Week 7 - August 13, 2018

Okay. Well. The mission is insane. So much happens here. I could write a book about this week. I ATE A COOKIE AND MCDONALD'S. ahhh! If anyone knows me, that is so not me. I am in laredo, a city right along the border. Everyone here speaks Spanish. The tap water is bad to drink so we only drink bottled. It's literally Mexico with American stores. The members aren't super wealthy but they feed you like crazy. Last night a lady was at our door with a HUGE box of McDonald's and she thought a ton of missionaries lived here and it's just elder Beuttenmuller and I here (he's my trainer). Elder beutte has 5 months in the mission, but he knows how to work and I love it. Anyways, when she brought us that mcdonalds, I knew the food was coming from her kids mouths, and there's no way I'm letting that go to waste so I ate a lot of nuggets. This morning we went running and I ran so fast because I was so mad I ate that hahahaha. Classic thomas. Okay. The mission!!!!! Elder Beuttenmuller and I had 5 flat tires on our bikes which stunk. One time, his tire went flat, and We had no time to fix it because we had a lesson, so we prayed to god to fix the tire. Well, IT WORKED. The air stopped leaking, we pumped it up, and We made it. As i said, we teach in all Spanish almost always. There are definitely some interesting crazy people that act in ways I have never seen before. We were talking to a guy and he may have been on Las drogas or something because he was urinating his pants in front of us. Quite interesting but that makes life great and keeps the mission interesting. Okay. So now to talk about the best part. We had some promising investigators and they all fell through at the beginning of the week. So, elder beutte fasted for a day and said "god, I'm going to fast. Send people our way. If we work hard, I know you'll do it." We went throughout the day with nothing - nada - zip - zilch. Whatever you want to say. We were talking to someone washing cars on a man's driveway and the man who owned the house came out. This guy told us to come back at 7 and that he would be grilling out back and We could talk. He had an illuminati sign with flames on it on his foot and long hair and piercings. To say the least, we were a little afraid to go back. But the one great thing I learned from my teacher Johnny galloso is don't judge people on their outward appearance. So, we put our trust and at 7 headed to his

house. He grilled us the BEST steak ever. Elder Beuttenmuller was so happy because he had been fasting the entire day. Well, this man's name is Daniel. At first, he showed us this weird magic trick and We thought he was literally doing weird sorcery so we were about to leave. We stayed put. As we got talking, he told us his dad had died, and he had bad experiences with his relationships etc. And that he had lots of anxiety etc due to this. Well, that's when I told him, "Daniel, I can relate to you. If you want to find peace in this life and the life to come, you have found the thing that can help you."The one thing. And i shared john 14:27 with him. I told him my experiences and how the gospel helped my life and helped me find peace and one day, he could see his dad again. Well, we talked for literally like an hour. He said his uncle was actually a member of our church and that's why he told us to come over is because he was curious what it was about. We talked, and he just blurted out, "man, I just love you guys!". He committed to quit smoking and drinking, and has a baptismal date for September 8th!!! As we walked out, we said a prayer and thanks to god. The spirit was so strong. Then as we were riding home for the night, we decided to hit one more house. We saw a little girl outside her apartment and elder Beuttenmiller was prompted to knock that door.  Well, now her son, Jesus is going to get baptized and has a date for the 25th of August! He was at church yesterday and after, we took him in a room, showed him the font, and had him ask us questions. Okay. Last but not least, I SAW KADE MASON out here. He was at church at the English ward as i was walking in for ward council for the spanish ward. i saw him through the door and the zone leader wouldnt let me wait to say hi to him. by the time i was out, church was over and he was GONE!!! I was SO SAD. honestly. the mission is hard. but the good outweighs the bad by crazy amounts. i cant even remember the bad times. i love you guys so much and be good wherever you are!!! 

love elder freedman

i will work on better pictures next week - the work is busy.