Back to Galveston and Tropical Storm Bill

The last few pics in H4

So long companionship!

So I got transferred... I guess President can't make up his mind, because I'm back in Galveston!  Hopefully I will be able to start and end in the same area.  And now, I live and do most of the work here on the island and my old mainland area is part of this one so we work there too.  This area is huge!!

Did y'all hear about tropical storm Bill?  Well President told the whole mission on Monday to prepare for it and he had a big long list of things we had to do.  Well when we have a companionship of 3 Eagle scouts, we already had almost everything, haha.  All except we each needed a gallon of water.  So we went to the first store... all the water was cleared out... went to the second store... same thing.  Finally at the third store, we bought the last 3 gallons of distilled water because everything else was gone... Man, Houston doesn't joke around with their storm warnings anymore. It was pretty crazy to see shelves just empty.

And then Tuesday morning, President told everyone that Bill was getting pretty big off the coast and coming straight for us, so he told us we all had to stay inside all day so that we didn't get caught out in it.  So we did all our studies, cleaned, did family history at our complex lobby, and then hung out with the other Elders in the complex.  During the whole time, I think it maybe sprinkled twice... So much for Bill!  So President let us go out at 4 and we ran around and taught as many people as possible and in-between I said a few goodbyes.

But the next morning, transfer day, I think Bill finally came through a little. We got a good amount of rain for Texas, but still a lot less than we did when we had the tornado and flooding.  And that morning, we went to the Sierras to see the kids and we all made breakfast together.  It was super fun!  I'll send a picture.

So then transfers... it’s pretty much as exciting as the super bowl, but for missionaries... no big deal.  And because I came out to the island, it took us forever to get out here.  We only had enough time to bike around and visit a couple people.  Oh yeah, Galveston is a bike area, we go hard!  But we got to talk to the nicest old lady ever.  And she was Jehovah's Witness so she wouldn't let us teach her but she kept trying to give us money.  Well we wouldn't let her, so instead she gave us 4 pens each... and each an umbrella...  I have neither been given multiple pens nor an umbrella on my mission.  And they were huge too!  Me and my companion, Elder Lesynski, just jousted with them on the way home, haha.

We had a mainland day and I got to see all my original friends again!  It was funny to see the ones that remembered me and the ones who didn't, haha.  Good thing almost all of them did!  But we ate with the Agiurres, saw my convert Mayra Sadler, who we need to re activate now..., we also saw a lot of less actives and a few investigators that I had taught before. And we taught Sergio.  Sergio is a kid that I met when I was first here and we would go visit a less active named Jessica and her 4 little kids.  Well Sergio is her little cousin, he is 17, so I saw him a few times.  Well turns out, he is the boyfriend of a member and so the missionaries have been teaching him for a few weeks now.  It was super fun to surprisingly see him again and get to teach him.  He also came to church yesterday and said he wants to come back!  He has a date for July 5!  It’s going to be hard to get him ready for that day because we don't have the miles to go see him a bunch, but we are going to make it work!  Probably we will call him a lot and beg members to drive us to the mainland.

Also this week, we ended up have a few huge bike days in which we had to go to the other side of the Island to give blessings at UTMB hospital or do service in the sisters area, so we would bike from our house on 69th all the way to 1st, cruise around up there, and then come back.  It’s a super long ways to bike, 70 blocks without stopping, but super fun!  And being on the Island reminds me a lot of little southern Californian beach cities, especially when we biked along the seawall.  Pretty much it’s the Galveston version of PCH.

P.S. Texas City now has an even bigger Buc-cees than Port Lavaca did. It’s the biggest gas station in the whole world I am pretty sure... And while there, I met the Lund family!  First time that I have ever met Lunds that weren't my immediate family.  It was pretty cool.  I probably should have taken a picture!

And Mexican tamales are the best!  I haven't had them in sooo long.  We had them with a member and I ate 14... #thisiswhyimfat #somehowimstillskinnierthanever...

Love y'all!