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

Odesssssssaaaaaa

September 14, 2015

Well hello everyone. Just for a warning, I have no plans about what I will be talking about today. Usually it takes me a little bit to go through and see what I did the previous week and write it down so I remember. Everything is just turning to mush in my mind so I can never remember what happened the previous week. I really right now have no idea what I am going to say in this next paragraph so I am just stalling and hoping that something comes to my mind as I sit here typing away...........................................

Well, I decided to just go ahead and start a new paragraph and let the spirit guide. Well, this past week was a little more difficult. We had a number of punched appointments and we tried by people like crazy and nobody was ever home to answer their doors. Like, they were legit not home. No cars, no lights, no sounds. We got like 6 media referrals last week because they went through and are cleaning out the referrals in the mission office and just sent all the old ones out again that didn't have updates on them. So, we thought we were going to be busy visiting them but that turned out to be a bust. Ain't nobody ever home and ain't nobody ever answering their phone. We also spent a lot of time trying to contact less-actives in our area because we have like a gajillion of them but that has been a total bust too. Sheesh, there are so many less-actives in Odessa. They say that if most of the people on the 1st Ward's roster actually went to church they would go from 1 to 3 wards! They have 32 pages of roster and a pretty weak ward. We don't have that many, I think we have like 19 pages or so. Anyway, it wasn't bothering me too much, I am used to not really having too much to do to fill out your days, but Elder Despain has been having a hard time with it. What we need is more potentials which means more finding which means walking/biking around talking to people. Its no biggy for me, I can go out and find all day if I needed to, but for a new missionary that is difficult. I remember those 2 hour long finding sessions in Sweetwater when I first came out... they were death. So I am trying to find out how to balance our days so that we can be productive and get some finding in but not go out and find for chunks of time. Which isn't too hard to do. Pretty easy actually. We just have to work through a few things.

Our teaching has been going well with the teaching that we do have. We were able to go teach this kid named Mark on Tuesday right after emails. He is basically a family member of the Noyes family in our ward. He is 19 and is "converting to Mormonisn" after having bad experiences in a different church. He is solid as can be. We were able to teach him the Plan of Salvation and are teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ today, which I am pumped about because I love that lesson. Its just so rockin'. Also, we are continuing to meet with Rose. We talked to her and we are going to start teaching everything over from the start. She is basically ready to go but with Dustin (her boyfriend) in jail there are some hold-ups of sorts. But she is legit. Super good spirit about her. Remember that crazy dude I mentioned last week that we went and taught? Yeah, well we went back this past week and taught his daughter who seemed to be more of the reason that they requested a visit. But, before we taught her we had another LONG crazy conversation. So, let me expound the story unto you. So this man is like 40ish. He has this weird thing with Ukrainian girls. He has spent over $90,000 on Ukrainian girls in the last year or two. Like, straight up. He even went and fought in the Ukrainian army for a few months not too long ago to show his loyalty to them. So, as of now, he has this like 25 year old Ukrainian girl that looks like a supermodel that he is engaged to....... ok. Super weird, right? Well, his nephew who is probably mid-late 20's also has some Ukrainian girl that he is engaged to........ ok. This is getting really weird, right? Well get this, his 14 year old daughter has this 14 year old Ukrainian dude that she is "dating"......... huh. Ok. They showed us a picture of this 14 year old dude. He's is an absolute monster. Like, biggest muscles I have ever seen on someone under the age of like 18 years old. Anyway, the father and the nephew are trying to explain "love" to these Ukrainian girls. Apparently the Ukrainians only think of love as an emotion and not as an action or anything. I could go on for days about the details but for the sake of time, we don't need to go there. So, these people are just going crazy trying to figure out how to teach these Ukrainian girls what "love" is. Oh my goodness...... they could go on forever. They have been on this extensive search to find out exactly what love is according to the Bible, so they have been out talking to preachers and stuff and trying to get it all figured out. And they were so thankful to have two "prophets" in the house with them to help them figure this out! Hahaha we ain't no prophets! We taught you about prophets three days ago, dude! Anyway, we came to the conclusion after a total of like over an hour that love is an emotion that you can express through actions. I actually like that definition.

Anyway, along with teaching all these peeps. Elder Despain is making some good progress with his teaching. He definitely has had WAY more opportunities to teach his first three weeks than I did. I think I had one lesson my first three weeks.... he's had quite a bit and he is definitely making strides! We also have opportunities to teach Michael and Aiyannah the recent convert lessons so we have had lots of additional opportunities with that.

