Witchita Falls, Texas- Week 45

Hey!
It hasn't rained at all this week, so it is starting to get hotter outside, but we heard it might rain Wednesday and Thursday, so that would be nice, not much happen this week, we did have zone conference in Lawton on Wednesday, and it was really good, they talked about the mission focus and what we can do to become more focused on the missionary work. The zone conference took all day. We had exchanges on Friday, they went well, we got a lot of work done. On Saturday we volenteered at Habitat for Humanity, doing a parade of homes, so we were selling tickets for house tours. Mike and Steve are doing good, Steve`s foot is still healing and he was telling us, that hopefully with a little more time he could come to church with us! So we are really excited for that. Our investigators are doing good, haven't been able to see most of them this week, but we try to stay in contact with them. Tortilla tally is 2. Love you all!  

Witchita Falls, Texas- Week 44

Hey!

We have been busy this week, we have been getting lots of referals, and finding lots of prepared people, it was really cool to being able to talk to them. On Wednesday, we had our Book of Mormon class, it went well, and we were able to have good discussions about it. Mike and Steve are doing good. It rained a lot here on Thursday, we were at bishops house for dinner and we watched the storms roll in, the clouds were going really fast, it was cool to see. We saw Chenelle and Tyler again on Friday, last time we met with them we gave them a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and told them that that is what we are going to talk about next time, so when we came back on Friday, they told us that they read it! And it answered alot of questions that they had. So we taught them the Plan of Salvation, and it went so well!! I love going over there and being able to teach them. Saturday and Sunday was Stake Conference, so we didn't do that much work those days, but the conference was really good, the theme of it was about the Sabbath day and keeping it holy, Elder Frost from the 70 was there, it was great to hear from all the speakers! 

Witchita Falls, Texas- Week 43

Hey!!!
Just so you know, I didnt get washed away in all the flooding here yesterday, the library was closed so we couldn't email till today. So, last time I think I talked about Chenille  (I think that's how its spelled not sure) and Tyler, well we met with them last Monday night, Tyler wasn't home but she was, we had a amazing lesson with her! And we set up another time to come back which was last night!!!!!!!!!! It was one, if not the best lesson, Elder Santamaria and I have ever had!!!! So they were both home so we got to talk to them both, Tyler is a dog trainer in the airforce, training Malawians and German Sheppard's, so I though that was really cool. It reminded me of the animal rescue back home. So we taught them the restoration, and watched the short restoration DVD, everything went amazing, the spirit was so strong, and we set a Baptismal Date with both of them! They had so many good questions- how do I know who has the correct authority? How does the Book of Mormon and the Bible work together? -and many others like that. One of my favorite was Tyler asked us what our Church thought of tattoos, so we told him about how our bodies are like a temple, then he said "Well, I guess I better stop then with what I have." That whole family is awesome! And we set a return appointment for later this week and they are feeding us dinner! So you were talking about the storms here, yep your right, flooding was becoming a real concern for many here and the city evacuated many on the east side of town (we are safe, where we live, it could never flood into our home). So this week we really got to see all of Wichita and even some surrounding areas come together and help us out. We filled many sandbags this week, companies donated tons and tons of sand and bags, while other donated food and drinks for those who were working. There were so many people that showed up to help fill sandbags for others, and at one point about 40 airmen, showed up in there uniforms and started helping. One of the many cool things that I saw while there was a older lady showed up to the site needing sand bags for her home, so we filled as many as she needed, loaded them onto her truck for her, and then a few people jumped in the back of her truck so that when she got to her house, they could unload and set them up for her. We got to meet with Grace, Mary and Dorcas again! They are doing good, they told us that even though we haven't been there in a while, they have still been reading a little in the Book of Mormon! Luckily this weekend the storms went around us, sparing us from further flooding, so it was not as bad as everyone thought it might have been. I love you all and hope everyone is haveing a great week! 
Also, did i tell you about the three guys that moved into the ward for the summer? They all returned from their missions 6 months ago. I call them the 3 Nephites- one served in Cambodia, one was in Peru, and I forget where the other one served, but they are so cool!  

