The Blacks' Mission Report

Week 7 is in the book, but....perhaps more interesting than it needed to be. On Monday morning we had a follow up appointment with our new PCP.  Nothing new to report, Diabetes check up in 3 months.  But Monday afternoon we traveled to Beaumont to meet with our new Pain Clinic Doctor who happens to be Stake President of the Orange Texas Stake, Dr. Harris.  He appears to be a wonderful pain clinician who will work to take care of our needs.  We'll see him again in a month. On Tuesday I noticed that I had a bridge come loose in my left jaw.  Didn't think much about it, but...on Wednesday it got so bad I thought it would fall out of my mouth.  We found a dentist that takes care of LDS missionaries as a service.  More on that later on. We went fishing for members of the church who had kinda evaporated from view and found a wonderful lady and her family who hasn't attended for awhile, but promised she would be there yesterday to hear us speak in Sacra...

Another week is in the book and it was worth the trouble. On Monday we cleaned house.  Good grief!  How dirty can an apartment get in a month anyway?  Vacuumed, Swept, Mopped, Cleaned, Washed 8 loads of laundry, did some grocery shopping and then collapsed into bed at 10:00 p.m. On Tuesday we spent time using the internet to look for some of our ward members that have disappeared from sight.,  No luck.  But Tuesday night we enjoyed dinner with the Suazo family.  Hermano Suazo is the Second Counselor to Bishop Fernandez.  It was a typical Honduran meal and we enjoyed it.  Bishop Fernandez was there too, and Hermano Suazo's mother was there along with his daughter.  Hermana Suazo was not there, but I don't recall knowing why. On Wednesday we took 4 young Spanish speaking Elders to the Houston temple for their quarterly visit.  After finishing our session we intended to take our district out to eat afterwards, but our "Other" couple (...

I think I reported last week that I underwent an Echo cardiogram.  I never enjoy those things.  This is the 4th time I've had the pleasure.  I haven't seen results as yet. On Tuesday we enjoyed most of Zone Conference with Elder Erich W. Kopischke, a General Authority Seventy.  It was wonderful.  Before it started we all gathered for a picture.  There were about 60 young missionaries and about 12 senior missionaries along with the Mission President and his wife and Elder Kopischke and his wife.  We Senior Missionaries were asked to sit on chairs in front of the young Missionaries. Our Hermana Missionaries were standing in a particular location and so we thought it a good idea to sit in front of them.  BUT...that was in the center of the photo.  Elder Kopischke came to me and said, either you move to the end or you will be conducting the training today.  So.....I did the training....NOT!  We moved to the end.  Was I embarrasse...

We began our MTC experience exactly 4 weeks ago today, and we arrived at the Texas Houston East Mission office exactly 3 weeks ago today.  It hardly seems possible that we have been away from our Washington 11th Ward a month already.  It seems like only yesterday and at the same time seems like we've been here forever.  We are making wonderful friends here, and have already had some interesting experiences. Last week we had a repairman in our apartment working on our kitchen faucet and installing a shelf in our pantry cabinet.  While he was here he asked me some questions about those of us in this apartment complex who wear badges like the ones we wear.  He asked if we represented some church.  I asked him to read my badge and then I asked him if he had ever heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He is from Cuba and had not ever heard of the church.  He asked if he could learn more.  I got his name, address and phone num...