The Wild Orchid

Hi everyone, 

Hope everyone had a good week full of interesting things. We certainly did here.

Monday was spent in Bossier City and Shreveport, doing a lot of shopping. We went to the Goodwill Bins in the morning which was fun (you get to buy from unsorted bins and they sell it by the pound), and then we also did some shopping at a couple malls! And we even ran into some members who gave us free Coldstone. We also ate some VERY good fried chicken at a place called Southern Classic. Probably some of the best fried chicken Ive had! I exchanged with Elder Gentry in the evening, and we found someone for them to teach who speaks spanish! I also gave away another Book of Mormon :)

On Tuesday we went to District Council, and afterwards ate at Cottons in Minden which was also pretty good. Their catfish was quite good! We drove up to Springhill after that, and taught Tawanna. I also did a Patriarchal Blessing interview with her and shes excited to get hers! Then we drove back to Magnolia and the new (soon-to-be) couple who are moving in and her (Sarah's) mom took us to dinner! It was super fun to meet them, and I'm really excited to work with them. It's really refreshing to have two 19-year-olds in college to work with again. Lohan is super cool he's a recent convert and wants to come out with us! Also he's been around her enough that he seems like he's already been a lifelong member. During our dinner right after Elder Davis said this place was getting old and he wants to see more of the mission, we got our transfer news! In the middle of dinner haha

And Elder Davis is staying :))! I'm really glad he's staying, definitely one of my favorite companions, and he's actually glad hes staying too once he got to thinking about how much fun we are having. 

Tuesday all night into Wednesday morning it stormed and stormed. We woke up throughout the night to constant thunder and lightning sounding as if it was IN our apartment it was so loud. It it didn't stop for hours and hours. It was great! Wish it had been during the day so we could have watched it. 

In the morning on Wednesday we helped some more at the Thrift store, and its finally starting to be more and more organized. The only problem is some busybody keeps intentionally adding one box of cords to another! "Oh I'll jut consolidate this," They must be thinking, disregarding the fact that it makes no sense whatsoever! For example why would we group all of the ethernet cables with the USB-B cables haha

We went up to Waldo in the afternoon and taught a guy named Shaun about church and the Book of Mormon. The only notable thing about Shaun is the fact that he is constantly driving around town thumping tunes out of a ancient, long, red, Lincoln Sedan with tinted windows and weird rims that look like they aren't moving as he drives. Everybody else in Magnolia drives dumpy lifted Chevy Tahoes. Or GMC Yukons. One of those or an even poorer man's version of either of those is ALL anyone drives haha

In the evening we taught Enoch, and he told us all about how his extended family had gotten into black magic and been trying to mess with him and his family. He didn't really go into detail though. We taught him about the love and healing that Christ can bring and also answered a lot of his questions about the church and Jospeh Smith. We also taught Charlien while she was lying on a mattress that she had dragged out to her carport for some strange reason haha--Disturbed David wasn't there cause he was at the church accross the street asking for money. :) The pastor even came out and asked if we were helping David and his family and we said no, and the pastor then shook his head in a disappointed way and told us what they REALLY need is financial blessings. We ignored him though and kept reading in the Book of Mormon with Charlien. 

Throughout the week Disturbed David had his Grandma call us and ask us to help with their electrical bills/rent not once but two other times! The second time we were very firm in saying no, some people just don't get it unless you lay it out plainly. :)) Also I resent the fact that he had his Grandma call cause he thought we would have more sympathy. Very manipulative tsk tsk

Also Doneshia was finally kicked out for good, and the Lowthers took her to a homeless shelter in El Dorado. From which she got kicked out of a few days later and driven back by police to Magnolia. Now shes MIA so we dont even know WHERE she is. Such is the Magnolia life ;)

Thursday we walked the dogs and this time we think the ones we walked had some trauma left over. They were scared to death of even far-off cars, and anytime we approached them too close they would jump away in terror only to be halted in their tracks by their leashes haha

Thursday was also Park-Your-Car day so we also biked around a lot, and taught Enoch again. We got to do some service at the Stew Pot preparing meals for the homeless as well which was fun! 

In the evening we taught Candice at the swing by the SAU pond, and she had so many good questions for us! We talked in depth about the origins of our church and she agreed wholeheartedly in modern prophets! Her mind was fully in-place and wasnt ruined by drugs too which was a perk. Also had a lesson with Tyre and his crazy dog Cocoa. 

On Friday we got to eat dinner with the Marchans. We had pizza with lots of ground beef on it which wasn't bad. Nothing else super notable happened on Friday though as usual we met lots of characters. 

Saturday we walked the dogs again and this time we walked a wide variety of them. Elder Davis started with a puppy that could only boing and drift, it couldn't just walk normally. It kept running and drifting into my legs as it hit the end of its leash. Then he got to walk a GIANT dog that looked like it could kill and eat anything or any person it wanted too. And it's eyes were bloodshot too. It basically dragged Elder Davis along the whole time. Good thing it didn't realize its true potential! 

We helped Sarah and Logan move in Saturday afternoon, and I got to meet Brother Rasmussen who I helped move into the Texarkana ward over a year ago again cause apparently Sarah is his sister! 

Brother and Sistet Mass finally returned and took us to Antiguas for some pretty good Mexican food in the evening, and then we walked around Magnolia. We taught David and Charlien again, and it went a bit better this time. They told us more of the story than they did before. Apparently Doneshia was taking advantage of them, and then since they were just letting her stay to be nice the landlord actually didn't want her there anymore and kicked her out. So now we arent sure who to trust. 

On plus side they came to church on Sunday! And so did Tyre. We had some people from the Blanchard ward come and speak to us which was cool, and some other visitors too so we actually had 45 in attendance! After church I extended some Callings and did some recommend interviews. Then we met with the Stake "Building Faith Specialist" or some such name and talked about how the stake can help our branch grow. 

Also as we were meeting it started raining extremely hard in giant sheets, so after our meetings I finished working out some things while we watched the storm from our car. 

We spent the evening teaching Lee and then went all over the place visiting less-active members.

-Abe