11/4/2024

This week has been great! The past 2 weeks have been really awesome here in the League City area! 

The week has been great with member visits, new friends being taught, service, and one of our friends entering the waters of Baptism! We helped a member in the Seabrook ward rebuild a fence that was blown over during the hurricane a few months back. Well more than just a few months by this point which is weird. Having the quad helped out with the fence a lot. Pics to be in the album to see. We went from digging the holes to the very end. 

We had 2 trunk or treats for the area. The League City wars and the Kemah Spanish branch did a trunk or Treat together then the South Shore and Seabrook wards did one together. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of my training in Jones Creek and Pecan Grove. Last P-day was zone P-Day and we went to a beach and had BBQ! The AP's came along with President and Sister Garn. Truly one of the best P-Days I have had on the mission. I went knee deep in the ocean which supposedly is allowed. 

Elder Stone and Marriott had MLC to plan November goals. I ran it with Elder Robert's for that day. We met with a friend from the Clear Lake Elders. His name is Hany and he is super cool. He read parts of the Book of Mormon and marked the things he liked or stuck out to him. He also was able to come to church yesterday which is a huge plus. We got some rain this week which is all good. It was pouring Halloween afternoon. We just walked around that evening talking to people who were sitting outside. Knocking doors wouldn't do too good. I got a hotdog and some candy which was awesome. We did get a find out of it. 

Our friend Jessie was Baptized. He was super excited for it. I got to teach him once before his Baptism. We had our other friend William come to watch Jessie's Baptism which was a super good experience for both of them. The weekend was so good and then of course we also get daylight savings! It was super nice getting that extra hour of sleep. 

As always I hope you are all doing soooooo good. Also shout out to my Brother, it's his Bday today! I got a few pictures this week, take a look at them! 

 

 10/21/2024

I have yet again moved onto a new area. I've been hoping to come to this area for a long time! League City. That's not the only awesome thing about this transfer. I am also in a fluid quad! My companions are Elder Stone who was my comp 5 transfers ago, Elder Marriott and Elder Robert's. Elder Stone and Elder Marriott are the League City Zone Leaders and Elder Robert's is fresh off the plane from the MTC. The first few days I ran it up with Elder Marriott while Elder Stone picked up his trainee. 

The car we used to get my stuff to the area didn't have a bike rack on it at the time so we were using the Clear Lake Elders bike rack. On the drive over we got a call from them and my bike fell off the bike rack on the highway and got run over by a semi truck. I can't really blame anyone because I watched the bike get strapped on and all. I just blame the bike rack. It was the kind of bike rack I never really used before and now I really don't trust that kind of bike rack. Now for the rest of my mission I'm going to use a mission loaner bike but Elder Stone picked me up a really nice one so that's good. 

We all went together to the League City ward Pinewood derby. That was a lot of fun. Elder Marriott entered his car and got 2nd or 3rd place. He forgot to graphite his wheels so he could've gotten higher but that's OK. The Elders were representing. We met this member who just loves the missionaries and has a bunch of extra food that she just gives away so we got a bunch of extra food.

Eventually I ran the area with Elder Robert's and that was fun because we are both trying to learn the area so it can almost feel like we are white washing into the area. It's fun being in a quad especially with a missionary who is fresh off the plane. 

On Sunday we got a few friends to church. We cover both the League City and the South Shore Ward. Elder Stone's brother is in the South Shore ward so that is super funny. There is so much to do in this area especially as a quad. We are super excited to see how everything goes here in the League City Zone!

In the morning I will be going fishing with the Elders in the district so that will be fun. This will be my second time fishing for fish. I've been fishing for men for over a year now. How hard could it be? 

 

 8/19/2024

Crazy Transfer! ET's, Zone Conference, Interviews! There was a whole lot that has gone on in the past 2 weeks. 

Starting back where we left off, on August 5th.

We went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It was super fun going through all of the different exhibits! They had a whole Egyptian exhibit. It was a really fun time going to a museum. 

On Tuesday we had interviews. Elder Anderson and I were supposed to go last so we decided to make some visits before going to interviews. Once we got there we noticed they were super behind. We got there at 2:30 and ended up staying there until about 5:30. It was really crazy. It just shwacked a chunk of our day but that's alright. We made our way up to 4th ward to do some finding which went pretty well. 

