My Last Week In Beautiful Orange, Texas....

Tuesday, Jan 19, 2016

"So I got transferred so that is why this email is a day late. So here it is my last week in Orange, TX...

It was mostly a pretty average day except when we went to a members home to visit them today and I guess her husband went hunting and got some deer and made deer jerky, so they gave us a bag and it was so good.

The next day was a blur, but all I can remember is we met with an investigator who it took 3 1/2 months to contact her again, but we finally got a return appointment. We then tried to meet a person with the last name of  Craquio. We went to their house and we were not sure if it was the wife or the husband who contacted us. So we get to the house and the kids and the mom are riding around on motorized razors and one of the girls stops and talks to us. She said she was going to grab her dad. She goes inside for like 15 min. and then comes out and asked us where her brother was. We look and tell her her he is riding down the street with her mom. So we wait on the driveway and we were like we will talk to the mom and get it straightened out. We are waiting there and the son stops and walks up to us and the the mom keeps on riding! She doesn't even look at us. We are two white guys with white shirts and ties and our tags. We are standing on her property talking to her kids. How could you not look? But she didn't and she kept on riding so we thought we should come back in a couple of days.

So, I'm going to teach you today about how sometimes bets are good to make. We taught one of our investigators today. His family lives at their mother-in-laws home. She is inactive. We are talking to our investigator, Josh and the mother-in-law comes in. She starts to hear us and then says to Josh, "Dude, when are you getting baptized?". His response was, "When you come to church, I'll set a date with them." Then they shook on it. They made the bet and it was super funny. Also, we were walking to the other elder's apartment and this little kids who was probably about 4 was outside. He started to talk to us and he was super funny. He points at me and (I don't know if it's a red tie or not) says. "Hey, you look like that character from "Spider-Man". So yeah, honestly it made my day cause that kid was freaken cute!

Today we had another lesson with a guy named Russell. I've talked about him before, but here's a quick run down: He's been investigating the church for two years. He is a baptist chief of deacons(which is like 2nd in command to the preacher). He is also the church's treasurer. He knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, however he is too high up in his church to leave. We meet with him every Thursday at 1. Anyway, today we thought we would switch up lessons and teach him something from the Bible( a book he is very, very, very knowledgeable on) So we show up and started to talk about Matthew 13. Now if you aren't familiar with Matthew 13, it is the chapter where Christ gives the people eight parables. We start talking about it and he is a very smart man, but we have a trick up our sleeve. We started to use the LDS student manuals in gospel Library. We got him to download them and follow along. Not long into the lesson, we were having him read quotes that Gordon B. Hinckley said and Joseph Smith quotes. He kept saying, Wow, I never took this parable to mean this, but it makes so much sense. So hopefully we are trying to get him to use Mormon beliefs in his church he teaches at and we can baptize the whole congregation. 

We had a referral that came in so we went to his house and we met this guy. He was super nice and invited us in, so we sat down and talked to him. He told us he is studying to become a Baptist preacher and wants to know more about our faith. We are meeting with him two times next week. He told us he doesn't want to bash us or anything. He just wants to talk about our religions, so we will see how that works out.

So today, we had a meeting with one of the stake presidency. He taught us some things about Lehi's dream. After we were driving to his less active's house. We saw this guy on the side of the road with a shotgun. We stopped and talked to him and he said he was hunting, in the middle of the neighborhood! So we were almost to the less actives door when we hear like 5 gun shots. Elder Hunter yelled, " Did y'all get him?" and then there comes back a voice, "Yeah, but there is not much left of him.

We went and taught a few more people and then we got a call from Sister Bishop(Sister Evans). She asked if we could help her move some hay bales. We got in our street clothes and when we got there, it started to pour down rain. So we were working and we probably spent about 45 min in the pouring rain. But then Sister Evans cooked us some fried chicken and corn and it was worth it. We rushed home after to get some dry clothes. 

Today was my last Sunday in Orange, so I said goodbye to everyone. Had lunch at a members after church and then another member invited us to dinner. 

It is transfer day today, so I got transferred and I am now in Mid County, which is about 30 min from Orange, so not much of a change. So lets see how this transfer will work out. He seems pretty okay but hey it is only 6 weeks, right? Maybe 12 if I really gotta learn humility.
Love,
Elder Saunders

Thanks for "stickin' with me, Elder Venche, Elder Lawrence, me, Elder Hunter! Orange, TX  January 2016

An awesome member in Orange, TX  Everything about him is cool.

A Missionary Birthday, Texas Style

Mon, Jan 11, 2016

"Honestly I don't know how this email was just as long as the others, cause I was sick outta my mind for all of it, but I guess it was a pretty good week. 

