Trial missionary companion

This last week has been a little crazy! Tuesday we go a call from the assistants saying that we are getting an emergency exchange and Elder Edlund ended up getting transferred to Mckinney and my new companion is from Allen, TX about an hour away! He is a "trial missionary" he has diabetes and he is just serving with me for 2 weeks.. They do trial missions so the missionary can try out the mission and see if they can handle the mission life and learn to be on their own with their medical or physical disabilities.

So my new companion is Elder Hamblin and he is a good kid but he is very very quiet!! So we shall see how this little time with him goes.. it may be a very very silent companionship. We did quite a bit of teaching this week and we actually started teaching a part member family in the ward. The lady is the member and they just got married and she told her husband if they were going to get married than he would be joining her church! so he has been the last 5 weeks in a row! We taught him the Restoration and he took it pretty well. he said if he had a witness if this was true than he would be baptized! yay!!

Mission Olympics and Kevin Harris's baptism.

This week was super slow.. a lot slower than other weeks since i have been in this area.. we have just had a ton of people cancelling appointments and not being home and that has been super annoying.. Our mission president says he doesn't care about numbers and that he just likes to see baptisms and that's totally true but i don't like seeing my numbers when they are low.. it makes me feel like i didn't put in the effort for that week.. oh well. Everyone on a mission has weeks like those. All of Tuesday we were in Carrolton Texas at a Zone Conference and it was called the "Texas Dallas Mission Olympics 2012" it was super fun.. we had to do all sorts of different events.. each event was 6 minutes longs and we had.. Free throw shooting, push-ups, soccer ball juggling, speed walking around the church parking lots, scripture memorization, preach my gospel memory and other stuff like that.. it was so fun but let me tell ya.. i was super sore for the next few days hahaha!

This week we met with Kevin Harris for the last time before his baptism! We talked to him about fasting and about what was going to happen at his baptism and he was getting super anxious! Saturday i was so excited and anxious for his baptism. He got there on time and instead of wearing the jumpsuits that the church puts out. he wore white pants, a white shirt, a white tie and a white belt! He was looking pretty fresh! He said he was nervous because Xavier the person baptizing him was nervous too! That was his first time baptizing. Elder Edlund and I were the witnesses and we had to tell Xavier to restart the baptismal prayer before he baptized him and had to restart.. so he said the prayer right and when he baptized him it looked like he wasn't going to go all the way under and then Xavier gave him the elbow to the chest and pushed him all the way down! so it was a one shot one kill! Kevin felt super good and he was way excited to receive the Holy Ghost on Sunday. He is being fellow shipped super good and the YSA actually took him to a movie after his baptism which was way cool! On Sunday while we are sitting in the chapel waiting for sacrament to start.. Kevin wasn't there.. we were getting pretty nervous cause by this time it was about 10 after the hour and then he finally came in. But he came and was confirmed a member and that was super cool! He felt super good and almost invincible:) Kevins baptism was probably one of my favorites of my whole mission!

Visiting Air Museum, teaching and LOTS and LOTS of Service !

Monday was a way fun day! We went to an Air Museum with a bunch of missionaries and looked at a bunch of different airplanes and it was also next to an airport so we watched like 4 planes take off.. Elder Bishop was with us and he left on Wednesday so it made him super trunky! That night I actually went with Elder Bishop and Elder Crockett our zone leaders and Elder Ricks stayed back home to pack with Elder Edlund. We went into Dallas and picked up brand new missionaries and took them out for their first night. Their names were Elder Christensen And Elder Buell. They looked like a deer in the headlights! Elder Crockett took them teaching while i went with Elder Bishop to say goodbye to some of the families in his area. We dropped by this guys house and his name is Wayne but the missionaries call him Lil Weezy! Well he only speaks English and his wife only speaks Spanish.. i don't know how that one worked out but we got to his house and we asked his wife where Wayne was and she pointed down the hall and said shower.. well Wayne came out with only shorts on ........ (see email for rest of story)  Well later that night we dropped the new missionaries off back in Dallas and we picked up Elder Sinclair and another missionary so we could house them that night. They were coming in from east Texas so when that happens.. they have to stay with missionaries the night before transfers.. Well we drove 30 minutes back to the Zone Leaders area and visited with a member family forever!! We got back to their apartment and didn't get to sleep until 2:30! We stayed up telling mission stories and laughing super hard! Maybe that's why they don't keep more than one companionship in 1 apartment?! hahaha

So we woke up the next morning and we had to leave at about 8 to drive into Dallas for transfers! I got to see tons of missionaries and took some pictures.. if you guys want to.. there is a member that takes pictures at every transfer and has a Texas Dallas Mission page on facebook and i am sure you will see pictures of me!:) After leaving Transfers i felt super trunky! Elder Bishop is one of the missionaries i am going to miss! We didn't know each other for too long but we acted like we were best friends! I told him that after i get home we are going boating!:) Well I got my new companion that day and his name is Elder Edlund. He is from Pleasant Grove Utah and has been out for almost 19 months now. He was serving in the Desoto area and now they combined our areas and so we both now cover the Desoto ward, Mountain Creek Ward, and the Duncanville YSA. This whole week has been super crazy with trying to figure out our investigators and our miles because as of right now.. we have not gotten any extra miles and our area is 3 times as big now!

This last week we did lots of teaching and lots of service.. We actually moved a family out of their house and President Durrant told us that we are not a moving service! We also are helping this part member family Restore a very old camper trailer that has been sitting in their junk yard back yard forever! They have so much stuff in their backyard it is super crazy! They scrap metal so they can get a few extra dollars here and there.. a lot of people do that down here in south Dallas. Sunday was my most tiring day ever! We had to be at church at 7:30 for ward council and we did not leave church until 5 at night. Something cool that i like what the YSA branch does is.. every fast Sunday they have after church whats called "break the fast" and everyone brings in food and we have dinner! its way fun and cool.. i really enjoyed it especially since i had been fasting since 4p.m. the previous day! This coming Saturday we are having the baptism for Kevin Harris one of our investigators and we are super excited.. i will send pics next week! As you can see.. i have had a very busy productive week!

Hawaiian Luau with our investigator, Kevin

Monday we played basketball with a ton of missionaries and i hadn't played ball since my first area! so i was very rusty! it was still fun though. On Tuesday after District meeting i went on an exchange with Elder Stratford to his area and that was pretty fun! when i go on exchanges i like to go to other areas so you don't have to worry about trying to find something to do when appointments fall through. That night a member took us out to eat and guess where he took us! IN N OUT! Oh yeah baby! it was so good! I also bought a t-shirt so i could just say i went to one in Texas:) in n out is pretty new in Texas and has only been here for about almost a year now. Wednesday after exchanging back we met with our investigator Daniel Ramirez! i really love that family and its always fun to go over there. because they are super chill and aren't the kind of members that are going to tell on a missionary for doing something wrong.. not that i am a bad kid.. i'm just saying haha.

