Letter #24

Christmas week was awesome!! On Christmas Eve like 8 missionaries got invited over to a members house and we all had dinner. It was awesome. I was just super stoked cause the dinner we had wasnt Mexican food!! Haha. Then on Christmas we woke up and did our usual things and went and skyped at a members house. That was awesome! It was good to see you guys! Then after that we went to work, we didnt do too much knocking or anything. We just tried to find people who were walking in the streets or who looked lonely.

 

We did find a new family of three this week! The Oropeza family. They are sweet! We were just riding around on our bikes and stopped and talked to them and they let us right in! We had a good first lesson with them and found out that they are pretty religeous and are going to church pretty often, so we're gonna just killem with a good Restoration lesson this week sometime haha.

 

We got transfer info yesterday! Im staying in Cameron Park for another transfer!! But im getting two new companions! Im gonna be in a trio now. Im pretty stoked for that. I havent met my new comps yet, but its Elder Arredondo, he actually came out the same time i did, and Elder Hatch. I dont know anything about him, only that he is still pretty young in the mission. So the trio is going to be a lot of young guys, which im stoked for! Elder Roylance is going to be District Leader in Laredo. Im going to be kinda of like the top dawg in the trio for a little cause im the only one that knows the area and the people so im a little nervous cause ive never really taken the drivers seat around here, but its gonna be good! Im excited!

 

Thank you all again for everything! Christmas was great! I hope you guys all had a good Christmas too and have good goals for the coming year!! Love you!

 

Elder Brian

Letter #23

Merry Christmas! Sorry i have like no time today! The holidays are pretty crazy, even while you're on the mish haha. Everything has been going good! We just cleared our board of all the investigators we were teaching cause nobody was really progressing at all so this week will be a nice fresh start!

 

Love you all!! And thank you all so much for your love and support! I dont know what i would do without you guys!!

 

Elder Brian

Letter #22

Hey! This week we had a sick training from Elder Callister from the Presidency of the 70 just this last friday. It was awesome and deffinately made me look at the mission a little differently. He talked about the Atonement and really went into depth on how it should be used. Its wierd, cause before my mission i never really thought about how important the Atonement of Jesus Christ really was. But now as a missionary the Atonement is really the center of the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is what this church is about!

Thanks for all the support!!

Love you all!

Letter #21

Crazy week! We had three baptisms yesterday tho which was pretty sick! Feliciano, Ray, and Jailine. I got to baptize Feliciano in the spanish ward, it was awesome! First baptism in spanish!

The week was pretty crazy with him cause we had to get him married AND baptized. Me and Elder Roylance got permission to pool in our money and help him buy the marriage license. So finally after getting everything all ready we drove over to his house and then followed him and his girlfriend to the court house downtown. While we were driving we passed a cop and Roylance makes a stupid (but pretty funny) joke and was like "That would really suck if Feliciano were to get pulled over right now and deported back to Mexico" and then we both started busting up laughing and no joke, 30 seconds later a cop races by us, flips on his lights, and pulls Feliciano over! Me and Roylance just sat there in shock as we watched the cop pull Feliciano out of the car and get all up in his face. We sat there for like 15 minutes waiting and praying that he wouldnt get sent back to Mexico. After the big whole talk Feliciano got, the cop starts walking away and Feliciano looks over at us sitting in our car and throws up a huge thumbs up and puts a huge smile on his face and runs back and hops in his car. Haha, it was so funny! The cop ended up letting him off the hook... kind of. He still got a 350 dollar ticket for not having insurance, and no license.

That was probably the highlight of the week on the funny side. It was really cool to see Red baptize his little brother Ray and little sister Jailine too. He did really good.

 

The work down here is great! Were having a conference on Friday up in McAllen with a seventy named Ted R. Callister so that will be pretty exciting.

 

Thanks for everything! Happy Holidays!

Letter #20

Thanksgiving was pretty sweet!! Ate so much food. Ive never felt so full in my life haha! We only had two meal appointments, but you know Mexicans. They will give you food until they have no more food to give you haha. 

 

We are having two baptisms this week! Its the little bro and sis of Red! We've been teaching them for a while now but we just barely got permission from Red's mom to baptize them. And whats even sicker is that Red is going to baptize them! We dont even have to get in the water! haha. Thats our goal as missionaries is to not get in the water. Its a lot better when you have members from the ward do it, cause we wont be here as long as they are haha.

 

We've been working a lot with a guy named Feliciano. I cant remember if i've talked about him or not but he's so ready to be baptized he just has to get married with his wife. And the only thing thats stopping them is that he doesnt have money to buy a license. So we've been praying for a miracle or something! A lady actually stopped us in the middle of the road a couple days ago and gave us 20 bucks. So we put that toward our Feliciano fund haha.

