Week 31: April 18, 2016

Hey y'all, I hope this has been a very successful week for all of y'all,

         This week has gone by toooooo fast, I still can't believe that I hit 7 months out this past weekend. This week it's been a good 7 months though. This whole week I was reflecting upon my experiences with my many awesome companions and crazy area. This week though was different thought. We did service in interfaith though. Interfaith is this totally ghetto thrift store, but it is a lot of fun and the people are really kind to us.. But while we were there we had a good time moving furniture.

Elder Stanley, (my favorite elder in the world) was sooo sick Sunday. He missed Sacrament and hasn't had it for 3 weeks due to General conference and stake conference. Poor kid. so we went over to give him some medicine and he was really thankful for it. He does so much for us that I had to do something anyhow. 

Oh also this week we ran into this guy who only spoke Spanish. I. Don't. Know. Any. Spanish. So needless to say I was a little nervous but then his daughter showed up and started translating. (She deserves title of Angel for that). But anyhow. He said we can come back and to bring a translator. Psh, no need for a translator when you got SPANISH ELDERS! They were super grateful for that.

Right now we have a bunch of great people investigating the church right now, I have been blessed so much to be around them as I see them come closer to Christ.  I know that the gospel really can change lives and that through Christ we can become clean from our sins as we strive to improve and keep the commandments.

Sorry for the short email, I guess I haven't learned how to manage time on Monday, I miss y'all and hope all of y'all have a great week!!

         ~Elder Guinup~

This is the Alligator hook I sent my sister for a Birthday present.  Because what 17 year old doesn't need an alligator hook.

Week 30: April 11, 2016

Gooooood afternoon y'all,

         Ah it's been a crazy busy week, it was so intense.  We had to travel up to Gainesville 3 different times this week for meetings.  And Gainesville is an hour away, so that did take away a little bit of time to do some good ol missionary work.  But the great going is all of the meetings were really awesome and inspiring.  A lot of it was focused towards missionary work which made it even more fun to listen to.

         Well I'll come back to those meetings a little later in the email but here's a little run down for the week.  So to start off I'll just say that we do service at a farm every other week.  And there farm is big, really big.  They have over 100 acres, and this last week we drove all over the farm and dug up theses weeds that are really sharp and spread really easily.  And it was a ton of fun, one funny thing was we dug up a post for some reason and found the biggest grub ever.  The people who lived there told me to eat it.  So I ate it, and I'm proud to say that I have eaten a grub.  It is a white translucent worm looking thing.  It was about 3 inches long and was fat, I now feel like a true southern man after eating that bug.

        To add to the craziness was elder Dean goes home today.  So I've been enjoying my time here in Ocala, elder Bore is about to leave home though...brings a tear to my eye, but thus is life.  Oh but back to elder Dean he is going home 3 weeks early for school.  He starts college at byu in about a week.  It was great being his companion even though it was only about 3 weeks.  I really did learn a lot from him.  It was great to have him as a companion.

       Well to finish this email off I wanted to talk a little bit about the meeting we had.  They focused a lot on missionary work and mainly about how people are converted to the gospel.  We can't force people to convert, we are able to bring the gospel and the Holy Spirit to their heart.  It is then on Them to open their heart and let the Holy Spirit impact them.  The way we do that is by acting upon invitations given by the missionaries.  When we did what missionaries invite us to do we are showing the lord that we are willing to do anything for he lord.  I invite all of you to just talk with the missionaries 1.  Give them 5 minutes of time and I promise that your life will be changed.  I promise.

I love y'all, and home you have a great week.

           

         ~Elder Guinup~

Florida Jacksonville Mission 

Elders Dean, Guinup & Bore

 

 

We tried to make a tandem bike, it kinda worked, really hard to pedal but I thought y'all would enjoy my crazy invention masterpiece.

 

Week 29: April 4, 2016

Good afternoon y'all,

       This has been a great week, a lot of awesome and funny experiences.  So I'll start off I'll put this experience in.  We were called to help someone do an emergency move.  We went there and there was a lot of wooden furniture.  A ton, it was so heavy.  I mean it killed to move it.  Well after we helped move we found out that the guy was not a member.  He invited us out to dinner, he have had some bad experiences with the church.  But we were able to clear up some of his concerns.  Now he is taking lessons from us and it is wonderful to see his eyes being opened as we share the gospel with him.  It was a great miracle to have this week.

       The reason this letter is so short is because I procrastinated writing it, I played too much soccer, basketball, and volley ball.  I am going to work on writing longer and better letters I promise.

      So I am running out of time to write this week but I want to leave y'all with this quick thing.  This past weekend the members of the church of Jesus Christ of later day saints got to listen to general conference.  It is where all the church leaders give instruction to the whole world.  It was amazing for 2 hours at a time.  It was an amazing experience and I had so many great insights.  One of the wonderful things that was talked about was eternal families.  Through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ we can be sealed to our family for time and eternity.  It is a great comfort to me that if I keep the promises I have made with God and I do my best to follow him I will never be separated from my family.

I love and miss y'all, I'm so sorry this weeks letter is so short, have a great week.  Oh I added a picture of an awesome car that we walked by this last week.