Peace Out L-Town

July 13, 2015

Well hello everyone! It was an interesting week here in Lubbock. We had a lot of fun! Also, transfer calls were stressful. I have pretty much known what was going to happen every transfer until this one, so that was unnerving. Also to add to that, we got a call on Thursday saying that they would be taking a set of missionaries out of Frenship Mesa due to the decrease in missionaries so we knew that transfers would be a little more of a shake up than usual.

 

So to start off, I will be going to Odessa to serve in the Odessa 2nd ward. I received a special assignment to serve in a trio and to help two missionaries out. I am definitely a little nervous about this coming transfer, but I know what my purpose is and it will make me step up my game even more. Luckily, Elder Stringham (my trainer) will be one of my Zone Leaders so that will be refreshing. Also, Elder Cardon will be training this transfer! Hahaha yes! We have lingo for our "families". Your trainer is your dad and you are his son. So Elder Stringham is my father and I am his son. Elder Cardon is my son, and his new trainee will be my grandson and will be Elder Stringham's great-grandson! We will be rocking 4 generations already! And Elder Stringham still has like 9 months left on his mission so depending on if my grandson trains we could pull 5 and maybe even 6 generations before Stringham goes home! Our posterity is growing quickly! I feel so proud to be part of such a great line. 

 

I was able to go to the temple this week on Thursday. It was interesting though because I was in a session with President and Sister Heap and the Assistants..... so that was interesting. Another interesting thing, the name that I received was John Brown FULLER! I don't think we are related but that was pretty cool to get a Fuller! For those of you who may not be familiar with this whole Fuller thing.... my middle name is Fuller! So that's cool! The temple was nice though. It was a good opportunity to once again just feel peace and comfort and get away. I wish we could go more often, but I will take once a transfer over nothing at all. And it was definitely a plus to live about a mile from the temple! 

 

So Saturday was 7/11 which meant that 7/11 stores were giving out free slurpees!!!! So we hit up a 7/11 with the other elders in our ward during dinner, then we ate those in the car on our way to another 7/11, and then we ate those in the car on our way to another 7/11, and then we ate those and decided that it wasn't worth going to get another one because we had tried 3 of the 4 flavors and the only other flavor was Coca Cola and we didn't care too much about that. So in the end we had a counter covered in 7/11 slurpee cups and 4 sick stomachs! Yikes. It was very filling until about 30 minutes later when I was starving again. Worth it. 

 

We had a fun night on Friday night. After teaching a lesson to JD with one of the assistants, which I will talk about later, and hanging out at the mission home for a little bit, we realized that we had missed like 6 called from the other elders in the ward. Well, they were doing bike day and were way out in the middle of nowhere...... in a storm. Hahaha they were stranded walking down a dirt road out in a bunch of fields looking for where they locked up their bikes with lightning all around and some nice rain. So we had to make an emergency pick-up! We didn't leave the mission home until about 9:15 and didn't get home until after 9:45. Great fun. Great fun indeed. Haha they weren't too happy with how their night went. Suckers.

 

So this week we started teaching a nice young man named JD. He is 18 and has been coming to church for a few years now, but not very often in the last few months because of certain things. Anyway, after going to EFY for the second time this summer he is ready to move forward and wants to be baptized. His mother is very unsupportive and doesn't want him to do it so he has had to wait until he turned 18 to do it. Elder Backus, who is an assistant, served in Frenship Mesa and knows JD well and JD has gone to the YSA ward a couple times which the assistants help cover. So we went over with Elder Backus to some members home who don't live in our ward to teach JD on Friday night and had a really good lesson with him, and then we went over last night as well and ate dinner and had another lesson, this time with Elder King who is a new assistant because Elder Backus was busy with transfer stuff. JD is going to be baptized on August 1st if everything goes well, which I am sure it will. He has just the sickest fellowship ever and is just ready to get baptized. The only problem will be his mom but he is 18 now and doesn't need her permission and is ready to be baptized regardless. I am not too pleased to be leaving him. We have really hit it off well. I sat next to him at dinner last night and talked to him the whole time and connected pretty well. But the Lord needs me somewhere else so I will do what he needs me to do! 

 

We also weren't able to meet with the Luna's last night. They texted us and said they weren't gonna be home. And they didn't come to church this week because we weren't able to make it over later in the week to talk to them again about church. So no update there. I am going to miss them too very much! They are some of my favorite people I've met on my mission! They are some amazing people!

 

That will be all for me this week! I love y'all and pray for y'all everyday! I am so thankful for this opportunity to serve the Lord and to learn and grow everyday. It seams like everyday is a learning experience and I am excited to continue learning in Odessa!

 

Love,

Elder Reed Ericson