 

Too bad missionarys cant buy investigators licenses or anything or Feliciano wouldve been baptized like a month ago!

 

Transfers arent till the end of the year. I have a feeling this month is going to be super long. I know this might sound mean, but i cant wait to get a new comp! He's killin me right now! I swear we are always argueing and sometimes i just want to deck him in the face. But i guess thats just how it goes.

 

Happy Holidays!

Love you all! Thanks for everything!

 

Elder Brian

Letter #19

Its been pretty cold down here! Nothing compared to Utah but for South Texas...... ya its pretty cold. I didnt come prepared for this weather at all! Roylance and I had to go to the mall a couple days ago so i could buy some sweaters so i didnt freeze haha.

Other than that, I did my first confirmation this week! Which was pretty sweet. It was with Red. He's doing awesome. They just called him to be the Elders Quorum secretary. Pretty crazy. A month ago this guy didnt even know about this gospel and now he's helping lead the ward. I love it!

 

This week has been pretty slow. Im pretty sure the coming week is going to be even slower cause of the holidays. Nobody really wants to let us in cause they all have family over or they are all gone doing the holiday thing.

 

Have an awesome Thanksgiving!

Letter #18

We baptized Red! This week flew by! We had appointments after appointments and then just yesterday we baptized Red. It was awesome. And he ended up bringing his whole family and they all thought it was a cool experience. Now were just hoping that gives them the push to get baptized haha. Elder Roylance did the baptism this time. 

And transfers came through and me and Elder Roylance are staying here in Cameron Park! Which is a shock for Elder Roylance. This is going to be his 4th here in Cameron Park. So Ill be here for quite a while still. Which is good i guess. I like it here. The only bad thing is that i know and have talked to practically everyone in Cameron Park haha. 

Yesterday we had a pretty sweet experience. During the spanish ward, Elder Roylance and i had to run out to the car to grab something and as we were walking out we saw a hispanic dude in a tank top walk up and he asked us if church has already started. We told him yes but he was more than welcome to go in and listen. We talked for a little bit and he just flat out told us, he quit drinking and smoking and he wanted to be baptized and he felt like this was the right church to come to. And me and Roylance looked at each other and we were like WHAT?! It was so sick. And then we asked what area he was in and he said Cameron Park! It was so awesome! So we sat him down, had a quick little lesson, set a Baptismal Date for the 1st of December and set an appointment up for tomorrow. It was amazing to see how prepared this guy was and how ready he was to make a change in his life. His name is Feliciano.

For Thanksgiving the English ward is having a Turkey Bowl and we got permission to go and play next week. Im pretty excited for that. Red said he's gonna bring some friends and hopefully we can make some new investigators out of that.  Red and his family already asked us to come have a cookout at his house on Thanksgiving haha. We are pretty stoked about that too.

Gotta go. Were headed off to go buy 800lbs of ties!

The church is true!!! I love you guys! Heres Red and his wife Anna and kids

Letter #17

Whats up!! Yesterday the library was closed so we werent able to email. Sorry!

 

 This week we had threw a wedding for Red and Anna! It was sick! I cant really remember what ive told you guys about Red so far, so. Sorry if i repeat myself. Me and Elder Roylance had to plan everything and go and decorate the gym at the church. I never realized how hard it was to plan a wedding. If only we had some member help it wouldve have been a lot easier, hopefully we can get the members to actually start working with us soon. We've been working a lot with Red this week. He's been doing awesome. His real name is Geronimo Del Fierro. Everyone calls him Red tho because he used to be a boxer and when he got hit, his face would turn really red haha. Pretty cool i guess. He's been to church twice now and he wants to get baptized ASAP and he's more than ready to do it, so were hoping to have a baptism this Sunday! Im stoked.

Transfers are coming up! Im pretty sure ill be staying here in Brownsville, but who knows!

Not much else has happened. Were just trying to work with a lot of Red's family too. They are deffinately seeing the change that Red is going through. Its crazy how much he's grown and changed and Ive only known him for about a couple weeks!

 

Sorry the letters short. I got work to do, and its hard to concentrate when you have a raging headache. Ill make next weeks better.

Love you all!

Halloween in Brownsville

Letter #16

I easily had one of the best weeks out here on my mission so far. It was so sick!

