February 10, 2014
Area: Humble
Companion: Owens
It
sounds like all of you had a pretty good week and had fun with the
families :) I am really enjoying my mission, each week is full of new
joys and adventures, but it is just flying by! I am already more than
1/4 done... :o
My companion is Elder Owens and he has been out
for 18 months. He is a pretty fun guy and we get along really well, and
it helps that he is excited to finally get out and work again because
his last companion was sick for most of the last transfer
I am serving in one of the biggest areas of the
mission because there are so few pockets of spanish speakers. We cover
the same area as 5 English-speaking areas and have to drive at least
50ish miles each day just to go to appointments and try people... We
have had a lot of fun though and we have a lot of really awesome
members.
I have had an interesting week because this week I
switched from the Spanish missionary paradise of the mission to the part
where they are few and far between. This Monday we had a good lesson
with Oscar H and I got to say goodbye before we left. I was happy
to be able to say that it really wasn't a goodbye, but more of a 'see you
later' because Oscar is getting baptized in a couple of weeks :) Then in
this area we really started working miracles to bring it back to life
these past few days :)
After the transfer meeting we came home and I
unpacked a little and then we went out to try a few people and taught a
couple of lessons, and ate with the Rendon family (the 1st counselor).
My companion told me that in 1 day we almost taught half of their
average lessons per week for the last transfer... One thing that I
thought was super funny is that in the first 3-4ish hours of being Elder
Owens' companion, I had already met the 1st and 2nd counselors of the
bishopric :)
I hardly even know what to say right now because I
still hardly know the area and the people. I am just glad that Elder
Owens does know the area and people, so we don't get lost... I can tell you this though,
we have a really solid investigator that is super cool and surprisingly
he is 70! He is the oldest hispanic I know and he still has good health
too :) We found out that the english sisters have taught him almost
everything, but he is more confident with spanish, so they passed him
off to us. He is really fun and he has already made it most the way
through 2 Nephi, it is amazing how much he loves the word of God. Oh
yeah, we also met a guy who is 18 and he had been meeting with the
missionaries for a while, but his whole family is Catholic, so he doesn't
really want to change much, but he wouldn't mind talking with us again
every once in a while. We talked with him yesterday and just focused on
his family and showed him that we care and testified about how the
gospel can bless his life. When we asked him about if he would read the
Book of Mormon, he opened up to us more and he told us how he has a
reading problem, so he doesnt really understand what he reads all the
time. When he said that, an idea came into my mind about the Children's
Book of Mormon booklet that we can get with supplies, so I told him about
it and how it is like a picturebook that makes it really easy to
understand. He told us that that would help, so we told him that we
would get one of those for him as soon as we can. He was really glad
about how much we cared for him and his family. When we were about to
go, we asked if there was anything that we could do for him and once
again, he opened up and told us about how his friend has cancer and is
doing Chemotherapy. He really is scared for his friend and feels bad for
him and asked us to pray for him. I told him how Uncle Merlin went
through the same thing and it just means he is fighting cancer, and one
thing that we can all do for him is being positive because if he is
positive about it, he is more likely to win that fight. We left him with
a prayer and told him that we have high hopes for his disabled uncle
and his friend.
Another thing I forgot to mention is that we went to try
to contact somebody and as we were leaving, we talked to a couple of
guys next door. One of the guys talked to missionaries before when they
had helped him get his truck out of a ditch and he told us like right
away that he wanted to get baptized. We have yet to talk with him again,
but here's hoping that he truly wants to know more.
My Spanish is really
surprising me now, I am understanding almost everything and Elder Owens
and I did almost all of Weekly Planning (2-3hrs) in just spanish! :)
I love you guys and I will try to write a better
letter next week and I will try to send you guys cards or something for
Valentine's Day
I love you guys,
Elder Stanley Scott Dye
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