The Van Man.

Dear Family and Friends,

When you say "you're coming home soon" it's technically true, but not really. I always think 

"Hey, do you want a piece of candy?"
"Yeah sure."
"Ok, you can have it in 8 weeks."
"......"
So it's really not that soon when you put it into perspective. 

Anyway, to answer a question asked last week, I probably spend about 50% of my time proselyting in my own area, 30% in some other area, and 20% doing other stuff (meetings and whatnot). I think I just tend to write more about the 20% because it is new/ different. 

So we had a pretty good week. Here is the photo diary:

We found a headset in the apartment, and Elder Ray is pretty proud of it. He wears it all the time hahaha. 

Selfies 4 dayz. 

So on Monday we were playing ultimate frisbee in the gym of the church. Long story short, Elder Ray banged his face on the door and split his eyebrow. No stitches though, so that was good. He's still seducin'.

We drove out to Weatherford in the Van. As we were driving, it started to rain so hard. Haha it was nuts. You might recognize these fools. I served with all 4 of them (one was for a week and a half). 

This is McDonald's in Texas.

The Van Man.

​All of my friends are going home and it is wierd. I'm still truckin along out here. This friday we had board day with President, and we did the whole spanish part of the mission. I got a sneak peak at my new companion/ area and it was really cool. The only thing is, last night President told me that he had some impressions and that a lot of things have changed. Haha, so who knows. I'll be happy with whatever happens this next transfer. Next week y'all will know! 

Texas Forever!

Love,

Cole

Hot Posole

Hey guys, 

Not a ton happened this week. It seems like all the weeks are starting to blur together haha. We had tons of meetings and whatnot and I wore my poor suit all week. 

Monday- We had a normal P-day, then we went to dinner. Right after we got a call from the office asking us to go inspect some elders apartments because they are moving and we wanted to make sure it is clean and whatnot. Turns out they didn't even clean at all. There was 2 inches of standing water in the fridge haha, it was soooo gross. Anyway, we got it all cleaned up. Good stuff. 

Tuesday- We went to district meeting in Arlington. It was cool to see some old mission buddies all grown up and whatnot. After I was on an exchange with a younger missionary. Highlight of the day- we were riding bikes to dinner and we were late, so we were booking it. By the time we got to dinner we were just sweating like nobodies business. We walk into dinner, and they feed us this massive bowl of piping hot posole. Don't get me wrong, I love posole (it's a soup/ stew type thing), but it was hot. Hahaha, we were sweating bullets all dinner. 

Wednesday- We went and did service for this food pantry type deal. They lined up a bunch of tables with food, and people would bring laundry baskets to fill them. Our job was to help carry people's food out to their cars. Luckily for me, I was wearing my suit pants and my long sleeve shirt in the hot sun (because we had zone conference). Haha, it was super hot. But I was thinking about the next time some sweaty bike missionaries run down one of those people how much more receptive they'll be. Service is good stuff. Zone conference was awesome. Texas Fort Worth (and maybe other missions, I dunno. I've only been here) tradition is in your last zone conference you give a departing testimony. Check. Haha, all of the checkpoints are flying past #nottrunky.

Thursday- Another exchange with Arlington. I was here in Haltom, and it was one of those days. We went tracting, and nobody was answering the door. At the end of the street, there was this lady. We knew she spoke english, but we spoke to her anyway. After a long conversation, we ended up writing down her phone number and giving her to the english missonaries. 

Friday- We had MLC. Another long meeting, but it was awesome. 

Saturday- Good day. Knockin doors, talkin to people. All the usual stuff. There was a baptism in our ward of a one legged guy. Not something you see everyday.

Sunday- Pretty normal Sunday. Number 52 here in Hurst. Haha, this is such a good ward. 

For the 4th of July we watched some fireworks with our neighbors from like 9:30 to 10:00. Woot. Haha, party animals.

Everything is going good out here. Texas Forever

Love,

Cole

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
​

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

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

Texas Parts

Hi guys, so it's transfers and I'm out! To... the mero mero, Ft. Worth! And, the place I'm going to live is a house, not an apartment. Haha, someone donated a house to the mission or something, so now the missionaries in Ft. Worth live there. In mission slang it's known as "the mansion." I am so excited! My new comp's name is Elder Tulonga or something like that, and it's his second transfer so I'm gonna finish up training him. I heard that my new area is more Mexican than Mexico itself. Woo! Still on a bike though. 

