Chapter 2

Hello All,

Might as well start out with some very good news: I met Elder Vergara this week at transfers, and he told me that Rocky has a date to be baptized on the 9th of May, and also that Tony and Staniel are engaged and will be married on the 6th of May. I was really red in the face with joy at this.

Actually, I didn't find out where he himself was sent, though I learned from him that he would be a District Leader. Elder Drennan and I came early enough for the Spanish test held the morning of transfers, but all else we did was talk to some people, like the missionaries covering Windcrest, and left. I caught Elder Bertelsen on the way out and found out he was leaving, and that the ward is doing well. Elder Downer will stay there. Before transfers, I was wondering who the new missionaries in the district might be. 

I saw Elder Zelaya at the transfer meeting. Elder Drennan knew him from his schooling at BYU.

Then, later that afternoon, we got a call from the missionaries in Las Palmas B. Instantly, I recognized a voice, familiar, but not from Elder Olsen. "?Sabe quien habla Elder Hall?" (Do you know who is speaking, Elder Hall) "No, no lo puedo creer, ?! Elder Bertelsen!?" (No, no, I can't believe it, Elder Bertelsen?) So sure enough, Elder Bertelsen is my new district leader. It's quite funny, because Elder Hart was Elder Downer's MTC companion, and so Elder Hart swapped his trainer for his MTC companion's other trainer. Elder Christensen is the new zone leader (he served in our area about a year and a half ago) and Elder Black is Elder Hill's new companion. They came into the mission at the same time.

This past week we've started to narrow down on our teaching pool. A few of the part member families that we were working with are near impossible to catch now (Chris and Darian are one example, the J family is another), so we didn't teach as much this week as we would have liked. But things are progressing with the people we are teaching, and we have a lot of potential that we need to follow up on, so we can start teaching new people.

Gregg and Yeseñia are doing well. They are trying to figure out a new marriage date, we believe, because they are taking steps to find a new dress, a maternity one. They will move forward, just slowly and steadily. They have made it to church two weeks in a row, sacrament meeting too, and their oldest daughter should be baptized on May 3rd. She's just a 8 year old, but hadn't been baptized yet. Greg should follow her soon, if the ideal situation plays out. Because Gregg has been taught so much already, we're only teaching a little bit each visit and focusing more time on his scripture reading.

Jonathan and Sandra are doing well. We met with Jonathan a few times last week, and he read from 1 Nephi 1 to about 10 in one evening. We're hoping to help him read less each day, rather than many chapters in a single day, so that the influence of the Book of Mormon can be more consistent, and so that he isn't overwhelmed as he continues to read. Unfortunately, he didn't make it to church Sunday. At the same time though, reading is a great start! The difference between  Jonathan and Sandra, and Gregg and Yeseñia and how they all progress, and the other part member families is Sandra and Yeseñia are putting concerted effort to be an example, and they want to be active. Other couples fall by the wayside because the effort of the member is limited. It's amazing to see the effect we can have on the ones we love.

We couldn't meet with Karla this week, but they were reading a little bit. Crazy thing after another kept us from meeting, all coming to a grand climax at the end of the week. She started working for an old employer of hers, and her schedule conflicted with a few of the appointments we set. Then Fiesta, a random state-wide party holiday event thingy, gave her the opportunity to go to a party which conflicted with another appointment we had. Then, we dropped by, and learned that his brother's girlfriend was injured in a car crash, and he she ended up taking care of all 6 of his kids. She's still interested in meeting, seems like she's progressing, but event after event made things difficult this week. 

On this particular day trying to contact members, we got into the car and saw two people, we though a man and a woman, punching at each other in the middle of the street. They never made contact with each other, so we weren't sure if this was domestic violence, or a somewhat friendly bout. Luckily it was more of a bout. We talked to them and invited them to hear our message. We also made friendly joking comments about the stage combat they engaged in earlier. Chrystal and Alex were their names, and they receive the message well, albeit with frequent cursing and foul language. Alex is a former Jehova's Witness and she would got to different Christian non-denominational churches. They acted a lot more rough then they turned out to be, and towards the end of the lesson Chrystal showed us her 3 or 4 bibles that she had. They also had a 1 year old with them, I forget the little guy's name, and he seemed really distressed as we taught. Chrystal is actually the sister of another rough guy we met a few weeks ago, and had been trying to meet with. You should have been there when we first saw them, I had no idea what was going on.

I'm hoping that we can pick up on all of the potential that is laden here in 10th ward.

Another thing happened, 

This past P-day we went to SAS, the San Antonio Shoe store, which is actually quite famous. We had no idea that it was in our area, and Elder Drennan had though it was in 10th A's area. It has a lot of random exhibits, really expensive shoes hand made shoes that I didn't even expect to buy, and ice cream. We bought ice cream and took this picture.

Me and Elder Drennan with ??

Questions and Answers

I'm really glad you get another transfer period with Elder Drennan.  So, what are you doing with your opportunity to work together for a longer time?  

We've continued our pledge to drop by every member of the ward residing in our area. In doing so, we've found even more part-member families, less active members that want to come back, and other people that we can help. We're working to realize all of the opportunities that have been given to us. No matter if we baptize, we will insure that those who follow us should.    

How are Gregg and Yeseñia doing?

They are doing well. They are progressing steadily. They feed us dinner once a week, which is very kind of them. Apparently Elder Bertelsen knew them because he served in the Spanish-branch that covers the Stake, where her family attends.

How are Karla and her family?

Also should be doing well. Her priorities a little mixed up, but many of them are in the right place as well.

How are Rosa and Brother B?

We taught her the Word of Wisdom, which was easy for her to accept, owing to the fact she has learned about it before, and she already has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith being a prophet. She's less excited about getting married, maybe because of her past divorce and the relationship problems that came with it.

 And the Aldridge family- how are they?  

They said they would come to church, and the Fernandez family would be able to come as well, but they didn't make it. . . . I kind of expected it, given the fact that going to church is really hard when you haven't gone for a while. Pray for them, and we'll continue doing.

And how are the stray dogs treating you?

Like hostages.

Allow me to relate this experience:

Last night we were looking for people that Las Palmas B had related to us to go visit, and we decide to walk the block, talking to people outside. Not as good of an idea as we thought.

We ran into this stray bulldog, and even though we tried to avoid us, it kept tailing us. Some neighbors outside said, "be careful, that dog gets aggressive!" but we weren't sure if they said that just to get rid of us. 

We ended up continuing further and further down the street, all the while that it seem to circle us, approach us, sniff and become disinterested, and continue on. Midway through the trip a car passing us honked loudly and startled us, probably trying to help us lose the dog. It would mark its territory on something as it went, occasionally as it went. It was funny but also terrifying, because every time that we attempted to bail and go the opposite direction when it was off examining something else, it would see us in the distance and come right back -- not running at us but trotting just fast enough to catch up. Was it a pros-dog or were we its prisoners? We also wondered if it was just escorting us through its part of town. Eventually we got out of its area and it left us.

Were we protected, or was it actually friendly? You decide . . .

--

-Elder Hall

Texas San Antonio Mission

Us in our fancy shirts

I wore my invisibility cloak for this one.

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