September 7, 2015 - First Week in Texas! - Joshua, Texas

Hello Family,

I can't bring myself to say "Hey y'all!" yet but I have been promised that my southern drawl will come by the time I leave. Other things I've heard this week include:

"Howdy Elders!"

"We'll put some meat on your bones." (x2)

"I've been saved"

"Less active: hot drinks means hot drinks
Elder Simmons: what about water that has been left in the car too long.
Less Active: won't drink it.
Companion and I: ... Okay"

"Me after explaining what we do: would you like to hear our message?
Contact: *blank stare*
Me: ...
Contact: ...
Me: ...
Contact: No." (x2)

"The bishop has more guns than I do, and I'm armed to the teeth."

The list goes on, but hopefully that paints a picture. If you haven't heard yet, I'm in Joshua, Texas and my trainer is Elder Simmons. He's been out since April and was also trained here in Joshua. We're
getting along pretty well, so I'm not too nervous about the next 3 months. Let me go back a little bit to when I first got to Texas though.

After I phoned from the airport I headed straight to my gate and boarded the plane. We didn't leave for a while though because they had to check out a couple things which took some time. The flight was a couple hours long so I got some sleep to make up for waking up at 3:00am. Once we got there, Sis Ames did her usually Facebook photos and we headed to the mission office for training. Later that night we had some Texan barbecue which was awesome. I do not know how I was completely unaware of this miracle food my whole life. We stayed the night at the assistants' apartment and headed to meet our companions in the morning. We had a breakfast first so we had a little time to talk
before finding out who was with who. I listened to this one elder talk about how weird his area was and the crazy things happening with investigators. I then sat by him for breakfast. Guess who it was! Yep, my trainer... His talk all held true, but I don't think I can really share some of it because it's confidential. Just know that I am safe and doing well, nothing more than a little quirkiness and a fond interest for "Visions of Glory" among ward members.

I'm doing great though. My iPad is all set up as of this morning and I'm excited to actually use it to do some missionary work. I hope you're all doing well.

Love you,
Elder O'Brien (the younger)