Week 41: Bring'em out!

Bring'em out! Bring'em out! It's hard to hear with more missionaries!

Bonus point if anyone can come up with the song the Subject of this email came from! ha ha

So first off the point that just changed the way every teenager is thinking! ha ha I'm so pumped that everyone can come out younger! I think it will be such a good thing to have the young men younger. My comp right now actually had to write a letter to the First Presidency so that he could leave early and come out. He graduated early. Went a semester at Oregon and played baseball and then left when he was 18 so he could return to be a part of the draft. ha ha He had been out for about 9 and a half months before he turned 19. We we both left when we were 18. Even thought mine was only a few weeks early I think it will be way sweet to send them out earlier! 

And as for the young women I think it's super super awesome! The experiences that you have on a mission are so awesome and I think this way young women will have more of an opportunity to have those experiences instead of it being kind of a last resort thing if the are single at 21. Not saying that that's how most do it. But the "typical" story I've heard from the sisters here was well I was 21 and didn't know what to do so I decided to go on a mission. But now they can make that the first priority and prepare from it form the start and leave at 19! I'm pumped for everyone to have these experiences!

Eli!....You could have your call here pretty soon,.....Giddy up soldier! ha ha yeah! 

Conference was so sweet! We got to watch all 5 sessions!!! Sat. we watched at the Stake Center. Priesthood we watched at our normal building and had a dinner with the branch and the English ward before. Then for Sunday morning we went with an investigator family (that is sooo awesome! just not married) to our President Morales's house and watched it there and then we went to the Stake Center for the last session! The weekend was pretty busy! In between sessions we went out and taught a couple lessons and reminded people of conference. We got 7 investigators to watch it this go around! 

I Loved Elder Nelsons talk as a missionary! He is so right and I hope everyone that saw that who isn't a member asks us those questions cuz we got the answers! I also loved Elder Hollands, as did all I'm sure, It was super powerful! Also Elder Clarks from Sunday afternoon, did his sound familiar to you? He is the guy who came to our mission and he gave us a similar spill! just 5 hours long and a little more direct! ha ha But I sent you those 5 things earlier I think! 

Real quick before I forget!...I told you about he lady and Elder Viitanen eating his shoe if she came to church right? well, I wonder what he would have said he would do if she got baptized?  I hope he would have followed through. She is getting baptized in a few weeks. I'm shocked. For me it was a lesson to get out of the heat and she was always there. 

To explain the pictures....ha ha yes we had permission! ha ha We got to go to a high school football game! The stadiums here are freaking amazing! So nice! and huge! It's a whole new world! but the Rivera family I told you about invited us because their son is the drum major and the half time shows here are huge too! So we asked President and he let us go! I was super pumped! This is the guy who played for Los Tigres...doesn't look like it now but he was 17 when he started with them so it has been awhile! ha ha

Sorry I ran out of time again, as always! Sorry if I forgot anything! I didn't mean to and don't take it personal! 

Con amor y respeto!

Elder Erickson

 Sr. Rivera, Elder Clayton, Elder Erickson

Elder Clayton and Elder Erickson

Moreno Family

When Elder Erickson sent his new address today he forgot to send his apartment number.  He realized this after he was done with his email so he called Candie Moreno and asked her to email it to us.  Candie is the mother of the family that Elder Erickson taught in Denver Harbor when he first got to Texas.  He has grown very close to this family!

Todd responded to Candie's email and thanked her for all that she has done for Elder Erickson.

This it the reply that we got back from her:

> 

> No need to thank me. I love Elder Erickson, I see him like a son. He's never gave up on our family, always pushed for us to be at church and baptist our kids. He actually baptist our middle son, my kids see him as an older brother. 

The Moreno Family with the Elders.  

Candie is to the right of Elder Erickson

The Moreno family moved out of Elder Erickson's area while he was in Denver Harbor, they gave him this Astro's hat before they moved.  Elder Erickson treasures this hat!

This email reply shows how the missionary work that Elder Erickson is doing blesses peoples lives and how his missions is blessing his life.  Elder Erickson loves the people in Texas.  They have become part of his family.  I look forward to the time when Elder Erickson's family in Utah can meet his families in Texas.  This Mom in Utah loves how happy her son is doing missionary work in Texas!

Week 40: West Lake Houston

Well my life just Changed completely again!!!

