Week 20

Week 3 of Transfer 3

I was a sinner this week and didn't keep a day by day log. Sorry y'all. I am apologizing now. 

But we had a good week! Other than we weren't able to get anyone to church this week, which was sad. We spent Christmas Eve at a members home and we had Mexican food! It was really good food and they were really nice to us. They tried to make it the best Christmas Eve ever! It was kinda strange not being home and not getting to partake of our Family Traditions, but overall, it was a great Christmas Eve! 

It was sunny and 80 degrees outside all week. Including but not limited to Christmas, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Eve Eve. So we turned down the Thermostat on Christmas Eve. Then we put on Sweatshirts and PJs and made Hot Chocolate and pretended like it was actually cold outside. It was good!

On Christmas, we woke up and opened presents! Thanks family! Then we went to District Meeting and had a Christmas lesson. After District Meeting, Sister Longhurst made us all breakfast and it was absolutely amazing! But there was no Breakfast Cake. Sad day. 

We went from District Meeting to the Breauxs house. There we were able to talk to our families over Skype for a little while! It sounds like home is doing good and hasn't really changed too much since I left. I mean, I've only been gone about 5 months, but still. 

After Skyping, we went to the church to play Basketball with an investigator that the Hermanas have! It was really fun! Then it started raining. Then we went to the Breauxs again for dinner! Then we went home. 

Love y'all! Hope y'all have a very Happy Holiday season! 

-Elder Allen

Week 19

UnRated Version of Week 18 or 19. Fix before sending home!!!!

Week 18 or 19 or something like that? Shoot. I'm losing track. Transfer 4 Week 1. 12/7/15-12/13/15 

Monday

Today was transfers. Elder Leftwich got transferred and I'm staying in Beaumont. My second transfer meeting and I was kinda nervous about what would happen. They split us up and I got to see some of my old MTC friends that I haven't seen since we left transfers number one. That was cool to see.

My new companion is named Elder Biesinger! He came out with me and is a very hardworking missionary who wants to do right. He is going to be fantastic for Beaumont. 

Tuesday

We spent this morning shopping for stuff that we needed. After we shopped, we spent quite a little while reviewing the Ward Directory and planning for the week. Then we went outside to go and contact some people. As we were going outside, Dawn, the lady upstairs that fed us the very first night that we were in Beaumont, was moving. So we helped them for a while then went out to give Elder Biesinger a quick tour of the area. We came back and Dawn and her husband had pizza for us as a thank you gift! They are super nice people and I will be sad to see them go. They let us share a quick message with them about the Savior and agreed to come to church if their schedule allowed it! We will see what happens.

We had a lesson with J tonight. He is progressing but we have to push his baptismal date back till a little bit later. We taught him about the 10 commandments and committed him to live them all! Super cool lesson and the Spirit was so strong!

Wednesday

Today we biked. And biked. And biked. And did that some more. We biked a lot. I would guess that we biked about 20 or 25 miles throughout the day. It wasn't too much, but it was enough to make you sore and tired by the end of the day. Other than that, it was a fantastic day!!

We started out the morning by biking. We were knocking a few doors and ran across a nice Catholic lady named Samantha. She listened to our quick spill about Jesus Christ and why He was born and then asked us to come back! So will happily oblige. 

Then we went to Sonic cause it was 50 cent corndog day and the Zone Leaders had a bunch of free coupons that they let us use. It was so nice of them.

Then we went biking some more! We went and knocked a few more doors in an apartment complex and found another new investigator! Elder Biesinger has never seen so many new investigators in one day cause his last area was all rich white people. Overall, a really fantastic day

We ended the day by biking to the church for a Ward activity. We then proceeded to knock on peoples doors but instead of asking them if they wanted to listen to a message about The Savior's Birth, we just started singing about it. Caroling down here is a little bit different cause there is no snow. (yet- I'm still hoping and praying for a Christmas miracle...) But it was a good day and we came home dead tired and are now proceeding to go to bed.

Thursday

Today was weekly planning! We had a good time planning and rearranging furniture and getting to know each other a little bit better. Elder Biesinger is a really good guy who just wants to do the right thing. He will be exactly obedient to the White Handbook, which is super amazing! We are gonna do great together this transfer because we are both working to achieve a common goal. 

