Dear Mom,
This week was good, not much success but we are still looking forward.
Monday I cleaned in the morning and then we had a District P-day and the Thibodaux Elders and the Houma Sisters came down to Morgan City and Elder Brown made enchiladas for all of us for lunch. Then we all played softball with the Seumanu Family and it was a lot of fun. We then played some table games with the other Elders and Sisters. We didn't make it to the Library so that is why I didn't get much emailing out last week. I then left with Elder Davis back to Thibodaux for exchanges and the sister and us had dinner with a family and we stayed for Family Home Evening.
Tuesday Elder Davis and I went to a community Garden of sorts and it was actually really big and really nice. We helped them and a number of others (college students and the Stake President's wife) plant a bunch of plants and then we covered the whole entire garden with hay. We had to carry many hay bales out into the garden and then break them apart and spread it out and cover the ground. It was very humid and hot and the sun was beating down pretty hard, but it felt great to do some hard physical work and do some service. Then we came home and got ready for the day and a member brought us lunch. We then went out to visit some people. We had a really good lesson with one of their investigators and then we were able to visit some older ladies whom he calls his Mission Grandmas and they were really nice people. We then, that night, went to a community get together thing to honor the Police Department, put on by a local church. There was food and games and people dancing and it was fun to be there and talk with people in the community.
Wednesday we had district meeting and we made a district breakfast of french toast and eggs. District meeting was good and we had a good instruction/discussion. Then after district meeting Elder Brown and I met with a guy the sisters were trying to teach who is Spanish speaking. He is a cool guy and we had a little lesson and got to know him.
Thursday we did some more tracting but we didn't have much success with that. There was one lady who said we could come back another time and one who said she would be ok with us inviting her to church activities.
Friday morning we went over to the Seumanu's and left with them to go help an older lady in the branch with her yard. It started raining really hard on our way over and didn't stop when we got there so we came back to their house and had breakfast with them. We then went back to cut the yard. I used the weed wacker and we spent about an hour with the four of us and finished it in the nick of time as it started raining again when we left. We deep cleaned our car later and made it look really nice. (the Elders before us didn't take care of things very well). We scrubbed the seats with cleaner to get out the stains and cleaned the whole interior. We then had a lesson with a young Hispanic girl that we are teaching and it went really well.
Saturday evening we were driving in Morgan City and plugged an address into the GPS and it took us on this old overgrown cement road and we got to an old intersection and there was only one other road that continued but it turned into gravel and dirt (it had just rained really hard the day before and in the morning). It looked like the road led back to the main streets right around the turn but it didn't and it went from gravel to mud. At that point we couldn't have turned around or backed up or we would be stuck, so we had to continue but the road turned left and continued for a football field length or so. (This whole time we were driving very slow). Right before the end of the road was a small hill we had to go up. As we were driving we slowed down from about 5-10mph to 1-2mph and Elder Brown had the pedal to the floor. We weren't spinning, but traction control kept it at a slow steady pace. We had a large water filled ditch on either side of us. I got out to help push for a bit but I slid around and didn't do much. We weren't moving much and we thought we were going to be stuck. It was extremely stressful and we were praying so hard. We miraculously got over to the hill and then we started slowing down again so I got out to push and somehow even though I didn't have hardly any traction, as I started pushing the car, we increased speed and chugged up the hill and my feet didn't slip anymore-though they should have. Nonetheless, we made it up the small hill and onto dry ground underneath the freeway. We were definitely being helped by Heavenly Father. There was no logical way we should have even made it 20 feet, let alone the whole way and even up the hill. Turns out it was not mud. It was clay and it was very slippery, when we got to the pavement we continued to slip and drift for a while because of all the clay packed on the tires. All kinds of mud/clay was flinging everywhere and we left a trail for more than a mile. When we got to a higher speed the car started shaking really hard and then when we got on the freeway it got way worse and it was vibrating and shaking us like a crazy massage chair or something. And it was very loud! It sounded like a broken washer pounding extra hard and shaking the house. We then went to a member's house and used their high pressure hose and fire hose sprayer to get the mud off but it would barley chip it away, so we went to a self car wash to pressure wash it. We ended up having to jack up one tire at a time and take it off and spend a while pulling clay out from the A-arms and shocks and everything and then pressure wash it to clean it. We spent 3 exhausting hours cleaning the clay off the car. The violent shaking stopped after we got all the clay off. We then got home really late.
Sunday we had one investigator come to church which was AWESOME! Second hour I had to teach the Gospel Principles class in Spanish, last minute on the spot. That was a new experience for sure but it went alright. We then had celebration lunch with some members for a young man who just received the Priesthood. Then that night we had dinner with some other members and played some games with them.
It has been an alright week with a few interesting experiences. Until next week!
Love,
Elder Acton
Sugar Cane Field
My comp, Elder Brown
The community garden where we did service.
We spread out all of the hay you see.
Lunch with my district
The infamous clay road that GPS
took us on
Cleaning our car after miraculously making
it up the hill and off the clay road.
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