Hello Family,

        So we are in weatherford and their are no hispanics here. it is very hard to find the few there are. when we find them we have to be perfect missionaries to be able to teach them in a way that they want us to come back. yes it is a challenge, but we are learnig very fast and we are also progressing. so everyone says that this area is the hardest spanish area. well as those who know me, thats a bad thing to tell me. why? well we are going to work hard then. :) look out weatherford. so this week we had a slow week but i know that is how it goes sometimes. i know that if we are 100% obedient we will have the success the lord knows we can have. this week we had been praying alot to find a family of four. we found a family of four just like we have been praying in faith to find. i know that this family has been prepared by the lord and is ready to make the baptism commitment. i know that through being 100% obedient we will be able to recognize every single spiritual prompting.

        So i finally got a new journal. i have been needing one. my old one got wet, (thanks to my loving companion) i am now transfering everything from my wet one to the new one. it is a long process but it is fun to see how immiture i was in the MTC. :)

       What i have learned this week is in D&C 59, Keeping the Sabbath Day holy. I know that if we keep the sabbath day holy we will recieve the blessings promised in this section.

      Nothing really crazy happened this week. I am still alive, i am not hurt. I love and thank all of you for your support.

Ok. so as all of you know, i got transferred to Weatherford, TX. the population is 25,000 people. their are sooo many trees here and it is so beautiful. only thing lacking is the :'( mountains. i miss the mountains so much. if anyone wants to make me a happy camper they can send me pictures of the samaria mountains, Powerhous, the M, skyline, the west hills and a picture of the ranch with the giant gorgeous mountains in the backround. i get a stomach ache everytime i realize their are no mountains. (sad face) so my new companion is very nice. he had dirty clothes the first time i saw him, it gave me a preview of the state of the apartment. uuuuuuu ya i opened the door and left my bags outside for a couple of hours until i had room to put them somewhere. Some people's children do not know how to clean. so besides the dirty apartment which is now all spotless, weatherford is sweet. the first meal i ate here i got sick for two days. i threw up alot and could not even keep water down, but i finally after 2 solid full days gave in to the hunger and mannaged to eat a banana. now i am eating like a horse. i lost 15 pounds when i was sick. ya i dont really know how but it happened.

           We have one baptism who needs alot of help and prayers to be able to be ready. besides her the area is kinda slow. but the area is so nice to work in. the hispanics when we find them are so nice and so receptable to the gospel. i know that we will improve in this area and i know that we can be doing better. i am so glad to be a missioary here in weatherford. so this week we taught a few people. their are alot of former investigators that missionaries stopped teaching that seem very "golden" (ready to be baptized) and all we have to do is correctly teach them and with the spirit. i know that through faithful, dilligent prayer anything is possible in the eyes of the lord. i know that the area i have been assigned to is inspired by the lord and i know why the lord wants me here and i am going to achieve all that the lord wants me to do here. i am so greatful fo the opportunity to be a missionary and i am soo overly greatfull for all of the support i recieve from everyone. thank you so much.

           Well i am trying to think of some crazy stories and in weatherford we have alot. so its farm land. so daily i see sheep and goats like dogs in the back of the bed of trucks. its pretty fun. i wrestled a 180 pound male goat at a members house last night. haha :) it lost horribly. i see dead armadillos being eaten by HUGE Voltures everyday!!! the members are so nice here. they pay for our bread, laundry soap and let us use their laundry. they are so nice. everyone is dirty rich, and they go on exchanges and buy us so much stuff. do not be supprised if i come home 200 pounds. it is impossible for me to gain all of that weight but that is alright. so their is not a hispanic ward or branch here, so we have to translate every week for any hispanics who show up. my spanish is going to go through the roof in this area. i am so excited. spanish is so much fun to learn and to speak. President Sagers says that spanish is the celestial language in heaven. i totally 100% agree. it is Sweet.

           So how is everyone doing. jacob looks like he is getting bigger in the picture. (i am still trying to get your nametag jacob!) i think about all of you so much. Grandpa looks like he is loosing weight and gaining alot of muscle. ( i might be a little jealous) and i am so jealous of MT Borah. Everyone say hi to Great Grandpa and Granny for me. i love them so much. if their is anything i can do 2500 miles away just let me know please. i am dieing to help everyone. um i really cant think of anything else. thanks Y'all for all yall do for me. ( i really do not speak like that- i think i dont) :)

Well i am being transferred to Weatherford my new companions name is Elder Duncan. i havent met him yet but i know he is a great missionary. Here is my address. 202 College Park #205 Weatherford, TX 76086. i do not have time so i will email later.

We had a baptism this past week! Her name is Florencia Salanic Sacalxot. She is from Guatemala and she has 14 kids in which 11 of them are still alive. She is 48 years old and she was married when she was 14! Crazy isn't it? We met her 4 weeks ago. we were talking to some drunk guy and she heard us say that we were missionaries and she asked if we would pray with her. And now she is baptized. It is a miracle that we even found her!

 

So the West Nile virus is spreading like crazy here. So they spray by airplane at night time. The planes are so loud at night! Its ok though because i cant sleep anyway. Does anybody have any solutions on how i can sleep? I have tried everything!

