Bikes are fun now!

Hello from Memphis everybody!
It was a pretty good bike week! We went over 100 miles, so our legs
are pretty beat. But other than that it was great!

Anyway, the week:

Monday we didn't have a whole lot planned. We went tie shopping at Burlington (which was a good idea, they had some nice cheap ties) and then had lunch at Steak N' Shake again! It was great to go back again, that is the best tradition we have. We have one waitress who serves us 90% of the time, she is super cool. She knows exactly what we'll order every time, it's funny. After that we went to the mall to window shop. We tested out the massage chairs in this one store. They were great. If you ever get $6000 I recommend them :P They also had a ton of clearance IPad cases, so we took advantage of that. Then we all went back to our areas, and Elder Moore and I went to go do some finding in a new area. It went really well, we met some cool people!
Tuesday was our designated "Go Ham Bike Day." First, we went to the Triangle to go see as many people as possible. You see, the Triangle is kinda far from our apartment, and over the years there hasn't been much success there. Yes, there are a ton of Hispanics, but very few of them want to listen and keep commitments and such. So, this week we decided to abandon it. We went to go see all the people we still taught there, mainly to tell them we probably wouldn't be coming back. If they still wanted us to, then we planned to send the East elders over there. We didn't get to talk to too many people, but we did see some.  We had a really good lesson with F and his friend S. She had always been kind of hanging around the apartment, but never sat in on the lessons. But Tuesday she brought up going to church and why it was so important. And we were more than happy to explain it to her! After that, we biked up to the north, about 7 miles of hills, to the huge trailer park we had gone to last week. The people we had planned all fell through, so we looked around and found some more. Then we got ready to book it back down south to have dinner with the Hs, but before we could a pastor stopped us and explained to us for 15 minutes or so why we were wrong, and how we needed to REALLY be saved. It was... Interesting, to say the least :P It's stuff like that that really strengthens my testimony, though. Some of those people can be really persuasive and make you doubt everything out believe in. But every single time, they bring up something that I have a very strong testimony for, whether it be the Book of Mormon or the nature of God, and it instantly destroys any doubt I had. But anyway, that made us late. So, we covered 7 miles of night biking through a really pretty back country road and then down another 5 in less than an hour, which was pretty awesome, I have to say. We still got to dinner 30 minutes late, but they were running behind so it was ok in the end. We had a really good enchilada that the oldest daughter made. Then we biked home, for a grand total of almost 36 miles. Needless to say, we slept well.

Wednesday was a lot easier. To start we had zone meeting, which was really good! The mission is setting a goal of doing a 40 day "fast" for things we could change as far as mission standards go. It's kind of like Lent, but with more accountability :P Then we went to this Mexican restaurant called Gallo Giro, like the Spanish district always does. After a bit, we heard the zone leaders and APs were coming, so we asked to pull over another table. The lady who owns it likes us a lot, so she told us to move everything wherever we needed. Good thing, too. Within 5 minutes 27 elders  had shown up, since none of them knew where to go eat. I attached a picture.

The Spanish sisters were the only sisters that came, and since they can't technically eat with us they had to sit alone at another table :/ It was good though, I had a steak and lengua burrito, and it was huge and delicious. Then we drove back, and went out to go find more people close to our house. We had about a 2 hour conversation with a guy named P outside his house, which was... interesting. He has some unique ways of thinking about things, let's put it that way. He was about the only one we had a full conversation with.

Thursday was also pretty short. We had planned to contact some referrals we had gotten in Bartlett. On the way, we stopped at a bike place to get some parts fixed on Moore's bike. It was busy (I know, a bike store is busy?) so it took a LOT longer than we thought. But we still made it, and contacted the people we needed to. Then we got picked up by President Perez to go to dinner. We went to this local place in Arlington called Off The Hoof Burgers. Honestly the best burger I have ever had. Probably the highest calorie one too. It was a 12 ounce patty bacon cheeseburger with a huge thing of fries. I think I replaced the weight I lost on Tuesday :P

