Employment Specialist or Poet?

We have been teaching a lot. We were a little bit less busy this week. 

We had set up for so many people to be at church with rides and everything. People came up with the craziest excuses for not coming and I was just really downhearted about it. Our best family came to church though so that was really awesome. This less active named Paulita came to church for the first time in three years; we have been teaching her for awhile and she is just a ray of sunshine. 

So many people need jobs here it's insane. Often times I am more of the ward employment specialist than a missionary.

I wrote this poem this week that I hope y'all like it;)

Christmas Without A Tree

preaching pure salvation 

all across the sea

to people of every nation 

providing a better eternity

sharing the proclamation

working all day for free

so that families are an eternal creation 

perspective is key 

because during this probation

Jesus died for you and me 

happiness is not without tribulation 

it's an investment don't you see

not quite a donation 

the labor of a missionary 

brings profit beyond calculation 

the Lords chosen mercenary 

paid by spiritual sensation 

I will sell all that is earthly 

for I desire a celestial compensation 

so for two years without a tree 

a thought of temporal frustration

happiness in humility 

beyond the natural man's imagination 

-Elder Trevor Pattee

This is our branch Christmas party. I was asked to be the narrator at the last second without a script so I just made it up as I went.

Patience, my Son???

We are super busy teaching people, we end up teaching lessons during on Pday's now. Most people believe our message but everyone has physical problems. The most common right now is people working on Sundays. I have helped more people find jobs in this town than Obama could have ever dreamed of with all his clean energy initiatives.

It's been hard for me teaching so many people recently and not really seeing the results. But this week we set two solid baptismal dates. One is named Jeyson; he is a 17 year old orphan from Honduras. He has come to church twice now. The branch hasn't really supported us in baptizing him. But yesterday at church during fast and testimony meeting he went up and shared some really good stuff. He stayed all three hours of church and then after church we taught him a lesson with the ward mission leader on baptism. He accepted our invitation to be baptized on December 24.

Awhile ago we were teaching this man named Jose, we got him all set up with this sick job. 9-5 Monday through Friday, 40 hours a week, benefits, you name it. He ended up just taking this other job working at a restaurant on Sunday's so we dropped him. Then he called us the other day telling us he quit his job and needed some food. So we brought him all this food that a member had given us and taught him. We had an excellent lesson and committed him to baptism. And now after some persuasion we got the same good job lined up for him, also a baptismal date for December 24. 

I certainly have had to learn patience out here in the mission field and I still have a long ways to go. It kills me sometimes when people look through a "glass darkly" 1 Corinthians 12:13.

The whole mission got together this week for a Seventy to come and talk; it was awesome!

Love y'all,

Elder Trev

One Year Baby!!!

So Brock and I hit our year marks this week, life goes on though. This week the ASL sisters asked us to give a blessing to one of their members. I gave the blessing and the sister missionary translated it into sign language, it was pretty cool.

I took the stitches out of my hand so we didn't have to go back to the hospital. It's pretty much all sealed up now and looks like it will heal pretty well.

I would just like to take a second and brag about my activity in the church; I haven't missed church in an entire year! That's a a lot of progress from Bishop Hill chasing us down for Sunday school.

I would just like to quote my boy Elder Sam Smith with his recent insightful comment about missions "I think one of the reasons missions are for two years is because if they were only like a year or less people could just endure and not really let it change them. But when you get on your mission and you realize you have 2 YEARS to do this. It forces you to change. It’s pretty cool."

We went to Costa Vida™, it was an exhilarating experience as always. Our most promising family came to church this week, or at least half of them did. We have more investigators than we can handle but we are
just struggling to get them to meet the requirements for baptism with all of their problems. 

Things are good here though
Con mucho amor
Elder Trev

Elder Richins and some random person Trev didn't bother to say who he was

Quote from my companion this week "You can go to heaven as a family
but you can't go to hell as a family; if you go to hell you're going
alone" -Elder Richins

Cutting it up in Plano

So Thursday morning it was kinda hot in our apartment so I went to open the window. The window was stuck, and when I was trying to unjam it the thin window broke and sliced up my hand. I looked down and could clearly see several bones and ligaments before the bleeding started. We took off to the hospital, basically ruining the mission car with blood. I got a whole bunch of stitches (28) and 2 hours later we were back knocking on doors. My companion didn't bring his iPad to the hospital so we don't have any pictures of all the cuts before the stitches.

The man I told you about Roel Silva from last week came to church again. And so did another man we are teaching named Jeyson. I bet Jeyson is the next to get baptized.

Love,
Elder Trev

A bloody mess

Trev and Elder Richins showing off his stitches.

Hair cut day.

Hola Gringos y Gringas

We had what was probably the busiest week of my mission. This area is awesome, there are unlimited people to teach here. We even had to teach people today we are so busy. 

I just want to tell two stories from the week and then I am going to go wreck my new companion in basketball. His name is Elder Richins, he is from Nampa. He actually played basketball in high school, he only has two transfers left in his mission and he is pretty shy. I really enjoy the guy though.

