November 23rd, 2015

My awesome family! I love you all so much!! I'm glad that you had a good week and I hope that dad also survives this drivers ed class. haha Things this week have been pretty good. We had 28 and Church this week so that was pretty good. 8 were visitors and 6 were missionaries but we will keep those little details to ourselves haha. Alisha came again so we were really excited! I sure love her a lot! We also found a new best friend this week! She is 85 and her name is Ms. Gerri. We met her at a Restaurant a few weeks back were she said, "Does your church send out any bad looking missionaries?" and then later told us "I promise that we aren't cougars, we like to talk to good looking young men, but we go home alone." haha I don't understand why old ladies are always hitting on me but whatever we got to do to find people to teach haha We went and saw her 2 times this week and gave her a Book of Mormon. She likes to talk some serious trash so me and her go the rounds together. She asked us what we were doing for Thanksgiving and I said well we are going to your house, and so now we are going to eat with her and her family I am really excited. She is super awesome! I hope yall have an awesome Thanksgiving!! You really are my greatest blessing!! Love Elder Dye "We can choose to be grateful, no matter what." - President Dieter F. Uctdorf

November 16th, 2015

Hey my family!! This week has been an awesome one, but also a crazy and really hard one. I'm glad to hear that everyone is healing up pretty well and I am excited to see the awesome new tv in the basement! I love and miss you so much! It has been a pretty wild week this week. We had about 27 people at Church this week and only like 2 of them were visitors so we were pretty excited! Also Alisha finally came to church! We were super excited! I was sitting next to Elder Nelson (the Senior couple one) getting ready to pass the sacrament and he looked at me and started fist pumping and just grinning from ear to ear...it was one of the happiest moments of my life. This week has also been pretty tough and crazy. One of the Elders that I live with had to go home for a couple weeks for surgery and it was really sad to see him go. He is one of my best friends and I hope that all goes well. We have been running him to doctors appointments, getting phone calls from everybody, and trying to mellow him out from all of his nerves about leaving all week. We are ready for a nap. haha We dropped him off at the airport this morning, and then we spent p-day in New Orleans helping everyone cheer up a little bit. I am excited and very humbled this week. We are going to be teaching a lot of Spanish lessons and my Spanish is no bueno, so we could use your prayers. I am hanging in there, a little bit tired and beat up but I was raised a fighter like my mama. I know that everyone is really busy and I am really bad at writing back but I could use a little extra prayer or a little pick me up in the mail if you have time. I don't want to lose any steam, I love being a missionary so much! I hope you have an awesome week!!! Thanks for all you do!!! Love Mud :) For Christmas just some razor blades and some more mega reds, thanks!

November 9th, 2015

I love yall so much!! It sounds like you are keeping very busy and out of trouble to so that is always good. This week has been a good one, kinda long but really good! We had to move a family in our branch and it was the most disgusting move I have ever had in my life, it made the ceder apartments not seem to bad but it was good for me, made me real grateful that my parents taught me how to clean. :) It took us 2 days could nobody could help us and we had to push the trailer like a half a mile without a truck to return it cause the member needed their truck back. It was quite the sight 3 missionaires pushing a trailer being followed be a carolla with it's hazards on...it was awesome! We felt like pioneers pushing our handcarts for a few minutes. haha We also have been able to work alot with the Nelsons our Senior couple here alot this week and it has been awesome! I love them so much!! We have been homies since they first came here and they treat me and talk smack with me like I am one of their own it is great. Tell Darin I am still keeping fluent in trash talk so I can talk with him haha I got to help a boy pass the sacrament in our little branch (we had 30 this week!) for his first time and it was awesome! It seems like it wasn't long since I was passing for the first time. Church was real good. Life is good just trying my best to do all that I should. A lot of the missionaries call me mama dye cause I try and take care of them and help them how I can, I'm not quite sure what I think about that name cause the only true mama dye is Grandma and Mother Teresa and I will never be as awesome as either of them. I hope yall have an awesome week!!!! Love Mud :) "There is no such thing as a special occasion, every day of your life is a special occasion." Thomas S. Monson

November 2nd, 2015

My familia! I'm glad to hear that you made it through another week and are headed to rock through another one. Things have been good this week, a little crazy but good. We had 11 people at church on sunday and 6 of them were missionaries. But the lords work moves forward, we still had our 3 hour block and it was really good. You could feel the spirit really strong there the whole time. Everyone bore their testimony except one lady and it was a really neat experience to hear the whole congregations testimonies in one meeting, I have never had that chance before. :) That scripture that says where 2 or more are gathered in my name there will I be also really is true. I can't tell you how much I love our little branch, If I could get some more mountain dew, watch a good football game with dad and jake every once in awhile, have some of mama's cooking, and date on the weekends I could stay here for another 2 years haha :) We have been biking a lot this week and it has reminded me how grateful I am that Heavenly Father gave us cars. We do have a really awesome senior couple the Nelsons that are some of my favorite people ever! We were at their house for Halloween night just talking with them and jumping there car. Elder Nelson is a good ol boy that loves America and the Gospel and Sister Nelson is super sweet but she likes to talk a lot of trash too (a lot like mom and Grandma) ;) We are teaching this lady named Alisha Anderson and she is trying to get ready to get baptized in Novemeber so we are really exctied! Elder Nichols is a good guy we have a lot of fun together. Satan is working really hard on us trying to get us discouraged but we are doing our best to stay positive and keep working. And remember that, "Lifes a dance you learn as you go, sometimes you lead and sometimes you follow." Love Elder Dye

October 26th, 2015

Wow it sounds like yall have had quite the week! I'm not even quite sure where to start this week. This has been a long awesome humbling week. :) I love the gospel so much! This week at Church our branch only had like 7 people that weren't missionaries or from the stake. Since it was raining everyone stayed home. It was sad to see and we were all kind of stressing cause the Stake President was there and we didn't want him thinking that's how it was every week. He got up and talked about how there were a lot of empty chairs and I really thought that we were going to get a little bit chastised but instead he just told us all how proud he was of our choice to come to church. He testified to us that our Heavenly Father knows of our efforts and he was proud that we came to partake of the sacrament. I felt the spirit so strong. I know that our Heavenly Father truly cares about each one of us. He takes care of us 1 by 1. I wish that yall could come to our awesome little branch (not just so our attendance would be up haha) but because they truly are not missing the mark of why they are there. There isn't alot of fanciness or frill we just do our best and invite the spirit there. and that's what it's all about :) We also had a pretty awesome trunk or treat party. We were in charge of the games so we did donut on a string and it was alot of fun! We also went to a meeting in New Orleans and it was a pretty good time. We rode up with our Senior couple the Nelsons and it was super awesome!! I love yall so much and hope that you have an amazing week!! Work hard, pray hard, party hard, that's what my mama taught me :) Love Elder Mud

