Week 59 Another Baptism!!

Tuesday, October 16th 2018

Dear Mom,

This week has been pretty good, we have been very busy as usual and we've done some good service and we had exchanges and then we had a baptism at the end of the week to top it off.
Monday, we had a good P-day and that evening we tried to visit people and then we had a great FHE with Jeanne at the Viators' house. They had a good lesson on the Holy Ghost and then we had some fun games where we played telestrations. It was a home made telestrations, you just write it on a piece of paper and then fold it back so that the next person can't see. Also, instead of just one word or phrase and then a drawing, we played by doing a sentence and then a drawing and it was quite hilarious. Elder Cannon kept changing everything to somehow involve me which was very funny. Jeanne had a great time and was laughing a ton and it was awesome to see her happy and having a good time.
Tuesday, we had some good studies and then after lunch we helped a Hispanic member move their fridge to their truck so they could get it fixed. Then we tracted on their street and found a couple other Hispanic families that we were able to invite to an FHE with the family that we helped earlier. We then drove back to Berwick and had a good lesson with Delmara and the boys and then we came home for some dinner. After dinner we drove to Franklin to go contact some referrals there and visit some others. On our way we stopped by Jeanne's and had a good lesson/visit with her. We had a few lessons in Franklin and found one new person to teach and then we came home.
Wednesday, we had District Council and then we ate lunch at Chik-Fil-A. We then started exchanges and I got to drive!!! I have really missed driving!!! It was fun to be driving again. Elder Young and I drove back to the Thibodaux pad and planned out some of the things we needed to do that day and we honestly talked for a little while and then we got on our bikes and went to go see some people. We tried a number of people but non of them were there. So we had basically spent an hour or so biking around some neighborhoods. Then we came back to the apartment to use the bathroom and we decided to go to Nichols College and contact people. We biked over there and we talked/gave cards to over 30 people which was fun. I sometimes have a hard time going beyond just saying "Hi" to someone and asking how they are doing and starting a gospel conversation. This time though I told myself, I am literally probably not ever going to see any single one of these people again and I am not even in my own area, so just go for it. I was able to talk to a lot more people and have more courage which was actually pretty fun and I really enjoyed just riding around on bikes contacting people. We later went to a park and did more contacting and then we rode around some neighborhoods trying to visit members who lived in the area. Later we went to another park to contact some more and then we got sno-balls at this really good place called Brooks and then we came home. It was fun to bike around and just talk to people.
Thursday morning Elder young and I went on a run which was fun and then I was able to do a good workout. It was awesome cuz they had a bench press that I was able to use which I haven't been able to do since my first area. Then we had some studies, did an hour of service for a food bank place and had some lunch. Then we went to a jewelry store to get my watches fixed. They said they wouldn't be done by the time I needed to pick them up to leave so I just left Elder young with what he needed to get them for me and he kindly did that. Then Elder Young and I drove down to the Morgan City area and we met Elder Cannon and Elder McRae at the church for Jeanne's Baptismal interview and then Elder Jex and Elder Hendry to do the interview. They are our Zone Leaders. It was fun to see them too. All went well and we all knew that Jeanne was more than ready for her baptism :-) Then we exchanged back and Elder Cannon and I went to Delmara and Cody's and had a good lesson with the boys. We then came home for some dinner and then we visited someone and met his cousin and taught him as well. After that we headed to Amelia and visited multiple people up there and we had a few good little lessons. We ended the night with visiting a family we have taught several times and they always like to feed us dinner. This time they fed us Gorditas (picadas) which were really good but they were pretty spicy!! We had a nice little lesson on the Book of Mormon and Church afterward and then came home.
Friday morning the Pages, a Senior Missionary Couple, came and got rid of our old beds and got us new ones!!!! I was so excited!!! Like Christmas!!! We then left to the assisted living home and sang songs for the elderly people there. Then we went to the church which was literally down the street and we did our studies and then ate lunch. After lunch we visited Jeanne and talked about her baptism with her and read in the Book of Mormon. We visited some kids we are teaching and met some new kids there too. We then had a lesson with Delmara and Cody and their boys and we played jeopardy with them on the lessons we have taught them. It was lots of fun. We came home for some dinner and then we visited some people and had one dude, who couldn't hear very well so we all had to shout, including him, who went off on us and wouldn't try to understand what we taught. He made us a little frustrated, he was very un-teachable. Then we tracted for the last few hours of the night and found one guy right at the end who was really cool and we are now teaching him.
Saturday was AWESOME!!!! We did some studies and then we went to the library and made the program for Jeanne's baptism and then we visited some kids we are teaching and ate more pupusas. After that we went to the church and started filling the font and we did our weekly planning and made copies of the program. And we set up chairs. Then Jeanne got there with her two daughters and we finally got to meet one of them!! We took pictures and people arrived and we started the service. It was wonderful with great talks and then Jeanne bore her testimony. We had asked her to and she had the courage to accept and do it even though she was terrified. When she bore her testimony, WOW! It was amazing. She brought the spirit in so strong and her testimony was so powerful. She talked about how she now has hope and can wake up each day saying thank you and meaning it. That she can now truly look forward to each and every day. She said many other things that really made me feel joy. It was wonderful. We then had refreshments and we stayed and cleaned up everything and then went to Morgan City for some appointments and we had a few good lessons. One of them being with a teenage recent convert and his younger brother. We had an awesome lesson teaching them how to pray and seek personal revelation with an example. It was awesome, one of them got his answer as we were reading.
1.  Come up with a question
2. Pray about it
3. Study in the scriptures/Book of Mormon
4. Think about what your answer may be
5. Pray and ask Heavenly Father if that's right
6. Listen to the feelings of the Spirit
It was a super awesome lesson that we had with them.
Sunday was great as well but boy was I nervous! Jeanne had asked that I give her the gift of the Holy Ghost and I was very nervous. It went great and I was so grateful for that opportunity that she gave me to do that for her. We had some great classes after sacrament meeting and then we went to Morgan City and had some really good lessons that evening.
It has been a great week, I will include Monday (yesterday) in my next weekly because I don't have time today. Tomorrow is transfers and Elder Cannon and I are staying together.

Love,
Elder Acton

Some "interesting" art

Christmas in October!! Our new beds :-)

Jeanne's Baptism

Me and my comp, Elder Cannon

Week 58 General Conference Weekend

Monday, October 8th 2018

Dear Mom,

This week has been a great week with a wonderful ending of General Conference!

