Teach Me To Walk In The Light.....

Monday, Nov 21, 2016                                           Beaumont, TX

" So this weekly is going to be short cause nothing really happened but here are some cool things that did happen. We stopped by our investigators house who we haven't been able to meet with. We knocked and her friend answered and said she wasn't home. So we thanked her and was about to leave and then the friend asked us to wait. "How bout y'all teach me and my friend?", she said. So we agreed and we taught them both and both are pretty solid. One of them has a friend whose Mormon and served a mission.

We also taught that homeless man about four times this week, so that was cool. We also talked to this lady who was a bit crazy. Imma gonna put in a quote from her. First she would make bunny ears and would say bunny ears and then she would put her fingers over her eye and make the Gucci sign ( * parent note: "we have no idea what the Gucci sign is)
Then she would say, "seven, lucky number seven". Then she would turn her hands and say, "Illuminati, seven, seven million, I gave three million to a guy once and then gave it back and gave him five million. Then I took that five million back and gave him seven million, seven, bunny ears, seven, illuminati, lucky number seven, lottery all sevens, jackpot, seven, lucky number seven, illuminati, bunny ears and seven" We were not sure what to think.

Scripture for the week: 3 Nephi 18: 24 : "Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up-that which ye have seen me do. Behold, ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed."                           After quoting this verse, Elder Jeffrey R Holland stated, "The praying Christ. That is the example to which we are to point others. The Christ of humility. The Christ of spiritual communion. The Christ who is dependent upon his Father. The Christ who asks for blessings upon others. The Christ who calls down the powers of heaven. The Christ who submits, yields, and obeys the will of the Father. The Christ who is one with the Father in at least one way that we may be united with him as well--through prayer. That is the light we are to show to the world. It is the image of Christ praying and speaking such things." 

Love,
Elder Saunders

District in Beaumont, TX. A Canadian elder shared a dish that is popular in Canada. French fries smothered in cheese and then gravy poured over. It looks like five out of six liked it  :) Nov 2016

How Beautiful Thy Temple, Lord......

Monday, Nov 14, 2016                                                       Beaumont, TX 2016

"So we started off the week by having a cool lesson with one of our investigators who finally opened up to us. He asked us the usual questions about becoming gods and multiple wives and stuff. It's good he asked us that cause he's had those questions for a while but was too scared to ask them cause he didn't want to offend us. 

We also stopped by this less active family who recently lost a baby. It is sad. The wife pretty much lost her faith in everything, so we taught her about prayer. She really wasn't understanding it. I raised the question, " Do you think that God knows everything?" And she shook her head, which really surprised me so I asked her, " Do you think there is a god?" She was quiet and then shook her head and said that she wasn't sure. We talked with her a bit more and then she said, "When you come back, could you teach me about God?" So later on in the week, we stopped by and started at square one with who is God. Our hearts went out to her. 

On Thursday we went to the beautiful Houston Temple and then stopped by Buc-ees.....and taught some lessons when we got back. 

Friday we were biking in the Ghetto and this homeless guy calls us over and he's with like 25 people, all spread out on this empty lot. We went over to talk to him and end up teaching him. As we were teaching him, right across the street we saw a couple of police officers pull this car over and there were three people in it. They had drugs or something cause they got in a fight and the cops arrested them. Like everyone in the whole neighborhood was watching it. People just appeared outta no where.

On Sunday I woke up and I lost my voice, so I'm sick again, That means I have still kept the streak of getting a sore throat every transfer! D& C 42:43: " Nourish the sick with tenderness, herbs and mild food." 

Love,

Elder Saunders

* Parent note: He is now a district leader and still training Elder Jones. We are so proud of him.*

Elder Jones and Saunders at Houston Temple, Nov 2016

Elder Jones & Elder Saunders at the beautiful Houston Temple Nov 2016

Beaumont District before Nov 14 transfer : Top row L-R : Elders Bonny, Saunders, Hill, Moos, Jones, Ericson. Bottom row L-R: Sister Lowe, Hermana Skidmore, Hermana Butler, Elder Lowe.

