Week 88: Mission Tour

This week was super super cool. We had mission tour this week, so two members of the Area 70 came down to visit the mission. We had Elder Schmidt and Elder Brown. Elder Brown will be speaking in general conference, so be ready for that. He was super cool. On Tuesday night from 7-9, Elder Beachem and I had Elder and Sister Schmidt join us in the field. It was super cool, becaue they were able to meet Johnny and Melvin! They loved meeting them. And teaching with them was just an incredible experience. Both of our friends, who are neighbors and preparing for baptism on October 11th. The prayers must be working, because they both coordinated with each other, showed up to church like 30 minutes early, and paid their tithing. They aren't even baptized yet!!

Then we had a mission conference meeting that was super special for me. I learned very clearly how I feel the spirit. That's something I've never really understood, is how to recognize the spirit. And it's been a big struggle even on my mission, but it was super cool how clear it became during that meeting. The Spirit truly brings hope and optimism about the future, and thats what I learned. I'm out of time so I can't really type much else, but maybe if yall send me an email I can explain more next week. I love you all!!

Week 87: Jams and Jellys

So this week has been super fun! We've been going on tons of exchanges, so I've been able to get to know a lot of the Elders a lot better. I also went public contacting on Texas Tech for the first time. That was fun, but very different from the way we usually go finding. They were all my age, so that was weird...

We also did some service at the lubbock fair, and we got to be the judges on the best jams and jellys that got sent in. So we spent 3 hours eating jams and jellys at a fair (licking lips emoji) That was super fun

We have mission tour this week, and we have 2 members of the area 70 coming down. Normally I wouldn't stress too much about that, bur they let President and Sister Langeveld know that they want to spend Tuesday evening out in the field with some missionaries... and they picked us. We'll 1 seventy and his wife are going with a companionship, the other and his wife are going with another, and then President and Sister langeveld are going with another. So we'll be having someone with authority with us on Tuesday evening...

Melvin and Johnny are still doing super well progressing toward baptism but still need more prayers. Thank you!!

I love you all!!!

Week 85 & 86: CAPROCK

Hello everybody. I am now in Lubbock Texas in the Caprock ward. It has already been super super fun. We've got Johnny, Melvin and Ray on date for baptism, and I wanna share a little bit about Johhny because he's super cool. When we first met him, I was like wow Ok, we're gonna be dropping this guy so fast. He did not seem interested at all. He was just sitting outside his door clipping his fingernails, and was just giving us nothing to work with. But we gave him a Book of Mormon and set up a time to come back. When we came back, we were like "so Johnny, didja read anything?" And he was like "yeah I like to read" and had marked up the first half of 3 Nephi 11. He was talking about baptism and then said "yeah I've been baptized." Anyways we read the rest of 3 Nephi with him, explaining baptism, authority, and the gift of the holy ghost as we read, and the we were like "so Johnny what do you think is your next step?" And he was like "well I oughta get baptized before I get out of here" (hes super old). Anyways, he came to church yesterday, and we found out that he drove to the church on Saturday just to make sure he knew where it was before Sunday, and he's loving the Book of Mormon. He's super cool. He's also next door neighbors to Melvin, who also wants to get baptized, and so they're both getting baptized together on October 11th! Anyways, my companion is super fun, and a super hard worker. The ward is incredible and super involved in the work here. Please pray for our friends!

Week 84: I'm a week behind, so this is from last week

We got transfer news, but I already knew I was leaving. It's extremely rare for someone to serve in 1 área for more than 6 months, and that's how long I've been here in Odessa. It's been incredible. I've loved it here, and learned a ton. I've seen so many miracles. I was able to see so much fruit for our efforts while here in Odessa. So I'll miss it. I'll miss our friends, and our members, but I'm excited to see how things are in Lubbock! I've heard a lot of good stuff about my new area.

The sisters in our area had a wedding and a baptism on Saturday morning, and then Jose was baptized on Saturday evening. It was a busy day for the ward, but it was great. Here's some pictures!