October 19th, 2015

Hey my awesome family! I'm glad that yall have had a pretty good week! Things this week have been crazy, but good. It was super hard to leave Pineville and all of the awesome people there that I love you so much! It also was hard to see my trainer Elder Richardson to go home. He is a super good dude and I am going to miss him a lot! We might room together if he isn't married already haha I am here in Morgan City now and it has been quite and adventure so far. The first night we got there we didn't have beds so we slept on these tiny little couch things, my trainee Elder Nichols has had a unique first week haha I have been trying to take care of him the best I can. We've got beds now so we really can't complain. We live with 2 other elders and they are both super awesome so it has been good so far. Elder Whitmarsh has been out just a few more months than me and he is from Australia so we get along real good. He is training a new missionary too Elder Shaddick who reminds me a lot of Westley so it has been fun. Elder Nichols is from Kaysville and was a professional drummer before he came out so am definitely going to have to get his autograph. Our branch is really small we are in a phase 1 building, uncle travus will know what that is, and we had 27 people there yesterday including 6 missionaries so it was a different church experience than I have had before. We blessed the sacrament and they had us 3 missionaries speak, so I was the concluding speaker and Elder Shaddick spoke and then Elder Nichols spoke and then we sang a hymn and they left me with 30 minutes to speak haha dirty dogs. So with Heavens help I spoke for 30 minutes and only put one guy to sleep. :) I am excited for our new adventure! Hopefully we can get a few more things figured out this week. We went tracting our first night and we didn't know where the church was, what our phone number was or anything but we made it work and got it figured out. I love yall so much! Thanks for always praying for me I sure can feel them. Keep up the good work!! Love Mud :) P.S. I hope you like the pictures and I hope they really are worth a thousand words cause I need to improve my emailing skills. :) Also tell dad that I will keep workin' on opening my eyes in pictures...cause I know he was thinking it on a few of them haha

October 13th, 2015

Hey hey hey my family! I'm sure glad to hear that everyone is healing up and that you survived another crazy week! That is a good looking deer that jake got I am very proud of him! Thanks so much for the package it is awesome! I found out that they are canning me tomorrow and sending me somewhere else. And I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. I love the people and the ward here so much! I am going to miss them something awful and I am going to miss all of the awesome missionaries here to, but I am excited for my next assignment/ adventure. I am training a new missionary and opening up a new area! I am really excited! When my mission president was telling me about it he told me that it was an "interesting" missionary that I was getting and that I just needed to love him. So I am excited to find out what interesting means. :) I have really been learning a lot about gratitude and enjoying the journey lately. Having a "gratitude attitude" really does make a HUGE difference. We can wish life or trials away or we can party, throw rocks, drink dew, slap mamas hiney, and king crab grandma through them, it's all up to us! I love being a missionary so much!! I am so grateful to have the best family ever! Cause my family not only taught me how to talk some smack and work hard, but they taught me how to love the peanuts out of people and I am so happy cause I get to do those 3 things every day!! Thanks for being the greatest! I love you with all of my heart!! Mud :) "Good timber does not grow with ease, the stronger the wind the stronger the trees."

October 5th, 2015

It has been a wild one this week! We have some crazy missionaries here but they are also awesome! I went on exchanges to Natchez Mississippi with a Canadian missionary named elder sabey. He is a trash talking little guy and so as you could guess we get along pretty well. So him and the other Elders pranked me and we spent the night at the church. They had set it all up with there ward mission leader so he called and told us that we had to evacuate our apartment from a carbon monoxide leak and sleep somewhere else. So we ended up at there church, which is a creepy old church that they bought from the pentacostals and slept in the basement on some church pews. They are not comfortable to sleep on by the way. We also played some Ghetto basketball and taught all 11 of them after we earned there respect. We started out talking about Prophets and asked them if they knew what moses did and none of them knew so one of them was trying to google it. It was a pretty cool experience! We also watched conference with Brother LaCour and some members in the ward (the yosts) it was really awesome! I'm glad that you all are doing well! Keep up the good work healing! I love yall so much!! Thanks for all of the prayers that you send! Peoples hearts are being changed here because of your prayers, I can see it. :) Love mud!

September 28th, 2015

My awesome family! I'm glad to hear that yall are making it and I hope that you get doing better soon! I hope that you can have some fun during spud harvest as well. This week has been a pretty good one! We went on 2 exchanges this week the first one I went to Eunice, La and it was really good. I was with Elder Martell (one of the guys I came out with) so it was fun to get to be with him again. We heard a lot about the pope being in America from all of Catholic people they are teaching. The other exchange was with the assistants and I stayed in Pineville. We were able to get a lot accomplished! On Saturday we helped one of the members non member friends move and also helped with the stake primary activity. It was a good time. We also had a stake priesthood meeting yesterday and it was really good. They definitely aren't afraid to say what they are thinking around here haha One of the guys in the Stake presidency his name is president McClure he is just a good ol Cajun boy and he got up and started going crazy about how he was sick about hearing about the pope and that the deacons in the room had more priesthood authority than him. He just gets right into the meat and potatoes of things haha Hope that yall have an awesome week! things are going really good here. My companion is a great guy. Thanks for all of your love and prayers! Love Mud! :)

September 14th, 2015

Hey my awesome family! This week has been a pretty good one! I got the chance to give Brother LaCour the priesthood yesterday and it was awesome! It's always an amazing feeling to get to pass that awesome power on to someone else. I am really grateful that I have such awesome men that passed it to me. This week has definitely been a week of adjusting. I'm not sure why this transfer has been so weird and hard to adjust for me but it has. I went from a really serious mature companion to one that is not so much... but he has a really good heart and is an awesome missionary so we will be just fine :) We have really been working on finding people and we met a guy named John Melder that reminds me so much of Thurman it is crazy. He is a great guy and hopefully he will follow Thurmans awesome example and get baptized too. We had a Zone meeting that we had to do some training at and for me be the one that "knew what he was doing" it went pretty well haha I love our missionaries so much they are awesome! You can see pictures of all of them on www.thelbrm.com under our missionaries it is pretty cool :) Thanks for the awesome package and just for being an awesome family. I love being a part of such an awesome eternal family! Hope you have an awesome week! Love, Mud :)