We went on another exchange Thursday with our zone leaders and i went with Elder Bishop. He is way cool and he goes home in a week from Wednesday.. We had a way awesome lesson with Kevin Harris our investigator again. He is progressing very well.. We taught him about the priesthood and also the word of wisdom. we found out he smokes like 2 or 3 cigarettes a week. which isn't bad at all and he said he would quit. He also told us that he has a Seventh day Adventist friend that has been trying to Anti him and tell him that the sabbath is on Saturday not Sunday. He told us that since he doesn't know the Bible too well.. he wanted us to give him some scriptures so he could have some fire power to throw back at her! hahaha! How awesome is that! He also told her that ever since we have come into his life he has been happier and drawn closer to god. Elder Bishop also had Elder Sinclair as a companion so we shared with each other a bunch of stories. that night we stayed up till at least 12 telling stories and laughing super hard. I'm sure our neighbors weren't too happy with us. 

Friday was a pretty slow day and we dropped by our investigator Sandra and come to find out.. she is smoking again. she also told us that she was moving so we are pretty much going to drop her because she isn't going anywhere! Later that night a storm rolled in out of no where and it was pouring down rain! We had dinner with the Hamilton's who elder ricks knows quite well.. they were the swim coaches at his High School and Elder Ricks is a swimmer! so while it was storming we had dinner in their home. They have a Great Dane dog and she is huge! i was playing with her and she is super strong and would knock me around! Earlier that day we got a referral and we ended up setting up an appointment for Saturday afternoon with him.

So Saturday rolls around and we met with another investigator Anthony Copeland. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and told him that his baptism date was 3 weeks away and that he needed to come to church 3 times before he could be baptized and he said he would come the next 3 weeks and he didn't.. so that was a bummer. We met with the referral at the church and his name was Tim Duitsman and he brought his brother Ben and sister Monica. We gave them a church tour and then we shared with them the Restoration. They told us that they went to the Manti Pageant in Utah and that's what got them interested. Towards the end of the lesson they started asking us bashing questions and so we had to pull out the bible bashing scriptures and they were caught off guard haha. They did tell us that they wanted to learn more so we will see how that goes.

Later Saturday night we had the YSA Luau and Kevin came to that. it was super fun and there was Polynesian dancers there. I am not sure if it was missionary appropriate. I did video some of them though haha! One guy came out and did the Hakka which was super cool! Sunday was a great day.. like always! Kevin came to church and he is really soaking it up! He says he is learning so much and is super excited to be baptized!

God gives us trials and tribulations so we can learn to love and forgive.

Dilan shared this video with me and thought I would share here on his blog.  What incredible strength this man had after suffering such a tragedy in his life and learning to forgive the offender.  I think that we can learn from this to forgive the very small offenses that occur daily in our lives.  I admit that it is so difficult to do at times especially when there are people that may continue to hurt us. We can only control how we deal with them.  I've learned to remove myself from the negative influences and seek positive relationships.  Having the positive relationship with our Heavenly Father and learning of his constant kindness, love and patience...he will help us through these times where we feel like we cannot do it alone.  Christ has provided a way to for all to be forgiven if we are willing to submit to him.  Enjoy the video! 

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/mormon-messages?lang=eng&start=37&end=48#2010-07-14-forgiveness-my-burden-was-made-light

Mission miracles...they keep getting better!

This week has probably been one of the most spiritual weeks of my mission!! no joke! Monday night we had Family home evening with the ysa branch and they had a free car wash at the church. we were to go talk to the people while their car was being washed.. i figured to me that it was going against someones agency!! haha you have to listen to me cause your car is being washed! you know what i mean? luckily there was a storm rolling in so nobody cared to stop in and get a free car wash so it turned out to be kind of a failure! we got our car cleaned though:) Tuesday was great! we went down to Grand Prairie which is apart of our area and we were able to visit some less active members and have a lesson with our 9 year old investigator Daniel Ramirez. It was great! we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he knew almost everything. later that night we had a lesson with a member who has been inactive for a while now and we are re-teaching him the lessons because he doesn't really remember anything! His non-member wife sat in and listened but she still was saying that she doesn't want to be a Mormon. I think shes scared more of the title "Mormon" than the actual church itself. Funny thing that we found out.. Her best friend in Arizona is a member and her name is Amber Ricks and she is actually related to my companion Elder Ricks haha.

Wednesday was probably my most spiritual/miracle day of the mission so far! In the morning we went tracting in some apartments where the Spanish Elders live.. we figured since they live there and cant tract their own apartment.. we would do it for them. Well most people were not interested which is normal. but we knocked on this door and this black guy named Anthony Copeland came out and we told him who we were and what we were doing and he let us right into his house. we shared more about the Book of Mormon and that if he read it and prayed about it that he would get an answer from god that it was true. He was pretty excited to see us! he said that the last couple of weeks he had been talking to his brother about getting back into church and we just show up on his doorstep. He said that he was taking that as a sign from God! It was so cool! Right before we left we taught him about prayer and he said a prayer perfectly! He said that was the first time he had prayed in a very long time! That's not even the best part of my day!!!!!

So yesterday we received a referral from a member named David Kern that lives in the Rockwall ward. He is a lawyer and he had a co-worker named Kevin Harris that was a security guard at his law firm and was actually leaving his job for another job. Well David said that he had this impression that he should give Kevin a Book of Mormon and so he did and told him to read the introduction and Moroni's promise and then to pray about it! So we actually got a hold of Kevin and set up an appointment for Wednesday night and we went over! Brother David Kern met us there and we sat down and got to know Kevin a little bit. He told us a little about his life and that he knows there is a god but hasn't really been active in a faith. so we told him a little about what we do as missionaries and why we go out and serve! But lets get to the best part! We asked him about his experience about reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and he said as soon  as he finished praying about it.. A calm, warm Energy went all through his body! I was so overwhelmed to hear about that! Wait!! it gets better! So we explained to him that, that was the spirit and so we started teaching him the Restoration and he was asking all of the right questions! He said. "if God loves all of his children, why would he create a hell"? so we were able to teach him a little about the kingdoms of glory. Another question he asked was. "what happens to all of the people that live in Africa, or China or wherever that don't get to hear about Jesus Christ? I don't think it would be fair for them to go to hell if they didn't get that chance! So we were able to teach him a little about the Spirit World!! How awesome is this!!!?? Well as soon as we finished sharing the Joseph Smith Experience with him.. He said he had that same feeling go through his body as when he finished praying! The spirit was probably the strongest i have ever felt in any lesson on my mission!!! We invited him to be baptized on August 11th and he is super excited! Kevin is so prepared to accept the Gospel! 

Thursday was a good day! we went over to Sandra's and last Sunday we were having our lesson in gospel principles about covenant people and she said she wanted to learn more about that. so we went in and taught her more and also about the temples and i think she really soaked that lesson up! i think she is getting closer and closer to baptism. She was asking us about her husband and what he has to do to get back on the right path.. he is actually in prison right now on First Degree murder for shooting a woman. Sandra told us that he was trying to defend himself because the lady pulled out the gun to try and kill him and they wrestled for it and the trigger was pulled and it ended up killing the lady.. i don't know too much of the story but that's basically the bulk of it. We explained to her about the Repentance process and that someone can have a change of heart and if he really didn't mean to kill that lady.. then god knows that! Thursday morning we were able to have a lesson with Anthony Copeland and we taught him the restoration and that was another fantastic lesson! We set a baptism date with him for August 11th as well!

