Week 14: Pampa, TX (Transfer 2)

Que rollo con el pollo! (What's up!)

      What a swell week here in the Texas Lubbock Mission! It was seven days of hard, hard work! A lot of knocking doors... We have to find new people to teach. A couple of funny experiences while knocking doors: [Knock, knock, knock] An old guy answers and sarcastically says, "Who do you represent?" Trying not to laugh I answered, "JESUS CHRIST." He said "No thank you." Haha Another door... [Knock, knock, knock] A reallyyy old man on a scooter answers. "Yes?" After introducing ourselves and what we do as missionaries he told us he went to the Pentecostal church. He told us "I like to loudly praise and leap and jump, rejoicing with my fellow brothers." I looked at his scooter and looked at my companion and smiled at him. Haha Now I know this sounds mean but he was being rude to us okay... 

 Steve

(Our new, awesome autistic friend)

Ben

(He loves ice cream and chili)

So anyway, we are working on keeping our recently baptized family active in the church and also working to prepare three more people for the waters of baptism. We had a lesson with Isaac on Saturday and we weren't sure if he was still committed to his baptismal date of Nov 24th so we decided we were going to be bold with him and read in 2 Nephi chapter 9 where it basically says if you don't get baptized you'll be damned... Then I asked him, "Isaac, what's it gonna be man." He responded, "Alright, let's do it." So my companion will be baptizing him this upcoming Saturday! Exciting stuff. This next week are transfers so Saturday we'll find out if we're leaving or staying. I hope I stay here because I've just gotten close with the people of Pampa. I'm pretty sure my comp is bouncing out of this area since he's been here for 6 months. I gave a talk at church yesterday and not to sound boastful, but I'm pretty sure I ROCKED it... One of the counselors to our mission president was in attendance so I had to impress. :) I talked about the blessing of missionary work. I hope I was able to motivate the ward to share the gospel with their families and friends! Thank you for the letters this week, you know who you are! Make this week GREAT!! Paz y bendiciones.

Love,
Elder Rios

Week 13: Pampa, TX (Transfer 2)

Hiiiiii! 

Well another week down. I had a pretty bad day on Thursday, but now I'm laughing about it. Haha So we were on our bikes and we got yelled at and cussed at a couple of times and I was like whatever. Towards the end of the day this car drove by us and this guy looked me in the face and used almost all of the profane words in one sentence.. It took everything I had to contain myself, because you all know how I am.. He drove off before I could even say anything though. Later that night I was at a member's home and one of the kids chucked a basketball at my face when I wasn't looking so I ended up getting a black eye.. Then we had to ride our bikes all the way across town back to our crib. Just thought I'd share that because it's funny to me now haha 

On to the good stuff! We have been teaching some people who have committed to baptism! Isaac has really been progressing and keeping his commitments of reading and praying. Zack is a young man who is way pumped to learn more about the gospel and he's ready for baptism; we just need to talk to his mom about it, then we'll start teaching her too. Haha that's how it works. Claudia is girl who has gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and she's committed to be baptized. We started talking to her parents a couple of days ago and they really liked us so hope that goes well. Our recent converts, Lupita and her daughters, are doing great! We even had Lupita in a lesson with Isaac yesterday. I hope their testimonies continue to grow, they have a lot of potential! Our work with less active members is never ending... I found out that there are 339 members of the church in this ward and about 85 go to church each week. Now when I got here there was about 50 people at church so we've been making some progress. The chapel was actually full yesterday! It was awesome. Transfers are coming up soon and I'm nervous to see if I'll stay here or go to another area. Elder Arredondo will most likely leave because he's been here in Pampa for like 6 months. We just got hooked up with new beds today from a member, score!! And today is district P-Day so we're gonna be partying today WOO! K bye guys make this week GREAT!!
Love,
Elder Rios

Week 12: Pampa, TX (Transfer 2)

