Rough Week

Hello!! 

I am doing okay! This is the week of conference. I’ll get the box Wednesday so no worries!  It's been a rough week. I’ve been sick for the past two weeks straight so that doesn’t help. And on top of that I was wearing my two braces and hurt my knee Thursday night. I’m just really stressed out and my body is a mess. It’s the worst. And I’m not getting better because I’ve been super stressed out. Riches goes home just before me. I didn’t see the video of the home but I would like too. 

Monday was okay we did a lot of stuff and played some games. We took the English Elders with us and there was a lot of missionaries at the church to play basketball. That night we had dinner and that was it.

Tuesday we visited some people. We didn’t have anything go on that day it was really slow for us. Tuesdays are always the slow ones. They seem like they drag on for forever. 

Wednesday was a good day. Our day was busy with service way out of our mission. We went to a service center and helped the Houston health department out. It was for people affected by Harvey. We did various stuff like greeting and packaging. After that we had our soccer game. It was super fun! I usually play defense, which I hate, but I went up and played striker like I used to. I destroyed! I had a goal and almost had two others. It was super fun. 

Thursday we had nothing really. It was weekly planning so that was chill as always. Then we had mutual that night. We played indoor soccer. Usually I’m fine wearing both of my braces but my leg got stuck in between a guy and a chair and he pulled and my leg twisted and I heard a pop. I’ve hurt it enough to know my body and I don’t think anything serious happened. It was a little swollen the next few days but I can walk fine and everything. 

Friday we had district Training at 4. We picked up the Denver Harbor elders too. They were far away in the ghetto. After training we had correlation and that was it. 

Saturday we went and contacted people in a park with the English elders. It wasnt too successful. It was super cold.  

Sunday was good. We had church and then went to lunch with a member. Carmen and her family came to church and they loved it! They are really progressing fast. We went to a baptism at four and then dinner at six. That was our day, 

This week was really stressful but oh well. Let me know what you think about looking into a better brace. I’m just sick of this recurring injury. I’ve been careful and everything... love y’all

New Investigator

Hello!

I’m doing good. I’m emailing today because of transfers. Stringfellow is leaving and my new companion is Elder Barnum. I’m actually picking him up right now. We have a new investigator named Carmen. She’s so solid. She’s super prepared. Our Christmas conference is the 20th I think. I’m staying here so packages can actually be sent to my home. Light the world is awesome! Such a good time to do missionary work.

Last Monday we partied and that’s actually it really.

Tuesday we had zone conference. It was really good. We got to see everyone too and that was fun. It was a long conference though. We talked a lot about Facebook. After that we ate dinner with a member. 

Wednesday we had interviews with president in the morning all the way in Broadway. They were really good. While waiting we had a Spanish class down there too. After that we didn't have anything until that night. We had our first lesson with Carmen. It went so good. She’s from El Salvador. She’s super prepared and was a referral from Salt Lake. Then we had dinner. We played soccer too. It was super fun. There was some really good players though.

Thursday we visited Lupe. It was fun. She bought us lunch too! We weekly planned and had our mutual night. We taught mutual and talked about light the world to the young men. After we all played soccer again. 

Friday we had district meeting and it was super good. We went on exchanges with the zone leaders that night too.

Saturday I was with Elder Thomas in Galena park. In the morning we helped a member working on his house. We had a few lessons after that. We ate lunch and planned an activity for light the world. We had some other lessons and then exchanged back. I got some Wendy’s on the way home. Yum.

Sunday was good. Just sad because Stringfellow was saying goodbye to everyone. We packed the rest of the day and got the apartment cleaned up a bit. 

Pupusas

Hello guys

This last week was cool but not too exciting. I don’t have much to write about.

Tuesday we played football with the young men and that was really fun. Wednesday we played soccer like usual and it was a blast. Lots of people come so it gets fun. 

Thursday we had Thanksgiving. In the morning we played soccer and then ate donuts. We went to McDonald’s for lunch while we waited for the Fuentes to be ready. We went to their house around 4 and stayed at their house for a long time. She taught us how to make Pupusas and they were really good. 

