Golden Contacts

I wanna tell you all a little bit about our recent convert, Olga Eckstein. She is the bomb!! She is 65 years old, and she has a mini-horse as a pet. Haha but she loves to feed us, and she loves coming to church and learning more in class. She loves to read! In fact, I believe she read the whole Gospel Principles Manual in like a week! But she is so awesome and Elder Vickery said that she's the strongest convert he's ever seen on his mission. Just a great lady.

So just yesterday on Monday, we had one of the coolest lessons that I've been able to have while here in San Antonio. We were knocking in this apartment complex and we knocked into this young woman probably in her early 20's. Her name was Angel. It came to our attention that she was having family troubles and that we needed to stress our discussion with her on that. As we talked she remained very quiet but the spirit was so strong, which was amazing because we were teaching her on her front porch amid the noises of the outside. But there was actually one point during the lesson where we had finished speaking about the Joseph Smith story and Elder Vickery asked her a question and we waited for her response for what seemed like an hour. But she slowly began to speak and said, " I believe that what you're saying is true...And I feel really good talking to you guys." We asked her if she would like to be baptized and she said 'yes'.

So basically it was pretty sick... It was just an awesome experience and I really wanted to share that with you guys. So family, your assignment for this week. "Will you... pray for Angel so that her baptism will go through?" GOLDEN!!

But here's what's up...really awesome week. So we had the really cool experience with Angel last Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, we stopped by a member's house for dinner, Sister Rodriguez. She invited a friend over with her kids to join us and we ended up setting up a time to go by them and teach them the next day. Her name is Ivan and she has 5 kids, 3 of which are baptismal age. The first time we taught em, we invited them to be baptized on June 6th! So sweet! Unfortunately they didn't come to church yestarday, so that will be our main focus with them. And also on Thursday, we are teaching a woman named Elva and she lives with her mom. The mom speaks Spanish but the daughter speaks both. We committed them as well to be baptized on June 6th, for the Spanish branch!! So it's really been just an amazing week.

Texas BBQ, Viscious Dogs and an Unexpected Visit

So a note about what the ratio of Spanish to English is here in my area. Right now, I would say that we teach 60% English and 40% Spanish. Most people here in my area speak Spanish and English both, but because they are so friendly, they speak English when we talk to them. Sometimes, when we approach someone on the street or in their yard, we introduce ourselves in English. And often people will say, "I no speak ingles". So Elder Vickery and I then say, "oh esta bien. Hablamos espanol tambien". (oh, it's ok. We speak Spanish too!)

It's really kinda fun not knowing what to expect... And the members are great about helping us with our Spanish as well.

Texas BBQ
So I thought I'd take a little time to kinda tell you a little more about what my area is like. So first off, my apartment is called the Sonoma Canyon complex and it is probably about 5 miles due Northwest of Downtown. My apartment complex is actually not even in our proselyting area, but the complex is owned by an LDS member so we're getting a great deal on it. But our proselyting area is just under the 410 freeway, or what's called, "the loop". Basically its in the northwest corner of the 410 loop, if that makes sense. It is considered a Spanish area, but like I said, we probably teach about 60% English and 40% Spanish. It really is a different world.

There are taquerias, or taco and mexican food restaurants, on every corner. Plenty of fast food. Haha do you remember the movie, "Super Size Me"? In that movie, it talks about how San Antonio is one of the most obese cities in America..... true doctrine. But hey, it's all good. It's just really easy to see how that became so, because everyone's favorite soda here in Texas is Big Red. Big Red is also referred to as liquid bubblegum. It tastes exactly like gum and it contains a a lot of sugar!... I had two of em last night at dinner... but, they also love the greasy fried TexMex. Plenty of fajitas, beans, ribs, corn, rice, guacamole, and plenty of other meats. Texas, like any other place loves its beer. We've had tons of times where we walk into someone's house and they're all just chillin, throwin back a large Little Ceasar's Pizza and an ice cold Budweiser.

Viscious Dogs
Here in my area, every household has either 1 of 2 things, a pet chihuahua, or a pitbull... or both. There's not a day that goes by when Elder Vickery and I don't get yelled and barked at by at least 50 dogs. Haven't been bitten yet, but I hear that that is a very common injury out here. It's crazy cuz every house has one of those "Beware of Dogs" signs out on their fence, no matter how big their dog is. What's also funny is that before we open and enter any gate to someone's yard, we always rattle the fence a bit to make sure there aren't any vicious dogs that we can't see. Haha cuz for real, those pitbulls are some strong dogs and if they decide to go after you, it's tough to stop em.

An Unexpected Visit
So just the other day, Elder Vickery and I were tracting, or knocking doors, down a kinda shady street. We were about to walk over to this house across the street and knock on the door, when all of a sudden, a bunch of cop cars come screeching down the street, sirens blaring, and pull up in front of the house. They bust into the door and arrest the man inside!! Elder Vickery and I just looked at each other and knew we were thinking the same thing. haha we don't exactly know what this man was being arrested for, but who knows what could've happened to Elder Vickery and I.