I Will Go and Do : Week 49: Uncle Elder Gutierrez

Definitely the most exciting thing that happened this week was when I got a text message from Estavan on Thursday saying, "Hey, Uncle Gutierrez"! My brother, Nate, and his wife, Ashley, had their first child this week! I could not be more happy and excited for them and to be an uncle of course. Welcome Bradley to the Gutierrez family. I can't wait to meet you in a year.

Other than the exciting news from home, Elder Phillipsen and I had a pretty exciting week in Rhode Island as well! We were able to pick up 4 new investigators and we had Stake Conference. Elder Zwick of the Seventy came for the Providence Rhode Island Stake Conference and I loved everything he had to say. Also for the past couple of weeks we (all the missionaries in Rhode Island) have been preparing to sing in a missionary choir for Stake Conference, which went so great!!! Funny thing is I have never enjoyed singing or have ever been good at it, until I came out on my mission. There's a lady in our ward named Elaine Vivenzio who was a professional singer in Italy and now gives voice lessons from her home. After a couple of hours working with her, she made a group of 20 terrible sounding missionaries look like a mini MoTab, just kidding, we weren't too bad though! I love singing now, A while back, I started doing this thing where my companion and I sing a hymn every morning in companionship study. It's amazing how singing a hymn can invite the spirit so strongly into a room.

Eddie is doing so great. This week we taught him about tithing and he was so excited to pay it! Usually investigators aren't too excited to start paying tithing but Eddie was excited to. Eddie lives with his girlfriend and has for the past nine years. He expressed to us this week that he will be baptized as soon as he is spiritually ready. He knows that he cannot be baptized until he is married, (which is awesome because we haven't taught the Law of Chastity yet) and he wants to make sure that he truly has repented and left all his past mistakes behind him when he is baptized. The problem is that he and his girlfriend do not have a good relationship at all and I'm guessing that they don't want to get married. Also, we think that they are financially dependent on each other, so it would be hard for them to split up. Other than that, Eddie is doing great. We hope to find a way for everything to work out so he can be baptized soon and receive all the blessings of entering into a covenant with God. Also Eddie introduced us to his friend, Jerome, on Wednesday. We taught him the Restoration and he loved it! He agreed to be baptized if he knew that our message was true.

We have super, super exciting news about Dakota. After our first lesson with her last week, she was talking to a couple of her friends about what we shared with her. She began to tell them about Joseph Smith and the First Vision. She said she wasn't doing it justice and invited them to our lesson on Thursday so we could tell them! (Already doing missionary work after the first lesson!) So on Thursday, we had a fantastic lesson on the Plan of Salvation with Dakota, 3 of her friends, 2 solid YSA members, and Lisa her mother. Her friends weren't quite sure what to expect at first, but after they met us and we talked a while they were very open. As we shared with them God's loving plan, the spirit filled the room. It was such a powerful lesson and they were all very interested. Their names are Annie, Meghan, and Ali. After we left, Lisa sent us a text saying, "All the girls were in awe with how they felt after you left, they loved the message and want to do this every week!" It was such a great lesson and all four of them should be coming to the YSA Branch next week!

It really was such a great week . . . .I got to go on an exchange with Elder Ferreira again, but this time he got to be with me in Warwick. Which was really funny to see him working in an English area compared to his experience in really ghetto Portuguese areas. Elder Phillipsen and I are really excited about all the work happening in Warwick right now and I love serving the Lord. Never have I been able to learn so much from the Spirit so often and feel so much love towards God's children. I'm SO grateful to be part of this work. I love you all and appreciate all the support I receive so much. Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Elder Gutierrez