2/24/14
Life is grand.
Life is grand.
I can finally put up pictures and stuff. First you see some pictures from my last few days in Weslaco, but I guess the good thing about serving stateside is how easy it is to go back and visit later, so that's cool.
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| My not-goodbye cake from some recent converts back in Weslaco. They got baptized the week before I got there, and after 7 months the people kinda grow on you. I didn't cry though. At least, not in front of them. Tuesday morning eating the cake and waiting for our ride to get here, I was kind of a pathetic sight. |
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| Bishop Guzman's Family |
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| The Valdez Family |
We're having a blast here in La Joya. My companion Elder Pope is the one in shorts. He's sitting on the bed with Elder Merril and Elder Shumway's in the other picture. We'll see if I ever get a nice picture of us together.
We went to the Pulga this week. It's just a massive Mexican flea market, full of bootlegged DVDs and used clothes. I even saw an original NES. I bought a few trinkets from some old American guy who told us "The Mormons have been trying to get me for years." Then Elder Pope bought a 15 dollar accordion to add to our missionary band. It's awesome.
I can never stress enough how bizarre south Texas can be. One of the members has a peahen. Like a girl peacock. She was just chillin' on the gazebo.
We have some awesome members here in La Joya. Like Adrian; he's a recent convert from a few months back. He has many struggles but his testimony is so incredibly strong about the Book of Mormon and about God's power and how everything will be alright if we trust in him. Even if he thinks my name is "Mr. Lee."
I can't believe you haven't been skiing yet. You don't even have Sports Outlet any more. But I guess it's good that everyone's staying busy. And Big White will be awesome, of course. Married with kids??? That's still ages away. :P
Biggest news: baptism!!! This is Sergio. He's great! Getting him baptized was a bit of a challenge, since his Catholic mom was kinda against it. But we shared the story of Shadrac, Meshac and Abed-nego to help him see the importance of doing the right no matter who says otherwise. This was Elder Pope's first time baptizing, and the font wasn't full enough so he had to do it going forward. It was silly.
Everything's good with the car. We barely scratched it, but we still have to take it in tomorrow and have a couple days on the bikes. That'll be fun.
A crazy thing: we have a member that loves to make sure we're fed. We're not supposed to take money, but he won't take no for an answer.
I remember reading somewhere about how the Lord won't give the missionaries His prepared sons and daughters if He knows the ward isn't ready to bring them in to the fold. So that's something that's definitely true.
Another cool thing that our ward mission leader talked about in Gospel Principles is how some day we're going to be standing before God to be judged. We'll be looking into a mirror with a reflection of our whole lives and who we've become. The question will be: will our reflection match that of the Savior? It's cool to think about, and really gives "What Would Jesus Do?" a whole deeper meaning.
I actually didn't have as many letters today. I'll definitely try to write something to send over, if Elder Shumway doesn't just make me play Magic: The Gathering with him the whole P-day.
I can't believe Sister Shepherd's heading over to Colbert! Take good care of her. I know what you need to tell her. Look up Celine Dion's "All Coming Back to Me" and just start singing her the chorus one day. It'll be hilarious. Get a ton of work done with her! Just have Cassidy look up a bunch of addresses in those old Northwood directories and start sending the missionaries over to everyone she knows (even if most of Colbert ward didn't go to Northwood.)
I love you all so much!!! Have a great week!!!
~Elder Dylan Young
