20 years of parole

 Hola Hola!!

I hope everyone saw God's hand in their lives this week. There are small miracles in every single day. You just have to look for them.

GOOD:

- During district council on Thursday, las hermanas surprised us with Blue Bell Ice Cream. Wow, that was incredible. Definitely a boost to district morale for the week. Moral of the story, do something nice for someone this week.

- We got to have dinner with the Hyatt's this week. They are some of the senior missionaries here in McAllen, and we love them. (Sister Hyatt fixes all my pants when they rip #blessed) They also invited Elder Bird and Elder Takahashi and it was so fun to all have dinner together! After dinner, we took pictures that straight up looked like the Friend's picture with the couch. Elder Bird and I had a good laugh about it.

- President Nelson and his wife gave an amazing devotional this week and we got to listen to it! We had zone conference over zoom with President Ocampo and his wife who are so wise, gonna be sad to lose them in July. The weather here is beautiful and very warm. (If you want to see a video of my helmet sweat juice, let me know and I will hook you up). Did some service this week assembling kits for a non-profit organization working to end Type-2 Diabetes. This is a GREAT work. Elder Kumar and I were told by some ward members that we are the best missionaries this ward has had in a long time because of our light and happy energy. Had a pretty epic wipeout on my bike that could have been in a movie. I am healthy and happy! 

BETTER:

- We had ZL exchanges this week and I got to spend the day in my zone with Elder Gibby! I loved getting to hang out with him again! Elder Gibby has been on his mission for about 18 months so he is literally such a good missionary! On this exchange, I learned how to be more time effective and how to work with more urgency. We also had an AMAZING lesson with Agustin and we brought Brother Joens from the ward. When I am teaching Agustin I feel pure joy as a missionary, he glows and realizes the need for change in his life.

- We had two lessons with Paul this week and he finally gained a testimony of Joseph Smith! He is still such a funny guy who keeps us laughing. We were so excited for him and it was looking like he was really preparing himself for baptism.

- Unfortunately, people can be very unreliable. None of our friends came to church and multiple lessons and other scheduled contacts fell through for each person we are teaching. Nobody was keeping their commitments, and we were shook to find out Paul is on the tail end of a parole period. Entonces... Paul will not be getting baptized just yet, and the progression of Agustin and Leeroy is left in their hands. We told them we are happy to keep teaching them when they are ready to keep commitments and sacrifice for Heavenly Father. We love them so much but do not have time to always be dragging our friends to keep commitments and come to church. They will be baptized because they are incredible, it just might take some time for our message to marinate.

BEST:

¡Este fin de semana es el cumpleaños de Elder Francis! Lately, I have been thinking about the people Heavenly Father has blessed me with, Landon is definitely one of those people! I have learned so much from this guy and am super lucky to call him my friend! 

Isn't it cool that Heavenly Father knows exactly what we all need and crosses our paths with others who can help us along the way? I know my Heavenly Father loves me because He has blessed me with so many incredible humans in my life! Happy Birthday Landon! Love ya man!

Also this week is Mayson Stringham and GG's birthday's which cannot go unnoticed. I love you both!

"Work Hard, Keep the Commandments, Have a Positive Attitude and Show Gratitude."

- Elder Spoonie