Week 10 (12/25/2018) Merry Christmas

Feliz Navidad!

There's a lot to talk about this week, with transfers last week, and Christmas this week, so we'll do our best! 

So, we'll hit transfers very first. I am now with Elder Gunderson in Cleveland South! A very different experience from Jasper is that us missionaries aren't alone--we have a set of sisters in the ward, and a set of Spanish elders in the next apartment complex over, so we been partying. Appropriately for mission life, of course. Other than that, Cleveland seems like a good place, similar size to Jasper. We haven't hit a whole bunch of our area yet, stayed pretty local. 

My first day in the area we visited the dollar 29 store, where everything is a dollar 29. And it has random stuff-my first visit I bought a tiny mattock for our Christmas conference white elephant gift exchange...I wish I thought to take a picture. But fun times. We do have a Walmart, as well, so I can still go grocery shopping. 

Oh, so the Spanish elders are Elders Montesino and Stobart, they're great, but more on them later. 

People being taught report: C__ is a sweet woman who is being prepared for baptism. We have met with her several times already. 

Okay, so Christmas conference was a lot of fun. I sang in the talent show, Sally's Because You Prayed For Me. It didn't go as well as I would have hoped, but I'll include a video of it. (Editors note: he forgot to include the video. I'll add it in when I get it.)Then we had a fun white elephant gift exchange, and a good devotional. So that was fun.

Christmas eve we didn't have a dinner set up with members, which we told the Spanish Elders about that morning. So they texted their dinners and asked if they could bring us. We visited their members and their people being taught with them. Over the course of the day we had Venezuelan, Cuban, and Mexican food. Since my family's tradition was to have tacos Christmas eve, it was a cool thing. A lot better than our fake tacos, though ;) it was actually really fantastic.

Christmas, this morning, I made muffins and we went over to the Spanish Elders to have Christmas morning together. Thank you everyone! I'm wearing my present from Brother French, pictures included. 

We went to the B__'s to call home for Christmas. Love you, family! It was cool to see them, and everyone seems to be doing good at home, so that is good. 

Wow, I guess I just am not super prolific in my words today. I said my first prayer in Spanish this week, so that was fun! 

Feliz Navidad, todos mis amigos!

Elder DeFord

Week 9 (12/17/2018) Foster Care

Well, as you may have already heard, I am being ripped from my "father," Elder Lloyd, and going into foster care. In other words, I am getting transferred. It is a little unusual to happen during my training, but it does happen sometimes. I am really sad to leave Jasper behind. It has been a great area, and I love all of the people in the branch. They have really made me feel loved and at home. 

But times come and go, and I will be traveling today to the Cleveland south area to serve with Elder Gunderson (I am typing this up before I meet him, so I will give more info later/add it in before I send this, whatever works best). It seems like it is a bit more of a metropolitan area, so we'll see about how it all works out. 

To tell you a little bit about my week, the first new person we found to teach this week was D__. We were tracting down his road, and noticed him standing outside talking to someone, but we called over that we were missionaries sharing a message about Jesus Christ and he calls back "well get up here and share a message about Christ, then!". It turns out he had just finished his weekly bible study with his neighbors, but we had a good talk with him. He didn't think he would change from his current church, but when we gave him the Book of Mormon he said that if it was about Christ he would love to read it. When we met with him next he told us that he likes what it says, and feels like it says a lot of the stuff in the bible, and that he plans to read all of it, so that is pretty cool. 

