A Ride, a Road Trip and a Rodeo!

I forgot to mention in our last blog that John and I were asked to speak in church a couple of weeks ago. We only had a few days to prepare, but I decided that I wanted to try to give my talk in Spanish. When I was set apart for this mission, I was blessed with the gift of tongues, so I tried to have faith in that blessing! I had help from our daughter Shauna translating my words to Spanish, and then I was able to get the scriptures and general conference quotes in Spanish from the church website. Then, I had to practice saying the talk in Spanish! I was nervous but I did it! John used a translator and gave a very good talk, but it takes a lot longer so it was good that we both didn't have to use him. As I was giving the talk I thought, "I can't believe these words are coming out of my mouth!" I was definitely blessed to be able to speak beyond my ability.

In our mission we have what is know as "bike Saturday." The missionaries ride bikes on that day, even if they are in a car area. The idea is to save mileage on the cars and also to have the missionaries be out in the neighborhoods when people are home. Well, John and I took bike Saturday to a whole new level when our neighbor loaned us this beautiful Harley to ride! We road across the bridge on Lake Houston to a small town about 45 minutes away called Liberty. It felt good to be on a "bike" again!

I always seem to be able to stay in touch on a ride!

We had lunch at a place that the missionaries recommended - 

Jax Hamburgers and it they were great hamburgers!

Like the sign says - "The Best Burgers in Town." 

Last week we took a trip to McAllen, Texas so that we could attend their mission health council meeting in person. We want to try to get to all of the ten missions while we're here - so far we've made it to five of the ten.

If you are on a road trip in Texas, you must stop at a Buc-ee's! I can't get over the size of these gas stations - everything really is bigger in Texas! 

We tried to capture the length of the building - they are huge! There are several choices for food - and the barbecue brisket is really good. 

Of course there is a huge selection of hot sauces and salsas. They have clothing and home decor - they even have shopping carts to use. At this particular store, which was smaller than average, we counted 16 islands with 32 gas pumps - 2 cars per pump. Ok, enough about Buc-ee's!

McAllen is only a few miles from the U.S./Mexico border. The whole mission is Spanish speaking and President Ocampo told us that only10 of his missionaries are native Spanish speakers out of the total of about 190 missionaries!

                                                                               

I wish we had taken a photo with President and Sister Ocampo and Sister Peterson the nurse and Sister Avalos from church social services. We usual meet via computer using Zoom, and it works well; but it is so much nicer to be there in person. We can feel the love and concern they all have for their missionaries.

We drove to McAllen the night before the meeting (it's about a six hour drive from Houston) and enjoyed a pizza from Pieology. 

We went through a border crossing checkpoint on the way back to Houston - luckily there wasn't a lot of traffic. 

We stopped in Sugarland Texas for dinner at a charming place we found last time we were there for a Houston South mission health council. The weather was beautiful and families were enjoying a night out. They have a big playground area next to a patio which would be perfect for eating out with kids.

Many people enjoyed eating out under the trees.

                                     We sure do have a lot of fun here in between working!

I loved the big Texas flag metal roof!

This past Friday nearly all of the senior missionaries from our mission went to the Houston Rodeo.

It's always fun to get together!

We rode with the Hewlett's to the rodeo and on the shuttle from parking to the entrance. The rodeo is so well organized! It's the biggest rodeo in the U.S. - only the rodeo in Calgary is bigger.

Lots of good photo opportunities - people come here from all over to attend.

Now that is a big boot!!

The livestock show was a lot of fun! This photo shows how you stroll along very close to these bulls! Good thing they were well behaved!

Look at those horns!

A brand new little calf -

and a massive Brahma bull! It seemed crazy being so close to them.

John wanted to bring this pregnant Miniature Australian Shepherd home when they told him she was for sale! 

John's sausage on a stick and my baked potato with a huge pile of brisket on top!

                                               
We had to try the deep fried Oreos and deep fried Twinkie - we think we would just stick with a regular Oreo!

There were some fun boot statues, and a lot of actual cowboy boots and hats for sale.

We're on the big screen!

There is a great carnival along with the rodeo, but we didn't have the time or energy for the rides.

This was the view of the carnival we had while climbing to our high seats!

The rodeo began with a wagon parade and -

an opening prayer by one of the rodeo clowns!

Our seats were way up there, but we had a great view of the action and the screens gave us a close up view. This was such a fun event - the calf scramble! Young 4-H and FFA kids line up and then they release a bunch of calves. The kids have to catch a calf and get a halter on it, then they'll get a certificate for an animal to raise for the fair next year. Those poor kids really worked hard to get those calves! The rodeo moved along quickly and it was a lot of fun  - the stands were pretty empty though for a Friday night. Most people come later for the concert - that night it was Chance the Rapper, so we all decided to head home and get to bed!

I had to document Elder Davis at work picking up trash on one of our morning walks. As you can see there always seems to be a lot!

We had a new bird by the river where we walk - so pretty!

When you live in a forest, there is a lot of work to be done. We were impressed with these tree trimmers! There are crews all over our neighborhood, trimming, fertilizing and adding mulch to the base of the trees.

Like most of you, we have been keeping an eye on the Covid-19 virus. It is not a big risk for most of our young missionaries, but we want to keep them healthy and keep them from spreading anything to the rest of the community. There are some cases here in Texas but none in the missionaries yet. We are hoping that it will get better as the weather warms up, but don't know how it will act yet. 

We love you all and hope you stay healthy!