I have to say that conference was amazing! This is the first time that I have heard all 5 sessions. But I loved all of it. It was a little odd going to the church and watching all of the sessions there. We had zone conference in Roswell -it is an alien town. It is way funny! I will get pics next time we go there. But the ride to Roswell is about 2 ½ hours to 3 hours and all it is flat and looking at pump jacks the whole way. The only thing that is sort of entertaining is looking at the pump jacks and trying to figure out how they could be more effective, but so far none of my amazing ideas would be good. Hahahah. Hobbs is an oil town so tons of people are out of jobs because they haven’t really been building any more new rigs. Zone conference was way good. We got to go to meet with president. It was a good meeting. He just said mostly that I need to be more confident with myself, and he has full confidence with me.

What really stinks is that knocking doors is a waste of time here. We don’t really know what we should do or who we can see because we don’t know the area that well, but it is a work in progress. The people here aren’t like the Texans at all. We finally found an area that people are receptive and we are getting a base of investigators that we can teach.

We had a way awesome rain storm on Saturday, it was really powerful and loud. We biked really fast to another members house, who we were teaching his wife and he wouldn’t let us in. Yes, he is sort of weird and doesn’t really care about us teaching his wife. The storm hit really hard, way hard! When we were ridding around we got to ride through puddles that went up to our crank thingy, yes it is a great word! But the drainage system here in Texas and New Mexico stinks, like way bad. Mostly it will stay on the roads until it gets splashed off or until the sun dries it up. And no, we didn’t get splashed but people tried to splash us.
Cool story. So when we were eating Sunday dinner at a part member families house. We were talking to the wife Tammy who isn’t a member and we asked her how she liked church. She said that she actually liked it and that she cried during it, then she said something that surprised me a ton. She said she decided that she wanted to get baptized. I didn’t really know what to say, except, “ that is awesome,” or something like that. She has to quit smoking and drinking coffee so she probably won’t get baptized for a while, or at least a month.

We are way excited for this next week. An investigator of ours is finally getting married to a member. They have been living together for a while. He has been waiting for his divorce to go through so they could get married. The marriage is on Saturday. But we are hoping that he will be making way good progress after that, so yes.

But Hobbs is good, just full of people in good old America. It’s so funny! The people here say they are from Hobbs America, not Hobbs New Mexico. But I hope that you have fun at home. It is way weird that y’all are there, and I am here in Hobbs America, but it is fun here too!

Well good bye ! I hope that y’all have a fantastic week because I will,

Love Y’all!

Elder Chaz Rymer 1520 N. San Andres Hobbs, New Mexico 88240

February 2009

Hey!

So Cody is doing way good. We have a solid baptism for him on 2/14/09 Yes, Valentines Day. Elder Sergeant is baptizing and he wants me to confirm. I am way scared about that. Cody showed us his room. Wow! On one wall there are tons of abstract pictures that he has done. All of them are very dark and scary, like Eerie feeling dark. He told us that this was how he felt before we started teaching him. Then he showed us one that was right before we came and it was of someone crying, I want to see the one he does after he is baptized . Maybe I can get permission to record all of the pics.

We had a lesson with Eddie and Melissa. We knocked on their door and he let us in because we were spreading the word. Eddie looked up some information on the internet about our church, but of course he went to an anti website like everyone does. So he starts asking us all of these questions about things that we never talk about. We answered the questions and all is well! They even came to church when the topic was temple marriage. He borrowed some paper and pen from me and started writing down things like crazy. It is going to be so much fun talking to them next time, I am so pumped for it. I love just answering questions. Eddie even invited us to his family bible study which we are so pumped for it. They think that he is crazy for letting us in his home to teach him. I can’t wait to go to the bible study. I want to know what they heck they talk about, because the bible is so messed up and very confusing, but then again everyone here loves the bible.

Cody's baptism on Saturday was way good. I got to confirm Cody and that was way scary but it went well.
It sounds like home is going to be different from now on, and you will enjoy it so much. Just make sure that you read and pray together as a family every day. It will make Gabi and Sisco feel included, and bring out any concerns about religion or about the book of Mormon

So the good news of the week, we were able to get back into contact with three of our investigators that have baptismal dates, but they didn’t come to church. One lady, Maria, came to church even though we dropped her. We were way happy to see her, so we picked her back up, had a lesson with her and set a baptismal date.

