RIBS!!!!

Well, another week down here in Sweetwater! Its crazy to think that I am almost done with my first transfer! It has flown by so fast!

 

On Monday we attempted to keep following the Christmas lights again and really hoped for another crazy story. But....... nothing. So we stopped following the Christmas lights. So just an update on that.

 

On Tuesday we had District Meeting here in Sweetwater and then went to lunch at Pizza Hut and ate their lunch buffet. Which btw is kinda a rip-off. The pizza they put out isn't even close to their good pizza. Real cheap and crappy. Anyway, we did exchanges and Elder Stringham went to Abilene with our district leader and I stayed in Sweetwater with the dl's companion. His name is Elder Cruz-Garcia. He is from southern Mexico and has been a member for three years now. He has only been out for 11 weeks so we were just killing it as two newbies. We had a good time together and it was awesome to see how much different of a missionary I was when I had to take charge of things. I was a completely different missionary in a really good way! I would get excited as we were walking up to people and just all sorts of good things were going for me! We walked for a total of about 6-7 hours that afternoon. Its safe to say that my legs were cooked. Good gracious. He hates bikes so we just walked it all day. Definitely a solid workout. I have done some 4 hour walking sessions before so far, but when you do a 4 hour walking session before dinner and then walk for another 2-3 hours after dinner (with some breaks for two different visits) is a whole other ballgame. But I felt like the pain in my legs/feet was a good pain because I was doing the Lord's work!

 

On Wednesday, we had a couple cool/funny things happen. We were out walking and trying some people, and we walked past these apartment thingies and heard some kids and a parent inside. We walked another 20 meters or so when Elder Stringham turned around and decided he was going to knock it. Turn out, the lady that lives there with her three kids is a member who hasn't been to church in quite some time and is related to members of the ward. Long story short, she should be coming to church here in a couple weeks with her kids! We then went and visited Larry that evening. Larry is the mentally handicap guy, I think I told you about him last weekish. Anyway, Larry had to go to the ER on Tuesday because his constipation led to some hemorrhoids! He was very open about the experience and it was so hard not to laugh my butt off! Anyway, we were going to set a baptismal date with him, but it just didn't feel right so we are holding off on that for now and are trying to figure out what needs to be done for him. The branch president gave us the ok to baptize him, but we are still figuring it out.

 

On Thursday, well..... nothing happened all day. It was one of those days.

 

On Friday the only events that happened were us visiting Sister Green like always and visiting Diane. Sister Green, as always, blew us away with her prayer. Holy smokes people. I have never, not once, in my life felt an actual power just slapping me in the face while someone was praying in any sort of setting like we were in. At Diane's we had a great time! Diane was being extra funny and whenever we did anything against her liking she would send us to the "doghouse" which means we had to go stand in the corner facing the wall! Haha I had to go like three times! Good times, good times. Also, Sweetwater Football played in the state semi-final football game. They hadn't lost a game all season and had made it all the way through the 64 team playoff to get to the semi-finals. So that's pretty legit. They lost by one touchdown so their season is over, but there's still pretty legit. 

 

On Saturday we went out and visited the Patton's and did some service for them. Brother Pattons knee is all sorts of messed up and they have lots of stuff that needs to be done around their place. We wish we could go out there more often but without a car we can only make it once a week when they come and pick us up. As we were leaving Colorado City headed back home, Bro Patton stopped and we waited for the Christmas parade to start... so we made the time useful and went out and handed out a few cards to people waiting for the parade as well. The parade was interesting. I don't have time to tell all about it but I have a video of the entire things that I will send home sometime so you can watch. And I am pretty sure that they upped the dose on his pain killers so Bro Patton has been absolutely hilarious lately as a result, so that just made this interesting parade all the better!

 

So now we get to the title of my email. RIBS. We went over to the Thompson's for dinner who fed us the briskett a few weeks back. Oh baby. Shelby (the male) was telling us how he wasn't very pleased with his ribs because he can't use his wood burning grill during the winter so he had to use his gas grill. But they were easily the best ribs I have ever sunk my teeth into. They were pork ribs, not beef ribs, and were oh so amazing. Be jealous people. Be jealous. Mother, you would get along with Sister Thompson very well. Good times over at their place.

 

Well, I'm out of time for this week. So long, my friends.

 

Love,

Elder Reed Ericson