Monday, was a good P-day but it was a bit frustrating when doing laundry at the Washeteria...Every time I do laundry there it does something to my clothes...This time it put black marks on my shirts and stuff, pretty annoying, but oh well. It will probably come out in the next wash. I hope. That evening we visited some people in Morgan City and then we went to Patterson and visited some people there and we had some good lessons that night. We also had a really fun FHE with one of the people we are teaching. And her daughter finally joined us! It was tons of fun. We played some minute to win it and we also watched the Restoration video and had a good little lesson.
Tuesday we did our usual morning schedule of work out, protein shake/breakfast, get ready, plan for the day, do personal study, companion study, language study and then lunch. After that we tracted some streets in Bayou Vista and we were able to have a few good little lessons. There were a lot of people who were not home, we did get some not so kind words yelled at us as someone told us to get off their property but the good thing is we did find two new people to teach. We then met with Cody and his family and we taught the boys. We then grabbed a bite to eat at Taco Bell and met a super cool dude there who is from Dublin, Ireland and then we tracted some more.
Wednesday was good, we went and did some service for a Hispanic member of the branch and helped them carry a fridge out to their truck and then we drove to Houma for District Council. We did some studies while we waited there in the car since we were early. Elder Ferrell, a senior couple missionary, gave a presentation for 1 1/2 hours at the beginning of our district meeting which was super good. It was on the talk, becoming the fourth missionary. We then finished District Council, went for lunch at Subway and then we drove back to Morgan City (rather Berwick) and we had some lessons then ate some dinner and then we drove to Morgan City and we had a good lesson with one lady and helped her set a date to be baptized. We also visited another lady and they just finished having bible study. We sat down with them and talked, we tried to teach but one lady very loudly kept talking about her opinions and stuff in a debating way. She said some interesting things but always said that she wasn't trying to be contentious and argue, just that she was sharing her beliefs. She said many times about the different versions of the bible and how they all said different things but they mean the same thing. Then we all read from different sets and most of them said the same exact thing and she was like see, they say different things but they mean the same. So that was interesting, she said stuff that made no sense and contradicted herself. But nonetheless, we left them with singing a hymn and then went onto some other lessons, some in Morgan City and then a few others in Patterson.
Thursday, we did studies and lunch and then we went to Jeanne's again for another lesson. We then had some other lessons with a few other people. We also had a lesson with Cody's boys and they are starting to listen to what we teach more. We spent some time later trying to visit some other people but none answered. We had some dinner and then drove to Amelia. All of our appointments fell through in Amelia and we ended up tracting the rest of the night.
Friday, we did some service at the Patterson Healthcare Center, an assisted living home. We read some scriptures and sang to the Elderly people there for an hour, which was fun. We then came home, did some more studies, had lunch, and then we did our weekly planning. It was a really good weekly planning session and we got a lot of things accomplished. After that we headed over to Cody and Delmara's and we had another good lesson with the boys. We then were about to grab a super quick bite to eat when we got a call from the Branch President's wife saying that we should come to the birthday party they had going on. We were needed because there were some Hispanic members (who we were about to try and see) who were there but might not have felt comfortable due to the language barrier. It was fun to go there and meet some new people and support the kids whose birthday it was. Then we went to Jeanne's and she gave us a ton of snacks and stuff that her and her daughter had bought for us!!! It was so awesome of them to do that :-) It was like getting a package from home, haha. They are super awesome. Then we finished out the night with some tracting.
Saturday was great!! I loved General Conference so much!!! As we biked to Jeanne's we stopped by the house where we teach a bunch of little kids and made sure we reminded them about conference and then we went to Jeanne's house and watched the session with her. I absolutely loved the session and Jeanne did too. We then biked back to the kids and checked to see if they watched it and they did! or at least 45 minutes of it! We gave them their treat for finishing the bingo and had a little lesson with them and ate some pupusas that their mom cooked for us. Then we biked back to Jeanne's for the second session which was super good as well!!! We then biked back home to complete a total of 25 miles and man my butt was sore!! My legs were pretty tired too because when we are biking its not a casual ride, its a bike as fast as you can to get where you're going so we got like 5 solid 30 minute workouts in that day. We then grabbed a bit of food and left to Amelia. We had a good lesson with a Hispanic guy we had met before and come to find out he is a member! So that was cool, now we are helping him grow into the Gospel. We spent the rest of the night trying to visit people and talking to others.
Sunday was another Great Day of Conference! We set it all up at the church and we had Jeanne there with us, Brother Viator and Cody and Delmara's two boys which were a handful to take care of during that 2 hour session. We learned what it is like for parents and I realized a lot of skills and lessons I had learned with my own family and siblings that helped me better help the boys. We then had a short lesson with Jeanne, and then Cody came to pick up the boys and we talked with him for a while and then went inside and ate our lunch. We then had some difficulty locking the building up and barely made it to Anthony's office (another great guy we are teaching) to watch the Sunday afternoon session with him. That was a cool experience to watch it with him on his computer in his office. I absolutely loved conference and there were so so many good talks that taught me so much. There was a lot of talks on the Plan of Salvation and also taking upon us the Name of Christ oh and Repentance. Such wonderful guidance from our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ who truly is leading His church through Prophets and Apostles today. After conference we had a few good lessons with some people in Morgan City and then we went to the Seumanu's and they fed us steak and potatoes and rice and salad and it was a very good dinner which I enjoyed oh so thoroughly! It has been a great week and I am very excited for the next one, as we are to have a baptism for Jeanne this Saturday!!!

