Elder Erickson's Mission Adventures: 1st Area

Hey everyone!!!

Right now i am sitting in the Houston comm. College! a ton of the spanish missionaries meet here to email! But my Area is called Denver Harbor. Its a pretty cool place, a little bit ghetto! ill just let you get on Google and see for yourself and you can make your own judgements! haha there are a ton, and i mean a ton of stray dogs here so that always makes it fun to ride bikes! haha the other day we stay a dead dog in a ditch with three other big dogs eating it!!! it was so gross and stunk and as i rode by it made me think i really was out of the country! haha. but the address for my HOUSE, we dont live in a apt. because those are in a part of town thats a little sketchy so we have a house, but the address is:

Elder Erickson

6904 Hershe St.

Denver Harbor, TX, 77020

you can send things there or just to the mission office. the mission office can forward anything to us that is sent through U.S. mail for free. Thats what i would do if its a box or close to a transfer. that way it will get to me for sure. but its up to you. The mission office address is:

Elder Ethan Erickson

Texas Houston East Mission Pkwy Ste109

Kingwood TX 77339-5520

The house have is white with orange trim if you try to look it up on google earth. its small but there is only two of us living there so it works out great. its dirty though. I hate dirty. its different lifestyle for me but ill make it work, i need to bust out my CNA skills again and clean up. But My companion is named Elder Facer! he is From Nash, Tenn. that made me think of dad when he told me that! i thought it was pretty cool! im not sure if they lived there when Dad was serving but they live there right now. He is a cool kid. Super smart, he got a 36 on his ACT. He has trained twice already and hasnt even been our here that long. He has only have 1 transfer where he hasnt either been trained or training. I like to think of him as the super missionary. But the problem with that is he works to much with out any fun. I havent even gotten my bags all un packed because we have been going going going going oingooignoginoging.

Its all good though i can keep up, its just going to not be as fun if we cant incoperate fun with the work so we'll see if i can teach him a thing or two. we've been out every night but 1 until 9:30 so then with planning we dont have time for anythign but rushing into bed! i barely get to write the cool things in my journal! and he also already knew spanish pretty good before he came out! so he doesnt really know what its like to have to be learning it as you go so he doesnt talk to me in spanish as much as i would like! but we get along get and work good together! we taught 34 lessons in this one week! i guess thats a lot...he said thats the most he has ever taught.

It was awesome my first night out we taught this couple for the first time named Lesbi and Isaias. And i have struggling to follow along cuz im not used to the navtive speed and how the slur everything but i kinda got the main idea and it seemed to be going really well and then Elder Facer leaned over to me and was like ok im going to talk about the book of mormon and you commit them to be baptized!!! ah. so i did it and it went alright there was only one word then had to have me repeat and they said yes!!!! he was way awesome for me. so we set a date for the 31 of this month. im not sure how well its going to go cuz they aren't married we found out and the husband hasnt been home the last two times we've stopped by so we'll see how well it goes. but it was still a cool experience for my first spanish lesson. we actually teach quite a bit in english so its going to be that much harder to learn the spanish cuz i use english so much too. right now that is probably my biggest worry! i want to learn it but its a lot harder than i thought. i felt so good leaving the MTC and now i get out here and can barley understand anyone! but we have taught a ton of people and ive met so many people! Its pretty awesome! we also got another bapt. comt. last night that was was aweome! i feel it was better about that one than Lesbi because witht he second one, Dora, her husband actually just got baptized last week and he an awesome guy so hers is for the 24 of this month! its close and we'll have to work hard but i think she can make it!

oh and i almost forgot! we are working with town kids from a family whos mom got baptized a few weeks ago and we set a date with the boy for the 4th i think. whatever is the first sat. in april, cuz he is only there every other weekend so its will be a little more work but his name is nicky and he is only 10 i think. his Sister Named Lyric is 15 and we asked her and she started crying and didnt really give us an answer but we'll have to see how it goes.

ah so much has happened and i wish i could get all the stories in here! we had an investigator come to church yesterday! his name is Jesus and he has a date for the 31st of march as well! but he is an Ex- JW/TJ whatever they are called and so he has a lot of questions and doubts but he is progessing just slowly, But he came to church with his old hat on and denim jacket and jeans with a box of cigs in the coat. so i dont think will make the 31st but we're trying! haha he is crazy though! super old and hasnt shaved for years and i love him! haha.

Church is all in spanish and i actually did alright to understand the sunday school lesson! Testimony meeting was hard cuz everyone talks different and its hard for my ears to adjust to all the different people! but it was aswesome!

ive already had so much mexican food its unreal! everything has been pretty normal except i had cactus the other night which was pretty good! and i had a Lingua Burrito the other day too! it was pretty good! the taste isnt bad at all but the texture and maybe just the tought is a little weird for me! but i wouldnt have a propblem eating it again! the other food though is sooo good! and the salsas they have here are so freaking hot! its crazy! but i love it!!

As for the travel here it was so awesome to see Todd in the airport i love that man! im not sure if im fully dress in that picture cuz he came up right as i went through security to i was trying to hurry and get dressed and he need to leave and the airport lady was trying to get me so she could screw up my bag and open everything it was just a mess! but it was fun...

everyone in my travel group that was going english was kinda weird but at least it was Salt Lake but we flew on a baby airplane! it was like 15 rows long and two chairs on each side. it wasnt a bad flight though. but nothing really cool happened!

So i sent some pictures! Me next to a Denver Harbor tag. one is me and elder Facer! and the other is me and Jesus!!!

the houses they live in are very humbling! one less active we teach lives in a chickencoop! and he gets his power thought a cord into the next house! ill try and get a picture some time!

well my time is up! sorry if i missed anything! I love you all so much!!!!

Con amor!

Elder Erickson!