Good morning! This is Elder Rios coming to you LIVE from the city of Pampa!! 
It has been a djSWELL time out here on the mission so far. Time is flying by, I only have three weeks left of training. Then my comp Elder Arredondo will most likely get transferred to a different area and I'll be left in charge. Haha So let me tell you about my week...
Monday and Tuesday were just full of work and visiting less active members trying to invite them back to church. Wednesday we worked until like 6pm then we went and hung out with other missionaries since we weren't allowed to go to ANY Halloween activities. Keep in mind that the closest set of missionaries to us is half an hour away. This mission is so spread out! Thursday I had to re-baptize one of the girls, Natali, because here first and middle names were mixed up in the records. Haha Friday and Saturday we spent the majority of the days knocking doors... I hate Saturdays now. Each week, Saturday is the LONGEST day! Sunday was sweet!! We had a lot of less active members attend church, especially Spanish-speaking members. The chapel was almost full! After church we visited some referrals and set appointments with them. For lunch we went over to our recent converts' house and grilled up some burgers to break our fast. After that, we walked over to Isaac's house and had a lesson with him. He's committed to be baptized on November 24th! Then we went over to a less active family's house and I cooked dinner for all of us. Chicken Parmesan!! Thanks for teaching me how to cook Dad :) They were impressed! 

Earl & Loretta Bridewell

I'm so glad to be out here serving the Lord and doing nothing but helping people to be happier in their lives. I am learning so many things, both gospel related and not, that I can use to better my own life. I know that my family is being blessed for my service. I want to thank you all for your weekly letters and emails, I feel the love! Thank you for the thoughts and prayers, as well. Let's make this week GREAT!!!
Love,
Elder Rios

Week 11: Pampa, TX (Transfer 2)

Hello everyone!

     On Saturday I had the privilege of baptizing Lupita and her daughters Katya and Natali. What an amazing experience! Elder Arredondo then confirmed them members of the church yesterday and gave them the gift of the Holy Ghost. I'm so proud of them for working hard to follow our savior Jesus Christ. They're an awesome family! We were over at their house last night and Natali kept asking me for chapters to read in the Book of Mormon, isn't that legit? I'm excited to see how they will influence the ward here and help it grow. 

We're teaching a few more people who have the potential to become members of the church as well. Like I've been saying these last couple of weeks, we're really working hard on less-active members trying to visit them and invite them back to church. Well our hard work is paying off! We had some less-actives come to the baptism (as well as two investigators), and some came to church yesterday, too! The chapel looked almost full of people... incredible! We're going to keep working on our Hispanic hermanos and hermanas to come back to church but they're all telling us that they don't feel like they fit in. We, as a ward, are trying to find a solution to this problem because we can't just open up a Spanish branch. Not that easy.. haha I'm thinkning about asking my mission president if I can throw a party at our apartment with carne asada and stuff... Just kidding. Oh! I need to tell you all of a miracle that happened this week! (Other than the baptism). So Elder Arredondo and I get up at 6:00am every single morning and drive down to the church to play basketball and exercise. Well I wanted something other than basketball to workout to. This last week I found P90X CDs in our apartment. <-- MIRACLE! haha Guess who's starting P90X today? :) Reminds me of when I would go over to Elder George's house every day after school and hit a quick workout of P90X. So basically I refuse to gain weight on the mission, and I found the perfect tool to help me with that. Score! Alright well we have a lesson in a little (in the middle of our P-Day, dang it) so I gotta go study! Hope all is well and make this week GREAT!! Love you all!


Elder Rios

Week 10: Pampa, TX (Transfer 2)

Howdy :)
     I can't tell you all how much fun I'm having on my mission. It's ridiculous how happy working makes me haha Even tracting knocking doors! Elder Arredondo and I are looking forward to this Saturday's baptism! I will be performing all three "dunks", I'm way excited!! This family will be such a great contribution to the ward. I see a lot of potential in them. This last week we have been intensely focusing on less-active members of the ward, or in other words, hunting them down! haha I've told you that the ward here is rather small.. but it's only because about 35% of the members actually go to church every Sunday! Once I saw the list of people we needed to get back to church, I said "GAME ON." We were able to contact about half of the list and meet with them to address their problems. But all of them expressed the want to get active again. Laziness and embarrassment seem to be the biggest issues. But it's our goal for this transfer to drastically increase church attendance. It's a lot of work so far, let me tell you. But this area can be so great if all of the members were actively participating in the church! I know I can make it happen.

