Week 67 - Sometimes we have to let go...

Hey guys!

Sorry this week might be a little short but time has just flown by today…we've been so busy. This week was pretty usual we had a few exchanges and a ton of rain I loved it hahah. We also got to go to the temple which will be a pretty big part in this letter hahah. I'm so thankful for the temple and the spirit that I have felt there every time I go. I feel like that's one of the best places to get all the answers I need. I got to do some awesome family work and also got to see a familiar face there, Sister Pinster;) Also I just want to say that the power of prayer is real. We had a zone meeting this past Friday and I was asked to share a story or experience about dropping investigators and bare my testimony as well. Well, right before I was supposed to get up and nothing came to my mind and so I was kind of just like um crap.... So I thought the only thing I can do now is just pray, so I did and I asked for my mouth to be filled and for my words to touch hearts. Let me tell you, the spirit filled the room as I spoke about not wasting your time. I said that sometimes we love these people we find and teach so much, that we don't want to let them go or give them a break, when it's exactly what they need. The time that we focus on them, trying to bring them back, there are so many more people we could be spreading the gospel to. I remember just saying with tears in my eyes that we only have two years to preach this gospel and the lord won't forget those that we have dropped. That was a huge testimony builder for me. I am so thankful for this gospel and the many people I get to meet because of it. I'm super sad to see Elder Schloer go and I'm really going to miss his guidance. He won't be too far away so it'll be okay hah. 

Thanks for checking in…I'll try to write a ton more next week!

Our weekly planning...

Spending time at the temple!

This guy got his mission call!

Week 66 - Big stuff happening!

Last District pic

Pday!!
Hey guys miss y'all a ton! I hope your guys are having a great Memorial Day weekend! I am so thankful for all the men and women who have served our country and for all the sacrifices they have made for us, especially the ones that are closest to me, thank you! This week we got fed so much, we had days where we'd have two dinners and then on Saturday we had 4 dinners! 4! Ridiculous! Hahahah, I’ve come to love orange Mexican rice so much and we had this drink a little bit ago called Tamorindo, which I've like had it before, but I'm just officially hooked on it I can't stop drinking it hahah. So Monday night, we were driving home and hit a huge pot hole and bent the rim! So we spent part of the night stopped on the side of the road fixing the tire, putting the spare on and then we had to wait a day for the new rim to come in. Tuesday, after we dropped our car off we had English class and then family history training. Which took up most of the morning. In the afternoon we taught some lessons to Ramses and this other investigator we have, his name is, Celerino. We then had dinner and did some less active runs. Wednesday, President Mortensen came to our comp study and then had a little meeting with each of us after. Then we saw Courtney, ate ice cream with her in her office, talked to her a little bit and got to know what was going on and all. We then saw Leroy, and ate some pizza with him and got to know a little bit more about his story. He also asked each one of us why we came out on our missions which was a question I hadn't gotten asked in a while. I told him at first I didn't want to go on one I thought the mission wasn't something for me, but then I got to a point where I was going down a path I didn't ever want to go down and I took that moment when I looked in the mirror and thought how did I get here? Everything changed from that moment on. It ultimately was a solid prayer to know what I needed to do and a mission was part of my answer. Plus, I wanted to share the knowledge and joy of the gospel I had with others and help bring people to his fold. I also wanted to show people the Oregon stereotypes are true 😜 Hahahah. Thursday, we had weekly planning which we are getting a lot better at hahah. Friday, we had English class graduation! It was so much fun! A bunch of people came to it! There was like 4 classes in total that showed up to it, one of which was ours hah :) Some of the students took a ton of pictures of everyone that I will have to get on Tuesday and send to ya next week hah. We then had sports night and played volleyball. Saturday was the big one, we had a cook out with the Dorsey's at 11 am then at 12:30pm we went to the Penillas and had tortas, then we had thrift shop service and at 5 we had dinner at the Olviados. After that we had the sisters’ baptism and then we ate again and went to a FHE and ate again! :p Then Sunday we had church and Alexis finally got baptized! Goodness gracious so happy that he made that big step :) A lot of the past missionaries who taught him came, it was really awesome :) Well that's pretty much how the week went! Hope you guys have a great Memorial Day!!