Well, I really just can't think of anything else to talk about this week. Oh yeah, I thought of one. I was able to give Michael the Aaronic Priesthood at church yesterday and ordain him to the office of a Priest! That was pretty cool! I had never done that before so it was a good experience! I definitely love being able to use my priesthood to bless others! There is no greater feeling than being able to know that I am righteously exercising my priesthood and am worthy and ready to exercise it whenever it is needed! In fact we had a cool experience with that last Monday. We were all hanging in one of the other apartments, and most of the elders were playing an intense game of Risk and they were getting a little loud and a little out of control. Its what happens, no knock on them. However, I was just sitting to the side trying to get our new phone all set-up, and another one of the brand new elders was in the room laying on his bed. We got a phone call saying that a blessing was needed at the hospital, they were all so involved with their game of Risk, so I took Elder Nebeker with me to go give the blessing. I was very thankful that I was ready to be called upon at any given moment to exercise my priesthood, and have Elder Nebeker ready as well. We didn't have to invite the spirit or anything because we already had it with us and were ready to be called upon. It gave me a good perspective about how I need to be like that my whole life. Obviously I am not going to be boring or anything, but I need to be always ready to be called upon in any situation, because I'll never know when my authority is in need.

Well, hopefully I have some fun stuff to talk about next week! But for now I will be ending this email! I love y'all and pray for y'all every day! Have a fantastic week full of fun and joy!

With all my love,

Elder Reed Ericson

Hello

September 8, 2015

Well I had no idea what to put as the title of this email... so I ended up just putting "hello" in the subject line. I need to work on my creativity. I wonder if there's a Mormon Message about that. I wouldn't know, because we don't have ipads yet, and we don't know when we'll get them. However, they did promise all the new missionaries that they would get them at some point. So, we are still waiting on that.

Anyway, it was a good week down here in Odessa, Texas! Tons of stuff going on for me. It was quite the week. To start off, I had my second District Meeting today after having my first one last Tuesday. Not gonna lie, they were two dang good district meetings! It was awesome to see the spirit guide me as I prepared to instruct my district. For my first one I had nearly an entire instruction planned out by Saturday and then I had an idea to do something else so I switched it up and it was awesome! We are supposed to instruct off of what we talked about in our special "District Conference" with Pres Heap and the assistants a couple weeks ago, so I instructed on having a vision of what you want to be and become on your mission, and I really focused on how Satan is going to do everything he can to stop you from achieving that vision. The spirit just gave me some awesome ideas and it was a powerful message that I truly learned a lot from preparing and instructing. I obviously started crying at one point, and I almost had a couple of the other Elders crying too. Gosh, I'm such a cry baby. And then today I almost cried, but no tears came out so I did solid. Today I instructed about humility and grace and the process we need to take to receive Christ's grace, and how it is the only way we can have the power and authority we have to have in order to fulfill our calling as representatives of Jesus Christ. I was really worried about today because I only have three other people in my district without the zone leaders and two of them are new missionaries, so I didn't think I was going to have very good participation but we had a lot of participation and awesome comments to work with! It was a solid meeting. It has been a blessing to be able to prepare for and instruct at district meetings. I learn so much being able to study and apply what I learn preparing and then help others learn and apply the same things!

On Friday I was able to go to Mission Leadership Conference in Lubbock. Usually its just the zone leaders and sister training leaders that go once a month to the MLC but they have been having the district leaders go every few transfers, so I was able to attend that. It was an awesome meeting. There were tons of my peeps there too so I had the pleasure of conversing with a bunch of old friends. It was good stuff. They talked a lot about leadership and some other stuff that y'all don't really care about, but I was able to learn a lot and took a lot away from that meeting!

