Nathan's Mission to Texas

The first week in texas was crazy!!!!! I got off the plane and it was seriously so so so so so hot!!!!! But im loving it! Ok first some matters of address and stuff. My address is somewhere in Harlingen and I forgot to grab it but all the missionaries  say to have people send letters to the mission office because you will for sure get it that way. So will you put the mission office address on my facebook so people can write me if they so desire.

 

Ok so we got here and had dinner at the mission presidents house and it was soooo good!! much better than the CCM and they were really nice and talked to us. They are both from Chile and they were so excited when I told them you had both served there! anyway, as we were eating the AP elder Stott said "wait, are you related to ElderSherman with the shoulder surgery! i said yup and i guess he knew Jeremy at the CCM which is really cool!!!! But I stayed my first night at a members house and it was sooo hot. We woke up and got our assignments and headed out. I ran into Melissa Garry too! My violin was perfect and even still in tune! thank you! i love it!!! my bike came together really well and I am doing a lot of riding on it!

 

So like I said I'm doing a lot of sweating and getting a lot of exercise. Where we live isn't in our area since they just split it so we bike hard for like 15 minutes to get to the beginning of our area. it is seriously huge. Our apartment is pretty nice though and I'm learning how to be creative with food.

 

Our area covers one side of the highway that is really poor and the other side which is nice Provo looking neighborhood. we are in the poor part most of the time. The people are seriously very very friendly and everyone knows who we are including the little kids. There are some crazy people here. I'll share a story later on. But likeI said everyone is so nice and we probably get 4 or 5 free water bottles a day which is really nice. We run into a lot of drunk people and they are so crazy and sweating a ton and just say crazy stuff to you for about 5 minutes than walk away. I'm using my Spanish and English about 50 / 50 right now. There are so many dogs here!!!!! they are all of Satan. Most of them are locked up but there are a few that aren't. I have only kicked one dog so far and it was straight in its jaw so I felt bad. but it was scary so I had to. Peddling faster on your bike doesn't work. they can still catch you. But its not even bad here compared to Brownsville. elders get bit in Brownsville cause there are so many. so I'm pretty lucky so far. people have dogs not cause they like them. i'ts to keep people away.

 

my companion is elder Jones from florida!!! he has been out about 4 months and is very very obedient. we get a lot of stuff done and contact people all the time. its scary but we are getting better at it. he is a really great guy and is training me really good! him and me get along awesome

 

I got to play my violin on pday which was very very exciting!!!! I had to warm up for a while but almost everything is coming back!!!! One of the other elders we live with has always wanted to play and he is 26. so I'm teaching him how on pdays :). Things are great out here though and I'm loving it.

 

We have 3 pretty solid investigators. we had 6 baptismal date people but one is moving to Michigan and the other 2 we haven't made contact with since the first day which is sad. But we are teaching a 15 year old named E___. He is very poor and so we are trying to help him as much as we can. he lives with his grandma. They have literally nothing. he hangs outside all day in shorts and that's it. we looked in his house one time and it was like a mattress on cinder blocks and that's it. it is so sad. he came to church but when we gave him to the young men he just walked home. but he is really cool and we are working with him.

 

OK before I forget, remember that family we met on the parade??? ya they are in our ward and they recognized me and gave me a referral!!!!! haha its so funny and such a small world. The members are really cool and really willing to help.

 

so our last two investigators are sooooo funny. there names are J____ and M____. One is from Honduras and the other from Matamoros mexico. ( i spelled it wrong) they are so funny and so kind to us. they are absolutely so poor though. like when we met them i think they were sharing a pair of shoes. It is so sad but they are seriously so awesome and funny. They were a referral to a member who works with them and so we went to there little rental one room (kitchen, mattress in one room and a tiny tiny door that goes to a bathroom) apartment sorta thing on the way home at like 8 45 and there were just a ton of drunk people and he said for us to come by tomorrow. so we went by tomorrow and they were sitting there without shirts just waiting. first thing they said was, (all in Spanish of course) when is church?? we were a bit taken back because people usually want to talk first. so we told them that there was a Spanish and an English. they were like, well we want to learn English so we will come to both. hahah so they came to the first ward and than to the first hour of the second ward. but were really tired so went home. but they came to 4 hours of church!!!! they seriously are just so nice to us even though they have nothing. they offer us water out of used Gatorade bottles that smell like smoke and it touches my heart because i know its all they can afford. one time we passed by there house trying to lock up our bikes and were going to backtrack to go talk to them and as we were locking them up J___ came walking out of the complex looking for us because he thought we forgot about them. they are so sweet. hopefully ill get a picture with them.

 

Let me tell you a crazy story. There is a man named Ted. We have learned it is best to avoid him. He is about 70 and has 0 teeth. we were riding by on our bikes one day and we here someone yell. HEY MORMONS!!!! so we turned around and there was a drunk shirtless man and this old cowboy sitting on this nasty couch outside behind this little gate. So we went and sat down (after he invited us too....) and he start drilling us with questions about "infidelity" and things of the sort. Well he turned out to be crazy. my companion asked him how much he had been drinking at least twice. he asked us to say a prayer. so I did. He than asked if he could say one. So we said why not. So he started praying and in the middle broke into loud loud song. He sang for us twice, one of the songs was Jeremiah was a bullfrog. He like us so much he invited us to his house. we walked back there to a little shack with written on the door in terrible English. Stay away, beware of the owner. He said that was him. He showed us all his prized possessions including a broken rusty hammer that he calls his hatchet to attack people when they break in. seriously nuts. i cant even begin to describe ted. just keep in mind he has absolutely 0 teeth. he than said he needed to write his son a letter. and he needed a dollar. so my companion gave him a dollar. he than said....well I'll probably buy some alcohol with this. but hey i wont tell anyone i got it from you. thats why you dont hand out money...anyway. ted is crazy. he want us to visit a lot...we haven't gone back..

 

I'm running low on time and I want to send you pictures. I'll include a spiritual thought next week. but lately I have been thinking a lot about prayer and how important it is and how god really does answer prayers. I love you all and I would love to hear from all the kids individually! i love you!!!

tell Caleb im so happy for his violin learning

tell Lizzy to enjoy high school

tell Ethan i miss playing duets with him....but really...i do

tell Seth that he better be playing Tchaikovsky when i get back.

i love you all so much

our the greatest and please write me an email for next week again dad. They are a great strength to me and I love hearing from you.

love elder Sherman