Wednesday was a pretty exciting day. We were planning to do family history with a recent convert to get names to take to the temple for the Elder's quorum temple trip on Saturday. So we got to the church a couple of hours before the ward Christmas party to do that, but ended up finding his names pretty quick. We had just about a half hour before the party, so we were just chatting with branch members, but Elder Lloyd has this feeling that we need to get out. So we excuse ourselves and try and find people. We didn't meet with any success, but with only five minutes until the party we decide to stop by O__'s house. O__ was someone we almost dropped and didn't have a lot of hope for, but we went for it. We get in, and instead of O__ we see K__, another one of our investigators we had been having a hard time getting a hold of! So we scheduled an appointment with him, then as we leave O__ is walking in. We talk for just a moment, but he says that he feels good about our church and wants to come on Sunday! Wow! Well, we go to our ward Christmas party, and caroling at a retirement home, which was cool. Elder Lloyd and I have just a little bit of time before nine, so we go to contact at the park. And who should we run into but O__ again! This time he shares with us that he had been reading the Book of Mormon and the good feelings he has! Super cool day and experience. 

On the topic of the temple trip, we were going to go but ended up not being able to because our recent convert fell down and was too hurt to go. 

Well, that's a lot of it. We found a cool woman named K__ who currently doesn't have much of a belief in God but was interested in hearing our message. Elder Lloyd and his new companion will get to follow up more with that. Also, we don't have enough miles for our car, so we biked a lot this week. And Jasper is the one place in southeast Texas with hills. Big ones. Sigh. But I am grateful for the opportunity to get in shape, I guess. 

I love you all, and have yourselves a merry little Christmas!

Love, Elder DeFord

Ps. I got Elder Lloyd's new companion a welcome to the mission present. 

They met a woman who raises quail

Week 8 (12/10/2018) Driving At Last

So, chronologically, last p-day dad sent me a mission story about "spiritual tracting" (ask him about it). That evening Elder Lloyd and I were going out tracting, so I said, hey, Elder Lloyd, we've already tracted out a lot of places, why dont we do this thing my dad talked about. So we did, ended up in what may have been a bad part of town (It wasnt that bad, but Elder Lloyd said some people have warned him off it) where we met a very nice Hispanic woman, A__. She let us in, we taught the restoration, set up a return appointment and everything. Our third lesson with her is tonight! So that was a cool miracle. 

We go to the Park most nights to keep from knocking doors after 8 o'clock. With the lights there are often families walking around. Elder Lloyd had the inspired idea to ask if they would like us to take their pictures with the lights. Boom, quality contacts, hasn't failed yet. We haven't found anyone to teach at the park yet, but at least have had good contact with people. 

Tuesday was new missionary training, which is significant in that I got my Tiwi (teenage independent witness) card and am authorized to drive. So I get to drive. But it was a good meeting, President Hewlett was really focusing on setting goals. They fed us meatball subs for lunch, & ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Well, when they were cleaning up I asked Sister Hewlett how I could help, and she asked me to take the leftovers. Well, we had a two hour drive home, and no refrigeration...I had eaten 8 ice cream sandwiches by the time they were too melted to consume. 

Also on Tuesday we did exchanges with the Woodville elders, so Elder King and I partied it up in Woodville. We didn't have any lessons that night, but a sweet sister in the branch retaught me how to crochet and gave me some yarn and a needle. So that has been fun. 

 

Wednesday was still exchanges for most of the day. Elder King and I did some service for the morning, and then taught an hour long lesson to a guy wearing only a blanket wrapped around his waist. Ended up being a pretty good lesson, though, and Elders King and Ure are still teaching his family. 

We had a lesson with A__ that night. It was cool because we brought her a Spanish Book of Mormon, and then as we talked about scriptures I would read them in Spanish with her. She really appreciated that.

Thursday was tracting all day except for weekly planning. It got pretty long. 

Friday was an alright day, although it rained all day long. All of Saturday too, actually. Tracting in it was fun: I am grateful for shoes that are largely waterproof. One family we knocked into grows oranges and loaded us up with two grocery bags filled with them, so we have been eating those since. 