Friday was our "day of reckoning" for the Triangle. We biked down there and went to tell off all the people who were not progressing. It didn't go quite as planned, mostly in good ways. We had quite a few of the people we were going to drop suddenly have desires to do stuff without us having to tell them! It was great! It did start raining at 5 though, and no one let us in until about 7:45. We stopped at F's for a bit to make sure he was coming to church, and then started the 10 mile bike ride in the cold rain down busy streets with dying bike lights. (Btw Mom, I may be getting more of those. This time some that actually work.) we made it most of the way, and a guy in a pickup truck pulled over and told us to get in. It turned out he had a friend who had served a mission, so he knew who we were. He also had done his second Iron Man competition two weeks ago, so he knew biking in the rain wasn't that fun. So, we got home covered in mud splatters, soaking wet, but we met a cool guy, so it was worth it. I think we will meet him again, though. I hope so anyway. I left my helmet in his truck :P

Saturday was more bike drama. We were going to bike the 13 miles to a trailer park, but Elder Moore's back tire was rubbing the brake really bad so he couldn't go fast. So, we took off his back brakes. Then the wheel started rubbing the frame. At that point we figured there was a problem, so we took it to he shop again, since he couldn't ride it like that. We inured they could just adjust the wheel, but when they looked at it the frame was actually bent. That was unfortunate. They straightened out the wheel to the point that he could ride, but that was all they could do. So we limped around the area around there to look for people, which was actually a great plan because we found a TON of people! Then, we rode down to the Triangle to go see J and his friend E. E is a less active member, but has been teaching J about the church. We had an awesome lesson about the Plan of Salvation. He had a lot of good questions, and while Elder Moore was talking with him Eric and I started talking. He is a really cool guy. His family was among the first converts in his part of Honduras, and we talked a lot about his life growing up and what he wants to change. All in all it was good. It was also long. We got finished about 8:45, and we were an hour away from home. Also, it was cold enough to see your breath (which is ridiculous, I was sweating like crazy on Tuesday) so we called the other elders and they saved us.

Sunday went alright. No one showed up that we invited, which was sad. We got a car back though! We spent the rest of the day with Elder Doty on exchanges. He is the Spanish zone leader, so he goes out with all of us. We went finding, and it went pretty good! We found some cool people. Then we had a good lesson with the Ps. They have been taught for years now, and we decided to settle some stuff. Hopefully they start reading and having some desires to learn!

That's about all! I hope you guys have a good week! I guess for some of you it's fall break, so enjoy it!
Love you guys!
-Elder Reay

The district! From left: Sister Reed, Sister Brown, Elder Butler, Elder Peterson, me, Elder Moore, Elder Heaton, and Elder Spencer. 

New movie poster for the District season 2

#LDSconf #newapostles #ponderize #allthehashtags

Heylo everybody!
So Monday, we went to the Pyramid (I already sent the pics, they're on
the blog I think.) It was pretty cool. Hey had a lot of cool manly
stuff and we all felt pretty awesome. Also everyone thought we worked
there, so we kept getting asked where stuff was. #mishprobs :P
After P-day ended we couldn't really go far, since our car was
basically out of miles and so we were biking. So, we went to a trailer
park close to our place. We got to see the P family, who have
had the missionaries coming over for a while now. We talked to them
about general conference, and how cool it was to have an actual
prophet and actual apostles on live TV. (Doesn't that just sound soooo
cool?!) Then we helped some kid track down his dog and went home.
Tuesday we had district meeting! It was really good. We talked about
how we can help people to want to change, and want to keep the
commitments we leave them. A lot of the time, our investigators do
stuff out of motivation, and that's good, but we want them to do
things because they truly want to come closer to God. We had a really
good discussion about it. After the meeting and some cookies (I am
basically the "refreshments" guy for district meetings I guess :P) we
got picked up by an investigator from Humbolt, Tennesee named R. He
is Hispanic, and is good friends with Elder Moore and Elder Peterson.
So, he took the four of us to a Chinese Buffet place. I ate a lot more
fried stuff than I probably should have. (Don't worry, Mom, my blood
sugar stayed fine.) After that, we did exchanges! Elder Moore went to
South, and I got to spend the day with on of my favorite companions,
Elder Heaton. It was a great day. We were still biking, and had to go
pretty far up north. It was worth it though, because we had a really
good lesson with C and E, two people we had met last week. They
have a lot of really good questions, and we LOVE questions :P We also
got in to see F, which was good. He may be moving to Oxford
soon, which is sad, but he has a good job offer down there. Then we
went to the Hs for dinner. The whole family was there, and
some friends, plus four missionaries. It was a party! Elder Heaton and
I spent most of the time playing with I, one of Sis.
H's grandkids. She is very adorable, and insisted I take a
picture of her with the flower crown I made her.

