Dallas: Week 1.

Well here I am, the great city of Dallas, it’s been a great week and a lot of new things I have learned and experienced being here so far. I get an hour now so I will try and write as much as I can.

 Sunday-Last Sunday we pretty much were packing the whole day and then we had an awesome testimony meeting to end our time at the MTC and just let everyone in our zone know that we loved them and that we wished them the best of luck, I shared a little about my high school experience and such as that, and how the lord has blessed me in my life.

 Monday-Up at 3:30 getting ready to depart to our flight to Dallas at 8:30, we grabbed a little breakfast and jumped on the bus and were off to the airport, it was really weird to see cars, signs, stores and all of the world after being cooped up in the MTC for 81/2 weeks ha-ha. We arrived at the airport and we were officially out in the world, we quickly got our bags checked and headed right to the phones so we could call home and I loved being able to talk to my family and hear what they were up to, I hope that all my friends enjoyed my short testimony, I would of shared more but I had to get going and board the plane. We got aboard and I was lucky enough to get a window seat so I spotted out Hillcrest and the mall and such it was really cool, it was even cooler when we flied through he clouds and above them, I know that might sound stupid to those who have flown a lot but I haven’t so I was entertained ha-ha, as we arrived we were hit by what felt like a 100 degree spray of water that just stuck to us like a spider web, we then knew for the next 22 months we would be out in this, every day. As we got outside our mission president was waiting to load our stuff and get going, everyone complained about the heat and I said this "Hey elders! If the Dallas Mavs can beat the Heat we can to!" hahaha I thought it was pretty clever? Maybe? Anyway we quickly went to the Dallas temple and got pictures with president Durrant and his wife. Went back to his house for some lunch and went over a few things about Dallas that are different, tornado warnings, rainstorms and chiggers. Then we had an opportunity to write home and nap a little then it was time for dinner and interviews, I told Durrant about the others in my family and he remembered for the most part and said he is going to push me hard out here. Then we had dinner and we had it from a place called "Dickeys" absolutely amazing, especially after MTC food for 2 months!!! Then the missionaries came and took us away to get started on the work, I did my first contact, her name was Robbin, I was nervous but it was fun. That was all we had time to do so we headed back and called it a night.

 Tuesday-Today is the day we meet our new companions! Really nervous and excited as well, my new companion is from Idaho, his name is Elder Olsen and he is absolutely fantastic! He I s such a great help to me and that’s probably because he is almost done with his mission ha-ha goes home in 5 weeks so he is really good with teaching, contacting, and Spanish as well, afterwards we arrived at our new apartment which is awesome, kitchen, washer and dryer so we don’t have to go somewhere else to wash and desks and a couch its really nice, feels like im out on my own! WHICH I AM! Then we hopped on bikes and started to ride, and I thought I was going to die! We rode and rode and rode and sweated and sweated and we went to dinner at a members and had tacos and they were heaven! I look forward to this for 2 years. As we started to leave I got a flat tire, and its not even my bike so we had to call for a ride and it wasted a lot of time, we talked to a few people before and one guy who was completely high said "I hear gun fire all the time over on that street" and of course my companion looks at me and smiles and says "lets go check it out" I’m also amazed at seeing all the different churches, there is a church called "JESUS, the real church" hahaha and there is a church called "Baptizing in the name #3"! This place is definitely the Bible belt, Jehovah witnesses and priests and Catholics EVERYWHERE! Then we finally ended the day with my first lesson with a couple, Jesus and Anel... I love these two, they are so nice and we had like what’s called oatmeal water which was pretty good, and Anel said the prayer and just cried after and it was the first time seeing the spirit work through someone, they are just awesome!!!!

 Wednesday-Today is planning day, and it’s a long one. We are in the apt from 6:30 till about 4 in the afternoon so its very long, just making goals and trying to figure out what streets we are going to knock next, its long but then we went out and tracked, and I tell you there are so many people that just go by stereotypes, saying that we are in trouble with the law and that we are broke (which the church will never be at this rate) and all this crazy stuff, and that we worship Joseph Smith its insane, but we are just nice about it which I love cause it leaves a good name for the church, I do get frustrated because people go by what they read on the internet and what their OTHER NONMEMBER friends tell them about this wonderful gospel and then when people like us try and tell them, people that are the source, missionaries called to do just that, they don’t listen. I bugs me but yeah a lot of crazy people out here but some of them are just so so so nice! I like it

 Thursday-More tracking today, tracked up and down a street called Scottsdale and nothing but a few that pretended to be interested, a drunk man and a few slammed doors but we met a lot of really nice people. We taught the Diez family and the Alfaro, I tried to understand the Spanish best I could and I can tell I’m getting better but still learning how to teach and such so didn’t do much. Still have no idea where I am ha-ha, so weird with no mountains and different stuff here, and streets, signs, grass EVERYTHING is different than Utah. We went and got some food, the place we shop at is called Fiesta. It has a parrot on it and its just so weird cause no maceys here or no smiths. I’m really sore from biking, we bike a lot and I’m not used to it, back is sore from carrying around my backpack as well, I tell you with the amount of exercise and the amount of sweating, no way I’m gaining any weight here! I am having a hard time understanding and speaking but I’m getting better, I can see my progression. I love this work its hard but so so fun.

