Dear Mom,
This week has been a big week, full of many different experiences. Elder Cannon and I found out that we would be training a new missionary. We went to Baton Rouge and picked him up, we had a few days of work (including Halloween as one of those days. . .) and then we had Zone Conference.
Monday was a pretty normal P-day and we were able to get everything done that we needed to get done. That evening we tried to see a few people and we were able to have a great lesson with one of our people and it was awesome. We then went to Jeanne's and we had a great Family Home Evening and lesson with her and her daughter. When we got home that night we noticed we had missed calls from our President and when we called him back, he told us that he wanted us to train a new missionary!! We were so excited!!! He told us we would drive up to Baton Rouge to get him and stay at the mission home and that they would buy us all dinner and the AP's would be there too :) we were like jumping for joy and excitement!
Tuesday we did our normal studies and had lunch in the apartment. We biked to an appointment in Bayou Vista and taught a lesson on the Restoration. We then biked over to another appointment an they just talked about a bunch of random stuff for a while and we could tell they weren't interested so we left it in their hand to give us a call if they wanted to learn more. After that we biked over to another lesson with one of my favorite people, Joseph. He is such a funny guy and it is tons of fun to teach him. He also is very Cajun and is very hard to understand, almost as hard as Spanish. We ran out of time to bike to Patterson to try some people because it is a half hour bike ride one way, almost as long as biking to Jeanne's house. So we went to another person's house and got a number for a guy who we knew was going to move. We then biked back home and packed up the thing we needed for spending the night at the Mission home. Then we drove up to Baton Rouge to Costco and Elder Cannon took an eye exam to see if he needed glasses. After that was finished, we drove over to the mission home and met the AP's (we had running across the lawn missionary buds reunion) it was good to see them again. Once we had been there for a little bit and everyone was ready, we left to the Airport, we rode with the AP's and the Varners met us there. It was a good 45 minute drive. We got to where Elder Rowe would be getting off the plane and we waited there for a while until he walked out. We welcomed him as part of the mission and we took some pictures, which are probably on the mission Facebook page and then we drove to IZZO's Illegal Burritos. Elder Rowe hopped in the truck with us and we met the Varners at IZZO's. There are 3 or 4 sizes of burritos that you can get. Elder Rowe and I got the Illegal. It is two huge tortillas overlapped to make an extra long huge tortilla. They then make a burrito to your liking, as Subway does. I stuffed mine and it was huge. Everyone doubted that I could eat it but I proved them wrong. At first I was thinking, I can have 2 meals here. But then one of the guys behind the counter said that most people say they are going to eat the whole thing but they can't, almost as a challenge, so I had to prove I could do it. Anyway needless to say I was super full. We then came back to the Mission Home and had some introduction stuff for Elder Rowe and some discussions and stuff for an hour or two. Then we all got ready for bed and there were a bunch of bunk beds upstairs so we all slept up in that room which was fun.
Wednesday, we all went out to the garage and played ping pong and shot hoops for some exercise and then we came in for breakfast from Sister Varner and President Varner. It was really good. We had eggs, ham, yogurt parfaits, and Belgium Waffles with some home made caramel syrup from Sister Varner which was so good. We then had another little devotional thing for a while and then we got our stuff all packed and we headed out. We drove to Costco and met Sister Varner there so that Elder Cannon could buy some glasses. We then also got lunch there. I bought a Turkey Provolone Sandwich and a chicken bake for later. Then we drove to Houma for District Council which we had to move to later because of driving from Baton Rouge. We had a good district council and then drove back to Berwick. We visited a guy and were able to talk with him and see how he was doing and then we went to Cody and Delmara's and we were just able to talk with them a little bit too because they were busy getting ready for Halloween. We drove to Patterson and had a small lesson with someone we are teaching and then we tried to visit a bunch of people but that was kinda difficult because everyone was already trick or treating. We then went to Jeanne's house for hot dogs and to hand out candy. We are to be in our apartment by 6:30 on Halloween unless in a member's home, then we can be out 'til 8:00. So we spent that time with Jeanne and her daughters and ate dinner and had a short little lesson/thought. We then drove home and prepared our apartment for being painted the next day. Our apartment management got changed when I first came down here to Morgan City and they are doing lots of renovations and fixes, so they are painting all the walls and redoing the floors and a bunch of other stuff. It is really nice and I am very grateful for it but at the same time I am kinda tired of having all of our stuff piled/stacked in the middle of each room.