Friday we had district meeting. We are preparing for light the world that’s coming up. We are all really excited. 

Saturday we played some street soccer with some buddies of ours. We always drive by and they are waiting for us. They are a bunch of kids from El Salvador. Elder Stringfellow tried to do a soccer trick and fell flat on his face. That was hilarious. 

Sunday we had church which was good. Daniel was confirmed so that was cool.  We tried to visit people too and no one was out and about. 

That was pretty much our week. Wasn’t too exciting. Have a good one

Tortilla Skillz

Hello! Good to hear the baby is here and well! I got all the pictures too! 

This last Monday was a good one. I set up a soccer game between us and another zone and we duked it out! We started at 2 and played till 5. It was super fun! Our zone won, we killed them! I had a goal too. Another Elder, Elder Montesino, and I ran the show. Had lots of good passes and cool tricks! We are becoming young ballers! 

Tuesday we visited Lupe in the morning. That was fun. Other than that I can’t remember. I know we had something cool Tuesday night but I can’t remember what it was. 

Wednesday we did something in the morning.. who knows! But we went to a members house for dinner and we were the cooks! She taught us how to make authentic flour tortillas, salsa, potatoes and eggs, and frijoles. It was good! We did an awesome job and she was impressed with my tortilla skills. After that we had a soccer game. Lots of people showed up and it was fun as usual. 

Thursday we had Spanish class in the morning. We were in a trio all day too, because one missionary had to go back to Utah to sign immigration papers for a bit. Spanish class was fun! Afterwards we had mutual that night. It was fun. An investigator of the hermanas had his baptismal interview too. He’s so cool! He plays soccer with us on Wednesdays and he’s from Columbia. His name is Daniel. We are like best friends too. 

Friday we had district meeting. It was alright. A little boring topic though. We had correlation too and after we went to another wards party that was going on in the building. I had pumpkin pie! It was store bought though... I miss dads pumpkin pie. 

Saturday we had a big stake party for fall. Lupe came and brought her son Ryder. It was a good time! 

Sunday was good. Daniel had his baptism! It went really well.  At the baptism there was some snacks and we ate these really good tostadas and some empanada type things. They are good. After that we ate with the Fuentes family with Daniel too. 

It was a pretty good week. This one should be good. Love y’all.

"Tortillas de harina, salsa, frijoles, y papas con huevo. We cook, we eat." 

"Our friend Ryder at the Stake Party"

"Our buddy Daniel got baptized!"

Car troubles, soccer and Thankgsgiving party

Hey guys!

Too bad people don’t like the cranberry salad.... I miss it... well I’ll be able to try it again in a year! My week was okay. Maria fell off the face of the earth and Lupe is still doing okay. I should still be here for Christmas because President wants us to stay in our areas for at least 6 months. I’m excited for the house! Yes Facebook is a huge temptation and it’s hard because you find yourself just scrolling through every once in awhile. I hate it honestly I wish we didn’t have it haha. But it’s good for missionary work and we have had success from it. 

Last Monday was actually alright. We had our usual routine. We took the Summerwood Elders shopping, they don’t have a car, and went looking around the Dicks Sporting Goods store. Elder Stringfellow bought a Houston astros World Series shirt. They are cool. I forgot to mention, Houston was nutso crazy when they won. The city basically shut down for a day or two. It was good for the city though, after everything we’ve been through from Harvey. We went to the church and played basketball and some indoor soccer. It was fun! 

Tuesday we had Spanish class in the morning and that was good as usual. We did some planning and studies and then we tried some people. We tried Maria’s house that day and no answer. Tuesday night we exchanged and Elder Aybar came with me in my area. He has about 5 months in the mission. He’s from the Dominican Republic. He’s cool.

