Hello!

  Yeah I am now in Hidalgo, in Palmsview. The people here area great and I still don't have to speak Spanish. Maybe I'll just go my whole mission without having to speak Spanish haha. I know it alright like I can understand people, but I just never practice so we have about one or 2 lessons a day that I have to speak Spanish. I get so tongue tied. That's crazy that your Dad has ancestors that were members!! I never would have thought that! How exciting. I have learned to appreciate genealogy a little bit more ;). 

  I am feeling more and more like a part of the Texas, McAllen Mission. Yesterday was my first p-day in the area and we went tie digging. Down in the valley its a really big thing that they do. Everybody knows all the big and expensive tie brands and that is how they judge a good tie. So we go to places called bodega's and they have like big barrels full of ties and most of them are all old and gross and the place smells terrible but sometimes you find a nice tie. And then you buy them, for like 25 cents a tie. And then all the missionaries in the zone get together and we lay out all the ties that we found and we go in order from oldest to youngest missionary and pick them. I got a tie that apparently is worth like $200. But it's not really pretty. And I got a few other cool ones. I think I'm addicted to ties though... So that's good. 

    My new companion's name is Elder Madrigal. He is from Utah most recently but grew up near Denver. He is super old in the mission. He has this transfer and then next transfer and he's done. He's a really great missionary though and I think we'll get along great, we already do so far. We have a great ward, we have about 3 times as many people than in Alice. The members here are really great and they love to feed us. 

   Also here we play a ton of basketball, its great. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning at about 5:45 we play for about an hour and it's super fun. I can dunk with 2 hands in this chapel too, I think it's official. I just need to practice a lot more, especially with one hand. It's super hard because I cant palm it really easily so I never dunk in games. Sometimes I'll lay it right up and in the rim and the back of my hand will hit the rim. 

   At transfers I saw a few guys from my district in the MTC and we took some pictures. Also I saw Rhoades there! That was crazy!!! I go to open the doors into the chapel and they just fly open and I see him and before I knew what was going on he was hugging me. I was so confused and happy. It was super cool. That guy is super nuts, I love him. 

           I have to go, I told mom my b-day wish :P. Love you! Have a great week!

Elder Madrigal can sleep, he already knows Spanish....

Rhoades!