Week 1 Brownsville, Texas

Hey Mom,

This week has been super long. It is finally Monday. Brownsville is good, it is super poor but it is really well maintained and looks really good. Elder Griffeth is super awesome and he is a really good guy. The one ward that we cover is a Spanish ward, Brownsville 2nd ward.

So I guess I will get on to the highlights because I don't have a whole bunch of time

Monday:

We had a good last p-day. We played soccer as a zone and then we came back and I packed. We also called some members that we wouldn't be able to visit and told them I was leaving. Everyone was super sad, I was too. So we visited Eloy and I said goodbye to him. Then we had dinner with the Hernandez family and we said goodbye. That was the roughest goodbye, the Hernandez's are such an awesome family and I can't wait to come back and see them. We then visited a few other members to finish off the night. We got home, I packed a bit more and we went to bed  

Tuesday:

Tuesday morning we went to seminary so we could say goodbye to brother Guerrero and bishop and the seminary class. We went back to the apartment and then got ready to leave. We left to the La Vista building and hung out while everyone got there. We then left to Brownsville which is like and hour towards the coast from McAllen, we met up with everyone in the zone and I met Elder Griffeth. We went and shooed really quick and then got at it. We had a meal appointment with a super awesome member named Fanny. We ate at a taqueria which was super good. We biked some more and visited some potential investigators and then we biked some more and went home. 

Wednesday:

We had a quick zone meeting and then a district meeting. It went well. We had a zone lunch at another taqueria. We tried visiting some people and we had dinner with the Diaz family, they are super nice and we had some good chicken and rice. We biked to visit some other people and then we talked with David who is an investigator and his brother got baptized a few weeks ago. We had a good lesson with him and then went home.

Thursday:

We biked to the library to do family history. I had a flat tire on my bike so we got a ride home from some other missionaries. I put a patch on the tire and then we left to meet Lauro, David's brother (the guy who just got baptized) and we talked with him for a little bit. We biked to meet some other people. I got another flat tire, so the ZL's came and gave us a ride to our apartment so I could fix the tire, again. We tried to have some other lessons with people and we had some good lessons. 

Friday:

I had another flat tire, we went to Walmart and bought a new tube. So I fixed that and then we went and had to help out some sister missionaries, because Griffeth is district leader over the sister missionaries. We did weekly planning and some studies. Then we had a member take us and the ZL's to Golden Corral for dinner. We did some more finding and then went home. 

Saturday:

We woke up and found out I had another flat tire. So we went to Walmart again and got another tube. So now I shouldn't have any bike problems. We had coordination with Bishop Saturday morning. We the went to Whataburger with the ZL's and had lunch. We had some lessons and then had McDonald's for dinner. We visited some other less active and then had like a 20 minute bike ride home. 

Sunday:

We had church, there were a lot more people and just visited people for theh rest of the day. We had dinner with a member and then visited some more people. 

Today: 

We played basketball finally and then volleyball. We stopped and that was about it  

Not much time so here are some quick pictures:

 Wearing a sombrero at a Taqueria.

 Elder Griffeth and Elder Goodbaudy.

 Elder Goodbaudy with the Hernandez Family.

 Elder Goodbaudy with the LaJoya seminary class.

 Elder Goodbaudy with the Rivera Family .

Brother Guerrero.

Talk to you guys next week

Love

Elder Goodbaudy 

Week 24 La Joya, Texas - One Last Time

Hey Mom,

Dinner was good, we had pork chops with rice and green beans.

Yes I am leaving, I will be leaving for Brownsville (about 2 hours away from La Joya) So that should be pretty fun, Brownsville is a super poor area but it is kept really nice so it looks super beautiful.

Well I guess on to this weeks highlights:

Monday:

After we went to Longhorn Steakhouse with Eloy we got haircuts and then we met the Rivera family at a taqueria for some tortas which were super good. We were having an open house at the church for anyone that wanted to come and see it. The only people that showed up were some members so we just had a family home evening thing which was pretty good.

Tuesday:

In the morning we had a zone meeting, we talked about faith and power, it was pretty good. After the meeting Eloy called us and asked if we wanted some carne asada so we went by his house and ate some carne with him, it was so good. We then had an FHE with the Hernandez family and talked with them about the blessings of the priesthood, that went really well. After the FHE we ate again with the Oyervides family, they invited us to Whataburger so we ate with them and had a good dinner.

Wednesday:

We did family history in the morning, and then we had lunch with sister Corpus, that was good, it was pork with potatoes, so it was pretty good. Then after doing some stuff we ate with sister Hernandez (a different Hernandez family) and we had beef with potatoes, so that was super filling, we were stuffed. We then went to the church and had ward family history, not many people showed up so we didn't do a whole lot, it was still good.

