I Will Go and Do: January 2015

August 4, 2014: And on Garbage day, The Streets Smell Even Worse!

There's no such thing as a normal day in Brownsville. We moved out again and the new Sisters took our apartment, while we're staying with some other missionaries in our district. Hopefully we get to stay here somewhat permanently this time. This transfer is only five weeks long, though, instead of six, so no matter what my sense of homelessness and lack of belonging continues.

Speaking of which, a cool homeless guy named Leo showed up at church today. We hung out with him in the lobby for two hours instead of going to class while he waited to get to talk with bishop. He gave us lots of life advice, and we gave him lots of gospel advice. It was good times for all.

Here's our zone on the last p-day of the transfer. Good times.

What are those giant bubble things? That is bubble soccer. It's incredibly fun. And unbelievably exhausting. You basically run around carrying a surprisingly heavy personal oven in the south Texas sun for 15 minutes, slamming into each other as hard as you can.

We don't have any other major news to report this week. We managed to give a pamphlet to a Jehovah's Witness. That was exciting. A random family off the street gave us hamburgers and ice cream. That was sweet. Too bad we couldn't actually teach them (They're staying with their stubborn mother in law for the next few months.) We were teaching one dude and it was going pretty well, but then suddenly his mom called him in and he just walked away. No closure, no return appointment or anything. We were dumbfounded.

I did hear that over in La Joya, my last companion Elder Pope got trapped in someone's house while a shootout went down next door. The guy had some people hostage, two cops were shot, and they eventually had to bring in a tank to resolve the situation. They moved all of the missionaries out of the area after that (also the bishop really didn't like missionary work in general, which is a huge shame).

When crazy stuff and tragedies go down, the scriptures and the gospel give us hope.

As Christ said,

27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

And as Paul explained,

7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Sometimes it doesn't make sense how we could possible keep up a positive attitude when everything goes wrong. Sometimes it doesn't really make sense, but God truly brings peace to the hearts and minds of the true disciples of Jesus Christ. We don't understand everything now, and many things we won't understand till after this life. But we can trust in the Lord and believe that everything will be made right.

<33333

Elder Dylan Young

July 28, 2014: Sunrise, sunset. . . Sunrise, sunset

Another six weeks have come and gone. Admittedly, it seems like a lot longer than that, due to all of the crazy moves and changes. But this next transfer I'm sure will fly past I'm sure.

Here's our beautiful district, together for the last time

The good news is, I'm not getting transferred for once. Well, kind of. They're cutting our area in half and giving half of it to some Sister Missionaries. They also get our apartment, and we're moving in with some other Elders. Their apartment is like 8 miles away from our area, and there's no word yet on us getting a car, so we have a bit of a commute on the bikes. But it's all good! Even if the Sisters are getting all of our favorite members, the Lord knows what he's doing. We'll just have to find some new even more favorite-est members to bring to church.

There's not too much to report. On Friday we had a ward Family Home Evening and we played lots of silly minute-to-win-it games.

On Sunday I gave a talk about suggestions and ways that we can all as members reach out to help others come unto Christ. Every member a missionary, right?

Spiritual thought: I was skimming through some Ensign magazines looking for cool pictures to put on our daily planners when I found this sweet quote:

If your premortal self could send you a letter, it would probably say something like this: "Dear self, please remember that your greatest desire is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ."

Do we understand who we are? And do we understand who we can become? I know for sure that each and every one of us really has "divine potential." We each chose to come to earth to follow God. So, if you want to feel real, eternal happiness, just do that. Follow him. Be happy. :)

I love you all so very very much.

<3 Elder Dylan J. Young

Here we find a peacock in it's natural habitat: Some Mexican's back yard.

July 21, 2014: Life Is Just A Bowl of Chariots

It's true.

Another week comes and goes. We definitely saw a lot of tender mercies from the Lord, all of which really helped remind us of how awesome it is to be a missionary.

First of all, we've been teaching the Martinez family this week and they're super awesome. The teenage kids are just eating up the pamphlets and the Book of Mormon and everything, they love it and understand it super well and have so many great questions I can barely answer them quickly enough. They couldn't come to church this week but they're all super excited.

