Is Jesus Here?

Ummm... Hi guys. Yes I am in a trio now with Elder Munoz and Elder Hepworth. They got here on Wednesday morning. We are still in the same apartment, and we just got an extra bed and desk from some other missionaries. Usually there aren't trios, but for some reason we're gonna have one for this whole transfer. 

I don't really like this question thing, but here goes.

1.      What is the funniest thing that happened this week?
Elder Hepworth wanted to call us the Three Nephites, but Elder Munoz said "I'm a Laminite" Hahah, it was so dumb/funny. Also one of our investigators has a 5 year old kid that was acting up and the mom told him to come over here and he said, "no, you always hit my buttcrack," and I about died of laughter. 

2.      When did you feel the Spirit the most this week?
I don't know. I probably pray like 20 times a day and walk around talking about Jesus all day. It is just a whole different lifestyle.

3.      Tell us about one door approach, or teaching moment you had.
Elder Henderson and I went to this guy named Jesus' (Spanish name- Hey Zeus) door that he had taught on an exchange. We knocked and some young girl answered. Henderson said "Se encuentra Jesus (hey-zeus) " (Is Jesus here?), and the girl was just way confused and said Jesus (in English). Elder Henderson said "Si, el esta?" (Yeah, is he here?) and she just blinked and looked confused and said "Like Jesus Christ? ... are you asking if Jesus Christ is here? ... I speak English." It was the wrong house. It was so funny.

4.      Tell us one thing (funny or serious) about your companions.
Elder Munoz is from San Antonio but originally from Mexico City. He speaks Spanish natively and so it is pretty helpful to have him around to teach me stuffs. He has been out for like 18 months. Elder Hepworth is from Price, Utah, and he has been out about a year. He is a ginger.

5.      What is one thing you learned this week (in the scriptures or lesson planning)?
I don't even remember. Everything is a blur. I can't remember if I studied 3 Nephi last week or 2 months ago. I learn a lot though. 

Love you all!
Love, Cole

Transfers

Happy Birthday Dad! Hope y'all had a good week. Haha, sounds like a quiet, laid back birthday, just like Dad would love.  Transfer week is upon us. Wednesday, Elder Henderson goes home, and my new companions are (there are 2)... Elders Munoz and Hepworth. I stay here. It is a pretty crazy transfer and I will have to draw a diagram or something to make sense of it, but I'll be in a trio for the next month and a half... 

1.       What is the funniest thing that happened this week?

We went on a member exchange with the CRAZIEST guy, it was easily one of the funniest nights of my life. He was insane, screaming in the car, and just being nuts. We thought he was hammered, but instead just a crazy guy. It was awesome. 

2.       When did you feel the Spirit the most this week?

Sometimes teaching lessons is so annoying. Sometimes I want to punch every investigator in the face. We teach this awesome lesson and get to the first vision, and say " and God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared, in person, to Joseph Smith." And the investigators ALWAYS say something like "oh yeah, that happened to me once" or something like that. It's awesome!

3.       Tell us about one door approach, or teaching moment you had.

We had a ton of miles, so we drove way out to Bridgeport Texas, and we were in the country. As we were driving, we saw a dead armadillo, so we stopped and poked it with a stick and took pictures and whatnot. Not a door approach or teaching moment, but I thought it was appropriate. 

4.       Tell us one thing (funny or serious) about your companion.

Elder Henderson is awesome. He reminds me of Nate, the same really driven attitude towards everything. He gets stuff done.

5.       What is one thing you learned this week (in the scriptures or lesson planning)?

One thing Elder Henderson and I studied a little of was the Godhead. There is a really cool "doctrinal exposition" named "The Father and The Son" on LDS.org if you want. It explains the roles of Jesus Christ and God the Father, and all that good stuff. 

Also, on Friday and Saturday it hit 85 degrees here. Then, Sunday there was a little mini ice storm and today it was 15 degrees. Texas weather sucks. 

I wrote Liza a little about Surg. Tech. and whatnot, I hope it helps. Love you all!

Love,

Cole

This is the photo Cole chose to send us - "A visual tour of my apartment" w/ description included:

1. My closet

2. Our desks (mine has nice chair/lamp)

3. My bed

4. Kitchen area

5. My (personal!) bathroom

6. The bedroom

7. My desk

8. The kitchen

9. Our bikes

Zone Conference Photos

Sorry Mom

Haha, just another week of missionary work. Not a ton happened this week haha, sounds like y'all have had fun though. I love you all hahah, and I'll try and send some pictures home this week.