The Lord has blessed us tremendously over the last week! While I was at MLC my companion and another elder on exchanges had a sick lesson with a 19 and 14 year old that are friends of some members in our ward. They basically live at the member's house. So they had a super powerful lesson with them and we are going over there again in like 45 minutes to teach them again. I am pretty pumped. So there's two solid investigators. At MLC I was given a referral from the mission office for a man and his 14 year old daughter. So we went over there on Saturday afternoon. The daughter wasn't home, but we had an interesting conversation (and by conversation I mean we listened to him) for like 30 minutes and this guy seemed like a wing-nut. Holy cow we couldn't get this man to shut up or even let us say something without cutting us off. But then he asked what "Mormon stuff" we had to share with him so we shared a very simple Restoration and blew the roof off the house with it. It was amazing to see how the spirit changed this man in just a couple short minutes. He went from talking like crazy and seeming just on a buzz to super calm and peaceful as we shared the last part of the restoration about Joseph Smith and all that fun stuff. He is pretty solid and it sounds like his daughter was even more interested than him. We have another appointment tonight with them so I am excited for that! We also taught this man from Vietnam on Sunday. Haha that was fun. It was hard because he doesn't have that solid Christian background that we are used to down here in Texas where EVERYONE knows Jesus. So that was a good learning opportunity for Elder Despain and I. I had to go back and teach a lot of stuff a second time and talk about the words he isn't familiar with and explain things very very simply. We were able to have a good talk about adjusting teaching for different people and was a good learning experience for us. And on top of all that we still have our other people we are working with and are going to have a busy week teaching them and also trying to get more investigators with our solid potential list we have.

All in all I feel like I am just starting to learn what this missionary thing is all about. Over the last month or so I have been starting to see things differently and am starting to flip the page in my missionary work. It seems like this is usually about the time of my mission that missionaries start to really figure things out. And I am starting to see it big time. I have just been learning how to go all in. Obviously I have worked hard and "understood" what I was doing and my purpose as a missionary for a long time now, but there is a certain switch that gets flipped "on" after a while and that switch has a finger on it and its on its way to getting flipped into the "on" position! I called Elder Stringham last night (because I can and he told me to call him) and we had a good talk about it for a while. He said that he went through the same stuff about the same time that I did and he was just so proud and full of joy about his "son". I love my mission "dad". He also challenged me to start to really think about how this is going to affect my life when I get home and to start to make specific plans for life after the mission. Obviously its not making plans to make me trunky, but he said that this is a time to figure out the rest of my life and what the Lord wants me to do. So I now have that challenge on me and I will be able to start thinking about that and report back to him what I have thought of.

Funny story from MLC. So I was sitting to the right of Elder Johnson (you know, from Frenship Mesa and who is in like a million of my pictures) and Elder Cardon was sitting on his left. They were instructing us on the new cell phones we are getting (we are switching from Sprint to AT&T) and how we will need to use Bluetooth to transfer over our contacts. So the senior missionary instructing us asked who knew what Bluetooth was and like everyone raised their hands because everyone our age knows what Bluetooth is. Well, Elder Cardon hates technology so much. Like, I had to force him to take the phone. He had a phone at home but he used the same phone for like 6 years and he left his phone at home half the time. So when that question was posed everyone raised their hands... except Elder Cardon, who went on to pose the question, "What the crap is Bluetooth?" in his typical naive "I hate technology" tone of voice. Elder Johnson and I DIED laughing. I know, I know. That story was pretty lame. But, that was like the highlight of my week. I stinkin' love Elder Cardon. I had lots of laughs at that conference... good times.

Well that will be all for me today! I hope y'all have a good week! I love y'all and pray for y'all every day! That was a lot of "y'all"..........

Mucho amor,

Elder Reed Ericson

Second Son

August 31, 2015

Well hello my good friends and family! It’s been a crazy week down here in Odessa for Elder Ericson! But it’s been a good week nonetheless!

The week started off by driving up to Lubbock with Elder Bench and Elder Wrathall on Tuesday. We had a pretty fun drive! We went hard singing along to some missionary tunes and had a good time. We got to the transfer site in Lubbock and I was just in heaven. Good golly. It was a massive reunion! I felt like a celebrity! I saw so many people there that I hadn't seen in a whole 6 weeks and then some people that I haven't seen in even longer than that! They were mainly people who were serving in Lubbock that I knew from my time there and then some others that happened to be going through the Lubbock transfer site. It was a good time. Anyway, I had to go searching for my new trainee and I found him inside the mission office. So we went and got all his stuff gathered and taken out to the car and eventually after a while of this and that we left on our way back to Odessa along with another Elder who was going down to Fort Stockton. We had a nice car ride back down to Odessa, it actually flew by! Holy cow! It’s about a 2 hour drive but it felt really short! I guess good conversation will do that.