September 7th, 2015

Hey my awesome family!! I sure love yall!! Man it sounds like life is crazy busy! I'm glad to hear that things are going good and that everyone is happy and partying hard :) Things here have been pretty wild this week! We went to transfers on Wednesday and I got my new companion, his name is Elder Nield and he is from Twin Falls Idaho. I'm excited to be with another Idaho boy!! He has a very similar personality to David Judy they are so much the same it has blown my mind a little bit haha But I am excited he is a really good guy! Elder Decker's new companion is Elder Jones so that has been really interesting having one of my old companions living with me but it also has been a lot of fun! Change is a really interesting thing. It has been super weird to not be with Elder Brimhall since I was with him for so long it kind of feels like just a really long exchange so far but things will settle down again. Brother LaCour is getting the Priesthood next week!! I am super excited! He asked if I would be willing to give it to him. I love him so much! I am excited for another transfer to be able to serve in Pineville and help of the missionaries out in our zone. I love helping people so much! I got a little bit tired and down this week but I am ready to go and hit it hard this week! I will keep working hard, praying hard, and being happy because that's what Dye's do. I love yall so much!! Thanks for being the best family ever!!!! Love Mud :)

September 1st, 2015

My family!! That's so awesome that Thurman got baptized! I'm glad that it went so well. And I also am proud of yall for surviving the first week, that's one of the hardest ones to survive. And tell Jessa (the hairy one) volleyball chick to keep up the good work :) This week has been a good one! We made it through!! and sometimes that is a great accomplishment haha Brother LaCour got baptized on Sunday and it was so awesome! I sure love that man. He definitely keeps my fluent in "trash talk" and he also reminds me how much I love being a missionary, and how much I love our Savior. I went on 2 exchanges this week so we kept really busy. For one of them I went to Leesville and we got to go on post and Fort Polk it was pretty cool. I am taking over Pineville and I am excited but also a little bit nervous. But I will just keep trying and praying and it will work out. I have really been trying to not stress so much and find some "joy in the journey" and it is still a work in progress but I am getting a little bit better. I am going to miss Elder Brimhall. He did drive me a little crazy sometimes and we did think almost completely opposite of each other. But I learned so much from him that I really needed to learn. and I will forever be grateful for him and his love for me, loving me enough to help me be better. Thanks for always listening to my random rants and I am working on being more positive so if I'm not, tell me and I will give myself a chest nuggie haha I love yall and hope you have an awesome week!!! Thanks for all of your love, prayers, and letters :) Love your Mud "Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers" :)

August 24th, 2015

That's awesome that Thurman is getting baptized tell him congrats for me! I'm glad to hear that yall are surviving school too. Dad is going to have to start drinking some more Dew if Kally and Jessa both left him. In fact transfers are this week maybe he could come over here for a little while and be my next companion. :) The baptism went really well! It was so awesome to watch him get baptized after getting the chance to teach him for so long! He taught me so many things. He is just a good ol boy. We had brought the tv in to show a Mormon Message while he was changing and he asked if we could just turn on a Johm Wayne movie for him instead of listening to the talks and stuff haha he is my kind of guy. We also had Stake Conference this week and it was awesome! Probably the most informal one I have ever been too, but their hearts are in the right place :) It also was good to see so many of the missionaries. We had 10 of them sleep over at our apartment and it still stood at the end so I know that their was some divine help. I am learning so much. I am grateful for the Touch of the Masters hand in my life even though sometimes it is a touch upside the head telling me to shape up a little bit. It is always a loving smack like the ones dad gives :) I am so grateful that I get to be a missionary and just try my best to help other people all of the time. Thanks for being such an awesome family and for always taking such great care of me. I miss you but I know that I am where I am supposed to be right now. I hope that you have an awesome week!! Love Mud :) I am doing pretty good with everything, I might could use another missionary journal sometime the getting pretty close to full. But life is good. Hope you have a great week!!

August 17th, 2015

Oh my family! I love yall so much! I hope that dad had an awesome birthday! It sounds like the Reunion was a success too. And that's awesome that Jessa made the team!! Ms. McArthur better take good care of my jessa or me and her will have to fight :) That sounds like a good fishing crew I hope they caught a few for me. This week has been a pretty good one! I definitely went through the refiners fire this week but I am very grateful cause I need to start being refined like my mama and well read like my dad so i'll keep on working on it haha Brother Lacour is getting baptized on Saturday at 11!! I am so excited!!!!!!! I'm not quite sure why the people that I get to teach and baptize are always 71 but he is another 71 year old. He is a good ol country boy that is always in a pair of overalls unless he is at church. Before our lessons me and him always talk some smack and then Elder Brimhall reins us in to start with the lesson haha I'm very grateful that all of the Louisiana's can talk some trash so I won't get out of practice from dad and jake and grandpa and Darin. I love our ward so much! Things don't always run perfect or even pretty at church but we just do the best that we can and everyone just honestly is there cause they love the Savior. It's ok that people are spitting tobacco in the back row of Gospel Principles and it's ok that some of them don't have a lot of teeth or that they need a refresher course on the Word of Wisdom and keeping the Sabbath day holy haha because God really does look on the heart. He can tell if we truly are trying or not and he has so much more mercy than we give him credit for I truly believe that. He just wants us to be happy and be the best us's that we can be! God is good. :) Love Mud :) Thanks for all of your love and prayers and for raising me to be a good boy. I will forever be grateful!

August 3rd, 2015

Hey my awesome family it sounds like yall had quite the week again this week!! Thanks so much for the package it is awesome! I didn't share my cinnamon rolls very well with people...they were awesome haha but I have been sharing quotes from my awesome quote book! This week has been quite the adventure! I finally ate alligator!! It was cut up into pieces and fried and it was awesome. I feel like I am a real Louisiana missionary now that I have finally eaten gator. We went on Exchanges with some missionaries down in Eunice and this excommunicated member that we are really good friends with gave us a ride so we could save some miles. His name is Drake Vermillion, he is super awesome but he talks like nobody's business it is crazy! He talked the whole way up and back and he kept pulling over to check his phone and to buy a watermelon and then I asked him what a rice plant looked like so he pulled over into someones field and yanked one out to show me hahaha I love Louisiana so much! Yesterday at church we had an investigator come to church, his name is Terrell and he is a big black guy. Anyway we only have one other black person in our ward and she wasn't there so he got up to bare his Testimony and I was terrified, we have only taught him like 3 times and he is a little bit on the crazy side so I was praying that we could keep things under control but he got up there and preached like was made for it. He was cracking jokes and talking some smack on me and my companion and he wouldn't sit down haha so finally with a lot of silent prayers offed be me and probably others he started to wrap things up, but he didn't know how to close it so he just said yall say a prayer with me so he bowed his head and said the lords prayers and the rest of the ward was really good sports about it. and then he turned around and shook everyone in the bishoprics hand and then sat down hahah it was awesome. Only in Louisiana I hope yall have an awesome week!!! I love you so much!! 1 year down and 1 to go! Love Mud :)

