Hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Harvey is here! These past few days have been absolutely nutso! I'll tell you all about it later. Tiana's baptism went really well. She loved it. I got my package and it was great as well! Our fridge went out for a few minutes too but luckily came back on. Our apartment is one of the only ones left with power around here. The Lewis family was really nice and the bread was so good! We beat a record for jenga at their house.

Monday was cut short because we went to the temple Thursday so we were all done at 2. After that we went out proselyting and we taught a lot of people. The day had clear skies and still had no idea of the hurricane.

Tuesday was good not much happened, but we did have lots of good lessons with investigators and drove a ton. We used a lot of miles to get around but it was okay. We had Tuesday night splits again and we visited some struggling members in the ward. It was fun and good to get to know some of the some 600 less actives in this area. Still clear skies and no idea a hurricane was coming.

Wednesday was really fast. We didn't do too much but we had lots of fun. One year a missionary. We didn't do anything special though. It started to get a little windy but we thought nothing of it.

Thursday was super good. We went to the temple and had a really good session. It's always good to spend time in the celestial room. It's so beautiful and peaceful. Around 4 in the afternoon we heard about a tropical storm that is rolling in. The roads got a little more busy and people flocked to the stores to buy water. We ate with the Cox family and they gave us water. People started to freak out and go nuts. We went on exchanges Thursday night with the zone leaders too.

Friday was the beginning. It rained most of the day and the skies were dark the whole time. No one would talk to us Friday because they all thought we were crazy for being out with the storm coming. We got soaked that day. We went out to a buffet with Brother Partcsh and the news was on. The tropical storm had gained strength and turned into a hurricane, category 3. We were all a okay but rain picked up over night and got pretty bad. Rained all throughout the night.

Saturday was crazy. We got informed to stay inside all day by President and to take out any cash that we could in case something happened. So I took out the money you sent so that's where that went. Which was good because we needed some supplies like food and water. The zone leaders apartment had their power go out so they came to us in the morning. We later went to theirs again and grabbed some things and went to the Lewis'. By this point roads were pretty bad and the rain was intense. Minor flooding started to occur and hurricane Harvey turned into a category 4. The storm was closer to Corpus Christi at the time but we got a lot of rain from being pulled in at the coast. We played jenga and ate chili it was fun. Our first counselor in our mission presidency, President Rascon, works for abc13 here in Houston and is a renowned news anchor. He was on the TV, so we texted him when it was live to give us a thumbs up! He keeps his phone in front of him on silent when he's on air so he saw it. The news went to a video and he replied to us with "haha okay". He came back on and gave us a thumbs up it was great! We went back to the apartment and stayed in the rest of the day.

Sunday was nuts too!! Flooding intensified. Church was canceled and we were stuck in our apartment for the whole day. This is the worst storm Houston has had in a long time. Flooding is super bad. In areas by our apartment, like a block away, there is flooding to the second floor. Our apartment complex is raised a foot or two so we haven't flooded yet. Most of Houston is under water now. We didn't have wifi in our apartment so I went to our neighbors and asked them if we could use theirs so I have wifi now! Hurray! Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to email all y'all. It was a boring day being inside the whole time again.

We are going to get rain for the next five days or so. Flooding is bad and lots of homes are destroyed. Once this passes by I'll have loads of service opportunities. Kind of unique that I can say I went through a hurricane. Everything is okay here so far. Helicopters and boats have been flying by and rescuing people who got flooded out and lost supplies. We luckily have food and water and some other Elders are staying with us. It's raining extremely hard right now. Most rain I've ever seen. Hope all is okay with y'all and I wish you all a good week! Love y'all! And pray for Houston!

There is a kind ward member that lives nearby and has been keeping my mom up to date with what has been going on. She called on Sunday to let us know that Jonny was ok and has been keeping in touch through texts. It was so sweet of her to call...she knew we must be worried! We found out today that Jonny has been evacuated. All we know is that he is with the other missionaries and I think the president and is being taken good care of! 

Tallest Jenga ever!

Streets flooding

Houston right now

Right by our Apartment

A before and after of the freeway

Friday's news

Birthday Celebrations

Being 20 feels just like being 19! I didn't get any birthday cake but Elder Gill bought me some frosties from Wendy's, and the next day we ate at the Mumfords and they got me some cupcakes. My knee is alright! Not oozing anymore but last Monday I dislocated my left knee again. It's okay now I'm used to it. I was wearing my brace too so idk. But I'm fine. My bike is still broken. To get it fully fixed I would need a new tire rim. Mine is bent so whenever I patch my tire it scrapes the tube and pops it after a while.  It'll start to cool off around October/ November time. 

