August 2, 2010

Dear Parents

Presidente De La Llate told me about your conversation and said you knew muy bien espanol. He was quite impressed. Don't worry I have a lot of trouble understanding him too especially on the phone but it is good that you got the gist of what he was saying.

Let’s see, we had a baptism this week with a part member family. He was a 13 year old kid named Joel. His parents aren't active any more but they drop the kids off at church. It is kind of weird but it worked out. So is Craig the one that is married? I saw both of the Holdaway kids at the MTC but I can't remember which is which. That is awesome that he is working a KJH. Do you know where he is moving to?

That is good that everything got worked out for you mom. Sounds like McKell likes her new job and riding bikes. Riding bikes here is miserable but sometimes we have to do it. I will send some more pics to you guys soon. Have a good week and you are in my prayers

Love

Elder Strong

 

August 5, 2010

   Wow! Today was a very uneventfully but fun day. So we made plans to visit some members in Rancho Viejo & Olmito. Turned out that all were either bad addresses or not there, so on the way back we decided to take back roads. It was really fun but we got super lost. We took a lot of dirt roads and hit a lot of dead ends, but we got to see a lot of our area that we haven’t seen before. Then we took Eli, a member, out with us for the night. He loves to share his testimony with others & do missionary work. But boy does he have problems. I just pray the Lord will watch over him & help him out. Belinda is excited to be baptized on the 15^th.

 

August 6, 2010

   Today was a busy day. We had weekly planning then we had lunch at the De La Llata’s. We saw a few pictures of their trip to Vegas & Utah, and then went to the Church to teach Belinda and Amanda. We went over the interview questions. Belinda said she felt warm inside when Amanda was answering the questions. It was pretty cool. We also met an awesome lady named Kayla. She was really nice & willing to learn. She has recently gone through some hard times & knew it was a blessing from God that we came.

 

August 10, 2010

   We got the baptismal interviews done for Belinda and Amanda today. They are so ready for their baptisms on Sunday. President Trayner came down and gave the interview & he really pushed Michael to be baptized. So I think he will really consider being baptized after his mom and sister. Also, Joel didn’t show up for his confirmation on Sunday, so we are trying to get him to come this week. Things are going great. We just need to be a little more diligent & tener animo in the work to make it better.

 

August 11, 2010

   Today was a great day. We just had a lot of contacting planned, but it paid off. We found two great new investigators. The first new one was Lisa. She just lives in a little trailer, but she is awesome. She doesn’t know anything about religion, but she is willing to learn. Later on we talked to a lady named Ana & she has a lot of questions for us so she is really cool. I have been praying for a family to teach & priesthood. I know if we continue to contact, we will find those prepared families to teach & baptize.

 

August 12, 2010

   We set a new baptismal date! We found a kid today named Chris who was awesome. We asked a lot of questions & found out his situation a little bit. We were able to set a baptismal date with him & it was really cool. It was an answer to our prayers.

August 15, 2010

   Today was a great day. Belinda & Amanda got baptized! It was awesome to finally see them baptized after months of hard work. They had a lot of the family there, so it was a great experience for them. Now we just need to work with her husband and son so the whole family can be baptized. We also talked with Bro Hinojosa & he said he wants to start coming back to Church, so we were pretty excited for that.

 

August 16, 2010

Dear Parents

Sorry for not e-mailing you last week but I didn't get your e-mail then so well you know. Haha. But I did get both of them today. So what is Jeff going to do now? Any other jobs lined up or anything?

This past week was really good for us. We had two baptisms that I had been waiting a long time for so it was awesome to finally get baptized. I got to baptize the daughter named Amanda so I'll send you pictures soon. We have been playing soccer the last couple of weeks and it has been really fun. Except that it is super humid and we all get drenched in sweat but it is still fun. That is cool that Garth and Bishop Brewer know my mission president. He is an awesome guy. What is Garth's last name? He always tells me I need to work on my Spanish because I will have to train in the future so that is scary but would be fun. I don't know if I told you but I went to the zoo a couple weeks ago and it was fun. I'll have to send pictures of that too. I know it takes me awhile to send them but it takes a long time to send them. That is no bueno for mom. I will definitely pray for her to find another job.

