La Villa Strangiato

Bonjour, j'espère que tout le monde passe une bonne journée!

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Anything of note happen? Hopefully someone made a faux pas or two. Please report to me if this did indeed happen.

Monday here was good, we went down to Bossier for pday, and got to meet our new district members. My companion and I made everyone a surprise Breakfast Momday morning of Eggs, cheese, onions, bacon, sausage, SunnyD, juice, buttermilk pancakes, buttermilk syrup, maple syrup, Strawberries, raspberries, bananas, German Pancakes, and much much more. :) We woke up earlier than everyone else and made it in silence. There were a couple of roadblocks on the way such as a motion-activated fish trying to talk loudly to us and the blender not working, but we got it down. Except at the end the sausage made so much smoke that all the smoke detectors went off and woke everyone up haha--but it was still good! We also helped the ZLs move their couch out to a new place (not sure I've ranted in email about it but the new policy where missionaries aren't allowed to have couches is the most ridiculous piece of garbage I've ever heard. Senseless and clueless decision. But I suppose we do our best to comply anyway, luckily we already had no couch. We are adults, sometimes I wish they'd treat us like it instead of treating us like children.) 

After that we went shopping at Lululemon and Elder Mora got some new shorts, and Elder Andersen got some pants to replace some old ones he had. We also went to the game store and some gruff fellows asked if we would play a game of Magic with them. We decided it couldn't hurt, so we sat down with them. A couple hours later they had wiped the floor with us haha--which is what Magic players like to do. It's a fun game to play, but ne careful never to get into it to the point these fellows were. It will consume you entirely. A bit about the new district members:

▪︎ Elder Miller (different Elder Miller than the older model of Elder Miller)-- seems nice, quiet guy and depressed as greenies often are, but has a good desire to work and seems like he will open up more as time goes on

▪︎ Elder Andersen -- He has his good moments. The rest of the time he's super prideful, sarcastic, grumpy, and bossy. He's basically the epidemy of what I've been working my whole life not to become. He's 3 transfers in and already acts as if he knows more about the mission then everyone else including his comp Elder Irizarry who's 16 transfers in :)

All of that seems pretty harsh, and it is. But that doesnt mean we don't get along or that I won't grow to like him. He will be humbled at some point, and things will just start to click. I do like his desire to do what's right and his want to have fun with everyone! It's just very poor execution sometimes. I'm grateful to have him here so that I can know how to temper any tendencies similar to his that I have!

Monday evening we got Canes as a District (not me, I'm boycotting them for charging for extra sauce >:( -- just joking, just didn't feel like it). I went on a mini exchange with Elder Miller which was fun. We stopped by some referrals and inspire knocked a few doors too. I felt a prompting not to knock a certain door as we were walking up to it, and so we did a different one. Then I asked him if there were any doors he wanted us to try before we headed to our next visit. He expressed that we should try the one we had skipped and that we needed to give them a chance too haha--so I of course obliged him, don't want to shoot a greenie down by saying I'd felt contrary to what he said. We went and knocked it and proceeded to get angrily barked at for the next 5 minutes by this lady telling us we needed to read the REAL Bible and pray about it and how we are going to hell etc etc hahaha--also she had a mean dog that kept nipping at our pants so I kicked it. :)) After we left I tried to tell him it wasn't his fault, sometimes people are just mean and maybe she will accept it some day but that still didn't stop him from never pointing out another house the whole night hahaha

Tuesday was district council, and then we went to Springhill to visit the Jacobs. They specifically said we needed to some because they wanted to "make me aware of some things." All managers and leaders know a complaint is coming before it even comes haha--they sat us down and then proceeded to complain about how they got served food they couldn't eat at the last Linger Longer, and some other related issues. I was of course very understanding, you just have to validate people's concerns. Dealing with complaints is always annoying, but I've gotten used to it at this point. In the evening we taught the Restoration to a guy named Lewis which was great, and then we taught a girl named Neka! She's really interested and even was the one who went up to missionaries and not vice verse! She wants to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and then meet and talk about it for each chapter in it! Which is super cool, and she wants to come to church. Also had a good lesson on 3 Nephi 11 with Sonya.