 

Some kids were riding skateboards in the street and i stopped them and asked if i could ride haha. They said ya and looked at me all wierd cause i had my bike helmet on and i was in a shirt and tie haha. But then i showed them how to ollie and kickflip and they thought i was the next Tony Hawk or something! It was rad.  Halloween was alright, we had to be in at 6 and study for the rest of the night, it wasnt all that fun, but no biggie.

 

But we did find a new investigator named Red! He's so awesome. He's 24 years old and has 2 kids and lives with his girlfriend. He's got a gnarly tattoo on his forearm that says RED. haha.  We found him while we were walking to another investigators house and he stopped us in the road and we introduced ourselves and he asked us if we were the ones with the Book of Mormon. We said ya and he said he was interested in that book and told us to come back the next day. So we did. We had an amazing first lesson and he had a lot of questions about where we came from and why were here and he thought that aliens or something sent us here and this life was just a test. So i guess he got a little bit of it right haha. But what was really cool and blew my mind was how he heard about the Book of Mormon. He told us that he was watching t.v. the other night and some history channel came up about the Mormons and the Book of Mormon. He thought it was really interesting and wanted to know more. And then the next day, we showed up. He told us, he's like "Its not a coincidence that you guys showed up. Cause right when i wanted to know more about this book, you guys came" And that right then, it made me realize that God does send us to certain places for a reason. Im here in Texas for a reason. God wants me here, not anywhere else.

 

So we set a BD with him and he's doing super good. He's quit drinking and smoking, he came to church with his family and him and his wife are getting married this Saturday by the bishop. Im hoping this one actually goes through haha.

 

I have like no time to write more but Im loving the mission more day by day. We've got a big week ahead and im super stoked! Thanks for everything!!

Letter #15

This week was sweet! So yesterday me and Elder Roylance were on the bikes. I love bike days. So we were just messing around, i was jumping the curbs and trying to do weelies and stuff, pretty much just being stupid haha. So i was riding no hands and pedaling pretty fast and wasnt paying attention to anything and i totally lost control and ate it hard on the pavement haha! I slid across the concrete for a good 5 yards or so haha. Pants were ripped up, my bike handle is jacked, my arm is pretty scraped up haha! I guess thats what i get for being stupid. My companion just sat there and laughed at me! haha! It was funny.

 

Other than that, nothing too new with investigators. Were just working on finding people. I did get to carve a pumpkin at the ward party tho, so that was fun! Ive heard that we might have to be in early on Halloween night, but who knows. Hopefully we get to do something fun!! People are pretty crazy about Halloween down here. So many houses are decorated and stuff. Lots of party ads too.

 

Its hard to remember what went on, all the days kinda mix together.

 

Thanks for everything. Love you all!

 

Elder Brian

Letter #14

Hey!

 

Its been sort of an up and down kind of week i guess. So this week we've been working with the Ochoa family of 5. We taught them the first lesson and it was amazing. Me and my companion thought we would never find a more prepared family than this one. So as the week went by we taught them more and more and they kept progressing. And we invited them to come take a tour of the church and they did! They met some members, got a tour of the building and had an awesome restoration lesson, they said they've never felt so good in a church building! Man, it was so awesome. After that, we committed them to church and they said they were super excited to come! So come Sunday, we were waiting for them at the church building and about half an hour before church starts we get a text from the Ochoa family saying they dont want to take the missionary lessons anymore, they dont wanna change their religion, and they dont want anything to do with the LDS church anymore. And this hit me pretty dang hard. I was like what the freak!! What did i do wrong?! This family, so willing to let us in and share our message with them, and they shut us down and we didnt even see it coming.

So, im still yet to find out why this all happened, hopefully i find out soon. But i know God has a reason for everything.

 

Other than that, its just been a regular week, we did a lot of biking around our area. Our area is huge! We've got a lot of work to do.

Thanks for everything!

 

Love Elder Brian

 

 

Letter #13

Hey!

 

Pretty good first week of the new transfer. Its definately a lot different only living with one other elder. It really shows how much more i need to work on my patience and love. haha!

We were able to find 9 new investigators this week, so were looking forward to a jam packed week ahead. We also found a really awesome family we are working with. They are going to be our main focus i guess i can say. The Ochoa family. They are a family of 5. 2 younger boys and an 18 year old girl. We had an awesome first lesson with them and they said they wanted to hear more! So we're hoping all goes well with them.

Other than that, we've been working a lot with less actives and getting our new area organized, cause before it was all over the place!

Sorry its so short this week. Ill make next weeks better!

 

Love you all!

Letter #12

Hey!