July 27th, 2015

Just so happy to be talking to you today! I've been going through the refiners fire this week and am so glad that I made it to the best time of the week. Talking with you!! :) How about you?It's mostly just me being impatient with myself in trying to be better. I just need to drink some more dew, I am pretty sure the dew from the mountains grows patience. :) yall are the best! It sounds like you have had a pretty good week! This week has been a pretty mellow one for me just a lot of planning and teaching. My companion always tells me that I am like a Catholic because I always have to stand up and sit back down during our studies. I know how important that planning and our studies our but I just have so much Dye in me sometimes that I can't just sit there and talk about doing things for another minute I just want to go and do it! But Heavenly Father is teaching me some patience. I was driving some missionaries in our sweet new Colorado back to their area after transfers and one of them was brand new and was asking me some questions and it just hit me that I wasn't the youngest one any more. I can't believe that it has gone by so fast and is almost half over! I really wish that I could be better about writing yall but things have just been crazy lately. But it's not because I don't love your and not because I don't love to talk to you and hear from you. So pretty much I love your letters but I am kind of a slug and it is hard to have time to write back haha We went and saw one of our investigators and his name is Charles Bordelon he is an awesome guy! He was in a lot of pain and he just started cussin me out and putting together some wicked combinations and it made me laugh really hard. It made me not miss Steve, Don, Judy, and Tammy so much (James and Becky never really swore at me but I miss them to) haha Louisiana is exactly where I need to be haha Things are going good! I am happy and healthy so I really can't complain, the work is slow but we will just keep trying our best and keep learning patience :) Alright I will shape up and he us right. I had a really cool experience the other day though. I was getting frustrated about something and I was fixin to have to say some bad words and throw some things if you know what I mean. and just before I was ready to blow I got the very strong thought and impression "Sister Dutson has been praying for you, and has given you the strength to not get mad if you will accept it." It was crazy so I mellowed out and was very grateful for Sister Dutson. Would you please tell her thanks for me? I love and miss yall so much!! Love mud

July 21, 2015

My amazing family! I love yall so much! I am so glad to hear that things are still going good for you! I am staying in Pineville for another transfer! It is going to be a good time. We are getting another truck so I am sold haha This week has been a really good one! The people hear in Louisiana are crazy but so am I a little bit so we fit in together well. :) We were eating dinner with a struggling member her name is Sister Williams and her 8 year old grandson really wanted to drive his lawn mower around the yard but it wouldn't start so he snuck and got his grandmas truck keys and hooked up the jumper cables to jump the lawn mower while we were eating. But he hooked them up backwards on accident so he comes running in screaming and we go outside and there is smoke everywhere and the rubber is melting off of the cables like crazy. So I just reach to grab one of the cables but my companion rebukes me and tells me that it will be to hot. and the next thing I know somebody through a baby at me and told me to hold it (don't tell my mission president) haha and she grabbed them with a towel so that it didn't burn her fingers off. The south is just awesome! They also found their pet pig again so they were really excited. I love Louisiana!! Love Mud :)

July 13th, 2015

My wonderful family!!! I sure love yall! It sounds like you have had quite the week! I'm glad that girls camp went well and that everyone is feeling a little bit better now! This week has been a really good one! I went on two exchanges this week, one in Leesville and the other in Marksville and it was a good time. I went with Elder Forbush first in Leesville and we had a lot of fun and worked hard. We helped somebody move for a few hours and it was a huge move. We filled up a whole semi truck trailer with some pretty impressive packing if you as me. He is a good ol Cowboy Rodeo guy from Draper Utah so we got along really well. Maybe if I'm lucky we'll get to be companions some time. Then we I went to Marksville with Elder Taylor and we ate a bunch of cinnamon rolls so you know that I was happy haha I sure love being a missionary here! I hope that yall have an awesome week!!!

July 6th, 2015

It sounds like yall have had quite the week! I hope that Jake has an awesome birthday and that all goes well with Girls camp! Good work in Volleyball Jessa!! Things here are going really well! Things with my companion are going a lot better, thanks for all of your prayers. I am still working on always being patient with him sometimes but it is a good lesson to learn and I am getting a lot better at it! I'm not sure why I always get to be such good friends with all of the older ladies but for some reason a lot of my best friends on my mission so far are older women haha I got hugged by two different ones this week, one while we were visiting here and the other after sacrament meeting after I had borne my testimony, she gave me a big ol hug and told me that she didn't even feel bad about it haha I love these people so much! and I love being a missionary so much. The lady that hugged me after sacrament told me that I had to share my testimony with yall today I don't want to get beat up so I will :) I just really am so grateful that I get to be a missionary! Cause I get to become even better friends with our brother Jesus Christ and with our Heavenly Father. They are my homies :) They loves me no matter what, they humble me when I need to be humbled a little bit, they teach and test me, polish and refine me, and when I feel like they are never going to find a diamond in this lump of coal they laugh with me and talk a little trash with me until I realize that they don't care how much I fall short every day, they just want me to be happy and keep on trying until I make it back home to them. And that we have a perfect atonement that is even for white trash Louisisana rednecks like me so that we can keep on trying until we get to be with them again. I also know that one of the greatest tools to pick us up and dust us off is the Book of Mormon another Testament of Jesus Christ. And that prayer is one of the sweetest things ever cause we really do get to talk directly to our Father in Heaven. I love my family and I love my Shelley 8th ward family to! I can feel everyones prayers and they mean more to me than I can ever say. In the name of Jesus Christ amen. I love yall!! Love mud :)

June 29th, 2015

It sounds like you have had quite the week! Thanks for being such an awesome family!! Things here have been pretty mellow this week! Just went on 2 exchanges and helped with a wedding and a baptism but other than that it was a pretty normal week. When I was driving one of the missionaries back from exchanges I saw the most massive snack I probably have ever seen in the wild in the middle of this back road it was huge! We have a pretty good week planned we are going to Baton Rouge tomorrow for a big meeting, and then we have another big meeting on Friday so I'll have to try and be good as I sit through all of these meetings and learn as much as I can. I sure love you guys and I'm grateful that I get to be a Dye. I know that I wouldn't want to belong to anybody else! Thanks for the birthday gifts you are too good to me! And thanks for all of the prayers and for not judging more sorry emails to harshly haha I love yall and hope that you have an awesome week!! Love Mud :)

