Week 32 - Out for 8 months this week!

Hey guys!!

This week has been pretty awesome to say the least!! We had zone meeting on Friday with my favorite zone I've had! Hah! I got a call on Thursday from a number I didn't know and it was Elder Jorquera, my last comp, in his new area and asked if I could pick him and his trainee up for zone meeting! I totally forgot he was even in my zone still! So we got to their apartments (which by the way are ridiculously nice… like wow!) and picked them up and bobbed over to the meeting. On our way there we talked all about how our areas are and how we’re each doing personally and as a companionship. When we got to zone meeting we were greeted by our awesome zone leaders and the other elders in our district. We all waited for the other elders and for the first time in the area we have sisters! Well first to get there was one of my favorite elders, Elder Parkinson, the guy is so funny it's crazy and his faith is so strong. In the zone meeting we learned a lot about goal setting and how it's so amazing to set goals but we also should set them as things we can actually reach. There's a constant trend in the mission field to set a goal that has some big number that will wow the crowds. And although it might do that at first, the person soon comes to realize where they’re at and that their goal is almost unreachable. They struggle and stress out to meet the goal all to come up short in the end. The point of a goal is not to make us feel inadequate, down or even disappointed but to make us feel joyful, pleased and grateful for the opportunity. We set goals that are something that we know we can do but that is still challenging. It’s also something that we learned at the final sessions of General Conference the past weekend.

I'm so thankful for the O’hara family and the opportunity to spend time with them and their family for General Conference. We had these killer blueberry pancakes with bacon and eggs for breakfast and oh my gosh… so good! This conference session made me really grateful for the mothers and leaders in my life. The talk by, Elder Jeffery R. Holland, that was given about mothers had a profound effect on me. It was said that once a mother has her first child, she then realizes her life truly isn’t just her own anymore. I'm so thankful for my mom and the wonderful and beautiful spirit she has. How at any moment that I need or needed her she was right there to comfort me and help me through it. I love her with all my heart and wouldn't want anyone else to be my mom. Along with that I've learned a lot of things that I needed from this conference if you haven't watched it yet I suggest you do.

Thank you so much for checking in guys! Have a great week!!

~Elder Tidwell

Just being awesome...

My Zone! Best ever!!

At the O'hara's!!

A place called Fazolies! So good!!

Why, yes I did find myself an ugly Christmas sweater at the Goodwill!

Zone pics

We had a full car!!!

Week 31 - A new companion!

Hey y'all!

First official week with my new companion and it's been crazy good to see him again. This is the same Elder P that was my companion in the MTC. This week has been pretty good! It's been an interesting transition from companions in an area like this, but it's all good!

So we got this referral from our mission president for this boy that recently moved into our area. We tried visiting him a ton but we weren't even able to catch him. Well we finally got him and his story is amazing, he came here by himself from Mexico and is living here with his aunt and has been looking for the church for a pretty long time. It felt so amazing to finally find him and help him come to church. While we were there with him we got to go to all of his classes and we went over the topic of patience and let's face it we all need it hahah. Something I came across again, was when you ask for patience it's not given to you; you're given opportunities to gain patience. I know our Heavenly Father knows what he wants us to become and at times things may seem really hard or that it might seem like it's too unbearable, but it is just for a small time and it will make us into who he wants to be. We read these few verses in Doctrine and Covenants section 121 verses 7-9… I'll let y'all read that one ;) hahah it really told me once again that it all has a purpose. Sorry this email has been super short; hopefully this week will be a lot more fun filled! Hah, thanks for checking in guys! If you have any questions let me know!

Love,

Elder Tidwell

On our way to meet our new companions...

Me and Elder P...

Lunch at the taco truck and we got to make it ourselves!!

Week 30 - Amazing Race and saying goodbye....

My team...

Hey guys!

