Gargantuan Bunny

Hi people, 

We had a fun but hot week here! Sometimes getting as high as 98⁰ and 110⁰ if you factor in humidity haha

On Monday in the morning we drove down to Bossier City for pday and then exchanges, and hung out with the Brownlee Elders all day! It was a blast we even got to go to my favorite store ever--Bass Pro Shops!!! Just joking, it's an okay store, nothing special haha--not sure what all the rave is about. But we did see an alligator which was fun! We had Popeyes for lunch, and my chicken sandwich was pretty good, much better than I was expecting. After our pday in the evening I went on exchanges with Elder Gentry! Hes super funny, and laughs at literally everything (and his laugh is contagious) so it's a blast hanging out with him because he enjoys life. We met a lady named Sarah and I gave away another Book of Mormon which I've had a bad habit of doing lately haha--our mission is out of them, so I'm having to cut into my secret stash. >:) We met up with the other Elders again at the end of the evening and had a great night at their place.

Tuesday we went to district council in Minden, and then went and ate at a unmarked blue building that some people claim is called simply "Minden Seafood." It was actually pretty good though, I got the popcorn shrimp with cocktail sauce and fries which is often my choice at a place where I'm unsure about the fish. It was pricey but pretty good! After lunch we drove up to Springhill, and went out with Sammy in the afternoon! At his house he has food storage from floor to ceiling filling every room with little walkways through it all haha--its kinda crazy. We went with him to visit Tawanna, who's a recent convert that recently moved into our branch! She's really nice, but is bed-ridden. Her Grandma who has dementia also stays with her and was very delusional. But we had a really good visit, and afterwards we went and taught a lady named Carolina. She didnt seem completely there haha--she talked most of the time. To give you an idea what her life is like, she has this racoon that she likes to feed hotdogs in her backyard. 

After going out with Sammy we drove back to Magnolia, and then talked to an inactive member about gaming! He showed us some of his games, and magic cards, and I knew a lot about it all so hopefully was able to help him see that we can enjoy life and have fun AND have the Gospel. We also found a lady named Doneshia who has one leg, her step-daughter who lives a few houses down but comes over so much that she basically has 2 homes, and this guy named David (called "The David" in our area book) who isn't all there but will randomly blurt out super intelligent things when you least expect them. It's quite a group! But they are really interested in the Book of Mormon, and we had a really good lesson with them. They want us to come back every day, so we are doing our best to at least come by every 2 days. 

Wednesday we did service at the Thrift store, and tested some old electronic typewriter thingies. In the evening we drove up to Waldo, and we taught Xavier about the Restoration! We called Brother Bahr in, and he was able to share his testimony and experience with receiving revelation, which set Xavier off on a vision he just saw the other day of his future wife (he hopes) haha

He also got out his pistol and showed it to us, not a very nice gun but at least he likes us and just wanted to show it to us! 

On Thursday we walked the dogs as usual, and did weekly planning as well! They came out with a new PMG which makes weekly planning so much better, and Area Book has a feature where you can do it all in there now! Also there are 4 lessons instead of 5 now. 

We biked in the evening and taught Becky, and read in 2 Nephi 31 with her. Every week she promises to come to church, and she never does tsk tsk. After Becky we taught The David, Doneshia, and Sharlene again, this time the Plan of Salvation! We had Sister Hunter join us virtually for the lesson which was really good. The David offered to say the closing prayer, and then came and put his hands on our backs and asked some questions throughout while he prayed haha

Friday we did service at the Thrift store and I took it upon me to start sorting their awful jumble of thousands and thousands of cords. I started making a bin for every kind of cord imaginable. I only got about a 10th of the way through in 2 hours, but I made good progress. I have never seen so many micro USB cords in my whole life. I probably processed more than most peoples families go through in 3 generations! It was fun though. 

In the afternoon we drove down to Springhill, and went out with Johnny in his brand new Dodge Charger, which he is very proud of and is really excited about it. I like how much he likes it, he genuinely thinks it's really cool, and likes to tell us about it, which I admire. Most people we visited did not answer, except for a pretty much deaf inactive member. We had a good visit with him that consisted of us saying things and him saying "huh?" Or "what was that?" We gave him a blessing though! For dinner Johnny took us to Sams Southern Eatery which is one of the best restaurants! I had it in Texarkana many moons ago and it was just as good as I remembered. The fries are some of the best ever made, and so is the burger! 

