July 23, 2018 Cars "TurninRust"

July 23, 2018

Letter to Tim: 

The heat here is ok at the moment. They say the weather right now is pretty bad. However I am used to it but I can't say the same thing for other missionaries. The sun is pretty bright here which is the only thing that sucks, but maybe we'll see a Tornado in the future? We do the best we can to stay inside and the AC works well. Hopefully we won't have any problems where the AC will go off. 

In other news we have one investigator that is on Trial at the moment and can possibly go to jail for the next 25 years.  She has changed so much that I believe she should be found not guilty. Not sure if it'll happen because our Ward Mission Leader may have to testify for her if needed.  Apparently Texas has a thing like three strikes and your out kind if deal. She's been going to several churches around the area so hopefully they'll see that she's changed a lot. She told us that the Book of Mormon is the book that Saved her life.. 

Also we went down to a Town named Bogata and gave a Book of Mormon to a guy with all these old cars that have their engines fixed. He has his own DeLorean Hot Tub and a YouTube channel called TurninRust. You should check it out and I'll send you pictures. 

July 23, 2018 DeLorean hot tub!!!

July 23, 2018

I am doing ok right now. We went down to Bogata this week and met this guy with all these old cars who we met previously at the Eiffel Tower. He is Christian and has his own YouTube Channel called "TurninRust", where he fixes up the engines of old cars but leaves the exterior the same. It's professionally done and looks like a TV show from what I got to see. He has the Ecto-1 which looks cool and his own DeLorean Hot tub. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he asked us to stop by whenever his shop is open. 

The weather here isn't that bad at all but it would be very cool for a Tornado to come by. I want to see one so bad!!! Walking home from school wasn't even that bad, and the weather here while somewhat hot doesn't make me that thirsty even with all the sweat I sweat off. I sometimes forget to put my deodorant on. I guess I feel like the weather here doesn't do much to my body. 

That's good to hear that Jackson and Aiden went to do Baptisms in the temple. I never did a baptism for someone.  I did do a Confirmation, which I thought was even cooler. I haven't been able to go to the temple yet mainly because we live 2 hours away from it and any missionaries within 45 mins of it are allowed to go. One day I'll go there but that'll be a couple transfers from now. We are still waiting on Transfer news.  I believe someone from Shreveport is coming in Paris which is cool. 

Hope your trip to Florida will be good.  It'll be good for you all to see Grandma and Grandpa again who I hope to see after my mission.

 We had rain a couple times in Texas but I don't know if it was steamy or hot at all, but maybe the weather in Florida is different compared to here. 

Studying is going alright. I do the best I can to find answers to questions in the Bible and he Book of Mormon. A lot of people say that they know the Bible doesn't say this but it clearly does!  Like Baptisms for the Dead and that the Priesthood keys existed during Christs time. When you study this much you really see the comparisons between both the Bible and the Book of Mormon alot more clearly than before. I've  learned some new doctrine on my mission and some that I just forgot about from Seminary which is reasonable. I guess.   Its really eye opening to investigators to hear about the Gospel. There was one guy who lives in a trailer park.  His son was converted in San Antonio. He is more of a visual learner or someone who likes to listen to the scriptures than read it himself which is understandable. We watched the short Restoration video with him and helped him download the Gospel Library App. He sounded pretty happy about it and I hope to see him progress. We also taught a family this week that live in another Trailer. There was a lot of distractions going on but one person in the house payed attention throughout the entire lesson. When he was asked to say a prayer he did.  He prayed to have get some stuff off his chest and wants to change his life. It's pretty awesome to see the gospel changing lives and helping others come closer to Christ and return to God in the end. Unfortunately a lot of people in the area don't want to learn more of God's word.  Its disappointing to see them reject something so real and so powerful. Joseph Smith would of had to been a flippin genius to make up the Book of Mormon!  The footnotes only came out over a hundred years later to show that they support each other and then to know that after he died that the church would still survive and that the Priesthood actually is a blessing to people and that all the things that the church puts out are very important for God's Children to listen to. It wouldn't make sense for Joseph Smith to make up a religion and have revelations such as Word of Wisdom actually being beneficial and that there would be wars in the future. I wish the Book of Mormon originally said that it was another testimony of Jesus Christ, because people would probably believe it to be true if it started then. People are to hard hearted in some places and I wish they would stop it. Other than that though, this week has been pretty slow such as going to Dequeen Arkansas. If you can't reach me next week then that is ok. I hope you all have a safe trip and I'll talk to you again soon. 