Then came Saturday night.. We had another lesson with Kevin Harris! We brought a member from the ysa branch named Xavier Salazar.. he is actually a convert of about a month ago. so that made Kevin feel even better knowing that anybody can join the church. Xavier shared with Kevin the change that has come about in his life and how he doesn't want to do the bad stuff that he used to do. Kevin really like that! Well we taught Kevin about the Plan of Salvation and again he was answering all of the right questions! He told us that a lot of his life time questions were being answered and he was so excited! He told us that he is super excited for his baptism date on August 11th. He also told us that he would be at church the next day. So Sunday rolls around and Brother Kern came to the singles branch to support Kevin and when Kevin walked into the chapel. He looked like a member! He was wearing a suit with a white shirt and tie! He stayed all 3 hours and told Brother Kern afterwards that he thought that since church was 3 hours he would be struggling to stay awake! But he did and he said it actually went by super fast and that he learned so much! He asked another awesome question in Elders Quorum. He said "When i help people out i feel super good! Do you think God feels that same way about us"? So Spiritual! And to end my week off with a bang!!! He walks up to Xavier after church and says to him.. My baptism is on August 11th.. I want you to baptize me! I was so so excited to hear him say that and so was Xavier! This week has been such an amazing week on my mission! Very Very Spiritual!

"Pray with the right attitude in order to receive answers"

Our week here in Duncanville has probably been the best since i have been in this area! Monday night we had a lesson with our investigator Sandra at Bro. Selfs house.. That lesson was a disaster! Sandra was not happy at all and we have been asking her lots of questions to gauge where she is at and Elder Ricks told her to ask God why there are so many different churches around the world and this was her reply "i will do that.. but i am going to come to you the next day and tell you that i didn't receive an answer!" so i responded to her.. "in order to receive answers to our prayers we need to do pray with the right attitude" and she just snapped!!! She said "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE RIGHT ATTITUDE" and that is where the lesson went down hill! she has been struggling financially for a very long time and she lives off welfare! Go figure! so it was nice to get out of that lesson! i was about ready to blow up!

Tuesday was a great day and we visited with an inactive member Bro. Robles and he has been inactive for about 15 years take or give.. We had a great lesson and he said that he knows he needs to get back to church and originally he wasn't going to come unless his wife came with him and so i told him that if he would come.. he would set that example for his wife and she would follow him! so he agreed to come this Sunday.. unfortunately he did not. But we did visit some other members that night was able to share more with them about the gospel! Wednesday was the 4th of July and it was hard because everyone was with family.. But we went tracting that morning and we found a new investigator named Chrystal Williams and she has never heard of the Book of Mormon.. Which is really weird to think that people here have never heard of it but they haven't strange right?! Another person we tracted into came bolting out the front door and she said. " are you Mormons" and we said yes! and she said " you need to get out of that religion.. Mormons don't believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God!" This lady was super crazy! She had like inch long hairs growing out of her chin and upper lip! She again told us that we needed to get out of our religion and then laughed way crazily.. kind of like a witch and then went inside! I was so freaked out! That night it was about 8pm and we decided to stop in at sonic for some ice cream.. well this sonic was right across the street from the Duncanville community park where they were going to be lighting off fireworks soon! So this sonic was jam packed! people weren't even in their cars.. they were just standing next to the intercom's ordering food.. Elder Ricks and I were so uncomfortable! There were so many people and just being a missionary and around all of those people was sketchy! So we went home and the rest of the night we heard fireworks until I fell asleep!

Thursday after our weekly planning we decided to go on an exchange with the Waxahachie Elders (Johnson & Payne). They live about a half hour away so were meeting them halfway! we got a phone call from them and they said that they blew a tire about 2 miles away from our meeting point and they needed our help! so we drive down there and the tire is just shredded! so we call up the mission vehicle coordinator and hes telling us what we need to do.. anyways he just tells us to get the spare on and once we do that then he will figure out what we need to do next.. So i guess about a month ago or so.. these elders had one of their tires and lug nuts stolen from the car.. so when the tire company replaced the tire, they put on all 4 of the same lug nuts and one different one and different size. so the tire iron they had in their car didn't fit the odd lug nut! so we had to go to O'reilly Auto Parts. We get there and we found 2 different sizes of a four way tire iron and the guy at the register told us.. Who knows how tight those lug nuts are on that car and even with all the strength of Joseph Smith on your side.. you still probably couldn't get them off.. so go with the bigger one! That was super funny! He told us that his Brother was a member and he just couldn't resist saying that! Well we didn't end up buying one cause they were way too expensive.. but a discount tire shop let us borrow their tools which was very nice of them and we went back to switch out the tires! It was a good thing that I was around because I was the only one that knew how to change a tire! How Sad! So when we finally went on our exchange I drove down with Elder Payne to Grand Prairie for our lesson with Daniel Ramirez. He is a 9 year old and his family is less active.. His dad is super funny too! So we taught Daniel the restoration and Elder Payne is a brand new missionary and has only been out for like 4 weeks and Bro. Ramirez said.. How long have you been on your mission.. and Elder Payne replied About 4 weeks. and Bro. Ramirez said... yeah i can tell! hahaha! that was kind of funny! I'm not being rude or anything but I don't remember being that shy about teaching people.. Anyways the rest of the night was great!

On Friday we drove into Irving for Interviews with President Durrant! That was great cause there were alot of my missionary buddies that i got to see including my MTC companion Elder Flitton! Which by the way.. He is an assistant now.. I guess i am not that righteous?! I don't really like interviews with president Durrant.. Usually in an interview.. the person would ask you questions and you would answer them.. but president Durrant just says. okay what do you want to talk about? I have no idea what i want to talk about other than how my area is going and how i love my companion.. I don't know.. Just kind of different i guess! Anyways.. that took up almost all of our time that day. But on Saturday we were able to meet with Sandra again.. She seemed a little upset.. and she would not tell us why she was upset. So we just decided to ask her questions and come to find out that she was upset because Bro. Self told Bro. Daley about her financial problems and they went over there earlier in the week and tried to tell her how to budget her own money. They also tried telling her to get a job and she is physically incapable of doing that. She has Diabetes and she has lost all of her toes on one foot and cant stand long! So that's why she was upset.. in her own words she told us that what Bro. Self did "hurted her" keep in mind that she is black and they talk a little different haha! Once she was able to talk about her feelings she opened right up and we had a great lesson with her.. we ended up sharing the Baptismal interviews with her and almost all of those questions she answered right.. She said.. i am not ready still but i am close! I sure hope so!:)

Sunday was a great day and we were able to have Sandra join me at church.. But about half way through gospel principles we have to leave to go to the YSA Branch.. Well right as the branch started is when the Gospel principles class got out.. and we were talking to some people in the hall way so we were not in the sacrament meeting quite yet... and we had to get to the other side of the building so we walked through the gym to the other sided and as i opened the door into the hallway.. i slammed it into a person and i pull back the door and guess who it is........ of course! Sandra! OH man i felt so bad.. She told me that payback is coming to me! hahahaha! But that's basically how my day at church went.. We taught a new member discussion to a recent convert named Amythest after church and then had dinner with The Smith Family.. his name is Joseph.. no joke! ha! he is actually from Nampa, Idaho and lived there with his wife about a year ago! He is a dentist and just started up his practice here a couple months ago. He knows Bro. Payne my Orthodontist too! For the rest of the night we dropped by the Ramirez family and shared with them a lesson on chapter 22 of Alma! That's how my week went here in D.Ville!!!!