Tuesday I also learned that God really knows how to communicate with
us in a personalized way. We were biking down a hill after an
appointment. We had just biked up that hill before, so both of us were
glad to be able to whiz down it. We were going towards a
T-intersection at the bottom, and both streets were empty. I was going
in front, almost to the intersection, when that little voice in my
head said, in a pretty cynical voice, "You'll totally get T boned by a
pickup here, just watch." I kinda laughed in my head, but then out of
curiosity looked both ways. That gave me plenty of time to skid to a
stop before a big old GMC flew by. Elder Heaton thought I was going to
die. We both had a good laugh about it afterwards, though. It's nice
to know I'm being looked after.

Wednesday we exchanged back, and Elder Moore and I set off on our last
day of biking, because the miles refill every month. And it was a
great day to be outside! I hardly sweated at all, which for me in the
South is an achievement, trust me. We saw Fernando again, and also
this cool lady named F. We taught her about the Restoration and
she really found it interesting! We invited her to conference too, so
hopefully she comes! We had dinner at this super popular shaved ice
place in the middle of the Triangle called Jerry's. It looks kind of
sketchy, but the food was really good.

Thursday we had a good day. We went to this one lady's house to help
with her garden. We had found her a week ago. She is 94, and was
trying to operate a Rototiller. Yeah, we told her she would need some
help with that :P So we show up with Butler and Peterson, and she
doesn't answer the door. That was too bad. But we were all there, in
service clothes. So we walked down the street to Sis. H's house and
asked her what we could do at her house. And so we weeded her garden
for her. It hadn't been done for a bit, there were little trees
growing in it. Do you know how hard it is to pull out a tree? Pretty
hard. But we did it, and it went fast. Sister H took us out to eat
as a thank you. It turns out that it was her BIRTHDAY (none of us
knew) and she had just been "thinking about how much God had blessed
her in her life," as she put it, when we came. She was really grateful
for us. It was sweet. After that, we got changed and went out to find
people. We have been trying to work closer to our apartment, because
the area we normally work in is really burned out. And we had a lot of
success! I honestly didn't think there were any Hispanics that lived
near us, but there sure are. After a bit of that, we had dinner with
the Rs, which was really good. Then we went to a trailer park
pretty far north of town that we had heard had Hispanics. And boy, did
it! There is a ton of potential there, and we met some cool people.
Friday we went back to the Triangle. We talked to F again, and
helped him make a commitment to change for real this time. He has been
going through some of the old struggles he has had in the past. We
helped him to realize that Christ is always there to help him, even
when we weren't. I have learned that a lot. I have had to go through a
lot of hard change in the past year, and I know for a fact that
without God, NONE of it would have happened. No one else could have
done it. Anyway, after that we saw A and went over the Plan of
Salvation with her. I love teaching people about this, because so many
people have a general idea of it, but no one has really told them
specifically about it. The reason it sounds so familiar no matter what
is because we all already knew about it at one point, and it's fun
watching people "rediscover" it. :) After we saw her, we had dinner
with the B family again. They are really great. When I was here
last time, I went to their house one time, and talked to them maybe
twice. But every time Bro. B saw me he would act like his long
lost brother had come to see him. He is just a really loving guy, and
so is everyone else in his family. I love eating there. Anyway, they
fed us, and then we went to see this guy named J. He is American,
but his wife is a Hispanic member from Nashville. He had been taught
by the missionaries a lot there, and they moved here about two months
ago. We had a really good talk with him, and he opened up a lot. We
are excited to work with him, he already is gaining a testimony.
Saturday!!! Woo! General Conference is always the coolest weekend for
missionaries. It just gets us pumped. And this one was great! I really
recommend watching the talk by Dieter F. Uchdorf on the simplicity of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Also, if you are going through some rough
times, with anything at all, watch the one by Dallin H. Oaks. And by
the way, I am talking to all of you, member or no. These are apostles
talking here. Like, the equivalent of Peter, John, and Paul. Thats
just AWESOME. Sorry, I keep saying that. But it really is just so
amazing! So they really know what is going on in the world today, and
they put it simply how to help us. Also, this conference was
especially important because three NEW APOSTLES were called. You see,
apostle is a lifelong calling. You only get released if you want to
leave the church, basically. So three of the apostles died since the
last conference, and they called Ronald A. Rasband, Gary E. Stevenson,
and Dale G. Renlund were called to be their replacements. SO cool. It
was great. I would put all my notes, but none of them would make sense
if you hadn't been watching. So watch it. Then if you want my notes,
email me :P Between sessions, we just hung around the church for a
bit, then blitzed the area inviting people, and then had a party with
the Spanish branch guys, the English missionaries, and us. It's still
really weird to have Elder Erickson around all the time. If his
parents are reading this right now, then I'll just let you know he is
doing great! Don't worry, I'm keeping an eye on him :P But yeah, there
was a lot of good food. Bro. B made some Honduran food, and Bro.
T brought some homemade guacamole with some jalepeño in it.
Suuuuuper delicious. (Mom, did I tell you I like guacamole and
avocados now? I do.) So we went home full of good stuff, in our
stomachs and souls. :)
Sunday was basically a repeat of Saturday! I watched the first session
in Spanish, since most of the branch showed up for the morning
session. It was pretty good! I'm going to study it in English, just to
make sure I got everything :P I really liked Russell M. Nelson's talk
on how important women are in the Church. There were some good talks
on that subject, actually! Between sessions, all the missionaries just
kinda sat around. Some of the members stayed and made some tacos and
stuff, so we had that too. For the afternoon session, literally no
Spanish members showed up, so I watched it in English. Again, it was
fantastic. I'm stoked to start "ponderizing" the scriptures like Bro.
Durrant suggested! After conference, all 6 of us gathered at Juan
Rs' house for Elder Petersen's "initiation." He had some
beetles, and we all celebrated together with some dang good  food.
That was our week! All 6 of us are together today, so it'll be a
party! Love you guys!