Today I woke up and I was dead. My throat was killing me and I was super weak. The whole day I was down and Elder Hunter went on splits with people, so we could teach all the people. 

We went down to Vidor cause Elder Venche might of had pink eye. We came back, did some more missionary work and then some of the less actives wanted to play basketball and the Elders Quorum came. Honestly we found out that all the good basketball players are from Utah and we were talking and it's true. Everyone who comes from Utah knows how to play basketball. I got a little crazy and gave Elder Lawrence a black eye. We had bluebell ice cream and pie for lunch. We went out to follow up on some more appts for the rest of the day.

Today was my birthday, so I woke up and opened some presents and read scriptures, etc. We went to district meeting where they sang to me. At lunch I picked out this all you can eat pizza cafe and then we quickly went to a pawn store to buy something for my birthday. They didn't have much but we saw this member who was there from Woodville. He told us how every couple of weeks he comes down to all the pawn shops and looks at their guns. He knows everything about guns, so he can buy guns there for a super good price. He told us he has about 60 rifles and almost 40 shotguns. We did some tracting and then it was dinner time. We had a dinner appointment at the Lovelaces. They were mad when they found out it was my birthday, and I hadn't told them. They made BBQ and also a whole gallon of Bluebell, so honestly it was a great birthday dinner. Later that night we had another birthday party and the other elders came over and we baked a cake that my parents sent and it started to have these huge thunderstorms and then it poured down rain. 

The sisters had a baptism today. We had to bike to the church because it was spoken pedal. We went to the baptism and it was okay. The sisters chose this one person to speak on a assigned topic for 5-7 min. Instead, she took 25 min and covered baptism, Holy Ghost, scripture study, church, some temple stuff, and faith. The bishop took us in his office and and told all of us how to set up a baptism. It was horrible. We then biked back to our apt in the freezing wind. 
We ended the night going back to the church again cause they were having this chili cook off. I had chili that had boar in it and it was really spicy, but so good. Then I had another that had deer meat in it, also great. We played a volleyball tournament and we got to the finals but lost to Team Bishop. We lost 13-15. We did beat the Relief Society which was good because they were talking crap and we beat the Young Women who came in wearing knee pads and shorts and stuff. After that we played basketball and and a member bought us all gatorades. 

Towards the end of the today the bishop tells us to go to this Youth Conference. We go there and they have the meeting and Bishop says, " Will the birthday boy stand up?" Then he looks around and looks right at me and says,"Yeah, you, elder." So I stand up and they sing, then they carried out a cake and other things. It was great! Then we had to drop some stuff off at the other elders apartment. Saw some people trying to steal a car and when they saw us they started to walk away. So it gets pretty fun out here!

I will answer a question in closing: Yes, they do celebrate Mardi Gras down here.... and yes it is great.
Love, 
Elder Saunders

My Texas birthday with the birthday package my parents sent.  Orange, TX January 2016

Celebrating with my missionary buddies. Elder Lawrence, Elder Venche, me, and Elder Hunter in front. * Notice that we are wearing the cowboy party hats my parents sent :)   Orange, TX January 2016 

Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?

Monday, January 4, 2016

" So today started out in the usual p-day. We did the usual stuff but then we went to a store called Tractor Co. We wanted to buy overalls, but they didn't have the size we wanted, so we went to lunch. The bishop called us and long story short-He wanted us to go find someone in the park who just got out of jail and the Bishop wanted to take him to the Salvation Army. I guess he is a member and knocked on the sisters apartment door. We tried to find him but he was gone. Fast forward like 8+ hours and it was 7:00 pm when we got a call from one of the sister missionaries and they wanted us to come right over. We call them and then went over because they said there was a stranger at their apt who knocked and then left and then came back again. We arrived and he is gone so we wait in the car outside the sisters apt doing some recon. We were both like, lets go out and look for whoever did this. We're looking around and we're both in short sleeves and it is super cold outside and their is this killer wind. So it is freezing! So we were walking around for about 7 min and this guy comes up to us. He said that we were who he was trying to contact all day. He was the guy we were supposed to find in the park earlier. 

