First Week in Texas

Hello Fam and friends, So I have like no time so this might be a quick email, but I'll include the best story of the week for ya'll. I hope you got all the info and pictures from President and Sister Crawford, they were supposed to email you some pictures of me and my comps and stuff. So I am in a trio with my trainer Elder Memea and Elder Wright. Memea is from Hawaii and Wright is from South Carolina, and we are in Vidor, Texas. Look it up. I am in the boonies, trailer homes, wild dogs, broken down cars sitting in lawns and beer cans on the side of the rode, but all in all it's a great place. You should check it out. So I got off the plane in Houston and the President and Sister were there to pick us all up and we were waiting for our bags. We waited and waited and I got my smaller bag with a bunch of misc. things in it, but my huge suitcase with literally all my clothing but the suit that I was wearing in it never came down the chute onto the claim circle thing. I was getting worried, and nervous and we eventually had to talk to the baggage people who would send it to the mission home in Kingwood, Texas once it came in (they let us know that it was in Dallas still.). So we left and we went through that day and the morning of the next with orientation stuff and lessons and everything, and then we had transfer meeting where I met my comps and soon after drove about an hour and half out to Vidor. I was told by the APs that they would drive it out as soon as they got it. So Wednesday I just wore the same clothes that I had for the 3rd day in a row, and we ride bikes mostly out here. Wednesday evening Pres. called and said that the airport called and they wouldn't have it until Thursday morning. We waited for it and everything but we had a bunch of stuff to do on Thursday and It never showed up. That night I got a call from Pres and he told me this "Elder Evans, guess where your bag is right now? It's on a flight back from Seoul, South Korea!" So that was a fun bit of information. My suitcase was sent all the way to South Korea and back. That's pretty neat. It was an interesting week only having the one pair of underwear and pants and shirt and tie. It was a sweaty week too. haha. We are having a baptism this Thursday! It's with a 17 yr. old kid named Tyler. He is a cool guy and the missionaries have been working with him for a long time. The only reason that he wasn't baptized earlier is that he used to be and still kind of is, very afraid of water. But we've been meeting him at a member's pool with an adult member who goes in with him and helps him overcome that fear. But it's awesome to see how much progress he has made and it's going to happen for real on Thursday! I'm excited for it! We are teaching several other people and a couple of other great families and hopefully they can all overcome the struggles that have and everything. The Book of Mormon is true and everybody needs to read it and pray about it. JUST DO IT. That's about all I have time for right now. The rest of the stories will just have to wait for 2 years until I get home! Love, Elder Evans Here's the address to my apartment! (We live in a member's home) 6282 Woodridge Drive Orange, Texas 77632

Alex is in Houston

Your Missionary has arrived safely to T.H.E. Mission!  Upon arrival we met your missionary at the airport and took them directly to the mission home where they were fed Texas Bar-b-que and met the office staff.  An orientation by the office staff followed lunch while individual interviews were conducted by President Crawford.  That evening they were invited to share their testimonies.  The following morning was focused on training after which they met their new companion and were transported to their area of service.  They are now out diligently searching for our Heavenly Father's children and doing the work of the Lord. Thank you for sending your daughters and sons to us, they have added great strength to our small army here in the Texas Houston East Mission. We love them and are so grateful to have them with us. You will find attached a picture of your newly arrived missionary with Sister Crawford and myself as well as their arriving group.

We are writing to confirm your e-mail address.  We use this method to keep you informed in case of hurricanes or in getting you other important information concerning T.H.E. Mission. We are delighted that your Missionary is here and look forward to working with them.
Sincerely, 
President and Sister Crawford

So today we were surprised with our REASSIGNMENTS IN THE MAIL!!!!!! Just some background info on my thoughts and wishes for this mission call. There were 2 missions that I wanted to go to. 

1. Houston, Texas - Dad's mission

2. Los Angeles, California - Landon's mission

So I was really hoping and praying to go to one of those missions. AND.

DRUMROLLLLL PLEASE!!

Elder Evans, you will be serving a temporary assignment in the TEXAS HOUSTON EAST MISSION!!!!!!!! So I don't know if that was a recent split or if it used to be your mission dad, but it is close enough! 

I leave the MTC on Monday morning at 2:30 and my flight leaves from SLC to Dallas at 6. and then I have a 2 hour layover until I fly to Houston. I am soooo excited! I will call sometime before 6 I honestly have no idea what exact time but it will be probably like 5, and I'll be able to email on Saturday. The Church is True and there are no such things as coincidences. I cannot wait to get into the field and meet the people who are being prepared for me!

The other missions that my District members are going to are

Tacoma, WA

Gilbert, AZ

LA, CA

Cleveland. OH

Rapid City, SD

Charlotte, NC

Email me back by Saturday and send me that picture book!!

Love You all!!!!

Week 5 AKA - The Longest Week of My Life

This last week has been roughhhhh. So like I mentioned last tuesday, I was feeling kinda sick. Then from Wednesday until probably Sunday night I had the nastiest sinus infection. I was blowing my nose every couple seconds, my sinuses felt like they were going to explode, and on top of all that, I couldn't sleep. It was like a little personal hell here in "Spiritual Prison" as those of us who have been here for longer than 4 weeks like to call the MTC. Don't get me wrong, though, I am still loving my time here and am still continuing to learn way more than my brain can physically handle, but you get a very real case of cabin fever here (Cue the song from Muppet Treasure Island). But I powered through what I could. I tried to stay back and sleep most days until about lunch time and I was able to make it to at least my evening class or studies. Mas tudo bem em Sião.

So to answer some questions that Mom asked me in a dear elder this week:

1. The MTC gives you a nice set of Scriptures in your mission language along with all of your other language materials on your first day here. Free.

