Service, Primary Program, Zone Conference

Hey y’all how are you doing?

It’s been a pretty good week out here in Louisana.  We were able to do a lot of good service for a Halloween party at one of the elementary schools, that the wife of the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric works at. We were able to man some little games for the kids to play. It was super fun! It was fun to see all the kids in their cute costumes, and also to meet a whole bunch of new people. Sister Marlatt (the one that works at the school) told us that a lot of the people she was friends with at the school told her how much our help changed their opinion of the missionaries, which might be a step that may help them to eventually accept the lessons from us which would be great!

We also had zone conference this week, so we got to see all of our friends from old areas so that was a blast, and because we are one of the furthest away areas from everyone else, we got to have our interviews with president; and he took us out to eat! I love our mission president and his wife, they are awesome people!

Also this week we had the primary program for our ward which is always fun.  Pretty much this week was just a lot of fun moments with kids. But also another huge blessing in this is that one of our investigators, D, finally came to church!!! And he had a great time too! He told us that he still had some misconceptions about the church that he had heard from other people, such as we worship Joseph Smith and things like that.  He was able to put those concern to rest because the entire primary program was centered on faith and the atonement of Christ. And now that those concerns are put to rest I’m super excited for what is in store for the future!

Love y’all, I hope you have an awesome week!

When Service Hits you Hard

Group Service at the Elementary School

Dinner with President Varner after Interviews

Believe in a God of Miracles

Hey y’all hows it going?

I hear skiing season is getting pretty dang close right now so y’all better go have fun on the slopes for me. This week was an ok week, we had some success with a few of the people we teach, actually one guy we have had on our Potential Investigator list for a while now finally graduated to the investigator list, and he is Hispanic so that is a party. His name is G and it was fun to talk to him because he shares a lot of the same views the church does but he just doesn’t realize it, so it’s going to be fun to teach him. 

The rough part of this week is that we had to drop a lot of investigators that weren’t progressing; so our investigator pool has dwindled down quite a bit, and also it’s been a little rough because the ones that had the best progress were not available this week. I honestly feel like when someone starts progressing a lot in the lessons satan takes that as a sign he needs to make their lives super busy so they have no time to learn any more. So all in all it was a little bit of a rough week, but that is why the title of this email is "Believe in a God of miracles". That is a statement that we have focused on a lot in the Houma district, we have all been focusing hard on the fact that God really can provide in any circumstances, so when things start to get rough or you think things aren’t working out with people, or maybe when you have to drop some people you have grown to love, you just need to always believe that God will help you in your work and he will provide a way for you to accomplish the work he has given us (1 Nephi 3:7).

Sorry that this is such a short email, I hope y’all have an awesome week!

Bible Study, Service

Hey y’all, how’s life?

Things are going super good down here, it is still hot as usual but we do have nice weather today... the type of weather Utah gets in August ha ha.

So this week I set a personal goal to study the scriptures a lot more instead of just reading my chapters and it has been a blast! When you are reading to learn, not just to see the story, it is super enlightening, ha ha.  Right now I’m in the book of revelations in the New Testament and I can testify that all the footnotes we have in the scriptures help a ton in understanding what is going on in those prophecies. And all the study of the scriptures, as well as scriptures Elder Hernandez and I are trying to memorize actually came in handy this week when we tracted into a man who said he has been studying the bible for over 35 years. His name is D and he is a super nice African American man that is one of those guys that go into the prisons to teach inmates about the Bible and Christ. It was fun to talk to him and hear all the stuff he learned from his studies. And with his knowledge of the Bible, we were able to quote the scriptures to him that talk about modern day prophets and continuing revelation - because that was the first issue he brought up.  I love how with his faith in the Bible, he changed from challenging us on that point of doctrine to actually being super excited about reading the Book of Mormon, which we will be bringing to him this week. I love it how new knowledge can increase other people’s faith and help them grow off the base that they have already formed in their own lives.

This week we also did a lot of service such as moving an investigator family of the English elders on three different days since the truck wasn’t big enough to do it all in one; and also to paint a house of one of the members here. Ha ha, so if anyone ever needs a paint job or someone to help them move call me because that is some of the skills us missionaries get many opportunities to develop out on missions (:

Just a quick update on T and N they are going through a little bit of a rough time right now and because of it we haven’t been able to see them this week. N got in a car wreck (which wasn’t too bad but did leave her hurting for the whole week) and T has been working what seems to be 24/7 so he hasn’t been able to help her out with the kids while she recovers. So keep them in your prayers please.

And that is all for this week, I hope you all have a great time getting ready for the winter months!!

Service project!