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

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.

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Elder Dylan Young