Back to Abilene Week 1 (31)

Wow. What a crazy week indeed! Thanks for the package. It was actually here the day I arrived in Abilene on Wednesday. Those bars sure were delicious. And yes I would welcome another package. Unfortunately, I was forced to leave a bunch of food over in Artesia, and the elders here in Abilene before left us literally nothing. We had like a box of macaroni and some leftover beans. That about sums up our food supply. I think Elder Nowland is doing really great. You should see how much of a different person he was when I left than when he first got there. He has changed tremendously.

Here's me in Artesia saying goodbye to Ryan and Bro Franco. I was supposed to stay in Artesia all day Tuesday, so I was planning on saying the rest of my goodbyes then. But then Tuesday morning at 7 I was informed I was supposed to leave at 9, so I didn't have time to say goodbye to all the other friends I had made. That's sad, but at least I get to say hello to all my old friends here in Abilene!

I spent the whole day Tuesday in Carlsbad, so here is my saying goodbye to my good friends Elders Arave and Thomas and then Elders Mitchell and King.

Wow, so now where do I start with all the updates of Abilene. I guess I will start with all the people that moved out. Javier and Flo have moved to Odessa. Nita and Eliseo have moved to Dallas. The old branch president, Pres. Swartz has moved to Utah and the first counselor, Bro Hedin moved back to the 1st ward. So there have been lots of changes.

Oh, best part of transfer day: at one of the stops (I was on the bus from 11 in the morning until 5 at night. Too long) I got to see Elder Powell, Elder Pahulu, and Elder Banks! What are the odds? And all at the same stop too! Of course since they were all at the same time I had hardly any time to talk to any one them, but it was sweet to get to see them again anyway.

This morning before we left I figured I had better get a picture of Elder Cruz-Garcia and I. Yes, it is actually Cruz-Garcia to be correct. And if you are only going to use one of his last names, you use Cruz.

I guess I will fill you in a little in on him. He is 22. He is from Ojaca (no idea how to spell that) Mexico. He got baptized into the church when he was 18 and ran into the missionaries. He has only been to the U.S. one other time in his life before. He speaks English surprisingly well though. But, we hardly ever speak English at all. We always speak Spanish to each other. It's pretty sweet. My Spanish will get a lot better  I am sure. I guess that's a tender mercy after being with an English companion and hardly ever getting to teach any Spanish lessons. I will tell you what, all of my companions have been suuuuuuuper different from one another. It's so funny how that works out. But they are not really alike at all. Elder Cruz is a complete switch from Elder Nowland too. Elder Cruz is a great teacher. We taught one lesson so far to an investigator since we've been here. And because of that, he is also a pretty cocky guy. 

But, I think a mission is a great time to learn how to be more humble. Especially when you are in training... I am really looking forward to our time here in Abilene together. We are gonna rock it.

And now I get to tell you some fun stories of meeting up with people again! I thought it was going to be a big surprise for me coming back, but apparently the other elders knew somehow and told everyone, so surprise ruined. Ah man. But some people didn't know because they weren't at church last Sunday... My favorites were 1) when I went to visit Kayla and her family. They were actually having a birthday party for one of her little brothers, Cruz, when we showed up. So, I got a warm reception with a bunch of food and confetti and stuff, pretty fun!! Kayla and her cousin, Jackie both ran up and gave me big hugs. It was really cute. 2) My other favorite reunion was with Azriel. Apparently he hasn't come to church since like May. And I don't think he has been seen by the missionaries or anything in a really long time either. But when I showed up I gave him a hug and he had this big smile on his face and said he was happy to see me. He said he had gotten my letter, but he didn't know how to send a letter back in the U.S. or anything. We saw him Saturday night and invited him to church the next day. He said he would come if he didn't have work, but he didn't show up. Be praying hard for him. We need to get him back on track. Because seriously, he is one of the most legit people I have ever taught.  We have one pretty solid family that the other missionaries left us with: Ana, Sandra and Odalis. They were all at church on Sunday too. But besides that, we have just been hitting the streets hard to try and find some new people this week. Oh, and 2 last funny reunions. When I called our new branch Pres. Means, I said "hello this is one of the new missionaries... blah blah blah." And he was just like, "Is this Elder Moffitt?" And this was before I knew that everybody had been told I was coming back. I was like what?! How did he know? And then when we went over to see Bro Robles, he opened the door, saw it was me, then slammed the door in our faces. Then he opened it again and he was cracking up laughing. Oh, boy, it's good to be home.

I love you mom! I love you dad! I love you Meagan! I love you Courtney!