Week 15 in Plano, Texas

     Well this week was a bit slower. We had five appointments bail out on us on Tuesday and Wednesday. We were able to reschedule one of them for last week but the other four we couldn't till this week.
     Let me tell you about a lesson we had with a recent convert family. It is the J**** family. We bumped into him a week ago and he had moved from another house that was in the ward. He hadn't had missionaries over for a while so we set an appointment for last Friday. The family has a mom a dad and three children. The oldest is a boy about 10 then a girl at 7 and another girl at 4 or 5. We taught them about how Satan makes bad seem good. (so back story. Last Monday we went to an Asian market and I bought two bags of candy. One bag was good and the other was just disgusting. It tasted like the Mexican candy.) Anyway I brought that bag and five of the alpine chocolate bars and gave them a decision to have one small chocolate or to have an entire bag of candy. The bag was really shiny and kind of looked like shiny tootsie rolls.  At the end of the lesson we made them decide which they wanted. Everyone wanted the chocolate except for the little four year old. She wanted the bag. So we handed out the candy and she was so proud that she had a bag of candy and everyone else just got a little candy until she put it into her mouth. Then her face just dropped. The dad was even teasing her making her keep it into her mouth. Her eyes got teary and she was about to cry. It was so cute and funny. Finally the mom let her throw it away. The family really liked the lesson.
     Well that was my week I hope that you all had a great week yourselves.
Love ya.

They dressed up like Book of Mormon characters and read the scriptures.

Night time entertainment (I don't know what it is of really :))

Snow!  1/4 inch of real snow, not ice.

Week 14 in Plano, TX

      This week was really awesome. The awesomeness really started on Wednesday. We contacted a referral named B*** M****. This guy is so cool. He is from Z***** and he really wants to know more about the church. He is so good, he referred himself. Then after we met him we got a call and it was another referral from one of our members. They had already set up a time for us to meet them that night. It was lucky we had that time for tracting and were able to change and teach her. Her name is J**** H*****. That lesson also went great.
     Then on Friday the weather got in the 70's. Then it got in the 30's on Saturday.
     But then we had this fireside to top off the week. The speaker was named Read Moon. He is a collector of rare books. He first brought out two bibles that were 500-600 years old. Then he showed us a first print of Common Sense. Then he brought out an original Book of Mormon first print. That was owned by........ guess who..............Joseph Smith. His name was in the front cover! Then he pulled out a thumb bible also owned by Joseph Smith. A little note, he said that there were only 2 Book of Mormons that we know of that Joseph owned and this was one of them and he said that he has the only thumb bible owned by him. Then he brought out a Doctrine and Covenants owned by Heber J Grant. And of all these books I was able to hold and look through both bibles and the Book of Mormon. I held Joseph Smith's Book of Mormon! This guy was so cool. One of the other books that he had, but didn't bring was King James's King James Bible. He said that King James had two and at one point he owned both of them. This was a really great week. My only regret was that I did not bring my camera to take any pictures. But other than that and the cold, this has got to be one of the best weeks of my life!

Week 13 in Plano, TX

Very short email this week. Wasn't too chatty today.

Well this week was transfers and now I am getting used to new missionaries that have moved in here. We have been working hard mostly knocking on doors. They cut our service hours so we had to cut back a lot. The weather is still crazy and thankfully we didn't get any snow. We did hear about what happened down south. Still haven't been able to see the Christmas family. We are starting a new program in the ward to help the ward members be better missionaries. By helping them make mission plans. 
Well I hope that you guys had a great week. 

Week 12 in Plano, Texas

No transfers for Jesse this time around.  He is happy to stay in Plano and to stay with Elder D****. Short email this week.  Glad I was able to chat back and forth with him or we wouldn't have gotten much of a report at all this week :)  They haven't been able to get back with any of the previous families, but all is well in Plano.

I had an awesome birthday. One of the best parts was the dinner. We ate with a family named the H****. They took us to an all you can eat restaurant. There I had steak, chicken, and I tried liver. that was a mistake. Big mistake. Still can't believe that I am 19. Elder D**** yesterday told a person that we knocked into that I was 18, and I had to correct him. If the rule had not changed I would just now be getting my mission call or just leaving. It is weird to think about. Thank you for the package. I really loved the car show and the calender. Well here are some pictures of my night.

Here is how to put 19 candles on one ding dong. 

Step one put them in the ding dong.

Step two light. 

Step three has two parts. a. blow the candles out

                                         b. use fire extinguisher to put out fire started in room by dumb missionaries.

Luckily i didn't do step three part b and I didn't burn my fingers at all. Although I see that I was a bit stupid to put the burnt matches on a paper towel.

Step four eat.

I got Bode's toothpaste. I think that I will be good on toothpaste for a year!

I am staying with Elder Davis. It will be his fourth transfer here. We found out that his companion when he was in Henderson is still there. This is his 6th transfer there. It will be crazy if I stay here for 9 months or 6 transfers.

I hope that you are staying warm. I love you all.

Have a great week.

Every year we go to the car show for his birthday. This year we had to send the car show to him.  We sent him some of his favorite cars, Lotus.

How to put 19 candles in a Ding Dong:

Step 1 put them in the Ding Dong

Step 2 light

Step 3 blow out the candles

Step 4 Eat

Week 11 in Plano, Texas

 It is really hard to get investigators where Jesse is at.  They get real excited when they meet people that will allow them to come back and teach them.  Keep M****in your prayers this week that he will be receptive to the message Jesse and Elder D**** have for him.  Jesse is really happy where he is at.  Transfers happen next week.  He will find out on Saturday if he will stay in Plano or be transferred.  I hope he is able to stay a while :)  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers in Jesse's behalf.

