December 9, 2013

"5 Pound Burrito?  No Problem"

Hey Ya'll!!

So to start out the letter, I will be staying in the Promised land for 6 more weeks!! (Killeen) I am super excited to be serving down here still!

Holy cow! I thought Texas was supposed to be warm, but I guess not. Mother Nature has lost her mind down here in Texas! On Wednesday this week it got all the way up to 80 degrees. The next day was down to 32 degrees.... And on Saturday, it got all the way down to 23 degrees. Yes I have proof on my camera that this actually happened.  That is just not normal at all! But every one down here is used to this kind of weather down here. This week was great! Last week I told ya'll that we were going to focus this week on Less Acive members, and we really did. We had some awesome lessons with those members. We were able to get active members to drive us around all week and visit these families as well and they were able to bear their testimonies and we felt the spirit way strong! It was so cool!

This week we had Stake Conference. And we were really pushing Keva to come because for the Saturday session, there were going to be converts to the church bearing their testimonies. So we wanted her to come because then she could know that other people went through the same problems and questions she did. And guess what happened...SHE CAME!!! After weeks and weeks of trying to get her to come to church, she came to stake conference and we were so happy that she made it. President Ames is the man! He gave a talk about how the gospel blesses lives, and she really connected with his talk and loved it. She was really happy she came too. So we are starting to progess with her more.

So after District meeting on Tuesday, I was challenged by another missionary to a eating contest. There is a place down here called FreeBirds. It's a burrito place. They have 4 sizes of burritos. Hyperbird, Freebird, Monster, and Super Monster. The super Monster is 2 Monsters combined pretty much. That was the challenge. Let me tell ya'll this, I would rather eat a triple cheese burger and go ride rollar coasters than eat that massive burrito and ride bikes to go teach lessons. That thing kicked my butt. I out ate him, He only ate about 3/4 of it and I ate about, I don't know, 5/6 maybe. But It really made me sick. I didn't eat dinner that night because I was so full! But it was so worth it!

This week we were able to teach one of our newest investigators named Nikki. We were able to contact her on the street. I got a flat tire and I had no idea how. So we started walking back to the appartment to drop it off and we ran into her at her car, she was not interested at all, but we helped her with what she was doing. She was trying to find the brake fluid for her car and we were able to find it. During that time we started talking about her faith and where she went to church. In the end, she invited us back to her home to just talk about our church and what we believe in. We were able to teach her lesson 1 on the first lesson. We also gave her a Book of Mormon to read a well. This past week, we had a lesson with her and she had been reading it! We were in shock that she was! We had members there for both lessons because she is a single mom and we can't go in unless there is a 3rd female in the house. But we were so happy! The Lord does really work in mysterious ways!

Also we were able to set a date this week for this guy named Jason. The Zone Leaders had been teaching him before and he moved into our area. He is really awesome! He is from New Jersey and works for the Army. We are still getting to know him better so I will give you more details. All I know is that he is set to be baptized on December 24th. Yes Christmas Eve. He called us this week and told us he wants to do it and he already knows who he wants to do it. So I will give yall more details next week when I get them!

President Ames a couple months ago gave us the challenge on Reading the New Testemant before the year ended, I am a little behind in 2 Corinthians, but reading every day to try to catch up. I pretty much was waiting til last minute to do it. Which is rare for me to do things like that. ;) I have really enjoyed reading it though. It will be my first time doing so, and I have loved it a lot! Being on my mission has helped me have more of a desire to study and read the scriptures that I never had before. It has helped me so much in my growth. Thank you all for your support! I hope everyone stays warm through the cold! We have been doing our best down here on Bikes. Love You all!

Elder O'Brien