June 22nd, 2015

My amazing family!! Wow it sounds like you have had quite the week!! I'm glad to hear that everything went well with the Natural Helper Retreat and that Jessa had a good Birthday and that dad had a happy fathers day! And I'm sorry to hear about the deaths, but I bet that Sister Scott was super happy to move on. I sure miss and love the awesome shelley 8th ward!! Things this week have been a little bit crazy but good! I was on exchanges in Baton Rouge with Elder Murhula for part of the week and it was a ton of fun! He is from the Kongo in Africa and he is just an awesome guy! We worked hard and had some good talks and he mellowed me out a lot and helped me to see how I can still be myself and do what I should. Yesterday for fathers day the Relief Society made a bunch of pies and it was awesome! Pie during priesthood is a good combination. And one of our investigators who is getting super close to baptism went out and bought a kindle so he could better fit in with the high priests and have his scriptures on it haha it made me laugh really hard! I started a big water fight today when we were cleaning our apartment and it was so much fun!! I realized that I probably go on so many exchanges cause me and Elder Johnson (the same one that slapped me with watermelon) party a little to hard sometimes haha But Thanks so much for being my awesome family! I have been thinking a lot about how lucky I am to have such an awesome family and I just want to say thank you. I know that I am not the best emailer or letter writer and truthfully I am a better dew drinker and rock thrower but I hope you know that I love you with all of my heart! Thanks for supporting me on a mission! And thanks for all of your prayers and love, they mean sooo much to me!! With all of this Louisiana rednecks love, Mud :)

June 15th, 2015

Hey my awesome family! I'm sad to hear that there has been some pain and sickness there this week. I hope that everyone starts feeling better this week. That sounds like quite the adventure to the kids pond! And I'm glad that you are still taking care of Koltin and Wade I love those two haha Things here are going really well! Thanks for all of your prayers me and my companion had a really good talk and worked things out. And I didn't throw any rocks and I only thought maybe a few bad words in my head haha Thanks so much for the package it was awesome!! This week has been a pretty mellow one for the most part. We tried to teach one of our investigators with this member that talks a lot to see if they would balance each others talking a lot out and it did not go very well haha 2 hours in we had maybe got 5 words in between the 2 but it all worked out. I'm glad that this is the lords work cause if it wasn't I'm afraid I would have messed it up along time ago. We got a lot of young missionaries in our zone now so it is fun to have just a different kind of energy and excitement about being missionaries! I am excited for all of our exchanges. I am going to be in Baton Rouge for part of this week so that will be a lot of fun! Also one of my really good mission friends Elder Bennett just got transferred to our district for his last transfer so I am really excited! I hope that retreat is awesome!! And that my awesome Jessa has a Happy Birthday!!!!! Tell Nathan Wells that I think he is awesome! And tell the Christensens hi back and that I love and miss them! Hope you have an awesome week!! Love Mud :)

June 9th, 2015

Oh my family... It is always so good to hear from you thanks for always sending me such great emails. That is super sad that Joe fell and that Sister Scott isn't doing good. And it sounds like you better tell Edgar to lock his heart haha This week has been a pretty good one! We have been able to accomplish a lot! On Tuesday we had a meeting with the Stake President, he is awesome! After our meeting with him we had to help the Sisters take this giant map home and it kept blowing out of the back of the truck. So I sat in the backseat and held it best I could but it was just like a massive kite. So after I pulled it out of 2 ditches it still made it alright, the lord answers prayers haha On Wednesday we had MLC (Mission Leadership Council) in Baton Rouge and it was awesome! It is always a lot of fun to be able to go and see the mission president and his wife and figure out how we can best help all of our awesome missionaries. On Friday we had ZTM and it went really well! We were able to teach really well together and the Sisters did really well and it just turned out pretty good for a good ol Idahoan helping to plan it. We have to trade our truck in tomorrow and get a car, but that's alright a car is better than biking. Things here are good! I am getting excited for another transfer filled with a lot more exchanges to help and strengthen our awesome Zone! I love yall and hope that you have an awesome week!!!! With all of this Louisiana rednecks love, Mud

June 1st, 2015

My amazing family, Thanks so much for always being willing to email me even though sometimes my emails really aren't worth bragging about. I'm glad that the Father's and Sons went well and that Kaden stopped by he is an awesome guy! Sister Scott is a funny lady. Thanks so much for the package it was awesome! All of the missionaries in my apartment want my money tie but I wouldn't share with them. haha It was super fun to be able to see Devin Nii they is a little group of us awesome Shelleyites here in Pineville. Curtis Christensen (Allyson Christensen's older brother) just moved in to the ward too. This week has been crazy as ever but also a lot of fun! We had 2 exchanges this week one in Oakdale and the other in Eunice. It really is a lot of fun to get to go and work with so many other missionaries and help get them excited and happy again about being here. You get to love them so quick it is crazy and they are able to get some things off their chest that they need help with you share some laughs and then we leave until next time. It is awesome. :) We live in Alexandria and our area is 8 miles away in Pinneville, so we ran out of miles this month and had a "car appreciation day" it was good for me. We bike probably 30 or so miles in the ran but it made me tough again, this having a truck things has been making me soft haha Yesterday in Church we had a combined Priesthood and Relief Society lesson on not judging others it was really good. They mostly talked about President Uctdorf's talk about not judging others. The end of the transfer is coming up on the 10th of June. So I won't email until next Tuesday.I love yall and hope that you have a great week!! I'll talk to you on Tuesday next week!! Love Elder Mud

