Cajun Banana Noodle Soup

Hello,

I hope everyone had a good Halloween! Hopefully you dressed up as a shark or a policeman or a nurse or a bear or a 2006 Chevy Silverado with a 9-inch lift or something. We unfortunately did not dress up, due to a lack of costumes :(

On Monday it was cold and rainy! So we were running in between stores and so forth to be out of the cold rain as much as possible. We went to some of the stores around Magnolia, and then went and hung out with Logan and Sarah! We spent a while just talking, and then played some Hearts. We also played Cover Your Assets, and Pictionary. In the evening we went and had a great lesson with a lady named Dana! She liked the idea of the Book of Mormon a lot, we will see if she likes it enough to read it. We also visited several people who said it was too cold for a scripture haha--but did get some phone numbers. We met a lady named Shakoya who seemed quite interested! We also drove into the country a bit to try and get a picture of the Moon since it was HUGE and full, but as usual when anyone attempts this the picture is just a white circle that doesn't even slightly do it justice humpf. 

We ended the night so hungry that we went to Dominos and each ordered an entire pizza! Then we both ate our entire pizzas in 15 minutes. Elder Stroud has a stomach much like mine :)

On Tuesday we were almost out of miles so we drove down to district council with the Millers. When we got there us and the Minden Elders were just waiting for Brownlee to arrive, after 10 and then 20 minutes had passed we decided we should probably call them. So we did and turns out they were confused and thought we were doing it Wednesday because everyone was so low on miles! And they did not have any miles left so there was no way they were coming to Minden. So we all decided we would drive down to Bossier City and do it there haha--by the time we all made it there we only had 30 minutes left for district council, so we rushed through it and then the Millers took our district out to eat at Freddy's! 

After that we drove back with the Millers and visited Wade O'Neal in the hospital. He's a less-active member, and turns out the reason he went inactive is because he was released without warning from his calling in the branch Presidency when he missed several Sundays due to being in the hospital with his wife who then passed away. So he holds some bitterness about that. We talked for a while, and then drove back home, and we went and did some service at the Stew Pot. Us and a girl from SAU made the boxes of food so fast that we filled 1.5 carts! Then we didn't have to do any more for the last 30 minutes of service. We ate some BBQ chicken for dinner at the Miller's house, along with some delicious bread and Cornbread! After dinner we weren't allowed to drive or do much contacting because of Halloween, so I spent the evening working on administrative tasks. 

Wednesday we walked the dogs, and it was cold! A couple of the dogs we walked had never walked on a leash before, so they would try to stay planted, and then when we would pull on the leashes their faces would scrunch up the fur onto their face more haha--and one of them kept slipping out of her leash because her neck was so small! Bad! Then we had a mission-wide call and we learned that our mission is being split and there will be a Texas Dallas South Mission! It was quite the announcement, but won't really affect me because it's not splitting until July. Then we went and had a good visit with Brother Crye. He seems like such a grumpy old man, but when you sit down and talk with him he's pretty nice and has an interesting personality. We had a lesson with Dina that fell though, so we walked around her area and talked to several people including a lady who walked by and wasn't interested, but then kept looking back at us and kept tripping when she did haha

Then we had a surprise lesson with Kimberly who let us in and seemed very intrigued as we taught the Restoration! She doesn't have any drugs in her life, and has been looking for a church! She also asked intelligent and genuine questions, and wants to come to church! In the evening we walked around some different areas in Magnolia and talked to our interested people. Several people including a guy named Doss just weren't "in a good mood" for the Gospel haha--even though Doss then proceeded to talk to us about his truck instead. :) Met some other guys working on their truck who WERE in a good mood though, which was good.

Then we went over to Juan's house (a member) and had a FHE with Juan, his kids, and his mom. The Millers came with us, and led the FHE. Juan's kids are wild and won't sit down for one second so we started by playing a game called "hot lava monster" where the lava monster can tag you as you run between couches and chairs, but once you are safely on a perch he can no longer get you. After playing this for a while the kids calmed down and we taught them the Plan of Salvation and ate ice cream! 

