Funeral, blessings in finding and church

Hey everyone,

This week was a pretty great one, we had some things that went really good for us. But there was one sad thing that happened. This week Mrs. Gerrie passed away. If you don’t remember who Mrs. Gerrie was, she was the old lady in Morgan City that loved the missionaries and would always have us over to eat and would make us laugh all the time by telling us slightly racist jokes and give odd advice about life. I did get to go to the funeral because our area is right next to the Morgan City area.  It was good to go and say goodbye and see all of her family members we had met before. It was actually a very happy thing because she had lost her husband a year and a half ago, and she was pretty feeble and now she is able to be with him again. It was also great to be at the funeral because one of her daughters named C had received a few letters from returned missionaries who had known Mrs. Gerrie; she read some of them to everyone during her talk and they almost all mentioned our beliefs about the after-life and plan of salvation. It was awesome because none of that family are members, but they were able to find comfort in that teaching we have.

Then the awesome things that happened this week are blessings from us working hard for the past few weeks. God decided to let us run into a few awesome people.  He lead us to a door of a random Hispanic family that was living in a neighborhood of almost all black and white people; they were super nice and asked us to come back. God helped delay us after we started heading home for just long enough that we had a lady named K pull up to us and have us pray for her and also inviting us to come and teach her at her home, because she has been having a feeling for a while now that she needs to change her life, and become more spiritually nourished, and come unto Christ. Then, as a cherry on top of the whole thing at church yesterday one of the less actives that we had been assigned to teach, but who lived over an hour and a half way in a car, came to church and brought three nonmember friends with her that want to receive the missionary lessons (and all of them are Hispanics from Peru so it is great!). So this week was the week where God showed us he does realize how tough it is sometimes, and that he does hear our prayers, and will bless us because of our service.

Love you all, I hope you have an awesome Christmas season!

Elder Porter

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)