Monday, October 10, 2016

Week 90

   Things are going really well. I got transferred to serve in La Homa. Which is in Mission, I have the same area I had a year ago, but I'm in spanish now. It's awesome. I already know where most things are and the streets are coming back to me pretty fast, we have a car now and everything is going great. My companion is elder Hallsted. He is in his 2nd transfer, so I'm his "step-dad". He is really cool, and surprisingly enough, his spanish is really good. Like really really good. It's crazy. I feel like my spanish in my second transfer was terrible, but he's doing really great. 
     Being here is really awesome, I already know a lot of the members and all the youth remember me cuz we used to woop em in basketball. Also, we play basketball everyday in the morning. It's awesome. We wake up around 5:20 and go play at 5;45 and it's super fun. there are some good players with us right now and our sisters come to so it is always interesting. We actually have a few sisters who are pretty good at ball. 
    In the mission there is a new thing happening I guess, when an elder or sister are in their last two transfers they move them down from leadership to train the younger missionaries. So I'm no longer a district leader. Which is sad because it was fun, but I really enjoy being a senior comp anyways. 
     Today was the first pday of the transfer. AAAANNNDDD we went tie digging!!! Wooohooo!!! We got about 30 ties handpicked and a 200lb bale. So it was pretty successful I guess. It was so fun to go again, brings back so many memories, and I still know where all the bodegas are so that's good. 
    Pretty exciting week, I'd write more but we are really low on time. I'll write more next time! I'll try to send pics too, Love you, have a great week!

Monday, October 3, 2016

Week 89

    Glad to hear things are good with you guys, the weather cooled down for about the last three days, it feels like a normal summer day in a different state. We walked outside and it was really nice, instead of being unbearable, that was nice. 
    This week went really well, I had an eye opening experience I guess. We met this woman and she has a little hyper four year old boy, and he just ran around all crazy the whole time we talked with her. And her fiance works in the oilfields so he is hardly ever home and was actually in Nebraska at the time! Also, she is expecting within the next few months. So we talked with her and invited her and her new family to learn more about Christ and all. And she was pretty excited and said we could come back and talk with her. She was out of town for the next few days so we went back this week and talked with her. She invited us to sit down with her and we asked her how she was and she started crying. After a few moments she told us that stuff with her fiancĂ© wasn't going to work out. Which is terrible because that leaves her alone, pregnant with a small child, no income and she'd have to move because she was living with his parents. Elder Stewart looked at each other like, "oh no! What can we possibly say to help her?" And then thinking a little more and really trying to feel for the spirit I realized, well I definitely have no idea how to talk to a crying woman. Haha it was pretty awkward for a second. But then the Spirit kind of gave us like an "oh yeah", we have the everlasting gospel. So we spoke about the Gospel and how the Lord knows our situations and gives us the strength and guides us and it was good and the spirit was strong. Since then, she has talked things out with her fiancĂ© and she said things are going to work out, and she moved to I think Louisiana or something to be with him. So it was good in the end. 
     The next day we had a scheduled meal appointment with a really great family. So we were all excited and we went to the street a little early so we could talk with some of their neighbors, and we locked our bikes up to a pole and I looked up and noticed how many birds were in this tree above us. And then we walked down the street, thinking about which door we should knock on, and then elder Stewart said, "Don't move!" and took his camera out, I thought there was some spider on me and I almost swiped at it. Then he showed me the picture and a bird pooped all over my shoulder. What a blessing rained down from the heavens huh? So we went to the members house a little early and I asked to use their bathroom so I could clean it off and they told me stories about how birds had pooped on them or their friends or whatever and I got to run around for the rest of the day with a green stain on my shoulder. Then the very next day we got a text from our zone leaders, we do like a zone chat, so if something funny happens you text the zone leaders and they send it to everyone. So we got a text that our zone leader got pooped on too, but he caught it right on his forehead. So I guess it could've been worse.
      We had apartment inspections! They come and make sure we cleaned our house well enough, that we cleaned it well enough and all. it went well and they were happy with how clean our apartment was. They said it was the cleanest they had seen it since they've been here. That was nice to hear. Only thing is that we can't ride our bikes, we don't have lights on our bikes and so we're not safe. so they told us we cant ride them till we get lights, darn haha. So even though we've had really nice weather we've been driving around everywhere. Also they were mad at us because we ripped the railing out of the wall going up the stairs. guess you can't put all of your and your companions weight on it at the same time.
      I really enjoyed conference, it really caught me off guard. I expected all these mind blowing concepts for some reason and the entire conference was very basic. Which was different than what I expected. There is a scripture in the Bible, Matthew 23:23 I think and it talks about "the weightier matters of the law". This conference reminded me of that scripture, how we went over the basics, and how we really don't need more than that. I enjoyed how some of the talks talked about the basics, sacrament, forgiveness, because I actually learned some basic things that I don't think I knew before.
        Pretty good week, and yes we have transfers tomorrow, and yes I am getting transferred. It's sad I love this area, but I'm sure my next area and district will be awesome too. Thanks for writing me! I love you, have a great week!