Monday, April 25, 2016

Cockroach Soup

We had a good week this week. Elder Corbridge of the 70 came and spoke to us. He is the author of "The Fourth Missionary" it's really cool. So we did that on Saturday. He is a very smart man.
We just did Nerf™ dart wars with PVC pipe in the gym at the church with our district. It was pretty cool. We figured out how to do it so it actually hurts. There is this red head kid in my district with
really pale skin and now he has welts all over his body...lol
We have is new Hispanic family (the Muñoz) that has come to church three times now that's really cool. We played Mexican bingo and did a really cool lessons with them. They speak only Spanish so sometimes it's kinda frustrating. The kids always ask really dumb irreverent questions
during the lessons. So from now on we are going to do our lessons with them at the church to just teach the parents and then put the kids in a different room with popcorn and a Book of Mormon movie. We are just working on some commandments with them and then they can get baptized.

So the Muñoz need to be baptized so bad. The grandfather and the granddaughter are ready but the grandmother still wants to increase her testimony of the restored gospel. Luckily Elder Holland was in town for a devotion this week, so we told her to go and see him and find out for herself if he is an apostle of Jesus Christ. We weren't able to go with them because it was "technically" out of our area. But we have faith we will be blessed for obedience. People always ask me who to pray for. Pray for them. I have been stressing out about the Muñoz though for the past week or
so, so seriously pray for them. But I mean they have had lessons with all of our stud members and now seen a Elder Holland too. Just pray that their hearts will be softened and they will receive an answer.
This week we made them a cake. While delivering them the cake on our bikes, my companion wrecked. He actually dismounted his bike surprisingly gracefully but their was a huge hole in the cake from his thumb.

This week we visited a family Elder Gay and I had helped move recently. While moving we noticed an absurd amount of cockroaches in their house. Especially in the dishes. We would move a box and 1000 bugs would just run everywhere. We went back to visit them and as we were sitting down for the lesson they put a big bowl of soup in front of us. It was hard to get the image out of my head of all those bugs that I knew were in their kitchen. Worst part is we had just gotten back from dinner with the senior missionaries so we were completely full. But we ate the soup.
There is good stuff going on in GP right now. The Lord is a very good missionary.

The video is us riding with a group of actual bicyclists. If you can imagine in your head a big group of bikers and then two missionaries following right along. If you saw that while driving by you have got to think it's pretty funny. We actually talked to them about temples while at a stoplight.
The last picture is of Adrian one of our recent converts from last transfer. He is really cool. We took him to visit this new investigator we have that's the same age. We had a really good lesson and he seems to be a very promising new investigator. During the lesson my companion ran back to the car to get another restoration pamphlet; and locked the keys in the car. It was kind of funny actually. We were teaching this investigator's neighbor the week before and I remembered seeing this group of Hispanics break into a car 😬... Anyways with our "ox in the meyer" we went and knocked on their door. Within minutes they had our car keys out for us and we were on our way. We just gave them a pass along card and went to our next appointment.
Sorry for the long email,
Love y'all almost as much as I miss summer in Idaho
Elder Trev




Adrian
Elder White Saved the Cake

Monday, April 18, 2016

Swimsuit Edition

This week we planned and implemented an idea that I think worked really well and could be really productive for other missionaries or even the wards back home. Basically the idea was to get all of our highly progressing investigators together at the church for a lesson. We put together a power point with the use of a laptop from a senior missionary couple, with several videos that really demonstrate what the priesthood is and how we have it on the earth today. We ran the
power point by way of question and answer. We also brought an investigator that we have that wants to get baptized so bad but she can't because of pending legal issues, a very strong recent convert and the stake president who is also a convert.  All of these people were asked to bear testimony at the end and gladly accepted. We let the sister missionaries bring their best investigators too. We held the actually meeting in the chapel; towards the end of the
lesson all were invited to be baptized again weather they had been asked or not, all accepted. To finish off we all had ice cream of various flavors along with assorted toppings for a delightful meet and greet. It was actually really fun and totally worth the work of setting everything up.