Some really big things happened this week. it has been really exiting! this is my top 5 Friday list taking place on Monday. So I will go down the list from most importance to least importance.

1. I saw a bobcat. It was really weird because I thought that it was just one on the M**** cats until I noticed that is was bigger and had a little tail.  Its face was a bit different too. I saw it from inside. When I went outside to look at it it ran away.

2. My bike decided to break down this week. After we did service I got on my bike and started peddling and my bike decided to switch gears on me without me changing gears (the left gears, the ones that control the gears by my pedals.) It was stuck in first gear and I noticed that my wire was loose. So when I got home I tightened the wire and it still didn't change. Then the high gear lever fell off. Thirty minuets later I got it to change into second gear. Still couldn't put the lever back on so I decided to duck tape it on and hope that nothing else breaks.

3. Got into a bible bash with a Catholic lady. Her argument was genetics and the ancestry of Adam and Noah (i think that she believes that the flood didn't kill everyone).  She just wanted to keep going and going and it was going no where. So we just left.

4. I saw a squirrel 

5. I made a half court basketball shot today. I'm not that bad at basketball.

Oh ya we met a guy named M**** he is interested and we gave him a book of Mormon. He said that we could come back.  M**** is living with his parents. He is going to college or ending high school. He says that he is interested and he has a friend that is Mormon. We haven't met his parents.

I do have a funny story about a cat and running. Last night we just got home from a dinner appointment and we were packing to go out and tract and there was a knock at the door. No one was home so I answered it. It was the bishop and the stake president. As I open the door, the M***** cat (they have three cats, only one is supposed to stay inside the whole time.)  made a break and ran out the door. The bishop was looking for a guy named B****. (different story, B**** moved in with the M*****. His family is in the ward. They didn't say why, but my companion and I think it is just the mother bird kicking the 20 year old out of the house. He doesn't go to school and he doesn't want to serve a mission) anyway back to the story, I told them that he was not here and they left. So I ran out to get the cat and I chased that stupid thing around the house three or four times before I caught it.

We actually went to a barber shop for a haircut. The guy that did my hair was like 90 and he had shaky hands. Two days after the cut I looked closely in the mirror and my sideburns were really off. So I had Elder D*** fix it. I will just let him do it next time.

Well as you can see there is nothing that could have made my week more fun. I hope that you all had a wonderful week. Hope ya'll have a great week.

New haircut

Christmas 2013

Family History Center at the church where the missionaries go to email.

Week 10 in Plano, TX

 Always excited to receive pictures of Jesse!  He did tell us that he is letting Elder D**** cut his hair today.  Hopefully we will see the results next week :)

     Well this week wasn't all that exciting. Just up to normal stuff again. We only did 5 hours of service this week because of New Years and the temple trip. Oh ya I did get to go to the temple this week. The zone hit a goal of 24 contacts a day for two weeks and we got to go to the temple. yay:) We tried to see the Christmas Family (the family we found on Christmas) but they were not home. For New Years Eve the M***** had us over for games. So we played with them and the N**** family until 10:30. and that is when we had to go to bed. There were no fireworks. I didn't even notice that but now it seems really weird.  Then on New Years day, the Chinese missionaries had a baptism. That was cool to watch. Then on Friday my companion and I went on exchanges with the district leader and his companion. We do splits with our district leader. We do it for two main reasons, the first is for the district leader to see how the missionaries are doing, and the second reason is to see for yourself what other missionaries are doing to find/teach people. So we don't get stuck doing the same things over and over.
     I found out about BYU and Notre dame's games when I was tracting. We ran into a Catholic that talked to us for a bit. Not interested but told us about the games. He has three children that went to Notre Dame. 
     Brother M***** went to Michigan and that is why there is a banner at their house. He doesn't support them much any more because he says that they are too liberal (big topic in Texas). Sad I couldn't welcome in the new year but I needed the sleep.
     Well I have to go now have a great day. Don't get sick. I hope that you all had a wonderful new year.

Dinner

Out on splits

Jesse and Elder D**** out on splits

Week 9 in Plano, Texas

We were able to talk with Jesse for an hour and a half on Christmas Day!! It was great to see and hear him.  He had so much to tell us and actually expanded on the stories that that he has written below.  I will add the extra info in :)  Thank you all for making his first Christmas away a special day for him.  He is loving the area that he is in and his companion.

     Well I had an awesome Christmas. A Christmas miracle happened. We actually had people listen to us on Christmas and I got my first lesson with an investigator! (They had a goal to make 24 contats a day during the Christmas holiday.  They had knock many doors Christmas day.  These investagators didn't answer the door when Jesse knocked, but after a few mins got in their car and found the boys and asked them to come back to their house so they could hear their message.) We gave them a Book of Mormon and they said that they will read it. They did say we could come back in a couple of months after they read it. We will check up on them in a week and a half.
     Other then that it was a slow week. It is amazing how fast the spirit of Christmas leaves some people. Before Christmas they seemed so nice when they said we have a church and we know Jesus, now when they say it they seem so mad. oh well.
     The ward Christmas program was really good. There are a lot of really great singers here.
     Thank you for all the people who want to make me fat(add sarcasm) ( he has actually lost weight out in Texas.  Getting back down to his running weight without running). I am so grateful for all of the packages.
     I hope that you all had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

Some of Jesse's packages under his tree.  I love all the chips on the bookshelf.  Glad he is eating so healthy!

A Christmas Selfie

The M***** Family would put the Elder's Packages under the tree as they came to the house.