission will only last but a small moment, so why not make it something worth remembering for time and all eternity by giving it all you got and pushing yourself harder than before to help the Lord accomplish His work.

 

 

 

 

 -First off, my comp and I fixed two baptismal dates with two of our progressing investigators named Madame Yeabli and Sœur Patience for the 27th of June. We still have a long ways to go, but hopefully until this time we'll be able to help them prepare themselves to be baptized. Note: two super awesome scriptures that we shared before committing Madame Yeabli to baptism -- Matthew 7:13-17 and 2 Nephi 31:5-9. 

 We met Sr. Patience one day while we were visiting our family in Womyomé. We were teaching the children of the family out in the courtyard the Plan of Salvation when she approached us and asked what it is that we do. I don't remember if she participated in our discussion before we introduced ourselves, but we've been meeting with her and the family ever since. 

 As for Madame Yeabli, we met her on the road in front of her house as we were on our way to a rendezvous. Turns out that one of the first houses to which we did tracking to when we first started working in this new secteur was the house of her daughter Sr. Faustine. Ever since we met Madame Yeabli, we've had three rendezvous at Sr. Faustine's house in the past three weeks.

 By the way, working with members totally rocks!!! The language, the culture, the background, the support, and the testimony are what really makes this work move forward. Seriously though, without the help of members, we would be utterly wasted and exhausted by the lack of progress that members help bring. With the two ladies mentioned, we had a member with us named Sr. Eugenie when we fixed their baptismal dates and I'm convinced that it made all the difference.

 On Sunday, we went to a stake meeting at a huge building called the Palais des Congrès. All the members in Lomé, which basically consisted of all the members in Togo were present along with many investigators who had been invited to come by ward members and missionaries. It was a fantastic experience because I got to see all the missionaries in Togo, one in particular whom I was very happy to see and whom I haven't seen in months was my trainer Elder Dioulo. For the first time, I could perfectly understand him. Sure would've been nice during my training.

 The district and I were able to go to the grand market by the ocean. I didn't buy anything of explicit value, such as masks, paintings, hand-made bags, clothing materials, wood carvings, jewelry, and so forth; however, we did happen to find a store with American merchandise where I bought BBQ sauce, two snicker bars, 4 bags of ramen noodles, and hot chocolate. Oh, the simple things of home sure bring a smile to my face. Despite how nice these things are, I sure do appreciate cooking the things that I've learned to cook here (rice, chicken, pasta, spaghetti, inyams, sauce, etc). When I get back, I'll have to cook y'all up some African style meals and I promise you'll love it!

 I've learned a very important principal this week due to a single verse of scripture found in Alma 48:20 that talks about humility. Unless something is worth fighting for, let us do as the people here say and "laissez tomber" or "Let it fall" meaning Let it go and it has been promised by the Lord that there will be no wars nor quarrels among us. Let us not search to provoke one another by humbly looking inward rather than looking somewhere outward (Matthew 7:3-5). If it has no direct affect on us, even if it bugs us, don't point it out, don't even worry about it, let it go, accept a person for who he or she is, and simply worry about improving ourselves rather than fixing someone else and I promise we'll have peace, happiness, and joy.

 Well family, I've gotta bounce! There's an activity being held at the church in a few minutes so the district and I are heading on over there. We're going to have a branch family night! Super excited and should be a lot of fun ! 

Je vous aime tous et que Dieu vous bénisse!

Elder Gonzales 

"Now that right there is what this work is all about."

Salut ma famille!!!

 Hey Mom, I received your letter a couple days ago!

I'm so glad that you sent me that because it really helped me out.

