A Growing Testimony

Investigators

Things have been great this past week. Barbie is on track for her baptism for the 29th. Yesterday we found out that Roy passed away which was a great loss to her but she is comforted from the knowledge of the gospel she has. That she knows where he is and what he is doing. At least Roy wont be struggling anymore with any of the sicknesses or pains that he has. Also another less active sister Carter also came to church which was really good. she has not been to church in awhile. Also some other investigators came to church which was way good.

 

We have been teaching Carry who is the mother of a recent convert Amy and we are teaching Carry's son Josh. They are progressing pretty well.

 

Transferred

On saturday we got the calls for who is getting transfered and who is staying and I am leaving Buna to a different area. I dont know where I am going until tomorrow at the transfer meeting. 

 

Sick

Funny story- When I got your e-mail last week and read it and you said to go get a flu shot, right after I came over with a sickness, for the past week I have been sick and also my companion has too. I have not gotten a flu shot yet, but when I recover I will get a flu shot. I have been sick with a sore throat, congestion. coughing, and sweating at timess more at the nighttime. But I am finally getting over it right know.

 

Testimony

Since i have been on my mission my love has increased towards my savior who is Jesus Christ., who is the redeemer, the life, the light, the truth of the world and he is the way the only way. I know that he suffered, bled, and died for all of us so that we can return with our Heavenly Father in his kingdom with our families for all time and eternity. I know that he will always be there for us, he will never let us down. I know that as we get colser to him we can find peace, happiness, joy, rest, and he will lift up our burdens and make them light. Oh how grateful i am to know this.

Patience a Christlike and Missionary Quality

Texas Missionary Influx

Yeah Our mission will be getting about 100 more missionaries. they will be start to coming out at the end of january. That would be so crazy to train to missionaries at once. 

 

Progress Towards Baptism

Barbie is going to be baptized on decemeber 29th. we are very excited for her, she has quit drinking coffee know we just need to work with her stop smoking. We have been over there a lot because roy is getting really weak from the cancer.

 

Carrie Eaves

Another investigator we have been working with is carrie eaves. Her daughter amy eaves is the only member in the family. she has been asking alot about baptism and confirmation. we went over there with the Mccains. She is having a hard time grasping that we are the only ones that have the priesthood authority, she comes from a pentecostal background. She has been readisng the book of mormon and praying about it which she is slowly getting a testimony of the truthfulness of it. I know that she will eventually join, we just got to be patient with her.

A Step in the Right Direction

Barbie's Baptismal Date and a Strong Less Active

Welll we met with barbie and we set a date for her to be baptized it is going to be the 29th of december so we are very excited for her. also some other cool things happened this past week. one we met with a less active member that we have not met and he has not been to church for a while. we saw his car home so we decided to go and see him. he ivited us in and he had his daughter over from Allen, Tx. They had us over for dinner. we read from the book of mormon which was way good. he actually has a strong testimony of the gospel still. a lot of people that i meet that are less active don't really have that a strong of a testimony and he did. we invited them to church but they said they were going to go to a different ward. but on sunday about a few minutes in the meeting we saw them walk in. Me and my companion just lit up when we saw them come in. Also Carrie another investigator we have been working with came to church also and she came to the christmas devotional that was broadcasted at the church, she liked it. I loved the devotional the first presidency gave really good talks.

Roy's Baptism

Roy's Baptism: A Multiplicative Baptism
Guess what? Roy got baptized. it was so great, the bishop had top be dunk him under like three times because he did not get totally immersed under the water. it was a really great program. great talk by brother McCain. Amy Eaves a recent convert gave her testimony about the gospel it was so powerful, it truly strengthened her testimony. He got confirmed the next day at sacrament meeting. We are working with his wife trying to get her to stop drinking coffee and off the cigarettes. we are working for December the 8th for her. She really has been working on getting her genealogy done. she really wants to go the temple and do baptisms for the dead for her ancestry which is really neat. Also Amy is the only member in her family. Her mom and her older brother came to the baptismal service and they both loved it. Amy's mom came to church the next day and her brother would of but he already had stuff going on. we are going to start working with her mom who wants to be baptized and start working with her brother too. 

The Problems of Our TimesWe went over the Longs and took the bishop with us and taught about the word of wisdom because sister long is so much into nutrition. we found out that brother long chews and he has tried to quit many times but has failed. so we are going to teach them the stop smoking lesson which also helps people who chews. they are investigators that we found during the hour of power. They have been reading from the book of mormon. 

Salvation: A Step Away

Baptism a Step Towards Heaven

Hey guess what Roy is getting baptized this saturday we are so excited than the next week barbie is going to be baptized. Roy has been really good. He has not smoked for the past two days and his interview is tomorrow night. we are so proud of him. we know that heavenly father has heard the many prayers for him and is with him. we have been going over there and trying to get ready for his baptism. we want to make this a special day for him.

 

Zone Conference

Oh yeah this past friday we went to vidor and we had a zone conference. were the beaumont and the orange zone combines and president crawford come and speak to us and other people it was really good. we learned many fascinating things about the book of mormon, and about the apostasy. we talked about how important it is to have member present lessons and we talked about how the members can fellowship there friends and neighbours and over time that they will ask questions and get interested and most likelly they will join sometime.

 

Prophecies and the Book of Mormon

we went over to the carrols/lyndeckers and talked about some of the prophecies that joseph smith had. one of them he said "you see only a few prietshood bretheren here but this will fill north and south america, it will fill the whole world. and we can see that becoming fulfilled today. another one he gave a prophecy in december 25 1832 about the civil war. the one in the introduction of the book of mormon. he told the bretheren the Book of Mormon is the most correct book on earth and if a man abide by its precept the will get closer to God than by any other book." I have come to known that be true as I have read it over my mission. It seems like he they are getting closer to coming to the truth of the book of mormon and the prophet joseph smith.