Wednesday Elder Aybar and I went to visit Lupe in the morning. She was her usual funny self. After that we were having car troubles so we took it in to firestone. There was a lo wait and we ended up being there till 5.. while we were waiting we went across the street to a member owned pizza place called Persona. We got free pizza and waited for our car to be done. While we were eating something magical happened! Elder Riches walked in!!! My old, and one of my favorites, companion! He didn’t see me so I snuck up behind him and tapped him on his shoulder. He turned around and his face was priceless! He was freaking out and so happy! It had been awhile since we’ve seen each other. They were up in Summerwood for a doctors appointment and just stopped in to get some free pizza. We talked for a while and it was good to catch up with him. After our car was done we went to play soccer in the church because it was raining outside. That was fun as usual. 

Thursday we had weekly planning and other than that the day was boring. For the evening we went to mutual and played soccer with the young men there. There was some of the hermanas investigators there so it was fun.

Friday we had district meeting which was good. We did some studies and visited some homies. Friday night we had a ward Thanksgiving party. It was good and lots of people showed up. I was really upset though... there was no pumpkin pie. I guess I shouldn’t expect much from Spanish area anyway, the Thanksgiving dinner was very Mexican haha. There was turkey though and that was tasty. 

Saturday we took leftover food from the party over to Lupe and her family because they couldn’t make it. One of her sons has autism so they had to stay with him. We went to a store for a minute in the ghetto and Stringfellow bought a drink. We were in the check out line and all of a sudden we hear, “hey boo.” We didn’t think anything of it so we kept doing our thing. Then we heard it again. “Hey boo.” And Stringfellow turned around to an older black lady calling him boo. She said, “what’s up boo how’s it going?” She was hitting on him, probably because he’s so tall... so we just grabbed our stuff and walked out haha. It was funny and his face was bright red. 

Sunday was boring. We had church and it was the primary program. That was pretty good. We were pretty unsuccessful though all day. We had dinner with the Jasso family and that was good. That was our week!

My week was alright! Hope you guys have a good one! Love y’all! 

Facebook Proselyting

Hey guys!

My week was a good one! At the party we just had nachos and candy... sadly I didn’t learn this week. She was gone. Maria kind of went MIA... our Halloween was rainy and cool! That was interesting. 

Monday was a typical Monday here. We played games and afterwards we ate at chick fil a with a member. He’s one of my favorite members too. He’s a cool guy. 

Tuesday Elder Stringfellow had a meeting so I was with Elder Montesino for a day. He’s a greenie but pretty cool. we had a lesson in the morning and she gave us candy. That night we went over to the Hernandez family for dinner and had some chicken and stuffing. It was good. We had to be in by 7 for Halloween though. 

Wednesday we some lessons via Facebook which was really cool. We played soccer that night too and it was fun. Some guys that come are really good. 

Thursday we had another lesson on Facebook and we contacted some people with Facebook. It’s cool and a good way to reach new people. It’s rough though. Lots of temptations. We had mutual Thursday night and we played indoor soccer! It was fun. Lots of young men showed up! There was popsicles too. 

Friday we had a district Training that was all about ways we can use Facebook for proselyting. It was interesting. We had correlation that night. It was kind of a long day and not much happened. 

Saturday we met with Lupe. She’s cool and has a really funny 4 year old named Ryder. We got free pizza for lunch which was yummy. 

Sunday we had the regional stake conference and it was cool to see lots of friends there. They talked al lot about Harvey! After we ate with brother Mumford, a member from my last area. The English ward. It was good! We had pork and squash and some other yummy stuff. 

Sadly my email was a shorter one this time. Not much happened this past week. Hope y’all have a good one! Love y’all 

Happy Halloween!

Hello!

My week was really good actually. My ward had a Halloween party and it was so fun! Ton of people went and it was super fun. On Halloween we have to be in by 7. Real tacos are usual small. There’s different types of authentic tacos too. Fajita, tripa, carne asada, etc. then you have to put a good salsa and cilantro with onion and bam there you go. I think we are learning to make flour tortillas today. Maria had her baptismal interview and we found out she is still legally married. So she needs to get a divorce and then she’ll be baptized. She really wants to get baptized so it’s good. I’m actually going to get FaceBook this week so if you see me doing stuff and posting things that’s why. We will use our home accounts so that’ll be cool. 

Monday was a good one. We played lots of soccer and basketball. We ate with a member afterwards and it was tasty as usual.

