Week 4 LaJoya, Texas

Hey Mom,

This week is week 3 that elder Ritchey has been sick so we are going to the doctor tomorrow to see what is going on. I still have yet to get sick which is totally fine by me, I have no complaints there.

 Thanks for the Christmas package, I like the Texas tie (I am wearing it today) and the book from Grandma and Grandpa is super good, I started reading it this morning. Elder Ritchey says thanks for the pajamas, he was pretty happy about that.

 This week not a whole lot happened, we had the ward Christmas party on Saturday which was really fun because a lot of people showed up and we had tons of food, it was all American food too, potatoes, turkey, gravy, rolls, I was quite impressed with how well people down here have adopted our style of cooking. They had a whole bunch of people sing and us 4 elders ended up singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing in Spanish, everyone thought it was good so I guess we didn't do too bad.

 Then we only had 1 hour of church yesterday, it was a really nice Christmas presentation so that was kind of cool. Then we had the rest of the day to try and see some people before we had a dinner appointment.

 We ate with the elders quorum president and his family, Brother Hernandez, They made chicken and potatoes and rolls and stuffing and gravy, so I was pretty happy, although despite all the food I am eating I continue to lose weight, win-win.

 This morning we made chocolate chip pancakes since it is Christmas after all, we also made cookies to take to people later today so we spent the morning baking. We are having Christmas dinner with the Weger family today at 5 so that should be more of the same, turkey, potatoes, gravy, rolls, once again, no complaints. That is one thing that is truly inspiring here, most of the people have nothing but are always willing to help the missionaries. 

That is pretty much our week, Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!

Love, 

Elder Jaden Goodbaudy

Week 3 from LaJoya, Texas

Yeah the real tortillas are really good, I am starting to become good at being able to tell what is store bought and what is real, or what had Mexican packaging vs. American packaging, surprisingly even tortillas off the shelf that are authentic Mexican are delicious. No new crazy foods this week, I did have mole (pronounced molay and no it is not actual mole) It is basically any kind of meat in a chocolate and chili sauce, it is okay but not my favorite, it just tastes weird.

No sweet Mexican ladies to show me how to make tortillas but I have a feeling I will meet at least one over the next 22 months ( 2 months down) 

Yeah I remember that crazy snow, it has been in about the 45 degree range for most days this week but that is probably as cold as it will get for winter this year.

I did go to the conference with Elder Cook we also had the President of the 70 and another member of the 70 speak too. I am in the picture, on the right hand side just behind the first row of sisters that are on the stage, look hard enough and you'll find me.

Good old basketball, any basketball is good basketball I guess. I haven't had a chance to play since I got into the field but I will try and fix that before too long.

Dad told me how Sean was doing, I am glad he is having a good time.

Autumn is growing up, look at her go, now you have to tell her to start paying rent hahahah

I am glad Matt enjoyed the movie, he said he was pretty excited for it last week.

Good old winter break, it is crazy here thinking about how people still go to school and work during the day.

This isn't for certain but I heard that we might be skyping on Saturday the 23rd, that is NOT confirmed but it is possible, they haven't told us yet, I guess just plan on being home and near your email or the computer and I will try and let you know when it is happening, and if it doesn't happen Saturday then I guess it will be Monday, no clue.

This week not much has happened, Elder Ritchey was sick for the past week and a half so we mainly hung out at the apartment and he rested. I had some good study time, reading scriptures and getting into Jesus the Christ, that is such a good book. Even if it is 800 pages.

The ward Christmas party for La Joya is Saturday the 23rd which I am curious to see how it goes. They are having the primary sing a song and the youth sing a song, they also want just us 4 missionaries in La Joya to sing a song so I don't know who came up with that. 

No other news for the week 

Until Saturday, or Monday who knows

Elder Goodbaudy 

Week 2 from LaJoya, Texas

Hey Mom,

Yeah we had snow Friday morning at 8 in the morning for about an hour, it didn't stick but it was the first time they have gotten snow here since 2004. It has rained a lot too, the days leading up to Friday it was in the 40's all day and rainy. I guess I am bringing some rain with me from Oregon.

Elder Ritchey is from Utah (Surprise, Surprise) I don't remember where he said but it is a small town about 30 minutes West of Salt Lake. 

The week has been good, just mainly checking up on investigators and less actives. The ward attendance here is about 90 people and there are like 500 members on the records so there are quite a few people that are either inactive or less active. We haven't really had a chance to do any service here, there is always something we could do but the people here are so worried about others that any time we ask if they need help they always tell us they are doing alright. 

