A Whole Pack of Dr.Pepper (Week #17)

What has been your biggest challenge this week? 

It's a challenge but a blessing at the same time...We get these referrals for people who need help and we want some new investigators...but they always end up being super less active members who aren't in our records..Which is great! but also challenging. Yesterday we contacted a guy who came out wearing a shirt that had joints on it and said "Power Plant 420" on it who is a less active #PortlandMoment

What has been your biggest concern? 

Just finding some new people to teach. And setting our prepared people to progress. We have a lady who thought she was a member because she used to go to church so often but she hasn't been baptized so we thought she was going to be awesome...

What has been your biggest success?

Yesterday the Sisters in our ward brought a family of investigators and we got to show the son around the church and take him to class and everything. He learned about the priesthood and afterwards, we got asked to give a blessing to member. So the investigator came with us and watched. Him and his family don't understand Spanish (we translated Sacrament meeting for them), but he still came out saying it was amazing. And the Sisters texted us after church and said he wants to go on member splits with us after he's baptized!

Who has been your favorite person this week? Why? 

The R family. It's like literally half the ward. And they all live on the same street..they love the missionaries and always want to help. Plus they make really good tacos. Which is always a bonus.

What has been your most significant tender mercy?

We had a really rough weekend. On Fathers Day, everyone goes away to visit their dads. So this whole weekend everybody was gone. But at the end of Saturday (literally 8:45) We stopped by Sister T's house (one of my favorite members. Loves it when I call her Grandma) and she was like "You boys thirsty?" and just had her granddaughter go grab us a whole pack of Dr.Pepper to take home.

What are you looking forward to this coming week? 

Tomorrow, I get to exorcise a house. HECK FREAKIN YEAH!! This family has seen some dark spirit in their house and asked if we'd cleanse it...Like they said "We were going to call the bishop but he's so busy and we thought 'who better to help us than the missionaries'" They think we're superheroes here. It's awesome.

Do you have a goal set for this coming week? Tell me about it. 

This week I'm working on OYMing. Everytime we do it we get a really great person, but this last week has been really busy..

Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?

The story of Elijah where the poor lady gives all she's got to him and has huge faith.

That's pretty much my week. 

A possum that the zone leaders caught and no one would release it (bunch of chickens) So I did it!

A cockroach we found in our kitchen (bugs from satan)

A snake we found on the exchange!

Love you guys!

Elder Hess

NOTE from the momma: When Gannon was really little, I trained him to be the "family spider killer." The opposum story cracks me up because he is pretty much intrepid.

Oh, and he is now doing this animal thing on purpose. I made the mistake of asking him if he was intentionally sending me pictures of animals every week. He replied that he wasn't, but now that I've asked, I think he's taken it on as a challenge.

Would've Been Nice if I Could Understand Spanish Music (Week #16)

Last week, I asked Gannon about all of the animal photos.

What has been your biggest challenge this week? 

Biggest challenge has been the exchanges. We had 2 this week instead of just one. I was with Elder S for both which was awesome but both of the days we had them were days when we were supposed to meet with all of our progressing investigators. So i basically have no idea what's going on with any of them except that they're still doing good.

What has been your biggest concern? 

Finding an animal picture for this week (super tough)! Just kidding, I don't really have any right now.

What has been your biggest success?

S got confirmed this week, A got sustained to get the priesthood and we had a super cool ward activity! 

Who has been your favorite person this week? Why? 

The G's. They have been members for a year and are planning on going to the temple on the 20th! Satan's really stacking up the trials tho. They don't have a ton of money already and their car broke down. So they had to dish out a bunch of cash just to be sure they could go to the temple. And now they're all good. They're the family that feeds us every week too!

What has been your most significant tender mercy?

The ward activity. We basically went around all day inviting people to it. Tons of people came. Including 2 of our best investigators, D and K. We also invited one of my other favorite families, The B's (Less active because they have to work) and they showed up! And Sister B started fellow-shipping D and K! It was awesome. So we went and ate tons of gorditas and tacos and sang karaoke (would've been nice if I could understand Spanish music). It was one of the best ward activities I've been to. 

What are you looking forward to this coming week? 

Visiting my investigators! It'll be nice to teach people in my area again.

Do you have a goal set for this coming week? Tell me about it. 

My goal is to be more humble and charitable. It's something everyone needs to work on, but I need to do it before I can expect anyone else to.

Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?

Reading the story of Jesus and how the people demanded he be crucified. Pilote could've just not done it, but he decided to let it happen to please the people. And there's a lot of stuff we do everyday just because people like it, but we should do things because we want to and because we know it's right.

Animal picture of the week:

A scorpion me and elder stone found in the church and took it outside without dying.

Love you guys!

Elder Hess

This Occasion Deserves a Tux (Week #15)

What has been your biggest challenge this week?
Making sure that S wants to be baptized. As time gets closer Satan tries super hard to not let it happen. Earlier in the week he had some pretty big doubts, but we were able to beat them. So he was super pumped to do it.

