More Texas

This week was another week full of hard work and fun. I honestly hope
I will be able to stay in this area until I finish. But if the Lord
has other plans that's ok too!

I had two wonderful exchanges this week. The first one was with Elder
Wood here in the Beaumont YSA branch. What was unique was we had a
booth set up on campus where we invited numerous people to the family
history class we are presenting 3 times this week. It was right
outside the dining hall on Lamar campus, so there were TONS of people
coming in and out. We learned how to ambush people without catching
them off guard haha. Make eye contact, smile, and then strike up a
conversation. We were able to get some people to sign up for the
class! One cool guy was helping with some sort of tour around campus
when he saw our booth. He was a tall 6 foot 4 basketball player. He
asked if we were Mormons. After we told him we were, he told us he
just got done playing basketball at BYU. All of his friends down there
in Provo were LDS and had served missions also. One funny thing he
told us was how "weird" Mormon parties were. Elder Wood and I just
laughed at the uniqueness of Mormon culture. We also found some people
who were interested in learning about the restoration. We were able to
extend some baptismal invites to these people. Elder Wood and I
couldn't resist taking some pictures together on Lamar's tennis
courts. So I'll attach some pics :)

The other exchange was in Buna. We saw so many miracles up there. I
was grateful to be with my son, Elder Durtschi! The entire exchange I
was wondering how I was going to be a leader to these missionaries.
It's hard being a ZL! I was Pondering and thinking about how I'm
definitely not the best leader, and so uttered a plea to Heavenly
Father to help. And the Help we received was so plentiful I know it
was from a loving Father in Heaven. We were able to get in with a part
member family that they have been trying for the past transfer or so.
We were also able to get in contact with a media referral who is very
solid. Overall, we ended the day with 4 new investigators, along with
the lessons and good indicators that follow. Buna is a very country
area, similiar to Fred, so the work we were able to accomplish was
unreal. I was very grateful that the Lord was able to multiply our
hard work and effort.

We also saw more miracles in our own area as well. We are just trying
to bring people to church.

Also a new custard place opened up not to far from us. We tried it out
and the flavor of the day was Mardi Gras King Cake Batter. It was
delicious!

P.s. The Odoms aka My favorite family from Fred took us out to dinner
on Saturday. We had a great time!


--
Elder Henry Blackburn
Texas Houston East Mission