New Years Eve

President Morales texted us this picture tonight.

Elder Erickson and Elder Thomas eating Polose at the Morale's house New Years Eve.

The bowl and glassed they are useing are HUGE!

Week 53: The Holidays

hola Que onda!?

It was so good to see all of you on Christmas! I couldn't believe how much Hannah has grown! and Eli too he is still getting taller! and Jamie....she has grown a bit too. Its still weird to think about. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Christmas here was very different than what I'm used to but it was still good! 

This holiday season is rough all around. Missing the family...Just a tiny bit. Not getting snow! and worst of all is that it just gives everyone a new excuse to use when we try and talk to them! Ive heard some pretty dang lame excuses! One of my favorite came from this past Thursday during hour of power! It was really bitter cold night and it was raining. It was just like I'd imagine tracting when you think of it being horrible haha. We starting working in a new area, it is pretty run down and trailers are just kinda where ever. Its a good place!...anyways we knocked a door and this white guy came to the door and he looked like Santa in a wife-beater. He looked at us and before we could get a word out he was just like sorry my door's stuck,  can I help you.....? haha so I asked him how he got in to his house then? hahah It was so funny he just looked at us and slammed the screen door. We wanted to ask him if he needed help with is door but didn't get the chance!

The good part of the Holidays is we get a lot of sweet culture experiences! Making tamales and what not! It has been so awesome to spend the time with the members and get to know them! I've really loved that part of the holidays and having to branch out and fill that need of love during the holiday seasons from members and my Heavenly Father! The Holidays are great! but I do miss spending them with y'all.

For our investigators right now we have been getting a lot at church consistently but they all have crazy stories I feel like. As for Armando we moved his date back to the 20. I hope he can make it. He is doing a ton of work at his home and so he hasn't come to church more than just the one time. But he studies like crazy! We went by the other day and he had 2 pages of notes on who Laban was. Sadly he thought the Laban from the Book of Mormon was the same as the one from the Bible. People here in the bible belt are just used to studying the bible so in depth, trying to find something new to start a new church off of that, they over look the simplicity of the book of Mormon! Senaida is another person who has been coming a lot, I cant remember if I told you her story! Let me know and if I didn't I will next week!

This transfer is one week shorter and I'm not sure if we will be touched by it or not. Usually president likes to leave the new elders in the area and give them the responsibility of taking it over but the past few transfers he has been switching it up so I'm not even sure what is going to happen. it is very likely I could be leaving. I hope not though. I Love it here!

Today for new years we are going to have some Posole with the Morales family! They are so awesome and always love to have the elders over for the holiday traditions!

Love you all!  Feliz Ano Nuevo! Hagan sus propositios!

Con amor y respeto

Elder Erickson

 Cooking Masa

Wrapping Tamales 

Christmas

Week 52: Christmas Skype

Being able to skype with Ethan was a great Christmas gift!  We thought we would have about 40 minuets to skype with him but Ethan said that there mission president's direction on the call was " be reasonable".    We ere able to have a good groupe chat  with him.  It was so fun to talk and laugh with him and be reminded of Ethan's wit and fun energy!  We each got a few minutes to talk with him individually. The time went fast and it was hard to say goodbye but the amount of time felt "reasonable"!  We ended up skypeing for about 2 hours.  I was great!!!  the first 15 minuets we were trying to get the video feed to connect both ways - so it really was 1 hour and 45 minuets.  It was so good to hear and see Elder Erickson.  He loves doing the Lord's work and the area he is in.
He was able to go golfing with the Mission President yesterday on his p-day and showed off the blister he got on his thumb from his game.  He skyped from the Branch Presidents home President Morales and his family really take care of the missionaries.  Ethan said that he feels spoiled by all the blessings he has in this area!  
We feel blessed by the pictures that President Morales texts to us. On Christmas Eve he texted this pictures to us...

I am so grateful for the the care the Morales family give Elder Erickson

We were making our traditional Christmas Eve pizza and texted this picture back. 

It was a tender mercy from the Lord to feel a little more connected to Ethan on Christmas Eve!

Week 51: "Boom!!! it was sweet!"

Buenas!

