Week 28

Hey mom!

  

        This week has been really crazy! Remember that guy that was talking about racist stuff? Yeah well this week his son expressed that he wants to get baptized. And he has already been at church for about a month or so. And so we started teaching him and he is super smart. He's 15 and goes to a small private school and is very skeptical. So we taught him all the lessons in 2 days and he wasn't really sure about Joseph Smith being a prophet, but we told him to pray about it. Then my comp and I prayed and fasted and he was baptized yesterday. AND! His mom doesn't speak any English, but she understands it. She said she wanted to be baptized too, because she didn't want to make him do it alone. She quit drinking coffee and was interviewed, she was there for all the lessons and she was baptized yesterday as well! It was a crazy few days! And the dad has to quit smoking, but he has super great desires! Today we got a call from him and somebody sent his daughter an offensive text and he called us and asked what the church's standards were for this type of thing. I was super shocked, he has changed a ton in only like 4 days. The church is true.

     One of our sisters got hit by a car. She is totally fine, she was biking down the road and this lady was turning and didn't see her and gave her a little tap. She has like a bruise on her elbow from falling off the bike. Her front tire is a little bent and everyone in our zone was worried. We gave her a blessing and she's doing great now. 

    Having sisters in our district is super different. We give soo many blessings. Not that I'm complaining, its super cool, the flow of revelation is great. Also, there are little things we do as we hit different marks in our missions. At six months, you burn a tie, at one year, you burn a shirt, at 1 1/2, or your "sister mark" you burn pants, and then after 2 years you burn your suit. Don't worry, nobody actually burns a suit, that's crazy. But we had a few people in our apartment hit those marks so we burned things out infront of our apartments. Which normally would be weird but we're in Mexico so it's pretty normal. I burned a tie, another elder burned a shirt and another some pants. Super cool.

     Last night we went to eat at a member's house, and they live like 1 mile from the border.  And we (the missionaries) were sitting in the room with all the younger people and we hear a bunch of Spanish coming from the kitchen, and this family speaks English. So we walk out there and there's this little Mexican guy eating food and talking in Spanish. (the family had invited over another family to visit with us and they speak Spanish). And this guy was wearing all black and was covered in mud and had like brush all over him and his hair was all messed up. Superrrr funny. I almost started laughing when I saw him I was so surprised. They gave him food and let him use a phone so he could call his aunt and come pick him up. He said he took a 18 hour bus ride to get to the border and then ran across and now he is going to stay with family. 

      Really interesting week haha. Thank you so much for the books! I got them today! Love you! have a great week!

Week 27

     Hey mom and Dad! Thanks for sending out those books, I'm super excited. Wow.. who would have thought I'd ever be excited about reading? Huh... That's great that the ward is growing! Be sure to friendship the new converts, they'll fall away if they don't have friends. But people there are pretty good at friendshipping. 

 Thanks for keeping me updated! Always good to know what to pray for for you guys. I will especially pray for Grammie and Grampa, it seems like things are getting harder and harder. I will keep you in my prayers also, I know this isn't easy for you either. 

    This week started to get a little hotter, and apparently will only get worse. Yay! And yes our apartment does have A/C. Good thing I didn't actually go to Mexico, they don't have A/C usually. There are so many props to being in the U.S. I didn't even realize it before the mission. 

     What kind of crazy food diets does mom have you doing now? Now she isn't eating gluten, lactose, red meats, sugar, trans fat.. Haha just kidding I don't think its that much.. or is it? Haha, good job doing it with her. Honestly the mission teaches you so much about relationships and stuff. Being with a companion, and our mission president talks about it all the time. I always notice little things that you guys do that he talks about now. I never really realized it before, but good job :). Everybody down here has divorced parents and almost every missionary too. I never realized how blessed I am to have strong, loving parents. Thank you for being a good example for me. 

  Btw, You can just use my room as an art studio, its just wasted space if you don't do something with it for a year and a half. So weird, already been 6 months. 

    Yeah, it's super hot here, this week it's supposed to be over like 105. I'm super excited. Biking in heat is the best.. Haha the only thing that's really hard about it is that my contacts dry out really quickly but these contacts are also 3 months old so... I could probably change them. I like shaking peoples hands when they open their door and seeing how long it takes them to wipe the sweat off from their hand... That sounds super weird and gross... but might as well make a game out of it right? Jk.!

