I survived!

My homies,

Sorry this email is late this week, but we had transfers yesterday and that counts as our P-day for the week and yesterday was just busy waiting for the new missionaries to get in so we didn't have time to email. So here I am now. :) You may have heard that a tornado hit through Oklahoma and killed a lot of people, well that tornado was headed our way, but luckily it didn't touch down here in Monroe. We did have a really big storm last night. Thunder and lightning all night long and it was pouring rain. Our power went out at 10:00 last night, but it was a good thing cause we didn't have a problem getting to bed on time. Nothing much to do in the dark. I think it was Heavenly Father's way of making sure we actually went to bed on time. Haha we have had people staying at our apartment these last couple of nights so we haven't been doing a great job of going to bed at 10:30... haha whoops! :/

Sister Peterson went home yesterday so her and Sister Totterer spent the night at our apartment on monday cause we had to be at the church at 7:30 and we were closer to the church so naturally they slept over. Haha ;) It was fun to spend one last night with Sister Peterson though! She is a great girl and I learned a lot from her these last 6 weeks, even though she wasn't my trainer. So yeah, we had a little party on monday night. Well as much of a party as missionaries can have. Silly string, balloons, toilet paper (for streamers, not for toilet papering. haha) and church music! Woo! Party animals! ;)

And last night we had the Bastrop sisters stay with us cause President wanted all the missionaries that had been traveling to stay in the main cities just in case anything happened. So we had Sister Johnson and her 2 trainees. They are both visa waiters waiting to go to  Brazil. So we had 5 of us on monday night and 5 of us last night staying in a one bedroom one bathroom apartment. Miracles do happen! haha

Well as I said, we had transfers yesterday, but Sis. Rigby and I are staying together one more transfer! Woo hooooo!! I just love that girl! We have become so close, we teach really well together, and we just always have fun! So I'm excited for these next 2 weeks. We had 21 sisters come out this transfer, 4 of them being visa waiters, and then we have 20 coming out next transfer, so I will definitely have to train next transfer :/ I'm just glad I don't have to this transfer though! Cause there are some girls that I came out with that have to train. Phew! Dodged that bullet. Haha But along with transfers we lost some Elders :( We lost Elder Durrant, Elder Saunders and both of our Zone Leaders, Elder Nielsen and Elder Bolkcom. It's really rare to have both of your Zone Leaders leave the area, but it happened so it is what it is. Elder Henrikson and Elder Mower are the only 2 Elders that stayed in our District. And then over in West Monroe we lost Elder Flint. What a sad day T-day is! We were so lucky to have so many great Elders! But these new Elders that just came in are probably super great too! Hopefully... One of our new ZL's is Elder Ensign and he's 6'9"! So he's kinda tall. Whatever. But yeah, change happen a lot out here and I already don't like it. And that's how I feel about T-day. Haha

So this last week we have been keeping in touch with Christopher our investigator. And he was progressing really well! He didn't come to church cause he was with his mom for mothers day, but he felt bad about it and he was still reading his Book of Mormon. When we taught him the Plan of Salvation on Tuesday, we found out that he is on probation for probably another year so we can't baptize him. :( Unfortunately if you are on probation you can't be baptized. When we told him that he was pretty disappointed, but he said he is willing to keep working toward baptism until he can be baptized! So that was awesome! He is such a good kid and he has such strong faith. When we got done teaching him he asked us if we could come back later and teach his girlfriend Cabrina! HECK YES WE CAN!!!! So later that day we went back and taught her and it was a good lesson. She was really interested so we went back again on Saturday and taught her the first part of the Plan lesson and we really emphasized how the gospel can make you happy and how it helps you get through the trials in life. Chris had told us she was having a hard time and we really felt prompted to emphasize how much God loves us and how he has a plan for each and every one of us to make us happy. And that really captured her. She is having some pretty serious problems right now and my heart just breaks for her. She really believes that the gospel can make her happy though, and she has come to trust us so much. Her and Chris said they are reading the Book of Mormon together and we are so excited for them!! And they both came to church on Sunday!! And they call us all the time to come over to have lessons with them. Love it. Neither of them are really in the position to be baptized quite yet, but just seeing their desire to live better lives and seeing their faith and relationships with Heavenly Father grow is amazing!! And this is why I'm so happy out here!! Seeing these two grow closer to Heavenly Father is one of the most amazing things I have ever experienced! The Spirit I feel when we are teaching them is awesome. This is what missionary work is all about and I LOVE IT!!!! :)

On Wednesday we had Sister Garzand come and stay with us. Her companion Sister Mapy is one of the Coordinating Sisters and she had to go to Jackson to pick up the new sisters coming in and do some exchanges so we had Sis. Garzand for a week. Sis. Mapu called on Tuesday and asked if Sis. Garzand could come spend the weekend with us so we were like of course! And then Sister Mapu was like, alright I'll drop her off tomorrow. After we got off the phone, I turned to Sis. Rigby and said, "Tomorrow is Wednesday. I thought she said the weekend!" hahaha So Sis. Garzand spent the "weekend" with us. Really she came on wednesday and just left yesterday. So that weekend turned into a week. haha It was fun though. Kind of crazy cause Sis. Rigby and I had no idea what to do with another Sister. Haha  Poor poor poor Sister Garzand. Having to spend so much time with us....

