May 16

first off today is May 16 if you havent already. listen to May 16 by Lagwagon for me.

this week were in a trio with E.Anderson cause elder herrin went to mcallen for a few days for a meeting. on tuesday it was about 105 and i wanted to die haha it was soooo hot oh my gosh! i was sweating so much it was like someone left the faucet on over my head. we got anderson to do a handstand pushup in a members house just on the spot it was awesome. Elder anderson is very shy so we always try and help him get out of his comfort zone. we passed by a couple people this week that it was pretty sad. this one lady we were talking to everything was going great she was in a rush so we made sure that next time we go she wouldnt bail. Birrell said lots of people go to church out of tradition cause thats where their parents went and thats not what god wants..and then the lady went on to say that she just goes to church out of tradition. Then we asked her if god had something else planned for her would she follow it. She said nope and thats she is fine where she is at. super unprepared but crazy and triste. she has kids and ahh its just always a bummer. so after we played HORSE with the kids in the street haha. something about being with the kids always touches my heart whenever they ask us when we are gong to come back.. its like dang man id hangout all day if i could.. the last day that we were in a trio with anderson was pretty good. started the day off by visiting the Jimenez family they are super dope and we got the primary vision and just lots of good info. then we were riding to visit hmna Aseves. she lives in the nursing home. on the way we passed a candy and soda shop. I was like wow that place seems awesome. we should go there. then farther down the street birrell was like we should go to it right now. in my mind i was like nah lets just visit the member but then randomly i was like eh whhy not i guess. So we turned around and went to it and we checked out everything inside. it was super awesome and one of the workers was helping us out and we were there for a little while come to find out the worker was a member and hadnt been to church in over a year. Its crazy how things workout. so we go visit hmna Aseves and we always go and sing to her well while we were talking to her at the end there was this other old lady from across the hall that was calling us. She was laying in her bed and looked very old and in spanish said please come over and help me, i feel very sick, please come. So after we walked over there and it honestly looked like she was about to die. so we sang Mas Cerca Dios De Ti and during it she fell asleep. for some reason it was a little funny and birrell and i werent able to finish the song so anderson finished by himself. it was a cloudy day gracias a dios so it wasnt so hot. later we visited blanca and oh my gosh we just want to help people its hard when they dont listen!! ahh!! haha but we still love them. later we were contacting a referral and i heard a familiar sound while we were contacting it. It was a skateboard hitting the concrete. so quickly after we set up a return appointment we went and found this 13 yr old kid skating. Im like dude lets play a game of SKATE it was super rad. and we just taught the gospel as we skated. " have you ever skated with the missionaries before?" at the end of the night this less active we have really been working with told us a parabol.." theres a monkey at a lake and he sees a fish and has compassion for it cause he sees it is struggling to breath and feels bad so he takes it out of the water and then the fish starts flopping around and dies, the monkey didnt understand the world that the fish was in.
on Friday the 13 a stray black cat ran passed us ahh! haha that day we met Alma, she has one leg and is super awesome and nice. on saturday we had a blitz in el centro's area. i was with anderson and it was pretty fun. it was puro espanol and in the blitz i realized how much i dont know haha it was kinda crazy but a good learning experience. id much rather talk in spanish. we met up with one of our investigators. Omar, he is going to rehab in a couple weeks. its crazy. he is a good kid just stuck in a rut. bums me out but i try and help them as much as i can. Lately we've talked to a ton of addicts or alcoholics its weird but i hope i am helping them in some way. I remember my senior year in highschool during spring break after a couple crazy days with my friends i decided to leave them and take a bus and train to meet my brother at his work to go to a family get together in Heber. On the way to my brothers work i was on the train and this service missionary got on all by himself and in my ming was like oh my gosh you better not sit by me.. ha and sure enough he came and sat by me "frick" i said in my mind.. he started talking to me about the gospel as if i wasnt a member and i dont really remember all of it but it was kinda cool now that i think about it. I was like mean to him and kept trying to push him away. If only the guy could know im on a mission right now. Him talking to me did help me in a time where i wasnt so sure. The lord helped me remember who i am and what i know is true in a time i really need to remember. i share this experience cause its what i think of everytime I talk to someone that isnt ready. Dont be discouraged. Youre such a blessing and you might not ever know . So say hi to someone and compliment them. Met this guy named kerry last night. super cool dude totally laid out his problems infront of us and that he wants help. we were like yes! we can help you. he had a crazy life his siblings are in cartels and hes the only good one. We always found Diana and Jose last night, they are a super dope couple and have 2 kids that are also super cool. we first met their kids when we played basketball with them. Pumped to see them progress! I think that is all. our lava lamp is still doing good. We went digging for ties this morning.

my dad would be proud im gardening now!

trio with anderson

last night with anderson

a members pit bulls they are so fun

we had to hop through these trains to get to the bodegas this morning.

