Mission and Stake Conference

Hey everyone how’s life? 

Things are going pretty good down here in the good old south. We had a really good weekend because we got a visit from Elder Klebingat and Elder Oaks! It was a super great time listening to them and hearing all of their advice for us as missionaries. Some of the highlights were when Elder Oaks taught us a bit about humility and becoming Christlike. For the humility part he told us that a misconception with humility is that we need to feel as though we are below everyone else.  He stated that humility is the ability to recognize and accept being taught new things, and to recognize that everyone has different strengths, and can help you on your path towards the celestial kingdom. Then with the becoming Christlike part he stated that there is a difference between having a testimony of the Gospel and being a disciple of Christ. He says that having a testimony and testifying is to know and say something, but to become a true disciple of Christ we must do, we must act on our knowledge. And also we must act on it for the right reasons, not because we just know it is the right thing to do, but also because it is the desire of our hearts to do it. I loved learning these things and many others from Elder Oaks, it was a great experience.

Also this weekend for Stake Conference we got the opportunity to spend a night in Chalmete with Elder Stoddard and Isrealsen, both of whom were past companions of mine. It was great to see them and get to talk and catch up with them.

And that is it for this week, I hope y’all have an awesome week!

Mission Conference with Elder Oaks & Elder Klebingat

Service - and Momo's to keep the dog fur off

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!