 

Saturday was a miracle day. Elder Lloyd said that he had had Kirbyville bouncing around all morning, so we drove out there & tried to contact people in our area book. After a slow start, we tried to find this one family that showed two children of record but no parents. Well, we get there and the grandpa says grumpily that there are no Mormons there, then a younger woman comes out and says she was a Mormon, but asked for her name to be taken off of the roll. It looked like she was about to tell us to go away and to take her daughters names off as well, but I testified boldly that we were sent there to invite her back, and Elder Lloyd testified about Christ, and she softened up and began telling us her story. By the end of our visit she said she would consider coming back to church. She doesn't have a phone or car, so we will have to try and visit her again. 

We tried to contact another inactive in Kirbyville and we found her, M__, and as we talked to her we found out that she hadn't been to church for 20 years, never really read the Book of Mormon or anything. Well, we invited her back and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. She said that she would come! And she was there Sunday, and said she would be next week too! Awesome!

Also, incidentally, Elder Lloyd's and my apartment is pretty great. Not least because we keep it clean, but it is also apparently one of the nicest apartments. So that is a nice blessing.

Merry Christmas,

Elder DeFord

 

Elder DeFord Lighting the World

Taco Soup for Dinner

 

Week 7 (12/3/2018) Another Week?

Hello all!

Time feels so weird out here in the mission field. Each day seems to last forever, and then it is night and I can hardly remember what happened during the day. And then each week goes on and I can hardly remember what happened. It feels all at once long and short. I'll do my best to give a good rundown, though. 

Let's see...we have found some cool families this week. We actually tracted into M__ last week, but we had another lesson with her on Tuesday that went really well. Then on Wednesday we were tracting, knocked on this home and were let in by a Hispanic woman. She told us that her father-in-law was a member and that that was the 2 anniversary of his death, so we know that we were led there. We have a lesson coming up with her, but I'm.going to miss it due to exchanges. The other family we were excited about, the Mc__, well...so we met A__, the mom, when we were trying to contact a potential next door. We gave her "The Family, A Proclamation to the World", but probably weren't going to check back, since she didn't seem too interested. Well, we came back to the area, again trying to contact her neighbor, and we met her husband who said that she had read our pamphlet and was researching our church. Wow! So we asked when we could come back, and showed up on Thursday to talk to her. She had questions, but as we followed the spirit and testified she really seemed impressed with our faith and what we believed. She said she would think about coming to church, and we were supposed to call her on Saturday. Fast-forward to Saturday: we call, she answers...she had watched an anti-Mormon video in the meantime. So she dropped us, and is praying for our souls. Oh well. The last family we found, the S__'s, are just a nice little family. It was funny, we'd been trying to get in with them, finally found them at home and taught a quick lesson, and then we went to the park to try and street contact. And they were apparently going to the park too! So we kept seeing each other and waving ;)

I was reading in Alma this week, Alma 24:7-16 where King Anti-Nephi-Lehi speaks to his people, and chapter 26 where Ammon "glories in the Lord", and I got to thinking about the Lord's hand in our lives. Both the king and Ammon talk about how they and the people did certain things, but they attribute all of the growth and progress and change to the Lord. I thought about the Alma 32 faith as a seed analogy. We have to plant the seed, and nurture it for it to grow. But we can't say that we made it grow. God is the one that makes plants grow. And the same is with our lives. We allow God to work in our lives and he makes us grow and make changes. I really like D&C 59:21 on that subject, as well. 

Other things that happened this week: I had my first zone conference! We drove down to Oakhurst, outside of Houston, and got to listen to President and Sister Hewlett address us. Sister Hewlett gave some great points about using the Book of Mormon and being passionate about what we share. She asked if any of us had a Book of Mormon story or prophet we were passionate about. My hand flew into the air..."Mahonri Moriancumer!". So I got to share a little bit about why I liked him, and then she talked about how my countenance changed because I was passionate about the subject. 

On Friday and Saturday Elder Davies, one of our zone leaders, came to do exchanges with Elder Lloyd and I. Because it's quite a ways for them to come, one went with the Woodville elders and one went with us to form two trios. It was a great day, we had a lot of really good contacts. Elder Davies is really bold, so I made some goals to be more like that in declaring our message and promising blessings. 