Some random pics this week! First one is from the 4th of July, when
all of us had to hold a tarp over the earth oven for about two hours
in a solid downpour. The second picture is whatever happened when the
wind stopped. Yeah, most of us almost suffocated a few times. Then
there's Js pork wraps with rice and homemade fries. He is just an
incredible cook.

More Moore.....

Well, my iPad decided to be a jerk today and delete my email that I
had been writing all week! 😂 So I guess I'll have to summarize,
because I do NOT want to write that again.
I am back in Memphis! I got put up in the north area, with the OTHER
Elder Moore, which I find pretty funny. So here is my new address:

Elder Andrew Reay
2481 Crescent Glen Circle
Apt. 211
Memphis TN 38133

So anyway, not a whole lot happened this week aside from transfers.
Monday and Tuesday were spent packing and saying goodbye to people.
I'm going to miss that area, mainly for the missionaries. We had a lot
of fun :P Plus, the sisters make some really good cinnamon rolls.
Props to Sis. Bennett. (Speaking of which, apparently her mom found my
blog page somehow. So if you're reading this, hi other Sister Bennett!
Your daughter is a great missionary!) On Wednesday, I went out to
Memphis in the morning. I sat next to one of the brand new Elders, who
happened to be from Arizona! His name is Elder Erickson. It rings a
bell, I think I may remember him from somewhere. :P just kidding, he
is from my home ward!! It was great to see him it here. He got put in
an English area right by me, and he goes to the same church building
too! So we will see each other a lot.

As for my district, it's me and
Moore in the north, Elder Butler and Elder Peterson (ANOTHER English
missionary called to Spanish randomly) in the East, Elder Heaton And
Elder Spencer (he came out last transfer) in the south, and Sister
Reed with her newbie, Sister Brown, in the South as well. So we have a
pretty cool district!

The area is about the same as when I left! The East elders and us
cover the same area, so it's the same places I was in last time. We
are trying to move farther north though because it's a bit of a drive
to get there. We have some cool people, too. I'll only mention a
couple. First there's L. She is pretty cool, and she has a ton of
really good questions. She's had a bit of a rough life, so we are
trying to help her to see that the gospel of Jesus Christ can change
that. That's easy for us to say, because we've seen it! This church
has changed me more than I can say, and all of it is for the better.
That's why it's so great to be out here, telling everybody about it!
Anyway, then there is this awesome kid named J. His friend is a
returned missionary, and so we have been helping both of them to come
to church. He has already come too, which is great!

Well, in general that's about all that happened this week! We are
going to the gigantic Bass Pro Shops pyramid today. I guess the
pyramid used to be a stadium or a library or something, but now it's a
bird zoo and hunting gear shop. Welcome to the South :P Love you guys!
Hope you have a great conference weekend!

