Week 76 - December 30, 2019 "Living The Dream"

To say that the mission is hard would be an understatement. To say that it's the best thing ever would ALSO be an understatement though. It's just too good out here. This week so many things happened. Christmas first off. What a good time. A family from the ward - the Villareals, had us over for dinner on Christmas eve. They fed us soooo much food. First, Pozole. Second, Tamales. Thirds, Frijoles Charros. And then, after being entirely stuffed, hermano villareal comes out and asks if were ready for an all you can eat taco contest. After, Santa Claus popped out of nowhere and he has gifts, for us! That family did so much for us. I will not forget that. They bought all of the missionaries actually super nice sweaters. They're also having us over for the new year. 

The work is progressing here. We set a baptismal date with my man Jose Luis. What a beast. I am so excited for him. His daughter was baptized a few months ago. Janeth was supposed to be baptized but life has been super difficult recently and so she will be baptized this January. We are working and hoping that things continue to progress. The mission is just such a blessing. Meeting so many cool people. Maybe all of them aren't interested in the gospel but sharing it is so fun! We played tons of soccer today. The mission is just a good time. We also gave talks this week in church and they asked us to sing.

Have a great week!

1. Lesson with Jose Luis. We made candy trains to help demonstrate the plan of salvation

2.  All the missionaries with the sweaters they gave us!

Week 75 - December 24, 2019 "Feliz Navidad de Laredo"

This week was amazing. I love my companion.. he's such a good guy. We started to see some shots fall in our area and things are looking upwards. We had a lot of fun things: Christmas conference, transfers, and just some good times out here. we went caroling in the mall - that was fun. We really saw some miracles bringing people to church! Janeth should be getting baptized this weekend:) We are excited for her! Some surprises happened too! CJ Holbrook from Timpview and I are in the same zone! Time just doesn't exist out here anymore .. Merry Christmas everyone! It's insane how the way I feel this Christmas from last is so much different. What a special time. This is one of my favorite videos about Christmas. Check it out if you have 1 minute!

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media-library/video/2018-12-0010-he-was-born-for-you?lang=eng

Merry Christmas!

Elder Freedman 

1. missionaries I knew from back home! elder holbrook, sister call

Left to Right: Elder Anderson (Orem), Thomas, CJ Holbrook, Maude Call

Week 74 - December 16, 2019 "Transfer 12 Done.. Surprises!"

Well! This week was full of different surprises. 

I'm going to be staying here in Laredo but getting a new companion - Elder Farley from Timpanogos! I'm super hyped, he seems like a good guy. Elder Bentley is leaving and headed to Brownsville. I'm excited for him! With the work we didn't see too many fruits come from our efforts this week but hopefully this next week we can see some changes :) 

Something crazy happened this week. Me and my comp were walking to the park to work out in the morning and my companion kicked a rock. When he kicked it an ID and Debit card flew out from underneath. We found the girl on facebook who lost the ID and tracked her down. We gave her the card and it turned out that her dad served a mission in Argentina but she was never baptized nor her siblings. That was crazy but its super cool because finding part member families like that are the biggest blessing and one of the most effective ways to find new people. Hopefully something good comes from it. 

We had two exchanges this week and that was super fun. We went and worked at a food bank this week too. That was honestly super fun. The other cool part is almost all of the food that was there had the church's name on the side. Things are good over here!! Love you guys!

Also, a super sweet family in our ward bought me a texas hoodie and gave it to me for my birthday. Im down. Pic attached below. 

Elder Freedman

Week 73 - December 9, 2019

This week was awesome! I just want to tell those who sent me emails and letters for my birthday thank you so much! You guys really did make my birthday. I think that's one of the biggest things that I've learned on my mission. The people that you meet and that matter to you are the most important things in the whole world. I love you guys! 

Hermano Gutman is the greatest guy and like a dad to Thomas. His lucha libre birthday hug!

This week Elder Bentley and I went down to McAllen for MLC. It was an awesome time and super cool to just sit there and receive revelation. On the drive down, ELDER BENTLEY AND I SWORE WE SAW A UFO FOR LIKE 3 SECONDS. IT was insane. It actually turned out to be a water tower but driving at 5 in the morning in the fog really threw things off for a minute. That was pretty funny. We are just continuing to find and hopefully some things can start to work out within these next few weeks with the people that we have! They have a lot of potential but need to progress and if they don't come to church things wont happen. Just gotta keep swimming. We also had stake conference here in Laredo and the visiting 70 was from Antofagasta Chile. That was fun to hear his accent. Catie, those people there speak kind of interesting hahah just kidding. Hope everything's going good back home. The mission just is the best. 

I was reading something in teachings of the prophets that I loved this week. 

“The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ would take the slums out of people, and then they would take themselves out of the slums.
The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.” - Ezra Taft Benson

Love you guys so much! 

Elder Freedman

Week 72 - November 2, 2019 "Thanksgiving, Turning 21, and 6 Month Mark"

Hey everyone!
This week was super great! We actually ended up taking a huge hit with the people that we were teaching - a lot of the people that were progressing super well and had a lot of potential dropped us :( But honestly its just one of those things where you know God has something in store and we just need to keep finding and go harder. We had a few people come to church by surprise which was a blessing though! Last night was honestly sweet, we had a great lesson with someone we met and also a brother in our ward actually is part of the border security for the United States and there here for a mission and pretty much the whole team that he is with is from Utah. He had us over for dinner and it was honestly super fun to chill with all those guys. It felt like i was in Utah for an hour hahah. Time is flying and I'm loving the things that I learned out here. I'm super thankful for my mission, I just want everyone to have this opportunity. I know I have a super long way to go and a lot of things to learn out here. I just want to make the most of these last 6 months. Shoutout to all of my family, my friends, and everyone else. I love you guys!!!

Elder Freedman

Week 71 - November 25, 2019 "Good Week in Laredo"

Hey! This week was good. Elder Bentley and I went on an exchange with the APs which was a little interesting considering that I was there a week ago but it was fun to teach some of the people that Elder Johnson and I were teaching when we were there. I was a cool experience and I don't know if anyone will remember but Rene and Kimberly are still on track to get baptized and I might be able to go watch it:) Laredo is too good though and I am super happy to be here. Me and my comp get along well. We are starting to find some cool people but our biggest thing now is that we want to get these people progressing and coming to church etc. Its going to be a process but Im really excited and things should be good. We had a super good pday honestly and we played some soccer and basketball with the whole zone. Were seeing some good success right now in the zone but we just need to keep working honestly. 

Studying the scriptures is the coolest thing. Do it. 

Love you guys! 

Elder Freedman