May 14, 2012

It was so nice being able to speak to y'all on the phone yesterday! (Except for you mal, sorry) The time flew by so fast. The next time we speak, it will be thanksgiving! Crazy huh.

So I only have 6 more months left to write you emails as a missionary, and my goal is to answer all of the questions that you ask in your emails to me. I know, I tend to forget or rush to fast to be able to respond. I'll do better. Also, I'll make sure and send some more pictures. I haven't been taking as many as I did when I first got to the mission, and I need to repent for that. Pictures are way better than me just trying to describe what I'm doing, so I promise to send more pictures. Just not today, I forgot my cord...

On Saturday we were riding bikes (Side note: In Mercedes and here in Edinburg I am in a car area, but there is a mission-wide rule that Saturdays are bikes days, and all companionships must ride bikes from at least 11-4. But because Elder Covington and I have a bunch of little errands and meetings, we run out of our monthly allotment of miles so we ride bikes several times a week) and we were riding around all day stopping by people but it was getting a little frustrating because we didn't really encounter anyone outside that we could talk to as we rode from place to place. Finally it got to about 6:30 and we had an appointment at 7 with the C____ family and as we were riding to their house, we saw a lady outside a broken down trailer hacking away at the weeds near the side of the road. We pulled up, hopped off our bikes, and asked what we could do to help. She was hesitant to accept our help, claiming that she wouldn't want to see our white shirts get dirty. I told her that we had been riding on our bikes all day and I had been using my sleeve as a handkerchief, and that we probably couldn't get much dirtier than we already were. We then told her to give us the tools she was using and she could take a break.

We only had 25 minutes but we obliterated as many weeds as we could. She said she had a hard time pulling the weeds in the ditch so pulled all the ones in the ditch that we could. It was a ton of fun. The neighbor next door was sitting outside and he started poking fun at the lady saying that she was so lucky for getting free help, and then the lady started telling us again how she felt bad and that her neighbors were going to think that she was using us for free labor. (She already tried offering to pay us) We told her not to worry, we'd stop by their houses next to offer free service. Before finishing up and getting on our bikes, we set up a time to come by tomorrow afternoon with the rest of the missionaries in the zone so we can finish cleaning up her yard and house. Turns out, her house was broken into and the doors and windows were smashed in just recently. Then before taking off, the next door neighbor came over with 3 ice cold water bottles for us. Finally, we got to the Celedons and had a magnificent lesson, as well as a miraculous experience, which I will have to share next week because my time is running out and I need to email president.

Love y'all mucho!

-Elder Brett