Izzy

Hi young ones and old ones and medium-aged ones, 

This week we had some unexpected things happen which I will get to soon, but first a Gospel message:

Haha just joking, if you want a good gospel message go to Gospel Library and find one :)

Monday was good we did some more shopping, and tried some good jerky at the jerky store! We went to a couple malls, and looked at lots of sparkly and flashy dress clothes as well. We had lunch at Canes which was quite good since I haven't had it in a while. It is not as amazing as everyone claims though. In the evening we walked around and exchanged with the Brownlee Elders. Elder Haymond and Elder Davis were DETERMINED to catch the gator in their pond. I, being the skeptic, told them there's no way they will actually do it. And I was right! They were all talk as I suspected, claiming that, "it's too dark, we will do it in the daylight" or some such excuse as I anticipated. We did feed it some frozen fish though. 

Tuesday we had District council in Bossier City, and the ZLs came to it. I gave the training on Daily Planning, and then we ate at Fuzzys tacos for lunch which was mid. To survive in the Taco world you have to make REALLY good tacos, not just mediocre tacos tsk tsk.

Then we drove up to Springhill and visited some inactive members including Ruben who is deaf, bed-bound, and almost giving up on life. He still pays Tithing though, and we brought him the sacrament. We taught Tyre the Restoration again in the evening, and he said he relates a lot with Jospeh Smith because he also was searching from church to church for the truth! We also Taught Bill, and then David and Charlien about Tithing. They took it pretty well, and afterwards Elder Davis led them in a game of Simon says to demonstrate how we should listen to God and not the world. 

On Wednesday we did service at the Thrift store, and I got fed up with all the cords and just started cutting them every time I couldn't untangle them :) So we got rid of a lot of cords. Wednesday was boiling hot it felt like 115⁰F (46⁰C for all you foreign subscribers) but Elder Davis and I got talking a lot and so we didn't even notice it until we got inside and we were dripping in sweat haha

We also walked a lot in the evening, and approached every single person but had no luck. I guess everybody was crabby. We had a fun time though, got to see lots of interesting things, and lots of different rims on different lifted Chevy Tahoes. 

Thursday we walked the dogs. One of the dogs Elder Davis walked was terrified of him, and tried to walk as far away from him as possible. We may have taken advantage of this and chased after it and reached out at it as if to grab it. It got so scared that it literally tried to boing out of its leash haha--Im sure we helped it build character. After the dog walking I got a call from President Taylor asking how things were going in the Branch. He then asked if having a senior couple to help would be helpful. I said yes. An hour later we got a text from him saying he was sending us Elder and Sister Miller and they would be there in 24 hours! Apparently they had just they day before mentioned that they felt kinda useless working in the Allen 4th ward since it was so strong and there was nothing to do. So then a day later they a get a call saying to pack and drive to Magnolia asap. They said it was a prayer answered! And we have wanted a senior couple for a while, but because they are so hard to come by we never thought it would happen! 

We did our weekly planning, and planned some ways to work with the new couple. In the evening we went to some new areas, and met some cool people outside. One of which looked like her wanted to kill us but then when we asked if he wanted to hear a scripture he said of course, and ended up being really nice! We taught David and Charlien, and went over the Baptismal interview questions. Tyre joined us virtually for the lesson, and shared how his experience was with the interview and what to expect. And when we asked him his advice for Charlien and David to prepare for baptism and he said "practice it in the bathtub. Do it over and over until you're comfortable" hahaha

On Friday we did some more service, and looked at some potential apartments where the Miller's could live. Everywhere in Magnolia is cheaper than their tiny apartment they were at in Allen. We had dinner with the Masses at Flying Burger, and met the new missionaries as well. They are both soft-spoken and nice. They always try to ensure everything is just right so we had to go over the same things several times haha

After that we started walking around and we invited Tyre to come and he said, " That'll be fine" in his very Tyre way. He walked and talked with us, and we went to visit Bill. We had an amazing in-depth Plan of Salvation lesson with Bill and he said everything we taught even the Spirit World and the 3 Kingdoms made sense and were in line with the Bible! We didn't expect him to get it so quickly. We also walked around downtown a bit, and got some good pictures!

