Elder Brock DeLuca: My Last Week in Tomball!

I am a little sad to say that I will be leaving Tomball. I will be taking with me the friendships and memories that these past 9 months have created! I will be serving in Conroe with Elder Edwards. He actually served here in Tomball and then he and I switched places when I left Magnolia and came here. We know each other well, and I am excited to serve with him!

My last week here went by way too fast! I think it is partly because we are in a trio....haha! Tuesday, we had MLC from 8:30-4:00. We were there all day! It was really good though and then we practiced teaching for the last two hours. President wants to make sure the leaders have it down, so we can help the other missionaries in the zone. We had the opportunity to teach what we were role-playing that night. The Svedins invited their friends over to listen to a message from us. It went super good! The Elders have an appointment with them tomorrow.

Wednesday, we were packed with lessons! We had a lunch with Sister Hughes and Sister Russel and then the lessons began. We met with Caitlin and taught her about temples and family history. Then we saw Trey and Xavier and taught Trey more about baptism. Then we met Julie, Cathy, and Madison at the library and had a lesson with them on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sister Bean came with us to that visit and then we had a dinner with them right after. We met Brother Williams at HEB again and went over to Horace's house. We were super bold with him and told him that the authority to make his baptism complete was only found in Jesus Christ's restored church. We told him to pray about it and seek an answer. We then saw Brother Mason and had a nice last visit with him. I am going to miss that man. After that, I went to say bye to Paul Kendrick. This was pretty hard for me to do. Paul and I got really close and he told me that he only had 6 months to live. His heart is a lot worse than what the doctors anticipated. He doesn't have health insurance so he cannot get on a waiting list for a heart transplant. It was tough. We gave him a priesthood blessing and Elder Hendrickson anointed and then I sealed it. He was very calm after the blessing and I know the Spirit was there.

Thursday, we had our weekly planning and Sister Bickmore brought us dinner and it was super yummy. Then we went to the stake center to practice the role play for zone meeting on Friday with our Sister Training Leader. It went well!

Friday, we had zone meeting and the time went too fast! Brother Siddoway from the stake high council was there and he did a great job. He talked a lot about what we need to do with working with the leaders in our wards and the stake in order to keep our investigators on track for baptism, and temple ordinances. Sister Peterson talked on master teaching and what it is and what it is not. She did a great job and then asked me to come up and talk about personal worthiness. I had everyone go to 2 Nephi 33:1-3. I talked about how when we are in lessons teaching true principles, the Holy Ghost will be there to testify of truth, for that is one of the roles of the Holy Ghost. However, we read in verse 1 that the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men. There is a difference between the Holy Ghost and the power of the Holy Ghost. The power is conditional upon our obedience. After zone meeting Elder Hendrickson and I went on an exchange with Elder McGinnis in the ASL South area and his companion Elder Dean came to Tomball with Elder Allen. We had a good exchange and it was interesting for me to watch them doing sign language to people.

Saturday was saweet. We got up and after we got ready we went right to the chapel to prepare the room for Julie's baptismal service. It went so well. I'll send some pictures for you! Horace came out to the service and then took us to five guys for a burger afterwards. Yes, please! Then we had a nice lesson with Caitlin that afternoon.

Sunday was great. We had the confirmation for Julie and Caitlin, Madison, and Trey all came to church. They all, with maybe the exception of Trey, really enjoyed church. I asked Sister McLane to introduce herself to Caitlin and she was like of course! And she ended up coming to gospel principles and talked with Caitlin there. Super sweet! The lesson was on fasting. I love fasting. After church we had a lesson with Brenda and Morgan Mertes one last time at the Smalls. They were doing a new member lesson, but I wanted to see them one last time so we came to the appointment. It was really good to see them one last time and I told them that when they go to the temple to be sealed in March, I would be there.

This ward had been so good to me....maybe too good! I have loved these past 9 months here and I will always remember them. I look forward to see what Conroe has in store for me! I love you guys!

Love,

Elder DeLuca