So this week’s been super fun and kind of bitter sweet also though.. At the starting of the week we made pizza again which let me tell you, this one was way better than the last one! Hahah then we visited some families throughout the week and we set 2 baptismal dates! So we're really excited for that! Wednesday we ate at the O’s house and like always it was a blast and we had some mean banana milkshakes! Then Thursday we ate out with Deroy at this Mexican place but when I walked in, the owner started making fun of me hahah or well he was calling me like lazy boy or white boy.  I was just like wait what the heck?! So I was like well ha ha ha , joke’s on him I'm going to get a cheese burger at a Mexican joint and he was like man this ain't no Burger King  or Whataburger.... And then said he was joking. Needless to say we had the last laugh when we just got up and left hahah, jk but seriously we're never going back there again! :p  

On Saturday, the English speaking elders had a baptism and we got to help out with that and it went really good! Then afterwards we had an activity with the ysa or young single adults and that was so much fun! The theme was, The Amazing Race and when we split into teams and got the paper we hopped into the car to head out.The only problem was, my team and I went to the last destination first so we started out in last hahah. We ended up taking second place! We had to find the prophet or the guy in the woods and then find a Ginny hen and catch it in a net for ten extra points and I finally got it after like a half an hour of trying, those suckers are fast!

Overall it was a pretty fun week but then we had transfer calls last night and we found out Elder Jorquera is leaving. That was probably the hardest part of my week, I think Elder Jorquera has been the first companion I've ever really been able to open up to and not feel like I was going to be judged, or even just  have anything sugar coated hahah. He's changed my life so much and it's something I won't ever be able to repay him for. He's done more then he'll ever know. Thanks for all the fun and being able to become who I really am. It really is times like this when I think, "I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you left them." See you in 2k17 Elder J it's been fun.

Thanks for checking in guys love ya!
~Elder Tidwell

Hanging at the O's house.

Does this really need a caption??? Kinda speaks for itself!

Amazing Race...caught that Ginny hen

Took 2nd!

One of my team mates...holding that pesky hen.

Last day with Elder J! 

Week 29 - A great week!

Hey guys!! Man have I got some stories for you this week!

Well to start off… Monday was pretty normal, same with the rest of the week except for Wednesday. One of our members started a taco truck and we decided to check it out and he made this burger that was super good! We totally want to go back and try some tacos though! Okay, on Friday we had the zone leaders come to our district meeting and it went good! Afterwards we decided we were all pretty starving and decided to go to this bbq place that's in the town where we live and we got probably over 10 pounds of different meats and met back at the chapel to pig out! (That's what one of the pictures is hah.) Then that night we played volleyball which is always fun but for the third week in a row we lost! After that we had an exchange with the other elders in our district and the next day is where it got pretty funny hahah… We woke up and had a member we had to visit at 2pm and our man Deroy knows him so we called him up and we're just like hey, want to come to lunch and visit this member? He asked when and we said Noon would be awesome! So we got ready and were a little early and there's a Goodwill over by the place we were going to eat and I just thought what the heck we got time! As we passed this gas station to go to the parking lot of the Goodwill there were like a butt ton of Corvettes! We started freaking out and then we parked and took a few pictures but right after we got there they started to drive off! So of course we had to get a video of that and then we went to eat afterwards. Later on that day we talked about a few things we could do with the free time we had until our next appointment… the suggestion came up of reenacting a passage from the Book of Mormon. Getting some pvc pipe and some dollar tree pool noodles and making some larping swords, but as awesome as that sounded we just ended up going to the appointment early hahah. As we were heading that way I saw this car… now Houston, College Station and Sealy are filled with these cars. I needed a picture to show that this is what people drive! So I took the picture thinking no one was in the car but, there was this guy in the driver seat I didn't see and he saw me take the picture… I was a little freaked out afterwards not going to lie hahah. 

