Armadillo!

This week was pretty good. We came home one night and our neighbors were loading a moving truck. So we helped them load everything in the truck for about an hour then had to hurry and get to bed. Then the next day we helped them unload at their new apartment just down the street. They are a very nice couple who are in the army. When we were unloading they had so many guns. It's crazy how many guns people have hear in Texas. We had dinner the other night at a members house and he said he had at least 50 guns in his house. Texas people are crazy about their guns.

It was pretty crazy this morning we saw an armadillo and we tried to catch it. Those things are so quick. It went under a car and I grabbed the end of its tail but I didn't have enough grip that it got away. They are such weird animals and sometimes when they are running they jump it is the weirdest thing. Maybe one day I will be able to catch one. We have still been working with Antonio who is amazing. This week we asked him if he would grab his Book of Mormon and he had it in his backpack because he reads it at school and on the bus. He is almost done with 2 Nephi already. He didn't come to church because his parents made him go to their Catholic Church but we are still trying to work with the parents. One day he will be baptized. We don't have anyone with a baptismal date because the ones we set this week with dates didn't come to church so we removed their date. Hopefully this week we will be able to have a couple of people with dates.

We had another lesson with Christy Miller who is a mother of four crazy children and her husband is always wasted. We went yesterday and she was crying because she doesn't like the way her life is going. She has no money, her husband is crazy, she lost her job and everything is just not going good for her. I didn't know what to say to her so I just bore my testimony and told her that scripture study and prayer will help. I have been so blessed to be raised in such a great family and in a great neighborhood and house. I have also noticed the importance of marriage and how important it is to marry someone who will help you get through this challenging life.

Also we finally meet with Winston again and he said he has been very busy with school and helping his dad rebuild their trailer but we had a great lesson with him. He had an amazing prayer were he said that he wants to meet with the missionaries more because he knows how important our message is. Hopefully we can get him back to reading the Book of Mormon each day and also get him to come back to church and young men's.

"What a great difference there is between giving 
advice and lending a hand!"

Service opportunities!

This week I was able to do a lot of service. The mission had Spanish conference this week so I went on exchanges with my MTC companion which was so fun. We were painting this mans house and I was inside painting in a little tiny bathroom. When I finished painting the bathroom I came out and my companion told me I looked like I just got out of the shower because I was so sweaty. It was so hot in there. We also had the opportunity to put together a less actives BBQ that he got for his birthday and then had a great lesson with them. I love doing service and have been looking for more opportunities to serveothers.

Today president slaughter called a new assistant who served in Bastrop. I'm excited to meet him and to get to know him a little bit better. Also we have district meeting on Wednesday and I have to give a 20 minute lesson so I'm excited for that. The other day we had an interesting conversation with a military veteran. We knocked on his neighbors door who asked for a bible online. I guess that it was his daughter and he came out and almost beat us up. He was mad at us for knocking on his daughters door and trying to share our believes with others. after we talked to him for a little and cooled him down he said he was about to come over and knock us out. That would have been crazy if he started to throw punches.

Antonio is doing great. We taught him the word of wisdom the other day and he was so confused on why people wouldn't want to live the word of wisdom. He still loves to learn and has been reading the Book of Mormon. He wasn't able to come to church on Sunday again for some reason and his father still won't let him be baptized yet. We also have been meeting with a less active who was baptized here in Bastrop about ten years ago but then moved and hasn't been to church for about 8 years now. We are working with him and hope that he will come to church next Sunday. Also we are trying to teach his wife but she says she isn't into religion which has made it hard for us to teach her.

Power that God gives!

Saturday we had the chance to give John and D'Artagnan the
priesthood so that they could go on the temple trip with the ward.
They are such great kids but we found out that they are moving just
right outside our ward boundaries and also missionary boundaries in
about a month or two so hopefully other members and missionarys will
help them stay active and involved. It was such a great experience to
give someone the priesthood and to know that power that God gives to
us through the laying on of hands.

Last Monday we finally played another sport other than volleyball. We
played basketball but only one person showed up so we played 21 which
was still really fun. Hopefully in my next area we will be close to
other missionary's and be able to meet up and play soccer.

On Wednesday we had exchanges and another elder came to Bastrop with
me so I had to lead the area again. This elder didn't really talk at
all so I had to pretty much do everything. I realized many of my
weaknesses that I need to work on so that I can become an even better
missionary. We had another appointment with Antonio this week and he
had a game the same time as church yesterday. We went over and talked
about agency and how it is his choice to either play soccer or come to
church and also we discussed the Holy Ghost and how he answers are
prayers. He told us that we helped him a lot and that he will pray
about it. We felt good about the lesson and we were hoping he will
come to church but he ended up going to his soccer game which was a
dagger. We have another lesson with him this week and we hope that his
father will allow him to be baptized and also that he will realize the
importance of keeping the sabbath day holy.  We have a couple
investigators that we are working with but we might have to drop a
couple of them because they are not keeping there commitments.

This was a long hard working week. We didn't have a lot of success but
I know that as we do as we have been asked to do blessing will come
and God will put people in our path.


"The rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven,...

                                                                                                  D&C 121:36-37

First Baptism!

I had my first Baptism on Saturday. We baptized John and D'Artagnan who are 15 and 13 years old. I had the opportunity to baptize John and then on Sunday confirm D'Artangnan. It was such a great weekend and it was awesome because when John came out of the water he told me "I just feel good and I'm really happy". They are such great kids and will be great for this ward.

Antonio is doing great. We went over on Friday and taught him the Ten Commandments. It was crazy because we talked about keeping the sabbath day holy and we thought that it would be very difficult for him to commit to it because he has a lot of soccer games and practices on Sunday. But he said "I have a soccer game this Sunday but I will tell my coach I can't play because I know that God doesn't want me to". He is so willing to change and listen to everything we have to say. He is such a great kid the only problem is is that his father told him he has to wait to be baptized because his father wants him to learn more about his church before he is baptized in our church. It was a dagger when he told us this but he is still willing to meet with us and will be coming to church next week. We were able to do a lot of service at this members house. We put up dry-wall and also insulation. It so nice to be able to do service and get a break from knocking and teaching.

Baptism of John & D'eArtagnan

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