Happy New Year!

 Hey yall! This week was a real good week. New years was fun, a member in Amarillo invited all the missionaries to their house and we had an awesome little party! 

   I went on an exchange in the Spanish area which was a blast. I got to speak Spanish and it came back pretty quick. I was able to give a blessing to a Venezuelan family which was incredible. I love being able to exercise the Priesthood! I'm hoping I get to serve in a Spanish area again!

   We had a couple rough experiences this week. Our friend Viviana was making such great progress. She quit vaping, was reading the book of mormon daily and wanting to be baptized. Then, we go to her house with a member and it was a nightmare. Total disaster. She asked her husband questions about the Book of Mormon and he completely destroyed her testimony of it. She questioned everything and wants nothing to do with us anymore. That was hard.

   Then we also had to drop some other friends named Gwenna and Tim. They were making some progress but she eventually expressed concerns about being "labeled" and she prefers to be non-denominational so she can go where she wants. It was hard to hear but that's alright! It's just time to go on a finding grind to get some new people to teach!

   Our friend Melvyn is doing FANTASTIC! He's so ready to be baptized on January 7th. Everytime we go to his house he is already watching a general conference talk. He is just a stud. He's learning so much and it's been my favorite thing to watch. He's developed such a a strong and firm testimony of Jesus Christ as our Savior, and before he never had that. But he's learned to rely on Him. It's been fantastic and I can't wait for him.

   We were praying for ways to find more people and we felt like we should park our car and start walking. It's funny because we don't live in our area so it's a long bike ride. But we did it and we were totally blessed for it. The first day of us biking, it was around 8 o'clock, pitch black at night and all of our lights died haha. We were about 30 minutes from home but decided we should stop by one more. Well the person we were looking for wasn't there, but a guy named Jason was and he let us in. We taught him about The Restoration, and during the First Vision was the spirit was so strong. He had tears in his eyes! Afterwards he said he needs a copy of that book, so we gladly gave him The Book of Mormon! 

   We had a fantastic week! I learned a lot about sacrifice this week. God is so willing to bless us, especially when we sacrifice something in our life for the Lord. I love yall! Talk to ya next week!

   

Love, Elder Ryan