OH! I should probably mention that. For those of you who aren't
familiar with this church, every six months we have what's called a
"General Conference." We believe that our church is the original
church that has been established by God since the beginning, and that
it is the Church of Jesus Christ that he reestablished when He was
here. As such, the leadership of it consists of a Prophet and 12
Apostles, with the same power that the ancient prophets and apostles
had in the Bible. So, General Conference is a worldwide broadcast
where all of them speak and give guidance and counsel. It's really
incredible to hear an actual Prophet of God speak. It's like having
Moses or Isaiah or Paul actually right there! You want to watch? It is
on BYUtv, lds.org, and YouTube, I think. There are 4 general sessions,
on Saturday and Sunday. Check now so you know what time it would be in
your time zone, since I can't figure it out. Watch it!

The Pyramid

Teeth and Transfers - Both of Which Kinda Bug Me

Hello all!
First off, I'm getting transferred. Again. To Memphis. And from what
it looks like, I'll probably even be in the exact same area as I was 2
months ago. Sorry for the short notice, but we had no idea that I
would be leaving. Usually a trainer stays for 2 transfers, but I guess
I'm needed elsewhere!
So like I said last week, I decided to make a more general email for
everybody, and have a daily one for a smaller group of people. So,
congrats! If you are reading this, you are one of the select people
who get both :P

Monday was pretty relaxing. We didn't have any plans for p-day, so we
all just stayed at the church. We actually finished a game of Phase
10, which took about 3 hours. It was really fun! After that we headed
to the Os' house for dinner. We had some pretty good caldo de
camarron, or shrimp soup. Aside from the few shrimp that still had
heads and antennae (ew) it was pretty good. Then we had a good lesson
with S, our recent convert. After someone is baptized we are
supposed to go through the lessons with them again, so we got started
with it then. She has a really strong testimony, and it was great to
hear about her conversion. She was taught for about a year before she
made the decision. Gives me hope for some of the other people I taught
:)

Tuesday was set to be a pretty tiring but good day. We were going to
bike out to Bryant to see J at a members house, as well as some
other people we had met last week. But on the way from our first
visit, Elder Moore hit the sidewalk funny with his bike and flipped
it. He chipped pieces off of two of his teeth and loosened another
one. So that put a bit of a wrench in our day. We got an emergency
appointment at the dentist (never knew they had emergency dentist
appointments) and they filled in the chips and straightened his tooth
out. They also gave him some meds and put him on rest for the day, so
we just sat at home. The member who we were going to see in Bryant
brought us lots of food though, so we are quite grateful.

Wednesday brought more dental drama! Ironically enough, I had already
set an appointment about a slight toothache I'd had off and on for a
bit. So elder Schoenfeld and I drove out there (we needed a car and a
sitter for Moore so we split). The dentist found a chip that had
happened a while back (go fig) and a small cavity on the same tooth,
so he decided they needed to put a crown on it. So they numbed me up,
and started to grind down my tooth to prep it. It still hurt, so they
gave me more shots. That still didn't work. So they did it again, and
when it didn't work AGAIN, they decided to try again Friday. So they
sent me home with a pretty swollen mouth and broken tooth. It was
lovely. We had district meeting in the afternoon, because President
Wakolo was coming to do interviews. It was a good meeting, and we had
cheesecake Elder Moore and I had made. Our district loves us :) Then
we found out President was going to be late, so we had to wait around.
He finally showed up, and did an interview with the whole district
first, and then us individually. It went well! We were going to have
the Book of Mormon class, but all the people that come were doing
dance practice for the multibranch activity, so we ended up just
talking with Julian. Elder Salazar talked with him a lot about being a
missionary, and how he should do it! Oh, and also Sister B.
heard about Moore's tooth problems and told us she would bring some
applesauce or something for him. Well, she brought a TON of all sorts
of food, for both of us! We are really grateful.

Thursday we tried doing a lot. We left a little later since Moore's
tooth was still giving him trouble. We got to see L again, and we
killed some wasp nests on her porch she didn't know about. That was
entertaining. We tried to see some more people, but no one was home.
So then we went and contacted a referral the sisters had given us a
few weeks back, that we hadn't seen since she was never home. We
caught her this time though! She seems pretty nice. Anyway, after that
we went to the English class. No one showed up though, so we ended up
playing volleyball with the English ward.

