July 30, 2018 New Companion!

July 30, 2018

The last week has been alright, we had Transfers and Elder Twitchell went to Wills Point in Tyler and I stayed in Paris with my new companion Elder Christensen. He is pretty nice, he came from the former Jackson, Mississippi mission which was dissolved and came over here after Shreveport came into the mission. 

My new companion is from Moses Lake Washington and was born in 1999. He is pretty chill and has to adjust to the mission rules here in the Dallas Texas Mission. However over time he'll be able to use Spanish a lot more in Texas than he did in his old mission. It is kind of heart breaking to see this investigator go to prison. She was in prison before but after being out for so long they never put her into any Rehabilitation center to help her out. As far as I'm concerned I think the only thing that helped her was the Gospel and attending church almost every single week. I wouldn't be surprised if she bore her testimony at court about coming to the Mormon church and the jury not in favor of it because of their own 'beliefs.' I'll send letters to her periodically some way or another. The earliest she can get out of Prison can be in 15-18 years.

The investigators are doing alright. I am a little down this week because one investigator will not be around here anymore. She had to go to court on Monday and Tuesday and was found guilty and was sent to Prison for the next 55 years. The stupidest thing I heard is that one of the charges was biting a cop.  That gave her about 10-15 years more. So much for everyone in this country being equal. If she did end up being found not guilty she could of been a Member of the church right now. I just hope that I'll be able to write letters to her because the whole situation made me very upset. 

I didn't do anything fun last week other than go to Mt Pleasant for Zone PDAY to play a game called Signs. We've been playing this game every time we go down there and it gets pretty intense. Haven't done any 'floating' in a while either, but that'll change possibly this week. 

Today I don't know what I am going to do. We might go to the Antique store again, last time we were there Elder Twitchell bought a Record from the Police that was signed by Sting. Maybe I'll find something cool there, maybe something from WWII. 

We eat a variety of things out here, we ate a lot of Panda Express in the last two transfers so maybe we'll do it again today. Other than that I'll make this Tuna Salad thigh that a member showed me how to do. It looks weird but it tastes very good. We did cook a lot together (Elder Twitchell and I ) and someday I might make another 12 egg omelet. Other than that the investigators here are all ok. Haven't seen any problems with anyone at the moment but sometimes that can change. 

That is weird that Grandma and Grandpa attend a Spanish speaking ward. I really think that they should attend a different ward to build up their testimonies or at least learn Spanish. I'm guessing that Pierce was able to understand what they were saying but no one else. It sounds like you are all having a good time in Miami, and I'm surprised that you went to the everglades. I'd like to go there sometime.  There are a lot of things on my bucket list I want to do after my mission. However I want my testimony to grow and to not worry about how much time I have left. I feel like a psychiatrist sometimes as a missionary!  Instead of pills, I ask them to read and pray about the gospel. Miami Beach would be pretty cool to see and go to. It doesn't surprise me that it was crowded at all. Were you able to see the high tides rise at all while you were there? Those are always so cool to see as the water changes and moves around. I guess that is cool that Joe got married, but at least he waited a couple years after his mission instead of marrying within six months. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your trip and I'll talk to you soon.