It's kinda weird to leave Haltom. After gallons of sweat, a surprising amount of blood, and one, very manly, tear, I'm on the way out. It's all good though. Haltom is on the upswing, and a pretty solid missionary is gonna replace me.

In other news, I finally learned a new way to tie my tie. Woo! Only after a year of wearing one every day haha. 

Look out Ft. Worth, there's a new sheriff in town.

Love,

Cole

**I found out that Sister Ames started a Mission Facebook page, and I found all of these photos of Coleman at work.  It was like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!!  

 

"Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."

Hahaha, that quote pretty much describes how I feel about Haltom. Sometimes I have lost enthusiasm though. 

So this week, we met this guy named Joaquin. He has some... interesting ideas about the Godhead. Hahaha, he was telling us that God and Jesus and the Spirit were the same (not that unusual or hard to teach the truth), until all of the sudden he agreed that God has a body. But not just 1, God apparently has 7 bodies. And can astral project himself into any of them, or if he wants he can just go around in spirit form. And every time the bible says the word "cielos" or "heaven" it is really talking about the 4th dimension. Needless to say, I learned a lot this week. Jk, he's really confused and he LOVES to talk, like a Texas talker on steroids laced with heroin. 

The good thing is, that I realized how much my knowledge and testimony have grown. Before, I might have questioned myself or something, but this time I was whippin' out scriptures right and left. I have the quickest draw this side of the Mississippi furr shurr. 

I went on exchanges with 2 missionaries that are getting trained, both of them in their area. Haha, it was pretty tiring. They want to do the best for sure, but they're just newbies and don't know what they're doing haha. They were both super stressed the whole day. They were all rigid, like a breadstick. I tried to give them the funk, but they wouldn't accept it. Haha, it was pretty fun, but it's been a tiring week.

Today, when I went to turn off the shower, the hot water wouldn't turn off. The tub filler upper faucet was just pounding water pure hard. I tried to play plumber, but the only tools I had were a bike multi tool and a crappy pedal wrench. I did pretty good at taking apart the whole tub, but I couldn't fix anything. So now our hot water is running until "later" when maintenance gets around to it. Oh well.

So when I was fixing the tub I moved my bike to get into the closet behind it, then when I came down 30 minutes later, my front tire was completely flat. There is no hole in the tube. I have no idea how all the air left. I studied patience as a Christlike attribute Sunday, and I suspect the Big Man upstairs is trying to help me. Thank you? 

Anywhey, next week are transfers. I have some good guesses of where I am going to go, but I'm not telling because I'm always wrong. 

I don't have any more pictures of me or from my camera, but one of the missionaries in my district let me borrow his usb to copy music, so here are some of him. 

Love, 

Cole

Random Missionary Photo

Tater tots and Jedi's

Hi guys! 

This week was one of those weeks where pretty much everything was pure average. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened at all haha. 

We had Zone Conference and it was pretty cool. I learned a lot. President wants us to ask y'all for some cool family history stories, so if you could send me some fun ones? I thought of Uncle Alvin and the Bear haha, and for some reason the creamation of Sam McGee even though he's not in our family. The problem with family history and latinos is 1. nobody really cares (I have tried to contact like 10 people and they strait up say "no" or "I don't really care" haha), and 2. there are not a ton of records so it is purty hard to do geneology.

Anyway, just so you know, basketball went really well last week. I have gotten way better out here. Look out D-Man!

Love,

Cole

P.S. Thank you for the picture sender thingy!

I shaved my head

I made something called tater tot casserole and ate it for 2 1/2 weeks.

Elder Petersen is a Jedi

One day Elder Petersen was really cold and so he put on all his winter clothes . . .

If you can see in the bottom right corner, it is 68 degrees. 

Sunday Night Stories

Hi guys. Not a ton happened this week. It was really hot, and we tracted a lot. Like, a lot a lot. And the funny thing is, nobody was interested. You're right, it's not that funny. 

On Monday the church was closed so we couldn't play basketball, so my rhythm this whole week has been off. Look out everyone, 2 weeks of pent-up basketball rage is going to come down like hellfire in roughly 2 hours. 

We have zone conference this week, so I am pretty excited. It should be a good one. 

Noone came to church this week, but that's ok. Next week!