 

At our Sunday meetings, we had none of our investigators come...that reminds me, for those of you keeping track, we haven't been able to meet with F__ or K__, so neither of them are on date anymore. Were trying to fix that. Anyways, we had this guy we didn't recognize show up at sacrament meeting. We were a little wary, he looked grouchy and a little wild, but when we talked to him after he said he had read the Book of Mormon 3 times, knows it is true, and believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and wants to be a member of the church. What!? It sounds like he has an interesting story, so we will try and work with him, but that was a pretty cool miracle. 

Alright, that probably at least let's you know I'm still alive and doing well. I love the Jasper branch! Have a great week, y'all!

Love,

Elder DeFord

 

Double Rainbow

Some chickens that were free roaming around the road. We wanted to grab and cook one

 

Week 6 (11/26/2018) Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! Thanksgiving can step aside, here in Jasper.

 

Not that Thanksgiving wasn't wonderful. We ate with a great family, the O__'s, who are really fun to talk to and be around. They are actually originally from Utah, but Bro. O moved down here because the jobs were better. Their daughter is the theatre teacher at Jasper high school, so that is pretty cool. But that was really good, we enjoy visiting with them. And they invited us to go fishing in their pond some p-day, so that was nice of them and we look forward to it. Apparently ponds in Texas are self-stocked by birds and runoffs, so you never even have to put fish in. Pretty cool!

 

 

We did a lot of biking the beginning of this week, but it has at least warmed up some down here. I feel kind of chilly in the 50's, admittedly, but I think that that is the humidity. I feel bad for that below freezing weather back home. We are still getting 70's and stuff, and with its hills Jasper is one of the colder parts of the mission. I'll probably not be so happy come summer, though ;)

Mom pointed out that I didn't elaborate much on my cop story from last week. Well, we were tracting at night at an apartment complex, someone took offense to that and called the cops. They showed up about a minute later (such fast response times!) And did the whole "can I help you gentlemen" speel. He told us not to knock "after business hours" and that he wouldn't throw us off of the property this time. Well, we went on our way and are still knocking up until 9 PM, since that's within our rights. But fun times!

So for Thanksgiving I studied, surprise surprise, gratitude. I was reading in Teaching of the Presidents of the Church, Brigham Young, and he said something pretty strongly. He said that he knows of no sin, save the unpardonable sin, greater than the sin of ingratitude. Woah. His take on gratitude is the one expressed in the scripture about if someone receives not a gift then neither the giver or the receiver rejoices in it: that is, we have been given our circumstances and we show gratitude by improving upon what we have been given. I really liked the thoughts that he gave.

We had a lesson with F__ this week that ended up being pretty cool. As we were talking he opened up to us and shared three distinct ways that he had felt the spirit during this process (though he didn't know that's what it was) he talked about being prompted to speak to us, that a weight had been taken off of his chest, that he wasn't having dark thoughts or desires to do things that are wrong anymore. That was a pretty cool experience!

 For Christmas Zone Conference I'm going to be performing in a talent show, singing Because You Prayed for Me by Sally, so that will be fun. I'm also accompanying the primary for two songs in the branch. I'm getting plenty of opportunities to improve my playing! 

Okay, as to Christmas. On Saturday, before all the Turkey leftovers were even out of the fridge, Jasper celebrated Christmas in the Park. Big ol' festival, lots of people out, live music, all sorts of fun stuff. I'll include pictures, and videos of the fireworks! What a show! They really put our meager 4th of July to shame, and this was just for Christmas ! ;) I was playing "try and video the finale" and have lots of videos because there were lots of impressive bits. Pretty fun! We struggled contacting people, though. Even though it was a celebration about Christ, nobody wanted to talk about him ;) we did run into someone, though, who had been baptized as a kid and hadn't been back since, so that was a blessing. Were going to try and follow up with them this week. 

