This was a good week. we had the week off from meetings so we were able to do some work in our area and were able to go on exchanges with some of the Zone Leaders. I love going on those because I learned so much from each missionary, this time was no different...

This week we were able to go on an exchange with the Alexandria Zone leaders. I went up there with Elder Bawden. Remember how we have wanted to serve together for the longest time? Well, after this exchange the desired just increased a whole lot more! I love that kid, we just get a long so well, I look up to him a lot and we both want to work hard these last few months, But on the exchange we were able to see a lot of cool miracles and tender mercies. One of the days we set aside one hour of what Elder Bawden calls "consecrated finding time." So, in the morning we prayed and asked in faith on what we should do and where we should go to find those that need the gospel. The Spirit was there, and after we prayer the Spirit spoke to our minds. The word "Franklin" came to mind then for some reason the letter "B" did also. So we went through the ward roster to see if there was Franklin. No luck. So then we checked street names. And lo and behold a short street in the middle of the city named Franklin.  We went on with our day and got so busy that we had worked through that allotted time for finding. And we were on our way to the Bible Class when we just got this feeling that "the spirit spoke to our minds and trusted us to go to Franklin St." We didn't want to lose that trust with the Spirit, so we went to Franklin Street praying that something good will happen. Well, we got there and it is one of those streets that only has businesses on it and no houses or apartments, which I had a feeling would happen. But then we both felt like we should just get out and walk. At this point we were both just pumped up on faith and wanted to contact everyone and anyone that we saw. As soon as we got out of the car we both just felt this peaceful feeling like... "I'm proud of you, you did what the spirit prompted you to do." At that moment I knew whether we found someone or not, the Lord was pleased with us. Sadly, no one was around, but we started to walk down the street and on the very corner there was a little apartment building with a few apartments. So we went and tried them and just wrote a short testimony in a Book of Mormon and left it there. The crazy thing is, remember how when the Spirit told us to go to "Franklin" it also told us the letter "b" well the corner that the apartment was on was Franklin and some crazy name that started with a "B" It was a sweet feeling to see that. Well nothing happened while we were there, and maybe nothing will happen, but I felt comfortable with what we did and I'm grateful for that experience!

We also got to go to the temple with a member, that was really sweet. She has something wrong with her where if any scent just closes up her air ways and she can't breath. So we had to wash our clothes that day with unscented soap and we couldn't wear deodorant. It was intense. It was a great session and I love the temple so much. But in the celestial room the members airways started to close up, I guess one of the temple workers had some scented stuff on them. It was really sad to see her be like that. It just motivated me to see if she can sacrifice not breathing in order to go to the temple, then I should have no excuse not to go when I get home. She is inspiring to say the least. 

Growing Pains

This week was a good week. A lot of funny stories, but also a few growing pains (not literal growing pains, I wish because then that would mean that I am getting taller, but sadly I'm still short) Growing pains as in I learned a couple hard lessons this week. 

I'll start with some funny stories... So this week we had our MLC, mission leader counsel. Well after Elder Parker and I instructed we went to help Sister Wall prepare lunch for the rest of the missionaries. For lunch we were having gourmet hot dogs! Sister Wall was going to just boil the hot dogs, but being the master griller that I am, I couldn't let her. So she let me grill them on the grill there in the mission home. So as we were prepping the area, I was just boasting and bragging to Elder Parker about how much of a boss I was at grilling stuff back home. There was my first mistake.  So I turned on the propane and let the gas run for a second, then I started to look for the easy start button on the grill so I could get it warmed up. But I couldn't find it. So I just figured that there wasn't one, stupid me I took the lighter and stuck it down in the grill and lit it. All of a sudden this giant ball of fire the size of the grill came rushing towards my face! It  was intense!  Luckily, the good Lord is watching out for me, I only burned off the hairs on my right hand. haha Moral of the story is if you brag, you will get hit by a ball of fire. So just be humble :) 

OK so now for the growing pains... This week I was pretty grumpy, I just didn't feel happy and I didn't know what was up. I was frustrated with a lot of stuff, mainly with just not being the type of person I want to be at this point of my mission. I have this vision of who I want to be before I go home and I just didn' feel like I was there yet. I was doing everything I could to be the best person and missionary I could, but it just felt like the whole world was against me. But I had such a sweet experience with prayer. One night after a rough night of basketball with a bunch of black dudes, I just knelt in prayer for a good 20 minutes. Just pouring everything I had out. I had the faith that Heavenly father would help me out, but I didn't know how long it would last and how long I could take it without snapping. Well, I woke up the next morning feeling so much better. It seemed like all the stuff that had been bothering me just didn't seem that bad in the whole big scheme of things. I don't think Heavenly Father just took everything away from me that night, I think he just gave me comfort and peace knowing that things will be ok. I went through this before, but hopefully I learned what I needed to this time so It won't happen again for awhile. These growing pains are never fun. But they are things that need to happen so we can grow stronger. 

What a week! We were busy and I can't remember the last time I had a full 8 hours of sleep. A lot of late nights and a lot of early mornings. Did I mention early mornings? Y'all know I am not a morning person, so it's been quite the challenge. We spent most of Monday and Tuesday with President doing transfers. It's so funny because we will be working with him one minute, then the next Sister Wall is trying to lovingly shove snacks down our throat, and then we come back and President Wall changes half the mission! It was funny how many times that happened. We had 122 missionaries at transfers, and we have about 190 missionaries in our entire mission. So there was a lot of changes to say the least.  But it's so cool to know that every single missionary is in the area and with the companion that the Lord wants them to be with. I always had to learn that the hard way, but being able to be behind the scenes has confirmed it for me. 