We had a bunch of dinners with members fall through this week, which was kind of a bummer. After we had both dinners (there's a reason we get so fat down here) fall through on us on Thursday, we decided we deserved some tacos. Good thing there's a great taco shop across from our apartment. It turns out our taco trip was inspired, too, because as we were going back up the stairs with our dinner a guy pulled in to the parking lot and waved us down. He told us he learned from a bunch of different religions while he was in jail and was really confused and wanted someone to help him know which one was right. Good thing that's our job!

On Wednesday during Spanish study, I suddenly noticed that our doorknob had been rattling for a while. I went over and peeked through the blinds, and to my surprise their was an old Mexican lady trying to unlock our door. I didn't know what to do. She hadn't knocked or anything. I went to put on a less silly tie (I study in an outer space tie) but by the time I got back she was gone. It's a mystery.........................

Spiritual thought: I just finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish, and assuming I understood it all correctly, the Libro de Mormon is just as true as the Book of Mormon. How do I know? By following the instructions in Moroni 10, of course:

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

That's all we ask anybody to do. And if they're willing to receive this things, just give them a chance, then God will tell them it's true by the power of the Holy Ghost. And once you know these things are true, I promise life just gets better and better from then on out. :)

Les quiero mucho, mis amigos.

<3 Elder Young

July 14, 2014: Settling In

Another crazy week, but it's all good.

Monday was pretty cool, first we dug through like a dozen nasty warehouses ("bodegas") looking for nice ties. We got a few.

Tuesday was district meeting, followed by a zone blitz-krieg over at Port Isabelle. There are some great and spacious building round those parts, let me tell ya. Here's a bunch of us standing next to a light house:

Just behind the lighthouse is the 3-mile bridge leading to South Padre Island, one of the most infamous spring break party spots in the US. Needless to say we're not allowed over there under any circumstances.

So then on Wednesday we moved out of our apartment AGAIN so that some senior missionary couples from the office could come down and do some renovating. They were told to make sure it was "ready for Sisters," so it's entirely possible that in 2 weeks I'll be transferred again and the area will be "pink washed." It's all good though. We stayed with Elder Foremaster and Elder Weeks, who are way cool.

We also blitzed Los Ebanos, the area that Elder Sessions and I started in a month ago. That was super weird.

On Thursday we learned that no matter when or what day you do weekly planning on, nobody will answer the phone. It's like they know.

On Friday we had interviews with Presidente Maluenda. He's a boss. I love how he just inspires people to be better, you know? I hope I can inspire people to be better. That is what I try to do every single day, after all.

We're slowly getting to know the members and slowly starting to get fed more. Elder Garcia and Elder Paulsen are still stealing their old members from us for meal appointments, but at least they usually invite us. Usually.

We moved back into our apartment yesterday and it's all pretty and reorganized. There's so much room for activities! And it only kind of smells like poop now, no longer overwhelmingly so.

That's about it.

Spiritual thought: Alma 8. How do we deal with disappointments? Do we continue working hard and keep a good attitude even when things look hopeless? What can we do to receive strength from the Lord?

All right, y'all. Love ya. Peace.

~Elder Dylan Young

P.S: Rumors confirmed. The iPads are en route.

P.P.S: I made a dinosaur out of my leather-man and named him Albert.

July 6, 2014: Homeless

So my time in McAllen came to an end on Wednesday. I'll miss these guys.

I finally got to go back to the Brownsville house, sleep in my bed, see all of my ties, work in my own area... it was quite a relief. Even if on Thursday we did some kind of zone-wide crazy exchange, and Elder Berger took Elder Anderson's spot. He's cool though, we had fun.

On Friday, the trio was finally back together! Elder Anderson, Elder Sessions and I, just like the good old days. And just in time to celebrate American Independence Day. Everything was going swell, until we got a call at like 1:30. Elder Sessions had to pack up so he could go move into another area here in Brownsville with a missionary who was just getting back to Texas because he tore his ACL a few months back. So they were going to go "whitewash" the area. It seems our trio wasn't meant to last.

The day carried on fairly normally. We weren't allowed to work past 6:30 since things get crazy-go-nuts out on the streets during holidays. So, we all went to a church party for a ward that wasn't even ours (well, it was actually Elder Session's future ward.) They had karaoke and stuff.