 

Its been a pretty slow week down here in Brownsville. Conference was awesome! We watched it at the chapel along with a lot of the spanish ward and english ward. Transfer calls came through! And it turns out that they are shutting a couple areas down in my zone and me and Elder Roylance are taking over one of them! So we'll have a lot more people to work with now. And two elders are moving out of our appartment, so its just me and my companion in a 4 man appartment. We have so much room now its awesome!!

 

 Not too much success and we've had to drop a lot of our investigators since no one is wanting to progress. Nestor and Nidia were doing good, but they wont set a wedding date anymore, and without that, they cant get baptized. Elder Roylance and I were praying super hard that they would come to conference cause we knew it would answer their questions about marriage, but unfortunately they didnt show. It wouldve been so perfect cause Elder Ballard or someone in the first session on Saturday, i cant remember (whoops), gave an amazing talk on Chastity and Marriage and it wouldve definately helped changed their minds on that. So this week, were giving them one last lesson to see if they will progress, if they do then we'll keep teaching, if not, we have to let them go.

 

Other than that, nothing too big going on. Like i said, its been a bit of a slow week. Thanks for everything!

Letter #11

Hey Guys!!

 

This past week wasnt the best week, but it was still good i guess! We didnt have to much success finding anyone to teach and a couple of our investigators flaked out on lessons but i guess thats just what happens. Good news on Nestor and Nidia! They are doing awesome, we did find out that they arent married tho...... but we can always fix that. We asked them if they would wanna get married and they both said, "whatever God wants us to do, we'll do it!" It was awesome. So it looks like me and Elder Roylance are planning a wedding this week! Haha, that'll be interesting!

 

Chris was confirmed a member just yesterday, that was pretty sweet! He calls us everyday like 10 times asking when he's gonna become a mormon and be able to teach like us. haha! He's awesome. But the only bad thing was that me and Elder Roylance were late to church and didnt make it in time for his confirmation...whoops! So the bishop did it for us. Chris was super mad and disappointed that we didnt make it, ut we do have a pretty solid reason for being late. So before church, we went to our investigators house to go wake them up and get them ready for church and we went to this one guys house and knocked on his door. He came out and he was all beat up. We were like "What happened!" And he told us that last night he got mugged by the cartel. So we did all we could to help him out and then we lost track of time and thats why we were late to church. Pretty interesting right?! haha.

 

We did find a new investigator named Miguel this week. He's like 20 years old and he's a musician. He's really nice and has a pretty dang good voice im not gonna lie. Our first visit with him was like our own personal concert haha. He brought out his guitar and just started playing all these Christian hymns and we sang along, haha. It was pretty sick! He gets called all the time by all these churches to go play for them and stuff. He said he loves it. But we did set a baptisimal date with him and hopefully he progresses!

 

Transfers are next week, im pretty positve that me and my companion are staying in our area. But who knows! I let you know more about that next week.

Hope everythings going great!

 

Love Elder Brian

 

Letter #10

Hello Hello!!

 

Good news!! I was able to baptize Chris!! It was so awesome. It turns out, he did get released from probation and he only has to do some community service or something. Pretty sweet experience for my first baptism. I only messed up twice on the prayer haha!

Other than that, the week was pretty good. Nestor and Nidia are continuing to progress and they ended up coming to church yesterday too! Theyre so awesome. We did find a new investigator, i cant remember if ive already talked about Daniel or not. But hes awesome. We had some really good lessons this week with him, and it sounds like he is really interested and wants to progress. He has a wife and 2 kids. The wife isnt that interested at all, but hopefully we can get her interested this week or something.

On a different note, we went on exchanges this week, and I went with Elder Ferrel. Another Elder i live with. I was in charge of my area, which was pretty hard haha. I still am struggling to find my way around. So we were going by some people i knew and while we were walking, we hear blasting music, so we pass by and a bunch of guys are having a big cookout and drinking and stuff. As we passed by, they yelled at us and told us to come back and have some food and hangout. We shouldve kept walking, but i was hungry, so we went back and joined them haha. They were all totally wasted out of their minds, asking us all these weird questions and getting in our faces. It was hilarious. They all kept talking about how they wanted to become better people and stop drinking. Which was awesome, but i doubt they even knew what they were saying cause they were so drunk. They fed us Cameron, its like some shrimp food. It was alright. But, we did end up setting a return appointment with them, so hopefully we can catch up with them sometime this week when they arent totally drunk. Haha. So that was some funny experience that happened this week.

Everything is going great down here in Brownsville. Hope everythings good with everyyone at home. Thanks for everything!

Love you all!

Fiesta!

Brother and Sister Oliva

Sister Padron--she feeds them every week.

