Sister and Elder Bell, 2022 Texas Austin Mission!

  This is our current district,  but it is transfer week and we are losing 1 sister and 2 elders. We are going to really miss them! Especially Sister Millard who we've worked with so much! The drives out to the countryside are still spectacular.  The bluebonnets are not as prolific as they were, but the Firewheels have taken over!   It's super easy to work on the 1950 census.  Start here! https://www.ancestry.com/c/1950-census Ancestry has an Enumeration District Locator, and using city directories for addresses and the ED finder, I have found my mother and John's parents in the 1950 census.  My dad was not living at home, (I'm sure he is at college in Kingsville, Texas), but I'm not ready to search the whole city where I assume he was just to find him on the census a few months before it's all indexed.  Sigh.  I really had hoped!  Anyway, it's been super fun to find the people I have!  So now for flowers! Our days are full....

 Together with the two pairs of sister missionaries assigned to the Gonzales Branch we planned a 10-15 minute Easter message to be shared with all the branch members.  It was an initiative from the mission president, and they had done the same thing with a Christmas message last December.  The sisters live in Gonzales, and about 10 of the members live much closer to us, so we took those names that were in the northern part of the branch. Several of these people attend church regularly, but many have not.  We found that some of them had not been contacted in years (unsuccessful attempts were recorded), and we were on a mission to find them!  We took several trips out to the countryside, and have managed to contact all but one.  We found that some of the people had moved, but the relatives were still in the home. But here is our Easter miracle. A little background first.  The stake boundaries are very large, and they split it in two as far as Spanish spe...

 We had a terrific time this last week! One day we decided to go try to pass out more flyers in downtown Lockhart, and saw a marque for the Chamber of Commerce that had posters of upcoming events.  We decided we'd go to the Chamber of Commerce and ask their opinions on who to contact.  The lady there was very helpful and one place she directed us was to 4:12 Kids, a non-profit Christian organization.   So we went there and they were very excited to help out.  Charity is the lady in charge at the 4:12, and her name matches her very well.  She took our flyers and then asked if we wanted to participate in their annual Easter Egg Hunt event, where we could set up a booth and let others know what we were doing. Well, of course we said yes, so had 1 1/2 days to come up with a table and chairs, some more handouts, etc.  If we were to do this again, we know a bit more what to prepare for (games, prizes, etc.), but we got to talk to lots of people, and eve...

Last week we had Zone Conference.  It was up in Austin, and we got to meet with Pres. and Sis. Fox and about 70 or more missionaries from 3 Zones in the mission.  It was great, and very inspiring.  Gave us some good goals to shoot for, and was great to be together with everyone. As you can see, we are pushing for more sacrament meeting attendance.  Our little branch has trouble getting the members  out, (many got lazy after Covid shut downs), but we are going to try our hardest to get more people, members and friends, to Sacrament meeting. Then Sunday was General Conference and one of the 17 announced temples to be built is going to be in Austin!  The whole mission is super excited! This is Sister Nelson.  She is a sweetheart for sure, works 110% all of the time.  Eager to learn, work hard, do her best.  Anyway, she has a rock, Pedro, and she requested a sweater for him.  I suggested a poncho and she loved the idea! So, I knit Pedro a po...