 First things first. Skyping. I think we will be doing it at Pres. Morales's house. The best time for us is probably going to be early afternoon. Around 12 or 1. I will let you know a for sure time next week but plan on that for now. To be honest I haven't even tried setting anything up, I kinda forgot it was coming up! Not that I'm super stoked to see y'all but it just so busy! haha and that brings me to my next point which I will prove to you with the lovely Bible. I wanted to get everyone a Mexican or Texas type gift for Christmas but its just not going to happen right now. (vease a Lucas 9:58-63) I don't have a bible in front of me but its somewhere around there! Thanks for understanding! 

I guess I forgot to tell you the story of Michael and the Serrano family. My first week here the Serrano family just showed up at church. The grandparents of Michael were baptized about 2 years ago and went less active. They leave at the very bottom of our area, about a 35 minutes drive going fast. We didn't even know they existed because they weren't on our records either. So once they showed up we started visiting them and teaching Michael and his mom. Its a really weird situation. Michael's mom Eva was 15 when she had him so the grandma raised them and Michael sees Eva as a sister...they don't even live together. But we met with them a lot, they are a blast. Doctrinally they don't know anything and so it's always fun to teach them new things! Hno Serrano needed a little preparation so we taught him along with Michael so he could baptize him.

Other neat things that have happened -

We taught my fan group again. They keep telling me that I look like Prince Harry or something and I didn't even lie but for some reason they think we are related. But last time before we left we told them to write down any questions that they had and we would answer them next time...I meant it as if they had questions about what they read, but when we showed up one set of parents where there and they brought another friend. So we asked for questions and they pulled out their phones and had a whole list!...I loved it. Sitting on the hot seat and answering all the tough questions! haha but after we cleaned that mess up we taught the restoration again to the parents and the new friend! It was awesome again!! The new girl/ Bianca, was kinda confused at first but we explain the holy ghost really good and then shared the story of Joseph Smith and when we asked her how she felt she just said, "just like you said I would" boom!!! it was sweet! The parents were even pretty interested. The mom is pretty hard catholic but we used the bible well in our teaching and got her and her husband very interested as well! It was a sweet lesson.

Armando and his wife didn't come to church last week sadly! but we saw them and they are still doing good!

New family -

Ruth Rodriguez, She lost her husband about 4 months ago! We shared the plan of salvation with them and it was super sweet! She came to church last week with her 3 kids and 2 of her step kids! It was really sweet!!!

Senaida- we taught her a divorce lesson and how she has to get divorced before she can be baptized, She told us she had to work so she could come to church, I told her just to call her boss and tell him she couldn't come in. (some what in a joking sense, but serious) She ended up showing up at church even though it was a huge rain storm and half the members didn't show! HAHA !

She's got great faith, now we just need her to be single then married again! HAHA

Ayala's texted us and told us they were sick so they didn't show up and we didn't get to see them!

sorry that's super messy but just trying to give you as much as I can! haha

The work is rolling on!!!

Love you tons!

I cant wait to see your faces!!!!

Con amor y respeto

Elder Erickson

A Surprise from President Morales

Todd was surprised to find a message and these pictures that had been texted to his phone late tonight  -
                " Here are pictures of your sons at our Branch Christmas activity last night.
                  Thank you for sending a well prepared missionary into the field.
                  We love them very much!
                   Respectfully,
                   President Morales
                   West Lake Houston Branch (Spanish)"
                   

I am so grateful for the members in Ethan's area that help him and love him so much!  I hope someday I get to meet President Morales and thank him for all that he has done to help Ethan.

I love these pictures, it really warmed my heart to see Ethan looking so happy - I would like to  give President Morales a big hug right now!  But instead I pray that the Lord gives him and his family extra blessings for all that he does to bless Elder Erickson.

Week 50: Ayala Family Looking for a Church

Hola que tal familia!

Como les ha ido?

This week was crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First off a Miracle story I forgot to tell last week! Last week right as church was starting Pres. Morales, our branch president, and I were walking to Sunday school and we saw a member of the english ward who had served a spanish mission talking with a man who neither of us had ever seen. We went over there and the guy that was there was named Domingo Ayala. He was just driving by the church and stopped and came in. We talked with him for a second and  he was saying how him and his family want to start coming to church here, and how they wanted to some help with their son and wanted someone to come and visit him and help him to learn more about God!.....We were both shocked, so we go his information and set up an appointment. He works crazy hours so we had to setup a time with just his wife and son but they were all super nice! 