BUSY week! "Mr. Fix-it" mows lawns, repairs bike flats and his waterbed.

This week has been up and down and left and right! Kind of Crazy! But way Awesome! Tuesday was District Meeting day as usual and the rest of the day we visited with less active members and one of them was bro. Art Robles and he has been inactive for who knows how long.. he actually use to serve in a bishopric when he was active.. well now we are trying to get him and his wife back to church and we are not sure what her hold up is.. i haven't met her yet too. but bro. Robles has a few concerns about the church now since he has been inactive for so long.. He has been trying to read out of the Book of Mormon and he came across Jacob where its talking about Polygamy and how that's an abomination in Gods eyes and he couldn't grasp why the early church practiced Polygamy and why it was so necessary. So we shared with him a lot of stuff out of the scriptures and probably went deeper than we should have. but it all came down to praying and seeking the lords guidance on that and he said he would do so! Later that night we had dinner with the Mendoza family.. We actually eat dinner with them every Tuesday night and there daughter invited a guy over to have dinner also and we ended up sharing with him the Restoration.. That was pretty sweet!

Wednesday we went to mow the lawn for a less active/part member family that we wanted to help out.. They didn't have a lawn mower and there lawn was like 3 feet tall! So we packed all of our ward mission leaders Lawn care stuff (mower, weed eater, blower and gas) in the back seat of the lords car and we went to give service:)! it took us 2 hours to mow that lawn and it was way smaller than my lawn at home! We first had to weed eat all of the tall grass down and then we mulched the yard.. In Texas.. No body bags their grass! But it was a great blessing to be able to help a family in need! Thursday was really slow we had our planning day and during lunch i was laying on my bed and my sheets were wet.. so i get off and i found a little whole in my bed.. you are probably wondering why my bed is leaking but its because i sleep on a water bed! yep thats right:) we fixed the hole with a bike tire patch and so far it is holding up! That night we found a Buddhist Temple in our area and we went to look at it and there was monks everywhere! They were super nice to us and they allowed us to take as many pictures as we wanted so that was a neat experience!

Friday was my year mark! yayyyyyy!!!! We were invited to attend the Youth Conference and we were asked to teach about the importance of having a testimony about the Book of Mormon and how we can share that with our non-member friends. There was 5 groups and the lessons were about 45 minutes each! It was great! Each youth got their own Book of Mormon and we asked them to highlight one of their favorite versus and then write their testimony in the front. We invited them all to give that copy of the Book of Mormon to one of their friends! After Youth Conference, My companion and I had the opportunity to go to the Dallas Temple! OH was that one of the most spiritual experiences I have had on my mission! This was my first time going since back home and we are supposed to go every 6 months or so! So it was a very nice opportunity to be able to go and feel how strong the spirit is in the House of the Lord! Later that night some members took us to a restaurant called Cheddar s. Oh man it is so good! and i also got a dessert.. The monster cookie! (it is this huge 6 inch cookie with ice cream on top and chocolate syrup with nuts, whipped cream and a cherry! Texas food isn't quite the healthiest but is sure dang tasty!

Saturday was a good day at the start and then right before our appointment with a less active member at 5. he calls us and told us that he really needed us and that we needed to hurry and get to his house asap! when we arrived at his house there was 3 police cars parked out front and we walked in and he was sitting on the couch crying and his wife who is a Buddhist and some of her friends over and they were chanting prayers really loudly! Come to find out.. Bro. Moffette's son passed away. He was 19 years old and had a severe case of Autism and had about 5 seizures a month.. and apparently he had a seizure while he was sleeping and he ended up suffocating himself. It was a very sad situation and i felt horrible! Bro. Moffette was a wreck! we gave him a blessing and then we stayed with him for about 3 hours comforting him and teaching him about gods plan of happiness for all of his children! You could tell that by us being there he felt a lot better!

Sunday in the young single adults sacrament meeting was probably one of the most powerful testimony meetings i have been to in a long time! the spirit was so strong there and the testimonies that were bore were so powerful! we taught gospel principles since our branch mission leader is a failure at his calling and never comes to church so we have to wipe his butt for him! but that's okay. more blessings for us i guess! haha! After church we had whats called break the fast with the ysa branch and we all had a big dinner! Then we went back to Bro. Moffette's house with the 1st counselor bro. Esquivel, His home teacher bro. Pina, and bro. Eubanks and we planned out his sons funeral for this upcoming Saturday! so this will be my second funeral since i have been on my mission! but like i said at the beginning of my letter.. This week was Crazy!

CELEBRATING my ONE YEAR MARK!!

This week has been GREAT! Tuesday we drove to transfer meeting and i was able to visit with lots of missionaries that I just miss so much! I was also able to get my new companion... Elder Ricks! He is from Lindon Utah right next to Provo. Throughout my whole mission i haven't really had missionaries that i haven't really gotten along with but i love my companion and he is so much fun to work with and we can get along just great! So after leaving transfer meeting we headed down to Duncanville my new area! On the way we were super hungry so we ate at this place called Burguesa burger which is in oak cliff which is a very sketchy part of town. but this place was a Mexican burger joint and they made very good burgers! We got to our apartment and i got settled in and unpacked some of my stuff and guess what i sleep on.... a water bed! hahaha! oh man that was funny! its pretty comfortable too! The rest of the day we went out and worked and talked to lots of people!

Wednesday we had district meeting at the church and Elder Ricks is the new district leader so he gave his first official training and it went great! There is also a senior couple that is in our District and they are from Nampa, Idaho! So i was able to talk with them for a while and found out that they graduated from Meridian High long ago! They said about a 100 years ago.. that was funny. Our ward mission leader is out of town with his wife Right now so we are house sitting for him and we have to water all of his plants and also pick the tomatoes out of his garden.. that reminds me of working in our garden back home. We had weekly planning Thursday and that was a good way for me to learn more about the area and the people we are teaching. Later that night we went to teach on of our investigators. Her name is Sandra Rogers and she lives off a street called Gannon Ln. which is a very rough part of our area.. She is a black lady who had no toes on her left foot and she has 4 teeth and is super humble! A couple of weeks ago the missionaries shared the stop smoking program with her and she has been smoke free for over 2 weeks now.

Friday we mowed our ward mission leaders lawn and then we went out for the day trying to visit some less active people and we also dropped by some referrals that we had.. on of the referrals was growing a marijuana plant outside on his front doorstep! That just tells you the kind of area i am serving in now! We also had a lesson with another one of our investigators named Robert Good and we don't really know what we want to do with him because he says he knows the church is true and that the book of Mormon is true but he doesn't really put forth the effort in wanting to be baptized anytime soon! So that's the deal with him. Sunday was a great day at church.. I always love the first Sundays of being new in an area cause i get to meet new people.. The Mountain Creek Ward starts at 11 in the morning and we also cover a Young Single Adults Branch that meets at 1. So we are at church from 10 to 4 every Sunday. Well earlier this week my companion said.. "oh by the way.. we have to give talks in the singles ward this Sunday"! I have given so many talks on my mission its unreal! That is also the second time that has happened to me.. i get transferred to a new area and have to speak the following Sunday. It was a good talk though and i felt it went pretty good! It was about 98 degrees when we got out of church so we went home to change out of our suits and guess what!!! Our Air Conditioning broke!!!! it was 90 degrees in our apartment and there was no way i was going to be staying there that night! Good thing we are house sitting and so we just stayed at our ward mission leaders home last night.. Sweating in your own home unless you are working out is not fun!!! anyways that's how my week went! I reach my year mark this Friday! so exciting! time is flying by!

