Dear Family,
One night right before we turned and went home, we stopped by a potential in our list named Betty. We pushed our way through all the 15 cats occupying the front rockyard and knocked on her door. She's an older hispanic who invites anyone who has anything to say about God into her home. Which is really cool because she already has a strong testimony of Jesus and Heavenly Father. She says we are welcome to come by anytime and asked to be taught right then and there on her porch. We hope that she will be more than interested for educational purposes and feel like she would be exactly what our branch needs.
We did a trunk or treat during another "take over exchange" so of course I didn't recognize anyone in their costumes and my companion couldn't help because he's never met these people. It turns out that there was quite a few less-active and non-members that showed up. It was a success because a family we dropped months ago invited us back into their home to possibly restart teaching the lessons. Hopefully this time they'll keep commitments. I'm excited for that one. Macy you are the cutest butterfly I've ever seen. Jake, got to admit, you pull facial hair off better than I ever will. I'm glad I have such a wonderful family.
Unfortunately I don't really use my spanish. Our branch seems to avoid talking to us because they don't want us to challenge them to do stuff and it's hard to catch anyone home who is Hispanic. Nevertheless we're trying really hard to get work moving there and we're planning on getting the leaders excited about the gospel again.
One thing I learned this week is that Rainbow Valley is where tumbleweeds run wild and with it comes all types of people. (RV is where that huge hog lives btw) We feel like the tip of the "success" iceberg lies in Rainbow Valley partially because the people there are generally speaking, quite poor. People move to Rainbow Valley usually because they're looking for something and don't know where to find it so they plop down there and wait until they find it. My personal favorite area so far.
One night right before we turned and went home, we stopped by a potential in our list named Betty. We pushed our way through all the 15 cats occupying the front rockyard and knocked on her door. She's an older hispanic who invites anyone who has anything to say about God into her home. Which is really cool because she already has a strong testimony of Jesus and Heavenly Father. She says we are welcome to come by anytime and asked to be taught right then and there on her porch. We hope that she will be more than interested for educational purposes and feel like she would be exactly what our branch needs.
We are having lessons twice a week with Taylor now. I think that being in contact with him more is definitely helping him retain what we teach. On thursday we set a date for the 22nd of this month for him to be baptized. I really think this will work out. Elder Anderson says that when we find people at church, they've been prepared. He's such a good kid and I can see the change in him from when we first started teaching him.
Saturday I went to the craziest birthday party I've ever been to for a 5 year old. He's the son of our ward mission leader so he invited us to be there with their non-lds friends to possibly see if they would open up more. I wish I took pictures but I'm sure you can imagine my jaw dropping when I saw the Family Fun Halloween edition in front of me. Brazilians are crazy. The dad went to Brazil (I think by tres corazones Dad) for his mission and married a lady from Sao Paulo. Super cool, wild family. They want us to get their oldest excited for a mission since he's kinda on the fence right now. We're taking him with us to teach Taylor this week so we'll see.
Everyone here has family in Kaysville. Have I said that already? The family we had dinner with last night is related to the woman Dan Reynolds had his charity concert for. They were in his stake in Iowa and are good friends with Dan. I feel like an introvert since I know close to none of the people they ask about. I think some people are just making up names to tease me.
I told dad about the WebEx meeting we had as a district leaders meeting. I'm so glad my comp is a DL or else I wouldn't have seen the first web meeting of this mission and perhaps all missions (Pres. Griffin said he didn't know for sure). I'll attach a picture.
It's starting to get colder now. They call this season, Summer. It's funny watching people break out the winter coats here but I know I'll be right next to them soon.
I love you guys!
Elder Bryan
So glad you're keeping this blog Becky! It's wonderful to hear the updates from Elder Bryan.
ReplyDeleteHappy to know he is doing so well!
Love the cotton field pic :)