    We talked to this super interesting, very southern man the other day. He didn't let us talk very much because he had quite a bit of things to tell us. Like how we should be able to have a Confederate Flag, and how it's not fair they can't have their flag but there is a black history month. It kind of caught me off guard a little bit and then I was really mind blown when he started talking about how there is a definite difference between a black man and a "n word". He had an interesting view on the world. He believed that Christ was the Son of God because of A.D. and B.C. If Jesus wasn't the son of God than why would he be a mark in history? I haven't heard that one before.
     It's really great, I've learned a lot already and its only my first 6 months, everyone says the longer you're a missionary, the more you learn. Hopefully I learn how to make the changes I need to make. Its hard for me to do that, I can realize what I need to change, but actually changing my personality, or thought process or anything, is super hard for me.  

   It was a good week though, thanks for all the support. I love you, have a great week!

Week 26

  Hey Mom! This week was a great week, not a ton happened really, just another week in the mission. Elder Lindsay and I continue to get along really well. He's from Wyoming but he seems like he's from Utah, the words he says and stuff. All of the missionaries here say the same words like: dope, sick, tight, freak, frick, chill.. stuff like that, super white and its funny. Only thing is sometimes I catch myself saying some of them sometimes and I wanna hit myself. I haven't stooped to saying "warsh" yet though, so that's good.
  I love the mission, honestly, and no offense, but I haven't been homesick once. I love the mission, I can feel the spirit everyday and I know I'm doing what's best for my future, I get to help people get back to God and make huge changes, and pretty much I just hang out with my friends all day doing it. What more could a person want? I mean yeah it's super depressing when you have to drop an investigator or someone doesn't show up to church, but that stuff is just going to happen. That sounds super prideful and I don't mean to come off like that, but, I love the mission.
  We had interviews this week! That was exciting. We went to our church this time, we didn't have to travel. We had some trainings by our leaders and they helped us to realize the things we need to improve and/or focus on. Sis Maluenda (President's wife) checked our area books and planners to see if we have been using them well. We are good at using our Daily Planners, but we never use the area book, and Sis Maluenda is super nice, but I'm more afraid of her than her husband. So she just told us to start using it more, because hardly anyone keeps it updated. 

  There was a really cool training, it was going to be my companion, but he asked one of the sisters in our district to give one. She had worked at this place for 2 years that studied body language, and gave us a training on what it means when people look different directions when you ask a question. Super interesting. I want to take a class in body language in college for sure. But also every time I talk to her I feel like she can read my mind.

  We have found that a bunch of our younger members don't do a ton during the summer and so they will hopefully be coming out with us more. That way we wont have to bike quite as much. 

  Not too much other than that though, was a good week. Hope you get the A/C fixed and good luck with your artwork, sounds exciting!

Comps Mugging for the Camera

Elder Lindsay found a sign with his Mom's name :)

Week 25

Hey Mom!

  That looks super fun! [ Mom and Dad went to Estes Park,CO ] I wish I could go to the mountains! But I guess that's the really nice part about Texas, I don't even have to bike up hills. Which would stink because I would probably die. 

   My area is no longer one of the biggest bike areas! They split our area and brought in a pair of Sister missionaries. Have you ever seen Sisters on bikes? Me neither, but they are! Super weird, I have no idea how they do it in skirts. We lost a few awesome members, because they took that part of our area but it's nice not having to bike as far as we did. 

   Elder Madrigal did get transferred, he is now a Zone Leader in Sinton! So basically where I was at the beginning. He wasn't too excited about it but it's his last transfer before he goes home so I think he'll be fine. I just hope he doesn't stop working and just think about home and college and all that.