Thursday:

We were making some plans when Eloy called and asked if we wanted a lunch plate (a big thing people do down here is buy a whole bunch of food, usually meat and some sides, and cook it up and sell it in to-go boxes for $5-$10 each) Eloy brought us a plate of sausage and chicken and brisket, it was super good. We went out and did some finding.President Torres called us for no reason, we were a little shocked. He asked us to look in some books that the sisters left behind and see if we could find a note that they had left. We went and looked for the note but we couldn't find it, we told President and he said it was okay. So we then went to a meal appointment with the Villalpando family, we had super good caldo, it was chicken with zucchini and carrots and corn on the cob, delicious.  

Friday:

We had lunch at Subway with Guerrero for coordination, that was the usual. We went and set up chairs and tables at the church for the Mother's day dinner tomorrow. We then tried visiting some members in the ward and talking with them. We had a super good dinner with the Buentello family, it was fajita with sausage and we made tacos, it was super good. We then visited a less active lady in the ward who told us she wants to start coming back to church, that was pretty cool. After visiting her we went to the Hernandez's house to drop off a bike pump that brother Hernandez let us borrow, it turned out to be their daughter Karime's birthday party so we hung out with them for a little bit and enjoyed some games.

Saturday:

Saturday morning we went to the church to see if we could update our member list, Brother Hernandez and Bishop were there cleaning the church and also planning for the dinner that night. After we updated the list we tried visiting some members and investigators. At 6:00 we went back to the church and were there to help set up a little bit for the dinner. At about 7:20 we started, I joined in with all the guys in singing some Mexican songs that they all knew, I just tagged along and had a good time. We ate super good fajita and had some cake, it was a good dinner.

Sunday:

Sunday was the usual, we only had 59 at church, so it was pretty quiet. During 3rd hour we had a lesson in Elders quorum about the necessity of going to church, it was a good lesson. After church we tried visiting people and then we called home and talked with the family for an hour. We ended the night by going the the Weger's house and eating some good food.

That is all for this week

Talk to you next week, from Brownsville

Love

Elder Goodbaudy

Week 23 La Joya, Texas

Hey Mom,

We will be skyping on Sunday at like 4:00 your time, so that should be enough time for everybody to get home and be ready.

This week was pretty good, pretty usual, we had 68 in sacrament meeting, so it was pretty usual.

Maybe with your friend try sharing a video, the video is called "The Savior Understands Me" by Jeffrey R. Holland, that video has brought a lot of our investigators to tears, it is super good, it is a missionary favorite.

How is it getting a taste of what life will be like when we start moving out? Time sure does fly!

Don't have a whole lot of time and not much is new so on to the highlights:

Monday:

We had the zone soccer activity, that was pretty fun, I did alright. For not playing since 2nd grade I was pretty decent. Even President Torres was there, it was super fun. We then went to Chick-fil-a because those are everywhere down here. To end the day we visited the elders quorum presidents house and he fed us burgers.

Tuesday:

Tuesday we drove up to Rio for a district meeting, Rio feels a lot like Mexico, it is pretty crazy. The church building up there is super small, it was an old baptist church, they have a portable to the side of the building which is where the branch meets for sacrament meeting. Nothing much happened during the day, to end the day we went to eat dinner with the Hernandez family, it was super tasty.

Wednesday:

We did family history in the morning and I tried to figure out how things work a bit better. We had lunch with Eloy, he took us to a taqueria in Sullivan City which was pretty tasty, we had Mexican Hamburgers, super good. Then a few hours later we had dinner with a member in Sullivan City, it was pretty good. It was like a meat, potato, corn, and zucchini stew, super delicious.We then had ward family history where we tried to help some members with their family history.

Thursday:

We didn't do much on Thursday, we had dinner with the Buentello family, we had chicken flautas, and they were good. Brother Buentello also told us some super good life advice, it was pretty good, it was better than the crazy rants he normally goes on. To end the night we saw Gilberto's car in front of his taqueria so we went by to see what was up, he was just doing some cleaning for a little bit to try and prep for opening.

Friday:

We had coordination and so Brother Guerrero brought us pizza for lunch, that was pretty nice. We had dinner with sister Cruz, it was chicken with rice and that was pretty good, I felt super full. While we were up in that area we decided to try visiting a bunch of members, so we stopped by the Lopez family and had a good chat with them. We tried visiting other members but they weren't home. On our way back to the apartment we saw Gilberto at his Taqueria again so we stopped by to see if we could help, he was just finishing up so we talked about his taqueria and when he thinks he can open it.

Saturday:

We went to Subway for lunch and then we tried finding a bunch of referrals that people had sent to us. We had dinner with Sister Covarrubia and talked with her, she is like a super awesome Mexican grandma. It rained and then we tried going around to see if we could find more people to visit, it started to rain so we drove around trying to find people to visit. Since it was raining we decided to go to the church and try to find some people on Facebook, we had a good conversation with some people.

