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. 

God Squad, Reporting for Duty

Dear Family,

Haha, what's up guys? This was a pretty crazy week haha, it was awesome. This week we kept getting stopped by drunk/high old white guys who asked us to pray for/ with them. They were just going absolutely batpoop crazy the whole time haha, it was so funny. Also our apartment caught on fire and we had to call the fire department. On Monday (last week) there was a convert who was baptized, confirmed, and given the aaronic priesthood in like, 30 minutes. It was crazy! Haha, it was a good week.

So our apartment caught on fire haha. We came in for lunch on Thursday, and smart Cole had some leftovers so I ate in like 2 minutes then went upstairs to take my lunchnap. Haha, Elder Petersen decided to make enchiladas or something, so he turned on the oven (we have a gas oven/stove). Someone like called or something and he went away from the kitchen for a sec, and when he went back, there was tonz of smoke coming out. The fire alarm started going off, which woke me up, so I went downstairs and it was pure smokey. Haha, he was outside calling the fire department, so I tried to open up the back door and turn on the fan to get the smoke out. Then I went into the kitchen and saw the fire. I had to go back outside for a sec to catch my breath, but then I went back in and tried to put it out w/ water. I sprinkled a little bit to see if it worked, then just started shveling water on the fire until it stopped haha. Yay me! JK, but now our apartment smells like burnt plastic and there is a thin layer of soot everywhere. Haha, it is taking forever to clean up, but at least we got a new stove/oven haha.

Also, Happy Birthday Leena! And happy late fathers day Dad! Hope it was a good one haha!

Love,
Cole