So we talk to him and he was the most humble guy. He got outta jail and lived with his mom's friend who ended up selling drugs. He choose to live homeless rather then live with her doing drugs and selling them. We talked with him and he was living in the park bathroom. We told him we would contact the bishop and get him a ride to the shelter. We then left and we bought him hot chocolate, a blanket, gloves and a pizza. We found him in the park on a bench and he had lit a fire to keep himself warm cause it was freezing outside. We gave him all that stuff plus some more cash for the next couple of days. He was so thankful and kinda embarrassed that he was so needy. He kept saying, "Well after this, hopefully y'all will see me in a better situation. While we were talking to him, suddenly a cop shows up. We were worried because here we were with a homeless man and there is this fire burning in the middle of a park. He told the cop what happened and the cop understood. He asked the guy if he had anything to put out the fire with quick. Then the homeless guy said he was really depressed and bought these beers, but after a couple of sips of one can, he felt horrible about himself. He took the beers and threw them over the fire. The cop was chill and we talked to him for awhile and then he left. We all just felt bad cause we just left him in the park in the freezing cold and honestly we wanted to take him into our apt but that would be a huge no, it just sometimes sucks. But we did all that we could. 

The next day the other elders had to take our car cause they had to go to new missionary training. We had to bike to our recent converts house because we had a lesson with her that morning. So we walked out wearing our short sleeves . When we started to bike we realized that there was a constant freezing wind. Since we were already late, we just suffered through it. We biked exactly 5.2 miles in the freezing wind. It was even more annoying that there are no sidewalks in Orange cause the cars fly inches past us and honk or yell things at us. One of them honestly hit my bag that was just barely hanging off the side of me. When we finally got close to the converts home, we got chased by a ton of dogs. We taught her and then biked back. The bishop came and picked us up at home and we helped him out around his house for the rest of the day.

Today it is New Years Eve and we went and got breakfast at Sonic. We went to the Hammonds to eat and then bought sparkling cider and other things. We hurried back to our apartment because we had to be in by 6:00.

The next day we had district meeting and after we got home, the Assistants to the Mission President called the other elders and told them that they would be staying the night in their apt. This information got us scared cause they might also come into our apartments. So both of us cleaned our apartments super good. We had a lesson with our investigator, Josh. It was super good and at the end he asked what they do after worship service(Sacrament). We told him about gospel principles and Priesthood. He looked at his wife and says, "Honey, we have to stay for a couple more hours on Sunday cause I have to go to Gospel Principles." It was super funny. He is super solid. The only problem is that he is outside our ward boundaries but they are going to move in after he finishes training in Houston. The Stake President has told us that we can't baptize them until they actually move in. He also added that we are lucky just to be able to teach him. So now we have a really solid investigator who wants to be baptized and another three kids who really want to be baptized. All we can do is continue to teach them and keep them excited for baptism for a couple more months. They don't like the Vidor ward, so it is either our ward or they won't go. 

After we taught them, we went to Orange Field and knocked on some doors and only one answered. He came to the window and said, "Not today" and motioned for us to go away. The thing is we were trying to find a house and were going to ask him if he knows Christina but he waved us away and closed the door. 

We had interviews today with the Mission President. It was really good. I guess the mission is changing everything around and is simplifying everything so we are going back to the basics. Honestly, I think it is a great idea. Then we went to 'The Hut"(a BBQ place) for lunch. I got the smoked turkey burger on a jalapeno bun with spicy mayo. It was the best thing I've ever had. Holy Cow it was so good. We played basketball with some investigators and some recent converts and it was cool cause they invited some friends to come so we had 12 people there tonight. Then Elder Venche got really sick so we gave him a blessing and got him some medicine. 

Last night the people above us apparently got a brand new stereo cause they have been playing it 24/7 for three days now. By now we are sick of it cause last night it was so loud that our apartment was shaking. I had to turn the fan on full blast just to drown out the noise but you could still hear it pretty good. 

On top of that when we woke up Elder Hunter was super sick, so he and Elder Venche stayed home while me and Elder Lawrence went to church. Then Elder Lawrence and I went out and taught some people cause we both had set appointments and our companions were sick. 

We stopped by their best investigator named Shelby. We came in and she had a list of 20 questions that she got when she read a couple of chapters in the Book of Mormon. Her mom came out (who is a member) and she told us that her son was at his grandparents who are Catholic. The grandparents gave him a cross that was supposedly blessed by the Pope which they bought in Italy. She asked us if he could wear it, so we explained to her that while our church honors the cross, we look toward Christ as resurrected. After that she goes and gives the heckles to her son and he grabs it and it breaks. Then Elder Lawrence said, "Well, that's what happens when things are blessed by the Pope? " 

We then went to go see a potential investigator that has a massive No Smoking sign on their door. We knock on her door and she answers it and is smoking a cigarette, so we were confused. We then saw some inactives and she told us that in her church (Methodist) that a person came from the Mormon Tabernacle and blessed her churches organ. She then proceeded to tell us something about a mission and some guy that went to Utah. It was all so weird. We saw some more people and got back around 8:00. Elder Hunter looked like he wanted to kill himself cause he was stuck inside for 12 hours. 

