New Pics

We just got a flash drive in the mail with lots of pics. Here are a few. The ties with the names on them are used as they pass it down from trainer to trainer. They write their names on the back of the tie!!!

End of Third Transfer and I'm staying Here

Colton has been in the Doral for 6 weeks, and feels very blessed to stay for at least another 6. He and Elder Maddox are just starting to get into their grove.

This week we had 5 Gators in church!!!!!! awe man i was so excited, We had Moises who we had to line up a ride with our recent converts Familia Rayo. Then we had Waldo and Lesethe and their 8 year old daughter Giselle who are progressing very well, they still have a lot of doubts but they aren't lettting them get in the way of feeling the spirit and learning more. I really have high hopes for them they have a really strong desire to know the truth and I know with in time they will feel it and act on it. Then we had Kenia whose our 16 Inv. who comes with a member family that is from argentina and have like a billion kids. well there oldest kid Jaun is dating Kenia he's 18 and she's 16 and they live at her house, but after the law of chastity lesson they are going to talk with each other and figure it out, we related it a lot to families and how this really helps to feel happy and maintain strong families. They are also wanting to get married like next month but juan needs his birth cert. from, argentina. but she's only 16 a sophmore in high school, im not even sure if thats legal haha. all our baptismal dates came to church so our hard work is paying off and we are seeing miracles through exact obedience and an increase of faith.

Sure love you all!!!!
Con Amor Elder Gust
Stay tuned for some more hialeah cuban action!!!

Out 6 months!! Christmas Phone Call

It was so great to hear Colton's voice on Christmas Day!! He sounded so good, and finally we got to ask some questions and get some answers. Colton has been writing such great letters and with so much detail, but he didn't answer any of our stupid questions. hahaha...

He explained how his P-day worked. They got up early and went straight to Walmart before the rush. He said that the signs and tags were in Spanish, and it was a really great way for them to learn the language fast. After the mad dash to walmart to beat the rush, they would return to their apartments and have study time individually. Then they would study with their companions. His companion is Elder Maddox from California. Then they would get their laundry done and head over to the gym in the church and play a game called "Smash Face". It is played sort of like dodge ball, but with a softball size ball. It sounds like a ton of fun, especially since they have 2 other sets of companions to play it with. Also sounds dangerously exciting.

We sent Colton and his companion the 12 days of Christmas. Each day they would read a scripture and then try to figure out what the gift was. The gifts were things like candy canes, tooth paste, beef jerkey, etc. He said that he really enjoyed doing it. We enjoyed putting it together during Family Home Evening.

We taked for about 40 minutes, and he ended by sharing his testimony in spanish. Wow!!! He's really fluent. I was surprised, and the spirit was so strong. We love you Colton and are grateful for your service and obedience. Keep it up Champ!!!

Nov. 7, 2011 letter segment and pics

Hola Familia!!!

Thank you for updating me on all the happenings there. I have been going through withdrawls from the animals, mountains and anything other than the city and people. hahaha The other day it was raining and a thought came to my head that I had to feed the cows and horses in the rain and it was gonna be cold, but I miss it.

We had aparment inspections this week, and the senior missionaries brought and delivered us the ENSIGN. It was the Conference Issue. I've never been so excited for the Ensign before!!! We are still getting adjusted in our new apartment. We have to walk down to a little on site laundry room. We are excited to be having Zone Conference on the 15th, and they will be giving Flu shots. I don't know if I will be getting one or not.

Yesterday we took out our Recent COnvert Biking with us, Rodrigo Marrero, De Venezuala papa!!! haha he is such a stud he borrowed one of the other elders bikes and rode around with us!!. he's really doing well in the church they've been talking about ordaining him to the office of an elder already, the guy doesnt even have the aaronic priesthood yet but he's awesome. we were talking about it and he was like man i see a lot of guys that are in the ward that just dont do much, He's like man if i Had the Priesthood i would Be a leader or something, It would Be so awesome!!!!! its crazy how pumped this guy is!!!! its awesome he just eats everything up and loves to learn he was asking me about D&C 76 yesterday i was like wow i didn't even ask quesdtions and neglected to learn. Its cool though we've really been talking about the priesthood lately and how its powers are unseperatley connected with heaven. I just know how important it is to live up to the calling.