On Thursday we went tracting in the rain! I've wanted to do that since I got here and I finally got to! :) No luck though. We tracted for about an hour and when we were walking back to our car it stopped raining and the sky cleared up. Weird. haha When we were tracting we knocked on a door and the guy came out, probably in his 60's and we told him who we were and what we were doing. Before we could finish explaining what we were sharing with people, he said "I'm a baptist." No way sir!! I could have told you that one! Everyone here is!! haha anyway... Sis. Rigby asked him if he had heard of the Book of Mormon and he said he had. So we asked him if he had read it and he said he did and he didn't like it. Sis. Rigby asked him why and he said it went against the Bible, and him and Sis. Rigby kind of got into a little bash. But I think it's hilarious that people think it goes against the Bible. Obviously you haven't read it sir if you think that cause it's "Another Testament of Jesus Christ." Weird confused people.

Saturday this last week was our most eventful day. We went tracting for about 3 1/2 hours and it was a huge success!! We handed out 6 Book of Mormons (that's good for around here) and we got contact information from all of them but one! And that's cause he lives in Texas and was just visiting his mom. So that was super cool. We still need to contact all of them and set up appointments, and we'll probably do thattonight. But it was great! :) It has started getting reaaaallllyyyyyy hot down here! On saturday it was 95 degrees with 95% humidity. Woof! We were dying! Since it was so hot, we took a break after about 3 hours of tracting and were walking back to our apartment to get some water and cool off. As we were walking back this mailman comes out of his truck and started talking to us. He said, "Are y'all out here teaching people about Jesus Christ?" Yes sir. "Are you teaching people that he is our Savior?" Yes sir. "Are you teaching people that you only have to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and then you're saved?" Well we believe that through him you can be saved. And he just walked away back to his truck. Then about a minute later we hear something zooming behind us. We look back and this mailman was speeding right toward us and almost hit us! He stopped right behind us and started yelling at us that we don't need to be out here doing this so we can be saved. And that we need to stop telling people about this whole works crap cause you don't have to have works, as long as you believe in Christ and accept him into your heart then you're saved. And told us to stop spreading out cult and just zoomed away. As he drove off I yelled, "We're not a cult, but thanks for trying!" He definitely heard me. Hahaha :) But little did this stinking mailman know, we were walking on a dead end street, so he had to turn around and pass us again. So we just waved and smiled at him. Hahaha! I laugh at it now, but for about 3 minutes after it happened I was so frustrated with him! I don't really know why. Probably cause I was sick of people being so stinkin lazy thinking that they don't have to do anything but believe in Christ! Christ came down to earth to die for our sins! He went through SO MUCH just for us and there are people that think we don't have to work for our salvation. But after that we just laughed and laughed about it. I have never been so close to being run over by a mail truck. Haha! Bless his heart. (That was for you Carla. haha)

On Sunday we went to visit this less active and it turns out she is going to this baptist church every week for church instead of our church. So that's awesome. Super nice lady, but she talked for 2 hours!! She seriously was just saying one thing after the other and pretty much I know everything about this ladies life! She never gave a breath where we could jump in and say "well, this is why we're here." or " well we gotta go now." Oh man. They say people here in the south really talk talk talk, but I didn't realize how much they talked until meeting this lady! It seriously wore us out physically after visiting her! We were so tired! Good thing it was time to turn in for the night. haha

Well as some of you probably know, cause most of you are family... Andrew has been having some more medical problems. He's such a problem. But everyone knew that. Haha ;) But everyone keep him in your prayers! He's been through a lot and he needs all the prayers he can get! Such a problem child... haha Andrew, it's probably that stupid beard you're growing. If you just shaved it I bet everything would be fine ;) And also a widow in our ward, Sister Earl is sick and in the hospital right now. We love her so much!! She is like our mission grandma :) But we are so sad that she is sick. It breaks our hearts to see her so helpless :( She has a bowel obstruction and they still don't know if they have to do surgery. But she is in so much pain. :( So please keep her and Andrew in your prayers!! 

Well, Lexie is going into the MTC TODAY!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She's probably already there! But holy cow, I am so excited for her!! She is going to be such a boss missionary! I can't wait!! :) :) You're great Lex! Go show Hawaii how to live fo realzzz!

But I think that's about all the excitement for this week. All the excitement I'm going to tell you anyway... haha Thanks to everyone for keeping in touch with me! Sister Rigby is always talking about the letters I get and all the emails people send me and I tell her everytime, "Don't you wish you had the best family and friends like I do?" haha y'all really are the greatest!! After talking to everyone on Mother's day and reading letters from everyone, I have really reflected on just how lucky I am to know so many AMAZING people!! :)

Y'all keep being amazing!! The church is true!!!! My testimony of the Book of Mormon and how happy it makes you has grown so much out here! I hope y'all are having the same experiences with it. I never realized how cool all of the stories are until now! It's so true and if we do all we can to follow Christ and keep the commitments we have made with our Heavenly Father, then we will be so much happier and we won't have a thing to worry about. How nice is that?? Having the knowledge to make us so happy and to let us know our true purpose in life. We are so lucky to have this knowledge!

Love you all so much!! Have a fantastic rest of the week!! :)

Monroe Boss, out!

Sister Rocha :)