Witchita Falls, Texas- Week 42

Hey!
It was soo good to see everyone yesterday! Not sure what to put in my email now :) seems like I told you everything yesterday. There have been lots of storms this week, it all started on Wednesday after Book of Mormon Class, we got warnings on our phones about tornados, so we look out side and it starting to look a little scary out there. So we go to a members house who has a shelter. We stayed there till this storm passed over us, it seems like we were there for ever. I think we left around 11pm, so we got home late, and that is how it was for all the days after that. Around 4 or so, the storm would come in and we got to shelter. So far for this week the weather looks good till Wednesday again, after that it looks stormy. We are still doing the community service, Tuesday and Wednesday are the last two days, so ready for that to be over. With all of that going on, weather and service, we literally have done nothing else, so that has been hard, next week after all this service is done things should be picking up again, so that's why this email is shorter, but dont worry I have plently of pictures. And it is funny that you sent me that EMS stuff, because yesterday while Elder Santamaria was Skyping, Steven, the member we were with was studying for that and 911 dispacher stuff, and I was helping him study for a test, and I actually did pretty well on the test, got most of them right, he had a practice test with him and he would read me the questions and I would answer them, so that is funny that you brought it up. Have a great week!

The Storm Is Coming!

Weather Watching! Lightning!

Sister Ellis`s "Funeral"

Me with Mike and Steve

Rainbow After The Storm

Another Storm Coming

Witchita Falls, Texas- Week 41

Hey! 

This has been a long week, we had a training meeting on Monday, it was about our motivation for teaching, it was really good, and I was able to learn a lot from that, trying to apply that now in our lessons now. So about a week ago, Elder Santamaria got a speeding ticket, so now he is paying it off with community service at the food bank, so that means I have to go with him while he does that. 8-12 everyday. Except, Mondays, Fridays, and the weekend, so it's a long morning. Wednesday was the first day of service, that went ok, nothing too bad, we are just there forever! Thursday was the worst though, we had to go through bad carrots, picking out the good ones, they smelled so bad! Finally, we and another person who was working with us, got the person in charge of that area and showed him the carrots, to ask him if we could please throw the whole pallet out.... there was steam coming from a few of the bags...... he saw that and he is like, yep, get that out of here. So no more carrots! :) we had exchanges this week, I went with Elder Schwartz to his area and Elder Stailhi was here with Elder Santamaria. It was a good exchange for everyone. Us and the sisters had dinner with a member and while we are waiting, the kids are bringing out lots of foam swords and shields, so we thought that was funny as they are fighting around us. Then they brought out two metal helmets, that's when we joined in..... it was so much fun. We are working with a few members, helping them prepare for the temple, they are doing great! One of them is working on quitting smoking, and doing great! We went over to their house, and told us that in 4 days they went from 2 1/2 packs a day to 6 cigarettes a day! It is amazing to see the power of prayer and the gospel change someone's life!

Fight Week!

Witchita Falls, Texas- Week 40

Hey!
Yep, we have gotten quite of rain this week, its raining outside right now, this was a slow week, not that much happening. We are staying dry, we only had to ride our bikes in the rain once this week, so that was really nice. We saw Mike and Steve, things are getting hard for Steve, him stuck in the nursing home, his foot, and other stuff, so he has been depressed lately, so we have been trying to cheer him up again. We had a lesson with Claudia, she is doing great! Been to church 5 or 6 times in a row now! She is awesome, and learning so much. She and her fiancé just need to get married. I don't know if I told you this, but we took a member with us to see her, and it turned out that they knew each other when they were kids, they even worked together. He told us that he was so surprised when he saw her at church, and he is a convert too. Amazing how those things work out. The ward has been great at making her feel welcome, that is the greatest help that a ward can do for those that are investigating and attend church, make them feel welcome. On Sunday, the temple president and his wife came to our ward! They both gave talks and it was so wonderful, they were amazing talks about the temple. We had a miracle on Sunday too! We are working with two members to help them go to the temple. Back when it was Elder Rodreigez and I, we would always ask our mission leader every week and the other leaders when they are going to have temple prep class because we have people that really want to go. They kept saying that they don't have it right now, and it will probably start later. So this Sunday, I am walking down the hall and I hear someone talking about going to temple prep in a few minutes, so I'm like "Wait what? Se have temple prep now?" I guess the first class was this Sunday so we went to find the other people to let them know too, so now they can start preparing for the temple! We were not able to see Grace, Mary, and Dorcas this week, but we should see them next week! We had a movie night on Friday, we saw Meet the Mormons, so that was cool to see again. Tortilla tally is 2 for this week. I love all of you! Hope everyone is having a great week, and next week I will have pictures to send to you!

