First full week in the office! We are always on the go, never a time to stop and smell the roses. But it's good, I like being busy. This week we did specialized training. Which are basically another zone conference just in smaller settings and we do a lot of following up on previous training and then instruct on other things that we feel could be useful to all the missionaries. So that has been really fun, it's awesome to be around President and Sister Wall all the time. They are so sweet, and super funny. 

We will continue to do specialized training for the rest of the month. Then in June we will go around the entire mission with President while he does interviews. I had the lovely responsibility of planning out all the interviews, like who will be interviewed on what day and what building they will be interviewed at. Now that might not sound like a lot of work, but doing that for 180 missionaries in the middle of transfers is no simple thing. But, it's all good, it keeps things interesting. 

We get up at 5am because my comp wants to work out, and we usually don't get to bed until about 10:30 or 11, so most days are super long and tiring, but I think my body is getting use to it. We don't really ever have time to teach. We are always planning different trainings or preparing different things or running errands. Our only days are really Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we mainly do service, so Saturday night and Sunday night are really the only chances we have to do "real" missionary work. We do have a progressing investigator that is getting baptized soon. He is on parol for whatever reason but he is just so solid. We told him that we would have to push his baptism back because we need to get it cleared for him to be baptized and he said "Oh, that's alright, that doesn't change the fact that I know that this is true, I can wait" So, that was nice to hear. I'm excited to be a part of his process. 

This week in specialized training Elder Parker and I instructed on  learning the language of the spirit, which is something that we learned from Elder Allen Packer when he came to visit our mission. We took Preach My Gospel ch. 7 which is the chapter that helps missionaries learn a new language, and we applied it to learning the language of the spirit. It went really well, and I learned a lot just of studying it and teaching it several times this week. My favorite part is when we talk about the best way to learn a language is to embrace the culture. So for example, Madeleine went to Chile on her mission and had to learn spanish, so I'm sure the best way for her to learn that is to embrace the culture and speak spanish as often and as much as she could while also doing things that the people of Chile did. That's the same way we learn the language of the spirit. We have to put our selves in places where we can feel and "speak"  the language of the spirit. Much like Madeleine had to gain the trust of the people of Chile, we need to gain the trust of the Spirit, the Spirit needs to feel comfortable with us, or else we won't be able to feel it's presence or be in it's culture. I don't know if that makes sense, but it helped me out a lot. 

Assistant to the President

There has been a lot of changes over the past week! I left Albany, which was super hard. But then President asked me to be his new Assistant. What's funny is that normally he calls the new assistant a day or two before transfers to let them know, but not for me. I didn't find out until he called my name at transfers in front of everyone! So I was just as surprised as everyone else.  It has been a crazy week. It's such a big difference, instead of teaching investigators or members, we train and teach missionaries and take care of all the stuff in the mission for President Wall. We are always on the road. I'm enjoying it so far, just trying to get use to the culture of being an Assistant. I love being around President and Sister Wall though, they are awesome! 

My new comp is Elder Parker. He is from Alpine, Utah. He is like 6'5 and skinny and I'm 5'9 and chubby, so we make a funny companionship! We get along great, we both like sports and have a lot in common. We joke around a lot, which I'm glad because it makes things easier. 

We are in the heart of Baton Rouge, and the ward is awesome. They are nice and love us missionaries. Oh, and I had Chipotle for the first time in over a year and a half! It was heavenly! They have one on LSU campus so we made a stop while dropping a missionary off at the airport. 

Well life is quite crazy right now, but something that I enjoyed this week was being able to stop everything and study. I read Elder Packer's talk from last conference called "These Things I Know."  I loved the talk but two things that stuck out to me while I read it this time were when he says "There are few things more powerful than the faithful prayer of a righteous mother." the reason why I liked it so much was because I too know that that is true. If it wasn't for the hours of heartfelt and sincere prayers of my momma for me, then I would not be here today. Who knows where I would be. No matter how dumb I have been or what I was doing, the Lord would mold and influence others to help me, because of my loving mother's prayers. I know that to be true. So thank you momma, I love you! Something else that stuck out to me is when he is talking about tolerance. He says... "Tolerance is a virtue, but like all virtues, when exaggerated  it transforms itself into a vice." I love that because sometimes we take gospel principles and turn them in to vices or excuses. We allow ourselves to use things as a crutch, and those crutches are what keep us from becoming what we are meant to be and from reaching our full potential! That's a weakness that I am continuing to work on.

It was awesome getting to talk to yall on Mothers day! Gosh I miss yall. But it was just the boost that I needed to finish strong.

So I'm getting transferred! :( I'm kinda bummed about it. I'm not quite sure where I will be going, I hope New Orleans. But I find out tomorrow and will let yall know in next week's email.