First story: one morning I was scrolling through our area book and I was drawn to a man I had called several times before named Roel Silva. He just would never make an appointment with us for one reason or another. I knew what apartment complex he lived in; I just didn't know the number. Which wouldn't be a big deal if was a small complex but there is probably 200+ apartments at this address. Anyways that night we had an appointment with Jose in what happened to be the same complex where Roel lives (Jose is currently MIA and that just tears me up inside but that's a story for another day). Turns out Jose wasn't home and the member we were with suggested we should knock some doors. About the 7th door we knocked and a man answers and said I am Roel Silva. My companion and the member didn't even know what was going on but I knew who Roel Silva was, He was the man who I had though about teaching that very morning. I started talking to him as if we were old friends. He invited us in and we had a good lesson on baptism. The dudes fighting diabetes and cancer but doesn't even swerve. He invited himself to church. This happened on like Wednesday then on Friday we ran into him just walking down the street, we stopped and talked and I gave him directions to the church. He actually came to church like an hour early because he didn't know about the time change. And for second hour we just taught him the restoration for the first time with the member that was with us when we ran into Roel on the street. Be sure to check out next months Ensign™ article on Roel Silva "Cancer Survivor and Recent Convert"

The other day we found an English investigator that seemed to have some pretty good potential. The sister missionaries called me asking me to describe her so they know what she looked like. I replied "on a
scale of 1-10 she is like a 6". They seemed to be irritated with me... I was just giving an accurate description.


Love,

Elder Trev

Plano Sick

We had a great week here in Plano. Transfers were today and it turns out I am staying. I have been sick these past  two days and it's probably only getting worse. My companion has been giving me all this strange Mexican Medicine.

So yesterday my companion and I did a special musical number in sacrament meeting. My companion played the piano and I sang solo. We sang "oh esta todo bien" (Come Come Ye Saints).

We picked up two new investigators this week that are so prepared. I wish I had the time to tell ya about them, because they are super cool.

I'll try and write more next week,

Love Y'all
Elder Trev

Change of Plans

Hey, we just got a call that Elder Gomez Alonso is getting transferred and that I am getting Elder Richins as my new companion! The mission rumor says he is cool.

Elder Dertian

#distracting

We had a good week, things are really starting to pick up here. But it's not that we have been working that much harder we have simply been blessed. We taught a lot of lessons. Our English class we started is really growing, our first week we had 0, the next week we had 1 and now this week we had 2. It's an excellent way to help people get to the church, it's a really relaxed environment. So hopefully our class keeps improving.

Thank you to everyone that hooked me up for my birthday. Some of the packages didn't have names so I can't really thank everyone individually but thanks ya'll, it mean a lot! The Nova family hooked us up with dinner and a birthday cake. The kids really had a good time and then that family came to church for the first time since I have been here in Plano.

Yesterday I felt like Adam Richmond (from Man VS Food), we ate so much food. We had just finished helping a family move (welcome to missionary work in america) so the person we helped gave us a couple Mexican Popsicle's and we were on our way. We arrived at our dinner appointment and the member took us to in-n-out; so obviously I got a cheese burger, fries and a shake. Right after we went to our new investigators from Honduras; they had prepared a feast for us. We sat down at the table and they put down two Costa Vida™ sized burritos for each of us. I barley finished both the tasty Central American burritos. Just imagine sitting at a table with all that food in front of you... But as soon as I finished the wife brought out a plate of chicken and rice with a side of potato salad. I don't even like potato salad. I said a prayer to give me the strength to finish. It's pretty impolite to not finish your plate; probably in every country that's not the USA. I told my companion about food fights and he about lost his mind that people would so playfully waste food.  Also, I started talking politics to my companion. Huge mistake. His name tag my say Elder Gomez but it should say Elder Sanders. Needless to say I will not bring that up again.

One of the new families we are teaching is so difficult. They have all these hard questions and they even came to church but they will only accept scriptures from the bible. I have been cramming bible scriptures studying for lessons. But their hearts are hard, instead of looking for ways to answer their questions they try and prove every answer wrong. It's a huge headache. But I feel they have a lot of potential. Unfortunately the wife has her shirt down during lessons to feed her child... #distracting. We had a really good Sunday school lesson with them so hopefully things are on the up and up. We had two other cool investigators show up at church, everyone just works so much here. No one makes time for Jesus. 

One of the real highlights of the week is all of the Elders in the mission got together to listen to Sheri Dew speak. She is the CEO of Dessert Book. She was awesome. I have never been so impressed by a speaker before. She dominates the English language and could destroy anyone I have ever met when it comes to doctrine. She talked about some really cool things: Angels, Priesthood power ect. It's really nice going to those big meetings and having friends now. There is so many missionaries that I am so tight with. I remember at the start of my mission when I knew nobody except my companion and now I have some really tight lifelong friends.