In zone meeting on Saturday we learned that we have to be like Sea Bears, and go up and attack (talk to) everyone who's not standing in an anti-sea bear circle. Well, we should talk to them, too, but really the point is it doesn't matter how people seem or what they're doing, everyone needs to hear about the gospel.

Then we got another call; Elder Sessions AND I were leaving for the new area, the elder coming in would take our spot. So with this and the whole McAllen debacle, all and all I got about a week the area I was assigned to 3 weeks ago. But it's all good. We're back to riding bikes everyday, which I'm actually a fan of. Elder Sessions not so much. Even though neither of us have any idea what we're doing, that's not gonna slow us down. Well, maybe a little (especially if we get lost), but it's not gonna phase us, ya know?

We moved into the old apartment Saturday night. It's not too bad but it smells like poop. We'll try to fix that. Church was good, even though we had no idea who lives in our area, but we managed to find a couple of them and set up some dinners. Dinners are nice.

Here's our fridge as of right now:

We'll work on that too.

And as if that wasn't enough, we just found out that they'll be doing renovations on the apartment Thursday and Friday so we'll have to move out for a little bit. I don't even know where they'll put us. It's okay, as long as I have my little bag tied to a stick with me, I don't even need a home.

That's about all to report right now. I'm exhausted, a little nervous, but mostly pumped to explore this whole new world ahead of us.

Love y'all, dawgs.

~Elder Dylan Young

June 30, 2014: En El Pueblo De Sion

June 30, 2014: En El Pueblo De Sion

is the name of the song we sing every Monday morning. I don't know why, we just do.

So I'm still in McAllen with Elder Pyrah and Elder Munoz, although it looks like I'll be heading back down to Brownsville on Wednesday. I've been here longer than I was there. I even get to be part of the zone shirts, so that'll be cool. We're getting World Cup Jerseys because, well, it's the world cup. Mexico already is out, though, (so we've heard), so everybody is pretty bummed out.

Here we are being thugs

On Wednesday, I drove down to the Brownsville/Harlingen zone conference with one of the office Elders, and came back right after. I had just had zone conference in Mission before the transfers happened, but it was pretty cool getting an extra one. I even sang in a quartet with about 30 seconds warning, it was great.

So the other day there was this little set of like 4 steps going up to this trailer. We were helping Elder Munoz get down, when one of the steps broke and he fell on his face in the mud. It was the saddest, funniest thing I've ever seen. Thankfully, his bad leg wasn't hurt at all, but his other one is now sore. He doesn't do steps any more.

All in all, things have been going great here in McAllen. I almost got to be here for the baptism of a cool kid name Emmanuel, but we had to push it back until next week. :( He's a cool kid alright. He calls the people we visit our "patients." If that's not cool I don't know what is. Plus his family made us a bunch of fajitas and it was flipping delicious.)

There's this lady in the ward who doesn't even live in our area who's been giving us food basically every day, since I guess she thinks that since Elder Munoz can't work we're unable to feed ourselves. So. Many. Leftovers.

The McAllen chapel has a door that confuses me:

I bet Narnia's behind it.

Spiritual thought: Earth Wind and Fire. With earth, wind and fire, you can do anything. Earth is your strong foundation, your testimony and your knowledge. Wind is your faith and prayers, the power of God carrying you skyward. And then you need fire to go out and make it happen, not taking any excuses and going hard. The spiritual thought would've been more relevant if it were September, but that's okay.

I love you all like nobody's business. Take care y'all.

~Elder Dylan Young

June 23, 2013: Crazy Times

June 23, 2013

Crazy, crazy, crazy times.

So on Monday we made a music video as a zone to "Oh Come All Ye Faithful." It was legit. Then Bishop's wife made ramen sandwiches for all the missionaries and they were actually delicious.