Anyways everything is great here. We have been working really hard and have had a lot of success. Have a great week.   Love Elder Strong

 

August 18, 2010

   We had a pretty slow day today. We only taught one lesson, but it was a good one. We taught our baptismal date, Chris Weli. He is awesome & really wants to learn more so we are excited to teach him. We have been playing a game where we call out all of the Astro Vans, Safari’s, and Aerostars & get points for each one. Elder Guillen smoked me yesterday, but I’ll beat him today.

August 23, 2010

   So last week we didn’t finish very strong. We were just having a bad week & it didn’t get any better  when I started getting sick about Friday night. I just had a sore throat and coughing with a bad headache. Saturday we worked really hard, though, in spite of our bad week. But on Sunday I didn’t have the energy to work & slept all day after Church. Today I felt a little better & decided to sweat out the sickness by playing soccer. It seemed to work a little bit. I scored lots of goals so it was fun, but I had a really bad headache after. I got a lot of different stuff to help like Ibuprophin, cough drops, decongestant & E. Smelcer gave me some Tylenol PM so I will sleep like a baby tonight. I also took some melatonin, so it should be a great night

August 23, 2010

Dear Parents

This week was good. The last couple of days I have been a little sick. It has just been a cough, runny nose and headache but I'll get over it soon. Yesterday after church I just slept for the rest of the day. Some members gave me some cough medicine that just knocked me out. So at night I couldn't sleep all night but today I got some cough medicine so I should be ok. I tried sweating it out by playing soccer and it seemed to work a little bit but I still have a headache. My comp is Elder Guillen. He lives in Highland Ut. by the Kohlers by Alpine so really close to grandma. He has been out for a while now and goes home Nov. 2. He started his mission in Washington St. but got sick and came down here. He was in the same mission as Scott Gifford and knows him. He was born in El Salvador and moved to the States at 5. He is cool and we get along well. Transfers are in a couple of weeks so I'm thinking that I will get transferred because I have been here awhile. I will send you some random pictures of the zoo and other things. Have a great week

Love

Elder Strong

PS pictures take forever to send so I'm sending two

 

August 29, 10

   Again we didn’t finish the week strong. Elder Guillen also was a little sick at the start of the week so we didn’t do very much work. All week I haven’t been able to eat very much. Every time I eat, I feel like I am going to throw up. On Thursday I actually did throw up. We went to Sister Garcia’s house & she fed us this guava drink and guava dessert thing so I overdosed on guava & threw up at the church. It was horrible. Because of this, we didn’t get very many people to Church. Joe and Chris didn’t come, but Mary did. It was cool because the lesson in Gospel Principles was about faith & that is exactly what she needed. She kept saying how it wasn’t a coincidence that the subject was faith. I’m excited to see her today and see what we can do to help her out.

 

August 30, 2010

   So today is P-Day and we went and played soccer. As usual I was fasting, so that wasn’t the best thing to do. I kept getting really dizzy, so I would have to take a little break. Overall it was fun and I scored a lot of goals. When we E-Mailed, I got a letter from President Trayner in response to my question if it was possible that Scott & I could be companions for my last transfer. He said he was going to a conference and Scott’s Mission President would be there & he would consider talking to him about it. I know I need to prove to President that I am willing to work really hard with him (Scott) and especially from now on. I know the Lord blesses those righteous desires, so I’ll just have to do my part & be obedient as possible to obtain this blessing.

Brownsville District

September 1, 2010

   Yesterday was the last District Meeting of the transfer & the last one for Elder Smelcer and possibly the last one for me here in Brownsville. The special guest was A.P. Elder Torres & Elder Horeton. We went out to eat as usual & Sister Morgan made us fish, so we just threw out the fish. I feel bad, but next time we’ll just give it to a homeless guy. I also got a letter from Ashley & I think it was the first time all transfer I got mail, so I was excited. Today we got money from the Castillo’s for food so we went to Wing Stop. I had the Cajon & garlic Parmesan. It was delicious. We contacted a lot today, so it was a hot & sweaty day. Not a lot came from it, but we were diligent so I don’t feel bad about it.

Elder Strong at the Rio Grande