Letter # 13 - Introducing Yourself

Buenos Dias,

Wow. What a long week. I love it.

Fun Fact about my area: Every police car is an SUV. I have yet to see a single small police car. They are all the giant ones.

Here is my week!

Monday - We witnessed a miracle. We had made an appointment with the Rossows to talk about some inactives in our branch, however, when we arrived, Hermano Rossow had not gotten home yet, so Hermana Rossow told us to come back in like 15 minutes( Missionaries are not allowed in a house without another man present). So we said alright and left. We walked down to the sidewalk facing the street. Elder Judd turned to me and said, "Alright Elder Bullough, Let's use our spiritual discernment. Which door would you like to knock?" We paused and looked around. He then said, "I am feeling that one." We went and knocked on the door. No answer. As we turned around to leave, a car pulled up. A man jumped out of the car and without hesitation said, "Hey Elders! I am a member of your church! I am inactive! Come on out back and let's talk!" It was crazy. Long story short, he told us that he was baptized 6 years ago. It lasted two years, and he went inactive. He and his wife started having some problems, so he prayed for God to help him, right as he finished his prayer, the missionaries road by his house on their bikes. He then told us that he saved his marriage and went back to church. He went inactive again and got into drugs and stuff, and his wife left him. Divorced him. He said that he was praying a couple of nights ago that God would help change his life. And then he said, "And just look, he sent me the missionaries! Every time I pray for help, God shoves the LDS missionaries in my face." It was such a crazy experience. He wants to get his life back on track.

Tuesday - We had a district meeting in the morning. Elder Teague is doing a great job as District Leader. He really cares about the individual a lot. I also gave a training on the Book of Mormon and how we should use it with our investigators. Later, We had our hand off lesson with La'Davion and the English missionaries. He committed to come to church! He said he didn't own any church clothes, but we told him to just come wearing his best, and if that is a pair of closed-toe shoes and some shorts and a t-shirt, then that is fine! God knows when you bring your best. We told him we would go to the English ward with him this week to help him feel comfortable.

Wednesday - Finally a day that we did better things than knock doors. We did start by knocking some doors down south in the morning, but after that we went and did some studies. After our studies, we had dinner and then went out with Mynor Ovalle to visit some inactives in our branch. We invited them to church and to our English class! We hope we can jump start them back into the gospel.

Thursday - Lots happened! We started by "Heart Attacking" a sister in our ward. She is going deaf, so she doesn't come to church anymore. We had all of the women in the branch sign little paper hearts with notes to that sister. Then today we went and taped them all to her door. Then we went knocking doors. We talked to this awesome couple named Nick and Cristina. They are so cool! They committed to reading the introduction to the Book of Mormon. We asked him if he would want to gain a knowledge that God had his one true church on the earth and he said, yeah, I would want to know that. We had our first English class! The topic was "Introducing Yourself." Guess how many people showed up? Zero. We spent so much time this week handing out flyers and inviting people. It was disappointing when no one came. We talked with Hector Gomez about the BoM. He seems a lot more interested than he has been.

Friday - We went and helped Brother Monsivais around his house. He is not a member, but he is a super friendly man. He lives on a huge, open ranch. We helped him clean out his garage and move some large things. While we were working, I was walking back towards the garage, and a giant black snake startled me. More like I startled it and then it ran away, but it definitely made me jump. It was probably 4-5 feet long. Brother Monsivais said it was probably a rat snake. Not to be confused with a rattlesnake. Rat snakes just eat the moles that are out in the fields.

Saturday - The English ward had a baptism, so we invited Lucero to go. She came with her sister Yaneth! It was awesome to see them both. Afterward, we had a lesson about living a Christ-centered life. Yaneth expressed that she wants to know how to increase her faith! We gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to read Alma 32. We had dinner with Anilu Cadenas. My whole time here in Longview, Sister Cadenas and Elder Judd have been telling me about this "Supersize" that Sister Cadenas makes for every new missionary. Elder Judd has been stressing me out about it. He told me things like: you can't leave until you finish it, it may or may not be alive, I had to have a garbage can ready in case I needed to throw up, etc.... Saturday night, the time came. I had to eat the "Supersize"... it was an ice cream cone. Picture included.

