Week 8 LaJoya, Texas

Hey Mom,

Yeah we were being fed quite a lot, but so far this past week we have only had 1 meal appointment so that has been good. Yeah everyone always asks if we have eaten and even when we say yes, they will still on occasion make us food. ( I don't know if they realize that missionaries can't lie).

Yeah my arm is pretty much healed, my clothes surprisingly are absolutely fine, no tears or anything, my bike is also fine.

The calling is going well, we have to go find a bunch of people that no one knows so we can clear out records if need be but so far so good.

Elder Shipley is from Wisconsin but he moved to Idaho 2 years before he went on a mission so he just says Wisconsin when people ask, he has been out for a year and 4 months so he is almost done.

Overview of this week:

Tuesday: We had a zone conference so I got to see Elder Ritchey and he is doing well, we had a training from President Torres about the natural man which was really good, he talked about how being Christlike is how we can overcome the natural man and be more like our Savior. We also got fed a really good lunch so I can't complain.

Wednesday:

On Wednesday not much happened we had ward family history at 7 and that was about all

Thursday:

Thursday was kind of a dead day, everything fell through so we ended up doing a lot of knocking and that was about it.

Friday:

We did a service project for Maria, the lady who's husband passed away and their house is only like half built. We did some sheet-rocking with some other guys and it was kind of cool because a guy who was helping out was named Michelle and he was from Quebec Canada and spoke French!!!!! I tried to use what I remembered from school (practically nothing, I have basically forgotten French) and so I would try talking in French, then switch to Spanish and then switch to English. My mind kind of hurt trying to figure out what to say in what language. After that we biked around Pueblo De Palmas (the cartel owned neighborhood) that is always a blast and it was Elder Shipley's first time there so he was kind of shocked by what everything looked like over there.

Saturday:

Kind of another dead day so we ended up doing a lot of following up for people that we had previously stopped by but who weren't home. The highlight for today though was that we were knocking some doors and one of the doors we decided to knock it had a little sign that said "This is a Catholic home" so Shipley and I were kind of like "I wonder how this will go" We knocked the door and a really tall guy answered and asked how we were, he said he liked what we were doing and asked if we wanted some water, after he came back to the door with water he invited us inside to have a sandwich (it was about 11:30 on a Saturday morning) we said sure and we talked for a little bit, it was really pleasant, he told us that he was getting ready to take his grand kids to a bible study class and that the oldest was about to have his first communion. We ate sandwiches and talked about sports, what he does for work, his family, all that stuff. After we were getting ready to leave the grandma gave us a bag of food, grapefruits, hot chocolate mix, oatmeal and a whole bunch of other stuff. We thanked them and gave them our number in case they ever needed anything. After we left their house we were getting ready to go back when we saw 2 ladies walking down the street, of course they were Jehovas witnesses (or as we call them down here "testigos") we said hi and then went on our way.

Sunday:

Church was good, we had a lot of less active families show up which was nice and then for the last 2 hours we did family history because the stake is big on that down here. After church we had an English class, yes we are teaching a handful of the members here English, we started with days of the week, months, how to pray and pronouns (I, you, he, she etc.) It was really fun to see them try to put things together and say things that they had picked up from living down here. We had dinner with the Relief Society President, Taco Salad, delicious! We then visited a whole bunch of people and that was about it.

That was my week, nothing crazy coming up that I can think of.

How is everything back in Oregon?

Love,

Elder Goodbaudy

Pictures:

MTC Throwback, I will send as many as I can and try to say what each one is

1. Our MTC District plus another district.

 2. Our MTC district (minus 2).

3. Our MTC district and on the left is our MTC branch presidency.

4. The Hillside of Mexico City.

5. The Mexico City Temple visitors center.

6. The Mexico City Temple.

7. Our MTC district in front of the Mexico City Temple

8. Our dorm in the MTC (from left to right: Me, Vakapuna, Linder, Merrell

Week 7 LaJoya, Texas

Hey Mom,

We are in the McAllen west stake. 

That is sad to hear about Sister Bolden but she is with her husband now so that's good.

Our little corner of the world is doing alright, Elder Shipley and I are trying to make everything work with combining 2 areas but so far so good. We are getting along really well and having a good time through all of the change. It has been pretty crazy though, trying to see all of the people we need to see and do all of the things we need to do. Since we cover the entire ward now we have a lot more less actives and other members to see, along with combining both of our groups of investigators. 

