Abilene Week 2

Good Ole Texas making money from oil

Texas is really funny.  Where ever you go there are just pictures of Texas.  There are always sayings about Texas on all the walls in stores and restaurants.  There are pictures of the state engraved into the walls on the highway, on people's cars...just everywhere!

You rock MOM!

 Perfect choice on that Nesquick you sent me mom.  You know it's my favorite.  So on my first p-day, last Monday I went out and bought the biggest container Walmart had of it.  So the one you sent me will just have to wait its turn....a week or so probably.  Elder King said I should try to balance all of that for a good picture.  So I did....look it worked!

Making my delicious grilled cheese dinner!

As little cooking as I'm doing, it turns out Elder King does even less.

This is where the magic happens.....

And by magic I mean, cereal, and peanut butter and honey sandwiches!

Can you believe this bathroom belongs to two 19 year old young men

My super fancy bathroom.  Try not to get to jealous.  Luckily, Elder King and I are both very clean people, so our apartment is neat.  Especially in comparison to some of the other missionaries.  There are all levels of grossness I have seen in other apartments.

Our study area

This is where we study and we study a lot! Personal study for an hour.  Then companion study.  Then until I am here for 12 weeks we get another hour of companion study for training purposes.  Then an hour of language study.  Then lunch.  Long morning!

So, I guess it's time to tell you how my week has been. Super exciting, quite stressful, but very rewarding. Elder King is pushing me, but I need it. In my first week here we were having a lesson with a Spanish lady, and I was barely catching a word here and there. Then all of the sudden Elder King says, "and my companion has a scripture he would like to share." Oh really? I do? So I turned to one I thought had to do with what we were talking about and after I read gave a brief testimony of it. Then the lady we were teaching said "Que bonito." The old Hispanic ladies are quite funny, even if you barely know half of what they are saying.

This Thursday Elder King and I had a really neat experience. We  had a lesson with a less active, old hispanic man and taught the first lesson. Interestingly enough, he didn't know most of the things we were talking about, so it was a good thing that we did. Then the rest of the day, we had nothing. After we left his house at 2 we had no set appointments for the rest of the day. Our other 2 we originally had punched on us. Punch means to cancel. We had a goal to find a new Spanish investigator that day. We didn't know how, but we decided to start driving. Then after a couple minutes we felt like we should stop. Before we got out we tried calling our investigators and other potentials to see if we could set up some appointments for later on. Dozens of phone calls later with no answers we felt we should just get out and start knocking doors. So we did (knocking doors to find Spanish investigators is especially difficult because most of the people who answer speak English). We knocked for almost an hour, and we finally got to the end of the street. Only 3 houses left to go. We knock on the 3rd to last house. We hear running around inside, and a kid say "hey it's some people from the church!" Oh great, we think. Then we proceed to wait another minute before someone finally answers the door. It's a little girl who we start talking to (she speaks English), but then in the background the mom says "No ingles aqui. Lo siento." The girl starts shutting the door then we bust out some Spanish real quick. The door flings back open. The mom walks up to us and says "pasenle, pasenle."

Yeah, that means come inside in case you were wondering (afterwards Elder King told me that he has NEVER been let inside someone's house from just knocking on doors before. Very rarely you  can get invited  back later for another visit, but never right off the knock). We start talking a little bit. The mom is finishing some cooking on the stove, and 4 kids are running around the house screaming while the TV is on some raunchy show. After a couple minutes the mom comes back into the living room and turns the TV off. Then Elder King invites the kids to come and listen too. They do, and everything gets calm. Well, would you guess it? We taught the whole first lesson all in Spanish. Elder King and I had practiced it in the morning in Spanish, and then earlier we had had it in Spanish with that less active man. We were all practiced up, and the Lord was helping us every step of the way. I said the first vision, and afterwards we paused. Then we asked how each one of them felt. They were all feeling really good. The Spirit was there. We have a return appointment with them this Friday, and the other 2 kids (6 kids total!) and the father will be there as well we think. I reeaallllyy hope this is the family Elder King and I have been praying to find. Everything that morning led us towards them, and they were so receptive. I'm still praying they are who we are meant to find.

Anyway, that day was the best day of the whole week. Especially because after that one of our investigators, Carlos, who we can never reach called us back, and we were able to teach him in Spanish too. Then we were able to get an appointment with an English investigator, Jacob. Right now he is our only really progressing English investigator. He really has a heart of gold. He wants to be the best person he can be. He has a tough time being a single father right now, but he has a strong desire to follow Christ. He is finally reading the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, but he doesn't know it is true yet. I pray every day that he will receive an answer. Anyway, that great day was so needed because the day before was pretty disappointing. We had 6 appointments. Our whole day was full! Then 4 of them cancelled... You would be surprised how many people cancel. It's pretty sad.

Now, we're getting a little out of order, but I want to go back to Tuesday. That night we had dinner with the Juarez family. Elder King baptized them about a month and a half before I got here. Well, 3 of them. The dad and the oldest daughter are still not baptized. Nadia, the oldest daughter has a date set for the 13th of July to be baptized though!  Very exciting. Nicolas, the dad, is super nice. He's a great guy, and I love him. But he is just not as excited as the rest of the family is about baptism. He comes to church every week with the family though. So Tuesday we taught him the Doctrine of Christ. Then when the Spirit was really strong, and I know he was feeling it, I challenged him to be baptized. He said yes... but no for a while, which basically means no. It was sad, and you could see that on the faces of his family especially. I'm feeling though, that soon he'll make it there.

Saturday night we had an appointment with Allie and Sal. Allie was a less active member who Elder King met a few weeks before I got here. Now she is super excited about the church. She loves it. She is coming to church every week, and her testimony is exploding. Sal is not a member, and he has almost no religious background (which is unusual for Texas). We're taking it very slow, because he is starting from ground zero. That night we were setting up for a baptismal challenge the whole time. We led into it with a bunch of scriptures promising all these wonderful blessings of baptism. Then I asked him, "Sal, do you want all these things in your life?" He's a smart guy, and he said. "Yes, but I know where you're going with this and I'm not sure I am ready to be baptized." Another baptismal challenge thwarted. It's ok. We told him we didn't want him to feel like he was doing it for us, or even his wife. He should be doing it for him. He doesn't have a faith that Jesus Christ is his Savior yet, and he definitely needs that before he gets baptized.

Well, Sunday was exciting. Last Sunday I gave a talk in Abilene 2nd ward, the English one. This Sunday I gave a talk in the Abilene Spanish branch. Fantastic. Either they like me, or realllly don't like me here. One of the two. I feel bad in the Spanish branch because when I try to go and talk to people, they always end up saying something I have no idea, then I kind of smile. After asking them to repeat themselves like 2 times they realize I have no idea what they're saying. At least people are nice about it, but sometimes I feel a little helpless. Everyone in our wards are really friendly though. It's a good place. Family, I love you! Thanks for the prayers, and keep them up because I need them! Love you mom! Love you dad! Love you Meagan! Love you Courtney!