Love,
Elder Acton

Week 57 Zone Conference and a Sick Day

Monday, October 1st 2018

Dear Mom,

This last week was again full of some great experiences but also some not so great, regarding being sick for a day or so.
Monday was a good P-day, we were able to get most everything done that we needed to and then that night we had an appointment with a family and read scriptures with them and had a little FHE. Then we had a good lesson with one of the other people we have been teaching and ended the night.
Tuesday, we left early to go to Zone Conference and we stopped by a car wash to wash and vacuum out our car and then we went to the church there. It was a great Zone Conference and the night before I had been asked to a musical number by myself with Elder Cannon playing the piano. I had got Elder Brown to agree to sing "Love One Another" with me and then once there, in the moment, we were told that we were the first musical number to start off Zone Conference. Elder Brown almost didn't join me but I got him to join. It was pretty good for a "on-the-spot" song I guess. Then we had some great presentations. We also won the "Cleanest Car" award again!! MY 4th time in a row!!! Let's go!!! I was only able to spend like 15 minutes on the car this time but because Elder Brown and I had spent so much time on it last time, it was still really clean. Plus, I try to keep it clean. Anyway, I live for those $10 Subway gift cards that you get as a prize-lol! Then we got flu shot at lunch and I had very little time to eat so a few others and I had to slam our food down and we took a pic and sang for the people that prepared it for us. The  rest of Zone Conference was really good too and then afterward we had interviews with President Varner. It was fun to see other buddies at Zone Conference. While there for the rest of the night waiting for interviews, someone brought Elder Brown a Baleada (Honduran food) and he gave me half :) it was really good!! Then we started exchanges with the Thibodaux Elders and I went with Elder McRae and we drove back to Thibodaux, we grabbed some Wendy's on the way back.
Wednesday was not so great. I kind of don't like this day, lol. So, I woke up many times throughout the night a bit cold and my back and stomach hurt. At 5:00am I woke up and had to go the bathroom and from that point on I was not feeling good at all. I was throwing up and I had to use the toilet many a time. It was awful! I think I had a type of food poisoning form the Baleada that I ate. My part of the Baleada was the only part that had bones in it and the other two that ate it didn't have any problems, so it was hard to diagnose...I also might not have been used to that kind of food, though it wasn't very different than lots of Hispanic food I have eaten. Anyway form 5:00am until about 1:00pm was pretty brutal. After that it still sucked but it wasn't quite as bad. We tried to visit a few people that evening and we also had to clean out the back of the car. Elder McRae had accidentally popped the trunk instead of locking the car the night before and it was open all night. It rained super hard early that morning and so the back of the car got soaked. We pulled out the hard flooring and let that dry on the porch and then we scooped the water out from where the spare tire is and we dried the rest. It was a chore. Then later that night we drove back down to Morgan City. Throughout all day I had eaten a little cup of applesauce at like 2:00pm and then I ate about 10 tiny bites of red beans and rice that evening around 7:30pm and that was all I ate for the day. I did drink lots of water to try and flush the sickness and contaminants out of my body as the mission nurse said to do. Then we got to Morgan city, switched back our comps and I still felt pretty grody. Elder Cannon then gave me a blessing, I took some Ibuprofen and drank a bunch more water and went to bed.
Thursday, I woke up and felt almost 100% better which was awesome. Even at this point though, I can't eat a ton without feeling "bleh" still. I generally felt better and now I am feeling great again but if I eat a semi large meal it hurts my stomach a bit and makes me feel a slight bit nauseous which is weird. It is slowly getting better each time I eat though. Super weird experience. So Thursday morning we did our studies, had lunch and then we went tracting. We ended up tracting a pretty well off neighborhood and surprisingly we were able to talk to at least a few people, lol. One lady said she was the cleaner for the family that lived there and this was one of the sibling's houses, she also cleaned the other sibling's houses and the mother's house and they were all really nice houses. We decided to start offering people a song when we knock on their door to invite the spirit and it has been great. We sang her a song and a bit later she let us in this person's house for a moment. It was super nice!!! Then we later went tracting some more. It started to rain so we put our stuff in our bags and tracted a few more doors. We got wet as usual but it wasn't real bad. Then it started down pouring!!! We had to walk a few blocks back to our bikes and we got absolutely soaked. I am glad my bag is waterproof cuz I just put everything in it and then I didn't care at that point, lol. We were as soaked as if you jumped into a pool fully clothed. My shoes were completely full of water and at that point we stopped caring about trying to avoid all the flooded areas. We got on our bikes and rode to our next appointment. Still raining, completely soaked, but now were getting muddy(I don't have mud guards for my bike)I am fine with getting wet but getting mud on my shirts stinks. It is hard to get out sometimes. It was nice that we weren't having to deal with the heat anymore though! It was almost even cold!! I loved it!!! It was actually quite fun and we probably looked funny as we laughed and smiled while getting drenched. We then came home and changed. Elder Cannon had a pink sticky note in his pocket...it stained all his clothes pink...We then drove over to have a lesson with Jeanne and it was great. We then tried to see some people and then we went to the church for a family history night activity. We had some investigators come and it was a great activity. We then went to see some other people and then came home.
Friday, we had our studies and lunch and then we did our weekly planning. We then went to some appointments but they fell through so we biked to our next appointment and barely made it before the rain, we were booking it to get there before the downpour. We then had a great lesson. After the lesson we came home and grabbed some dinner since our dinner appointment fell through.  They sent us some pizza instead so we waited for that to arrive. Had a piece and then left to Morgan City to do some tracting. We continued to offer a song to people when we knocked on their door and it worked really well. It brings in the spirit so well and we were able to have two great lessons at the first two houses we knocked. Then we saw a young boy who had been baptized a year ago but hasn't been to church since I've been here and he was super awesome!! Such a great kid! Then we tracted for the rest of the night and most people were kind cranky.
Saturday, after our studies we went to a family whose kids we are teaching and read the story of Ammon with them and their mother fed us pupusas again and they were so good!!! They were pupusas de chicharron and they gave us little tin orange chili peppers which were pretty hot. They said they were super super hot and I was proud to be able to eat 3 of them and not die-lol! It wasn't too bad with the cabbage and onion stuff that we eat the pupusas with. Then we tracted for a while and found two new people to teach and then we biked over to Jeanne's and then we biked the 7.5 miles back home and ate some dinner and then left to Amelia. We visited some people in Amelia and then tracted the rest of the night.
Sunday was a pretty good Sunday, Cody and his family weren't able to make it to church because their tire popped on the highway, which was sad. We did have the young guy, who was baptized a year ago, come with his sister and friend-which was awesome! Then after church we had some appointments fall through so we tracted for a couple hours, it rained but luckily we didn't get too wet. That was a hard two hours of tracting, I'll admit. Then we came home ate our Fast Sunday dinner of pizza and then we went to Morgan City, had a good lesson or two and tracted a bit and we drove over and then biked around. Then we came home. It was a week full of highs and lows and lots of good experiences.

Love,
Elder Acton

Zone Conference

Pupusas

Elder McRae's "water-logged" car

More Biking

Week 56 Exchanges and a BAPTISM!!

