Lemmings

mmmmmmmmmm started this week off with an exchange with Elder Watchorn this dude form minnesota. he skated a lot just like me and loves MXPX so we became instant homies when we met haha. This last week we deep cleaned every apartment. it was pretty gross haha in some elders apartment we found a birds nest haha. on wednesday night we did this bike ride around laredo for Bike awareness. we rode all the way to the bridge that goes across the rio to mexico and met all the people from nuevo laredo. it was super cool. the next day Elder Davis was with us, so we had a car. gracias a dios. we started out at the jimenez family as always and had a super great lesson and at the end she said that she was going to have a friend come over later tonight and she really wanted us to meet her and her husband. Later that night her friend was there and it was super rad. Hmna Jimenez testified super hard and they both accepted to be baptized. We also ate at the Solis's house, ( our branch president) their house literally looks like a museum in the ghetto hah its great. earlier that day we got a referral to pass by this member. Hmna Chacon, she has cancer and she seemed to be doing well. We read 3nefi17:7 and she just burst into tears, it was idk it really hit here and was so spiritual. The lord helps us out so much. then we I stand all amazed and ahh it was the best. the next day near the end of the night i played skate with this kid and lost.. ha:/ shocker.. i cant remember his name but his friends are in a punk band and they were practicing when we got there.. thats just a random cool thing that happened haha. on saturday we had a blitz in San Isidros area, ( the hermanas area) it was super fun but soo hot and humid. we were contacting a door and the first thing the lady said was wow you guys are very sweaty. Yes yes we are mam its hot outside haha. We kept talking and i was explaing to her the book of mormon and she stopped and was like can i get you guys some water.? yes yes of course please haha. and at the end of the contact she asked if she could give me a towel i said yes. it was the most plush white towel ive ever had. Later that night on our way home we rode passed this very old members house who is 90. her door was open and there was a man walking out. we both said ah lets go back. so we go back and the man was her neighbor. She was struggling with her home phone cause she wanted to call her son. So i check her phone and end up fixing it she was so happy! she said that she had been praying to god to send her angels to fix her phone and there we were. then she called her son. Its so awesome. it makes me happy that we are blessing so many people. on sunday Kerry came to church! this super dope guy we met last sunday. we also took hmna Grimsley to meet a less active Hmna Mata and i think we just created the greatest friendship ever with them haha they are best buds! a lot of cool stuff went down this week, we met a ton of people and people are progressing. The obra is the best.

Pros ball with our investigator's and member's kids. my comp has no chill with basketball.

a beautiful cloud i saw one hot day

bike crew

the missionaries getting ready for the ride

on the bridge meeting everyone from mexico

all of the bikes locked up at subway, about 2 zones of bikes haha

his name is Blue, a members pitbulls.

i love animals

best buds

The greatest friendship ever (hmna grimsley y Hmna Mata)

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.