My new area is called the West Lake Houston area. Its a small branch that was set up about 9 months ago. So pretty much when I left for the MTC. I'm as old in the mission as this Branch is. When it started there was only about 10 people who came regularly! Now its up to about  70 or 80! The area we cover is pretty dang big!!!! We follow around The 8 from below the highway 10 all the way up to Humble! We cover a ton of rich areas! It's so different! I'm not really used to it yet! haha

I really like it though! my Companion is Elder Clayton! he is from Idaho and was in my district when i first got here and trained Elder Mallard. so we already have a pretty good relationship. They have been having a ton of success in this area right before i got here! we actually had 5 confirmations this Sunday in church from baptisms the Sunday before i got here! I didn't even really know one of the girls but i got to confirm her so that was pretty sweet! We also had 7 investigators in church besides the five that we confirmed! So the work in going great here! I hope I can keep it moving! There aren't too many members so it should be really good for getting close to them and getting to know them good! They are all pretty well established and most of our area are really nice homes! There are a quite few trailer parks that are all Spanish that we go to and also there are people who have nice homes that are all Spanish speaking families mixed in with everyone else! so knocking is way different! We don't just go door to door! We bike a little, thank goodness, and we bike until we see things that are hispanic and then we knock those doors. After everyone we talk to we ask them which house are hispanic and then we go from there and keep the chain going all the way through the  neighborhoods! haha its pretty fun! I'm actually surprised how much spanish contacting we have been doing! Usually they know some english and can get by but spanish is still better for them so we just speak spanish too them so we can practice and make it easier on them! Its a really sweet area though! still really new!...I'm only the 5th elder in the branch...the 3 before me have already gone home too so me and Elder Clayton are the only missionaries that have been in the branch that are still in the mission field. 

Another sweet plus is the apartment...haha our apartment is super nice. really nice. I feel pretty spoiled, no actually really spoiled. It's probably twice the size of the one i just came from with the three of us in it! haha. I have my own bathroom and Shower.....?! This is the first time in my life! haha. I'm not sure how to take it! I'm pretty excited about the area though! not so much about the car yet, The members feed us a lot so I'm going to get fat really fast....but other than that I'm really excited to be here! 

We have a couple families that we are teaching right now! Two of them have to get married at then they will be baptized! I'll give you more updates on them next week! but another family that we are teaching is the Rivera family. The dad played soccer in Mexico for Los Tigres! it's a pro team in Monterrey! He is a way sweet guy and has an awesome family! His whole family is pretty much ready for baptism- just waiting on the dad to break. He is a little stubborn. 

President Crawford actually met this family and taught them with Elder Clayton and the elder here before me. He really like them and invited them over for dinner in the mission home. So last night we got to have dinner with this family and President and Sister Crawford in the mission home! It was way sweet! I haven't been back there since the day I got here! Also they don't speak any spanish so we had to translate for them! It was really sweet! We invited him to be baptized and he said no....but he was a lot better about it than I guess he was in the past so he is making progress!

As for the other families we are meeting with them this week to have a lesson with them as for what needs to happen to get divorced and married. Other than that hold up they have all said they would get baptized. So after those lessons I'll give you an up date on them!

My new address is 

15100 Golden Eagle Dr. # 503

Humble, TX 77396

I Love you all so much!

Con amor Y respeto

Elder Erickson

   

  

Week 39: ya me voy de nuevo ( I'm Going to Back )

Hello to all!,

First off I'll start by talking about the past week. We did a lot of finding and tried working some more stable areas this time. So sadly we didn't meet too many crazies! We did run into a couple of people who were a little more educated and knew who we were and had some things to say. One lady who had ancestors at Mountain Meadow. That was interesting, especially because neither of my two companions knew what it was. But other than that we talked to a lot of white people which was weird!!  I haven't seen white people who weren't homeless in a very long time! 

We did find one lady during hour of power that was pretty sweet! She seemed interested and really wanted us to come to help her learn about Jesus because she doesn't really know anything and has never gone to church or read the Bible! So that will be nice because we won't have to re- correct her on all the things that the stinking Spaniards forced them to believe ha ha, sorry Dallin but its true your country is the problem for all these die hard Catholics who never go to church and don't know why they are so die hard. ha ha. So we were pretty excited about finding her. Sadly Pedro and Maria didn't come to church again...and we weren't able to meet with them at all either! So the investigator pool is a little low still. But as of today it doesn't really apply to me because I'm leaving again! 

We got the call on Saturday, Me and Elder Jaynes are both leaving! I'm a little upset about it.

