Week 19: Mosiah 2:17

Beautiful Fall in Massachusetts

     Great week in Franklin!  "When you are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God".  Mosiah 2:17 was definitely the theme of this week.  Lots and lots of service and some great experiences.

     First, I would like to inform you all that Carline and her 2 daughters, Alexis and Benita were baptized this weekend in Worcester!  They were one of my favorite families to teach.  Carline's story and decision to follow Christ is so amazing and I am so happy to know that they made it to the waters of baptism.  She calls us the "Elder Brothers", ha ha she's the best.

     This week we helped a couple of less-active members with service.  Elder Weber and I have made a goal to try and help reactivate a couple of the less-active members in the ward here because there are so many.  We helped Brother Moles lay sod and we helped him build 2 ramps for his shed.  We helped Sister Vandersluis on her sanctuary farm.  We raked leaves for a non-member (which is a lot different than raking leaves on the west coast), and then two families moved out of the ward so we helped them move all their stuff.  Pretty exciting and tiring week of service.

     This week was also Stake Conference for the Hingham Stake.  Elder Michael Dudley was the area seventy that attended and he is a fantastic man.  He gave an amazing talk on choosing to serve the Lord and on Saturday he gave a great talk on joy.  Joshua 24:15, "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the Gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the Gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."  After hearing Elder Dudley speak I realized how very important it is to choose to serve the Lord and make that the deciding factor of our life.  If our actions are based off of this principle then we can never go astray.  At Stake Conference, we as the Hingham zone missionaries got to be in the choir.  The hymns are able to provide the spirit so strongly and it was great to provide that to the Stake Conference meeting.

     As a mission, we have set two big goals for the upcoming months.  50 baptisms in the month of November and 50 baptisms in the month of December to reach our yearly goal of 465 baptisms.  This Sunday we had a mission fast.  I have so much faith that we will be able to reach our goal and that somebody will be able to be baptized in this area.  Thank you for all your love and support from home.

Love Ya,
Elder Gutierrez

Raking Leaves on the East Coast is different than raking leaves on the West Coast!

Look what I found Kash!

Service at the Sanctuary Farm