Christmas Party

The Branch Christmas Social and Sweater Vests

Man it got even colder! We were having lovely 80 degree days and it dropped down to 40 in one day. I should have packed more than just a sweater, but it goes with my Christmas hat.

After cleaning the ranch house for weeks, we were finally ready to throw a little party. A lot of people came, and like 4 families have never been to our church before. We had Christmas tamales, ham, corn, cinnamon rolls and Abuelita hot chocolate. After we had eaten we watched a short video of the Nativity, and then watched a cultural celebration with many South American cultures and their Christmas songs. Then I spent the rest of the night playing kickball with the kids. It went really well and we met some cool new people, some of whom we are meeting with later this week. 

The Cow Whisperer

I feel like we are finally starting to pick up momentum here in Zapata. we have met a lot of really great people, and I'm finally getting used to knocking doors and talking to people. We have a lot of ideas to help the Branch grow and become stronger. Right now the missionaries do a lot for the Branch, and we would like to shift it over to being more member-run. 

This week is Christmas week. I hope y'all are having a good break from school and work, and enjoying all that snow. I'm looking forward to the Skype call with the fam!

Love you all,

Elder Gray  

Texas

Hey ya'll,

It got fairly cold recently! All the way down to the 40's. This may be nothing for those in the mountains and snow, but for Texas the world is about to end. More on that later. 

Last week we helped out our investigator clean out his ranch house and prep it for a Parade of Homes. It was really fun, and our whole Zone even came down and helped out as a service project. He also got us breakfast which is also a huge plus. Sunday went pretty normally, after Church we go around to people who aren't able to come to Church and give them the Sacrament and sing them a hymn. This coming weekend we have interviews with the President, which should be exciting. 

Not not a lot has happened so I thought I would talk a little about Texas.

Falcon Lake, Zapata

I really love Texas. I felt at home the moment I arrived. The people are always friendly and willing to talk, which is both a pro and a con. It's good because they usually will talk to us as missionaries instead of slam the door, but they are too nice to say they aren't interested and will lead us on. They are very sharing of what they have, especially food. Many times as we're talking they will give us a plate of carne asada to go or offer a drink. One thing I've noticed is they are highly superstitious of the weather. If it's raining they won't go to Church because they believe if they get wet, they will get sick. And if it's cold, they won't go to Church, because it's bad to breath cold air. It's pretty funny, but I'm beginning to think they just don't want to come to Church. Love them to death though.

Tomales are super common, and are a Christmas tradition for many families down here. I'm lucky I love them, because we have them weekly. Another thing I was introduced to was Abuelita's Hot Chocolate. It's like a circular block of chocolate that you melt in hot milk with some cinnamon and it makes a crazy good cup of chocolate. I was also introduced to menudo. Menudo is a soup, and it's very common down here. It's like a southwestern chili bean soup, which is good, but then they went and added pig intestines to it. These little chunks of pig intestines are chewy and flavorless and I try not to look at it. Many people trying it for the first time will scare themselves beforehand, but I kinda liked it once I stopped thinking about it.  

I hope you learned something, and enjoyed my bomb sunset pic I took. Have a blessed December ya'll.

Love,

Elder Gray

December

Zapata missionaries waiting for the Christmas parade

Happy December!

Almost as soon as December hit, it began to be cloudy, dark and rainy. I love this weather because I don't get sunburned, but all the native Texans really, really hate the cold. Now it's actually pretty cold and I don't have a jacket. I think I might get one at Burlington today.

We've been feeling the Christmas spirit lately. We make hot chocolate every day, I wear my Santa hat almost everywhere, and we put on Christmas music in the house when we are not studying. Taylor Swift is a favorite. We also had a Christmas devotional yesterday, broadcasted from Salt Lake. It was pretty nice, the choir sang some Christmas songs and they gave talks on the birth of Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas. 

The Crew and our gear

So this member in the area went on a trip, and we took care of his animals while he was gone. As a thank you, he got us all slingshots. I've never really used a slingshot before but I think I'm in love. I've been shooting at stuff like cacti, telephone poles and signs as we drive by. We have bottle shooting competitions and personal bets. I'm basically a sniper with this thing. It's also very useful for all the stray dogs. I've never really hit one directly, but if you hit a stop sign it makes a loud noise and they scatter.  

Can't wait for Christmas and my one Skype call! I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Gray

Dia de Gracias

Wow! It's almost December! I feel like I've been on a mission for years but I also feel like I got here yesterday. It's exhausting so it feels like a long time but so repetitive that the mind just blurs it into one long day. I'm having a blast though, I really enjoy the challenge of learning a new language and getting over my fear of talking to people. After this last week I feel like I can understand most of what people are saying and I'm slowly talking more in lessons and when we knock doors. Learning is cool.

The Field is White and Ready to Harvest

We had quite a few new investigators this week. A lot of families. They are all really good people and I enjoy watching them grow and learn. Not one of them showed up to church though. We had very few people at church yesterday, but I'm hoping it was because of Thanksgiving weekend. 

Speaking of which, was Thanksgiving was great. We spent most of the day eating. We had three different Thanksgiving meals, and we ended that day with 6 plates of leftover. I checked myself at the end of the day and I weighed more at that time than any other point in my entire life. It was awesome. Basically this whole week I've been eating leftovers, and I'm a little tired of stuffing and turkey, but at least I'm not starving. People love to feed us. I'm told nearly every other area has way more meal appointments, and in some areas we eat once or twice a day with members. I'm worried I'm going to gain weight since I lack self-control.

A week later and half my foot is still purple

I also sprained my ankle my first P-day. We were playing soccer but I didn't even do anything cool to injure it, I was just walking and rolled my ankle.I tell people I did it while scoring two goals at once. Because of my injury, we had to take the car every day this week and a week later it's still messed up. I think we are going to start biking again though since we are using too many miles on the car. I enjoyed not getting chased by dogs this week but nothing lasts forever. 

Again, I cannot write even a hundredth part of the things that have happened, but these are the big things.

I love you all, 

Elder Gray