It's A Texas Thang!
We are loving life in Texas, but things are sure different here!
This is what John had for breakfast at The Black Bear Diner. I can't embrace brisket for breakfast but John said it was delicious! We also see a lot of tacos and burritos for breakfast but we haven't tried them yet.
I had to put in this photo of the BYU and Liberty teams praying on the field after the game on Saturday, because that is definitely a Texas thing! We often see people saying a prayer over their food when we eat out. We also see scriptures painted on the walls of business or on menus. And when someone hands you your receipt it is often accompanied by "Have a blessed day y'all!"
Have you ever wondered how it would be to spend every minute of the day with your husband or wife? I have heard some people worry a bit about that part of serving a mission! We are fortunate that we seem to have adjusted really well. It started after the death of our son Ian. That experience brought us very close together, and we didn't like being apart. It was hard when John went back to work for a couple of months before our mission. Some of the funny things that we have noticed are that John prefers to shop at Randalls and I like H.E.B. (pronounced as it is written - Never Heb!) They are both very close to our apartment, but Randalls is more of the traditional grocery store and H.E.B. reminds me of the new Harmon's. Some other ways in which we differ - John prefer's music on the radio. Lately it is Classic Vinyl, the Billy Joel or Tom Petty stations on XM. When I control the radio it is usually Public Radio (I love the BBC news) or a podcast. When we have time for television, John loves to find a football game to watch - I usually like something on PBS, or maybe a news program. But, luckily these things are small and we are able to work it out just fine. We have a lot of fun together and seem to find ourselves really enjoying each other!
They are often offering samples of wine at H.E.B - but they seem to know by our badges not to offer it to us!
We attended another zone conference last week - this time for the nearby Houston Mission. We can't get enough of being around these young missionaries!
The local wards take turns providing a luncheon for the zone conferences, and it is tradition for the missionaries to stand and sing "Called to Serve" as a thank you to the women who are serving. I get a thrill every time I hear it!
On Saturday we walked over to the little park right next to our apartment. The weather was beautiful and the Kingwood Garden club was having a sale on trees - to keep this livable forest going strong!
We had fun looking at all of the different varieties and we wished we had somewhere to plant one. We'll have to find out if there is a place along the river that would work.
They have tents up every Friday and Saturday for a little open air market.
Every Monday morning we attend the staff meeting at the Houston East Mission office nearby. We love to feel part of this mission since most of our time is divided among 10 different missions!
We have come to love those that serve in the office!
This is Elder Davis's favorite office! We have an office in the spare bedroom but he prefers this nice recliner. He is also enjoying his new Texas Star tie!
We saw this place the first week we moved here - they have a special parking spot for BYU Cougar fans! How fun is that?!(The patriotic tie was for Veterans Day)
On Monday a rainstorm blew in and the temperature started to drop. We braved the weather and went on a walk anyway.
Luckily John had galoshes to slip on over his good shoes!
The leaves have really started to come off the trees with this latest drop in temperature!
This motorcycle has been parked in our parking lot since we moved here - but it is usually under the cover. John kept waiting to see it move - he really wanted to offer to take it for a ride. Just to keep the battery charged up, you know? It would be the neighborly thing to do!
Last week while the weather was so nice - the bike disappeared for a few days. We thought maybe they had moved, but then it reappeared, snugly under it's cover, just in time for the cold weather.
The cold weather is moving this far south, and we are expecting a freeze tonight. Yesterday it dropped from a high of 73 to a low of 33! That's a shock to the system!! Cold temperatures seem more severe than the mere number would suggest due to the humidity and wind chill.
Today after lunch we saw crews out covering plants that can't take the cold.
They are right on the edge of Lake Houston -
I hope these birds have somewhere to take shelter! They don't seem to mind the cold at all.
This was the price of gas at Costco today. We can't get over the difference in gas prices between Houston and St. George! It's a good thing Texas gas prices are low, because we have put 5,000 miles on our car since starting our mission on September 1st!
We found this place nearby by looking on justserve.org. They are a wonderful organization with a food pantry and thrift store. We delivered kids parkas and baby diapers today for donation and are excited about finding more ways of helping out there.
We finally got some actual mail! It has been strange for us since we usually get little if any mail here - I think we get one bill for the internet as well as rare junk mail and coupon/ads. We were so happy to get letters from our granddaughters Elaina and Lilly! If anyone wants to write to us via snail mail we would love it! Our address is:
2727 Bens Branch Drive #616
Kingwood, TX 77339
We love you all and are grateful for your love and prayers!
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