We got out and contacted a little bit. Knocked a few doors, but really nothing came of it. After that we went to the Latson's house and gave a blessing. The Latson's are a nice Part Member family that we are teaching right now. That was good

After that we biked to the church for a lesson with John! John is doing really well and progressing! 

Friday

This morning we had Zone Meeting! It was a fantastic meeting and I learned so much. The Spirit was so strong in the room and I honestly feel that the unity that our zone has right now will enable us to do fantastic things. After that, we stayed at the Beaumont Chapel and helped set up for the Christmas Party tomorrow night. We strung lights all over the gym and it looks fantastic! We are inviting quite a few people to this party and I'll let you know how it goes. 

We spent most of the day biking around talking to people cause we are trying to increase the number of investigators in our teaching pool. Nothing too solid came out of it. 

I have in my backpack right now as this is being typed 3 Carolina Reapers. Elder Biesinger is gonna eat some of one, Elder Berry (DL) is gonna eat some of it and Hermana Conrad (new Hermana in the District) is gonna eat some of it. The rest of us have already eaten Reaper and had a very near death experience but are dumb enough to do it again with them. And if there is any left over, I am mailing it home. Dad, make some salsa if there is any left over. I'd rate it about a 20 or so.

Saturday 25.29 Miles today. 50 or so total for the week. But future totals won't count the 50 previous today.

We are starting to keep a day by day log of the mileage that we go. So yep, y'all will be getting a report of how far we are riding on our bikes. Its something that I have wanted to do for a while, but haven't because we haven't had an odometer. So yep! This'll be fun

We had a blast today! We were able to talk to a lot of people and share the new Christmas video quite a bit! We knocked doors almost all day cause there was nothing else to do and we wanted to be somewhat productive. We are trying to get the members involved because missionary work is nothing without the members. 

Sunday 

Today we had church with a lot of rain. The rain scared everyone away from church and our congregation was super small.

We got outside in the rain on our bikes and it was fantastic! There was nobody outside and it was super hard.

-Elder Allen

Week Something (18)

W2 of T3

Tuesday Our Big Sour Lake Trip day

Well we woke up this morning planning on heading out at about 9:00. Then the other Elder came over for a joint companionship study. They stayed for a while then we left at about 9:30. Elder Dominguez left some things over at our house so we dropped them off. We got on the road at approximately 9:53 or so. 

We arrived in Sour Lake at approximately 11:57 and 32 seconds. (Jk, I don't actually know the exact time, but it sounds cooler to say something exact.) We rolled into town and stopped and bought some Powerade and then the miracles started! Cause ya know, they hadn't started yet. Lemme back up a little bit. On the ride to Sour Lake, we had a slight tail wind. It allowed us to average 18.1 MPH out there, stops included. It was difficult. But it was awesome. Every time a semi passed us on a few feet to our left, we immediately bumped up about 3 MPH. And every time a semi passed us going the other way, we dropped about the same. There must be opposition in all things. The good done by the Good Semis had to be counteracted by the Bad Big Trucks. Then we got to the Sour Lake sign and took a few selfies when there were no cars coming, (so we didn't look like tourists) and took a picture of the odometer. Roughly 18 miles to Sour Lake. Then another 4 to the family that we wanted to visit. We had a good chat about the Gospel and shared the new Christmas Video with them. Then the 4 miles back into town. Then we stopped at Subway and ate food cause we didn't bring food. Smart right? We didn't bring water either. Really Smart, right? We stopped at another members house and she was astounded that we had biked the 20 odd miles to stop and see her. It made an impression on her and everyone else that we saw today. Amazing. Then we biked 5 miles north to go see another family that ended up not being home. So we knocked doors, cause what else would we do with our free time? We found a few people that wanted to hear about what we were doing in Sour Lake. Nothing too solid though. 

The atmosphere in Sour Lake is completely different than that of Beaumont. Everyone wanted to talk to us. Everyone wanted to know why there were two guys in white shirts and ties riding around their town in the middle of nowhere. The members that we saw were astonished that we had biked that far out. It was amazing!

