Made Senior Companion

So this week has been pretty crazy. We had transfers and I'm staying in Chaparral still. We were going to have another trio as well. But that only lasted for like a day. Then there was an emergency transfer so I'm back to only having one companion now. My new companion is Elder Gee. He's from Michigan and is super awesome. We've both been out for about six months now and supposedly I'm senior comp. So let's see how that goes. I also am officially no longer a greenie as of this week. I guess I'm supposed to know what I'm doing now. As far as missionary work goes though we had a great week. We found a couple news investigators which is awesome for Chaparral. We also should be having a baptism coming up the tenth of February which will be super cool. They are such an awesome family. They were teaching us how to make some Mexican food just the other day. I need to learn how to cook this stuff before I get back. It's been going great out here sharing the gospel. 

It was such a sick week, and we're about to have another one. We should be having a baptism this Saturday. It's been awesome to be able to work with them, and help them progress. It's been so busy out here. Normally it's hard to plan for our days because we are trying to figure out what else we can do. Recently though, it's been super hard to plan just because we've had so much to do out here. We've had a lot of service as well lately which is awesome. It's a blast out here. This past Sunday, we brought our enchiladas out on the roof and ate while watching the sunset. Then I played my guitar up there which was super cool. We've been going on the roof to do a lot of stuff recently. We actually brought up a table, and did our Spanish studies up there once. We also got to gorge ourselves in Carne Asada this week for one of our dinners. I had five steaks and a Bratwurst. It was awesome. Everything is going great out here. Love you guys and miss you guys lots.

Brian as Senior Companion with his new companion on roof 

Brian with his "Chappies" on the roof (again!)

Arm wrestling for eclairs

Its been so long since the last time I emailed. I honestly feel like I'm a completely different person since then. So much has happened. Christmas was awesome! We had a bunch of tamales the day before. Then it was our P day on Christmas so we all got together and played some soccer and basketball with the rest of my zone. It was super fun. New Years was awesome as well. We had a "Day with the Lord" which is when we stay in all day. We woke up at the normal time, and then just read a bunch of talks and scriptures until like six. I honestly learned so much. Then right after that, we went over to one of our investigator's house for dinner. He made us seven seas soup. It had octopus, squid, shark, and some other things that I had no idea what they were. We let one of our investigators give us haircuts as well. It was a terrible decision. He gave us the worst fades I've seen in my life. We actually are in the middle of writing a song about it. Speaking of which, we also went pawn shopping one of our P days and got a guitar for super cheap. We've been working on that at nights now when we get home. We are having a blast out here though. Time just flies by. It's been an amazing start to a New Year though. I hope everyone had an awesome Holiday season!

Giant tumbleweed taller than Brian

This week went by soo fast. It was an awesome week though. We had a bunch of people at church on Sunday. We also got a new family in our branch with three kids, so our youth just like doubled. All the missionaries spoke as well for sacrament. People actually understand pretty much all my Spanish as well up there which was awesome. Our "internigator" actually might be getting baptized within a month or so as well. He's been investigating the church for years. He's already more active and more involved than most members here anyways. He got an assignment for the church, and every time we come over now he's working on it. We've been having some awesome lessons with him though.

A huge windstorm also hit out here so it was so windy and dusty out here. I found an Hermosa street sign which was pretty sick. Me and my comp have matching desk decorations now. We also found like the biggest tumbleweed. So of course we decided to roll it into the street and drive into it super fast. That was pretty fun. Overall it was a really good week though. Still learning a bunch and having a blast teaching the gospel.

Brian & the Giant Tumbleweed

Reading on roof of trailer

Well it wasn't all that eventful of a week. We all got pretty sick so we haven't been able to leave the trailer. It was a pretty nice out so we just chilled on our roof like all day. I read a bunch of Jesus the Christ. We were feeling a little better on Sunday so we stopped by a less active family who hasn't been to church in years right before church. Somehow, we were able to get them to come. It was awesome. That's about everything that we've done though.

Brian reading Jesus the Christ on trailer roof

Invited to 13 Thanksgiving Dinners but could only stomach 8 of them!

