You Have Only To Believe If You Wish To Achieve

Okay, I'm going to start out with a story of faith: Jose, this guy has more faith than a lot of people I know! We've been talking to him about the importance of coming to church but it's hard for him to get work off. So the other day he goes into work, walks straight up to his boss and says "I need work off on Sunday's so I can go to church." His boss says "Um . . . no." So Jose says "Okay, well, I quit - see ya later!" Whoa! And Jose has been working there for like five years. He told us this story and said that he absolutely knew, 100% that the Lord would bless him with another job! Guess what? Three days later he got another job!! I love this guy so much. His baptism is actually tomorrow!!

Roswell

Roswell is pretty sweet - some people are nice and other people aren’t. Everyone always asks in their letters if I’ve seen an alien and I always respond with ‘Yes, I have seen an alien; some people are just different’. Roswell is a town of about 46,000 people so it’s a lot smaller than St. Geezy. But whatever, the whole town you could pretty much classify at “ghetto” because there are a lot of trailer homes and really small houses. None of the people have any yard to speak of, but everybody has like 5 cars parked on their small front yard! But just because there are 3 cars in front of their house, doesn’t necessarily mean anyone’s home - especially when we missionaries come a-knockin'!

These are the typical yard accessories on any given street in Roswell.

Wait a Minute

That’s not the same Spanish they taught us in the M.T.C.!

My Spanish IS getting better but there’s lots of room for improvement. It’s just like golf - you practice everyday - all day - and you get really frustrated along the way (bad shots = bad grammar or misuse of grammar, but you get my point) and then when you get to the tournament (or in this case, an investigator’s door) you just have to hope that you practiced enough and you can come out on top! Right now I’m in the frustrated cause-it’s-not-working-how-I-want-it-to phase. Kind of like Spanish is the front nine and the lesson is the back nine - the front nine was like 5 or 6 over (ouch) but the back nine was like 3 under!

If we’re teaching a lesson, I’m all over it, but then before or after and the investigators are talking about their car or work or something random like that, then that’s when I just nod my head and said “si”. Spanish people talk way fast and forever!

We don’t have many investigators right now because about three weeks ago they changed us to Spanish-only investigators. We knock on doors for like an hour every day and we have a really tiny Spanish Branch, about 30 or 35 people and it’s hard to get lessons with a member present because there is just not enough people. My trainer (or papa; that mission lingo - you get trained by your papa making you a son and so on).

Crash and Burn

My first comp since I left the M.T.C. - Elder Kenyon - He and I ride our bikes around all day and one day he saw a Sharpie on the road and he turned around to point it out to me cause I was behind him. When he turned to point, he turned a little to hard left and went up the curb on his bike. I didn’t see it happen cause I was looking at the Sharpie. So Elder Kenyon wanted to show me what he did so he tried to ride up the curb again, but crashed a little and we started laughing. He was super determined so he got back up and tried it again and this time he crashed again!!! I hit the pavement laughing so hard!! I’m laughing right now as I type this!!! At the time we didn’t think his wounds were so serious, but take a look - he looks like a burn victim!

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

This truck is hilarious:

We like to track him down when we're hungry!!

And these signs make us laugh:

(we just like what they say!)

This sign always makes me sad . . .

Hey Everyone! So after 9 weeks in the MTC, and studying harder and longer than I ever thought I could, I "escaped" and landed myself in Roswell, New Mexico!

Roswell is the west end of the Texas Lubbock Mission. Got settled into my apartment, Apartment "D" and assembled the bike.

We generally ride anywhere from 15-40 miles per day. The work is progressing a lot and my Spanish is getting better. I'm excited about the work here and we're expecting more success by the end of this transfer. We're working really close with the members here so we've got to be seeing some success soon!

The Aliens are everywhere - don't let them get me!!