But we started back to catch a dinner appointment in Beaumont. And remember that tail wind we had on the way out? Ya, it was now in our faces. And it made it really hard on two 18 year olds trying to pedal as hard as they could but had already exceeded their limited number of pedal strokes for the day. A member stopped. He asked if we wanted a ride. We told him yes. So we got a ride back to Beaumont. The End! 

Wednesday

We had Christmas Conference! There were a lot of speakers and they were all good! I learned so much that I can take back and apply to our area!

We watched the Cokeville Miracle for our Christmas movie! It was a really good movie with a very nice moral to it!

We got out Christmas Packages! Thanks to all that have sent them!

Thursday

We had weekly planning today! We also did a district lunch today because we wanted to make pancakes and eat Carolina Reapers. It was a pain. Literally. And it hurt. And i have already done it, but I was dumb enough to eat some more. Then we went out with a priest and knocked doors! We found a few people, but none were too solid. 

Friday

We had district meeting this morning. Then we had our District Lunch. After that we went to a lesson and contacted a referral. Then we biked around and then had a lesson with J. J is coming along, but we keep having to push his baptismal date back because he still has some trials that he is overcoming

Saturday 

We were on exchanges today. We had a fun time contacting people! Then we had a fun time talking and visiting people. We gave a blessing also. And we helped set up for a Christmas party that night. Then we went to the Christmas party and I beat everyone at Foosball. It just came natural and I only lost once and it that's because it took two of them to beat me. But I only lost by one point. But I won all the other times. 

Sunday

We had our ward Christmas program today. It was good and the choir was amazing! I loved it!

We put K on date today! Finally! We don't know how solid it is, but she is on date finally!

-Elder Allen

Week 17 11/23/15-11/29/15 - Thanksgiving

Tuesday

We took one of the priests out knocking doors with us. We taught a bunch of lessons and found a few new investigators. All in all it made great day. Then that night we had another lesson with John. he is progressing, but we have to push his baptismal date back a little while, which means he won't be baptized this transfer.:(

Wednesday

We taught an old lady named I today and she is awesome! She has short term memory loss, but it makes for some fun lessons! And if you haven't seen one of the large print Triple combinations, you should. The thing is as big as a small table and weighs about as much. We had to tote two of those things across town on our backs, along with all our usual gear. It made it really heavy and we got really tired really fast. On top of that, it started raining. But they were so excited to be able to have  a book that they could actually read!

Thursday

Thanksgiving! We got a text last night saying that today was a non Proselyting day. It was a straight service day, but no one wants service done on Thanksgiving... So we didn't do too much.We then went to Robert's house for Thanksgiving and he and his family fed us. We had a Cajun Thanksgiving full of spices and seasoning. But they had also emailed our families and asked for a special family Thanksgiving recipe. So we had a wonderful surprise as we were dishing our plates and saw the special dishes that were labled. It was amazing and awesome! Thank you Mom!

Friday

We had District Meeting today. It was good! After District meeting we contacted a little bit! We had another lesson with John today! It went really well!

Saturday

We did more service by putting round two of rocks in the flower beds! It was a lot of fun! We had another lesson with I today! She was super excited still about her Book of Mormon! After that, we started biking around, but it started raining and then we went inside for a few minutes. After that, we went back outside and tried to contact some more, but we didn't have too much success because it was still raining slightly.

Sunday

This morning we went to church and it was super amazing! John was our only investigator that came, which is sad cause we had quite a few commitments.:( But John is really progressing and is even starting to do missionary work on his own by passing out copies of the Book of Mormon and introducing his friends to the Gospel. Truly amazing to see the change that has happened in his life since he has met with us. Bro Hall, the Ward Mission Leader, drove us around to go and visit some people today. We shared the new Christmas Initiative with a lot of people today and it was amazing! I could feel the Spirit every time the video was playing and if you haven't seen it I would highly recommend it! 

It hit me that I'm almost a quarter of the way done with my mission. Transfers are next week, so don't freak out if I don't respond or something like that. So don't send any letters that will get here after next Monday! Cause I don't know if I'll still be here or not.

Love y'all! Thanks for the letters and emails and I'll talk to you next week!

-Elder Allen

Week 16 11/16/15-11/22/15

Monday

Today was pday. We went bowling and it was super fun! I didn't do so well though... So I will not state my score here.

