Abilene Week 6

The Abilene Buffalo

Late one night after proselyting time was over we had to stop by the Abilene Buffalo to snap a picture. Doing it at night had nothing to do with the fact that we didn't want people driving by on the main road to think we were weird... Nope. We were just concerned that we didn't want to use our proselyting time for the picture. That's it yeah!

Transfer week!

It's TRANSFER WEEK! So, big news: I am staying exactly where I am. Elder King and I will both be staying with the Abilene 2nd ward and the Spanish branch. Yet, there will be a new pair of missionaries joining us in the Abilene 2nd ward, we'll be splitting it with them. I think they're slowly moving us out of English. My guess is 1) we still have something we need to do there so we're not leaving quite yet and 2) they didn't want to whitewash Abilene 2nd ward because it has happened lots before and we are just starting to build some good trust with the ward members. But with this exciting news of another pair of missionaries in the Abilene 2nd ward Elder King and I both decided this means it's time to start concentrating some more effort in Spanish! Whahoo! And that 2nd picture is of my district. We have some pretty cool Elders, but most of them are moving out tomorrow and we'll even be getting some sisters this transfer coming in. Weird..... !

It is sooooo hot here!

This first picture we've got here I thought was pretty funny, so I had to take a picture of it. Just a classic sign outside of some Baptist church. I mean, there are so many churches in Abilene they have to do something to get people's attention. In fact, did you know that Abilene holds a world record? There are more churches per capita in Abilene Texas than anywhere else in the entire world! We've got a lot to fight against here. Luckily, we've got a lot of power behind us if you know what I mean. There is even a law here (since there are so many churches) that in order for a church to be built in the city, another one has to move out first. I guess there are already so many they don't want them to just keep coming. 

The great and spacious building!

This church is the definition of "the great and spacious building." Look closely at the cars in the picture just to get an idea of how big it really is. Seriously, it's bigger than lots of the temples around the world. Unreal!

Slurpees! The best!  Just to date it, we got those in celebration of finding the Renteria family.... and also because it was so hot. It wasn't that hot outside of course. But since we had parked our car in the sun, that's how hot it was when we got inside. Awesome, I know. I hope you enjoy these two pictures. 

Ray: we had to completely drop him. That's why I haven't talked about him. We can't get a hold of him at all. He's just ignoring us completely. Eliseo we didn't see again this week either. Kayla we still have no idea if she's ever coming back. Her grandma wasn't at church yesterday either. Carlos we were actually able to visit this week, which was really good. We had planned a lesson about the atonement and Jesus Christ because we thought he was pretty confused about who Jesus really was and what he meant for him. Before we really got into it, he just broke down and started crying. He has had a super tough week. Before we have never really seen his emotional side. He's kind of bottled up, so we didn't have a super strong connection with him. But thanks to the Spirit and the inspiration of the Spirit helping us plan a lesson on the Atonement I think we were really able to provide some comfort to him that he needed a lot. It's still hard to keep up with him though because we can only contact him the day of, because of his dang confusing work schedule.

Jacob slipped... He made it five days with no smoking. That's the longest he's ever gone without smoking since he was 12 years old (yes, he's had some scary drug problems, but he's really turning his life around)! So, progress. Yes. He started again this week and as of yesterday he made it 5 days again. Let's all hope and pray that this time he'll be done with smoking for good.

Since we did exchanges this week I wasn't with Elder King when him and Elder Arrodondo (yes he's Mexican and speaks perfect Spanish. Jealous!) visited  the Juarez family. I think since everyone else in his family is baptized, Nicolas, the father  now  is really starting to feel some pressure. The thing is, he loves church. He comes every week. He's friends with Cristobal, Carlos, and all of us other white guys at church too. He loves the people, and he always pays attention in all of the lessons very intently. It's just a matter of time. I know the Spirit is working on him.

This week was a rough one for Spanish. We taught a total of 2 lessons... ugh. But English we had 6 member present lessons! That's more than we've ever had! By a long shot! I think the most we ever had in English before was 3. Anyway, we did lots of knocking on doors this week, which is no fun because it's never successful. When we try to knock we usually try to stop by former investigators or potentials because we at least have a higher rate of success there. We have a few appointments with some Spanish Potentials we found last week knocking, so we're hoping everything goes well with that.

So, the potentials thing is really great. Knocking on someone's door and asking for someone is much better than just knocking. We have even experienced a bunch of times the person we are asking for has moved, but then that acts as kind of an ice breaker with the person and they are less likely to immediately shut the door on our face. Elder King and I said we should just ask every door we knock on if some random name lives there because it may help us out, haha. Anyway, that's how we found 2 new English investigators this week, Courtney and Carolyn. Courtney is 15 and she has seemed pretty open to what we have had to share to far. Her mom (Carolyn) is a little different. She likes to contradict herself. Well, that's just about any religious person you meet who tries to tell you about the Bible but really has no idea what they're talking about. We're going to try and focus more on Courtney next time because I don't think we can get anywhere with Carolyn. She said she wouldn't even pray about the Book of Mormon to know if it's true. We asked her why she wouldn't even pray to know if it's true. She said she already knows it is. Then of course we asked her to be baptized! She said no to that. Why would she say no if she know's it's true? She gave us some weird answer that continued to just dance around the question and not help her case at all. Anyway, people are interesting...