So here is a list of some of my Goals for this new Year:
1. Exercise almost every day
2. Have really good cursive
3. Know 'Preach My Gospel" better
4. Read a chapter of the Book of Mormon every day out loud
5. Have better people skills
6. Be able to simplify all the lessons so that anyone can understand them
7. Be healthier(green smoothies , vegetables , salads, fruits
8. Go back to Isaiah chapters and actually read and understand them.
9. Start reading the Bible
Love,
Elder Saunders

So this is Christmas....

Monday, Dec 28, 2015

" This week was pretty great and I got to google hangout with my family so I lost care to write this weeks email to its fullest potential, but it is pretty good. 

Today the Hammonds came in while we were all emailing and gave us all presents so they told us to come and open them. They got us some frisbee golf frisbees. I, along with everyone else , did horrible. It was still super fun especially with everyone around. We went and got sushi and I experimented and got the Obe roll. It was super good. I found out that when you eat out, get water with lemon in it and add one or two sweetener packs and it makes really good lemonade. I then went to Vidor on exchanges. 

In Vidor we went to teach this one guy and as we were driving, Elder Strong felt inspired to teach this one guy on his porch. He is about 25ish. We flip a U and go back and park on the side of the road. The guy signals to pull in the driveway so we pull in. He was actually pretty solid. We start to teach him and he is understanding and asking questions. He is actually pretty interested. Then he looked and pointed to a car coming down the road and says, "That's my dad comin down." We're like cool and we resume teaching him. So his dad pulls into the driveway and then gets out. He slams his hand on the top of his car making a loud bang. Then he said some really bad curse words and told us to get off his property. So me and Elder Strong were so surprised so we just sat there. Honestly, it was only three seconds and he got even more mad and said some things that are too bad to bleep out, so we hurried out and went and found another guy to teach. We told him our experience and he started to cuss out the guy who cussed us out. 

We took  a guy out with us, who had barely got home from his mission in Korea, to see some investigators and it turned out to be a horrible idea.  He was asking us to do a bunch of weird stuff that they would do in Korea. He also would start talking in Korean. Then he had to go so he dropped us off at this investigators house. We taught the investigator and then since we didn't have a car or bikes, we walked 3 miles to our apt. and it started to rain. We arrived at our apt and we were going to grab our bikes, but we talked to one of our investigators that live right under us and asked him to take us to our car. He said yes. We hopped into his car which smelled like smoke and had a bunch of neon lights in it and funky music. But it was still better than biking for 7 miles in the rain. Then we grabbed our Orange Zone socks that we ordered.

Besides proselyting, one thing we did out of the ordinary is we fried the chicken hearts. They actually tasted pretty good. I am not going to lie, it was like chicken nuggets mixed with sausage. After we made them we took some over to the sisters and told them it was homemade chicken ....Cause that's not a lie. After a little persuading and having all of us try one, Sister Wilson took one and put the whole thing in her mouth. She said, "It has a different taste, but it is not bad." Then Sister Madsen took one and bit a piece and said it tasted nasty and it must be a bad piece so she took another and did the same thing and then spit it out. Then Sister Wilson asked for another and starts to chew it. Elder Lawrence then asked her if she wanted to know what she was eating. Both of them looked at us with fire and fright in their eyes and Sister Wilson said, "It's not chicken?" To which we said that well it is but it isn't . Then Elder Lawrence says, "It's CHICKEN HEARTS!" Sister Wilson gags all of it out and Sister Madsen runs over and shuts the door. We can hear them screaming and gagging and yelling, " I ate a heart!" and this went on for about 6 min. We were laughing so hard we were on the ground. We couldn't breathe we were dying laughing. After those 6 min. Sister Wilson opened the door and says that they want an apology from everyone of you. We talked and showed them the picture of the raw chicken hearts and one of us cooking them. It was one of the best moments of my life and after that we went back to the apt. and I cracked open another Norwegian chocolate bar that my friends mom sent me cause it was a day to remember, so why not.

So today was Christmas Eve and we woke up and it didn't feel like Christmas Eve at all cause at 7:00 am, it was 76 degrees outside and extremely humid. We went and helped a guy move some stuff and it rained a ton so it was really muddy and swampy. We made cookies at Bishop Evan's home. We held their Chinchillas and their hedgehog. Then we ate dinner at Sis. Burgins home and they cooked this huge Brisket and it was so good. They also cooked a bunch of other things, but oh the brisket. We played some games with them. After that , Bishop Evans picked us up and we delivered the cookies we made to people's houses. 

