The Lost Sheep...

I’m officially done with training!! Training is usually 12 weeks but since I came mid transfer it was 9 for me! We had TLC this week where you have to be able to teach the first 5 lessons in spanish! That kinda sucked but I did it so yeah. Transfers are next week… Im not excited for that I seriously love the missionaries I’ve been serving around. They have changed my life. Hope y’all are doing good and being safe! This week was super fun!

Our boy Dontrell. This dude is awesome he always loves talking to missionaries and taking them to dinner.  My first week in the mission I met him at General Conference! He’s hilarious.  But recently he reached out to us and asked if we wanted to get dinner and do a podcast!! It was super cool.  Basically just talked about our mission and stuff like that and I may have got a little emotional at the end but it was a super cool experience.  

We did a whole bunch of service this week! We moved a bunch of people in and out of apartments. Kinda gross how much people hoard.  But it was a lot of fun!  We gave like 4 blessings this week. Always such a spiritual experience! 

We had an awesome lesson with Maragrita this week!! We talked about prophets and some other stuff. We were reading in the Bible about prophets and she didn’t understand what a prophet was so while we were reading in the Bible she was looking up what a prophet was in the Guide to the Scriptures in the Book of Mormon!! Never seen anyone do that so that was super cool!  Then we Sent her the Message of Hope that the prophet gave on friday! Then she literally invited us over for thanksgiving!!! Of all people I was not expecting her to ask us.  She barely knows us. She is seriously awesome. Her husband told us he’s not really interested but said we make her happy so we are always welcome in their home!  He’s a work in progress!

This week I’ve been trying to see how the Bible and Book of Mormon have a relation.  Super cool scripture I was reading in the Bible in John 10:14-16 where it talks about there being another “fold of sheep”  And then while I was reading in 3 Nephi 15:19-24 its says 

“21And verily I say unto you, that ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.       

22 And they understood me not, for they supposed it had been the Gentiles; for they understood not that the Gentiles should be converted through their preaching.

    23 And they understood me not that I said they shall hear my voice; and they understood me not that the Gentiles should not at any time hear my voice—that I should not manifest myself unto them save it were by the Holy Ghost.”

Literally one of the coolest things I’ve found while studying. It was awesome to see the two connections.  Then I was like hmmm theres gotta be a talk about this. Which there wasn’t but it came up with a talk called “Shepherding Souls” by Gary E. Stevenson.  Probs one of my fav talks you guys need to go give it a read. Something that stood out to me was “Brothers and sisters, our greatest challenges and our greatest rewards may come as we minister to lost sheep”  that got me thinking about missionary work.  You know missionaries come and go but, the members are always there in that area!  Missionary work is essential BUT Member Missionary work is just as important!! Love you all and stay safe!!

Kevinnnn (the crazy old ladies son, also the dude who was roasting me about my spanish first week here hes a great guy)

Me with this THICK glasses on that make your eyes look huge

Bdubs celebrating with the bois for their last 100 days in the mission!!

A Humble and Contrite Heart...

Yo yo hope y’all are doing good this great week!

We started off the week with our ward throwing us a party for how grateful they are for us! It was so nice and the young men and young women were in charge of it. We basically had a thanksgiving feast. Stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey, you name it! The kids all got up and talked about how missionary work has affected their life and bore their testimonies. It was so sweet of them. Then they all had written us individual notes!!! Seriously I’m in the best ward ever. All the members here are so strong in the church. Best ward ever!! During this my comp had only brought an english BoM with him. One of the kids who bore his testimony was out in the hall after and we gave him it and invited him to give it to one of his friends and he immediately said “This is perfect I already have someone in mind!! I just didn’t have a copy I could give him. He wants to learn more about our church so thanks!” So that was pretty cool.

We did a whole bunch of service this week! We went with the english elders to an elderly couple’s house in their ward and basically edged their yard with some old tool. Basically edging their grass with scissors. Used a hoe to smack weeds out from the cracks in their driveway. Super random stuff but I’m very grateful for modern tools that’s for sure. We went to Louisiana!! It was so lit. Super sad tho. A lot of those houses were like destroyed or flooded from the hurricane. We were basically just cutting up fallen trees the whole time for like 6 hours but it was still so much fun. Some of the people we were working with who lived down there are hilarious. It’s like all these old hillbillys with no teeth talking about gumbo hahahah. Super funny.

Crisenso!!! This dude. He was telling us that he keeps having these super scary dreams about stuff I’m not gonna get into but the lesson went so well!! Was most definitely guided by the spirit. After the lesson we kinda explained to him what a priesthood blessing is and then asked if he would like one. Obviously he said yes. Sooo basically I gave my first priesthood blessing!! Kinda scary not gonna lie but super cool experience!