Tuesday

We had another lesson with John today. We had the Roberts, an older couple from the ward, come with us. The Roberts love us and they remind me a lot of Gram and Grandpa. They lived in Oklahoma before they came to Texas and they talk about it a lot. Anyway, the lesson with John went very well! Today was the first day that the temperature really dropped down. 

Funny Story... As we walked outside to get on our bikes at the beginning of the day, we were talking about how hot it was and about how we wished that the temperature would just suddenly drop like 10 or 15 degrees. As we were biking, the rain came in. It was light at first and just kind of off and on. As we stopped to talk to some Hispanic people, the rain really started just pouring. It was raining really hard, but it was still hot and humid. As we started biking again, the rain kept on coming down in bucketfuls. We turned the corner and the temperature just dropped. Like I have never seen or felt the temperature drop so fast. It must've dropped like 20 degrees. And the wind picked up and chilled us right to the bone. We were freezing cold. It was crazy. The temperature drop was instantaneous and immediate and the rain kept coming down. We made it to the church and after staying outside for a second to drain off, walked into the nice warm heated building. We were cold the rest of the day. You know what I learned from this experience? Be careful what you wish for, because Heavenly Father has a sense of humor and the windows of Heaven will pour out more blessings than you even wished for. So what could we do? We said a prayer of gratitude thanking Heavenly Father for listening to us and taking into account our needs and wants. I also  learned that we should just be happy with what we have and not wish for anything else than what he has already given us...

Wednesday

Well we had a scheduled bash today. We met this guy a few weeks ago and he told us that he wanted archeological evidence that the Book of Mormon is true. Thats hard on missionaries! We aren't really allowed to research that topic. He told us that he knew all about Moronis Promise in the last chapter of Moroni. He claimed that if he took that promise, then he was already giving the Book credibility. What I ended up pointing out to him is this, in the promise, Moroni says to pray AFTER you read it and to ask if these things are NOT true. What this means is that after you have gotten this far into the Book, you should already have a knowledge and testimony that it IS true... So I asked him if he had read the Book, to which he answered no... Theres your problem... There was really nothing that we could do after that so we basically just left after that.

After that whole thing, we went on quick exchanges with the South Missionaries. I went with Elder Berry, our DL because he had a Baptismal interview to conduct and Elder Leftwich went with Elder Dominguez to talk to a referral from the ZLs, who had set up an appointment at the same time as the Baptismal Interview. So that was fun.

Thursday

We had weekly planning today. That was good. This is how weekly planning goes. We consider every investigator, every member, every less active member, every plans to find new investigators, every referral that we haven't contacted, every meeting that we have and then we make plans and goals for what we want to accomplish with each of them in the next week. It is extensive...

We had another lesson with John today. It was a very good lesson and the Spirit was super strong, as it always is. 

Friday

We had district meeting! Our Senior couple, the Longhursts, make us dinner every Friday. This week Sister Longhurst made us Thanksgiving dinner and it was super good! We had 4 different pies that she had made along with Turkey, Stuffing, mashed potatoes and such. Super amazingly wonderful Utah Thanksgiving. 

We had another lesson with K this week that went very well! She is making progress, but still won't come to church.

We had a lesson with John tonight. There is a senior couple in Houston that do a really good Word of Wisdom lesson and we had them come out and teach John and they loved it! John thought that it was very beneficial.

Saturday

We had a service project all morning. We were putting rocks in the flower beds in the Beaumont Chapel. And then the rain came. For the next two hours we were working in the rain. It was a lot of rain. Again. And we were working in it all day.

I was on exchanges with Elder Dominguez. We had to go to a baptism that was in Spanish... As it happens, we were also the witnesses... So we didn't know what the prayer was... That made it interesting.

We had a good time and taught quite a few lessons! But we were in Southern Beaumont, not in our area. 

Sunday

We went to church and had a good time! John showed up and it was way good! He learned a lot! We all learned a lot!

We taught quite a few lessons today just walking around in the cold. At least it wasn't wet... or Raining. But it was way good! and we were freezing all day cause it was like 50 degrees outside, but the wind and the humidity made it feel like it was negative a lot of degrees. 

-Elder Allen