Week 5: Buckle up ya'll

December 05, 2022

Week 5: Buckle up ya'll

Howdy yall! Ok I'm going to write a better email than last week! (Sorry in advance, this one is long) So this week was pretty interesting. Tuesday we got to do some service for the Woods family demolishing a wooden porch cover thing, and moving the hot tub that was under it. (Gmail won't let me attach the video but I'll send a screenshot) The rest was all sledghammers and wheelbarrows. (we had to move all these limestone bricks surrounding a garden space. They were heavy lil suckers) The Woods are fantastic people. Brother Wood actually trains police K9s and security dogs! Beautiful dogs. And SUPER well trained. Also terrifying...

That night, we had a member meal with the Haddens! They're a fun older couple that LOVE to talk haha. They actually got married about a year ago and they were finally able to get sealed in the temple yesterday! We're so happy for them. They're great people. They also asked us if we would help set up for their daughters...kinsiñera? I'll be honest, I have no idea how to spell that. Anyways, we're going to help them set it up and we get food, so it's a fair trade haha.

On Wednesday, we did some things that we would have normally done on our first day here but we didn't to because of Thanksgiving. Since Thanksgiving was the day after I got to the field, my mission President wanted us to be able to be with our trainers right away so we could have dinner with members. Hope that makes sense. Anyways, what the missionaries here would normally do is spend the night at the mission home, do a lot of paperwork...and more paperwork...and then go to the Alamo. So we did that Wednesday. They used to let us procelyte at the Alamo, but they don't let us anymore, so we just got to take some pictures. Yeah, so anyways uh...the Alamo itself is a little underwhelming but it's still cool!

After that we got to go to the San Antonio temple which is GORGEOUS. I'll attach some pictures, but they won't do it justice. This temple is absolutely LOADED with symbolism. It's got some of the prettiest stained glass windows I've ever seen. The temple itself is pretty small, but it's awesome. And uh...really expensive apparently. Worth it. This thing is beautiful. We (the trainees) didn't get to go in and do a session, but our trainers did. Am I jealous?...Well yEaH but I'll get to go at least twice a year, so it's fine haha.

We also met with a few of the people we're teaching that day and taught a lesson over the phone which was...interesting. His name is Rey and he's super smart and he's grasping (and liking) all the things we're teaching him, but he's still kinda hung up on a few things. We're hoping to meet with him in person and have a good discussion. We hope it helps! He's a great guy and we really hope He'll be a little more receptive, but it's all up to him. Fingers crossed for that one.

Thursday wasn't super eventful until later in the evening. Our district leader planned what we call a "blitz", which is where the district goes to one neighborhood, each companionship picks a street, and we go through and knock on doors for about an hour. After that, every person found gets given to one companionship (which was me and my trainer this time). We all found a couple people, but the best part was at the very end.

Ok story time.

We were wrapping up, and my companion and I decided to knock on a few more doors and head back to the car. We could go right, left, or straight since we were at a crossroads. We both had the distinct feeling to go right. After a few minutes of no success, we decided to hit one more house and head back. I was kinda confused and frustrated at the fact that both of us had felt the need to go right, but nobody was answering. So we walk up to the door, knock, and...a man answers the door! Annnnd he's not interested and closes the door. Dang. So we start walking back to the car. A few seconds later we hear a womans voice saying "Hey! Are you guys LDS?!" Enter: Venessa! (and Julio!) Vanessa is actually a member of the church, but has been inactive for the past few years because of covid and just didn't come back, but has been wanted to come back to church. And guess who had been trying to get in contact with the church just the day before!! Oh yeah and she's from Arizona! Super awesome. So anyways, we gave her the time and address for the church and got her phone number and went on our merry way. This sunday we got a text from her saying that she was running late but that "we" will be there soon. (WE?) She brought Julio!! Julio isn't a member, and yesterday was actually the first time he had ever gone to church at all. He was so attentive and he actually told us that he loved it and thinks he's at the right place. (We do too!) So yeah! I'm so excited for them. I can't wait to teach Julio! He's such an awesome guy. We got to learn more about them during our "gospel essentials" class for new and non-members, and their story is awesome. Obviously won't go into detail, but we love them so much already.

I'll try to keep the rest of this reasonably short because this turned out pretty long...

Friday we did service at the S.A. Food Bank in the "Hunters for the Hungry" division. Hunters for the Hungry is pretty much where hunters kill deer and donate them. Pretty simple. Our job was to butcher the meat. We wanted to do the actual deer skinning, but there were a lot of people this week. Hopefully we can next week!

Saturday we taught some lessons to Rey and our friend John who we met on my first day ha. He's a great guy. He's had a hard life, but turned himself around about 9 years ago. Props to him for that. Hopefully he's willing to meet with us again.

Sunday was obviously awesome because Vanessa and Julio came, but we also had a pretty great fast and testimony meeting! We have some studs in our ward that make up for the size of it hah. It was great. The rest of the day wasn't super eventful though.

As my "spiritual thought" sorta, I just want to invite everyone to listen to the BYU devotionals that are online. Just look up BYU devotionals and you should be able to find it. One I just listened to was by Elder Holland called Becoming a Saint Through the Attonement of Christ the Lord. Amazing talk. Also listen to Lessons from Liberty Jail. There are TONS of awesome talks on there that I bet yall haven't heard. 10/10 would recommend.

And that leads us to now! We're going to go shopping in a few minutes for the necessities and such, so that should be fun I guess? We're also going to go to zone sports again (which is playing sports with the missionaries in our zone. I forgot to explain that last week haha) Love all of you and I hope you have a great week everyone!