Not much to email about since I talked to y'all Sunday, but I'll just share something with y'all that I read this morning...

I was reading in Alma 26 about Ammon reflecting on his time serving as a missionary amongst the Lamanites. I love how he was so humble about himself but was so trusting in the Lord. He gave him all the credit and wasn't afraid to speak his mind about it either, even Aaron chimed in and told him he sounded prideful, but then Ammon just goes off on how he isn't proud of himself, but he is proud of Heavenly Father and all the blessings and miracles that he allowed him to be a part of. He said, "How great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?" I feel the same way about coming to Louisiana, I left not knowing how much Heavenly Father really would bless me in the work here in the South. I relate a lot with his experiences because he later goes on to say how people told him that he wouldn't have any success preaching to the Lamanites... 

"Now do ye remember, my brethren, that we said unto our brethren in the land of Zarahemla, we go up to the land of Nephi, to preach unto our brethren, the Lamanites, and they ^alaughed us to scorn? 24 For they said unto us: Do ye suppose that ye can bring the Lamanites to the knowledge of the truth? Do ye suppose that ye can convince the Lamanites of the ^aincorrectness of the ^btraditions of their fathers, as ^cstiffnecked a people as they are; whose hearts delight in the ^dshedding of blood; whose days have been spent in the grossest iniquity; whose ways have been the ways of a transgressor from the beginning? Now my brethren, ye remember that this was their language." I felt the same way. People would tell me " Oh that's the South, you won't have any success, you won't baptize a single soul." or "That's the Bible belt, they won't listen" And I always wanted to respond the way Ammon did...

"But behold, my beloved brethren, we came into the wilderness not with the intent to destroy our brethren, but with the intent that perhaps we might save some few of their souls 27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to ^aturn back, behold, the Lord ^bcomforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with ^cpatience thine ^dafflictions, and I will give unto you success.28 And now behold, we have come, and been forth amongst them; and we have been patient in our sufferings, and we have suffered every privation; yea, we have traveled from house to house, relying upon the mercies of the world—not upon the mercies of the world alone but upon the mercies of God.29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills... and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks...30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our ^ajoy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.31 Now behold, we can look forth and see the ^afruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are ^bmany; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us."

I can now say, that I have felt as Ammon. I wanted to come to Louisiana to at least try, try to bring at least one person closer to Christ than before I came. And even if I didn't, then at least I would know that I did what the Lord asked of me. But just like Ammon, I have seen the blessings of the Lord. I have seen the fruits of my Labor and they are many. They might not all be baptisms, they could just be planting a seed or bringing back someone that was lost. But I have seen the fruit in the friendships I have made, that will never be broken. I know that ive been say "I" a lot, but just like Ammon... "I do not ^aboast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my ^bjoy is full, yea, my heart is brim with ^cjoy, and I will rejoice in my God."

That really helped me realize a lot of things. And I'm grateful I was able to have this experience today! :)

Well I hope yall have a great week! Love and miss yall so much!

I want to thank everyone for their emails that they sent me this week. To be completely honest they are exactly what I needed right now. So thank you :)

Things are going good here, this week was a bit rough. Well, I say rough, but it just wasn't as good as weeks past. Since this area has been on fire recently I just expect every week to be amazing. But this week was just a little slow. 

On a positive note, I only have 6 months left, 6 months to serve the lord, 6 months to plant seeds, 6 months to become what and who I need to be for the rest of my life. I feel like I have so much I need to do before I can come home. This life is all about dealing with the trials that are thrown your way, the biggest trial I have right now is myself. I'm trying harder than ever to be humble and work my hardest. Keep me in your prayers :)

We had another busy week full of teaching, going to a wedding, sports, and sadly, a lot of babysitting some missionaries. Some missionaries just don't know act right! So that was a bit frustrating, but overall it was a great week. 
 
I have a talk yesterday in church.  It's the first time I have spoken in Albany. I slipped under the radar for too long I guess. I spoke on Agency--mostly about how we can use our agency to choose whether we want to be offended or not by what someone says or if someone judges us. Someone might make the most disrespectful comment towards us, but we still have the choice to how we will react. We can't control what other people say or do, but we can control what we do in response to their actions. I learned a lot from preparing that talk, because I think that I was the one that needed it the most. 
 
I've really grown to love Albany. The people here are just so awesome. I've made some really good lifelong friends here that I hope to always stay in contact with. We are working a lot with a lot of less active and even some excommunicated members. One is about to be re-baptized here hopefully pretty soon. So that will be a sweet experience, I look forward to that. 
 
Oh and some exciting news, remember way back in Morgan City when Elder Silva and I were teaching that girl named Gabby? Well the missionary serving there called me the other day and said she was baptized last week! I was soo shocked! Because she had dropped us 3 days before she was going to be baptized. But, I guess the sisters there started working with her. So that was the best part of my week, I just hope she can stay strong!
 