Monday, September 24th 2018

Dear Mom,

So this week has been a crazy ish week but it has been super awesome!!
Monday, we worked out for a bit, made some breakfast.  We made German Pancakes from a mix and it was a bit different than what we were used to. It called for brown sugar and had you put it in the bottom with the melted butter. That was kinda interesting. It was super gooey and basically turned into a hard candy bottom as it cooled. The pancakes were still good though. We went to the car dealership to have our car get an alignment and maintenance/repairs it needed but they said to come back after 1:00 so we went and emailed and then got our groceries. We dropped our groceries off at home and then made it back to the dealership at 2 ish and they worked on our car until a bit after 5:00. We used our phones to finish our emailing while there. Then we came home had a quick dinner and then went to a lesson with Alejandra at the church which went very well. She is so awesome! Then we went to contact some referrals that we had received and we met one lady and she is the best. We then tried to visit some other people and then returned home.
Tuesday we left in the morning and drove up to Kenner for a doctor's appointment for Elder Cannon and then we drove to the church building there and while the two districts that met there for district council were in district council, we did our studies. Then after they ended we went with one of the districts to get lunch at the mall and we got Subway. Then Elder Cannon went with Elder Hendry (one of the Zone Leaders) and I went with Elder Jex (the other Zone Leader). We dropped off some other Elders at their apartments (since Elder Jex drives a van, he is the taxi for the other Elders who are biking.) Then Elder Jex and I, and Elder Sorenson and Elder Fraiser(the companions of Elder Jex and Elder Hendry) went back to the Tulane apartment (Jex's) and got things set up and then Elder Jex and I left and walked down the street to visit someone and then we walked a couple blocks away to tract. Elder Sorenson and Fraiser rode their bikes to another part of the area to do work. We then walked back to the apartments. I put in some loads of laundry while at their pad so that we didn't have to pay to wash our clothes. We went over some forms that we needed to fill out and then later we went to Costco to get some food and Elder Jex paid for me because it is is tradition to buy dinner for his comp on exchanges, so that was super awesome! We then went to go see an investigator but she wasn't there. We realized at that moment that we hadn't taken a phone into the shop to get fixed like we were supposed to so we then booked it back to the other side of New Orleans to the phone repair place. We were just in time with 5 minutes to spare. We then went to the church and parked the car. We tracted for the 30 minutes we had before ward correlation meeting. We again had no luck, there wasn't anywhere for us to tract but next to the church and all the houses there are huge!!! The church is located on Saint Charles St. New Orleans and it isn't super big but that street is so famous that it cost a lot to put the church there. That church is the most expensive normal church building of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the world. Super cool. We had ward correlation and the ward mission leader, who often isn't able to come due to super busy work, came that night, lucky me. I was lucky because their ward mission leader is Taysom Hill who plays for the Saints as the second string quarter back. He also played for BYU for a while. So that was pretty cool to meet him. Then after correlation, we came back home.
Wednesday, we got up and got ready and had breakfast and I packed all my stuff again and we left to the apartment where Elder Cannon and Elder Hendry were. Then Elder Cannon and I drove back down to Houma and we had our District Council. It was a good one and then we all got lunch at Sam's Club. We then drove back to Morgan City and did some studies, knocked some doors, and then had a good lesson with Cody and Delmara and their fam. Their boys set October 13 as the date to be baptized. Then we had a quick dinner and went to the church for another good lesson with Alejandra. After that we knocked some more doors and then we went to Jeanne's(the super awesome lady we met on Monday) and sister Graham came with us and we had a super awesome lesson. After that lesson we went to see someone we started teaching a bit ago who was super awesome but we hadn't been able to contact in a while. He said he didn't want to be taught any more and it was sad because we couldn't see that light and glow that he had in his eyes before. Satan works so hard to break us down when we start coming closer to Christ and it is so sad to see people give in and give up. We then knocked doors for the rest of the night and talked to people on the street.
Thursday, we did our studies and had lunch and then we rode our bikes over to Jeanne's house. It took us about 35 minutes at our fastest speed. Sister Seumanu met us there and we had another really good lesson with Jeanne. Then we tracted the area and we didn't have much luck but we did meet an old Russian guy with an 18 year old goose, so that was cool! We then rode back, had a couple appointments fall through and then we grabbed a bit to eat and then we drove over to some trailer parks and tracted for the evening. We talked to a fair amount of people, had some great lessons, taught a bunch of little kids which was fun and found a new person to teach.
Friday, we took our car in to the dealership again so they could finish what they needed to get done. We were expecting to be picked up and taken to some service but it got cancelled so we decided to run home for some exercise. It was a humid run and it was harder because we were in jeans, I was in carharts. Also we had to dodge all the spiders on the trail again...I had a close call and I almost ran right into one of the huge webs with those big spiders on it. We got to the apartment and realized that our key was still with the other keys at the dealership. We were super exhausted from running and we couldn't escape the heat. Luckily a member was near and was able to bring us our key. We then got ready for the day and did our studies and then had lunch and did our weekly planning. Then we had a good lesson with a couple that we are teaching and after that we had a great mini lesson with Cody. Then we drove to the church and we met Elder Jex and Elder Sorenson there, as well as Alejandra, for her baptismal interview. Then we cleaned the font a bit and prepared it for the baptism. We then drove to Franklin to try and visit some people there. We would drive along the main road that went through Franklin and whenever there was someone who lived further off the main road we would park and then ride our bikes to save miles. We met some cool people and found 2 new people to teach. One lady we found, was super interested and when I said the Holy Ghost she said "You just said the magic word, if there is anything I want, it is to receive the Holy Ghost before I die." Elder Cannon then told here that we can tell her exactly how she can do that. needless to say she is now scheduled to be baptized within a few weeks. I hope that she will be able to continue to progress towards that goal. Then we came home and on the way stopped by the Seumanu's to pick up some pizza they got for us.
Saturday, we went to the Library at 9:00 and made the baptismal program for Alejandra. Then we went to visit some people and we went to a family who we had met Thursday and we taught the kids again and they remembered so much from the first time and then the Mom gave us some papusas, which were super good!! After that we went to the church and started filling up the font and then left to visit someone else. We read with Phi and helped him understand the scriptures more and showed him how to pray. Then we came back to the church and printed the programs and did last preparations for the baptism. The Baptism started at 2 and it was awesome!!! Elder Cannon translated the whole thing sentence by sentence cause half of the people were English speaking half were Spanish speaking. It was such an amazing experience to be able to be the one that baptized her! Especially after teaching her the whole time and seeing her progress. We also had Jeanne come to the baptism and there were lots of other friends of Alejandra who came to support her which was awesome. After the baptism we had tamales and lots of food. I ate 7 tamales and they were so good. After the baptism we had some lessons that were pretty good and then we left to Amelia and visited people there. One of the families we visited gave us food again which we weren't expecting and it was delicious! I stuffed myself so full!!! I felt awful.
Sunday, we got a ride to church and we brought our bikes because we are low on miles. We had 5 people that we teach come to church and it was a great day of meetings. After church we had branch council and then we biked to our next appointment in our suit pants, we left our coats with some members. We got rained on a bit while biking. We had another good lesson with the kids we have been teaching and then we came home, studied a bit, ate some food and then left on our bikes again. We talked to so many people that were just outside and after about an hour and 15 minutes we only made it halfway down the street. We then went to an area and tracted for a bit, and then biked over the sketchy bridge into Morgan City and to our dinner appointment with the Viators and Jeanne. We had spaghetti and then a good lesson with Jeanne afterwards. Then President Viator gave us a ride home.
This week has been crazy and a lot has happened but I have loved it and it has been super awesome! And this next week we have Zone Conference!