Tuesday we had Spanish class and I don’t really remember the rest of the day except we ate with the Fuentes. They are from El Salvador and their kids are legitness. 

Wednesday we had soccer and it was so fun! I did good. I’m still a speedster even wearing a brace and a bum knee!

Thursday we had weekly planning and a really good lesson with Maria. We committed her to pray about baptism right there and ask if she needed to be baptized this Sunday. The spirit was really strong and when she was done she said she felt she needed to be baptized this week. 

Friday we had Maria’s baptismal interview. We found out about the divorce thing. See god knew that she needed to want to be baptized this week so we could find these things out and work with it. 

Saturday we did service for the Fuentes. They are moving shops so we helped them move a ton of stuff. There was a coworker there that I bashed with too haha. Hermano cooked us up some chicken and it was so good!

Sunday we had church which was the usual. Then we ate with the Tenorios and it was so good and healthy. We then helped the Fuentes again and this time the Suazo family and the Cardenas family where there to help. Afterwards we went to the Fuentes house for a barbecue and fire. Hermano Suazo was using a machete to cut some wood and he broke it. It was so funny. We ate and then sat around the fire and we all shared our testimonies. It was cool because almost all the members and their kids shared stuff about missionaries and how they appreciated us. It was awesome! 

This week was a good one! Sorry I didn’t have much detail this time though. Love y’all 

Buildin' Houses

Hey guys!

My week was good thank you! I got the box and that was awesome. Thanks for all the stuff. You got the right garments so good job. The house is coming along great! It looks cool. I hope it’s cool on the inside too. Make sure dad actually gets blinds in the basement this time. I see past companions all the time. I saw Elder Riches, Elder Carter, Elder Nabo, and Elder Gill Friday. Thanks for talking to the missionaries. I’m sure they appreciated it. I think I won’t go to school until the next spring. I’m planning on coming home and working so I can have so money to pay for it. Who knows.

Last Monday was alright. Wasn’t the most fun p day I’ve had but it wasn’t the worst either. We just kind of bummed around at the church. We played some ping pong, some pool, shot some hoops , and played a little bit of volleyball. Then we ate with the Rendons for dinner. Had chicharrones and frijoles, rice, and tortillas. 

Tuesday we had interviews with President Hewlett. It was really good. He’s so awesome! After that we ate sushi.. that was delicious as well. Good to see our home boy Shen again. We tried some people in the afternoon and that’s about it.

Wednesday we were on exchanges with our zone leaders. I was with Elder Petersen in my area. He was the red head in the picture of us reading the Book of Mormon while lifting. It was a good day. We started off by biking for a long time, had some good lessons, then went home for lunch. Had a good Spanish study. We ate with a member at 4 and had street tacos. The were so good... tacos de fajita with cilantro, salsa, and lime. Yum. I’ll make us some when I get home. With real salsa too. Not that white people garbage. The salsa consists of like 30 jalapeños, water, and a few other stuff. I don’t remember . I’ll have to get a recipe. The hotter the better too. Right after dinner we got ready and played some soccer with investigators till the end of the night. A member brought 15 of his friends. It was so fun. We had like 40 people there!

Thursday we had a district meeting which was good as usual. We weekly planned and that was about it. 

Friday was the Zone Conference. We all got there and took a picture then filed in and we all shook his hand and spoke with him for a minute. That was cool. President and his wife spoke, then president Rascon. Then Hallstroms wife spoke, and then he did. After everything we ate and that was that! It was fun and I learned a lot. 

Saturday was a normal day, we tried lots of people and had another lesson with Maria. 

That was it haha, 

Sunday Maria came to church! We had a good three hours and she enjoyed it. Then we did some service for the first time in a few weeks. But instead of destroying houses... we built houses! It was fun. We put in lots of insulation and put up some Sheetrock. Took us a bit and we only finished a few rooms because there’s lots to do. But we are going back this week to hopefully finish it up. 

This week was good and I hope y’all have a good one! And reminder mom if you send a Christmas package you should add hichews. I haven’t had those in forever!!! But other than that minimal candy haha. We are being healthy! Love you guys!