Life is good in Dallas,

Elder Trev 

Trev's first comps Elder Gay & Elder El-Bakri

Going Teancum

These past two weeks we have had the opportunity to go to the temple in the morning and help remodel. It has been so fun, we get to wear these white scrubs. It was like being a doctor. But it was cool because even though it was literally a full blown construction zone there was still that special temple spirit.

Our new investigator Jose was acting like a child this week. He stood us up all night on Saturday for a single adult convention/dance he wanted us to go to and translate for him. After telling us he was "25 minutes away" and that he was "on his way"; about an hour and a half later I finally just left to go do missionary work. Turns out he actually showed up at about 9 O'clock. I was about to go straight Teancum on the guy.

We are trying to start a Spanish class here on Saturday mornings. Our first week we had 0 people, last week we had 1 person (non-member). So hopefully we can keep growing it, it would probably be a really good way to find investigators.

We are having some good success with less actives but we are struggling to baptize at this point. Hopefully as we strengthen the branch the baptisms will come as well.

A big shout out  to everyone that sent packages this week and videos! And to Elder Dertina for taking me out to lunch today. We got some Cajun food, it was awesome.

Love y'all,
Elder Trev

Elder Durtian bought Trev Cajun food  for his birthday.

Friendly Faces

We had a good week here in Plano. We recently met this less active named Paulita she is awesome. She is really going through some trials right now but her attitude is just so positive. It really brightens my day to be around her.

So exciting thing of the week, Kayla (Langford) and Trevor Jensen showed up during my sacrament meeting. It was really great to see a familiar face. I felt kinda stupid because we had literally no
investigators in sacrament meeting. But 5 minutes after they left we had an investigator fall from the sky. It was awesome! His name is Jose Luis; he was being taught by some sister missionaries about 4 months ago and now he is ready to come back. He was participating in third hour more than a lot of the members. He really has some good desires.

Our branch counsel meeting yesterday was top notch. We are adding some really cool new things to the branch to try and boost attendance and strengthen partially active members. The members do a really good job here at coming out with us to appointments. It's excellent.

I speak so much more Spanish here! I feel a little overshadowed by my companion when it comes to the language but I am catching up to him quickly.

Love Y'all
Elder Trev

Trevor & Kayla Jensen

Elder Gomez Alonso

Still lingering in my nostrils

We fasted with our investigator Jessica Aryollo this week. So hopefully that helps her find her answer.

This week was over all really great. We found this new investigator named Dan. We were on our way from trying to visit a less active and we saw this guy standing next to his truck on the phone, smoking a cigarette. We decided to talk to him anyway and he hung up the phone to listen to us. He basically just said we could come back later and that was about it. So a few days later we come back. We had a lesson with him on his front porch on baptism. He accepted our invitation to be baptized. His only question was "what's the address to the church?" So hopefully Daniel is able to be taught and progress.

We watched conference Saturday with some of our stud members "the Adam's family". Hermana Adams invited all of the youth to come over and there was a great turn out. We invited a recent convert and she actually came. In between sessions we had some of the best tacos I have ever seen a white person make. 

After the second session of conference we had a dinner appointment with some members. We had just eaten a huge lunch a couple hours earlier. We walked in and sat down... For each of us there was a nice plate of flautas, (just like fried chicken tacos) so I thought at was going to be the whole dinner. Then she put down two huge bowls of menudo. (which is cow stomach soup). There were some huge chunks of stomach in there. The taste of the intestine really isn't bad but the texture is just soo chewy. The worst part was the smell, it's still lingering in my nostrils.


Sunday conference was awesome, I really loved the second session. Some of the apostles were dropping fire. One of our Spanish members brought a co-worker with her to conference at the church. He was a businessman from Bolivia. We had lunch with them in between sessions and it went really well. I feel like one of the main messages of conference was member missionary work. They brought out the MTC choir and everything. I understand not everyone is going to be on the same level as Chuck Cooley but we could all probably step our game up.

Love y'all,
Elder Trev Pattee

Elder Gomez Alonso

Service with a smile

So I am now in the Plano 2 branch. Things look really awesome. It's a pretty small branch but the members help with the missionary work and we have a few solid looking investigators.

We did some awesome service projects this week that I really enjoyed. We helped the Castro family cut down this giant tree in their backyard. We were like 25' up in this tree with chain saws, it was a great time. Service with a smile on my end for sure. Then we helped this super solid part member family install some new laminate flooring. Their son is 14 years old and looks like David
Archuleta, but he is a chill kid. He and his dad have lost interest in the gospel.

I really like my new companion though. His name is Elder Gomez Alonso, he is from Mexico. He could be on track to be my favorite companion yet. He reminds me so much of Justin, he talks just like him and he has the same mannerisms. It cracks me up sometimes how similar they are.

I haven't been in a Spanish only area pretty much my whole mission so between that and having a native companion my Spanish is really on the up and up. Sometimes I get kinda intimidated because his grammar is more advanced. But it's a good chance to step my game up.

Love y'all mucho

Elder Trev🌮