Letter #58

So, Mom and Dad, thanks for the little discipline and getting after me about writing longer letters. I'm sorry ok! I will try! Its just so hard when so much is going on at once that I cant even remember what happened two days ago! But I can honestly say I do love my mission and I am trying my best to save all the memories I can.

So I am going to back track a little bit and cover some stuff that I'm not so sure if i covered yet. Right now we are teaching a man named Achilles. He's awesome. Very humble man willing to do anything it takes to change. We've been teaching him for about a week and a half now and he's doing great. We started teaching him through one of our members, Brother Bryand. Its one of his best friends and Achilles was going through some rough stuff and went to Brother Bryand for help and that's when we came in. He's an ex-cartel member and he has some crazy stories! Anyway, we went through some rough patches in the teaching process, a lot of anti stuff that he heard and we thought we lost him but through fasting and lots of prayer we made it through and he's looking great for baptism this Sunday! He will have his interview tonight! 

That is our main focus right now in Del Mar. Actually, Achilles, being the great man that he is brought a friend to church yesterday and he loved it! His name is Jonathan. He accepted to be taught and we will work with him this week!

Transfers are coming up next week! We'll receive news this Sunday. This transfer is only a five week transfer because Presidente Maluenda will be going to Salt Lake City for a mission president conference so that means that next transfer will be a seven week transfer.

My comp is doing great! He's still kinda green but its alright, we're on the mission to learn right? We have a good time and i love him. The only thing that is hard is that I'm like 3 years younger than him and I can tell that he does NOT like being told what to do or receiving advise from a 19 year old kid! Haha.

Love

Elder Brian

Letter #57

Things are going good down here in Del Mar. Kind of crazy with some investigators and stuff, so I don't really know how to explain and it will take a long time if I do. But I just want to let you all know that the work is going great and I hope you guys all have an awesome week! Love you all!

Elder Brian

Letter #56

Another week of hitting the streets. Those weeks are the best!

 

So we were walking down a street the other day and we were heading to go contact a referral we had just barely received. We knock the door and a viajita (old hispanic lady) comes out and she's holding a bible.  She gives a surprised look and we make some small talk and we end up sitting down with her. We could tell pretty quickly she was a happy christian lady cause she started just rambling off random scriptures from the bible. So we get the few words in that we could and we ask her for some water. She then comes out with some water and out of nowhere she starts singing us a happy christian song and she belted it. I guarantee the whole neighborhood heard her! I couldn't take it. I just started busting up laughing, and almost spit my water all over the place. She continues to sing as i choke down the water that i have left and then it went really really silent, like she was expecting us to say something and then my companion yells while still laughing, Que Bonita!! Hahah! And then we gave her a card and got out of there pretty quick. It was hilarious.

Also we were out contacting and we run into this other Hispanic happy christian guy. He was working on his car and we asked him if we could help him out. He says no, but he asks us if we want to come sit down for a minute in his house. So we go in, he gets us some water and we have a good little talk and he pulls out his electric guitar, and his amp and he plugs it all in and starts to sing us a happy christian song in Spanish. And when Hispanics sing, they sing sin verguenza. ( I don't really know how you would say that in english. But like without shame. They don't care how they sound haha) So that was fun. It was just a week full of Hispanic people singing christian songs to us! I got a good laugh out of it. It was a blast. 

Love you guys!

Elder Brian

Letter #55

Here I am writing from the north side of Laredo! I never thought that would happen, getting transferred just 30 minutes away but its like a whole different world up here. Almost pure English, nice homes and more white people. You could almost call it like a little suburb of San Antonio I guess haha. Also Grandpa E, there is a lot of trucking up here. I see England trucks every so often which is pretty sweet.

I am working the Del Mar area. Its a great area! Lots and lots of English members and returned missionaries. It boarders Mexico and its right smack in the middle of the world trade bridge. We also drive a car. I was kinda bummed out about that, just cause I've been in a car for a pretty long time already, but guess what we get to drive around in? A mini van!! I feel like a total soccer mom driving that thing around. When me and my comp both get out, dressed in white shirts and ties, I feel like everyone in the neighborhood gets a good laugh and then runs inside before we can talk to them. Haha. We will definitely be taking more than enough bike days this transfer.

My new comp is Elder Browning. He's from Washington. He's 22 years old and he's been out on the mission for about 5 months. He's awesome and I love him. He's played football at SUU for about 2 years.

We are getting the area going pretty quick, we found a family of 4 the other day that we are working with. Its the Cantu family. Great family. We've only had 1 lesson with them so far and it went great! They loved it and invited us back. We have another lesson with them tonight and we are hoping and praying that all goes well! Also we are working with a couple named Noah and Karla. They are pretty young. 18 and 17 but they love hearing the message and having us come over. We hope they can all make it to church and we can start seeing some progress in the area!

Here's a cool quote for the day. Its gets me pumped every time I get a door slammed in my face. :)

"Its not about how hard you can hit. Its about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward!" -Rocky Balboa

Love you guys! Have a killer week!

Elder Brian

Letter #54

Sad to see this day come but, I'm leaving South Laredo. This area was awesome! Im gonna miss it a lot. Now I'm just praying I go to another border town! Or maybe Corpus Christi would be pretty cool too haha. But all I know is wherever I'm headed is gonna be great and its where I'm meant to be!

Love you guys! Ill fill you all in on the news next week! And if you by chance send anything just shoot it to the mission office. Thanks!

Letter #53

Hey hey!!

Just last week we had interviews with Presidente Maluenda! He is so rad! I don't think I've ever talked to a more "in tune with the spirit" kind of guy in my life. He just knows whats up in life and I think that is awesome. He definitely picked me up off my feet and got me going again and ready to work hard. 

Every other day we play morning soccer at the cancha at 530 for like an hour and a halfish and this morning we played. It was sweet. Everytime we leave, its literally like we just stepped out of a steam room, just soaked. My pants and shirt arent even the same color. Just to give you a little picture of how humid and hot it is down here, we set the phone down on the bleachers and when we came back to leave, the phone was soaked and now its... broken. Haha. We didnt even set it in a puddle or anything, just the humidity killed it i guess. It wont turn on. Thats the second phone that has broken on me! And they both happened while I was playing soccer! Ni modo. 

Transfers are coming up again! Time is flying by. I'll find out this Sunday if I'm staying or going and I'll let you guys know next week! I love the mission. It makes me pretty sad just thinking how much time has gone by and how much time I have left. Live it up while you can.

Love you

Elder Brian

1. Homies at What-A-Burger

2. Zone Blitz in Zapata

Letter #52

I hate when I say "I have nothing to say" when really I have a lot to say, I just don't know how to say it. That pretty much just sums up the email that I'm about to write. I just have to much going on in my head that i cant even think straight anymore. I think the work is really getting to me.

Dad, I went over to a Vivint guys appartment last night for a quick Sunday dinner. He was pretty sweet. We we're talking Vivint and I told him about you and it turns out he went to Ghana with you when your crew went down. His name is Johnathan. And.... I totally forgot his last name sorry. But I thought that was pretty cool and I thought I'd let you know haha.

We are also working with a Vivint kid that is down here for the summer doing sales. He came to church one Sunday and he really liked it. Me and my comp introduced ourselves and totally just blew off the question to see if he was a member because he said he was from Utah. But it turns out he's not! So we'll see how that goes this week and maybe he'll return to Utah being a member. How cool would that be?!

Love,

Elder Brian