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)
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