  My new companion is Elder Lindsay. He is super cool, I like him a ton already. We get along great and he is a really great missionary. He has about a year in the mission, better Spanish than me, of course. He has a really great vision for our district and knows how to work with the ward and everything so I'm excited. I hope we can accomplish a lot and that I can learn a lot from him.
  Yeah I really enjoy studying the scriptures, in all of our district meetings we always have a little training by our district leader and he uses some scripture story and relates it to us. One of the trainings was on sacrifice. We read Genesis 22 I think it was? When Abraham is commanded to sacrifice Isaac. It is really cool to read about his life and then how he was asked to sacrifice his only son, who he had been asking for for years and years. Makes me realize the little things I've been asked to sacrifice, like worldy things and desires for 2 years, to serve the Lord. I know that by making these little sacrifices, the Lord will give me even bigger ones in the future, but I will reap greater and greater blessings as I am faithful.
  We went to the zoo again the other day, Bro Daniel hosted a 4th of July party up at his house. We got some investigators to come, and now that they've seen that place they have to get baptized, right?

   We also have figured out that we have a lot of members that don't really do anything all day and so we are working on making a teamup schedule so we can always have a member with us and then we wont have to bike hardly at all. 

   We have interviews with the president this Friday! I'm really excited, he'll tell me all the things I suck at. Haha but seriously it's really great, I love it when people tell me what I'm doing wrong, then I can work on it. Sometimes I just don't notice stuff.

          Hope you guys can top last week! Haha I love you mom! Bye!

Week 24

  Hello!

 So transfers are tomorrow and one of the people in our apartment got called as a district leader (not me, don't be silly). So he had to go down to McAllen for meetings and Elder Canfield, his companion and I went on exchanges. So normally we would study all morning like normal but we had some lady in the ward that wanted help painting some chairs, so we biked down to her house, we got there around 9. It was about a 4 or so mile bike ride over there 1 way. And then she wasn't there for 45mins so we played bball with her little son. Then we painted for an hour and a half. Then we biked all the way back. And we arrived just to find that the other Elders locked the door. We had 2 sets of keys but Elder Madrigal lost his. So we were locked out of the apartment. And the landlord wasn't there, so we biked around for another 20mins just thinking of what to do, looking for a slushy place. Then we stopped at a gas station, bought some drinks and food and the other Elders told us they'd be about another 2 hours at least. So we biked to the church, hoping there would be some people there because when we biked by before people were playing basketball. Biked about 3 miles to the church and nobody was there, called the sisters and they drove over and unlocked the church for us. I thought we were going to die haha. I had beads of sweat dripping from my forearms. I've definitely never sweat this much in my life. We eventually got home at about 2 pm. So I probably biked about 15-20 miles that day. Fun stuff :P

       But yeah, hopefully I don't get transferred. This transfer was another really fun one. I haven't had a bad one yet. I don't know how people don't enjoy their missions, they're great! We teach people how to be happy, see and perform miracles and hang out with other missionaries. And you grow a ton, and not to mention you get pretty humbled. This transfer, we made zone shirts. They are digital camouflage and they're purple. They have Hidalgo on the front, which our leader wrote in Graffiti style, and then we have out nicknames on the back. My nickname is, "S.W.A.T."  because I swat everybody when we play basketball. Sports just get even more fun on the mission haha. We've been playing volleyball in the mornings, well on Mon, Wed, and Fri. And we have all gotten pretty good at volleyball. I'll have to send you the picture of our shirts next week.

   So it wasn't really this week, but we visited this member and everybody calls their house, "the Temple". It is this hugggee house and all of it is white. The inside is super clean and modern and they have a baby grand piano that's white. And this pool outside that is super cool looking, and then they have a river right behind their house, its so sweet. Anyway that is the front look of it, the door is huge too. 

   Tons of work getting done and having a lot of fun, thanks for all your support! Have you found those books? 

   Talk to you next week! Love you! 

Week 23

This week was pretty normal, until the weekend. Saturday I went on an exchange with the Spanish area Elder. But not the Elder that has been on his mission for a while, I went with a greenie, so neither of us know Spanish very well. It was pretty interesting and awkward but other than that it went alright, we get along really well so we had a lot of fun. 