Elders with a recent convert, David.

Elders with the Perra's.  They were converts last year!  

Some of the cars from "TurninRust" :

July 16, 2018 She bears?????

July 16, 2018

Yeah Six Months is finally here, only another 18 more to go, or possibly more but who knows.

 I think Brother Martineau cried not because I'm serving a mission,  but rather all the food that will destroy my teeth. Hahaha, Sometime on my mission I may have to get my teeth clean, there is always at least one member in a ward that is a Dentist. You know what they say, The Mormons are the Dentists while the Jews are the Bankers! 

I saw that Brother Hall is the Ward Mission Leader on LDS Tools which I didn't know was a calling until my mission. We call our Ward Mission Leader a Grandpa because he is one and acts like it all the time. That's cool that there are two new missionaries leaving, where are they both going? 

That stinks that a kid vandalized the Church Building. As of right now we are learning how to call upon She-bears to tare apart Children.  .A She Bear is a mama bear. You can read about it on 2 Kings 2:23-25.  You see kids nowadays are more wicked than ever and need the Spirit of a bear to overcome them.

We don't have many new investigators but we were knocking on Apartment doors not too long ago and they asked if we had a watchtower (apparently that's a JW thing) and we said no. They asked if we had a Simplified Bible and we gave them one and they also asked what else we did and we said that we read from the Book of Mormon. The Husband flat out said that no one wants to read from the Book of Mormon because it's true. Kind of caught us off guard but hopefully we can stop by another time.

 The Dairy Farmer is coming to church but he can only go only about every other week because of his job which is fine. He will go to the temple one of these days whenever he gets a day off from helping with the cows. 

The Storms here are all ok but nothing too crazy. People sometimes say there's not enough rain out here. Their definition of not having enough rain is pretty different from my definition of not having enough rain. The Rain coat works well but I don't have to use it so often which is good. I am still praying for a Tornado to come one of these days because they must need a storm for this area.

 I don't really need anything sent to me right now, but I would like to know if there are any cool LEGO sets that are out or will be out in the future. I guess I'm still hoping that I'll find that Rock N Roll plush someday in the future whether that's during the time I'm serving my mission or after it. Some day it'll wind up on Ebay but who knows when that'll be. Anyways hope you all have a good week and I'll talk to you again soon. 

Some pics from a recent service project, some chickens in his neighborhood and soda and funny hats.

    

July 9, 2018 Baptism!

July 9, 2018

Hey Mom, how was your week? I am doing ok for now, we had someone get baptized on Saturday night which was good. It may be a little difficult for him to attend Sacrament meeting every week because he is a Dairy Farmer and  his wife, who is a member, isn't happy that he was baptized. 

We are getting rain almost every week here which can either be hard or just sprinkles of water. Humidity doesn't make it seem that hot here in Texas but I do wish that the Humidity would make a Tornado form. I opened a fortune cookie recently from Panda Express that said "An unexpected Windfall will soon be yours." That obviously means that a Tornado is coming soon. haha 

 I am guessing that the vacation at San Diego was good and a lot of fun. 

Next Transfers are on July 24th of this month and I think Elder Twitchell will be assigned to a different area in the mission, possibly Louisiana. I heard about Elder Harris going home mainly because I remember what day he was going to die on the mission field.

