Fort Hood

What a wonderful and marvellous week!!!  Waco is awesome!  (So, is Killeen, but more about that later.)

 

Last Monday, I went to Cavendar's for the first time. It is a really nice boot store, and I really want to get some nice cowboy boots.  I am definitely becoming a Texan!

 

On Friday, I went on my first companion exchange.  I went to Killeen, which is about an hour and a half away from Waco.  It is by Fort Hood.  I spent the day with Sister Brown, and it was slightly weird to be teaching in English.  In Killeen, I felt like I had left the Bible Belt behind.  Everyone there is military, and they don't have the same Texas Christian foundation that everyone in Waco has.  In Waco, we contact a lot by saying, "Do you believe in Jesus?" and everyone always says yes, and then we go on to talk about Jesus and the Restoration and stuff.  But in Killeen that failed me.  I felt like I was in a completely different mission, with different strengths and challenges. 

 

We taught some cool people in Killeen.  The sisters there serve in the Singles Ward as well as the family ward, and I taught a lesson to a single army guy.  It was a completely different dynamic of teaching than what I am used to.  There were three YSA members present, and we were at the church.  Counting us, there were 6 of us all in a circle.  It was very different from the lessons that we teach in people's homes to families.  And it was weird cuz we were all the same age. 

 

Also, while I was in Killeen, a crazy black homeless lady just walked up to our car and knocked on the window.  We were with a 19 YSA girl, Mercedes, who was driving us around, and getting super excited for her own mission.  She rolled down her window and the black lady said, "Can I get a ride to the Jack-In-The-Box?"  When we told her no, that we didn't have a ton of time, she looked like she was either going to cry or hit Mercedes.  We gave her a pamphlet, rolled up our windows and drove away.  But we had to take an alternate route, because the black lady walked in the middle of the road and we couldn't turn left without hitting her. 

 

Then when I got back to Waco on Saturday, we taught Gabriel, and I was super excited, because when we met him at the door, he said that he believes in Science, and that he won't believe anything unless he doesn't have proof.  It was the first chance that I have had on my mission to talk about the "Great Experiment of the Book of Mormon!"  I love explaining religion and science together.  They both complement each other, and are part of the same great whole!  I talked about how just as gravity is a law, and if I drop a ball it will fall.  So is the experiment of the Book of Mormon.  If you read it, and pray about it with a sincere desire to know, God will answer you.  (He will do it in his own time, and in his own way, but he will answer you.)  It was an awesome lesson.  The spirit was super powerful.  I love love love talking about science and religion in the same setting, because they are both true!  AND I KNOW IT!!!

 

We met a family Saturday whose last name is Niño, which means Child in Spanish.  They are really cool, and I think that we are going to see cool things from them.  When we said the opening prayer, the father gathered all of his children and had them put their hands together.  He understood that prayer is something special and important.

 

Yesterday, Guillermo and Celia and Delia came to church!  In sunday school, they talked about the Law of Chastity, and in Relief Society, they talked about the Word of Wisdom.  I am sure it was a great review for Guillermo, because he is getting baptized on Friday.  But I hope that it didn't overwhelm Celia and Delia.  We have been taking our lessons really slow with them, and we haven't taught either of them.  During Relief Society, Celia leaned over and asked me why we can't drink coffee.  We explained it to them, and gave them a pamphlet, and I think that she is going to start living the Word of Wisdom, but I think that Church might have overwhelmed them.  Next time that we teach them, we are going to teach both Chastity and the Word of Wisdom to follow up from what happened at church, and to make sure that they understand. 

 

I am super excited for Guillermo's baptism this Saturday!  Wish me luck with my talk on the Holy Ghost in Spanish.  Ojala que todo este bien.

 

Y'all have a blessed day,

Hermana Julie Anna Sanchez