Abilene week 19

Saying goodbye to Elder King

Saying goodbye to Elder Mortensen and Watson for Elder King. 

And here is us making the rounds Sunday night before Elder King left to take some pictures with our other missionary friends. It looks like Elder Pasquale is about to die. Oh btw, I just weighed myself and I have in fact lost 10 lbs since I entered the mission field. So those other pictures just make me look fat I promise.

Hello Elder Banks!

Alright, so Elder Banks went to the same high school as Elder King.... and Elder Powell.... All of my companions went to the same school, can you believe that? Elder Banks is a funny guy, if you can't tell from that wonderful picture I took. We have had a real fun week together, and we have been blessed with lots of success too. Elder Banks came out with Elder King. He has served in Roswell and Lubbock before. He did lots more English before, so this area is now his most Spanish area of his mission. So, our Spanish lessons are always good times with us gringos. But we are both definitely blessed with the gift of tongues in knowing what we need to say. It's pretty sweet. 

Last night Elder Banks and I realized that we hadn't gotten any pictures together, so we got our cameras out and got some. It was kind of funny because Elder Banks was already getting undressed, but then we got back into suits for the pictures. 

Just me eating tamales!

Tamales are like my favorite Mexican food of all time. I love them. Sister Bundy brought 9 of them to Elder Banks and I this week. They were gone within hours, needless to say.

Elder Moffitt & Elder Hancock

Martha and Nicolas

Brother and Sister Bundy. They took us out to eat at Texas Roadhouse Monday night and it was so good. I don't ever remember any of those places being in Virginia. Anyway, when we do a little tour of my mission we will have to stop at one for sure. So good.

Ok, now for a little about this week. It was probably one of, if not THE, most successful weeks I have had. We set a baptismal date Saturday night with Azriel!!! I know, you have never heard of him before. Neither had we until Saturday either. We got a text from the sister missionaries that they ran into a guy who didn't really understand them but said he wanted to learn more, so they gave us his address. Saturday we actually had an appointment for every single hour of the day (never happened before. Like I said, super legit week), so we couldn't visit him. Then, one of our appointments fell through, so we decided to go try him out and see if he would be interested.

Right as we were walking up his porch he arrived home. Perfect timing. He let us right in. We only had 15 minutes to get to know him a little, and leave him a short message before we had to leave for our next appointment. We did a crash course restoration lesson and he accepted a challenge to be baptized Nov. 23rd at the end! We didn't even have time to introduce what the Book of Mormon was, but Elder Banks left him with one anyway. The next day he shows up at church and tells us he had read 4 chapters of it already! Then after sacrament meeting he goes up to the branch president and asks him what he needs to do to be baptized. He is 19 years old. He is the most legit person I have ever taught. I love him to death already.

Just a quick update on what else has happened this week: We got 4 other new investigators besides Azriel. Jorge and Yolanda, who both accepted a soft baptismal commitment (no date). And Thomas and Manuel (who also accepted a soft baptismal commitment). Elder King and I had found Jorge a week or so ago, but this week was the first time Elder Banks and I were able to teach him, and his wife was there too! At the beginning he told us how he didn't ever want to be a catholic, or baptist, or mormon. He just wants to learn more about God and make sure he's following what Jesus Christ wants him to do. Then by the end of our lesson about the restoration he accepted an invitation to be baptized. We didn't feel that we should set a date with him on that appointment because with what he said earlier we didn't want to be too pushy and scare him away. Jorge and Yolanda are both upper 30s.

Manuel is someone Elder King and I found last week. Well, he actually found us. But then when Elder Banks and I came back this week his friend Thomas was there too and we taught them both. Since then we have been back to teach Thomas already again. Manuel is 60, and Thomas is 76. They're cool guys. They seem kind of lonely, but that's perfect for the Lord to work with.

Eliseo was at church. He told us how he likes us coming over. I translated again in church this week. Alexandria and Alizay's mom still doesn't want either of them to be baptized. Katarino has not yet returned. Javier and Flo, and Mariana and Noel were not at church, but I still have faith in them, especially Javier and Flo. We're going to try and set a baptismal date with them tonight!! Anyway, that's our week in a nutshell. Oh, and Elder Banks was initiated into the branch by eating a ghost pepper yesterday. He did not like that, let me tell ya. But he took it well. He made it. haha.