Bertha!!! She found a job!!!! For those of you who kept her in your prayers thank you so much! We are having a lesson this week with her and her kids! Hopefully that goes good

We had Zone Conference this week. Holy crap it was amazing!! The sistrict and the english elders had to sing during it! We had an area 70 come speak to us and honestly it was the best talk I have ever heard in person! He talks just like Elder Holland. He completely changed his talk because of the song we sung. His name is Elder Rascon he’s the area 70 over the Houston and Mcallen area. One of the things he said was that there is 60-70,000 missionaries around the world. If you think about that it isn’t that much. But with that small army the Lord will change the world! “ If the Lord said it, it will happen” He then proceeded to say “If you’re having struggles, good I’m glad. Does a sailor become a great sailor by sailing in a calm sea?” NO. I know God gives us these trials to make us stronger and I’m grateful for that. He also told us that “we need to step it up, we have to do better, stop complaining, move forward, and be happy.” He was super interactive with us. He asked if anyone was a convert and there was one kid who raised his hand. He kinda just asked him some questions, found out his dad had recently died from covid. Elder Rascon asked “that’s tragic, why are you still here” and the Elder responded with “because its true”. Idek how to explain the talk but it was seriously one of the best talks I’ve ever heard. Such a cool experience. Made me really do some self evaluation. Much needed tho.

The little old lady is back at it again for another email hahahah. At church she came up to me and said something about making a handshake so we proceeded to high five then we hit elbows and then she slapped her hip and made me booty bump her hahaha it was hilarious. We sung in church as well. It went super well. Some of the hermanas in the ward were crying and stuff it was super sweet. So I guess we picked a good song to sing!

Something I learned this week, don’t take anything for granted! Be grateful for what you have. Something our bishop said is there’s always gonna be someone doing worse than you. This week I invite you all to write down everything you’re grateful for!!

Shoot me an email I’d love to hear from you guys! Be safe talk to y’all next week!Also tried goat for the first time it was pretty good but probs wont ever eat it unless I have to haha

Don’t feed the rats
Me and Elder Blodgett (russian elder)

THEE SQUAD

This is My Work and Glory...

This week was one of those weeks. It was super weird. It felt like forever but also felt super fast! Kinda weird how the mission time works out here. Hope y’all are staying safe and having fun!

We passed a football stadium this week and I asked what college it was… it was a highschool. It was literally a stadium. Also all the churches here are massive!! They don’t lie when they say everything is bigger in texas! I’ve been unimpressed with the food here. Idk if its cuz I’m in a spanish area and only get mexican food or what but the fast food here isn’t as good as people say. Like Jack in the box, whattaburger, and the waffle house. I hate to say it but I was expecting it to be a lot better than it actually was. Don’t get me wrong Canes is amazing butttt Texas better step up their game.

Margarita!!! This lady is awesome!! Shes the one whose father past away from covid. We have been teaching her over the phone and she invited us over to eat some tamales!! They were amazing. She had pork, bean, and chicken tamales. They were super good but eating when you aren’t hungry sucks hahahah we had eaten right before we went to her house. I had like 6 tamales and almost threw up. Super awkward story for you guys. Basically we aren’t invited back over to their house anymore… I said the closing prayer and basically said thanks for the Martinez fam and the food they prepared for us. Soooo basically after the prayer she said sooo I loved your prayer butttt we aren’t the Martinez fam hahahah. Super awkward and I felt awful but she was just joking about not letting us come back. I just got them mixed up with another fam we are teaching. But she’s super awesome so we will see what happens! My spanish is still awful but the people are always so nice about it which is a blessing for sure.

I talked to some people in the ward and one of them lived in my OG mission! He says aguascalientes is a pretty nice area but everywhere else like zacatecas and san luis petosi is super poor. They said the food is amazing so that’s good!! He talked about how people get robbed there all the time which is kinda sketch. He said that basically if they want your shoes you give them your shoes hahaha. The little old lady this week at church called me muy guapo (very handsome) and told me I need to call myself muy guapo. She just loves me. She has a son in the bishopric named kevin and he is hilarious. Everytime he sees me he asks me If I have a joke for him and sunday I asked what is brown and sticky but it doesn’t really translate to spanish correctly so he didn’t laugh just made fun of me like the usual hahahah. I absolutley love the members here. I’ve had some crazy food this week. One of the english elders, Elder Wells invited a bunch of us over to have some Thai curry and some chinese cabbage it was bomb it was the first time I’ve had it.