 

Lots of the Words of Wisdom

Churchand Comittment

This sunday three investigators came to church which was way good. Barbie and Roy came and they loved it like as usuall. They especially enjoyed the sunday school class we talked about the final judgement and answered her questions about baptisms for the dead. that she can do the work for her ancestors and that they can still have the opportunity to accept the fulness of the gosepl of Jesus Christ. Roy was announcing to everybody that he was going to stop smoking and be baptized. They are really progressing and there testimonies are being strenghtened immensely.

Stopping Smoking

We went over to Julians and he said the he wanted to stop smoking and drinking coffee. we are going to go over there and teach him the stop smoking lesson. It is a lesson that has fifteen steps and if they do it everyday for a week. they will be a non smoker. this lesson has been taught by missionaries all over the world and since 1980's and it works. It was two missionaries that fasted and prayed because so many of there investigators could not be baptized because they smoke. it is truly inspired by the Lord. He said that he has been reading the book of mormon and he just finished reading the book of alma and he said when he reads it he feels peace, happy and gets a lot calmer. he said to us he does not know what he his looking for as for an answer. we taught him the role of the holly ghost that it usually answers us in small little ways like he has been experiencing. he said I have been getting the answer the whole time and I have not realized it. He is getting really close towards baptism.

More Word of Wisdom

Yesterday we went over to a new investigators house the Longs. Sister long read from the book of mormon and they asked a lot of questions about how the missions work and everything that is involved they are just amazed. they have been doing really well. we are going to teach them the word of wisdom because sister long is a fanatic about nutrition. we thought of teaching about the word of wisdom would help her to know that joseph smith was a prophet of God.

 

Another Joyful Week of Service

Great Week

this past week has been really good. we went on exchanges with the our district leader in lumberton and with the jasper missionaries, it was a great learning experience to learn from other missionaries. We met and taught a lot of lessons this past week. 

Halloween

yeah last wednesday for halloween we did a trunk or treat were everyone decorates there trunks and gives out candy to the community that come on by. We also had chili it was pretty good. They said in all the years of them doing this this was the best year they had about three hundred people come through and a ton of non members it was pretty fun. we were the judges to see who had the best trunk and gave them a trophy.

 

Barbie and Roy - The Power of the Book of Mormon

Barbie and roy has been doing pretty good they have been inviting us over for dinner every saturday and roy has cut back on smokin gwhich is really good. they just saw the doctor the other day and told them that Roy only has weeks or months to live because of the tumor that is spreading so fast. We have been going over there at least two to three times a week to encourrage and to lift him up. yesterday we stopped by and roy was feeling all nervous and not that good, he was about to smoke outside but we handed him a book of mormon and told him to read ether 12 about faith. we can back inside to talk to barbie. we saw him to read it and he came inside and was still reading it on his hospital bed. when he finished the chapter he said thankyou. he said when he read the book of mormon that the nervousness, anger left him, and he was alll calm and peacful. The book of mormon is powerful and I know it is the word of God. each day i read it on my own and with investigators it convinces me more and more that it is true and that Joseph Smith did translate it by the power of God. Oh yeah we watched the joseph smith prophet of the restoration with them and they loved it and it helped barbie a lot about losing a lot of close family and friends she has lost. She saw that joseph smith went through a lot and a lot of his family members and friends passed away but he kept moving and pressing on. We listend to a talk by president thomas s. monson becuase she wanted to hear the prophet. the more she finds and studies about our religion she is more convinced that this is the only true church on the face of the earth.

 

The Longs

yesterday we taught a new family the Longs and we brough a member that knows there daughter. we taught the restoration to them and they asked a lot of questions about the book of mormon. they loved to talk so went off topic a lot of the time. non denomitional church, they were baptists before but they do not believe some of the things they do which led them to that church. I know if they search this out with a sincere heart and real intent they will come to know the truthfulness by the power of the holy ghost. I am very excited for them and they invited us to come back to teach them a little bit more.

 

Jacob the Baptist

We saw jacob he is a 17 year old that is living with the tomas's. he goes to the baptist church. he said it would be very hard to convert to mormonism because he has always grew up in the baptist church. at this time I was on a exchange with the district leader elder sylvester who was my previous companion in beaumont 5th branch. he is a convert about 6 or 7 years ago and he shared his conversion story with him and it really hit him and he invited jacob to read the book of mormon with real intent and a sincere heart of really wanting to know of the truthfulness of it.

18 Month Reflection

I can not believe I have been out for 18 and a half months on my mission. I have learned so much, I have grown so much (spiritually and physically haha) well at least I think i have we will see. My testimony has strenghtened immensly I am so grateful that i was raised into the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. I know that these last few months will go by so fast before I know it. I know there is a lot of more people that I will touch. I am so grateful to be a missionary to share this wonderful news to the people in texas and lousiana. There is still a few things that i need to work on and to improve on but I know I will get there.

Work for the Dead and for the Living

Family History

Also we are doing a new finding idea that has to do with family history introducing it to less actives and other people on how they can research about there family. the family history consultant showed us how to do it. 

The Destructive Powers of Cancer

Roy dial is not doing so well. his tumor in his lungs is getting worse and he is going for another treatment for chemo this thursday. But they love our visits and our encouragement we give them. They have fed us twice, I love them and being with them.

Finding

then we found another family, we kind of just briefly talked to them but have not actually taught them anything. they started to love us and said to us you can come on over whenever you want. It will be good.

yeah we eat at members houses pretty often at least a couple of times a week.

