Artesia week 16

Random story of us being placed in the right place at the right time this week: We had just finished teaching a lesson to a less active, and we were biking out of the neighborhood when we saw Ryan and his mom who had just gotten a flat tire. We helped them change the tire real quick, and then his mom invited us to eat dinner with them. We had dinner at the Herradura, this yummy Mexican Restaurant. Thus, the picture. Ryan's mom wasn't super interested or anything, but I guess it was a nice introduction to us. And free dinner is always great.

This week was pretty good. We were able to start teaching this new guy, Emmanuel. We just found him on the street. You know, the usual way we find people. Or, I guess the only way we find people. He is super cool though. He is 21, and he seems like he really wants to know God and know the truth. After we shared the first vision with him (Elder Nowland skipped around it because he just memorized it and was scared to say it. But then I made him say it. Good thing I did), Emmanuel just said, "Wow. That's beautiful." He accepted the challenge to be baptized. But we will have to switch his date due to him working 14 days then off 7 days. Difficult. But I think he really does have lots of potential. Pray for him to keep meeting with us, and also that we can get into contact with Cassy again. She has dropped off. Sonya is doing well. We are working with her to quit smoking. It's a struggle. This week we have stake conference, so she may actually go to church because she could make a Saturday evening session. Pray for that!

Elder Nowland and I standing in front of our church building here. You can't really see what it looks like, I realize that...

This week we had zone conference in Roswell with Pres. Heap. It was fantastic. As district leader I got to talk to everybody in depth about what they thought of it, and it seems that everybody was needing a little re-charge. That is exactly what zone conference did to all the missionaries present. Pres. Heap has a way with words. He is inspiring and so loving. During the conference he took a pause, and named every single Elder and Sister by name without looking at our name tags. Not an easy task, considering that there are 250 plus missionaries in total in the mission. He taught us an important lesson. God knows us each by name. We should know all those we work with and "love" by name as well. And not only KNOW them by name, but CALL them by name. I know from experience that it is so much more meaningful to me when someone calls me by name. And I had an experience here in fact where we were teaching a family and during the prayer I named everyone in the family (only our second visit). After I closed the prayer, all four of the kids were like, WOW! You remembered our names? That's so cool! It does make a huge difference when you know someone that personally. There's my random thought of the week for ya.

We couldn't resist stopping by the Dairy Queen's drive through on the way out of Roswell.

Another one of my delicious concoctions this week of pasta chicken, tomato sauce, and olives, with a few spices thrown in there.

Well fam, I love you. I hope things are happy and well :) I love you mom! I love you dad! I love you Meagan! I love you Courtney!