Beautiful Buda

I'm leaving!! We received our transfer calls last night and I will be transferred out of the St. Cloud Ward :( But... I will be senior companion! And get this... Elder Berntson is training!!! So, while I am very sad that I was only able to have one transfer with Elder Berntson (we were having such a blast), I am very excited to go have another "Young Guns" transfer with another missionary. Basically, I'm just kinda switching places, instead of being the young Young Gun, I will now be the old Young Gun. Haha, but I am so thankful for this past transfer that I was able to have here with Elder Berntson. We grew immensely! We grew not only physically (with our Perfect Pushups and Perfect Pullups, ha), but spiritually and mentally especially. I feel so much more prepared and know a whole lot more about what it takes to be an effective missionary. I do hope to work with Elder Berntson later down the road, but boy I will always remember this transfer that I had with him and the fun that we had together. So... this Thursday I will receive my new companion and will go to my new area.

Greetings from Buda, Texas! Where the heck is that you might say? Well, It's an amazing teeny little place just south of the city of Austin. Right above the city of Kyle and just west of Bastrop. So...'Beautiful Buda' as it is called, is just an awesome area. It is so sweet, we cover a teeny little portion of South Austin so there are very nice neighborhoods and industrial streets there, and then we travel all the way down to the town of Buda (Buda is pronounced like the word in 'Ferris BUELLER's Day off').

Anyway so, Elder Rudy, my new companion! So I liked your guesses on what my companion would look like, and well...you're way off. He is a short, 5'8 guy who has a very sweet sense of humor, he is a really funny guy! He has just finished up his first 2 transfers here in Buda and has now been out a little over 3 months, cuz he is also an English speaking Elder and he only spent 3 weeks in the MTC. He is a stud! He is from West Jordan, Utah, and is the middle child of 3 boys. He actually took a year and did some school at Snow College prior to the mission, so he is already 20 years old. He is a very hard worker and is very obedient.

He and his last companion really got this area on fire, they just recently had 3 baptisms within the past 2 weeks, and so my first Sunday here, we had two Confirmations for two young guys named Adrian and Reuben. Adrian is 17, Reuben is 15, (their mother is a member) and then the other baptism they had was a kid named Nathaniel, who is only 18. So they like baptizing 'em young here!!! I like it! The ward here is so awesome though, even in just these few days that I have been here, I have come to know a few of the members fairly well, and a load of people came up to me at church and introduced themselves to me and welcomed me into the ward. It was so sweet! Buda is an awesome area, like I said it covers a little bit of the city and then it goes down into the country. It is so awesome though that just the other day, Elder Rudy and I were knocking doors in this super nice ritzy apartment complex... and then 10 minutes later, we were out in the middle of nowhere petting a horse! Haha I love it!

Well, it's been an exciting first few days here in Buda. The nice ritzy apartment complexes are tough work to say the least, but out in the country we have come across some interesting people...and a lot of Spanish! And so, seeing that Elder Rudy doesn't know Spanish, I have had to teach these Spanish lessons on my own! And I'm not really sure what to think about it, because on one hand, it is super exciting having the whole lesson rest on my shoulders, but on the other hand, it just isn't as effective without both of us testifying and teaching. And I also feel super bad about leaving Elder Rudy out of the lesson. He just has to sit there and smile and pretend that he knows what's going on. However, he has learned how to testify a little bit. He is able to say "I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God" and "I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God"! So he always testifies at the end and punches them in the face with the spirit. It's so great, so we'll continue working on it together so that he can testify like a champ by the time our we're finished together.

PS Last night, I hit a landmark... I ate a Habanero chili, the world's 2nd hottest food, next to the Ghost chili (which I don't think are found in Texas). It was insane, it was painful, I was crying my eyes out like a little girl, I was sweating, and it was AWESOME!!! I got a great video of it. True Texas experience. It was like having literal fire in your mouth! haha

Alfonso's Big Day

Alfonso got baptized!!!! woooooo!!!

Alfonso Maldenado Jr. got baptized yesterday by my companion, Elder Berntson, after a really crazy journey. It seems like there are always some kinds of hurdles to jump before getting baptized. On Saturday night, we had a great baptismal interview and everything was looking solid. He then told us that he had to be moved out of his apartment complex by the next day because of some financial reasons, so Alfonso didn't think he was going to be able to get baptized the next day. But we put our foot down, called up about 4 other missionaries to come help us pack everything up and got Alfonso out and moved in a matter of a few hours... and he was baptized the next day! Right after his baptism, our bishop, Bishop Christensen, took him in and interviewed him to receive the Aaronic Priesthood. So next week, Alfonso will receive the Holy Ghost and then hopefully not too much longer after that, he'll get the priesthood!!!

Alfonso is such a stud. He is someone that we talked to on the street, and 4 weeks later... he's baptized! He has a few kids, one of which lives with him, but she was never home when we taught Alfonso, and she was not able to attend the baptism on Sunday either. But Alfonso is so determined to set an example for his kids, and he knows that someday they will be baptized as well.

Well, things are going great over here in San Antonio, the St. Cloud Ward is sweet, the food is amazing, and speaking Spanish is a blast. The heat has been brutal. But apparently it is not nearly as brutal as it was last year. We have had a solid amount of days over 100 degrees, but I guess last year they had something like 60 days in a row with temperatures over 100! I guess I am what you would say 'getting used to it', but boy, the humidity is just killer, and I'm sweating a ton.