Letter #9

Hey Guys! This week has been good. Nothing too crazy or anything. The only bad thing is that Chris's baptism didnt go through. I was super bummed. We found out that Chris is on probabtion for something he did in the past. We all were pretty bummed, even Chris! His court date is this Friday, so if all goes well and he gets released or something then he can get baptizedthis Sunday! So were praying super hard that everything works out for him.

This week we found a really awesome couple named Nestor and Nidia. Me and Elder Roylance used to many miles on our car so we had to bike, and while we were biking, we passed a guy smoking a cig, so we decided to stop and talk. This guy was Nestor. He put out his cig and we sat down with him and had an amazing lesson and he accepted a baptismal date! It turns out that he had just gotten out of jail, and while he was in jail he started reading the bible and he knew that he needed to get his life in order. So he's accepting everything and is so eager to learn, its so awesome! Two days later, we went back to teach him another lesson and this time his wife was there, Nidia. We invited her to join in on our lesson, and she accepted a baptismal date too! They have 2 little kids, a little boy and a little girl. As of right now, theyre both doing amazing and want to learn more. The only problem in they are living on close to nothing, and Nestor walks about 10 miles to work everyday cause they have no car. So it might be a little tough to get them to church, but thats what members are for, right?!  

Thats a little bit of whats been going on this week. Thanks for everything! Love you guys!

President & Sister Maluenda

Letter #8

Hey Guys!

 

This week has been awesome! We just barely got back from Downtown, right next to the border. Its pretty crazy down there. Lots of little mexican shops and stuff, it was pretty sweet to see the border haha. We did just buy 100 pounds of ties though! And only for 50 bucks! The elders go crazy for ties down here. They are all about the nice brand ties. And also all the locals will notice if you are walking around with a nice tie. So when you buy a bundle (100 lbs worth) you can get all kinds of ties, its all random. So if you get lucky you can find really nice, expensive ties. And then the elders trade. Its pretty sweet, hopefully i find some nice ones today haha.

 

Oh, and Dad, i did try an Elote this week! The corn on the stick with cheese and chile. The stuff that they eat in Nacho Libre haha. It was pretty good i guess. Not as good as i thought it would be, but for 1.50$ i guess it wasnt too bad. Trucks drive around all over town selling them. They call the trucks, Elote men. Haha, but everyone buys them down here like crazy!

 

 

Anyways, so this week we've been working a lot with Chris. the 15 year old. He actually came to church this week and we were stoked about that! This was his second time he's come, so now he's back on track to being baptized! Im super excited for him, his baptismal date is set for September 15. We havent really had too much success finding new investigators this week. But on Wednesday, we were talking to some less active youth and we convinced them to let us sit down with them, but they said only if we play them in a game of basketball. Haha, so we did. It was awesome. When we got to the court, there were two other kids playing, and we asked if they wanted to join our game, and they did! And we actually ended up teaching them a lesson after too! The kids that we met at the court were Juan and Andrew. Juan is 17 years old, super nice kid, pretty short and he's really into dancing. And Andrew, he's 12 years old, also pretty short but definately a lot bigger than Juan. We asked them if we could come by some day this week and they said yes! So im hoping all goes well with them this week. Its been raining a ton down here the past couple days. I dont know if its anything close to the storm that you guys had just barely, but its been pretty crazy.

 

I dont have much time to write, but hope everythings going well back at home! Thanks for everything! Love you guys! We'll talk next week!!

 

Love Elder Brian

Letter #7

Hey!

 

The field has definately gotten a lot better since the first few days i was here. It was tough, i wasnt really used to my surroundings at all, but now ive kinda taken everything in, and im looking forward to an awesome time here in Brownsville! So my area is one of the most ghetto parts here in the McAllen mission. Our area, Cameron Park, isnt even owned by the city of Brownsville because of how ghetto it is. Haha, pretty crazy, but there are some awesome people here. The members are all so nice and help me out with my spanish, which i do need a lot of help with!

We set a baptismal date with a little girl named Annette. I cant remeber if i told you guys about it or not. But she's awesome, super energetic 10 year old who loves the gospel. We went over to teach her on Friday and out of the blue this old lady comes out of the house and just starts raggin on us in spanish. I had no clue what she was saying but i could tell she was furious. I later find out that she says we cant come over anymore and teach Annette, and she was saying Annette doesnt want anything to do with our church and all this other stuff. My companion got a little heated, so i kinda pulled him away and we got outta there. So bad news is, i dont think we can go visit Annette anymore. Pretty sad, cause if it werent for that Grandma, im sure we would have her baptized in no time.

We had so many investigators that commited to come to church this week and none of them came, it was really frustrating. But were hoping that this week is a lot better.