Friday was round two at the dentists office! They got me numb on the
first try (prayer works guys, seriously) and they got the rest of my
tooth shaved down and put a temporary one on.  I recovered really
quickly from that (which I am grateful for) and we went out, finally!
We went to the V family, and tried a few more people that weren't
home. Then we went to soccer, which went really well this week! A lot
of people showed up too so we played a really good game. J and
his dad showed up! His dad plays super good, and on top of that he's
hilarious too! Apart from them, the missionaries and one other guy and
his son, it was all random guys who showed up. Anyway, we stayed
around talking for a while until the random guys pulled out beer and
marijuana. Then we figured we should go. We grabbed some homemade
cinnamon rolls from Sis. Bennett (they were delicious too she's the
best) and passed out.

Saturday started off great! We went to the baptismal service of J L
, an investigator the other elders have. It was a really nice
service, and she was super excited. She hugged everyone, even the
elders :P Than we went and tried to invite people to the party that
night, but nobody answered the door at all. So we cleaned up, and went
to the best party ever! It was huge. Since everybody's Independence
Day was this week, each country had a table set up with food and
cultural stuff set up. Then we all had a huge dinner and watched each
country do a presentation. I took a ton of videos, so I will try and
send them if I can. It was super cool, and there was a ton of
preparation involved. A ton of people showed up too, including one I
didn't expect at ALL: A! I don't know if you remember her, but she
was a less active lady in Conway we visited multiple times a week. She
showed up! It was super exciting to see her.

Sunday was pretty good too! We performed our musical number and it
went extremely well. Tears were shed. It was good. We made a video
(it's super awkward looking but it sounds good, I'll try to send it.)
I taught Gospel Principles too, and it went well. After church, there
was a lot of food left over from the party. I guess they forgot to put
chips out, so there was literally a full size lawn clipping garbage
bag full of them. We got through half as a branch after church, and
our goal is to finish them off today. Wish us luck :P After that, we
went out teaching with Bro. Z, but we didn't find anyone.
That's actually how it's been all this week. Like, literally one of
our planned lessons happened, and one unplanned. No one wanted to open
up this week, for some reason. But it's ok. At least we're going out
there, and if they think they're going to be able to avoid us forever,
they're wrong.

I'll end it with a Spanish saying I heard in church. It doesn't have
to do with anything, but it's cool.
"Un hombre que es realmente rico no es él que tiene mucho, sino él que
necesita poco."
In other words, "A truly rich man isn't someone who has much, but
someone who needs little."

¡Les amo muchísimo!
Elder Reay
Pics: me and A! I didn't get a picture with her ever in Conway, so
here she is!

Elder Reay and Elder Schoenfeld - together again - for a minute :)

Sister Tester and Sister Bennett

Colombians are Awesome!

Hola everybody! Hope you all had a great week!
First off, question: is this letter too long? I feel like it's a bit
big for those who don't really have a whole lot of time. I am thinking
of making a more summarized version for you guys and sending a
detailed one to Mom and Dad. What do you think? Give me some feedback!

Also, for all of you who got an invite to the ICloud album that
shortly disappeared, that was because I found out we actually aren't
allowed to use those. So, sorry about that. If you guys want to make
one and invite me, go right ahead! I just can't post stuff.

Labor Day was super fun. We didn't want to go anywhere because
everyone was on vacation, so we all got together at the church with
all the clearance water balloons we could find. Then we soaked each
other. It was great, and pretty much everyone played too! Then we went
to go find people. We didn't have much luck, with vacations and all.
Then the APs called. Guess what? They needed the van again. So, we got
THEIR truck this week. #unlimitedmiles #woo

Tuesday went pretty well! We saw one of the members that lives by us
that has been going through a rough time and helped them out a bit.
Then we went and looked for some more people without much luck. That
night we had more luck though. We went out teaching with Bro.
Z, and met with the V family. He gets along REALLY well
with them. We had a good talk.

Wednesday we went on exchanges! For the first time in my entire
mission, I went with Elder Schoenfeld to teach! It was super fun. We
went to some new trailer parks we had discovered on Sunday, and found
a lot of potential there. Definitely coming back. Then we had dinner
at the As house. It was incredibly delicious, and we both got
stuffed. The B family came too, which was a bit of a miracle!
They are semi-active, and we had been trying to get in contact with
them for weeks but they were never home. But not only did we meet
them, but we had a really good talk and I think made a connection with
them! After that we had the Book of Mormon class. A lot of people were
there, mainly because the members were doing planning for a branch
party and everyone was late. So, rather than waiting they all came to
class! J and L came too, which was fantastic. Then we did
music practice with the sisters for our song.