Finding the Truth

True Conversion

Barbie and Roy is doing better they have been trying to cut back on smoking. They have been reading and studying a lot from the book of mormon. There understanding and there testimony has strenghtened immensely. They know that this is the true church and only church. barbie said to us "I have been to every other church in buna, colorado. florida, and tenesse. I have read 76 other versions of the bible. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints actually have it right, it is 100% correct. she is just amazed by it. Roy a little later got his testimony of the gospel, they are so grateful that they met us. They are so excited to be baptized eventually and to be sealed together for all time and eternity.

 

Service

Oh yeah last monday we helped the McDaniel family bail hay, It is a workout. we did around three hundred of them, put them on the trailer and then stacked them in the barn. that was my second time bailing hay and I did not get blisters as bad the first time I did it.

 

Less Actives

We have been visiting a less active family the Lynedeckers and since we have been reading to them from the book of mormon her desire to actually to read it has increased so much. she said she was going to start reading from the beginning and they want to come back to church. Brother lyndecker has been researching alot more about the church and he is finally getting there and agreeing with everything. he asks a lot of questions which we answer and it helps him out alot.

 

we ran into another less active member who I have not met before. he is about in his late 60's or early 70's and his wife passed away like 8 years ago and he is still trying to get over it. we have been going over there and comforting him. he loves our visits he gave us tacos the other night just showing how much he enjoyed our visit with him later we gave him an upside down cake. it seemed like he loved that.

 

Update in Jasper

Investigators Progress

We found some new investigators that we are teaching. Tommy is one of them and he has a baptismal date for the end of the month.

 

Roy is still going through Chemo-therapy and is struggling and is in a lot of pain but me and my companion gave him a priesthood blessing. the spirit was so strong, after the blessing his neck stopped hurting and he has not smoked for the psat two days which is great. I know that he will be baptized before he passes on. He is such a wonderful person and we know that Heavenly Father is working with him strongly.

 

Thomas has been coming to church for the past five months and I thought he was a member the whole time but my last companion right before he left the area told me that he is not a member,  I was like what, why haven't we been teaching him. this past friday we taught him he has a few concerns that we need to get over but I think general conference helped him a lot.

 

A New Missionary

Training

Yeah I got my greenie companion on Tuesday. His name is Elder Gagnon it is a french name. He is from Pocatello Idaho. He is a really great elder the MTC taught him really well. Actually it seems like he is teaching me more than me to him. I am showing him around the area and getting to know the people. Yeah we are still in the same area. I will be in this area at least until December 18. He went to shcool for a year in Idaho. He also sold pest control the past two summers in California and Missouri. He is used to the humidity and talking to people which that is really good. Yeah there was 17 new missionaries that came from the MTC but 10 missionaries from here left home. We are getting a lot more next transfer. Our mission will be very young. This past week was slow because we tried to see a lot of people but everyone is not home.

Investigators

Last night we covered a lot of ground with one of our investigators. Julian we read from the bible about baptism then it led into the sacrament, then into the spirit which took most of the time which was good. From our talk know he knows what he is looking for when he prays and when he reads the book of mormon. The spirit was so strong. I think he is going to be progressing a lot more. We have a goal for this transfer of getting two baptisms and I think we can do it. There is a lot people that the lord has prepared we just need to give them a little push towards that direction. We are going to have a great transfer. we found some more potentials this past week so we are excited to go back and see them this week. There is nothing much else going on. But besides training a new elder. even our mission president said that this is the most important position on a mission. There is so much that has to go into training, It can be hard at times but it is worth it and I know that I will grow a lot from it.

People of the Kingdom

Jewish Family

barbara and roy dial the jewish couple they were supposed to be baptized this past week but Roy is diagnosed with cancer and he is going in for kemo and the doctors said to him not to stop quiting smoking because it puts too much stress on him. But I think he is still trying to quit so that he can be baptized. they are going through a really rough time.

 

Jamie Cannon

Jamie Cannon is doing really well, he is just soaking all of the information in. He tells us that all of this is famililar to him, he is so eager to learn, showing that he is so ready for the gospel so we are going to try to set a date with him this week. He loves it when we come over and he also does bible studies with a member in silsbee.

 

Hour of Power

during the hower of power we found the cox family and they had us over for dinner on saturday they are such a sweet family they asked us a lot of questions and the more answers we gave them the more questions they had it was great. they said they will start to read the book of mormon. they know some members in the orange ward and also they have some of there students that are mormons. we are excited for them.

 

talking about the hower of power we found another family the Mcdaniels that invited us back today who is going through a pretty hard time. we are excited to see them and talk to them. they also know some members in the buna ward.

Baptist Church 

oh  yeah yesterday we went to the central baptist church to hear one of our investigators speak. that was the first time I have been to another church it was pretty cool. It did not feel like church at all. it felt I was back in efy. becuase there was someone playing the guitar and someone playing the drums and the congregation would sing along. the songs are christian. when they feel the spirit they would raise both of there arms above there heads. then they had two speakers. one shared her excperience how coming to know God chnaged her life and the other one talked about mathew 5 and related it to the highshcool life. It was just basically highschool kids and a couple of adults that were there. it was interesting.

 

 

Bringing Back the Lost Sheep

we found the Cox family and they are really nice wonderful people. They are baptists and they are pretty much content with there religion. I think they will love our message and feel the holy ghost strongly and will think differently. We are teaching jamie cannon and he lives alone and he is trying to find something better for his life and answers to his questions. He has been reading the book of mormon and loves it, and he came to church which he also loved the peaceful, quiet and teachable atmosphere. We are going to try to set a date with him today.we also played basketball with our bishop and with his brother and some other youth in the morning after we helped a part member family do some service, cleaned out a shed.