Alright, well, I think that is about it. By the end of the week a lot of stuff just doesnt seem too important anymore ;) but I'm alive and well, and you can always address any questions to me directly if you want to hear more.

With love,

Elder DeFord

 

 

 

 

Week 5 (11/19/2018) The Houston Temple

I just want to be clear at the start of this email that the guidelines for emailing I talked about last week only apply to me, and you all can respond and email me as much as you want, I can still read stuff throughout the week. I dont know if I was clear about that last week.

Okay, on to the mailer!

Our weather has been on the fritz. On Tuesday we actually saw snowflakes! And by Friday it was over 70 degrees outside during the day, which I think is actually more normal for this area. 

In any case, we had the great opportunity to visit the Houston Temple on Tuesday! It took most of the day, so our p-day today is actually shortened to pay for it, but I'm so grateful that we have the opportunity to go. When I found out that the temple was outside of my mission I was disappointed because I figured we wouldn't be able to go very often, but I am grateful we get to go quarterly. It's a big blessing. Br. C__ drove us down, but I'll talk about him more in a minute. The Houston temple is a beautiful building, and of course the spirit within was delightful. 

Also on Tuesday, when we were out proselyting after 8, we got the cops called on us. And we are being told by the ward council that our nighttime work is getting lots of comments on Facebook, some good, some bad, some people encouraging others to call the cops on us. Well, any publicity is good publicity....right? But I know that President Hewlett was inspired to give us the counsel to knock until 9, so knock we will. 

A little bit more about Jasper: since we drove out of the city limits several times, I got to see the city population on the sign and all. Jasper has a population of 7,714 people. Does anyone know how that compares to Tri-Cities/Kennewick? It only has one each of elementary, middle school, and high school, and all of their mascots are the bulldog, so everyone is a bulldog fan here. It's small, but a good place, and even though the branch is small it is really wonderful, we have some great members. And that brings me to Br. C__.

I dont know if I said anything about Br. C__ last week, but we love him. He has taken F__, our baptismal candidate, under his wing. He takes us out for lunch with F__, and then teaches him a lesson and gives us some time to teach, as well as helping get F__ the temporal support and guidance he needs. Even after all that, he drove us to the temple, taking up his whole day. He is a great guy, and a really good teacher. His calling for the past 10 years has been to teach the gospel in the prison every Sunday for two hours, so he has lots of experience. We've been very grateful for his support, which is coming at a time when his wife has been sick, as well. I aspire to be as charitable and dependable as him. He also has given us just some really great life advice. And to top it all off, he's hilarious. So we love Br. C__. 

He's not the only fantastic member of our branch, though. We have a lot of people who were converts to the church but are now stalwarts of the faith. It is a great area, country and small not-withstanding. 

Also, just kind of on a side note, have you ever noticed how posture can affect your mood? One thing I try to be aware of is walking with my head upright. When I walk I usually look down at my feet, which is fine and all. But when I stand up straight and hold my head erect, I just feel happier and more confident, I can hardly keep from grinning. Just from better posture. Pretty weird, but I promise it works. 

For an investigator report, F__ is progressing well, and we put a young kid named K__ on date as well! Our goal for this week is three on date, so we are working with some more people we hope will accept the invitation. More on that next week, if it works out. 

Let's see. On Thursday and Friday we did exchanges, so Elder Ure came up to Jasper and I got to lead out for the days activities. It ended up being a great day, with several good lessons (and at least one not great one-we taught a drunk guy the restoration in about three minutes and gave him a book of Mormon. At Elder Ure's insistence-I wouldn't have bothered considering how far gone he looked. Well, he may not remember us, but maybe the book will stir something inside of him). Because it was my area, I got more of an opportunity to be the lead in teaching and stuff, and it was a good experience for me. I felt good about where I was at. 