May 25th, 2015

Oh my awesome family!! I'm glad to hear that things are going well with yall and that everyone is doing good and is hanging in there! I can't believe that school is already out that really is crazy! That's crazy that it is raining so much there and thought that was just a South problem right now. This week has been a really good and a really crazy one! It started out pretty mellow and then bam on Tuesday night things got kind of crazy and we had to stay up really late for some missionaries to come and spend the night with us. I felt like a parent waiting up for my kid to come home after doing some things he probably shouldn't have been doing, it was definitely a different perspective.They are both awesome missionaries things just happen sometimes but that made Tuesday night and Wednesday pretty interesting. Then on Thursday we had a pretty normal day but on Friday we went on exchanges again and it was pretty interesting. It was my first time taking over our area on an exchange and I haven't been here for very long so I really wanted to do my best to be able to do a good job helping the area and helping the elder that I was on an exchange with. So I kept trying to get things set up and Heavenly Father wasn't having any of it. Plans kept falling through and I couldn't figure out why. And then as I prayed and pondered the quote kept coming in my mind, "Never let a problem to be solved be more important than a person to be loved." And I realized that I was letting the little things get in the way of truly loving this missionary, who is going through some tough things right now, the way that the Savior would have me. And so I stopped everything and just tried my very best to listen to him how I should and it was awesome, I know that the Holy Ghost was helping me listen to him and just truly love him as the Savior would. Also me and Elder Johnson and Elder Davis (the 2 other elders that live with us) had a watermelon fight the other day at lunch. It was so much fun!! We were eating and then Elder Johnson slapped me with a piece of watermelon and then I slapped him back and then he threw a piece and it went down hill from there haha you don't have to ask me or dad twice to throw things :) So needless to say we had a lot of fun but then had to clean up a lot of watermelon haha I also gave a talk on Sunday and started out by quoting the Aaron Tippon song, "you've got to stand for something" and then talked about prayer :) I hope that's not sack religious I love and miss you guys so much it is crazy!! But I know that I am hear for a reason. And I know that I am learning the things that I need to learn to be able to not be quite so white trash so I can return home and live with yall and with our Heavenly Father again someday :) Thanks for all of your love support and prayers they mean so much to me!! I was thinking of a few ideas for my birthday if that is alright maybe a new black belt, some new black shoes, a few new ties (twin ties are really good) , and maybe some cool uncle tyson sunglasses if that's okay :) Talk to you next week!!!

May 18th, 2015

My amazing family!! Hope that yall had an awesome week!! It sounds like you are keeping pretty busy. I can't believe that school is that close to being out. This week has been good but really crazy!! I have been on exchanges all but 2 days. I was in Natchez Mississippi and then I went to Many. It was a ton of fun!! Many is super back woods like old dirt roads and stuff and it was raining and lets just say I was having a lot of fun driving the truck through all of the mud :) I am my fathers son haha I love yall so much!! sorry so short I promise that I will be better next week!! Thanks for all of your love and prayers!! Your da best!!! Love Mud

May 4th, 2015

Oh my family! I'm glad that yall survived another week of work and partying and a Quiencerea. It sounds like it was a really fun and productive week. I can't believe that all of these people are getting married, did Allyson marry a good guy? I can just picture Colt taking down Jessa that is awesome. :) Things here have been really busy but good. I love my new area and new companion! Pinneville is a really nice and mellow place. Elder Brimhall is a really good missionary. He works really hard to make sure that we are doing the best that we can. He served the first 10 months of his mission in Sierra Leon and then he got reassigned to Louisiana when all of the Ebola stuff started happening. So he isn't afraid to work hard and he is just a great companion! He has only been a zone leader for 1 transfer so we are just kind of "faking it till we make it But with as many exchanges as we are going on this transfer I'm not sure how much I will even see him haha I totally agree with dad I know how he feels now when he just wants to throw the phone across the lawn after he gets a bunch of bishop calls. I feel like the phone never stops ringing, but I am glad that we get to help serve other missionaries. It was so much fun to be able to find out the the Micheal's are related to the Pulsipher's the grandparents were there too and they were like, I am pretty sure that the stayed at our cabin for girls camp. It was super awesome to find a friend in the first members that we met. I sure hope that I am good enough for this job, but I will just try my best and I know the lord will help us. I am so excited for Sunday!!!!! I love yall so much!!!!!!! Love, Mud :)

April 28th, 2015

Yall are awesome!! Man it has been a week full of lots of news! I'm glad that everyone is still doing good and that all is well with the car and the podium. That podium story made me laugh really hard hahaha Your awesome mama and I'm glad that your good :) This week has been a pretty good one! We got to go to the temple in Baton Rouge which was a lot of fun! It was really nice and refreshing to be able to get to the temple again. On our way to the temple we were going to be late so Elder Perazzo was speeding a little bit and in mission cars the have "tiwi's" which is a system that tells you to check you speed and put your seatbelt on and gives you violations if you don't in a certain amount of time. And if you get too many violations then you get "red dotted" and you aren't able to drive any more. So any way we were with some other missionaries and they are like just speed once and pass this car and you will only get one violation and we can get there quicker. So he goes to pass this car and is going over 90 and the I told him to slow down but it was too late. The office Elders called and he got red dotted for going over 90 in a mission car. So then last night we get transfer calls and then a little bit later president Hansen calls us and is rebuking Elder Perazzo for speeding and getting red dotted. Then he hands the phone to me and President rebukes me for not yelling and screaming at him for going over 90 and then in the same breath as he was rebuking me he says and we want you to be a Zone leader. And I didn't know what to say so he just said that he was excited to work with me, some things he wanted the zone to work on, and then said that he never wanted me to let my companion go more than 90 again. It was quite the phone call haha So I am a little bit nervous but I am excited to get to go and meet and help more missionaries. I am so grateful that I get to be a missionary! I am going to miss Houma but I am excited for a new adventure too! Thanks for being so awesome and for always keeping me in your prayers. I am learning so much and meeting so many awesome people! I love yall so much!! Hope that you have an awesome week!!!!!! Love Mud :)

April 20th, 2015

My awesome family!! That sounds like a very exciting week!! I'm glad that dance recital was all good and that Jake still has an arm and a barbeque grill haha I can't believe that those are the Natural Helpers for next year, Jessa and Jack can't be that old yet!! You are going to have a ton of fun though! And I bet that Johnny isn't to worried about having all of those women haha That is a ton of changes for the school! Leah Picanco will be awesome there at the middle school! It sounds like you have earned a little bit more mellow of a week this week! Things here have been really good this week! Elder Perazzo is definitely getting ready to go home, but he is trying not to get too trunky on me. Going on exchanges in New Orleans was alot of fun! We got to go have dinner with some college kids on the tulane campus and we had a pancake the size of a pizza it was huge! It literally came out in a pizza box! haha Then the next day we went and helped a lady move, she lived in the french quarter which is off limits so we had to call the mission president to get permission. It was fun to see the superdome up close, I remember seeing it on the TV so many times with dad watching football so it was sweet to actually see it in real life! I also got to eat a fried catfish poboy and it was soooo good!! All this southern food is going to make me fat! We are going to the Baton Rouge Temple on Wednesday and I am so excited!! I haven't been able to go since I've been here and satan has really been working on me trying to get us not to go, but he always tries that and I am so excited to go again!! The temple is awesome!! The work is starting to pick up a little bit, Elder Perazza really hates to find so that has been kind of a struggle to find new people to teach, but the lord has blessed us with tender mercies in finding new people. :) Thanks so much for all of your thoughts and prayers for me!! I love yall so much!!! Hope you have an awesome week!! Love. Mud :)