Oh, we got invited to a 50th wedding anniversary of a couple in our ward. Theyre are so cool. So we went. My companion said that they had been planning this wedding anniversary party for like a month now. It was awesome. They had a live mexican band, all the men were wearing their mexican cowboy tuxedo's and the women in big dresses. Tons of food. Tons of people. Everyone was taking pictures with the couple, it was just a huge party! I have a picture, ill attatch it too. I make the couple look so short haha. That party was definately the highlight of the week.

Not much more went on this past week that i can really remember. I went shopping for food for the first time. That was cool i guess. i bought a lot of cold cereal and milk and oatmeal haha. So hopefully i can live off that for a while. We get fed pretty good down here by all the members, so im not too worried.

Anyways, its been an awesome week, im looking forward to more! I hope everyones doing good! Sounds like you guys are having a blast back at home. I dont have much time to write, so i have to make this quick.

Love you!!

Letter #6-Back in the U.S.

Hey! Im in Texas now! Its crazy how different the MTC is from the mission field. I definately feel a lot more homesick out here cause i actually see people living normally, instead of at the MTC where everyone there was doing what i was doing. We stayed the first night at the mission home, the mission president is awesome. They fed us dinner and breakfast, it was super good. The next morning we got up and got assigned to our new companions and areas. I got assigned to Brownsville. Its a border town just east of McAllen. A lot of spanish speakers and some english speakers. Really really ghetto area. My appartment is decent tho. My companion is Elder Roylance. Hes a cool guy. He lived in Washington on a farm somewhere. Hes been out for about 6 months or something like that. Anyways, we had our first lesson later that night. We taught a mom, her daughter, and her son. They are really cool. And it was in english. The daughter is doing really good and she and her brother have a baptisimal date set for sometime next month i think. THe only thing that is hard is that the son, hes like 15 or 16 years old, he has a son who is about 2 years old. Its crazy. We are teaching them about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity tonight, so im hoping that goes well. We also had a member lesson last night with dinner. The dinner was beans and rice and egg. It was alright i guess. These members were awesome tho, super nice. I taught the lesson, i kinda struggled with my spanish, but thats alright cause they knew that i was a new missionary out here. We also did some referal trackting yesterday, got shut down a lot. But i better get used to that. Also we went by this lady named Samantha. She is a less active member. We started talking to her and she blurted out the question "Guess what missionaries?" And we were like What?? And she said "My husband just got picked up by boarder control and sent back to Mexico" I didnt know what to think, i wanted to laugh, but i held it in. She looked super sad, we didnt really know how to help haha. We gave her some words of comfort, but as we were doing that, she got a phone call. She left for a minute. When she came back out, she was super excited! And she said that that was her husband on the phone and that hes gonna try to jump the boarder again tonight! haha! So we might be seeing her husband here soon. Haha it was pretty funny. That little story just goes to show how ghetto it is down here but i like it i guess. I dont have all that much time to write, sorry i didnt get to call at the airport. They were being pretty gay with the call rule, but i obeyed it anyway. I hope everything is doing great at home, i miss you guys a lot. If you can, send this to dad cause i dont know if ill have enough time to write him today.

Letter #5 to Dad

What up Dad!

 

This week has been soo awesome! Definately one of the better ones here in the MTC. We just got back from the temple. It was awesome. They dont have the new video yet though. And now that i think of it, that might have been my last temple session until i get home. Thats alright i guess.

Mom told me that you ran into Alex the other day? Thats sweet. She sent me the pic. He´s gonna be awesome, especially once he gets out of the MTC and out here to Mexico City. We actually saw the missionaries walking around town while we were headed to the temple. It looked like they were having such a good time!

Im jealous of the biking you and mom are doing, it sounds awesome! I cant wait to go bike around McAllen, its gonna be sick. I heard that alot of the roads are dirt roads or theyre really bad concrete so hopefully i have some solid tires on my bike.

Yesterday we had some time on our hands, so we decided to go talk to the new natives that just barely arrived. They were awesome. They talked really fast, but after i told them to repeat what they said once or twice i could understand what they said and then reply. We talked to two Elders, one was from the Dominican Republic and one was from here in Mexico City. The one from the D.R. was super energetic and looked like he was having a great time. The one from Mexico City was the total opposite. Poor kid. I could tell he was missing home already. He asked me a question What do you do when you are homesick? it took me a minute to understand what he was saying, then when i did, i didnt know what to tell him. Woops. So i hope hes doing alright. Did you ever get major homesickness when you were out serving? Or do you have any awesome experiences from your mish that you wanna tell me, or any advice going into the field? Cause i hear its gonna be a whole different world when i get out there, but im stoked.