     Sunday was a crazy day. We do all of our studies in the mornings on Sunday because church isn't until 1. So we have been trying to get this family to church for about 5 weeks now and they finally came yesterday, but it was like pulling teeth. We called and called and they told us they'd be there and then didn't show up for the first hour of church. Which the classes are backwards in this ward, its Young womens and mens and all that first and then Sunday school and then Sacrament. And so they missed the first hour and we called and they said they were waiting for their mom to get out of work but they should be there soon. So my companion and I decided to take charge and we got a member, actually our stake president to drive us to their house. They were all still in their PJ's. Only ones that were ready were little children. Ages 8, 6 and 4. So, we took the kids to church and the older ones said they'd catch up. It took them the entire next hour to get to church, they got there right before the passing of the Sacrament. It was really strange that they didn't hurry up more than that. Also I had to sit with 3 very restless children for 15mins in Sacrament and I had no idea what to do, laugh if you want. :P

    Then after Sunday we went to go talk to a potential investigator. We biked up to their apartment building, and you have to go into the middle of the structure because all the doors and stuff are in the middle so you cant see it from just driving by. And we heard this super loud heavy metal music. And so we walked up there and the guy was there with his little kids just sitting outside and their neighbor was pretty heavily inebriated and head banging and playing the air drums and the air guitar. And we talked to him for a little while, and the whole time the drunk guy was looking at us and throwing up the rock sign and playing his little air drums or twirling his hair or something. It was really just funny. Then we went across the hallway thingy to a non progressing investigator, and the drunk guy started yelling. And I don't really remember what he said but he said like, " Something will always prevail!" and it was really funny. Then we left, I waved bye to him and we went to go unlock our bikes from outside. When we were unlocking he poked his head out around the edge of the balcony and started roaring with the music and pointing at us and throwing up the rock sign again. And then he took out a knife and pretended to slit his throat and then pointed at us. Which was a little unsettling. We had a good laugh and then biked off to our next appointment.

    Bit of a weird day, and then we visited this guy that lives with his son and lost his wife some odd years ago. The house is decorated the same, but is covered in dust, poorly lit and has trash everywhere and the guy looked like a mess, he picked up drinking and smoking too. He is a less active, his wife and he are married and sealed in the temple! And so we had a little discussion about eternal marriage and about how it is a privilege, not a guarantee. It was really hard for us not to "jack" him. We say that here and it means pretty much tear them apart with doctrine. And I need to improve in that. So I'm trying to focus on the love I have for people and practice more patience.

    Pretty cool huh? :) I hope you have a great week and stay busy and happy. Love you!

Week 22

 Hey! Congratz on your artwork! That's funny, in my nightly prayers I always include you and your artwork, you're welcome. HAHA just kidding! That's super exciting though! Elliot is still a little diva, that's good to hear.

     Ok so this week was actually exciting. So we had a cool P-day and played dodgeball and then we went a picked up our mini missionaries! Mini missionaries are kids who are in highschool and preparing to serve their own missions, and they kindof like shadow a missionary for a week. So we had mini missionaries, mine's name was Nicholas. Nicholas was about 5' 5'' and maybe 90lbs. It was pretty late already in the day and so we only had one appointment with the other missionaries, all the way across our area, like a 5 mile bike ride. That's when about 1/4 mile down the road, which literally on a bike feels like nothing, he was going about 4mph. Which I then discovered that he has a lung problem! Whoa! So he told me about how he popped a hole in his lungs a while ago playing an instrument... wow.. so we took a break and he layed out on the ground for a few minutes on the side of the road. Then we walked across the street and asked a stranger for a ride to our appt. and threw our bikes in his truck. And then I didn't know the address and we got lost, but we found it eventually... Fun stuff huh!?

   Then second day, Nicholas was busy with some college classes so I went on a trio with Elder Madrigal and his mini. Then the third day I got a new mini named Ethan! Ethan was awesome! We set 2 baptismal days with people in one day and it was super fun and he has a ton of fire! We got along really well and he has a great attitude and testimony. 

   Yesterday! Yesterday after church we went to a member's house. This guy's house is the place they filmed Jurassic Park! Not really but it looks just like it. We go into this place and he has a huge pool with a water slide! Then we walk outside and go and visit his 3 CAMELS! Then we went and saw his 4 ZEBRA and then his 2 swans, I caught some fish in a net and then we got surrounded by his like 6 horses. It was the best day ever haha.

  Super great week. Btw the Mp3 player came with headphones... awkward.. but thank you anyways!

 LOVE YOU!