October 17, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;

Well how is everything doing? Pecos is treating me pretty good. Right now we are stuck in our apartment. President Augustin told everyone to get inside cuz there is a 70 mph sand storm coming through. I think we will be in for the rest of the night. I am very bored, there is nothing to do when you are stuck inside. lol Anyways the branch here is pretty small. There is only about 30 people counting all the kids. lol Pretty small! So there is a family here named the Sparkmans. They are pretty cool. They have us missionaries over every Sunday for dinner. Then the kids have us over through out the rest of the week. There isn't very many member so their family pretty much takes care of the missionaries. I really appreciate them for that. The whole branch is pretty much related. The older Sparkmans pretty much had a lot of kids and they made up the Branch, lol! So on Saturday night Elder Martinez got a call from President Sparkman to give a talk on Sunday and he was upset because I didn't get asked to speak. Well, dumb me decided to make fun of him. The next day we go to church and sacrament starts and Brother Barrera gets up and says now we will hear from Elder Martinez, knowing me right, I start laughing at him. Then all the sudden Brother Barrara was like, we would also like to hear from Elder Eppich. He said sorry for not telling you a head of time. Right then my stomach dropped. My mind went blank and I couldn't remember scriptures or anything. It was bad, lol! I didn't know what I was going to talk about till I got up there. Then all the sudden the Gospel of Jesus Christ popped into my head. It was crazy. I felt really good about the talk and I felt like I made sense. I pretty much surprised myself. Usually I get a little notice when I need to give a talk so this was a good test for me to always be prepared. I talked for about 10-15 min with the help of the spirit. My comp was giving me guff because he didn't think I messed up and I didn't get way ahead notice so it was a good day for me. He did good also. A few cool experiences we had this past week. We were knocking doors and we saw this lady and her daughter sitting outside. It turns out that they were less active and her sister wants to be baptized. Pretty cool! We are teaching them now. Also there is this other lady named Ellen, she has been taking the lessons for awhile now. Well we go to her house to talk to her for a little on the door step. Well, it turns out she has been reading the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized. Also this other lady named Anita, she wants to get baptized too but she said she needs a little more time. Hope she doesn't wait to long she is about to die over dead, lol. Kind of old. Oh , man there is this other lady we are teaching. Her name is Arelli and her house stinks so bad. I think that is the reason I stayed states side cuz I wouldn't be able to handle it, lol! She is about 400 lbs and is pretty lazy. She has a 4 year old daughter that jumps all over us and I have the hardest time letting that happen cuz her mom just doesn't keep her clean. We endure though. We went there the other night and they kept giving us food, so me thinking I was smart tried to stuff it in my backpack to eat, (throw away) later. Well, she caught me and said, "eat, eat" I know I am supposed to appreciate that they will give us anything but I had the hardest time eating that stuff. I was being polite Mom and I ate it but I felt sick!lol Hey! Thanks for the picutres! Looks like everyone and everything are doing great. The house looks great, can't wait to see when the outside is all done. I think all of us missionaries get a little trunky when we get to the end of our missions. I am not sure when I will be home but I sure look forward to coming home. Don't worry, I am pretty good at staying focused, I have it covered. Yea! about those concussions, I got the one after the bike reck in Alpine. I got another one in Midland. We were playing football with those black guys from the college and they wanted me to play quarter back I got clobbered pretty hard on one hit and I felt like I did when I had my accident. I didn't want to go to the hospital. I just put up with it. I do have headaches more often now but it is all good, I have it covered. Well I got to get going, not sure where I am going since I am stuck inside for the night! lol. Take Care! Love ya all!

P.S. Thanks for the camera and Mom here are some pictures finally.