Exchanges and Zone Conference

Hey guys!

My week was good thank you! I got the box and that was awesome. Thanks for all the stuff. You got the right garments so good job. The house is coming along great! It looks cool. I hope it’s cool on the inside too. Make sure dad actually gets blinds in the basement this time. I see past companions all the time. I saw Elder Riches, Elder Carter, Elder Nabo, and Elder Gill Friday. Thanks for talking to the missionaries. I’m sure they appreciated it. I think I won’t go to school until the next spring. I’m planning on coming home and working so I can have so money to pay for it. Who knows.

Last Monday was alright. Wasn’t the most fun p day I’ve had but it wasn’t the worst either. We just kind of bummed around at the church. We played some ping pong, some pool, shot some hoops , and played a little bit of volleyball. Then we ate with the Rendons for dinner. Had chicharrones and frijoles, rice, and tortillas. 

Tuesday we had interviews with President Hewlett. It was really good. He’s so awesome! After that we ate sushi.. that was delicious as well. Good to see our home boy Shen again. We tried some people in the afternoon and that’s about it.

Wednesday we were on exchanges with our zone leaders. I was with Elder Petersen in my area. It was a good day. We started off by biking for a long time, had some good lessons, then went home for lunch. Had a good Spanish study. We ate with a member at 4 and had street tacos. The were so good... tacos de fajita with cilantro, salsa, and lime. Yum. I’ll make us some when I get home. With real salsa too. Not that American garbage. The salsa consists of like 30 jalapeños, water, and a few other stuff. I don’t remember. I’ll have to get a recipe. The hotter the better too. Right after dinner we got ready and played some soccer with investigators till the end of the night. A member brought 15 of his friends. It was so fun. We had like 40 people there!

Thursday we had a district meeting which was good as usual. We weekly planned and that was about it. 

Friday was the Zone Conference. We all got there and took a picture then filed in and we all shook his hand and spoke with him for a minute. That was cool. President and his wife spoke, then president Rascon. Then Hallstroms wife spoke, and then he did. After everything we ate and that was that! It was fun and I learned a lot. 

Saturday was a normal day, we tried lots of people and had another lesson with Maria. That was it haha, 

Sunday Maria came to church! We had a good three hours and she enjoyed it. Then we did some service for the first time in a few weeks. But instead of destroying houses...we built houses! It was fun. We put in lots of insulation and put up some Sheetrock. Took us a bit and we only finished a few rooms because there’s lots to do. But we are going back this week to hopefully finish it up. 

This week was good and I hope y’all have a good one! And reminder mom if you send a Christmas package you should add hichews. I haven’t had those in forever!!! But other than that minimal candy haha. We are being healthy! Love you guys!

Elder Petersen and I reading the Book of Mormon while lifting

Sushi Obsessed

Heyo!

My week was pretty good! We were fed a lot more this week and meals are picking up again so that’s awesome. Aaron is correct! But he got his good dressing skills from yours truly. The Jon. Mine are just a blessing I suppose lol. Crazy that we have another nephew. Maria Gil is doing good. She came to church this past Sunday so that was awesome. She should be baptized here in the next few weeks. I should be staying one to two transfers more here. Probably one more with Elder Stringfellow. Exciting to hear the house coming along. Have any photo updates? 

Monday was good we did the usual. That night we got sushi... again. We are obsessed with this place. 

Tuesday was a good one! We had a good lesson with Maria Gil and tried tons of people. We biked a lot. That night we played soccer a lot. I had some goals. Super fun! They are all really good too. We worked out really hard in the morning too so we were tired all day haha. 

I don’t really remember Wednesday. I know we went and tried Lupe in the morning but she wasn’t home. We biked a lot too. 

Thursday morning we went over to President Rascon’s house to study with him. He lives just five minutes down the road. Really close. His house is huge! And super nice! Biggest refrigerator I’ve ever seen in my entire life... he’s super cool and so knowledgeable. I want to go back to the mission some day and stay at his house haha. He invited me! After we weekly planned on our apartment complex office. The office manager walked by and turned on the news for a bit and Rascon came on and we said hey we know him! We ended up talking to her about stuff because she asked us and we had a little lesson with her. We had mutual that night and a member brought all his friends to play soccer so we are getting lots of referrals from him. 

