Morning Everyone!
From the Super Cold, Rainy,Icy, and maybe even SNOWY Louisiana!
It you are confused, so AM I! I thought Louisiana was basically ALWAYS HOT.... Guess again! Last week we received probably the coldest weather which created Icicles on the car on houses and EVERYWHERE there was icicles!!! I'll tell you all, i was pretty AMAZED. I told my companion that i never had seen Icicles and i thought that they were only in movies! haha Yep you can tell how stoked i was. But anyway, now we are expecting an Even COLDER day tomorrow with a higher chance of snow! You can imagine how EXCITED i am! We might have to stay home all day though because Louisiana is not used to this kind of weather so they do not really know how to react. So it will be a dangerous day on the road. But Anyway, because i do not really have any warm sweaters i have been freezing my tail off! But its okay... I'll keep my head up. :) But with that crazy cold weather we have receive very beautiful Sunsets at the Lake Front. (Look at pictures)
Anyway on other news... We had Transfers last week and we were called up and told that Elder Madsen was going to be transferred. Then President Wall called me and told me that i was going to stay a district leader and he was going to give me another responsibility on top of that. And he told me that i was also going to be training. So i was VERY excited.So on Wednesday, Elder Madsen was called to serve down in Tibedo. And I stayed in Mandeville and training Elder Chase. Who ACTUALLY Elder Chase is waiting on his VISA to go down to Brazil where he has been originally assigned to serve. So he will be leaving whenever he receives it it could be tomorrow or it could be in a couple months. We never know. But i am blessed with the opportunity to work with him and get him started on the right foot on his mission. Hopefully i can train him well enough. It is a neat experience because he is learning Portuguese which is very similar to spanish so i can understand him when he speaks the words he already knows. It is awesome. We are learning from each other. It is also very interesting because Mandeville is basically an English area. But president Wall decided to put a Spanish and Portuguese Elder in Mandeville. So i like to say that we have been resigned to an english mission for just a little while ha.
I have to say that when i was with Elder Madsen we hit a bump on the road where it was a struggle to follow all the rules sometimes. And it came to a point when our work had really gone down and it was hard to find appointments and to find people or even just find the courage to talk to people to find them. At time i didn't know what i was doing or why i was doing what i was doing like sleeping in and what not. I knew that it was not right and i sae the effects that it was having on my work. Yet because of the struggles that i was having with my companion it was really hard to push each other and start working again. Now as much as i miss Elder Madsen, God knew that it was the best thing to separate us to start getting back on track. And President Wall knew that through him. Elder Madsen and I both realized we needed to change back to doing our Job. We were just both too chill with each other and we just needed this transfer. Now I have Elder Chase, and what i Love about new coming missionaries is that TRAINEE FIRE that they have in them. The push and drive to go out and work. And something that I still have but i just put it behind me. With his example, it makes me want to bring that side out. And Immediately already we have found a TON of success!!! Within the 4 days that we have been together, we have handed out 2 copies of the Book of Mormon found 3 new people. Had a stranger invite us to lunch EVEN THOUGH he did NOT agree with our believes. And we have thought and seen 8 families which we ended with 11 lessons for the week. Which just about triple the amount we have seen in the past 3 weeks! We have had a ton of success already and MANY great moments getting to know each other and seeing that we get along GREAT! With still having the HUGE desire to serve and do our best! We even went out knocking doors out on the HAIL on the coldest day ever here in Louisiana! I couldn't feel my body but we continued! We had one door which REALLY HURT. Before we could tell this man what we were about, he yelled at us and said, "Y'ALL ARE CRAZY! GO HOME!!! (SLAMMED DOOR!!!!!) We felt and earthquake go on inside us. And Since that was Elder Chase's first SLAM he looked at me and said.... Elder... You can get the next one.. He was sad and hurt as was I but I was a bit used to it. And we continued. We were able to find 2 families who were willing to listen and we will be going back to meet them next week! It was and exciting experience out on the Freezing Hail! Fun stuff.
We are both excited to be doing this work! And Glad we could serve with each other. I have found out that i can almost like turn a switch on and off about doing missionary work... And i have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA why I EVER chose to turn it slightly off.... The Work is SO GREAT and so Filling! So many great moments and so much happiness comes from this that i permanently keeping it on From NOW ON! It the end i think i needed to turn it down so i could have this experience and to REALLY understand the GREATNESS that this Work has. I LOVE Missionary work! I am hoping i can stay with Elder Chase for a good small period of time. Because i know that he REALLY wants to get to Brazil so I am looking forward to learning as much as possible from him and hoping he get a thing or two about missionary work from me.
Looking forward to a great transfer with my companion and my District. We can all already tell that we are going to be a very strong District because we all get along so well.
Thank you all for your support and prayers. And for Everything you do for the Lord's Church and for his work of salvation. Remember we are ALL missionaries! And i hope that you ALL choose to NOT turn that missionary switch off. Keep it on and find those which the Lord wants you to find find and help. Always try to talk to people about the Gospel and you will see the much Happiness that it brings!