Thursday we didn't do a whole lot quantity-wise, but it was a great
day! Why? J told us he would be baptized! It was a really cool
experience. We talked about the basic principles of the gospel, and
Elder Moore blurted out (greenie fire is real) "what do you think
about being baptized in 2 weeks?" He looked a little unsure, but then
he said he would prefer it on his birthday, but yes! As soon as he
said it, it was like he changed completely. He was super excited! His
birthday is the 29th, the day before Elder Moore's, so afterwards we
are going to have a good ol' fiesta. But yeah, we are super stoked for
J. He has had some really spiritual experiences that have
prepared him for this.  After that we went to the new English class
the sisters had made. Only one person showed up, but it was ok, we
still all learned a lot.

Friday we had Specialized Training. It was really good! We tried out
the suggestion they had made in mission council about instead of role
playing what we had learned, to just go out and teach it. It was
great! All combined, we met 50 new people in total, and since we were
around the otter creek building where we live, all the Hispanics they
found we get to teach :) anyway, that went late so afterwards we just
did some weekly planning and stole some pizza the sisters made. Props
to you sister missionaries out there, you're awesome and us elders
appreciate you a lot :)
Then we went and played some futbol, which was great! Not a lot of
members came, and the adults there were off doing their own thing, so
we played against a bunch of 11-13year olds. We won, barely. And it
was all the missionaries and members against all the kids, they didn't
want to split teams! Kinda sad, they didn't even outnumber us. :P

Saturday we had the van again. We had to go print out some paperwork
at the library, which took forever since everyone was using the
computers. Then we went and contacted some people at the new trailer
parks. Miracle: the last door we felt we should knock on turned out to
be a less-active member we didn't know existed, and who really wants
to come back! Woo! Then we went around trying to find people. We got
to see D, the awesome guy from 2 weeks ago! He is doing well  and
we went over a bit more of what the Book of Mormon was really all
about. He seems to understand it well!

Sunday was the Primary Program, when the kids do a special
presentation in the main meeting. We combined with the English ward,
so it was pretty full. It was also extremely cute. I don't know why,
but my mission has made me love kids a lot more than I did. They are
just cooler, no offense :P anyway, the rest of church was good too.
Julian and his dad came, and the members welcomed them both really
well, which is fantastic. After church we gave up the car and biked
out to go visit some people. We saw R and had a good lesson with
him about the Book of Mormon. He seemed to understand it well.
Hopefully he reads!

All in all, it was a great week! I hope next week keeps getting
better! On another note, yesterday I hit my 19 month mark. EW. that's
just nasty. In a good way. But still. Anyhoo, love y'all! Bye!

¡Les amo muchísimo!

Our District

Spanish Sisters

Water Balloon Fight

Our trio's down to twooooo....

(Props if you got the reference.) Hello again from sunny Arkansas!
Monday we went to SAMs club for shopping. A member let us use her
card, so we got to buy in bulk. We'll see how long a 10 pound bag of
pancake mix lasts :P but yeah, we did that and then hung out at the
church, played a little dodgeball, and some cards and stuff. It was a
lot of fun! Then we dropped off the other elders and got ready to head
out, when we got a call from one of the families in Russelville that
Contreras was good friends with. Their daughter had just gotten set
apart for her mission, and was leaving the next day, so she wanted to
say goodbye to him and Schoenfeld. So we called them and Salazar
figured it would be a good a time as any to do exchanges! So we went
back, Moore packed his stuff, and we got picked up by the other elders
(the APs were sick so they took their car since they are neighbors)
and we went out to say hello/goodbye. She seemed pretty excited! She
is going to Kansas (ironically), so if anyone knows anyone, tell them
to keep an eye out for someone from Arkansas! So yeah, that happened
and we took Salazar home with us.

