Jimmy's Baptism!

Brother Weaver (amazing young men's leader who has been Jimmy's friend from day 1), Jimmy, Sister Faalaulau and I!

Jimmy and his family! His little sister is the cutest thing!

Hope you all have a great week!

Exchanges!

Hi all!

It's been an exciting week! We went on exchanges with another set of sisters and Jimmy got baptized!!

First off, there are always miracles on exchanges. When we're willing to improve and get our full effort, He will bless us to be where we need to be. 

Second, Jimmy got baptized! He's a 15 year old young man who met Sister Faalaulau and Sister Opificius tracting at the beginning of April. I met him when I got here at the beginning of May. They invited him to the seminary class held on Wednesday nights and he came! He's been coming ever since! To church, activities, seminary, etc.! It's amazing! He has always had such a special light about him. He has been prepared by our Heavenly Father long before we met him. He's been unsure if he's ready for baptism and wanted to make sure he's fully ready before he committed. We invited him to fast and pray and he did! He always has questions and wants to learn more! He has the biggest smile and I know others will want to know about the gospel simply by the person he is. 

Also, Yolanda is getting baptized next Saturday! Her son was baptized in February and she said she's always known she would join. Now she feels like she's ready. Being with her and watching her change has been so amazing!

God is good! He loves us! He's mindful of us! Obeying his gospel will bring us and those around us more happiness than we know now. 

I love you all! Thank you for keeping the missionaries in your prayers. 

Sister Gessel 

Pictures - Me and Sister Faalaulau - Me and Sister Briggs - Sister Briggs, Durrant, Faalaulau and I! - The amazing Florida clouds! 

Lake Wales - Week 2!

Hello again from Lake Wales!

This week has been great! It's definitely getting hotter. We will survive somehow! :) 

I don't even know where to start. We knocked on a door of a woman yesterday and we offered to pray with her. We typically ask if there's anything we can pray for and she said things were going well but that she was trying to get over an addiction. We prayed with her and started talking about ways that others have overcome similar problems. As we were talking she just started crying and she paused and said "I know the Lord sent you to me. I've never even met you! And He sent you." I know the Lord loves her and was mindful of her. I know the things we shared with her weren't from us, but they were from the spirit. I'm so grateful that God allowed us to be there at the right time and in the right place. I know that as we pray sincerely and listen to the spirit that we can be that person who is in the right place at the right time. He will help us know what to say. I am far from perfect and say things that don't make any sense or I ask confusing questions, etc. What matters is that we're trying and when it really matters for someone our Heavenly Father will help us. Don't worry that you won't say the right thing or that you'll just be in the way. God is good and He won't lead us astray. :)

I love you all! I hope you have a great week! I encourage you to pray this week to be in the right place at the right time for someone. I know that through the Lord we can all be answers to someone else's prayer.

Sister Gessel

P.S. Enos 1:1-12 - Prayer is great! Also - this quote from zone conference - "A God who makes no demands is the functional equivalent of a God who does not exist." Elder Christofferson

Pics - The sunrise and fog as we were driving to zone conference this past week!

-Me and Sister Faalaulau! She's so great!

Fwd: Last week in Tampa 4

Hey all! 

It has been a busy week! Lots of exciting changes! So, I'm in a new area as of last Thursday! Got a call the day before, packed up, drove out and here I am! I'm currently in Lake Wales with Sister Faalaulau! It's been great! It's in central Florida and it's about 1.5-2 hours away from Tampa. Very different from my previous area, but I'm excited to be here. There's a lot of great missionary work to be done. Lake Wales actually has hills, which is bizarre coming from Tampa where everything is flat. We can see the lake from our apartment and I heard a bit of country music for the first time in months the other day. I've also been told that we're right next to Florida Naturals (the orange juice company) and sometimes in the evenings you can smell the oranges and it's amazing! Our bishop loves giving us fruit and we have some of the juice oranges they use and let me tell you...it is amazing! You all know I'm a foodie, so I love being able to have fresh orange juice! It's amazing. 

We also had the opportunity to jump right in and speak at church yesterday. I love being able to share my testimony. I definitely will miss Tampa and the people and experiences there, but I'm excited to be here and to learn why the Lord needs me here right now. 

We had a cool experience last night! We were going to see an investigator who had said we could come back (she ended up not being home), but we ran into another one along the way! His name is Jaquan and they had taught him previously, but he hadn't been keeping his promises, so they hadn't seen him in a while. He ran into one of the other sisters on an exchange earlier this week and had talked about Sister Faalaulau mentioning having "new life" and how he wanted that. So we were able to sit down with him and talk about faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and how we can gain this new life through Jesus Christ and being clean from our sins. It was so cool. He wants this and he said he's willing to work for it. I could see it in his eyes that he wants to change. He committed to being baptized at the end of May! It will take a lot of trust and faith and work on both ends, but I know it can happen as he continues to learn! The Lord's timing is the best. It's amazing to see people that people really can change. It's never too late. 

Thanks for all your love and support. I'm grateful for all of you! This is one of my favorite quotes from this morning, "As we contemplate the decisions we make in our lives each day--whether to make this choice or that choice--if we choose Christ, we will have made the correct choice." - President Monson - April 2016

Amen to that! Make good choices!

Sister Gessel 

PS - Pics

It rained so hard on Sister Gafa and I last Wednesday! Gotta love ponchos and bikes - also apparently Tampa is the lightning capital of the US of something? Don't worry we were safe even though there was a crazy lightning storm that morning. 

Sister Gafa, me, Sister King and Sister Slawson outside my new apartment in Lake Wales when they came to drop me off. 

Skyping with my sisters yesterday! It was the best! Also got to see my brother in Texas for a minute! Family is the best!

Don't worry I'll get more pictures in Lake Wales and with Sister Faalaulau this week!

Matt's Baptism!

Hi all! It's been a good week! Matt got baptized yesterday! He's mostly been taught by the other sisters here in the ward, but we switched companions so I've been working with him a little more! He has an amazing story! He's a senior in high school and he's been researching the church for a year after seeing Book of Mormon The Musical. He started chatting with missionaries on Mormon.org who gave him the phone number for Sister Slawson with Sister Torres! They started teaching him a little over a month ago and yesterday he got baptized! He has no family support, but the ward has really embraced him! It was so neat to watch all that has happened! I know there are people out there who are ready to hear the gospel! The Lord is preparing people. He will prepare us to help along the way if we're willing.

I love you all and the know the gospel is true!

Sister Gessel

Pics - Zone Development Day last Monday! -  Tampa Bay (from a few weeks ago - Sister Slawson and I doing gel nails last week - Matt's Baptism!