Congrats, Caroline on getting your mission call! I'm so excited for you. I'm sad that we won't get to see each other before I get home, but I know that the Lord will take care of you!

 

Friday night we went to the temple to do baptisms with the youth and Gwen got to go! It was crazy because she had to drop off two of her kids in Baton Rouge somewhere and then she got lost, so she ended up being a few minutes late to the session, but the temple workers were super nice and waited for her. But it was a sweet experience for her as well for us. The spirit was strong and you could tell that she felt a different kind of spirit than she had felt before. She loved it. It was funny to watch her get baptized 10 times cause she is 6 feet tall and that font isn't all that big.

 

Also this week we started teaching a less active member's daughters. I think I mentioned them last week. So we taught them this week and just did a simple intro to the Book of Mormon. We tried to use pictures and stuff to teach them because they are only 11 and 15. But it felt like torture, because of how boring it was. There was no participation on their part.  But what was cool is we invited them to read the first chapter of 1 Nephi and by the time we walked out the door Dianna, the 11 y.o, already started to read and was almost done with the chapter by the time we drove off. She seems to be one of those people that are sensative to the spirit, reminds me a lot of Gwen. 

 

On Saturday we went to the LSU spring game with an excommunicated member! He is an awesome guy, he just has made some mistakes. The game was super fun. We were driving through LSU campus when Johnathon, the guy that took us, pointed and said, "Hey there is Les Miles." ( head coach for LSU) in this nonchalaunt voice. I was like "Yeah, right, whatever." but then as we got closer I saw that it was Les Miles!!! I froze! I didn't know what to do, he walked literally 2 feet away from our car. Before I knew it, he jumped into his escalade and drove off. I was so mad that we didn't jump out of our car and get a picture with him! I don't know what we were thinking.

 

 

What a great week in Albany! Tons of spiritual experiences that increased my testimony of the Gospel! First of all Gwen was baptized Saturday! Saturday was probably one of the most spiritual days of my mission. Let me run you through the day... To start off we got up and played football with the Ward, not a bad way to start off any day! Then we have been asked to teach our investigators at least once in the bishop's home before they are baptized, so around noon we taught a lesson with Gwen over at bishop's home. It was a sweet lesson, we just talked about the things that we promise to do at baptism and then how God promises us an out pouring of the spirit. She was in tears.

Then off we went to go prepare for the baptism. We washed the mirror and the glass in the font, then we swept the font. We set up chairs and tables in the gym for refreshments afterwards. Everything was going great.  We then decided it was time to fill up the font. So, we turned on the hot water and let it run.  We let it fill up for about a foot and then we checked the running water and it was cold! A foot of hot water is not enough to keep the entire font warm! We ran out of hot water and we were scared and nervous because we didn't want the cold water to distract from the spirit of her baptism. So the thought came to my mind... "Say a prayer." So we went into the primary room and knelt in humble prayer. I was asked to offer it. I've never said a more heartfelt or faith-based prayer in my life. I don't remember much, but I do remember saying "Heavenly Father, we have the faith that you can make the water warm. We don't want the water to be an issue and take away from the spirit of the baptism." While I was saying it, an overwhelming peace came over me, I knew at that point that no matter what happened, it was Heavenly Father's will. So we stood up and and made our way to the font. Elder Ralls turned on the hot water and felt it. "It's actually getting warmer," he said. Elder Jensen said... "No way, let me feel" He went down there and just smiled and shook his head. I already knew in my mind and in my heart that Heavenly Father blessed us with this miracle, but I wanted to feel it. I walked down those steps and felt the water... it was WARM! And it stayed warm throughout the rest of filling it up and even up to the point of her baptism! We had witnessed a miracle. Immediately after feeling the water, I knew what I had to do. So we went back to the primary room and knelt down again and gave a prayer of thanksgiving and gratitude. Never in my life have I felt the spirit so strong, testifying to me that God takes care of his Children, and if we but simply ask in faith, he will give it to us. Because of that miracle, the baptism went great and the spirit was so strong. I am so grateful that Gwen was able to have such a spiritual experience at her baptism.

So that was the biggest miracle. Later that night we were at the Strawberry festival with a couple of members, where an inactive woman that I knew came up and we started talking. Then out of no where she said that she wants us to teach her two daughters that were never baptized! So we will start teaching them this week. The Lord is blessing us here. These blessings far out weigh any of the trials that we have recently gone through!  I'm kinda spiritually high right now. Its awesome :)

On a more worldly note... we went to a Gator farm last week! It was soo sweet. The people that own it were some of the original swamp people, from that TV show "Swamp people" I took tons of cool pictures, so I'll try to send some of those.