Wednesday was Elder Cooks last District Council. He is my Eldest Mission Brother. He is the first trained by Elder Stober. As of writing this he has already gone home and we all miss him. We ended this night going on exchange with the Zone Leaders in the H1 area. Once again I got to go to a Spanish area for a day. 

Thursday Exchange. I got to have a nice language study. Having a dedicated time to learn a language is a game changer. Unfortunately it will only be while I'm on exchange. While we were out and about, a guy stops his car and roles down the windows just to yell at us to get back on the bikes and that we don't need a car. It was like 95 degrees then you add the humidity. As he drove off we got a text that said Get on the Bikes! Usually people comment that we should get a car because of the heat. That guy was super strange. It was a fun exchange with Elder Okeson. 

Our mission zooms were moved to Friday so we had that. After the zoom the other Elders called us over to their apartment. When we got there they said that Elder Sorenson was moving. This was only the start of these drastic changes. This got us wondering what would happen now when Elder Cook would go home. Would Elder Baclayon trio up with us? Anyway while we were just about to leave an apartment, someone in the pool area waved us over saying, “Do y'all wanna talk about God?” We had a great conversation and gave her a Book of Mormon. She said she will read stuff about Jesus but she is Sola Scriptura. If you don't know what that means, basically it means you only believe in the Bible as the final word of God. Which is to claim more for the Bible than what it claims for itself. It was still a great conversation. 

Saturday morning we biked all the way up to 4th ward at 10:30 in the morning for a lesson. The person we met with just is super curious about Christianity in general. She is coming from a Muslim background but is just super nice and open to learning more about other religions. For lunch we met with another friend and got some Soul Food. Basically it is just comfort food like fried chicken, meatloaf, macNcheese. Our evening saw 2 canceled lessons but that opened us up to go see Dennis so that was good. 

Sunday church! We were able to have Stephanie come to church and Kaushik went to church in Arizona. It was super awesome. We talked to a member for about an hour after church which was kinda crazy. For the evening we went to a Veterans complex to have a lesson with a guy. The lesson was alright. Not too sure how interested the guy is. 

Zone Pday Monday! I made Biscuits and gravy for breakfast and now it is probably something I will start to make weekly. For Zone Pday we played chair soccer. That got really crazy. We kinda formed an alliance where we chose to have our chairs surround Elder Child's just to protect him so he could go crazy. The Garns brought the jump rope. Back on the 4th of July we did the jump rope and I made it to the final 5 before they just ended it and announced us winners. This time we went down to top 3 and I got it. So now I am a 2 time winner with the jump rope. Now for the evening. We had a great lesson with Ruth. We asked her if she would be baptized if she found out that the Book of Mormon was true and she said Yes! She is also reading it and praying so that is super awesome! On the way back to the apartment we just tried to talk to as many people as possible which went really well. It was a great day. 

We went back up to 4th ward for Tuesday to have another lesson with our friend Bibi. She read in the Book of Mormon which was awesome and she came with questions to learn more. After that Elder Anderson had a mega flat tire so we had to get picked up by Elder Cook and Baclayon with the car. We had lunch and then Elder Anderson tried to fix his tire and the patches just weren't working so we went with the other Elders to the bike shop to get him a new tube. Now his tire works great! We met with Dennis and did some finding before coming in a little early for one of Elders Anderson's My Plans but it got moved to Wednesday. 

No District Council on Wednesday because of Zone Conference on Thursday. We had some call lessons and finding. A lot of finding. The Johnson's had us over for dinner and got us some food from this burger place I've never heard of. It was good though. Elder Anderson had his My Plan and Elder Cook finished his final day of missionary work. 

Zone Conference Thursday! I woke up nice and early to make Biscuits and gravy before going to zone Conference. At zone conference Elder Cook left with some other Departing Missionaries and we got made a trio with Elder Baclayon. Now this trio is covering the whole MacGregor ward. We met with Ruth again and she had read the first 4 chapters of 1 Nephi. It was awesome to see that she was understanding it. Then we lead Bible study which the sisters are usually the ones to lead it. We taught about Adam and Eve. However only a 1 member showed up so that was unfortunate that we didn't have any friends show up. 