 

Oh yeah on sunday we went the most north of our area, up to the Jasper area and we found a less active member and she said that she was going to come to church and she said that she was just making a lame excuse for not coming so it will be good for her to come and to be fellowshipped by the ward. while we were trying to find her house we saw a huge snake in the middle of the road I did not really get to see what it was but it looked like a king snake. we also found another less active family that has not come for many years that they forgot that they were even baptized into the church so we are working with them and they are starting to read the book of mormon.

 

another investigator we are working with is jimmy and he has been working on quiting smoking also with a less active member and they are doing really good and he also found a job that will be able to help them out a lot.

Buna, Texas

I am in Buna, TX. it is out in the boonies it is a really small town. it has one gas station, a small grocery store, burger king, dairy queen, sonic, family dollar, post office, and a library and that is pretty much it what is here. there is not that much that is around here. we have a truck that we get to drive becasue of all of the back roads which are dirt and the roads can be bad at times. my new companion is elder Halter he is from Clinton Utah. He has been out for seven and a half monnths. well the area is really good the people are really nice, but the houses are so spread out so it takes awhile if we are tracting a street. it is very country. It is nice to see all different kinds of texas. we are teaching a lot of people that are way awesome and progressing really well. we are teaching a jewish couple and they are getting baptized in two weeks. the wife knows seven different languages which is german, english, spanish, sign language, hebrew, greek, and one other one which i think is latin. she is very smart about the gospel. It is weird when you greet them they do a cheek to cheek thing which is weird. they are just working on stopping smoking which they are doing great on. we are teaching a less active guy that is very scientific and needs to prove everything by science or history or he really wont believe. We have two other baptismal dates one with jimmy he is about in his twenty's and the other one is Julian he is an older guy who is disabled right know becasue he got in a pretty bad motorcylce accident. they both have word of wisdom issues. we have a lot of other people that we are teaching that is doing okay. this area has a lot of potential. the members out here are really great and wonderfull. oh yeah here is my address so you can send letters or packages too:

 

P.O. Box #842

Bunam,TX 77612

Pictures!

The Miracle Equation

Love = Miracles
Last night one of our recent convert family fed us a huge barbecue dinner because I was leaving. they said they usually dont do this to people but they said it was for me because they appreciated all the help and friendship I gave to them and there family. the Cruz family is so awesome.

Zone Fast = Miracles
We had a zone fast yesterday to fast for some miracles in the zone, we came home from church and I started to pack my stuff and we got a call from a member and he said elders go you have a dinner appointment today we were like no, then he told us to come over and bring the restoration dvd. we went over there and we saw one of there friends they brought over, had dinner and had a great conversation, his name is Mark and he is really excited to learn and to find out if these things are true and we watched the video and the spirit was strong and he said he believed that Jospeh Smith did see God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. We taught him about the apostasy and about the book of mormon that by reading it that he will be able to find out if these things are true or not. He said when is the next lesson he is really excited. He is trying to change his life. he used to do drug abuse and some other stuff but he wants to find out how he can come to know Jesus Christ better and have a better relationship with him. We told him as you read the Book of Mormon that you will draw closer to him and have a better personal relationship if you apply the teachings in the book of mormon because it has with me. I am sad that I have to leave and wont be able to teach him but I know that the lord will direct him in the way that he needs to go.

Hour of Power = MiraclesAnother cool miracle that happened this past week. it was during the hower of power, we saw this guy watering his plants and we started to talk to him and I think he is catholic but does not go to it that often. We told him "We are disciples of Jesus Christ and came to the world to share a unigue message that God has restored his church one again back to the earth through the prophet Joseph Smith and you can come to find out if these are true by reading the Book of Mormon," He was amazed about the simple but powerfull message that we shared with him. He got all excited that it has been restored and he said is there a prophet today for the world and we said :yes there is a prophet today whose name is Thomas S. Monson and there has always been a prophet since Joseph Smith and that it will never leave the earth again." He was so excited and we talked more and got a return appointment with him. I am really excited for him but am sad that I wont be able to teach him and to see how this gospel will bless him and his family. There are people out there that are ready to hear the message of the restored gospel. We just got to keep our head high up and go with faith and he will lead us to them or he will lead them to us.

SURPRISE!!!

Surprise Visit

It was so crazy to see Johnny and Jenna. They did surprise me. they did a pretty good job. They used jenna's phone so I would not recognize the number and they said we are new members in the area and we want to take you all out for dinner where do you want to go out to eat? They said tin roof. they showed up and saw Johnny, there like oh shoot what do we do. they go back and get me and they told the companion that I was with that we had to get something from a member, so when we showed up and saw Johnny man My mouth dropped and I was so excited. what are the chances of him being here when we had to get something from a member. It was kinda weird of seeing him, I was like is this really happening. 

Baptism Jeremy got baptized this sunday and it was great there was a lot of people that showed up. yeah this morning there are some tongan members that were roating a pig for us today

Jeremy & Cynthia

Jeremy
This past week was another good week. Jeremy is getting baptized this Sunday and is very excited and we are working with his wife Kelly. She has been to church two times and she loves it and already has great relationships with some of the members. she wants the kids to be baptized but we are thinking they will be baptized until when there parents are baptized. they are a really cool family. That will be way cool if I could go to there sealing in a year.
Cynthia We have this other investigator Cynthia she is a single lady in her 50's and she came to church and it was her second time coming. She loved the gospel principles class wee talked about the pre-earth life and what happened. The members are getting to know her. We are going to start teaching her this week and hopefully we can set a date with her. 

