Rainy Days!

It rained pretty hard for a couple days but has stopped. We were soaking wet and it was very windy which made it pretty cold. There wasn't a lot of flooding here in Bastrop but there was some parts that we couldn't get to because the water was covering the street. I guess there was a huge flood a couple months before I came to Texas that was pretty bad and ruined a couple houses but this one wasn't nearly as bad. 

This week we took one of our investigators Darwin French cigarettes and we are going to be stopping by him tonight to see if he has quite smoking. He couldn't make it to church because he was sick and has a lot of health problems. Elders have been working with him for a couple years so if he didn't quite we might stop stopping by him because he needs to take the next step and start progressing.

This week I gave a training during district meeting on how to be a successful missionary. I found a talk by Russel M. Neilson and I loved this quote

"Mortal perfection can be achieved as we try to perform every duty, keep every law, and strive to be as perfect in our sphere as our Heavenly Father is in his. If we do the best we can, the Lord will bless us according to our deeds and the desires of our hearts."

As missionaries we need to do our best and try to be as perfect as possible. We can achieve mortal perfection as we live and follow Jesus Christ example and teachings. I also talked about how "perhaps we might save some few of their souls" Alma 26:26. After district meeting we had exchanges and I went to Buda/plum creek again but this time I went with Elder Green who has been out for only a couple weeks. It was weird being the older missionary for once but we had a great time and saw many miracles.

Exchanges!

So this week there was a pretty big fire in the little town next to Bastrop called Smithville. I think that they have finally put it out after 5 days or so. It smells like a camp fire wherever we go now which I like the smell. We didn't have to get evacuated which would have been pretty cool. This is a picture of the fire the first day that it started.Also this week we had our miles cut down to 1600 when it was previously 1850. We had to go on bikes almost everyday this week because we hardly have any miles. Because of district meeting and any other meeting we have it is at least 100 mile round trip. Biking this week was pretty fun because we don't just sit in a car all day and we get to talk to a lot more people. It is still very hot and one part of our area called Tahitian Village is very hilly so it is pretty hard to bike there. We still have been working with Winston and trying to set him with a date. It's hard because his parents aren't to interested and i think that his mother doesn't want him to be baptized. We are still working on having her sit in on the lessons also but it's difficult because she is always working or sleeping. Also we can only meet with him on the weekends because his mom doesn't want him to meet with us during the week because she thinks he will start to get bad grades in school. We don't have anyone else with a date right now but we met a couple new people and hopefully will have lessons with them this week and set them with dates. We also had exchanges and I went to Buda/Plum Creek area. I have now been on exchanges there 4 times and I feel like I know there area pretty well. I went on exchanges with our district leader elder Webb who served in Bastrop during his training. He is such a great elder and we had such a great time. I learned so much from that exchange especially how I need to not worry about the things that I can't control but only worry about the things that I can control and change.

Choose for himself!

Winston is doing great. We had a couple lessons with him this week and he also came to church on Sunday again. He loves having us over and is always so excited to learn more. He is 15 almost 16 and wishes that his parents were more interested in learning. We have been trying to have them sit in on the lessons also but they don't seem to interested and our always running around the yard working on stuff.

Antonio who is 17 told us that we will not be able to come by anymore. This was so hard because he was my favorite person to teach and we got a long so well. Every time we taught him he was so amazed and would keep every commitment we gave him. He would take his Book of Mormon to school and read it there and would have us over a couple times a week. He wanted to be baptized but his parents wouldn't let him. He told us that we can't come to his house anymore and teach him because he has some problems with our beliefs. But really it's because his parents won't let us come by anymore and are making him go to their church with him. When we said goodbye he started to cry and I had the opportunity to give him a priesthood blessing. He is such a stud and hopefully one day he will be able to choose for himself what church he wants to go to.

We have a nonmember who comes to church every week with his member wife but just has a couple problems with our beliefs and it's because he won't take the time to read and study the Book of Mormon. I know that if he will do CPR Church, Prayer, Read that he will find out that the Book of Mormon is true and that this is gods church. Just like President Uchtdorf said we must put our effort into gaining a testimony.

We also had the chance to help a member work on his house. We were upstairs scrapping the popcorn off his ceiling and there was no air conditioning. It was so hot. Also we stopped and help a man move his dead truck out of the middle of the road. It was pretty funny because he was a priest for some random church here in Bastrop and just started praying for us and doing a bunch of other weird things. Then he said he will put us on his prayer list so that was pretty cool.

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."

Conference!

Conference was amazing and I got to watch all the sessions. We watched them all at our church. Saturday there was no one else that came so we were the only ones at church except for Priesthood session in which we had our investigator Winston come to and a lot of the other priesthood brethren came. Winston said that it was a very spiritual experience. Then on Sunday there was a couple family's that came to the church to watch conference and they also brought lunch which was good but not as good as Ebeskebers. We had another lesson with Antonio on Friday before conference and his parents told him he couldn't come to any of the sessions of conference but we told him he could watch it online. It was awesome about 5 min before priesthood session started he texted us asking what the count down was for. He is so prepared just hopefully his parents heart will soften. We invited about 5 other investigators but none of them came which was a dagger. Hopefully we can get them to stake conference this Sunday.

One of my favorite talks was Larry L. Lawrence who talked about how if we are humble and teachable then the lord will guide us throughout our lives and keep us on the path to one day live with him again. He also talked about how the Holy Ghost doesn't expect us to change everything all at once but how we are going to have to take one step at a time. He quoted President Spencer "I have learned that were there is a prayerful heart the lord will pour out more and more light". I know that if we have a prayerful heart then the lord will answer our prayers.

Another powerful talk was Neil L Anderson who talked about faith and how the savior sees our faith. He shared the story about the family who had one missionary out serving and another one in Germany on a study abroad and how the rest of the family got in a plan crash and died. The son had such strong faith, unshaken faith that he knew that he needed to stay out on his mission and serve other. We must all have faith that cannot be shaken or tempted by satin. We must have the light in us that can't be blown out. "Fear not the future is as bright

I got a new companion on Thursday but I am staying here in Bastrop. I had such a great time with Elder Ramsden and he taught me so much. Elder Trammel my new companion has been out for a little less than a year and is not as strict as Elder Ramsden was. He is very energetic and is pretty funny. He went to Utah State before he came out and said that he didn't know Spencer but saw him on compass a couple times. He is from California and plays lacrosse. They changed Bastrop so now it's not the district leaders position anymore which it has been I guess for a very long time. I love my new district leader and I meet him my first night in Texas so I am excited to go on exchanges with him. It's been pretty hard trying to lead out the area these last couple days. There is a lot more pressure on me now that I am the only one that knows this area. "That the fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers." D&C 1:23. I know that I am weak and simple but I know that with gods help I can share his gospel. Dieter F. Uchtdorf mentioned that the truth is sometimes very simple.