After dinner we drove back and on the way visited some people out in the middle of nowhere. One house we visited the first step up to the door snapped in half when we stepped on it haha--so many abandoned houses out here!

On Saturday we had a lesson with a guy from Africa who we could hardly understand, and then we went and talked with Ronny. Runny is not a member of the church, but he was married to one at one point. He goes to Temple Square every few weeks, and to Nauvoo every few months. He knows more about the church then some members. He loves the Tabernacle Choir, he loves the church in general. Sometimes people haven't been very nice to him at church in the past, and yet he seems to just laugh it off and still likes the church anyway. He met Spencer W. Kimball, and all of the apostles at that time, and then ate a private dinner with one of them after sitting with them at a meeting. He visits the gravesites for many of the apostles that really made an impact on him often. He has a Mormon Trail Cookbook that he just likes to read, and showed us all his pictures from Nauvoo of all of the Church sites he loves haha

But for some reason he isn't a member and doesnt seem to have a desire to be one. It'd pretty baffling and on our visit we couldn't really figure out why...

After Ronny, we walked some puppies for the shelter. They didn't really know how to walk much less with a collar on so most of the time they kinda just stumbled around haha--I spent the afternoon finalizing some stuff for Sunday and making some agendas for our meetings, and then we went and stopped by every person who said they could come to church that we could think of! We went up to Waldo and down to Emerson, and all over Magnolia as well. It used an astounding amount of miles, but due to us being too careful we have an excess of them! And it was lucky we drove too because it sooo hot. 

Sunday church was good! If I do say so myself since I gave the talk haha--it went well and we had Tyre, Sharlene, David, and Doneshia show up! After church I set apart Sister Hunter as the new RSP and I think she's going to do great! Nothing else too noteable to report on, but we biked around in the evening and talked to a lot of impaired people as usual.

-Abe

Fog

Good evening,

Hope everyone has had a good week! Our week was crazy, but lots of fun! 

Monday we had a funeral for Sister Pine who has been the RSP for 25 years. It was sad, but also I felt a little bad for not being too sad, cause I never met the lady haha--but it was still good. Had a lunch with the family and friends at the church afterwards, and got to talk to lots of cool members from other parts of the mission! It meant our pday basically had 3 hours taken out from it, but if there's food then I'm always satisfied. Had some good burritos, pasta, salad, cakes, and chips and salsa. We spent the evening biking around Magnolia and talked with over 20 different people who were outside standing around h+!aha--also found a lady named Lois who's interested with the Gospel! Unfortunately for some, mid-lesson her little son came out and wapped her with a toy. She politely told us to excuse her, and then grabbed a big wracking stick and went inside after him to take care of some business. We decided our lesson was at an end and departed.

Tuesday was really stormy and rainy, which was super fun! In the morning we had extremely LOUD thunder come immediately after lightning. I'd be surprised if it didnt strike and annihilate some nearby houses haha--We did some service at the Thrift store, and got to test many interesting contraptions including a foot spa. In the afternoon we had a lesson with Myeisha about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and she told US she wants to be baptized! So we put her on date for July 1st! Since then there have been complications with her family, so who knows if it will happen that day, but still really cool. Because it was super stormy in the evening we decided to use the car, and spent the evening listening to piano pieces in between stops. We got to teach James the Restoration, and this time he wasn't stoned out of his mind so that was a big plus! We also talked to Lee, who calls us "his guys" and likes to talk with us about the peculiarities of life. We also got to go up to Waldo and taught and found a guy named Xavier! And this time he wasn't smoking weed :)

On Wednesday we had park-your-car day, so we biked all morning and afternoon. We started by walking the dogs at the sshelter. The more I walk dogs, the more I see their incompetence and inadequacies. Some cannot even manage to walk in a straight line, much less hold a dignified posture and demeanor. I am very disappointed with these animals that mankind claim are the greatest pets! Not only do they not have the mental capacity to handle the nuances of everyday living, but even the mundane is a chore to these so-called majestic creatures. If every dog I walked was to be merged into one mega-dog, I believe it would only get less sophisticated. In addition to the above complaints, some dogs try and chomp what us clearly not food, such as shoes and human flesh.