Responsibility Whats That?

Had a super dope week.
so as an apartment we decided we should do our own fhe every week. We also bought a lava lamp to livin up our room haha. we went to LCC a couple times this week. LCC is Laredo Community College, some people call it Last Chance College hahah its super fun. so we went there and had like a booth set up and passed out cards and talked to a bunch of people and got a tonnnn of people to go by. there was a lot of open people. mmm on cinco de mayo we had a pretty awesome zone meeting that always gets us pumped up. we sang I Will Follow Gods Plan as a musical number. for some reason we've listened to that song a ton. we had a super cool day set up and one by one everything kept dropping by the time we left that zone meeting haha like the whole day just thrown out the window hahaha. so after we left we are like alright lets go with the one set thing we have set now so we went to go pass by our investigator Louie and he wasnt home!! ahhh so we talked to his neighbor who was a super interesting guy. said he was catholic and goes to church but had tons of questions for us. the spirit really opened him up. he asked us well more like he just started talking about life after death and just deep stuff but he was not interested in finding any answers. it was weird. Ive really been trying to follow and listen to the promptings of the spirit. its super rad how the spirit works. Later we walked up to this house to contact and they had their family name outside their house by the door and it said Gonzalez. I was like no wayy this is my family. so we knock the door and this lady opens the door. I ask her hey does the gonzalez family live here. she siad yes. I said " No way!! youre my family, we are cousins!" then i opened the screen door and was about to walk in, i was like we are family so we are gonna come in. haha and she just had this funny chuckle and kept looking at us. i was like you dont remember me. my parents said i had family down here i thought id come say hi. the lady was chuckling the whole time and shaking her head no. It was so funny! ahh idk why but it was just soooo funny!! and was like yeah you guys can come back in an hour when my whole family is here.. i just burst out laughing for some reason and then we left and got on our bikes and Birrell had a flat tire. we both burst out laughing hahah how perfect. adn we are far from our plans but it all worked out.

2 timothy3:1-7 latter day inquity.. crazy something we learned in our district conference 1nephi8:28,32 theres a lot of people who are members but have fallen away cause they are ashamed. the youth of today are slowly falling away. Who has the lord called to protect the youth? el mundo esta lleno de lobos. Be good shepherds and take care of your flock.

responsibility. Just do it! and try not to be ashamed!

also the kids in the spanish ward did the whip and the nay nay for their mothers during the dinner we had for mothers day on friday haha.. what is this world coming too haha and all of them cant even speak english hah it was great.
thats all. chao.

us with hmna florez, she hasnt left her house in years and we got her to come to the dinner!!

Birrell and i on a hot day 

robby the lava lamp

i finally made it mom.. college

Southbound

Last night we went to go visit this investigator we have. she wasnt home but there was a group of kids standing outside this little apartment complex where our investigator lives. they were like 3-9. the 9 year old asked us if we talk about god. we said yes and then he said you know i really want to know about god. i asked do you go to church. he said no my mom doesnt take us. and then just went off on how much he wants to learn about church and just god. idk why but that just really touched my heart. like when his age i wasnt even thinking about that and i was going to church every sunday. thats the highlight of the week. just the importance of teaching your kids. im super grateful for my parents teaching me good things. something i really remember was praying with my mom everynight when i was a kid. its been the greatest thing for me.

