We had a nice cold front these past two days and it was an extremely weird feeling being semi cold. Elder Stevens and I thought about wearing sweaters. It's supposed to get back up into the 90s though so we're not going to get too used to it.

 

We found this cool family this past week from Ohio. They have their lawn, house, and car decked out in Ohio State stuff. It made me gag. The family was a referral from the bishop and we went by last week to meet them and I told Bishop on the doorstep that it was a good thing that this family was a referral because if we were knocking doors on this street, I definitely would have skipped the house. haha but I guess everyone needs salvation right? Especially those Ohio State fans, because they are so far from it. :)

 

We are teaching quite a few people but most are still in the beginning stages. We have worked really well with the members and we have received some wonderful referrals from them. We've had a lot of great spiritual experiences, which have been a blessing to us and the members. It's great working in unity with them. It makes our job of "finding" a lot easier and more effective.

 

Elder Stevens and I are still having a blast together. I'm not sure why I've been blessed with the best companions throughout the mission. I'm a lucky guy.

 

I'm excited for a great October and then to begin an amazing November. So much to do, so little time. I feel like I'm racing against the clock but for some reason or another the clock always seems to be a little bit ahead. Hijole. Slow down please.

 

Anyway, I love you all muchisimo.

 

-Elder Brett

 

ps Hermana C____ speaks the BEST tex-mex. I'm not sure how she does it, but literally every other sentence (and sometimes every other word!) she switches back and forth between English and Spanish. I'm going to keep practicing it. It's a fun idioma.

Sept, 24, 2012

Hola familia,

It was an amazing week. The C____ family got baptized yesterday and it was a wonderful experience. The baptismal service went great; the relief society president and another relief society sister gave short talks/testimonies and then the bishop, primary 1st counselor, and relief society president gave "welcome's" to the ward. Jonathan (the loco 1.5 year old) was asleep when they came Sunday evening to the chapel for their baptism but awoke shortly thereafter and was a little monster haha. But overall, everything went very well. I baptized Hermano C_____ and Elder Stevens baptized Hermana C_____ and Juan Pablo. 
It's been so cool to see the changes in this family. It's cool because most of my recent converts have had major spiritual confirmations or experiences before there baptism, which have all been great, but with this family it has been just one gradual incline. This has made it difficult to see all the changes from when we first found and started teaching them to now, but looking back on it, it is is quite obvious. We have an FHE tonight with them and have a cool lesson planned. We're excited.

Today we were at the mission office faxing some forms and we were trying to get back to our apartment as soon as possible to get ready to play some soccer and we hit some bad traffic at the stoplight. As we maneuvered our way around cars to get through the light, we realized the traffic was due to a car that had broken down and the guy was waving his hand out to people signaling them to pass him. Before crossing the intersection we managed to swerve to the right and park our car on the side of the road to help him out. We ran to his van and asked if we could help. We directed traffic around his car and then started pushing his van backwards to the nearest parking lot entrance. As we were pushing his super hot van, a guy pulled off to the side of the road and jumped out to help us. He was a pretty buff guy and really helped us out haha. Anyway, it was just a super cool experience. As missionaries we are basically obligated to do that sort of stuff but Elder Stevens and I were both super impressed with the guy who was on his way to work but took the time to push this guys' van that had broken down. The man was super appreciative (only spoke spanish which was cool; we got to show off our skills) and said he would call his family to come help him. Nice to know that there are some good people in the world huh?

Well, things are still going amazing here in Mission/Hidalgo. Love you all. Thanks for everything!

-Elder Brett

Oct. 1 2012

Otra semana mas! Hijole, el tiempo se va tan rapido y no lo puedo creer!

 

Tomorrow is transfers...and Elder Stevens and I are staying together! We're super stoked to stay together for another transfer. We have been having so much success together and have been blessed abundantly. I can't believe that I only have one more transfer :( We had zone conferences last week with the four zones here close to McAllen (McAllen, Mission, Hidalgo, and Edinburg) and it was so cool seeing a bunch of missionaries that I have gotten to know throughout the mission. Elder Stevens and I gave a wonderful training and then before ending the conference, all the missionaries going home before next zone conference gave their farewell testimonies. I never thought that I would be a part of that group of viejo missionaries!! It was so sad.

 

The G____ family got confirmed on Sunday. It was magnificent. We have had so many members of the church come with us to lessons and they are really starting to feel at home when they are at church. Hermana S____, one of the greatest ladies and relief society presidents I've ever met, gave her a sunday dress and she wore it yesterday. We are going to get her husband a white shirt and slacks (and tie of course). The kids were actually somewhat behaved during sacrament meeting (except for little Jonathan, he never sits still). They were having some family problems when we first met and started teaching them and it's amazing to see the changes in their family. As they left church on Sunday, I ran out and yelled adios from the door and they all just looked so happy. The kids are adorable. I can't wait for y'all to meet all these families. I've been so blessed to be here instead of Mexico! Haha. It's going to be a heckuva lot easier to visit all my converts. I'm so excited.