A shocker came when we were teaching brother Arpten. He isn’t a member but his whole family is. He has been taught or seeing the missionaries for about 4 years. We're trying to see why. He seems to know about everything, like how he can’t dwell with his family if he doesn’t get baptized. He told us that he was baptized into the RLDS church. Well that shocked me. I didn’t really know very much about it, but we are way happy that he is telling us thesethings now. Hopefully he will progress faster. So our week has been good in getting reconnected with people, but next week will be much better.

Oh by the way, I have been trying to use ya'll more on purpose, so ya!
Love Y’all!
Elder Chaz D Rymer 5601 Bell Street Apt. # 1103 Amarillo, Texas 79109

Taylor arrives in Mobile, Alabama!

HOLA mi famila y mi amigos!

On the plane ride to Atlanta I got to share the gospel with the lady who was sitting next to me. It was really fun then. When we got in Tallahassee, we met the mission president and the assistants to the president. They took us to the mission home where they gave us an orientation which was fun. We also had a delicious dinner and some interviews. President Summerhays is really loving, really nice and really spiritual. I really like him. After that first night they told us where we were to serve. I am serving in the Theodore area which mostly covers Theodore and Mobile, Alabama. My trainer is Elder Clements who is really nice and oh get this another red head ha ha! But there is a twist I am in a companionship of three! With Elder Allison who is way sweet also. I stay in an apartment with them and two other elders Elder Kenck and Elder Rigby. They are also way funny and nice as well.

I was super nervous when I met them but they were really nice and we went straight to work! They speak great Spanish so I think they will be good "Parents". Oh by the way your trainer is your Dad so everyone has there own little family tree. Elder Kenck is my grandpa and I'm one of the few missionaries who gets a mom (Elder Allison).
On Wednesday my companions made me a cake cause it was my "Birthday" lol the cake is called tres leches which means three milks cause it takes three different kinds of milks. Its way good and I'll have to send you the recipe!

Anyways so on Thursday, we talked with tons of people we had a lot of contacts to visit so we didn't have to track yet (thankfully) but then that night we played soccer with a bunch of Mexican guys, which was scary cause I had no clue what anyone was saying and I am not very good at soccer but I did my best and I scored a Goal!! Ha (this is a grand accomplishment for me)

The humidity hasn't been too bad and its actually been kind of cold it hasn't been hot yet. There really isn't too much to say about Mobile.... it’s a town I wouldn't want to live in. Ha! It’s the south but I mean the DEEP south. Here English is like another language. But I like it! Even though we mostly teach in trailer parks like this one we were just in on Thursday. There were cob webs and cock roaches climbing around everywhere!

Friday, I knocked my first door and it was a white guy so I told him we were missionaries and we are teaching Hispanic peoples in the area "do you know were any live". He did so I was going to do my first door contact, right as I knocked the door someone shouted at us.It was a little Mexican guy who started talking to my companion in Spanish and turns out he was a member trying to find where the church was. But then the door I knocked on opened and the people there were staring at me.My companion was talking to the other guy so I said hi and told them we were representatives of Christ and that we had a message that we would like to share. To my amazement they understood what I said and said I could come in! But we ended up not going in because we had to talk to the other guy so we are going to go back sometime next week.

Saturday the other elders had a baptism so that was cool to be apart of! I had to get up and share my testimony which was really fun! We also talked to this lady Mira and taught her the first lesson and invited her to church and she came! Which I guess doesn't happen very often! Elder Allison and Elder Clements said this is the best week they have had for a long time!

Last night we taught this guy from Puerto Rico who had crazy tattoos every where but he was super nice. I told him about how I knew the book of Mormon was true and he actually understood everything I said! He actually complimented me on my Spanish! The gift of tongues is amazing!

oh here is our address:

1601 hillcrest Road #88
Mobile, AL. 36695


I am having a blast! This really isn't as hard as I thought it would be. But I think its easy now just cause I don't have to answer all the hard questions. Elder Clements is a way good teacher and really funny and kind and Elder Allison is the same. They are really good "parents". The guys have nick named me shredder cause they think I am good at guitar. Oh Elder Rigby has a guitar so I can play a little bit every night!

Well love you all.

Elder Smith