It was another super fun week. Our thanksgiving was super awesome
although slightly different. We went to a parade in the morning. It
lasted like three hours but it was really fun. Then after, we stayed
and cleaned up all the trash. For our dinner though, we had it at our
mission leaders house. They make all the same foods, they just make
everything hot. I guess that's the Mexican style. We had chipotle
turkey, with chili gravy, and potatoes with jalapenos. It tasted super
good. He also made some homemade pineapple agua fresca which was
amazing. We actually had like five thanksgiving dinners this week. I
have had way to much turkey and ham. That's what everyone kept feeding
us though. Another thing they do out here is they eat jalapenos with
food that's not spicy. So for example, if you are eating lasagna, you
take a bite out of the lasagna and then a bite out of the jalapeno. We
also met a really old guy that used to be Ronald Reagan's bodyguard.
He's a super cool guy, just literally can not hear anything, so I
don't think he understood anything we said to him when we were
talking. We also got invited to his thanksgiving. We could have gone
to like fifteen different thanksgivings if we wanted to. There was one
less active couple we met yesterday though. He is probably the most
humble guy I know. He's a truck driver, and they are both super poor.
They didn't have enough chairs, and they just got some silverware and
dishes, but they still wanted to feed us a nice meal. When they were
living in Juarez the had nothing though. They had one pot, there chair
was a Gatorade water cooler thing which was also their fridge. They
were always willing to share what they had though. They were super
cool to meet and learn from.

Street Names say it all!

Companionship Trio, Ferret Face Bite & Cactus Digging

Companionship Trio Manning the Food Truck

Another super fun week. There is so much potential out here in
Chaparral. We have a lot of work that is going great also. We've got
lots of solid investigators. Being in a trio is also super fun. I gave
a talk in church yesterday as well. It went pretty good considering I
had to give it in Spanish. I also had to teach an hour long Gospel
Doctrine class in Spanish. I found out like ten minutes before I had
to give it. That probably went as well as an hour long class in
Spanish can go without even reading what you're supposed to be
teaching before. I made it through it though. We also helped a member
dig out some cactus. Which is exactly what I imagined when I thought
of service in New Mexico. I got so many thorns in my hand though cause
I accidentally hit it while swinging the pick-ax. We also found a
tarantula while we were out there. Then later that night we stopped by
the same guy's food truck. I'm fairly sure everyone out here owns a
food truck. While we were over there though, a car drives up and he
tells us real quick that he's gotta go and tells us to man the food
truck. Then he hops in the car and drives away. So we manned a food
truck for like twenty minutes. Good thing no customers came cause I
would have had no idea what to do. We also met a super cool family
that had a ferret. It bit my face while I was holding it. They wanted
us to eat with them, but we already had another dinner right after. He
grilled up carne asada and some Bratwursts though which was super
tempting. Then we ended up waiting an hour for our actual dinner
appointment to get to there house. They kept calling us telling us
they were right around the corner. Then we had to wait another hour
for them to cook it. We also had a family home evening with the family
we just baptized. We played phase 10 and I ended up losing. So when
the twelve year old boy says the closing prayer,  he blesses me that
my skills will get better so that the next time we play I will do
better. That's actually the second time I have been roasted in a
prayer out here. Anyways the works going great out here.

After the ferret bite

First Baptism

Elder Busco's First Baptism Nov 4, 2017

We had a lot of fun this past week. We met our new comp Elder Furlong.
He's a super cool and funny guy. This transfer is definitely going to
be a blast. We also had a baptism this last Saturday. We baptized a
family of three. Perla and her two kids Alex and Leo. It was a super
cool experience. The Elder that first found her drove down from Utah
to see it. (He just ended his mission the last transfer) We now have
five Elders out here in Chaparral. We ended up with the truck though
and the other two got the bikes so it works out perfectly for me. We
also figured out why we have been getting frozen every morning.
Apparently we have had our air conditioner on high cool the whole
time. We finally turned that thing off, and now we're aren't waking up
to a forty degree trailer. That made it so much easier to get up.

So quite a bit of things happened this week. We met a family that was
crazy into snakes. She had like a six foot Boa. She also told us that
she spent three thousand dollars on makeup. On one Saturday. I don't
even know how that is possible. I guess Hispanics are pretty into
their makeup. And the baptism happened. Everything went perfect, well
except for one thing. I got up and gave what I thought was the closing
prayer in the middle of the baptism. Apparently I didn't pick up on
the Spanish when they said they were going to sing another hymn in the
middle of the program. So I thought it was the closing hymn and
proceeded to get up and give a prayer. So that was a special
experience. I don't think too many people get an intermediate prayer
for their baptisms. We were also talking with a family when a lady
asked us if we liked spicy food. My comp responded by saying of course
cause he is Mexican. (He is like the whitest dude from Utah) She
started laughing so hard, and then proceeded to spend the next hour to
try and make the hottest dinner she could. I was kind of scared cause
she put like a bag of chilies into it. It turned out to not be that
hot though. We also got like attacked by their dogs. They have the
biggest dogs ever that are usually chained up, but when we left the
house  they were loose. Someone also left a twenty five dollar
gift-card to Walmart on our truck which was super cool. We also had a
dog that had babies in our shed. I guess we got a pet now. She'll
attack us if we get anywhere near them though. Overall though it was a
super fun week.

Kind note from non-member