The First of Many

This will be the first of a series of posts taken from my mission.  There was a period of time during which I wasn't able to post to my blog, so I'll probably take from the emails I sent home then.  I might also add editor's notes, or pictures, etc.  Whatever I can think of that would make things more fun.  Hope you enjoy it! (I know you will.)

{Originally sent March 30th, 2009}

Dear friends and family,

I hope you all are doing great!

Things are going awesome down here in the Bear Creek ward. We just had a baptism last night! The man's name is Dolores, and he's thirty-three years old.  Hna. McMurtrey and I found him one day while we were knocking doors in a trailer park. We were actually on our way to the car to leave, when he just happened to walk out of his house and we just happened to stop and talk to him, and set up an appointment. After our first appointment, he came to church the very same day, and he's been rock solid ever since. He told us a couple of appointments into the lessons about how before we found him he'd been praying to find the true church, and then he went on to say how he never goes outside, but he just happened to go outside at the very moment we were passing his house. We just started teaching his brother, Victor, and he came to church yesterday as well, and stayed for the baptism. [Shortly after I left that area, Victor got baptized.  I think Dolores may have even baptized him!]

We also had some great first lessons this week. We found quite a few people with great potential and we hope to have several more baptisms in the near future.

Some things that I love about Houston:

Hibiscus flowers and palm trees grow naturally here! It's gorgeous!

 [Okay, so this is actually a banana plant (I think) that i took a picture of in a member's yard, but isn't that cool anyway!?]

[These are a couple of the pretty palm trees I was talking about.  Some were uglier than others.  These were the pretty kind. (And no, I'm not discriminating... they're trees for goodness sakes!)]

 

[I didn't actually take this photo (mine weren't nearly as good as this), but I want you to get the full gorgeous effect, and that's what they looked like!  Everywhere!]

 

Little gecko/lizard guys live here as well. It's so fun to see them just running along outside the edge of a house, or whatever.

[Alright, I didn't actually take this one either, though I do have some photos somewhere of lizards we saw on a few occasions, I don't know where they are right now (sad.day.). I guess it will have to be later gator? :)]

Spring is long and beautiful. Started on the first of February and the weather is still great at the perfect temperature.

Also, I'm proud to say that I already wore out my first pair of shoes! Proof that I've been working hard :).

Again I hope things are going well. I'd love to hear about what's going on in YOUR life!

Hermana Austin Lee