Elder Despain has been doing well. Its always crazy those first couple days in the field. But he managed well. Luckily for him I am the type of trainee to look out for signs of exhaustion and whatnot. So our first full day I noticed that he was just about to die right before dinner so we took a long dinner to give him more time to rest and recuperate before we went back out to work. We've really hit the role plays hard this past week. Role play, role play, role play. We have what is called the "12 Week Training Program" but I have felt the need to focus more on role plays this first week because I didn't find the training for week 1 very applicable so we've just been practicing the restoration, plan of salvation, and street contacts like crazy. So this coming week we will get into the training program more. I feel like I am a much better trainer this time around. I am able to apply the training much better and help him learn and develop better skills much better than the first time. Unfortunately, its rough to come down to the TLM and start to experience what real missionary work is like. The MTC makes it seem like you will be teaching people all day and helping people learn and grow, when in reality you will come down here and not teach a lesson for weeks. We didn't really have any lessons this past week for us to practice. It is difficult for a new missionary to be thrown into a situation that is completely opposite of what they thought it was going to be. Instead of teaching people all day you go try by people who don't answer their door, go to appointments and have them punch on you, have people reject you on the street, etc. It can be tough for a new missionary to be thrown into that type of situation. So its important that we role play as much as we can to make up for the lack of teaching we have! I forgot what it was like to have a trainee too, it’s a rough transition from having two companions who can just do the work to having a companion that has no clue what’s going on that you basically have to teach how to do everything in missionary work! But he's learning fast and making big strides already!

Elder Despain is from northern Wyoming from a small town with only like 600 people. He went to a 1A school, so pretty typical Wyoming. Fun stuff. He played football, basketball, and ran track too in high school so we are able to talk about sports and stuff as we go out and work. Solid guy. I will probs tell you more about him later. But for how that's about it!

On top of starting to train a new missionary I had to whip together Aiyannah's baptism, which wasn't easy. I struck out a number of times and had a hard time filling in the program. But I did it! And it was a wonderful service! Aiyannah's father is a member and lives here in our ward, and her mother is no longer a member and she lives up in Andrews. But her whole family came and she even had some aunts and grandma who came also who I don't believe are members! We had some good talks and good words shared! I had the opportunity to baptize her, and we had to do it twice. Apparently her hand didn't get fully under, and the witnesses didn't catch it, so luckily Bishop Coombs came in and told us as Aiyannah was already out of the font. So we did it again and I DUNKED her good! There was no way I was letting any part of her not get under! But it was a good service and Aiyannah was super happy and excited!

And on top of getting a trainee, and having to throw a baptism together, I have to get all my district leader stuff organized (there was no prior organization) and start prepping for district meeting tomorrow. So that was fun! President Heap and the assistants are making their way through the entire mission having what they call "District Conferences". So both of the Odessa districts met together with them for a 2.5 hour meeting on Thursday. Pres Heap apparently has felt like we need to help people understand The Fall of Adam and Eve better and that it will help the people we work with feel a greater need to adhere to the gospel we bring them and look for the Savior more. Straight inspiration on Pres Heap's part. So he gave a sick instruction on The Fall and the Atonement. It was mind blowing. Apparently our numbers mission wide have been on a downward trend. Of course we don't care about numbers here in the TLM, but what we do care about is people and each number represents a person. So we had instructions on our vision as missionaries, strict obedience, accountability, and then an instruction about the results of applying all those things. It got me fired up to go out and kill it! Holy cow, I have been on one ever since Thursday! And I am excited to keep moving forward and just kill it and help my district kill it as well. I've already had some fantastic calls with them and we have some good goals and sites set for the coming weeks and transfer! I am excited to keep on working with them!

One nasty story, so on Saturday our apartment started to smell rank, and this isn't the first time its happened. The first time we just opened up the doors and cleaned the crap out of our apartment and it got better that day even without finding the source, and then it happened again on Saturday and we found out that it was from the nasty air filter on the intake for our air conditioning! That thing was NASTY! So, we made an emergency trip to Wal-Mart to get a new one since the apartment complex office was closed and we couldn't get one from them. Ugh, it smelt horrible. Like rotten eggs. Luckily with the new air filter that shouldn't happen again!

Well that will be all for me this week! I love y'all and hope y'all have a good week and KEEP THE FAITH!