We are in a really nice apartment actually, it is just Elder Ritchey and I and we have 2 bathrooms so that makes getting up and getting ready really nice.

The people here say my Spanish is really good for being brand new so I guess I can take their word for it. I am not able to understand them as well as I thought because they talk super fast and because of health issues some people are missing teeth or have other things such as lisps or kind of a mumble and that makes it hard to understand them. It just takes time I guess.

We always keep our bikes with us, since we have a mile limit each month we aren't able to drive everywhere so on some days we end up having to bike so our bikes are always with us in the apartment. The mission office is in the church, it is it's own little area in the church that has all of the mission stuff in it.

I am glad Matt's concert went well, Elder Ritchey used to teach his friends how to sing so he is helping me a little bit, he says I'm not all that bad, I just have to work on hitting the right notes. So you can tell Matt that I am learning how to sing. That should make his day.

Elder Ritchey and I will actually be teaching a little bit of Seminary tomorrow morning (no release time here, seminary starts at 6:45) We don't know exactly what we are teaching but we will wing it I guess.

The food here so far has been really good, we have had dinner appointments almost every night. One night we had pasole which was really good. You take corn and boil it or something to make it pop, not quite like popcorn but you just get it to expand a little bit and then you put that in like a broth that kind of reminded me of the broth for lasagna soup, then you shred some chicken and put that in there, it is really tasty. We have also had a whole bunch of tamales and those are sooooooo good. The homemade tortillas here are delicious, haven't learned how to make them yet but I eventually will. What is funny is that at some stores down here they sell pre-made tortillas but they aren't cooked so you throw them on a griddle or in a pan and cook them (genius). That's all I can remember that we have had so far, more dinner appointments this week so we will see if we eat anything new. Also another thing about the food here, for snacks they cut up fruit, especially oranges and apples and sprinkle them with chili lime seasoning and it is delicious. Just the kick from the chili lime and then the sweetness of the fruit, it is so good. I may start doing that when I get home, such good ideas.

How is everything and everyone else doing over there? 

I will talk to you guys next week, 

Love you

Elder Jaden Goodbaudy

Week 1 from La Joya, Texas

It has been a long first week but here we are. We got to McAllen at about 2 in the afternoon and then had a training for pretty much the rest of the day. Escorting the hermanas was good I guess, nothing exciting happened so it was there.

President and Sister Torres are super nice  and amazing, and yeah they are super young, they aren't even in their 40's yet.

Then Tuesday we met our trainers, my trainer is Elder Ritchey, he is super cool and really pumped to be a trainer for the first time. He has been out for 10 months so he is still kind of young. We are getting along really well and having a great time so that should help these next 5 weeks go by.

We are in the city of La Joya which
is like 25 minutes west of McAllen and right on the border. There are only 4 elders for our whole district which is basically all of La Joya and surrounding towns. So we have lots to do. And so far it has been weird, the culture is the definition of TexMex, not quite Texas but not quite Mexico either, it is crazy. We are in a huge valley so there is basically nothing, it is all flat for miles and miles in every direction.

The people here love my last name though, that is a bonus. On Sunday they announced the new elders in Sacrament meeting and when the Bishop said my name everyone did a double take, all 100 of them. It is kind of a smaller ward here in La Joya, they get just about 100 in attendance every week. So church yesterday was kind of different, and it was all in Spanish which was a little rough to understand but I got the jest of everything.

So far here there isn't a whole lot going on, we have some investigators that were investigators before I got here but for some reason they aren't really progressing. A huge problem here though is less actives, we are going to start trying to work on member reactivation but it will be a long and difficult process. 

Some highlights for the week:

I was almost bit by a dog twice (don't worry it was a chihuahua).

Yes my bike was there (ready to go so that was all taken care of.

We got to watch the Christmas devotional from the first presidency yesterday which was really good.

We are in an area where we have a car so that has been really nice.

The food here is super good, it is mostly Mexican food, nothing super American.

We have already had 3 dinner appointments and that has been super nice, the people here are very nice to us.

Love you and talk to you next week

Elder Goodbaudy

PS: I  had elote for the first time this week. It is that mexican street corn which they literally sell on the street in basically ice cream trucks that play hispanic music. It was sooo good and it is only like $1.50 so that was a bonus.