Returned with Honor

Elder Fraley arrived home yesterday! We made some fun posters and got balloons and headed to the airport to pick him up. We were all a little antsy! It was so great to see him walk down the hall. We are so excited to have him home! Enjoy some pics from the airport.

Knee Injury

So my knee is doing better. I can walk on it but it still feels
uncomfortable. Hopefully the doctors visit will go well. I did get the
card. It came in clutch because it paid for the co pay and a cd of my
X-rays that I need to take to the specialist. It came at the perfect
time. I like flan. It’s okay I don’t love it though. Family vacay
sounds fun. Glad I’ll be home for that! My knee is
somewhat swollen. It’s gone down though. I’ll probably be watching
conference at the church. Should be good. It’ll be interesting who the
new apostles will be.

Well Monday we started by getting ready and then going to Galena park
to play a bunch of sports with a bunch of missionaries. Two zones. It
was super fun. We played football and chilled a bit then played
soccer! That’s when it happened. I had the ball and was running up and
another Elder ran from the other team just rammed into me and my leg
went between his and he scissored my knee. Hurt really bad and I could
tell that something was different from the previous times of
dislocating it. We just went home after that.

Tuesday was spent driving around to the doctor and stuff. Other than
that we didn’t really do anything. Wednesday was the same really.

Thursday we had new missionary training early in the morning. We had
to pick up Elder Riches and his trainee and then we headed over there.
It was really good, pretty fun. Sucked crutching around in a suit
though. They fed us lunch too so that was good. That night we ate with
a member. He bought us pizza.

Friday we had district meeting. I was able to walk a bit with my
brace. We had district meeting out in a park it was fun. That night we
ate dinner with the Fuentes like always. It was super good.

Saturday we did service from 8 to 4. We were fixing up a fence at
another church with the young men. We sanded down all the rust which
took a long time. Then we painted to black. We only got half of it
done though. That night, with the riches and his companion, we ate with
the Martinez family. They took us to a good wing place. March madness
was on some TVs there so that was cool. Afterwards he took us to
baskin Robbins.

Sunday we had church and then we ate with the Cardenas family. We had
a Chinese/ pizza meal. It was good though. Then that night we had a
mission presidents fireside for all less actives, recent converts, and
investigators. There were some good testimonies shared.

That was basically it this week. Not a very exciting week!

Since this email, Elder Fraley has seen an Orthopedic specialist and the decision has been made that he will be coming home early to get his knee taken care of. He's disappointed to leave but knows this will be the best thing for his health. He will be flying home Friday! We are pretty excited to see him! 

"Last Pic with the Bros" 

Biking week

I’m doing great!

Yep people here say y’all. This past week was alright. We met our weekly goal for new investigators but other than that it was ok. A flauta is like a tightly rolled tortilla filled with chicken and then deep fried. You put lettuce on top and salsa. They are pretty good. Sad to hear about Aaron. I hope he’s doing alright. Got any updates on him? It’s been pretty hot lately. Which card? Taylor likes Texas but he’s not ready for the summer. He’s going to melt.

Last Monday we had a family home evening with my favorite family here, the Fuentes. We shared a spiritual thought on Christ and then we ate some good food. They had cheesecake too which was super tasty. Don’t get that very often. Hispanics don’t really eat it. They eat lots of flan though.

Tuesday we did some biking in the morning. It was pretty hot and the sun was out and about. It was good to get some sun. I’m getting tan again. We talked to some people then we had lunch. That night we ate with some members and had some bomb tostadas.

Wednesday we were on exchanges and I was with Elder Nelson. He’s Elder Riches new Elder. This is his first transfer out. We had some fun! He’s from San Diego and super cool. We ha ave a ton in common too. We were able to talk to some cool people but didn’t have anything too crazy happen.

Thursday morning we had spanish class again. That was fun and we learned a lot. Spanish is hard though. All the rules confuse me so I just speak it. Apparently I speak pretty well though. Just have to expand my vocabulary. We had weekly planning as usual. That was boring haha. Afterwards we ate with some members, the Rendon family. We had tostadas again and Elder Taylor lost to hermano twice in chess haha.