Love,

Elder Reed Ericson

Destruction of the Trio

August 24, 2015

Good day to you all! Well, as you see, the trio is about to be destroyed. Sad day. We all knew it was coming, in fact we don't think it was even supposed to happen in the first place. We have heard that there was a lot of shuffling around last minute last transfer because of a number of missionaries leaving the MTC and also because there were supposed to be a few visa waiters coming to our mission who were able to go straight out to their missions instead of coming to the TLM. Plus, they usually only leave trios as trios for one transfer. It was a super fun transfer, and will probably go down as the most fantastic transfer I will ever have, but we were all ready for a change. I was only with one companion a number of times towards the end of the transfer because of a few different exchanges filling in for sick missionaries and such and I realized that it will be good to be in a regular companionship again. It’s just easier to do missionary work. I loved living the trio life but it’s a one transfer at a time type of fun. Anyway, so Elder Bench is going up to Slaton (about 20 miles outside of Lubbock) and is whitewashing into the area with a trainee. Elder Wrathall is going up to Borger in the panhandle to be in another trio, and I will be staying in Brodessa 2nd Beast and will be receiving Elder Despain straight from the MTC and will serve as district leader. I am a lot more excited to train this time than my first time. I did a respectable job the first time, but at the same time I had only been out for 3 months when I began training the first time so I really had no clue what I was doing. I was able to do everything well but I didn't know how to help and teach a new missionary as well as I can now. We're gonna shred it up down here in Odessa. I am pumped to teach young Elder Despain the ways of champion missionary work!

 

So earlier this week I went on exchanges with Elder Jewett in my district. I don't have too much to say about it besides the 2 and a half hours before we went to bed. He has what he calls his "timeline". He has this long strip of papers taped together with his entire life in a timeline format. So, he starts from birth and works his way all the way up to his mission and tells the story of his life and many stories that he has mastered telling. But the amazing part is, he has a huge stack of pictures that he uses throughout the timeline to tell his story. He has pictures of all his houses, schools, friends, cities, etc. It was absolutely amazing. He has had a pretty crazy life full of ups and downs and he has an amazing presentation of it all. I had a feeling I was going to get bored and fall asleep at some point, but I was engaged the entire time! We got in a 9:00 and he basically already had their next day planned so he started right into his timeline presentation and we had to stay up a little late to finish it, but it was worth it. It was actually a pretty amazing presentation and I feel like I know him so well now! He has come a long way!

 

Other fun news, my father, Elder Stringham, was called to be an assistant. Our family is growing. Stringham is assistant, my son is training, and my son is getting a brother tomorrow and my grandson will have an uncle! Holler.

 

So yesterday we had a sick storm. After church we left Elder Bench at the church with a missionary who had a sick companion, and me and Wrathall went out to work. After their meetings we had to go back to the church to pick them up and take them home, and it started to DUMP. Remember, West Texas dumping is way crazier then Idaho dumping. We're talking about vision of 50 yards or so and roads that are just rivers. So, as we are about to turn into the church, the telephone pole on the NE corner of the church lot shot out a big blue ball of electricity, and then it shot out a bunch of sparks, and then another big ball of blue electricity, and then some more sparks! I had to check my pants after that one. I was driving and was in the turning lane, and I just sat in the turning lane for a few seconds just frozen. Oh man, that was crazy. And you add lighting everywhere in the background and thunder and you have a crazy situation. Sheesh. I had fun mobbing around Odessa in the Jeep though. You can take that thing anywhere. Definitely a step up from the Corolla! It rained all day and it dumped off and on so it was just swamped all day and into the night!

 

We did some sweet service this week. On Monday we helped out in the microburst neighborhood and cleaned up two houses. Our service was much appreciated and the ward got a good turnout! There was something like 40+ people out there! Unfortunately that was all we could do out there because people would rather pay people to come and do it for them than accept free service. Oh well, their loss! On Wednesday me and Elder Bench went to the Art Museum with Elder Benson to do service. We left Wrathall behind with Elder Jewett because he was sick and it was their scheduled service so Benson had to go. Well, our service involved us sitting at the front desk for 4 hours. We only had people enter the museum 3 times so we each had a chance to welcome someone. So, we got 4 hours of service by sitting behind a desk. So that was interesting. That place isn't very hoppin' with visitors. Then on Thursday we got to go help at the Presidential Archives and that was sweet! We mainly went through the JFK artifacts (they have TONS of JFK stuff) and got those into boxes and helped put away one of the exhibits. We spent about 4 hours there as well and it was fun service! So we met the goal of 10 hours of community service this week!

