November 19, 2013

Hey Guys!!

 

It was good to hear that your trip to Oregon was fun, and I am bummed that I missed it.  It looked spectacular up there and very green.  I wish I had more green down here.  The greenest it gets is the pecan farms, chili fields, and cotton fields in my area.  Everything else is desert and brown.  This week was a pretty good week.  It has been really frustrating lately because all our appointments fall through, and we can't find anyone even as hard as we our trying.  Mission life is hard work, and you definitely have to rely on the Lord to pull your through a slump.  I love this area and the people here.  I love being outside of the city away in the countryside.  It’s nice and peaceful out here in my corner of the mission.  If you can believe it my area has more shootings than El Paso.  It’s an awesome area. 

 

So this week started off eventful.  Wednesday morning we were just waking up and around 7:00 there was pounding on our door.  We were like, “What the heck is going on?”  Both of us were in our undershirts and so I threw a sweatshirt on.  My companion looked through the blinds and booked it to the bathroom.  I had no clue what was going on.  I opened the door and there were FBI and DEA agents outside our front door.  I was in a real life Breaking Bad situation.  I thought Hank was going to poke his head out and start talking.  One of the DEA agents was full-on masked and everything, holding a M16 ready to fire.  It was nuts.  They politely told us, "Oh wrong door, sorry," and the moved on to our neighbors’ behind.  We had no clue what was going on.  They were questioning this lady in the back that lives in this house complex that we live in.  They questioned her for like 15 minutes and shining flashlights into a house right next to us where it seemed no one was home.  They took off after about 20 minutes and drove down our street in full-on blacked out cars.  It was epic.  So now we are pretty sure one of our neighbors is doing or selling drugs or something that is big.  We don't really know why the showed up.  They haven't come back since, so we will wait and see.  So I will keep you posted on what happens with that situation.  It wouldn't surprise us if one of them is a drug cartel head duder because our area is known to have a lot of drug cartel people.  There our houses in the boondocks that are so big you wonder how they got money, and it is most likely a drug cartel house.  It is pretty fun. But ya, that was the start of our week. 

 

The rest of the week seemed to just drag on, and it was hard.  We weren’t having any lessons because everyone was canceling on us, and we were just having bad luck.  We then thought to start going through the area book person by person to contact them.  We are hoping we find new investigators out of this idea of ours.  We have been contacting some of them, and we have got some promising people out of them.  So that is sweet.  Jesus is awesome, and he is slowly but surely progressing.  This was the first time we ever sat down and just talked with him.  It has usually been a pass by to see how he is, but this time he asked if we wanted to sit down and talk.  We were chilling in his garage and watching the rain pour down.  It was awesome.  By the way, it rained super hard this week and that was sweet.  But ya Jesus is starting to open up to us, and I am excited to see where it goes.  Daniel Gomez is doing good as well.  He takes off to Mexico again soon, so we probably won’t be baptizing him.  We are bummed about that.  I love him.  Cecilia is now not texting back, and that is a bummer.  We are upset about that.  She never has time for us I guess.  She told us she would come to church this week and she never showed up.  We texted her after, and she never texted us back.  It was stupid.  The rapper, David, is moving to downtown El Paso, so we won’t be seeing him again.  We will be passing him on.  He has been in the hospital a lot for some reason, we have no clue why, so we have only seen him that one time.  Paul and Chewy are doing good as well, and I always love visiting them because they love our visits.  They always cheer me up.  That was my week for you - Hank busting our neighbors, people canceling on us, and us going on adventure to find everyone in our area book. 

 

I am jealous of your trip.  It looked amazing.  I don't think I need that much for Christmas.  Maybe a sweater and some Packers gear.  All I really want is to talk with you guys.  If you can believe it I still have the 5 pearly white shirts in my suit case that I haven't broken out yet.  Haha.  But Packers gear and a sweater should be great.  You don't have to get me that much - a phone call will do.  But I hope you guys have a great week ahead of you, and know that you’re always in my prayers.  It sounds like everything is good at home, and I miss it.  I love you guys tons.  Oh - also you might not get an email from me next week because it is transfers so I might get the boot.  So just a heads up!  Love you guys tons!