Well everyone, I have officially been in Texas longer than the MTC now. I'm getting in the groove of things, and it's all becoming just a normal part of my life being a missionary. It's exciting work being a missionary, especially because there is ALWAYS something you can do. Good luck with Chris this week. I prayed for him to find his way to the gospel too. It makes me so happy that you're all doing missionary work at home too. I love you all so much. This week when we visited a family that had 3 little kids it reminded me of you guys. I miss you and I love you! But you know what they say the definition of a missionary is: someone who leaves there family for a little while, so others can be with their families for eternity. I love you! Love, Elder Moffitt

Abilene week 5

Texas is a beautiful place!

The sky is huge and the clouds are some of the best ones you'll ever see.  I took this picture from the highway one day because I just couldn't resist it.  Hope ya'll like it!

Remember how it had never rained here since I arrived?

 Well this week it rained 3 days in a row! Crazy stuff! Luckily it stopped just in time for bike day.  Anyway since it never rains here there is no drainage system at all.

All of the water just basically sits on the street until it dries out from the sun or runs off into a field and drains into the ground.  It rained Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and a little bit on Wednesday.  As you can imagine, Tuesday the streets were very flooded and here are some pictures of us driving around on the road.

Elder King and Elder Moffitt icing cupcakes

 This week you would actually be very impressed with my food making skills.  Elder King and I made cupcakes.  Yes....they were out of the box, but it's something!

For other meals, I made a chicken sandwich, grilled cheese, stir fried vegetables, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese and some regular chicken nuggets.  Yup.....I took it to the max level this week! No peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  I know that list isn't too impressive, but compared to some missionaries it really is quite extensive.

Got the package!

How did you know I didn't have a good green tie? I loved the one you sent.  It is super cool!  And I loved all the DI ties too!  I am wearing the tan one as I write this email.  Thrift shop ties are the way to go! Missionaries LOVE new ties!

Nadias birthday party!

Nadia had her 18th birthday this week, and she invited us to the party! Since we can't proselyte after 7 anyway, we didn't feel bad about going to it. The food as always was delicious. I love Mexican food, but I am seriously going to get fat. Hey cool story: You know those corn things they always have in Nacho Libre? Yeah, well they made those at the party and I had one. Usually they say they like to cover the corn with Mayo and then put all those spices on it, but I did mine with butter instead of Mayo. They said either way is still fine. I don't know if I could have handled that much mayo. It was absolutely delicious by the way. 

  

It was a pretty rough week. So when to our surprise when Carlos showed up at sacrament meeting with his 1 and half year old daughter we were both smiling from ear to ear. I went over and sat by Carlos, and we were actually able to have a decently good conversation by ourselves in Spanish for like 10 minutes. Blessings!  We are still not sure what to do with him. It's hard to make appointments, because he usually doesn't know his work schedule until that day. Hopefully we can talk to him again this week and really figure out where he is coming from with his beliefs in Jesus Christ. He is a great guy, and maybe this time he will accept a baptismal invitation.

I don't know if I have told you about Allie and Sal yet. Allie is a less active who just really got excited about church again. Sal, her husband is not a member and has basically no religious background, quite a surprise for someone living in Texas. My first week here when I went to their house they made rootbeer floats for us! Awesome. Last week when we were visiting them their dog was sitting next to me on the couch and it started making some weird noises. I looked over and it threw up like half a foot away from me. Then it immediately starting eating its puke. Nobody else saw, but I started laughing. Then everyone was like wha....? Oh my gosh!

We were able to meet twice with Cristobal, a 61 year old Mexican less active man. We have been meeting with him almost every week since we got here. We always sit in his backyard on some couches that he has under a little covered cement patio behind the house. 

Jacob is doing great with his no smoking! He had to restart on Thursday because he had smoked. But since then he has been smoke free! Almost 5 days now! We are praying so hard for him! If he can beat smoking, which I know he can, then I think he will get baptized. He is trying so hard to improve his life. He's got a lot working against him  but he's got even more going for him, so just keep praying for him.

We were not able to meet Eliseo at all this week. We called him almost every day, and stopped by his house a couple times too. To our surprise, his less active wife, Nita showed up to church on Sunday. I sat with her and her niece, Mamas, during the dinner after church was over and really got to make a good connection with them. Slowly ,slowly, we'll get there.

Kayla we found out this week may never come back. Her grandma doesn't have custody of her (that's why she was living down here for a while), so she may never come back to Abilene again. She is currently with her parents in some town 2 hours from here. We found out where it is and gave the information to the missionaries there, so hopefully they can do some good work. Kayla's mom is a member, but no one else in her family is, so good luck to the missionaries out where she is now.

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of my apartment, but I still have one more week for that, so hopefully I can remember to do so. I love ya family! Tell grandma thanks so much for the goodies in the package! It made my day. I hope you're enjoying Utah too. Despite the hard time I always give Utah, living there going to BYU were some of the best times I've ever had.