Here's my Address:

700 W. Center St. #264
Duncanville, TX 75116

Transfer to Duncanville

Last Monday we did the Juggernaut challenge like i told you we were going to do.. oh man it was ridiculous! 12 Scoops of Blue Bell Ice Cream and 6 toppings later i had the biggest stomach ache ever! The ones that tried eating one by themselves was Elder Howell, Bro. White, Scott Meager and me.. and the only ones that could finish it was Elder Howell and I.. Scott Meager was so close to finishing and then he just got up and ran to the restroom to throw up! It was pretty funny! Tuesday night we went into Scurry which is a really far part of our area that we don't go to very often! But we went down there and we went on member exchanges and i went to give a few blessings and teach the new member discussions to my convert Emma Drummond and Elder Howell went to teach another part member family in the ward.

Wednesday was a pretty fun day. We had a Specialized Training and so we drove into Dallas and got to see President Durrant and a ton of other missionaries! That was super fun! During the training everyone was asked to come prepared to give a 5 minute talk on (Revelation through prayer) so i got up cause they asked for volunteers and gave my talk.. i thought it was pretty good and i also used some notes from my talk last Sunday which was on having gratitude through prayer.. I really think that in order to receive revelation from our prayers.. we need to be grateful for the things we do have! During our lunch at our training we had a bracket set up for everyone that was there for a Free Throw contest.. That was really fun to see missionaries compete.. of course i didn't win but it was still fun:)

Thursday was quite an experience for me! We had a lesson that night back in Scurry with another part member family.. the Mcginnis'.. and we were also supposed to have dinner with them too... well when we get there she wasn't even there and only her friend Willy was there.. well since she forgot about us we started to leave and she showed up.. so we stayed and she made us dinner and we ended up teaching Willy.. We were supposed to teach her daughter too but she wasn't there.. well anyways.. we taught the restoration to willy and he had a lot of deep doctrine questions! But the weirdest thing he said was that he had the Gold Plates and he has had them for about 8 years now and he has been deciphering them since then. He said they are probably worth more than any of the gold in the world and that he wanted to meet President Monson to talk to him about them! It was quite a strange experience!

The rest of the week wasn't too awesome but we did get a phone call Saturday morning from the mission housing coordinator and he said.. "so you know how they are closing down your area" we had no idea that was happening.. but he also said.. "I'm coming to get some of your furniture" so he came and took our desks, dressers, and couch! So anyways.. we went about our day knowing we were going to be transferred.. but no one called us all day until Sunday morning! So they are closing down the Forney & Kaufman area and wont have missionaries in these wards for at least the summer is my guess.. because there is about 20 missionaries leaving this transfer and only about 10 coming in. so there is not enough missionaries going to be in the mission to fill the spots so they have to close down some areas for a while.. ever since i came to this area.. the Kaufman ward hadn't baptized in 2 years and Elder Howell and I baptized for them:)! So now my new area is going to be Duncanville which is south Dallas. Aka. The Ghetto! So No letters from anyone this week until i send my new address next week in my email. Thanks!

June 4, 2012

So my week was pretty full of fun and exciting stuff! My companion woke up Tuesday morning and could not speak at all.. He lost his voice and it was gone for 3 days! So during those 3 days i was doing all the Teaching, Talking at dinner appointments and sharing messages with everyone we see and talk to! Tuesday night we had our last lesson with Emma Drummond! I taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to her and i say i taught because my companion was speechless haha! After that lesson we stopped by a part-member family that i haven't met yet and instead of getting to know the non-member husband... His daughter kept talking to me and distracting me like saying.. look at my bruise and look at my toes and look at how much money my dad has in his wallet.. it was super annoying and i was a little irritated! ha!Wednesday Elder Howell wasn't feeling too well so we stayed in the apartment till about 2.. and then we went to visit Sister Melissa Turnbow who was recently inactive and has started coming back to church and now working her way back to the temple!

Thursday was weekly planning and after that we went down to a part of our area called Kaufman. We stopped by a family called the JJackson's and i guess she is a babysitter and when we walked up to the door a lady that was dropping her son off to be babysat came to the door and told sister Jackson's daughter that she would handle this.. and told us.. "i am spirit filled and i am a Pentecostal and you guys can go somewhere else" so i told her "That's great! and we are here to see the Jackson's not you!" So Leona the daughter said that her mom would be home in 5 minutes and we could try back then! So we came back 5 minutes later and had a good chat with Sis. Jackson while that lady gave us the stare down on the couch! it was pretty funny! After like 10 minutes the lady left to work.. i guess she didn't know that the Jackson's were LDS! I ended up giving the daughter Leona  a blessing of comfort cause she is going to Brazil with the foreign exchange student that lives with them.. The hardest part of the blessing was the daughters name. (Leona Jean Shanda Masheek Jackson) Crazy! As we got to know Sis. Jackson we found out that she is a convert and she loves the missionaries and the funny part of all of that is.. Her name is Beverly and her daughters nick-name is Pookie!!

Kaufman is the only part of our area that has a Wells Fargo so we stopped in so i could cash a check and there systems were down they couldn't look up my account number since i have no idea what it was.. so she asked me if she could call anyone that would know and i told her my Brother Shea since he is a Wells Fargo Personal Banker! so she calls up Shea and he got my number and of course he wanted to talk to me so i got to talk to him for a couple seconds! that was way cool! Friday we had a lesson with a guy named Jess Moore and he has gone through all the lessons before and knows the Book of Mormon is true but cant get past the fact that we only have one True Prophet and not many! so i don't know what to do with him.. Hes way cool though and does a lot of studying with different religions!

Saturday we had our Baptism for little Emma Drummond and that was way awesome! A big turn out too! She was confirmed the following morning in Sacrament meeting and that was so awesome to see and be apart of.. During Gospel Principles class we ended up having to leave church early cause i guess something was wrong with the sewage in the church and it backs up a couple times a year! So that was pretty lame to leave church early! I know y'all are thinking that.. the Dilan i know would have been super happy to leave church early back home.. but i can tell you that the new Dilan wasn't haha! Sunday night we had dinner with the Moreirras and they have 10 children! not all living at home but still a lot and their house was destroyed.. it was super nasty! i don't ever want to live like that! And last but not least we went to Anna Voss's house this morning and she is a CPR Instructor and i am now CPR Certified:)! Oh one more thing.. Our walls of our apartment are super thin and i woke up the other morning to our downstairs neighbor snoring like a freight train! haha!

