Cowboy T Hooker

Salutations from Historic Ft. Stockton. IDK why it's historic, that's just what the sign says. From what I understand there used to be a military fort here, and there also used to be a fresh water spring! However, the fracking and oil drilling did something to the spring, so it's now non-existent. Poor Fort Stockton. We also have the largest roadrunner statue in the world. I'll be darned. The district I'm currently serving in is the size of UTAH. Yah, utah... like the state. We cover Fort Stockton (pop. 8,000), Iraan (pop. 1200) and McCamey (Pop. 1800.) There are two sets of missionaries here, and the other guys live in a traveling trailer haha it's insane. It's the tiniest little trailer. 

Along with my new area, I received a new comp! Elder Garey all the way from Carlsbad, NM. He's originally from Utah, (imagine that) but moved to Carlsbad right after he put his papers in. He got his mission call to West Texas/East New Mexico and realized that he and his family had moved into his mission boundaries. Lots of his comps have served in his family's ward in Carlsbad. It's super strange. Elder Garey is Spongebob personified. He has an I'm ready attitude and smiles more than I thought was humanly possible. It's frightening sometimes. Haha he has only been here 6 weeks so we're both super new to the area. 

Because Elder Garey is an English missionary, it's kinda all up to me to teach the Spanish investigators we get. We have a great senior couple here who help us out a ton. (They even feed us pancakes once a week) (I'll be darned) and he speaks fluent Spanish, so it helps out a ton. EVERYONE here speaks Spanglish! If you start talking to anyone in Spanish, they'll respond in Spanish. If you start a conversation in English, they'll usually respond in English. We're so close to the border that there are a lot of immigrants that come through apparently. Our Branch President works for border control. Lessons in Spanish are tricky... but if you don't know a Spanish word, you can usually just throw in some English and they'll understand. A wise man once said, when in doubt, Tex-Mex it out. 

We went to Iraan, TX to do some tracting this week. Our senior couple (Elder and Sis. Wells) drove us out there. Everyone is super friendly and kinda strange there. We were walking down the street and a cowboy, whose name we found out later was T Hooker, was standing outside practicing roping this little plastic cow. We talked to him for a bit and I told him I was impressed by his ropin' skillz. He said thanks, and I asked if he thought he could rope me. He responded with a confident yes. He told me to start walking, and he would rope my left thigh. I had zero belief that he could actually do it, but three steps later, the cowboy threw the rope, slid it under my left foot, and with the flick of his wrist, had my thigh roped in a fraction of a second. He yanked on it pretty hard and almost had me on the ground haha. Good ol' T Hooker. 

We also traveled to Alpine, TX to help out the sister missionaries there. There was a huge art festival and people traveled from around the state to see. We went and did some contacting. It was a really pretty place. 

I've been impressed by the principle of the law of the harvest this week. I asked a member why he lives out in Iraan, TX, and he responded by saying,"You've got to live like no-one else, if you want to live like no-one else" He said that he was making enough money here in the middle of nowhere that he could retire early, and be able to live comfortably the rest of his life. It was going to take a lot of sacrifice, but it would be worth it. I don't know if anything would be worth living in 

Iraan for, but I did appreciate the lesson I learned. The hard work I've put into missionary work has changed me, and it's a true principle. #ChurchIsTrue #WhileDaringGreatly 

Gotta get goin. Love y'all!

Elder Carter Johnson