La Armadillo

Ever since I got my call to Texas I have been waiting to see an armadillo and it happened this week!

This week we also helped some people move in! It's also another thing that I have wanted to do my whole mission! There was a big Uhaul in the parking lot of our apartment complex and we asked if they needed help moving stuff. It is a family of 4. The parents and a 16 year old daughter and a 14 year old son. We helped them move all their boxes and furniture into their house. They are a super awesome family and I am looking forward to going back and visiting with them! This past week we have been doing a lot of work to find new people to teach. That has involved a lot of knocking doors for many hours without finding anyone. But there have been many many blessing throughout the endless hours of doors! One of the nights it was about 8 o'clock and raining and we had been knocking doors for about an hour and still have an hour to go. I was thinking I'm crazy! Who wants to disturb their Saturday night with the family and let two wet strangers dressed in white shirts and ties in their house or share a message. But then an overwhelming feeling of joy came and I thought, "this may be crazy and people may not like me right now but I'm happy". I know that this gospel can bring true happiness and it's amazing to have the opportunity to share this happiness with the people here in South Texas!

We have been finding a lot of people this past week! We have found a couple families that look really promising! I'm looking forward to going back and teaching them this week! Their names are the Gracia fam, the Mirez fam, and the Vargas fam! We also had a miracle at church Sunday!! We saw this guy on the street just sitting on the curb and we talked to him. We gave him a card and invited him to church. We didn't set anything up to meet with him later because he is homeless so we don't have any way of contacting him. On Sunday he came to church!! We taught him the restoration and talked to him about baptism and he wants to be baptized!!

Just a sign on the side of the street

1960 jeep mail truck!!

La Granja

This week we stopped by some members and it turns out they live on a self sustaining homemade farm! He gave us a tour of the farm and fed us and gave us a lot of food! When he was walking us around he also had us help him collect all of the eggs. 

Other then the farm this week was pretty normal. We have been working super hard to try and find some new people to teach. 

The member gave us duck, turkey, and chicken eggs as well as bananas peanuts and tortillas.

This is what we had for dinner. We had all different parts of a pig! We had ear, intestine, face, heart, and throat! And of course tortillas and beans!

Also when we were there a turkey was hatching!

Here is a picture inside of the chicken coop.

piglets

and another pig

Another picture of outside his house.

South Padre Island!

Today was a super awesome Pday! Some members, Brother and Sister Gardner volunteered to take us to an island in our area to their condo resort!  South Padre Island is super cool and has a lot of big resorts and some people call it the Las Vegas of the sea.  We spent the day driving around and eating some of the best fresh seafood!!

The other big thing that happened this week was was stake conference. We went down to Brownsville for the meeting in the morning. The first talk was the stake president. He asked all of the full time missionaries to stand. He then told everybody to know who their missionaries are and to help them. And it's very true we do need help. Missionary work is impossible with out the members! He then asked everyone who is a convert to the church to raise their hand. About 3/4 of the people raised their hand! The church is growing and it is growing fast! At the end the seventy that was presiding spoke. He shared the story of his conversion. I don't remember what else he talked about but his story of his conversion started when he was 14 and ended as he was finishing college. It made me think, where do I fit in to all of this in other people's lives. We never know what is going on in others lives and something as simple as saying hello can change someone's life. 

View from the condo

The Beach!

Sand Dunes.  When it gets windy the sand dunes cover the road!

Fresh Sea Food

More fresh sea food

The temple trip last week was super awesome! The ward rented some big vans that everyone drove down in. San Antonio is kind of like Salt Lake.   It's a smaller down town but all of the buildings are way bigger then they are in Salt Lake. It looks completely different then we're I am right now. In the mission it is almost entirely flat and San Antonio has a lot of hills and it's less green. We went with the youth in the ward so we did baptisms. The ward wanted us to help so we baptized the young men. We were in the temple for about 2 and a half hours. Almost everybody had family names so we did a ton and the temple worker let everyone do 10 temple names as well because it was such a long drive and nobody else was there.

On exchanges with my zone leader Elder Wynczk

From Elder Blackham's facebook page this week:

"Mas buscad primeramente el reino de Dios y su justicia, y todas estas cosas os serán añadidas." Mateo 6:33. Por el año nuevo esta tiempo para crear metas! Como esta escritura, cuando enfocarnos en las cosas de Dios, se dan todos otras cosas.

Sorpresa!

Today is pday for me and my companion because we are at the temple in San Antonio. Our ward had a temple trip today and we got the amazing opportunity to go with!! It is about a 4 hour drive away. We left at 6 in the morning and won't be back until about 7 or 8.

San Antonio temple!

This week we also went out to Port Isabel and worked all day there.

This past week was also new years! For New Years Eve and day we were on exchanges so I was in my area with a different missionary that normally works in Brownsville. For New Years Eve we parked the car and just walked down the street. There were tons of people outside doing barbecues and also lighting off fire works. We just walked down the street and talking with everyone. Tons of people gave us food right off the grill! Then at midnight we went outside and there were tons of fireworks!! And all night long there were constantly fireworks! 

I got these two little Lego guys for Christmas and now they have become the subject of almost every picture.

picture of the sunset

South Padre Island. It is basically the Las Vegas of the sea.

Bridge going out to South Padre Island

Once again the Lego elders and behind them is a boat dock full of yachts

For Skyler: Look what I found this week!

Pictures Sis. Davis posted on Facebook this week: