Last Full Week in Texas

Well, here starts my last week in Texas and my last full week in the United States. I thought I wouldn't like being reassigned, but I love it here. And to be honest, I would really love to stay here for another transfer. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Evans for the package that you sent me! And thank you Grandma and Grandpa Payne for the money for the new scriptures! It is all much appreciated! (The peanut bars are delicious like always)

So like I mentioned last week we could have had 4 baptisms this coming weekend, but we are actually going to only have 2. But that's fine because just yesterday and this morning actually we committed 3 more investigators to be baptized on October 19th! And all of these are for sure. The girl that we met yesterday is a friend of a member and works at a restaurant that we eat at. Actually it was the restaurant that we were at with Sister OToole when she sent you that picture! It's called James Brown's Gumbo House. But she came to church yesterday and we had a lesson with her right after and she was tearing up practically the whole time, and I got to be the one to recite the Joseph Smith History. Because that's how we roll here in THE Mission. When we are teaching the full Restoration, we memorize the JSH from verses 10 to 17. We skip the first part of his experience in the grove and go straight to I saw a pillar of light... But it was awesome yesterday! Most spirit filled lesson of my mission so far. Then this morning we had a lesson with two young girls who have been coming to church for a long time with their grandma, and it's a weird legal situation with divorced parents and we didn't know until the YW Pres. came up to us last sunday and was like "I've got a baptism for you!" haha. So we met the girls today and they are also going to be baptized on the 19th. Which is why I'm bummed that I'm not going to be here! But oh well.

I'm excited to go to the temple on Wednesday and I'm excited to get some new scriptures! That's awesome news about Ethan and Landon, and Madi it's good that your ACL isn't torn. Hope that heals quick. Keep finding guns in peoples bags bro. Hopefully it was one of those apostate Utah fans and not one of us righteous Cougars. Either way, make some bank and have fun learning mais portugues!

Love Yall!

Elder Evans

Bad News This Week(Just Kidding!!!)

It was nice to see all your emails this week! I had a lot to read! I'm just going to take care of some things before I get into the real meat of the email.

 

I did get my picture book on Wednesday night. So I got it and that's all done.

 

So my quad is starting to fall apart from excessive use and some age and humidity. We are going to the Temple on the 25th of this month and they have a distribution center there and I was wanting to buy a new quad, hopefully one of the small kinds too, so I don't know how much they cost, but I think somewhere around 50 bucks. If instead of you guys sending me something before I take off for Brazil, could you check to see how much those are and put that much or something close to it on my card so I can buy one and send mine home in a package? Thanks.

 

And that last point leads me into the bad news that I got on Wednesday night this last week. President Crawford called me and told me that I was leaving this mission. BECAUSE THEY GOT MY VISA IN! Haha so I leave onOctober 3rd! I'm going to end up finishing this transfer and I'll get to Rio in time to start their next transfer period! So in a little over 2 weeks I will be in Brazil! Talk about crazy! President made me promise him that I was going to work as hard as I can until then, and I am. We had an up and down week this last week. It felt like nothing was happening, we weren't getting in with very many people, we weren't able to teach very many lessons, and it all culminated into Saturday night where we all just kind of felt like garbage. But that didn't mean we worked any less hard. We tried our best to keep on going and then all of a sudden yesterday exploded. Two of our solid investigators came to church and we had a lesson with them afterwards, and we got a solid referral who we might be able to baptize in 2 weeks. That's the goal anyways. Two of our investigators are scheduled to be baptized on the 28th. And if everything goes well this week, which I think it will. We could be having 4 people being baptized on that day! It's exciting!

 

I went on my first exchange out of my area on Friday. I joined with an Elder Giles in Orange, TX for the day. It was pretty nice to get out of Vidor for a little while. But let me tell you, the people in Orange may have actual houses instead of just trailers, but they are just as crazy haha. I still love them, though, and it makes for an interesting day no matter what! We got trapped in this way less active 65 yr old  bikers house for an hour and a half because he had to show me everything that he owned basically haha. It was entertaining at least. And I'm pretty sure he was drunk too. So that was something. He had like 4 really old Harley Davidsons, a Jet boat, and a barn that he and his son built so that they could play Metallica on their guitars crazy loud. They had 7 huge amps along the wall and It was insane.

 

I know how badly you guys want really detailed info about every day this week, but it's all pretty boring. Besides that news and it being an iffy week until Sunday there's really not much else that happened.

 

But just be aware that the Lord is definitely there to help us out when we need it, but also there to allow us to struggle so that we can grow. For anybody who has ever said "why me?" when times started to get a little tough, or a lot tough, just know that all those experiences are for your good. It reminds me of DC 122 while Joseph Smith is at the Liberty Jail wondering the same question. Why should we think that we have it so hard, when we know that our Savior suffered for all of our pains and afflictions? It doesn't matter!! We just need to push on and plow through doing the things that the Lord wants us to do, and we will be blessed for it. God is in the details, look for him. Alma 37:6-7.

Third Week in Texas

Thanks for the emails everyone. Dad, thanks for the email and updates on everybody. So I got one package, but I never got the shutterfly book. Where did you send it to, and when did you send it? Because I still don't gots it. Sorry that my emails don't include much info about everything. It really sucks emailing here because they only have 4 computers, and you are only allowed to have 30 minutes on them. So I have 30 minutes to read all the emails that I got, write this one and any others, and then read and write to the mission President. So cut me some slack will ya? ;) The best story from this week is from Tuesday. So we generally work down in South Vidor. That's where we ride our bikes and that's where most of our investigators and potentials are. So you guys can look it up, we park our car and get on our bikes on Orange St right by Vidor High School, and then go down Butler st. to get to all of our people and appointments. We decided on Tuesday that we didn't want to ride bikes, and we walked instead. So that we could talk to more people. We did that and while we were on Butler just before getting to the next street, and this old drunk man came up to us with his two high drug dealing teens and began to tell us that we couldn't walk down this street anymore, or it was going to be bad for us. Because he owned that street and not anybody could just come a walkin down it. We talked with him for a minute and then just kept walkin. It was pretty funny. I got a good laugh out of it. Later his neighbor came and told us to just ignore him. We haven't had any trouble yet and we go up and down that street many times a day. We were out in the pouring rain for about 2 hours on Saturday. Lightning struck about a block from us while we were riding. It was SCARY. hahaha but awesome as well. Sorry I cant say more. I am getting yelled at to get off. Love y'all Elder Evans

Week 2 in Texas

Hey everybody! Sorry no email came yesterday, the library was closed because of the holiday. And I found out that these computers don't allow me to send pictures at all, so I will print out the best pictures at the walmart and send physical copies as long as I am here.

Oh man what a week. I'll start with Tuesday. We ride our bikes everywhere to do our proselyting, and It has been flippin hot and humid here, and it smells like rotten animals and poop haha. It's still all good though. So one of the funniest stories of the week happened on Tuesday. We are teaching a man named R...... He lives in a trailer out here and he doesn't have a job or a car. He is a nice, funny man but he lives in humble circumstances for sure. So last friday he asked us if we knew anybody who could cut hair, and all three of us have and can cut our own hair so E Wright offered to do it for him. We brought clippers over to his house on Tuesday and Elder Wright cut his hair outside of his trailer. It was really funny to watch. They were both sooo nervous. I have a picture of it, but of course, I can't send it home.

Skipping to Thursday, we had a baptism! T.... was baptized that night. It is a cool story. He has been taught by missionaries basically his whole life, but has never been able to be baptized because of his fear of the water. He couldn't ever bring himself to get his face under water or even wet. Until this summer that is. He was able to work through it with a member in the ward, and get baptized. I have pictures from that as well. 

The rest of the week was pretty ordinary, just the same old tiring missionary work. Riding our bikes and teaching people. Sorry I can't include much in these emails. This dang library only gives you 30 minutes on the computer and I have to write my president and read all the emails that I got during the week as well. Just to let you know I did get my bag on that Friday. 

Hey something that I was thinking would be cool is if I could get one of the original replica Book of Mormons. They have them in the BYU bookstore. When you send me packages just send them to my address not the mission home. I get them like 4 weeks sooner.

Love y'all

Elder Evans