Monday, June 29, 2009

Birthday Parties

This week was pretty cool. We had one of the Assistants to the President come with us on Tuesday. It was pretty cool because he had started his mission in Sinton and so he recognized a lot of people and places. Thursday was pretty cool as well. We got invited to two birthday parties! The first one we only had enough time to pass by and wish them well and grab a little food, it was great. The second one was at James’s and Amber’s house and we got this life-sized Elmo piƱata and filled it with candy and surprised them with it. It was really fun! We have been having some moderate success here lately. Things have been up and down. We have our interviews with President Miller this week. I hope I can stay in Sinton for the rest of my mission, I really love it here. The Branch here is amazing and I love all of the people. I will be really sad when I have to leave. The other day we had a less-active member pull us over and tell us that she wants to start coming back to church and that she wants her kids to be baptized as well! Hopefully everything works out with that! Everything is good here and Mom, in answer to your questions, I don’t really need any thing in particular. Tell everybody hi!

Ryan

Monday, June 15, 2009

Hot Weather Has Arrived

Dear Family & Friend:
This week has been hot hot hot along with the past few weeks. One day the temperature gauge was 97 and the heat index was 110! And it's only going to get worse...
We had Zone Conference this week on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Elder Valentine called and asked me to sing with him and another missionary. It went very well considering we only practiced the song twice before we actually performed it!
We were also teaching one of our investigators. She has tons of good questions, but it's hard to have the optimal spiritual environment at her house because her kids are fun and crazy. She was asking all these questions and we were answering them and her son came in the room and started squirting her with his squirt gun! It was pretty funny. She kept telling him to go shoot his toys or something, but he just kept shooting her!
Being the district leader is pretty different. I have to prepare an hour and a half training each week for the District and make sure that everyone is doing what they're supposed to. It's not really that hard because the missionaries in the District are all really motivated and we all get along great!
We finally are getting the new missionaries today. They were quarrantined at the MTC for 2 weeks and the will arrive today and get sent out tomorrow.
I hope all is well with all of you, and thanks for the letters and prayers.
Ryan

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Email from the Bugg Family

Here's a copy of an email from Elder Bugg's mom:

It was wonderful to pick up our son, Tommy, and also to meet your son Elder Carreon. Elder Carreon did a great job teaching the Gospel Principles class on Sunday where he taught a lesson on Prayer. There was an amazing spirit in church on Sunday in that little branch. They are doing wonderful work there, and the members love Elder Carreon and Bugg, and I’m sure they will learn to love the new Elder as well. I’m attaching a few pictures that I thought you would like.

I will continue to follow the Blog, as I’m sure Tommy will do.

Sincerely,
Cindy Bugg

Elder Bugg's Family

Elder Carreon & Elder Bugg

Elders Kocherhans, Carreon & Bugg

Monday, June 8, 2009

A New Companion Arrives

This week was pretty crazy. On Wednesday Elder Bugg went down to McAllen to meet with his parents. Later that day we had transfers and I met my new companion, Elder Kocherhans (Coker-hahns). He’s from Orem, Utah and has been out on his mission about six months. I am also the new District Leader for our district.
On Saturday, Elder Bugg and his family came with us to an investigator’s house for dinner. His parents are both super nice and said they love the Blog! The next day, they came to church, too. It was really fun meeting them and seeing Elder Bugg again.
The new missionaries from the MTC are delayed for a little while. I think they’re coming next week but I’m not 100% sure. Apparently they had some sort of a flu outbreak and were trying to get it under control before they let any missionaries out or in to the MTC in Provo.
This week we are working hard to find new people to teach, and things are still progressing well. Johnny (our newest member) bore his testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday. That was really cool to see! Hopefully we can find more people like him!
What things do I need to do for BYU-Idaho? Also if there is any way to send me a large-print quadruple combination of the scriptures, that would be awesome. I have someone in mind for a copy who doesn’t have his own scriptures, and there isn’t a distribution center anywhere in our area. Thanks a lot!

Ryan

Monday, June 1, 2009

Another look at Elder Bugg & Elder Carreon with James Land and Family - Congratulations to Elder Bugg for completing his mission

Fun Photo From Flour Bluff Area Earlier This Year

Thunderstorms and BBQs

This week has been pretty good. Yesterday Johnny got confirmed and received the priesthood. He is doing really great! My companion goes down to McAllen on Wednesday. We were supposed to have transfers then, but there is a delay with the new group of missionaries, so transfers won’t be until Friday. (Editor's note: According to a 6-01-09 press-release on LDS.org, three confirmed cases of swine flu at the Provo MTC have delayed all new missionaries a week to make sure they are flu-free before they travel.) We have had a lot of thunderstorms and stuff lately. Sadly, a lot of farmers tore up their crops because of the drought and now we are finally getting some rain!
The other day we were in Odem and we decided to go into this shop where we have some cards, and while we were in there this lady came up to us and asked if we had an extra copy of the Book of Mormon. Turns out she is a member, but hasn't been active for a long time. She said that she lived in Seattle for 20 years and was a bus driver up in Mill Creek! She was super nice but didn't want us to come over.
Almost all of the high schools around here had graduation this past week, and as a result we got invited to a lot of BBQs for people that graduated. On Saturday, we ate a lot of BBQ! This week I will send some pictures home. I enjoy everyone's letters, write soon.

Ryan