Dear Family,
Before I forget, yes, I did receive the driver's license :)
I will admit that this week was a great week, minus one horrible disappointment. On Saturday there was the game between BYU and UT, and although I'm a fan for both teams, I was rooting BYU. We found out Saturday night that BYU lost after being up from the beginning of the match, and that they lost by 1. I had my BYU tie that Mom had sent me prepped for church the next day and I was ready to do a little gloating over some of the youth that are Longhorns fans. But, we were beaten and I wasn't afforded that opportunity, which in reality was probably a good thing. Anyways, I expect that game will probably come up this week as we're out knocking on doors and such.
Well, we had a pretty fun week here in Laredo. It got hot again, but the temperature did stay down lower that it has been over the past couple weeks. Fall is starting to roll in and we should be hitting some of the gorgeous weather soon. Later in the month is when the winter Texans start to arrive, so I wonder how many of them we'll see here in Laredo. In Donna, when I first came into the mission, there were trailer parks just full of older people. I haven't seen too many areas like that here in Laredo, but you never know. All of the sudden an empty field just becomes a giant trailer park with hundreds of people between 60-80 living there.
One of the Elders in my apartment is an avid picture taker, and I've been stealing copies of a lot of the stuff he has taken, but unfortunately the computers at this library are all just run off of one big server. There are no USB ports, so I'll have to send them later.
We had a pretty fun weekend. Another Elder that lives with us had his birthday yesterday, so a couple of the member families threw a Carne Asada for the both of us. It was pretty cool and had some great food as well. There are some families in our area that are very strong in the church and are doing a great job spreading the gospel. They are being great fellowshippers to our investigators. It's cool when you get to see people make some real friendships in the gospel and have a true friend they can go to with their questions.
Thanks for sending the birthday package, I can't wait to get it! The new camera will be put to some good use here in the coming days. The branches here are having a party on the 16th for Mexican Independence Day, and hopefully I'll get some good pictures of the festivities.
We have three investigators right now that are doing really well. Two of them were both very active in different Christian churchs. Since they attended our church and have felt the Spirit there, they've both made the decision that this is the church they want to attend and be a part of. Both of them have just a few fears over the commitment to baptism, but since they've had a witness from the Spirit of the truth of this work, I'm sure that soon they will be making that step. The other girl just came to church for the first time this last week and really seems to be loving the gospel. She's 18 and has a one year old son, and is caught in a hard time right now since she and her husband are getting separated. But the gospel is there to help her and it seems like she has some real desires to follow the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Elder Stewart is doing very well. He's coming up on his 5th week here in the mission field and is adjusting pretty quickly. His Spanish is still funny to listen to and he's had some moments that made some big laughs, but he is moving along and will get there soon =).
I checked the family blog and I will admit that I'm a fan of the pictures of Riggins. Whoever picked out his clothes has some good taste.
Anyway, thanks so much for the birthday wishes and everything, I'll let you know how everything goes next week. Oh, and I'm going to write them a letter, but also just say 'thanks' for me to the Simmons family, they sent me a package with cookies for my birthday. Needless to say we all enjoyed eating them.
Love you! Keep me updated!
Elder Wood