We also got 20 new missionaries in our mission! It was so sweet to be able to pick them up from the airport and see the shock and lack of sleep in their eyes. I remember those good ole days! But on a serious note, all of the new missionaries are coming in ready and full of fire and faith. We have a testimony meeting with all the newbes and President and Sister Wall the night that they come in. It was one of the most spiritual experiences. They are so young and have the most basic of testimonies, but the Spirit was there and really taught me a lot. I'm grateful for that experience.

On the other side, we also had 16 missionaries go home. Now normally I wouldn't care as much, but I had a lot of really close friends in this group. A lot of which I hope to stay friends with for a long time. They were all such great examples to me of how to be a missionary and to share the gospel. its weird to think that that will be me in 4 months. Scary but exciting.

Oh! I passed the van test, its basically just this video that yo have to watch in order to drive the big mission transfer van. I'll be driving that bad boy in no time!

I'd like to just end with my testimony... Yesterday our only investigator, Micheal, bore his testimony in our Gospel Principles class. What he said really hit me hard and helped me a lot. He bore his personal testimony of the priesthood. He mentioned about how last week his fiance asked us for a blessing to help her with the Word of Wisdom. He said that as we were giving her the blessing he could literally feel the Spirit flowing from Heavenly Father, through me, and into his fiance. He said even though he wasn't getting the blessing that the Spirit confirmed to him that the priesthood is real and that blessings come from our Father in Heaven. That helped me a lot because I didn't get that same feeling. I mean I felt the spirit, but not as powerfully and in the same way that he did. That was a testimony builder to me, knowing that the Spirit speaks to different people in different ways. And that when Heavenly Father wants us to learn something, we learn it, and it is by the Spirit that he does so. 

Life as an Assistant

We had our MLC (mission leader conference) this week. It was a good council, we were able to talk about visions and the importance of having our own personal vision of what we want to become. It was a spiritually filling meeting. I love seeing all the ZL's and STL's they inspire me to be a better missionary! 

Thursday we were able to go see Gwen. She made us red beans and rice, a classic southern meal. She is doing so great, she opened up her scriptures and was telling me all these things she has been learning. They weren't just the normal thing you get out of the scriptures, she was pondering and applying them to herself. It was a tender moment for sure. She is a straight boss. 

We also had stake conference this week.  I love the stake presidency here. They are awesome, they are everything I look for in a leader. They are funny, but serious when they need to be. They spoke with the Spirit.

Well this week is going to be crazy, we leave tonight and won't be home until Saturday. Its a busy week for sure! 

Baptism

This was a fun and exciting week. We were busy all week going on exchanges with Zone Leaders. That really helped me a lot, because it's been hard not doing as much "real" missionary work. So that was really good to be able to take a break from the Assistant stuff and go work my butt off. I was with an Elder that I've gotten to be good friends with out here, so that was nice to be able to just go hard with him. We saw a lot of miracles and fruit from our hard work. I loved it.

Transfers is this week. So normally we would have our P'day on Tuesday this week, but since we are the Assistants, we won't really get one. We just get part of today to get some stuff done. The reason behind that is tomorrow is when all the new missionaries come in, so we have to go pick them up from the airport and take them back to the mission home, then keep a close eye on them to make sure they are doing ok. I'm excited to see how they look coming off the plane, I know that I was a sight for sore eyes. I was super sick on top of arriving in the mission field. But it should be fun, I look forward to the lack of sleep. We have spent hours on hours with President this week going over transfers and talking about which missionary needs to go where. That has been cool to see where the inspiration comes from. 

Wasn't that broadcast last night the best thing that has ever happened?? I loved it, man it just pumped me up to go out and work hard. I desperately needed that! I felt like they were calling all of us to repent, well in the nicest way possible. We just need to step up and get this work moving, we are in the last days, let's get going, there are a lot of souls to save out there! I love how it was titled, The Work of Salvation because that's exactly what needs to happen. Help everyone work for their own salvation. But, how can they work on it if they don't know where to find it? 

We had quite an eventful week this week! We were in New Orleans most of the week while President interviewed each missionary. It was a blast to be able to be in New Orleans and see all the unique culture. When we come back, we will have to spend a couple of days in just New Orleans. It probably would take a full week to be able to see everything.

While we were in New Orleans we took a break for lunch, and Elder Parker and I both left our backpacks at the building while we went with President and Sister Wall to go eat. We can trust our backpacks in the house of the Lord right? Well when we came back Elder Parker noticed his really nice camera was missing. I checked to make sure my wallet and camera were still there, and they were. So I wasn't too worried about it. But Elder Parker just figured he left it back in Baton rouge. Well later that night I went to pay for my food at dinner and I noticed that all my cash was gone.  60$ gone like that. I was sooo bummed. So I called Elder Parker and he had just gotten a call from a guy who had "found" his camera in a Circle K bathroom. We think he went through the pictures and saw that it was a missionary camera and so he gave it back. The guy was a less active member. Funny thing is that he was at the church earlier that day looking for a bishop to give him a welfare check. So we are pretty sure he stole the camera and my cash. But I guess he needed the money more than I did!