Esta semana fue muy loco and awesome!‏

Alright well this week has been crazy and so great!! Adventure is out there! 

Tuesday night we get a text from our zone leaders and it said the next morning was a world wide emergency missionary broadcast, I still don't think it was an emergency broadcast as much as they didn't tell us until the night before... but it was so great! They basically said here's Preach My Gospel ok now here's how to use it better and the way we want you to be doing it. The apostles basically changed our purpose to be teach repentance and baptize converts. It was mind blowingly awesome and answered a ton of questions I had.  

Wednesday comes around we are blowing up our area doing really, really great after having watched the broadcast. 

Thursday I'm tying my tie getting ready to kneel down for a prayer when the phone rings. Elder Moss answers it and the AP's are on the line and are wondering if they can talk to both of us. They then address me and say Elder Harker...you are being transferred! It's like 5 days until transfers happen when they could and would normally switch missionaries out. So I'm like oh crap! They tell me to have my studies like normal and then to pack and be ready to leave whenever. No idea when I'm leaving, why, where I'm going.

Old San Benito district - my ZL's are the best guys ever!

So I head to the zone meeting as usual and receive more instruction along the way. I say my goodbyes and head out with Elder Morgan my ZL. We teach a lesson while heading up to some random town I still don't have a clue of where I am or anything and neither does Elder Morgan. I hooked up with the AP's in their truck and we head out to Sinton zone, the great white north of Texas, English and true Texans. We get lost, end up late like 11 or later at the ZL's place where we spend the night until my new comp comes down the next day to get me. 

Elder Riding & I

Friday my new companion arrives and he's got the old one who is heading out to McAllen, I still don't really know why but I do know that Elder Riding is AWESOME!! We head out - turns out we currently live in a trailer in the middle of nowhere but we are instructed by President to move to a new apartment near the sisters in Beeville, the adjacent town. Our area is the largest in the mission and we have no miles left on the car for the month. We cover five towns and work in an English ward. It is awesome! 

Saturday was a crazy day mixed with moving bits and pieces, teaching, and weekly planning in a brand new area. 

Sunday we went to church to find out the Bowmen family from Roseburg, Oregon live in my ward and Ryan is a rock star now and killing it in the church! We meet with an investigator, Beatrice, and help her to move her baptismal date up a good amount to Feb 6th! 

I've met Amish, Mennonites, Texans, seen rats, ate pizza for the first time in forever, taught in English, and slept in four different places this week. To say the least it's been a bit crazy but so awesome! So lesson from the week... Have a Gran Actitud (great attitude)!  So not much else to say on this end but stay in touch love you all and be all little bit crazy this week;) 

Chillin' on an awesome tractor.

The view from a member's house we helped build.

He Did It ... Baptized!

Well this week was wonderful! We had interviews with our mission president, zone conference, stake conference, and Pepe's baptism!  

During our zone conference one of our leaders, Elder Morgan, was giving a training and asking me about wrestling as part of it. Well during it I had this sort of baby revelation hit me, an epiphany if you will. In wrestling many times a new wrestler, or even experienced wrestler, will go out onto the mat terrified. He's trained and he has his coach in the corner, parents at his back, a team cheering all around him and a stadium roaring for or against him. He feels the pressure of a team score, personal glory, expectations from coaches/family/city and a school riding on him. He knows many are watching and many want to beat him, but most of all when he steps out onto the mat he knows one thing .., no coach, no mom, no teammate can help him now.  It comes down to him and his adversary. This can feel quite daunting and often make or break a wrestler.

Now for missionaries and investigators it can feel a lot like this too. People are writing you at home, parents, coaches, friends, the mission president, your companion, all have expectations for you. The pressure might feel like its mounting like in a championship match. You're all in but here's where the difference comes in. In wrestling when you shake hands and that whistle is blown you are all on your own to get the job done. Sure you get those "letters from home" but it's you and your opponent. But when you go out as a missionary or as an investigator looking to be baptized ("looking to win") you aren't alone; you step out with a companion at your side, with the best three coaches you could ever have (God our Father, His son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit) on the mat with you, and with prayers from all over giving you a little bit more strength to put the odds in your favor. 

But the best part about this fight is that it's already decided. The winner is the home team, the Lord's team. Unlike wrestling, with three grueling rounds on the mat, maybe even more, the battle here is only to step out onto the mat - after that, you get your hand raised. That step onto the mat is your step of faith. A step saying to your coach (God) that although you don't know what will happen for sure you know it's going to be alright and you want to win! You want to be that champion now and forever, on God's team.