Love you guys, miss ya tons,

Elder Gust

Some New Pics- :) First Apartment

This is Colton's first Apartment. His companion is Elder Lamb, and they share with another set of missionaries. It doesn't look too bad, I just hope that when the mission president comes that it passes the cleaning inspection. hahaha

First Tranfer- Still in West Palm Beach

this week has been filled with blessings and testimony building events. we have been striving to contribute to our mssion goal by doing our part we have a couple baptismal dates planned for the end of this month, I am so excited for them and their progression. we had two really cool experiences this week actually countless but the first one we got this member refferal and so the very next night we went and blessed their home, I could feel the spirit so strong we left them after making a return appt. and they were so excited to have us back we taught them the restoration on our next visit and they ate it up as if they were starving for the truth the husband alex was asking us during the lesson the same question that joseph smith as well as many have had, we excitedley taught them and introduced the book of mormon to them. the wife who had been pretty quite yet receptive opened up to us and told us about a dream she had a few nights ago. it was about her neighbor the one who reffered the family and she had offered her a bible but this one was different, she said she didn't recognize the book til we pulled it out and gave it to her, she quickly said thats the book!! another family we found while harvesting the same street was excited as we blessed their home, in our first lesson the wife told us the day we knocked on her door she had been praying to find a church and not just any church but the true church. I was so excited as we asked both of these families to be baptized and they readily accepted. Another cool event happened as well we were teaching the 17 year old son of our recent converts we watched the testaments to help them understand a little more about christ coming to the americas. Maria told us for the last 3 nights as she has knelt in prayer she saw the very same image as the one on the movie of christ coming down in a pillar of light. I just know that was a strong testimony and it was awesome for her son to hear her testimony. I know that through obedience we have found these wonderful families and i feel so blessed to be an intrument in helping them come unto christ and finding the truth!!

Transfers are tomorrow and the two elders we live with are being transferred and their are white washed they were execting maybe one of them to leave but not both!!!! me and elder lamb are both staying in our are which i was excited about as well expected to happen. we have some awesome families coming up and im just getting used to this awesome are and wonderful ward!!! our recent converts are doing great they come and are still active!! the couple we baptized we still visit several times a week teaching their 17 year old son ramon has only been in the states a couple months speaks no english works fulll time to help support the family and has zero education but is just a solid kid he reminds a lot of Bailey in some ways just a big kid with a kind heart, everytime we teach him we have to go wake him up haha!! Rodrigo the Venezuelan we baptized might cut our hair today and we see him every week at church, he even gave the prayer in priesthood!! so awesome!!!

First Baptism

The Baptism yesterday was awesome!!! but you know with me invloved it would have to get a little western!!! All week we werent' sure if maria would get baptized she was sick or her head hurt of she thought the baptism was at the beach and didnt want there to be a bunch of people or the ongoing fact that she was having issues with coffe, so we prayed at every opportunity for them and pulled out the big guns and brought bishop Montero with us to our lesson on like Wed and he did work he ended up dumping there coffe in the trash, he later was like i hope they dont scoop it out of the trash!!! it was pretty eventful and thats probably why maria's head kept hurting, Sunday they came to sacrament along with our golden inv Rodrigo i'll talk about him later, but maria was sicker than a dog and i had my doubts that she would be baptized. we gave her a blessing and sent her home to rest. later after church we called and they were still planning on getting baptized!! i was so happy!!!!! i was kinda nervous because i was memorizing the baptismal prayer in spanish! so we get to the church and they are a little late not bad we got Nicolas dressed and then maria comes out in her regular clothes and doesn't want anyone to see her in the jumpsuit haha so we just go with it and have her change right before hand. so Elder lamb says ok you can baptize nicolas and i'll baptize maria and i was like sweet becuase i didnt' want to be the one to screw up and make a bad experience for her. so im going into the font and nicolas comes in behind me and he's like is hot, its hot and i thought it was kinda cold so i dont know what his deal was. he gets in and i cant hardly talk to him so im just showing him where to hold and i cant understand him because he said his jaw was broke as a kid. so i raise my arm say the prayer and try to baptize him and i just can't get him to be flexible at all and we dont even get close, so i try to have him bend his knees and we try again same thing, he starts giggling so i turn all red and before long im giggling and trying to keep the spirit and we try again same thing i just can't dunk this guy the witness all have huge grins along with the sister missionaries in the front row. im just dying the bishop comes over and leans over the glass tells him what to do cuz i cant and then we try again and still nothing we start on one side of the font and end up over on the other. so elder lamb comes in and gives a couple wacks at it nicolas is still giggling every once and again. after like the third time i come up and help him and we almost tackle the poor man but we finally got the job done. he said afterwards he felt good i hope so we kept telling him he was too strong and needed to be baptized so many times, Luckily afterwards marias went smoothly. man they are a great family. its just cool how he was such a good sport about it and he knew he wanted it he just couldnt move that way!!