Memories From Van Horn

I asked Sawyer what a typical missionary day is like for him in Van Horn. This is what he said:

So here is a general outline of a typical day in Van Horn:

6:30 am: Wake up and workout

7:00: Shower, eat breakfast, and prepare for the day

8:00: Personal Study

9:00: Companion Study

10:00: Spanish Study

11:00: Lunch

12:00-5:00: We do a lot of walking around and finding people during these hours and occasionally have an appointment set up. This is also the time we usually do service when the opportunity presents itself.

5:00: Dinner

6:00-9:00: We usually have more appointments set up during the evening hours but if they don't go through or when they are over it is back to walking around.

9:00-10:30: Plan for the next day, wind down, and go to sleep.

Hahaha! Welcome to Texas! 

Van Horn Districts-Elder Palmer, Elder Miles, Elder Johnson, Elder Banks, Elder Martin, Elder Varvel, Sister Davidson, Sister Nowling

They were at a member's house, and they had a litter of puppies!

So cute!

Texas has some pretty big bugs! 

Gross!

Elder Varvel and Elder Palmer went exploring on their P-day. They found a shaft of some sort and messed around there until the border patrol came and told them to leave!

Exploring 

Down in the shaft.

Van Horn was his only area that had mountains!

Guadelupe Peak

Elder Varvel and Elder Palmer hiked Guadelupe Peak. It's the highest point in Texas.

A few from the top of the mountain.

Elder Palmer at the top!

Elder Varvel at the top!

A video from the top of Guadelupe Peak.

Elder Varvel and Elder Palmer were supposed to be practicing different ways to communicate with people. They would read about a certain thing and then practice it. I was dying at the videos! I'm glad they're so serious about their study time! :)

Practicing eye contact!

Practicing saying hello!

Elder Varvel and his horny toad, Frank! 

This is the famous trailer that we've heard so much about! There are only 4 missionary companionships in the world that live in  travel trailers. They are all in Texas. Sawyer has broken the record for the missionary who has lived in a travel trailer for the longest time. 

This is Newel K. Whitney's original copy of the Book of Mormon, and Sawyer got to hold it!

The Van Horn Advocate did a feature story on the missionaries! Hahaha, I guess Elder Varvel and Elder Hilton got their 5 minutes of fame....picture and all!

Van Horn Advocate article

Van Horn District- Sister Nowling, Sister Davidson, Elder Hilton, Elder Miles, Elder Cunningham, Elder Davis, Elder Palmer, Elder Johnson, Elder Nelson, Elder Varvel

Elder Varvel has been lucky and has several opportunities to attend the temple so far.

Lubbock Temple with Elder Pack

Elder Varvel and Elder Hilton at the Lubbock Temple

Elder Varvel and Elder Hilton

We Flippin' Love You!

Sawyer had a rough week. You get those every once in a while as a missionary. His e-mail made me so sad!

Hi there!

So this last week.... let's just say that I am super glad that the week is over but this next one isn't starting off that great either :/ It's just been a rough one. First of all we have no investigators and haven't had any investigators for quite a while. People have just been super rude to us lately and that is bringing me down too. Friday I lost our phone and it was awful because we had no way to communicate to anyone to tell them that we lost the phone. So we ended up having to go knock on someone else's trailer at like 10:00 at night and ask if we could use their phone. So we had to call the assistants to the mission president and tell them and then go the next few days without a phone. We ended up finding it way down inside someone's couch so we were lucky to get that back. Then to make things even worse, yesterday we had this cute little dog following us around and I loved it because it was one of the few dogs down here that wasn't a chihuahua. But it was just following us around as we were walking, and this guy (that I would have to use non-missionary language to describe) came down the road in a red truck and just nails this dog right next to us. We were just so shocked that we couldn't do anything. Then he proceeds to look at us, laugh, and keep going. Well, the dog was still alive and when he kept going we could just hear it yelping under the car until we finally saw it run out from under it. It's back leg was all bloody and it couldn't use it. It has just been a really rough week for us here. I am getting really sick of the people in Van Horn and am starting to feel that my time here is coming to an end because I am losing my charity for them.... Uh Oh.... But anyways. Sorry about that long rant.

We hadn't sent him a package in awhile, so now seemed like the perfect time. We put together a 'We Flippin' Love You' package!