On Thursday we drove 4 hours to Allen for a greenie orientation meeting. Before the meeting we met up with Jack at In-n-out for lunch! It was so fun, felt just like old times. We stayed there talking for an hour and a half. And while we sat there a member of the church came up to us and gave us a $30 gift card to In-n-out! So we went to the orientation meeting which was just as mundane as it sounds, and then went back to In-n-out for dinner! We then drove another 4 hours home and that was our entire day. :)

At the orientation meeting we were encouraged to:

- Drive exactly or under the speed limit, otherwise you lose the spirit (not true haha but nice try)

- Get our flu shots (ha!)

- Drive safely

- Call the mission medical advisor if you get sick

- Use FB not for entertainment but only for missionary work

- Be happy and enjoy missionary work

- Keep our apartments clean

These few bullet points were literally what the whole 2.5 hour meeting boiled down to. It could have been down in an email or over Zoom. 

On Friday after some service at the Thrift store we drove up to McNeil for a lesson with a lady named Neka. On our way up we saw someone pulled over on the other side of the road looking at their engine. So we turned around and pulled over to see if we could help. Turns out it was Brother Crye! We had him try starting it while we looked at the engine and it just kept making weird noises and putting out little puffs of smoke. Elder Stroud thinks it's a blown piston or a fuel pump problem. Brother Crye put some water in the power steering fluid tank before we arrived for some reason hahaha--I don't know why he thought that would do anything. Eventually Royce came and picked him up and we just left the car for later. We were late to our lesson but it worked out well because Neka wasn't even home anyway. 

Later in the afternoon we went and cleaned the church with Elder and Sister Miller since it was our week, and I got to do the vacuuming, which is always what I've done when cleaning the church. :) I the evening we walked around the middle of Magnolia. We both felt like we should knock a door so we went up and then this huge Fluffy dog (that was quite cute) started barking. A lady came up to the clear glass door and started yelling at us saying "can't you see the vicious dog??!! Now Git!!" And frantically waved us away well making rude gestures. We got pranked by the spirit haha--We will see, it would be a shame if something were to...happen...to that house...

We also met a guy named Gabriel who said he's in a bad mood but we can come when he's in a better mood. These people and their bad moods tsk tsk, if they would just listen maybe they would cheer up! Then we went and taught a lady named Shardae and ended up talking to her about her job at the prison much of the time. It was fun talking to her, she seems to be pretty intelligent and willing to learn. We also talked to Sonya who said she was in a bad mood and to come back later (!!). We did have a pretty good lesson on prayer with Becky and Farod though! And apparently Juan who we taught on Wednesday got arrested tsk tsk.

Saturday we walked the dogs again, and when putting one of them back we had to drag it accross the floor because he went boneless. We had some good gospel conversations with people in the afternoon, and taught a guy we met named Waxk! He's Islamic but really open to new ideas and the Book of Mormon! As we were walking around we saw in the distance a familiar face. As it got closer we saw we had finally met The David again! And behind him was Charlien and another lady! They walked past us but we quickly called out and got Charlien's new number. She seems to be doing okay, but doesn't know the exact address where she's staying now. She said she's staying with a friend because the shelter was saying she was doing stuff she shouldn't when she was doing no such thing. So she left, and then her number got disconnected and thats why she hasnt been in contact. We aren't sure how David is involved though, and I don't trust him being around Charlien again. In the evening we went to some appointments, each of which fell through. We were able to meet a new lady named Elaina to teach though which was cool. We walked around South Magnolia which is supposedly "the dangerous part" and talked to some real characters. We talked to this one 60-year-old who hobbled and wobbled all over the place and couldn't speak straight, but he did warn us about the neighborhood. We also knocked on this lady's door who yelled out in such a scary raspy voice that we started backing up. When she opened her door she looked almost like an actual goblin haha--which don't worry I'm not insulting her because I LIKE most goblins! So put away your pitchforks. Her house was in such a state of falling apart that I don't even know where someone would start in fixing it up. We also ran into The David again, on the other side of town! Very suspicious fellow. Also for some reason people all around town have been burning leaves and so forth, and it's horrible because the whole town is resting in clouds of smoke. I don't know what people are thinking it smells horrible and makes it hard to breathe! We taught Tydrick the Restoration but it was so smoky outside, and people kept going in and out of his house, so it was impossible to stay on track. 

Today was great we had an amazing testimony meeting! All of our friends we invited had last minute things pop up sadly, but I was able to get a bunch of Tithing Declaration interviews done, and practice for the program with the primary! Also finalized next year's budget, and did a bunch of reimbursements. 

-Abe