My 1st dog bite

 FELIZ LUNES MIS AMIGOS

The end of another transfer #timeFLIES 

I am happy and I hope you are too!!!

GOOD:

- This weekend Ruby made us Pupusas and they were incredible! (@em) Also, we finally took a picture with Ruby as a tech squad! If you look at our selfie, she is on the far left and also in the picture is her daughter, Yazmin, and her sister, Vanessa. She has given me a place that feels like home in Weslaco and I am so grateful for her kindness and love of welcoming in the missionaries!

- On Thursday we had dinner with the Hulet's, an older couple in our ward. Now, first of all, they are a hoot. You have to understand that I don't love using that word but I simply do not have a better term to describe them. Dinner was so funny, I haven't laughed so hard in awhile. Anyways, we start walking out and I am just chatting with Brother Hulet and Elder Ollie. Meanwhile, Sister Hulet went to get their dog out to take him for a walk. While I am just trying to have a nice conversation as I walk across their driveway... this little thing came after me. I did not see or hear him coming. All of a sudden he was attached to my ankle and holding onto my lateral malleolus for dear life. This dog punctured my skin, ripped my pants and made us waste an extra half an hour as we went back inside the Hulet's house to clean and bandage my wound :) YAY SOUTH TX.

- We went on exchanges this week and I got to spend the day with Elder Nilssen! We did some teaching, finding, studying and also spent a few hours at the Nissan Dealership because our vehicle started doing some weird stuff. I had a zoom meeting with President Larreal, so naturally I got one of the salesmen to let me use his office for that. Pretty official if you ask me. Also, everything is fine with our car, Elder Perez just asked us to get some stuff checked out.

BETTER:

- TRANSFER NEWS! Gratefully, Elder Ollie and I will be staying together in Weslaco! Also, the tech sister's companionship will be staying the same for the next transfer as well! President Larreal really said "I like my Tech Squad" anyways if we are talking predictions... I think I will be here until Christmas. I am super excited to get to spend another 6 weeks working with Elder Ollie and in this area.

- Danii! A little bit ago, the ZL's invited a girl to come to church that they found over Facebook. She came to my ward and during the meeting I sat with her, explained things and taught her a little bit. She seemed super cool, but then she was super hard to meet with during the week and went out of town last Sunday. HOWEVER, yesterday she came back! I spent some time teaching her about the Book of Mormon and it was so incredible to see how she had been prepared to receive this message. She told me "I read the Bible but never felt like that was the complete story." She accepted a Book of Mormon and is excited to begin studying it. 

- Speaking of cool people - David, who came to church last week, told us he wasn't interested in our message :( That's alright because now that he has heard about the restored gospel and been introduced to the Book of Mormon. He will be better prepared the next time missionaries reach out.

- We are still teaching Alma and her husband Erasmo! They are the parents of our ward member, Karla Zavala. They love the missionaries and their daughter is a powerful member. During the lessons it is honestly like 50% us teaching and 50% Karla teaching which is honestly really cool to see! They didn't make it to church this week but did mention they want us to come over for dinner soon which is a good sign! Keep them in your prayers, we want to help them become an eternal family!

- Last night, we had some free time to go out and find some new friends. While planning, I saw an apartment complex and felt like we should go there. By some miracle, the gate was open when we arrived and we were able to enter. We then offered a prayer about where we should go within this complex to find those who are looking for more in their life. I felt like we should head towards building 10, so off to building 10 we went. The first people that we met were so cool! A little family of 3 working on moving their groceries inside. Each member of the family showed interest in what we were doing and we were able to teach them on first contact and set up some future visits. The coolest part of all this... they were standing right in front of building 10 #GodAnswers. 

BEST:

FINISHERS WANTED.

"Will I FALTER or will I FINISH?"

President Monson has an amazing talk called "Finishers Wanted." In which he discusses the importance of enduring to the end and staying true to our covenants for our entire lives. He says that each one of us has an important decision to make each time we are presented with a challenge... "Will I falter or will I finish?" Life is not supposed to be easy, discipleship is not supposed to be easy, these journeys are designed to help us grow and to let ourselves become something greater. In order to see his change, we have to resolve to always be a finisher. 

My mom has always told me "You can do hard things." This is a simple statement that has changed me. I could list countless times when I wanted to give up, I thought that the best thing I could do would be to falter. But, I could hear in my mind "You can do hard things" and I would choose to finish the task at hand. I have been greatly blessed by my decision to be a finisher.

I invite you all to make a firm decision to be a finisher. (And to read this talk!)

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

-Elder Stringcheese