Last Monday was good. We cleaned and shopped, then played at the church. We played basketball for a while and then chair soccer. That's when I dislocated it. I guess my brace slipped down a bit and my knee popped out. But oh well. It happens

Tuesday was ehh. Nothing special. We went on splits with some ward members to help them with their home teaching. Their home teaching is in the single digits and real bad.

Wednesday was pretty good. We had Zone conference real early in the morning at 8 and it was in Summerwood. That's the rich part a few miles up the beltway. It was good and interviews with president were awesome. We had some pizza too. It's called MOD pizza and it's kind of a create your own and super good!

Thursday we had a lesson with this guy named Jerry that went really well. He's a good guy but doesn't have much of anything.  We tried lots of people and weekly planned at the apartment. That's when we got frosties. We went to an investigators house and they had new kittensrunning around. They were crazy. It was a pretty normal day though. Nothing really cool happened.

Friday was pretty fun. We were up in Tidwell, which is like 20 minutes north of our apartment. We tried a bunch of people and it was good. We got some new investigators. We were talking to a friend of ours named Archie at his friends June bugs house. He is cool. He was telling us how to be like a black man and called us "Soul Brothers". So I guess I'm an honorary soul brother. We ate dinner with the Mumfords! They made me chicken wrapped bacon stuff and had cupcakes with ice cream. It was good! They got me two giant things of hand sanitizer for my birthday and a cows head wall decoration as a joke haha. Everybody knows I'm a germaphobe... but those will last me for forever.

Saturday was nothing special. We were up in Tidwell again and taught a ton of lessons. We met some vicious dogs too. They were nice to us though.

Sunday was the good day and highlight of the week. Church was good and we had three investigators at sacrament. They all enjoyed it. We were supposed to have ten there but only three of them came. After church we baptized Tiana. I got to baptize her and it was so awesome. She really loved it and felt so good afterwards. The Channel View Elders baptized too. They cover our ward as well. It was Elder Bowers first baptism too. He's new just got here. Afterwards we went to Sister Freeman's house all together and ate like every week. It's the worst though because I'm with Elder Latu and we eat a ton!! Every time I'm with him I forget to control what I eat haha. We just pound food. Haha. He's a big guy too and I ate more than him yesterday haha. It was good, but not good at the same time because when I put on my baptismal pants earlier today they were kinda tight! Ever since I went English I've gained like five pounds and I'm filling out a bit. Not good!

This week was good and we had fun! Hope y'all have a good week and I love you guys! Happy birthday mom! Love you!

Baptism of Tiana

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"Pretty sure I've got the coolest ties in the mission! Thanks for the package mom!"

Word of Wisdom

This week was crazy!


So yep Elder Gill is my companion and we get along reallllly well. We are real good friends. 

Monday was crazy. Transfer meeting was weird and I got to see a lot of friends. Elder Gill and I got along right off the bat. We visited a few set people and had some dinner.


Tuesday was a long day but a good one. We tried a lot of cool people that morning. We had a funky lesson that night too. We taught a girl named Bri and she had a one year old son. 

Wednesday we helped set up for a funeral and Sister Freeman took us out to Burger King for whoppers. We also visited a ton of people that day. We taught a family in their trailer and there was an overwhelmingly smokey smell. Cigarettes were bad! We had a lesson with a cool guy named Sergio. A member, brother Mumford came with us.

Thursday we had weekly planning and I went to Spanish class too. Nothing really too exciting happened. We got some new investigators as well.

Friday we had district meeting and President came. It was pretty good. Sister Freeman came and dropped off sandwiches for us afterwards. We played basketball with some investigators too that was a blast

Saturday was really fun! I was on exchanges with Elder Latu in his area. Elder Latu and I are pretty close! He is cousins with my trainer, Tukuafu! We had so much fun. We tried lots of people and had a ton of cool lessons. We went to chick fil a and a member was there and he paid for us. It was legit. We had a really cool lesson with a family that had taken the lessons before. We felt prompted to talk
about the word of wisdom. I was extremely bold with him. He gave a ton of excuses on why he didn't want to be baptized. I basically told him that I knew he knew that this was true and the real reason he didn't want to be baptized was because he didn't want to stop drinking and take the steps necessary to have an eternal family. So I testified to him and promised blessings. I was a little shocked of what happened and so was Elder Latu, but I felt that I needed to say it and got the prompting like seven times. His face was priceless. When I talked to him you could tell that he knew I was right. We ate dinner with the Mumfords. They are super cool. We ate pizza!

Sunday was really weird. Sacrament was good. After church we ate with the Freeman's. Brother Freeman is a genius. He has like 11 patents and six pending. He is so smart. We had another lesson with Sergio that night too. The Mumfords came.

