Comida

Queridos amigos, This week went pretty well. We are preparing our good bud Mack for baptism on Sunday, he had a fight with coffee, but he committed himself and has done really well staying away from it. This week was another week full of food from our members, but luckily we've gotten them to progress a bit in their participation in missionary work! haha, tonight we'll have an fhe with a member family who has invited their friends over. Should be fun. Other than that, not too much going on here... we'll be going bowling today and I suppose my visa will be showing up shortly! Another visa waiter received his this week, so mine shouldn't be far behind. As far as other investigators gooo... Brandon and his family have dropped the ball pretty bad so he won't make it to his date which was for this week and Victor moved to Mississippi and so he obviously won't be getting baptized the 12th either. So there were some pretty rough disappointments this week, but we're excited for Mack and we're excited for the progress the members are making. We're actually planning an activity that we'll do in a few weeks where we'll assign the members to make some typical mexican foods from each mexican state and then we'll kind of rotate around to the different states and have a presentation about the states. Should be exciting. We've already gained a lot of member participation so now we just need to work on them reaching our goal which is for each family to invite 3 people and that at least one comes to the activity. We're excited, but my visa should probably be here before then ;) haha, anyways, love you all! Thanks for your support and letters (emails). Have a good week!

Tacows

Dear loved ones, This week we faced some challenges. Our main investigators are Mack (the old man referral from member), Brandon (the 9 year old in the less active family), and Victor (the 21 year old son of a less active). Unfortunately the latter 2 did not attend this week and Mack has been struggling with coffee. Though in good news a friend moved in with a less active recent convert (who is now returning to the church) who lost her husband and is left with her 2 young children (7 and 2). We only had time to explain church and invite her, but she went! Hopefully this week we'll be able to teach her and get her progressing towards baptism and salvation :) Other than that... not much goin on! Just lookin for new investigators and waiting for a visa! Some members said they're going to bring me over some mexican clothes from Reynosa (Mexico)- should be good. haha. Other than that we had a couple of good lessons- one of which is when we shared a Mormon Message (Forgiveness: My Burden Was Made Light) with some members and we were able to feel the Spirit really strong as we talked about how we build our foundation on Christ and that we only have that foundation through the Restoration of the Gospel. Hopefully they'll start participating more actively in missionary work now. Not much else to say! Keep praying for my visa and I guess we'll just keep waiting on the Lord! Love you all! Thank you for everything you do and have done. Have a good week and don't miss a day of scripture reading!

Dihalgo

Dear all beloved friends and family, Another week has gone by here in Dihalgo (Hidalgo). This week was... ok I suppose. Mack Wright (our old friend)'s baptism is set for the 29th, but we need to make sure he stops drinking coffee ASAP, so that he can make it to that day. Yesterday a senior missionary gave him some type of replacement, so we're hoping that will work for him. Other than that we've been able to see the Spirit start to work on him, we've been focusing a lot on the plan of salvation and I think that is what has really helped him most. In other news, our baptismal date for the 5th of August, Brandon Fuentes, also went to church. The bad part is that his parents didn't :( . Supposedly something happened to their truck is what Grandma Fuentes told us. But at least all the kiddos went! They're a great family. Hopefully we can keep the parents going. Other than that, we have a few other investigators that are hard to get a hold of, so they aren't doing too much. In other news, I had my companion try flan this past week! Haha, he liked it. We're still being spoiled by our members with food, which probably isn't very good for our "diets." haha. But we've been playing basketball 2x a week in the morning at least. Anyways, things are good, hopefully they'll keep getting better and then I'll get the cherry on top (the visa...) haha. Love you all! Thanks for your support and letters/emails- especially mom and nicole, my emailers in the family this week. ;) Have a good week!

Another Transfer

Yellow all, This week marks a new transfer in Hidalgo! I'll still be with Elder Fullmer, but some changes will be happening in the District, so I am pretty excited for the new blood. This past few weeks have been pretty tough, as I feel like I'm having to face a lot of trials, but everything seems to be turning up so it must mean my visa is coming any day now. Haha. Mom sent me a letter with a quote from this talk so I read it all- it is really good if you would like to read it (recommended). Haha. http://www.lds.org/ensign/1992/11/spiritual-revival Anywho, we put another baptismal date with Mack Wright, our old buddy for the 29th and we successfully stole all of his coffee this past week, so we're excited for him to progress and make that leap of faith. We also started working with a less active family who are actually distantly (by marriage) related to my converts Martin and Alicia. The whole family went back to church for the first time in 5 years yesterday. They have a 9 year old who hasn't been baptized and he agreed to prepare to be baptized the 5th of August, so we will be working with them so he can do that. The only thing is (Dad I might need some direction with this...) that the kids don't speak spanish so they can't go where most of the family goes and they didn't want to go to the English ward where they belong, so they want to go to the other English ward in the stake because the dad of the family (Eddie Fuentes)'s aunt goes there. So anyways, we'll see if they end up attending there or where, but at least they went to church again since it has been a loooong time. Our good buddy Victor also showed up at church so we'll probably put another date with him, he just needs to stay in town... 0.o Welp, love you all! Thanks for your support! Keep prayin for that visa :) haha Take care and read that talk!

Almost my 3rd 4th of July in the Mission

Hello everyone, I almost celebrate my 3rd 4th of July in the mission. I came home in June though so I just missed it though. Laame. But anyways, hopefully this week goes better because last week was pretty bad. We've been really trying to find new investigators, but so far nothing has worked for us- everyone fails the following appointments and avoids us. But not much we can do, but reanalyze our effort and keep trying. So far no word on the visa, who knows when it will come... it's been almost 4 months now! Hopefully it comes soon so then I can go home (to McAllen) in June of next year and then head home with the rents in July. That would be good, but I guess it just comes down to what the Lord has in mind and not what I have in mind! I don't really have much to say... hopefully you guys can come up with some interesting questions so I can write something more exciting. Haha. I guess the fun fact of the week is that we got fed almost 2x per day almost every day this week by the members- at least I've been working out more in the mornings, we spend a lot of time feeling full. Now if they would just give more referrals! :/ Anyways, love you all, have a splendid week and don't forget to read and pray daily. :) Love!