 

Anyway, I'm including a picture of the family.

 

love you all!

-Elder Brett

Sept. 17, 2012

Well Elder Payne left home to Utah so now it's just me and Elder Stevens here taking over the area. It's been a fun few days trying to figure out how to get around town without our GPS (Elder Payne) giving us directions. It's been a lot of fun though; it makes things exciting. 

The family that we started teaching when we got to the area a month ago (yikes! It's been a month?) is getting baptized this Sunday! It's been a great teaching and conversion process. The kids are absolutely CRAZY and makes the lessons kind of long, but they have miraculously been able to feel the spirit. A couple lessons ago we were reading from the "Family: A proclamation to the world" pamphlets and the 2 year old little devi---boy somehow got a hold of Elder Stevens Book of Mormon without him really realizing it and he took it a couple feet away, plopped down on the ground, started flipping through the pages and stopped at Moroni chapter 6. It was at this point that I realized what was happening. I saw a look of determination in little Jonathan's eyes and I knew what was about to happen. All I could do was gasp and manage to say "oh no",.. and then he did it. He grasped the frail pages in his tiny hand and yanked as hard as he could. Elder Stevens looked over as he heard that wonderful chapter being ripped out of his mint condition, genuine leather, Book of Mormon. He leaped off the couch and had a tug-of-war with little Jonathan and finally managed to get his pages back. After this 15 second catastrophe, I was stunned, Elder Stevens was bewildered, the parents felt terrible, and Jonathan was having a blast laughing his head off. That night Elder Stevens managed to tape back in Moroni chapter 6. What a blessing because we use that a lot to teach people about church. Phew, crisis avoided. 

Anyway, the temperature is cooling down, we met some great people this past week, as a zone we are improving in our missionary efforts, and things are just going really good right now. I couldn't ask for more. I was a little worried though when we went to wal-mart today and saw halloween decorations. Halloween of 2010 was my last Sunday before going into the MTC that following Wednesday. Holy smokes. Have I mentioned that time flies?

The members here are amazing and I'm excited to continue to visit them and work with them to share the gospel. 

I love you all! Thanks for the postcards! I got them one at a time during the week. It was awesome :)
Cuidense mucho y que les vaya bien. 

-Elder Brett

Sept. 10, 2012

Dear family,

Things are going absolutely amazing down here in Hidalgo/Mission/McAllen. The whole family that we're teaching came to church on Sunday and then we went over to Bishop G____'s house for a family home evening. Juan Pablo, the 9-year old son said the opening prayer and then after the FHE, which went wonderfully well, Bishop G___ asked the father if he'd be comfortable saying the last prayer. He said yes and as the Bishop and the rest of the family folded their arms and bowed their heads for the prayer, Juan Pablo, Jose, Jasmin, and even the 2 year old boy Jonathan all got on their knees and folded their arms. Bishop and his family were astounded. I guess we forgot to let Bishop know that we always kneel in a circle as a family for the closing prayer after our teaching visits. We left the FHE that night really happy because we know that Bishop is excited for this family to get baptized. They are going to be a great addition to the ward. 

I've been having so much fun teaching families. There's nothing quite like it. I cannot wait for y'all to come down and visit these people that I've grown to love so much. I stay in contact still with all of them through good ol' snail mail and it's been great getting their updates. I told you that Tabby is at BYU right? She sent me a BYU t-shirt. All the families in Edinburg are doing great. It's tough being so close yet so far away! Oh well, I'll see them soon enough. We've just started teaching some additional families; they are early on in the teaching process but I'll let you know how it goes as they progress.

I think (I hope!) it's starting to get a little little cooler now. We went out this morning right at 6:30 to wash our car and it was actually kind of chilly haha. It's going to be weird going to Utah in November! I'm gonna freeze my toosh off. By the way, it looks like I can't extend my mission at all because of Thanksgiving, which is a good thing though. It will be nice to be home for Thanksgiving. My departure date is now November 14th. My original departure date was the 7th because the transfers were off by a week from Monterrey, but they're letting me go home a week later that way I can go home with the entire group. 

Anyway...
I love y'all mucho! Thanks for your emails and letters. 

-Elder Brett

Sept. 5, 2012

Hey family!