Okay that's enough of that, I just needed to get my frustrations with dogs out on paper. If you own a dog no offense to you is intended, only to your dog. 

In the morning when we planned we had felt inspired to go over to the college campus to talk to people. I am normally resistant to this kind of ineffective activity, but we decided it would be best to listen to the spirit. So we biked up to the campus in the afternoon, and the closer we got the more our doubts grew. Not only was it close to dinner time, and we would soon have to leave, but it had just rained, and it was far past the time when classes usually get our. But we biked up there anyway. We felt like we should go to the right side of the campus near the lake, and on the way we saw a girl sitting by herself on a park bench by the lake. We went up to her and talked to her. We shared a scripture about prayer, and she started crying and said that was just what she had needed. She'd been having a super hard day, and then she said she knew God had sent us to comfort her! We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon, and she was excited to start reading it. Also got her info so we can talk more. 

In the evening we taught a lady named Neena, and she said she wants to come to church. After that we went out with Royce and had a couple more lessons including one with Lee! Royce and Lee connected really well, and have had similar job problems so Royce shared how God had helped him. It was a super good lesson and Lee confirmed he'd be at church Sunday. After going out with Royce we drove down to Bossier City in preparation for Zone Conference. 

Thursday we woke up early and drove to Longview for Zone Conference, and it was really good! Super sad though too, it will be the Seitz' last one. After the main meeting I went and talked with the mission Presidency counselors and their wives for a while which was really fun! They were all so excited for me, so they gave tons of advice and ideas which were super helpful. Especially President Fisher, he has taught me a lot in my time hanging out with me. And President Nielsen claimed I was an imposter because of the difference in spelling, but HE is the imposter not me. Got to talk with Elder Rainey again too which was fun! 

That evening we drove back to Bossier City, and went on exchanges and double worked the Brownlee area! We had a member dinner at a nice house which was a refreshing change, it felt way more peaceful than literally every house in Magnolia. Then Elder Freeman and I walked around a neighborhood and street contacted. We talked to lots of people too! Wasnt a very effective use of time, but it was a good time to talk. Elder Freeman is a really nice guy, and has a good determination to work. We met a guy who used to be in the KKK but has since realized the errors of his ways and become a Christian! That evening we slept at their place, and they have a keyboard so I got to play the "piano" a bit. If you can call it that.

On Friday we woke up to the power being out, and apparently their power just got restored on Sunday! Luckily ours was fine, a giant storm came through but must have missed Magnolia. We drove back, and then went to a baptism for an 8-year-old in our branch! I got to conduct, and it went pretty well! The baptism went smoothly, and afterwards I met with President Stratton and Brother Lowther to talk about how to do some things such as how to use LCR. I also went through my office and got rid of stack after stack of useless papers that somebody just couldn't BEAR to throw out. Ah yes we might use the letter from someone who removed their records from the church in 2014 sometime! We went out with Brother Marchan that evening in Waldo, and visited lots of people! We had a lesson with Xavier, and Brother Marchan gave some really good advice based on his experience praying about and reading the Book of Mormon! We also found a couple new people to teach in Magnolia.

Saturday we walked the dogs again, and did some biking, and calls to invite people to church! They give us free drinks at Burger King which is always nice! Had another good lesson with Lee as well, and created some agendas. 

On Sunday we went to the church early to set up, and looked out the window and saw a giant storm moving in! It was super dark, and hit us right as I was going in to my meeting. Due to the storm a few people missed church but we still had a decent turnout. I got to conduct which was fun, and then after church on the way to Sunday School Tyre was helping push a TV into the room for class! Apparently he waited out the storm, and then biked over to church late for Sunday School! After church I had a temple recommend interview, a Patriarchal blessing interview, and called a new relief society president! We also announced that the time of church will be changing to 11 so that people have more time to arrive for church, and everyone loves it except for one couple haha--she's been here 50 years and it's probably been 9 am all that time so of course she's resistant to change. Threatening to go to the Texarkana ward and so forth haha--don't know what her deal is, all they do is sit at home and do nothing every day, what does she care?

-Abe