March 28th, 2016

That really was a marathon week! I'm glad you made it and that spring break is here. Thanks so much for the awesome Easter Package it really brightened up my week :) There was some real good stuff that happened this week! None of the other Elders had ever been to a Catholic Church before and Natchez has one of the oldest in all of Mississippi that was built in like the 1840's or something real old like that. So anyway my companion and I were driving past and the doors were open so I had him pull over and I brought him in. There was only one guy in the whole church and he had just got up from praying when we walked in and he about passed out. That is our new homie Phillip. He came up and shook our hands and said that "he had never seen a latter-day saint walk through those doors" and that he had lived there all his life. It was a neat experience. He got to know us a little bit and first and talked to me a lot about BYU football and my companion about history and was just having a good time. Then 5 feet from the Catholic altar he started asking us about Joseph Smith and we were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon and about living prophets. We also talked a ton about Family History and what the Osmands taught about the Word of Wisdom haha It was awesome! About 2 hours later we moved the conversation out to the front steps were he introduced us to his friend the other mass director and was just so happy to have some new latter-day saint friends. He invited us to the special easter mass and 8 p.m. so we decided that would be a good experience. He also gave us some souvenir Holy Water. So we went to this Easter mass and it was pretty neat because through the hand of God we had met all 3 of the priests mass directors. We had met 2 that day and 1 we worked with on the Habitat house. They gave us all candles and lite this like 4 foot candle first and then passed the light of the world through the dark church. It was a pretty cool experience. Church was also a real good time. The Easter lesson went good and a few of the kids that are the wild ones were sick so that made things a little more mellow haha I have started the Doctrine and Covenants challenge were your last 138 days you read the D&C backwards a section every day. Today is section 136, so if anybody wants to join me feel free too. It's been a party and a half so far! I'm happy to be here! I sure love y'all! Things are good! I'm being real well taken care of! Love your mud!!

March 21st, 2016

Mercy, that is a crazy week! Yall are some troopers!! This week was a pretty wild one but not as wild as yours! We had a pretty good week with a lot of rain. We at us some food this week! We had 2 people take us out to really big seafood places on the same day and it was good. I had me some serious Catfish and it was real good, I love catfish. I gave oysters a second chance, but you can tell Shannon Albright that he can keep them. They make my insides angry every time. We also have just seen a lot of tender mercies with Heavenly Father preparing people for us to teach and helping a few members friends desire to come to Church. People really are placed in our path every day. I've been looking forward to coming to primary all week it was a good time, a lot of work but a good time. We have a very unique little ward, so right now we have like 60 ish people coming and like 25ish of them are primary kids and most of the rest are over 60. haha But with Heavenly Fathers help it works. So the new primary president's name is Sister Norris and she is our homie. We have FHE with her and her husband every Monday night. So the best way to describe her is she is a lot like mom. She loves to be organized and run things how they should be. And it was pretty cool cause on Sunday she told us that we are an answer to her prayers coming to teach and be the "bouncers". Class time went really well cause we had treats and colored and learned about prayer. Sharing time was like a war for 1 hour trying to keep everyone quiet and sitting in there seats. Me and Charles had it out more than a few times, and Evealyn a 6 year old in our class kept playing with her dress and jumping out of her seat. So I told her probably 20 times to pull her dress up and then she looked at me and gave me a pretty good lecture about how she needed to pull her dress down not up haha I'll have to choose my words more carefully next week. Our mission president also came and it was a good time. He's a good dude. I hope yall have a great week!! I sure love ya!! Thanks for all of your love and prayers! Happy Easter! Hurrah for Israel!! Love Mud

March 14th, 2016

Dear Dad, mom, and Jessa, I sure love you people! Thanks so much for the awesome package and for letting me know how your week was. That's so good to hear that dad is getting his hops back again shared some raspberry jam with my homie Brother Dollar, cause raspberry's can't grow in Mississippi cause it is too hot. And him and his wife loved it! They send their compliments to the chef. :) This week was long but pretty good. On Monday we had specialized training in Alexandria and I got to see a lot of the missionaries and have lunch with Elder and Sister Horner so that was a good time! For p day on tuesday we went golfing and I learned why I don't golf haha I was bad. But it was a lot of fun, we went with Bro. Norris and had a good time. Even though we all lost he took us to the malt shop and we had some good shakes. We also met a really cool guy on Tuesday that really wants to learn more his name is bill and he is a biologist for the Forest Service. It was really humbling to see how much the spirit has been working on him and preparing his heart. On Wednesday we got to go and keep helping build this house with the habitat for humanity, that is always a fun time! We work with a bunch of good ol boys and this week we finished most of the siding and worked a little inside. Thursday, friday, and saturday it rained a ton and sunday was awesome! It had just been a long week and church just mellowed me out and by the end of it I was feeling good. One of our recent converts gave a talk and she did awesome! I'm glad to be here! I'm also glad to be the new 4-7 year old primary teachers for awhile. We are going to have a good time. I hope you have an awesome week and that you know how awesome I think you are!! Keep on keepin on. Love your mud

