Jan. 30, 2012

Wow. I love Mercedes Texas. This place is awesome. I'm back to being on the border! After a 3 hour ride back down to the valley from Corpus, I got out of the transfer van and took a big whiff of Mexican air. It smelled wonderful.

Mercedes is a small town of about 12,000, which is about the size of Rio Grande, but there are hardly any businesses; just residential homes. We also cover a small city of a few thousand called Progreso and it goes right up to the border. We are teaching mostly in spanish and it is amazing being able to teach in Spanish again. I can already feel my spanish improving.

My companion is Elder Harris and he's from northern Alabama. It's good to be with someone who isn't from the west. I got pretty sick of teasing everybody from Utah, Idaho, and California. We're having a great time serving together. It looks like we have the same goals and desires and we're definitely going to get work done here.

Before leaving Corpus, I had some of the members and investigators that we were teaching sign one of my journals that I use for people I've met on the mission. The M____ family each wrote an individual note and Sister M_____'s cousin, Nellie, wrote that she will send me a picture of her baptism day. She is getting baptized this Sunday. I'm a little disappointed that I won't be there for it after teaching her everything but I'm really excited to be able to teach the people here. I've already met quite a few. One of our goals for these next couple weeks is to build up our teaching pool because we only have a few investigators. Things are looking really good though. I hope I'm here for a while. The members are great. We cover both an English and Spanish ward and I'm trying to learn all their names. There are a lot of people.

Well family, life is maravillosa. Can you believe it's February? Maybe one of my prayers will be answered and time will start to slow down. Or maybe it won't, who knows. I'm just excited to see what my time here in Mercedes will bring me. You are all in my prayers. Thanks for everything!

Que tenga un dia maravilloso!

Con mucho love,

Elder Brett

Jan. 23, 2012

Hey y'all. I'm being transferred back to the valley, down to Mercedes
Texas! I'm not exactly sure where that's at, but I do know it's pretty
close to McAllen. I'm so excited. It's been awesome up here in Corpus
Christi. I'm pretty sad to leave, especially having to say goodbye to
all the members, but it'll be cool to meet some more. I'll be covering
both a Spanish and English ward. It will be my first time working in a
Spanish ward, instead of just a tiny branch. Elder Davis and I have
been doing great at SYL, but it will be cool to be able to speak even
more Spanish now. My companion is going to be Elder Harris. I'll let
you know all about him next email I guess.
I need to send some pictures home soon. I haven't taken as many as I
should've here in Corpus. Yesterday, Tabby gave a talk in the YSA
branch so we went over there to hear her speak. It was amazing.
Afterwards, we got a picture of her, Manuel, Elder Davis, and I and
I'll make sure and send it home soon. It's an awesome picture with two
recent converts. Did I tell you that Tabby applied for BYU and now
she's waiting to hear back? If she gets in, she'll be there before I
even get home. Crazy huh?
We are meeting as a zone at a taco place called Taco Bueno pretty soon
for a zone lunch so we gotta head out. Thanks y'all for everything!
Love,
Elder Brett

Jan. 16, 2012

Hey familia,
It was an awesome week. The weather has been great. Not too hot, not
cold anymore. I'm soaking it all in until the summer comes again. I
kind of hope that I'm in a bike area during the summer. Once in a
lifetime experience right? Although I am really sick of buying new
tire tubes.
We are playing basketball soon with the other missionaries so we gotta
bounce! Did you all get my emails last week? I sent y'all personal
ones. Hopefully you all got them. Thanks mal for the dearelder. And
steph, I want to hear from you! I'll either write a letter or email
next week just to you.
I'm healthy and happy. Just trying to make time slow down. Elder Davis
and I are having a great time together. It's been fun training him.
Well, les quiero mucho.
-Elder Brett

Jan. 2, 2012

Life is so great right now. Things are amazing. Yesterday, the M___ family (we eat dinner there every sunday evening) brought sister M___'s cousin to church. She isn't a member and Sister M___ has been trying to teach her ever since she converted to the church twenty years ago. Her cousin, Nellie, never showed much interest until about a week ago. We introduced ourselves to Nellie and then later, Sister M___ told us that they were up to 4:30 in the morning a few nights ago talking about the gospel. We went to the M___'s early last night and had a beautiful lesson. We started off with "Reflections of Christ" which brought the Spirit so strongly into the lesson and then we taught her the gospel. She is now preparing to be baptized on the fifth of February. It's great because she has such amazing support from the family. That's what one of the most difficult parts about teaching people and helping them get baptized; getting them the support from the ward/branch. Fortunately, she already has that support.

