Dear Family,
Before I forget, I'll throw in my new address...
Elder Roland Wood
1253 E. Alton Gloor, Apt #7
Brownsville, TX, 78521
Well my first week in Brownsville has come and gone, and it was a pretty great week. I'm kind of riding on the coat tails of Elder Rumsey (the missionary I replaced), but we saw a good bit of success. We are currently teaching a family of four who came to church yesterday for the first time. Elder Rumsey and Elder Marble (my new companion) first taught the daughter in the family just a bit before I got here. We had the first lesson with all of them on my second day here in Brownsville. They look like they have a lot of potential. I'm sure that if they do their part, they'll soon have a spiritual confirmation that they should be baptized. We are also teaching a brother and sister who are looking to get baptized soon. They were taught twice by the other elders before I got here, and they are doing really well. They missed church this Sunday because the sister was sick, but they should be on track to be baptized towards the end of the month.
Being a district leader is pretty tiring I'm not going to lie. We have really great Zone Leaders in Brownsville which is a big help. The zone set a record for baptisms in Brownsville in October, and things look like they should keep going well into November and December.
My area is pretty poor, filled with lots of unleashed dogs, but we're in a car and they don't do much to pedestrians. So, we're pretty much safe. The only time that's kind of scary is when we go around on bikes on Saturdays. I had a couple dogs chase me as we biked through the neighborhood, but they were all pretty small or medium sized--nothing I couldn't outrun. I'm still dreading the day I run into an unleashed German Shepard, cause I'm pretty sure those can chase me down. I'll probably just slow down and jump off the bike, normally they're just in it for the chase and if you get off and push the bike at them they'll back off. The neighborhood we work in is mostly Spanish, which is nice. Hopefully I get a good bit of practice over these next couple months.
Our apartment is super nice, which is also a bonus. We have a study room separate from the beds, and we each have our own bathroom and walk in closet. Talk about blessings. We've also got a bench and a bunch of weights which should help me get rid of my few extra pounds from Laredo. I had too many carne asadas and tortillas de arina over there. Anyway, my time for emailing is just about up. It seems like the library here lets me do pictures. Unfortunately I left my camera at home, but next week you all should be getting a big picture dump from Laredo and Brownsville. I hope everybody has a good week! I enjoyed the Halloween pics!
Love,
Elder Wood
