Week 93

    Hey Mom! This week was really good! We are having lots of success with the ward and lots of participation from the members! It's really fun. Right now we are teaching some part member families who have lots of potential. There is an older woman whose son was baptized about 2 months ago and she is working to get baptized this Saturday. It was really cool the other day, we were at her house, she lives with her son, and she has a hard time grasping things. Just cause she's an old lady you know? And we showed her the Restoration video to try to help her understand it and then her son, a recent convert who usually isnt super talkative taught her the whole restoration lesson. It was really awesome!

  Then there is another  family who are all members except the one of the brothers. So we are teaching him, he works a lot so it's kind of hard to find a time that works for him, but his brothers are really missionary minded so it shouldnt be too hard to help him find some time. Then we have a less active family we have recently been working with, and 2 people have moved here from mexico, and they're really cool and came to church this Sunday and really liked it.

    We are trying to work with a few more families, we have really nice lessons and the spirit is always really strong, we set a few return appointments and one of the families went on a trip for the weekend, thus ruining their commitment to church on Sunday :/. But I guess you can't force anyone to come to church if they dont want to right?

   Then today we are going to have a little bbq with the other zone and pres Torres might show up. We see pres Torres all the time, he's there on Sundays, Wednesday meetings and everything it's pretty cool. Not that that makes him any less impressive. He gave the third hour in church the other day because it was the 5th sunday and it was awesome. Even our investigators talked to us about people they want to bring to church. I don't know what kind of cereal he eats in the morning but I want some.

   Things are going really well, my comp and I are good, and yeah. Thanks for keeping me updated, Have a happy Halloween! I love you!

Week 92

    Hey mom! My week was pretty good, elder Hallsted and I are doing pretty well. Operation prototype is going really well, his spanish continues to impress me. We are having lots of fun with the ward, we have called 6 new ward missionaries to help us and they are all super pumped. We play basketball every morning and the ward plays on Fridays and I left my ball there and so there is some member that has it and its gonna take forever to find it. But that's okay

    We found some cool guys from Honduras this week, they are super funny. Of course, they asked us all the uncomfortable questions about the law of chastity. Which used to make me really uncomfortable, but now it's happened so many times its just kinda funny. So we had a good chat with them and then they didn't come to church. But at least now they know haha.

     We went tie digging again today, I feel like my spanish improves when we go. It's super fun, I did a cannonball into dirty clothes and it was pretty weird. The lady didnt even laugh, so it just made it a little awkward. 

     But yeah not that much happened. I have to run, sorry for such a short letter! I love you, have a great week!

Week 91

     Hi Mom! This week was pretty good, We had a seventy come visit our mission! It was really great, his name is Elder Kopischke. Yeah, he's german, his wife too. He had no accent though, I was kinda sad that he didn't, I was hoping that he would be like Uchtdorf or we'd like have to try to figure out what he was saying, but he had perfect english. His wife had a little bit of an accent, but not too. much. She is the most excited person I've ever met. She was like literally bouncing when she was talking and she'd walk like Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Carribean, with her hands all flailing around in the air, it was interesting just to watch her haha. They taught us a lot about faith and our part and God's part. It was really interesting, he is a great teacher, as he should be right? It was interesting and he didn't like teach us anything we didn't know, he just made it very clear and easy to understand, which he also talked with us about. He said that boldness isn't so much telling people they are wrong or anything, it's just being very very clear. 

     Also, there has been a change in our ward. We are now going to be 7 missionaries in our ward. Us, our zone leaders, the assistants to the President, and President Torres. I know right? Crazy! He said that we are going to change the way the missionary work is done here in Southern Texas, we are going to be the first ones to start something. We call it, "Operation Prototype" haha. It's super cool and I'm excited to be a part of it. We had a meeting with the auxilaries from the ward and Pres Torres spoke and just pumped everybody up, he's awesome. In this ward in the past there has been a little power struggle over the missionaries and the ward, but now I think everything will go pretty smoothly. Most of the leaders were very intimidated by Pres's presence. 

     We have a cool investigator, he is with a less active member. Both of them are married, to someone else, in Mexico. What a great opportunity to see miracles right? He's come to church about 5 times and his wife as well, so I guess she's technically active but.. They're really great, have lots of financial struggles but they are going to be great if they keep working. It's fun to see how many "keep it up!" lessons you can come up with. We have another investigator, the mother of a guy who just got baptized, pretty cool. She's really old, but old people need the Gospel too. 

     We get fed a lot in this area, no that doesnt mean that I'll gain weight, but I might get diabetes from all the Coke's I drink. But that's about it. Mexican people are so cool, they always ask if we've eaten yet, and if we say no, they offer to feed us, or they at least send us home with goodies. You can't underestimate the importance of goodies to a missionary, when you leave mom's house, your cupboards are no longer full of stuff you can just snack on. 

      

    Everytime I introduce myself people ask me how long I've been out and it's strange to say almost 22 months. They always say, "Oh ya se va" or like, oh you're gone already. It's sad haha. I think going home is every missionaries nightmare. So I try not to think about it. Apparently we can kind of start applying for colleges, so I'll let you know next week what we can do about that. 

      Thanks for writing me, hope you guys continue to do well and enjoy your rabbit food while I eat hearty mexican food. I love you!

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!

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 fiancé 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 fiancé 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!

Week 88

    This week was a pretty normal week. Our investigator Roy who has been progressing really well was interviewed on Wednesday. Sadly, he did not pass. We went over the interview questions the night before and I told him he did not have to answer any of the more personal questions he didn't want to, because we had a member with us. So all the other questions went well, so it was kind of surprising. But that's okay, he just has some stuff from his past that takes a little longer to repent for, so we talked with President Torres, and he said if he continues to go to church and everything he can be baptized at the end of Oct. So we are looking at Oct 30th for his baptism. Roy is okay with it, we explained the importance of repentance and everything and he's just glad that we're still coming back. 