Jeremy, Jamie, and Jail-food

Jeremy's Jail Food
Jeremy one of our investigators his wife came back with the kids and they are living with him again. He is happy that they are together again and his wife is learning from us know and they all came to church. They have five kids Jonathan is the oldest 11 years old which is a boy then they have Gabbi who is nine they have three other kids which I forgot there names. Jeremy has fed us twice he loves cooking but his cooking is different from everyone else. he was in jail about ten years and that is where he learned it. he came make anything from just about what he has. the first one he made us is called the spread eventually it turned out to a taco and burrito. He first smashed the ramen, boiled some water, put the ramen in a garbage bag a clean on hopefully then tied it and let it sit for a while. he put rice with it, then he cut the garbage bag and put peanut butter and cheese. it came out as a taco and burrito it was actually pretty good. the second one is called the jailhouse burrito he did the same thing but he did it in a chip bag. he added the ramen flavor and crunched up dorritos. you never know what kind of things texans come up with. I will provide pictures of them and of the baptism we had this past sunday which was good. we had two investigators show up.

Jamie
Yesterday we just set another baptismal date with jamie she is a girlfriend to one of our members and she really loves the church and she believes everything that we have taught her so far about the restoration, the plan of salvation we just need to work with her to stop smoking.  her date is going to be for August 19th. oh yeah jeremy's wife wants all her kids to be baptized which two of them are of age so we are going to try to set a date with them.
  

The Miracle of Fasting

cynthia: she was the one that we tracted into and at first she was not interested but as we talked to her she opened more up and she came to church last week. She has been out of town lately but she called us the other day and said sorry that I could not make it for church but I will be there this coming up Sunday and she said lets just say that I am really interested.

Jeremy: He has been coming to church for the past six weeks and loves it because of all of the fellowship from the members and how much they help him out. we go over there he always brings up the discussion about authority he believes that the authority was never taken away that the catholics has always had it and he was baptized as a catholic and he only believes in one baptism  and strongly believes in the bible and not anything else. He said I am not going to be baptized until I know for sure and until I get answers to my questions. Yesterday me and my companion decided to fast for jeremy. this sunday was diffrerent from all sundays the stake presidency came and spoke at sacrament meeting, taught sunday school and left it open for questions about the events that have been happening. A councilor to the stake president spoke to him after and had a good discussion and then someone from the high council spoke at elders quorom. Brother Rascon the councilor told us that he wants to come to the lessons with us with jeremy. We went on our day and it was about 8:30 and we recieve a text from him saying elders we I have great news to share with you call me as soon as you get the chance. We went back to our apartment and gave him a call and he told us that he has been doing a lot of pondering and praying lately. he said that the bishop paid for his rent and how he loves all the members and told us that epsecially what brother rascone said really inspired him and struck him and that solidfied his answer and he said guys I am going to get BAPTIZED!!!! YEAH. we were going crazy after that. we are going to tell the ward and we are going to schedule his baptism for the beginning of August we are so excited.

Marobell: we took her on a church tour and she loved it. she said that we have answered so many of her questions that no one has ever answered them. She said that when she gets the answer she will be baptized and will talk to her family about it. she is making quite a lot of progress.
 
here is my full address:

15100 golden eagle drive #902
humble, TX 77936

Humbly Transferred

Humble
Well  I got transfered to fall creek or in other words humble,tx. I think its about forty five minutes away from johnny. My new companion is Elder Tuai he is from California but regionally from Tonga. He has been out for eight months. Yeah I am in a really nice area, the people are really great here. I am serving in a ward and basically everyone in the ward is from utah. people that have graduated from byu and is working down here. It is a car area so I wont be using my bike that often or even at all this transfer.

half of our area is a nicer area with people that are well off and have huge houses and the other half is little bit more humbler.  it seems like we are going to have alot of succes in this area. oh yeah my address is 15100 golden eagle drive, humble, TX I dont know the zip code is though.

Cynthia
This past week we have been knocking on doors and we have found some great people. one of them her name is Cynthia she is about in her 50's and she was not open at all and saying a lot of stuff about religion and did not want to listen but as I testified some of the truth that she said and corrected her she openend right up and invited us to come back. So we went back and followed up with her and she was really excited and was looking forward talking to us but we did not have a member with us, because we can not go in a single womans house without another male. She said that she was really impressed that we did nopt get upset or mad at the things she said or believed and she really liked that. We invited her to church and she actually came but she only stayed for an hour but she said she will stay for all three hours next week. That was so cool to see how she opened up to us.

Mary We are teaching this 17 year old her naem is Mary she is hispanic and we came over and we shared the restoration to her and she loved it and the spirit was there and she believes everything what we taught. she also told us that she was questioning her religion she is catholic and she does not believe everything that they do like confessing your sins to the pope and some other stuff. we left a book of mormon with her and came back to teach her the plan of salvations he loved it and had a lot of deep docterine questions we tried to answer them the best as we can. She is so solid.


 

Last week in Beaumont

Blessed Progress
There has been a couple of big rain storms and everyone is expecting that we are going to get a hurricane this year but we will see. The work is going really well in Beaumont. Christian is still on track of getting baptized on the 21st and jasmine one of our other investigators is getting baptized on the 14th. I will be able to come back to see them to get baptized. We taught a lot of lessons this post week of totaling 28 lessons yeah we are teaching so much and super busy. Christians family was so supposed to come to church with her this last sunday but christian was doing homework all night and was dead asleep when her family came and stopped by her house to pick her up. her family is non-members too. they wanted to go to church with her to maske sure that she was even going to a church. because christian has not been to church for nine years. Her family was really excited that she is going. but hopefully they will come this sunday. we have been teaching jasmine and she is working on stopping smoking. she has two kids and one of them is two years old and he is crazy and wild. throws things around the house and just screams or cries to get the things that he wants but he is so funny. 

Heating up!

