1st week in Texas There is so much to write to you all but absolutely not enough time. This week has been so overwhelming, awesome, awful but I made it and I am going to keep making it for the next year and 4 months. Puedo hacer! Prayers are answered, and even when they aren't mutually shared. All throughout my time at the CCM, I was praying that when I got to the mission field no matter where I was serving that I would be able to get a chance to share the gospel with people in spanish and continue practice learning spanish. Well so far basically everyone of our investigators are spanish speakers. I didn't think anything of it this last week as we kept knocking doors and speaking spanish but H. Bentz has been shocked, apparently up until this last week they had been working almost exclusively with english speakers. In fact just about all the english people we are teaching are from their previous investigators - crazy but in a good way! The language has been a barrier yet an absolute blessing. Our confidence levels are not super high in spanish but it ensures that we don't sound condescending when we speak. My favorite investigators are spanish speakers. Here are some summaries of each of them: Omar - He is probably in his late 30s and one of the nicest men I have met. He speaks with patience and listens intently and always adds his own insights to the scriptures that we share with him. He knows that the Book of Mormon is true but like most people here he has a firm belief in fate and so when we invited him to come to church on sunday his reply was - 'si dios quiere' or if god wants. Anyway we are just going to continue to teach him but his reluctance to come to church as slowed the process tremendously. Victor - He is an old man as well, in about his late 50s and he is so cool! He speaks fairly good english or about as much english as we speak spanish so we are able to texmex with him and he does the same. He follows through on absolutely everything we ask him to do and when we invited him to church he explained how seriously he took everything we ask and then said he needs more time to be completly ready to learn more and sincerely ask God. He is so prepared and smart. I get excited for all of our lessons with him. Divisino- He is a crazy old man probably late 60s but he is hilarious and loves to read, he will just take off when he ask him to read any part of the scriptures or in a pamphlet. He loves when we visit and just laughs when we struggle. He is so happy and speaks pretty clearly for an old man, people here the older generations speak more fast and only in spanish while the little kids can all speak english so its weird to be talking to the kids and parents in spanish but the kids ask questions in english. Which leads me to my next favorite investigator. Graciella- She is the step-mom of one of our less actives and her husband Fernando is inactive. We stopped by late on thursday to check in with Joseph, the son, but he wasnt home. They invited us in and we shared a scripture and sang a song. Graciella is pregnant and has a 6 year old son Fernando Jr., who speaks english and spanish without being fully aware even. She started crying when we were singing and we asked if we could do anything for her. She asked us to pray for her unborn baby who they just found out is very ill and will not be living much longer. We offered to bring back some of the other elders from our church to give her a blessing. That blessing took place last night with our zone leaders and it was so special to see the way that the spirit touched her and she cried but happily explained how at peace she felt. We invited her to baptism and it was sweet to hear her bare her testimony about Heavenly Fathers love for families. By far the coolest moment I have had out here. I love their whole family and they are so sincerely sweet, they keep telling us to come by as often as we are in the area. Loving the investigators has been the easy part but there have also been some serious challenges, physically and mentally that I like to compare to the 41 bug bites I have received in the last 7 days. -Bugs. Well they really like my blood and they humidity I think makes the urge to itch worse so I have scabs and red fresh bug bites covering my legs and a couple on my knuckles and elbows. I will soon be investing in bug spray and anti-itch cream. Rough life. -Blisters. I havent had my backpack with my birkenstocks or makeup or spanish scriptures for the last week and therefore my other shoes have given me serious blisters. Like there is dry blood on every pair of shoes I own. -Miles. My bike still hasnt arrived and therefore we are walking like mad-women and when its just too far to walk we have had to use some serious mileage on our car which means when I do get my bike we are going to have to have a good number of only bike days. -Slow. This week has been one of the longest, craziest weeks of my life. I have had fun and am grateful for my area and the people but this is going to be a long year and a half, everyone says time flies soon though so I can only hope. Anyways, I am so grateful for all the support and I am so sorry this email was so long. You guys are awesome I love all the support and love. Heavenly Father is definitely looking out for me. LES AMO!! H. Boo Crawford