A picture that was shared with mom by Courtney from last week when we stopped by...

And this time we stopped by to visit with Courtney, we had ice cream!!

Alexis!

At the Baptism

Eating after the Baptism...

Eating at someones's house...

This was at the English class graduation...

My comps....Really I don't know what's going on here. haha

Week 65 - A great week!!!

Howdy y'all!

Wow, can't believe I just said that hahah. Well, this week’s been pretty great! On Tuesday, we had a zone conference, which for those of you who don’t know, that's where like 3 or 4 zones get together. It was about 50 missionaries maybe even more hah. Our mission president talked a ton about the plan of salvation and we got super in depth about it… like I just want to go into it more, hahah maybe next time. We then dropped the Bear Creek elders off to their apartment and went to Krispy Kreme! And guess who showed up the APs hahah :) After that we taught our bap date Alexis, he's so awesome guys! Can I just have a moment to give him this shout out… even though he won't read it… hahah The guy’s so awesome, he literally like knows it all and is probably making one of the best decisions of his life and just knows it's all true and that its time for him to do it. He's definitely a guy I would consider a friend after my mission. Wednesday, we saw one of Elder Schloer’s old investigators and got to know her a little bit… she's super awesome! We also ate at the Davila’s that night and had these homemade tacos with fajita and Serrano salsa man so good! After that we went to English class and I went out and did some visits with Brother Rose who's our ward mission leader. We stopped by this family the Navas and it made me really happy to see the family I have and how close we all are with each other. After that we went back to English class and guess who was there? Suamy! I was so happy to see him! :) I sat next to him and he said I missed you so I came down to see you… seriously meant so much to me! Thursday, we had English class in the morning but it was huge! They’re going to be putting out an article about it on LDS News and stuff so check it out soon! Hahah but we had this lady taking a ton of pictures and stuff and videos it was super cool! We went back and weekly planned for the rest of the day. Friday, we had district meeting and then visited a ton of LA (Less active) people and then had volleyball that night…Super fun, but nobody showed up until after 9 :p and at that point we had to head home. Saturday, we taught Alexis again and got him ready for his interview. Then we had a new member in our ward who said he wanted to go out with the missionaries, so we called him up and he said he could come out and he also said he had another buddy who wants to too. Well of course we were like okay hah. So we go to call his friend and I see a 971 number, I'm like wait who is this guy?? Elder Schloer said his name is Steven Dewey!!! I was like I got this, hahah, so I got to see him and that was super cool! For those of you who don’t know…I know him and his family from Oregon!! Man what are the odds?!? hahah. Then that night, Elder Schloer had a baptism in H6 so we went and it was pretty awesome we sang, A Child's Prayer, in Spanish of course hah. Here is where the story gets a little crazy…After the baptism, they say, hey we're going to go eat but it's outside of the mission…well we checked with the president and he said it was okay for us to go. Well that was the start of the craziness, hahah! The place closed early for an event, so we decided to go to Chilly’s, I was not to impressed. Let’s just say we didn't leave Chilly’s until 9:50 pm, we like got there at 8, ordered and it took them that long to bring it out. So we boxed it and ran. Then because of stupid Texas freeways we got on a one way for like 10 min and couldn't turn around. I will remember that night my whole mission no joke so funny and awesome! Elder Schloer was tripping out pretty bad…haha, we didn't get home until like 11:30 pm, so we called our president and told him what was going on…so that was all taken care of but man such a crazy night. Then I had a wonderful Sunday! Over all, an awesome week hahah :)

Love Elder Tidwell

Me and Steven!!

At the conference we had

A picture from the bday party from last week...

It's been a long day!

My signature!

The English class we teach!

Study time!

Hermana S and Suamy!!