Week 102 - Farewell THM!

What's up!?!

Well, it's crazy to think this is it... I don't know about you, but time really has flown by over all... 2 years done. And it's really weird but I'm definitely gonna miss the mission, not so much for some things as with others, but I'll especially miss the friends and families that are here in Texas. I love them dearly and wish them luck in there endeavors here and I'll come back to wreak havoc when I come back to visit ;) haha

I've definitely grown a lot in the past 2 years and it truly is crazy to see it all go, but I'm not done learning yet, oh no it's only just begun! Hahah I'd like to just share a few stories and then head on my way. First... Was the moment I truly knew the spirit in my mission and how sensitive it was. When we were all in the MTC, I had an experience there that changed my mission and it started with teaching the restoration of the church. When your in the MTC they try to teach you as much as they can in the language you are serving for a certain amount of time so for me I got 6 weeks. Around week 2, we were teaching a guy who's name was Rolando and he was from Mexico. We had taught him the restoration all in Spanish and then had moved on to the plan of salvation the next time we taught him which was later that week. Now at the end of the plan of salvation I had, had this very strong impression from the spirit to ask him to be baptized, now already that day me and my comp weren't too in sync and a little contention had arose that day. Needless to say the spirit had its foot out the door but I had this one chance I to ask him to be baptized and I didn't do it, I thought, no we just need to end the lesson and walk out. Right as I left that room, I instantly knew that the spirit had let go. I asked one of the teachers to talk and I broke down in front of this teacher saying, I know I should have asked him but I thought it wouldn't work right now, with the love this teacher had for me he said, with his voice full of hope congratulations, "Elder Tidwell, you've learned a lesson it took me almost my whole mission to figure out." He said to learn from this experience and to always listen to the voice of the Spirit. That next day, when we were to teach Rolando, he had left and we never saw him.... Until the next day when I found out he was one of my teachers. (We were teaching him just for practice but I had no idea he was a teacher in the MTC) :p But regardless that experience has changed everything in my mission and has made me more conscious of the voice of the spirit and to always listen and go with it. When we deny the prompting of the Spirit, it's like a teacher asking if you need help on an assignment, the teacher might not give you the direct answer sometimes but will guide you in a way to get there quickly and correctly, and if you say no I want to try this on my own, then it'll take more time and you have a stronger possibility of getting it wrong. The Spirit like the teacher will respect your decision and back off let you do it on your own.

The 2nd thing is, that the power of prayer is real. I've had numerous occasions where we were struggling to find investigators or where we had a goal in mind of finding someone and it happens! As long as we got the faith that it'll happen and when we don't, if we ask our Father in Heaven for the help to have that faith, I know miracles will happen. And I say these things in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, amen.

This has been an amazing week in the mission and it has been very bittersweet, but I know I have much more to do and my whole life is awaiting me, so I'm going in head first! Thanks for everything you've all done to help me in my journey and I truly have enjoyed every minute of it. I just hope they're ready for me back at home! ;)

Love Elder Tidwell 🦆

Quick stop at Wendy's after our meeting...

District photo...

Nancy and her freaking squad!!

The Morgans, I will miss them a ton!

Obispo and his family.

Teaching Obispos kids!

Zapata crew!

Gisela and Denice

Last photo with the Faz!

Sister Farnsworth!!

Exchanges!

Flautas at the Faz!

Week 102 - A trip to see the doctor...

What's up y'all!

So, I hope the super bowl was sick! From what Elder Williams told me, Puxatony Phill, the groundhog, saw his shadow on Groundhogs day Hahahah! So 6 more weeks of winter! Siiiiiick hahah! So where to start off...

