Hey everyone,
This week was a great first week in the field! My companions Elder Memmott and Elder Yates are great trainers. Elder Memmott was originally assigned to Houston East and has been here about 9 months speaking English. Elder Yates was in Paraguay for about 14 months, got sent home because of COVID, and has been reassigned to Houston. He speaks Spanish, but isn't in a Spanish area right now.
It’s been pretty busy around here despite not being able to knock on doors. We've recently been teaching a woman, H, and her two sons. She's been making a lot of progress even in the last week. Her sons are a lot less interested but are still coming to church with her most Sundays, which is great.
I have discovered that Texas really doesn't care too much about COVID, which is pretty wild compared to northern Virginia right now. Church here is pretty normal; we still have to wear masks and sit in every other row, but everything else is the same. We had about 200 people attend last Sunday. We also can visit members and investigators in their homes if we are invited, so it's pretty much back to normal.
Monday and Tuesday - I pretty much covered in my last email, but it mostly consisted of flying here, sleeping at the mission home, talking about the rules and directions for the mission, and meeting our companions.
Wednesday - All the missionaries in the stake got together to do a food drive at the Summerwood Stake Center, which was a lot of fun. I got to meet some other Elders and Sisters in the area and it was a great day. We had dinner with some members at their home, which is almost an everyday thing here.
Thursday - It was a pretty average day, not a ton happened outside of our regular personal study, companionship study, and language study. I'm still trying my best to study Portuguese, but it's a little tougher now without real practice with anyone.
Friday - Another pretty normal day, but we had a lesson with H and her boys that went really well. She's been reading the Book of Mormon a lot recently which we think has really been helping with her testimony. Friday night the ward had a chili contest and trunk or treat with the whole ward and a lot of non-members. Nobody was wearing masks, which was a little scary, but it was nice to feel normal for once and meet some people in the ward. We were the judges for the chili (even though Elder Memmott hates chili), but we determined that chili #4 was the best.
Saturday - Another average day, but we had a really great lesson with H and the spirit was really strong. She is really starting to understand the restored gospel and the Book of Mormon. I had my first experience following the spirit in a lesson multiple times with her that night, and I think the things I said to her really strengthened her testimony. It gave me a lot of joy to see her begin to comprehend the whole picture and her immediate concern for her boys to understand as well, but unfortunately, they were out of the house that night.
Sunday - We went to church at 9 am for ward council and the member missionary meeting until 11:30 am. It was quite a challenge to stay awake during all of it, but I got through it with my eyes half open. Church was at 1 pm and H and her boys came, and it was nice to see them there. Elder Memmott and I had to introduce ourselves to the ward, which was a little nerve-wracking, but we were fine.
Monday (today) - We woke up on time and started our laundry for the day. I wanted to go to Cavenders (a very Texas boot and hat store), so we went and I ended up buying a hat, boots, belt, and a bolo tie. It was a little impulsive, but now I have my souvenirs already purchased from my Texas detour. We went grocery shopping for the week and got all the food we will need, as well as some study supplies. We aren't allowed to hang out with other Elders right now for p-day because there was a COVID breakout in a couple of districts, but not ours.
I'm doing well and I hope everyone back home is doing ok without me. Sorry for such a long email. I'll email again next week, but until then thanks for everyone's love and support for the missionaries.
-Elder James
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