 In fact, after I read that talk, I followed Elder Holland's invitation of praying to Heavenly Father and telling him, "Here I am, let me be an instrument between thy hands. I know I'm not perfect, I have a lot of weakness, and all I ask is that thou wilt help me to overcome them that I may be able to speak and testify more often than before; and, if thou wilt accept me, I am willing to be a vessel by which thou wilt accomplish thy work." The prayer I made was something along those lines, but I did something that I've never done before. As Priesthood holders, we are capable of calling forth from the powers of heaven unto the ministering of angels. During the prayer, I said "In the name of Jesus Christ and by the authority of the Melchezidik Priesthood in which I hold, I call upon the powers of heaven..." to help me become more of what He needs me to be and to be capable of doing the work that He sent me here to do. Never yet have I felt so capable of doing what I've been sent to do since that prayer. Not only that, but that was a very powerful experience for me because I could really feel the love and care that the Lord has for me and especially for His children here in Togo. I know that the Lord didn't send me to fail, but rather He sent me to serve a people and to do a mission. I know that the Lord will accomplish all His mighty works through all who are willing to be worthy instruments between His hands by the Holy Spirit along with the powers of heaven.

 Since then, I've had many spiritually edifying experiences in briefly teaching and testifying of the message of the Restoration more than I've ever been capable before with a friend of our progressing investigator and really awesome friend named Rodrique along with answering a lot questions to a woman named Soeur Nadege an investigator we met through tracting whom we've been working with for the past few weeks.

 One of the questions Sr. Nadege asked me was "What blessings have you received from the Gospel of Jesus Christ?" At first, I was slightly shocked because that was the first time since I've been here that I've been asked that question. Quite honestly, I didn't know what to say, but only because I didn't know where to start. However, once I got going, an old lady came by and sat down on a crate to join us in the midst of our conversation. If there's one blessing that I've received is the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. I began answering her question; however, I had directed myself to the woman who came and joined us. There are three questions that can be answered thanks to the Plan of Salvation: (1) Where do we come from? (2) Why are we here/ What is the purpose of life? (3) Where are we going after this life? I had shared each question and then briefly explained the answer to each one. God is our Father in Heaven and we lived with Him as his spirit children before coming to this life on earth. We chose to come here so that we could obtain a body of flesh and bones and to have trials and experiences to learn and grow and to have a family of our own to love and care for. We're also here to keep the commandments of God, to be obedient to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel, and to perform good works. In doing these things, I know that we will be able to return into the presence of our God after this life to dwell in His kingdom to be reunited with our families and to have eternal life. I know that during this life we make mistakes and we sin; however, thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can receive the forgiveness and remission of our mistakes and sins. Thanks to the Atonement, we can repent of our sins and be saved (Article of Faith # 3).

 Honestly, it was an absolutely amazing experience because the words just kept coming and I kept speaking without hesitation or pausing and the Spirit burned within my heart and warmed the depths my soul as if I was wearing a spiritual electric blanket. After having spoken with her along with giving her a brochure of the Plan of Salvation along with a Book of Mormon, we spoke with her and Sr. Nadege for a little while to have a really fun conversation before we left.

I tell you what, after leaving from the experience I couldn't help but smile with every bit of gratitude in my heart and then say "Now that right there is what this work is all about."

 I've been sincerely blessed to receive new experiences such as these almost every single day. Sometimes it really can be difficult and the integrity of my faith can be shaken; however, thanks be unto the Lord who has had so much mercy upon me in answering my prayers. Thank you all so much for the prayers that you make on my behalf. They sincerely uplift me and give me the strength to always look higher when my struggles strive to drag me lower. Thank you all so much for all that you've done for me and continue to do on my behalf.

After six long months, I can tell you that I know that this church is true! 

Never let your doubts triumph over your faith and never let what you hear against this church disturb that belief and conviction that you have within your hearts! 

Trust in the feelings in your mind and in your heart and know that the Spirit is alive and true and will testify to you if you sincerely seek to find out the truth! (Moroni 10:3-5; Galations 5:22).

 

Well family, it was wonderful hearing from you all again and I hope you all have a wonderful week. Take care of each other, protect yourselves from the adversary and stay forever strong in this faith (2 Nephi 31:20).