Friday, the day everything changed. We had to plan for both Sunnyside and MacGregor which just took forever. We went to a contact for someone up in 3rd Ward who wasn't interested and then on our way down to Sunnyside (45 minute bike ride) the AP's called Elder Baclayon and asked if he would be willing to be transfered to the Maplewood area. He accepted and we just went back to the apartment instead to help him pack. Now we have to cover the whole ward as just a normal companionship with little knowledge of the other area. Our district is also too small so now we have been combined with the Hermann Park District. Houston Mega Zone, Hermann Park Mega District. We had to drive all the way out to Maplewood which kinda destroyed our miles. It will also destroy our miles when we have to drive out to the Beachnut Building for district council. Things just ain't normal. 

Saturday and the endless contacts. I now have the Sunnyside Sim so I can call people down there. We now have about 23 people being taught and 41 people with interest so our contacts took a long time. We also are now taking care of 8 recent converts so our days are just completely full. We did help with a ward baptism by filling the font and being the witnesses. That was a good time for us to do contacts to that helped out. We used the car for the day and ended the day with 91 miles to use for the rest of the month. It could be a struggle but we got this. 

Church was popping off! Our Sunnyside friends came but none from our area in MacGregor. After Sacrament meeting, our friend Brenda who was on date for Baptism went to the ward clerk on her own. Apparently she is already a member and was Baptized in 2006. So now we don't have any friends on date for Baptism. After church we were in until 6 because Elder Anderson had to do the Stewardship Calls for everyone in the Hermann Park District and then he had a My Plan to do. We went to Houston Methodist to visit a member who is in the Hospital after a bike accident a while back. He was super happy to see us and it was a a special time to be there with him. He is recovering great! He got baptized a few months ago right after I left Sunnyside the first time. 

Wow what a week it has been! Elder Anderson and I are the last survivors of MacGregor and we will go strong until he finishes at the end of the month. So much is now up in the air for what will happen next Transfer. As for now we are just going to keep supporting the many friends we have.

 

 8/5/2024

Getting super HOT

This week has been great besides the heat! I just want it to rain again now. 

Monday

We had to bike everywhere! We biked in the morning for shopping. HEB is about a mile and a half away from the apartment so the bike ride wasn't too bad. I had an HEB cooler bag I found in one of my apartments a few transfers ago so that helped out a lot. One of the Elders bought a blender and air fryer. Elder Cook decided to bike back carrying those. We biked all the way up to the Norman's in Midtown We played some games and then the time came to bike back. When we got to the bikes there were 2 flat tires. Not mine thankfully. They got those patched up and then while we were biking down the street, Elder Andersons tire exploded! It sounded like a gunshot. We walked half the way home while the other Elders went ahead to the bike shop to get an entirely new tube and tire. We got back to our apartment at like 5:45 just before we had to go out again. It was super unfortunate. We did have a good lesson with someone named Ruth. We read some of the Book of Mormon with her and invited her to read 3 Nephi 11. Then we ended off the night going to see Dennis. We are trying to help him get to the Temple. 

Tuesday

We had apartment Inspections on zoom which was strange. We went to check the air filter and it was SUPER Bad! We got that changed so now I can be breathing clean air. We tried to do some finding in Hermann Park but ended up talking to a guy for a super long time. Everything started out fine in our conversation. Talking about how we are children of God and agreeing on a lot of things. Then he started going far out saying that he has been in 2 space battles and a supreme being wiped out all the enemies. Things just weren't adding up. We eventually had to leave so ya. We made out way up to 4th ward for some evening knocking. There were some really good houses. A lot of people were answering but still many weren't interested. There was one person though who was super devoted to there church but expressed great interest in the Book of Mormon so that made our day. We will have to go back soon to see what she has read. 

Wednesday

After our District Council, Elder Anderson got his flight plans going. It's kinda crazy that he is this close to the end. We had 3 really decent lessons but about 30 minutes of travel between each of them. We had Stephanie up in 4th ward, Kaushik down in Hermann Park, and Dennis closer to Sunnyside. Literally made a big triangle through our area. We also got a call this night from the AP's. There was a miss count on the cars and they had an extra so we are getting a car back. 

Thursday

I was on exchange in Sunnyside with Elder Cook and Elder Sorenson. We were down closer to the bottom of Sunnyside and Elder Cooks tire went flat. We had a pump but no extra patched because he used them all on the tube already. We just walked the rest of the way to the lesson then took the rest of the night walking back to the Apartment. We took a small stop at Whataburger for dinner. 