 

We didn't have too much success with teaching this week. We had a bunch of appointments punch throughout the week. Yesterday we had appointments every hour starting at 2:00 and the last at 7:00. The only ones that went through were our dinner appointment and our lesson with Michael. However, on Wednesday when I was on exchanges they taught a family in our area that we talked to and visited the week before. Apparently they are the most prepared people that had no clue they were prepared that any of the three missionaries that were there had ever met. Apparently they have both had Book of Mormons and the father of the family ready it like 3 times when he was in high school and in his younger days. And they have two kids that are baptism age, so that’s exciting. So we will teach them again this week! I am excited for that! We also have a baptism this Saturday. Her name is Aiyannah and she is 12 years old. Her dad is active and lives in our ward and she stays with him on the weekends but she spends her weekdays in Andrews (just north of us) and she is no longer a member. So she was taught almost everything before I got here and I have only taught her once. But she will be baptized this weekend!

 

That will be all for me this week! I love y'all and hope y'all have a good week! Keep the faith!

Love,

Elder Reed Ericson

Deep in the Heart of Texas

August 17, 2015

Ha. Totally stole that subject from Kevin. Gotta love the heart of Texas. I think it is super funny how different the landscapes of our missions are. His is full of trees and humidity. And I am serving in a baron wasteland with short mesquite trees (they are actually considered weeds). It was funny, yesterday we were on the 7th floor of the hospital and we looked out the big glass windows and you could just see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles. We will probably be back there soon to make another visit so I will make sure I have my camera to capture the pure beauty. Gotta love West Texas!

Anyway, this week went pretty dang well! First off, we had Michael's baptism on Saturday. It was a small service with not too many people, but it was an amazing baptismal service. The two talks given on baptism and the Holy Ghost were just perfect and the other missionaries said that they are the best talks they've ever heard at a baptism! They were powerful messages and they really enhanced the actual baptism. Michael showed up a little quiet and not too excited (which I have found is usually the case because Satan is working in overdrive) but he was beaming after his baptism! And luckily for me, I am pretty dang positive he hadn't been baptized into the church yet.... unlike last time. Gotta love Larry. People always die laughing at that story. I am always going to be known as the missionary who baptized someone who has already been baptized. At least I'll be known for something and not nothing. But funny story about Michael's baptism. There was actually a wedding reception all set up in the gym which is where the baptismal font is! So we had to move a bunch of tables and crap out of the way to make room for some chairs in from of the baptismal font! So we had some nice decorations for the baptism. Luckily, they had a big "A&M" on the wall for the couple so we just pretended that the "M" stood for Michael. Haha. And then I had to chance to confirm Michael in sacrament meeting in front of like a gajillion people. Holy cow. That chapel was packed with people. The groom from the wedding is a Vore, and the Vore family makes up like half of Odessa. The stake president is a Vore and his father is the temple president. So there are just tons of Vore's and people related to them here. So, one of the Vore relatives is in our bishopric and he blessed his baby in sacrament meeting so the entire Vore clan that was here for the wedding was there. So I confirmed Michael in front of a packed chapel. Killed it. I love confirming people! It is always a powerful experience!

Later on Saturday we received a call from a guy in our ward and he told us that there was a tornado that hit a neighborhood in our ward the previous night and there was quite a bit of damage. So we went up there with him and his family and we went door to door offering service and future service and offered different equipment and such to use when we come back. Well turns out it wasn't a tornado, it was a microburst. Never heard of it? Yeah, me neither. Turns out these things are pretty crazy. I would Google it if I were you. There were huge uprooted trees, cement walls destroyed, camping trailers flipped, birds that got shot to the ground and were just splattered on the ground. It was nuts. I felt bad about taking roadkill pictures of the birds though, that just wasn't fair. But it looked just like tornado damage though because one side of the street was all torn up and the other side was hardly damaged. It was weird. But only a couple houses has more than just some minor damage so it wasn't devastating damage, although people were without power (which means no AC) and it was 100+ outside. So people were suffering from the heat, but everyone we talked to seemed happy and upbeat about the situation. We weren't able to do any service though at the time because EVERYONE was waiting for the insurance people to come out on Monday (today). So we ended up just taking down some names, addresses, and phone numbers and we are headed back up there tonight with some ward members to start getting some stuff cleaned up. I have a few pictures I may send as well of some of the stuff we saw. Crazy stuff. The storm didn't hit us very hard at all. It hit the northern part of our area pretty hard and then northwest of us real good. All we got was some nice lightning to watch. Which is awesome. We got the lightning in the distance but not the storm!