 

Je vous aime et que Dieu vous bénisse.

 Sincerely,

 Elder Gonzales 

 P.S. -- I was asked the question "Who is Mormon?" The simple response: see introduction of the BofM second paragraph and 3 Nephi 5:12-14. 

Joyeuse fête des mères or Happy Mother's Day!!!

 Joyeuse fête des mères or Happy Mother's Day!!!

 

That means that we'll be able to use Skype!!! :D

 Oh man, I'm so excited!

I realized something that I didn't quite see before. Sometimes I worry a lot about not being able to explain things very clearly or not really knowing completely what it is that I need say during lessons; however, its not what I explain that will impact these people's lives but its the conviction that I show through my countenance along with the solid bearing of my testimony with a heart full of faith that will genuinely make all the difference.

Well, as for the new area, it's been slow going, having had to show the other missionaries to their new secteurs as well as to their investigators' homes for quite a few days within the past couple weeks. However, the secteur that we work in is in our neighborhood and so it's not difficult at all to get around. Now that my companion is getting more sleep due to the medication that he's been taking, we won't need to go to the hospital anymore; that, and we finished showing the other elders to all that they need to work with so we are now finally free to start pioneering. 

As for the good news, last Sunday, our friend Rodric came to church for the first time in the month or so that we've been teaching him. That, and my comp and I were able to set two baptismal dates with Frère Rodric along with a new investigator in our new secteurs named Soeur Brigitte. We'll see what happens over the next few weeks, but let's just keep hoping that they'll both keep progressing so that we'll be able to help them get themselves baptized.  

As for Boris, I probably won't be able to see him anytime soon because his home is no longer in my secteur; however, I'm going to give him a call here in a little bit just to see how he's doing. I'll see to it that I call him throughout the entirety of my mission to see if he's still going strong in the church and that everything is going okay for him in life. Who knows, maybe after a year he'll be ready to go do a mission -- of which would be so awesome!!!  

 

 We've been going about meeting new people and sharing the message of the gospel with whomever is willing to hear it. So far, we've received about 20 new contacts through proselyting alone and have had appointments with about five of them on a fairly consistent basis. We hope they'll be able to progress and hopefully some day we'll be able to help a few of them start getting themselves where they need to be -- the temple!

Well my most amazing family, I'm afraid I must now depart to go pick up some pictures that we had printed out for a few members in my last ward; afterwards, I'll be heading over to a dinner appointment with a family whom we always buy our bread from.

By the way, here's an awesome scripture that I read this morning: Alma 37:36 -- The thing that I learned from this scripture was that in every aspect of our lives we should always remember the Lord and involve Him in everything that we do. For me, this scripture truly defines how one should remember the Lord and Savior during and after having taking the Sacrament.

Okay everyone, take care, I love you, God bless you and I'll SEE you all next week!!! :D

 

 

 After Skyping on Mother's Day:

I'm so happy and grateful to my Lord and Savoir for the opportunity that he has given me to see you all again. It was truly a really wonderful blessing to hear your voices and to see your faces. I'm so glad to have prayed with you guys as well. That really hit home cause it made me realize that even if we're thousands of miles apart, we're all still there together through prayer. That actually opened my eyes a little because that's exactly what its like for our Heavenly Father when we pray to Him. Though we may be apart, we can still connect with Him through prayer. This life is only but a small moment and so enjoy every single bit of it through good deeds and righteous works. 

à bientôt!!!

Sincèrement,

Elder Gonzales

Happy Easter!

Salut ma famille!!!

 For Easter my companion and I cooked up a ton of rice, made an awesome sauce comprised of a ton of peppers, tomatoes, chicken broth and spices, and last of all, two pieces of grilled chicken. This is about every meal of my life, but the way that we cooked it up tasted magnifique!