On Wednesday we walked the dogs. One of mine was so scared of cars and trains that he would just take off in pure TERROR everytime so much as a golf cart would pass. So when a giant logging semi came past he tried lay down so flat that he basically WAS the ground haha

The afternoon was great, after my administrative work we went to some areas we don't go very often and met some really interested people. One of then is named Vicki and she's been searching for a church and really wants to read the Book of Mormon! She also works at the hospital and wants us to come and teach the people she serves there!

We also met a "fitness pastor" of sorts, who talked about how he is a personal trainer who also uses the Bible to teach health and so forth. He also told us he is smarter than every doctor. :) which is a bold claim sir! He was nice though and gave us some health and Bible study advice. Wednesday evening we also had quite a bit of success! Met a lady named Jennifer who gave us her number in the first 20 seconds talking to us cause she's interested! We also saw a house using an old bathtub on its side to place Christmas decorations on in their yard. 

Thursday was great, President Taylor decided last minute to make it an all day additional pday! So that was super fun, we ate a strange Thanksgiving dinner of Stuffing, Turkey, Gravy, tacos, and pie with the Millers and Morales family. Then we relaxed and talked to family the rest of the day! At one point we decided to wander around the deserted campus and did some flips and things which was quite enjoyable, but other than that the day was quite uneventful. It was great to talk to everyone, I'm grateful for all of you!

Friday morning we went up to Stamps and Waldo to visit some referrals and less active members. We found a lady named Melissa who said her and her husband really needed our message and want to come to church! So she said to come back in an hour when Derrick was going to get home. Then when we came back Melissa was out running errands, and Derrick pretended to have a stomach ache so he couldn't talk to us even though we knew he just got home from work hahaha

We also went to a lot of nicer neighborhoods in the afternoon, and everybody we talked to wasn't interested and did the old fast-walk-away-and-pretend-you-have-somerhing-super-important-to-get-to-so-that-you-dont-have-to-talk-to-us trick. In the evening we taught Shakoya the Restoration and she said she will start reading the Book of Mormon but kept repeating herself and trying to make very clear that she's a Baptist and would ONLY be going to the Bible for peace or guidance and not the Book of Mormon haha--she repeated that like 4 times at the end of our lesson. I dont get why people are so attached to the 66 biblical texts tsk tsk, just open your mind for once! We aren't trying to take the 66 biblical texts away for crying out loud, just trying to give you more! But at least she's going to read a little bit she said. We also taught Becky  with the Millers and had an amazing lesson on how important praying about the Book of Mormon is, and watched the Moroni 10 video with her and Farod! The Millers were super helpful and bore some powerful testimonies about why we are even here! We also practiced for our duet which I think will be really good. We encountered many cute cats which we had no choice but to pet, some of them even try to come with us. Elder Stroud always wants to knock the ones that, coincidentally, have a cat!

Saturday we walked the dogs and I walked a puppy who didn't know how to handle a leash, so whenever he would reach the end he would get jerked back because of his momentum forward. And he didn't even learn from his mistakes haha

In the afternoon we taught a lady named Jaz who is super intrigued by the fact that our church is worldwide and sends missionaries all over! It was really cool talking to her cause she was asking US  questions! We also talked with Gracie again and she knows Sarah and likes her a lot! Gracie and Macy her friend both want to come to church too. And she has the same bag as me which is always a good icebreaker because I wear it front facing and people who share the same bag notice it. We talked to Jasmine who said she needed to use the bathroom and would be a while so we should come back in 20 minutes. When we came back she didn't answer though sadly. In the evening we found a lady named Aletha who let us in and talked to us about the Book of Mormon! We helped her download the app right there and get her right to chapter 1 so she can start listening. We also tried to visit Reed and right as we were about to knock a guy said that they don't want to be bothered by us. Even though Reed told us a few hours earlier to come by. So we told him that but the guy seemed to be trying to get us to back off so we turned and left. Then we called Reed and he was just confused haha--so I don't know what that guy's agenda was. 

On Sunday we had Blanca Morales and her grandchildren come to church! It was really cool, Brother Bahr last second went and translated the meeting live for her into Spanish! It was really cool! And she was in tears by the end of the meeting. Elder Stroud gave a great talk. Also Erik Russell who we try to get to church every week came and taught Elders Quorum. Other than that the day was full of Tithing Declaration and meetings.

-Abe