Week 27 in Farmers Branch, TX

Jesse was so sad to say good-bye to his companion.  They really worked hard and got along great!  He always gets a little nervous with new companions.  Hopefully they will work really good together continue on what Jesse and Elder S***** have been doing :)

So this week is transfers and my companion is leaving me:( He is going to be an assistant. A spanish assistant. He is so nervous for this. I will be getting Elder G*****.  He was my companions District leader in the MTC.

I wasn't even going to email today. All of the libraries are closed and we don't have a computer. Don't be surprised when you see a letter from me on Wednesday saying the exact same thing as my Email. 
Other than that not much happened. We did go chalking, but I forgot my camera. this time we did the gospel of Jesus Christ.   To answer your question on chalking I don't know how effective it is. It is more effective than doing nothing and just as effective as knocking doors.

Yesterday we were taking pictures and there is one sister missionary that has a minor in photography and she was taking the pictures. We hand her all our cameras and as she takes mine she stops and stares at it. I asked her is it old. she said ya. Then i said it is a Kodak. She replied yep. I said it is out of business and she replied for a while now. She also added it has 6.2 mega pixels. I said yes  it does. It was a great camera about 9 years ago. It was pretty funny conversation. She has a $600 camera. I wouldn't trust myself with that I know that I will break it.

Sorry this weeks letter was so lame, but nothing really happened. 

Love you all

Week 26 in Farmers Branch, Texas

We loved being able to Skype with Jesse on Mother's Day.  We were able to talk to him for four hours!!!  Time passed so quickly and he never ran out of things to talk about.  He has an amazing companion who is like a brother to him.  I am so grateful for his companion and the example he is to Jesse.  I have seen so many changes just in the past couple of months since he has been with him.  I don't think Jesse could be so lucky to keep his companion for the next transfer, but you never know :)

We received pictures from 2 different members this week.  One was from Stake Conference and the other was from a sister who wrote us a sweet letter and sent pictures she had taken.  There are such wonderful people down there in Texas that take good care of Jesse. 

Sorry i didn't write last week. We kind of skipped e-mailing to do more sports and shopping and stuff. Sorry. Not much has happened in the two weeks.  One of the more exiting parts was that we did something different besides knocking doors. We did something Called Chalking. If you have seen the amazing drawings of other missionaries...............ours looks nothing like that. I was able to do it three times. Once the Saturday before last and then again on Friday and lastly just last Sunday. I will send some pictures later.

Lastly, the most important part of the week was that we are going to have a baptism next month. It is the D***** Family.  We are only baptizing the mom and son. They are so solid. We taught them the word of wisdom and the Mother said that she will stop drinking coffee and hasn't drunk it since. They are amazing. I hope that I will be able to stay to see them get baptized. Transfer calls are this week and most likely I will stay because my companion has been here 6 months already, but who knows. Love you all and have a great week.

Week 25 in Farmers Branch, TX

This week has been one of those slower weeks. We have had alot of appointments fall through on us and we have been doing a ton of tracting. There are two pieces of good news to this we have been getting an excellent tan and we have found some really great people that seem interested. One of them we met, answered and said that he has seen missionaries once before and they left him with a Book of Mormon. Then he never saw them again. Then he moved down here and he has been reading the Book. We asked him if he thought that it was true and he said yes I know that it is true. We taught him the restoration and afterward he told us that it makes so much sense right now. Hopefully we can teach him more. He is moving again to an appartment in our area. We are really exited to get back in.

Other things that happened. Got chased by another dog on my bike. Got into a bash with a  pastor from a non-denominational church. We knocked at his door and he let us in and said "I finally get to meet legitimate Mormons. (red flag) Then we asked if we could offer a prayer and he said yes, then we asked him who would you like to say it? He replied to the father in the name of Jesus. We answered back yes but WHO would you like to OFFER the PRAYER? My companion or me. He told to offer it to the father in the name of Jesus and no other name. (another red flag) My companion offers the prayer and directly after he says amen the pastor (we didnt know he was a pastor at this point) starts offering a prayer. Here are a little bits of what he says. Jesus is our savior, open up these young mens eyes,  only through Jesus and not by any other name, please help them see their errors, please help them know that the bible says that if any man changes his gospel that god will dam them, and so on and  o forth for about 5 minuits.(Many red flags) at this point we just wanted to leave with the spirit and leave him with an invitation. The prayer ends and all he says from here on is that the bible says that if any man adds to the gosple God will curse him. (the actual scripture is if any man adds to this Book and any way it is not even talking about the bible.) then he says that Jonathan Smith is a false prophet because the bible says that there will be no more prophets (nowhere in the bible does it say that) and then he hit the repeat button a couple of times and he would not even let us talk. He also did not bring up any doctrine at all. All he said that we are following a false prophet and our eyes need to open. He did invite us to his church and then we left. There is no use talking to someone who won't hear.