     Today is P-Day (our "day off"). Oh the joy that sentence gives...:) The missionaries from another area are coming here to Pampa to play some ball and also to interview the family that is getting baptized on Saturday. We're going to have a little Family Home Evening tonight with games and food! Thank you all for your letters and packages!!! I was planning on keeping all of my letters but jeez I have a lot haha I have some sweet pictures from the last couple of weeks so I'll be sending those next week! Stay tuned :) Make this week GREAT! Adios!
Much love from Texas,
Elder Rios

Week 9: Pampa, TX (Transfer 2)

HOLLLLAAAAAA!!
So I'm going to start counting transfers (every 6 weeks) from now on because I don't remember the week number haha Let me tell you all about my fantastic week out here on a mission:
Monday we went to a member's ranch and rounded up some cows to be branded. I also had the delightful opportunity to check cows for pregnancy... Now cows don't just use those little tests you buy at the store. I got to manually insert my arm into the rear end of the cows and feel around for a baby cow. I won't send you the pictures to save you from being grossed out hahaha! It was a fun day at the ranch though. The rest of the week was work, work, work! We have been teaching quite a few people and getting a family ready for their baptism on the 27th of this month! I'm going to be baptizing Lupita and her daughter Katya, while my companion will baptize her other daughter Natali. I'm way excited!!
Yesterday, we went to another one of our areas, Miami (not Florida) (I wish), and visited some less active members there as well as knocked some doors. While we were walking in the street we saw the sheriff following us and pulled up next to us... He was like questioning us and said someone called in two suspicious looking guys in suits knocking doors. We got the cops called on us!! hahaha After scaring us a little, the sheriff revealed to us that he was a member of the church and was not going to take us to jail like he said he would. It was pretty funny!!
From the past week I've learned many things. Including patience and dilligence. I know that there are people prepared by God to listen to us. It's our job as missionaries to go out and find those people. I love the experiences that I have each day because I am able to learn from them, and apply what I've learned the next day. La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimo Dias is the restored church originally established by Jesus Christ himself about 2,000 years ago. I know it is. Peace & blessings y'all.
Love,
Elder Rios

Week 8: Pampa, TX

Hello hello :)

General Conference was so great!! The best part about watching it was watching with an investigator family!! Having them see and listen to the prophet and apostles was exactly what they needed. They spoke about things that they needed to hear. As I was watching and taking notes, I thought to myself about the difference watching Conference at home, and as a set-apart missionary. I listened to every word and didn't fall asleep. Priesthood Session is always the best! (sorry ladies) :) When our leaders talk about the literal power that we have to change the lives of others, it gets me so PUMPED! Alright so now I'll tell you about my week:

This week went by super fast, just like all the other weeks. We did some work! Didn't have much time to knock doors because we had many appointments scheduled, which is really good! So we taught lots of lessons this week and had a couple of dinner appointments. The only negative part was BIKING ALL WEEK. We dropped our car off in the shop on Monday and it was supposed to be ready the next day... Wrong. They kept saying "Oh it won't be ready until tomorrow" allll week. Although I enjoy biking, it gets pretty tiring. 

We ended up getting our car back on Friday afternoon, she looks great! The car had lots of dents and scratches from past missionaries so we had to get it fixed. Anyway, last week we asked the family that is getting baptized on the 27th who they wanted to baptize them. Elder Arredondo and I were both chosen by the girls haha and I think we're calling a missionary that went home already to see if he wants to baptize the mom, as she requested. It's so exciting!!

My trainer and I have so much fun (probably too much) that we never have time to think about how tired we are or how sore we are, I love it! Another thing, IT"S SO COLD HERE... Wake up in the morning and check the temperature outside and our little thermometer says 22 degrees... Dad, I think it's time to send me a jacket now...:O haha I've been using one of my comp's jackets for now. Many of you know that I love the cold and I love the wind, but this is intense!! haha Yesterday, it got to a high of 36 degrees I think? Everyone at church teases me because I'm from "Perfect Sunny Southern California" hahaha Everything is going great. We're getting the ward to be more active, members are coming with us to lessons, we had a ward bbq with REAL Texas barbeque, and it's starting to snow. :) Hope you all are doing good and don't miss me too much!! ;) 'Til next week! Make this one GREAT!

Much love,

Elder Rios

 

P.s. Thank you for all of your letters and emails!! Keep them coming