Saturday morning we walked the dogs, and they were crazy today. But in a normal, uninteresting way sadly. We visited Neena who swore up and down she would be at church, only to call us Sunday morning and say her leg was hurting, a very lame excuse (spoiler, I've decided to start adding in retroactive spoilers so that you know that something has been spoiled after it has been spoiled already). 

We got to have a meeting with the new couple though and got a lot done! The meeting ended up being two point seven (2.7) hours instead of zero point five (0.5) but we got a lot done so it was okay. We now have some plans of how we will all work together and progress the work forward. We also taught Charlien and David again, this time about Callings and Priesthood. Charlien asked us nervously if hypothetically hot chips were against the word of wisdom as her hands and mouth had a suspicious red dust coating as she asked us this. Luckily for her we explained that it was totally fine to eat hot chips, which elicited a sigh of relief! We also met a lady on the phone who we didnt realize she was on the phone until we approached her. She got mad at us for politely trying to leave and said the person on the phone deserved to hear the message too :)

Sunday we had a mandatory meeting for Bishops and YWP in Shreveport, so instead of Fasting and going to church we drove to Shreveport, partook of the sacrament in our Bishops council meeting, and ate a big breakfast AND lunch both provided by the stake hahaha--it was such a good meeting though.

-Abe

🐇↘️🕳

Hi, 

Hope everyone has had a good week. Up here in Magnolia we had a lot of fun this week, did a lot of driving!

Monday we went down to Bossier City and did some shopping at The Bins, and then went to Lululemon to look at pants and shorts. We also shopped at Hobby Lobby and Bass Pro, and Elder Davis almost bought fishing gear in many instances and I almost bought sunglasses in many instances. Luckily neither of us gave in :)

We spent the afternoon mostly at the Brownlee apartment talking to family, and then drove back to Magnolia after pday. In the evening we had a lesson with a lady named Lois (pronounced "Low-is") and taught her through her mesh porch. We walked around and taught a bunch of people too. David put an entire hardboiled egg in his mouth at once (this was a prior event that I am now recalling). 

Tuesday we did service, and then taught Enoch. He told us:

- His family wants him to be more into religion 

- They want him to be a pastor and own his own church and he wants to as well

- He wants to be more involved in religion

BUT

- He doesn't want to be pressured

- He refuses to start reading and praying even though he knows he should

- He doesn't want to look to his family like he's studying and praying cause then they will tell him to do more then he wants

- He doesn't want to pray because he thinks it's silly to pray if you don't really mean it and he never means anything haha

Because of all this we have had a super tough time getting him to do ANYTHING! He's nice but full of excuses. We finally hot him to commit to saying gratitude prayers. We taught Bill in the evening, and them David and Charlien. Immediately after the pray I layer out very clearly everything the Word of Wisdom says you CANT do without even missing a beat. This is not usually a wise tactic but I'm tired of beating around the bush and they need a little boldness sometimes. Charlien took it very well and suggested to herself that she could drink Sprite instead of Tea! We didn't even have to suggest it. And apparently she likes Sprite better than tea anyway haha she only drinks it cause that's what they have. David didnt commit to following it really but he seemed to understand it a bit better by the end. Tyre also had his Baptismal interview and passed it. 

We drove down to Bosssier City to spend the night there and then in the morning drove to Zone Conference! It was surprisingly good, lots of good messages. This mission president is really heavy on the importance of memorization which is interesting, so he's having us memorize a lot more. After Zone Conference we had interviews with him, and it was fine. He's a cool guy, just seemed to be somewhere else in the interview haha

In the evening we exchanged with the Brownlee Elders, and had dinner with the Deatons. Upon arrival at their abode we were immediately attacked and restrained by their rogue children!! Tags were stolen, arms grabbed, backclimbing attempted, and yelling began. They have the most wild kids I have ever seen, I was just about to get out my wacking stick but I refrained. Dinner was pretty good though, had some good lentil soup!