March 8th, 2016

Oh my family, This week has been a fun one! It really is amazing how many tender mercies there are when you start looking for them. The members here are awesome! They feed us super good! We go to FHE on Monday nights with a family who's children are all grown up and last night we had biscuits and tomato gravy and some dutch oven breakfast casserole, it was amazing. Then every Thursday night we go to the Dollars and talk some smack with Brother Dollar and Sister Dollar lets us all take a turn on what she should make and she fixes it for us. This week it was fried pork chops and they were amazing. They also are some great missionaries. They really want to see our ward of about 60 grow so they work hard to invite and a couple have been bringing some kids to church with them so we are real excited. We also had a zone meeting this week in Alexandria and we got to drive back through Pineville and it was so much fun. It was like driving down memory lane. We are doing our best to work hard and have some fun doing it as well. It's not always pretty but it's always good. I'm excited to go and have a good week! I hope yall have a good week too! I'm glad that you survived your wild week and that you keep out of trouble and if you do happen to get in trouble.....tell grandma last ;) haha Love Mud

February 24th, 2016

Dear Parents, You probably have heard reports of the storm/tornadoes that went through our mission area yesterday. President and Sister Hansen have asked me to notify you that all of the missionaries are safe and accounted for. We are grateful for your continued support and prayers and are grateful for the opportunity to work with these fine young elders and sisters. Sincerely, Sister Lawes Mission Office

February 29th, 2016

Hey my family! Man it sounds like you have had a wild week. Thanks for all of the updates on how things are going and how people are doing. It really means a lot to get updated on things. All of the tornadoes missed us we just got a lot of rain and they locked us down for most of the day just to make sure we would be alright. Life in Mississippi is pretty good! One of the speakers didn't prepare a talk for sunday so right before sacrament meeting a member of the bishopric came and asked me and the other new missionary to speak and try to only leave the stake president about 20 minutes. We did the best we could...but he had a few more than 20. But that's alright he is one of the most Christlike guys I have ever met. He handled it like a champ. I told the story about when we were working at caralee carlsons "devil womans" and dad was teaching me to drive the tractor but sense it was a weighted seat it only worked when dad was pushing down on it and how that's like how the savior is with us, just standing there with his arm on the seat helping us do what we can't do alone. It turned out pretty good for a white trash Idahoan. We got fed real well this week! The people here are awesome! We also started serving at a soup kitchen that provides 1 meal 7 days a week for about 400 people, so that has been pretty cool. We also had interviews and it was a good time. President and Sister Hansen are awesome! I love yall and hope that you have an awesome week!!!! Some jam would be awesome sometime :) if you can. Love, Mud :)

February 22, 2016

Hey! Things here are going pretty good! I'm in Natchez Mississippi now! We went from the cajuns to the rednecks really quick! Thanks for taking such good care of Miss Gerrie it really means a lot to her. It sounds like you had a busy but productive week. It's been a little bit of a transition week but it's been good. Church was pretty exciting yesterday it was a little wild to see church pews again and a real sacrament table. It is still a pretty small ward only about 40 or 50 people but they sure are awesome. One of our recent converts has a little girl that's almost 1 and she kept honking my nose all during gospel principles class haha It made me smile and helped her mom be able to listen a little more so life was good. there also was a real cool tender mercy on sunday morning. I don't know why but it is always really scary for me to go to a new ward. I always worry that I'll get booed out of the place or something, but anyway we pulled up in the parking lot and the first guy I saw was one of the members from pineville that I had been to his house almost every sunday for 6 months! It was really cool. We also had a linger longer after church with some awesome food so that So Natchez is right on the Mississippi which divides Mississippi and Louisiana so me and Elder Mortenson are on the Mississippi side and Elder Stevenson and elder wise are on the louisiana side. We both live in Natchez and are the only ones in our district. The closest missionaries to us are an 1 1/2 hours away haha. I hope yall have an amazing week! I am so grateful for all of you! Thanks for all of your love and prayers! Love Mud