Love,
Elder Acton

Our Russian friend and his 18 year old goose

 Biking. . .Missionary Style

Elder Cannon found a street sign 

with his name on it :-)

Alejandra's Baptism

(First baptism of my mission)

Week 55 Rain, Rain, and More Rain

Monday, September 17, 2018

Dear Mom,

This week has been a good week and there have been some ups and downs between finding awesome people to teach and having people yell at us and other people not wanting us to teach them anymore.
So last week I wasn't able to finish writing about the whole week so I'll include Sunday in this week:)

Sunday, we had an investigator come to church and he love it and was able to feel the spirit strongly. there was also a lot of Hispanic members who came which was awesome to have them all there. The members helped Wesley, our investigator, feel great and very welcome and the Seumanu family invited him to watch the youth devotional/face-to-face with them at the church that evening. We had Branch Council after church and then went to 3-4 appointments but they all fell through, so we did some tracting and then came back home and ate some dinner. We then drove to Amelia and we had multiple appointments there that fell through as well so we ended up tracting for the rest of the night. WE met two new people to teach and they are an awesome couple. They also offered to feed us dinner Thursday, which was super awesome! We met another cool guy to teach and then later we talked to some people at an authentic Mexican food truck and they gave us each a free Mexican Soda call Jarritos. They were really good.
Monday was an alright P-day. In the morning I cleaned for a while, had breakfast, and then cleaned for a couple more hours. We then went to Subway for lunch which was really good plus, I had a Subway Gift Card so I technically wasn't even having to spend my money. Then we went to the library and emailed for a little. We left the Library after just a little bit and went to the laundromat or "Washateria" as they call it down here and we put in our loads of laundry. We left it there as we went to Walmart to get our groceries and then we came back and switched it over to the dryers. I tried to finish my emailing on my phone while there but wasn't able to. Then that evening we tracted for a while. We walked with a nice lady that was out for an evening walk/exercise and we ended up on the other side of Berwick and then had to walk back to our car. We knocked doors on our way back and found a new guy to teach.
Tuesday we tracted in Morgan City and it poured rain on us. Luckily most houses had porch roofs so we didn't have to stand in the rain while at the door and there was a guy that we were able to talk to for a bit near the end of the storm til it stopped. We did get soaked from walking from one door to the next though. Later we met a super cool guy who was very happy to see us. We almost didn't knock his door because the front door was blocked by a metal gate at the entry way of it. Luckily, we noticed his garage door was available. The spirit was very strong during our conversation and lesson with him and he pointed it out many times. We later returned to Berwick and went to some appointments at the trailer park across the main road from near where we live. Not many of them actually worked out so we did some tracting in between. We were able to have a good lesson and get to know a guy we had met before and his wife. They are an awesome couple; he is a Cajun guy if you ever did see one and she is Mexican so they told us about when they cook and how they often get a mix between good Cajun food and good Mexican food. They are awesome. We then sat down with another older couple and had a type of lesson with them, he constantly made rude side comments which wasn't very cool, but we had quite the question and answer type of lesson. Then right before we came home we saw the dog of a member and we helped her know where to find it as it had got out and run off.
Wednesday, we had District Meeting in Houma as usual, and then we went to Sam's Club for lunch. We then came back to Berwick and had a great lesson with Lewis and Miriam, our Cajun and Mexican friends :) We later went to the church and had a lesson with Alejandra and we ended up moving the baptism to the next Saturday so that it will work better. WE were going to have a dinner with Wesley and the Seumanus at the church afterward but Wesley wasn't able to do it that day so it got moved to Friday. The Seumanus still had us over for dinner though which was nice of them. After dinner we went to tract where we had decided to go earlier but felt we should go to some trailers instead so we went there. We had a fair amount of rejections and then in the last 15 minutes we met a real cool dude that we are able to teach.
Thursday we had our studies and then tracted for a few hours. We went over to Delmara and Cody's and they were doing a deep clean of their apartment with their neighbors (cousins) help and his mom's help and we joined in with them and helped them take out trash and put clothes and stuff in the cars and move furniture and then we had a small lesson with Cody and then a lesson with his cousin Adrian. We then came home, grabbed a quick bite to eat and left to Amelia. Again many of our appointments fell through, these people are very busy and their schedules are crazy so it is hard to have solid appointments with them. We did some more tracting and it poured on us again. We met an interesting girl who we had a lesson with and she talked about some very strange views on what is going to happen in these last days and stuff. She talked to us about how she can read minds and stuff, nice girl but she had some interesting thoughts. Later we were able to have a good lesson with a guy we had met last week and then we came home.
Friday morning we went to the Seumanu's and got a ride with Brother Seumanu to a single sister in the branch whom we help mow her yard. We got there and someone had already done it, some guy she had paid to do a different job around the house and he had mowed the lawn too. We talked with her for quite a while and she showed us some other things that needed to be done. We then went back to the Seumanu's and they fed us breakfast, and they were some really good waffles. We then came home and did some studying and our weekly planning before we left to Morgan City to an appointment we had. The guy was super busy and didn't have time, he seemed like a completely different guy than the one he was when we first met him. We then talked to some Hispanic ladies at a a yard sale and their husbands when they showed up later. Then we talked to a cool guy as he was cleaning his crawfish boil catering supplies and stuff. We then came back to the trailers near our apartment and we tracted some  more there. We had a brief lesson with one of our investigators, found a new guy to teach who is a super awesome dude and then we went to our dinner appointment with the Seumanus and Wesley. Sadly we tried to cal Wesley and he forward our calls and also the Seumanus. We went to his house to see if was still wanting to come and to see what was up but he wasn't there. On the way we did see a guy we had taught and given a Book of Mormon, walking on the road and we noticed he was holding the Book of Mormon in his hand. We later drove the path we thought he would have walked and found him still walking. We stopped and we were able to talk to him for a bit and provide more counsel and comfort as he shared some of his struggles with us. He has read half the Book of Mormon though so that was cool. We then went back to the Seumanu's and had dinner with them. We then went to a lesson that we had scheduled with an investigator and a member met us there, but sadly they didn't answer and we ended up tracting for the rest of the night.
Saturday, I had a good exercise and I'll be honest, I haven't done a decent leg workout in a while so after I did a good one on Saturday, I was super sore and I still am, lol. I did some cleaning for a bit that needed to get done and then we did our studies, had lunch, and then did some more weekly planning. We then had a good lesson with one of our investigators and then all our appointments that day moved later to about 5:00pm and others moved up to about 5:00pm, but the earlier ones were here in Berwick and Patterson and the later ones were in Amelia. It was a struggle to be able to work those all out to where we could get to all of them. we somehow did and some of them were short but they were all really good lessons. In Amelia, we had dinner and a good lesson with some investigators. They made some really good Mole (Mo-Lay), a Mexican dish-chicken with a type of spicy chocolate sauce and rice. We then tried to visit a bunch of other people there and we were able to have a  good lesson with another family. They invited us to come over for dinner next Thursday and they are going to make a Honduran dish called Baleadas. I've never tried it before but apparently it's really good! It is funny, at this trailer park in Amelia, halfway down it at 8:45 at night as we were walking through, on one side there was a Hispanic fiesta going on with loud music and stuff and then on the other side there was a Vietnamese get together thing going on with their loud music and lights. It was awesome, so many different kind of things going on.
Sunday, I gave a talk on small and simple things, I got asked Saturday night. Then we were in youth class helping them practice for their missions. After church we came home and had lunch and did some studying and then we went to an appointment but he wasn't home yet so we tracted and then we went to a part-member family and had a lesson with them. We watched the Restoration video, which always brings in the spirit so well. We then did more tracting and there was a huge thunder storm with super loud thunder and lightening every few seconds. But luckily, it didn't rain. We then went and had dinner with the Grahams and then tracted for the rest of the night. One lady yelled at us and actually tried to come push us away. . .it was an interesting night. Well it's been a good week, until next week!

