Elder Gavin Batman

Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QuW5JQQJL6emqhb68 I went on an exchange with Elder Eldredge in Johnstown so I got to lead out the area. It was an odd day, but I learned a lot from Elder Eldredge. We did some Scripture Mastery in the morning and I got to use some of the scriptures we discussed in some of the chats we had with people we stopped by. We got to stop by our recents converts Dereck and Grayson. We were originally going to talk about the gospel with them, but we ended up talking about the word of wisdom. We also chastised them on social media and specifically TikTok. Tami had been struggling with a coffee addiction and so it was hard for her. We had a suprise member meal with the altoona sisters with a member who goes to the Altoona Chapel, but lives in the Johnstown area so we got to go to that. They had to go home so they couldn't stay overnight. When we went to the Sheetz to re-exchange, Elder Eldredge stopped this couple and invited them to church. The lady w...

Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QuW5JQQJL6emqhb68 This week we have been focusing on team ups since it has been a slow week, not much success. We usually have around 3 per week, but this week we had 7 members participating, and they were all different members. We tried so hard this week to find new people but we faced so much opposition and rejection this week it's actually crazy. So since we didn't have success in finding new people, we focused on our other key indicators (church attendance and team ups). On friday and satuday we must of texted at least 100 people in total. I cleared out the whole 1+ church attendance filter and out of it we got 1 person to show up (we had 3 church attendances but just the 1 from texting). This week was really draining but that's the way of the road sometimes. One of our progressing friends that we started teaching this week is Dylan. It was so funny seeing him in person for the first lesson with him because I vividly remembered...

Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QuW5JQQJL6emqhb68 We Had zone conference, it was an amazing experience. It talked a lot about the restoration and the first vision in depth. One thing that kind of stood out to me was how everything has an opposition and how if there is bad spirits on the earth and satan is around us, then there has to be good spirits and angels to help us out in our times of need. Another thing that stood out to me was how the first vision accounts are all different and how a lot of people bash on it. One thing that President was talking about was how in the 4 Gospels in the Bible, All the resurrection accounts are completely different and some things are added, some things are left out in the sequence of things. The main message gets across, but every time you tell a story, it's going to be different. The important thing is that the message always stays the same. Joseph Smith wrote these accounts over the span many years. Of course, it's not going to ...

Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QuW5JQQJL6emqhb68 We stopped by one of our progressing friends named cary. He is so cool and we've had a few lessons, and he's come to church twice, but he is also catholic, and hopefully he can see the truthfulness of this church as he continues to read the book of mormon and continues to come to church. We had a lesson with him and one of our members and it was great. We talked about the plan of salvation with him and it was such a spirit-filled lesson. I love when you get to teach someone who is very smart and knowledgeable about the bible and religion because in every single lesson you get to go into the details of it and you really just don't have to teach as simply as you would with someone who wasn't as smart. We then went to his garage where he showed us his gt0 and how he used to do drag racing and martial arts training and painting. He pulled out these guns that he purchased and that he's been collecting, and they a...

Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QuW5JQQJL6emqhb68 Happy Halloween 🎃👻!! This week was a weird one. Wednesday was Halloween in Altoona (I was on an exchange) and Thursday was Halloween for everyone else. For us we had to all be inside our apartments by 6pm. They made us do a "Halloclean" and clean our apartments for all that time we had for the rest of the day. We did make it spotless so I was proud of us. This week has been great and full of success. We had a friend named Cary and he is awesome. He sent in a referral from the top of our area (45 minutes away) and we stopped by the next day after unsuccessful contacts. We met with him and he's a minister for his catholic church, hes pretty involved in his church but has some disagreements with how they don't give communion to non Catholics. We explained how our church gives the sacrament to everyone. We had 2 lessons with him this week and they were very spirit filled and he commented on how impressed he w...

I had a bit of an accident while playing games with the district. I jumped a little too hard and landed awkwardly on someone's foot, spraining my ankle pretty badly. It was swollen and bruised pretty good, but I tried to push through and work as normal for a couple of days. Big mistake! The district finally forced me to call the mission nurse, and let's just say he wasn't pleased with me. He reminded me that I'm not invincible and that I need to take care of this body I'm in. I ended up taking it easy Monday night and Thursday, but it's actually made me more determined to get back out there and do the work. It's a reminder that we're not just working for the Lord, but we're also His servants, and we need to take care of ourselves to serve Him best. I've been incredibly blessed to be on this mission right before an apostolic visit! We had a Mission Wide Conference this past Saturday, and it was amazing to see the whole mission come together in ...