Friday

We spent decent amount of time up in 3rd ward. It is a sketchy area but ya gotta find people everywhere you go. We met a guy who goes to Lakewood but we had a really good conversation and setup a return appointment. Then we met a really nice inactive member. He got us water which was very much needed. After that we traveled all the way down to the Med Center apartments to have a lesson with our friend Bob. He asks so many questions to learn it is amazing. I love meeting with Bob. We just started going over the Plan of Salvation with him. Then we ended the night celebrating Elder Andersons Birthday at Lorenzos. To our surprise 2 other Elders were there so it really was a party. It was really fun. 

Saturday

The sisters had a Baptism for one of their friends so we went to that. We took the car there and it wouldn't start after. Lucky for us we brought our bikes on the bike rack so we just started our day while the other Elders waited to get picked up to get a new car. Now we have a new Nissan Rogue. Anyway for our evening, we had one lesson go through our of 4. Yep 3 lessons got canceled. It was super sad but our lesson with Ruth went really well. At the end of the night our zone started doing something called Family Zone Evening which I think is just a basic zone call but just on a Saturday night. 

Sunday

We didn't have to ride our bikes to church which was Awesome! We had a few friends say they were coming but no one came. It was a sad day at church for us. In the evening we did some finding in a spot I don't think missionaries for this area have ever been. We did meet a Chinese Baptist who said he had talked with the Chinese missionaries before which was cool. We also met Kim who gave us water and was interested in the Book of Mormon. Hopefully she will feel the Spirit as she reads and has a desire to continue learning. 

Just wondering, how many of you have tried Tres Leches cake? If you haven't, you should. I just had some and it truly is divine. Also I am about to hit 11 months since I was set apart as a full time Missionary! Wow time has flown. I think back to my first area and it was so long ago but it feels like yesterday. 

Anyway I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. If any of you are visiting Florida right now I hope you are safe due to the Tropical storm or Hurricane Debby over there. ¡Adiós! 

 

 7/30/2024

Man I am bad at getting emails out every week consistently. Slowly but surely I will get back into that groove. 

Monday the 15th

It was really good. We went to Dave Hot Chicken for lunch which was actually really good! After we went to the Norman's and played games. They are just super cool. As soon as we started our proselytizing time Elder Anderson got another flat tire. He just can't catch a break. 

Tuesday the 16th

We had a very busy day. We went to visit Dennis but he was asleep so we talked to another person at his apartment. We had some lessons with some guys that are going through some hard times. I hope that they can find the peace that comes with Jesus Christ. After that we went to Lorenzos. 

Wednesday the 17th

We had district council and then it started raining a lot! We had a really good lesson with John though so that was great. We have a few friends that we just need to get to church. Hopefully we will be able to do that. 

Thursday the 18th

We had a zoom meeting and then went to help a member fix their fence. It fell over during the hurricane. We got there and there wasn't much we could do because he had to replace the posts and he didn't have any of the materials needed for that at the moment so we went back. We met with our friend Kaushik at Hermann Park. While we were waiting, someone came and sat with us. He was Catholic but just saw us and decided to talk with us. He was super cool. Eventually we were able to have a lesson with Kaushik. He is getting ready to go on another trip. We had a great discussion about many gospel topics. Then we had to bike all the way across our area to get to Bible Study and we somehow got there before the sisters. 

Friday the 19th

We got transfer Tidy because it is that time again. I completely changed up our study room and just made it so much more roomy. I also found many things inside the apartment to add to my collection. After all that we went up to 4th ward and did finding the rest of the day. We did meet a few really cool people up there. 

Saturday the 20th

We spent a good chuck of the day helping clear out a fallen tree from the storm. Yep there is still storm damage to deal with. We got through the whole thing. About halfway through it we chopped a log off and there was a rotted hole in the center and cockroaches just started pouring out of it. It was crazy! That took up most of the day. In the evening we had a lesson with our friend Mike at the park. The Haslers joined and they are super cool members. At the end of the lesson they invited Mike to church. Super good MPL. Final thing for the day we got our transfer news. I am staying here in MacG with Elder Anderson. This will be his last transfer so I will be finishing him off. He is also district leader so that makes 8 Transfers as district monkey! 

Sunday the 21st

Church was amazing! Mike came and really loved it. During Sunday school he just kept answering questions and participating. He was even relating it to other Book of Mormon stories he has read. After the Haslers invited us to dinner and for Mike to come too! We of course finished off the Transfer at Lorenzos. 