 I get kind of a little upset from time to time because it took me so long to finally come out on the mission and I wish it would of have been sooner. If only I wouldn't have put down that I was Diagnosed with Aspergers on my papers. It's something that crosses my mind every now and then. 

That's cool that Pierce got to meet his Girlfriends parents and that they liked him as well. 

The investigators are ok right now, some are kind of flaky at the moment which is upsetting but we will do our best to get them to church. President Dalton had asked us to read from the Book of Mormon for our studies this month and next month and highlight every time it mentions Jesus Christ.. Kind of interesting and I'm also reading some of Russell M Nelsons Talks from the past. 

We haven't seen mice in a long time which is good and we hope that they're gone for good. The other Elders in the District are good and are a lot of fun when we do Zone Pday in Mt Pleasant. One of these days I want to go down in Sulphur Springs to see this toilet they have that is see through from the inside but not the outside which is crazy. 

There is a mom and an Elder in the ward that are die hard Star Wars Fans and have a house filled with merchandise. Haven't seen any big time Lego Fans but that does bring up the question if there are any cool Lego Sets out right now and have you checked to see what kind of offers you can get with the Black VIP Card? Also if you ever see that club penguin Rock n Roll plush on Ebay just let me know and I'll pay for it. Anyways I hope you all have an enjoyable week and I'll talk to you again soon.




President Dalton baptized a new convert of the Sister Missionaries.

 

July 2, 2018 Mission changes...

July 2, 2018

Hey Mom, my week has been pretty good. I'm still praying for a Tornado to come but we'll have to wait and see what the weather brings. 

We didn't have any transfer news yesterday but the Shreveport, Louisiana stake was added to our mission and we gained a lot of missionaries. However the missionaries in Irving and Carrollton were transferred to the Fort Worth Mission, which stinks. President Dalton was trying to keep those missionaries in, but the First Presidency said they had to move over to the Mission next door. We aren't getting transfer news until the end of July so we will see what happens. 

That's cool that you are in San Diego right now. If you went a few weeks later in the month you could of gone to the San Diego Comic Con. 

That's cool that Pierce is dating another person and that he got to meet her parents. If he gets married before I get home, that would be crazy but better than waiting forever. I guess he'll meet the right person one day but who knows when that'll be. Hope you all have a great rest of the week and I'll talk to you all soon. 

Letter to Dad:  

It's going alright in Texas right now, not too many things are going on though. We do have a Baptism on Saturday which is exciting but the Wife who is a member is not supporting her husband's decision and is leaving town for the weekend. Sounds like you guys are going to have a lot of fun on your vacation in San Diego this week. The weather here doesn't actually feel hot to me even with the humidity involved, but that Dry Heat weather is a killer. 

Lol you're asking me to choose Hawaii out of all places to go to when a Volcano erupted about a month ago and Europe is being retarded by allowing a bunch of Refugees into their countries and destroying it from the inside. Might as well go to Alaska. In all seriousness though I don't know where I would want to go. I might take that trip up to British Columbia again because that was a ton of fun and someday I want to go to Russia but I'd like to learn the language first.  I think it would be a fun language to learn, that and German. I heard that BYU has different Language classes but I don't know which schools have those languages or not. I asked Pierce about it and he said they even have chinese which would be great for business.

 I keep hearing how hot it is in Arizona and it definitely sounds like home. I've been to a couple of the discussions and even the wife gets angry at her husband there sometimes. The reason why she is angry all the time is because he broke the Law of Chastity about a year ago when she went on vacation. He apologized about doing it but she can never forgive him. He actually had an interview with the bishop last week probably about this incident but I don't know what it was actually all about. However one reason why he may have done this is because the wife spends a lot of money on Material things which are mostly Star Wars Merchandise from Towels to Mugs and from Collectibles to old action figures. The house is cluttered with all these things which probably made him feel like he wasn't loved by his wife. Very tough situation and I can't judge why this happened in the first place. 

June 25, 2018 Pray for tornadoes???