 But hey, check out the good news: we've finally had investigators come to church!!! So, two Sundays ago, we had an entire family come to church with us! It was so awesome! They weren't able to come this Sunday because of the Paque, or Easter Sunday, but we did have two other investigators come to church instead. One of them, named Emmanuel, was someone that I met when I was with my first companion and the second, his name is Clemient, and he's one of our newest investigators. With Emmanuel, we just called him and he said he'd come; and surprisingly enough, he actually came. As for Clemient, we beat him and his buddy Aldolf at a game of soccer last Saturday, which my companion and I played with our missionaries clothes on and we won by one point (only because the other two gave us the win), and so I guess you could say we won his coming to church. Also, on Saturday, before we four had our soccer match, we went to a baptism for two investigators of the other two elders in our apartment so it was a really great opportunity for our investigators to see what takes place during the baptism and also how to find the church. Adolf didn't come last Sunday, but he said he'd come next week so we'll see what happens. As for other good news, we've set two dates of baptisms the 18th of April for two of our investigators named Caroline and Adel. These two sisters have been coming to church on a regular basis and they've already been taught almost all the missionary lessons from two missionaries who had been transferred. So, all we have to do is pick up from where they left off and get that baptism done so they can start preparing themselves for greater things to come in the temple.

 I've been having many wonderful experiences these past couple of weeks; and no matter how hard it gets, I've been making sure to write in my journal every night so I can share these experiences with you all when I get back in greater depth. I tell you what though; this mission is definitely the refiner's fire. It's exhausting in many ways, spiritually, physically, and mentally, but in the end it'll be the experience that refines me into what the Lord needs me to become. Thank you so much for your prayers, by the way. I have no doubt whatsoever that the prayers you've made for me have genuinely helped sustain me in many more ways that you all could imagine. Lately, I've been struggling with speaking while teaching due to not knowing what it is that I should say along with learning the scriptures to an extent that I can use them to their full capacity. I realize that I need to be patient and that all good things come through the trial of faith and time, but a bit of extra faith to help me overcome these weaknesses would be a miraculous thing. However, I am getting better and I'm learning more and more as I keep going on and simply just doing everything that I possibly can. But don't worry I'll never give up trying to improve my testimony, my knowledge and understanding of the scriptures, and my capacity to teach and to speak.

  Throughout the whole week my companion and I have been in and out of the hospital so the doctors could take tests on my companion to see what's going on with his incapability to sleep due to his insomnia. We haven't received any definite results at the moment, but we'll be going in tomorrow again and so we'll see how he's doing from there. As far as we know, there's nothing wrong with his brain but it may have something to do with, I want to say his thyroid glands? But yeah, we're not quite sure yet. At least he's still doing alright despite his lack of sleep.

 A couple exiting things have happened with the past week! (1) Today is my companion's birthday, (2) We've got a new American in the house, (3) We've started working in the new secteur and (4) We had a baptism last Saturday.

 (1) Nothing too exciting took place today as of yet, other than going to a restaurant to eat hamburgers and charwamas (chicken burritos) for breakfast.

 (2) His name is Elder Rich and he's from Logan, Utah. He replaced Elder Kandua's companion and he is now our new district leader. He's super great, really hilarious, easy to talk to and likes to listen, genuinely motivated and willing to work and lead, and it's just really cool to have him around because he alongside with my companion are true friends.

(3) My companion and I are opening a new secteur (area) that no missionaries there have yet worked before. We've been going around talking with a lot of people and we've found a few who are interested in hearing more about our message so hopefully we'll continue to be able to work with them. As for talking with people, here's what we do: "Okay, where should go? Well, there's a door. Let's knock on it." From there, we present ourselves to whomever answers; we present our message, and give the person at the door a brochure. There's that, but what's even better is going to what we call "quartiers." It's basically a row of small houses linked together confined by a surrounding wall with a small courtyard in front of the houses to walk, wash clothes, cook and so forth. It's there where we find lots of families and people who are generally more interested in and more open to what we have to say. It's people living in these living conditions who are much more ready and willing to receive us and hear about the gospel. 