Elder Davis and I are loving every minute of every day. He is doing a great job at taking upon himself more and more responsibilty. Although, I still have a hard time convinving him to start the door and street contacts. He gets pretty nervous doing that. But then I think about my first few months and I was pretty terrified too. I was doing them in Spanish though! But he's improving a lot. It's fun to see the progress. It reminds me so much of the beginning of my mission. It feels so recent and so far away at the same time. It's hard to believe that I was serving in St. George at one point. I'm so grateful I was able to do that. I love being here in Texas though. It's exciting to be able to start off a new year.

I hope y'all had a wonderful new years day. Again, it was so great being able to talk to you all on the phone on Christmas. Thanks also for the gifts you sent. I'll send some more pictures soon.

You are all in my prayers. Just know that I am happy, healthy, and having the greatest time in the world.

love,
Elder Brett

Hey y'all! It was so awesome talking to you all last night on Christmas. The time flew by too fast. I just wanted to share a quick christmas eve miracle that Elder Davis and I experienced:

 

We completed our studies as usual on Christmas Eve. We had a quick lunch at the apartment and then grabbed our trusty steeds (our bicicletas) and went to work. It was freezing (it was only like 45 degrees but it felt like we were in antarctica) and it was starting to drizzle. We headed to two guys that we are teaching but they weren't there so our backup plan was to head to another investigator, a lady and her 5 kids, who lived on the very western border of our area. Normally, it takes about 25-30 minutes to get there but because of the wind and weather, we figured it would take about 35-40. We had a lesson with just a lady that we contacted many weeks prior at 3 so we figured that would give us enough time to get out and visit our investigator and then make it back to our 3 o-clock appointment.

 

So we began our journey...

 

The rain had really picked up so we were pedaling ferociously in the wind but we weren't making a whole lot of progress. We both wanted to visit this family so were determined to get there. We pedaled and pedaled and we kept our heads facing downwards because the rain was getting into our eyes. We got pretty far out there and had just barely jumped a curb and got back onto the sidewalk when I heard a loud hissing noise coming from my bike. At first, I though it was my tire rubbing against my brake pads and I thought "Oh man not this again." (I just barely got that problem fixed a couple weeks ago) and then I looked at the tire and I could literally see the air gushing out. I couldn't believe it. A flat tire? Again?! I had already bought the entire stock of tire tubes at Wal-mart this past month. We saw a bus stop ahead a little ways so we pushed our bikes and took shelter. We stood there for a minute or so thinking about what to do. I was sort of in a daze because I didn't feel like dealing with the problem. And then I thought of the pioneers and figured, "alright, we can do this." We decided to take our bikes to the Morales family who lived about a half-mile away and fix them there.

 

We came up to their house and none of the cars were there so we were just praying that somebody was inside because we didn't know where else to go. We knocked on the door and fortunately the daughters were both home so they let us use some paper towels to clean off the tire and then we were able to use their porch to fix my bike. After a good half hour or so, I got the bike all patched up with the bike patches I had bought at Wal-mart (Scouts really did teach me to be prepared) and we were all set to go. At this point, it was about 2:40 so we had to decided whether to still stop by our investigator real fast or just head to our 3 o-clock appointment. They both seemed important so we really didn't know what to do. We started walking and tried to decide as we approached the main road. I said a quick prayer and as we got to the road, we felt that we should turn right and head ALL THE WAY BACK to where we came from and go to our appointment at three. We hopped on our bikes and took off. Fortunately, the wind was slightly more in our favor heading back.

