Days Go By

September 21, 2015

Well this week was interesting... haha some interesting stuff happened! First and foremost we no longer have a car! Our temporary use of the car is now over. We found out Tuesday that they would be taking it on Friday evening! So, Friday came around and we no longer have a car! So starting Saturday we are now officially a bike area again! I don't mind it too much, I like to be out and about all day, it makes you feel extremely productive! Plus, the weather has cooled down a bit this past week so it wasn't too bad the last couple days! In fact it was quite pleasant! So it will be a good 2 weeks to finish this transfer out on the bikes and hopefully we can continue with good weather to accompany us! #Pray4WestTexasWeather

Well on Thursday we went to our service at the Presidential Archives, and guess what!? They were having a press conference for the start of Constitution Week! It really wasn't that cool, but hey, its not too often that you get to attend a press conference for the start of Constitution Week! So we took a break from our work and they had us go watch the press conference for which took maybe a little over 30 mins and then they fed us some cake and then we were back to work in the back room. So that was exciting. Fun fact about that place, right behind the building is the childhood home of George W. Bush. I believe he lived there most of his childhood after H.W. moved there right around the time that W. was born. So Odessa is basically famous for lots of stuff. Also, another interesting thing from the press conference, apparently Texas has a Pledge to its flag. Haha they did the Pledge of Allegiance for the American flag and then adjusted slightly to face the Texas flag and did the Pledge for that one.... Texas pride ain't no joke. A number of people during the press conference mentioned how proud they were to be an American, AND a Texan!

Some other cool random stuff. In the last week I have seen a 1A and a 2C Idaho license plate! What are the odds of that?! I saw the 1A one on Tuesday afternoon and then I saw the 2C one last night! Crazyness! There's Treasure Valley peeps all over down here!

We had some pretty good lessons this week! We taught Mark again last Monday and we had a really good lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and committed him to the 10th of October for baptism! We are excited to keep working with him. He has great faith and a desire to KNOW for himself. He is lacking a spiritual witness of the Book of Mormon but he has had many other spiritual experiences at church and on other occasions that he is feeding off of! We also had a sweet lesson yesterday with a young couple. The guy is a returned missionary of a few years who has fallen off track quite a bit but is wanting to get back on track and is working on that. He has a girlfriend that is interested in learning and finding the truth for her. We were able to go teach them yesterday with our Bishop. We had lunch with the bishop's family right after church so we had him go with us. I guess we had no other choice because he was our ride home.... but it was a solid lesson with a good spirit to accompany us! We are obviously focusing more on the girlfriend, but it is a good opportunity to help the guy feel the spirit and remember the testimony that he already has inside of him!

Another funny story.... so, one of the traveling assistants was down here for a couple days this past week with our zone leaders. They had gone over to teach this guy who smokes like a chimney and it left his clothes smelling absolutely awful! So he needed to put his pants in the wash obviously. So he did so, but was left without any pants! So Elder Spencer who is about 6' had to wear Elder Moschetti's pants who is about 5'6". Hahahaha it was the funniest thing I've ever seen! They were showing about 4 inches of ankle and he had a hard core perma-weggie! Oh my goodness, I didn't have my camera or else I SO would have gotten a picture to send home. And he went out and proselyted for a few hours I think wearing those! He had a good sense of humor about it though. I mean, you have to in that situation. He had some funny stuff to say about his situation!

We have a new ward-mission leader. I don't know if I've mentioned that yet. He is a huge body-builder, so he is just yolked out of his mind! He is down here working in the oil business but he is from Canada so he speaks with a little bit of Canadianness. Holy cow is he funny! He went out to a lesson with us earlier in the week and was just super blunt and said the funniest stuff. We have dinner over there at least once a week now too and you never know what conversation you're going to get into. Super guy though. And awesome family. His wife is legit as well. I am looking forward to continuing to work with him. He has a fire to get stuff going in our ward and do something different! Also, once they find a house to buy, he had a full gym set of equipment and we will be able to work out in the mornings with him. But who knows when that will be. I may be gone by then!

Anyway, that's all I have for y'all this week! I hope y'all have a good week ahead of you and always remember who you are and what you stand for! I love y'all!

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Reed Ericson