1st Update 2016

Great week!!!!!!! It was a wonderful week here in Acworth. It is starting to cool off, there is frost on the car every morning when we head out.   We found a bunch of new people to teach this week, so that was cool.  New Year's was fun, we went and watched a firework show at one of the parks near by.   Transfers will be coming up In 3 weeks, I will more that likely be staying in Acworth for the last 6 weeks of my mission, and elder Zavoral will more than likely be heading to a new area :(    We went on exchanges this week like always, it was good!   The mission department is having us do exchanges differently than we have ever done them before.   Instead of one swapping companions and working both companionship areas we will now be working in our area with the other companionship for 24 hours. It's an interesting concept to say the least, but we will see how it all plays out.   Other than that I am doing great!!!! just trying to stay as warm as I can:)

 

Love Elder Gebauer

      

Small World

Elder Gebauer and Elder Pace in Atlanta. Their Mothers were best friends growing up in Mesa. Now separated by a few states fate still found a way for our families paths to cross once again. 

Wonderful Week

   What a wonderful week it has been in the Acworth 1 area! The week was full of finding some amazing new people who have been prepared by the hand of the lord. This week we also worked with some of the investigators that we have been teaching for a bit longer, K**** for example. K**** is a really great person, he actually found the missionary's a week before I arrived in Acworth. He is on date for baptism for the 19th of December, and get this he has read all the way to mid Alma in the BOM, in just 3 weeks!!!! K**** is truly prepared by our heavenly father and we are so excited for him!!!!

    We had a finding frenzy this week in the zone. there was a goal maid for each companionship to find 7 new investigators as well as have one person attend church. Every time a companionship found a new investigator they would text us there name and something about the person. We would then send it out to the whole zone, that way we could all rejoice together.

    I love and cherish every second of this precious time that I have to serve a mission!!!!

Elder Gebauer

Temple Visit

   

This week we had zone conference. My companion and I had to host a 1 hour training session to all the elder and sisters in the zone. It went well I guess, we passed out all the candy that I found in the apartment when I reassigned. We focused on "working with members", "teaching with the BOM", "asking good questions" and "becoming more powerful teachers".

We had the opportunity to go to the temple and that was just fantastic!!!!! 

 

My companion is struggling with a shoulder injury, may need to go home and have surgery on it soon. That bums me out because I really like my companion:(

       

This week was not the best teaching wise, but we managed. We are working with a  mother and her son who live in an apartment complex. They actually requested missionaries from Mormon.org.

 

We are getting all geared up for the holidays!!! We will be having two thanksgiving dinners this week, so I am expecting to be completely in a food coma by the end of the week:)

 

But yeah over all it was a great week!!!!

   

Transfer and Zone Leader

Well I am in Acworth Georgia, serving over the Cartersville zone of 28 missionary's.

My new companion is Elder Zavoral, he has been out for about a year and some change. He is a Spanish speaking Elder but is in the English ward as a zone leader. 

The area is a lot like Peach Tree City. Being a zone leader is interesting, it is not as stressful as I thought it was going to be. But, we haven had a zone conference yet so we will see. I'm loving the new area, as zone leaders we get a car all the time so that's great.

I love my new companion and am enjoying everything:)      

 

Read My Tag

Well this week was interesting!!! 

We started off with 3 days of biking around which wasn't too bad. Then on Thursday we had zone conference with a member of the 70. It was 4 zones all together at the JB building. It was great, I got to see lots of my old companions such as elders Levet and Hollingsworth who are now companions. It was just so great to see everyone again. The conference lasted about 8 hours!!!!!! Then we had a two hour break where all the missionaries where instructed to go out into the area and just do some finding!!!!! Just think of 150 elders and sisters all being unleashed at once in one area. It was so cool and we have so many people to teach now!!!

This story happened as Elder Lindquist and I where out finding. We where walking down the street when these people ask us from there porch if we are Jehovah's Witnesses, we reply "no we are the Mormons". This lady's face go's stone cold, she then yells out "No no no y'all don't believe in anything. Jesus saved me, y'all don't believe in Jesus" at this point im just confused..... We reply with a question to prompt her thought "do you know what the real name of the church is".? She replies with her previous statement. So this lady is not hearing anything that we are saying she is far too caught up in her Jesus saved me rage. Mind you that this whole thing is taking place with her on her porch and us on the street so she is just yelling.

Long story short she is not willing to hear anything that we are saying. I asked her to come read my tag and see if we believe in Jesus, half to prove that we do and half to get her close so that we can top yelling across the street. She just walks inside and we go on are way...... Just another day on the mission.

So I guess over all it has been a good week M***** will be baptized when he comes back from school in a week, though I probably will not be here. We picked up a few really cool investigators this week so looking forward to that.

I'm doing great and staying alive and happy!!!

Love you all soo much,

picture: dinner at the simians family:)

Soggy Days

Dang 5 months.......... This is going stupid fast!!!!!!

 

Well, as for good stories I don't have any that particularly stand out. Just normal tracking situations, such as people pretending not to see me even when they can definitely see me through a 7 feet tall glass door or people answering the door in nothing but a towel?

 

We did however find one great family though, They invited us in and we got to explained the whole first lesson. The weird part is that even the kids where interested, I’m talking like really interested!!!! We had to cut off their questions so we could get to our next appointment!!!!

 

We have been biking a lot, which is potentially problematic, seeing as it has been raining for 3 days straight!!! We got completely soaked and covered with mud the other day. How I would describe it would be, we looked like we had just finished a downhill mountain biking course then jumped in a pool then showered in dirt. Funny part is the look on Roberts face when we showed up at his front door:) lol

 

But I’m doing good!!!! Got my bike fixed up so now I’m on my way. Still staying healthy and having the time of my life :) its hard but it’s fun if you are doing it right:) 

 

Love You:)