Sunday night story again- so after church on Sunday we got on the bikes and headed off to see some investigators. Roughly 30 seconds in, I realized my back tire was pretty flat and it made it hard to pedal, but I decided to wing it anyway. At 6:53 I realized I had to go the bathroom (numbah 2) because of some mexican foods we ate at dinner. I thought "oh, I'll just hold it till we go home so we don't waste time." So, we went and talked to some people and whatnot. Around 8:30, we decided to go contact one more person before calling it a night. I was trying to cut through a parking lot to save time, because at this point, every second counted, when I realized I had to jump a curb. I didn't want to slam my low back tire and pop it, so right before I jumped I hit my breaks. I immediately regretted that decision. I went heels over head, and bike over heels into a nice patch of dirt and rocks. Luckily, my neck broke my fall. Don't worry Dad, the bike is fine and in working order. Me too, by the way. I didn't even poop in my pants either. Phew. 

Anywhey, I thought y'all would enjoy that story. Have a good week! 

Love,

Cole

Woo!

Hi guys. Yesterday was a super cool day, so I'm going to start there this time. It's like eating dessert before dinner, except now nobody can stop me haha. 

Anywhey, we were getting ready for the day and whatnot, and got to church at 12 (for the first time in forever!) to go to ward council. I sent a text to our investigator (since we can't say her real name, I am going to make one up. We shall call her name LAFAWNDUH) Lafawnduh, but she never responded. I was just hanging out with the other missionaries (because there are 10 of us only 1 from each companionship goes in) until church started. Roughly 10 minutes before church started, who walks in the door? Elder Hendersen! Except he's not Elder Hendersen anymore haha. It was really good to see him again and talk to my old companion for a bit. About 10 minutes into the meeting, Lafawnduh texted us to say she was at the church, so we went and got her and brought her in, and she had brought her mom too! Haha, except it was pioneer day, so the topic in sacrament meeting was pioneers, and one of the ladies just read a timeline of the church in Guatemala for like 20 minutes (not a joke or exaggeration haha, it was classic), and then in gospel principles they taught the Word of Wisdom haha. Needless to say, it was not the best Sunday to bring an Investigator, but they said they liked it. And then, after church we always eat and someone brought peach cobbler and ice cream and it was the best day ever. Also, there were 4 less active families that came to church as well, so it was a really good Sunday. 

Whell, after one super long run on paragraph, I have little more to say. Not a ton happened. I went on a couple exchanges with the 2 new missionaries in the district, and I feel super old now. Haha, I remember being in their shoes and it didn't seem that long ago until today haha. 

Sounds like y'all had a hectic week, but a super fun one. I heard LeBron is back in Cleveland. Woo! Hometown pride. Haha, I thought I would be more in the loop being in the states, but I'm grateful I'm not haha. 

So I was pretty happy with yesterday, and I think that this week should be a good one too.

Lole,

Cove

Kyle's Bike and Mower Shop

Hi Guys.

What is up woth y'all. I am good. This week y'all get the weekly breakdown. Ready? here we go-

Monday- P-day, played basketball and it was super fun. While we were riding around at night my pedal broke and was just a little stub.

Tuesday- we rode like 5 miles to the nearest bike shop, called "kyles bike and mower shop." It reminded me of the Food Storage/ paintball/ violin shop in st. george. Needless to say, the selection was slim, they didn't even have patches. I bought some pedals, but they were 1/2 inch instead of 9/16, so I walked back in to return them, and he didn't have any 9/16ths left. So, Kyle pulled the pedals off of his bike and told us to come back after Thursday because he was getting a shipment.

Wednesday- We rode up to the church for a meeting, it was good. Then, we had to ride home, and when we got home we saw this huge nail sticking like an inch out of Elder Petersen's tire. We had no spares or patches, so we were on foot.

Thursday- We planned all day, then a member took us to dinner at Red Robin. Yum. It was good. Then, he was going to come out on exchange with us, but couldn't, so we walked around all night.

Friday- Some other missionaries picked us up for a Zone Training at the church and gave us patches. Woo, back in commission!

Saturday- We rode to the church for correlation, then back to Kyle's bike and mower shop. It was a lot of biking in the heat of the day. Kyle hooked us up with free patches and gave elder Petersen a free tube too. It was great. Now I'm ridin' dirty with some cool new pedals. We also stopped at Sonic for happy hour. I recommend the super peach ring slushy.