The BEST for LAST. So there was a big presentation here in Dallas. It was put on by someone named Gladis Knight. Gladis and her quior were there and i got to go.They are only Grammy winners. it was so fun. the music was really good. She is set apart by the first presidency to give this presentation and afterward she shared her testimony about the Church of Jesus Christ. Her testimony is so powerful. I was so exited to go there. the Music was really great. Gladis has a really good voice.

Well that was my week. Have a great week.

Week 24 in Farmers Branch, TX

I heard you guys have had some crazy weather up there in Utah. On Saturday and Sunday they had a heavy tornado warning and a hail warning. Nothing Happened. There were more crazy lightning storms though. It is crazy because the storms are all in one cloud and the rest of the sky is clear.

Cool Story: last p-day as we were leaving the church after playing sports these two guys come to the church door. They looked just older than us. We opened the door and they told us that they have a girlfriend who is mormon and wanted to know about the church. We got exited and led them into a class room to help teach them. They had some questions and we started to explain the restoration to them. Then one of them just starts asking all sorts of questions. (Note: they both said that they don't know much about the Bible.) Then he just starts going off of scriptures and wants us to explain. Then he started asking about the three kingdoms and what they are and other stuff like that. We try to explain and he is hearing but not listening. We were there for two hours talking to this guy and his friend is just sitting in the chair next to him quietly trying to end the conversation. We had tried to end a couple of times but every time another question would be asked. After all that happened they wouldn't accept a book of mormon and we just left our number with them and they left. The one who wanted to leave, because he was apparently suposed to be babysitting, seemed pretty interested and actually listened. He was also the one who said "his friend is mormon and he wanted to learn more." the other guy just wanted to tear apart everything we taught.   We have two theories of why they were there. 1. we believe that one of them took a Mormon bashing class in college and wanted to show off to his friend. 2. the guy that really wanted to leave, actually had a friend and genuine intrest to learn more but his friend (who we believe took a Mormon Bashing class in College) didn't want him to be sucked into being a mormon and came to "speak the truth".

Anyway after all that we didn't have a ride. There were two other missionaries with us when they came in and those missionaries called someone to give all four of us a ride home (these other missionaries are english) but the ride came right at the beginning of us teaching these two guys and the other missionaries left! They left two spanish missionaries to teach a possible English investigator. So we had to find another ride. It is funny because my companion and I are the only missionaries in the district who ride a bike and our area is the farthest from the church.

We Did Have an investigator come to church yesterday. it was so exiting. we have been teaching them for forever. Elder S***** started teaching them in January. They are the D***** Family. We have a baptism date. We are hopeing that they get baptized.

P.S. yes, i have almost eaten all of the Easter candy. I am on the cookies you sent me.

Well that is it for the week. Hope that your week was great.

Pictures of a lightening storm

New Haircut

Week 23 in Farmers Branch, TX

     This week was a bit slow. Nothing exiting like climbing a tree, getting chased by dogs, or getting hit by a car happened this week, it was a bit lame. We have been in finding mode all this week. There are a ton of Hispanics, but no one wants to hear us. It gets frustrating at times. Luckily I have a great companion and we have fun while we are out. My companion is the District leader and Saturday we went on exchanges with the elders in Carrollton 3rd north, or in other words my old area. At first I was getting exited because it was a car area, but they told us that they have basically wasted all of their miles for the month and they have to walk. I couldn't ride a bike down there because the elder I was on exchanges with dislocated his shoulder and he was told by Sister D***** that he couldn't ride a bike so we walked. So anyone want to make a guess on how many miles I walked. (Hint: it is more then 20) I was wearing my Bornes and my feet were just killing me by the end of the day. I am still kind of sore today. I am debating on buying comfort insoles but I wanted to ask you if I should. I did give my feet an ice bath. It felt so good and I rolled them out on a golf ball. I believe that that helped it out a lot.  anyone want to guess how many lessons we had (Hint: we had 7 scheduled appointments) (Bonus Hint: the number you are looking for is less than 0) My feet hurt so much after that day, I could barley walk that night. Then Easter was a better day. We didn't have dinner scheduled because Hispanics don't celebrate Easter and this ward doesn't like to feed missionaries, but luckily as we were leaving we were stopped by the young men's president of the ward invited us over for dinner with their family. Very grateful for that. It was a great dinner and a great end to an Easter.
     So in my area we are in the top right corner and all of the work is in the bottom left corner. It is 5 miles from our apartment, but we have a bike and it is thousands of times better than walking. Every day it seems like we are coming home at 9:45 because an appointment ran late and we book it on the way home. I am getting some serious exercise. Still fat, but at least I am getting exercise. 
     We had to do a lesson at church as well. It is the second time we have had to teach here. The other elders have taught the other weeks and when I was here on my first transfer we taught three times there the same class.  I got your package but not Christy's. I will ask the other elders today if they have it and if they could check in the main office. Thank you for the package. we did notice that baseball football and soccer ball eggs. 
     We do cook at our apartment when we have time. Mostly it has been spaghetti or grilled ham and cheese. We have been wanting to make the thanksgiving meal you sent, but we don't have a casserole pan. 
Hope that you all had a great Easter and have a great week.