I exchanged with Elder Haymond (a greenie) and he's super cool! Got to talk with him about his future career as a helicopter pilot. :) He also complimented my excellent driving! (Not to brag but I have learned the precise things that will trigger Tiwi on the truck, and so I can have a lot of fun driving and still not get flagged by Tiwi)

Elder Haymond already seems to have a handle on missionary work which is cool!

Thursday we drove back to Taylor, AR and helped demolish the paneling in one of the rooms of the mayor's house. It was fun (as you would expect) to tear it all off! We ate with the Masses at Sam's Southern Eatery for lunch which was absolutely amazing as usual! We are recognized as regulars by the girls that work there now and they always say hi. In the evening we returned to Magnolia and taught David and Charlien. We pulled up and Charlien had a bottle of Sprite next to her!! We taught them the Law of Chastity, which went pretty smoothly. 

On Friday we did service at the Thrift store and I got fed up with how many cords there were so I started cutting and discarding every cord that wasn't remotely useful. I went through 2 boxes of them when I usually have enough time to go through only 1/5 of a box each time :))

We ate dinner with the Marchans (Spaghetti), and then went with Brother Bahr and taught Tyre all about the Priesthood and temples! Brother Bahr did a really good job of getting through to Tyre. After Tyre we drove out to Bradley, AR and visited some people out there! We drove 50 minutes on country roads to get there which was lots of fun cause driving dirt roads is like a roller coaster. Everyone we talked to turned us down, which is good because it's too many miles to go out there very often haha

Saturday morning we had Tyre's baptism, which went smoothly. I baptized him, and Elder Davis gave a talk. After he was baptized he wouldn't open his eyes so I had to lead him to his stall in the bathroom and give him all his stuff haha--don't know why he kept them closed so long. Because of the baptism we didn't walk the dogs, but I can just imagine them barking angrily at our absence. Glad we were too busy for them 😤

In the afternoon we noticed our tire pressure was slowly dropping so we called Elder Jacobs and he told us to take it in. They found a series of small holes halfway around the front left tire, so we got two new front tires put on. And we payed in cash haha After that we taught Bill again who's dealing with a lot of relationship trouble in his family so we just listened while he shared it all with us. 

Sunday Tyre got confirmed, and the 5th Sunday lesson was on the new PMG which was great! I also had 4 interviews after church. Tyre will be getting the Priesthood next week, and then Logan will be getting his Patriarchal blessing! 

-Abe

Handcuffs

Hi everyone, 

How has everybody's week been? Email me if anything of note is going on in your life :)

Monday was good we spent the day in Magnolia, and shopped at all the downtown shops which was fun! Went to a couple antique stores with lots of super cool things including ancient cash registers, vintage dishes and clothes, and lots of Vinyl. Also looked at old Coke Bottles (unopened) from various eras. 

Monday evening nothing too exciting happened, just walked around and talked to some intoxicated people as usual. Got a couple phone numbers but who knows how solid they will be :)

On Tuesday we drove to Minden for district council, and we got to meet the 2 greenies in our district now! They seem pretty cool, Elder Haymond does Falconry! Elder Ward seems like a classic bright-eyed cheery greenie who's ready to work, which is good to see. After district council we ate at Cotton's again which was really good. After lunch we drove up to Taylor, AR and helped Brother Mass continue to fix up one of the mayor's houses. It's in absolutely atrocious condition so he's basically systematically rebuilding it from scratch. We helped fill holes in the ceiling which was pretty fun, though very hot! Brother Mass is very proud of the fact that he can fix and build anything, so working with him is funny because he's always very confident of himself haha

Tuesday evening we did some street contacting at the campus, and then walked around Magnolia stopping by formers and those we are teaching. Along the way we talked to lots of characters, one of which tried to con us into buying his Elvis Presley Vinyl which he claimed was worth "A LOT" of money.