So Christmas day we woke up and we opened whatever presents that we didn't already open, ha ha. We went to the church and as a district we cooked breakfast. We went to the Evans house and I google hangout with my family. It was kinda weird because I felt like I was breaking the rules. It is almost like talking face to face but it's not. So it was kinda weird but it was really good and I loved it. After that while the other elders facetimed, we either played with the Evans kids toys, built a play set, or ate and hung out with the fam. At the end we went with the bishop and put cookies on peoples porches and rang the bell, then ran and jumped in the car. Then the Bishop gave us a bunch of presents to give to this family that was struggling, so we did. The mom sent us a text and thanked us and said her kids were so happy and our trying to figure out who did it. An awesome day.

Love,

Elder Saunders

These chicken heart nuggets are amazing!

me and my Special Angel Buddy at the rodeo, Nov 2015 Orange, TX

Christmas Day at the Evans-Elder Hunter is so sleepy!

Special Angels rodeo in Orange, TX Nov 2015

Elder Hunter and Elder Saunders cooking those chicken heart nuggets-Dec 2015 in Orange, TX

We loved google hangout with our Sweet Elder-Christmas Day 2015 in Orange, TX

Christmas Conference

Monday, Dec 21, 2015

" Today we played basketball and I played the worst I have ever played. We came back and as I am still getting better, I fell asleep and woke up to the other three elders trying to get each other to drink a raw egg for protein or something. I walk in and Elder Lawrence said, "Saunders, drink this." So I look in it and it's a raw egg in a glass. So I am like," If I drink it, will it make me sick?" They said no , and I was like YOLO. ( mom's note: I admit I had to look this one up and was relieved to see it means "You Only Live Once). I drank it and honestly it wasn't that bad. I have had worse green smoothies then that egg. Elder Lawrence was impressed so then he took courage and cracked an egg and drank one too, except he took too long to swallow it and he almost lost it. 

We went to Orange County Services today and sorted toys. Some of the toys were so awesome. Nerf machine guns, a polar express train set, and race cars-stuff like that. It was actually pretty fun to open other kids presents. After that we drove around in the back roads of Texas trying to find a referral and 47 min later all we found was six confederate flags and some really funny street names, but no house.

We had Christmas conference today. We woke up at 5:00 am and left early so we could make some stops along the way. We stopped at Buc-eey's( It is a giant gas station with over 100 pumps and a giant store that is kinda like a mall, with a restaurant inside.) It really is amazing and unbelievable. We arrived in Houston at about 8:45 and we talked with friends until the meeting started. They talked to us for about 3 hours and then we had lunch. I met a sister who is from Layton. Honestly, there is two of us representing Layton. We then took a mission picture. We went back into the chapel and they talked to us for another 2  1/2 hours. We watched a 30 min. slide show. We also watched "The Cokeville Miracle". It is a really good movie. I almost cried. The sisters were crying so bad that I thought the chapel was going to flood. I was the worst rain storm I've seen yet. Some famous Mormon guy skyped us and I took some pics with other missionaries and gathered my presents. We spent about 10 hours there. We went to eat with some other missionaries and got lost trying to find Panda Express(I haven't eaten there forever and I missed it). We were exploring for an hour and then we had to go rescue the sisters. We saved them and then we started for home and it was cool because we saw a bunch of other missionaries on the road. Since we all have tiwis, we had to stay pretty close to each other. It was like a Mormon squad driving up the highway. We got back at about 9:20. 

We woke up the next day and went to Orange County Services again. We were asked to be in charge of the toys. People would carry in cards that said the kid's gender, age, ethnicity, and clothing size and with that we would pick a toy for that kid. It was so cool. We gave one boy a bike. It was the last bike and we all thought it was a good idea to give it to him. A little bit after that , the person in charge came in. She told us that the kid we gave the bike to, cried when he got it. The mom told her that his dad passed away about a week ago. It just doesn't get better than that. 

That same day a Pentecostal preacher named Derick took us out to eat. He lives quite far. He loves the missionaries and he always takes them to lunch. He knows Elder Hunter , so we got hook-ups. After that we drove to Louisiana to help out one of the members there. We moved a ton of stuff out including all kinds of furniture. We then had a huge bonfire and burned it all. For dinner we cooked a whole ham.

After district meeting we all had a district lunch at this Mexican place. I got the Tex-Mex burrito, which for those of you who don't know what Tex-Mex is: It is a Mexican dish that is covered in Velveeta cheese. So much cheese that it is almost impossible to eat. After that we went and taught a lesson .