We went by that Tuesday and talked with the wife and son. The son was really cool and told us he has been asking to go to church and finally his parents said ok. He is 17 and just said that he wants to find the right path and avoid all the negativity from high school. The house that they live in was freaking nice! super decorated! I felt like I was in Rome or something! They had tons of statues and paintings and rugs. It was really different than what I'm used to. We had a pretty good lesson with them and set a baptismal date for the 13th of January ;) haha. He asked us too if there were any activities that he could go to during the week instead of just things on Sunday!

Sadly he wasn't able to make it to mutual the next day. And they called us an hour before church and said that they had a family emergency and wouldn't be able to make it to church but all of the family was planning on it and that they wanted to set up another cita. Which was a real shame because we would have had a crazy day at church if they were there. It already was a out of control day. 

We woke up at 6:28 from a text from our branch president that said something along the lines of "Elders two things, can you be at the church at 8:45 for branch council, second Can you teach Gospel principles starting today?".....We didn't even have a gospel principles class before this at all! haha. We also already had planned that day to met with Armando to have him follow us to church! So we ran to the church then ran back to Armando's house and then back to the church!...then we taught gospel principles...it was a plan the lesson one step ahead of what we are talking about type thing! I was super stressed out! 

We had 14 people at church yesterday! Only 12 really were investigators but 14 were non-members of baptismal age ;) So trying to get them situated and in the right place was crazy! and to make it better our stake presidency was talking...who don't speak spanish....so we had a member translating with the whole head phone system so we were trying to make sure everyone had headphones and what-not! It was great!....the best part was Armando! He is so awesome! and to see his whole family there was the best part of the day! He is having a little trouble with is parents supporting his decision. I don't know if it was literal or figuratively...still need to clear it up next visit but what his dad told him when he told him we wanted to be baptized "Mormon" his dad said he would kill himself if he did...kinda extreme but we are really praying that the Lord will soften his fathers heart!  

Sadly the high school kids had to cancel on us! so we didn't get to see them this week....we have another time set up this week so hopefully we can get back and visit them before they forget those feelings that they felt.

Yes we will be able to skype for Christmas! I'm sure we will be able to find a member to let us do that so I will get back to you on that when I know a little better what our plans will be!

Thanks I Love you all!

Con amor y respeto!

Elder Erickson!

Week 49: "One Direction"

ya esta Deciembre!

This is crazy to me that it is already December! I feel like it was just barely December and I was just barley leaving! Time is flying for me!

So first to start off the week I got to start with a funny story!...So I don't know if y'all know about the band One Direction...I don't know who they are but all teenage girls have their shirts and stuff...looks like 5 JB's (Justin Bieber's) who sing together, but anyways last Hour of Power we knocked on a door and this girl about 17 or so answer and she had a One Direction shirt on. I don't know why I did this,... probably not the best missionary thing to do, but hey, it worked. I told her we were from one direction and what not. Two guys with white shirts and ties, name tags and we both had jackets on. She started freaking out....and before I could say I was just kidding she called all her friends over, they were having a party/hanging out. There was 6 of them. 2 guys and 4 girls...she starting yelling for them to come and she told them what I said and they all ran to the door...I should have let them know who we really were...but come on, this was way too good and way too funny. So I told them there had cameras and everything. They asked us if we were from England, I guess that's where they are from. So I said yes! haha It was so freaking funny, after a few minutes I finally told them who we really were. They let us in and all of them listen to our message.
They had some really good questions. We shared the Joseph Smiths story with them and explained the spirit really good, what it was, how they would feel, and what it would mean if they felt it.  So when we shared the Joseph Smith story, them all being catholic said, "I'm confused". We asked why and they said, "because this goes against everything I was raised on"...so we are going back this Friday night for their "party with the Mormons" haha.

And now for the Baptisms!

They went awesome! It was so sweet!....I baptized Zenia and Elder Thomas had his first baptism with Jailene! and We got Michael's grandpa ready and he baptized his grandson! It was so awesome! Everything went well! We had a little scare the night before but it all got worked out! and The spirit was so strong during their baptisms!

Zenia and Jailene  are the family that we found through the area book and they had the son who was killed by the cops? I'm pretty sure I told that story! but if I didn't let me know!

Con amor y respeto

Elder Erickson

Elder Ericskson, Grandpa, Michael, Zenia, Jailene, Elder Thomas and Clayton

Zenia's sister and mother, Zenia and Jailene Elder Thomas, Clayton and Erickson  

Michael's family with the Elders