6 tacos, 5 hot dogs and 1 giant burrito

 Hola amigos!

This week was super busy and full of memorable experiences.

GOOD:

- One of the reasons this week was incredibly busy was the many meetings that were held in the TMM. This week we had a zone meeting (super good), a Leadership training (very very good) , a district meeting (of course this was good too) AND interviews with Presidente Larreal (gotta love Presidente). As a result of this, the actual time we had remaining to go out on our bikes was substantially less than normal and really made us grateful for the time we did get to do missionary work. The longer I am here - the more I love getting outside and talking with people about the gospel! 

- On Wednesday I literally almost died from eating. This was like worse than Thanksgiving. I will try to keep this story quick. For lunch my companion and I were in McAllen for some meetings (shocker) and so we decided to take advantage of the Chipotle there and eat some burritos for lunch. We ended up running into a member I met back when I lived in McAllen and she bought us our burritos, super nice of her! Anyways, we enjoyed our burritos and then made our way back to Hidalgo where one of our members had set up an appointment for us to meet his daughter and her family. What he didn't tell us is that she would be feeding us. The other thing you have to understand is that in the Hispanic culture you do not say no when you are offered food. You eat and eat and eat. So here we sit eating some very good Mexican Hot Dogs trying to make a good impression on our new friend and before you know it I have eaten 5 of these bad boys. That is way more than I have ever eaten in my life. The cherry on top was when I was offered a chili pepper and then had to just smile and laugh while I thought I was going to die. We had a great time and are excited to return and teach this family about the Plan of Salvation. The story is not done quite yet... not even an hour later we had our actual meal appointment with a humble member family here. They made tacos for us and just kept loading up our plates. 6 tacos later I literally was not okay. But in good news, the members love us.

- As I searched through old records from missionaries I found the information for a man named Antonio who had not been contacted for almost 2 years. After further investigation I discovered this was because the address the missionaries left was (and I quote) "Red apartments, down by the house, around the corner, close to the pool." ????? Entonces, naturally Elder Wankier and I had to go on a scavenger hunt for him. Due to our mega awesome detective skills we did find the red apartments and the pool and eventually we did meet Antonio. Antonio might be the oldest guy in Hidalgo and also quite a funny guy. He is pictured below 

BETTER:

- People in the 956 can be so cool. Our friend Mario pulled up to church again this week and this time he was even on time. When we asked how he got there he said "I walked, God gave me 2 perfectly good legs so why wouldn't I use them." What you need to understand is he doesn't live across the street from the church. We are talking 45 minutes worth of walking. Dang. That is the level of dedication I need to have.

- I found a new friend named Ivan this week over Facebook who came to church with us! He is super cool and already knew some of the members in the ward! Unfortunately he does live in the other Elder's area that are in the same ward so we won't be teaching him but he will still be coming to church with us! It is super cool that through social media we were able to get him to church. Facebook finding works and you cannot change my mind.

- Miracle of the week was running into my friend Lino. If you have actually been reading my emails you will know who he is and if you haven't been reading my emails well... that is just too bad. It has been over 2 months since I have heard from him. But this week we were biking to see another friend when I saw him outside his house! He is doing super good but will be going back up to Kermit, Texas this week again. He gave us a classic South TX plate of carne as we left so that was a win.

BEST:

Something that really stuck out to me this week was a talk given by one of the new members in the Hidalgo ward. She was speaking on gratitude. During her talk the children in the ward were going crazy and the noise level in the chapel was higher than any of us would prefer. In the middle of the talk she invited the whole congregation to take a moment of silence, close their eyes and recognize what they are grateful for. Immediately the congregation became silent. For about 30 seconds we sat in complete quiet (even the children stayed quiet) and thanked God for the bounty of blessings He has already given us.

I loved seeing the power of gratitude in action. The change in the room was incredible. As soon as we took a moment to stop and appreciate what we have - a great peace filled the meeting. 

At the end of her talk she shared about the gratitude she feels for the gospel. She shared a very genuine and heartfelt testimony of the joy her family has experienced since they found the gospel. What a great work this is.

Have you expressed gratitude today? If not, I invite you to do so.

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

- Elder Stringham