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| David standing right where Pres. Kennedy was shot. |
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| David and his friend Mike. |
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| David his Zone Leader, Elder Rodriguez, who was going home. |
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| Texas skies! |
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| More Texas skies! |
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| David and Elder Crockett just messing around! |
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| Elder Crockett and David with their good friend David in downtown Dallas. |
Buenos Dias mis amigos!
When I read your email the first time through I thought you said
you and dad were going to get your Brazil "shoRts" tomorrow. I thought
"what the heck are Brazil shorts?! I want some!" And then I thought
more about it and decided that Brazil shorts
are probably speedos. No thank you! Well, anyway, I had a pretty
decent week. It's been fairly cold and rainy here and I kinda love it.
It is so nice being able to work without sweating like crazy! We have
gone from months of hiding in the shade as much
as possible to now trying to be in the sun as much as possible! The
week was fairly eventful. No real miracles, but it certainly wasn't
boring. But when is missionary boring? NEVER!
Friday we had interviews with President Durrant. Mine was short and sweet. It went a little something like this:
Pres: "how are things?" Me: "Great!" Pres: "anything we need to
talk about?" Me: "nope!" Pres: "good. keep it up!" Me: "will do!"
And that's it. After the interview I thought of a few things that we
could have discussed, but I was just too nervous
I couldn't think straight! I don't know why I am so intimidated by
him. I have no reason to be! He is the kindest, most loving guy I've
ever met, but I just can't help it! Hopefully that will pass with time
and we can form that friendship that I hope to
have with him.
The other day we helped Paul, a guy in the ward, move some
furniture from his neighbors place to his new place. His neighbors
apartment was the most wretched place I have ever set foot! It was a
zoo in their!! It reeked of dog, cat, parakeet, rooster,
and urine! There was bird food everywhere, as well as digested bird
food I guess you could call it. Elder Crockett was very frustrated
because that kinda stuff isn't really our responsibility, technically
it's the home teachers that should be helping him
with that. There are a few certain people in this ward that rely on
missionaries way too much and think we can come help them with anything
any time! Elder Crockett is fed up. But I try to be happy to serve.
Sometimes that's difficult to do though when
working in places such as that one.
One cold night this week Elder Crockett was kind enough to lend
me one of his black coats, so we both had one on. We knocked on a
random door and a Hispanic lady answered the door, and as we were
trying to make small talk with her she just looked
absolutely terrified. After a few minutes we realized we had to
clarify to her that we were just missionaries, and the policia that came
to deport her. Once we did that it looked like the weight of the world
was lifted off her shoulders and she let us in
and we had a good lesson. Haha! I'm sure that will happen again.
I don't know what it was about this week but we had a few run
ins with some very confrontational people. We met a morena at service, a
super strong believer that asked if she could pray for us. So we took
hands and she said a prayer for what seemed
to be 10 minutes long. She basically asked that God would show us that
us Mormons are wrong. Then Elder Crockett got into a bit of a friendly
debate with her. It went nowhere. Another day we were downtown, and a
moreno approached us, and started blabbering
on about nothing. We listened and debated for about 45 minutes, then
tempers started flaring and he left before it got out of hand. The next
day we were at the same spot downtown, and the same moreno came up and
started talking to us again. It wasn't even
talking with us, it was talking at us. We couldn't get him to shut up
or leave us alone! Normally, with people like that, I just sit back and
don't say a word and let my companion duke it out. For one, they
probably handle it a lot better than I could,
and two, we aren't supposed to bash so I just hope they can say their
piece and leave. But with this dude, I got mad. I couldn't keep my
mouth shut. So I shared some pretty colorful words with him, he didn't
like that, things got out of hand, and now missionaries
are no longer allowed at the homeless shelter down town. ... just
kidding! But I did get mad and had to raise my voice a little bit.
What irritates me is that these people come up to us pretending to be
all nice and polite and genuinely interested, when
all they really want to do is BASH! Arrrgh! It is something that I
will just have to learn to do will with and avoid as much as possible.
Because it does us absolutely no good.
We had some good member dinners this week. We haven't been too
well fed this month by members, but one night we ate with the Williams
Family! Wasn't quite like home, but they were nice people and we had
French Toast. Probably the first time I've
eaten anything with syrup and 5 months! Mmmm it was delicioso.
Brother Williams is a ceramics and wood working expert. You and Em
would have loved to see some of the stuff he's made! He had some
ginormo pots that he said took him 80-90 hours! Maybe someday
you guys could get on his level. He also told us a story from his
mission about a companion he had that wanted to hold his hand every time
he went to the bathroom. He turned out to be gay. Made me
realize that I've been pretty lucky so far! Last night
we had dinner with the Dunford Family. The cool thing about dinner was
that we had an Iranian German brother join us. He came from Germany to
Texas for business, Brother Dunford met him for the first time that
morning at church and invited him to dinner.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a beautiful thing.
Nowhere else would that ever happen! But because of the membership in
the church Brother Dunford and Brother Hashkeno had an immediate bond
and he was able to join us for dinner while
feeling completely welcome and comfortable. It was pretty stinkin
neat.
Well, we had 3 investigators come to church yesterday. I felt
bad for them because translation was bad, the translating device thingy
ma bobbers weren't working well, and they didn't seem to enjoy it much.
But the Primary Program was yesterday and
I have faith that the Spirit was enough! Dealing with Spanish
investigators in an English ward and translation is a real pain.
This coming Saturday is transfer calls, and there is a very good
chance that the Crockett-Williams Chapter will come to an end. While I
am still hoping for change, I might actually miss the kid! We have
come a long way. Hopefully I have some news
for y'all next week!
--we did get the pizza Monday. MUCHISIMOS GRACIAS!
--I recieved two letter this week, one from madre and one from Cindy Nielsen. Thank you! I will respond soon.
--no service projects lately, just volunteering at the food pantry Tues and wed afternoons.
--Spanish is improving. Now that I've finished reading the Book of
Mormon I just do two solid hours of language study. Still got a long
way to go though. I read the talk in english, then Spanish, look up
words I don't know, and then listen to the talk
while reading along in the Liahona with it, and then just listen to it.
I think it is helping!
--most apartments seem to have speakers or a sound system, so I don
have something with which I can listen to my ipod for now. I don't
think I will need that baby speaker, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to
hold on to it.
Welp. That's my week. I'm a missionary. And if I said I loved it
I'd be telling the absolute TRUTH! I love y'all. I miss y'all. I
will pray for uncle Ken as well as the rest of you. I always do. Que
le vayan con Dios!
con amor bastante que vosotros no pueden imaginar,
Elder Williams
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