Teeples, Dallin

Today's email begins with a story that explains this week's title: We had a lesson with our friend Joe, and as usual, we sat out on his front porch. Expecting this, my companion and I put our bikes by the fence, about 15 feet away from where we'd be sitting. The lesson went well, just like normal, and we went to leave. In that moment, I discovered that my bike was missing and had been stolen. I stood there in shock for a moment, wondering how they'd managed to take it without any of us noticing from the porch. I shook my head and accepted that I'd likely never see my bike again and would have to find a new one. Our friend Joe had me write down a description of it and said he'd do what he could to find it. I thanked him but didn't think much of it. A couple of days later, however, he texted us that he had a surprise for us and had found the bike! In disbelief, we called him and asked him to send a picture. Sure enough, he indeed had recovered my bike. I asked...

If you all remember, a few weeks back I talked about a guy named Jesús who stopped on the side of the road as we were biking and wanted to know how he could meet with us. This past Saturday, Jesús was baptized! I'm really glad we were able to be in the right place at the right time so he actually was on our left. As far as this week went, I'd say it went fairly well. Not quite as exciting as we were hoping, but despite the cold and some minor sickness, we were able to grind it out on the bikes and met some cool people who want to better their relationship with Jesus Christ! Had a couple of friends pull up to church, and unfortunately, some others didn’t, so we've had to stop teaching them. All in all, I'm excited for those who made it, and I have faith that one day our other friends will be ready to make the effort to grow closer to our Savior. Something that really stood out this week was when Abraham, one of the youth in the ward, came out with us for a couple of hour...

Some of you will probably clown on me for this, but I've genuinely been cold this past week. I've gotten to the point that even in the 60's is a bit chilly, especially on the bikes at night. My acclimation to the heat has been made obvious. All that being said, today there's a high of 40 and a low of 26—almost unheard of here, so everyone here is kind of freaking out. No idea how I'm gonna handle below-freezing weather and snow; I can barely handle this. But the work goes on. Not the best week in the books as far as finding people, and unfortunately, none of our friends made it to church. But that didn't stop us from having some cool experiences this week and some Sunday afternoon miracles. Sunday afternoon we went out with a couple of young men in the ward, two brothers named Oscar and Orion. They biked around with us, and we found some cool people and even ran into a lady named Yasenia we'd met earlier in the week and had a lesson with her there at the par...

¡Bienvenidos de nuevo a todos! Transfers happened, and now here I am in Edinburg, the city right above McAllen. To add some context to the title this week, I'm once again in a puro bike area. But it's OK because I got the temple in my area! (It's at the very bottom, and I likely will not be biking down there often, but hey, it's there.) I'm done with the tech squad, and I'm no longer a social media leader, but I've got new responsibilities. I'm district leading, and I'm finishing the training of Elder Quinn, my new companion. A bit sad to have left Weslaco, Elder Longson, and even a little bit to leave the tech squad, but all in all, I'm happy to be here and excited for what the transfer holds! So far, we've been on the find grind, which has meant lots of biking around, but also some cool little miracles. One being that one day we left the apartment to do studies, but Elder Quinn forgot his phone. We finished up our studies and then biked bac...

¡Feliz año a todos! Haven't done this before, but it feels fitting to share the entire movie quote with you all: "Tomorrow is a mystery, Yesterday is history, but Today is a gift; that is why it is called the present." This quote causes me to reflect on how I'm spending my time and focus. Reflect on past experiences and make goals for the new year, but don't let them distract from or take away from the now. Before we get into it, it's gotta be said: About time I send an email, it's been since last year!! This week was a solid week. We were able to meet the family of a member in the ward's brother. He'd invited them to the ward Christmas party and (with the help of the other Elders) gave them a tour of the church. Their daughter, the member's niece Emily, who's in her 20s, especially was excited to see the baptismal font and wants to be baptized! Had an awesome lesson with the parents, Juan and Amelia, where we taught them about Jesus Christ...