Thanksgiving, diseased arm/fun exchanges

Hey y’all how is life? I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is always fun on a mission because you get to go to some parties, eat a ton of food (and take some leftovers home) and meet a lot of new people. This Thanksgiving we went to a non-members house (who is friends with the Thibodaux Elders) for lunch. we had a good time meeting some people not of our faith and having a good time at the family party. one thing that was funny that happened is that there was a little cute girl that just walked up to us missionaries and started talking to us, she was probably about 4 years old, and the weird thing was that her name was Jolynne, the same name as my mom. Haha it threw me for a loop for like 5 seconds but after that everything was good, and she played a card game with us. then that night all of us missionaries met up and made a great thanksgiving potluck dinner which was also fun.

Then the story behind the diseased arm/fun exchanges part of the title happened when two of the English Elders had to go to Mandaville for a baptism of a guy that Elder Winger taught.  So Elder Clifford, Teare, and I were all together for the day. We went through the day and nothing special was happening.  We talked to a few people and had a few lessons but most of the things we had planned were falling through. Then we decided to try to see one of Elder Teare's investigators. On the way there we got a text from the other Elders that they were back but that they were going to bike to the hospital because of Elder Wrights arm (which had been turning red and swelling for the previous two days).  We got to keep going with the exchange. We biked to the house we were planning on going to and talked to Jeremy’s (the investigator) daughter and taught her and her friend the restoration.  The friend was super interested in the message and said the English Elders could for sure come by and teach her. By that time, it was night and we had quite a few miles to bike to get home.  We got a call from the other Elders saying we would need to bike back, grab the car, and drive to them because Elder Wright was told not to bike because they had lanced his arm. Then Jeremy pulled up in his truck and offered to drive us home. So it all ended up good. It was just a fun day where we saw multiple times God coming in clutch to not only give us a teaching opportunity after things had fallen through, but also a way to get to the other Elders quickly and safely. God really does provide a way for us to do his work, as long as we are trying our hardest and not giving up. 

There you have, thanksgiving week was a good one. I hope y’all have a good time in freezing Utah temps and skiing, hit the slopes hard for me!

Deaf people, Blakleys, Court of Honor

Hey y’all how’s life?

It’s been a pretty eventful week this week. We had some pretty fun experiences this week while tracting and teaching

We were tracting this week and we had something happen that I never thought I would encounter in the mission.... we ran into some deaf people. We knocked on the door of the apartment we were at, and the husband (who can hear loud noises) came to the doo.  We started to do a door approach and he then said just one word, "deaf". So at this point we were stumped for like 10 seconds on what to do but decided to pull out one of our Book of Mormons and a restoration pamphlet and point to the pic of Jesus on the pamphlet and the word Mormon on the book. He then got super excited, motioned for us to come in and went and got his wife. We then talked to them through writing things down on a piece of paper and passing it around. Come to find out missionaries had taught them before a long time ago and they were super interested in hearing a message again. Now we have bought some white boards and markers and are getting ready to go and see if the spirit can teach through our writings.

We also had a good time going to Mr. B house this week. He is the old man we meet while biking around last week. We were able to have two lessons with them since then, and they seem awesome. I guess you really need to make sure that even the random people on the sides of the street hear the gospel because they just may be the ones that are ready to hear it.

We also got to go to an eagle scout court of honor this week for a member named D.P. it was great. It was also super cool to find out that all of the missionaries that are serving in Houma are eagle scouts. 

So yeah that is the week, have fun with the cold and snow! (if there is snow yet)

veterans day finding, transfers, spanish finding, early thanksgiving

Hey everyone, how’s life?

Things are doing pretty good  down here in Houma. We have been able to tract a little bit more Spanish this week and we have a few good potential investigators out of the group we talked to. I’m hoping we can find a whole lot of Spanish and start a group down here.

Anyways this week we had transfers and Elder Hernandez is leaving to go to Chalmete with my MTC comp Elder Stoddard, and I am getting an Elder named Elder Clifford who also came out in the same transfer I did but he was in the Provo MTC. It is going to be a fun next transfer because Elder Clifford is a nut. 

The highlight of this week actually stems from us being a little bit late to an early thanksgiving dinner on Veterans Day. Elder Hernandez and I had just finished tracting a bit in the new Spanish area we found and were on our way to the dinner appointment, and we already were going to be like 5 min late. Then while we are going through the ghetto on the way there, we have this group of huge black dudes shout us down.  So we go and talk to them and give them a pamphlet and they kept asking us questions about the law of chastity and word of wisdom.  They were all super surprised to find that we actually do follow those things, it was super funny because one of them the whole time was like, "oh yeah they do all that stuff, I watch plenty of documentaries on them, they be pure, they be God’s people." Then after that we started biking again, now already late for the dinner, when we get shouted down by another older black man named Mr. B. He was a super nice guy who was selling American flags on the corner for Veterans Day. Anyway, we had a long discussion about what we do as missionaries and he was super impressed about all the things we give up to serve the Lord.  He told us to for sure visit him sometime, so he gave us his address and # and we are going to stop by and see him this Thursday. But yeah eventually we made it to dinner; it was for sure worth it to be a little late and meet those people. And the early thanksgiving was a blast as well. 

So yeah that is the week, I hope y’all have an awesome week and stay warm up there in Utah.

Early Thanksgiving with the Marlatt's