September 3, 2013

"Your Weekly Texan Update"

Talofa!! (hello in Samoan)

I hope everyone had a fantastic Labor day weekend!! I know that I did! We played basketball as usual. It has been really hot here lately. We had a storm last week so it has also been humid as well. So you can imagine my excitement to walk outside and immediately start sweating. But life is all good! This week we were told to go back to Utah by some guy in a car which was pretty funny. My companion laughed cause he is not from Utah. Biking this week has been good. I had to fix a flat tire on my bike which was a first for me so hopefully it holds. I am still sore from riding my bike mainly because I am on it every day. I would much rather be on bikes though than a car because we get to talk to more people.  

So a lot has happened with our investigators since week one. Remember that girl that i set a baptism date with that first week? Yeah she sucks. We cannot get a hold of her and she is never home. It's like she completely vanished. But whatever. We have started to teach members and get referrals from members so our lessons taught has dropped a lot and we didn't get very many investigators. However we did find a pretty solid family. They are the Deleon Family. They are Mexican, but speak English. They make fantastic Mexican food! It's nice and spicy! The guy has no religion background but was really interested in our message. He is a family oriented man so when he found out that the church is really big about families, you could imagine his excitement to learn how he can help his family.

Jonathan who I mentioned last week has been okay. We haven't really talked to him much because he has started school so it is hard to catch him sometimes. We do know that he is well on his way reading the Book of Mormon and does have questions for us. We have an appointment with him Thursday to answer some of his questions. Maddison is really progressing. We have committed her to be baptized and she said yes. But she has to get permission from her mom to do so because she is only 17. The mom used to be a Mormon and then she left that church. So hopefully she lets her be baptized.

There is another family that we found. It's the Ponilla Family. The mom and dad are both half Korean. The the dad, Joe is his name, is a big dude. Probably 6' 3" and a good 250 pounds. Not the typical short Korean. But we were able to give them a tour of our church building. Joe and his wife, Michelle, both said that there is something about the church building that they haven't felt before. They invited us to come to their house on Tuesday to teach a lesson so hopefully it goes awesome.

I also got the opportunity to go on an exchange with the zone leaders this week. His name is Elder Russell. He is from Spanish Fork, Utah and he is a pretty chill guy. We were able to teach some lessons that day and I really learned a lot from him. He is really good and starting lessons and really good at asking questions. He was able to give me some advice and things to study to help me have confidence in teaching. Which helped me a lot.

Next Wednesday we have Elder Neil L. Anderson coming to our mission!! I am totally excited for that! But I am also excited because I will be able to see Connor finally. I have been dying to see him. But I will also be emailing next Monday again. Cause of Labor day this week I was a day late. I was able to see a couple football scores this weekend when we walked into a house and saw the TV on. Kinda made me sad knowing that I won't watch football for 2 years, but, I will get over it. My thought for this week is 3 Nephi 11. This is when Jesus came to the America's. I read through this chapter this morning during my personal study and I loved it. I just want to thank everyone for their emails and their support! I am sorry I don't get time to email everyone back. I only have a limited time to email. Hopefully this week we can set another baptism date and bring people to this amazing Gospel. I love you all and thank you so much for your support!!

Love

Elder O'Brien