 Friday- First thing we do is ride by GameStop and I see a poster for MW3 and I tried not to look hahaha but I was like DANG! But its all good MW4 will be coming out when I get back ha-ha. We ran into some really really interesting people today, some guy answered and there is a lot of people that worship virgin merry here. So he answered the door and he said he had his own religion and that he has seen a gold angel and a small eagle and Virgin Merry herself when he is praying and he told us a little about how he prays and stuff and he was just crazy ha-ha he said he hopes that we do it so we can be saved. Another lady told us that her daughter had cancer and before she died she kept saying that god was there with her and that she fought him, and said she had to say good bye to her kids first before she died and after that she was fine for about an hour and got to say good bye to her kids and so it was a really cool story and she told us to pray to her daughter and as for an angel in times of need ha-ha so that was interesting but really cool, lot of people opened up to us and told us about stuff like that, like their struggles in life and loved ones that passed away, it was pretty cool, yet other people say they are religious and yet they don’t even know what they believe in hahahaha it amazes me! "I’m catholic" us: "oh really so what church do you go to" "uh.... I don’t know the name of it" ha-ha its crazy. Then we had another lesson with Jesus and Anel and they of course had stuff for us there even though they are poor, I love Hispanics. What’s even weirder is they had fruit for us right? They put spices on EVERYTHING so they had this fruit out with some Pepper spice and salt for the cantaloupe and watermelon ha-ha I ate it, it was pretty good. Then to drink some juice purely made of Juice, it was really good too! Another great lesson, we set a date for their baptism as well. For dinner? We had little ceasers!!! First time in like 10 weeks! I ate a box ha-ha, and also I saw an Albertson’s ha-ha, not a fresh market but an Albertson’s.

 Saturday- More tracking and we ran into a guy who said he was once the 6th ranked boxer in the world, his name is Glen G. cant remember his last name but someone needs to look him up please! ha-ha he told us about how he was so good and then drugs and other stupid things got in the way, he married a stripper that was runner up for Mrs. Oklahoma or something and just a rags to riches to rags story, his income is now 400 dollars a month from when he was at the top he had contracts and all that, his nickname is "the candy man" Then I started to have bad luck with everything... my watch broke, my took for my bike fell out of my backpack and as we rode all the way up into a dangerous area, we were going like about 20 miles an hour and I didn’t see this curb till the last second so I could only get my front tire up it and my back tire smashed into it... POP! Completely flat within seconds, here we are in a "hood" and hour away from home (on bikes) with a popped tire... gotta love that, so we headed to our appointment which ended up being absolutely awesome! And they gave us a ride home, the apt we went through the cops told us not to tract in cause it was to dangerous ha-ha it was awesome to walk through that and to tell you the truth I felt safe, but there were black people everywhere!!! But like I said our lesson with Brigera went really well and I actually taught as well. It was great, had a bit more luck and got a few more appointments set up.

 Sunday-First day of church, it was great! I was not used to going to sacrament with only 30 people in the entire congregation though, used to Utah churches, packed! We had dinner at a members house and I gotta say that the members are so nice, so many came up to us asking us to come over for dinner like as if it was an emergency or they HAD to do it. Crazy, on our long walk home that night because we didn’t have bikes ha, cause of me. We were waiting to cross when the ice cream truck came up to the light and the guy handed us some ice cream, and this was right after my companion said to me "Elder, we need to get some Ice Cream some time" hahaha it was pretty cool. Its so weird to talk to my companion about worldly things cause he has no idea how big Jimmer is and movies and commercials and TV shows and all that stuff cause he has been her for almost 2 years ha-ha so its really weird, but anyway today was really really really fast!

Thoughts on the first week? Its hard, and its hot and its fun. Today we haven’t done much, I am about to go and have to explain how I didn’t play in college to yet more people as I get to play some basketball, my companion is awesome like I said and he is into biking, really smart and nice elder. I saw a dead armadillo on our way here today as well and we talked about tornados and he said he as seen about 6 or 7 but used to get tornado sirens all the time. He told me the rain storms are like going swimming right away and yeah, its been a fun week, still got about 94 or 93 weeks to go, its going by so fast! I’m almost 1/8 of the way done, its insane. Well I wanna thank everyone for following, my companion said once you get out here no one writes you anymore haha and I hope that’s not true everyone! I haven’t got one single letter from a few people I thought would write me, others I thank you even if you have only sent a few I still really really appreciate that!! Don’t be afraid to write, I will definitely respond on my Preparation day. I love you all, and I hope you enjoyed this week’s blog, more to come, there is only more to come.