February 1, 2016
Well hello my good amigos y familia! What a joy it is to
email you today! This past week was pretty good. I can't complain.
Starting with yesterday.... all four of us elders here in
the San Angelo 1st Ward gave talks in sacrament meeting! Bishop asked us last
week if we could talk on "missionary work" so we had quite the broad
assignment. But with all four of us talking we all were supposed to keep it
under 10 minutes which is quite the difficult task. I spoke third, and the
first two speakers went over time so I didn't expound on anything too much.
Which was actually pretty sweet. It kept things powerful and to the point. That
was a sweet talk! Not gonna lie. It was pretty sick. Everybody had a fit about
our talks. Good heavens. It was a mob of people coming up to us after sacrament
meeting thanking us for our talks and our testimonies. Like, mobs. It was nuts.
People need to take a chill pill around here. But, they were pretty sick so it
makes sense. I started off by ripping off a decent sized memorized quote from
Gordon B. Hinckley that just brought the spirit, and then I got a few laughs,
and then I commenced to throw down and ripped off some sweet memorized quotes
throughout the talk. Its so much fun. I haven't spoke in church since I had a
solid 10 minutes to prepare in Sweetwater when I still had no clue about
anything in life. That talk to this talk was like night and day. Its always
super good to see sweet improvement like that! Other than church, yesterday was
legit. We went out and worked in PERFECT weather all afternoon! It was a gem of
a day! And it being Sunday and a beautiful
day, the citizens of San Angelo were all out in fenced in backyards making
delicious smelling food. Nothing beats the aroma of charcoal or mesquite smoke
cooking beef. Ugh, I almost died. Plus, our dinner appointment cancelled on us
so after smelling that for a couple of hours we got to our apartment and I made
some tater tots doused in butter and salt. Usually I have something actually
pretty sustaining and more nutritious but I didn't have anything prepared. So
the tater tots that I found in the freezer that have been in there since who
knows when were good enough for me.
We had another good couple visits with Mac this week. And
get this, Mac admitted that he knows the Book of Mormon is "mostly
true"....................... hahaha come on Mac! How do you know its only
"mostly true"! He is just too stubborn to admit that he knows its
"all true"! Oh man, I had a good laugh when he said that its
"mostly true". He loves his stubbornness. At his baptism the stake
president gave the talk on baptism, and to start his talk he mentioned how he
had to look up the "phobia" word that means "fear of going to
heaven" because that's what Mac had for a long time! Hahaha and then in
sacrament meeting the next day the high councilman started off by mentioning
that he thought about having Mac go up during his talk to share his testimony,
but he said that the phrase "one miracle at a time" hit him hard! Oh
man. I love Mac! He is so fantastic and stubborn. As Sister
McMunn says, "He is a Missouri mule (he's from Missouri). And I
say that because I can't use the other word with y'all here! You are STUBBORN
sweetie! So so stubborn!" One of these days he'll admit its all true. But
as of now we can only wait.
Funny story. At dinner the other night we were sitting there
chatting after dinner and I had a mint in my mouth. We were with a young
couple in the ward and the husband started singing some T-Pain to his wife. It
was funny, so I started laughing, and the mint that was in my mouth went
shooting down my throat but didn't make it very far down before stopping and
getting stuck. I started coughing but nothing happened. So I then said
something out loud with no problem whatsoever despite a mint being stuck in my
throat. So I proceeded to pour some juice into my glass because I thought that
juice would wash it down without fail. Well that didn't work. So I then
proceeded to kinda but not really throwing the mint up onto my plate along with
some other stuff that looked interesting and slimy from my throat! It was
hilarious! Thankfully the members were dying laughing the whole time so it was
all good! But, it was an experience.
We got some sweet new investigators this week! There were
some people that Elder Mangum and I talked to forever ago that we have never
been able to meet with. We have contacted them a couple of times but never
actually talked to them. Well, we were riding our bikes a little down the ways
from their house when I looked down the road they lived on and thought that we
may as well stop by their place. Eureka. She welcomed us in and we chatted it
up for like an hour about life. Very good conversation. Her husband was just in
the front yard cleaning up Christmas decorations so we just left the door open
and sat right there on the couches. After a while of good good discussion she
started to ask some questions about us and what makes our faith different than
the other gajillions of faiths around here. So we shared the Book of Mormon,
and gave a brief rundown of the Restoration. She seemed to really enjoy it
and made the comment that she had "a lot of reading to do". Wonderful
lady and her husband is wonderful as well! Great great people!
The new investigators have been a whee bit low here in San
Angelo but things seem to be starting to pick up here! We have talked to some
good people this past week and things seem to be picking up now that the
weather is nice! We also visited Andrew a couple times and had some really good
visits with him. He is doing super well. He has been taught everything multiple
times before in past years and "lessons" aren't doing him any good.
He talks a perfect amount to where he talks about 50% of the time and then we
and our member presents chime in and teach him good stuff. We also have a
"lesson" in mind that we try to incorporate into our comments. For
example, we made a lot of comments that referred to the Plan of Salvation in
our first visit this past week, and then last night we incorporated the first
principles and ordinances of the gospel into our comments. It has been a
dynamite way of doing it! That way Andrew is getting these things applied
directly to his life. We aren't teaching him a lesson, we are applying the
gospel to his life. I think he is actually getting it this time around!
Well my good friends, life is good. I can't complain. The
weather is nice, the people of San Angelo are nice, the ward is nice, the work
is nice, and the apartment is just alright, but I can deal with that. May the
Lord bless y'all in your many labors and duties this week! Continue on the path
of discipleship and let the grace of the good Lord mold you into the person you
want to be for eternities!
With love,
Elder Reed EricsonThis picture is Sis. McMunn, Mac, and myself at the grand event.
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