We have lots of meal appointments at least 2 every day, Saturday we had 4, it is a little ridiculous. I like food but this is a little much even for me! Most meals here consist of: a can of coca cola and some kind of grilled meat with rice, tortillas and salsa. That is basically what we are living off of down here.

Quite a bit happened on each day this week so I will go through the highlights day by day:

Tuesday:

Transfers happened, we were at the mission office for most of the day. We had to be there at 9:00 am because Elder Ritchey had a district leader meeting so we went and hung out at the mission office, transfers actually happened at noon. Our whole zone shrunk by quite a bit, we lost 8 missionaries in our zone because they went somewhere else and only got 4 back. Anyway Shipley and I didn't actually leave the mission office until 2:30 because we couldn't find the car we were supposed to take, in fact nobody could find it. So we thought that since maybe it was coming from Laredo it was still on the way, after waiting for 2 hours we were told that the car was actually at the church but nobody realized it. So we got to head back and then we went biking, But on our way back home from a lesson I crashed on my bike, I have no clue how it happened but it did. My arm was scraped up pretty bad but other than that I am doing fine, my pants and shirt are fine so I can't complain. 

Wednesday:

Wednesday was a slow day the only thing that really happened was that we had mutual at 7 where we helped out with family history and that was about it.

Thurdsay:

We did a bunch of following up on referrals we had received, not very many of them were home though. We also went on visits with the high priest group leader Brother Quiroz, we visited a 70 year old in the ward, brother Lopez and we even sang Praise to the Man (Loor al Profeta in Spanish) in honor of President Monson, no clue how it ended up happening but it did.

Friday:

We made our own mini Ward directory on paper so we could find addresses of people we didn't know to try and find more people to meet. We went to Wing-Stop (it is like a Texas version of buffalo wild wings) and had lunch with our ward mission leader Brother Guerrero (he is quite a guy) We then went to the Hernandez's house at around 8 pm to have brother Hernandez (the Elders Quorum President) come with us to a lesson with his neighbor. His neighbor wasn't home so we just went back to the Hernandez's house and they asked us if we had eaten (everybody does that here) we told them we had and then like 15 minutes later Sister Hernandez comes out with 2 plates of food (everybody does that too).

Saturday:

Brother Hernandez (yes the same brother Hernandez that we saw last night) called at like 10:00 am and asked if we could help him paint his brother's shed, we said sure and then he asked us to come to over to his house to eat with his family, so we went over and ate at their house again, we had chicharrones which are cooked pork rinds/ pig skins, they were actually pretty good. Then we went and helped him paint until about 3. At 4 we had an appointment with Sister Hernandez (a different Hernandez) and she fed us a huge meal of cooked chicken and sausages with rice. After that we went and saw a less active who then fed us a bowl of oatmeal. At 6 we went back to the Hernandez's house (the Elders Quorum President) where they fed us again, it was a huge cook out with a whole bunch of meat. So the Hernandez family fed us 3 times in 24 hours going back to Friday night. They are an amazing family.

Sunday:

We went to church and to our surprise we were called to be assistants to the Ward clerk because he is always gone so now our job is to clean up the ward records, because they are a mess. We also do tithing too so that is interesting. We also biked the military highway at 8 pm which is a dirt road about 4 miles up from the border, that was pretty fun.

Pretty crazy week, talk to you guys next week.

Love

Elder Goodbaudy

Week 6 LaJoya, Texas

Hey Mom,

Yeah tamales are pretty crazy, they taste really good though.

Enjoy 11:30 church (and nursery), with only 1 ward we still start at 10:00 which is a really good time to start in my opinion.

Temperatures are starting to go back up now that the cold front has passed, we had rain and cold winds with the temperature anywhere from 38 - 50 degrees this past week and a half I am not excited for it to be super hot but I can do 70's and 80's.

Yeah, a gun and a drug deal, good old South Texas. No we didn't end up visiting the people we wanted to because they weren't there, but considering a possible drug deal was going on, we didn't really want to stick around.

The ward is doing alright, still many less actives and not enough people in the ward making a big push to help those less actives so we have some work to do.

So we got the call about transfers on Sunday night and that was a roller coaster, I know how NBA players feel during the trade deadline, that is honestly what it feels like. At 9:55 we got the call from the assistants to the president, Ritchey is going to McAllen and he will be a district leader over there. I am really happy for him, he works hard and definitely deserves it. So there are 2 other elders here in our district, Elder Shipley and Elder Swallow, and Shipley is the district leader of us 4 elders. Well Swallow is also leaving, he is going to Kingsville which is up near Corpus Christi, I will stay here in La Joya with Elder Shipley and we will be companions, which changes a lot for us. First they are combining our 2 areas into 1 which means that just Shipley and I, us 2 elders will cover what us 4 elders covered for these past 6 weeks. That also means I have to pack just to move down the road, oh well, good practice. This also means that Shipley and I will be our own 2 man district, which makes him district leader and me assistant district leader, by technicality. We are going to have a lot more ground to cover but it shouldn't be too bad, I am excited to be able to do more.