We had an awesome visit with a less-active lady this week. We went over and visited her a couple weeks ago and she decided she was going to read the Book of Mormon. She was pretty self-motivated so we just had to solidify it by officially inviting her to do it. So we showed up a week later for our next appointment, and in the two days prior she had read almost 80 pages of the Book of Mormon and was just going crazy over how amazing of a book it is and how she just knows it a true book. She learned so much and is just pumped to read the rest of it! She wanted us to set a day for her to finish it by so that she can be held accountable, but we told her to just do what she can because she has plans to finish it in just a matter of weeks. Haha she is a funny lady! And now she is super excited to start going to church again, but wants to finish the Book of Mormon first, which we just had to agree to because of who she is and the situation she's in and she appreciated it a lot when I told her "that’s fair" about her wanting to finish it before she comes to church and understanding what she's thinking. She'll get there though. She's a go getter!

Other than that we had a difficult time having appointments go through and catching people at home this week. We have a lot of solid potential but it was a bad week for turning that potential into success. So hopefully we can have some good success in week 6 of the transfer to get this place fired up and ready to go next transfer. We don't know how long we'll have the car for, and a lot of our potential is up north which is an hour long bike ride down highway type roads. So, we shall see how that goes. I'm banking on it all working out!

Oh boy, I have some good stuff for my first food update in a long time! So, on Friday we went to Texas Roadhouse with the other elders in our district and a couple of their recent converts that paid for us. Well, I had the 10 oz Fort Worth Ribeye and it was the best steak I have ever sunken my teeth into! Holy cow, perfectly cooked to medium-rare, wonderful flavor, wonderful marbling and just the right amount of fat on the outside. So good! And then last night we ate with the Stock clan. Sis Stock is the one who usually provided all the killer meals for Zone Conferences and was the one who put together the meal for the Jingle Jam during Christmas time that I raged about in my email that week. Well, they made some dang good brisket, some amazing cheesy garlic french bread, and then some corn on the cob that had some crazy good seasoning on it, and then some killer apple crisp for dessert. Wow, probs one of the best meals I've had on my mission. I hope I stay here next transfer because we have dinner with them again next Wednesday. That's all I wish for.... dinner at the Stock's next Wednesday. Good company too. This ward is loaded with awesomeness! I have been blessed with probably the two best wards in the mission as my last two areas as far as strictly awesomeness goes. Odessa 2nd East is considered widely as one of the best wards and I think it may not even match up to Frenship Mesa. So I've hit gold in that department. Anyway, that's it for food. I had a couple of good grilled cheese sandwiches, but that’s just because I'm a dang good grilled cheese maker.j

Well that’s all for me this week! I am looking forward to a killer week 6 here in Brodessa 2nd Beast (that’s our area's nickname, it’s all elders in the city of Odessa... hence the "bro"). I hope y'all have a wonderful week filled with lots of fun and excitement! Hoorah for Israel!

With love,

Elder Ericson

                                                 Camping trailer got flipped upside down!

 

                                     "A huge tree that got uprooted and fell on someone's house!
                                  I could have gotten a better angle to get the full effect but I didn't."

Doin' Werk

August 10, 2015

Well hello my good friends and family! Another week down here in Odessa, Texas!

First off. We killed it this week. We got 3 new investigators, some sweet potentials, and just did some solid work. We are improving a lot in our teaching and other assorted things as well which is making a difference in us finding success! It is sometimes difficult to teach with a trio. Usually with two missionaries, if you feel prompted to add anything to the lesson, you get to talk when you companion is done so its no biggy. But with a trio, you may have just taught, and then the person right after you may be teaching when you something comes to your mind to add to that particular spot in the lesson. Well, there is still another missionary between the person currently teaching and your next turn so you have to jump in and throw off the order of the lesson and then keep it smoothin' and groovin' after you just threw off the flow. So, sometimes it can be difficult with situations like that and other things. But we are really starting to figure it out more and having better lessons because of it. We have spent a little more time role playing lessons as well to help our transitions go smoother and such. We had a lot of little pauses in our lessons in between us teaching that were deficits to the whole feel of our lessons. I worked on having smooth transitions a lot in training with Elder Stringham and its been something that I have been able to help almost all my companions with up to this point. Its the little things that make a lesson go from good to great, and they take practice. So that has been something that has been a little difficult in a trio but that we are working on and getting much better at and its been a great benefit to us.