Witchita Falls, Texas- Week 39

Hey!

This was a great week, we actually got rain this week!! That's a miracle for Wichita Falls, and on Saturday, we actually got a tornado warning, nothing happened, so that's good. Elder Rodriguez called me on Monday, so that was cool talking to him, he is staying busy, told me he has been going out with the missionaries a lot. We did more service at the food bank on Tuesday it is fun. We saw Mike and Steve again, Mike is doing good, Steve's foot is healing so we are very glad to hear that, still he has a few more months to go. All the antibiotics he is on is making him really sick though, poor guy, he just wants to get feeling better soon, I think his has a few more days on antibiotics then they can take him off of them, and that should make him feel better. We have a new investigator that we are now teaching, she is a army chaplain, so she already knows about us which is cool, she was a referral. She wanted a Bible so we went over and gave her one and asked if we should share a message about Christ with her, she said yes, so we came back a few days later and she told us that she has been reading the Bible and Book of Mormon together! That is sooo cool and said that she will come to church next week, there has been many miracles this week. Also, one of the members here was having a birthday party and invited us, so we went over there and had party with him and his friends and a few other members of the ward, that was fun to go to. We had exchanges with the District and Zone leaders this week, got to see more miracles because of that! One thing that we have started up again was going down the ward roster and seeing if people have moved out or not, we are working on one small neighborhood that is a little ways away from the main part of the city. We have been having success with that, found out that a few have moved so far, but we got some people that said we could come back as well. So every time we have the car, we try to go out there for a hour or so, to get a little more done. The coolest person we have met out there so far was a this members husband, she wasn't home but he was nice and let us inside. In there front room, he had a lots of cages. They had a rabbit, guinni pigs, chinchillas, rats, and I think it was called a short tailed African possum. And his possum wasn't ugly like a normal one, it was a lot smaller and cuter! It was funny he held his finger out and the possum wrapped its tail around his finger and was just chilling upside down, it was funny, so we thought that front room was cool. Then he says hey, do you want to see the coolest part? Yeah! So we walked into the back room that is was full of different kinds of snakes and lizards!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some of them were really cool looking, he told us that's what he does is breed these and sells them, he was really cool and said we could come back any time we wanted :) We met with Grace, Mary and Dorcas again on Saturday, had a awesome lesson with them, they can't wait to be baptized! The only thing now is for them to go to church, it's hard because Grace has to work on Sundays and is the only one with the car, so that is what we are working on right now. It's cool how we know that Mary understands, Grace and Dorcas understand English the best so they understand that way, and there are times when Grace will explain parts of something to Mary in Yoruba, she is understanding well to. So how we know Mary understands is when she will tell us something we said about the Book of Mormon or/and Bible, and she started talking about that before she reads the Bible, she will then read part of the Book of Mormon and then everything makes more sense to her! They are awesome! When we came in on Saturday, Dorcas started talking to us, "Hola, Como Esta?" And at first we didn't even realize what she was saying, and she said it again, and we were confuzed, "wait, you know Spanish?!" She told us that she is learning it, so that was cool, we told her that we could help her with Spanish if she taught us Yuruba, so she taught us, how to say Elder (Olori) and what is your name (Kini oruko re) and what's funny about that is we actually used it later on in the week! We picked up the sisters from their lesson, and they told us that the guy they were teaching was from Nigeria, so we talked with him and asked if he spoke Yuruba? He said he did so we asked him Kini oruko re? And he started laughing so hard, and was like "no way!? You know Yuruba?" and told us his name, and we said that our names were Olori Santana, and Olori Santamaria, it was really cool, and I'm sure he was very surprised. That has to be the highlight of the week it was so funny. So with interviews with President, he comes down to your area, and asks us how are we doing? how's the area, things like that, what was the last thing you studied, and he asked me if I have become more Christ like since I have been out, I told him I thought so, I felt the spirit more in my life, so then we were talking about Christ like attributes and he said "Since you have been out, are you nicer and kinder to others?" I thought that was a interesting question, as we become kinder to other we are becoming more like Christ. Hope you are all having a great week! Love you!

I have my rice bag full of stuff to take in case of a tornado :)

There are horses everywhere here, im going to start taking pictures of them all

On the way to Burkburnett, its been raining so its green here for once