It was kind of a cool day on Friday! We had district meeting in a park that morning. It went well and was fun. It was nice to be in the park. We were under these shelter things with tables. It started to rain but it was covered. After that we ate lunch at Carmen’s house and it was super good. We helped her fix her washing machine too. That night we were biking around and I got a flat tire.. ran over glass on accident and pop. We were far away from our dinner appointment too... but as we were trying to figure out what to do a guy named Ryan pulled up in his car to talk to us. He was a salesman for an alarm company called Alder. He was a member and he actually served a mission in Montana and northern Wyoming. He served in Cody too! I thought that was super cool. He didn’t know grandpa though because he only ever served in the southern part of Cody. Like by the high school. We chatted for a good while and then went to our dinner at the fuentes. That was super good.

On Saturday, we biked a ton that morning. We biked from 10 to 2 and then went to eat lunch. After lunch we did some studies and went back out. We worked for a bit and talked to some cool people. That night we ate with the Martinez family. There was a ton of people there. We ate carne asada and it was legit. They had some bomb pico de Gallo. We shared a thought on temples and family history. It went really well. They temple reopens in April so it was good.

Sunday was alright. We had church and some meetings in the morning. We had a super good dinner though. We ate with the Tenorios and we had roast with super good bbq and rice with salsa. It was super good. I can still taste it. We worked hard after that but didn’t have much success.

That was basically it. Wasn’t too exciting honestly. Have a good one

Feeling Better!

Hey guys!

Man I feel so much better. The rash is basically all gone finally. No more itching like crazy. The picture in the focal point is from the leadership meeting. Our zone conference is in a week or two.  Weather was pretty good this week too. It rained last night but other than that it was pretty sunny all
week. Got lots of sun.

Last Monday was pretty good. We went to the doctors and I got loaded up on meds again and another shot right in my hip... ugh. After that we went down to our church and played lots of basketball and ping pong. I’m getting alright at ping pong. Elder Taylor is way good. Undefeated.

Tuesday was a good day. We had spanish class early in the morning. Those are good as usual. We always learn a lot from hermano pomeroy. We did quite a bit of biking. It was a nice day out though so it was fun. Wasn’t too hot, and there was a little bit of a breeze. Not too excited for the summer here. Last summer was sooo hot. Elder Taylor is going to melt out here. That night we went to mutual for the young men. That was fun.

Wednesday we actually had interviews with President. They went really well. They bought 12 of us panera bread too. That place is expensive, about 10 dollars just for a sandwich. It was good though, and fun to eat lunch with them. We did quite a bit of biking again, saw some cool dogs. We played soccer at the park. We play with these investigators all the time. There wasn’t as many people there this time though.

Thursday was way good. We started off by weekly planning first thing in the morning. Boring as usual but we had to do it haha. After that we ate lunch at the apartment. I cooked. We went out with a member in our ward that was on spring break from college. He went out biking with us and that was super fun. We talked to a ton of people and were able to find a few new investigators. We finished off the day eating with probably my favorite members in the ward, the Fuentes. We had some killer flautas. She’s a great cook.

Friday we had district meeting like usual. It was a district Training though, from the zone leaders. Elder Taylor and I gave a role play about a bad example of a dinner message. It was super funny. After that we ate lunch with Carmen. It was sooo good! She always cooks something delicious. After that we did some planning and studying and held a basketball game at the church. We invited members and their friends. We had an alright turn out.

Saturday was a really good day. We started off by doing service at the Houston food bank. We worked on putting back packs full of food together. Our ward was there too and we all were together. It was fun. We were in a huge assembly line. They would pass the bag and I would place a can of peas in there and move it along. I was constantly doing that once every second or so for hours! Haha. It was a good time though. There were tons of people there too from all sorts of places. We were in a giant room with food crates everywhere. After that we ate lunch and got to work. We did some more biking around and talking with people. We met a cool gang of dogs. We ate at the apartment for dinner though so that’s a let down.

