#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🌮