Letter #78

Whats up!

So transfers are tomorrow! But..... we still haven't gotten any news as to where anyone is going and who is staying and what not, so I guess I will have to let you guys in on the news next week. Or mom, I'm sure you can hunt it down somehow. ;)

I loved this transfer, I've loved every transfer but this transfer has been pretty hard. I came into a pretty dang successful district and I felt like I kinda screwed it up. Because the months of December and January we have not had a lot of success. We haven't been finding at all, the people we do find, flake off super quick and this branch isn't all that there yet to give us the support that we hope for.  I was listening to a really great talk by Elder Holland, its called Missionary Work and The Atonement. This sums it up a lot better than I can:

"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary."

Maybe right now, I'm just spending those few moments in Gethsemane. Its hard, its tough, but something good is gonna come out of it, I know it. I know the atonement is real. I can't count the amount of times I've knelt down and prayed at night and felt that love that Jesus Christ has for me. I love my mission. It has changed my life. The amount of good times exceeds that of the amount of tough times, but its through the tough that we learn the most.

Love you all!

Elder Brian 

Letter #77

Happy New Year!

Its been a good start to the new year. Frozen was good. Its good to finally see the movie that ever kid in the street talks about and sings down here. Then at 12:00 everyone shoots their guns up in the air for like 2 minutes straight. It sounded like a war was going on outside.

This is the last week of the transfer. This transfer has gone by so fast its unreal. I feel like I just got to Roma. Most likely I'm staying, which is good! But anything could happen, especially in the mission field. Time is just flying by and cant even keep track of everything. It gets pretty stressful at times.

This week we found a lot of new people to teach. There are 7 of them. Ill probably let you guys know how they progress a little further down the road, cause a lot of them we might not be teaching by next week haha. That's just how the teaching goes down here in the Texas McAllen mission.

Love you guys!

Elder Brian

Letter #76

Good Morning!

The weather is slowly starting to change down here. I guess its time to start bringing out the sweaters. Hopefully it doesn't last too long.

I hope you all had a good Christmas! It was fun down here. We just spent the day talking to you guys and we had a little dinner at a members home and we went out and worked! It was pretty sick.

Nothing too new, some of the baptisms fell though in the district, which was a total bummer but were shooting for January now! I was able to give a talk yesterday in church and I spoke on setting goals and plans for the new year. It was good. There weren't too many people who attended, but it was still good! On Wednesday, we get to spend the new year watching Frozen as a zone. I've heard its a really good movie, so I guess we'll see!

Love you guys! Have a killer new year!

Elder Brian

Letter #75

Earlier this week we had a Christmas zone conference. It was awesome to be able to feel of that Christmas spirit that all the missionaries brought and to be able to focus it all on Christ and His birth. What better way to spend Christmas than being out in the mission field! I love it

We also had a little Christmas party with our small branch in Rio Grande. It was fun! About 25 people or so showed up and we had some tamales and beans and Arroz con leche (Rice pudding). Sounds like a great Christmas dinner right? It was delicious.

The district is doing great! We had 3 baptisms yesterday. It was a part member family. It was great to see them all come together and have the mom return after being less-active for quite sometime. Our goal as a district is 6 baptisms for the month of December. This week is going to be a little crazy but we are looking like we have some great people lined up to be baptized this coming Sunday the 28th, one of those being Leo! Abelardo kind of fell off the board, we haven't had contact with him in a while but Leo is progressing really well. Any prayers on his part would be awesome.

Love you guys. Merry Christmas!

Elder Brian

pics....

Letter #74

Feliz Navidad!

So just a couple days ago, we were driving in our area and all of a sudden about 10 or so people bolted out of the trees and bushes all soaking wet, running for their lives, holding their clothes. I'll let you be the one to draw conclusions to the story. Elder Hatfield and I couldn't help but chuckle. I love the people here, they are so great;)

This week I went on a little exchange and was working in another little town called Las Lomas with Elder Serra. He's awesome. Great guy. We went by a less active part member family and we had a great lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they accepted to come to church and be baptized at the end of the month! It was a sweet Christmas miracle!

Our area is doing great! We don't have too many progressing investigators as of now, but Leo and Abel are pullin' along. They weren't able to come to church on Sunday cause Leo was in the hospital with his daughter. But everything is alright with her and she's doing great now. So this week we are hoping to get back on track with them.

I just wanna say how thankful I am for the blessings that I have in my life especially during this Christmas season. For a loving family, shelter over my head and food to eat. I encourage you all to be thankful for what you have, cause there are so many out there who have so much less. Love you guys!

Elder Brian

Letter #73

Roma, Texas. It definitely has no comparison to Roma, Italia but nonetheless, its what I will be calling home for the next little while. ;)

Just to tell you a little about Roma, its a little town of about 11,000. Its about an hour and a half outside of the city of McAllen and its right smack on the border of Mexico. I love it. Border towns like these are the best. Because of the many wonderful and perfectly paved roads we drive on down here, our area has a truck. From a mini van to a truck, that's quite the upgrade if you ask me. Our district of 6 elders cover a little branch in the city of Rio Grande about 25 minutes from Roma. The branch building is pretty cool, It used to be a Baptist church building so its a little different but still great. My new companion is Elder Hatfield. He's from Ohio and turns out he knows the Tanner's. Small world. He's great. He's been out on the mission about 8 months and about 7 of them have been here in Roma so he knows the area pretty well.

Right now we are working with a couple people we found this week. The two that we found are Leo and Abel. They are brothers. Really cool guys and they came to church yesterday! They had a pretty cool experience and are looking good to come back next week.

It's quite the fast and testimony meeting when a nice little old lady decides to get up and read the whole chapter of Alma 34 right from the Book of Mormon for about 10 minutes straight. Roma is great.

Sorry no pics this week! But I will hopefully have some next week. Love you guys!

Feliz Navidad

Elder Brian