Friday we had district meeting which was good. Elder Stringfellow is the district leader and he does a good job. After we went to get sushi.. we know all the workers it’s funny. We always sit at the sushi bar and talk with all of them. Shen is the waiter and he’s from China! Ryan is the sushi master. He’s from China too. Their English is alright and we have fun. Always making jokes! Silly shen! They know all of our names and bow to us sometimes. We feel cool. Friday night we had ward correlation which was good as usual. Hermano Tenorio our ward mission leader looked like Steve jobs. He had his glasses on with his turtle neck and everything. I’ll attach a picture. 

Saturday we biked so much. We ate with a cool part member family and they gave us a ton of food to take home and stock our shelves so I won’t have to grocery shop for a while. 

Sunday we had church and Maria showed up. That was good. Afterwards we went to a part member family and ate some carne asada. Good stuff. We went to a baptism too of some other elders. Also we tried a bunch of people after. Not really any success though. 

This next week we are having interviews with president and a zone conference. Elder Hallstrom is coming. He spoke in general conference. It’ll be cool to hear from him. My week was good and I hope y’all have a good one!

"The man himself. We did early morning studies with President Rascon."

"Rascon's wonder wall. Some of his many Emmys."

Life in Summerwood

Hey y’all!

Another week down! This one was a good one! It went by pretty quick, except for Wednesday and Sunday. Those went by really slow. Elder Stringfellow is awesome! We are like best buds already! He is from Bountiful! President Eyring is in his ward... lucky. Yes my neighborhood is one to send packages to! Our apartment is in Summerwood mom.... Summerwood... let’s just say we are in one of the nicest parts of the mission, surrounded by million dollar homes. Our apartment is soooo nice by the way. Nicest Spanish apartment in the mission. Blessed.  The mission home is still wrecked from what I know. There’s like no supplies right now. We might go to President Rascon’s house. He lives here in Summerwood. He’s a news anchor for abc13 here in Houston. He’s famous. He has like a billion emmys. He’s the first counselor in the mission presidency. Such an inspired man too. To answer your question about weather... Houston has one season. Summer. Besides the week in January that can hit 40s. Other than that it’s blazing hot. Last Christmas it was like 80 degrees! 

Monday was good! We had a good day and had lots of fun. For lunch we went to this buffet place because we were craving sushi. We ate a lot of it haha. We played basketball and volleyball. A lot of missionaries go to the pine trails building and serve in this area, so on pday there are lots of people there. It is fun.

Tuesday I was on exchanges with Elder Aybar in my area. He is a greenie, it’s his second transfer. He is originally from the Dominican Republic, so he’s fluent in Spanish, but moved to Utah three years ago. He’s so funny. We had a fun day! We taught an awesome lesson to a lady we magically found. I even gave her a blessing because she was having bad migraines. Her name is Lupe. English missionaries have taught her in the past but dropped her because she had so many questions.. which I thought was weird because she’s awesome! And prepared! We tried lots of other people and had a few good lessons here and there. Tuesday night we played soccer again. It was so fun! I wish I played and stuck with it, I’m better than I give myself credit. I do good against these Mexicans haha. It would be nice to have cleats though. All the Mexicans have them on but I’m just in some running shoes haha. 

Wednesday was lame. It was a boring day. On paper we planned a really awesome day but it didn’t turn out. So that’s too bad. Oh well. Maybe next time haha. All of our appointments fell through and nothing happened. Luckily Stringfellow and I were able to make the bad day fun. We are too funny! We went to this pizza place called Persona that a member owns and he gave us free pizza. It’s super good. It’s like a subway for pizza! It’s Neapolitan pizza, like Settebellos in SLC. They say we can just go in whenever for pizza! 