 1) Because I really like this ward! The members are way sweet and really willing to help with things. 2) Because all the areas that are opened are car areas! I really don't want to go to a car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the bike and meeting all the crazy people! But it's all going to change I'm afraid but 3) that overrules everything... is that God makes the choice so I'll go where he wants me to go dear Lord!! ha ha

The areas that are open are Humble with elder Leiva! He is from Chile so that would be way sweet to be with a native! Humble is a huge area and not very Spanish. There is also an area right next to Humble called West Lake Houston that is kinda the same deal except the elder there is Elder Clayton. He is the one who played Baseball for Oregon. He is really cool so I wouldn't mind going with him. There is Port Arthur that is a ways away. Its more of a country feel, from what I've heard. The Elder there just finished being trained. And then there is Channel View, which is in the same building as Denver Harbor.  I would be able to see people from that ward again which would be fun! I've heard that area is really black though!....so we'll see! either way I'm not going to a very Spanish area! ha ha 

I was going to try and send a box home with a bunch of Mexican candy and Houston stuff but no one is going shopping today because Elder Erickson will be training next transfer so were not going to a store so I can't buy anything to send home! sorry! y'all just have to wait until I get back into Spanish land before I send anything! ha ha. But good news is that in a car I can finally make the recordings of the pictures and send them home! 

Elder Jaynes with the Mountain of Pancakes

Elder Erickson showing the pancake pile

These pictures show what we walked into the other night when we went to go teach some less actives! ha ha. We got there and they had a mountain of pancakes for us and they also gave us a ton of eggs too! ha ha I could only put down three pancakes and it didn't even look like we made a dent when we were stuffed!

Elder Erickson, Jaynes, and Erickson

The other picture is of us all wearing the "trio-tie" Elder Erickson's mom send them to us!

This past week we got to go to the temple again! It was really nice! I Love the temple! I Learn something new every time! especially since I'm studying so much! I have learned way more already about the gospel than I ever thought I would! I really look forward to my studies! I didn't realize how much amazing stuff there was in there! I just want to mark it all! I have to really focus to only marking the super super good stuff or my Book of Mormon would be a coloring book! ha ha But anyways the last picture is a district picture at the temple!

Love you all so much! 

Con amor y respeto!

Elder Erickson

Elder Erickson with his District at the Houston Texas Temple

Week 38: Crazies and More Crazies

Hey! 

Ok so I'm glad I got some shorter emails this week cuz I have so much to try and regurgitate onto this screen I don't think I'm going to get it all done! HAHA  but here goes

First off with Pedro and Maria

We had an appointment set up with them to meet on Wednesday. The way their work schedules work out Maria is only off Wed. and Sun. and Pedro's work is just hit and miss. He works for a construction company and they just call him when they need him because work has been really slow right now. So he told us that he might not be there. So we tried to get a member to come out with us just in case he worked we could still go into the house. But we never found anyone. And sure enough when we went over there on Wed. he had gone into work. So we couldn't go in. We talked to her for a bit on the porch and she said she had read a little bit and that they were coming to church. So we left them and tried other days throughout the week to meet with Pedro but he was never there when we knocked. So Sunday rolled around and they didn't show up to church either!! I was pretty bummed!...so were planning on going to visit them last night when they are usually all home but something came up with I, will explain later on. So anyways, we haven't met with them at all in this last week! only talked to Maria a bit on the porch! but she said they were reading and wanted to come to church so just got to keep the faith that something happened and they'll come next week. We did text Pedro and he texted back and said he doesn't know when he'll be able to meet but he does want to meet again so at least were still in contact with them!

The Trio is going ok...its still really crowded, its hard to keep things clean. One of them doesn't really clean up after himself and I don't want to do it cuz then I feel like he'll start just relying on that so that's one thing I'll be excited for next week! Things will be cleaner! We have gotten good at teaching and figured it out a little better between transitions. Me and Elder Erickson like to talk a lot and Elder Jaynes doesn't really. So door contacts and usually just me or him and then lessons its usually pretty evenly spaced out. Elder Erickson and I are a lot a like in some ways and for that I think it makes us a little competitive ha ha.  We went running a few mornings and we were only running maybe a half mile at the most but it always ends up being a sprint between us ha ha. Don't worry I won but I feel like throwing up after! ha ha, we don't run anymore. But we get a long but subconsciously I think things become a competition, but other than that we get a long great. He is a really funny Elder and always keeps us laughing.