I will start with Tuesday...yeah good place, sooooo, went to Huntsville on exchanges with Elder Toolson and Elder Munoz, had a ton of appointments I guess in the morning and they all fell through :p Well we did teach this guy
JM, yup that's all he told us hahah. He was around our age but he seemed like a sick dude, then when we really started to get into the discussion he really didn't care, he just wanted to give us a hard time about the things we believe in... but have no fear, this isn't my first rodeo cuz🏇🏼! If there's one thing I've learned...when people just want to like fight, just walk away from it, arguing literally doesn't solve anything. Yeah address their concerns, but when they just won't take it, it's not worth your time. After JM, went contacting on campus and met these two friends Wanda and Jordan, Wanda was from El Salvador and Jordan was from Mexico, they were super legit and are ganna meet with the missionaries soon! Then we had some meeting and got chased by a huge dog down the street NBD but that's how Tuesday went. Now fast forward to Friday, zone meeting in Huntsville, it was really really good! Learned something really cool about practice and making that practice perfect. To be able to achieve that perfection, the thing you practice it'self needs to be perfect. If you have a sheet of music and it's a perfect song but you don't have all the right notes or they're not in the right order it can't be perfect practice even if you practice it for weeks it just won't work. So I tried to relate this to myself or even on the future if I want to be a perfect son, husband, dad, boss etc you have to make sure you're practicing perfectly to achieve that goal, AKA you gotta be corrected a lot :p There were some helpful things to do, to help us reach it, and I can't wait to use these ideas. Then we went to Mr hamburger as usual, with Elder Lopp and Toolson. Later that night we were playing basketball with the ward and I was going up for a lay-up and plowed through some weak brick wall (Elder Williams) and when I was going up I stepped on his foot and well my ankle rolled and pretty mush busted. I sat out for like 10 min got up and started playing again! But Saturday morning I woke up and I couldn't walk on it :p so went to the doctors...hence the pictures of that. It ended up that it was not a major injury, just twisted it and pulled some ligaments and muscles. It will just take a little time and it will be good as new. Then after, Nancy 🤰🏾was at the hospital so we're we're gonna go see her baby! But the buster didn't end up having it yet :p Sunday, we had church and then dinner with Sister Farnsworth! She's seriously one of the coolest ladies I've ever meet on my mission I'm going to miss her a ton!

That's pretty much how my week went! Hope y'all enjoyed reading about it, I know that the church is true and that Jesus is the Christ. I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and his beloved son and that the Book of Mormon is the true word of God and I say that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thanks guys! Love ya!
Elder Tidwell

After our zone meeting...

Waiting to see the doctor...

Sister Farnsworth

This is right after we had gotten chased by the huge dog...

Uh oh...red and blue lights behind us...

Week 101 - I can build a house!!

Hey guys! 

Well, super awesome to talk to y'all again. I will give ya a little update about what's going on in the old THM! So far this week, crazy news! Tuesday, we had a worldwide training and as I'm sure all of you have heard lots of changes are coming to missionary work! The thing I thought was very interesting, was the reason why they are doing it. It's so missionaries can focus on the things that really matter! It's a huge change for everyone but I don't know if it's been approved by the First Presidency... it's gotta be okay! 🏼 hahah. So as for the changes... Now we don't have 9 indicators we only have 4, pday starts at 8 now and the schedule has been kind of changed up, more to be told next week! Other that that, got to see a ton of the old hood rats which is always a ton of fun! Sorry to say besides that, not really much happened this week! On Tuesday, we did the Baptist service and I have a sick Lion king shirt and one of the ladies there, Denice, calls me Mufasa, so that's always an adventure! Then on Wednesday, we took a drive way out to the boondocks to visit a family that wasn't there :p hahah Thursday, weekly planning and then Friday we had district meeting and I got to see our homie, Isaías! Saturday, we got to go help the Gonzalez build a freaking wall to put on their house! I should have gotten pictures of it but I'll throw them up next week for sure! hahah But seriously super cool, I now know how to build a house if I wanted to now :p! Then wonderful Sunday! You know gotta love it! Saw Nancy and man I'm going to miss her so much when I leave, she's like that thug sister I always wanted hahah! She thought about making her own makeup like "ghetto by Nancy" hahah, super funny! Hope lots more things are planned for next week! 

Love y'all! 

Elder Tidwell 

Chuck Norris' Ranch!!!

District!!

Man, it's been a ride!

 It's like we are coming in again...haha

Week 100 - An Eggsellent Week!

Howdy y'all!