Sunday was good as usual. Every week we have a meeting at 9, then church starts at 11. We didn’t have any investigators this week, but alright before church Carmen called us and told us her daughter was reading the BOM and wanted to know which chapter to read. That was cool. After church we ate with the Tenorios like always. We did lots of biking around that night. We talked to so many people!

My week was pretty good. Love y’all!

"The Dawgs"

"Little Taylor sleeping on the job." 

Priesthood Saturdays

This week has been nutso crazy! The rash is kinda the same. Itches the same. Ulcer is healing though so that’s good. Julianne is 15. Elder Taylor is the absolute bomb. I swear he came pre-trained he’s so awesome. He’s from Ketchakin Alaska. It’s this island in south east Alaska. He says that place is really touristy and lots of cruise ships pass through. Fun fact: we found out that Riches mom went on a cruise through there one time. He originally left for the MTC in August, but broke his elbow on his last week there. He went home for surgery and just barely got back out here. We are already such good friends and have so much fun together.

Tuesday was crazy. I had to wake up at 4:30 to be at the cloverleaf apartments by 6, and then I drove all the way to Baytown to drop him off at 7:30. From there I drove allllll the way up to the mission home in Kingwood to get with Elder Riches and Carter. Then we went to the Kingwood Chapel and waited till 2 for the trainer meeting. We all got together and received instructions and then he paired us off. Elder Riches is training too so that’s cool. We all loaded up in our car and I drove Riches all the way back to cloverleaf. We all ate dinner together and then went to have mutual with the youth. It was a good day!

The first full day with Elder Taylor was good. We went shopping and both spent too much money haha. I actually have been living like a king though. I’ve been eating healthy! Protein shakes every morning, chicken and veggies throughout the day, and other good stuff. Taylor thinks I’m quite the chef. We got right to work. We tried lots of people and it was good. We had a soccer game that night too which was fun.

Thursday was a little slower, just because of weekly planning. It was good and needed though. We got some really good new investigators that day too. It was a good time to find. Other than that we didn’t do much. I made us dinner though. We started praying to meet with some investigators that we haven’t been able to see in a while that night.

Friday we had district meeting. It was good, but the topic was super dry. After that we all ate lunch together. Elder Taylor and I did lots of biking Friday. The two investigators that we were praying for called us out of the blue and we were able to meet with them both and have two really good lessons with them. Carmen fed us pupusas that night too.

Saturday we started off biking and biking. Saturday’s now are called "priesthood Saturday’s" because we focus on potential priesthood holders/ reactivating less active elders. We had lots of success. We went with an investigator to this garage sell, talking to her as we went, and a guy gave me two suits.. for free! I also secured dad a souvenir so be prepared! I would send it as a birthday gift but he will have to wait till I get home! It’s cool, and he’ll be a real Texan with it. (It’s not a hat don’t worry)

Sunday was good. We had church and it went well. Nothing exciting happened though.. after church we went to eat with the Tenorios. They made us salmon, rice, veggies, and a killer salsa. It was so good. I ate too much though. After we biked a bit and found a few people. We had some good language studies too. It’s fun helping Elder Taylor and is helping me realize my Spanish is way better than what I give myself credit for.


The week was good and went by fast. Love y’all!

New Companion

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Ooh by the way... I’ll be a dad! I’m training!

Worst week ever turned into a good few days.

Hey guys! I am actually staying. That means that I’ll be here for 7 and a half months. My address is the same so don’t feel shy to send over a letter or something! Surprise surprise, I’m training! I’m super excited and I’m training a really awesome Elder. That’s the good part of the week. But I’ll get to that later. Say hello to the fresques fam
for me. I miss them lots. For the lady from Houston: currently I am in Summerwood. We are always going to be on the east side of Houston, our border touches downtown. I’ve served in Beaumont, Baytown, and the pine trails/ channelview areas.

