Hey mom!
So they changed the rules so that they won't forward mail so you need to send it directly to my address which is 417 S. Roland St., Apartment #2, Spearman,Texas. I am in Spearman, Texas right now and it is a little town of 3000 north of Amarillo. I am 20 minutes away from the Oklahoma border so it is extremely flat! I really like my Mission President and I am getting along with Elder Barona who is my companion. He is from New York City. My big suitcase didn't make it to the mission office before I left for my district so I won't get it for an entire month. What a bummer...
I ran into Elder Shaw a week ago and it was really cool, apparently he has been sharing a lot of good things about me to everyone in case I end up being their companion. It was awesome getting to talk to him after so long. He is in Odessa which is on the opposite end of the mission so he told me that he would write me a letter so just waiting on that! The families I am teaching are awesome. There is this one family named the Munaz Family, They own the butcher shop and they are really nice and receptive, the dad is awesome but is confident he can just be fine being catholic. The mom and the kids love the Book of Mormon and are reading. Elder Barona taught me how to make El Salvadorian and Ecuadorian Food like Papusas, Traditional Tacos or Burritoes, and Cow tongue. Very Interesting!
I met the Branch President and his family and they are very nice. Their oldest son is a year younger than me and loves to play Tennis. Sadly, there is this mission rule that you are not allowed to play sports with Members or Investigators. The reason this sucks is Elder Barona told me that he has never played Tennis in his life! Their next son loves hunting and talks about it a lot, then they have this daughter and two other sons. One thing I have noticed while here is that there are a ton of Catholics and Baptists. It makes me really sad that very few realize that their churches aren't true. They also, if they choose to listen, have serious commitment issues. So yes, it is a challenge.
We also taught this kid named Victor the Word of Wisdom and he accepted it, he wants to join the church but his parents refuse, so hopefully a miracle will happen! Then we talked to someone named Izekial who claimed our church wasn't true because we didn't dance during sacrament meeting or play instruments like the banjo and guitar. I was very close to strangling him because he would not stop talking. But I held my peace and let him go his way. There are a lot of people who do agree to listen, but it is the Mexican people because they in my opinion are more humble and less against learning more. We taught this lady named Manuella and her family and her husband doesn't like to talk about religion because of his family (they make fun of him attending church) So she and her daughter listened to the restoration and they shone when we said the First Vision. We also met a man who although he was of a different faith, claimed that Mormons have an interesting talent of staying together and he said that was a rare jewel in this world today. He immediately accepted a Book of Mormon when I asked if he wanted one.
I also saw our church (more like a seminary building) Only around 50 members in the entire branch, so a lot of work needs to be done. We had quite a few recent converts and less actives come and that was awesome. I was asked to bless the sacrament with the only priest in the branch, the Branch presidents oldest son. I feel like I am really converting myself right now because when I bore my testimony to people about the truth of the Book of Mormon, I almost couldn't stay still at one point. We recently taught this couple named Dalton and Jacklyn who want to join the church but have a problem with tobacco. So I shared with them my experience of addiction (replaced the source with over-eating for personal reasons) And they lightened up and I told them that I was with them every step of the way and they agreed to half it every week until the point where they do not need it anymore. Our most recent find, was the brother of the wife in the Munaz family. He offered us beer and we politely refused and started to walk away, then he begged us to stay and then ran back and grabbed water so we would talk to him. He told us that he respects us and referred to us as "God People" because of our ability to abstain from the bad things in the world and he told us that although he was drunk, he would attend the next lesson. His name is Juan.
So how is life back in Utah? Excited for school to start? Tell me everything that you can!
Some Elders from Weber I assume - I recognize Elder Montgomery |
Elder Finlinson and Elder Farley... so glad these cousins were able to be together in the CCM! |
First view of the mountains of Texas... not! |
First picture with mission President and arriving group |
Elder Shaw with Elder Farley |
Elder Farley's Companion - Elder Barong |
No comments:
Post a Comment