Tender Mercies

Hey y’all, what is going on in the good old Utah?

As far as I can tell from the weather reports Utah still is blazing hot and Louisiana is still wet, so this is going to be fun for all of us this week. 

Anyways this week was a pretty good one, we had a lot of good lessons with some of our investigators, and some not so good ones, and some that had to be postponed. We were able to teach J again this week and this time we were able to have her whole family including her husband listen in. We had a pretty good lesson with them and we are hopeful that this week we will be able to get them to commit to coming to church. 

Unfortunately A’s work went a little nuts this week so we weren’t able to meet with him but we rescheduled for next week. But we are super happy cuz he was reading his Book of Mormon, and he actually decided to read the whole thing including the testimony of the witnesses at the beginning; so he is officially progressing. 

We met some good people this week and one of the top ones is a man named D, he is a 40 year old from Mexico who right off the bat was keeping his commitments to read pamphlets and praying so I’m excited to work with him more.

And so now to the story behind title of this email. This last Sunday we had a birthday party for one of the Spanish members of the ward named V. While we were there we got to talk more to some of the Spanish members and eat some super good Spanish food, which is a blessing in and of its self. But then after a little bit one of our investigators named M showed up, M is the one that has a niece that is serving a mission in Costa Rica. She had expressed concern in our first meeting of the fact that her husband is very Catholic. At this party both her and her husband showed up, so we were able to make friends with him and he told us he was willing to listen to the lessons, so now we get to teach that whole family too! It’s been a good week.

Well that is it for this week, I hope that y’all have an awesome time baking eggs on the sidewalk.

Moving, Cat hair, and rain

Que honda amigos?

It has been another rainy week in Louisana, apparently it has been raining more than it usually does in the summer, which is making it a lot more humid than usual, but it is also keeping it a little cooler than usual; so I guess it is a win lose situation. 

This week we got to help move our branch president out of his old tiny two room 1 bathroom house into a bigger and nicer one. The branch president’s wife and daughter are what you would call "crazy cat ladies" which is sad since the daughter is only 9.... but anyways keep in mind that in that tiny house they had two cats and 4 people. We are moving everything to the new house and as we are moving things (the cats are locked in the bathroom at this time) we are finding clumps of cat hair everywhere, we move the couch we are covered in cat hair, we move the fridge we are covered in cat hair... pretty much we move anything cat hair goes everywhere. But that was fine cuz the new house didn’t have any cat hair in it; so it was fun to go somewhere without the cat hair. In conclusion do not keep animals in tiny houses cuz they destroy them! There are so many crazy houses with tons of cats and animals and they are nasty. 

Anyways this week we had some really good success. We were able to get back in contact with A, one of the people we met one of the first weeks that I was in MO city who we had a super good lesson with. But since then he has always been at work when we show up to his house, it got to the point when I was getting fed up cuz it seemed like he was avoiding us, so we go and try his house and I told my comp that this is the last time I’m trying his house since it has been so long. But I guess God wanted us to teach him still cuz he finally was home this time and we had another great lesson with him. Pray that his work schedule stays a little less crazy so that we can teach him! 

We also had some good times talking to less actives; and we actually met a friend of a less active who has been to church twice before named J. She had a lot of questions when we were teaching her which was a really good sign. 

All in all this week has been pretty dang  good.... minus the cat hair,

I hope all y’all have a great week!

Swamp tours, Aunts of missionaries, new comp

Hey guys, I hope you all have had an awesome July so far in the heat of Louisiana, Utah or where ever else y’all are at.

This week we have had a few fun things happen, first of all I got a new comp named Elder Gee, he is from anchorage Alaska and is a pretty awesome missionary. I’m excited for this next transfer with him.

First thing that happened this week is a story from last p-day, what happened is that for Elder Isrealsen's last transfer in Morgan City we decided to go out and take a swamp tour (see pics). It was super fun! We got to go out on an air boat out into the bayou and see all the crazy things that are out there. We got to see alligators, odd birds, eagle’s nests, snakes, and a whole lot of plants. It was a blast! If you ever make it to LA I’d recommend taking it, even if the Cajun driver is a little bit nuts and starts petting the alligators.

Another fun thing this week is that we ran into a family that has a nephew on a mission to Puerto Rico I think, or it could have been Costa Rica, I’m not sure. But anyways we were able to have a good lesson with them and teach them a little bit about what their nephew is doing on the mission (they are nonmembers themselves) so hopefully that connection to the church helps them to progress in the gospel!

Another great thing from this week is that one of the Spanish members from the branch that fell off the face of the map for 5 weeks came back to church again this last week, which was great. Her name is J and she is one of the few Spanish members of the branch that doesn’t speak a lick of English so she relies on her daughter to communicate with the branch but her daughter (V) doesn’t want to have to translate all day, so we get the opportunity to translate for sacrament meeting which is a great way to practice Spanish! 

Well that is it for the week, I hope y’all have an awesome rest of your summer, have a blessed week!

Goodbye to Elder Israelson

Eagle's nest

Swamp pics

She really does, you know it's true!