Transfer 8

Monday

Transfers on a Monday is really weird. I did get to go to In-N-Out which is always a win! Transfers of course takes most of the day when someone in the companionship is in leadership. Salt Lake also I guess is cutting back on costs and so they took a bunch of our cars. We now don't have a car to get back to our area or to go shopping or anything like that. Absolutely completely a 100% bike area. We had to get a ride from the zone leaders to get back to our area. We had our dinner with the Haslers to get to and they live Downtown so we had to get going fast. I just love going to downtown. Dinner and our lesson was super epic. Mike brought his girlfriend too so that was a plus. After dinner we had to fix another flat tire for Elder Anderson. Right after it someone called us over and we had an awesome conversation about church. We gave him a Book of Mormon. He lives in the Sugarland area so hopefully the missionaries there can get in contact with him. We went to take the purple train back to the apartment but accidently got on the green line. We didn't know we were on the green line until it had already split off from the purple and we were outside the mission. We just got off the train and started riding to the closest purple line stop. We were racing the train it was so fun. We got on just in time. We safely made it home after leaving the mission on the first day of the transfer. 

Tuesday

Pday because transfer day was Monday. The new missionaries were supposed to come in but all their flights got canceled so they came in later but the trainees from the Mexico MTC still came in on time. We didn't really go anywhere for Pday In the evening we did have a lesson with a member who wants to start coming back to church so that was cool. That was Pday. Not much going to be happening without our car. 

Wednesday

We had District council and 2 Spanish Hermanas joined us because of the late trainees arriving. We stuck around for a bit afterward because Elder Cook was having his final My Plan. We rode our bikes over to the Med Center to checkup on a recent convert who got into a motorbike accident. He was just going into a CT scan when we got there and they said that it will be about 15 minutes but of course it took about 30 minutes. We had to get going by the time he came back but we saw the senior missionaries going in as we were leaving so that was good. Then we went back up to 4th ward for a lesson and then traveled all the way down to Dennis and spent some time with him. He gave Elder Anderson and I each a framed picture of the 3 of us so now I have this awesome picture on my desk. That was basically the day. A lot of travel time. 

Thursday

Mission zoom, weekly Planning, and a lot of rain. One lesson with a member just turned into him ranting about the thing going on in his life but hopefully we could be of some help to him to see the hand of God in his life. We went up to Bible study and the new missionaries were there. In our district we have 2 new missionaries. Elder Sorenson and Sister Porter. Elder Child my MTC comp is also training so I think my time is soon to come when I train and I won't be district monkey anymore. 

Friday

Just finding all day. We had a spontaneous lesson at the end and they offered food. So we got dinner. However they could be trying to bash so we are taking this very cautiously. 

Saturday

On exchange down in Sunnyside. I got to back to the good old streets of Sunnyside. But before that we had a Stake missionary breakfast. Elder Child drove all the way from his area to pick us up. They are using so many miles because of this. We just had a few visits to make in Sunnyside. On the way back a glass shard went into Elder Sorensens tire and caused a leak. None of us had a patch kit or spare tire so I just pumped up the tire and we rode, it went flat and then I pumped it up again. We repeated that until we got back to the apartment at about 9:20 pm. Such a fun day. 

Sunday

Biking to church. It was kinda fun having 5 Elders biking together to church. We unfortunately didn't have any friends show up. There was just so much going on in the day. We didn't get out until about 5. We went to have 2 lessons but one canceled and the other rescheduled for tomorrow. We ended up helping a family move stuff into an apartment. They had seen missionaries before over in Katy and we just added onto their good experience with the Church. He said that he was given a Book of Mormon so I just hope that he might go back to it and read some more. Wasn't all bad this day. 

Wow I need to remember to write the email each week so I don't have to type up 2 weeks worth. I hope you are all doing well! I am coming up to 11 months soon. That's crazy! It's kinda weird that this time last year I was spotlighting Newsies and Hale Center and now I am out here in Houston doing the work of the Lord! For those of my friends who just graduated this last summer or will be graduating next year, if you are debating going on a mission, I plead to you that you do. This is the greatest work anywhere in the world and we are in the last days. We are just fulfilling prophecy that the Gospel will go to all the world. I love you all! Have a great week!

 

 7/15/2024

Ok ok ok…. Sorry that there hasn't been an email in the past 2 weeks. Things got crazy over here. First, P-Day was moved to the 4th of July and then on Monday the 8th as many of you probably know, Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Houston. Now for a super long email to cover the most important things starting all the way back on June 24th!

Monday June 24th.