Yeah It has been really hot here in the 100's. but it has been really humid. I have been hearing that we are going to get a big tropical storm on thursday that will be fun to see. We are teaching this really cool investigator her name is christian and w have been teaching her for two weeks. she has come to church twice and she loves it. In the lessons with her we can see the spirit so strongly working with her it is so amazing and it is hard to explain. when we taught her the word of wisdom she quit on the spot. she took all of her cigerettes and put them in the sink and got her gallon of tea and poured it all over her cigerettes and she dumped out all of her coffee in the trash. she is going to get rid of the coffee pot to her mother it was so awesome. We set a bptismal date with her for July 21st but we are going to see if we can bump that up a week.

we had three investigators at church on sunday and it seemed they all loved it. This area has a lot of potential and it really could use a nother companionship of elders. Oh yeah we get the transfer calls this saturday and I will see if i get transfered which I think I am pretty sure that i am. I will let you all know next monday. I have grown so much this transffer it is so crazy. It has gone by so fast, its getting faster and faster and before I know it I will be going home. I love our branch because members take us out all day and we have been burly even used our bikes.
 

Mission Update

Yeah I saw my mission president and told me that he saw my brother. He said your chances of getting transfered to Baytown is very unlikely but it is still possible. Transfers are two weeks from tomorrow. I am most likely going to get transfered, and I am probably going to train. there are seven elders and four sisters coming out next transfer. then a lot more coming out the next two transfers after that. we teach the lessons together.

Three of our investigators came to church yesterday and one of them was so nervice that she was shaking but at the end she stopped and she actually loved it and wants to come next week and also our other two investigators also loved it. yesterday we set a baptismal date with one of them and her name is jasmine Logan she has three little kids. her date is the 14th of July. we are working with her to stop smoking and drinking. she is very excited.

The work with the less actives and members is going very well. One of our members comes out with us from 2:00 to 9:00 he loves it. we are working with a less active part member family trying to get them all to church and taught. We are also working with some other less actives but have not seen any progress.

Hurricane of Missionary Work

Well we have been teaching alot this past week we taught 27 lessons yeah we have been really busy but we have like five new investergators that we have been teaching. One of the is muslim and he is really interested. Are mission president have asked us that we memorize the joseph smith story. starting from " In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions" all the way to the first vision and excluding the satan part. It took me awhile but I have it down. I cited it to a investigator that we have and it was really good.

Yeah this week we are going to kingwood for two an half days. The mission president calls to elders to be trainers and they train missionaries to be better teachers, planners, and everything like that. I will tell you more about it next week. then right after that we have a baptism with a investigator that we have been teaching for a month and a half. She is really excited.

Oh yeah today we have a zone p-day and we are watching the best two years man it is going to be so funny to watch especially when I am a missionary right know because I can apply it very well. That will be a lot of fun. Besides that it is getting really hot and humid everything is going really great. Hurricane season just started and if there is one we will evacuate two weeks in advance and the whole mission will go to Dallas until everything calms down. Then come back and do a lot of service work. Love you all,

elder hickey

Multi-mission conference!

I love my new companion he is so awesome he is a really good hard worker and we have been working so hard the past few weeks that we have been exhausted. the weather has been in the 90's but it will get even hotter in the next month or two. No we do not have a car but we have a member that takes us out from two a clock to nine a clock and he loves it. we bike some but not that much and when you bike you sweat like crazy. the tri-mission conference was awesome Elder Johnson talked about alot of good things. I also saw a few people that went to school with me. Elder David Shaws and I forgot the other one. they are in the other houston missions. Elder Johnson created a new stake. it is called the summerwood stake and our mission will be covering it. Oh yeah we will have nine new english elders that are coming in the next transfer and then 11 new english elders coming in the next one after that because we are down 16 elders short of what we are supposed to be. so I will be most likely going to be training this next transfer or the next after that.


Yeah we are working with a few new investigators that we have found the past week. we will see how solid all of them are. But we have a baptism for tori on the 16th. which is really exciting.

Transfers

Unconvential Companion
I got a new companion and his name is Elder Sylvester he is from Draper, Utah and he has been out for 8 months. But he is not the normal mormon that you hear of from Utah he is actually a convert to the church and he is the only member in his family. Yeah there are such things as non members in Utah. He has been a member for five years. Actually his family is being tauight by the missionaries right know because they loved what the church the gospel of Jesus Christ did to him. He is way excited that they are listening to the message.

TractingWe have been really busy this past week. We have been trying to find new investigators. So we have been doing alot of tracting. We had eighteen return appointments for the week and that is alot but some of them did not go through. Oh yeah we just found this young vietnamese family yesterday and they can speak english a little bit. not to well. So we are going to give them a vietnamese book of mormon and bible and hopefully they will hear the gospel from missionaries. I wish we could but we do not know vietnamese.

MiraclesOh this is a cool miracle story we were tracting at some apartment complex and we knocked on this one door and a eighteen year old answered the door and he said to come on in. we started to talk to him and get to know him and he said that he was praying like ten minutes before we knocked on his door to Heavenly Father that he would show him were he needs to go and can find happiness and we knocked on his door that was pretty cool so we are teaching him right know. his name is corey plumber. we are teaching a few other people.

BaptismsOh yeah we have a baptsim on June 16th with tori miller and she is pretty excited. There is quite a few things that are happening this week. tomorrow we are going to the temple, and on Saturday we are have a tri-mission conference with all the houston missions and elder johnson is speaking to all of us so that will be exciting. 