(4) Our friend named Soeur Adel who was in our last secteur chose to be baptized and we were able to attend her baptism last Saturday! I was so happy that she was finally able to be baptized because she's so kind, she loves the missionary lessons and understands them really well, she always keeps her commitments by reading the brochures, assigned scriptures and going to church, and she always gave us a bag of bananas after teaching her because we would always do the teachings by her fruit stand. What's also great is that we would only have to invite her to act upon a commitment once and she'd do it without us having to bug and persist her to. That, and she comes to church all on her own every Sunday. Unfortunately, we're no longer in the same ward so we won't be able to continue teaching her. We did, however, introduce her to the new missionaries who recently came in to take over that part of our old secteur and so they'll be able to pick up where we left off. Another great part of all this is that she has friends who are members in the church. I tell you what, if the people are able to become good friends with the members, they're glued right in and I absolutely love it. 

 Well, as for me personally, I'm doing really great and everything has been going just fine. My health is good, I've been eating alright, and I haven't been getting sick. I'm becoming more patient, loving, caring, and genuine with everyone around me which has been such a wonderful blessing. I'm learning so much every single day and it's really unbelievable just how much a person can continually progress every single day of his or her life. My capacity to speak with others and testify to them is developing, my tiny knowledge of the gospel is increasing, and my desire to share this gospel and serve Heavenly Father is growing. I'll be frank, this mission is not always easy, but it's a once in a life time privilege and opportunity and so I will strive my best to work as hard and effectively as I can in everything that I do.

 Hey, I found a really cool chapter in the Bible this morning during personal study in Acts 17. It talked about the Apostle Paul as a missionary going  about preaching to the Jews somewhere in Greece about the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ when we later then came across a people in Athens who were given in to much idolatry. With the people that he found there, he spoke really well on the true nature of God in verses 24-30.

He told these people that it's not man who created God but its God who created man. It's through God that we are living, breathing beings, having been given all things. It's says in verse 27, according to the poets of Athens, that we are the race of God. In the following verse, we see that if we are indeed the race of God, then how is it that we as humans can say that God is made of temporal, non-lasting, man-made things? 

 There's a lot more to the chapter so I invite you to read it because it's actually really cool; however, I'm going to go, we were invited to a family night at the Relief Society President’s house.

 

Alors, ma famille, voila, la bonne nouvelle de la semaine.

(Well, my family, there you have it, the good news of the week).  

 I love you all so much, I miss you and I sincerely hope you all have a wonderful week! Stay strong, be safe and God bless you! Oh yeah, and Happy Easter!!!

Dieu soit avec vous jusqu'au revoir.
Avec amour,
Elder Gonzales     

"I absolutely love this mission that the Lord has sent me here to do!"

Salut famille!

 

 Thank you so much for your prayers! Without a doubt, they've helped me so much within this past week, of which, was actually super great! Well, here's some great news with the language: I can communicate with anyone now and say just about anything that I need to say. My current goal at this moment is working on having longer and more meaningful conversations with people and I've been having a lot of success with said goal. Also, here's something super awesome: yesterday at church, for the first time I taught the lesson in the missionary/investigator class and it went really well! Actually, since my new companion came, I've been forced to speak a lot more French than ever before and that's helped me out a ton.

 So, we've fixed two baptisms for the fourth of April with two of our investigators named Frère Michel and Soeur Angel. We've seen a ton of recent converts, investigators are coming to church and we're finding more people to teach. We're staying active, diligent and busy and personally, I've been feeling the Spirit guide me more than ever before. I'm starting to speak with more power and authority and my testimony is growing more than ever before as well.
 Well, the language has finally come; but, of course, there's still a whole lot of work to do before I master it. I absolutely love it here in Adidogomé, my companion is awesome, we're having great success, we've taught a lot of people thus far and we've still got a whole five to three months worth of teaching to go depending on the next transfer. I've developed a great love for the scriptures and along with the words of the living prophets (still scripture); and, believe it or not, it's getting harder for me to read and sometimes speak in English.

