Last week in Abilene, week 30

I am sure you  want to hear the "transfer doctrine" as we call it. So, for the first time ever in my whole mission, I am moving! Goodbye Abilene! I will miss it. It was a good run. Lots of fun. Lots of miracles. I will be moving on to Pampa, Texas which is in the Panhandle zone. I won't know my address until next week.  But, remember you can always send a letter to the mission office address:

6310 144th st.

Lubbock, TX 79424

If you send the letter there, it will be forwarded to me within just a couple days. It's a little slower, but when in doubt over transfers, that's how you can get things to me! 

Finally made it to Texas Roadhouse!

And last P-day we decided to finally head over to Texas Roadhouse. We called up all the missionaries in Abilene and invited them to come with us as well. Little did they know we were paying for ourselves with a gift card.... hahaha  

As for the area, I know nothing about it. All I know is that the ward/branch I am going to is split with another pair of missionaries. We'll have to wait and see how it is when I get there :)

This last week we had a fun day of exchanges with our fearless district leader, Elder Cragun.

 He came to Abilene with me and Elder Banks went out to Snyder for the day. It was a good time. We went out to a pizza buffet for lunch, and that was an amazingly delicious hour. He went to BYU the year right before I did, and he even knew one of the people I met while I was there. It was fun reflecting back to the college days with him.

Lupe and Genaro were at church as you saw, and they are still on fire. They love the gospel and know it's true. I hope to see in 2 weeks that they are baptized

One last goodbye with Lupe and Genaro as well. I have only been able to know them a few very short weeks, but I already love them. After we had our lesson and said the closing prayer I went to shake Genaro's hand and he pulled me in for a hug. After that Lupe rushed over and gave me a hug too. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone. But I know they'll be in good hands. Elder Banks is staying here and his new companion will be Elder Yorgeson. 

Funny story: Elder Yorgeson is coming here from Pampa. I am going to Pampa. We are literally just switching spots. And my new companion........ Elder Pahulu! I met him almost my very first day coming on the bus down to Abilene. We talked like the whole time. Now he's going to be my companion. He's a sweet guy. He's from Hawaii (I know, the Pleasant Grove streak was ruined. But I'll take that for someone from Hawaii). He also came out at the same time as Elders King and Banks. That's pretty legit too!

Damian was not able to come to church because he had work again. He is so close, but not quite there. We met up with Nicolas this week and for the first time ever he accepted a baptismal date. We went back the next day to talk about quitting smoking and he just isn't ready for it... As for Eliseo, he has been to church the last 3 Sundays in a row and this Sunday he even brought a friend with him. I think it may be time to start teaching him again and see if he is finally ready to give up drinking. That's the main news for all our investigators. Also: we were able to secure the address of Nancy and Gricelda in Mexico and the missionaries have been sent to their house down there! I pray that they will continue to learn the gospel and be baptized soon as well.

Transfer District Photo

As is custom, the last week of the transfer we had to take a district picture.

Here I am by our jeep with the remains of a gigantic tumbleweed that we hit on the drive to district meeting. Seriously, this thing was huge. I was grateful for the talk we heard about running straight through those things in the MTC. Were it not for that talk, we may have swerved and had a bad accident.

Here I am with another one of the families in the branch. She wanted to take a picture with me, so I said of course. How can I pass up the opportunity to capture a great memory of my mission?

Here I am with one of my favorite families ever (Kayla's family, in case you couldn't tell)!

We always stay for about half an hour or so for our branch dinner right after church is over. We got some good pictures there too. I mean, I had to. I can't just up and leave everyone right?

 Then I got a zoomed out picture of everyone that attended sacrament meeting that week at the branch. It was a good show.  

Last night after church we were able to have 2 great lessons. One was with our favorite buddy, Azriel. He is doing great. He has also talked to his family down in Mexico about the church too. Hopefully they'll be getting involved soon enough down there as well.

Good news! Javier got the priesthood this week! And since Azriel got the priesthood last week, this week he passed the sacrament. Exciting things are happening here. And now you get to see Javier and Flo's kids as well, so I thought it was a good picture. I will certainly miss this place. It's been my home for the past 7 months!

Well family, this has been a transfer of miracles. It's really been a whole mission of miracles. Even before I came out to the MTC I saw the Lord helping me to get ready for where I am now. Y'know, sometimes you don't see why things happen at the time they're happening. But looking back now, I am so grateful for everything I learned in preparation to coming on my mission, and thank ya'll for being such an important part of that. I love you mom! I love you dad! I love you Meagan! I love you Courtney!