Okay, so where I'm at in Texas, there's a lot of dollar stores but there's only 2 that everything's actually a dollar. We stopped by this one that I've never been to before called Dollar General and it was kind of different but we all got a Mexican Coke and a few other things and then said we have to take a picture with it! hahah We had Deroy sitting in the back seat and we told him to get in the picture but when he did it just looked super funny! "Yeah we were taking pictures when we realized some big brown man was in our back seat" hahah Then we went to this seafood steakhouse place where our appointment was located, in Eagle Lake. It seriously was the best burger I've had on my mission by far… it was crazy! And it was super cheap too!

Over all my weeks been really good :) I gave a talk yesterday about missionary work (in Spanish of course) and how everyone is a missionary. It's something that I've really gained a testimony about. Thanks for checking in guys, hope I didn't talk too much!! haha

Love- Elder Tidwell

Dinner at the O's! 

These types of cars are everywhere...Crazy wheels like this...haha

Homemade pizza Elder J made one evening.

Awesome burger from the Steakhouse!

Just a pday selfie! 

So good!

Zone BBQ!! So good!

Riding with Deroy! Haha...fun times!

Some crazy graffiti!

So many Corvettes!

Week 28 - Patience and Faith

Hey guys!

Well this week has been great! To start off we had a zone meeting this and the topic of the meeting was on patience and faith. We talked along the lines of… Why do these things happen to me? Why at this time? How much longer is this going to keep going? I simply came to a conclusion that it's all given by a Heavenly Father who knows us all individually, who loves us so much and knows exactly what he wants us to be. In Alma chapter 34 verse 41 it says, “But that ye have patience, and bear with those afflictions, with a firm hope that ye shall one day rest from all your afflictions." Sometimes these may be the hardest things we have to go through in life but with patience, faith and hope that all things will be okay it will only be for a short time. That lesson was just the kind of thing I needed to hear at that moment.

Also this week my companion and I have been spending a lot of time with one of the members. Let’s just say that we've had some pretty awesome experiences and he definitely has some of the funniest jokes… I die laughing every time. We had my least favorite food in my mission this week and it's called chili renos, it's a big old pepper covered with egg or sometimes cheese and usually stuffed with the same stuff but this one had meat and pieces of potato but still probably the worst thing I've eaten on my mission no matter how it's cooked hahah. But overall it's been a great week!

Thanks for checking in love y’all a ton!
~Elder Tidwell

Pretty much, just a bunch of cool guys...

Best place I have eaten!

Their waffle fries are to die for!

This is a Greek coin

Me with Elder Parkinson and Elder Croft.

Week 27

So…this week’s been very different… not that much has been going on. It's really just been kind of a slow week hopefully next week will be better. This week we visited a lot of less active members and were able to invite them all to come to church and surprisingly they all did! It’s definitely been different kind of just a weird vibe but those weeks will come! hah I'm not going to lie I've felt pretty trunky this past week or so… miss that fam and a bunch of other stuff. I know I'll make it through. Sorry this post is going to be kind of short but thanks for checking in love you guys!!

~Elder Tidwell

My comp and I along with Elder R, Elder F, Elder B and Elder C.

Had some Whataburger!!

The O Family! They are pretty awesome!

Elder F,one of our zone leaders. He is from New Zealand and is pretty funny!

Week 26

Hey guys!!

Well this week has been crazy awesome! Me and my companion have had some super awesome opportunities to go knocking a ton and it's been so amazing… a real testimony builder to me :) Also it's his birthday today so that's just been a plus hah. This week’s been really good! We had dinner at this one family's house and it was this chicken alfredo pasta thing it was so good!! And then last night we went to this family's house and they made this pork, mash potatoes and string beans thing. Man it was so good!! Sorry this week is going to be a little short but I'd like to bare my testimony that I know this church is true and that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet on the earth today. I know our Heavenly Father has a plan for us and it's all to better us in the end. Rough times may come or people might not understand but he always has a plan. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.

Love you guys!!

Finally got the pictures on here!

My comp and I...hanging out on Pday. 

Ummm...yeah, so I saw this!!

We decided to check out an old abandoned school. It was pretty cool.