 Bugs are our full-time room mates. We have tiny, terrible smelling ants crawling in the kitchen and the front room all the time. Why they smell terrible, I haven't the slightest idea. However, we don't mind them because they clean up for us, they don't ever get out of control, and they kill the occasional cockroaches and carry them out of the house. As for the other bugs, they can get pretty big and so far I've seen some massive ants, beatles, and wasps, but we've never had any problems with them.
 As for me and my companion, I can't begin to tell you all the crazy experiences that we've been having! Everything has been going really well for us and we've been able to teach a lot of people the past couple of weeks. The only struggle that we're having at the moment is trying to get our investigators to come to church. I'm actually really convinced that if we really improve the manner in which we commit our investigators to act on and keep committements, they'll do what the Lord wants for them to do. I feel like I know exactly how to improve in what to do and say to help them come to church based on what the Spirit is prompting me to do.
 But as for good news, the five converts that my last companion and I helped become baptised have been very active and have been progressing so well! My friend Boris still comes to church every week and we're still working with him to make sure that he knows the doctrine. Hopefully soon he'll be able to recieve the Aaronic Priesthood. Jean and Bernice are doing super well! Jean has a calling and recieved the Aaronic and Melchezedik Priesthood and he and his wife are doing their geneology so that when they're able to go the temple they'll be able to do their ancesters' work. As for Beaugard and Marie: Beaugard has received the Aaronic Priesthood and we're now waiting for him to receive the Melchezedik Priesthood and they both are super active in the church, despite living super far from the church building.
 

 I absolutely love this mission that the Lord has sent me here to do. It's certainly not easy, especially when we work as hard as we possibly can, but man, I tell you what, if you work and
serve with all you heart, might, mind and strength, it's then that you will see the most absolutely rewarding results. My companion and I have been striving to do all that we can because we know that its only by obedience and diligence that we have had the fullest capacity to teach by the Spirit and genuinely help these people to come unto Christ. We're by no means perfect, and we've certainly been shown just how weak we are; however, every time we've placed our trust and faith in the Lord, we've been made strong and have been blessed with many occasions to be instruments in His hands by which he has helped his children receive his gospel.

 Thankfully, the members of the church help us out a ton, and even come with us when we go out teaching investigators. It's actually quite normal for us to have about 5-8 lessons given in the presence of a member per week which has been super great. We have three people who help us out a lot, of whom are Soeur Bernice, Frère Toy and Frère Gabriel. On top of all that, we have members who offer to help us from our branch all the time as well.
 The great thing about this work is that though we may teach the same things in different ways according to investigators needs, the days are never ever the same and we are continuously learning, improving ourselves, receiving new and sometimes crazy experiences, progressing alongside with investigators and recent converts, and improving our testimony and knowledge of the gospel. And, quite honestly, the only things that I've been able to teach since I've arrived are the things that I've learned on the mission. It's absolutely insane how much I've been growing, especially in ways that I've never even imagined myself growing in.

 I couldn't imagine myself being in another mission. In fact, one night, my companion and I visited a member in our branch in our new secteur (area) who's from Ghana and speaks English. I tried giving a spiritual thought in English, but I didn't like it because I kept mixing French with my English and it didn't feel nearly as powerful until I started speaking in French. I know it's the same thing and
all, but I so much prefer speaking French when bearing testimony and teaching the Gospel because that's what I've been called to do and I can really feel the power and authority that the Spirit has allotted unto to me when I proclaim Gospel in this new language. I'm not sure if it's true or not, but it's pretty crazy to think that I might be the only one in all our family who's be given the opportunity to receive the gift of proclaiming the Gospel in French.
Well anyway, everything is still going really well and I absolutely love it here!
I hope that all is going well for you, that you are all as happy as you can be and that hopefully nothing serious happens to any of you health wise. If you could let Grandpa, Grammy, the Ward, and everyone else know that I love them all and that I hope everything is going great for them as well.