June 25, 2018

Hey Mom it sounds like you are learning a lot from those books. There is a lot of interesting things in the Teaching of the Presidents books. Howard W. Hunter once said that just because people are emotional doesn't mean that the spirit is there. Apparently a lot of people get emotions and feeling the spirit confused. There is a lot of good scriptures that can be used and seem to be skipped over by many churches like 1 Corinthians 14 and Paul's teachings about three different kingdoms of glory. Unfortunately a lot of people don't have the fullness of the gospel and when people tell me that having a Rock Band in church is where God will dwell...,  I call out their bullcrap. 

It's good to hear from Aunt Leanne after a long time, and it's cool that she used some of my insights in her discussion. I asked her last week if Cooper had his Patriarchal blessing yet and if not it wouldn't hurt to get one. I did receive that package about two weeks ago and I'm doing the best I can to use the food. I didn't think that there would be that much food in the box.

 I thought that Christian and Megan's Baby was coming next month? I guess it needs more time to develop. Anyways how was your week? Is there any good movies that came out? Not much has happened besides having a Zone Conference and Stake Conference. There is a couple from the mission office that is leaving after extending their mission. There were interviews with President Dalton which could've been better because I had questions I wanted to ask but decided not to. Instead I asked him over the weekly email. Also we saw a Wall cloud on Saturday that looked pretty sick. Apparently those things can cause Tornadoes to form. In fact we met with some members who had a funnel cloud forming by their house two years ago and the Husband was actually in a Tornado when he was 10. I hope that you all have a great week and keep praying for Tornadoes!

Pastors, depression, false doctrine and bed bugs!

June 18, 2018

Hey mom, my week has been ok I guess. Not too much has happened except a new investigator came to church on Sunday which is cool because we just taught her for the first time this week. She sounds very interested in the church because one of her workers that she really appreciates is a member of the church and it sounds like she wants that in her life. 

Besides that,  nothing too big or exciting happened. We did try to knock on this one former investigators door to explain about information she read online but she wasn't home. in fact ,she lived in Vanilla Ices old home in Paris which was cool. We knocked on a couple houses in that neighborhood and one guy told us that they had to talk to their pastor first which we hear all the time.  We found out that it was a house converted to a Baptist church which was strange to say the least. That is a thing that I don't like about some of these people in Texas,  is when they tell us that they have to talk to their pastor first before talking to us. Apparently these people are brainwashed to believing everything a pastor has to say, instead of praying to God for answers. Some people wake up and understand that the full truth is out there but can't find it. There was one lady that we were teaching who was progressing super well and when we called to meet them after not seeing them for 2 weeks, the husband picked up the phone and said that he didn't want us coming over. Of course this was bound to happen because his brother is a pastor and told him some false doctrine about the church which sucks. Satan is working hard on our most progressing investigators at the moment by letting things like depression, problems in the families and even bed bugs distract them from receiving the restored gospel so yes I am going to ask again to pray for Tornadoes. Maybe that will humble most people in Paris to search for happiness in their life. 

I did find my Driving record the other day which was good and sent a picture of it to the driving coordinator. There is zone conference this week as well so I might bring it with me to show him in case he doesn't get the email. 

I haven't bought a phone yet mainly because there is no best buy near us and I'm gonna wait to see if the area phones will go away or not. We don't do much on our p days other than shopping and doing laundry but they do have a thing in Paris called the Trail de Paris that we want to ride bikes on but you can only rent bikes through an app that cant be downloaded on the phone. Transfers happened last week and I am staying with Elder Twitchell. However there is more transfers on July 1st because the Shreveport, Louisiana stake is getting added to the mission so I guess we'll see what happens then. Other than that it sounds like everything is ok over here.

 I heard that Incredibles 2 came out on Friday and I also saw a poster at Gamestop about a Lego Incredibles Game that came out recently which looks pretty cool. Anyways I hope your week will be great, and I'll talk to you again soon.