Abilene week 20

Here's my pumpkin. For the first time, I decided to use one of those little designs that comes with the pumpkin carving kits. It actually turned out super legit. Everyone was like, "whoah, who carved that one?" Haha, Me!

                                          Left to right:

Elder Hancock: Texas with the TLM (Texas Lubbock Mission) in it

Elder Banks: Jack Skeleton

Elder Pasquale: He just cut his pumpkin to pieces then put them back together.

Elder Moffitt: A castle with some nice bats flying around

Halloween was pretty interesting this year. We had to be off the streets early. We got home at 5:45, did some good planning and then went over to hang out with Elder Pasqualle and Elder Hancock. They took us over to buy some pumpkins at Untied grocery store, and they were only 4 bucks. Pretty good deal I would say. Then when we were at Walmart buying candles and soda we had a super creepy experience. As we were walking out the doors, there was this lady who was dressed as a devil. When we were about 5 feet away from her she points her finger out at us and says in a really creepy, witchy voice "missionaries..." As she says this, the halloween music going on in the store is at a super creepy point. Then we turn around like 10 feet later to look at her again, and she's gone. Super eerie. It's hard to express it over e-mail, but we all got the chills. haha.

Anyway, almost all of my pictures are from Halloween. It was a great party. Elder Pasquale ordered pizza in for us, and we had some sweet Mexican apple and pineapple sodas. We also had chips and salsa, and carved our pumpkins listening to Christmas music, since we can't really listen to halloween music as missionaries...

Elder Banks

This is my companion. As you can see, he's a pretty cool guy. If you can't tell, that's Jack Skeleton from Nightmare before Christmas, so I thought Meagan would like that since she used to watch that movie every day for her whole childhood.

My district leader, Elder Barona, coming on exchanges with Elder Banks and me this week. Super great time as you can tell. Just Kidding, he's a cool guy. He reminds me of an Ecuadorian version of Dillon Franks. It was funny.

Elder Banks found this super Texas house one day riding our bikes. We talked to the guy that owns it, he was outside. He wasn't interested, but he said we could take a picture in front of his house.

I love the pictures you sent! Wow, my sisters are such dorks. But that's why I love them. That little picture of the fridge is pretty sweet too.

Well, the start of this week was super fantastic. Monday night, Javier and Flo committed to be baptized on November 9th! They felt the spirit so much! Then at the end of the lesson, we gave Flo a blessing because she was sick. We also told Javier that after he was baptized he could eventually receive the priesthood too and he was super stoked about that. When we came back on Thursday (halloween) for our next lesson Flo told us how the blessing had healed her. And they both told us they were 100% sure they wanted to be baptized on Nov. 9th.

Then a couple days later, we had a lesson with Azriel and he had read another 4 chapters of the Book of Mormon and told us all about the vision of the tree of life. Then we asked him if he remembered much form our short little restoration lesson we had with him from before. He had read the whole restoration pamphlet since in the proceeding days, then went on to basically teach us the restoration. As you can tell, we have had the most legit investigators in the whole world.

Unfortunately, later in the week things started to go down hill. We had to drop Cesar. He never answers our calls anymore. We have been by his house, and he peeks through the blinds when we knock on the door and then doesn't answer it. He is also afraid of committing to anything. Katarino is still not back. We also had to drop Eliseo. Our last lesson with him was sad. He loves us, and he loves us coming by. The problem is, he will not commit to anything either. We asked him to just make a small goal to quit drinking, but he wouldn't. Since we have been teaching him so long and he won't change, we had to drop him. Then we also dropped Maria, who won't answer the door even though she is home too.

It should all be ok though, because we have Azriel, and Javier and Flo right? Well, Friday night, Azriel got picked up by the police, and he is going to be deported. Seriously, he has been living here for 4 years and nothing. Then as soon as we find him he gets caught. Stupid Obama. Well, we couldn't go visit him in jail, but the branch president got some of his information, so hopefully the missionaries can find him when he gets down there. 

Then Javier and Flo ended up having to work on Sunday. Since they weren't at church, we will have to postpone their date. Keep praying for all of them! They're so close! They feel it's true!

Y'know, when Satan strikes a heavy blow like we've had this week, it only means we must be doing lots of good. We must be really close to the jackpot. I certainly believe that to be true. Javier and Flo are the best, and their family (them and their 3 little kids) will be so blessed by joining the church.

Anyway, there was a lot of drama and heartache this week. But there was also so much success and happiness. Always keep in mind 1Nephi 2.There is opposition in all things. We teach that to everyone we meet. It is true doctrine. Well family, that's it for this week. But before I leave.... I love you mom! I love you dad! I love you Meagan! I love you Courtney!