Week 63 - Happy Mother's Day!

My Mother's day selfie with my favorite missionary!

Hey guys!

Well this week has been better than the last one! Right now we're in a $3.99 haircut place and Elder Schloer said he wanted a 2 on the sides and the lady is giving him a .5 Hahahah gosh dang it. Sorry, now to go back to the week! Hah Tuesday was good… we had English class and then had family history, Elder Pesci and Elder Schloer had a meeting with all the leadership in the mission. So…Elder Galante, Elder Child and I were together and visited a few people and then exchanged back a little bit later that day. Wednesday, we cleaned up the house a ton there were so many papers and just a ton of crap everywhere so we kind of had a clean-up day and then went to English class and had correlation. Thursday, we taught English class again! Hah when we got there though, at like 9:30 in the morning, we saw this huge cloud of smoke and found out this warehouse caught on fire and it was filled with hazardous chemicals like, diesel and stuff and it went on for a while it was pretty crazy! Then we went to visit some people and pretty much ended our night. Friday, we had zone meeting and then had this crazy goose chase trying to find some guy and we never found him hahah. So fast forward to Sunday my favorite day this week! I miss my family so much! I'm so thankful for my mom and everything that she does for me and all of our family. I can't wait to see them again! :) Thanks for checking in guys love ya lots!

~Elder Tidwell

A little note from mom...

We loved our Skype call with T!! He really is doing great! His connection wasn't great so he ended up talking to us in the bathroom because it was a stronger signal in there! haha That is why it looks like there is a shower curtain behind him in the picture!! The call did freeze up a lot and we spent a good portion of the call repeating questions and whatnot...still a great call though!! It was fun to meet his companions as well! 9 months to go!! 

Family pic!

A family from Jersey Village....

Three amigos!

Elder Galante, Elder Child, and myself!!

The big fire!

My Zone!

Me and Elder Pecsi on our exchange!

My Goodwill find!

Week 62 - New Area...New Comps!!...Food Poisoning!

Hey guys!

Well… new area and new comps! This week’s been kind of tough but a really good one! I’m in this area now, called Houston 10 and I'm in a trio with Elder Schloer and Elder Galante. None of us have been in this area so we are white washing hahah. It's definitely been a big change for me because all you do when you are in our situation is you just contact. Which if you don't already know… isn't my most favorite thing in the world ;) But we've met a ton of cool people from it! We've eaten at a house pretty much every day this week! :) The only problem is…we got food poisoning from one of the houses we ate at. :p That was kind of lame and took us out for a few days!! Hahah Of course we got better after a while! :) On Saturday, we did a little exchange which was awesome! I got to go play soccer with Suamy and a bunch of people showed up it was great! :) Then Sunday we had 10 hours at church it was crazy! This is because we cover 2 wards, an English and a Spanish Hah! Then we went to the family, Machados for dinner and it was so awesome to eat white people food! I'm so excited for this week and the chance I get to talk to my family on Mother’s day! I'm so excited and time has gone by so quick I can't believe it! I'll send more next week! Love y'all!

~Elder Tidwell

On our way to get Elder Schloer...

Me and Suamy!

Playing soccer while on splits...

Hno Ramirez, his daughter Karla, her husband Hno Salgado and
their son Abram

Me with my new comps!!

Week 61 - Flooding...#does this count as swimming?

Well here we are again!

This week’s been great! Lots of service! Monday, we had a crazy storm come through and our parking lot was super full of water! We went over and walked around to help a ton of people out. We got told to just stay in that day, so we hung out with the English elders and emailed and just went around helping hah. Tuesday, we had a crazy exchange and went to help with some golf course service and then went to this one street closer to downtown and went knocking on people's doors just asking if they needed anything. Wednesday, we did the same thing and Thursday and Friday Hahahah and well Saturday Hahahah.  We would go to other areas and ask people if they needed help, then we got a call from someone asking for help and it was a super sweet lady who had her own little like bird pond in her backyard! I also got to meet this super cool guy named Reed, he reminds me a ton of myself before I came out on my mission. While out and about we found 9 Cubans this week and are teaching them in English class! They’re so awesome! We got to see a ton of families from our wards and eat with them and oh my gosh…we got some of the best chicken from this one family hahah. That's pretty much my week in a nutshell…lots of service! hah Thanks for checking in!

Love ya!

~Elder Tidwell

A word from mom...
Tristin shared in an email with me, that he loved helping the people in the community. He said that it felt so good to be able to lend a hand! he also said that it was heartbreaking seeing how much so many people lost. Many homes had 2 - 10 feet of water in them. He said quite a few people didn't have flood insurance and lost everything. He said that witnessing something like that firsthand was surreal.  

Braving the flood waters with the English elders in their big van...

Emailing at the church...so our families know we are safe!!

Service at the golf course...

The Temple...