Je vous aime, Dieu vous benit, et je vais vous parler encore la
semaine prochaine!!!

Votre fils et frère,

Elder Gonzales

Tout ira bien: Everything will be okay!

Allo ma famille!

Ah vraiment, je suis très heureux de vous écrire!
 
 I'm actually going to be staying here in Adidogomé this upcoming transfer, which will take place either tomorrow or Wednesday.
  I'm going to be a Junior companion again.
 Oh, and guess what? Our friend Borris was baptized last Saturday and ordained a member yesterday! :D We still have a long ways to go with him, but I'm still here so I'll make sure that he is well taken care of.
  Thank you so much for all those really awesome quotes! I'm actually really glad you sent them to me because I can't begin to tell you just how difficult this work has been these past few days.
  Well, before I get into the details, my new companion came in a few days ago. His name is Elder Jeneseri and he's African-American. He was born in a country called Tanzia and moved to the U.S. when he was twelve as a refugee. I haven't quite yet heard the story due to how busy he and I have been, but he said it had to do with the church. And so before he came to the mission, he was living over in Holiday, Utah.
  So, as for the details: My companion has been working in Bénin for the past 9 months and now he has arrived into my secteur, which means that I have to show him everything and catch him up to speed. For the most part, I've showed him to all the members and most of our recent converts and the location of which they live. As for investigators, we're still working on that.
  In any case, since he doesn't know the area or the people, I've had to do all of the planning everyday thus far since his arrival. I tell you what, it's a lot harder filling up about 8-10 hours each day with things to do than I thought and it's pretty rough when plans fall through. On top of all that, my companion and I are taking on a whole new secteur that I've been to only three times to visit a family with the district for a mangez-vous (eating appointment).
  ça va aller, everything will be okay. We just need to keep ourselves cool and just do the very best that we can for now until we're able to get things figured out. This last Sunday was so great because we spoke with a lot of members who offered to show us to all the houses of the investigators and the recent converts in this new secteur. Oh, thank goodness for amazing ward members. That, and we spoke with our recent converts and set a specific day during the week when we can pass by, and we plan to do that with everyone else of whom we teach as well. Doing that would make everything so much easier to handle because I won't have to scramble to make appointments with people when the appointment is already set for us.
  I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do this week, but I'm just going to have to put a whole lot of faith and trust in the Lord that my companion and I can have success in our efforts.
  This has been going fairly hard for me this past week, but it'll get better in the weeks to come as we get everything settled down and figured out. But hey, since I've been forced to speak French more than I have ever before due to having to speak with everyone and schedule just about everything, I'm becoming more and more capable of communicating with people. That, and my testimony and my capacity to preach to these people have increased immensely these last couple weeks which is the most important thing.
  Well, I'm obviously here for a reason and the Lord has allowed me to go through this crazy situation to really help me progress and really rely on Him.
  Other than all that, I've been doing fine and everything else has been going alright. My faith at times has been really tried, but I'm still going strong and still hanging in there. But don't you worry, I still have a strong testimony and I'm still striving with all my heart, might, mind and strength to be of good cheer and to do the very best that I can.
  Well mom, thank you so much for all these really wonderful quotes. They really helped me out and reinforced my desire to keep moving forward and to keep work, work, working (which I haven't stopped doing and will never ever stop doing while I'm on this mission).
  I'm super glad that Dad's health is going strong and that everything is still going well chez-lui. I know that Dad will be okay and that he'll continue to grow stronger and healthier as time goes on. Well, I'm so happy to hear that everything and everyone are still going fine. I'm afraid I'm out of time so I'll need to be heading out of here!

I love you all so much and it was so great hearing from you all!!!!

Avec Amour,
Elder Gonzales

 P.S. -- Thus far, with Elder Dioulo, he and I have had the pleasure of taking part of 6 baptisms while we've been here. Hopefully, I'll be able to send you the pictures.