Elder Ward

Hello everyone,

This week was good but tiring. Monday we spent in Shreveport. Went to the bins and saw lots of weird and funny things. Including but not limited to: a Bible just for women, a double-barreled nerf gun of some sort, a thick book on how to pray, lots of scrubs, a crop vest, fake raybans, and a fancy painting of a random girl standing stiff and reading a book. We also shopped at Walmart, and had an especially fun time in the CDs and Vinyl section. :))

We had lunch at Canes, and it was fun getting to know our new district! They seem pretty cool, I'm excited to get to know them some more. Though I shall definitely miss Elder Gwyn and Elder Freman (ha). In the evening I went on an exchange with Elder Lloyd, as we double-worked Haughton (Hotton? Hutton? Houghten? Never bothered to look at how it's actually spelled). Elder Lloyd and I got dropped off in a middle-class neighborhood to walk around while the others went to a couple lessons. We walked around, talked to people, and knocked on some doors. Absolutely nothing came of it, as is always the case when you go out with no real plan and do some of the least effective things, but it was still fun because I got to know Elder Lloyd as we walked around. As it kept getting darker we somehow kept taking wrong turns and looping back to where we started haha--I think we walked the whole neighborhood, and some parts of it several times. Then we went and had a lesson with a less-active member, which went super well!

Tuesday we had District council, and the Millers surprised us by making a lunch and cake for my Birthday! They made some really good chicken, and salad, and bread. The cupcakes were store-bought so you already know how they were, but it was fun. In the afternoon we went to help Brother Mass on his property with some leveling, but then his equipment wasn't working so we ended up just helping him feed his mad quaking ducks instead. In the evening we had a good time walking around Magnolia, because it was beautiful outside! As we walked we ran into a guy named Torrey, who said when we asked to share a scripture: "Ill have to catch yall later!" We got to eat at the Flowers (an early Birthday dinner for me), and had one of the best dinners ever!! We had little salami and cheese Tortilla roll up bites, taquitos, Andes Mint cookies, nachos, fruit and Carmel dip, and some super good honey and ham/cheese sliders! It was a great feast.

After dinner we went to Burger King to finish up some contacts for the night, and Torrey walked in right after we got there! He said, "I'm ready for that scripture now." And seemed quite interested!

On Wednesday we had a good lesson with a lady named Martha in the early afternoon, and despite having one eye she seemed to really like the Book of Mormon. Taught her the Restoration, and talked about how to find strenth in Christ since she goes to Dialysis right now. We also walked around SAU and talked to a couple of nice girls, and a kid named Braxton. Then we went with Brother Bahr and had a lesson with Erik. He seemed to be down in the dumps today, but he quickly cheered up as we talked. We read President Nelson's "Think Celestial" talk with him, and Brother Bahr Extended a calling as the EQ Teacher which he accepted! Maybe this will help him become active again. 

Wednesday evening we had a really good lesson with Felechia. We read 3 Nephi 18 and she wants to come to church on Sunday! Unfortunately she is another that will need a ride. I think we need a church bus, last Sunday we had to split 2 big families between 4 different cars to even get them all to church haha

Or we need to start only teaching people with cars (we may actually need to start doing this because it's getting ridiculous). All day it was again absolutely beautiful, it's so fun to walk around when it's 60⁰F, slightly cloudy, and it smells like Fall. We found a guy named Stephon, and taught him on his porch about our church. Invited him to read the Book of Mormon. We also knocked on a guy's door who was quote "super busy" and was very obviously just sitting with his chips and soda watching TV haha--also had a really good lesson with Charlien.

Thursday was super busy, we walked the dogs in the morning and I didnt notice if they did anything bad because the ENTIRE time I was on the phone with Elder and Sister Miller. Got a lot done though, and we were able to make some decisions to help the Branch. We had a mission-wide Zoom meeting in the afternoon, which was very mediocre at best. It was good to hear testimonies from the new missionaries, but then President Taylor just read from his journal from his mission, and it all sounded very fake and like his mission was just going perfectly. Very artificial. The rest of the afternoon was spent writing up some of the issues and how to address them. We also helped out at the Stew Pot, which was quite fun! We've gotten pretty quick at our little food assembly line. 