This week was really good! We worked really hard and have about five people lined up for baptism within the next coming weeks. Hope everything at home is going okay and that y'all are having fun. Love ya.

Transfers

Well I'm getting transferred... and I'm going English for a transfer. I don't know where or with who yet though. I'll let you all know later tonight along with an address. (Elder Fraley is in Houston. His updated address is in the contact information if you would like to send a letter. He'd really appreciate it!) 

Glad to hear all is going good. My week was alright. We did a lot of service. It was a bummer saying bye to a lot of the members here. They were awesome.

Yesterday I spent packing and saying goodbyes. We helped a lady clean her classroom and another guy move. Elder Carter and I were able to find some new investigators. Other than that my week wasn't very good. These next six weeks are going to be long ones. Have a good week.

"My favorite people ever! La familia Rodriguez son los mejores!"  (The Rodriguez family are the best!)

"They are like my Mexican parents! Say hello to hermano y hermana Hernandez!"

"Our Cuban investigator, Lazaro, wearing a suit that I hooked him up with!" 

"Say hello to the Manns! Or goodbye. Later Baytown."

The Usual

Hello!

This week was good. We had a fun time this week. Lazaro, the one from Cuba is great. He has a baptismal date in August. He hasn't been able to come to church yet because of work conflicts but pray that his boss will give him Sundays off. The reunion sounds like it was a blast. I'm glad everyone had a good time. Wish I could've been wake boarding with Ron! If you want to send pictures to my iPad you should have one of my siblings show you. It would be hard to explain. But basically you go to send me an email and hold down on the screen and hit insert photo or video. Then choose the one you want. To send more than one you'll have to do that a few times. But then you just hit send!

This year has flown by so far. And I feel like this first year, especially the last six months have been the hardest time in my mission. I'll finally be on the downward slope next month. 

Monday we did the usual. Usual Baytown pdays. We bowled, which I won I think. Then we went back to the church and emailed everyone , played basketball and chair soccer. Then we finished and went back, changed, and went to grab our dinner. Dinner was pretty good.

Tuesday was a blur and I don't really remember that day. That night, we met with Lazaro and had a good lesson with him. It is sad though because he has nothing in his apartment. Just one chair and a cooler to sit on. So afterwards we picked up a couch for him and brought it to his apartment. He was so happy! I also got him a suit and some ties and some shirts that were left behind by some other missionaries. He was super grateful. but Tuesday night we went on exchanges with English and I was in their area with Elder Lott.

Wednesday was really good. Elder Lott and I had a lot of fun. We worked out in the morning and got ready. We went out at about ten and tried some people to visit. No one answered. For lunch we all met up at Wendy's. After lunch we had comp study and I did a bit of language. We went back out after that. It was really hot Wednesday. We went on this one street and parked our car because we were going to walk to the house we needed to go to. Turned out it was on the other side of the road about eight blocks away. I got a little burnt from that. Afterwards we had dinner at a members house. They recently moved here from Utah because he got a job at one of the refineries. They were nice and we had lasagna. It was good!

Thursday was a blur too... I don't remember it really. Other than we had Spanish class in the morning and we ate dinner with the Chavez family. She makes good food. Oh and also we played dodgeball with the young men and leaders. My team won! My arm was sore though. Threw too fast!

Friday was such a fun day. We had district meeting but then afterwards I went on exchanges with Elder Asasy!! It was so fun! We stayed in my area for the first little bit and divided the work between us and Elder Carter and the other AP Elder Hasson. We tried a bunch of people and had a lot of cool experiences. We had a really cool contact with a guy and he was super solid. At around 3:30, we left Baytown and went to Eagle Springs, the APs area. We tried some people down there and it was so fun. The best part was dinner. We ate dinner with a Vietnamese family in their area named the Quaks. They were soooo cool. The husband spoke perfect English and the wife could speak it pretty good too. She just had a thick accent. They had three kids too that were so funny. We ate this amazing rice and pork dish with a sweet and salty sauce with garlic while. It was so good. Probably the best meal I've had on my mission so far! So I guess I'll go with dad to a Vietnamese restaurant when I get back. The two little girls made me a card too with a picture. It was cool. After that we headed back to Baytown and exchanged back. It was such a fun day.

Saturday was great too. We biked in the morning and were able to find some new investigators. No one really solid though. We went back and had lunch. The afternoon rained a bunch so we're weren't really able to do too much. Then for dinner we ate with a family that recently moved from El Salvador. They were so cool and the dinner was good.

Sunday was alright. We had to wake up really early because we had branch conference and a branch correlation meeting at 7. The stake presidency was there too. After church we had lunch like usual with the Rodriguez family. Great as usual. Then we tried some people and that was our day.

That was basically my week it was a good one! All is good here. Just really hot. Love y'all and have a good week.