Thursday was good. We had weekly planning and we did it in our apartment complex office. They always have free cookies and it’s super nice. There’s also a hot chocolate maker in there for residents so we have the hookups. For lunch we went to Persona again. It was yummy! I had a bbq bacon ranch chicken pizza that was so good. For dinner we tried this new sushi place that just opened up. I had been eyeing it for a while, but it was still being finished. We finally were able to try it though. It was super yummy, and they have good deals. For their basic rolls you can mix and match any three for 9.95. So that’s 24 pieces of sushi. Pretty good deal I think. Then their specialty rolls look so good but those are more expensive for less. We love sushi too much I think this is where are money will be going to for a while haha. 

Friday we had district meeting which was good. We helped the hermanas give a chapel tour too which was cool. Really interesting because he was being pretty stubborn but I gave him a really powerful promise and left him to be an agent to act. The spirit was super strong. We had ward correlation too. That wasn’t too bad. 

Saturday we went to Persona again. Tasty as usual. I did something super embarrassing too... I ran a red light... haha!! I  was talking to Elder Stringfellow about something that happened earlier that day and we were laughing super hard and I guess I just didn’t notice... luckily there was no one there. 

Sunday was ehh. We had church, which was back to normal. Had a full three hours for the first time in awhile and it wasn’t combined anymore. We taught gospel principles about eternal families last minute. It went well. After church however the day went so slow. No one was home, and we just tried a bunch of people and no success... didn’t have a dinner appointment either so that was sad. We are all out of MSF too and out of food so we were stuck scavenging. Idk how we will make it through this next week! Wish us luck! Hopefully someone will feed us haha. 

I hope everyone is doing okay! I’d love to hear from my siblings btw.  please tell me all about your weeks!! Love you guys! Have a good week mom! 

"Catching Butterflies"

"Goodbye MSF...3 rolls for 9 bucks!!!"

"We are getting huge!"

"Breakfast equals eggs and tuna. Gains!!!!"

Biggest Rat Ever

Howdy

The new area is so coolness. I live in the nice area of Houston, Summerwood. We live outside our area and have to commute a tad to get into Spanish areas. We live in the nicest Spanish apartments in the mission too so that is soooo cool. My area is Houston 7. My last ward, Pine trails covered this area so really I already know my way around. I'm still in the same area really just Spanish now. My new companion is Elder... Stringfellow!!!! He's soooo awesome! I've served around him before and we were already good friends. We are having a blast. He is from Bountiful. President Eyring is in his home ward.... he's such a goon too. So funny. Yes I got Audrey's package! Facebook mission, meaning we will be getting Facebook on our iPads and will be online proselyting. So I'll have a Facebook profile and communicate with people and even have online lessons. But it'll be a few months till we actually get it. Should be cool. Yes I'm doing service still!! Mucking out houses like crazy! During the week we proselyte and on weekends we serve all day. Area still looks wrecked. You go down a neighborhood and piles of trash everywhere... crazy stuff.

Last Monday was super fun. We had a mission wide conference that was cool. It was about service and the hurricane. They gave us all these nice work boots and gloves too so that was awesome. Elder Stringfellow
and I went back to the apartment and unpacked a bit.

Tuesday was soooooooo legitness. We bought groceries and Stringfellow bought me lunch. We had chick fil a. It's right by our apartment. We had a bomb lesson too and taught lots of people Tuesday. Ended up putting three people on date. Tuesday nights we all get together, us and the Galena Park Spanish ward, and play soccer!! It's so fun because all the missionaries go, members, and investigators. We play a ton! It's so fun! I missed soccer so much. I was killing it. They were all pretty good too, lots of good members. But I wrecked some kids!

Wednesday was good! We ate with a member in Galena Park and had lots of tacos. Really good homemade tortillas... yum. We tried some referrals and had some more good lessons.

Thursday nothing really happened. Tried lots of people and had our weekly planning. We had to drive a lot, and pick things up for the APs.

Friday we had district meeting, and since my last area covers this area, I saw Elder Gill at the church! We had Bonfire wings afterwards. It's a wing place. Sooooo good! Better than BWW. we had a good lesson with the Villarreal family. They are a family we are teaching. They asked lots of good questions and it was great.

