Monday, April 27, 2009

South Texas, Sinton Area

Rattlesnakes and Eagle Scouts

Hey, this week has been great! We found a lot of cool new people to teach, and neither of us got transferred, so we were both super relieved! Elder Bugg goes home on the 4th of June.
The other day we talked to this guy who was holding a shotgun in his hand. I guess he was looking for a rattlesnake that he saw or something, so we were walking down the road with him. He was super nice, and as we were walking all of the sudden, "BOOM!" I’m pretty sure he pulled the trigger just to make us jump because he was laughing afterward.
We also went to an Eagle Scout Court of Honor yesterday (my companion had to play the piano). It was pretty cool to remember scouts and stuff. My companion and I are both Eagle Scouts, so we got to sit in the Eagle’s Nest with the other Eagle Scouts! Some guy afterward told us that no missionary that had made Eagle Scout has ever been sent home early from his mission. Tell (cousin) Connor congratulations for his Eagle Scout ceremony this past week in Wisconsin.
We also had a fish fry yesterday with the Lands family. They went to the lake and caught tons of fish that James said is a blessing because they paid their tithing.
We have been having a great time in Sinton. When I first got here, all of the farmer’s fields were just dirt as far as the eye could see. Now, everything is starting to sprout and turn green. We haven't had too much rain, but I guess it is enough to help the farmers out. Everyone here complains that we’ve been in a drought for a couple of years.
I hope everyone is well and I can’t wait to talk to you in two weeks! I will be sending something home probably next week, so be on the look out for a package soon.
(Editor’s note: Ryan will get to call his extremely happy Mom on Mother’s Day!)

Ryan

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Monday, April 20, 2009

WhataBurger and WhataMission

Dear Family & Friends:
Wow, that's cool that someone else from Lynnwood, Washington Stake received a mission call to McAllen! Editor's Note: (A sister missionary is now in the Provo MTC learning Spanish and will be in South Texas in about six more weeks). I will write (her) a letter and give her a heads-up about the mission life!
Lately it has been stormy around here. We were on tornado watch a few days ago, but nothing really happened. Some days are rainy and other days are nice and hot.
This week has been pretty cool! There is this hamburger chain in South Texas called WhataAurger. There is one right across the street from our house, and the other day they had this big spinning wheel out in the parking lot. My companion (Elder Bugg) and I both took a spin. He won free tickets to a rodeo, and I won a free WhataBurger!
This week is also transfers. Elder Bugg only has one transfer left, so this is it for him before he goes home. We are hoping that we will stay together for this one more, but who knows!
Things have been going really great here. Two more relatives of James are are really enjoying church and are really receptive to the message. James made a joke a few weeks ago that by the time he was done, half of the branch would be Brother or Sister Land! So far he has been right! Yesterday he was able to baptize one of Amber's daughters, Athena, who is 8 years old. It has been great to see the changes that he and his family have made and how they are very committed to living the gospel!
Pray that I dont get transfered, I love the work right here! Write soon.
Elder Ryan Carreon

Monday, April 13, 2009

The Great Missionaries of South Texas

Elder Bugg, James, & Elder Carreon

An interesting advertisement on the side of the road

Easter Worship & Teaching Success in Sinton

This week has been great! I hope everyone's Easter celebration was fun. We had our interviews with Mission President Miller this past Thursday. It went really well. Somehow it seems like I am always the last one on the group to be interviewed. We also helped one of our investigators move. She's moving to Portland, TX, and I was able to call the Portland elders to tell them about her.
They caught me up on how everyone in the Portland Ward is doing. I guess this one guy that Elder Veater and I were working with ended up getting baptized!
On Saturday, we were able to teach Ashley and Johnny's parents, and Johnny Sr. wants to be baptized and his wife is considering it. We also decorated some Easter eggs and some Easter cookies.
We have also been successful in finding new people to teach. President Miller said that he was so close to closing the Sinton area, and felt like Elder Bugg and I should be together. Now he says he is definitely not going to close the area. He said that there must be some people that need the gospel, because the Lord obviously doesn't want him to take out the missionaries! I hope you all had a great Easter and hope to hear from everyone soon! Elder Ryan Carreon

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Elder Bugg, James, and Elder Carreon with Ashley & Johnny before their baptisms

Elders Carreon, Bugg, Pinedo & Davich

A great area of South Texas

One shoe polished, one to go

Two Wonderful Baptisms & two blogs

Dear Friends and Family:
This week was great! First of all on Wednesday, we had two baptisms! It was an amazing experience, and we had four investigators there. I baptized Ashley and James baptized his nephew, Johnny. It was a very spiritual baptism and a lot of people showed up.
We also had General Conference (held in Salt Lake City and broadcast around the world) this past weekend. It was amazing because a lot of our investigators have BYU TV as part of their cable package and were able to watch the conference broadcast sessions at home!
We also had one investigator family who recorded one of the sessions. All in all, this week was a very good week. We have been having lots of good things happen lately and more good things keep popping up out of the woodwork. We only have only three more weeks left in the transfer, and this week we have our interviews with Mission President Miller. Hope all is well with everyone and Happy Easter!
Elder Ryan Carreon
(Editor's Note: Last week's post was delayed and is being included with this post):
Hello to all!! We have a baptism this Wednesday, and so I will be taking pictures with that memory card and then send it. We have been having some crazy weather this week. One day we were in Taft, and this lighting storm came out of nowhere, so we ran back to the car and as soon as we got in it started to pour like crazy. It only lasted 15 minutes of so and then it was all clear the rest of the day. I think we qre supposed to get some more lightning this week.
On Saturday, we had a combined Corpus-Laredo Zone Conference. It was awesome because I got to talk to someone from every one of my previous areas, so they filled me in on what was going on with everybody. I even saw some members that I knew from Flour Bluff. Zone Conference was great. We were able to hear from D. Chad Richardson, an Area Seventy (church general authority). He had lots of really great things to say and gave us some great insights. Things are really starting to take off here and hopefully things will continue. We are also excited for General Conference this week and to be able to hear from the living Prophet and Apostles. It's pretty much like Christmas time for missionaries because for two days straight we hang out at the church. Luckily, it is broadcast to our building so we don't have to go super far or anything like that. I hope everyone is well and I enjoy the cards and letters.
Elder Carreon