We flippin' love our missionary!

Joel Hamby

Sawyer had another baptism! The man is Joel Hamby, and Sawyer loves him! Here is the story:

Elder Palmer and I were walking down the road and we saw a women outside smoking. When she saw us, she smiled and waved, so we went up to talk to her. She told us she was visiting her dad and they were just watching the mormon channel. We were kind of surprised when she said that, so we began to inquire more. We found out that she had friends and interaction with the church when she was a foreign exchange student in Sweden. She told us that the church wasn't the direction she had decided to go in her life. But, she told us that her dad would enjoy it if we'd visit him. We decided that we were going to, but we were kind of expecting to just be talking to a lonely old man who wanted company. We got way more than we were expecting! He invited us in without hesitation and was so excited to hear about the church here! He said he had been looking for us for a really long time! We asked if he had been baptized in our church and he said no. We asked if he would like to be, and he said he would love to be! The rest is history! He already knew everything in the church was true before we even taught him! It was an awesome experience!

Elder Palmer, Joel Hamby, and Elder Varvel

Elder Hilton, Joel, and Elder Varvel

Saying Goodbyes!

This latest transfer brought some changes to Van Horn. Sawyer is staying, and Elder Palmer is being transferred after being in Van Horn for 6 months. Sawyer will really miss him as a companion, but he's only going to a neighboring town in the same district, so they will still get to see each other. Sawyer has been made a trainer. His new companion is Elder Hilton from Sandy Utah.

Elder Martin (Sawyer's trainer) is finished with his mission. This was their goodbye before he went home.

Elder Varvel and Elder Martin

Saying goodbye to Elder Palmer!

Sawyer's really gonna miss him!

Lost Pictures From Muleshoe!

If you remember, Sawyer's SD card got ruined and we lost all of his pictures from Muleshoe. He loved his time there, and he loved Elder Velasco, so he was so sad. Elder Velasco sent us a few pictures that he had. I was so happy to get them!

I didn't think missionaries could get tatoos :)!

Playing games with Elder Velasco. I personally love the shirt and tie with the Batman pants!

This is a puppy that started following them around one day.

Making tortillas!

And my personal favorite...a little mishap with his pizza!

Venus Fly Trap

When Sawyer and Savannah write back and forth, they tell each other random stuff. One of Sawyer's random facts was that he wanted a Venus Fly Trap. Savannah found them on Amazon, and had one sent to him! So funny! He loves it, and named it Yoshi! He'll write stuff like, "My fly trap is doing great. I fed it yesterday, and then it ate again on it's own." I seriously crack up! 

Sawyer and Yoshi

First Baptisms!

Right after Sawyer passed his year mark, he had his first baptisms. They taught and baptized 3 teenagers, Xavier, Janelle, and Benji. Here's what he said about the experience:

The baptisms were such a great experience! I had the privilege of baptizing Janelle and confirming the two boys the next day in sacrament meeting. It was such a spiritual experience! Usually when I give blessings, I get super tired afterward and my mind just goes blank during them. But during the confirmations I just wasn't even thinking and words were coming out of my mouth. It was so cool! We went and saw the kids last night and I can already see a difference in them now that they have the Holy Ghost! Now we just need to keep working with them and make sure that their roots are firm!

Xavier, Janelle, and Benji 

Elder Varvel and Elder Palmer look so happy!

Since this, the kids have gone to a youth conference, and the boys have received the Priesthood.

A Texas Size Storm!

Sawyer experienced another really big Texas storm. His story is kind of funny!

On Tuesday we were just out walking and it was kind of a cloudy day. It was nice to have some shade for once. We went into the library to see what the news was on our family history class, and it just started randomly raining outside. Then it started pouring! And then it started waterfalling! I have never seen so much rain in my life! But that isn't the good part. The good part is that we had to get back to the trailer, and we parked the car on the other side of town. So we decided to go out and book it back to the car when it looked like it was mellowing out. Well....it got way worse when we were out there, and we were completely drenched in like 10 seconds!And then the marble size hail started falling and nailing us in the head! Picture a storm even worse than the one that flooded Disney World when we were there, and then add hail the size of marbles! So you can imagine how silly we looked wading through the streets of Van Horn as fast as we could, in dress clothes, completely drenched, and getting pelted with hail! It was the craziest storm I have ever seen!