Simple day. We went to Subway and I was going to try the foot-long cookie but they were all out which was super unfortunate. I'll have to try it another day. We started playing this game with the other Elders called Dominion. For those at home, I will be playing this card game with you when I get back. It is a deck building game so that's fun. After Pday time we had a lesson and that is about it. These friends we are teaching are super open and receptive to learning more. It is really cool. 

Tuesday June 25th

We kinda went everywhere in our area. We went to the east side of our area and then took the train over towards the middle. At some point we went to visit a referral who was at a behavioral hospital. How he was able to put in the referral is beyond my knowledge because the only thing he could use was a land-line phone on the wall of the area he was in. Security was super tight and we were just barely allowed to bring in a Book of Mormon. This guy was being taught by the missionaries a lot back in Idaho so he already knew what we taught. He just really wanted his own Book of Mormon again so he could read it. Actually super cool thing that happened. After that we made our way to the south of our area. After our time down there we made our way through Hermann park to Lorenzo who gave each of us a full rotisserie chicken. What a day.!

Wednesday June 26th

Super fun District Council. Elder Babcock was asked to give a training and then it turned out he was on exchange outside the area so Elder Cook gave one of his super fun last minute trainings. By the end we were all saying we need to S.L.A.P. our friends. However I can't remember what it stands for. This is also the day that the Richards took flight and they left the Mission chat. It was super sad to see but we are also so excited to have the Garns here in the THSM. 

Thursday June 27th

It was a super good day. Except I got my first flat tire but that was quickly fixed with a patch. We were still in the apartment so that's all good. We met someone named Mattie and invited her to Bible study that night and she brought her friend too. It was soooooo cool!

Friday June 28th

I was among the first to have an interview with President Garn. He is super awesome! He is also a little shorter than I thought but that won't stop him! He has got enthusiasm for this great work. I told him that it would be cool if I could work towards going Spanish so I need to really practice Spanish. That night we got kicked out of an apartment but to be fair Google Maps does say it's student housing. 

Saturday June 29th

Right as we were about to go out I noticed my bike tire was flat. The patch that we put on had a small leak so we fixed that but by that point it was too late to go out on the bikes so we hitched a ride with the other Elders to the Baptism of their friend Kiera. That evening we met a guy named London who was kinda new to the area but he said he has lived in the area before. He was super chill. I found a sign that says “No Dumping Allowed” and put it on the wall next to the toilet just to decorate the apartment a little more. 

Sunday June 30th

We got 2 friends to church. Stephenie and Troy. Stephanie is almost ready for her own Baptism so that is really cool. Troy made so many member connections. After church we had a Linger Longer and Troy talked to so many different members. It was super cool. 

Monday July 1st

Instead of having P-Day today it was moved to Thursday the 4th so it became a normal P-Day. About this point I started watched on my weather app and Google Maps a storm starting to hit the Caribbean. Hurricane Beryl I just kinda felt like it would come this way. We had to fix Elder Andersons bike tire and we met 3 new people. Really cool and it was also getting so hot. Humidity is so annoying. 

Tuesday July 2nd

We were going to do a stop teaching contact if this person didn't answer the door and then they answered the door! It's almost like they only answer when you are about to stop teaching. Any other missionaries get that? We later started talking to a guy at a park just about life. It was a really nice conversation. We talked for about 30 minutes. I really hope we run into him again. 

Wednesday July 3rd

We had a nice district council and then went to Hermann Park to meet up with a friend. That park is actually super cool! If you visit Houston I will recommend going there and exploring it. There is so much there! It's like Central Park in NYC but in Houston and not as big but still so cool! Our friend Mattie came to Bible study again and brought someone else and her friend from last time joined on the Facebook live for it. They have that fire to learn more and it is awesome!

Thursday July 4th

P-DAY FINALLY!!! Going a week and a half without P-Day is super weird. We went to Sugar Land for an activity with half the mission. It was a bunch of outdoor games in the heat of Houston which is all part of the experience. They only had us do 2 hours of work at any time of the day we chose so we got that done right after the activity so we could have our evening. Then we played a few games of Dominion with the Elders. I didn't get to watch any fireworks because they wanted us in our apartments at 8 and the sun went down around 8:30. I did hear the fireworks though as I tried to fall asleep. 

Friday July 5th

We got to use the car for half the day which was super nice. Our recent Convert Dennis really wants to go to the Temple and so we are really trying help him get the things he needs for that. After that we had Olive Garden provided by Rosenda our amazing member. We were getting ready to go do some finding when a random member texted us who is new to the ward. He just wanted to meet us and get to know us. He is super cool and it really made his day that we stopped by. 