So the first crazy guy we met is named Empris.(we were pretty much English elders this week) he is this black guy who was in the church when we went for district meeting! He used to be a preacher and knows a ton about the church and church history! We started talking to us and then preaching to us! turns out he almost got baptized a year ago and then backed out but still has been studying. Its a weird situation and all, but he knows things like 1000 years is 1 day to God and just doctrine stuff like that. But he started preaching to us and so we just invited him into district meeting. He ended up preaching through the whole thing! and it was actually really good stuff! ha ha. I'm not going to go into a ton of detail of what he said because I recorded the whole thing! hahaha We listen it all the time! It's so funny! but at the end we tried to get his address and he wouldn't give it to us. Finally we got his number so we told him we'd call him. He was thinking he should get baptized right away. And if we didn't want to baptized him he was just going to leave it alone. Really strange. But anyways we tried calling him later and the number wasn't working, but he had called us from his phone so we knew it was really his number. He did end up coming to the English ward and later that Sunday we got a call from him and met him at subway. We talked with him about church and he just kept saying how he had already has been interviewed and accepted the teachings of Joseph Smith so he should be baptized. So we were at a loss for what to do. Luckily there was a baptism that night and President was going to be there so we brought Empris (this is why we never got to go and try and meet with Pedro and Maria) but we had him talk with President. We left once the had talked for a second because we had a lesson with a man named Cooley. (who I will explain more also) but as we left president said he doesn't know much. Which was weird because he knew more than most life time members. But I think he missed the whole reason for baptism and what not. Because he knew the whole authority thing. You'll see in the recording. But we'll see what happens with him. 

Preacher on the balcony- When were in the same apartments as Coolie, the guy in the next  paragraph. We had a return appointment with him and as we were leaving some guy started yelling at us about "knowing Jesus" I love black people. This whole thing is recorded as well so I'm just going to let you listen to it! hahaha I love this recorder! Now you can see how many crazy people we meet a day! but he just yelled and preached from his second story balcony thing to his apartment about useless knowledge of Jesus and God is love and 2 or 3 in his name is Church...all good stuff but wasn't really making a point. I hope is sends through! ha ha We tried giving him Book of Mormon and I had him read 2 Nephi 33 about believing in the words or the Book of Mormon and believing in Christ so all the people who had gathered would hear it too! It was quite ridiculous. I hate getting preached to. and I had my fair share this week! ha ha 

Coolie. Another black man who gave us another strange story. We were looking for an investigator in these super ghetto apartments and this guy with black yellow orange and red  dreads came up to us, knew who the missionaries were, and started asking us if marijuana was a sin. He was actually real so we decided to meet with him, It made me think of Jon and his mission in the West Indies. ha ha We went into his house and he had rasta stuff everywhere! along with a bunch of other stuff.....ha ha. But he were talking with him and he was so hard to understand. so for a trivia this week I'm going to give you one of his questions he asked him and see who can figure out what he was trying to say. 

Sorry if none of this makes sense I'm just trying to get it out fast! ha ha...once you get the recordings it will all make more sense!!

Con amor y respeto

Elder Erickson

Trivia: Ur Hrs Urnge lie Mn. ( He is from New Orleans) I'm learning two languages now! ha ha 

Elder Erickson and Empris

Here are a some answers to questions we had : 

 We get fed pretty good by members though! usually they just take us out to eat and drop stuff off! i kinda like eating at home though! then I can control what I eat! haha. I just usually cook chicken and veggies! 

i havent gotten the box yet but ill keep my eyes out for it! :)

For English Class we usually only have 1 recent convert there! but last week we had 5 people and 3 were non members! So we just teach from the book they gave us in the MTC cuz it has  both spanish and english so we have taught the alphabet and things like how to say you, us, them, me and i. Its super hard but I enjoy it! 

Our last hour of power was ok! we knocked a lot of doors and got one contact because the guy and a bunch of Real Madrid stuff up do I was able to talk to him about that! but other than than it must have been someone else's turn to find someone good! :)

Week 37: Penalosa Family at Church

Que Tal todos!

How is everyone doing this week? i hope all is well and that you had a good day today! This week was a pretty good one for me! First off we ran into Pam again! I don't have time to load up the recording, maybe next time. But it was pretty dang funny! Second we had a ward party called Dias Patrias. Everyone set up a table from there country and brought food in, there was so much food from all over the place! Ward parties here are pretty well known for being crazy anyways! it started at 6 and we just ate food from all over the place! I had  some crazy stuff like Pan de menudo! and seviche ( I think its how you spell it) its the fish cooked in lemon. well not cooked but soaked so they say its "cooked" There was food from Honduras and Chile and Guatemala, Pietro Rico, of course Mexico, Columbia, and other countries too! it was really sweet! And then they also had dances from all the countries that the ward members did! The gym was super packed. they only had room for chairs and they table with the food. Everyone eating just had to hold their food! I was pretty surprised at it. We had to leave early to make it home but I recorded a few of the dances and will send them home. They next day at church I asked our Ward Mission Leader how the rest of it went and he told me it was good, but he left at 11 so it wasn't over....? I guess at 11 o'clock it was still packed and people were still dancing! ha ha gotta love the culture!