Sorry I couldn't write on Monday. Stinkin' Labor Day. Hah but guess what? They still had school down here on Labor Day. We were talking to the bishop in the english ward and he was telling us how annoyed he was that they still have school on American holidays, and that even though it's mostly Hispanics down here, that they should still respect the US holidays haha. He said that for summer school, the kids still have school on the fourth of July. Those poor souls...

Anyway, we went to the church gymnasium and played volleyball as a zone. It was a ton of fun! The church is in Mission, Texas and it's the stake center for the McAllen West Stake so it has a full size gymnasium. Last year when I was in Rio Grande we would occasionally (when we had miles) come down to the Stake Center and play basketball for p-days. Those were the days...

The zone has really been struggling these past few months with missionary work/baptisms. We have two great district leaders in the zone and we are working really well with them to help pick things up. I'm excited to see the progress. One of our goals was to increase the unity as a zone and I think that playing volleyball together really helped. Hey I told y'all that Elder Ferrel (my hijo!!) lives in the apartment with me right? Man it's been so much fun haha. In the mornings we go across the street and play tennis together. It's a lot of fun. I've gotten the hang of hitting the ball over the net and keeping it within bounds, so this morning I've advanced to trying to hit the ball as hard as I can over the net. I still have a lot of progress to make. I kept smacking it into the net this morning. I think Elder Ferrel got annoyed. But then, as we were almost done playing, he lobbed the tennis ball over to me and I smacked it back to him so hard and fast that it hit him square in the gut. It was great. 

The work is going great in our area. Right before I got here, the elders contacted a pretty cool family and we had our first lesson once Elder Stevens and I got here. They came to church last Sunday for the first time and are progressing great. We taught the wife and oldest son (9) the restoration and they ate it right up. The husband has been progressing as well, but he has a crazy work schedule which has made it hard to teach him and keep him on track with his wife and kids. There are 6 total in the family: mom, dad, and 4 kids, but only one kid is old enough for baptism. The youngest, Jonathan, is 2 years old and he is an absolute maniac! It's a good thing we are a trio, because 1 is assigned to distract the little devil while the other 2 teach. During the lesson we also switch roles. It's crazy but fun haha. The other boy (7) has a form of autism and the mom was really worried about how he would act in church. She said that for the past 2 years she hasn't been able to take him to any church because he gets frustrated and can't handle being around that many people, but last Sunday he came with the family and he loved it. He loved the primary and he never acted up. I think that played a huge role in helping the mom become converted to the Gospel. She could hardly believe it. 

We're super close to the Rio. I think this upcoming P-day we'll take some cool pictures. I love being so close to the border. I got a letter this past week from Elder Dickson, my MTC companion who is in Tampico, Mexico and he said that whenever he asks people if they have been to the U.S. they always say that they've been to McAllen. I've met quite a few people from Monterrey and Tampico. Who knows, maybe we've run into the same people. Crazy...

Well, I love you all! Thanks for the updates and your prayers. 

Con amor,
Elder Brett

P.S. Sorry I forgot to email my address last week! It's:

3712 Howard Dr. Apt # 18
McAllen, TX 
78503

This is probably the last place you'll be able to write me on the mission! Better enjoy it while you can!! hehe

Aug. 27, 2012

Oh my wonderful family :)

I am now serving as the zone leader in the marvelous Hidalgo Zone. My companions are Elder Payne and Elder Stevens. We're in a trio for 3 weeks because Elder Payne extended. It has been a pretty awesome week. I've met a lot of the members and we've found quite a few more people to teach. The people are great. The area we work in is called The Plantation because we cover a giant subdivision/mini community of gigantic homes located near the border of Mexico and Texas, and the community is called The Plantation. It's pretty cool. There are a ton of members that live there. They feed us well :) We also cover a large area of humble homes. I prefer the humbler areas. Much more receptive.

While the zone is called Hidalgo, we actually work in the city of Mission and a part of McAllen. I love my area. Back when I was with Elder Covington, he was always talking about how amazing The Plantation was (He served there before going to Edinburg), so I was pretty excited when I found out I was heading here. We'll see what these next few months bring! You have no idea how excited I am. Also, Elder Ferrel, my greenie from Mercedes, is in the apartment! Haha it's been so much fun being around him again. I have plans to visit him and his family in San Fernando, Mexico when he finishes his mission. That won't be until 2014! Hijole.

Well, I'm excited to send y'all more updates as the work progresses here in Hidalgo (Mission/McAllen).

Love you!
-Elder Brett

P.s. I'm including a picture of the C_____ family. I love them to death!! One is at their house on Monday night after having an FHE. They all started crying when I told them I was getting transferred :( The other is Monday afternoon; we went to the church to play some indoor soccer as a zone and the C_____ family came too. It was awesome.