So the question is: if the fight is already won, what's stopping you from taking that next step? From joining the winning team? For Pepe, his opponent (Satan) told him if he stepped out onto the mat he was going to lose and not only was he going to lose, but it was going to cost him his family too. Well this week Pepe had that faith, that courage to strap-up and step out onto the mat to shake hands and say I am going to win. And he did! Pepe has changed from an unhappy, struggling man to a champion! I've never seen a change like this before and now he is happier than I've ever seen him! (I know he isn't smiling in the photo what can you do?) 

So be a champion this week and trust in the Lord I love you all.

Tests

This week was crazy! One quick fun story: We went out with a youth named Jorge and when we went around we kept trying to open and close his door for him like he was royalty. He was not having it, he refused to get into the car if we did that after about the 2nd time. So when we went to drop him off he got out and I ran around the car to hug him (he hates hugs too for some reason, but not really, we know he likes it) and he saw me coming and started sprinting away around his yard, over bushes under trees, in and out of the street and then Elder Moss joined in too it was great! So eventually he ended up jumping/rolling over his own fence to get away and at that exact same time Elder Moss tried to go around and tripped and ate it hard and then popped right back up and said "oh darn I ripped my pants" between the two I thought I was going to die laughing! 

Second fun story: Last night we went out with a member to help him drop of a massive blender to another member's house and all was well but when we tried to drive away, his mini van was stuck in the mud and not moving. We and other neighbors were all pushing moved it but only into more mud. So everyone left and we got chains and hooked one minivan to the other and that didn't work; the chain ended up snapping twice to whiplash back and hit the stuck van which was just sitting there spinning out in the mud sending mud everywhere in the air. In the end Elder Moss and I pushed it out while they towed on the other end and that was the end of our 90 minute adventure out in the boonies and just in time to get us home. 

But back to what made this week so crazy. Pepe was supposed to get baptized yesterday and well that didn't happen. We had another investigator who was progressing beautifully and she dropped us like a rock with a note tapped to her front door letting us know she would not be meeting with us anymore because of problems with her husband. When the Lord says that faith without works is dead he means it! But this week showed me more than anything the actual power that Satan has and how much he wants to ruin the family and make us miserable like him. We always have two choices: one liberty, freedom, and joy with the Lord; or misery, captivity, and death with the Devil, The choice is really all ours. I'm sure that the Lord feels like I did this week; he sees the truth and what choices will make us happiest and just wants us to follow him. Yet most of the time we don't see, but when we act with faith and decide to go forward following and trusting in him we receive that promised joy. 

A random pig in Bentree - this was as close as I could get.

We covered the sisters' car in sticky notes to show our love for our crew!

I can't handle the flash on selfies. LOL

A great gift from T&A and the sweet sweater from Mama.

Happy New Year!

So this week has been fantastic! It has been freezing and caught us totally off guard because the weather changes so much and we have no way to know about it haha:) I'll give Emily the credit it's not a Mongolian winter but when you packed t-shirt style white shirts and a rain jacket it doesn't exactly make for the best defense;)

This week we will be having the first baptism my branch has seen in something like two years! Pepe agreed moving his date up a week would be the best thing possible. The change we've seen in him has been incredible! But I'll tell you all more about that next week. 

So the story this week goes to a man named Rodrigo. We found Rodrigo one night after an entire day of plans falling through, weather fighting us, and just about most things trying to get in our way. We were across the street calling a lady to see if we were still good for our last appointment of the night and that was cancelled so we looked up and saw a light across the street at a house we had visited once before only enough to say hi. So we ventured off in pursuit. When we walked up there was Rodrigo as friendly as can be (I love the Mexican people) and he started telling us to warm up at his fire. So while we stood there we began to talk to him and turns out he has talked with missionaries in the past in Brownsville, knows quite a bit, and has friends who are members! We talked about Jose Smith and he said he believes he was a prophet and wanted to read and pray about what we told him. We didn't even ask him to do that! Then he said he wanted to be baptized but needed to learn some more first. Then he set a date to be baptized! As we left with a prayer he asked if he could say it! Turns out he had been working on the car for a while (he's a mechanic) and nothing was working. He thought to himself that it wasn't working because he hadn't gone to church in forever. So he decided to promise God he'd find out where it was at and go if He helped the car work.Next second the car works and then we walked up! Message: God answers prayers! 

So everybody don't forget to pray! I love you all soo much have a great week:)

Getting a ride from a member - just throw the bikes in the back.

New Year's zone festivities.

Lunch made by awesome members!

The zone having a New Year's party.

Just chillin' and cookin' for the sisters.