I Stand All Amazed......

Monday, Nov 7, 2016                                    Beaumont, TX

"So this week has definitely been quality over quantity, ha ha. 
Pretty much we had a few lessons, but the ones we had were bomb! 

We ate lunch with some other missionaries and they brought out this huge summer sausage that one of them got in a package, like this thing was huge! It weighed about 6 lbs. So he shared it and we were eating it and it was so good with BBQ sauce. I ate too much and when we went to one of our investigators, Rita, she cooked for us again. She made us spaghetti with big chunks of meat. It was so hard to eat it, but after that sausage, I couldn't hardly eat meat. Somehow I ate all of it and then she gave us a huge salad and a bowl of fruit and also deviled eggs. We taught her and she was so amazed. She kept asking questions and we taught her the plan of salvation, temples, baptisms for the dead, temple sealings, and the Word of Wisdom. She made the comment, "It's almost like I don't want y'all to stop talking cause everything you say is so interesting that I want to learn more and more and more." After that we invited her to be baptized. She even accepted a date for the baptism- 26th of November.

Today we met with Rita again and we gave her a church tour. She was super excited and had a lot of questions. She asked us if she could get baptized tomorrow and we told her that we would love to, but that there are still some things to be done before that. We told her all the steps. Right then and there she committed to come to church.

On Sunday, church was about to start up and Rita wasn't there. We went to the foyer to call her and she answered and said her sister came up from Houston and she couldn't make it this week. I was so bummed out. All of a sudden I see her blue mustang pull in. I'm like, "Rita, is that you that just pulled in? " She starts busting up laughing. She was able to make it and she loved it. She was crying....

I chose one of my favorite scriptures to share: Moses 6:60, " For by the water ye keep the commandment, by the spirit ye are justified, by the blood ye are sanctified." This scripture underlines what Baptism really is. It is a commandment. By the Spirit you know it is right and without Christ there would be no reason.

Love, 
Elder Saunders

Sweet hat and paws that mysteriously showed up on a members phone and she laughed and sent it to me. Nov 2016 in Beaumont, TX

Beaumont Warriors at the Halloween Christmas party  Oct 2016  Elders Tukuafu, Jones, Hill, Moos, Fraley and me layin sideways)

Meetings, Mohammed and Messed Up Pumpkins.....

Monday, Oct 31, 2016                                                     Beaumont, TX

" So this week was pretty much filled with meetings and events, but we had a good day on Tuesday. We went and saw this woman we contacted last week. She was telling us how she wanted to find a church to start going to, again. We taught her the first lesson and she was very open, so hopefully she stays that way. We taught another lesson and then went to see Debra and she has quit smoking. To end our day we had a meeting with the Assistants to the President. 

Wednesday we had new missionary training so the Orange Elders came and slept over last night. We rode down to Kingwood. The meeting lasts forever, ha ha. We stopped by Buc-ee's. (See the giant Beaver picture below). It is this giant gas station with a bunch of shops. We came home about 7:50 p.m. so that was our day.

On Friday we went to a Muslim church. It wasn't too bad just kinda weird. They talked in Arabic like 70% of the time which was interesting. I saw a guy named Mohammed who I taught in Port Arthur. That was cool. We then biked 8 miles to this appointment that fell through, so that was crazy and we had to come back. 

Saturday we had the ward Halloween party and that was fun. We were called to help set up for it and that pretty much took up our day. That was our week, not too exciting. Also we carved pumpkins and I messed up on mine so I didn't take a picture of it. 
Love,
Elder Saunders

Elder Saunders at Buc-ee's giant gas station in Texas. Oct 2016.  Looks like the giant beaver is going to hug him, ha ha!

Elder Saunders and his Buc-ee beaver hat and wax mustache that we sent him for Halloween Oct 2016 in Beaumont, Texas