Love,
Elder Acton

MORE RAIN!!

District Lunch

Week 54 Transfers

Monday, September 10, 2018

Dear Mom,

This week has been a good week full of different experiences and I probably won't be able to explain them all, which will be hard. I will try to share most though!
Tuesday, we emailed with the other Elders at their library and then we went to Sams Club and we got some pizza for lunch. Then Elder Brown and I drove to the church and met the Sisters and other Elders there. Later Elder Brown and I drove back home so that he could say goodbye to some people. We said bye to the part-member family that lives next to us and then we had dinner with the Grahams that evening.
Wednesday, we woke up and got headed out around 8:30 to be in Denham Springs for transfers. We drove up there and it was great to see a bunch of other buddies from my past areas and to reunite with them. We were there for about a half hour or so. We got Elder Brown's stuff transferred out of our car and into another and then Elder Cannon's stuff into our car. We got Elder Cannon settled in a little bit and then we planned our day. We basically had dinner at 5:00 and tracting for the rest of the time before and after. We set a goal for 5 new contacts for the day and then hit the pavement. We found some awesome people in the first area we were at and then after dinner we found another in the next area we were at. The sun went down at like 8:00 and we started biking home at 9:00 and on the way we ran into a bunch more spiders on the Berwick bike trail again. (Elder Brown and I had had this issue before). It is always crazy how many spiders there are and how big they are!!! They are as big as my palm and the web is as big as my body! And there are many many many of them on the trail. We had to walk our bikes and shine our phone lights so that we wouldn't run into them. So we decided that in order to get home on time we would pop up to the road. For the day, we found 6 new people to teach and it was a good day of tracting. I'll be honest, it was a long last hour but it was a great day.
Thursday we went for a run 10 minutes out from the pad and then 10 minutes back, which was a good run but honestly a bit difficult. Then that morning we had some real good studies and for breakfast we had hashbrowns and eggs with japenos. We had our lunch which was a bowl of noodles type shrimp ramen for me and then we did our weekly planning. We then went to an appointment but they weren't there so we went to our other appointment early and had a good Spanish lesson with him. He left to get his daughter from school for a bit so we waited and talked to a few people in between and then resumed when he returned. We then went to Delmara and Cody's (the part-member family we are teaching) and we had a good little lesson with them on the Plan of Salvation. It is a little difficult to keep the two boys reigned in during the lesson but it was good. We then came home and had some dinner and we made some mashed potatoes and also and egg scramble with sausage. Then we headed out to Amelia to do some tracting there. There are a lot of Hispanics who live there and it was our goal to find 3 new Spanish people to teach. We found a trailer park that looked like a good place to tract and we started there. We met a lot of awesome people and had some great lessons. We probably talked to like 2-3 people in English that night, the rest were Hispanic and/or Vietnamese. It got dark at like 7:50 and we both felt like the next hour was going to be long and it was going to be a hard night. We did our best to work hard and have fun though. Right near the end of the night, we had made it all the way down one side of the trailer park and to the back close to the forest and swampy areas. When we got to the second to last trailer or so we saw a spooky building with a Swastika on it and we both got insane chills and we were for sure a bit freaked out, Lol. We checked it out a bit and it just got more freaky. It had Vietnamese writing on the front and inside there were Buddha type dolls in the back of a room that were lit up with creepy looking lights and stuff. We moved on, it was really dark outside which did  not help the matter one bit. The whole place was a bit spooky at night, real quiet, super dark, in an area surrounded by trees and tall grass/swampy areas. We then passed an abandoned trailer overgrown with brush and stuff, at least we assumed it was abandoned and didn't dare make our way back there to knock on it in the dark. We knocked the last trailer and had a great lesson with two guys there. It was a crazy night with some chills and stuff but we came away with nine new Spanish people to teach which was awesome!! We then drove home and made it home by 9:30.
Friday was pretty crazy too but an all around good day. We biked the Berwick trail for 30 minutes in the morning for exercise. We had a good personal study and then left to go to District Meeting. We had a great District Meeting and I was in charge of the role play and we did door approach practices. We then at the end had cake and sang Happy Birthday to Sister Pfeiffer. then we all drove to a place called  Bake your Pie, or something like that, it was basically like a subway for pizzas which was really good! Then Elder Cannon and I picked up some stuff at Wal-Mart that had been ordered and was ready for pick-up (thanks mom & dad) and then we came home and did a language study in the car on the way back home. On the way the clouds looked super ominous and really dark in the direction we were going. It later started to pour  down on us and I had to slow from 76 mph to 60 mph so that we could at least somewhat see the road. We hydroplaned a lot and it was very difficult to see the road but at 60 it wasn't quite as bad. I am glad to have lots of experience with driving in snow and hydroplaning at home and also many times on my mission so that I know how to drive in it-otherwise it would be pretty freaky, lol. We then got back to Morgan City and went to some appointments, but they fell through. It wasn't raining quite as hard anymore so it wasn't awful for tracting so we stared knocking doors. We got to know some awesome people and they knew some members of the church and held them in very high respects which was cool. With one guy, we are going to hopefully attend his church at 7 with him and then ours at 9 with him. We later got to know some other really cool people and it was interesting to learn a bit about them and their life. We had a great lesson with him and his husband. We then tracted some more and then came home and had some dinner. We then went to the church and had a great lesson with Alejandra and scheduled stuff for her baptism on Saturday the 15th. We then went and tracted a street and on this particular street we met many very interesting people. We also met someone who seems to be dealing with some inner  conflicts and we taught him a bit and then continued knocking. We both felt we did some real good with him. Then as we were leaving in our car, he was in the street and we stopped next to him and he started asking us to come back. We both had a weird feeling like he was maybe trying to get us inside and we felt a little spooked. He then shared some things with us and I made eye contact with him and the spirit hit me hard and I felt as if he was truly asking for help. The rest of the night we felt weird and it was interesting. Later we went to tract another street and met a man walking by as we were knocking doors. We talked to him and had a great lesson with him and he said this is what he has been missing. We knocked some more and then came home.
Saturday we had some good studies in the morning and then went to tract a bit in a trailer park nearby. We met some more great people and had some good lessons. Then we went back to the guy we met the night before who gave us some weird spooky feelings and we gave him a blessing which helped him. I hope he acts in faith and reads the scriptures and prays so that he can overcome his struggles. We then came home and had some lunch. After that we went to the part-member family who lives near us and had a little scripture read with them. We then tracted some more and this time even though we tracted for a while, had dinner, tracted more until 9:00, we only found one person who we could teach.
Well, I don't have any more time today for emailing so I will have to include Sunday with next week. Until then!!