Spiritual Fire

First Baptismal Ordinance and Many More
This past week was awesome we had three baptisms. I baptized Dwyne Daugherty and it was the first one I have done on my mission I got nervous when I got into the water and had to say the prayer like eight times but it was all good. then I baptized Corey a really cool guy and I only had to do it once. we baptized mackie in the singles branch. they were all very spiritual uplifting experiences. We have another baptism on June 16th. Which we are excited about. We had a cottage meeting yesterday and it was very good. Corey the one that got baptized shared his testimony and it was powerful and then a member shared a talk on the book of mormon it was a really good day. yeah I am staying another transfer in Beaumont but my companion is leaving so I will be getting a new companion tommorrow. we have to be at the kingwood stake center tomorrow at 11:00. I did not get a calling yet, I will be getting an experienced elder. It has been really great. Oh yeah I found out this past week that three of the investigators that I was teaching in my last area just recently got baptized.

It's been a long time

Sorry everyone that it has taken me this long to do any posts, but I went to Peru, got married, and moved across the country this past month and a half, anyways, here are Elder Hickey's next five emails in series, starting with the first and some photos!




Baptisms
Things are going really great here in Texas with all the baptisms that are coming up in the next few weeks. We have a part member family the husband is getting baptized this tuesday which is really exciting. his name is Dwyne Daugherty he loves the church and the branch and especially that he can get sealed in the temple for all time and eternity.

Then we have a young single adult that is getting baptized on the 20th she is from portland, oregon and she is a secretary for the alarm systems and she is so awesome since we have been coming over and she has been going to church she said that she felt so comfortable and peaceful and that it seems like she heard of it before which she did in the pre-earth life that is showing the spirit is working on her.

We have another investigator her name is tori miller and her date is the June 16th and they are all excited and have come a long way. We have found more people that we have been starting to teach and hopefully we will set a baptismal date with them soon. the Lord is blessing this area, it is so great to see how the gospel changes peoples lives.

All about investigators

Investigator Progress
The investigators are going really great we are the Daughterys the part member family and we watched the talk from Elder Uctdorff the talk called you matter to him and that really touched him and it remined him of his mother because she is German and his experiences over in Germany he really like Elder Uctdorff. It really touched him and he is progressing really well and he has been reading and has a lot of questions that we are going to answer later tonight and he loves the branch. His date of getting baptized is the may 19th and we are really excited.

New Investigator These past two sundays some returned missionaries from Utah came down and are selling the alarms for the summer. they are pretty cool and they have a secretary that is from Portland, Oregon and she is not a member and they brought her to church and it seemed like she loved it. later that night we went over and began teaching the lessons. she said she felt peace when she was at our church and that what we believe makes sense about that there is a prophet on the earth and about Joseph Smith. she said that she went to a baptist church in California and the first time she went she felt good so she went back and then she did not feel good about it because the preacher was yelling and pounding so she never went back and has not been to church since then and she has a lot of questions that she asked to the preacher but he could not answer them and when we taught the first part of the lesson her questions were being answered it was so cool. the spirit was so strong. she accepted to be baptized on May 26th so we are excited for her. this is going to be a life changing experience for her. this is in the young singles ward branch. they are excited too. 

Year mark!

Thomas Baptism
My week has been fantastic. We had a baptism on Saturday with Lester Thomas He is such a really cool humble person. He was so excited to be baptized and he felt so happy when he came out of the water and told us how much he loves us and the branch like we were his family yeah he has been helping us out a lot with service. we are helping a member remodling a house that got burnt by a tv fire and there is alot of smoke damage. so we have been scrubbing the walls and the ceiling, took out part of the wall that was really damaged and we painted it, the walls and the ceiling. It is looking a lot better than what it used to be.



Lots of Fish
After the baptism we had a fish fry which was so good, less actives came, some non members came and they loved it, they had 80 to 100 pounds of fish and there was leftovers and there was dessert after it was so good. On sunday evening we had a cottage meeting which is a little fireside where members can bring there non member friends and family to and it takes plave in a members home and there is a speaker and music and refreshments it was pretty good.

New Investigator
We were teaching this guy named eddie who is kind of the manager of over some apartments with his wife and we thought she was not interested at all. we taught eddie the first time and he was asking a lot of questions and seem really interested but when we came back we found out that he got into anti-mormon material and does not want to talk to us but his wife does not believe him she likes us and wants to know the truth of what we believe and so we taught her today had a lot of questions and was really interested and wants to come to church oh yeah she was catholic growing up and baptized in the baptist church but she does not believe what they teach she only goes because she wants to know more about the bible. she does not believe what everyone say about us or what the internet says so she is going to be a really solid investigator.

the picture with the flag is called spindletop park. it is the first big oil place, it was cool to read and learn about.

the fish I caught was kroker fish I think that is how you spell it. it would make this croaking sound and you coudl hear hear it when you hold it.

Lots and Lots of Goodness in Texas

1st Year Reflection
Yeah I can't believe that I have been out for a year this coming Friday. It feels like we were sitting in cold stone and I was the first one to finish and anxious to go and was worried that I was going to be late and kept bugging dad and telling him how much longer we had until I was late and he said your fine I am sure the other missionaries will be late. then you guys dropped me off at the MTC said our goodbyes and I was about to leave and mom is like wait we want hugs. After that I was headed off not knowing what I was going to get myself into. Actually the first day I was nervous but it turned out to be good. I am so glad that I am came on my mission it has changed me so much. To see how the gospel changes so many peoples lives and seeing what they are willing to give up for it. Just being In Texas I am so grateful that I had the gospel in my life and was raised in such a awesome wonderful family. It is so sad with all the things that happen out here and how much they are really missing not knowing what the gospel will do for them. I am so grateful for all your support and prayers. I know that as we are faithful we will be blessed and that we do not have to worry what is going to happen in the future just as long as we are faithful and trust in him all will be made right.

