Greetings friends, family, and associates!
Welp. First Pday eh?? Pretty sweet. My companions are Elder
Vance and Elder De La Fuente for those of you who don't know and they
are the zone leaders down here in Brownsville. I arrived on Wednesday
and we got to work. We visited the Almeida family who they had
contacted a day or two previously and met with Carmen Almeida and her
children Barbara (13), Oscar (12), Deborah (10). I was able to invite
them all to be baptized and they accepted to be baptized the 22nd of
April, so we are currently working with them and we were able to meet a
few other families. The area here has some problems and they have kind
of been struggling in this area recently. Here is what I sent to dad
about it-
The work in Brownsville is... ok. As soon as I got here I was able
to tell that there wasn't much member support, but I think most of it
is due to previous missionaries. So this past week we have been
focusing on improving our relations with the member families in our
area. So lame how there are so many missionaries in a ward, I think it
makes it so much harder to build solid relations with the ward members.
Despite it being hard, I think it is definitely possible and I think
the ward should be soo much stronger for having so many missionaries.
We have like 10 missionaries just in our Spanish ward- how is this not
the most active unit in the church when we have 10 people committed full
time to try and bring others unto Christ? Anyways, my companions
definitely agree with me and we've been able to help a few members so
far and we hope to be able to connect with all the members in our area
and then hopefully the other leaders as well. But the area is good. I
can definitely tell the Lord has prepared a lot of people here. What
you say about the mission here is true, there are a lot of people who
are so welcoming and kind to us, and that is great, but most of them
aren't really willing to act or change their beliefs, but there are
still plenty of people that are prepared to receive the gospel.
Other than that... Ummm... there isn't really a set schedule for
eating here with members and they were outta money so I pretty much
bought our groceries last week, but we split it this week. Anyways, I'm
looking forward to continuing working with our families and getting
them prepared for baptism and to meet the Lord! This mission is
definitely different, but I think a lot of the things that I loved about
missionary work in Argentina are missing here and hopefully I'll be
able to help the missionaries here with those things, especially with
their relations with the ward members and leadership. The Lord loves
the people of south texas!
I love being a missionary and I am so grateful for this opportunity
that I have to be here serving while waiting for a visa. I hope to be
able to learn as much as I can until I go and I know I'll be able to
pick up a new perspective that will for sure help me when I arrive in
Argentina. I know that my experiences there will also help me here and
help the missionaries and wards here as well. Anyways, please forward
this email to all the family and remind them to write me :) I love you
all and miss you mucho!! The Gospel is true and leads us to true
happiness! It might be hard, but it is always worth it. Write me
before next week! Love you all and I love you Nicole!
