Bell, Rigdin PT

A couple more doctor visits and the announcement of the next AP for our mission has given some interesting events for this week. MONDAY was a whole ordeal all on its own because we spent about 4 hours just sitting in waiting rooms at the E.R. to get Elder Riggle's leg looked at. Our mission nurse thought he might have something called compartment syndrome and told him to go to the E.R. because if he did have it, he would possibly need emergency surgery. We went, waited around for a while, got his leg looked at for about 10 minutes, and were told that he was fine. TUESDAY we joined a bunch of the other missionaries in the zone for Spanish class so that Elder Riggle can start working on his Spanish before the mission turns fully Spanish. WEDNESDAY we had a follow-up at urgent care for Elder Riggle's leg. More sitting in waiting rooms, hurray! THURSDAY we were able to spend some time out and about knocking doors and contacting the friends we're teaching. It was great to be...

People are always telling us to watch out for the dogs around here. Well... we missed one this week. MONDAY was pretty cool because my grandparents were passing through Las Cruces, and I got to see them for a little bit! They took us out to dinner, and when they left, they were able to take some of my stuff I needed to send home. It was really nice to see them, but it was also a bit strange because I'll see them in 2 months back home. TUESDAY we had a really bad dust storm. It was so bad that they shut the highway down, and the TorC elders couldn't go to their area. So instead, they just blitzed our area with us. It was fun, and I got to hang out with Elder Owens for a bit while we waited for the dust to stop. WEDNESDAY we spent a lot of time with the Spanish elders learning Spanish. Lots of fun, not much to write about though. THURSDAY we went to the soup kitchen in the morning to do some service. I just got stuck washing dishes for 2 hours. It was pretty fun. FRIDAY my comp g...

This week's been pretty busy in a lot of different ways! My mission is changing in a couple different ways, some good and some less good. But I just trust that the Lord will bless us for our efforts. MONDAY we spent the day running around to the doctor's, to get haircuts, and finally meeting up with the zone to have a cookout. The food was good, but you could definitely tell some of those missionaries hadn't cooked for themselves before. TUESDAY we got together with the zone again so that we could practice a song we were going to perform at zone conference the next day. WEDNESDAY zone conference was a bit of a different one. The mission has been having a lot of challenges with being reverent and showing respect to members and friends. It all built up and finally hit a boiling point that made it necessary for President and all the other senior missionaries to chastise the whole mission. All of it was stuff that really needed to be talked about, so I was pretty grateful for i...

Some sad news for this week is that we have to move our trip to the temple. Our recent convert had some school stuff come up and he doesn't know when they'll be available next. So sad, but we'll keep going strong! MONDAY was a very all-over-the-place kinda day. We got our tire fixed, went thrift shopping, got ice cream with the district, and played a bunch of games. It was a lot of fun with the only bad thing being that my asthma hit me really badly when I subbed in during a basketball game the other missionaries were playing. TUESDAY our district leader had us go out onto the NMSU campus during his training and just talk to people we meet for 40 minutes. The first 10 minutes were fine, but then the next 30 minutes sucked because I just got Bible-bashed by this one random guy nonstop. Sarcasm doesn't come across the best in an email, but I just lovvvvve campuses. WEDNESDAY we managed to make some really good contacts with the people we had planned to visit that day and ...

This week has had its ups and downs, but we're trying to take it all in stride. Whenever something comes up that messes with our plans, I just smile and laugh now. MONDAY was a lot of fun because I got to see a bunch of people I've served with before as well as getting to meet a handful of new people as well. The zone is all super friendly, and it's led to us being really unified in the things we do. We played a couple of card games and then did some pickleball and basketball, so it was a fun day. TUESDAY morning we got the whole zone together to go play some basketball in the morning for exercise. It's something I've never really tried before, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. A little later, we had District Council and zone lunch as normal, but something that was notable was that we joined the leadership wrap-up. I've never been a part of one before, and I don't think I'd like to in the future just because it was boring. Neat experience though! WEDNESDA...

This week's been a little long with transfers and getting adjusted to the new area, but it's pretty exciting too. We have a lot more people that we're teaching in this area, and we also have a lot more members. It's looking like this next transfer will be really busy! MONDAY I spent most of the time just saying goodbyes to people in the zone and hanging out with everyone. Nothing too special, but it was still a good time. TUESDAY I spent some time going around and saying goodbyes to members in the ward. I also spent most of the evening hours just packing my bags to get ready for transfers. WEDNESDAY we took the drive down to El Paso for transfers. We ended up getting there an hour early, so I just took off to the apartments that a bunch of the other missionaries lived at near the transfer site and hung out with them for a bit. Transfers are fun because I get to see a bunch of the other missionaries that I normally don't see. After we got all my stuff moved over, Eld...

Transfers have come again, and you already know what happened with me. I am being transferred after only 5 weeks here to the Las Colinas Ward in the Las Cruces Zone. Apparently, they're trying to get me to check off every zone in the mission haha. MONDAY we did all the normal P-day activities of playing sports and hanging out at the church. What we did that was special was that some of the missionaries mentioned going to Denny's to get dinner. What was originally going to just be 2 or 4 missionaries getting dinner turned into 12 out of the 16 missionaries in our zone all showing up one after the other and just making a bigger and bigger group the waiter had to take care of. TUESDAY was a bit annoying because they started road construction on the only road into our area. It was already a long, boring 30-minute drive to our area, and now it's an even more long, boring 50-minute drive where we have to follow a very slow pilot car down the road. I am not a fan of road construct...