May 26, 2015
Hello everyone! It was a fun week here in Lubbock! I don't
have too much time today so I'll cut right to the chase!
So, I totally ran and won a 5K yesterday! The church put on
a memorial day 5K so almost all of the missionaries here in town ran. They had
to postpone the race from 9 to 10 because of lightning and ended up cancelling
the race altogether at 10. Well, President Heap said that the pioneers in the
Willy and Martin handcart companies endured much much worse so he decided that
we would do a TLM run! So, with nobody else there, we took off running in the
rain and lightning! I stayed towards the front for the first mile or so. One
missionary was super determined and took off like a jack rabbit. I was running
with two other elders and we made our way up to about 3rd place behind a single
missionary and another dude that was running with us that wasn't a missionary. Well,
at about the mile mark we passed up the single missionary and started to gain
on the other dude. At the halfway turnaround point I ditched the two
missionaries I was with and decided to take on the other dude. So I ran right
next to him for like 30 seconds before he died and I was all of a sudden all by
myself! I finished the last half of the race all by myself with a pretty solid
lead on everyone! I ran the (not quite a full) 5K course in a little over 23
minutes with about a 30 second lead on everyone! Not too shabby. I wasn't even
very tired when I finished. I felt quite nice. My shins hurt a little but that
was it! I forgot how to mentally and physically run a race like that so I
didn't push myself like I used to be able to. Plus, I had to dig deep into my
soul to motivate myself to keep kickin' butt. But anyway, it was a lot of fun!
Everyone was drenched to the bone after the race and everyone was in good
spirits unlike a typical 5k when everyone is ticked off at life. Gotta love
that 5k life.
The weather has just been super stormy lately. There seemed
to be a low pressure system all week last week. Apparently El Nino happened
this year so it’s been cold and wet. We have hardly been into the 90's and most
days are 70's-80's. Its just been perfect temperature. So if it doesn't rain it
is just very pleasant! I thought I was going to be in scorching hot weather by
now but I have had very few hot days so far! I can't complain!
Well, I got two “aggressive drivings” this week. One was
because I wasn't paying any attention and almost ran a red light and had to
apply the brakes very firmly. Got dinged for that. The other one came going
through and intersection going to the 5K yesterday because the intersection
sucked and was all bumpy with dips and stuff. So stupid. I shouldn't get an
aggressive driving for going 5 under through an intersection in a city. Oh
well, my driving record is pretty clean still. I don't think I'm even close to
becoming a yellow driver. I think I am pretty safely a green driver!
Not much else happened this week! We did get taught by this
JW. We taught him the Resto a couple weeks ago which was proceeded by him
teaching us about the last days. Then we went back and he taught us about how
we cease to exist when we die and some other stuff. He pretty much just
dominated the convo. We backed him into a corner a couple times with some
questions but he would just talk for about 10 minutes at a time. It was really
hard to get out of there. We were there for a long time. We told him we'd stop
by again to share some stuff about what we believe about what happens when we
die, so we'll see if we even get around to that. Real nice guy though. Also, we
have a less-active lady who is married to a non-member. He has finally started
to open up to missionaries more in just the last little bit, especially since
I've been here, and he has brought up something about there being three heavens
to his wife and he was extremely surprised when she told him that our church
teaches about that. Apparently he wasn't very happy at the fact that she never
told him about that. So, we had an appointment for yesterday for dinner and a
lesson, but they had a small emergency and had to go somewhere so they
cancelled. But there is tons of potential there to get the whole family to
church! We taught a whopping 4 lessons this week! I can't even think of where
all those 4 came from... some of them were more formal than others. That's the
best week I've had in Lubbock so far!
So, some good food updates for y'all. I have found that city
food isn't like the small town food. Most of the time members just feed us
regular good meals instead of mouth party meals like in Sweetwater. Also, I
went to a place called Brian's Steaks last week and had the Texas Tornado
burger. It was crazy good. It has a THICK patty that is made with cheese and
jalapenos. It was fantastic! Also, the lunch buffet at Double Dave's Pizzaworks
is amazing as well! They have these pepperoni rolls that are like heaven on
earth. And their desert pizza is amazing. Best pizza buffet I've experienced by
a long shot!
Anyway, that's all I have for y'all this week. I hope y'all
have a good week! I have a long list of peeps I'll be praying for from this
past week! Y'all know who you are! I can't express how much love I have for
y'all and I thank you so much for all your support and prayers on my behalf!
Love,
Elder Reed Ericson
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