Tuesday came and it was time to say goodbye to La Joya. I drove the Zone Leader's awesome truck all the way down to Brownsville. Our district down here is called "the dirty south" because in Southmost's area we go as far south as the mission lets us. I'm in Los Ebanos, which is an awesome place from what I've seen so far. I'm working in a trio, with Elder "Big Andy" Andersen who was about 6 months left and Elder "Seshy" Sessions who has about 6 months in, so I'm right in the middle. Elder Andersen can't bike because of health problems so we don't take bike days, just drive and walk, despite the area definitely being smaller than my first area we had to bike in. We live in a house that a recent convert rents to the mission, and the zone leaders Elder Garcia and Elder Paulsen live with us. They're goof balls.

I somehow haven't eaten a taco in over a week. Not that Brownsville is any less Mexican than La Joya, but all of the members who fed us this week had stuff come up and couldn't cook. So lots of pizza and burgers. And speaking of food, Elder Garcia scheduled 6 meal appointments in a row on Friday. SIX. He's an animal. So Elder Paulsen made me go on an exchange for three of them. But then we were running late and by the time he joined us we were only on our way to first dinner.

Sunday was good, I went to the English ward which was neato. There was a baptism after, and out of nowhere, my MTC companion's older brother showed up to watch with like 4 of his buddies who are down here working in McAllen. Apparently they got to eat out together one time, but "just one time" as President Maluenda put it.

Now things get really weird. Sunday afternoon, I get a call saying to pack up enough stuff for a week, I'm going to go work with the Zone Leaders in McAllen, Elder Pyrah and Elder Munoz. Background story; Elder Pyrah backed into Elder Munoz's leg with the truck, and he just yesterday got out of the hospital, so he'll be in and out of the mission office, switching between resting and working with us until he gets more better. I always had a feeling I'd be working in the McAllen Zone again, but not like this.

The good news is, I found a Schlotzky's Delli here in McAllen, so we'll be eating there soon.

Here's the La Joya gang before I left, wearing our La Joya ties.

And here's the Brownsville house celebrating Elder Session's birthday.

I love you all so much. Stay classy.

<3 ~Elder Dylan Young

I TOLD you the music video was legit!

June 16, 2014: Where in World is Carmen San Diego?

June 16, 2014

I haven't seen her around here anywhere.

The transfer calls came as a surprise: I'll be leaving on Tuesday, and Elder Pope will have been here for at least 7 months by the time he goes! We were all expecting the exact opposite. These 4 1/2 months have flown by so fast, but I guess time flies when you're having fun.

There are no Elders coming in this time, only lady missionaries. So that's neat. They're slowly taking over the mission.

Last week on p-day we played silly games, like Signs and this one where there's one less bouncy ball than there are people and we all have to go catch one in the gym.

We found a dead bat on our car on Monday. It was gross. We think it came out of the car wash or something. So we left it there for a while so we could show the other missionaries (it's not there any more).

Elder Pope bought a pogo-stick for morning exercise. Here he is being silly.

While biking home one night, we saw the border patrol camera blimp silhouetted against the full moon super awesomely. Too bad none of the pictures turned out. But it was a nice reminder that they're constantly watching.

We went to pick up our car from the shop, and picked up some ties on the way. Elder Shumway got pulled over for speeding, but got off with a warning. Sometimes it's nice to be a missionary. (Just kidding. It's always nice.)

We got Twinkies decorated like little minion-missionaries. Here we are being silly.

And here we have El Santisimo Papa, being majestic. (Pro-tip: "Papa" means "Pope" in Spanish!)

Yes, missionary work won't quite be the same without Elder Pope, but I know wherever I go, it'll be awesome.

We had zone conference this week and it was super duper great. President Maluenda talked all about the story of Christ walking on the water to his Apostles. Here it is if you want to read:

22 And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.

23 And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

24 But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.

25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.

26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.

27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

32 And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.

33 Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

Christ told his Apostles to be of good cheer, or in Spanish, "Tened ánimo," which is basically like "get pumped up." By looking to Christ, we can always find direction and courage. Even when life's challenges are blowing against us, Focusing our lives on Christ helps us press forward, and even to do the impossible. But, when we get distracted and stop looking toward the Savior, we start to sink. Thankfully He's always waiting to save us and help us along when we look to Him, but He knows we can do all things if we believe.

Well I love you all because you're all awesome. Peace out, Boy and/or Girl Scouts!