Saturday was a service day! We got to the church early ready to go...and no one from our ward was there haha. We can only do service if there is a member with us so we had to wait for a bit and we called some people to try and come out with us. We finally got someone and we went and helped a few people. We had a super good lesson with Marina that day. We were able to address her concerns and she understood everything perfectly. It was awesome!

(READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED!! MOM THIS MEANS YOU! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED)
So Sunday was the day of the week with my big story! So we had church (which was only 40 minutes again) and we went straight to work!! We went to a house, and boy It was the worst house I've worked on so far. (and btw I'm a professional now. I can tear down a house faster than anyone.) The water flooded about six feet into this house
so everything was trashed. We tore out all the carpet, destroyed the walls, and threw out all the trash. We got to the last room.... and piles and piles of junk. So much junk you couldn't get in. Mountains of it. So we had to careful pile things in wheelbarrows and haul them away. We finally whittled it down to the last corner and there was still a hill of junk, shoes clothes and other junk. Suddenly... out of nowhere... as we where putting trash away.... a huge rat jumps from under the pile and starts running around the room!!! This thing was ginormous! Bigger than my iPad, almost as big as a basketball!! Huge! It was running around and all of us were trying to kill it! We were all trying to kick it and smash it! Finally a member kicked it and I swear it was like slow motion! This thing flew in the area and landed in the corner. It crawled out this hole but got stuck!! So I went outside and could see it half stuck out of the house. So I started poking it with a stick trying to kill it and this thing was freaking out!!! It was like screaming and wiggling so I finally found a scraper and killed it. Cut its head cleeeeeean off. Sorry mom for the horrific story!

"Our Squad"

Service

Hey guys

So I am getting transferred and put back into Spanish. Hurray! I'm really excited. I'll find out my companion later today. We have a mission wide meeting today about the hurricane and about Facebook. We are going to be a Facebook mission here in the near future. It'll be good to see everyone today. Good to hear you enjoyed the trip and got a taste of some terrible humidity. It's the worst when you're biking and it's really humid and feels like 120 degrees. It gets too hot here.. this week we got the change so that we had to proselyte during the week and only do service on the weekends.

Tuesday was good, we had a fun pday. We played lots of games and played some pool. I beat everyone and am 8-0. No losses. We had Chick-fil-A a too so that was a win. Other than that not much happened.

Wednesday was good. We had a busy day, and since our car is out of commission we had to bike all over. We had lots of really good lessons though. I got pretty sunburnt but what was cool is the next day I woke up and it was gone! I was just darker. We had our Book of Mormon class and that went well. It was fun to teach I'll miss it.

Thursday was also really good. We had quite a few lessons in the morning so we were running around really quick. We weekly planned and everything and other than that we just taught people and biked around
all day.

Friday went by really fast. We had district meeting which was really good. The other elders brought brownie cookie hybrid thingys. They were so good! After that we ate lunch and biked across town to visit a guy. He was working on his house so we didn't really get to talk much with him. Friday night was really good, we had a lesson with Tiana who was baptized before the storm but never confirmed because church was canceled. It went well and Brother Partsch picked us up after and took us out to eat.

Saturday we were on exchanges. I was with Elder Bowers. He is a greenie and has just over a month in the mission. We were doing service most of the day. We tore apart all this tile with sledgehammers and it was so hard and tiring. Shards would fly everywhere too so I got a few stuck into my leg haha. We mucked four houses that day. We cleaned up and had dinner and went to work after we were done.

Sunday Tiana was confirmed. There was a good turnout and most people came in service clothes. Lots of yellow helping hands shirts. An investigator came and did service with us too. He had fun. His name is Jerry. We cleaned a bunch and after the other elders had a baptism. It was a good turnout. We all ate with Brother Fontillas. He is from the Philippines and cooks so well. He made us lots of food and a fancy desert. He is rich and has a big house full of artwork. It was pretty fancy, and he is really proper too so we had to use extra good manners.

This week was a good one. Hopefully my new area and companion are good. It'll be cool how everything goes with Spanish again! Love y'all