We were shocked to hear about President Monson, we got a text from the assistants to the president at about 10:00 am on Wednesday telling us what happened. 

Christmas and New Years had quite a few fireworks, the kind that would be illegal up in Oregon. But there were also a lot of gunshots, going off most of the night.

I guess we will have to see how the bypass works, I guess finally opening is a step in the right direction.

So just earlier today Ritchey and I went and did a whole bunch of stuff for our last P-Day together as a companionship. We went and got haircuts at a "barbers college" in McAllen, not bad for a $4 haircut. Then we went and ate fajipapas and a torta. Fajipapas are basically fries with cheese and cut up meat, super awful for you, but super delicious. Tortas are like a mexican sandwich, it had lettuce cheese, meat, avacado and tomato. Once again, super awful for you, but super good. So I am pretty happy that I now know where to go for the good stuff.

That is pretty much all for this week, we will see how things go with just Shipley and I in all of La Joya but it should be pretty fun, Shipley is a really cool guy, he has been out for a year and 3 months so he definitely knows the ropes.

Talk to you next week 

Love

Elder Goodbaudy 

Week 5 LaJoya, Texas

Hey Mom,

Happy New Year!

Sorry this is a bit later than usual, today has been crazy.

Last night we slept to ring in the New Year, I am not complaining. 

Christmas dinner was really good we went to the Weger's house and had dinner with them, it was really good. Surprisingly we had normal American Christmas dinner which once again I am not complaining.

We ended up not needing to go to the doctor, Tuesday morning he felt way better and so he is still doing well. (Elder Ritchey and I both said that would happen)

We aren't teaching anyone new right now, we have gotten a lot of referrals, we just have to go contact them.

I hope you and Aunt Deb enjoy your week away from everything, you guys can swap stories about what you do while your sons are gone. :)

Time for some highlights,

This week has been rainy and cold the whole time, it hasn't gotten higher than 51 degrees all week and today it is probably 39 with rain and it is windy, just like home.

Not a whole lot happened this week but the few things that did happen were pretty interesting, you could say I truly got the full TexMex experience:

Friday was a pretty interesting day, first we were going to visit a members house, she is the only member in her family, she is an older woman and lives with her sons. Anyway we go to knock on the door and after we do that we hear a gun cock and then we were like, "here we go" (Ritchey and I weren't freaked out because he had told me beforehand that the lady's son is super into guns and he usually answers the door holding a gun) So he opens the door and in his hands is a huge assault rifle, that was pretty cool and was a little interesting. Turns out the lady wasn't home so we just got to go and have that experience.

This next crazy story happened later that day:

So it was probably around 7:00 PM on that same day and we go to visit a less active couple that lives in a small trailer park. We go to park on the side of the road in front of the trailer park and a car that had been behind us went past us and then turned around and stopped right in front of us, a guy got out and came to our window and asked what we were doing. (Apparently he didn't notice the shirts and ties and the badges and make a connection) So we told him we were visiting a family and then he asked who and we told him the Ramirez family. He then said he didn't know any Ramirez family and then we told him which trailer they were in and then he remembered. So he then told us he owned the trailer park and wanted to check what we were doing, we said that was alright so then he got in his car and the car turned around and went around the corner to the house right by the trailer park. We knocked on the Ramirez's door and they weren't home so we get back in the car and drive up by the house where the car went so we could turn around and we see at least 20 cars parked in like a front yard gated area and Elder Ritchey and I both looked at each other and said that there was probably a drug exchange going on right there. So we turned around and drove away. It would make sense because there were about 20 cars there and the guy that came up to our door definitely looked like he was in a gang, he also was a little suspicious in the way he asked what we were doing. There is also a lot of cop activity in that area so we were pretty sure we drove by a drug exchange. Fun times.

That has been my fun this week, transfer number 1 is almost over which means that next Tuesday I will probably have a new companion so things should start to change a little bit.

I am still doing well and enjoying everything I can, speaking of enjoying everything Ritchey and I went to El Pato just a little while ago for lunch, it was pretty good. I am learning a lot and getting ready to start off this new year.

Love you 

Elder Goodbaudy