3/22/10

Dear Parents,

I am fine with the duplicate letters. Has Scott e-mailed you guys at all? I haven't heard from him since he has been in Arizona. Yeah I heard about BYU. There are actually quite a few fans down here that keep us updated. I am happy they finally won a tournament game at least. I already signed and returned the insurance papers to mom so you should receive them really soon if you haven't already.

Wow it sounds like you guys are receiving blessings and that is definitely an answer to my prayers.

That's cool that Brian Kiel is speaking at a fireside. There is actually a guy in the ward who served in the same mission as him. Kiel was the AP and they are still pretty good friends. Small world.

Well that is pretty much all from me this week. Oh and transfers is tomorrow so I'll let you know how that goes next week. I don't think I will get transferred but you never know. Talk to you next week

Elder Strong

 

 

 

BROWNSVILLE-VILLA NUEVA

ELDER MARTINEZ

Elder Martinez

3/24/10

   Yesterday was transfers. I didn’t think I was going to be transferred, but I was. I am now in Brownsville, in an area called Villa Nueva. My new companion is Elder Martinez, straight from Mexico. He has been out 21 months & wants to be fluent in English before he leaves. We made a deal that he would speak English to me & I would speak Spanish to him so we can both learn. So far he is a pretty cool kid. He is super old, like 26. He is a great teacher in Spanish & I’m going to learn a lot from him. Our area is pretty legit & is a lot richer than Donna.

 

3/29/10

   This week was really good. We have just been contacting because we don’t have investigators. We have met some good potential investigators & I look forward to teaching them. So far I am learning a lot about being a leader. Elder Martinez is very shy and scared, so I have to step up in every aspect, teaching and contacting. My Spanish is still bad, but I practice more than ever. In the past in this area, there was a lot of disobedience, but Elder Wells and I are going to try and change the rep. here. Elder Wells’ companion is Elder Phillips and he is super trunkie. We have a really legit investigator named Angie Cardenas. She knows this is the true Church & she has been to Church 3 weeks in a row. Other than that we are working hard at finding new people to teach & I know the Lord is going to bless us for our efforts.

 

3/29/10

Dear Parents,

When I first looked at my emails today I thought that I was super popular because I had like 14 emails. Turns out half of them were from you guys so I don't know if that still makes me popular or not? Anyways so transfers were last week and I thought for sure I was staying in Donna but when received the call they said I was moving. So the district leader called me and said I was moving but forgot to ask where so I was in suspense for about an hour and a half. Then the Zone Leaders finally called and said I was going to Brownsville. So that is where I am now. My new companion is Elder Martinez straight from Mexico. He has been out 21 months and goes home in two transfers. He is a cool kid. He helps me out with Spanish a lot and I help him with English. He is a really shy kid so I am learning to be more bold and so far I'm doing pretty good. We are both new to the area, Elder Martinez was here a transfer before but a missionary in a different area went home for surgery so he was in a threesome with that area and hasn't had a chance to get to know the area so that is what he and I are doing. We only have like one or two good investigators so we just try to find some all day. We live in a 4 man apartment and I am still in a car. In the other companionship is an elder that was my district leader in the MTC so we get along really well. Brownsville is a really nice area, a lot nicer than my last areas. My area is called Villa Nueva and it has the cities of Rancho Viejo, San Pedro (I think that is what it is called) and Olmito.

The last email I got from you was yesterday the 28th. So McKell is working at the Jeremy Ranch store? That is great that mom is getting hours. I finally got an email from Scott this week. Did you get my pictures? I think we are going to watch conference at the English ward building but I'm not sure. We have a Spanish branch and man a branch is a lot different than a ward. We meet in an old blue office building and there are about 25 to 30 members. There are some members who go to another Spanish ward because they don't want to meet in the office building. Let me know how conference and Easter go for you guys and have a good week!

Love Elder Fuerte