Sunday:

Church was good, it was the usual. Afterwards Eloy brought us some KFC (nobody down here fully understands keeping the Sabbath day holy) so we accepted. After that we tried visiting people that didn't come to church, there were quite a few. To end the night we visited with Edgar Villalpando and his family, it was good. We had a good chat with them, so it was a good end to the night.

That is all for this week, sorry it was late and super brief. Talk to you guys on Sunday and then again on Monday, 4:00 pm your time we will plan on skyping.

Talk to you guys then,

Love

Elder Goodbaudy

Week 22 LaJoya, Texas

Hey Mom,

This week was pretty good. I don't know when we will be calling on Mother's day but we will know soon, I will let you know when I hear more.

I heard about Caitlin leaving, that is pretty cool. I heard Quinn Read got his mission call, I haven't heard to where yet.

Everybody is getting married, I heard about Gordon and about Alex, that is pretty cool.

Wow, you guys are super busy, I am glad you guys are keeping up with everything, at least it sounds like you guys are.

This week was pretty good, we had some good lessons with people and we had some good food, as usual. So on to the highlights:

Monday:

We went to the doctor because elder Barlow has Krohn's disease so he had to go get blood drawn, so that was fun. After Barlow got blood drawn we went to the mission office in McAllen because we were in the area. One of the senior missionaries, Elder Valdez, said he would take us out to lunch so we went to Taco Palenque which is a super good Mexican restaurant, it is like Taco Bell to the next level, it is super good. After that and the usual shopping and emailing we just went to the apartment and took a nap. Then we had dinner with the relief society president and her family, we had grilled chicken, pollo asado, as they say in Spanish. We also had some delicious sweet corn and rice. I have really come to be less picky of food down here. I love guacamole, and corn and bananas and avocado and salmon, a whole bunch of stuff I didn't like before the mission, that has been nice.

Tuesday:

We had a super lit zone conference for pretty much the whole day. We talked a lot about personal revelation and it was super cool. We are all entitled to receive the same revelations that the apostles and prophet do as long as we have enough faith and want to receive it for the right reason. We had lunch at the zone conference, spaghetti and meatballs, it was super good. We finished up with some more training from President Torres, he introduced lesson zero. Lesson zero is basically the first lesson that we will now teach people and we will not teach anything in specific, just try to get to know the people and figure out what they need to learn or hear. After the zone conference we had dinner with the Hernandez Family. Sister Hernandez made us quesadillas but on the inside it was cheese and mashed potato, it was super good. After we ate with the Hernandez family we went out and found some people to try our new lesson zero on. We found 2 people and it went super well, the lesson zero was truly inspired and it helped everything seem more natural for just a casual knock on somebodies door.

Wednesday:

 Wednesday morning we had a district meeting with the missionaries in our district, they are in Rio which is like 25 miles away so we did it through video chat. We talked more about lesson zero and had some super good conversations about how to apply it better. After district meeting Eloy called and asked if we wanted to go to lunch so he took us to Pizza hut. We ordered a lot of food and felt awful. After that we had to go to Walgreen's to get some prescription stuff that Elder Barlow needs. After that we had dinner with the Villalpando family, we had rice with corn and a baked potato and pork tacos, delicious. During mutual we had a meeting with brother Guerrero, the ward mission leader and he want to have like an open house/church tour so we will see how that goes. The young women were making crepes so we had some crepes for dessert.

Thursday:

We did some family history and Barlow showed me how family search works so I am pretty into it now. I understand how to do stuff, so that is nice. We had dinner with the Buentello family and we had tamales, they were super delicious. We ended the day by sharing a message with Eloy and so that was cool.

Friday:

We had coordination and met Brother Guerrero at Wing-Stop, it is like a place to get fried chicken, it is pretty good. We had dinner with the Ramos family, sister Ramos made mole, one of her specialties, mole is okay. Not the biggest fan of meat with a chocolate and chili sauce but it is good. After dinner we did a scripture study with the Rodriguez family, that was super good. We then went to visit the Hernandez family because we remembered it was Katherine's birthday, we visited them and turns out they were having a party so we stayed and got fed burgers, can't complain.

Saturday:

It rained pretty hard Saturday morning so we didn't do much. We had some good lessons with people during the day so that was nice. We ended the day by getting food at McDonalds, because why not.

Sunday:

We had Church, there were 68 people there, it was pretty empty. We had super good talks in sacrament meeting about pride and forgiving others. During the 3rd hour the elders quorum President gave a really good lesson about having a better relationship with your spouse, everyone kept telling Elder Barlow and I to remember the things they talked about in that lesson for future reference. After church we had a quick ward council and that went good, a little long, but good. After that we had dinner with the Rivera family, we had some good tostadas. We ended the day by visiting Alexis who is an 18 year old who is less active, we had a really good chat with him.

This morning we played soccer as a zone and President Torres showed up, that was super fun. 

That is about all for this week, hope all is well at home.

Love

Elder Goodbaudy