Bears Don't Read

Hey Family, 

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and letters and whatnot. Y'all are awesome. We've had a pretty busy week. I can't believe that it's only been a week haha. Anywhey...

Monday- We had a dinner with a less active member who just moved to Texas. She was super nice, and invited two of her friends to eat with us. She kept talking about how awesome the Book of Mormon is and how they need to be baptized hahaha. It is pretty interesting how most of the time the less active members are more willing to share the gospel.

Tuesday- We drove down to Mexia in the Van. Haha, the van is awesome. It's a big old 15 passenger van that starts shaking when you hit about 55. Elder Ray and the assistants and I had a nice little road trip down there, and then we came right back up. Haha, it's always way different when you spend half the day in the car. 

Wednesday- We went back to Mexia, exchanged with those Elders, then we went to Killeen. We had a sweet lunch down there, then we exchanged on the way back up, and I stayed in Temple. Temple is a really nice town, super quiet. There aren't a ton of Spanish people down there though. 

Thursday- We woke up early to some crazy miscommunication. The mission has been churning along with the iPads, but not all of the missionaries get it right away, and they start freelancing and cause problems haha. Elder Ray got down to Temple around 11, and we started teaching the bears how to read (old people to use an iPad). It went... about as we expected hahaha. We finished up, and drove back. That night, we went to a members house and it was a super white people dinner haha, it was weird (but the food was good). Good day. 

Friday- We drove down to Fort Worth and exchanged. Haha, it was a really good exchange. We were looking for service to do, and we found this animal shelter. We got in there and they basically assigned us to play with dogs for a few hours hahah. It was really fun. We had a couple good lessons right after that.

Saturday- We drove down to Fort Worth and exchanged back early in the morning, and then we had a few meetings to go to. We did another iPad training in Arlington, and then we came home and had an awesome lesson with a family. After the lesson, the kids kept saying they wanted to be missionaries. Good stuff.

Sunday- After a year of being poking and prodding here in the ward, our bishop is finally starting to work on a ward mission plan. Haha! Little by little. A few members gave me some presents at church. Haha, I wanted to keep it on the DL but since I was here last year they already knew haha. President and Sister Ames came and spoke in our ward. He had sent us his talk a few days earlier, and we translated it for him. He was going to talk in spanish, but then got nervous and didn't. He bore his testimony in spanish though and it was great. You could hear a pin drop. That was the quietest I have ever heard a church ever. You didn't even want to breathe. It was great! They stayed all three hours and tried to participate in the classes. After church, they came and ate lunch with us hahah. Good sunday. Right after church we did a double exchange (where I go with a member and Elder Ray with a different member) and taught like 6 families in an hour and a half after church, so that was great. 

Monday (today)- We've already had a busy morning. We woke up early this morning, and drove into the mission office. Then we all piled into the van (I was volunteered to drive), and drove about 45 minutes into the Dallas mission. Boo. Anyways, we drove into a Chevy dealership and picked up 5 new Colorados. I drove a brand new 2015 Colorado off the lot haha, so today was a good day too. Then, we had the last (kind of) of the Senior Couple iPad meetings. It went really well. Haha, senior couple missionaries talk way more than us yung gunz, I'll tell you that much. There were a couple stubborn couples that said they wouldn't attend their meeting, so at some point we'll have to go train them individually. Other than that, operation Old People vs. iPads has been a success. 

All in all, it's goin' good over here. Still workin' hard. It's still real hot over here. Good stuff, just all good stuff. 

Love,

Cole

P.S. I forgot my camera, sorry. 

P.P.S. I also forgot my camera all week so there are no pictures on there anyway. 

Old People vs. Technology

Hey y'all. Another busy week out here. Still getting to know the area. Almost everyone we meet is so glad to have elders visit them. It is awesome. We have been hitting the members real hard (active and less active), especially because it's a new area. At first we were scared that the members would be disappointed that we replaced the sisters, but everyone is pure stoked hahaha. They are all way happy and try to give us food. We literally are going to have at least 10 dinners tonight, plus people randomly feeding us. Hahaha, bring the D. 

The exchanges started back up in full force again. We had 4, back to back to back to back. Just the way I like it. It's a really fun way to roll, it definitely has it's ups and downs. It's kind of a bummer when you teach an awesome lesson or meet a cool new person, and then realize you won't be there for the next time. Anywhey, here's some pictures. 

I was with Elder Tulaga (mijo!!) in Denton (yay!!) on friday to saturday. 

This is Elder Meyers. He was up in Denton, and came down to Haltom with me Thurs to fri.

Elder Myer, our District Leader. We were with him Wednesday to Thurs, in Bedford, an old area of mine. 

And this was my awesome bed. I had 3 box springs. It gave a whole new meaning to the term "jump out of bed."

All is well here in Haltom. We have a crazy couple o' weeks comin up. We have 3 exchanges this week, and President asked Elder Ray and I to train the Senior Couple missionaries about how to use iPads, so we'll have 2 of those meetings this week (Old People vs. Technology. Wish me luck!). On my b-day, we'll be in Temple, doing iPad training and whatnot. Should be a fun day. 

Love,

Cole
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Transfers

Training

Again, Again.

Hey yall. It's been a good week. We had a pretty good time. Elder Ray and I were together the whole week, so that was real rare. Here it is.

Monday and Tuesday we cleaned up the apartment and made a farewell tour of Euless. It was pretty great. I love Euless. It was really weird to say bye to everyone again, even though I'm staying in the same ward again.