 love you    
 

Elder S******* with 2 investigators playing Mexican Train

Glad Elder S******* is keeping Jesse in line :)

Jesse's District

Jesse's Zone

Week 22 in Farmers Branch, TX

OK, so I know that you all are dying to hear what happened with the tree indecent so here it is:
 Two p-days ago we went to see a potential investigator in an apartment complex. She was not there so we were leaving to go to another potential appointment. This is like at 7. As we are leaving my companion sees some Mexican kids throwing a football around wrong so he wanted to show them how to throw it correctly. He threw it around a couple of times and then he said on the last throw he was going to throw it really high. It came down and no one caught it and the kids were begging him to throw it one more time so he did and as it was coming down it lands into  a tree and it got stuck. All the kids are mad at him and telling him that he needs to buy a new ball. He told them that he would get it down. Just then another Mexican kid comes around the corner with a soccer ball. My companion thought that he could hit the football out of the tree with that. and guess what? It gets stuck into the tree. Great and what does he do then? He tells me to go into the tree and shake.  I do it. The tree is a Y shape and was hard to get to that spot to shake the tree. So right now I am 15 feet above the ground shaking the tree. It still wont fall. At this point there are Hispanic moms setting up chairs on their balcony and laughing at us (mainly at me) and taking video of us and posting it on face book. Now at this point another Mexican kid comes with a baseball and Elder S*****, who played baseball and was on the all star Utah team, thought that he could throw it and hit the balls out. He goes onto the balcony of the apartment and starts throwing the ball.  He can't hit it and he is ten feet from the ball. Everyone is laughing at us.  15+ throws later you can guess what happens..... the baseball gets stuck. I am still in the tree. So he tells me to get down and i can't. At this point I am stuck. So he climbs the tree and helps me down and he tries to shake the tree. Still nothing. So he goes a bit farther and is standing on a branch and holding onto another branch.  He is jumping up and down to shake the tree and the baseball is shaken free. He goes a bit farther and is shaking the tree like crazy. The branches are literally swaying 5 feet both directions and the football falls free, but the soccer ball is still stuck. He walks out the the very edge of the tree and has to pick up the ball and throw it down. But that isn't all because he can't get down now. I have to climb back up the tree and help him down. Then I get down.  At this time it is 9:00 o'clock.  We head home totally exhausted. I was terrified. I don't know why I agreed to go up there. I am so glad I was able to get down.

Now this week, we were shooting for 77 hours and after p-day we were shooting for 75 hours.  We would have made it too, if it were not for the fact that we had no investigators to church and we couldn't count that as line in the water time.  After a long week we still did 70 hours this week and we found 9 new people to teach. So it was really great. 

Also this week was the first week I was chased by a dog. We rode by this ally and this big black dog just comes sprinting at us. We were able to out run it and we were safe. Then the next day, another dog starts chasing us as we were heading back home.  Once again we were able to out run it. 

oh BWT i am staying here another transfer.

It is good to hear that the team is still doing good. Do you think that the girls will take state again? Maybe not because they are in 5A.  I love Garlick. He is funny. How is Haag doing as the head coach?  Tell the girls team good luck.  It is cool that Mikaela won a medal. 

There is a less active family we are working with and they have a dog that looks exactly like Oscar except it is brown. 

I got my bike fixed and it works like a charm. i had to borrow another missionaries bike for the day while mine was getting fixed and it was a piece of junk. He got it free from another missionary who is home right now and he thrashed it. The brakes are shot in the back so I couldn't use those and the front breaks barely worked. The missionary doesn't want to pay to fix it because is is getting Elder W***** new bike (my companions last companion who went home) he spent 700 dollars on this bike and just left it. The bike he left was a Dimondback he spent extra money to get a net racing seat and hydrologic breaks and he just left it here. I rode it once earlier in the transfer. It is so uncomfortable, but i am so happy my bike is fixed.

and that was my week.

Week 21 In Farmers Branch, Texas

So this week is going to be really busy. We were challenged by our zone leaders to do a 70+hour week. So we decided to go above and beyond and do a 77 hour week. This is like 20 hours more than we have been doing. These hours are called 'line in the water time'. It is how many hours we are out of the apartment and being seen. We will have to cut lunches and dinners and we will have to cut some study time out to do this. It is going to be a rough week. Also we are not taking a p-day so we are working today. Don't have much time to email so remind me next week to tell you about the tree indecent. Conference was great and I loved it a lot. Have a great week.

 I have time to send one more email. I took my bike in and payed for it to be fixed this Friday. It was only 77 dollars.  I forgot to mention that I got a hair cut last week. Third one on my mission. Love you.

 Not sure what is happening in these pictures.  I guess we will have to wait until next week to hear what happened.  Thought I would mention that Jesse has a slight fear of heights :)