 

Con Mucho Amor,

-Elder Smith 

 

November 12, 2013

Hey Family!

 

Sorry you didn't get an email from me yesterday.  The mission changed a lot on Friday at Zone Training.  President Miller came out with some new rules and everything.  He changed P-Day from Monday to Tuesday and our weekly planning from Thursday to Monday.  A lot of libraries are closed on Monday up in ABQ so he gave it a little switch-a-roo.  So you now will be receiving a letter from me on Tuesday.  President Miller is also pushing us big time to get a baptism a week.  He wants to make this a really good baptizing mission, and he is definitely putting things in place to make it an awesome mission.  So that was the big change on Friday.  He also he came out with some new small rules about board games and the cell phone we have.  But that's why you didn't get one from me yesterday.

 

This week was a pretty good week.  We worked hard and it was a hard week.  My companion was sick for one of the days so we had to sit inside all day.  It was bad.  We aren't teaching that many people so that is frustrating too.  Everyone gives us the shaft like an hour to half an hour before we have an appointment with them.  It sucks and it’s hard sometimes, but you work through it and walk around to try and find new people.  This week we taught Daniel Gomez who is the super cool dude who is 21.  He is definitely progressing and is the only one we have progressing right now.  He is super awesome, and every time we teach him he always is super receptive to our message.  I can notice in him that he knows this gospel is true and he loves it.  The only downside to him is that he taking off to Mexico in December to go home.  We probably won’t be able to baptize him here, but I hope he does in Mexico.  I love him a lot.  Jesus is a stud and he showed up to church this week if you can believe it.  We went to visit him this week, and we talked to him for a bit in his garage why he was working on some chairs.  I felt impressed to ask him to come to church this week.  I did, and he told us he would love to come.  So he walked in on Sunday, and I was doing backflips because he showed up!  He is awesome, and I know he has come closer to Christ through this whole thing.  I hope he gets baptized, but if not, I know he knows that God loves him, and I am so grateful that I got to meet him because he is always so happy, and I love that.  Cecilia went out of town this week so we couldn't meet with her this week, and that is a bummer.  I wish we could have met with her, and I hope this week we get to talk with her.  We are trying to get a large teaching pool so we get more lessons in, but it isn't working.  Paul is doing good - just still doesn't want to come back to church yet.  I definitely learn a lot from the Spirit during his lessons.  You have to teach him simply, and through that the spirit shows me something I would not every really think about.  So he is doing good.  That was pretty much our week.  We had a better week then in the past, and we are getting more and more lessons each week.  So I am happy that we are progressing with more lessons.  I hope President knows that we are working hard out here, and I hope I stay here one more transfer through Christmas.  I love it out here.  You’re away from the city and have the farms and everything on one side and then the super ghetto trailers and stuff on the other.  It is always an adventure out here.  Also this week I had the lovely experience of eating Barbacoa.  No, this isn't just where you walk up and order your burrito and you’re good.  This is where they take the cheek and tongue of an animal, put it through a meat grinder, and serve it up hot.  We walked into our dinner appointment and sat down.  I learned that we were going to be eating that, and I just got ready for a battle.  I was saying tons of prayers.  I got my plate and this lovely, most unpleasant smell just coming up from it.  I then was informed by the man of the house that it was goat and that he killed it just barely.  I was so grossed out.  That's when I was praying super hard that I would be able to tackle this madness.  To top it off she gave us super hard stale tortillas so that wouldn't help in the process of eating this thing.  It was hard to get down, but I handled it.  I can now say I had a tongue of a goat that was probably walking 4 hours before.  It was an experience, and we were all feeling a little weird afterwards.  But that was my week for you - a lot of walking and trying to teach people.

 

I am bummed to hear that Tyler's and Scott's team lost, in part because of a ref.  I am happy he got a ball chucked at him and also giving the flag back at him.  That is the way to go out.  I wish I was there to see that.  It would have made my day.  I am happy, mom, you had a good birthday.  I wish I was there for it.  It sounds like everything is good at home.  I am doing good.  I am bummed to hear that Mr. Rodgers is out for maybe the season.  The Pack could have competed for the super bowl this season, but maybe that isn't an option now.  If they don't make it I think they will come out with fire next year.  I am still stunned that it has been 5 months since I took off.  I am excited to talk with you guys on Christmas.  That's going to be a nice Christmas present and probably the best one I will ever receive in my lifetime.  A mission teaches a lot about how great it is to have a family for an eternity and shows you how it would suck if you didn't.  I miss you dudes.  I hope you guys have an awesome week, and I miss you tons.  I hope you guys have fun in Oregon and maybe bring something back for me!  I love you guys!