For a spiritual experience from this week, one night pretty late when we were tracting we saw a guy going into a house, so we chatted with him...he went in and sent another guy out, who went and pulled someone else out for us to talk to...eventually I think we were talking to 4 20-ish year old men on the doorstep. We explained a little about the restoration, and they kept asking really great questions. I really felt the spirit bringing scriptures and answers to my mind, and Elder Lloyd must have too, because we were able to answer everyone of their questions, and reference a bible scripture almost every sentence. Sometimes Elder Lloyd would be talking and I would think something like "oh, Hebrews 12:9 would go great here" and then a second later he would say "in Hebrews 12:9 it says...". So that was a powerful teaching experience. After we left Elder Lloyd shared that he was pretty sure he recognized one of them, and that they were part of a youth Baptist group and had essentially been trained to trip us up and get us to contradict ourselves our admit to being supremacists or whatever the case may be. But instead the spirit led us to "confound" all of their attempts, and hopefully they will remember the things we taught-from the bible- the next time their pastor "teaches" them about the Church of Jesus Christ. 

Just to close, we did some service for an unbaptized daughter of a member of our branch...and apparently it is a thing in Texas to just pile all of your trash in your yard and have a bonfire. So we burned a whole bunch of stuff. 

Oh! I guess I should mention that I spoke on Sunday. I talked about praying in faith, and how if we pray for missionaries to find people to teach but don't try and share with our friends and family, our prayers are in vain. I must have had the right mix of fire and the spirit in my talk, because I had a good fourth of the ward stop me to tell me how good my talk was, and we already have one referral from someone who said that as I talked a name came into her mind. See Elder Bednar's 2008 conference talk Ask In Faith for where I got some of my material, it's a good talk. 

With love,

Elder DeFord

P.S. any Christmas packages are supposed to be sent to 

2815 West Lake Houston Parkway, #109, Kingwood, TX 773458 (with Christmas written on the package)

More about Christmas next week! Y'all better be excited to hear about Christmas in Jasper. 

P.P.S. the Boot Barn is the most Texas store ever, and I love it. Pictures included. When I step off the plane in a couple years, I want to be decked out in their merchandise, belt buckle and hat and all.

Week 4 (11/11/2018) Welcome to Jasper

Welcome to Jasper!

Dad would hate it here. There are trees everywhere, very green. Jasper is a small town, but it does have a Walmart so that makes it a little better, I guess. Our area actually covers 3 or 4 more little towns, but I've only been to one other so far. We do have a car, but despite being one of the largest areas in the mission, we dont have as many miles as some other areas, so we try to bike when we can and when it isn't raining. 

Our apartment is nice, at least. It is a clean complex, a nice area, a little fishing pond/park just down the road. And it's one of the few apartments with two bathrooms, so that is a nice thing. Doesn't feel too cramped, and we have a washer/dryer in the apartment so we dont have to go anywhere. 

 

Elder Lloyd is quiet and reserved generally, so we get along pretty well. He's been out about 14 months, and is our district leader right now too. 

So I talked about the park near our apartment. Apparently Christmas is really important in Jasper. The whole park is filled with lifelike silhouettes of Christmassy things and what not, and it's on the light poles and everything. Well, where there are light poles. 

 

Other than that, Jasper is just a small and relatively poor town. The Jasper branch is 289 members strong, but has a 70% inactive rate so it's really just like 60 members. We do have a building, although the chapel is only like six rows long, and the gym is only half court. So it's small, but works for the small branch. Our branch president is President B__, he seems like a good guy. Our ward mission leader, Brother M__, is great, took us out for lunch on Wednesday to get to know me. Also in the branch is the R__ family.