        You know, after watching "Spongebob" for pretty much all of my life, seeing Sandy Cheeks and how southern she is, makes me finally understand why she's got so much Texas pride. Sorry, had to throw that out there! hahah Anyway, my weeks been great!! Starting off with Monday, as we were getting changed back into our pross Elder Muñoz says, "Hey put your finger on the table..." Elder Williams and I were like nope! He was like come on I'm not ganna do anything to hurt you, still we said no. Then he was like watch, and put his finger on the table and smashed a can of soup on top of it..... instantly our jaws dropped. Then we wanted a go at it! So we've totally been using it as trials of trust and faith with members, less actives and investigators. ;) 

Tuesday, we had the Baptist food drive like usual and it was pouring down rain, but nope didn't phase us! Hah Then we had to drive to Huntsville and drop off Elder Munoz and picked up the "Animal" aka Elder Toolson. Later that night, we tried to visit the Florez and it didn't work out.. :/ But they've always had this mask chillin outside of their house, so we picked it up and we decided to take a visit over to good ol Sobotka and Dickerson ;) Seriously one of the funniest moments of my mission hahah!

        Wednesday we dropped Elder Toolson off and in Huntsville they have a super crazy prison there, so I took some pictures by it and then saw some super cool wall art and took some pics by that. Thursday, we weekly planned and then had interviews...  last one before my final interview and let me tell ya, it went awesome! It was probably the best interview I've ever had, in it pretty much he was like, well I'll be having another one of these with ya real soon! hahah Then at the end of the interview I said the closing prayer and we both got up and he just had the biggest smile on his face, like of of those ones where you can't just not smile. Also this week, we've been having a constant egg war with the sisters at the Baptist food bank. They gave us 16 dozen eggs!! So crazy! We'd try to place them everywhere around the sisters...there are some pics of the war but we finished it! Then we tried to go visit this one guy, found out he's a less active member but when we stopped by he had a Budweiser horse! It was huge!! So crazy!! Then Saturday we went contacting and found this super drunk Hispanic guy who was hiccuping while we were talking to him, you know, like you see in cartoons and stuff. I never thought people actually did that hahah. While we were contacting, I saw this car filled with homies in it waiting for another guy to come out, all the windows were rolled down and stuff so I just walked up and when I was about to say something the guys in the back freaked out and it caused the guy in the front to freak out too it was so freaking funny. Like they thought they were about to die or something Hahahah. Well that's pretty much the week! 

That's for checking in! 

Love Elder Tidwell 

Week 99 - A busy week and a trip to the dentist!

Howdy howdy!

       So what up?! Well for starters, this week has been pretty bomb overall! Okay, starting from Tuesday, I was on quite the exchange! Elder Williams and Muñoz had some training or council they had to go to, so we were trying to figure out where I could go for it. Well we called around, made some plans and then got told I had to kick it here in College Station with a member. So that raised another issue because most people work during the day. We called around and couldn't find anyone, so then we thought of this guy, Andy, who recently jacked up his leg so he can't work or anything right now. So I just went with him. Then when I was sitting there with him I realized he can't drive or really do anything so we just chilled in his house the whole time! Super chill though, I really got to know him and figure out what had been going on with him and his family. I ended up at his house for a total of like 8 hours and then Elder Sobotka and his comp picked me up but while I was there with Andy, I finally got to have some Fat burger!! So good! After a little bit though, I felt my front tooth and I was like something's missing... I looked and it totally chipped off and so I knew a dentist that was a member. I called him and just asked like could you take a look see like what I should do about it. Well that pretty much sums up Tuesday, got to teach Nancy too, she's crazy let me tell you but we love her Hahahah. Also, when they got back they showed me this picture, it was of the board in the office and guess who was up top...

        Wednesday and Thursday were kind of bust days, we had correlation with Tío and then ate some lunch at good ol' Wendy's! And then I got a text from the dentist, he said come on into his office and we'll take a look at it. So we did family history and then went to his office. Crazy, I went in, he looked at it said it's just where it's at it'll happen every once in a while. I asked him a few dentist questions, like schooling and stuff(for those of you who don't know I wanna be a dentist) and he gave me some super cool advice and stuff! After that we went to El Nopalito! And Tío showed us some crazy things to "test our faith" Hahahah. Then Thursday we had weekly planning and then ate at Fazolies! Thursday, ritual you know how it is! Hahah and Friday was just a chill day, had district meeting and then did family history with Sister Farnsworth hence the video hahah. So the bummer of the week, we dropped Andrew, our bap date. He said he just wasn't ready, kind of sucked but it's okay we tried and he's going to keep coming to church and stuff. The rest of the week was just pretty laid back! 

Thanks for checking in! 

Elder Tidwell 

Fat Burger!!

There I am...Time really flies!