Sunday- We got a less active member to take us to church. Needless to say, we got there at like 1:28. Good thing we are in a spanish ward so it was like 15 minutes early still haha. After church, the bishopric and their family always feed all the missionaries, so that is awesome and we eat really well. Then, the Elders Quorum took all the missionaries on splits and we visited a bunch of Less Active members. We did a double exchange! (Where Elder Petersen goes with one member and I go with a different one and we can teach 2 lessons at a time). It was awesome. I went and saw 4 families in like 1 1/2 hours, it was the most efficient visit I have ever seen.

Anywhey, that is the week. It was a rough one, but it's over now and we are still goin strong. Love y'all and hope that you are having fun in Bear Lake/ at home!

Love,

Cole

P.S. I can't send pictures here in Haltom because the cord doesn't work and I cant buy a different adapter because 1. we have to shop at kroger (boo!) and 2. My home visa is officially expired. Sorry!

Big Changes

Hi guys. It's transfer week and I am going to stay here with Elder Petersen. Woo! Big changes! Haha, jk, there are no changes.

Anywhey, I am doing good. I got to go on an exchange with my old companion Elder Munoz this week and it was like being at home again haha, it was really fun. I got to drive their truck and I think that did it for me. I am now Texas to the core and want to buy a truck when I get home. Luckily I have more than a year to try and talk sense into myself haha. Anywhey, it was a calm week, nothing major happened. On the 4th of July we went to this park by a river (because spanish people instinctively flock to water like the salmon of Capistrano) and tried to contact people. It was not a fruitful exercise, because everyone was drunk. It was fun though.

I can't really think of much else that happened... Haha, nothing major. love y'all bye!!

Love,
Cole

Rainy Days and Tender Mercies

Hi Guys. Thanks for all of the birthday wishes and all that good stuff. Also tell everyone thank you because I don't have lots of time to do it haha. It was a good week.

On tuesday we rode our bikes to District meeting and it was super hot, then when we were riding back it was like 3:00 aka as hot as it gets, and we were dying. I was sweating like it was 2 a days, or running 16s in albions unairconditioned gym or something, so we stopped at a CVS and got a drink real quick. After 5 minutes of air conditioned heaven, we went back out and finally got home, dropped off our stuff, and went out to go teach someone. As we were riding, we watched this huge storm roll in from the west. The appointment punched, and it started to sprinkle a little, so we tried to get to the next appointment, but it was too late. Texas Storm haha. It was raining so hard, after like 3 minutes I looked like I jumped into a pool. It was way fun to ride around in, haha when we hit puddles the water would cover our shoes when we pedaled haha, it was one of the funner days I've had here.
That night the ward had a ward party and we got to eat lots of good food and they were playing tons of spanish music and then all of the sudden they started playing like Luke Bryan and country and whatnot haha. Anywhey, the old mission president called those kinds of things "Tender Mercies" haha. It was a good week. It has been really hot and there were 2 flash flood warnings haha, so there is the cool Texas weather thing. umm... I think that is all for this week. Love y'all!

Love,
Cole

2 Elders, 3 Bowls, 2 Cups, 25 Plates

Yo's-
This week has been awesome. I feel like I have been learning a lot lately.  A lot about how to ride the storm, and learning to love the struggle. Elder Petersen and I have been having a lot of trouble communicating, but I know it's going to get better. Last night, the Spanish Training Leaders were giving us a ride home and we set some goals and made some plans to improve. The talk we had went really well, and Elder Petersen really opened up for a little bit. We set some goals to communicate more. I have been writing questions that start conversation (who is your favorite superhero, what is your family like, favorite food, etc.) in the back of my planner, to whip out when times get rough or somesing.

Our investigators seem to have a lot of potential, but nobody came to church and nobody has a baptismal date right now. However, we have some plans to remedy both of those. We found a super cool investigator last week, she was a referral from Ft. Worth ward, and she seems really ready. The main problem we have right now, is that we cannot find any exchanges. We called probably around 15 members this week, and not one could come out with us. It has been a real struggle to get member present lessons in this area.

It has been pretty cool here lately. JK it is super hot and I am pure sweaty after like 30 seconds of being on the bike. Also, because it is humid or somesing it makes my whole body sweat from head to toe so my whole body is pure wet and it is awesome. It is really windy in Texas so it cools me off sometimes. I like it. But most of the time I am ridiculously hot. That's all for now!

Love,

Cole

P.S. I named this email in honor of the disproportionate amount of plates we have in our apartment.