April 13th, 2015

Hey my awesome family! It sounds like it has been quite the week and that you have quite the week coming up! I hope that yall can survive all of the craziness. That is some crazy sounding weather! It has been raining here like crazy but that is about it. That's awesome that Jessa is doing so good in Volleyball tell her to keep up the good work!! That's crazy that school is almost over for the year, it has gone so fast! Is the guy Danee married a good guy? Things here are going pretty good! I went on exchanges to Thibodaux this past week and I saw my very first Alligator in the wild! He was swimming down one of the Bayou's I almost jumped out the car to go and shot him with my .22 I felt like I was on swamp people haha. So I am happy I feel like a true Cajun missionary now. We have a senior couple in our district now, the nelson's, and he is super funny. he takes us on some pretty wild tangents sometimes, like Obama being that antichrist and then his wife gets mad at him and tells him to be quiet, so the keep things interesting haha The work is slow right now and Elder Perazzo is ready to go home, but good timber doesn't grow with ease the stronger the wind the stronger the trees :) So I know that as I keep trying my best, praying, and reaching out to others the best that I can it is all going to be alright. I love being a missionary! If I could call you guys and grandpa whenever I wanted and if I could drink a little more Dew from the Mountains I think that I could be a missionary for a long time. Thanks for all of your prayers and love for me. I don't know how I got so lucky to be blessed with such an awesome family but I'm so grateful that I get to call you mine!! We have transfer meeting on April 29th and I'm not for sure if I will still be here so we might want to wait on the package, you guys spoil me rotten. I love you so much!! Hope you have an awesome week!!!! Love Mud :)

April 6th, 2015

Hey my family!! I sure love you guys!! I'm glad that you had a good Easter and a fun vacation to Utah! I'm sorry that jakes shirt is so huge I thought that's what you told me though haha I can't believe that Brooklyn is a married woman that is crazy!! General Conference was awesome!! It is always so good to hear from the prophets. This week has been a pretty crazy one! We had a huge 7 hour meeting in Denham Springs on Thursday were some people from Salt Lake came and instructed us. It was really good it was just really long since it takes like 2 and a half hours to drive there, but it was good for me it built some character. haha We met this crazy drunk guy the other day too and he grabbed my hand and kissed it and then put it up to his forehead and starting praying. I had no idea what to do, so I just laughed while he thanked God for the 2 angles on his porch. We also went to a Baptist church yesterday morning to watch one of our investigators be in an Easter play and it was crazy! I have never seen that much jamming in church before haha But life is good! I am so grateful that I get to be a missionary!! I hope that I can work hard so that I don't miss anyone that I am supposed to be out here to help! Thanks so much for all of your love and prayers!! I love you with all my heart and soul!! Mud :)

March 30th, 2015

Hey my awesome family!! That sounds like it was an awesome and busy spring break! I think that they should give you another week off to recover from all that partying though. That is awesome that you got to grandma's and grandpa's they are awesome!! And thanks so much for the package it is awesome! I am excited to look for you guys on the Saturday session of conference. And would you please tell bubba congrats for me? This week has been a crazy one! We had a surprise meeting on Tuesday where they split our zone into New Orleans Spanish and New Orleans English instead of nola north and south zones. So I became the new district leader for our new Thibodaux English district. I think that they got the wrong guy but I will do whatever they tell me :) We also had one of our less actives that we see every week pass away and a big move that we had to help make so it has been quite the week. But it all ended really well yesterday with our 5th sunday potluck. It was awesome!! Everybody brought huge pots of gumbo's, jumbalya's, redbeans and rice, crawfish and a bunch of deserts and we all had a big meal together. It is tradition that the missionaries serve it to all of the ward members so I got to get my lunch lady on for a little while haha This ward is a lot like ours just really real and loving to each other. It is fun to be here! A lot of people fell through on us this week but we will just keep trying cause that's how things are being a missionary. Things here are good, the people are awesome and very loving and I am grateful that I get to serve them. I am learning a lot and being humbled a lot as I meet and learn to love more and more people. I love you so much!! And I am so grateful that I have such an awesome family cause I know that a lot of people don't. Hope you have a great week!! I love you!!

March 23rd, 2015

My awesome family!!!! Thanks for all of the updates, they always make my week!! I can't believe that everybody is growing up and doing different things on me, where is the pause button at? that is crazy that you only have 8 weeks left of school!! I'm glad that the truck got fixed and is running again too I will sleep better at night now :) I'm not going to lie I have really been missing march madness so I am Very grateful for the updates. This week has been a pretty good one!! My new companion is Elder Perazzo and he is from Falon Nevada he is a really good guy! He is just super mellow and nice and we get along really well together. Our mission is changing a lot in the next couple of months cause our mission president wants a few less missionaries so all of the old ones are going home and not as many are coming out so it will be very interesting how things work out, I can't believe that I am turning into one of the "old" missionaries it is kind of a scary thought! I just found out yesterday that our bishop is moving and I am really sad to see him go. He is a really good guy! His name is Justin Anderson and he is a football coach he coached at Nickel State for awhile and he just got a job at BYU and he is really excited. But he told me to keep it on the down low so don't tell anybody in the ward, cause me and my companion are the only ones that now. I just couldn't hold it in anymore haha So we have really been working on talking to everybody in that we see so I have been doing my best to take it to heart. Elder Perazzo looks at me like I am crazy sometimes but I kind of figure that the worst they can do is call me a few mean names (that steve probably has already called me haha) and so I just talk to everybody. So yesterday I talked to this 89 almost 90 year old lady and took a picture with her. I felt prompted to tell her that she was still looking as beautiful as ever and I took a picture with her. It really made me happy!! I love my new friend dorris :) Hope yall have a great week!! I love you!!!!!! Love MUD!!!