Exchanges on Tuesday went really well. To start the day, the office
elders called and said they would need our van for the meetings on
Tuesday and Wednesday. So, we made a trade, and we got the newest car
in the mission, their 2015 Chevy Silverado with unlimited miles.
Booyah. After that, we went to pick up some stuff from the other
elders (Moore had grabbed the wrong iPad) and went to go see some
people. We got to go and visit J, the kid who came to church last
week. He is so ready, it's incredible. He understands everything we
teach, and with his member girlfriend in Idaho helping answer his
questions, it's a really good system. He said she's already taken him
to see the Rexburg Temple and talked about how eternal marriage works
;) After that, we had dinner at A's house, which was delicious as
usual, and then tried some more people. We didn't have much success,
but at the end of the night we got to visit G and her kids,
F and W. They are a less active family, and they are super
sweet. Apparently in high school they called F "The Preacher"
because he always had a Bible and Book of Mormon he would read from.
:) They said they would come to church Sunday!

Wednesday we had zone meeting, which went well. We went over what we
learned at MLC, so I was already "in the loop." Plus, the Spanish
sisters had made us cookies, so we could make it through the meeting
just fine. :P  Then we had lunch with the APs and the North elders at
this Mexican place called Las Palmas. It was super good. Big fajitas
for little money. Enough said. Then we went and dropped off the other
elders. I have to be honest, I wasn't much of  truck person before
now, but these past few days made me reconsider. That is a darn nice
vehicle. Anyhoo, then we went home to change. Then President called
with some devastating news. Since he wanted Elder Contreras to be
proficient in English so that he could benefit from it in Guatemala,
he made the decision to MOVE HIM! We were pretty surprised. He didn't
even want to wait for the transfer to end, because supposedly he is
going to train an English missionary soon. Yeah. We have no idea how
he works sometimes. So that put him off for a bit. Then we went to the
Book of Mormon class. I've been "volunteered" as the new teacher for
the class, so I've been looking for ways to go about it. Luckily,
there are manuals on the iPad for Seminary and Institute classes, so
those have come in handy. After that, we were talking with the other
missionaries and an English member who plays piano by ear. I don't
even know how it came about, but after 10 minutes we had a sweet
mashup arrangement for "He Sent His Son" and "Love One Another" in
Spanish that we're singing in church in a few weeks. It's sweet,
Sister Bennet and I were kinda geeking out musically for a bit there
since we both like doing stuff like this.

Thursday was a bit slow. We had to wait for the other elders to bring
back the truck they borrowed the night before. Then we had to take
them to their place, and then we did some planning on the iPads to
figure out some new areas. We got to go visit Lucy, which went pretty
good. She was busy cooking, but we talked for a bit and she fed us, so
all went well. Then we saw the less active family we saw in Tuesday.
We had planned to re teach them the lessons, which worked perfectly
because they had some friends over! They are super cool too. One of
the girls, C, is super legit. She reminds me a lot of some of my
friends back home :) those were the only people we got to see that
day.

Friday was also slow. The APs needed our car for the day, so they put
us on walk and basically ruined all our plans. So we walked to some
close people so we could "use time efficiently." So of course no one
answered there. Then we went to where the APs were going to drop off
the car. They weren't answering the phone, and finally said they were
late. So we started walking home. The other elders got our car for us
up north and came down to pick us up. Then we went to soccer, which
was fun! A lot of people showed up, and we played hard. The other
elders stayed the night with us to see off Contreras the next morning.

Saturday Contreras left for Choctaw, AR. He didn't seem super excited
to go (I mean, we're so cool, why would he be? :P) but he will do
fine. We had studies with Schoenfeld and Salazar, which was cool. Then
we made some pancakes from our endless supply and headed out. We tried
out some new trailer parks, which went super well! We found some super
cool people and it was great! Then we grabbed some dinner and headed
out to go visit R, the guy I met my first week here. He was
actually home this time! We had a good talk with him, even though the
TV was on the whole time. (What on earth is going on with politics?
That's like all they talked about, but it was in Spanish so I didn't
get a lot of it.) but anyway, it was a good lesson. He said he would
come to church too!

Sunday was pretty good. It was Labor Day, so basically no one showed
up to church. We had about half of what we normally had. After that we
practiced our super cool mashup song, and it's going to sound awesome,
just saying. Then we headed out to go see J. We had met her in
Walmart the day before my and she seemed super excited to have us
over. She lives WAAAY out in the outskirts of town. So we finally make
it out there after getting lost a few times, and no one is home. So we
headed back, got lost a few more times. Then we got to visit L,
which went pretty well. She didn't come to church because they went on
 a day trip. National holidays are dumb. But anyway, that was our day.

Hope you all have a great Labor Day! Have fun doing nothing or
partying or whatever it is you people do! We are going to go have a
water fight now. It'll be sweet. Love you all so much! Byee!