May 28, 2012

This week has been great! Last Monday we went to a farewell party for this member named Tanner Done who just left on his mission for Pittsburgh Pennsylvania! He was pretty cool for only knowing him for a couple weeks! I went to bed that night not feeling too well and i woke up not feeling too well either.. so i slept in and then we went to District Meeting.. The rest of the day we took it slower and then we had our baptism interview for Emma Drummond who is a 9 year old getting baptized on Saturday this weekend! We are pretty excited! Wednesday we were both sick so we stayed in all day until dinner.. we had to go to dinner because it was with a less active member who has daughters that were baptized not too long ago.

We were supposed to have a lesson this last Tuesday and Thursday with this referral that we received but he wasn't home both times so we don't know what we are going to do with him. We did have a lesson Thursday night with our other baptism date Ryle Burch.  Right after teaching him we went with our Ward Mission Leader Bro. Salgado to go teach Tina Lang our investigator.

 

 The whole rest of the week was dropping by less Active members.  

 

Weird and Crazy week!

This week has been a little slower than my weeks in my last area. I am still trying to get to know the area and find out where the heck i am at.. i have only been here for 2 weeks now and i feel so lost.. but most missionaries do when they go to a new area! Tuesday morning we went back to The Engels house (the one who let us email) and we mowed her lawn for her! and then she took us out to taco bell:). later that day we dropped by a less active member named Melissa Turnbow and she is a convert of about 5 or so years ago and is wanting to get back to church and back to the temple! We had a lesson with our investigator Emma Drummond that night and she is 9 years old. We set a baptism date with her last week for June 2nd and she is super excited for that! We went over the baptismal interview questions with her and she had no problem answering all the questions correctly!

On Wednesday we drove into Dallas for a Zone Conference and that was really fun! Instead of sitting down in the same seat for 6 hours and listening to lessons and all that jazz.. we were put into groups and we went from class to class learning about different stuff.. The main theme for this zone conference was Obedience and i think that is something every missionary can work on haha! It was also fun because i got to see a lot of other missionaries that i haven't seen in a while! one being Elder Sinclair my trainer! He was telling me that i need to go to BYU-IDAHO after the mission with him! I have no idea what i am doing after the mission yet! i still have 13 months to go! Apparently my companion told president that my talk with family was a little longer than usual and so president talked with me and scolded me:/! I'm not the kind of missionary that is going to tell on another missionary but whatever!

Thursday was weekly planning and then we went tracting for a while on a rich street.. i dont know why my companion picked that street but no one was willing to listen to us! not humble at all! We had a lesson with another one of our investigators that night named Tina! Apparently she has been meeting with the missionaries for a while and she knows the book of mormon is true but she works on Sundays and can not get it off! So i dont know what to do with her.. Friday was an alright day but kind of slow until our lesson with Ryle Burch! his name is pronounced Riley but spelled different! He is 13 and his mom is a member and they just moved to texas like 3 months ago from Colorado! Ryle met with the missionaries up there and is now meeting with us down here:) He wants to be baptized and we set a baptism date for him on June 16th! It was a struggle at first trying to get him to commit because he was shooting for a baptism towards the end of the year or into 2014! That was a little strange!

Saturday was such a weird day! So like i said.. We went to visit the lady in the Insane Asylum Hospital which is in Terrell Texas!! Terrell is like the Jacksonville of my area now..(The Ghetto)! We first had to Register to see her and then after we went in to get her.. her nurse told us that we had 3 hours to visit if we wanted to and there was no way i was gonna stay with this CRAZY for that long! So after meeting Kim Henley is her name! we walked out side and we asked her how long she had been in the church and she said her whole life.. and she said that she had a son that served a mission in Brazil.. and we asked her how long ago was that and she said.. well hes 24 right now.. and we didnt say anything because we figured she was calculating in her head how long ago he served and then she said.. This Visit is over! and so we walked her back to where we picked her up and this guy had to come unlock the door with a key and then we left! I felt so weird and creeped out after that very strange visit! We visited with a member that lives a couple blocks away from that place and we told him about our visit and he said that they hear sirens go off every now and then.. and when they go off he says that means someone is trying to escape! That is Creepy! So i also found out that the actor Jamie Foxx is from Terrell too! That was pretty cool! The whole rest of the day we were running into creepy people and i just felt super weird the rest of the day!

We had Stake Conference on Sunday and now the Forney ward is in a new stake that just got made! How many missionaries can say that they serve in 2 wards and 2 seperate stakes?? not many!:) But nothing too exciting happened later on that day.. apparently there was supposed to be an Eclipse but it was super cloudy so we missed it:(! But that was my exciting week for you:)

New area: Forney and Kaufman

This letter probably isnt going to be super long because i talked with mostly everyone yesterday so i will keep it short and simple! My new area is Forney and Kaufman but i'm not sure how long i will be in this area because Forney ward is joining together with a few other wards and creating a new stake and so considering that zones are made up of stakes and Forney and Kaufman will be in 2 separate stakes. I will probably not be covering those 2 wards for very long. The area that i am in is the biggest city area in the mission and it is still borderline East Texas. If i could stay out in East Texas for the rest of my mission i would defiantly take that in a heart beat! it is so much more prettier out there than the city. Too many people and traffic is horrible! My new companion is Elder Howell and he has been out for 20 months now so he is getting pretty old haha.. Anyways.. i dont really have any interesting stories today but i am sure i will have some for you next week, considering we are going to visit an inactive member who lives in a insane mental institution! I am pretty excited about that haha!

Police groundhog story - Transferring to Forney and Kaufman

This week was pretty good but slow. sorry this letter is a little short but i am in a hurry and i am also getting transferred after being in this area for 6 months! i am sad i am leaving this area but it has to happen at one point right? i am getting transferred to Forney and Kaufman.. it is part of the Dallas East Stake and i believe i am in my MTC companions district so that will be way fun! This week we taught just a little bit but that is alright. that happens sometimes in missionary work! on Saturday we helped this member that lives in Tyler and we tore up his whole kitchen floor! That was really fun and this member was also a sherriff so he told us a ton of his really cool police stories. He also had a video of one of his high speed chases that happened last year.. The guy they were chasing ended up stealing a police patrol car and they chased him for a good 20 minutes and then when the chase ended Brother Stricklands Ford F150 police truck was sitting in the front seat of the stolen patrol car! It was so cool! He showed us a lot of his police weapons that he has. One of the weapons was this massive shotgun and he was telling us this story.. So one day he was out in his garden and holes kept appearing everywhere from this Ground hog and he said that he saw some dirt come out of the ground and this ground hog popped his head up and was staring at him and he said usually he carries a gun on him but not this time.. so he ran inside and grabbed the first gun he could see and it so happened to be this huge shotgun.. so he ran outside and he said he blew this little ground hog like 2 or 3 feet below ground and smoke was coming out of every hole in his garden! I was laughing so hard at that story! Anyways.. apparently the police is preparing for war here because i guess Mexico is starting to come into Texas and kill people around the border. Brother Strickland says when they capture hispanics.. The hispanics say that they are not here to come to America but to take it over! so i guess thats whats going on right now. Yesterday was a slow day of packing and saying goodbye to lots and lots of people! My investigators were pretty sad but they understood that i needed to leave.  