The work crew ;)

Just taking a break on a park bench....

503...

Week 60 - Worst P-day ever...

Hey guys!

Well this week’s been a slow one hah. On Monday… not going to lie probably the worst P-day ever hahah. Got cavities filled :/… my word of advice, just get them all fixed before you come out or right when they pop up! Hahah. For the remainder of the day we played water balloon volleyball and then did some contacting. Tuesday, we had English class and then family history training. Wednesday, we ate at the pastrana’s and they cooked us sopes made with haberno chillies haha, a little hot you could say. Later that day we tried the hottest sauce in the universe made with ghost peppers hahah!! Uh…Yeah! Thursday, we had English class and ate at the Salgado’s and had mole which was okay… :p hahah Friday, we ate at the qouaso’s and had pizza! Saturday, we went contacting in this super ghetto complex and contacted 41 people crazy sauce! We met this really, really awesome Cuban family!  Sunday was just a regular Sunday haha… all and all a pretty chill week. sorry not that many crazy stories…next week will sure blow your socks off hahah :) As many of you probably have heard we are having some crazy flooding today!

~Elder Tidwell

Hottest Sauce in the Universe!

Me and Elder Corn

At the dentist visiting with the nice lady on the wall...

Week 59 - The Adventures of Bonzi and T-Diddy...

Banzi and T-Diddy...

The Aventures of Bonzi and T-Diddy…

Well you’re probably wondering what the title is about… I'll explain a little later hah. So my week started with Water balloon fights and we went to do some contacting and visited a few families. Tuesday we had English class at the school which was so much fun hahah :) Then we had family history training for a while. After that the elders of H 10 needed to go get a new car so we went with them but it took like 4 hours to finally get the car! Hah Then we went on exchanges, Elder Cabrera came with me and we did some contacting and tried to visit a few members. Wednesday we exchanged back and had interviews with our mission president which went really, really good! Thursday we went to H10 and did some weekly planning with them and then went on another exchange. Then Friday we had district meeting and then went on another exchange! Whoa! A ton of exchanges this week! I went to Elder Banzo’s area with him and we started our day off with some wonderful contacting. We passed this group outside and didn't think anything of it but then decided we would go say hi and invite them. Brent, Kevin, Suzy and Sarah were their names and they were awesome hahah! We invited them to do some family history and then just chat with them for a while. We got to the end and I was just like, can I take a picture with you guys?? I have to tell my family and friends about you so I did hahah! While we were talking to them Brent gave me and Elder Banzo nicknames, Banzi and T-Diddy hahah! So there's that! They were blown away with some of the things we do as missionaries hah! They also told us we were probably the coolest LDS cats they have ever met hahah! Definitely made me feel pretty good hahah ;) Saturday was a good day…we had to do our weekly planning and then had some appointments going on and found these super awesome ghetto apartment complexes! Like I'll have to take pictures hahah.

Well that's pretty much all for this week love you guys!
Elder Tidwell

Got myself some Dinosaur Oatmeal!

Us and D!

Me and Elder Bonzo!

On the exchange with Elder Cabrerra...

Week 58 - Zone Meeting and Conference!

Hey guys!

Well another week down hahah. This week was pretty chill not much had happened until the weekend because of miles. So I'll start off with Friday, we got new miles and had zone meeting and Hermana Lowery gave her final testimony to us it was really good! We learned a lot about faith and all the things that help us build it up. I've learned it's like a muscle, you can build it up and up but when you stop using it or stop working it out…it fades away. Saturday, we had general conference… my favorite talk was probably President Uchtdorf’s during the priesthood session Saturday night and Sunday's was probably Elder D. Todd Christofferson and his talk about fathers. But overall I think my favorite talk as I'm sure is the same with many of you is Elder Holland’s talk. The first thing he talked about was how much they love us, which really touched me and also talking about how times will get hard and we might not be able to handle the task at hand but that the Lord will bless those of us who try. Sorry skipped ahead hahah! So in between first and second session we got Chick-fil-a for lunch and then went back and kind of hung out. We had the second session and then when we were waiting for the priesthood session playing on the piano a member came up to us and just gave us some watches! He looked at the sweet Nixon watch I have and said you need an upgrade hahah it was such a blessing! Then we ate pie and watched the session hah :) I definitely got a lot from the past three sessions including a lot of stuff I can't wait to put into use when I become a husband and father. Sunday, we had the other sessions and I just wanted to say how thankful I am for prophets in these the latter days and for all the guidance we get from them. We then had a lesson after with this less active member C and her boyfriend M. Toward the end of the lesson the spirit was so strong…we sealed it with our testimonies which definitely brought me and Elder Pesci to tears and then even more when we saw all of them crying. Over all it was a really good week :)

~Elder Tidwell

Trying crawfish! 

On an exchange with Elder Child

The sweet watch I was given!!

Zone pictures!!