We went to Shangri La Botanical gardens to help them out. It is a really beautiful outside garden that has a bunch of exotic plants and around Christmas time, they set up 100's of Christmas trees and many lights. So Orange County Services was doing this food drive where if you brought in a can of food, it was half off the ticket price. We were helping collect cans and we did it for two hours and it was super busy. A guy came out from the office and told us they had 1, 512 people come through with a can of food. Then he told all of us we could go in free. We explored it and it was so amazing. It started to snow... Just kidding, but they had this machine that made fake snow so we took a picture in it. That is the closest I will get to snow in 2 years. We also found out that West Orange won state in football. It was a pretty good day. 

We sang in the ward choir on Sunday for the Christmas Program. It was us four elders and then there were 3 other guys and 24 sisters. Then we went to a rest home and sang for the residents. We just bought chicken hearts because so are going to cook them and find out how they taste. Stay tuned in the next post for how that turned out.
Love,
Elder Saunders

 So excited to eat these chicken hearts we found for really cheap! Dec 2015 in Orange, TX

We cooked a whole ham-yum! Dec 2015 in Orange, TX

My MTC buddy, Elder Andrew and me, Elder Saunders at the Christmas concert -Dec 2015 in Kingwood, Texas

Elder Saunders and his first trainer, Elder Knebel. Christmas Conference in Kingwood, TX Dec 16 2015.

Nativity @ the Shangri La Botanical gardens in Orange, TX  Dec 2015

Elder Venche, Elder Saunders, Elder Hunter, Elder Lawrence @ the Shangri La Botanical
Gardens in Orange, TX Dec 2015

 

Getting Ready for a Texas Christmas

Monday Dec 13, 2015

Ok, now. I am still sick, but I am getting better, with that said I am currently working on a will to sign my stuff over in case I die. Well, enough with that drama fest. Let's get into what y'all actually came for, stories of us Elders.

The other elders took our car and drove down to transfers, so we had them drop us off at the church at 10:00 am. The Hammonds picked us up at 6:00 and took us to the Evans house where we ate dinner. We ate chili, which is really weird because if you knew me before, I hated beans.(***so sorry, he gets his dislike of beans from his mom) Honestly, I have eaten them so much down here. Maybe it is because down here they know how to cook them and it tastes super good. I had three bowls full of chili. Then Bishop Evans grabbed the turkey oil the he used to fry 5 turkeys and he put it by the fire and then he pushed it over on the fire and it got bright. I recorded it if it comes through, but it was much brighter then what the camera shows. After that we had blue bell and brownies and Elder Lawrence came back with his new Companion, Elder Venche.

So today we woke up and did our service. We went to an investigators house to teach their kids. The father wants them all to be baptized on the same day. We taught the kids and no kidding it was so funny. Each of her kids have way different personalities. Her oldest who is eleven, acts like she is 16 and is really mature and answered a lot of questions. She was very interested in what we had to say. Then, you have her second oldest who is nine. He is the kind where he can't focus and will say he understands then ask you really funny questions that don't relate at all. The third oldest who is seven and she is the biggest redneck kid you will ever meet. How she talks and acts, is so funny. All three of them together are hilarious. We ask them questions and they would say an answer and then the other ones would say a completely different answer and they all would fight and try to prove the other wrong. 

After the lesson, the Arringtons took us out to eat at the Tex -Mex place called , 'Two Amigos". Now you may ask, how do you know it is Tex-Mex? That is a valid question. The answer to that is well if it was an actual Mexican restaurant, it would be called 'Dos Amigos'. This place was actually pretty good. I had the steak fajitas and it was really weird because they brought out the ingredients on a plate and then gave me the tortillas. So they let you build your own. I have never built my dinner while I was at a restaurant, but I guess that's what they do down here. 

We went to Orange County Services and worked there today. Connie is a lady in charge and she is super funny and actually quite crazy. She took us into the back room and then she said it is getting close to Christmas. She gave us all gift card to Subway. We then visited a investigator and he's super cool and he wants to take us to Beaumont to play pool with him at a bar. He did say he would order root beer for us and he said the bar is pretty family welcomed before 7:00. It was funny and we for sure won't be able to make it.

We went to a cowboy store and looked at all these boots that were super expensive. The lowest were like $150 and the highest were $765. I guess they mean business in Texas when it comes to hats. They are actually pretty wxpensive if you buy an authentic Texas hat. It costs like $150 and an expert will come out and fit the hat to your head. Anyway we went there to buy overalls but they were out of stock, so we looked around and found this sweet tie that shows a couple of Cowboys that are sitting around a campfire in the winter. It is so cool. We cooked chicken at the other elders apt. , but we bought crappy chicken and we pretty much ate straight fat and tendons. We played basketball with some investigators . We are outta shape..