Love,
Elder Acton

Stormy Skies

The trailer park where we were tracting

I'm definitely in the South-lol!

My new comp, Elder Cannon and

the "spooky" building

Week 53 Year Mark

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Dear Mom,

This last week was a pretty good one and as you know, I hit my year mark!! So crazy!

Monday we had P-day in Morgan City. The Thibodaux Elders came down and spent it with us. In the morning we went to email and then later the other Elders showed up and we played some games and Elder brown cut Elder Davis' hair. Then we started exchanges and Elder Brown left with Elder McRae back to Thibodaux for an appointment and Elder Davis and I went to the church for an appointment. We met a young girl we are teaching and her parents there and had a good lesson. We then came home and had dinner.
Tuesday we went on our morning bike ride for a warm up exercise and then we both did a hard workout at our apartment and then had breakfast and got ready for our day. We got out into the neighborhoods a bit throughout the day, talked to some of our investigators and then that evening some members from Thibodaux came down and took us out to dinner which was awesome. It was kind of an expensive place but it had really good food. I had a shrimp po-boy with fries and there were complimentary dinner roles which were really good, and you already know I took advantage of those :)
Wednesday we drove up to Houma for District Meeting which was really good. Wednesday was also my year mark so that was awesome! I had the lesson for the meeting and we were able to get a really good discussion going on and it was awesome. Then after District Council we went to lunch at Raising Canes for my year mark celebration. I love the food there so much! Then we went back to Thibodaux and I did my laundry. I wasn't able to do it P-day because the members that usually allow us to do it at their house weren't home and we didn't have money to pay for it. After that, Elder Brown and I came back home did some work and then had dinner at the pad that evening.
Thursday we did our morning exercise and workout and then later did our studies. Our appointment feel through and no one else let us in or wanted to talk to us that day. We then came back and had dinner at the pad again.
Friday was alright. We did our exercise and I was really sore that day but it was a good workout. Elder Brown made us a really good breakfast scramble and that was awesome. We did our studies and weekly planning and then frustrating enough our appointment fell through again for that day too. It was almost a duplicate of Thursday. We did get some pizza dropped off to us from a part member family so that was cool.
Saturday was a bit interesting. We exercised and got ready and stuff and then drove into Morgan City to a park for a birthday party, but they weren't there. We found out they decided to move it til later that evening. So we came back and walked to an investigators house cuz he said we could come over and have a lesson. It started to sprinkle as we were walking and we could see in the distance that it was raining harder. Then we noticed it started to pour super hard in the distance. And we watched it come our way, we were right outside the apartments on the street and it started to rain a bit harder on us and it was slowly increasing as we got to the apartments and went up the stairs, enough to put a little hustle into our steps. We knocked on the door and the kids came to the door and then said that he said come back in an hour cuz he still had to go pick someone up first. So we ended up just waiting outside his door for the rain to stop and it continued to downpour for 45 minutes. He still hadn't left to go pick the person up so we walked back to our apartment and then we went to the birthday party. It was a Hispanic party and they were having a great time. They had a really good Taquero, where someone is cooking meat and there are really good taco fixins and it was really good.

Sunday morning it was raining pretty hard again, it had rained all night too. We got to church and there was only the Branch Presidency there and for a while it looked like there was only going to be 6 of us but then a couple families showed up late and we were full again. It was a great Fast and Testimony meeting. Later that day we went to a part member family's house and taught them a lesson and it was really good. They asked a lot of questions and were really engaged. We then came home and had dinner.
Monday morning Cody, one of our investigators in the part member family, came and dropped off more pizza for us which was super awesome. That afternoon we went over to their house and Elder Brown gave the two boys, who we are also teaching, haircuts. Then we drove up to Thibodaux that evening and had dinner with them and some members and then spent the night for P-day today.
It has been a good week and this one I hope will be great. I will be staying in Morgan City and I will be getting and Elder Cannon. Elder Brown will be leaving me which is really sad cause we got along really well and we only had one transfer together and it was really short one.
Until next week!!

Love,
Elder Acton

Week 52 Feelin' Good

Monday, August 27, 2018

Dear Mom,

This last week has been a pretty darn good one and it has been fun.