The last Monday was ok. We did the normal pday routine and for the evening we ate with a really cool member. He lives a a nice area so has a really nice house. We played him in ping pong and ate some flautas. They were tasty. I’m excited to go home and show y’all REAL Hispanic food.

Tuesday was ok as well. We had Spanish class in the morning and during the day we just visited people. We had a lesson with Julianne. Carmen’s daughter. Oh yeah we baptized her this week. Whoops forgot to post that. I convinced her Saturday to get baptized because i was leaving haha. Turns out I’m staying... lol. But it went well. We made a huge mistake.... we got little ceasars for the four elders in our district and had them put the crazy bread butter on it too. Super unhealthy... I ate wayyyy too much! That was strike one... strike two... We ate with the Rodriguez family and they surprised us with China Star!! It’s a buffet... luckily I ate healthily there. Salad haha. But they still expected me to eat a lot. I was so full. We had mutual that night so I was able to do some exercise!

Wednesday. Actually I mixed up the days... the little ceasars and buffet was today, because afterwards we played soccer so I felt better about myself haha. Wednesday is when the horribleness started. I woke up with what looked like bed bug bites all over my body. Really small and itchy. The whole day was terrible.

Thursday. Thursday we had a super lesson with Julianee to prepare her for her baptism Friday night. Riches gave her the interview and everything went swimmingly. Other than that nothing happened. The rashes on my body got worse Thursday. Itching intensifies.

Friday was fun! But miserable. Woke up with a twice as bad rash and it itches so bad! I had no money Either so i couldn’t buy a cream or anything. It itched and itched and itched that night we had the baptism. It was super good and lots of people showed up to support her. It made the suffering of pain and itchyness lessen. I had a spot on the back of my left calf that was way more itchy than the others so it started turning into an ulcer from itching it.. ew.

Saturday I woke up miserable as well. Couldn’t sleep that night and felt so itchy. The spot on my leg was ooooozing and throbbing. My neck had bad splotches everywhere too. I felt like death. Durning the day we didn’t do too much, but we went to a birthday party and afterwards we went to the baptism of Elder Riches and Taylor. I got a call that night informing me that I would stay for another transfer and that Barnum is leaving. 

Sunday we didn’t got to church actually.. my companion that night was throwing up non stop. We stayed at the other elders apartment while they used our car. My companion looked fine though... suspicious. That day sucked to be honest. The itching was at an all time hi. Riches gave me a cream but it did nothing. That night was good though. On the way home president called me and told me I’d be training Elder Taylor. He was Riches companion, he came into the mission halfway through the last transfer due to an injury in the MTC so he only has 3 weeks here. On the call he just explained to me how awesome I was and how Good of a missionary I was and it made me feel way better. He said a ton of good things about me.

Monday was much better. I decided to go to the doctor that morning because I was so sick of suffering! First thing we went there and I got to see the doc. The rash and stuff was from either A--A staph nfection due to a spider bite on my knock (because the carry staph in their mouths) or B--Poison oak that went haywire. He treated me for
both and gave me a steroid shot that cost the big bucks. I went and had to get 5 prescriptions. 3 for itching and 2 antibiotics. The thing on my leg turned out to be an ulcer. Rotting dying flesh. Ick. It hurt. After taking meds I felt way better. It was such a relief. We played ping pong at a members with the other elders. Including my new son that I get today! That night a guy gave us all hoodies for us. It was siiiick.

That was my week! It sucked but turned out ok. I know it’s early tody but I have a ton of driving to do. Have to drop off Barnum in Baytownat 7 am.. gross. Then drove 3 hours to be in Kingwood. Icky. Later!

6 months to go!

My mattress luckily is bed bug free. Our apartments are too nice! Well my companion was “miraculously” healed and playing basketball last pday so I decided we would do stuff this week haha. The mission has gone by really fast, and this last little bit will go even faster. Only four more transfers.  I never thought I’d have six months left 18 months ago!

