Letter #96

Hey Fam!

What a week!

I don't really even know where to start, so many great things happened this past week, it was crazy!

So the teaching process with Meranda was awesome! She accepted everything that the gospel had to offer. The only big struggle we had with her was getting permission from her Mom to be baptized. So we had a great lesson on fasting and we set up a time and date to fast for it, us the Cavazos family and Meranda. So we fasted and after a couple days nothing really happened, but while we were in McAllen at 3 day training we get a text from her saying her Mom told her that she could do what she wanted with religion and it was her choice. It was a huge miracle!! So her mom signed the record. I gained a great testimony of fasting that week. So the baptism happened yesterday. It was awesome! Its been a while since I've had a baptism, it feels good to see it again. On top of that we had 5 other baptisms in the zone, which is huge for the Sinton zone! We are looking really good to hit our monthly goal of 7 in the zone. 

3 day training was awesome! We went down Monday night and I was paired up with Elder Shumway and Elder Johnson. We pretty much just traveled around the mission and worked wherever haha. We were driving the AP van so we had no mile limit! It was rad. One night we worked in a little town called La Joya, another night we worked in Donna, McAllen and another night we worked in Edinburg. I spent my nights at the AP's house with a bunch of other dead missionaries. Man, was that ariot! At the end of the 3 day training, I left having the nickname of Steezus. I don't really know why but I am now known as Steezus and not Elder Brian. 

Presidente Maluenda gave some great trainings on faith and finding and for like 2 hours he went off on how important it is to read books, scriptures especially but other books too. He said you should always be reading a book of some sort other than the scriptures. He said that's where he got almost all of his knowledge and why he is so successful. I definitely want to do that when I get back. 

So Elder Green is gone! His exit interview was last night, so he will be down there until he leaves so I am just left here to do transfers all alone! I can't really believe that I have only 6 more weeks left of my mission. It has gone by too fast. I love my mission so much and am so grateful for everything I've learned and still will learn. I'm slowly getting excited to apply everything here to life back at home. I love being a missionary and have really come to learn and know my Savior personally. Words can't express my gratitude for His sacrifice for me. I know He lives. I've learned how important it is to have a good positive attitude through trials and hard times. If you have to go through them, you might as well go through them happy right? I love this gospel and I know its true. I know Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet to restore the same church Jesus Christ himself established. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and we will get closer to our Savior if we read and follow its teachings. The mission is the good life.

Thanks for the support! I love you guys!

Elder Brian

Probably broke the Word of Wisdom on that one.... Ooops! Pretty good though.

The sweetest, most humble family ever.

Elder Steezus and Elder Casteez

Elder Christianson

Lunch at Godfather's Pizza.

*I'm only like 2 feet taller than them both. No biggie.

Letter #95

Hey guys!

Happy Mothers day again!! Not too much to go over since I gave you guys the run down of most of it yesterday.

We will be in McAllen most of this week. We head down today and we'll be there until Thursday night for a big leadership 3 day training. I'm stoked for that. They are always full of good advice and things that we can do better and improve on.

Meranda is progressing really well! She came to church again yesterday and she loves it all. She has great support from her uncle and aunt the only thing is she is struggling to get permission from her mom so if you guys could keep her in your prayers this week that would be awesome. She will be getting baptized this Sunday if all goes well! 

Love you all! Have a killer week!

Elder Brian

Letter #94

What up Fam?

What a week! 

So Elder Green and I have been fasting and praying that we would find someone to teach and baptize together and we almost lost hope, considering the fact that there are only 2 more Sundays in the transfer, but we got our miracle yesterday. So, we went by a members house Saturday night, and her niece happened to be there. We didn't think much of it, she wasn't too interested in talking to us so we just simply invited her to church. The next day, she was there! The fast and testimony meeting was really spiritual and after sacrament meeting we hopped on that and set up another appointment that same night, last night. So we go over and Sister Cavazos, the member, says that her niece could not stop talking about church! She loved it! So while she was out of the room, we gave the run down lesson to Sister Cavazos about what our plan was and told her that we wanted to set a BD for 2 weeks later and Sister Cavazos was down to help us out. So we taught the lesson and it was one of the most spiritual restoration lessons I've had in a while, it was sweet! We set the BD and she accepted it right off the bat. Her name is Meranda and she is 16 years old, Jr in high school. Im stoked to be working with some great investigators right now. Its the lessons like that that make the mission so awesome. God answers prayers, I see it everyday and I've gained a strong testimony of that out here. 

