WEEK 68 - School Dance Pics

This was an extremely hard week. Thanksgiving is canceled. I'm grateful for nothing. Heavens, I'm kidding. I am so abundantly blessed it is crazy, there is so much to be grateful for! The work here right now is blowing up and I am loving it. It reminds me of when my brother Mckay "wasn't" taking steroids and got like super jacked in 2 months. So ya, things are elite right now, the Lord is blessing us so much I am so grateful. I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and know how grateful I am for you! There was a time in my life where I fully believed that your riches were solely dependent on how much money you had. Oh I just loved making more money whether it was stocks or dawgin' all of my friends (except Andrew) in poker, everytime my money went up I felt very rich. I have discovered out here that money is not what makes you rich and it doesn't define the quality of your life. Some of the richest people I have ever met are some of the people with the least amount of money out here in East Texas. You know who was rich? Thomas S Monson. He was more wealthy than anyone I have ever learned about. The reason these people are so wealthy is the relationships they have with others, and most importantly, the relationship they have with the Savior. I have heard countless stories about Thomas S Monson visiting a widow, being there for an old friend, or being the answer to someone's specific prayer. Each genuine relationship he had made him that much richer. "For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" I think my Dad is very rich. He claims to make "$0 a year" which is a very questionable statement if you ask me, but I have watched him leave the 99 and help the 1 as often as he possibly could, and for that, I consider him very rich. I want to be so rich for the rest of my life, I feel more rich than I have ever felt right now, and I know that the only way to obtain these riches I want is to follow the Savior and His two greatest commandments: love God, love your neighbor. Riches. Yep, the week went swimmingly except that my dearest Elder Nelson left me, and I'll just let the less than impressive amount of females on my email list know that he is ready to jump both feet into the next covenant of marriage. But ya the week was swell, let me elaborate: - My friend Richard in an English ward in Plano got baptized! Finding him was one of my coolest stories from my mission. The Spirit always comes in clutch. I baptized him, and when I got there he was being a little sassy about a couple of things. After he was baptized, heavens, he was as jovial as one can get. I love Richard, we aren't quite at the point where I call him Dick yet, but we are getting there - We were knocking in this complex that has super thin walls, and we knocked this door and a massive dog starts barking, then the massive dogs across the hall start to bark. 5 minutes comes and goes, still barking. 10 mins, still barking. 20 mins, still barking. People in the hall were getting heated about the dogs. Legend has it that those dogs are still barking to this day - Elder Nelson was saying goodbye to some friends from his old area and they were wonderful. If you currently like dogs and kittens I promise you that if you go to this nice couple's home, you will change your mind. The kitten's claws were so sharp I legit thought Hugh Jackman Wolverine was crawling all over me. Luckily, the TV was playing a show about professional moonshine makers and I was able to forget the agony that my legs were in. Also, like 10 mins into this visit some peacock starts waltzing around the outside acting like he owned the place. idk, it was cool - This guy in our ward is my dad cloned. He had the classic "if I didn't have a job and a family I think it would be neat to be a cowboy" type button up shirt, so it was like I was looking right at my own father. He hit me with "awhhh man! The apples this season are incredible! Sometimes on my way home from work I'll stop by H.E.B. and grab whatever variety of apples are on sale!!" I love this guy, he's literally my dad - The Chinese branch had a Thanksgiving party this week and I got to go and it was so much fun. None of you reading this can slightly fathom how much I love the branch, oh my gosh, they are wonderful. Me and Elder MacDonald got to go with Elder Christensen and Elder Sorenson who are actual legends in this mission. This one lady wanted to take pics with me and Elder Christensen cause we were tall or something? idk. It was like 7/10 suspect because she was holding me like we were taking school dance pics, which really brought me back to some neat memories. We finished taking the pic and I thought I might be excused, which in turn ended up not being true. I put a nice slab of turkey into my mouth and she without warning grabs me and goes round 2 on the school dance pics. I was like "haha ok, give me a second so I can swallow" but no matter whatsoever, the pic was taken as I was guzzling down this massive piece of turkey. About one hour into the party the music theme was changed from Thanksgiving to Christmas which was hype. I had some friends at the ages 23-35 single women table I wanted to talk to and I guess I was feeling fearless or something cause I plopped myself right down at that table. What an adrenaline rush, idk what I am gonna do in college that was horrifying wow. Gosh dang I love the branch Super cool week. Being on a mission has seriously helped me learn to find joy in the journey of things and I am grateful for that. I am grateful for you and would love to hear from you! Have a blessed one! Pics: 1. Cool jacket 2. Exceptional district 3. Elder Nelson's funeral 4. Elder MacDonald peeing 5. Richard's baptism 6. It doesn't get better than Chu Yang