                                                                                                         

Con Mucho Amor,

-Elder Stinny

November 4, 2013

Hey Everyone!

 

This week was pretty good!  Not much happened because most of our appointments would fall through because all of our investigators would reschedule for this week.  So hopefully this week will be good, and we will get a lot done.  Halloween kind of sucks as a missionary.  I am not going to lie.  People are out having fun watching scary movies, and you’re inside just sitting around because you can't knock doors or you'll just get candy stuffed in your face before you can talk, and most people don't want to schedule because they have things going on.  It will be nice when I will have an enjoyable Halloween again because it is by far one of my most favorite holidays.  Our numbers have been sucking lately because everyone is rescheduling for another week.  I am just hoping they go up this week.  I feel bad every Sunday adding up all our numbers and they are terrible, but we work hard the whole week.  But it is okay - we are working hard, and I know we are.

 

We got some new investigators this week, and that was awesome.  One is super solid, and it is awesome.  His name is Daniel Gomez.  He is 21 and from Mexico but is living with his aunt while he is here in the United States.  He is here till only January, so we are hoping he gets baptized before he takes off again.  We have a feeling he will.  He was a member referral. The member works with him, and the member is helping us along with him.  This week we extended the baptismal invite, and he took it well and said “yes”, if all these things I know are true.  He is very scientific and he sees the flaws of the Catholic church.  So he is looking into our church.  He is a way cool dude.  We also have this new dude named David.  He just barely got out of jail, his trailer smells like smoke, he raps about God, and he told us he is currently making a record.  I am kind of tempted to ask him for one.  He also told us he found Jesus in jail.  He is a very interesting fellow, and it is going to be an adventure teaching him.  He also is covered in tattoos, and he lived in Chicago for a while.  He also is addicted to alcohol.  He wants to change really bad, so we are hoping he can pull himself together and change.  We have a lesson tonight with him, so that might be interesting.  Those are our new investigators.  This week was also really hard because Cecilia has not responded to any of our texts and won’t schedule any lessons with us.  I was really frustrated because she went from super solid to bad in 3 weeks.  I have been praying really hard to know what to do with her, and Friday I woke up with the impression to text her to invite her to the ward party.  I acted upon it and invited her to the party.  Immediately after I sent my text she texted back and was super happy we texted her and invited her to the party.  She also explained to us why she had not texted back.  Her past weeks were super crazy with the divorce and her kids.  It was really cool to me because I knew that prompting was from God and came through his Holy Messenger, the Holy Ghost.  This gospel is so true it is crazy.  Just being out here shows me that.  There is truly a God in Heaven that loves us and is our Father.  We are all created after him and in the way he intended us to be.  We aren't all the same - we are created with talents and struggles that will help us grow.  It was a way cool experience.  She came to the party and we talked with her for a while.  We are seeing her this week!  We are super happy!  The ward party was on Friday, and it was really good.  It was more of a get together with activities.  The final event of the night was when they brought out a huge Spongebob pinata that was filled to the brim with candy.  It was probably one of the most funny things I have seen when they were attacking it and finally they were able to break it open.  There was the biggest dog pile on the ground.  It was super funny.  A kid also managed to get inside of the pinata for candy.  But that was my week for you.  Jesus is also doing really good and so is Paul.
 

      It sounded like everything is good at home.  I definitely miss it at home, but this mission has already shown me how great it is going to be to be with you family for eternity and how it would suck if you weren't.  I am excited to hear about Tyler and Scott's epic football adventure, and I wish I was home to see the last game.  Hopefully they kick butt this week.  Mom, I am going to send you an email also, but Happy Birthday this week.  You’re the best!  Hopefully the Packers kick butt tonight and win!  I love you guys tons, and you’re always in my prayers!  I hope your week is awesome!

 

Con Mucho Amor,

-Elder Smith