its getting pretty hot down here. like around 100 or more. the wind is like having a blow dryer to your face. its kind of a blessing cause i sweat so much that when we knock on a door some people get scared and worried that im going to die so they let us in and give us water haha. we also met this guy who is part of the Border Skullz M.C. he"s super rad and rides the loudest bike in laredo. we are going to meet with him and his family today. we met a ton of rad people this week that have been wanting baptism in their life. like just today i sat down at the library and this man sat down next to me and asked if we were mormon and then asked for a book of mormon cause when he was younger he heard about it and has been looking for it since then and he heard and about the chest plate joseph smith used to translate the book and it made hims super interested. i was like woahhh how awesome haha. que mas..? we've been singing more and more. we knocked on this door and the lady (in spanish) said guys i dont have time right now im very tired. and we were like well we just want to sing you a short song. and she was like no really guys im very tired i was out with my kids all day. and we were like it'll only be like a minute. you can rest there and we will sing. and then she was like okay fine. we sang to her and after she was like thank you guys so much. you can come tomorrow okay. thank you so much. the himnos are beautiful and really bring the spirit wherever you are. so play them! we went to go visit a former investigator and we got inside and he wasnt home but his dad was and mom. so we talked to them and things were going okay and then it just got like all weird and quite..and then just have a bunch of statues of the virgin mary. and im like man just looking around of something we can talk about to get to know them more. on the fridge was a magnet of KISS. i was like hey weird you get that kiss magnet. the dad was like oh one of my kids got it for me for my birthday. i said"are you a big fan" he looked at me and said yes, yes i am and then BAM!! we just talked about kiss for a little bit haha and really got him to open up. it was awesome. my comp said that when we started talking about kiss that i just got super hyped and was like almost jumping for joy haha.. its not everyday that you meet someone that loves kiss and actually knows and appreciates their creativity. haha randomly while we are walking or biking i hear something small and songs pop into my head all of the time. this week it was southbound by mxpx. i love you guys. ctr and just be good okay. be the person that god wants you to be.

with hermana Grimsley she feeds us every saturday. shes the best and has a million of these hats haha.

Jefferey R. Holland

so yesterday we went down to mcallen because Jefferey R Holland came. we all were in the gym standing in place for a group picture with him and as soon as he walked in.. idk it felt so unreal like woahhh an apostle haha it was so rad and special. so we later all shook his hand and told him where we were from. oh also last week we had transfers. Elder Acosta left to a place called Pharr. my new comp is Elder Birrell from Nebraska. he is super sick and loves ties more than i do haha. well yeah back to holland. it was super great and inspiring. talk about having the spirit with us and how we are going to be the future leaders of the church so its time to start getting ready for it. He talked a little bit about how some RMs when they go home walk away from everything that they did on their mission. pretty much like being less active and just not applying anything they learned or stressed so hard on with every investigator or member they taught. Gosh its crazy to see how people are after they go home. He said 'I cant live with an rm that doesnt maintain the faith" and its legit. like wow ive even seen it here in Laredo. Que barbaro you know. The importance of a mission this is life and its going to shape the rest of our lives. we come out as children and return as Men and Women. some of my favorite quotes. "You can rock the world" " Buck up and be strong" whoooo cares if youre sick or your head hurts. stop being a pansi and just get out there. the day of transfers. there is this stomach virus that has been going around. yeah well on monday i had it super bad. and the best part was we had like a million food appointments cause acosta was leaving. kinda made me sad cause i was sick and couldnt eat haha. usually people have this sickness for like a week around here but i didnt let it get to me. i rode my bike withe everyone else and almost threw up these tostadas that i ate. idk what im trying to say. by some miracle i was no longer sick the next day. it was crazy and weird. theres just been another huge change in my mission. its rad. the mission is the best and once again i dont have any more time to write. thanks for all of the support. but yeah I learned so much from yesterday. thats why i wasnt able to write you guys. there was something else i was going to say but im super unprepared for this weird email day. just that ive been studying a lot about prayer and faith and los dos put together haha. ive met quite a few cool people. heard many cool stories. the TMM is the best ever!! i wish everyone could come out here and see all these crazy people and hear their stories. Disfruta cada dia. cause everyday can be the best day. I also dont have any pictures to send this week. I will be sending more this week. you guys are all awesome. also you should read the intro to the hymn book. there are some promised blessings that will make you sing himnos more haha. My comp and i are singing more and more its great. just be good people okay!! just do it. its what our heavenly father wants. we are really working with the escalante family to get them all to the chapel. they are a great family. im still here in Laredo. its supposed to be like 100 this weekend. lets see if anyone dies here its so hot. there was a dead possum outside of the church on sunday and im comp and i had to break these kids up that were throwing rocks at it. it was pretty gross cause it had recently died ha. loco kids. chao chao. 

last supper at hmna Dominguez's 

chocolate caramel lasagna it was the best!