Where are you going on your work trips? Anywhere crazy?

Well, Im gonna try to call you and mom at the airport in Dallas so thats probably the next time we´ll talk. And i dont know when my next P day is to email, but ill let you guys know when i find out.

Thanks for everything Dad! Love you! Talk to you soon

Letter #5 to Mom

Hey Mom!

 

This week has been awesome! We just got back from the temple, its was a great session! I could understand a lot more than i could the first temple session which was like a month ago. I never knew how many people lived in Mexico City until we saw them all walking to school this morning, it was crazy! It kinda felt like i should be going back to school too. Hows Indy, is he going to be able to skate or anything for a while? Ya, i can get all that extra stuff at Walmart when i get to McAllen, if there even is a Walmart. Who knows.

Anyways, everything is great, i hope everythings going great at home. Miss you guys a lot. I guess next time we talk will be when i get to the Dallas Airport. And i dont know exactly when my next P day will be cause ill be in McAllen!!

Thanks for everything! Love you and talk to you soon!

Letter #4 to Mom

Hey Mom!

This week has been great! Time has been flying by now and i cant believe ive already been out for almost a month! Its crazy, but im lovin it. Not really anything new this week here. But i did hear that i get to go to the temple one more time before we head out to McAllen, so that will be nice! I doubt they will have the new temple video, but who knows?! Maybe they will! I just wrote Montana, i hope shes doing well. I wanted to watch that Mormon Ballers video so bad, but the computer must have it blocked or something. i bet it will work if you download it onto your computer and then send it, instead of sending it as a link from youtube, if you can figure it out, great, if not, no worries. My stomachs been doing better! And i just got a hairciut today, pretty much buzzed it. Im sure dad would love it, cause hes always saying i should get a buzz haha.

Thats awesome that Emersons started soccer up again! Im sure shes having a blast, i miss soccer a lot! We dont really play it here. We usually play basketball for gym time and the games get pretty heated, but its so fun! I hope Indys doing well, sounds like surgery wasnt too fun but atleast his chest will be all fixed up. And i still hit the gym here a little bit, so dont give Indy to much hope that hes gonna be able to take me on when i get back haha.

So i leave on the morning of the 26. And i do get to call at the airport i think! So ill call both your phone and dads phone, if you arent with each other. And another think i forgot to get is a sewing kit. If you can send one in the package, that would be awesome, if not, i can just buy one in McAllen somewhere.

Other than that, everything is awesome here! Hope everything is going great back at home! Love you guys a lot!

Letter #3 to Dad

Hey what up Dad

 

Not much new here in the MTC, but ive decided i need to take your advice and be a little more positive about the whole experience haha. Thats sweet that you and mom are starting to bike now! Finally putting that new bike to use. I bet its awesome! Some crazy things that have happened this past week, we had an earthquake! The sirens went off and no one knew what was going on haha. Everyone just walked out of class and we were all just chilling outside then some leader said we just had an earthquake. I didnt feel a thing. But i did here from someone that the earthquake was actually in the newspaper, i bet we will have a few more of those before i leave haha. Also we had a massive rain storm one night. I have never seen it rain harder in my life. Puddles everywhere shin deep no joke. And we had a devotional we had to get to, so we go outside and we just see tons of missionarys just bookin it to the auditorium haha it was a sight to see. Elders were losing shoes in the puddles, sisters were falling in the puddles, it was a mess! But it was pretty fun. Its been a pretty chill week so far, the only bad thing is that the food is making me sick, not too good on my stomach at all.

Could you email me my farewell talk? All the other elders have the farewell talks here and they all read it, so i feel like im missin out haha. I wish i had somme more experiences to share, but im still in the MTC so theres not much i can do about that. It sounds like back home is doing good! Have fun in Hawaii! Sounds sick! Good luck to Indy on his surgery, tell him to email me sometime and say what up, its always good to get emails here. Love you guys!

Letter #3 to Mom

Mom-

 

Hey! Back home sounds good! Thats sweet that you and dad have started biking! And Emerson with soccer! Thats sweet, shes gonna love it! I havent seen Cole Paynes video, but thats sounds awesome! i wanna look it up somewhere but i dont know if im really aloud to haha. Everythings been going good here! Im gonna try to be a little more positive and spiritual in my letters, thats something i need to work on haha! The only bad thing, is that the food here is making me sick. Its not good on my stomach at all, and ive had some bad stomach pains, but thats just something im gonnna have to get over i guess. I wish i had some more spiritual experiences to share, but just remember im still in the MTC soo... I sent a letter to dad also. I mightve included some more stuff in his, i cant really remember. But im loving it here! Ive made some good friends! But i honestly cant even wait to get to McAllen. Theres nothing else i really need, except a truck load of food in the McAllen package would be nice haha! Tell Indy to shoot me an email, i wanna hear from him, and emerson too!