In the evening we had 6 appointments, 3 of which fell through. We ran into a girl who was prancing and dancing around in the middle of the road though! Had a really good lesson with a guy named Gary, where he talked and talked but we didn't mind because it was absolutely beautiful sitting on his porch! So pleasant outside, and we had a good in depth talk about prayer and study. We also taught Sonya and her grandkids about the Commandments, and why they are so important. One of the kids told us very confidently that the commandments are what keep us from going to hell, which is good to hear! Overall the day was long and stressful, but at least not too bad. 

Friday was much better, we did service at the Thrift store and I started practicing some primary songs since I'm playing for the Primary Program. I got some birthday gifts as well, so thank you to everyone who sent something!! It was a great package to recieve, and definitely made up for the stressful birthday! I especially like the big block of cheese, I could have wished for nothing more. :)) 

We walked around in the afternoon and it was again extremely nice out side, in the 60s. Because of this tons of people were out and about, and we got 3 peoples phone numbers! We also had dinner with the Millers, and then had an amazing lesson with a less-active member named Juan! He's so humble and wants to get his life back on track, but feels guilty so he hasn't cone back to church. We talked in depth about Christ's Atonement though, and he wants to start coming back! After our lesson with Juan, we drove to our next appointment with Stephon. As we drove by his house it was dark but we could see him sitting on his porch. We parked our car around the corner, and when we walked over he was gone and a car was there. We knocked on the door and waited a fee minutes. From the back yard two white guys smoking weed came out and asked who we were looking for. We asked for Stephon, and they said they didn't know anyone named that. So we described him and they said they didn't know anyone like that. But someone has to be lying because I've talked to him at this house 3 times, and he always comes out when we knock! Then we decided to call his sister Laquisha because she lives there too, but when a lady picked up the phone she said her named is Shay! And she said she knows no Laquisha. Even though I talked to Laquisha a week ago on the phone. We finally gave up and left, and saw two shadowy forms get out of the car and run inside as we walked away...

On Saturday we walked the dogs, and I started walking a super crazy dog that zig-zagged all over the place. It kept rolling around and boing-ing all over the place. And then the next ones we walked were even worse and kept jumping up on us. Luckily a few knees to the face fixed that problem :)

Then Elder Stroud walked a dog that looked like a cow, and it kept trying to walk backwards. Then we went and taught a guy who lives alone in a rundown house in the middle of nowhere in the woods! He let us into his cave (which is basically what it was), and we had a good long conversation with him. He asked us so many questions about ourselves and our mission, and every single answer seemed to shock him haha--everything we said met a raised eyebrow and confused expression. He was nice though, he was especially confused about all the commandments we keep and very surprised we aren't bar-hopping etc. We had a Zone Call for the first time in weeks which was nice cause we got to see our whole zone! They talked about finding in unique ways though which is a topic I've heard an uncountable amount of times. The mission leadership usually cycle through topics it seems. They think that missionaries aren't being creative enough, so they train on Finding and it changes very little, then they start pushing becoming good teachers which usually does help mildly, then they go through a member phase where they remind everyone how important members and getting friends to church is (this usually significantly helps), then they get tired of that instead of putting a little more emphasis on it and start putting an emphasis on putting people on date in the first lesson or some such nonsense (this usually does nothing except then more people fall off date), then they push having more faith, etc. I've missed a few topics they cycle through I'm sure, but that's the gist of what mission leadership does haha

In the evening we walked around and talked to people. One guy said "you probably shouldn't be walking around the hood so late, you wouldn't want to get robbed. Im from Chicago and things can get pretty crazy" Even though it was 6:20 pm haha

I think he wanted to give us a little scare or some such nonsense, but not only were his pants halfway down, but he had an ancient squated Chevy Tahoe (how can you be scared when someone drives THAT), most people here can't even walk straight, and everyone loves us. Some people like to think they love in a scary neighborhood here where you have to watch your step, when really it's just a run-down neighborhood without any of the actual fear that comes from a big city hood. We also talked to some super nice ladies a few minutes later who want to learn more about the Book of Mormon and are looking for a church! 

On Sunday the Millers had an emergency and had to run to the hospital in Tyler, and then we had a Bishops Council meeting in Shreveport! So hopefully church went well haha

Our meeting was super good, even though it was 5 hours long. They had some super good ravioli for lunch!

-Abe