La Carta Semanal

This week the branch had a BBQ for pioneer day.  It was the most successful activity I have seen in this area.  There were about 50 people that came to the BBQ.  There were 4 non-members and 4 less-actives that came!  The day before we found two baptist twins knocking doors.  We invited them to the party, and they came!  As soon as they walked in the door they found a member that they used to go to school with.  I didn't get the chance to talk with them the rest of the party because they were instantly fellowship-ed!  The branch has changed a lot since I first got here.  This Sunday we had 72 people in sacrament meeting and last week we had 70 in sacrament meeting.  When I first got to this area there were only about 45-50 in sacrament meeting.  It is amazing to see what God can do and how he can completely change a branch!  I am always amazed at the things that He does.

Zone Conference last week

La tuna

We had another service project thus past week for another member. This time the branch helped and came with us. Having 10 extra people to help makes a big difference! We have still been doing a lot of finding but this week things have started to show through. We found two families and taught both of them the restoration. The lessons went great and one of the families asked us in the middle, "can we be baptized?" Unfortunately nobody came to church but hopefully next week they will be able to make it. Church is definitely the hardest thing to get people to do.

Cactus fruit. We found some cactus fruit growing this week and tried it. It has a similar texture of kiwi and tastes like sweet water.

Massive spider we found at the service project

Not really sure what happened to this fence... 

¡Más servicio!

We had two more service projects this week. We helped Luis (the man we helped the last two weeks and who was baptized last week) clean his mom's house. We also helped a less active member clean up his yard as well. We have started referring to these service projects as jungles clean up. Our best weapons to do the cleaning is still a machete and a rake but we have had access to a weed eater or two for the projects this week which makes things much smother and easier. 

Luis's moms yard before. We still have a lot of work to do before it's all clean. 

Elder Blackham mentioned in his phone call home this week that it is HOT in Texas right now.  Over 100 degrees everyday with high humidity.  He is in a bike area right now and spending a lot of time out in the heat on his bike.  The Alice missionaries go serve at the local food pantry every week.  They get to serve the community and make contacts with a lot of people there and they often get to take some food home, which is helpful since they aren't fed by members a lot in this small branch.  Although the man who drives the ice cream truck (not a member) often gives them ice cream.  Elder Blackham is enjoying learning from the new mission president and his wife, Pres. and Sis. Ocampo.  Sis. Ocampo does a big part of the teaching at their training meetings.  Even though Elder Blackham is in a mostly English speaking area right now he's keeping up on his Spanish.  The new mission president is doing all of their training in Spanish since they are the only entirely Spanish speaking mission in the United States.  Elder Blackham was excited to hear that Raoul who they were teaching but moved to San Antonio has continued to be taught by the missionaries there and set a baptismal date.  He has found several new people this week who are interested in learning more about the gospel including a family that he is excited to continue teaching.

4 de Julio

Happy late 4th! On the 4th we had a zone conference in Corpus. We met the new president and his family. They introduced themselves and gave a short training. I'm excited for the change and the new things that are on the way. The city of Alice didn't do anything for the 4th so it was kind of lame. Half of Alice went to Corpus for the parade and fireworks on the beach. In the evening we did something we call "party posing" we biked around and looked for parties and then talked to the people. We would listen for fireworks and bike in that direction or smell for BBQ and head in the direction. We found a couple parties that were welcoming and we visited with them for a little bit.

Yesterday Luis was baptized! He is the one that we did all of the service for the last week. He has changed drastically in the past few weeks that we have been helping him. He seems to be a much different person now. He went from sitting inside all day and night to working and being with friends and family. It is incredible to see the difference that the gospel can make in our lives. I know the gospel can affect and change every one of us. To some it may be a small change and others a big change but it does create a true change in our life and brings true happiness.

Luis's baptism

4th of July

El Proyecto de Servicio

This week has been a grind! We have worked everyday this week for about 4 hours doing service. It is for the same man named Luis that we helped last week. This week we focused on the yard outside the house. The grass in the backyard was probably 6 feet tall and thick. There were Vines growing on everything and all the trees and nopal cactus was overgrown. We borrowed a few lawn mowers and a weed wacker from a member but we ran out of line for the weed eater. So almost all the week we were left to using machetes, shovels, and a pick axe to clear out the grass and cut all the Vines and trees. It was fun cutting everything with the machete for a few hours until the blisters developed. (Elder Blackham told us on the phone today that Luis is being baptized on Sunday!)

I don't know how this is here but I just realized this week that almost every other house has a South Jordan, Utah trash can.