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

Merry Christmas!

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

Letter #72

Oh the joys of being a missionary.. especially during the holidays!!

Thanksgiving was awesome! We went and stopped by a lot of members and it was awesome! Just for fun, Elder Davis and I did weigh in before the day started and after the day was over. It was pretty ridiculous how much food we ate. Elder Davis gained a total of 11 lbs by the end of the day and I gained 7 hahaha! Oh how much I love the holidays. I'm really thankful for a fast metabolism :)

Friday night I got a call from President and I am now going to be a district leader! I'm pretty excited! So I don't know where I'm getting transferred just yet, we should find out later today but I'm definitely going to miss Laredo a lot. I love this place. The members here are so willing to help and ready to do missionary work and there are so many prepared people but I know that God calls us where we need to be and Elder Davis is going to do really well in  Del Mar. 

Love you guys! 

Have a killer week!

Elder Brian