2/17/20

Hey Family and Friends, 

This week was great. We had a really good week of finding people. We found 10 new people to teach and our district total had 24 new people. It's been really awesome and we have been really blessed. The weather here has been a little more coldish this week but mixed with humidity it's not that bad. I really just use a light jacket. We had our transfer letters this week to let us all know who is staying in the area and who is leaving next Thursday. Elder Waite my companion is going to be transferred north and I will be with my new companion Elder Correy. It's super exciting and we have to do some of the packing and cleaning today for Elder Waite. My Spanish is getting a little better, I try to learn at least 10 or more words a day. Some days are a little harder than others but it’s all okay. 

Me and my companion have been trying to do a 1,000 abs workout this week. It's been really fun but after we get super sore. We were talking to this person who works in our apartment offices and he gave us this workout plan with 10 different ab workouts of 100 each. He says he goes to the gym everyday and does that also. We have also been eating a lot of protein and healthy things also. 

On Sunday we had a really cool experience. We were able to get a less active member to come to church with her granddaughter who isn't a member and we had her pick up a nonmember person we are teaching. We weren't sure how it was going to work but when we saw them walk into church it was really awesome. The non member and the less active person ended up being perfect for each other and hopefully the member can be active again through this. Another really cool thing we did this week was prayer rocks. We found some rocks outside our apartment and painted them different colors with designs and stuff. We took them to one of our lessons that we were teaching of the importance of prayer. We had them finish the rocks by writing the word prayer and a scripture about prayer in Alma 37:37. It was really fun and it kept everyone focused during our lesson.

I'm so grateful to be able to have the opportunity to serve others and help others come closer to our Heavenly Father. I know that He loves each of us.

I hope you are all having a great week and Happy Presidents Day this week as well.

This week’s pictures:

1: The 1,000 ab workout plan.

2: Me and my companion with our prayer Rocks.

3 A really cool picture of the River walk when we were there.

4: Our prayer rocks finished.

Monday, Feb. 10, 2020

Howdy y'all! Another week flew by so fast. This week was super busy and lots of fun.

I wanted to start out with a funny story. Just yesterday me and my companion Elder Waite were sitting on this persons porch talking about the Book of Mormon. It was getting a little darker but she had her porch light on. While we were reading in the book I noticed something on the ground next to my foot. It was a giant cockroach! It was picking up a potato chip that was on the ground and I started panicking in my head. This thing was huge like about 2 1/2 inches at least. I couldn't focus on the rest of the time. It's just crazy how big cockroaches can get haha. The rest of the night me and my companion felt like something was crawling around us haha.

This week we got to help out with a food bank distribution event at an apartment complex. Our district of about 6 missionaries were the only volunteers but it was super fun still. We got to meet so many new people and we ended up getting a less active member to want to come back to church. At the end of the food event we got to take some extra bacon home. On Thursday we were invited to Zone Leader Conference and so Elder Waite who is the district leader got to go to the meeting and I was able to go on exchanges with the Moving Elders. The Moving Elders get to drive all over the place in the mission and help move other missionaries into apartments and do anything that the mission office needs. It was super fun because I got to see a little more of the mission and got to meet some other missionaries. I helped move 2 different apartments which was a big job and after that we went to Raising Canes. Raising Canes is like the best chicken fast food ever. If you are ever in Texas you have to go to Canes. The rest of the day was really good. After we switched back to our companions we had tacos at a member’s house. 

On Friday we had dinner at another members house. They called it "Wangs n Thangs". They basically only do it 2 times a year or on special occasions so we were super lucky to have it. They basically buy a Ton of chicken wings and fry them up and make a lot of different flavors like BBQ, HOT SAUCE, BUFFALO, and others. It was super good and we all had a competition to see who could eat the most wings. The member ended up beating all 4 of us Elders by a long shot haha. They were super good. I’m super happy to serve others and bring them closer to Jesus Christ. My testimony is always growing as I help others.

I hope everyone is having a great week and I'll talk to y’all again next week. 

These are some pictures of us walking around outside, The 4 of us Elders at Wangs and Thangs, Me on my bike, and a picture of downtown San Antonio.

Monday Feb. 3, 2020

Hey everyone, I hope you’re having a great week. For me this week went super fast. We had our Zone conference this week so we were able to meet with a bunch of missionaries from our area and that was really cool. We had trainings on how we can better invite and get our people we are teaching to come to church. President Tveten was showing us how to better study the scriptures and gave us lots of good ideas to study and take notes digitally and everything.

We got a new scripture to memorize in Alma 31:5 

5 And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.

On Tuesday some members took us out to dinner at this BBQ restaurant called Smoke Shack. They had the best BBQ I ever had. I got a picture of the menu and what I got. 

This week we also had a small English class at the church. We had 4 people show up and it was really fun to help them understand some basic English from Spanish. It actually helped me a little bit with my Spanish also haha. We had a chapel tour with someone we found on Facebook. He didn't seem to be interested but it was cool because we gave him a Bible and Book of Mormon. 

On Sunday we had dinner at a nonmember’s house and they were also having a super bowl party at the same time. So we ended up facing away from the TV at the table and everyone was going crazy during the game. It was super funny and stuff but they had some really good BBQ. 

We gave two blessings in Spanish this week as well and that was really cool because I got to practice a little more. One of the people we gave a blessing to was a nonmember and was super old. She was super grateful for us to give her a blessing. She tried to pay us $20 each and it was super funny but we told her we wouldn't take it and that it would be wrong to. We told her what our purpose was and that we were here to serve and she was even more happy. 

This week I have felt very blessed and I’m very grateful to be here helping and serving others. I hope you are all having a great week and can't wait to talk to y’all later.