We went to the ward Christmas party today. It was super good. We ate a bunch and then we did spoken pedal. I guess that West Orange high school is the semi state champions. Everywhere we went people were playing the game so we just heart the game and tried to teach people. We found this guy in his car and we taught him between commercials. I guess West Orange won by 20 so now they are in the state championship. They are playing next week on the Texans field. They are able to play there because they won. All the schools in Orange got cancelled on the day they play, that is how big football is down here. 

After that we went to a members home and they had the best garlic bread I've ever tasted. We also had Italian sausages and a bunch of other food. They showed us this dog called the Saint Bardoodle. Its a Saint Bernard/Poodle mix. It was really cool. The only thing is that they late feeding us and we were scheduled to have another dinner so we left the house and went straight to Dennys to eat with another family. Elder Hunter and I tried to the smallest thing on the menu. Dennys doesn't serve small plates. I got this breakfast grilled cheese thing thinking it was like an average slice of bread. But no they bring out these two halves that are probably as big as my ego. So me and Elder Hunter try to do every trick in the book to fit this down. We did the Samoan press, tightening the belt, leaning forward, water with every bite. It got so bad I would chew for 5 minutes because I could not swallow anymore. We managed to talk and eat it all but when we got to the car we moaned and felt so sick. We are pretty much waiting to die.

Love,
Elder Saunders

Elder Lawrence, Kevin, Elder Saunders

bonfire at Bishop Evans Dec 2015 Orange, TX

One Sick Missionary

Monday Dec 7, 2015-Orange, Texas


" So I'm still sick. This is the longest I've ever been sick. I might have bronchitis but it's not exactly for sure, so lets suffer through this and type it out. 

I woke up with a terrible cough and a runny nose. I came to the conclusion that I am gonna die pretty soon so I'm making a will for when I die. Most of my stuff will go to my companion.

So we have no dinner appointments for this week so we decided to go to Taco Bell. We were talking about the Holy Ghost and then a person came up to us and he said he was the Bishop for Nederland. We started to talk and he was super cool and he joked around with us. Then randomly he was like, "I bet y'all guys are hungry!" And we smiled and said that he didn't have to pay for us. He's like, " Haha pay for it? Ya, right." We are half laughing thinking that this guy is gonna rob the place. Instead he walks up to the counter and tells them he needs a couple of tacos, a couple of burritos, and some other stuff. He then told them to make it quick. We're thinking this guy is awesome! He said he was over here inspecting the place-his job is to inspect the food and establishment. 

He grabbed the food and passed it out and then he asked us if we wanted cinnamon twists on the house. He said as soon as he asked that Elder Hunter had that gleam in his eye. He said, I'll go get y'all some . He came back with 3 bags of cinnamon twists. He then left to inspect the bathrooms and didn't come out for over 15 min. and we had to go to an appointment so we didn't get to say goodbye to him. The funny thing was when we were leaving, people saw that we were friends with him so we had like 'street cred' and even the people that worked there made it a goal to say bye to us. 

I got a package from my friend's parents and they sent me a super cool reindeer Santa hat, a way cool penguin tie, and some super good Norwegian chocolate. 

You know how I was talking about the drug dealer that lives across from us? Well at 10:55 we were getting into bed and then the door rings. Now both of us are confused cause the rule is you have to be in bed at 10:30 and the other elders had exchanges, so it's not like they would come over unless it was an emergency. So we go to the door and look through the peep hole and there was this guy in a hoodie and a hat. He kept his face down, so we couldn't see his face. He rang the door bell again and he knocked twice(which is what the people do to the drug dealers apt). So my companion says, "Whose this?" and the guy answers, " Hairy( *note from parents: Pretty sure he meant to type Harry but it looked so fun how he spelled it.*) My companion said, "Sorry, homes, you got the wrong house. It was almost super funny cause when he said that he sounded like African American. Like a perfect accent and timing and everything. The guy walks away and I turn to my companion and I'm like, "Dude, how did you do that voice?"  My comp said, "Man, I don't know, it just came out that way." We were talking about it and we figured out why he came to our door is because we're #63 and the drug dealer lives in #73, so maybe he got the number wrong. Maybe a giant picture of Jesus wasn't obvious enough to know that we aren't those guys. 