~Elder Young

June 9, 2014: Over the River and Through the Woods, to Grandmother's House We Go

June 9, 2014

Or, "Por encima del rio y por el monte, a la casa de Abuela vayamos." Get it? Since everyone's grandma down here lives in Mexico? Haha. Trust me, it's funny.

So let's see... On Monday the zone went to the park to hang out and barbecue. Aren't we a swell group of fellas?

The good news is, those hives I had are totally gone. I still don't know what caused them. I'll be getting some hilarious pictures of my face from the other Elders as soon as possible.

The bad news is, I dropped my ocarina and it shattered and I was super sad, but thankfully I crazy glued it back together and it sounds just as good as ever.

Thursday marked the grand jubilee of my missionary career. It's hard to believe I haven't had one of my mom's world famous homemade waffles for that long, but it's true. As tradition dictates, Elder Shumway (who also turned a year old) and I each burned a t-shirt. It was quite beautiful and symbolic, I'm sure.

I'm basing my entire email this week on the pictures I've taken. So other than that, it wasn't a super exciting week. We did get a cool picture of our odometer:

Enough silliness. This week I've been studying a lot about how crazy awesome the priesthood is. Here we are as missionaries, with the same mandate that Christ gave to his original Apostles:

18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

That supreme power over everything that he mentions? That's what he gave to his Apostles. And that same power and authority was restored by those Apostles nowadays, and it's that priesthood authority that we now have in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that God is real, He hears our prayers and watches over us. I also know that he has chosen us, His children, imperfect and weak as we are, to reach out and help those in need, and He has given us the means and the power to accomplish whatever He needs us to do, if we rely on Him and trust in Him completely. Miracles are real.

I love you all so much and I'm so thankful for how awesome you all are. Until next time:

Elder Dylan Young <3

PS: Remember how I said "enough silliness"? I lied.

June 2, 2014: Over the Hill

June 2, 2014

By the time I email you all again... I will have been a missionary for over a year. Wow. I feel so old. But I haven't kicked the bucket yet!

The bestest news: Florencio, who came to church last week, got baptized yesterday! Yay! It's astounding how quickly he turned his life around, especially considering how hard his old temptations attacked him throughout the week. He told us he was willing to quit his job and give up everything to follow Christ, and he means it. It was amazing how everything just fell into our hands; he contacted us, he came to Church on his own, he understood and excepted everything (and already knew a lot of it), the members moved their schedules around to help us out, and the Sister Missionaries set up the baptismal program for us since they had another investigator. Months of hard work with little visible success suddenly paid off in one crazy week. It's like I always say, "You have to go through a lot of needles to find a haystack."

Speaking of which, last night Elder Pope got stabbed by a needle in his butt.

On top of all that, this has been quite an adventurous week. So on Wednesday we got caught in this ridiculous storm. Huge thunder blast and torrential downpours for just a few hours. We're not supposed to drive through standing water, but that's hard when the entire city of Sullivan is flooded (except of course for the rapids, but we avoided those). So that was a blast.

We were about to go knock on a door on Thursday when I suddenly felt a ton of bugs pelting me left and right. I realized the entire driveway was covered with giant flying ants, all in piles and just going crazy. It was horrifying. So I know that only the male drones and the females that will become queens have wings, so if this wasn't some kind of giant ant war, it was definitely a massive heap of fornication.

Elder Pope is making a homemade tie out of denim. It has Spider Man on the inside.

On Friday I broke out in horrendous hives, starting on my arms and spreading... well, everywhere. It's just short of unbearable. I know you're all itching to know the details, but I think I'll forbear. We have no idea what's causing it, but hopefully this Benadryl will keep it under control. On Sunday it ended up on my face. I looked all leprous for a while, then my whole face swelled up and I looked like some kind of old man. It was weird.

Elder Pope and I had matching batman symbols on us; his a sunburn on his face, and mine a rashy splotch on my chest. None of the pictures turned out, though.

Sorry this was a long one. I know none of you read it all. If you did, congratulations! You're my favorite!

With much love and appreciation,

Elder Dylan "Sunspot" Young

A random Virgen Maria thing on a garage

Endless Dirt Roads

Real life dung beetles!

