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. 

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

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.