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