May 27, 2014: Miracles out the Wazoo

May 27, 2014

Hey, I don't care what the miracles come out of, miracles are miracles, right?

So first of all, Jesús finally came to church. FINALLY. He enjoyed all the lessons and made lots of friends, even though (or maybe because) he's a silly old man.

Elder Wasden and I gave talks during church. They went well, except Elder Wasden kept saying things like "en el nombre de tu Hijo, Jesucristo" to the congregation, which is like telling them "in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ" but, you know, in Spanish. He's so green and adorable.

Meanwhile, in the English ward... remember that guy we found at a gas station who told us he wanted to join the church? Probably not. Well he came on Sunday and blew everyone's mind. He somehow managed to come to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true by only studying it online. He's never even been to mormon.org, just like actual online stuff. There's not a lot of nice things about the Church online; even for an intrepid Internet explorer such as myself who grew up in the Church, it can be a little shaking. So that's incredible. Anyway, he wants to turn his life around and is willing to give up everything for God's help. So he'll be getting baptized ASAP.

So what has made the difference between this awesome exciting weeks and all the dull boring disappointing ones we've had? Basically we all figured out how to get rid of doubts and fears. We all know God wants everyone to come unto Him and feel real peace and joy. So what could possibly slow Him down? Obviously we have to do our part, do everything we can. But when things go wrong, just start looking for another way. When things look hopeless, just remember there's no such thing. (<-- That was good, I think I'll coin that).

So everyone remember that I love you and God loves you and it's a wonderful world.

~Elder Dylan "Sarsaparilla" Young

This sign says "Watchale con el Dog." If you weren't sure, that's neither English nor Spanish.

May 19, 2014: Press Forward Saints

May 19, 2014

We here be the roughest, toughest hombres this side of the Rio Grande, to paraphrase Yosemite Sam.

On Tuesday morning we drove all the way to the mission office in McAllen for a random, 4-zone meeting with President Maluenda. He basically brought us all together just to pump us up. He must have gotten a whole bunch of depressed emails the day before or something. But it was awesome, our ánimo and ganas were super high the whole week.

President also talked about how we shouldn't be tired. We need to exercise harder and get to bed on time so we can always be giving it our all. Elder Pope asked if naps were still okay, and he said no. Everyone was pretty mad at Elder Pope after that, including himself. But it's probably for the best. Maybe I'll finally work off my tortilla tummy.

After the meeting we went to Peter Piper pizza buffet. We aren't supposed to watch TV, but I couldn't help but notice this kid's show where some bug guy's house was running around with horse legs. Then it started to fly like a reindeer. And I thought Teletubbies was a weird show.

One of our zone leaders, Elder Lee, worked with us on Wednesday. That was cool. We talked to all kinds of crazy people and Santísima Muerte worshipers. Just another day in Texas.

We got out of a lesson the other day only to find that somebody had backed into the driver door. There's like a 3 inch dent in it. No biggie.

I spent Saturday night in the Zone Leader's apartment since I was going to the English ward the next day. I haven't been to church in English in a while: it was weird. I also haven't seen so many white people gathered together in one place (outside of missionary things, but we don't count. We're all like native Mexicans, basically.)

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT: I was having trouble one morning staying cheerful and optimistic despite President Maluenda's stirring words, when I accidentally read some of my favorite scriptures while flipping through a "How to Adjust to Missionary Life" packet:

29 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if they reject my words, and this part of my gospel and ministry, blessed are ye, for they can do no more unto you than unto me.

30 And even if they do unto you even as they have done unto me, blessed are ye, for you shall dwell with me in glory.

31 But if they reject not my words, which shall be established by the testimony which shall be given, blessed are they, and then shall ye have joy in the fruit of your labors.

32 Verily, verily, I say unto you, as I said unto my disciples, where two or three are gathered together in my name, as touching one thing, behold, there will I be in the midst of them—even so am I in the midst of you.

33 Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward.

34 Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

35 Behold, I do not condemn you; go your ways and sin no more; perform with soberness the work which I have commanded you.

36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.

37 Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet; be faithful, keep my commandments, and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. Amen. (D&C 6)

I don't even know what I could add to that.

So here's some silly pictures!