El Perro

This past week went well and we had some great and some crazy experiences as well! We were driving down a country highway at dark and all of a sudden there was a ginormous dog standing in front of our car. I hit the brakes hard and then there was a big thud and no more dog. We hit the dog at about 40-45mph. It beat up the bumper of the truck pretty bad but other then that not much happened from it. Also this Sunday we were biking down the street and some people invited us to come join their BBQ with them! We went over and sat down and two of them were wearing shirts from the catholic church. We started talking about our church and what we believe in and shared a quick little good message with them. They were having a giant family party so people just kept coming in to the party. Every time someone new would come they would say "what are these white people doing here" then we would reply to them in Spanish and joke around for a little bit! As we were leaving the host asked me if the food was too spicy I responded with "it's perfect!" she invited us back next Sunday!!

molé

car after the dog attacked

I hope someone doesn't try and walk out of the upper doors

lightning bug!

more from the car

El Día de San Valentin

As you all know this past week was Valentine's Day. As far as Valentine's Day goes it was normal for us. The night before we went to eat at the Gardner's home. They left us with a bunch of stuff to take with. 

Picture of my comp at the Gardner's

And as many of you know the times have changed! The church announced this week that we can now call home and talk with family! I am very grateful for this opportunity and the change. I have noticed that the church is focusing on the family and building it up and strengthening our homes. They changed the way church works and have the new program for our homes! There are many times we talk to people that are divorced, split and having family issues. The family is under attack by the adversary and we need to do our part to strengthen our families.

Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble. (Mosiah 28:3) "A great indicator of one’s personal conversion is the desire to share the gospel with others. For this reason the Lord gave an obligation to every member of the Church to be missionaries” (The Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, ed. Clyde J. Williams [1997], 249). Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles suggested one effective way Church members could share the gospel today: “The key to successful member missionary work is the exercise of faith. One way to show your faith in the Lord and His promises is to prayerfully set a date to have someone prepared to meet with the missionaries. I have received hundreds of letters from members who have exercised their faith in this simple way. Even though families had no one in mind with whom they could share the gospel, they set a date, prayed, and then talked to many more people. The Lord is the Good Shepherd, and He knows His sheep who have been prepared to hear His voice. He will guide us as we seek His divine help in sharing His gospel” (in Conference Report, Apr. 2006, 89; or Ensign, May 2006, 86). I invite all of you to grow your testimonies to have this desire that the sons of Mosiah had to serve! 

Pros dog! There are stray dogs everywhere here and my comp has to stop and pet every single one. Sometimes they will follow us all over the neighborhood as we go around and visit people.  

La Tormenta

This week we had zone conference and just like always it was great! President talked a lot about being our own agents and ministering. As missionaries a lot of what we do is ministering! It's cool that we are now living the higher law. Something that I have come to realize is that ministering is not that hard. All it can be is stopping by someone's house on a Saturday and asking if you can help with their yard work. Or if you are driving by and you see them outside stop and wave. "it is by small and simple things that great things are brought to pass" and this is very true!! By very simple small acts great things happen. I can't promise you what will happen or what can but I can promise you that a simple wave can brighten somebody's day!

Brownsville Zone

Zone Conference

We found this resaca by some houses that we teach! We usually go to the houses after dark so we have never seen them till this week!

 

Another picture from the resaca

The storm. This week a giant storm blew in. It looked like a black wall. The temperature dropped 20 degrees in about 15 minutes and it stayed cold for about 3 days. But now it is back up to normal at about 70-80 degrees. When the storm blew in we were about 20 miles away from the ocean and it was so windy we could smell salt in the air as if we were at the beach!

This crazy thing also happened to! We were driving through some neighborhoods by the ocean and we saw an osprey carrying a fish. It landed on a telephone pole to eat it but soon another osprey and a hawk were all in the fight for this fish. They fought for a while but eventually the fish ended up on the ground next to a house! 

Inundación de Familias

This week we have found a bunch of families to teach! The past week or two we have been working really hard to find new people to teach and this week it came through!! We have three awesome families that we are working with!   We have found 10 new people!! The average that I have usually found is 4-6.  Almost all of the new people we found are families!! One family is the Mireles family. Its a family of 4 but one of their kids is autistic. They are the family that lives in our apartment complex that we helped move in a week or two ago. We have taught them the restoration and they are super awesome! Another family is the Vargas family. We found them 2 weeks ago but have taught them this past week! They are super awesome and prepared just very busy! We found them at the end of the day and they let us right in to share a message! We went back and we followed his truck into the driveway. Turns out he was just getting back from work late. And they still let us in and we shared a message with them! They are a family of 4. The other family is the Garcia family. They are from Mexico and a family of 6. Their kids are 12, 11, 6, and 4 years old. It has been hardest to teach them because they are busy during the week and I'm not sure how super interested they are. We are going to go by again with bishop's family and have a lesson with them this weekend! The other person is named Maria Reyes. She is an old grandma and we have taught some of her kids because they were visiting. All of these people are super cool and have lots of potential! Other then finding and teaching all of those families this week has been pretty normal.  It has been super nice here! This past week it has been raining off and on as well and 100% humidity! And right now it is 70 and the high for the day and this week is 80.

Classic picture of the Los Fresnos water tower in the background

Oranges. These oranges are the left overs of an orchard and no body desires them because their skin is very dark and dirty. But when you cut them open they are some of the sweetest oranges ever! The guy that was selling them compared them to people and the same analogy of don't judge a book by the cover!

Puddle picture

Yup it's a complete pig head. And it was in Walmart. They taste really good too when they are grilled or smoked.

Another picture from the field

A badge picture after the rain