"You know it's going to be a great day when you wake up in Texas!" (Lindon B Johnson)

Well, today I woke up in Texas, so it's a great day!

 

This is my last week with both of my companions. Elder Solomon, who was waiting for his visa, is gone on a jet plane to Mexico. (We don't know if he'll be back again.) He is going to be a fantastic missionary!!! He is bold, spirit-directed, builds his companions up with helpful suggestions on ways to improve, testifies, and is a little nervous for Mexico. We're sure he's going to to great things!!!!! We also found out this morning I'm going to be moving! Elder Munoz will be staying. He's going to help his new companion out a ton! I know he has helped me be more bold in sharing the gospel and helped me develop patience! I'm going to miss both of those great companions.

 

I am grateful to the Lord for letting me serve here the past three transfers with my companions. I have learned a ton from the people here! The members have taught me love and patience and righteous gospel living. Investigators and less-active members have helped me see the blessings of the Lord in my life and they have helped me to strengthen my prayers. The past weeks we haven't had any baptisms, but there have been two really big rescues that our companionship played a big part in. I can't wait to go to my new area, but I will be sure we get a good foundation set for the rest of the week for after Elder Munoz' new companion arrives.

Something really cool happened this week. It all starts three months ago when I was here with my last companion. We were teaching a guy that was working out of town a lot. He had a family we hadn't really met; just his daughter for a second at the door. We hadn't seen him much, but he had tried to come to church once but left before the services started because he was wearing work clothes. Every time we came to knock on his door this little dog would just bark and bark and bark at us. After Elder McKinnon left we realized no record had ever been made of him and I didn't know how to get to where he lived.

 

Fast-forward to this week. We had seen a lady out front sweeping her sidewalk and decided to go see her after dinner yesterday. We heard people inside but nobody answered the door, so we grabbed the rakes off the front porch and started raking the leaves in the front yard. Soon enough, she came out and we shared something with her and her son and her daughter. Afterwards we were picking up the leaves and one of our investigators pulls up with her family!! Turns out that these women are cousins! All of a sudden this white ram pulls up and it starts to feel like deja vu (?) to me. The guy gets out of his truck and it's the man we had been trying to get in contact with three months before! All of a sudden I recognized the house, the truck, the man, the daughter, and that annoying little dog that always barked at us!!!!!! We finally found him! We are sure the Lord has something great in store for the whole extended family!
 

God Bless Texas! I am Elder Black. Thus I end mine epistle.