Baptism for Paul Abendroth: April 28,2012

Monday we had a lesson with this black man named Sylvester Mosleyy.. I'm not quite sure how much he is progressing but he does tell us that he looks forward to us coming over every Monday night to see him. Tuesday night we met up with Paul Abendroth to set up his baptism for this week and he was super excited! He told us that he had a friend that told him that he was being baptized for all the wrong reasons and that he shouldn't go through with it and he told his friend.. despite what you say i am doing what i want to do! That was really cool to hear that and to know that Paul really knows this gospel is true! As far as Kandie, Anna and Rickey go.. they are still pretty neutral and not to sure how much progression there is there but still hope!

 

On Wednesday we were tracting some apartments and ended up getting kicked out of them.. apparently were not supposed to be doing that when i have a paper that says its a protected right under the first amendment.. apparently the constitution and all of that stuff don't matter to this country anymore.. who knew? We had a lesson during the afternoon with this lady named Minnie Morgan who we tracted out! She seemed pretty interested and we taught her the restoration and then she said that she is a member and used to have The Elders over to eat at her house when she was a kid. She does have a daughter that may be interested though so we will just have to see where that takes us. We got her information and requested her records to see if she really is a member and if she is not or we cant find her records then we will have to make a new record;) meaning baptize! haha.

 

Thursday was pretty slow.. But on Friday we went to this health care center where we visit a member that lives there.. She has MS so she cant walk or come to church so we visit her every week! We met a lady that was there temporarily because she broke her leg and we went to visit her that day too.. Her name is Colleen Ralson and i think i may have mentioned her in other emails but she read the Book of Mormon in 2 weeks and i think she just read it to find fault! Well when we were visiting her she was just arguing with us and the conversation was going no where and i was getting super frustrated so i just stood up and told her that werewere leaving and so we did and we are not going back!

 

Saturday was the best day this week! We had to be at the church at 9 to fill up the font cause it takes 2 hours to fill up! The Baptism for Paul started at 11 and there wasn't too much people there but the Spirit was strong! A man named Brother Scott Lloyd gave the talk on Baptism and it lasted 30 minutes! It was super long for a baptism talk when they are supposed to be like 5 minutes but it was super good! He went into detail about how baptism ties in with taking the sacrament! After the baptism my Ward Mission Leader told me that ever since i have been in this area we have been teaching like crazy! He said he remembers with previous missionaries that when he signed up to go out with them they would just do drop by's but with me we always have a lesson to go to! So that made me feel super good inside!

 

On Sunday we were standing at the doors waiting for Paul to come in and it was about 5 minutes until sacrament was going to start so i was getting a little scared thinking he might not show up but he did! And he was confirmed a member of the Church! That was really cool! I love seeing people change their lives for the better:) We are supposed to have another baptism for Kylie and Lexie this weekend but I'm not to sure how solid they are quite yet. so i guess you will find out next week! haha.. Before going home last night we stopped by to see Rickey in his trailer and i knocked on the door and he was yelling and sounded really pissed off! well he let us in and he was a little drunk but he sat and talked to us for 45 minutes about how Kandie his own sister lied to him.. Apparently she promised him work when he moved up here and right now he doesn't have a job so hes really angry with Kandie right now!

 

Well that's how my week went and i hope it was very entertaining:)

3rd talk in 6 months in same ward!

We had another great week! Tuesday night we had a lesson with our baptismal date Paul Abendroth. We taught him the main commandments that he needs to be following for baptism. Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, Tithing and Fast Offering and other ones. He said that he would follow all of them and keep them! He's getting baptized this saturday and we are so excited!

Wednesday we had Interviews with President Durrant and that was awesome! I love being able to see president.. sometimes i feel scared though cause i know hes the boss and i dont want to do anything stupid when he is around. well Elder Hedberg President that i write letters on other days besides mondays and so president talked to me about that and that irritated me a little.. so i was kind of mad at my companion that day and then he got mad at me cause i said i would be ready in 10 minutes when my hour lunch was finished so we were pretty much both mad at eachother and so i told him that we needed to resolve this concern and so we sat down and worked stuff out. There is no point in going out teaching if the spirit is not in our companionship.

On Thursday i went on an exchange with my Zone Leader Elder Mcomber. The reason for our exchange was so he could interview Paul.. well Pauls interview that night was super long. i think it was probably like 45 minutes long! After the interview we sat down and taught paul a few more commandments.. After we left Elder Mcomber said that we need to stay on Paul because during the interview when he was asking him if he is willing to obey the Word of Wisdom he said yeah.. i am not drinking caffeine and i even got decaf tea! Apparently when we taught him the word of wisdom he figured it was the caffeine that was bad not the tea.. even when we told him that drinking soda was not part of the word of wisdom. So Elder Mcomber told him that he needed to give him the tea and paul said that he bought a new gallon that day.. so Elder Mcomber made him promise to give the tea to his dad! Paul is very dedicated and i know he will be ready by Saturday!

The rest of the week went pretty good but nothing too exciting.. we had an investigator drop us but thats missionary work! But on Sunday Elder Hedberg and I had to give talks in the Whitehouse Ward and right when i stood up to give my talk.. this is what i said: "Good morning Brothers and Sisters. My name is Elder Christensen.. I have been serving for 10 months and I am from Boise Idaho.. Go Broncos"! hahaha.. then i said "i think i have set the record for the most times a missionary has spoken in this ward in 6 months.. this is my third! everyone was laughing:)! My talk was on how Prospective Missionaries prepare to serve full time missions. I felt like it went pretty good.. A member after told me that she needs to get that information from me because she has a son leaving on his mission soon!

Special message from Investigator.

This week has been great! After Preparation day last Monday we went to teach this man named Sylvester Mosely.. Hes a black man that we tracted into and so we went back and taught him The Restoration. It was a really good discussion with great questions and we left a Book of Mormon with him and we are going back tonight to teach him again.. Tuesday we had District Meeting and that was good. We went home to eat lunch after that because President Durrant has asked us not to eat lunch as a district anymore to save us more time for prosolyting! Later that night we had a lesson with a new investigator that we tracted into as well. Her name was Beverly Chandler and she is pretty interested in learning more and our discussion was good. We had a member go with us and his testimony was pretty powerful when he talked about Prophets and why we need them today!

On Wednesday we tracted all morning long and i got yelled at by an old grumpy man. It was so hard for me to not lose my temper and plow right through him. he made me pretty angry! We had dinner that night with the old stake president and his wife (The Nielsen's)! I love eating at their house. they are so funny but the only bad thing is.. is that he is a food pusher and by the time i leave their house i am stuffed! We had a lesson later that night with Kandie and Anna and we taught them about Tithing and Fast Offerings. that was a good lesson and i committed them to fast one day this week and for the purpose of quitting smoking... Thursday morning we had a lesson with Tom Deborello and it was great.. It is kind of irritating how he doesnt grasp the concept of a "God".. he says he pretty much needs physical proof and God is not going to come through the roof and appear to him so he needs to have lots of faith! Later that night we had another lesson with our baptismal date Paul Abendroth! He is so ready and is super excited! We finished teaching him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and our member that was with us.. Scott Lloyd was very bold with him! He was asking him alot of questions wanting to know if he really knows this is true and stuff like that! It was good for him though. One question Bro. Lloyd asked him was "Do you feel like you would be ready for baptism on April 28th?" and Paul replied "I already am ready!" That was so Awesome to hear!

