en medio de la nada

Oh gah-lee.  I told y'all about the change in rules about eating at member's houses, right?  Well the members hopped on that real quick and I had a meal every day last week and have on scheduled every day for the entire transfer.  HOLY CRAP!!  It's official...I need to find myself a Mexican wife that can cook like these members do.  The food is out of this world. I have never been so happy while eating in my entire life, haha. Gorditas, Tostadas, floutas, aroz y frijoles, fajitas, carne asada, chile colorado, chicken y todo.  Man it is so good. I have also gained a deep love for spicy salsa.  "If the food doesn't sting, then it's not food!" - Hermano Carrion.  I am gonna be HUGE in just a few more weeks, haha.  Tom made a work out plan for me and I'm gonna start going hard in the mornings. I LOVE IT HERE IN ODESSA! 

The members are amazing.  The Odessa 3rd Branch is as close and family like as it gets.  They do everything they can to make us feel at home.  Everyone just loves each other and serves selflessly all day long!  It's still hard to get them to come to lessons, but man, they are SO kind when it comes to other members.  I was real scared that after Pack left our relationship with the members would crash.  He is perfect at Spanish, so all the members loved talking to him, but with him gone I thought they would go back to being disappointed with the level of Spanish from the Elders.  BUT NO!!  They still show so much love and support for us.  They are real patient and helpful.  I have absolutely experienced the gift of tongues in the past week.  We have been trying to clean off the branch roster, so we have been meeting a lot of less active members.  EVEN THE LAs ARE AMAZING!  We have a lot of new people to work with and I am as content as can be.  I know without a doubt that the Lord is with us here in this branch.  There is a lot of potential and I am happy to be able to say that I spent time working here.

I got to go on a little exchange on Tuesday cause Pack left and Davis didn't get here till Wednesday, so I spent the day with Elder Hastings.  Now, y'all don't know Elder Hastings, but maybe you know his alias GRAND MASTER Z.  Just kidding, you don't know him either, haha.  Hastings is a real cool guy, very different, pretty nerdy in all honesty, but he raps.  Yes, you read that right, he RAPS!  That's where Grand Master Z comes in.  He's gota rap about all the lessons we teach and all the finding techniques, it is so funny.  I spent the day walking the streets and listening to his magic.  It was so fun.

Elder Davis is my boy.  He's so cool.  No doubt he is different, but there aren't really many problems I foresee.  We work really well together y todo.  He's got a different sense of humor, but I can adapt that no problem! In all reality it will be a really big blessing to have him.  With my last companions, pretty much all my companions, I have been real good friends with right away.  We had lot's to talk about and related really well, so that's what we did.  But with Elder Davis we have 0 similarities and not really much to talk about, so what do we do?  Well, we just go twice as hard at the missionary work!  Sure, it's not as much fun, but we are getting so much done.  I am SO HAPPY with what we are doing and I know I will come to love Elder Davis, this work, and the Lord so much more throghout this transfer!

Love,

Caleb!

P.S.  I'm almost 20.  Can you believe that?!