Week 23: Harlingen-San Benito

Hello everybody!!!!

This week I learned the importance of relying on the spirit in everything. On Tuesday we were out working and we started to drive down a random road in our area that is completley desolate other then three houses. We drove by twice and then went and worked somewhere else. When we were working in the second place Elder Davis said that we need to go back to the desolate houses. He felt that we needed to knock the doors when we were driving by but he just ignored it. So we went back and knocked on the first door. It was a little family and they loved the message that we shared and told us that we could come back. Unfortunately we haven't been able to go back yet because of the holiday season. I learned the importance of relying on the spirit especially in finding.

I gave a talk in the Spanish branch yesterday. It was really shaky, but I think it went fine. I talked about personal conversion. I went for about 10 minutes! I didn't even use any of my notes so I think it was pretty good. I have a long ways to go though! I almost just started talking in English because I mostly wanted to talk to the youth and they all understand both perfectly!

Other than that this week was pretty slow. We went by a ton of members. They are all doing so amazing and love us all so much!!

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas! Trust in the Lord and he will endow you with power!!!

I hope you all have an amazing New Year!!

Love, Elder Hurst

Thinking of Grandma with the Peppermint Ice Cream

Elder Davis with a mustache.

Having streets named after you is awesome.

The Christmas Zone Party

Christmas with the Family

Week 22: Harlingen: San Benito

This last week was a pretty good week.

We had zone conference on Wednesday. It was super good. We had a spiritual morning and then that afternoon we opened some presents. It was super good. We also had skits. We did some pretty funny skits! We had zone conference with Brownsville. It was cool to see all the people I knew from my last zone and talk to the people that were in my last area and see how it is doing. Unfourtunatly the people we left them with aren't progressing but that's okay.

This week we found a "golden" Investigator. She is so awesome! We taught her the restoration on Thursday and she loved it. So we went back the next day with a member to teach her the book of Mormon. We asked our member how she developed a testimony of the book of Mormon and she shared how she had a dream and that's how she knew. Our golden investigator turned to our member and told her about a dream that she had had. She said in the dream the heavans opened up and she saw a golden trumpet. She asked what do you think this means? Our Member said that in our church the golden trumpet is symbolic for preparing for the second coming and we have moroni on the top of the temples with a golden trumpet. We showed her a picture of the angel moroni and she said that this what she had seen. The spirit was so strong after that and we explained that the lord wants her to prepare for the second coming. I know god prepared this person to listen to us and that she is going to become such a strong member in the church of jesus Christ of latter day saints. That was a pretty cool excperince that happened this week.

I love being a missionary and know that god is preparing people for us to teach every singe day. The church is true!

Love, Elder Hurst

Week 21: Harlingen-San Benito

This week was super different! So it was nice to get a change.

Every single night we have a meal appointment so we save a lot of money on groceries. And if we really wanted we could eat 2 times a day but that would be too much!

The members in San Benito love the missionaries and love doing missionary work so they help us out a lot. They give us a lot of referals and come to lessons with us whenever we ask them to!

One day we decided to just knock on a random door and started talking to a guy. He loved to talk to us. He is very big and also gay. But we have been teaching him a little. It's super weird! But something could come out of it! Hopefully.

One day we were also down by the border working which I'm pretty sure was my old area! And we saw a man jump out of some bushes it was super weird. Then we got in our car and started to drive to another part of our area and a car stopped in front of us and turned on it's lights! It was a border patrol worker! He saw us and told us to leave! It was pretty crazy! We got stopped by border patrol! Luckily we are both white!

On Saturday we had three meal appointments it was awful! We also had the English branch Christmas party. Elder Davis threw up after the second meal appointment! It sucked because the third meal appointment they gave us so much food!

This week was pretty crazy. Elder Davis and I get a long very good so I like that! Things are going pretty well down here in Sany B!

I hope you are all doing amazing!!

Another cool thing this week was I got to baptized someone! She was nine and one of the sisters investiagors but it was still pretty cool! It made me excited to have my first baptism with one of my investigators and gave me a little more motivation to work hard!!

Love, Elder Hurst

The new district.

The mission car. haha.

Elder Davis and I holding lambs.

The apartment

Week 20: Harlingen-San Benito

San Benito!!!

We found out where we are going late on Monday! I got the call to San Benito South in Harlingen. Harlingen and Brownsville are neighbors! Also San Benito South and Villa Nueva are neighbors! The two areas that I have served in touch!! I thought that was super cool. I didn't go very far. I don't know if you guys remember Janet but she was our investigator in Brownsville but she lives in San Benito! So we are going to try and start talking to her again! So that was pretty cool.

My new companion's name is Elder Davis. He is from Snowflake Arizona. He has been serving for a little over one year. Our District is a relief society district. So it's us and two sets of sisters! They are all pretty cool!

San Benito is an awesome area! The members here are so amazing! They are so involved with missionary work that it is crazy! Pretty much all the success comes because of them. That is how it should be anyways. So I'm super excited to be serving in San Benito. There is some amazing people with some amazing stories! I love them all so much!

The San Benito branch goes to church in an office building. But it's a super nice and pretty big office building! We also go to the treasure hills English branch in Harlingen. It's a pretty cool little branch. We only have on English member though so we don't go much with the English branch. But we have a good majority of the Spanish Branch so we do a lot with them!

This Saturday we had Zone Meeting and we ended up talking a lot about overcoming our fears. It was super good for me! I felt the spirit really strong and now that with the help of God I can conquer my fears! I love you all and hope that things are going amazing!!

Love, Elder Hurst

One last picture with the Conde Family.

Brother Martinez

Elder Denny and Elder Hurst from PG 

This is a picture of a little house in Brownsville that I helped put the lights on when we did service one week!

Week 19: Brownsville

Good Bye Brownsville!

This last week has been somewhat crazy!! We found 10 new people to teach so it was a pretty awesome week for us. On top of that we had thanksgiving!

To start off the day for thanksgiving we played football with the English ward. It was pretty fun, things were getting a little heated though... Then we went back to our apartment and waited for the feasts to begin! We started off the day by eating with the first councilor in the Spanish branch. The arteaga family. It was your typical thanksgiving dinner. Super good!

Our second dinner appointment was right after the first. We ate with one of the new investigators we had just started teaching. They are family to one of the members of the Spanish branch. They also have a lot of money. It was a super high-class dinner! Everyone was drinking wine(Except for us). It was a reminder to me that I am not back home where everyone is LDS.

We ended off the day eating with some members in the Zone Leaders Area. It was super awesome! We ate sooo much food. By the end of the night I was dying.

On Friday night Elder Curtis got a call to become a DL. So we figured he was leaving for this transfer. On Sunday we found out that both of us are leaving. They are doing what is called a white wash. Two new elders will come in. Or they could even shut down our area for a little while because there is a lack of missionaries coming in. We don't know what will happen or even where we are going yet. We will find out later today. So next week I will tell you where we are going!!

This week was a crazy week! It made up for the boring weeks we had been having. I learned that when we are obedient we are blessed!!

I almost forgot. I taught a couple of elders how to play cover your assests! They all loved it and we played for a long time!! Things got a little heated! It remined me of home!

Love, Elder Hurst

The Nueva Villa District in Brownsville

This is what happens when missionaries are busy doing what they are meant to do. Teaching the Gospel. No time for dishes. This is a sign of successful missionaries.