What has been your biggest concern? 
Just a temporary one. S's daughter was supposed to bring him to church and so we called her in the morning and she said she was good to go. But then church started and no S.... I almost freakin had a heart attack. But then they rolled up in his daughter's Camaro and him wearing a tux. Lookin pretty fly. Man if he could've seen himself in the mirror…

What has been your biggest success?
Him being baptized! And we found this lady named R who lives in the apartments directly next to us. We've been teaching her but never met her husband and she didn't come to church..SO we felt like we should stop by last night and her ENTIRE family was there. And they all wanted to talk to us. Super cool experience.

Who has been your favorite person this week? Why? 
Probably Elder and Sister R. We have these investigators. The V family. And they had told us that they're brother was a member of the church. And eventually his brother called us from Mexico asking for some information and how he could help and everything. And so we thought that was pretty cool. But then comes Sunday and the V family pulls up with two people wearing missionary tags...Like Whaaaaaat?! Turns out that the brother and his wife are serving missions in Matamoros, Mexico, and came to church with them. And they shared their testimonies and everything. Super cool folks. 

What has been your most significant tender mercy?
Having investigators who are prepared. It makes a huge difference when they really want to learn.

What are you looking forward to this coming week? 
Exchange with Elder S on Tuesday!! We're going to be in his area on bikes (Goodbye ankle...) But it's going to be awesome!

Do you have a goal set for this coming week? Tell me about it. 
My goal is to get L to have a baptismal date. 

Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?
The story of Alma and Amulek with the Zoramites and poor people. Finding the ones who are prepared and teaching them so they understand.

Craziest things to happen this week:  Almost got bit by a dog (punk), and a duck flew into my windshield today (bucket list moment). Yeah we have been having some lightning storms but we're usually in cars so it's not a big deal.


Love you guys a lot!
Elder Hess

Visited another farm with all sorts of crazy stuff

a baby parakeet 

The Definition of Our Family: "A Bunch of Goofy People Who Tease Each Other" (Week #14)

The week's been good! Really busy. The highlight was probably the ward missionary night. It was tons of fun and we had a lot of members! I'm doing good no problems health wise.

What has been your biggest concern? 

I don't really have any right now besides S coming to church. He comes but leaves after the 1st hour. He should get baptized next week but baptisms are right after church...So we'll see.

What has been your biggest success?

Biggest success sounds really bad at first. That less active lady whose husband died a couple week ago. Remember her? Her son died on Friday too. Which sounds awful! But he was the only thing keeping her from coming back to church because she had to take care of him.We did some yard work for her. She came to church on Sunday! 

Who has been your favorite person this week? Why? 

The S family. They're this really big family that feeds us every so often and yesterday I realized they're kind of like ours. A bunch of goofy people who tease each other. They're just a lot of fun to be around.

What has been your most significant tender mercy?

Probably having Elder S and Elder T still here with us. They're some good guys to chill with. We get along super well.

What are you looking forward to this coming week? 

I'm looking forward to (hopefully) S's baptism.

Do you have a goal set for this coming week? Tell me about it. 

My goal is to be patient. It's one of the things I need to work on.

Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?

Job's story and Ammon. They're both guys who persevered through trials and were blessed for it.

Love you guys! 

Hope things are going well! 

Elder Gannon Hess

A leaf bug

A lizard

The service project

A wolf spider Elder S caught and named Large Marge

A wonderful member of the church in Elder Hess's area sent me some photos and even some VIDEOS! YAY!!!

Hawkeye and Trapper (Week #13)

What has been your biggest challenge this week? 

Biggest challenge has been getting used to a new companion and really taking charge because he doesn't know the area yet. It's been an interesting change.

What has been your biggest concern? 

Miles. Elder P really botched the whole budgeting miles thing so we're pretty close to hitting our limit. #BikeDays!!

What has been your biggest success?

We had a stake activity and a ton of people showed up. It was a fitness based one so we ran and played ultimate frisbee (missionaries vs. members #notAContest) and basketball and stuff. It was a lot of fun and a lot of really cool members and investigators came. Not S tho. He'd have a hard time catching a frisbee...

Who has been your favorite person this week? Why? 

Elder S. We've decided we're like Hawkeye and Trapper from MASH. And we had out 3 month mark together so we bought cute pday shirts as a celebration (that's the picture)

What has been your most significant tender mercy?

Not being sick. That really sucked. If I'd had had to bike while being sick I would've died. From spontaneous combustion. Caused by excess of pukiness.

What are you looking forward to this coming week? 

Friday is a ward missionary event and we're playing volleyball. We're hoping a lot of people come (but not S. See above reason)

Do you have a goal set for this coming week? Tell me about it. 

My goal is to be more humble. I don't have a big problem with it (haven't ever really(is that prideful?)) but it's always good to be more so.

Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?

Abinadi. Such a cool guy. Dealt with being burnt and still testified. Cool guy.