Wednesday we did service at the Thrift store, and we've started working with an old man who comes to volunteer which has been fun. He thinks hes hilarious, and is hard of hearing, so just assumes we are laughing at all his quips haha--he also likes to think he knows a lot about electronics, so when he says something like "this thingie here is worth a lot of money" while gesturing to a curling iron we just smile and nod :) He's fun to work with though.

After lunch we went up to Waldo, and taught Xavier about the Gospel, and put him on date for baptism on August 12th! So that'd pretty exciting. He told us hes been wanting to be a missionary, and to feel needed! So we talked about Callings and how he can get one, and talked about how he can join us for lessons! 

After our lessons I took care of some business at the church, and then we had comp study on the SAU campus. Due to us being on a college campus we ended up talking about BYU and college options and stuff instead though haha

In the evening we taught Tyre and Brother Bahr was able to join virtually which went well. We taught the Word of Wisdom, and Tyre wants to keep his date set for the 29th and thinks he can be following the Word of Wisdom by then so we will see how that goes! 

On Thursday we walked the dogs, and it was a fairly normal day with them. I always get to walk one named Buck who constantly has to stop for bathroom breaks, often at the most inconvenient times. And then he will walk with his front legs at a 30⁰ angle to the right as opposed to his back legs so he's constantly diagonal haha

The Masses took us to dinner at Flying Burger, and I got the Bacon Cheeseburger which was excellent! The fries have a little to be desired, maybe a tad crisper, but such it is with many (if not all) restaurants. 

After dinner we had a lesson with a guy named Bill. He seemed dismissive at first but then the more we talked with him the more he opened up!! Apparently he is fed up with all these churches thinking there arent modern prophets, and that faith is all you need to be saved. He also thinks communion should be every week! So it was a great lesson, we taught the Restoration and he was excited that we agreed with him in many ways. After we said the closing prayer he said some of the things we prayed for are the exact things hes been praying for so he knows the Lord sent us! We met some other awesome people to including a girl named Keasia. She was super nice and is really responsive to texts as well! We also taught Charlien and put her on date for baptism August 19th.

Friday we taught Tyre again, and went to the Marchan's for dinner. They made us Hot Dogs and Burgers which was just what I wanted. Most of the dinner was spent with Brother Marchan making out-of-pocket comments and debating what she said which was funny to watch, but overall we had a good discussion. That night we felt prompted to talk to some porch-dwellers (there are many here) and met a lady named Victoria! She told us that she's looking for a church, she hasn't been baptized and wants to be, and that she'd known some members and always wondered about the Book of Mormon! So meet every one of those needs. 

On Saturday we walked the dogs again and Elder Davis' dog kept jumping on and grabbing my much bigger and older dog. We also walked some half-blind dogs that couldn't see where each track (we walk the dogs on train tracks) was so they kept falling into the spaces between tracks and stumbling around. It was quite entertaining to watch if I do say so myself.

In the evening we had another lesson with Bill, and the Masses and their Grandson came with us in person to that lesson! It was so good to have them, they are such strong and normal members of the church! Bill really got along with Brother Mass and in fact had actually been the mechanic that had worked on his car last week. We talked about what to expect at church, and talked a bit about the Plan of Salvation as well. Again he agreed with everything we believe. And the Masses loved coming too. We also taught Tyre again, and David. 

Sunday church was good, Tyre, Xavier, Charlien, and David came. We had a pioneer day Linger longer with Ice Cream after which went well too. The rest of the afternoon was spent in meetings. Got to set apart a new Primary President too. Now every organization has changed presidencies in the last 2 months :)

Nothing else too much of note happened this week, wish there was more to report on. Overall a fun week though!

-Abe