Love you guys!

MTC pics

Letter #2

Whats up?!

Happy birthday Mom! Ya, its a little late, but i can only email on thursday soo, i guess its not really my fault. You got a bike? Nice! Im jealous of you guys and your Powell trip, i bet it was sick! Thats sweet that Maddie came and said Happy Birthday! She told me about it, thats so nice. I got a PHYSICAL letter! From Grandma and Grandpa England! i was so stoked, I love them. I want to write them back, so im gonna try to, the stamps are expensive so you should let them know i got it and thank them for it for me. And i got another letter in the mail from Maddies dad! He sent me a really cool story, that i felt like it went along really well with missionary work, I read it to my companions and they liked it alot. If you see him around, tell him thanks too! I heard about Zach, i bet his talk was way good, im starting to feel a litle more accompanied now that more and more of the homies are getting mission calls and leaving on there missions and boot camp i guess. It feels like I just got here! The first week, was not good. The days felt like weeks, but now that im at the start of my third week here, its flying by! and i heard that it only gets better once youre actually out in the field. Theres nothing really new here in the MTC, same old stuff, day in and day out. My spanish is deflinately getting a lot better, you can just call me a native speaker cause im that good. Just kidding, not even close. Im starting to get along with my companions more and more, they bug the crap out of me sometimes, but i gotta learn to love em, thats all in the mission experience i guess. I did hear about Indys car! thats sweet! Is he getting surgery soon? And how about my room? Is he sleeping in there every night yet and wearing all my clothes and using all my stuff?

Anyways, im loving it out here, and my P days honestly feel like Christmas cause i get to check email haha.

Love you guys! Ill write soon

Oh and some things on the list of needs for McAllen, more Pens, like the pens that i got from the Sorensons. (Pigma Micron 005) Theyre the best for scripture marking. Red and black colors are best.

I had some other stuff i needed, but i cant remeber. Ill think of them and tell you later!

Letter #1

 Hey Mom and Dad!

The MTC is treating me alright i guess haha. i dont really know where to start, its been a long week. The food sucks, the dorms are nasty, no one speaks english, studying spanish and the gospel at the same time is sooo frustrating, i sometimes wanna punch my companion, but other than all that stuff its been good! im pretty sure ive lost about 5 pounds tho cause the foods terrible, but i can suck it up. So i have two companions right now. Elder Funk and Elder Scott, they are totall opposites of each other. Elder Funk is the kinda kid that wants to study every second of the day, even on free time. Elder Scott is the kid that jokes around and makes people laugh. Pretty good to have the best of both worlds with my companions tho. So the third day we got here, we had an investigator to teach already. We had to teach in spanish and i honestly only knew like 4 words in spanish. It was so awkward and went downhill from the begining. But we have a lesson to teach everyday and it gets better and better each day. My P days are on thursday just to let you all know. I see Savy all the time! Shes in my district, i went to the Mexico City temple with her today! It was awesome, beside the fact that it was all in spanish haha. Im in a house with Elder Avilla too, hes a pretty cool kid. And yes i did forget my toothbrush and gel, but its alright,  some elder hooked me up with a toothbrush. i dont have much time, but I love you guys and miss you guys a lot! but the work is good! Write you soon! Also tell Indy that this message is for him too, i dont have enough time to write everyone!

Safe Arrival!

Hey Mom and Dad just wanna let you know i made it here safely! Its a whole other world out here haha. None of the leaders or teachers or whatever you call them will speak english. Not one word. So im pretty sure im gonna be speaking fluent spanish in like a week. The flight to Mexico felt like forever and i had a headache 90% of the time but its all good now. Im dead tired and trying to keep my eyes open as i write this message. The campus is huge! But its pretty baren right now, no one is here, you guys were right when you said im in the first batch of missionaries coming here. Theres like 50 elders and sisters and thats it. On the flight from Salt Lake to L.A. i met 2 other elders that were going to McAllen so i was pretty stoked about that and then in Mexico i met like 5 others. I found the kid you were talking about Mom. He came up to me and said that our parents knew each other but i cant remember his last name. I havent met my companion yet but i should be meeting him in just a little bit. Im stoked to get to work tomorrow tho! Ill write again soon. Love you guys

Departure Day