Saturday July 6th

Elder Anderson had a zoom meeting and we had a media call so we were in the apartment for a long time. Then it started to rain really hard so we couldn't go out on the bikes. We were stuck. We had a lesson with a friend but the member came in clutch. Brother Peterson came and picked us up for the lesson. After the lesson the rain had stopped thankfully and we were able to get out for the rest of the evening on bikes. 

Sunday July 7th

It got super stormy once church started but that was short lived. However, Hurricane was suppose to make landfall tonight. It was slowly traveling north along the coast. I could barely see the top of it on my weather app radar. We chilled that night with the other Elders before we had to go to bed. 

Monday July 8th

HURRICANE BERYL

P-Day just kinda said Adiós. I woke up a little early to some super strong wind. This is about 6:15 so the storm has been here for about 6 hours. We quickly got ready for the day and made our way across the parking lot to the other Elders apartment. We planned to wait out Hurricane Beryl by playing Dominion. The power was flickering and eventually went out around 10-11. I just put everything into the freezer to keep cold for as long as I could. About 12-1 the storm had passed and the sun started to come out. Because we lost power we also lost the cell towers so our connection was little to none. When we could get connection we got the text that said to stay inside our apartments and to not go outside and we would receive further directions at 6. The time came and we didn't get any directions. At about 8 they said that if you don't have power, reach out to members and find a place to stay with power. We finally went outside and saw the damage done. There were a bunch of panels ripped off the apartment buildings and so many trees fallen down. We never were able to find a member for the first night so the APs had us go all the way to their apartment complex and stay in an empty apartment with 3 other Elders. We had 7 of us in there with only 2 beds. That ended our Monday here in Houston. 

Tuesday July 9th

Zone Conference. Yep the day after a Hurricane. We got up and had about 15 missionaries in the apartment gym. Then the Vietnamese Elders made us all breakfast. Zone Conference was super cool. It was our first one with President and Sister Garn. They care so much about this work and I am so stoked for it! Afterward we went back to apartment to see if it had power. It still didn't have power so we continued to reach out to members. Eventually the Norman's responded and invited us. We went straight there. They live in a high rise that looks over Midtown and over to Greater Uptown. It was such a cool view. I felt like I was on vacation staying in a Hotel.

Wednesday July 10th

Morning was great. We got to work out in the Norman's apartment gym which had a nice view of Downtown and I-45. We did service all day. There was a service setup by the city to hand out water and Ice. I was just with the Ice the whole time. We finished off the day with all 4 of us at Lorenzo to eat. 

Thursday July 11th

We went back to do more of the service and we waited for 2.5 hours and the trucks never came so it was canceled. What a great use of time. It started to rain but someone gave us some leftover pizza so that was epic. We then biked our way up to 4th ward to visit with a friend and Elder Anderson got another flat tire. The rain continued on and off. 

Friday July 12th

We were in a lot doing our planning. Daily, weekly, Studies, all that great stuff. We were just about to get going out for the day and we get a call that they are doing more of that service with the water and Ice and the other Elders dragged us into that so we went there. That ended up going for 4.5 hours. I was inside the ice trailer the whole time which was super nice because it was really hot outside so I was basically in AC. We got through 5 pallets of Ice which was crazy. I can imagine that each pallet holds around 100 bags of ice 20 pounds each. That took up the rest of the day. 

Saturday July 13th

My first normal work day since before Hurricane Beryl. We were going to do 2 different services though that would've taken all day but both got canceled for us. The trains started to run again. We met with our friend Charlotte who met with missionaries a really long time ago. She already had her own copy of the BOM. Later in the evening while knocking doors we met a guy who sounded like he may have met missionaries before and just kinda bashed but was nice about it. It was a chill evening. 

Sunday July 14th

Church was super good! Charlotte came along with our other friend Kaushik! He just got back from a trip to Utah and he was able to visit my family back on the 4th. He made it back just in time for the Hurricane. After church we had a lesson with another friend Marlie. She is super nice and open to learning more. We just need to take it nice and slow. 

There we go, all caught up. Again sorry about the super long gap with no emails. I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did typing it. Now I mest go to bed because I am indeed very tired. Also all pictures I have thus far are on the Google Photos. 

Goodnight.