Artesia week 13

The minnionaries were a hit! I tried to muster my most cheesy smile possible, and I think I succeeded for that one.

Elder Nowland and I helped Edwin and Tami move this week. We helped them get their things packed up here in Artesia and then we phoned the elders down in Carlsbad to help them on that end. Elders King and Mitchell were able to help them out down there too, and so now they will starting to teach them. That'll be exciting.

Last p-day a member invited us over for lunch, but before we could eat he invited us to do the "earthquake bar challenge." It was only 140 lbs, but the weights were kettle bells attached to the bar by bungee cords and created quite the earthquake as you tried to lift it up. It was fun, and I was very sore after doing 12 in a row. I'll tell you what, once you've been out of lifting weights for a year and you go do it again, it's  a killer.

We found this Spanish speaker on the side of the road chopping wood, so we offered to help him out for a bit. While Elder Nowland chopped some wood, I used my Spanish to talk to this man, Jacinto, who said we could come back sometime. I had to snag a quick picture of it too.

Elder Nowland had a rough week. It was a long week all the way around. We didn't have any real lessons until Friday. Just lots of time spent on the streets in the sun, finding as usual. But the lessons we did have on the weekend went very well. Here's some random news: Ryan keeps reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church. Due to his high level of effort, we decided to go and teach him again last night. He was completely fine yesterday. We had a great lesson, and it was very calm, and we were able to keep on track. He told us how he went to the doctors and she told him that he is now un-diagnosed from being bipolar. I don't know if that's true or not, but he was 100% fine yesterday. He said the doctor told him the reason that he was acting strange was because the drugs had reacted especially strong with him, but now that he's off them, he's doing much better. Word of wisdom right there. Keep it. See the blessings immediately.

We finally saw Harvey again. Turns out he moved up to Lake Arthur, so we handed him over to Elders Van Voris and Young. Sonya cancelled on all our lessons with her this week. And I don't know if I told you about Michael, but he's a really humble guy. We found him out contacting. He is in a wheelchair, and lives all by himself. He's pretty sad you can tell. Because of his situation, he doesn't believe in God, but I know the gospel will help him a lot.

Wow, I realize all my food pictures look exactly the same... that's boring. Anyway, this week we got some quesadillas, which are a mixture of eggs, beans, and this especially delicious cheese that a member family gave us that they got while down in Mexico. Suuuuuper good!

 I was adventurous last week and bought some frozen fish. Turned out fantastic.

And here's a cool mural we found in the park.

I don't know what else I have for this week. Sacrament attendance was a normal 115. The Dexter Elders had a baptism this week. He is 8 years old and both his parents are members, so it's not a convert baptism. But the family is really less active, so the bishop had them teaching him. That was pretty cool. I love you Mom! I love you Dad! I love you Meagan! I love you Courtney!