 

Transfers are next Monday and i am pretty excited because i think i am staying here in lewisville. i love lewisville! me and my companion are doing great. today we set some pretty big goal on how we can improve our obedience! we are working hard to be 100% obedient! we know that if we are the lord will bless us with success!

 

So in the picture there is the two in front who are the Hatfields and from left to right in the back is elder bingham, elder galvez, elder Campbell, and Zack. they insisted on lifting me up!! sister Hatfield is the member that is helping Florencia with whatever she needs. she is also from Guatemala!

 

So that was our sweet week, nothing really more interesting!

From Bro Hatfield:
We've had the pleasure of having Elder Allen in our home a couple of times recently. We had a neighbor who was in desperate need of help and Elder Allen and 3 other Elders stepped up and took on the task!

Very enjoyable young men who seem to be living the gospel, not just teaching it!

Thanks for allowing him to server our Lord! 

George and Argentina Hatfield

PS - I'll send these pictures two at a time.

so we have a baptism this saturday! her name is Florencia Salanic Sacalxot. we met her three weeks ago. ya she is awesome!!
 our district did so good this week. we were number 5 in the entire mission. we were number 20 last week. ya it is so sweet. i cant believe that we are doing so good. i do not have time at all to email. but i am doing fine here in texas. but this week when we set up florencias baptism date for the first of september, the spirit was so strong and i cant believe we did what we did. i love the mission and being a missionary. thank you for all of the help and support back at home.

so the reason for the grasshopper frog apartments is because everytime we go to these spacific apartments there is a dead grasshopper being eaten by ants. yeserday there was a frog. yup. life as a missionary is full of a lame sense of humor. so this week was full of all sorts of fun. elder campell on an exchange recked our car. it wasnt bad. just scratched the bumper. we were ok. :) me and elder campbells echange was sweet. elder campbell loves zelda and so do i.

 

alright so this week we taught 11 lessons. we are doing our best to invite others to come unto christ. my spanish is just flying through the roof. i cant believe all of the spanish i am kicking out. i love the mission. so we went to zone conference this week and it was sweet. we started out with president sagers started out and he talked for a few ours. i felt so awesome during the entire conference. i know this church is true. i love 3 nephi... it is actually jesus christ speaking for like 20  chapters.

 

ok so i want to share a story.

the eagle that thinks he is a chicken. ok so a little girl and her granpa were driving down a road when their car broke down and they managed to get to a farm house. the farmer was helping the grandpa fix the car when he noticed the grandpa was a famous baseball player. in the mean time the girl was looking at the chicken coop and she called her grandpa over to look. they all noticed an eagle in the chiken coop. so the grandpa asked the farmer why there was an eagle in the chicken coop. the farmer replied that they found an abandoned nest and their was one egg left. sot he farmer put it in the chicken coop and the chickens raised it. the grandpa offered the man money for the eagle. he wanted to try to help the eagle fly and reach its true potential. the farmer agreed and warned the grandpa that the eagle acts and is a chicken. so the grandpa and the grandaughter left to the field of the farmer. the grandaught asked what the grandpa was doing. the grandpa replied to the eagle and said your an eagle spread your wings and fly. the eagle flopped to the ground. the grandpa had a flashback to his childhood when he was just learning to play baseball. the little boy didnt get to play with everyone and he was very sad. his father said its alright lift your head a little higher. flashback to the present and they  went higher up the mountain. the grandaughter asked again what the grandpa was doing. and the grandpa said to the eagle you are an eagle spread your wings and fly. the eagle again did nothing. and the grandpa had another flashback to when he was a teenager. he stuck out in a baseball game and his dad came up to him and said its alright swing higher next time. flashback to the present and they went higher up the mountain to the top and as soon as they got to the top the grandpa had another flashback to when the grandpa hit his home run and was a famous person that had reached his true potential. flashback to the present and the grandaughter asked what the grandpa was doing and the grandpa replied to the girl. i am helping the eagle reach its true potential. he then said to the eagle spred your wings and fly and the eagle flew away.this is a great story. apply this to your lives after great thought and pondering.

 

thank you for all of your support and love.

Dear Family and Friends,

        So this week we did great. so our objective as missionaries is to invite and help people come unto christ and eventually get baptized. so to do this we ne to help people take the neccesary steps to do so. there are three easy steps they need to do to eventually be baptized. they are attend church at least twice, read in the book of mormon and then pray to know if they are doing the right thing and if all of these things are true. so this week we have a few people keeping commitments but none of them have made it to church. so this is a problem. but the big factor with hispanic people in texas is that if you can get them to church, usually they will be baptized. ya that is sweet when it happens. and its not going to happ without alot of key factors the investigator does and what us as missionaries do. so this week we had no investigators at church. we did have 16 lessons and 9 new investigators.

        elder galvez and I are a great team. we get work done. we find new investigators. working with members is the best way for missionary work. we are working with out few members in our area. we dont have alot of members, but with the members we have they love to help with whatever they can.

        so i am still reading the bible alll of the way through. no wonder the book of mormon contains the fullness of the gospel. holy cow the bible is confusing. so nothing really big has happened here. but ya if anyone would like anything from me just let me know.