Oklahoma!

MONDAY - We went to the dealership early in the morning to take the car in to be fixed and then went and played ball for a while. Way fun, love it how I still feel like I could play for a day straight. We went back to get the car and of course... like most dealerships they tried to jip us on something! We didn't get it all figured out till about an hour and a half later! It ate up a lot of time! So we got back and hurried and emailed and the other elders came as well and emailed and we headed to Kilgore to get a ride in the firetruck! We got a tour of the station and tried on the hat and jacket and then we had to leave and they got a call so we didn't get to go out. We got to spray the hose though? that was a lot of fun! We then went to the Sellers for a FHE night and the fire chief was there and it was really good. We had some brownies and banana pudding! We ran out of there and headed to Candis house to have another FHE and a lot of the Spanish branch was there and we taught the lesson on the the Holy Ghost and following the still small voice. We also did an act after where we cut holes in a shirt and I wore the shirt and elder rouse put his arms through the shirt and was my arms and covered my face with shampoo, shaving cream, and all sorts of stuff. It was a ton of fun, all of them had their phones out and were video taping telling us they would be on Facebook hahaha, way good night!

TUESDAY - HAPPY PIONEER DAY! hahaha, of course no one is celebrating it out here but still! Today was awesome! We had to do some interviews for a companionship in our district and so we got to go to Oklahoma and to Arkansas! We did 6 interviews, the first two in Arkansas and the rest in Idabel. One of the guys we interviewed was a Rams fan!!! YES!!! All of these people are Marshalise people? and are so awesome! Nicest people in the world! Like Hispanics, except not such a hard Catholic background. We got done and ate some lunch at Braums and then headed back to Texas. We were driving a ton, probably around 6 hours of drive time. We got back and did some tracting and didn't have much luck. We had a lesson with the Albas and Jessica and Javier both talked about the Word of Wisdom problems they have and it was a good to know and we offered help in any way we could. Love that family. We then headed to the Branch Presidents house for dinner but ate with just his wife and her Grandpa. We then headed to the church to teach Jennifer the 10 commandments and keeping the Sabbath day holy and we gave her another blessing. Another awesome night!

 

WEDNESDAY - We both woke up super sick, I took a 2 hour nap at lunch to get rebooted and we went out and knocked again not having much luck. We then had a lesson with Josh Chubb talked about temples. After we ran to the Sellers to do service and we ripped out an old garden for them avoiding the 1000 spiders that were everywhere! We got done there and headed to the Sadlers for dinner. Such an awesome family!!! Food was amazing too! Then we ended out night knocking. Went by so so so fast!

 

THURSDAY - Planning days are the best huh.... haha. Today was weird because I was just planning cause elder rouse is leaving! We planned and went and got the change of address form and tracted till dinner. We had dinner with the Johnstons. Peruvian food is so good! Then we tracted the rest of the night, with very little luck :(

 

FRIDAY - We got up and after studies we went and made fliers for the movie night on Aug 18th checked the mail and my GPS came! thanks Dad!!! We went out and were tracting and almost every door slammed in our face. So we visited a Spanish family and had some ice cream before heading to Jennifers to read 2 Nephi 31 with her. We had dinner at the Johansens and had some very good meatballs and potatoes. Such an awesome family. We went to an appointment in this ghetto trailer park and we talked to this old white lady with no teeth inviting us to swim in her yucky pool... so weird. Not a good place to be at night! Everyone was drunk! We did have the lesson with Monica and it was good till the end when she told us the Holy Ghost is the prophet.... EVERYONE IS CONFUSED!!! If everyone ACTUALLY read the bible they would know that this is the only true church on the face of the earth. That's why were are out here I guess, to help the people :)

 

SATURDAY - We went to Kilgore to visit with Chip Smith just for a little before heading to the Albas for a short lesson and pictures. We tracted until dinner and had pizza at the Ramirez's and man Candi is progressing rapidly. Love that family! We ate and had a lesson about the Word of Wisdom and we gave him a blessing that he would be able to leave coffee and beer and at first he didn't want to do it but as soon as I finished the blessing he asked us to take all the coffee in his house and beer and we did. He didn't have any beer but we took all his coffee. It was truly a miracle! As we were taking pics we got calls on my new companion. I will be training Elder Chappel as a Zone Leader! So nuts! He is from Chicago and so my 9th companion and still yet to have one from Utah! NUTS! I'm excited though, we did another my arms for elder rouses body act and ended the night :)

 

SUNDAY - Spanish branch Elder Rouse spoke and then in English we both spoke. It was a really good talk I think, love speaking! Lot of goodbyes for elder rouse today and so we didn't get out of church till about 5 with all the meetings and stuff, so all those who complain about 3 hours of church and you know who you are :) I'm in church from 10 to 5 every Sunday! We headed to tract a bit and then we went to dinner at the house of the Cadenas family and we helped them make the Gorditas the REAL gorditas not the fake ones at Taco Bell. They were amazing and it was so fun! Love the Spanish branch. We were telling jokes and we were trying to understand the humor in Spanish but its hard hahaha, Candi came and his family and I just love them a ton, they are so great. We had a lesson with Jennifer and then we went and did numbers and didn't get done till about 10:30 and to bed til 11:30! Crazy week! thanks for all the support! LOVE YOU ALL!

 

Elder Aaron Jackson