Wednesday we helped out with Transfers, so we got to wear the neon vests and direct traffic. It's always fun to see old friends and everyone is so excited to get to their new area. After that we went to our new apartment in Haltom City (Again). The Sisters left it SOO Messy. Girls are way messier than boys. Fact. There was hair everywhere. We threw out like 2 full truck beds of trash/girl stuff.

But the worst part was, when we first got there, the A/C was out. The sister that was there was nutz and liked it between 75 and 85 degrees.

So we got there and cranked the A/C and it didn't even work.

#FirstWorldProblems. It was just hot enough to be uncomfortable for like 3 days. It was that hot where you're not quite sweating just sticky and gross and uncomfortable. Good news is it got fixed and now it's nice and cool. The new apartment is a lot smaller, but a little nicer. The new area is so sick! We have tons of members. Active ones too! Haha, it's been a while since I've had some active members.

Thursday-Sunday. We've been exploring the area. It's pretty weird to be back in Haltom. We cover a lot more area so we get to keep truck (yay!!, Texas Summer=HOT).

It's been pretty weird in the new area. On Tuesday the busy transfer/exchange cycle starts right back up again, and I won't see Elder Ray anymore. It's ok, it's a labor of love.

Love,

Cole

Happy L-Day Leena

Dear Leena,

Happy birthday, I am speaking this to you from my iPad with a cool headset. I love you. You are so old now. I have seen pictures of you and you look really tall and big. Stop growing! What did you get for your birthday?

Do you want anything from Texas? I hope you had a great day.

Love,

Cole

Bring the D

So this week was pretty different. We had a really fun week for sure Tuesday and Wednesday were super crazy, we were driving all around the mission in the van, handing out iPads like it was Christmas. We did a little math haha and one day we loaded about $50,000 worth of iPads into the van like it was nothing. Elder Ray and I bought some snacks and we had a super sweet road trip.

.

Look how happy some missionaries were. 

So, the big news is that I am (finally) leaving Euless. After 8 or 9 months here, I am going... Back to Haltom! Haha, we aren't going into the old rat trap apartment though. Elder Ray and I are going to whitewash out some sisters and open a new area in Haltom City (Named Hurst 3D, hence the title, bring the D), in the same ward. Haha, I'm kinda excited, that makes 9 transfers in this ward. I might as well just come back to Hurst instead of Utah. Anyway, here is my new address. 

5201 Springlake Parkway #102

Haltom City, TX 76117

We'll be there starting on June 10. It was kinda weird saying bye to all my Euless buddies (again) because I'm not really leaving (again). Oh well, that's mission. Haha. 

The Quevedos

#selfiemonday

Augusto Arroyo

Love,

Cole

iPads, Mexicans, Dallas, and Tongans

Crazy week this week. As you can guess from the title, this is going to be an interesting email. Breakdown time.

Tuesday- We had interviews, and did some preparation for Wednesday.

Wednesday- We started out early, meeting with the Assistants and Pres. to help him with board day. We got a good part of it done, and then had to leave for the mission-wide iPad training. It was so cool. We got a picture with the whole mission, then they all lined up and we shook hands with Elder Nelson. Elder Ray and I took advantage of the line-up to hand out some maps of Mexico, central, and south america to all the spanish missionaries. Right after, we started an exchange, and I got to go with Elder Beckert (the one who came from Oaxaca that was with me for like 2 weeks). It was really fun. Here we are.

Thursday- Elder Ray came and picked me up, and we drove an hour and a half back to Euless... to get our iPads. It was way cool. We got 8 of us into a room and set them up together, and now, tomorrow and Wednesday we are going to road trip and hand them out and do a little training for the whole mission. Right after, we drove out to Stephenville to start another exchange. I was with Elder Saaga, and I know him pretty well.

Friday- We drove out to Stephenville again, dropped off Elder Saaga, and picked up elder Rayos del sol de la manana fresca. We grabbed some dublin doctor pepper, then on the way back stopped at the brisket burrito place I told y'all about a while ago. It was an awesome lunch. Then comes the kicker. So, remember the mexican lady that lives in dallas? The one going to the Tongan ward? So President had some talks with the Stake pres, and Dallas' mish pres, and some other people and decided that we were going to baptize Maribela (the mexican) into the Tongan ward. LONG story, remind me to tell y'all one day. But it was awesome, the baptism was Friday, in the Tongan building (really, really dirty, by the way). Right after the baptism they had a graduation party in the gym for trinity high school haha. Why not? 

Here is us, the Tongan Elders, the Uatafi Family (the tongans) and Maribela. Isn't this great?

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Saturday- We started an exchange with Elder Schumacher. It was a really fun exchange. I love going out with all the spanish missionaries. These are the best elders in the world! I love exchanges. There is nothing like it, especially in missionary work. 

Sunday- Went to our church, then to the Tongan church. It was so crazy. First of all, tongans are really good singers. But it was nuts. I confirmed Maribela in Spanish in front of a ward of tongans haha. There were three people there that spoke spanish, Elder Ray, Maribela, and I. But hey, why not? Sister Uatafi bought Maribela a sweet cultural dress, but the picture is on my iPad. I'll send it your way. 

iPads are really fun. Tomorrow and Wednesday we are going to road trip in the van with the Assistants all around the mission to distribute/ train on the iPads. It is going to be so fun haha. 

So it was a great week. Love y'all. 

Love,

Cole.