Happy Fireworks

Hello One and All,

So I'm writing today because our Pday was moved to the 4th this week for obvious reasons. And this was our designated day for writing. So I'll start with the previous week and then work my way to the fourth. Thanks everyone for the letters. Happy early birthday to grandpa R. And in regards to your inquiry about package stuff mom, if you see my black/red zip up sweater, I would love to have that.

Now then, into the meaty letter!

So last week we had a church tour planned for our branch. We share the branch with the Spanish sister missionaries, so we were hoping for a good turnout of investigators between the two companionships. The branch got super involved and it was a really well run activity. The only hang up was that only one person showed up, our Investigator Jose. The other problem was that Elder Diaz and I had to go and pick him up for it (one of those "ox in the mire" situations). Despite the lack of attendance the activity still went well. The whole thing was focused in on him, but he wasn't uncomfortable with it as some people might expect. The coolest part of the tour was when we were in the relief society room. The relief society president had just got done explaining the program and we took him over to the font to show him that. As soon as I had it unlocked and starting to open, as if it had been waiting inside, the spirit came pouring up out of the font. It was super strong and everyone felt it. Jose really wants to be baptized, but his wife wants nothing to do with the church, or us for that matter, and it's really starting to put a strain on the marriage. Hopefully we can bring her around.

On Friday I think it was we had an interesting experience. The sister missionaries had given us a referral, it was in their area but they said that they didn't feel comfortable going over there for some reason. In the end we were a little mad at them for the terrible referral, but at the same time glad that it was us that went over rather than them. So here's how that went down: We pull up to the house and there's four men out front drinking (it doesn't matter what holiday it is, if it presents an excuse to drink the mexicans embrace it whole heartedly). We start talking to them and two of them (presumably brothers) are out of their mind falling down drunk. Another one (the "leader" of the group) is only so-so drunk. And the fourth guy seems very apologetic for the state that his friends are in. So we start talking to the medium drunk leader. The two very drunk brothers keep interrupting so I take them aside to talk with them so Diaz can talk with the leader uninterrupted. I don't know how Diaz's teaching went but mine was good given the circumstances. I rebuked one of them several times because he kept telling me about less than righteous experiences and motives he had had for attending the Mormon church. After being out front for about an hour (we had gotten there at roughly 8 pm) we are invited to the back yard for food. We accept (there is no saying no or reasoning with a drunk man sometimes). So we enjoyed a little bit of carne asada and more attempts to share a message. Eventually it starts to hit 9:30ish so I get up and tell them we have to leave, the leader angrily says to me "Sietate flacito, vas a salir cuando yo digo que peudes" which more or less means you'll leave when I say you can. So I sat back down and Elder Diaz starts nudging me under the table which I took to mean "don't worry I got this" (I later found out it meant "stand back up I'm scared"). Eventually we are able to say a prayer with them and then the leader wanted to show us his home (or give us a ride to his home in his truck) we flat out refused and left. We got home with a rather bitter taste in our mouths at about 10:30pm. We do plan to follow up with the fourth guy, he was interested and sorry about his friends.

Pday was a lot of fun. We went with a small group of Elders to bike. It wasn't mountain biking, more riding through "trails" in a hilly forest. Definitely different than mountain biking. It was a lot of fun. Me and Elder Diaz shared the bike of an Elder who hates bikes. I went first and had a lot of fun flying through the forest maintaining an acceptable amount of control on the bike. Then Edler Diaz took his turn. His turn ended rather abruptly when going down a rather steep hill he flipped with his back and came crashing down and landing in a heap at the bottom in some bushes and trees. The rest of us ran over and started to assess the situation. He was mumbling how he couldn't move his arm. I was pretty terrified because he had already broken his arm on a previous occasion before the mission, what if it rebroke? So we rolled him over stripped off his helmet and gave him a priesthood blessing. One Elder Anointed and I sealed. Afterwards we picked him up and helped walk him back to the car. Once we stood him up we figured out nothing was broken, we suspected it was a bad wrist sprain. He was in pretty good spirits. Once we got back to the nearest Elders' home we were trying to figure out what we ought to do. Suddenly we were brought around by the sickening sound of several pops and cracks. Elder Diaz had a very relieved look on his face, apparently he had just put his wrist and shoulder back in place. The swelling immediately went away and movement returned. We all got a slightly stronger testimony about the priesthood and we learned a valuable lesson, forest biking is similar enough to mountain biking that we shouldn't do it. Everyone was ok, and we enjoyed the remainder of our Pday.

During my fourth of July dinner I was thinking enviously of the delicious barbecue that had to be going on back in Houston. The members we ate with prepared us sloppy Joe's. That's not to say that I don't like sloppy joes, but that's not what you eat on the 4th of July! The fourth is meant for grilling and guacamole and blowing stuff up. That's what the founding fathers wanted! But alas, it's ok. Another fun fact is that the days leading up to the 4th it felt like I was living in a war zone. Every single second was filled with the sound of artillery explosions.

Well, it was a pretty all right week I suppose. This week we have zone conference. So on Friday I'll be driving a car full of Elders out to Longview (about 2 1/2 hours). Then the next day is some specialized training. So there'll be some really neat experiences in the coming week hopefully. I hope everyone has a great week and I look forward to hearing from everyone next week.

Con Much Amor,
Elder Richards