Letter #50

Happy Birthday Emerson!! The big 15. Hope its a good one! You have the same birthday as my comp ;)

Well, it was a fun week! Lots and lots of walking in the streets and going by members to find people to teach! There's nothing better than that. Just a few days ago we found a couple, Oscar and Valerie. They are awesome. It was kind of like a late night miracle. Walking all day, around 8:30ish, getting ready to call it quits and head home, still havent found anyone and one of the last doors we go to contact and they answer! We ended up sitting down and they accepted a baptismal date for the 27th of July! #miracles You gotta love 'em. ;)

So thats who we will be working with this week here in Laredo! Sorry its so short this week! Happy 4th!

Go U.S.A!

Love
Elder Brian

Letter #49

Talk about a gnarly week! I'm not gonna lie, Dad, I'm still kinda shaking from that visit from you. Total blindside. So here's my side of the story:

So we get this random call and its a hispanic guy saying he is a long lost member that used to live here in Laredo and loved the missionaries and he had a friend that he would love for us to meet and he said he would like to bring us some food. So my comp gets off the phone, tells me the good news and we were stoked. I asked him like who it was, what his name was and all the deets and turns out my comp never even got his name haha but he said he sounded like a really smart hispanic dude with the way that he talked. So at first, I was like alright awesome. We have some good potential to get a solid new investigator with a solid member to help. So later on, we get a text and it said "Elders how many live in your apartment".... but it was in english. So me and my companion were like, hmmmm. Who is this guy? But we told him and we just went with it. So we get to the apartment and we are waiting and a car pulls up and a guy gets out and he's wearing a Vivint shirt. So i thought it might've been one of the guys that have been working down here. And he says "Elders! I have 2 things for you. Lots of food and....... I want you to meet someone. And right then Dad comes around the corner!! My stomach dropped pretty dang hard. I didnt even know what to think! Haha. It was awesome! I cant believe its been almost a year since i've seen you last. Lets just say, i had a pretty solid journal entry that night and not so good of a nightly planning. haha.

So that was the big crazy news of the week! We are working with a couple investigators, they arent too solid right now, but we'll have to see what happens with them this week. 

Love you guys!!

Elder Brian

Letter #48

Pretty solid week in Laredo! Transfer news came and I'm staying here in Laredo for at least another six weeks with Elder Christiansen!. I'm pretty stoked about that. I think Laredo might get the best of me by the time I leave. If not me, then at least my bike. ;)

Have you guys been keeping up with the World Cup?! Its all over down here and I'm about to go nuts. Its a good thing a lot of the members watch it so they keep us pretty updated haha. USA plays Ghana tonight. You all better be watching it!

 We found some really great people we're working with. We ran into an older lady a couple days ago just walking the streets and we ended up sitting down with her and had a great first lesson and she even came to church yesterday! Her name is Maria Elena. She has a baptismal date for the 6th of July and so far everything is looking pretty good! Keep her in your prayers please!

This week I studied a lot about prayer and how key that is in our daily lives. A scripture in Alma stuck out to me. In Alma 37:37 at the very beginning it says "Counsel with the Lord" And i thought about that a little and what counsel really means. Our prayers should be like a conversation with the Lord, letting him know how things are going, asking him for help and in the end, letting him come in and help you with those things. So Counsel with the Lord everyday!!

Love you guys!

E. Brian

Letter #47

Awesome week! Not too much success with investigators lately but,  just because the numbers aren't showing it doesn't mean it wasn't a successful week!

We went and worked in the outskirts of our area this week. It was awesome! For a second i felt like I wasn't even doing missionary work because of the trails and paths we had to bike on. Haha, it was like we were just mountain biking the whole time! But I'm not going to be the one to complain about it. We did end up finding a less active we didn't know about! She's really cool and I've got a good feeling we could get her back to church in no time!

Transfers are coming up next week! We've been hearing a lot of rumors that our area might be getting pink washed (when sisters come and take over) so I guess we'll see what happens. Our mission over the summer is supposed to be getting a ton of Sisters and by the end of the summer its going to be a half sister half elder mission. That's going to be weird. Especially cause I'm in a complete Elder zone right now!

​ If you send anything, just send it to the mission home. Thanks and love you guys!!!

Elder Brian

200 W. La Vista Ave.

McAllen, Texas 78501

Letter #46

What a hot week! We've definitely felt the summer heat here in Laredo this week. You got to love walking up to peoples doors and having them ask you if you would like a rag to wipe the sweat off your face. Haha!

One thing that our mission president is always really focused on is enjoying your mission. And I was kinda thinking about that a lot this week. And a quote came to my mind. I have no clue where it came from or who said it but it says "If you pile up a bunch of tomorrow's, you'll be left with a lot of empty yesterdays." We all need to make sure we "live in the moment" and enjoy your time wherever you are at because you will never know when its going to leave, especially here in the mission with the short 2 years that us as missionaries have.

You guys are awesome! Have a killer week!

Love

Elder Brian