August 11, 2014: Brownsville

August 11, 2014

Brownsville is kinda like the bottom of the ocean. . .

There are a lot of bizarre life forms and most of it has yet to be discovered.

It's nice living again with other missionaries who have a car, we're no longer a pain in the but for people to come pick up.

We found a lot of cool people this week who were interested in the message of the Restoration, but as it happens fairly often here in south Texas, we could never find any of them again. That's kind of where we are right now, but it's ok! The good news is we hopefully gave them a good impression of the Church and what we believe.

A super cool family sat us down and fed us hamburgers and ice cream. We talked for a long time. Unfortunately, they didn't really want to listen to the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. They just talked about... well, pretty much everything other than that. But some day. :)

On Saturday I went and worked with Elder Berger in his area. We visited a man they call "Mushroom Man" because he carves wooden mushrooms for the missionaries. He's an old, German, Lutheran guy who somehow found his way down here. I was so used to talking to old, Mexican, Catholic people I was kind of off my game. Too bad I didn't get a mushroom though. :(

I found "Me Drive"

The Spiritual thought for the week is gonna be in 1st Nephi chapter 15. It goes like this:

 7 And they said: Behold, we cannot understand the words which our father hath spoken concerning the natural branches of the olive tree, and also concerning the Gentiles. 

 8 And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord? 
 9 And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us. 
 10 Behold, I said unto them: How is it that ye do not keep the commandments of the Lord? How is it that ye will perish, because of the hardness of your hearts? 
 11 Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.

Sometimes we feel hopeless like we don't know what we're doing or don't understand what's going on. It's so easy to forget that the Lord will teach us all things. He wants us to understand all things. If we don't receive instant revelation, it's because God knows we already know what to do, and he wants us to trust ourselves.

As always, I wish you all from the deepest recesses of my heart the best of weeks.
Con mucho amor,
Elder Dylan Young.


P.S: An actual conversation I had:
Me - "En que le ha ayudado Dios en su vida?"
Lady - "Catolicos."
(Translate it. It's hilarious.)
I know my accent's not the best, but you could pay at least a little bit more attention, por favor. :/