Pecos week 11

Last week I wasn't angry when we were taking district pictures. I was just joking around when we made those straight faces. Here is our "goofy" picture that we took after that serious one. I thought it was pretty good. I hope you enjoy it too.

Well, this week Elder Palmer got in a pretty serious biking accident. Good thing he was wearing a helmet as you can see. Just kidding. Last night he slammed it on the table and broke it in half because he's not going to use it again anyway. haha

Wow. What a great week. I know the e-mail is coming a little late this week but yesterday we spent most of our day in Odessa for zone training and shipping Elder Palmer's bike home. Can you believe it cost 140 bucks?! That seems like way too much to me, but I think it was the only option to ship it home from here. 

As you know, this last Friday we had our entire mission get together to see Elder Bednar. I got some good pictures beforehand.

Elder Palmer and Banks here.

Then Elder King and Watson second.

And of course, Elder Pahulu!

President Heap allowed us all to get there early and have a "social hour" with all the missionaries in one giant gathering at the stake center in Lubbock. It was loads of fun. Then Elder Bednar arrived and the real deal started. The spirit was soooo strong. That was probably one of the most amazing experiences of my life. He is so nice and funny too. He did a great job at making everyone feel loved and happy. Some of the missionaries it seemed may have gotten a little to comfortable because when he let us ask questions, a couple people said things that I would never say to an apostle of the Lord. Anyway, I learned many things on Friday. The spirit is the number one teacher. I got promptings about things that no one even mentioned when they were talking in our conference. I am doing a horrible job at describing the whole experience. It is hard to put it into words though! The meeting was really neat how it was all set up. Instead of just some big talk, he had lots of people talk and ask questions. Very cool. I recommend ya'll read one of his talks "Ask in Faith" that we read in preparation for him coming. It was a lot of what he talked about. Basically, if we don't ACT, then all we say and read is for nothing.

This week at church there were 57 people there, including John and Nancy. Jessica and Danny were there as well. Danny even had to work on Sunday, but he went in extra early so that he could take off another hour in the middle of the day to make it out to church. That is dedication right there. 1Nephi3:7 the Lord always provides a way... if we are willing to put in the effort. Sometimes that is the hardest part: We have lots of effort we need to put in. Yesterday John passed his baptismal interview and he is set to be baptized this Saturday! Keep him and his family in your prayers, especially that they will keep coming to church after he is baptized and stay strong!!! We had some cool lessons this week with them. On one of the lessons Nancy was telling us how she felt like she is getting baptized again as they are preparing for John's baptism. She wants to leave behind all those sins that are holding her back and truly start afresh with John. We were super pumped to hear that. We have also noticed in the last few weeks as they have been coming to church and reading the scriptures they have been a lot happier.

That's about it for this week. Sorry for the lack of details, but that's all I've got for you. I think dad asked about Kermit a bit? There is no branch in Kermit. It is part of the Monahans branch. We've only got 4 branches in the district here. Monahans is doing the best of all of them. Want to know why? Because one of the members there is super good at missionary work and inviting all his friends to learn more about the restored gospel. It's all about the INVITE. I love you mom! I love you dad! I love you Meagan! I love you Courtney!

 

Pecos week 10

Yesterday during dinner I got bored and made a duct tape tie.

It's pretty sweet, yet super hard to tie. Don't worry, I am not wearing it as a missionary.

This week we had district pictures. I tried to capture the chaos that usually ensues as we try to take them, so here's your behind the scenes look.

We had about 30 seconds of service this week. We helped a less active lady drill in her door that was falling off.

We had exchanges this week. I went out to Kermit TX and had a car for the day. What a blessing that was, because it was a cold one. Here I am with Elder Sork sleeping on their bunk beds. Truth be told, they're not actually bunk beds. They're just normal beds stacked on top of each other. Seems legit...

Here's another look at Kermit's shack they live in. They call it "the lillypad." It is basically a little shed converted into a one room house. It was fun... for a night. We woke up in the morning and our pipes were actually frozen. No water. We called one of the 2 members that lives in Kermit and we were blessed to be able to use their house for showers. That's my Kermit adventure.

I want to tell ya'll thank you so much for sending me letters every week. I love it and I am so blessed to hear from my wonderful family so often.

It was a great week for John and his family. He and Nancy, and Sarah all made it out to church. He's been doing a little bit of reading the Book of Mormon as well. We set a baptismal date with him last night for the 24th of January (Elder Palmer's last Saturday in the mission). We are pretty excited and we are super happy that both him and his family have been progressing so well. Pray that we may continue to teach him often. We were blessed with the perfect fellowship as well. Eddy (a long time friend of Nancy) came out with us and John and Sarah seem like they really look up to him and respect him. He has been giving them rides to church the last couple weeks as well. He seems like he can be a great father figure for those kids.

Not much other news with investigators this week. John was the only investigator we've been able to teach, although we did get to see a few other less actives. We had a total of 60 people at church yesterday, including some of the less actives we have been visiting which was very exciting.

This week in the mail I got the most gigantic Christmas card ever in the mail from Yoanna. She's the best in case you didn't remember that.

That's about it for this last week. Coming up on the radar this Friday we get to see Elder David A. Bednar and I am so stoked. I will be sure to let you know how it goes. I love you mom! I love you dad! I love you Meagan! I love you Courtney!