So I mentioned that we picked up 3 new peeps this week. One is a man named Ron. His house is pretty chaotic. They are always having some sort of party (like, real parties). So that makes things interesting. We were never able to meet with him my entire time here until this week so we finally got in and taught him like champs. We'll see how it goes with him. There are a lot of things that are potential hold-backs with him but he has a good quality of humbleness and openness in him that we can definitely work with if we are able to continue to meet with him. We taught a younger man named Kingsley yesterday afternoon. He is 27 years old and from Nigeria. He came over to the US three years ago for a better life and have more opportunities to provide a decent life for himself. He seemed fairly interested and is a humble young man. He works crazy oil field hours (we're talking 80+ hours a week) but he knows when he'll be working and won't be working so we should be able to keep in contact with him and continue to teach him. Solid potential to progress. And then last, but not least, we taught my cat Roy last night. He's sick. He's this awesome, nice, buff brother. He's the man we talked to right before we talked to crazy man last week. We taught the crap out of him last night. He's a way good listener, but also a way good talker. So it works out nicely. We just let him talk as little as possible and he still felt it because he is a dang good listener. It worked perfectly. He definitely felt the spirit last night and has specific plans for his Book of Mormon reading while on vacation this week. We won't be able to meet with him for two weeks though so thats a kicker. But he's sick. I'm stoked about him!

Michael is still ready to be baptized this week! He came to stake conference this weekend and loved it. He is just solid as can be. He is a funny dude. He is going to be a solid member! Also, Dustin is now in jail, so his girlfriend Rose is by herself for a time being. This isn't the first time this has happened. Its like the third time its happened since Elder Bench got here in March. So that is an interesting situation with some of our solid investigators. So we have a decent teaching pool now with our 3 new investigators and then Michael and Rose.

Our ward mission leader moved this week. His name is Bro Kaio and he is a famous mission leader throughout the TLM. If you've ever served in Odessa, you know Arnie Kaio! Him and his family basically take us missionaries in as part of their family and make us feel so loved and just like family. We helped them pack up the truck on Friday and then went over and saw them before they left on Saturday. They are moving up to Utah and were super excited to start life up there. It will be sad to not have them around but they have a lot in store for them in Utah! Also, Bro Kaio has quite the rap career behind him so we got some CD's with his jams on it to listen to when we get home. I've heard some of his jams at his house before so I am excited to see what other stuff he has when I get home. He's also excited to get back in the rap game when he gets up to Utah haha. He is so legit!

So, we had stake conference this weekend in Midland. Elder Cardon of the first quorum of the seventy was there, along with Pres and Sis Heap. Once again, Pres Heap showed everyone up. The last hour or so was Sis Heap, Pres Heap, the temple president and his wife, and then about 25 minutes of Elder Cardon at the end. So four speakers shared about 25 minutes. Pres Heap spoke right after Sis Heap and just threw down for a few minutes and sat down. I felt bad for everyone following him. Even Elder Cardon was just regular after hearing Pres Heap talk for only 5 minutes or so. That man is something else. I wish you all had the chance to hear him speak or instruct. I still remember vividly when Elder Bednar came and Pres Heap had a chance to talk for a minute. Pres Heap sat down after talking and Elder Bednar just sat there for like 45 seconds before he even moved after Pres Heap was done. He killed it at stake conference too. Every time.

We set up some sweet service this week. We stopped by two museums and set up stuff with them. One of them was a weird art museum but the other is the Presidential Archive museum and it is WAY legit! We should be able to help out there every week or every other week. They have so many cool things there and the lady said that she will have us help her in the back room where all the artifacts are. She took us back there and there are just shelves of awesome presidential artifacts! So I am very excited for that!

Well, I have a couple other things I could talk about but they aren't that exciting. Plus, its about time for me to go. But I will say this... another Elder in my district, Elder Jewett, has seen the office more than I have and can quote it just as good as myself. Can you even believe it?

I hope y'all have a wonderfully fantastic week! I love y'all and pray for you all the time!

Love,

Elder Reed Ericson