On Melancholy Hill

ah sorry again guys i dont have much time to write. hmm awesome things that happened this week. so last week was elder andersons birthday but we got a cake later in the week. he"s a very timid character and we wanted to mordida him which is when you shove their face in cake.. ha well.. we didnt have time to do it cause we were super busy. so we just dumped it on him when he was in the shower. AH! it was hilarious. hes such a trooper. and that brings me to what we all learned a lot about this week. choosing to have a good attitude. and also i had interviews with my mission president and they went very well. said he's seen my heart change about everything. thats key to my mission. for some reason it was kinda cool to hear that. im going in the direction that our heavenly father has for me. im blessed to be out here in the 90 degree heat. its going to be 120 in a couple months and people die every year from the heat. my comp and i are super pumped and hope we stay here for the summer to experience it. remember guys. choose to be happy. if any of you guys love Gorillaz. awesome! be safe out there. this world is a crazy place. i'll write more next week.

- postin up with the red sun. it looked like something from an 80's karate movie.

- the building on the left is a hotel in texas and on the right is mexico.. with the rio in between.. ha funny how that works out. ive heard stories of people checking in soaking wet. ha.remind me when i get home of this story of a guy getting tossed.

Barbarosa

a lot of sweet things happened this week but i dont really have anything to share this time. just a few things. we found Big Dog BJ Esparza, this long lost member. he's a stud. my comp had a dream i was possessed. many miracles. many tears. that's all.

we dig for ties. this is a bag full of ties. could be Versaci could be Nautica.

walked into a carne the other day.

the bodegas we dig ties in

a tie hammock

Outside The Gates Of Hell

A good hot week.
we were following up with families that we met a few days earlier and passed by this last young adult girl we set a bd with. there was kind of a weird feeling as we approached her. we see her and say hi.. and she was standing at a car window. the first thing we say is hi and then bam she says she is busy.. and we are like oh okay so its not a good time. we will come back later.. as we leave.. we see her deal a big sack of coke right in front of us. people have no chill down here.
as we were leaving the library last week. this guy walks past us and says you elders are in the wrong place. you guys are literally outside the gates of hell here. theres a lot of wickedness here. we turn back and say thats exactly why we are here. cause there is work to be done. that man is right. its almost like one of those things you read in the scriptures of a pueblito that is just bad. we found this family last week the escalante family. went out with hmna gutman and had a super great lesson and even met the husband who is rarely home. he works 28 days at the bottom of mexico and then flies over here for a few days. great family. E. acosta and i were in a trio with E. anderson one day cause his comp was in mcallen for a meeting. that day was pretty great. we found a couple families that seemed pretty interested, they asked for a book of mormon cause they really want to start reading it. how rad. and then randomly we get a call from the hermanas asking us if we can go give this less active member who is sick a blessing. we are like of course so we scoot on over there and meet this guy. we talked to him for a bit to get to know him. he had this wounds, boils, open flesh all over his legs. he said he has them all over and they hurt a ton. like he can barely walk. it looked pretty bad. he has 11 kids and cant work. he explained his life to us before he got sick...yeah he was a narc..he had it all, houses, cars and random buisiness and then approached a guy who owed him lots of money and that guy worshiped the santisimo muerte and "cursed" him and since that day he has been sick and backed off the guy. that was 6 yrs ago. his wife is starting to get the same thing.. just suffering man it looks bad. well we gave him the blessing. it was powerful. el poder was just so great i started sweating a ton. in the blessing it said that he would be healed from his sickness and will return to the way things were before if all he does is follow gods commandments and sigue the way god would want. so clear and so simple. we all get crazy trials in our life cause the lord wants us to grow and he knows we can. at the end we asked him how he felt. he said.. i feel good.. and you know what.,. i might try and go to church.. who knows..
it truly made me sad but it was quite the experience.
on friday we had a good zone meeting. it seriously was the best and literally changed the mission. just really learned the importance of expressing our love and gratitude to everyone just like jesus did. i guess for some reason i was really lacking it. it really set me straight. we saw this video of this single mother who was busy doing everything with her kids and her getting stressed and sad. but in the end realized how much she was blessing her kids lives. and thats how it is now. we can be stressed busy and helping and never see the blessings and the huge help we bring to others. its important to do things willingly as jesus christ did when he suffered for us. the meeting was really impacting but the most impacting part was when the zls played these recordings on the computer. as we are out here on the missions we are blessing so many peoples lives its unreal. so they started playing these recordings and it was recordings of all of our parents bareing their testimony of the blessings theyve seen while we are out here and how we've changed. it was the most spiritual experience ive had so far. like theres no greater animo booster than hearing that. everyone could feel it in their hearts. and then we all one by one got up and bore our testimony and for the first time in my mission i told everyone i loved them. it was strange. but nice. it was super good and i'll never forget it.

its all over laredo.

Burzum - Mystery Cat