Friday, September 4, 2015

Alvin Texas, Week 43: July 13, 2015 - July 19, 2015

Monday, July 20, 2015

Had a fun week this week! I feel like such an old missionary now, haha. Especially when I see you and Pops both showing me how long I've been out. You did the week amount and he did the monthly, haha. I like it. Even I can't believe I've been out this long. It's so weird to think that its been almost a year. It feels like just a few months ago I was in the MTC. But, it's been a lengthy journey. I'll be coming up on a year soon! I'll probably be here in Alvin close to when I hit my year mark. We have transfer calls a week from today. I'll most likely have a new companion. I think I will be training a greenie in a couple weeks, yes. I want to do it and see what it's like to train different people becuase they are so unique. I want to see what each elder does well with from the get go and what they struggle with and to see what I can come up with to help. Plus, I feel like I could've done better with my last son and I can improve on those things with the new one.

So some cool highlights were that I've actually been able to go on two Spanish exchanges in the past two weeks. I went to two different Spanish areas with my fellow zone elders and worked their areas. They were way surprised that I've never been to a Spanish area, was my first time. I guess thats unusual seeing I've been out for a while. It was way fun. I could understand most of what they were saying in the lessons and at dinner with members. I would just respond in English and have my Spanish companion translate it back. But they all loved how I knew how to respond and I knew what the people asked. I also got to read the Book of Mormon with a Spanish member. I read almost a whole chapter in Spanish! haha. I was just winging it becuase it was my turn to read. Turns out I pronounced it very well and they couldn't tell I didn't know what I'd read.

One of my favorite things about this week was our ward movie night. This was our second time doing it. The first time was a joke, no one came. This time I was determined to bring lots of people I'm working with. I also wanted to show bishop that we could bring people because the last time he was a little disappointed. So, we started inviting people at the beginning of the week and gettin the word out. We set up a few rides. We did tons and planned like crazy to get our people there and have it be a better turn out than the first. We prayed like crazy that all this effort we put in would pay off and lo and behold... it did. We ended up having a recent convert family come, they brought our investigator Lois. We also had another recent convert named Wyatt come with our ward mission leader. We watched Ephraims Rescue and it was a blast! Everyone had a really good night! Even Lois who doesn't like social things or being stuck indoors due to her claustrophobia! It was a huge testimony builder to me knowing that the Lord definitely heard my prayers and since I did all I could on my part he would pull his part and finish it beautifully. The Lord hears. He answers even quicker when we act like we know He's gonna help and start acting and planning. So that was thrilling haha.

. We work a lot of with recent converts on top of investigators. Its crazy,we almost have too many people to keep track of, haha.Nnew investigators pop up when we don't need any new ones because we have to focus on who we already have. But, this week was pretty good for our current investigators. We had Brittany in church. The rest had some complications. She had a good time despite three crazy little ones to bring along. She's glad she can drop them off in nursery and primary. But,we still have the three ladies on track for baptism. We just need to help Kristella get to church. She has yet to come. Karen has been out of contact for a couple weeks actually. She's been sick and hasn't gotten back to us. We gave Eric a break this week. We thought it might help the family situation and give him time to think about why we keep going over and want us to come back this week. He is quitting smoking. Same with Brendan. We got to see him outside and talk to him for a few minutes. He told us he would be at church,but we never saw him. . We work a lot of with recent converts on top of investigators. It's crazy, we almost have too many people to keep track of, haha. New investigators pop up when we don't need any new ones because we have to focus on who we already have.

We are still getting dinner appointments. We average about two a week. The ward likes us a lot, but don't exactly show in dinner appointments. The new mission president is awesome. We actually had interviews with him this week. He came all the way down to our stake center so he could see more of the mission. Also, went out to lunch with him and the other leaders and discussed what can help our zone. Had a super cool time doing all that. Thank you so much for all the support. I can feel it and it pushes me on when im not doing so well. But, I'm doing great right now! I'm just excited to keep growing and want to baptize pretty bad.

Love you lots,

Pantz

Elder Deans sporting his new birthday tie