8.18.14 - Mas Lomas Bonitas?

A Texas-sized spider the size of my palm.

Eagle Pass had a big neighborhood called pretty hills, I know have a whole area made entirely up of truly pretty hills.

A normal day for me in Canyon Lake, would look a little like this. Elder C and I get up at 6 and go run. I run for 15 minutes at a decent pace, and then we turn around and he gets to take as much time as he wants to get us back home. We go about 4 miles or so. Haha, I know my pace pretty well but didn't tell him his distance each day because he was beating himself up about how out of shape he was (he's really not) and then we drove out our average run the other day and he realized how far we'd been going and he got all mad yelling, "you made me run 4 miles every day?! My legs are killing me! What's wrong with you?!"

But then he thought about it and realized he ran 4 miles every day and felt pretty good about himself, haha so we keep at it.

We eat some cereal with a banana cut up on it, I've eaten that every day for at least 6 months now. Too good, i love me some raisin bran. I usually study Spanish while I eat and then we start personal study at 8. We study to receive revelation for the people we're teaching. We regroup at 9, talk about studies, go over principles of teaching and we have until 11 (an extra hour for trainees) to plan lessons, practice lessons, go over teaching skills and doctrine. We sing in Spanish every morning, and pretty much every personal prayer I've had since the beginning has been in Spanish which was really hard at first because I didn't feel like I could properly express myself to say an effective prayer, I just hoped God knew what I was getting at and understand, haha.

This is where we live ... and this where all the forest
 people we teach live, and the squirrels we teach.

Next we study Spanish for an hour and specifically go over words and grammar that applies to the lessons we'll teach that day.

We eat lunch for an hour (The menu this week has been chicken taco salad - elder c is a no dressing kind of guy - he confessed to having a fat phobia hahaha) and then we're off for the day!

We've been teaching 3 or 4 lessons a day, and we're getting a lot better at planning stuff that is closer together, but still, the ward feeds us every day at 5 - which is great - we just have to plan our whole day around the area the dinner is in so we don't spend 45 minutes going to and from the dinner. I swear I spend all day sitting in the truck talking to Elder C.

 

Training is fun because we get to have firsts all over again. First lessons, first time sharing the spiritual thought at dinner. First time someone tells you where to shove the picture of Christ you just offered them ... haha all good experiences.

My invitation to everyone this week, especially to family, is to write me about the things they're learning in Preach My Gospel. If you have any questions refer to the last few paragraphs of Elder Ballard's 2014 conference talk called "following up." I really want that promised grace. If you have questions about the best way to study PMG just ask! This week in Chapter 11 pmg the district discussed what we can do when extending a commitment to help the person through conversion and ultimately to the temple. PMG talks about having the person write down the invitation and then we as missionaries will have daily contact until the commitment is completed supporting and uplifting all the while. People don't seem to want to change unless they're invited to.

I love you!

Stay Salty!

Elder Tyler Meidell