On Sunday morning right before we were about to bike to church we got caught in a huge microburst right as we were headed out the door. Me, knowing that there had to be a good reason for me to bring my swimsuit on my mission, decided that it would be best to not get our suit pants soaking wet but instead to bike there in less formal attire and then change at the church. It was a good idea too. By the time we got to the church we were soaked, but we just changed and everything was cool. My companion didn't bring extra shoes and socks so he was at church for the next six hours in soaking wet shoes lol.

The last picture is of Peter, Prince, and Olu. They have all accepted baptism and will all be baptized here in the near future. They all share an apartment...but this week Peter and Prince got in a fight over a girl (Prince is 70) so Prince kicked Peter out of the house and Peter doesn't have a job so he was homeless (he asked us if he could sleep at the church). Anyways at church yesterday I think we helped put the pieces of their friendship back together. I guess I just wanted to give a special thanks to the EHS girls class of 2015 for helping me understand how to deal with all this drama; I couldn't have done it without you! Honorable mentions: Liv Demordant, Emily Clegg, Oakley Tanner, Molly Sawyer, Annie Johnson, Jamie Solomonson, Ali Snooks, Halsey Anderson.

I hope y'all enjoy this letter and have a great week.
Love,
Elder Pattee

Trev & Elder White


Peter, Prince, Elder White, Trev and Olu

Monday, April 11, 2016

What's in your wallet?

Hey I am taking a break from basketball to just shoot you guys a quick email about one of the cool things that happened this week. I think the coolest one is about this man that just moved here from Africa. The story is... The sister missionaries found his wallet that had dropped off his car. When they returned it to him, he was 'Eternally" grateful. He said he would do anything they wanted (literally all the money he had, passport, green card, and social security card were in there). So they asked him to come to conference and he did. He actually lives in our area so we taught him this week and he wants to be baptized so bad.  At his first Sunday in sacrament he asked me if could bare his testimony. He went up with his wallet that he found and stated very strongly that "this is the true church". It was awesome! Unfortunately he is going back to Africa for two months so I probably won't be here when he get back and actually gets baptized. But his two roommates gladly accepted our invitation to be baptized during our lesson last night. His testimony was way cooler than all the other testimonies this week,,,😬

My new companion is cool. We saw some really cool stuff this week. It's great to see how the Lord works. It's really different being in charge of the area now. It is stressful. Pero echamos nuestros ganas. I am learning a lot. I really didn't take very many pictures this week. So this will probably be a short email. But I look forward to keep y'all in the loop for this transfer.
Love,
Elder Trev

New Comp Elder White

Saying goodbye to Elder Gay

Elder Langi

Monday, April 4, 2016

Cut the BOWL!

So I am staying in Grand Prairie but Elder Gay is leaving and I am getting a new companion. His name is Elder White. This is going to be a good transfer. The work will go on, no matter what and I am going to make the best of it.

Elder Gay and I had a great last week though. I also figured out that if I don't take pictures of something y'all probably aren't going to hear about it in this email so I tired to take a few more pictures this week. I included the picture of my bowl cut that the Senior Sister missionaries gave me. 
We had a Luau this week for Elder Langi, who has been feeling kinda down. It was so fun! We did the coaches gift thing, everyone signed a rugby ball for him. We got the whole district involved and everyone brought exactly what we asked them to bring. 
On Wednesday night this week we made Tamales with Esmerelda, she is an angel. She wants to get baptized so bad, but she can't because she has to resolve some legal issues first. She already pays her tithing and wants to go to the temple to be sealed with her husband that passed away not too long ago. I have heard her pray twice now, they were the two most beautiful prayers I have ever heard.
Yesterday we gave a blessing to an NBA basketball player. He wasn't anyone I have ever heard of. He was just at the church, watching conference and asked us for a blessing. He was cool. He was a talker though, he could put Curtis or Bishop Hill to shame with how much he talked.
We have many an amazing investigator right now. The field is very white here in the Dallas area.
Love Y'all
Elder Trev

Last week with Elder Gay

Luau For Our New District Leader Elder Langi

Esmeralda 

Hermanas Apartments

Bowl Cut:(..