Monday we did our emailing and then went up to Houma with the Thibodaux Elders. We played basketball for a while and then some youth and a young couple came and we all played games and it was a lot of fun. We then went to their house nad played Clue with them and did some of our laundry. Then we went to the Thibodaux Elder's pad and finished our laundry there.
Tuesday we weren't able to do much which stunk. We tried to visit some people but didn't have much luck.
Wednesday we biked around a big loop trail near our house which was fun and it was nice to ride the bike again. We then went back to Houma for District Meeting and the Zone leaders came which was fun. We also had the Sisters back, one had gone home so the other went into a trio in New Orleans and now she is back with another sister so that made for a good and also fun District Meeting. We then all went and got lunch together at Sam's Club and one of the other Elders bought my comp and I a pizza to share with him, which was nice of him. Then we came back to MO City and that evening we tried to visit some people but none answered. We then before we went back, we biked the rest of the trailer park to check it out and then we came home.
Thursday for our morning exercise we biked again. We decided to check out a trail by a ditch/canal in the trees/woods. It was just like a grass road next to the canal and it was a bit muddy and wet so we decided to go back to the loop trail. But while we were on the trail in the trees, we saw some HUGE spiders!!!  They are called Banana Spiders as a nickname or a Golden Orb Weaver. The first one was the size of our palms and it was low and close to the trail and Elder Brown almost ran into it and freaked out and it was hilarious!!! Then later we saw one higher up and it was about the size of our whole hand!!! They are so stinking big!! It was kinda cool though. We then did a ride around the loop and came home and then did a workout with the weights at our pad. We had breakfast and got ready then we did our studies and it was really nice to be able to have a more organized day and really dig into some studying. I love the Book of Mormon so much! So much to learn from it and it has been blessed with a  special power that can give us the strength we need to overcome so many things. That evening we went out on bikes again and tried to visit some other people.
Friday we biked for exercise again and then came back and worked out at the pad. We had our studies again and we did our weekly planning and planned out how we were going to best utilize our miles and who we could go visit and so on. We then rode our bikes to the other side of Berwick and visited some people over there. We had one guy drive up next to us and ask us to meet him off the side of the road a bit ahead at his friend's house so we could talk. He had alot of questions and they were all in a tone of dislike towards us but we answered them and had quite a good convo with him and we left it on a good note. Then on our way back after visiting some others, we were stopped in the middle of the road again by another person who asked us for a Book of Mormon and a Bible which was cool. Then we came back and ate some dinner and then went to an appointment and we taught a fun little lesson to a 9 year old girl we are working with. We used the 5 steps to Heaven activity, which worked really well.
Saturday we biked and then I did a hard workout at the pad which I have really missed doing in a long time. We had some really good studies and lunch and we then rode our bikes over the bridge to Morgan City to do some work over there. We had to first ride to the bridge and then hike our bikes up the 3 flights of stairs or so and then ride them across the super skinny side of the bridge for walking and then back down the stairs. While we were doing work in Morgan City, it started to rain so we decided to take that time to go pressure wash our bikes at the car wash, like we had planned, to get the mud off them. While we were there it picked up and started pouring really hard. We put all our stuff, everything we had except our tags, into my bag cause it is waterproof and once it slowed a little for a moment we booked it to a member's house. We didn't know exactly how to get there from where we were so we guessed a direction and miraculously ended up being exactly where we needed to be with the exception of a few short turns on streets that could have been a bit faster. While on our way it picked up again and drenched us, it was cool rain and felt really good though so we looked at that as the bright side, cuz we weren't really hot anymore, LOL. We waited the storm out at the Grahams house and then we rode back home for dinner that night, but we stopped by a few people to visit on our way. We did get a return appointment which was nice.
Sunday we had a member pick us up for church so we didn't have to use miles. We had a good sacrament meeting and good talks from some Stake Leaders. Then we hit 2 birds with one stone and while the  young girl and her family were there for church, we taught her a lesson. then after church we had Branch council and then we went to a part member family's house and had a lesson with them and answered a lot of their questions. Then the husband gave us a ride to Morgan City where we attended a Hispanic family birthday party. We had some really good food. Then a guy there that Elder Brown knew from his last area, gave us a ride to a member's house for dinner and games. Then Brother Graham gave us a ride home.
It has been a good week and I am excited for this one as well. Until next week!

Love,
Elder Acton

Fun with the district

One of the HUGE spiders we saw on

our bike ride along the Berwick Trail

New Haircut

It's pouring!!

Week 51 Zone Conference and Exchanges

Monday, August 20, 2018

Dear Mom,

This week has been pretty good. We had Zone Conference which was really good and I got to briefly see New Orleans.
Monday we emailed and then went up to Houma with the other Elders and Sisters for a District P-day. We played some basketball and stuff. That night we came back and went to a member's house and did our laundry.
Tuesday we had Zone Conference, we got up and left early to be up in Metairie, near New Orleans, by 9:00am. We did our car inspections and stuff and then we started Zone Conference and it was really good. We were able to meet a lot of other Missionaries in the mission that haven't met yet since the merge happened. After lunch Elder brown and I did a musical number. We were asked to do one just 3 days before so we didn't have much time to practice but we came up with a song. We sang "Se Tu Mi Vision", "Be Thou My Vision" in Spanish. We sang the Evan Craft version of it and we dropped it to a B key and changed it slightly. It turned out ok, it wasn't as good as we wanted it to be but we only had like 2 days to prepare so it was alright. The rest of Zone Conference was good too, we received some good info about how we are to become one as our missions merge. After Zone Conference we went to a part member family's house that Elder brown knew from when he served up here. Then we came back to the church for his bike and then we went to New Orleans and went to Costco. There were no Costco stores in Mississippi and there are only a select few in Louisiana. There are Walmart Sam's Clubs down here instead but Costco is so much better. It is like Gold to be able to go there. We got some nice Costco pants and got some provolone sandwiches and that was amazing! I haven't had one of those in forever. Then we went to Thibodaux and we started exchanges, so I then drove Elder McRae and I back to Morgan City.
Wednesday we did our workout and studies and then we spent a couple hours knocking on church doors and offering service to them. There were a few that were there in the office and one of them let us in out of the rain and talked to us for a good 40 minutes or so. We were able to share with her what we do and everything. She was a really nice lady. We then grabbed some dinner at Wendy's, their 4 for 4 menu is amazing for missionaries! Then we went tracting and we knocked out about 3 or 4 streets and we were able to give out a few cards but didn't have much more luck than that. We then dropped off a bag of kids clothes from a member to a part member family that we are working with, She was very appreciative of that.
Thursday we did our studies and then drove up to Houma and we met the Thibodaux Elders and Houma Sisters at a place called Peppers Pizzaria for a last hoorah lunch for Sister Pike because she was having to go home because of anxiety. We were proud of her though because most don't last as long as she did. We ended our exchanges then too.
Friday we did our weekly planning and made plans for how we would stay within our mile allotment and still best visit those who we need to go see. We also had another really good lesson with Alejandra and we taught her the Plan of Salvation and used a white board to make a big diagram of it. She is so awesome. She is 9 years old and she understands what we teach really well and she was able to teach it back to us.
Saturday morning we rode our bikes to a member's house and he drove us to an older lady's house and we did a service project for her. It was us and Brother Albert (an older guy) and Brother Graham and we tore out an old rotten deck and then an old shed as well. There were lots of bugs and stuff in all of that; termites, cockroaches, lots of different weird spiders, and many many others and it had oh so conveniently poured down rain right before so that was awesome. . .It was good though and we got it done pretty quick.
Sunday was great! We had a couple investigators at church and the meetings were good. I also gave a talk and I was right before the High Councilman. I chose to talk about sharing the Gospel and Christ's Labor of Love and then after me, the High Councilman spoke and his talk was preaching the gospel and our talks were like perfectly hand in hand which was really cool. Afterward he came up to me and talked about that and how his topic is chosen and planned out at the beginning of the year so the fact that I had spoken on the exact same thing and referenced many of the same things as he did was really cool and it put a big emphasis on it. After church we had lunch with the Viators, the Branch President's family. And kind of a branch correlation with him afterward which was much needed and very helpful. Then we later had dinner with the Graham and played some games with their family.

It has been a pretty good week with a great Zone Conference. I look forward to this next week as we have some good plans for this week to be able to better do missionary work in this area. Until next week!

Love,
Elder Acton