Thursday we had our studies, which we now have an extra companion/training study to do, and we had lunch and then we did our weekly planning. We took the full three hours of weekly planning this time instead of cutting it short. We then had a lesson with Cody and Delmara's boys which was really good and helped us know how to better help them prepare for baptism. We had a number of appointments fall through in Morgan City and then we went out to Amelia and we had more appointments fall through there but we did have one lesson or two. We tracted for the rest of the night and since the Morgan City area is a Spanish area and especially being in Amelia, and Elder Rowe is an English Speaking Missionary, he gets to learn a bit of Spanish while he is being trained. So, we taught him a bit of Spanish while tracting.
Friday we went to the nursing home and did our hour of service singing hymns to them. We then went to a referral we had received and had a good lesson with her and then we went to someone we haven't visited in a long time and we set a time to come back the next day. We then went to a Catholic Mass with Jeanne because we had not been before so we went to see what it was like. It is good to understand where people are coming from better. It was a different but good experience to go and know what its like. We then had a lesson with a member we met the other day who hasn't gone to church in a long time. Then we came home for lunch. After lunch we went to another appointment but she said she was busy. We drove down the street to an appointment with Joseph which was good and it was funny after we got out to hear what Elder Rowe thought about being able to understand him. We came back home, did some studies and had dinner and then we went to visit some more people in Patterson. Most fell through and we ended up tracting for the night. We let Elder Rowe decide where to go which is awesome to do because its like pure inspiration ever time because he doesn't know anything about any of the places so when he guesses its actually inspired. We found a family of 8 and taught all of them the Restoration which was super fun. Then a few houses down we found 3 more people.
Saturday, we did some studies, went to a lesson and it was good but a little interesting and then we went to an appointment we had set the day before with a guy we had visited quite a while ago. We had a good lesson with him too and he asked to be baptized so we helped him set a date to work towards. We grabbed lunch at a gas station place and then went to Jeanne's and had a great lesson. We tried to visit some people and then came home for some studies. After our studies we went over to Shawn and Dominick, Cody and Delmara's boys, and we acted out scenes from The Book of Mormon that they had read as we promised them. It was fun. We then went to Morgan City and had a good lesson with someone we are teaching there. We drove to Amelia and finished out the night with some lessons and tracting.
Sunday we had a good day of church meetings and we had multiple of our people we are teaching come to church, many of whom made me very happy to know they kept that commitment. We did some studies at the church afterwards and then went to an appointment and had a good lesson on the Restoration. We then went to Dominick and Shawn's and had some good object lessons and tracted the rest of the time.
Monday we had Zone Conference and Elder Rowe and I woke up at 4 to have an extra hour to clean the car. We scrubbed out any marks/stains in the seats and plastic and stuff. We then headed out to Metairie for Zone Conference. We did our car inspections and finished cleaning the car with a micro fiber rag and then went inside for the conference. It was a really good conference where we learned about safety with the vehicles from the head vehicle coordinator from Salt Lake and we heard from our President and the AP's and our Zone leader and STL. We also got to see the new "Light the World" videos before they are released to anyone else so that was cool. We also had a really good lunch from Sister Varner. After the conference we had our interviews. It was nice to able to talk with many other missionaries that I haven't seen in a long time as we were all there waiting for interviews. We started exchanges and Elder McRae stayed with Elder Rowe and I. After my interview, Elder Brown gave me a haircut while we were both in the same city, which was nice. We then went to Panda Express and grabbed some dinner with a few other Elders and then drove home.
It was a great week with a bunch of different big events and out of the normal happenings. I have really enjoyed training and being in a trio and I am excited for the rest of the transfer.
Love,
Elder Acton
Elder Acton
Picking up our "Greenie", Elder Rowe
Visiting the museum on P-day
The state of our apartment
while they are painting and making repairs
Elder Cannon getting glasses
(Elder Rowe and I were "supporting" him)
The Illegal Burrito
No comments:
Post a Comment