Week 42: Exchanges and a Tropical Storm

August 28, 2023

Week 42: Exchanges and a Tropical Storm

Hey y'all!

We had a pretty fun and soaked week. We got a TON of rain this week which was an answer to literally everybodys prayers. This last Monday we took a fun trip to San Antonio and visited the Mercado (Historical Marketplace of San Antonio). Place is chuck full of all kinds of souvenirs except for the one thing I was looking for. Offff course. Oh well. I'm sure I'll find some salt and pepper shakers for my mom elsewhere. I WILL track some down.

While we were at the Mercado, Elder Deming (who's an avid storm junky in my district) happened to see the weather forecast on a TV and got SOOOO excited about a bunch of swirls of color headed our direction. Aka the remnants of Hurricane Harvey turned tropical storm.

Sure had some variety this week with back to back transfers! Tuesday I had exchanges with our zone leaders in Uvalde and then Wednesday I had exchanges with the Crystal City Elders. It was actually super fun to have two full days out of Cotulla. Cotulla is great, but it's nice to get a break from your own area for a bit. I think I would feel the same with any area ha.

Uvalde is awesome. I had my exchange with Elder Updike and his other companion Elder Neel, since they're in a trio there. They're both great missionaries and I really enjoyed getting to spend the day with them! Tuesday was also sweet because it just rained buckets. When the storm rolled through, it was a pretty steady downpour for like six hours! The work we did that day was pretty normal, but it just felt so much more fun and exciting because of the storm hah.

My exchange in Crystal was pretty fun as well. We had a couple lessons and it rained again (but only for 20 minutes or so) and we had a very entertaining member meal with a recent convert! There's some real characters out here and it's pretty dang fun. The only downside to how much rain we've gotten recently is how stupidly humid it's been the last few days. And the mosquitoes. It's been pretty terrible. In town the mosquitoes usually aren't too bad because they spray for them, but in certain places where they haven't it's awful. They're MASSIVE.

We've been talking to a man named Ernie recently and he's pretty cool! At this point we aren't exactly sure at this point if he's going to progress, but he's super nice and has met with missionaries in the past. He also does leather working and he's got a sick little shop in his house where he makes his stuff. Maybe I'll buy something off him at some point.

We also just started talking to a man named Robert. He has also met with missionaries in the past, but now might be the time for him to finally progress. He's a very humble person and he seems to be interested in learning more! I'll keep y'all updated on them both so hopefully things go well.

Spiritual thought: You Make Your Own Weather.

This is something we talked about in Zone Conference last week and I really liked it. Our mission president talked about how in life, there are all sorts of things that happen to us that act like a catalyst for a specific outcome. For example, you go outside to enjoy the sun and, bam, it starts raining. In between the catalyst and the outcome there is a magical moment. A moment of decision where we get to CHOOSE the outcome. Agency. So, in this rainy day situation, you have the choice to be sad that the rain ruined your picnic plans OR you can choose to enjoy the rain and be happy. An outside influence can't force us to feel a certain way. It can't TAKE away our agency. However, we can GIVE it away when we choose to let someone make us angry, offend us, annoy us, etc. Really, saying someone "offended us" is fundamentally wrong. Nobody can do that to us. We do it to ourselves, in a sense. We GIVE another person the power to influence us.

My overall point here is this: Don't give away your agency. Choose joy, even when the world is against you.

I love y'all so much and I hope this week is fantastic. Catch ya next week!

Love,

Elder DeWitt