pampa week 2

My new apartment....its just a little cold out today!

Here I am bundling up in the cold at the start of bike day. As you can see, it is just beginning to snow outside.

And yes, it is super cold and windy. Surprisingly though, I haven't been super cold. One day this week it did snow and it was bike day too. So we almost died, but we ended up getting some rides and we thus survived. I stay surprisingly warm, the only thing is I can't keep my ears warm. I have a couple beanies, but the wind is really the killer thing and I don't have a hat that is a wind blocking hat. The wind just cuts through the ones I have now. Besides that, I am fine though. 

Lunch time in my new apron!

I will start off with 2 pictures of our apartment. Here I am in the apron again. Sometimes I keep it on to eat food too because I'm worried about spilling on my white shirt. Actually, only seconds after this picture was taken I spilled some spaghetti sauce on my apron, so good thing I was wearing it.

 And we have a couch in our apartment. Pretty cool huh? 

Doing Service

This picture is doing service. I don't have a good jacket to wear if I'm doing service in the cold. So I was forced to wear my nice jacket. I was careful not to get it scratched or anything. I think it's fine. But Elder Pahulu had an extra windbreaker, so I have that now. Maybe I will request some sweatpants though?

You know those rides I was talking about? Well, we can't be in a car with just a woman. There has to be another man if we are getting a ride in someone’s car. So..... we found a loophole. We are not actually IN the car. As you can see, we're chillin' in the back of the truck in order to get a ride to our next appointment. Fun times as a missionary:)

 So you want to know a little more about Elder Pahulu? He is very energetic and everybody loves him. He is a work horse and we get things done. This week for example, we had 11 member present lessons. That's more than I have ever had in one week before. In fact, I think that may be equal to a whole month of member presents if it was a slow one.  

I have gotten one of your letters so far since arriving in Pampa. The other 2 I assume are close behind. Sad news: I have accumulated too many things since I came on my mission and I had to end up leaving a few in Abilene. 1) the nerf gun... unfortunately they're outlawed anyway... 2) the football, I just forgot about that one. And those are the main things. I think I may have to send a package back to ya'll sometime soon with just books. I have too many books. A whole suitcase in fact. 

Classic Texas Baptist Sign

 So in our weekly e-mail from President Augustin he always includes the names of missionaries who had a baptism that week. I saw Elder Banks name down as having 2 baptisms! So I assume that means Lupe and Genaro got baptized. That just makes me so happy. I hope he writes me a letter sometime soon so I can know for sure.

Now for our investigators. This week Samaelito is planning to be baptized on Saturday, the 1st of February. We just did some good Book of Mormon reading to prepare him. And hopefully everything goes smoothly. Exciting!!!

Ana wasn't able to make it to church, because she was sick. But we were still able to meet with her a few times this week and go over some really important commandments and she committed to keep the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. She is still on track for baptism on the 8th.

We only met with America once this week. It was a good lesson about prayer. Although, I felt my Spanish was just horrible the whole time. I don't know why. Either way, the spirit was there, and hopefully she really starts praying on her own. One interesting thing we noticed in their house. I don't know if you hear Kyle tell you about how some hispanics have a little statue of "La Santa Muerte" aka the grim reaper. Yeah, they burn candles for it and pay it money or feed it and stuff. Pretty creepy. Well, they have one of those in their house, and the candle was burning for it last time we were there.

We picked up quite a few new investigators this week, but I'll just tell you about our most legit ones. That would be Isabella (21) and Elena(26). They're sisters, and we found them just walking around outside. We already had 3 lessons with them and they both came to church on Sunday. Isabella committed for baptism on the 8th of February. Then during sacrament she leaned over and asked me, "When I get baptized, do I have to go up in front of everyone?" Basically, she's super legit. There are a couple concerns about some commandments, but we pray it will all be worked out.

Some really nice guy let us take a picture in his totally legit car!

Well fam, I hope you liked hearing from me this week. Remember, if you ask a specific question you get a specific answer. Preferably in the Monday e-mail, so I can remember. Also, unlike the MTC where I had an unlimited supply of food and I didn't want any, I now revise that statement. Food is now my favorite thing to receive in packages. Not saying you need to immediately send me any, but just FYI. I love you mom! I love you dad! I love you Meagan! I love you Courtney!