The R__ family is important for several reasons. First off, at least three people we've contacted say they've talked about the gospel with C__ R__. He apparently knows everyone in Jasper and surrounding territories. The second is that the R__'s have some soon-to-be missionaries. So on Wednesday night we attended a mission call opening, and it was the full party, standing room only type of thing. L__ got called to the Yakima, Washington mission, so we'll be swapping places. Now, the second R__ thing is that we had a R__ missionary farewell on Sunday. And they went all out. 4 talks, 3 musical numbers, and doubled the size of the branch with family from the area, and then a party/linger-longer afterwards that was as elaborate as I've ever seen. That's just how the R__s are, I guess. But with the musical numbers, we got a text on Thursday asking "that new elder plays the piano, right?" So long story short, I played for one of the solo's, and sang in a group for another song. I'm glad the piano part wasn't too hard. Sorry I don't have a recording, I didn't think about it until afterwards. I'm also speaking next week, so the branch is eager to use me.

Okay, about the actual missionary work. When I got here, we had two people on date. An hour later, we only had one. Our good, progressing person dropped us because her inactive member boyfriend by which she has two children cheated on her. So then we only had F__ on date. So our week was spent tracting, tracting, tracting to find new people. When I got here on Monday-Wednesday, it was 80 degrees outside and absolutely terrible. By Friday it was down in the 40's and 50's and felt really cold. The time we're supposed to be out working is from 10-12, afternoon, and 6-9. Great. Well, it gets dark at 6, so we do a lot of tracting and knocking doors in the dark. And cold. And downpour, the last couple of nights. But things are going well. We found 8 people who were at least willing to have us come back, including one deaf lady who could read our lips. We're trying to get the ASL missionaries to video chat in so we can teach her. We also met a Brother G__, not a member but has been taught on and off for a long time. As we talked with him, he opened up to us in a way that he said that he never had before with missionaries, and both Elder Lloyd and I felt prompted that we needed to get him to baptism. So were going to try to get back there this week. 

President Hewlett wants all new missionaries to read the Book of Mormon in 11 weeks, at which point they have a thing called "new missionary certification" where a new elder, like me, has to teach five lessons solo, and have scripture references for certain topics memorized, and stuff. So I'm working on that, actually trying to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the year.

Okay, well, I feel like I've written a lot. There are more stories I could tell, obviously, but I think I'll stop there for today. Also, I can have a backpack in this mission, just like we guessed. I was going to get one today, but I got a little handle-bar bag for my bike instead, which should fit the bill. 

Signing out,

Elder DeFord

P.s. I realize I'm not in any of the pictures. I'll try and do a better job of picture taking. 

 

 

Week 3 (11/6/2018) Houston Texas, Can't Wait For Summer

I am now typing this email next to my new companion, Elder Lloyd. We are heading out to Jasper Texas later on today, where I will be serving.

Starting from where I last left off, my last weekend at the MTC went well, though I frankly can't remember much. One of our TRC practice investigators didn't show up for our last lesson, but we committed the other one to baptism. 

Okay, what you are all waiting for! We got on a bus Monday morning headed to the airport. A train ride and trolley later we were there. A very nice sister bought us lunch, we boarded the plane, and flew out. 

Most of the Missionaries were seated next to other Elders, but I had a nice man named Jeff next to me. Jeff is a mountain bike and ski instructor, and unequivocally not interested in hearing about the gospel. But I tried. 

Houston: we got off the plane and my skin felt sticky. This is late fall? 80 degrees and 90 percent humidity. I love breathing it, but I don't like feeling it. 

President and Sister Hewlett met us at the airport and drove us to the mission home. We had dinner, a short meeting, and retired for the night.

The Hewletts seem like great people, it was good getting to know them. I got to spend some time just singing and playing on the mission home piano, which made me feel like myself again. This morning we had 6 hours of meetings and training, and I met my new companion, who is from Idaho and that's all I know about him. 

Administration stuff: my p-days are on Monday, or on Tuesday if it is transfer day. We get to go to the temple quarterly and with any recent converts! So that is really exciting. I think my first trip will be in just a week or two. I don't know how everything is going, but this is going to be great. 

I love you all, and thank you for your well-wishes. Also, Emily sent me this nice tie pin, see picture, so I have the best sister. 

I'll include more when I remember it and if I have time. 

Elder Adam DeFord