Just this morning we went out to Corpus Christi. It was fun! We didnt get to go to anything big, just a couple shops and came back. You cant do too much as a missionary up there but it was fun!

Elder Brian

Letter #93

Heyyoooo

Best week here in Banquete!

This week our planning paid off and we found some great new investigators who are progressing towards baptism. It was pretty cool how we found them. So i was on an exchange in my area, which I knew almost nothing about at the time haha and i was with Elder Hutchinson, one of the Dl's in the zone. We were going to visit some of the few people I knew and a former that i had never met before, anyways somehow, i end up getting super lost and we find this house that we decide to ask and see if this was the house of the former. Turns out it wasnt at all, she had no clue who that was but that she would love to listen. We set up a return appointment and go back a couple days later. As we were going back Elder Green asked how in the world i made it to this part of our area, he had never even heard or been over there, but we sat down with the lady and her daughter and they accepted everything very easily and are "fixin" to be baptized on the 24th of May! It was a huge miracle. The spirit definitely led us, cause I have no clue how i ended up there!

This week we also had interviews with President Maluenda. They went great! I love that man. He's been a great influence to me out here in the mission field. He gave me some really good insight and he tells me to read to book of Jarom a lot. That book is full of leadership skills. I guess i still have a lot to learn from it.

We also found and are teaching some other new investigators that we have, they were all sweet stories of how we found them and I wish i had the time to explain them all but unfortunately I dont. Their names are Corey, Steven and Valentin. So now we are back up to a good decent teaching pool!

The weather down here this past week was pretty gnarly. It rained really hard for a couple days. It was so crazy that i thought about paddle boarding to visit a member haha. Water in the streets was up to the truck door. The elders on the bikes, it went up to their knees. If you wanted to get to the gas station you had to literally take a swim to get to the front door. It was legit! I wish I had my camera cord to send some pics. Next week ;)

Love you guys! Talk soon

Elder Brian

Letter #92

What a week! You know it was a good week when you blow out ANOTHER pair of your pros shoes playing pros basketball. It was totally worth it though, now the elders up in George West have some great investigators to teach. I am now down to my last pair of shoes. Hopefully they can make it past the finish line.

This week was great! Our area needs a lot of work. We have a total of 4 active members and a bunch of less actives and currently no investigators. Elder Green and I decided to make things happen and set apart some time and set a lot of goals and plans to change our area around. We haven't finished the plans just yet, but they should be done by tomorrow and we should start seeing some miracles! Its weird to see how setting goals and plans can help you so much. At the beginning of my mission i used to just think, why not just go out and do it, who needs a plan, it will just all fall together if we work smart right? Wrong! I can't tell you how much Preach My Gospel and the scriptures talk about setting firm goals and plans. I had a really good study in Preach My Gospel this morning on chapter 8. I learned a lot about sticking to your plans, being responsible and following up. Its a big key to success in the mission field!

This week we had a little meeting with the Stake President in Portland. Its a cool area just outside of Corpus Christi. We had to cross a big bridge over the bay to get there. It was rad. Its a cool little bay city. We saw the huge Lexington ship. That thing is massive. I'm trying to convince the Elders to go over there on a P-day and check it all out. I think that would be sweet! Well, ya the meeting was great with the Stake Pres. He just talked about the vision that he has for the skate and what we can do to help. He wants us to focus a lot on Family History and the youth. He just recently also said that if we are teaching youth that don't have any family that are members, they have to come to church 8 times before they get baptized! I was pretty shocked, wondering how in the world we are going to be able to hit goals especially because we have a lot of youth that we are teaching in the zone, but it'll all work out someway or another.