Today was a good day. We woke up and went to go help a guy move some stuff into his house. We get there and it is super muddy. We found out that all the cardboard boxes were muddy and spilled everywhere. We got pretty muddy in pros clothes. This guy is a complete redneck cause we were putting the furniture under the house and he had a burning tub, a tub just to burn stuff. 

After that we went to Orange County Services and helped out. We met with a guy named Homer and he told us that his brother just recently passed away. We had a good lesson. After that we met with our recent convert, Casey. She committed to come to church again and also attend the other elders baptism. 

As we were driving away we get this call from an inactive member, Scott, and he asked us if we were free around 6. We told him yes and he told us to meet him at Kotoyamas. We met up with him and he already got us an appetizer (egg rolls). Then Scott says, 'I got y'all the hottest waitress". We laughed and he told us relationship advice. He bought us a ton of sushi that was actually super good. I ate two rolls. Elder Hunter only managed 1 and 1/2. After that, Elder Hunter gave a baptismal interview to the other elders investigator. 

Today we went to OCS again and apparently they had this huge food drive, cause when we came in, there was this huge truck full of food. We unloaded it and weighed them and it ended up being 5,500 lbs that we loaded off, then another truck came that was carrying about 1,500 lbs. So we had our work cut out for us today. 

Then we did an Hour of Power district blitz. A district blitz is where the whole district goes to one of the companions areas and all of them go and pretty much contact the whole neighborhood. We went to the sisters area cause they had an investigator move and they gave them the street but not the actual address. The street they put down was way huge street. We said a prayer and then we split up and did three companions per street. We were knocking on every door trying to find the investigator. We're walking past a house when we hear a person say, Reanna(which is the person we are looking for). We walk around the house and find another house completely hidden. Standing in front of that house was the sister's investigators. We talked to her and then we left and told the sisters we had found them. Now the sisters love us, haha. We had a celebratory subway sandwich. Everyone guessed who was getting transferred. Everyone thought I was gonna leave. 

We went to the church today to have combined companionship study with the sisters. I was on exchanges with Elder Lawrence so we were able to go to the family history room. We went on lds. org and took 2 lessons in Spanish. For lunch we went to the 'Old Orange Cafe'. It is a super old restaurant and is one of the first restaurants in Orange. It is only open at lunchtime. I had a BBQ chicken sandwich, and it was so good. We had some appointments and then we went to dinner at this small shack on the side of the road. It's BBQ and actually pretty famous. It is called, 'The Hut'. I got the chopped brisket sandwich and it was amazing! We came home after that to see who got flushed today. So far we know of two people and transfer calls come in tomorrow. Elder Hunter says he's going but he's staying.

We were unloading a truck for food storage in the morning and then we baked a cake for the sister's investigators, cause the sisters asked us to and we did so I guess we are whipped, haha. Then we went to the elders baptism which was pretty cool. It was their first baptism. 

Later we went to the apartments and this cute black kid who is about 6, comes up to us and said hey, what do you do?. So we told him that we go around and teach about Jesus. The kid goes, " I want to learn about Jesus." So we are teaching him and his friend comes up and says, "Yo, man. Come back and play football. The kid said, 'No man. I hearing about Jesus. I wanna hear about him." The friend ran and told his friends and about 20 black kids run to us, so we taught them about Jesus and showed them a video. It was so cool. After that it was super dark and the kids ran in. It is sketchy here in the dark. As we were leaving the complex we saw a legit drug deal and believe it or not, this is my fourth one. 

We got dinner and went home and waited for transfers to come. Elder Hunter put everyone on a group call and had them guess and everyone said me or Elder Lawrence. Hunter smiled and said that Elder Wood was going. Everyone was surprised and Elder Lawrence was mad. Cause he has been in a biking area for 13 months straight. Elder Hunter said the only reason I'm staying is cause the President loves me and thinks I can change the district around. I don't understand that cause I just got done training.

Church was today and we taught Priest class. Then we sang in the ward choir. It was bad because I'm still not 100% so I couldn't really sing. Brother Kole took us home teaching and we went to these people who were less active and they loved us and really wanted us to come back. After that we had dinner at the Kole's and they took us back to the apartment.

When we arrived, President Drake called Elder Hunter and asked him how he felt that I was leaving. To which Elder Hunter said, " Actually, we're both staying." Then the President said, No, he's leaving. Who told you that?"  And Elder Hunter said, 'The Zone leaders." President Drake was super quiet and then finally said, "Well, I guess that's right." So I'm pretty sure this is my last transfer here cause the President already thought I got transferred.
Love,
Elder Saunders

  

Penguin tie and Reindeer hat  from the Odlands-Orange, Texas Dec 2015