Texas-Size Spiders

So first I gotta crazy little story. So I had no idea, but apparently there are a ton of tarantula spiders here in San Antonio. In fact, this past week, Elder Vickery and I saw 3 of them! So the very first one we saw was so dang freaky. We were knockin down a street and we walk in to this porch, Elder Vickery knocks on the door and kinda turns a little bit and notices a giant tarantula sitting right behind my head just chillin on this brick wall!!! At first I totally thought he was kidding, but I slowly turned my head around and there it was, no joke but this thing was as big as my hand!! It was hairy, big, and downright scary... we took a few pictures with our little camera phone that we have (which was scary enough just tryin to get close to it), but I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to send you any pictures of it.

But boy, I have never seen a spider so big in my entire life! I'm used to just the teeny little house spiders that we have back in Boise, haha. And then the other 2 that we saw, one was dead and one was alive - we think they were fighting - but the crazy thing is that we saw all three of these spiders in a matter of 2 days. We talked to our recent convert, Olga Ekcstein, about it and she said that she has a ton that live in her bushes in her front yard and occasionally they come out but not very often. She says that they mostly come out in the summer because of all the humidity, so we'll see if I come across any more this summer.

Bike Adventures

So family, I have some bad news... My bike was stolen. Ya, so here's how it all went down. Elder Vickery and I set our bikes against the fence of our investigator's yard, and went to knock on the door solely to check up on the investigator and see if we could set up a return appointment - so we didn't lock up the bikes. When he answered the door, we talked for a bit and he surprisingly invited us to come inside. Immediately, Elder Vickery and I began thinking of what we were gonna share or teach to this man, and we totally spaced that our bikes were unlocked sitting outside the yard.

After the lesson, we came outside literally 20 minutes later, and Elder Vickery turns to me and was like, "Elder Mangum, where's your bike?" That sick feeling just came over me, cuz we both knew what had just happened.... So I no longer have that nice new Specialized Mountain Bike, but I'll be getting a used one from the mission office tomorrow.

Ya, I feel really stupid but I've been focusing on living by the words of Kirby Heyborne: "In the Eternal Perspective, the nicer things in this life, just don't matter." But Hey! It's all part of the missionary experience! Getting bit by dogs, getting doors slammed in the face, getting your bike stolen. I'm just eating the whole experience up!

Editor's Note: Because of a replacement bike policy purchased before the mission, Madison should receive a new bike, but as of this posting, it has not arrived. :(

I crashed my bike!!! Haha so story time - Elder Berntson and I were riding down the street on the sidewalk actually, and we were flying down this hill. And as you go down this hill you have to make a quick manuever to avoid these wires that hang down diagonally from this telephone pole. We were going extra fast this time because we were late for an appointment, so we quickly approached these wires in the middle of the sidewalk and I went to pull my brakes a little to slow myself and get in control, and my brakes were out! Gosh dang piece of junk bike (I haven't received my new bike yet, I dunno where it is), so I do my best to slide by these wires, but I didn't quite make it.

My pedal on my bike snags on to these wires and makes my bike completely stop and I go flying over the handle bars! My face slams into the ground and it was one of those deals where I blacked out for a split second, and when I came to, there was a ton of blood dripping from my face all over the sidewalk and on my white shirt. It was tight!!! Heck ya it hurt and super embarrassing, but I looked pretty beast nonetheless. So in the end, I had some serious road rash on my cheek and a gaping gash in my left eyebrow. I quickly covered up the gash and put a ton of pressure on it to stop the bleeding, and we proceeded to go into the next apartment complex to find the elect in helping out Elder Mangum.

Haha after about knocking on 7 or 8 doors, the Lord was testing our patience, someone finally opened their door and uncomfortably let us into their house so that I could clean up my wound. We got it all cleaned up and put some neosporin on it and slapped a couple band aids on it, and then before heading out the door of this kind samaritan's house, we gave her a pass along card and told her all about the importance of the message of the Restoration. She'll get baptized someday. haha

Editor's Note: Madison is fine, a slight headache the next day, but no further mention of any residual effects. Thank goodness!

New Companion

His name is Elder Eric Berntson (like - you got 'burnt son'). He is a freakin beast! Get this, he's one transfer ahead of me, so he's been out about 6 1/2 months, and I'm at 5 months, so between the two of us, we've got about 5 transfers of experience - We're the young guns, baby! He is 6'4 and weighs 235 and has a full scholarship to play football at Utah State as a Defensive End when he gets back. Just a pure stud, he's from Logan, UT and here's some crazy stuff... he is the middle child of 5 kids, with 2 other brothers and two other sisters. His birthday is in January, AND we realized that we had talked to each other before, in the cafeteria line in the MTC right before he was about to come out here to San Antonio...sick right?

But gosh, it is such a blast!!! We are definitely relying on the Lord for help bacuse of the lack of experience that we have. But we decided that the Lord, President Cutler, and the AP's have enough trust in us to work together and have success, so we are workin super hard to prove that we can do everything that is asked of us. Even in just these past few days that I've had with Elder Berntson, we have grown immensely and are having just a complete blast doing it!!! Our motto is, "Grab life by the Horns and just do it". Man, I am so stoked to spend these next few weeks with Elder Berntson here in the Saint Cloud area. He spent his first three transfers on the border in a town called Eagle Pass, so his Spanish is solid and we are workin extremely well together.

Good grief, I am a missionary. I still find myself everyday, shocked that I am actually doing this. Sometimes we're ridin down the road and people honk at us, and I look down and realize, "Oh, I have a nametag on and am wearing a white shirt and slacks and a tie!" I'M A MISSIONARY!!! hahaha so sick hahahaha!!! I'm actually doin it!

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.