Today we found a turtle and brought it to district meeting. Named it flamoorgathyn. Thats what the picture is. And found the first weed store i've seen since oregon. And 

This is where Elder Hess's email cuts off, so I will sign off in his behalf. What is it he usually says?....Oh, yah,

Love you guys,

Elder Gannon Hess

Freestyle Email and a "Weed" Tie (Week #12)

I hope you caught my note about wildlife in the last email post because it will make you appreciate this photo (one of the two we received this week):

A possum we found while mowing the lawn

I made him promise, when he left, that he would send me at least one photo each week when he emailed. He has been true to his word, but so far, there have been spiders, crabs, zoo animals, and now this poor little critter. There have thankfully also been some photos of human life, but I must admit all of the animal pictures make me that much more thankful for a friendly human face from time to time.

I expect Elder Hess's emails to come in sometime just before noon on Mondays. That's been the trend so far. This week, I checked email at about 6:50am, and he'd already been there and gone....I thought I had a few hours of uninterrupted time in the morning to get a good email and the "photos of the week" off to him before he wrote, but I failed. He'd written to the kids (who had written on Sunday) at 6:11am. I missed the boat.

Typically his emails are just answers to my questions, but this time, there were no questions to answer. It's nice to see that he can freehand a letter once in awhile and actually share the things that are most important to him, so maybe it's a good thing I failed.

Here are the most important happenings of mission week #12 in the eyes of Elder Gannon Hess:


Ok! I have to write early today because it's Elder P's last pday and he has stuff to do! So I'm freestyling this email!

This week I got sick. Like couldn't sleep one night and threw up 3 times kinda sick..While i was in the trio..So i kept working but people kept wanting to feed us. Freakin nice people...The last time I threw up was after a member gave me chili's to help me...so I puked in their yard. 

"My weed tie"

Anyways I'm mostly better now. This was Elder P's last week and so we've been going by and saying goodbye to a lot of people. He gave me a tie (a tradition) that I had made fun of him for. He loves it cause it has flowers on it but they look like weed flowers...So he gave it to me for that and because I'm from Oregon...It's like a 200 dollar tie..

S promised to come to church for yesterday! But his ride flaked and so we had to go pick him up right after sacrament meeting. I had to lead him around while he hung onto my shoulder. It was a super cool experience. 

I also taught him the word of wisdom and he said he would quit coffee on monday but he didn't drink any yesterday!! Nobody does that!! He's so great.

Right now I'm in the mission office in McAllen for Elder P's exit interview. Apparently that's basically where the president tells you to get married and talks plans with you. I hope things change on my mission cause there's no way I'm ready for that right now. 

But today we're going to go "dig" for ties in bodega's (like ghetto Goodwill. Reminds me of the mailroom on "Elf" mixed with the garbage compactor on "Monster's Inc.")  and apparently there's some really nice ones. We're also going to play some soccer and say bye to some of Elder P's members.

Hope you had a great week!

Love you,

Elder Hess

The Surprise Post-Mother's Day Email (Week #11)

I had forgotten what protocol was. I guess Mother's Day took everything out of my mind. It wasn't until mid-Monday that I started to realize that it was still Elder Hess's P-day, so he was for sure doing his laundry and grocery shopping, but would he still be writing to us? Surely not what with just Skyping us the day before, but by the time I considered that he might, he had already written. YAY!!!

Here's what my inbox held:

What has been your biggest challenge this week? 

Making sure that I'm focused on the work and not skyping and seeing you guys again. This week was really slow..

What has been your biggest concern? 

We've been trying to have another baptism before Elder P goes home but all of the formers either don't want to hear it or are terrible at making decisions. Soooo frustrating.

What has been your biggest success?

S. He's the blind guy we found. He is super ready to be baptized and loves us and remembers everything we teach.

Who has been your favorite person this week? Why? 

S again. That guy makes my days.

What has been your most significant tender mercy?

The R family. We asked if we could Skype at their house and they said they were having a barbecue and we ended up getting invited to that too..So Skype and barbecue=happy Elder Hess

What are you looking forward to this coming week? 

Elder P leaves this week for some meetings in McAllen so for 4 days I'll be in a trio with Elder S and Elder T. It'll be good to learn from them too.

Do you have a goal set for this coming week? Tell me about it. 

Find somebody who would like to be baptized. We have a guy who looks good to be baptized but he's afraid of what his parents will say. I'm tempted to tell him to cut the cord....he's 24...

Which scripture has had the biggest impact on you this week?

I've been reading a lot of the church history stuff and it's cool to see the first missionaries go out and have problems that we can't even imagine right now. Big example for me.

It was good to see you guys too! Love you all!

Elder Hess

There was a trip to the zoo sometime before this email....I'm thinking it had to be the previous P-day. This young man I've sent to Texas has a thing with animals. It is HILARIOUS! I seriously took the entire zoo tour with him through photographs--giraffes, camels, monkeys, you name it, he took a picture of it and sent it to me. Each week, there has been more Texas wildlife to celebrate through the camera lens of Elder Gannon Hess. I didn't know he loved insects and animals so much. Funny kid!

Oh, the photos of the chickens here must be related to the story he told us during our Skype session in which a chicken attacked him....She jumped up and grabbed onto his thumb with her beak. I believe he said her name was Gertrude.