2. In regards to the food here. I hate it. I feel gross and fat just thinking about having to eat in the cafeteria. It's not bad for the first couple days here, but all the meals are cycled every week and they all are just mass quantity thawed frozen meals basically. The meat is all Nast.

3. Bed bugs. We actually are just all sleeping in one room now, our district elders that is. The other room has 6 beds and there are only 6 of us left, so we keep all our stuff in our room, but sleep in the other one. I have not seen anymore for like a week and a half or so.

4. Tuesday Devotionals and Sunday Night Firesides here are awesome. Up until today they have all been emeritus general authorities and their wives on Tuesdays and on Sundays we usually have an administrator for the Missionary department in the church HQ, or somebody like that. But two weeks ago we had Jenny Baker Oaks (Dallin H. Oaks' daughter) who graduated from Jiulliard in Violin Perfomance and she came and played her own arrangements of a bunch of hymns with her friend who also went to Jiullard for piano. She was a huge diva, but it was some of the best violin I've heard live in my life. Also big news. Tonight at the devotional we are all expecting someone big. We are singing Jesus Once of Humble Birth and the whole devo. is being broadcast to all the MTCs worldwide. So crossing my fingers for an apostle. (Please be Bednar or Holland!) haha.

5. I did see Marissa Miller. It took me 4 days to find her, and I've seen her a couple times since.

6. Being a Zone Leader isn't too hard in the MTC. I really don't have that much responsibility or very many duties. But I've enjoyed it a lot. I like to introduce all the new frightened sheep that show up every Wednesday haha. I like leading.

I think that was all of them.

Some more news from this week. I got my haircut yesterday, it looks good. The ladies in the barbershop are technically not allowed to cut the top of you hair shorter than about a 5, but I told the lady just to cut it as short as she could and she got it down to at least a 4. It's so much nicer. Life is a lot better when you don't have to deal with curly hair. 

So this is my last week here at the training center and I am excited to get into the field wherever the Lord sees fit to send me for now. I will get my reassignment on Friday most likely. So to explain how that works for everybody: When you are going to Brazil or Argentina, you are probably not going to receive your VISA until you are out of the MTC for a while. So they have us all here learning Spanish and Portuguese (which is way better than Spanish), for our 6 weeks, and after the 6 weeks we are all fluent in the language (ha), and about 3 days before you are supposed to leave you all get a new mission call with travel itineraries, and it's not certain when you will be leaving. There's usually at least one missionary who gets his or her reassignment on Friday and they leave that night at like 2 in the morning. Either way, after I get my call I'll get to have a "Pday" and I will email and then I'll call when I fly out, or if I just walk down the street to the Provo Mission Home haha which happened to one of my friends here who left last week. 

I still wish that I could go straight to Rio de Janeiro for a couple reasons, mainly being that I don't want to forget Portchy, and come on, I'm going to Rio de Janeiro, probably the most amazing and beautiful mission in the world. Plus from all that I have been hearing about Brazilians and Brazil missions, it sounds like the promised land, the people are all so faithful and religious already, they love Christ and God and they accept the true Gospel of Jesus Cristo happily and smiling all the while. But I am also so excited to know where I will be going in a week! I know it will be a much needed learning experience and will help me tons as I truly become the missionary that I am going to become.

Eu amo este evangelho. Sei que Jesus Cristo é meu Salvador e Redentor. Se léssemos o Livro de Mórmon e orássemos sobre a mensagem dele, Deus vai responder por meio do Espírito Santo. Precisamos escutar para os pensimentos e sentimentos que ele nos dá continualmente. Estas coisa são verdadeiras. Eu sei isto porque escutei e continuo a escutar ao Espírito. Vocês podem saber isto também. Como fala em Tiago 1:5 "If any of you lack wisdom, ask of God. Who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given you" or something like that. Mom - you can fix that scripture before you post it to the blog. Tiago=James 

Pedi e recebereis. Bateis e ser-vos-á aberto. Amém.

Com amor!

Elder Evans

MTC Week 4
August 6, 2013

This week went by crazy fast. And I only have 2 more weeks here. It's coming up quick. I'm starting to get pretty nervous about entering the real world and leaving this bubble of spiritual seclusion. Especially since I'll most likely get my reassignement next friday. If I don't get my VISA by then. VISAs have been coming like crazy this last week. it's good news. I know of 4 missionaries that got their VISAs through the LA consulate even. It made me feel a little bit more optimistic. There was one elder in my district who got his last Wednesday i think, and he left for the airport this morning along with I think over 20 other missionaries that got their VISAS last week, including Elder Phipps! So if I had been able to do my paperwork in Kansas I would have probably got my VISA too. That was a bummer, but I got over it, kinda. Not much happened this week besides all that commotion. I have been trying to work hard and FSL, (Fala Sua Lingua, Speak your language). We started teaching our other teacher now too, so we have 2 progressing investigators and we do TRC every Friday morning. We also will start to be investigators for other companionships in our district, and teach each other. So it'll be a busy last 2 weeks, but I have never not been busy here. And I don't expect to never not be busy for the rest of the next two years.

Keep praying and wishing upon stars that I'll get my VISA quickly! I am dying for it! I know that I'll get it sometime, I'd like that sometime to be soon, though. That's awesome that your promotion covers a little bit more than the payments for my mission. The Lord is looking out for you guys back home just as much as He's looking out for me. It sounds like everybody is staying busy and working hard. It's crazy to think that summer is almost over! Good luck to Madi and Ethan in school and I hope everything goes smoothly for you Landon as you get back to Provo and go to school. Theres actually a possibility that I could get reassigned to the Provo mission in 2 weeks. That would be sweet. That's actually the mission that I want to go to haha. Keep sending me mail and stuff! Good luck in Omaha Dad! Good luck as manager Mom!

Love you all!