Bertha is doing super awesome! We didn’t have fam home evening with her at Obispos house because her baby got sick. He had a ear infection which sucks. He’s doing a lot better this week tho! She couldn’t make it to church this week either and she was super sad about it. She is so solid and just an all around awesome person. Her kids are super awesome and nice. Like for being a single mother she is doing an awesome job. Still nothing about her finding a job which is super sad.

This week I’ve been focusing a lot on my spanish. I was studying my patriarchal blessing and I wanted to share something. I was promised that by sharing my beliefs and truths that my testimony will be strengthened and my ability to share will be increased. I have been so surprised how true that is. Before the mission I was super worried about teaching and all that stuff but I’ve noticed that the more I share the easier it is for me to teach! Both in spanish and english. Some of the things I’ve been doing I just think how I was before the mission and how much the mission has already changed me. These last 4 ish months have gone by way too fast. I already feel like I’m going to dread the day I’ll take off the tag. Being a missionary has seriously changed my life and it’s only been about 4 months! Just gotta enjoy it while it lasts cuz its going by too fast!

Went fishing today… literally tried everything and couldn't catch anything!! The zone leaders pulled up and none of us caught anything but some dude literally caught like 5 in a row.

Shoot me an email I'd love to hear from you guys!!

Pics from the monument, I went fishingggg didnt catch anyhting but oh well.

Counsel with the Lord in All Thy Doings...

This week was super fun!! A Lot of good stuff happened!!

Starting off the week we had our ward halloween party! We invited bertha and her family and they came!!! It was kinda awkward at first cuz my comp left me to go across the gym and I was just stuck with them and had no idea what to say to her so kinda just sitting there awkwardly hahaha. Some of the members went up to her and introduced themselves so thats good!! They kinda saved us ngl. Bertha is the single mother who we’ve been teaching. She has progressed so much! We invited her to church this sunday and she came!! We heard from one of the members when we were eating dinner at their house and they said Bertha told them one of her friends invited her to another church and she said no I want to go our church and her friend was like no don’t go but basically she told her friend that she loves our church. We are hoping to put her on date for baptism this week! Keep her in your prayers please! Shes struggling super bad rn trying to find a job. Idek how shes still getting by at this point. We promised that if she read the BoM for 7 consecutive days she will see a miracle with trying to find a job. So please pray for her! Back to the party… You may remember the crazy little old lady. Well she back for another email! She is hilarious. She just makes fun of me all the time for my awful spanish. The sistrict was in charge of coloring peoples hair and she came up and wanted her hair colored so we did hahaha super funny. After she made me get my hair done and I asked if she liked my hair and she just starts laughing so basically instead of me asking if she liked my hair I asked if she liked my horse hahahha. But fr she is awesome. She gave all of us candy that may have been from last easter but I ate it all anyways. She also gave us these chili powder suckers. Suprisingly it was pretty good! Then at the end I gave her a baseball and she literally had me sign it for her soooo basically I’m just her fav. All the hermanas are super scared of her but she is hilarious. Love that little old lady so much.

Crisenzo is a straight baller! He’s a kid my age. He’s so dope. We’ve had a couple lessons with him that were straight fire and he knows The Book of Mormon is true. He says whenever he meets with us he always feels so calm and peaceful which is lit!! Hopefully he will keep progressing like how he is!! Oziel… Man idek what we are gonna do with this dude. He literally loves us so much and calls me his little brother but he won’t even try to read the BoM! Idk we will see what happens!

This week we rode some bikes to walmart which was not fun. Biking sucks lol. My comp on the way back from walmart hit a little speed bump thing trying to get some air and totally ate crap and tore up his pants and ruined his shoes. Not gonna lie it was so funny. Don’t worry I made sure he was okay before laughing at him.

Had a devotional with Elder Gong, his sense of humor is kinda weird but super funny. One of the things I loved from that was he said “Rotten wood can not be carved” what I got from that is that we need to be the change the world needs during these times. We need to be the strong “wood” of the world we need God to be able to work through us. He will “carve” us to be what he needs us to be. I was reading in The epistle of James, and I read one of the verses Joseph Smith had read when he was wondering which church was true, which reads “ If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,” Just that one verse kinda made me think and honestly I have been caught up in my prayers asking for blessings but instead like this verse said “If any of you lack wisdom,” I lack wisdom. I should be asking for knowledge and understanding for what I can to do to solve my problems or to know what I can do to overcome them.

Hope you guys are all staying safe love you all! Shoot me an email I’d love to hear from you guys!