God Loves Everyone (Week #72)

This week has been pretty good. I'm serving in the same zone and everything. They just had the zone leader area trade places with the district leader area. So we switched places with Elder V. I'm still with Elder Stone. We didn't really know we were going to stay together but we knew the area was changing. We're still in an English area.

Church attendance....funny story about that. We work in a group now. It's the smallest possible gathering of LDS people. There were 20 people total at church this last week including us. And that's a really good week...

The lady who was from Aloha was kinda weirded out and then we started complaining about the weather and sales taxes together. haha It was nice. We actually found another lady that used to work in Aloha here. You could tell she wasn't from there though cause she used the hard h.

What has been your biggest challenge this week?
There's veeery few members here. We've spent like 4 days here and 1 in another town we cover, and we've talked to maybe 4 or 5 people total.  It's nuts.

What has been your biggest concern?
We're trying to get 30 people to church total so we can have the possibility of making this place a branch.

What has been your biggest success?
We were struggling to find people (cause no one's here) and I was praying really hard in my heart to find someone. We went through the ward list and found a family we felt like we should visit and went to the address. Turns out it was a bunch of apartments and we didn't have the number....so we tried one house and it turned out to be the family we were looking for! And we met the mom (the lady who worked in Aloha. She was also baptized in Beeville), her family, and her sister's family of 6 want to be taught.

Who has been your favorite person this week? Why?
The G family. They love the missionaries and know everything about them. M (the dad) took us out to eat the day we met them which was awesome.

What has been your most significant tender mercy?
Probably finding that less active lady and her family.

What are you looking forward to this coming week?
Trying to find more members to reactivate.

Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?
I was reading the story of Daniel a little this morning. He was really in tune with the spirit.

How has your testimony grown this week?
Going to a building where there's only 20 people there was a huge sign to me that God loves everyone and He wants them all to have the same chance to make covenants.

I've been feeling pretty good. Ankles been ok. We walk a tooon here so it's been a little funky. It was twitching last night, but it's all good.

Love you guys!
Elder Hess

We're Put in the Places We are to Help Those Around Us (Week #71)

Life is awesome! We had 5 people come to church this week! Some members brought their family to church and they could turn out really well!

We've been helping the E family fix up a house for them to rent out and that's super fun. They're great folks!

Transfers have been partially announced. Me and Elder Stone are both leaving but that's all we know. We think we'll stay together in a different area in this zone but we don't really know. It seems like he changed out a good portion of our zone. Only one companionship is staying the same out of the 8.

We're working with V a little bit and trying to find some new people. We met a lady yesterday who just moved here from Aloha! Super weird! She lived on Blanton. Tripped me out really bad!

My greatest success on my mission.... I feel like I've really been a friend to people who've needed it. I like to think about who i was called to an area for afterwards. I think just about every transfer I can find someone that I was there for when they needed me.

What has been your biggest challenge this week?Keeping people focused. It seems like every last week of a transfer people either go really hard and get good stuff going on, or they think they're leaving so they tank...

What has been your biggest concern?Making sure people are set up in this area for the people who are coming.

What has been your biggest success?We had a zone meeting and we kinda told the zone off for having a lot of pride...but it went really well and the spirit was strong and I think a change is coming.

Who has been your favorite person this week? Why?My favorite person is probably Mike E. He's a great kid. He has a different background than other people but he loves helping people out. 

What has been your most significant tender mercy?Having 5 people at church was nice. Good to see that we're doing good things here.

What are you looking forward to this coming week?Me and Elder Stone staying together (if I say it enough it'll happen right?)

Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?I've been reading a bunch about charity in 1 Corinthians 13. Trying to put my heart in the right place all the time and have charity for everyone.

How has your testimony grown this week?That was unexpected. I'm not used to another question...I think I've really seen how everyone is made differently for a reason. We're put in the places we are to help those around us. I've seen ways Elder Stone can help people that I can't and vice versa. God has a plan and he always carries it out. If we can put our desires in line with his, that's when success comes.

I love you guys!
Elder Hess

These are the E boys. Awesome kids.

Our Interview Blew My Mind (Week #70)

I've worked with Elder V a few times this transfer but I'd only met him maybe twice before. He's a really good guy. We worked super hard to find some new people to teach. We found a few. 

We met the new mission president this last week for interviews and had a day long meeting with him yesterday. The guy is amazing. He's a little like Jeffrey R. Holland. He's gonna tell it like it is and he doesn't care. He has some of the highest faith I've ever seen.

We haven't seen either R or his daughter this week....kinda dissappeared. 

So V ended up coming to church this Sunday! She's finally in town! So we're going to work with her this week. I think her brother is just barely starting out on his papers. 

What has been your biggest challenge this week?We've been working super hard to reach our goal and it didn't happen. We pulled our weight so I'm sure we'll see the fruits soon.

What has been your biggest concern?We feel like something is up with the zone but we can't really put our finger on it. They're not up to their potential so we're having a meeting today to see what's up. We'll see how it goes.

What has been your biggest success?The meeting yesterday left me pretty inspired. The new pres is an awesome guy.

Who has been your favorite person this week? Why?President Torres. Our interview blew my mind. He told us as soon as we finish the prayer, he knows exactly who we are and who we'll be. It was pretty awesome.

What has been your most significant tender mercy?We met a guy who really needs our help. His name is Brother B and he's super depressed. His wife died a few months ago and he's having a really hard time. So we're going to snap him out of it.

What are you looking forward to this coming week?We're going to work super hard with V.

Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?I was reading King Benjamin's speech this morning. Talked a lot about service and how we can never fully repay the lord for what he's done for us. He's given us everything and we can't really ever come close
to repaying him.

Love you guys!
Elder Hess

this is what I live with...

Wants to Take Us Fishing (Week #69)

Life is really good! I went on an exchange with Elder V this week! He's a funny kid. I stayed in my area though.

We have zone conferences about every other transfer. I'm not really sure if we'll get one with the new mission president but I'm sure we'll have something.

I have 11 transfers. I'll be on my 12th in about 2 weeks. We get 16 total. Super scary....

R we saw in passing but that was about it. But we've been talking to his daughter a little. She wants to take us fishing. haha

We had to go down to pick up new phones for our zone and had to go drop them off. we drove about 12 hours almost straight....It was a long day.

We haven't had any contact with V but her brother really wants to help us out in lessons and he's starting his mission papers!

Our goals doing ok. Some other elders told a guy who had been to church a ton of times that he needed to be baptized and he said ok and got baptized the next day. Missionaries had been working with him for
a long time. haha I don't know what changed!

What has been your biggest challenge this week?finding time for everything. Driving to McAllen and back and all over really took up some time.

What has been your biggest concern?Just making sure everyone's preparing for this next month while working for this one.

What has been your biggest success?We had this girl call us who said she went on a 3000 mile hike somewhere and on the hike some bishop gave her a Book of Mormon and she read the whole thing and told us she wanted to join and wanted our
help to convince her dad (he's a pastor). But then later she called and told us to forget it, and then her phone shut down...But we called it this morning and it's not shut off anymore. So we'll see. She seems super cool.

Who has been your favorite person this week? Why?Elder Stone. He makes everything a blast. Super fun guy.

What has been your most significant tender mercy?Probably that call from the girl. It was awesome.

What are you looking forward to this coming week?We're going to find her somehow. We've been asking people.

Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?I was reading in 2 Nephi again and it talked about the Book of Mormon and how people will say they don't need another bible. I thought it was super interesting how God calls them out like that. Calls them fools and everything.

Love you guys!
Elder Hess

Biggest Santa Maria I've ever seen....