Miracle with Thomas This past week has been crazy we have been on our bikes alot and it has been tiring and exhausting. We have seen so many miracles it is so amazing. like for example one of our investigators Lester Thomas I think I told you about him did I? well we have been teaching him and he said that before we met with him he was praying for help and that same day we contacted him and since then he has felt happier, and better about himself, He said that he would stop smoking completly in a week. he has been smoking for forty years and have always wanted to stop and he did it cold turkey. He said it was the priesthood blessing that we gave him and when we come over it would give him more motivation to stop. which he did stop smoking completely. This past week we went over to see how he was doing and we saw him drinking a nice hot cup of coffee oops forgot to tell him that he could not drink coffee. we told him about the word of wisdom and he put the coffe down and said I will not pick it up again. He is so awesome and the Lord has prepared him and has led us to him. He loves coming to church. he is getting baptized next week.

Miracle BaptismAnother miracle that I have seen this past week is with another investigator that we have been teaching Roy. His grandfather came down town and visited them and Roy told us that he is pentacostal, oh great. Roy Told us not to tell his grandfather that he was going to get baptized because his grandfather does not like mormons. My compaion forgot and said to the grandfather has Roy told you that he was going to get baptized tomorrow and the grandfather said no he has not excitedly but really he was not, and Roys eyes went big he was like on no, yeah the baptism was not going to happen. We were going still have his baptismal interview but his grandfather took him to get a haircut and trying to tell him anti-mormon stuff to him and Roy did not know what to do and was confused. We kept on and visting Roy and told him that we love him and want the best for him and told him to pray to Heavenly Father on what he needs to do, If getting baptized is what Heavenly Father wants him to do. His grandfather finally left and since then Roy's desire to learn and to be baptized has increased and has been made stronger. He felt so happy and has felt the spirt so strongly when we meet with him. Him and his grandmother is going to church this Sunday. From Roy's example he has brought another person into the gospel and this will bless him and his family.  hopefully the grandfather will have a change of heart. I know that when Roy is baptized his family will follow behind him.

Motivation of the Temple
We know are teaching a less active part member family and they are awesome the Daugherty's. The husband is not a member and is really interested what caught his attention is that families can be sealed in the temple for all time and eternity and he is awesome and very sincere. He is going to read the book of mormon. He does not know that much about our church but what he has heard from our church it is good like that we have a non-paid ministry that we do not force people to believe, that we have members go visit another and some other stuff. We are going to set a baptismal date with him hopefully this week.

Easter!

Easter Testimony
Especially it was easter yesterday a day to remember our Lord, Savior, Redeemer, Jesus Christ that he LIVES! That I know he loves each and everyone of us. He has felt our sorrows, our pain, lonliness, and every other discomfort that we have felt and will feel. He knows what each of you are going through and as we go to him and that through the atonement we can feel peac, love, and joy. I know he will always be there to help us in the diffult times. That I know that everyone will be resurrected and we all will return to our Heavenly Father's presence and as families forever. That we can pray to our Heavenly Father and he will answer you and will guide you throughout your life. As long as we search, ponder, pray wilth real intent and sincere heart believing that we will recieve it will be given to us but we got to listen that is what I am working on. When we usually pray, we say it and then we end it and we are on our way but we have to stop and listen to that still small voice that will touch the heart. He might not answer right away but he will answer you as you continue to search, read, pray, and listen.

Easter Miracles

On easter I made the frog eye salad it turned out pretty good but it could of been better. On easter we did some tracting and we taught this person that we tracted into two weeks ago and the lesson was so good, the spirit was so strong. At the end she was teary eyed. She is so grateful that she met us. She is going through a hard time but she commited to be baptized at the beginnin of next month becasue she wants to wait for her son to get back so she can be baptized when he does. Oh yeah we found her during the hour of power before that me and my companion each prayed into different rooms were we needed to tract and we came up with Broadway street and that is where we found Christine our investigator that is getting baptized in the beginning of next month. She is a stay home mom. she is white. I dont think that she works. All her kids have moved out. She is about in her late forty's. She just moved from Florida.

Another miracle that we have seen this past week is we were going to contact a potential invesstigator but they were not home and we saw a couple of people sitting outside on the porch so we decided to talk to them and we found out tha this one guy was more interested than any of them. We started to teach him and he said he was praying for somewhere to go to church and that he can get his life back in straight. the lesson was good, the spirit was strong and he believed everything we taught so the second time we went over there we commited him to be baptized which he accepted which is going to be at the end of the month. He said that he will stop smoking cold turkey without the smoking lesson that we usually teach people. We did give him a priesthood blessing and he has not smoked for a week now, He came to church yesterday and he liked it. he was paying attention real close. Oh yeah his name is Lester Thomas he is a black guy in his late fifty's. He does not work, he is very down to earth person loves to read the bible.

General Conference Week

Cool Finding Story & Mormon Messages
We had another cool story we were riding our bikes to an appointment and this black guy stopped us and started to talk to us, we asked him why he stopped us? He said that he felt he needed to stop us and to talk to us? He said that he lives with his mom so he is pretty lonely and he is really glad that he met with us. He is so excited that there is a prophet on the earth today. Not that many people knows that there is a prophet on the earth today. I am so grateful for that knowledge and that we get to hear from the prophet and apostles every six months. By the way general conference was way good. I really liked the saturday morning session there was a lot of good talks. I liked Uctdorfs talk when he said just STOP IT! that was funny. We had a investigator come to priesthood meeting and to the sunday afternoon session we did invite other investigators but they did not show up. Next week it is Easter. A time to think about the savior and about his resurrection. I love this video it is a mormon message. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXrOG02NMB0&feature=player_embedded and this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpFhS0dAduc&feature=player_embedded Roy our investigator is getting baptized this Saturday which we are excited. this branch has not had a baptism for awhile.

Living Arrangments

Here is our house


there is a kitchen

two bedrooms which one of them we do not really use

two bathrooms

our study rooms

we have a living room which I forgot to take a picture of.