Hola mi familia!

Hola mi familia!

This week I learned some great lessons on attitude! I’ve learned recently that your attitude and excitement for something really has such a powerful effect! Finding joy in the little things, and especially finding fun in the unpleasant things takes a roller coaster day with ups and downs and turns it into a jet ski ride!

This week we had a lot to do! Ill share a little bit though about the people we’re visiting:

Gonzalez family = The family are all members of the church except their youngest daughter Paulina! she's really smart and loves to read the Book of Mormon. It’s fun to watch her and her Dad joke around and she always gives him a hard time. Bro. Gonzalez speaks great Tex-Mex and there’s hardly ever a sentence he says that doesn’t use both languages! We had a great lesson with the bishop’s wife this week and it was fun to see old friends reuniting as this family have come back to church!

Zoraya Escamilla= Her family is less active but her brother goes to a different ward on occasion with friends there. We've taught her the last few weeks and she is the sweetest little girl! Each time as we’re about to leave she tells us "thanks for helping me!" or just "thanks for coming!" She has a little toy starter guitar that she’s trying to figure out how to play! She says really good prayers and it’s great to see how she’s been a great example for the rest of her family! She lives way out in the boonies so it’s always fun to have lessons in the evenings there when it’s cool and under the Texas sunsets! Their family has a helote van (Scott and Dad will soon have the joy of seeing those in action) and the other day when we were there we saw a car crash on their street (it wasn’t serious at all!).

Priscilla & Valeria & the Aleman family= the Aleman family are members that some of my past companions/friends (Elders Welker/Child/Crimm) all visited. They’re a family of 2 sisters with 4 kids each (all under 16). We have a lot of fun with them! Each time after lessons we take a few minutes to play basketball or soccer with the kids. We're teaching their cousins Priscilla and her daughter Valeria! Valeria is 8 and loves reading the Book of Mormon! Priscilla has lots of good questions!

As well yesterday we stopped by Glenda and Jorge and Jorges' brother Marvin - a family we visited and taught in April. It was really good to see them again and Marvin really wants to come to mutual on Wednesdays and church on Sundays so he can be baptized! We found out later after we’d been teaching them that Marvin and Jorges mom is a member so hopefully she'll be coming back to church as well!

The Lopez family! They’re a family that Neil visited a lot and they sometimes can’t make it to church because of ride situations and the husband has work! We've been visiting them and teaching them the lessons again and it’s been a lot of fun!

There’s more! hahaPharr, Donna, and Edinburgh Texas!! Haha it’s crazy but we do cover parts of at least 5 towns! The Pharr ward is for sure one of my favorite wards and even on Wednesday when we stopped in for mutual it just felt like home! Oh! And Friday we saw a live mariachi band at a Mother’s Day activity! super cool! Super good! super music...like street musicians...and super loud!

I want to share my testimony about the Light of Christ! I know that when we can simply share a smile with others and do it with sincere love, it helps to brighten the lives of those who are stuck in the darkness of sin or struggle! I know the Savior's light touches each of us through every good thing we do! I love being a representative of Jesus Christ and I know that His Gospel really is a Gospel of Happiness!

Have a great week!

Con amor y animo!

Elder Cook