My week wasn’t too shabby. I was able to enjoy myself... a little bit.

Last Monday after pday a super cool member took us out to BurgerIM. It’s a burger place that sells sliders. So you can order two or three burgers at a time. They were really good. I had a salmon burger, beef burger, and tried a lamb one. They also had some tasty wings. They must know Hebrew or something because IM is used to make things plural right dad? Something like that. I ate way too much though. The past four weeks we’ve been fed a ton of food and I haven’t been working out
as diligently so sadly I’ve gained weight haha. I looked at photos of me in the MTC and I was way skinny. I was 145 then and now I’m 163. Gee wiz. Time to shave some pounds! Basically I’m sick of eating fast food, I don’t drink soda anymore either. Yuck. (Except I’ll have a Dr Pepper once in a blue moon)

Tuesday was super good, but long. From 9 until 4 we had Zone Conference. We woke up, got ready super fast and headed over to the church. The meeting was really good and I learned a lot of stuff. Our convert Carmen shared her testimony and it was so good. Everyone after was telling me how awesome she is. Feels good that all my work paid off. Lol. I was asked on the spot to give a talk too. I think I did an alright job. Had interviews with President too. I love him so much! We always have the best interviews. Based on my interview three things can happen next transfer. I’m either training, becoming a district leader, or going zone leader. We talked about all 3 in the interview so who knows. Maybe I’ll stay a normal missionary too. We will see in a week. We made a video for zone conference and played it for everyone. It was about introducing our investigators to the bishop. Everyone was laughing so hard. I was the star too After Zone Conference we had dinner and then went to mutual!

Wednesday I spent a lot of time planning our district meeting with Riches . We planned an amazing race themed meeting and it was super fun. Everyone loved it,  but I’ll get to that later. We ate with the Rodriguez again and afterwards took the other Elders a few places. That night we exchanged with the zone leaders at 8. I went with my good buddy Elder Johnson to his area. That night we visited a recent convert who is a health specialist. For free she did all these tests on us and told us our body age. Basically I’m 20 years old but my body feels like 30. Thanks dad. Haha

Thursday was super fun. Elder Johnson and I had little sleep because we couldn’t stop talking the night before. We were tried in the morning. We taught an English class that morning to a few people. We had some studies and he Bought us subway. That night too we went to a bomb dinner. We ate chicken, asparagus, rice, and had some delicious juice.

Friday was nuts. Super early I went with Riches to set up the amazing race at a park. We had stations that started in the park and ended in the church and they had to race and complete each one. At the start I was the host and introduced every team and everything. Then we had them race to find their team flags. Who ever brought me theirs first got to start first. Then the next would have to wait for a little bit before starting and so on. The first station was an activity at this play ground a ways away where they had to find pass along cards with scriptures on them. There was a detour option too where if they shared the scripture with a person they could skip a few stations. Two teams did that. After that we had lunch with Carmen. We had some super good food. That night we ate with the Fuentes too. They are one of my favorite families.

Saturday was super good too. We visited a few people in the morning then all afternoon we spent helping the Fuentes family at his mechanic shop. We chopped down tree branches and moved tires. We used machetes of course. They fed us some really good chicken too. Carmen’s family and them are really good friends too so they were there as well.

Sunday was pretty neat. Church was really good. We had 3 investigators there which was good. After we ate with the tenorios like usual. That always make super good and healthy food. It’s the best. It’s my mission to make them laugh every time I go over. Let’s just say I’m pretty successful at that. That night we had a fireside at president Rascon’s house. It was for less active, investigators, and recent converts. Carmen came with her kids. It was really good too. He shared some things and the missionaries sang. I made sure to add my birthday on his calendar too. We had cake and ice cream there. Carmen really enjoyed it and it was good for her eldest daughter that came. She’s investigating still. Her 15 yr old daughter is the one we are baptizing this weekend.

It was a pretty good week. Have a good week guys! Love y’all.

"Our hermana is leaving in a week... :("