The volleyball court you set up looks pretty sweet! I'm excited to get home and play with y'all! I can see those matches getting pretty intense! I want to play against Hannah so I can block her and slam it down her throat! ;) ha ha But really though that's a good idea! they come out right? so i can still shoot on the goal and all? and i noticed the net isn't even up yet! its September? Has soccer already gone out of style with everything else that was cool when i left? ha ha 

The Best part of the week was that we had a family in Church yesterday! Pedro and Maria Penalosa! It was really quite a miracle that they came! We missed placed our phone earlier this week and it has really put a crutch on the work. We had told Pedro on Tuesday that we would call him and see if he would be able to make it to church on Sunday. It was the first visit we really sat down with him and talk. His wife works everyday and he is looking for work so we hadn't even met her. He told us they would be together on Sunday so we set up a real teaching appointment for then because he wanted it to be when they were all there. As the week end rolled around we tried stopping by his house to tell him we didn't have our phone and remind him then about church but were never able to catch him home. Sunday right before sacrament I was shaking hands with all the members as they were walking into the chapel and along with the crowd in walked Pedro, Maria and their three girls! I was so surprised! they came all on their own. No reminder, no pushing, I was really surprised and impressed! We also had an appointment with them later that evening that went really well! They would be awesome family that could benefit so much from this message. so I'm pretty pumped about them!!!

Jantz sounds like he did a good job! I'm so stoked for that kid and know he is going to be a bomb missionary!

I did get the salsa and it made it just fine! it still tastes really good! but not the least, tiny bit, spicy. We will have to fix that when i am home to help make salsa! Ive learned how to make it from a few members and its really easy cuz they just make it everyday instead of bottling it.

Con amor y respeto

Elder Erickson

Week 36: MIRACLE!

Hey family! 

How was the Labor day for everyone? I didn't realize it was even a holiday until we went to go do our shopping and I saw how many people there were there! It helped me understand why we passed a guy grilling at 8:30 when we went to put our laundry in! 

The work in this area has been pretty much the same this week. Still in the finding stage! while in the process of finding we met some pretty crazy people though! that's one thing that never gets old about missionary work. We met on guy names Ralf. He is a homeless guy who is a member of the While Knights of a America and the KKK. He really changed my point of view on homeless people and White supremacists, not that I think it's right in any means, but it did change my thought about them. Just he was just super funny about how he talk about being homeless. He would talk about eating out of the trashcans as a normal thing. But the best quote of the whole conversation was "a few years ago we saw our first half black president...Well you are looking at the first half Mexican Grand Dragon of the KKK" hahahaha I was laughing so hard! 

Another pretty funny story is that while we were doing weekly planning E. Erickson went to the bathroom and while he was in there he decided to clean the bathtub, multi-tasking I guess. But he just started throwing the cleaners that were under the sink into the tub to clean it. I'm not really sure what he was thinking. But he mixed Bleach and "The works" cleaners.....he made the worst smelling gas I have ever smelt! It burnt my lungs so bad! He ran out of the bathroom so quick and never quite finished his task either! But long story short we had to call poison control be cause he was short on breathe and ended up finishing weekly planning outside for the next two hours! haha 

As for investigators the only person we are working with is maria de Los angels. She was baptized like 40 years ago in Mexico and i we might have to baptize her again because they cant find her records. She hadn't been to church in the last 40 years either so that didn't help, but she has been coming the last few weeks in a row! Don't really know if that counts as a baptism... haha.

Sorry its short this week! ill try and have better material next week! haha 

ah I just remembered a good story!...so we were walking one day to see if we could talk to more people that way, didn't really work, but after a whole day of walking we were hurrying to get back home because we had to bike to the church for an English class that we teach and we were running late. I looked at my watch and said we better hurry or were not going to make it. Right then, maybe 2 seconds after I said that a guy in the parking lot we were walking by rolled down his window and asked us if we wanted a ride! MIRACLE! it was crazy how quick it came. the guy was a non-member. He was from Costa Rica and his name was Eli! haha its been awhile since I had heard that name and it was nice to hear it! But he was such a nice guy! he had made friends with a missionary in Costa Rica and so that's why he knew who we were. He was about 30 or so and he lived it Costa Rica like 15 years ago. It's crazy how a missionary 15 years ago got us that ride! We are trying to teach him but haven't been able to meet up wit him since, But he was helping God with his work out that one day and I'm sure he will be blessed for it! 

Con amor y respeto

Elder Erickson

Trivia: What did the fir-tree say to the cedars? i thought Eli would enjoy this one.