Bell, Rigdin PT

It wasn't quite the best week because I spent a lot of it feeling under the weather, but we still managed to have some fun and get some work done. MONDAY we had all the normal p-day activities like sports and games. It's pretty cool having p-day at the same building as the mission office because you're able to just go and talk with the senior missionaries if you want or just randomly see President and Sister Willis. It's also been starting to get pretty cold around here when it gets dark, which I personally don't like too much. TUESDAY I finished reading the Book of Mormon for the second time on my mission. It's really satisfying to be able to read through it and see what you learned on the first go-through and compare it with what you learned on the second. Also, a pretty high point for my week is that on this day, everyone in the apartment but me got buzz cuts. It's pretty fun because none of them are happy with it after the fact. WEDNESDAY we did a Book o...

First full week in the new area! I've met some pretty cool members and taught some pretty cool people the gospel, so I've really enjoyed this week. MONDAY we spent a good chunk of time hanging out at Goodwill because the zone leaders wanted to do some thrift shopping. It was a little funny being there because something like half the zone showed up without anyone saying anything to each other. I didn't need anything, so that was when I wrote most of last week's email. TUESDAY wasn't anything really special. We just did weekly planning and tracted a bunch. WEDNESDAY we had planned an exchange, but before we started it, we went to an all-you-can-eat taco place with a bunch of other missionaries. I asked Elder Fetuao later, and he said that he ate 26 tacos. The exchange was really fun because the elder I was with had also served in Taos, and we just spent a lot of time when we were walking or driving, just talking about Taos. THURSDAY was a weird day because we had lunc...

I've finished up in Monahans and now I'm back in El Paso! I really loved being able to work with the people in the Monahans branch while I was there, and I'll miss them, but now I get to work with the people in Redd Ward. MONDAY I started the day with a bit of a weird "exchange." Because my companion, Elder Hardy, was getting a new missionary as his companion, he had to be in El Paso on Wednesday to do some training with him. Also, the Alpine elders had to send Elder Campbell to El Paso to do some departing missionary activities. And because of all that, the other Alpine elder, Elder Stoddard, and I were companions for Monday and Tuesday. It was super fun hanging out with him during p-day, and he even taught me this cool dice game at the end of the day called Liars Dice. TUESDAY I had a meeting for all the new social media trainers that I had to attend to get ready for the new transfer. It was pretty funny to do it while Elder Stoddard was there because he was the...

Happy Halloween, everyone! This was another very busy week for me out here in Monahans. We helped out with a bunch of service for our members and for the community, which made the days go pretty quickly. MONDAY no one got together for p-day because the zone leaders had to go to El Paso for the day and no one thought it would be very fun. So Elder Hardy and I decided to go check out the Sandhills State Park here in Monahans. It was a lot of fun climbing and running on the sandhills, definitely a good workout! TUESDAY we spent almost all day just up in Kermit trying to get in contact with a bunch of the media referrals we had gotten over the past couple of days. WEDNESDAY another one of our friends, Jessica, got baptized! It was a really awesome experience to see just how much she valued having the gift of the Holy Ghost, even though we couldn't understand each other. THURSDAY we helped a member by carving his pumpkins for him as a "service." Then that night we went and hel...

Another week and another baptism! This one was really special because I had been able to teach him everything that he needed to know in a very short amount of time because he had been ready for a really long time. MONDAY we were the first ones to show up to the chapel in Fort Stockton for p-day and found a dead pigeon in front of the door. We took a picture of it and put it into the chat our zone has before we cleaned it up and went inside because we thought it was kind of funny. TUESDAY we had one of our mission presidency stop by our trailer and do the quickest housing inspection I've ever seen in my mission. It was barely even 10 minutes, while all the other inspections I've had were closer to 20 minutes. WEDNESDAY we went to the young men's activity and did some pumpkin carving! It was pretty fun seeing them all get into it and make some funny-looking carvings. THURSDAY our friend Rich was interviewed and approved for baptism! He's been coming to church, seminary, a...

This week was really exciting because 2 of our friends were able to make their first covenant with God! We don't speak the same language, but I'm still really excited for them and for the effect this will have in their lives. MONDAY we had a p-day down in Alpine, TX, which is about 2 hours south of us. It was a ton of driving, but we got to see some nice sights on the way down, including some of the only mountains and trees I've seen since being out in the Fort Stockton zone. We went down there to have a barbecue with all the elders and to go on a tour of the observatory with one of the members who works there. It was a really cool experience to be standing right by the telescopes and see just how big they were. TUESDAY we somehow spent all day just preparing for the baptism on Saturday by calling people and asking them to give talks and just inviting people to come. WEDNESDAY our Zone leaders came up from Fort Stockton to help us teach our friends we had on date for baptis...

This week we got some more exciting news and it's made us even more busy! MONDAY we spent a bit of time getting our car cleaned up because we had to turn it in the next day so we could get the new car they were assigning us. This is the third time I've had to swap out a car in my mission, and it's always pretty exciting because the new cars are always brand new. TUESDAY we went back down to Fort Stockton for zone conference. The zone conference out here is a little disappointing because of how small it is, but we still had a really good discussion on how we can form good habits and break bad habits. We were also able to take some time and go over President Nelson's talk from conference. We had our interviews with President afterward and it seems like he's thinking about putting another set of missionaries out here in Monahans, which would be really exciting. WEDNESDAY we had a really awesome lesson in Kermit with a friend who had referred herself from Facebook. She ...