Sunday - La'Davion didn't show up for church... Elder Judd and I were disappointed, but it's okay! We ended up teaching the youth class at church! It was fun. We taught them how to better teach the Restoration to their friends. Other than that, not a whole lot happened.

Well, my beloved friends and family, I would like to bear

my testimony to y'all about the authority to act in the name of Christ. There are a few things that REALLY make this church different from other churches. One is the fact that we have the Book of Mormon. But another is the fact that we have a Prophet. And with that comes the priesthood. Amos 3:7 talks about how God will do NOTHING save he should reveal his secret unto his servants the prophets. It seems simple, the church of God should have a prophet on the Earth. We do. I have gained a knowledge while here on my mission. That knowledge is that Christ has restored the fullness of His gospel to the Earth. We are the only church with a Prophet. We are the only church that can trace their priesthood directly to Christ. We are the only church that can explain why there are so many other churches in the world. I know that the priesthood of God is a real thing and that it is on the earth today thanks to Joseph Smith. I am beyond grateful to be trusted enough by God to hold his Holy power.

Saludos,
Elder Bullough

Pictures:
1: the Heart Attack
2: English Class
3: Me enjoying the "Supersize"
4: Me suffering while they get the "Supersize" ready
5: my name plaque

Letter # 12 - The Dry Spell

¡Hola mi querido familia!

¿Como han estado?

This was a very very very slow week, so this may or may not be a short letter...

Monday: we found out that Elder Judd would be transferred the next day. We were to expect a call sometime Monday. We went and had a family home evening with Lucero and las familias Rubio y Johnston. It was about the word of wisdom. It went well and Lucero committed to living the word of wisdom, so that was good. We got home for the day and still hadn't heard back from the APs about where Elder Judd would be going or who my new companion would be... we got a text saying that if we hadn't heard anything by 10:45 pm to give them a call. They called us at 10:35 and said that President had received new revelation and that we both would be staying in Longview! So transfers ended up not affecting us. The only person in our district that left was Elder Nixon which is really sad, but he stayed in our zone, so that is nice.

Tuesday: Just a whole day of knocking doors. Literally nothing else.

Wednesday: Elder Judd and I were walking around the Southside of Longview and some kid waved us over jokingly. He was outside of a school. So Elder Judd and I accepted the invitation. As we walked over, he panicked and went back inside the school haha. But the Principal of the school was still standing outside. So we had a really good conversation with him about religion. He was such a cool guy. He was super educated but still was willing to listen to us talk as well. He told us he admired us for what we are doing at such a young age. He said he would definitely check out Mormon.org. later that night, we went with Manuel Alba to teach Lucero. Her catholic friend keeps telling her not to get baptized into our church... so Lucero is split minded about her decision.

Thursday: We are in a dry spell. We have no investigators besides Lucero. All we do every single day is knock doors. We did have a pretty sweet contact in English though. These two guys named La'Davion and Anthony listened to the whole message of the Restoration. They said they felt chills. They had so many questions! We marked 5 different chapters in the Book of Mormon to read that night.

Friday: we had another lesson with La'Davion! He asks the best questions. We talked about the need for a creation and the need for a mediator. That day we also made and started handing out flyers for an English class that we are starting! We are seeing if we could maybe get some new investigators through that.

Saturday: La'Davion didn't show for our lesson. We had another lesson with Lucero. We watched the movie, The Testaments. It was so good and Lucero event cried when Christ came at the end and healed Helam. We talked with her about how she was feeling about baptism and she talked about how she just doesn't know. It breaks our hearts.

Sunday: I gave a talk in church! It was pretty fun actually knowing what i was saying this time haha. It was a good time. Sunday night we got a call from Lucero. She said she had been thinking about us a lot and about her feelings. She said her sister basically chastised her the other day after our lesson with her. Her sister told her that if she wanted to get baptized, then great, do it. But if you don't, then stop wasting their time. She was right. It was needed to be said. She is kinda wasting our time, but maybe that will encourage her to make a decision soon. She has been praying every night. She even had a spiritual experience with the Book of Mormon.

Well, that is about it. Sorry, I am horrible at taking pictures. One of these is with me and Elder Nixon before he left, the other two were pictures I took while we were just walking and knocking doors.

Love y'all!
Brandon