Love, Cole

Valentines Love

Hey family. I got your valentines package haha it was awesome. I just have one question. WHEN. THE. HECK. DID. LEENA. LEARN. TO. WRITE? She couldn't write like that when I left, and now she's writin' up a storm. But I got the letter haha, it was good to hear what some of my buddies are up to in a little moar detail. Thank you for the valentines day stuff!

That is crazy Mom and Dad have been married for 25 years haha, that is a really long time. And their still kickin it. Hey, whaddya say? That is pretty sick about the snow too. It has been like 70ish all week, so it was awesome. We even spent a whole day on our bikes because it was so warm and sunny and nice. It was great, but super weird not to have a real winter. My body doesn't get it I think, I just keep waiting for a few feet of snow, or to be cold, but it isn't coming. Haha, just the burning heat, that is coming fast. 

This week was super fast. We had Zone Training and Zone Conference Tuesday and Thursday, so the week flew by. I had to give a training in ZT, and right before the APs and the Ward Mission Leader came in, so I [was scared as a sinner in a cyclone]. Just a little bit though. But it went good. Then, we had ZC and President Ames came and taught us some stuffs, and I guess now we are going to be focusing on member work as a mission. 

On Saturday I went on an exchange with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Woodruff. He came into my area. I was pretty excited because he doesn't speak Spanish (stupid gringo haha) so I had to translate a few times and it was pretty cool. Kinda hard, but I liked it. By the end of the night, My voice was kinda sore from talking so much haha, so that was a cool day for sure. Love y'all and hope everything is going well at home! Happy President's Day.

Love,

Cole

My Turrible Analogy

So this week, I probably made one of the worst analogies in missionary history. I was on an exchange (luckily), and we were teaching this family about the Plan of Salvation. There is this grandma like 60-70, senile as ever, a Mom around 40ish, two girls like 17 and 14 and then a little 12-13 year old kid. I was talking about agency and consequences, and the family was not really understanding, so I thought hey, just make up an analogy real quick, then they'll understand. So, I proceeded to make up this little gem: "We all have agency, for example, I could take off my shirt right now. But there are always consequences, like you would probably ask me to leave, right?" It was just dead silent, the Grandma and mom were just staring at me expectantly, one of the girls almost left the room, the mom muttered something about how it was really hot in there and she wouldn't mind, it was just bad. Hahaha, it was so bad. 

Other than that, I had a sweet week. We talked to 106 people this week. Haha, we set a goal of how many people to talk to, and we hit 106, it was way cool. We had investigators at church again, and our district was the top district in the mission for this week, we had an awesome week!

Haha, that is great that you went to Dinner with the Udy's mom and dad. I don't really know what I did to make YMAD people remember me, probably just the same Cole things as usual haha. That is way cool about Mom and Dad's anniversary too. 

That is way sad about Brandon's mom. I guess like Dad said, we are really blessed to know what goes down after this life, and that we can see our loved ones once again. It is pretty awesome to know that, and be able to teach other people about it as well.

Whelp, that's it for this week. Love you all.

Love,

Cole

Happy Birfday Nate

**So Coleman pretty much responds to questions I ask him in my email.  And this week Leena had a cute story that I will post here so you know what Coleman is talking about:  This week Leena said “Mom, everyone in my class has your skin”  I said, “Oh what do you mean?”  she said, “I’m the only one with my color skin, everyone else has your color skin.”   Then I said, “What do you think that means?” and she said “That everyone else is different!!” 

Hey guys. Happy birfday nAte you old coot. 22 haha. hahaha. You're so old. Nate's b-day sounds way fun at the Ice Castles. The picture looks super cool haha.

We have a bunch of investigators, but none of them are as cool as Maria. She came up to me on Sunday, and asked how she could pay tithing. She spoke in English by the way.  We still teach Maria, and the church just barely came out with a brand new 90 day plan for new members, so it is cool to use that with her. 

Haha, Elder Henderson is way cool. I heard a little about the super bowl, but we didn't get to watch. 

Haha, I bet Leena was so freaking cute at the Brighton game. She would never do anything while I was there. Haha, also her skin story is great.  I haven't gotten your letter yet though. 

The Ski video Dad sent looked soo cool haha, it snowed here last night aka there is 1/3 of an inch of white ice on the ground. Haha, I am having tonz of funz out herr. Last night we walked like 5 miles to go to dinner because there was ice on the road and the President said no driving. I have no other worthwhile experiences from this week haha.

Love,

Cole

 Leena cheering at Brighton's Basketball game with our cute neighbor, Saige Curtis!

Our family at the Midway Ice Castle's celebrating Nate's 22nd Birthday. 

For a laugh try to enlarge Leena's face - and look who is photo bombing us behind me!!