 

We pedaled as fast as we could and got to her house at 5 seconds past 3. We were both so proud. We are practicing our punctuality. We knocked on our door and when she answered, she told us that she was sincerely sorry but her son wasn't home (we set up the appointment with both of them) and that we should come back a different time. This was already our 4th or 5th time trying to have a lesson with them so we just told them to call us when they wanted us to stop by again. We did it in a polite manner but we both felt pretty frustrated. We got back on our bikes, tried to wipe off all the rain on our seats, and started to head by less active members that we had planned on going by for back-ups. We had an appointment with a member at 5 and we were really excited to finally get inside and warm up and have a nice Christmas Eve dinner. After about an hour with no success and still an hour until our meal appointment, we got a phone call. I answered and it was the lady that we had the appointment set up for 3 o-clock. She said that her son got home and they both felt bad that they weren't able to meet with us. They asked if we could come by on Tuesday to have a lesson. I set up a time for Tuesday evening and then we wished each other a merry christmas and hung out. Five minutes later, we got another call so we stopped our bikes and I answered the phone and it was the same lady again. She said that they both didn't want to wait until Tuesday and asked if it would be possible for us to come by right then. We said of course it would, and we raced back to her house. We got there in record time.

 

We had a great, spiritual lesson, and both are now preparing to be baptized in January. We got to the members' house a little late but we were all smiles because our prayers were answered. All we wanted was to teach the gospel on Christmas eve. I'll be honest, I was pretty tempted just to find shelter in the church or something because of the rain but we both knew that we needed to be diligent and work. We suffered for a bit in the rain and cold weather but we received many blessings later that day.

 

Afterwards, we went caroling to our investigators and less active families with the other elders in our district and had an amazing time. We had a great night and a great Christmas morning.

 

Sorry the story was so long! It was an amazing day and required many details.

 

Lots of amor!

Elder Brett

 

PS - I forgot to mention the part where Elder Davis wiped out on his bike and face planted into the mud. That was just another one of those trials before receiving the blessing of teaching the gospel.  

19 December 2011

Time flies by faster when you train. I can't believe that it's already my second transfer with Elder Davis. It's going to be a great second transfer. I'm excited.

Tonight we are going caroling with Manuel, Tabby, and some other recent converts from the Singles Branch. It's going to be great. Tabby is applying to transfer to BYU and then prepare to go on a mission. Pretty crazy how much her life has and will change right? She's on a totally different course now. She loves it, and we love being a part of it.

It's been kind of rainy this past week. Only once did we have to work while getting drenched. The rest of the days were just a light mist, or it cleared up by the time we left the apartment. I'm still praying for snow on Christmas. What's the thing that Stephie did to wish for snow? Put a spoon under the pillow and wear your PJ's inside out? Something like that right? Maybe I'll do that. And maybe I'll get the other elders to join with me.

It's going to be a wonderful week. I am so excited. Thank you all for everything. I really wanted to be able to send something for Christmas but I've just been so busy. Thank you all for the packages though! They look great underneath the tree. I'll try to send some handwritten letters home after Christmas. I'll make sure and include some pictures.

Thanks y'all for everything. Have a wonderful Christmas!

Love,
Elder Brett

Dec. 5

Hello family,

 

It's been a wonderful week. So many great things are happening. It's going to be such a fun Christmas season. Another coldfront came in last night and it was the weirdest/coolest experience. Elder Davis and I were riding our bikes all the way to the corner of our area and there was a warm wind so it wasn't that cold. I was actually kind of sweaty. Then, all of a sudden, the wind changed instantly to cold. It dropped probably 10 degrees. I didn't understand what was happening. I looked back at Elder Davis and he couldn't believe it either. We actually felt the coldfront hit us as we were riding our bikes to the western border of our area. Fortunately I had my sweater in my backpack.

Hm, what else? It's fun to see all the christmas decorations being put up. I'm still praying for a white christmas. It happened before. Once. In 2004.

Elder Davis and I took our bikes to the bike shop today and got them fixed. They just needed a little realigning so it didn't cost too much.

Well, we are going to head to the store and do our shopping. Love you all!

Love,

Elder Brett