     Other than that he's doing really well, he's an old man so he listens to the BOM on his phone, we downloaded it for him. He came to church yesterday for the fourth time. It was a really good testimony meeting. We have a few families with lots of problems going on right now. One member is pregnant and her baby is going to have severe heart problems and need surgery after it's born in October, so we fasted for the baby and the family and another family, an older couple, the wife just got diagnosed with pretty serious cancer. So it was a very emotional Sunday, some of the family went and bore their testimonies on trusting in God. It was really powerful, almost made me shed a salty. Our Gospel Principles class's teacher is a really awesome guy, who is really passionate about the Gospel. He is gone pretty often because he's a pilot in the Navy. Anyways, he consistently goes into deep doctrine in the class. Which yeah, is interesting for all the seasoned members, but when we have an investigator who is just trying to figure out if the Book of Mormon is true, it's a little frustrating. This week's topic was about the Atonement, the single most important event in the history of the universe, and we barely talked about it. So we have an appointment with the  teacher on Thursday, and we might just read the introduction of the Gospel Principles book. It says to stay on topic, and follow the lesson, no matter how exciting or interesting other doctrines may be. Hopefully that'll help a little bit. 

      After church the ward had a little workshop on family history work. Roy came to that too,  it was nice. The wifi in the church is never good, but it was okay. He's actually pretty interested in finding out about his ancestors. 

     Elder Stewart and I have been going through the ward directory and finding less actives that we don't know. We met one, named Roy, kinda weird huh? Anyways he has his own little business, like a hobby shop and we met him. We asked him about the church and he told us it was all just a bunch of brainwashing. Schools, churches, everything, is just a bunch of brainwashing. He talked to us about how the US is trying to become a communist country, it was pretty interesting haha. 

      We had zone conference too, it was awesome! After the meeting we were talking about it as a district, and Elder Watts, a greenie, was really quiet. So we asked him what he liked and he said he barely understood anything. Haha I totally forgot how hard meeting were in Spanish in the beginning. It was really sad, so we did our best to explain everything that Pres Torres talked about. He shared a cool story with us,

    There was a man and God commanded him to wake up every morning and climb up this hill, on the top of the hill was a large boulder. He was told to go and push the boulder every day. So he did, he woke up early, pushed the rock as hard as he could and then, at the end of the day, would return to his home. Day after day he pushed the rock, until one day he got discouraged. He said, "I come here every day and push this rock, but I haven't even moved it an inch! God, why have you asked me to do something I cannot do?!" God responded, "You have not understood, I never told you to move the rock, I simply told you to push it. You may not have moved it, but look at your arms, look at your legs, they are strong."  Sometimes we feel as though we are failing in our callings because we are not having the success we expect. We need to trust in the Lord that he has a purpose for everything that happens.

      I thought it was a cool lesson. That's about it though, thanks for emailing me! I love you, have a great week! 

Week 87

  Hey Mom! This week went really well. Things actually happened this week so it was fun. I went on a two day exchange in the zone leader's area and it was super fun. They have like the worst area in the mission, not being negative or anything. They are in a tiny tiny town and they have no ward, or branch. They have a group of about 7-10 members. So work there is a little slow and apparently they talk to very few people daily. Which was fun for me, because I'm not scared to yell at people or make everyone uncomfortable, to a certain point. So we walked around and scared some people just pulling up to their house and got quite a few people that said we could come back and share something with them. It was pretty fun. It makes me realize how easy missionary work really is, when you're in an area like that you have to try really hard just to talk with people. I have a pretty good town with a ward of like 130 members, so there's no reason to struggle at all. I learned a lot there and then I came back to my area on Thursday and the elders in my district assumed we had roleplays so they drove the 30miles to Kingsville and called us. Surprise! So we did roleplays, it was pretty fun, and then we went outside and Elder Stewart noticed that a squirrel ran into this tube in the sidewalk, so we trapped it inside. Then we got a box and a broomstick and put the box on one end and poked the broomstick through the tube and trapped the squirrel in the box! It was awesome haha. Elder Watts was the brave one to stick his hands inside and grab it. So we caught a squirrel and we took pictures with it. It pooped everywhere but it was exciting. Then we went to a Mexican taqueria to celebrate. 

       The work is going well, we found a few more investigators, some of which are in a town called Falfurrias which is great because its about 45 minutes away. Its a nice little town, about 5 thousand people, and we have like 25 less active members that live there. Our investigator Roy is doing really well. He came to church this week again, despite the trial that it was to get there. Apparently he had an accident that morning, so it was really nice that he came anyways and didn't use that as an excuse. That's his third time coming to church, and he'll be baptized this next Sunday. It's super cool, he's accepted everything well and quit coffee pretty easily. He found his own substitute for it and everything. He's got some good friends in the church too, so it'll be awesome.

       On Friday night we went to this LA's house to get hair cuts. She said that she was a professional and everything and that she'd cut hair for like 30 years and won awards.. yeah.. she didn't do a good job. So the next day, we decided to take matters into our own hands. We have a pair of clippers at our apartment and I cut my own hair. It was really scary at first, but it turns out its pretty easy to do. It turned out pretty well and so I'll probably cut my own hair from now on, I cut Stewart's too. I just don't really know how to blend hair haha. But that's okay.

      

       I guess it's easy to write exciting things in a few words, it was a fun week though, thanks for keeping me informed on stuff doing on. Hope you have a great week! Love you!