BRANCH CHAOS

Hello my good peeps, another week down here in Sweetwater. They just seem to fly by in the blink of an eye!

Sorry to say, there isn't much to report on this week. Not much happened. It was one of those weeks. But the cool thing is, every day is enjoyable and goes by fast. It seemed like nobody was ever home (aka their car wasn't home... I am aware that some people just don't answer their doors for us). Plus, there weren't too many people outside this week to talk to. We talked to a few people for a significant amount of time, but the conversations were not exactly related to our purpose as missionaries. But we met some cool people and had some nice interactions with the people of Sweetwater.

One cool story, we got this media referral early this week. Media referrals are ones that come from Salt Lake. So we found the road on the map, and it is way da heck in the middle of nowhere! I kid you not. So we headed out there and made it to the road and drove up and down it about four times trying to figure out which house it could be. Long story short, there were like three houses and they were mostly vacant. So we started to head back when we realized from the map that the road actually continues on at a different spot. So, we turned around and ended up going down this sweet dirt road way out in the country of West Texas for like 7 miles. Well, our referral didn't live out there, I learned today that it is actually not too far from our apartment on a different road by the same name. But as we were out there in the middle of nowhere, we ran into this SWEET ranch! It had the big ol' gates and stuff. We couldn't see the ranch house at all but we could see some of the land that the cattle graze on and there were a bunch out there! I have some pics but I forgot my camera today. Apparently those puppies are pretty common out here. Go figure. By the end of the trip we had gone about 80+ miles. So that sucked. But it was totally worth it. Thank heavens we have a Jeep though!

On Friday we went out to Colorado City for some stuff. But we stopped by our branch president’s house to get something signed. Well, I thought we had been there for about 30 mins or so visiting with them, but I looked down at my watch and we had been there for an hour and 20 minutes! He was reading us Jeremiah 50 and 51 and talking about how it is talking about our day and Babylon being America. It was very interesting because that man has been all over the world for all sorts of stuff and knows a lot about all those countries and was able to make sense out of it. But, once I got home and read it for myself, I came to the conclusion that it was indeed talking about actual Babylon, not modern day America. But he also talked about his time spent as a Green Beret and all of his CIA stuff. He even busted out the scrapbook type thing that his wife made about all that stuff. Holy cow, people... that man is one of the most interesting men in the world. There was so much cool stuff in there and he talked a little about some of the missions he went on and stuff. He has had a crazy crazy life. And I totally believe all of it because I saw a bunch of proof in that scrapbook thing!

So now to the title of my email. Our branch is about to get hit by a tsunami. It already has some stuff going on, but there are some situations coming up that could rock this branch’s little world. It is so sad. It seems like there are just problems shooting up. People with severe medical problems, some family problems that are about to occur, we are short on priesthood and we are needing a lot of priesthood to fill callings coming up here soon. It’s just crazy. I am having a hard time even caring about the missionary work here because I just want to help the branch, but there is nothing that us missionaries can do and a lot that not even the other people in the branch can do. It sucks because there is just nothing we can do and I just want to be able to help so bad. But we have to focus on what we can do and move forward with the work here!

Teaching wise this week, it was slow. We taught only a couple lessons. And only one of them was legit. And he wasn't even interested at all, so yeah. But we stayed busy all week. We had our referral adventure for a couple hours one day, we had zone conference all day on Tuesday, and we were out in Colorado City and helping with the continuation of that project back in Sweetwater all afternoon on Saturday. So we had lots to do!

Oh, this is kinda gross. So we have some rats in one of our walls. They only make noise in the morning while we are studying and they are only in this one spot. But, still kind of nasty. Our apartment complex is really good about bugs and stuff though. They come around every once in a while and ask if there are any bug problems in our apartment and will take care of it is there is. We have yet to have bugs inside. So that’s good. I have heard missionaries talking about cockroaches in their apartments, so let’’s hope I never get stuck in one of those!

Now for the food update! I had a first this week!!! I had chicken fried steak at Skeets Texas Grill! We went there with the Thompson's on Saturday after our little project. So that was solid to get it for free. We also went to Allen's Buffet again this week. It’s the place with the really good fried chicken and mac-n-cheese. There are lots of other things there, but I basically get a plate of fried chicken and a plate of mac-n-cheese. It makes you feel sick for a while and I had to take a break three times that night to take care of business, but it’s so worth it. And we used the money that mom sent for us to get "milkshakes". I'd take Allen's Buffet over a milkshake any day! This place is something else when it comes to food!

Well, sorry there wasn't much to report on this week. Maybe this next week I'll have some crazy stuff to tell you!

Love,

Elder Reed Ericson