Friday morning we met with our new investigator Colleen Ralson and we ended up giving her a Book of Mormon last week and when we met with her Friday she was already to Alma 20! I was shocked! But instead of teaching her the Plan of Salvation like we were planning on doing. We answered a lot of her questions. I dont think she is reading it for the right reasons but reading it so she can "try" and find fault! That was a little irritating. Later that afternoon we drove out to Jacksonville and picked up a member Bro. Jack Parmer (He is an 83 year old that was baptized last year). We drove to our investigators Jennifer Herrington and shared with her The Gospel of Jesus Christ.. She seems to be doing good but i think she needs a more solid testimony and she needs to quit smoking! Saturday was a good day but it seems like every Saturday we do a lot of tracting! We didnt have a dinner appointment so i called our investigator Kandie and asked her if she would feed us and she said she would. so we went over to her house for dinner and while she was getting her food ready she gave me a letter that she wrote and it said this:

Dear Elders:
I would just like to take the time to tell you how much i really appreciate everything that you and all of our other Elders do to make a differance in peoples lives. As a child i was broken.. i had a very abusive life between and alcoholic mother and a neglective father. It is true as a child you need to choose your own path and unfortunately my path was the very wrong path. i consistantly ended up in very abusive relationships (up till now) and suffered the loss of a very beautiful duaghter.. Amanda Lynn. I was blessed to carry her for nine months but unfortuantely her life was cut short almost as well as mine. God saved me for a reason and i really had a problem with that. i never understood why after all of the mistakes and bad paths i had put myself into. As time went by i was given another chance in life. i believe it was his destiny but i was blessed with two more daughters. after being blessed with both of them i fell again into the worst path you can imagine. i turned to drugs slowly but surely i saw and felt myself drifting away almost thinking there was no place in this world for such a mistake like me! Until one day i had a knock at my door and i met the most amazing people in the world! My first Elders.. Elder Lindsey and Elder Hawkey. They my Elders never judged me. They directed me and gave me the answer i was looking for.. I do belong! Jesus Said you are my child no matter what you have done in your past and as for the abusers and the people that have tried to detour me from my feelings. i have been given such an amazing gift to forgive them and to just go forward! That i have! For the first time in my life i feel as though i truely have a purpose in life thanks to my newest Angels.. Elder Christensen and Elder Hedberg! And of course The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day Saints. You have truely touched my heart and gave me hope. New hope in life and the belief that i also will get to see my little girl Amanda Lynn again! I truely love Every single one of you with all of my heart and have got to say that i thank you from the bottom and the top of my heart! I love you! Thank you so much for making me feel so free.. so new! your sister/friend.. and growing closer to the lord- Kandie Towne!

After eating dinner we had a lesson with just Kandie because Anna was at work and she told us that she had been fasting all day for the desire to quit smoking! i was so excited to hear that and that reassured me that she really does want to change! Church was great yesterday and we had a lesson with Kylie and Lexie.. our investigators that Elder moses and I began teaching. we had not met with them in a while and so we had a lesson. we just read them the baptismal interview questions and they answered all of them right on the money! we figured out that the reason they were scared to get baptized was because they felt they were too old! we fixed that problem pretty darn quick and set a baptism date with them for May 5th! Cinco de Mayo! Later that night we had dinner with a less active family and this man used to play football for TCU! He played back when Ladainian Tomlinson played with them so that was pretty cool to hear! Well that was my week and i am tired haha!

Texas Tornadoes and Easter week

So this week has been awesome and i am so loving the mission! It is defiantly hard work but so rewarding! Tuesday we had a lesson with Kandie and Anna and i think it went alright. we taught them the Ten Commandments and Kandie was really happy that we did that cause she told us that Anna has been snooping around her house and stealing their stuff.. so there is something definatly going wrong there! We went in about 7:00 Tuesday night because a huge Thunderstorm was rolling in and also Tornado warnings! Dallas was hit earlier with 11 Tornados and destroyed a lot of property but luckily no one was killed! Me and my companion were standing out side looking at the skys and right about us there was a "Wall Cloud" forming about us. which means this cloud was forming in a circle and about to drop a tornado down on our appartment! That was way scary! but luckily it didnt! That whole night it Stormed until about 1! Then the next day it was completely clear! Wednesday we drove towards the Frankston area and we went to visit some less active members.. one member we stopped by lives with this man and they are not married but they live in this private subdivision with a private run way and everyone that lives there has their own hanger and own airplane. well... almost everyone. This member had an air plane and we got to see it and that was pretty cool! We stopped by this other members house and she was like 80 and on oxygen. her dogs came running out and barking and then all of a sudden we start hearing howling sounds. i ask her what that noise was and she said. "Oh thats my neighbors wolves!" Her neighbor is an Indian and has 5 Full Blooded Wolves in a cage in their backyard. It was kind of cool but kind of sketchy at the same time cause those wolves wanted to take a bite... or two out of me!
On thursday we went to this mans house and his name was Jim.. he called us the day before and was telling us that he needed help cause his neighbor said his house looked abandoned because of how tall the grass and weeds were that was growing in his yard. He had got our phone number from some missionaries like a year before. So we went over to his house and his yard was a mess! So we spent 2-3 hours mowing his lawn and making it somewhat better looking. He wasnt a member but i invited him to come to our service this sunday and he said he would but he didnt come! That night we had a lesson with Paul Abendroth and Jennifer Herrington both at 7. So we had to go on splits with some members. I went with Joe Odom the Stake Patriarch and Elder Hedberg went with Bishop Brent Hill! I taught Paul about the Word of Wisdom and half of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The only thing he has a problem with was drinking tea.. But everyone in Texas has a problem drinking Tea! I asked him how he felt about baptism still and he said. "i feel really good. i think i will be ready for the 28th" i was so excited to hear that! he also said that he believed Joseph Smith 100%! That was even better to hear!
Friday was a good day. We went back over to Kandies and Annas to stress the importance of coming to church and they keep making up excuses so if they dont start progressing. we may need to drop them and i dont want to do that! Cause i really love these people and want to see them make and keep Committments! After lunch we went on an Exchange and Elder Cardenaz (Spanish Elder) came with me to my area and we went to visit some people. That night we had a lesson with Zoe, Tad and Kallie Nackos. They are so ready to be baptized but there mom isnt a member and hasnt given permission yet:/! We watched the last session of Conference with them cause they didnt watch it. I colored a picture of Spongebob and Patrick while we watched it haha! I'm really working hard i swear!;)
Saturday Morning we went to visit this member in hospice and ended up teaching her neighbor that seems pretty interested. Her name is Colleen Ralson and she is only there for about 2 more weeks and then she goes back home. she broke her leg and thats why she was there. Later that night we went to visit Tom Deborrello! He wasnt home for our appointment earlier this week so we stopped in on him and had a lesson with him. He still doesnt know if there is a god and he prays to Jesus Christ not god. So we committed him to pray to God and ask him if he is there and he said he would do that.. so we will see what happens. Sunday was a fantastic Easter and was a very special day.. Where we get to remember our Savior Jesus Christ and what he did for us! I hope you had a good Easter as well!