Hot Chocolate and Waterfalls

Let me start off by telling you how AWESOME TEXAS IS!!!! This place seriously is crazy! I will attempt to instill in your mind this information by describing my current setting- I am sitting in a business class office room in my apartment complex. I look out the window at a waterfall pool and palm trees, with green grass, vines, flowers, and crystal clear water. Behind me sits a hot chocolate machine from Flavia and to my left is a large container of various hot chocolate packets. I just put in a packet of Dove Hot Chocolate and it made it for me as I waited to type my e-mails. Next, I believe that I will try the Milkyway Swirl Packet.

 

Anyway, my first companion is super cool! He is from Manti, Utah and crazy awesome! I have loved having him be my trainer. My first area is Katy, Texas. The apartment complex I am at has a great view of a new medical complex that was recently built- Texas Children's Hospital West Campus, and some sort of Methodist Hospital also. They are cool. A couple blocks in the other direction is some community college. In my area is a LOT of great shopping and eating! Sadly, I don't get paid on my church card until tomorrow so I won't be hitting any of those up anytime soon. There is even a Texas Roadhouse a couple miles from where I live. That's right- a TEXAS Texas Roadhouse! Sweet!

 

My trainer and I are pulling what they call a "Whitewash." Usually during transfers, one missionary goes to another area, and the other missionary stays so that there is always someone there who is familiar with how everything works and what's going on in the area. In a "Whitewash" both companions are thrown into an area that neither of them have ever been before so we have had to start from the ground up.  So yea, my companion and I have been running to and fro trying to meet the members of the ward and figure out where in the world we stand. It's been fun though. A "Whitewash" is usually what happens to an area where not much activity has happened lately.  Most of the ward members are actually from Utah but came here because of the many good paying oil industry jobs, low housing costs, and low cost of living. Seriously, houses down here are way cheap! So I haven't really been exposed to a ton of barbecue and true Texas stuff yet. Most people in this area don't have accents, but just say "Y' all."

 

Anyway, here is the gold of all this- my current address, hopefully where I will reside until April or later:

 

Elder Ryan A. Bell

19321 Park Row,  #504

Houston, TX 77084

 

 Elder Rico!

Elder Rico's Little Oasis