Love you!

Elder Brian

Letter #91

Whats up everyone!

Its so weird being up in the north side of the mission, I've never seen so many white people! Its scary! I'm very intimidated and I feel like a greenie missionary all over again haha. It means I still have a lot to learn i guess.

My new area is a little town right outside of Corpus Christi called Robstown. Its gnarly. I'm here as a zone leader with Elder Green. He's about to go home, I'm killing him! I've never killed a missionary before, so we'll see how that goes. He's from Logan, Utah area. We cover the zone of Sinton. Its sweet. A lot of white people and a lot of farms. Now I really feel like I'm in Texas haha. We live in a house that a member has pretty much just given to the mission and we live with 2 other elders in our zone. Its pretty sweet. 

So far this week we've just been on a lot of exchanges with the new DL's so we haven't really been in the area too much. I love it though. Right now we are up working in a little town called Beeville and George West. Its the area that borders mission boundaries, closest to San Antonio. Its cool up here! The elders up here live in a trailer parked on the side of a members home haha! We had 4 missionaries in that little thing last night, it was so rad! It felt like we were at the dunes on a moto trip cause of the motor-home feel. They have a little pig in the backyard that runs around all night, its great. Pigs and motor-homes, you can't get any better than that.

I feel like so much went on this week but i cant remember it all haha. Time is flying! A lot of running around the zone, helping other Elders and Sisters. Its so weird working with Sister missionaries. I don't know how! I've never had any sisters in my district or anything like that except for 1 transfer when i was a greenie. So.... its a good thing my comp has been around Sisters like his whole mission, hopefully i can just dish that part off to him.

The mission is great! We are looking super good to hit our zone goal for the month of April! Love you guys! Have a killer week!

Elder Brian

Grandpa Brian would love this place ;)

Letter #90

Whats up guys!

To let you all in on the transfer news, which came quite early this transfer, I'm leaving Roma. I didn't wanna leave this place, but the Lord has good things in store. It'll be interesting to see where He sends me! I'll let you guys know next week.

How was conference for you guys?! I loved it. On Saturday we had some technical difficulties setting it all up, the signal wasn't good at all and it kept pausing and everything so our last resort was all of us piling into the little family history center and watching it on one of the computers in there. It was sweet! It was cool to see how dedicated and excited the members were for conference and to hear the words of the Prophets that they were even willing to pile into such a small room without A/C haha. That's true conversion to the Gospel.

 Thanks also for all the birthday wishes! Funny story, so on Friday we usually have a district dinner and then after that play basketball with the young men of the branch, its a super good finding opportunity to teach more youth and I love playing ball so, it works haha. Anyways, we were heading down to go to the dinner and we made plans to specifically not be late, so we went by to pick up the elders and a youth and while we were at the youths house waiting for him to come out, the elders get a call from him and he's like, guys just come in for a sec, i gotta show you something. I was like, we'll just see it later, we made plans to not be late, we gotta go. So the other elders we're like, come on lets just go see, and I was like whatever if you guys get out I'm leaving, I'm not gonna be late. So they jump out and i was planning on leaving and did, but then i turned around cause i couldn't leave the elders and I walked into the youths house and they all yelled surprise! Hahah, they got me pretty good. Its a good thing i wasn't just a little more stubborn on sticking to my plans or else i would've ruined the whole surprise. It was funny. Then we had delicious cake and the Mom smashed it in my face.

This week we brought a little family of 3 to conference! It was so cool. I was worried out of my mind because of the problems we were having with conference and I wanted this family to have the best experience at church ever and God made everything work! They loved it and even stayed for the branch activity after. They plan on coming next week too! I'm pretty sad that i won't be here to be able to see them progress but someone else will!

I love this Gospel, I love the mission. I can honestly say that I have changed so much even in these short transfers here in Roma. I'm sure gonna miss this little pueblo. I wish I could just be a missionary all my life and never come home. Sorry mom and the rest of the family. The mission life is the best and I love it so much. Love you guys!

Elder Brian