March 17th, 2015

My awesome family! It sounds like you have had quite the week! That is so awesome that Jessa rocked her dance competition!! But if they all dance like jessa does than I know that they must be pretty awesome! Is Stockton's brother and Aggies fan or does he just really like dad? I wish you all luck getting mom out of bed early this week I know that that is always a struggle ;) Thanks so much for the package that you sent!! And please tell the moultons thanks too! I got them on the same day and the other missionaries about passed out that I got 2 packages on the same day, I felt very loved! I am feeling lots better thanks for all of your prayers and support in getting me through that. It is getting a lot better. This week has been a pretty good one! It has been really busy and productive. Our ward isn't very big so a lot of the time we are just asked to do things like teach primary or young men gospel principles or something like that so it keeps things very interesting never quite knowing what we are going to be doing that day. This week we got to help with the sunbeams and I forgot how awesome sunbeams is. We played with Playdo colored pictures, we didn't get a snack but it was an awesome class. I hope that Jesus wants me for a sunbeam too so that I can keep coloring and playing with playdo haha We had the chance to do some more service this week and help Elder Jones plant his first tree. It has been fun to get to help teach him new things. He is kind of a punk sometimes but I really do love him and I am going to miss him. The missionary work here is really getting better! I know that the lord is blessing these peoples hearts to be ready we just have to get out there and talk with them! I love yall and am so grateful for all that you do!! hope you have an awesome week!!! Love Mud :)

March 9th, 2015

My family!! That would be the best care package ever if one of you was in there! haha Tell the poor bishop to keep hanging in there that is sad that sister Dalton isn't doing very good. That also makes me really sad about the truck, I love that truck...but $5,000 is a lot of money. I hope that Jessa gets feeling better too, I have been fighting a cold lately too so you can tell her that we are twins this week. It sounds like Jake and Melissa are doing pretty good and there Boise trip sounds like it will be a lot of fun! Things this week have been great! Lee got baptized!!!! and I got the chance to give him the Priesthood yesterday it was awesome! He is so ready to be a member of the church it is crazy. He lost his wife about 9 months ago and he is super excited to get sealed to her a year from now. I hope that he can keep this fire going for along time. So you know how after somebody gets baptized they kind of hurry to get dressed again and get back out? Well Lee whipped out his blow dryer and spent like 5 minutes doing his hair while everybody waited haha He is a funny guy. I am super happy for him! thanks for your prayers for him!! Next week is transfers so I won't email until Tuesday, and there may be a chance that I get transferred this one because there is a pretty big group going home but we will see. Hope that you have a great week!!! Thanks for all of you love, support, and prayers. It couldn't be done without you!......and there would be a lot less rocks in Louisiana :) Love Mud

February 23rd, 2015

Hey my family!! How's it going? I am glad to hear that you survived the week, I can't even imagine a dance recital that big...dad is a strong man haha It is so crazy to hear about all of these people moving and growing up. It seems like just yesterday we were over at the moultons and I shot Darin in the eye haha Jordan can't be old enough to go on a mission yet! 12 degrees that is freezing!! People are settling down after Madi Gras which is really nice. It has been a pretty good week this week! We had a service project with this crazy old lady and we were chopping down a huge tree in her backyard. The problem was that she only had like a 8 foot ladder so there wasn't a whole lot that we could do for her unless we fell it right into her neighbors barn. So we were trying to figure out how we were going to do it when her nephew showed up and he grabbed the chainsaw and yelled "I'm from the south I don't need any tools like that to cut down a tree!" and he just went ape crazy and started cutting it down right towards the neighbors barn, so we got out of the way and prayed that we weren't going to have to fix a barn next week. And truthfully I can't tell you how, I have cut down quite a few trees in my lifetime and there is NO reason that tree should have fell how it did he didn't wedge or direct in anyway. But the boss man upstairs must have laughed at us and our prayers and he guided that tree down safely. He really does always have our back :) Elder Kipishka of the Seventy came and spoke to us at zone conference on Saturday and it was awesome! He is from Germany and is just a happy guy through and through. He is always smiling kind of like Bro. Hoskins. It was one of those meetings were he rebuked us and told us how we could be doing so much better than we are, but since he did it with a smile on his face it didn't hurt quite as bad haha I am having so much fun being a missionary!! We are teaching a guy named lee forret who is getting baptized on the 7th of march I am so excited for him!! Hope that yall have a great week!!!! Love Mud :)

February 18th, 2015

Hey! Things here are going pretty good! How are yall doing? Yes I got my Valentines package, letter from Jessa, and email from Tom thanks so much!! The doctor checked out my heart and it is all working how it should. They think it might be a pinched nerve in my neck but we will get it figured out. Thanks for your prayers :) No I haven't seen or eaten any gators yet but I will let you know for sure when I do! Know that it is warming up they should start coming out a little bit more. I'm glad to hear that you survived your crazy week!! It sound like you had a lot going on. That is crazy that it is warming up so fast! Are you liking that or not? This week has been a pretty crazy one! since it was Madi Gras week nobody really wanted to see us but we still tried hard to see people and get around town. (Since there was at least 1 parade a day that cuts right through the middle of town and blocks off everything) But it is kind of a fun crazy environment. Yesterday we took our p-day and with our presidents permission we went to New Orleans to the "Zulu" parade it was crazy!! People were going crazy for beads and coconuts. It was a lot of fun to see and experience but you could for sure tell that there was a different spirit there than we were used to feeling. I am kind of glad that it is over now though so everybody will settle down and little and maybe be a little bit more sober hahaha I love yall so much!!! Hope you have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!! Love Madi Gras Mud

February 9th, 2015

Mi familia!! You guys are amazing!! It is so good to hear from you!!! It sounds like you have a busy week ahead. 137 crush pies and crush pops on top of that, that is a lot! Thanks for taking such good care of Koltin I love that kid!! And I wore my Bro. Leatham tie to church yesterday so I could think of him. He is an awesome guy!! Thanks for having a 6 months party for me it sounds like it was a good time! It feels like years since I have talked to you guys last. I really like it hear so far! My companions name is Elder Jones, he is a pretty cool guy! He is from Arizona and he is half black and half white. so I call him my Obama boy haha (I promise that it is ok with him) :) and we have a car so I can't complain. It has kind of been a rough week cause he really doesn't know anybody and I really don't know anybody or how to get anywhere but we have figured a lot out. It was quite the change not driving for 6 months and then driving for like 5 hours in Louisiana it kind of made me nervous but I caught back on quick. Elder Porter is staying in Covington and his new companion seems like a pretty cool guy. Louisiana winter is pretty much over it has been like 75 everyday for the past couple days so that has been really nice! You will never guess what I found in one of my suitcases when I was unpacking?! it was one of Jakes dirty socks!!!!! I reached in a pocket that I had never opened before and I found a dirty sock and so Kentucky program, it mad me laugh pretty hard. :) Things here are pretty crazy right now with Made Gras. There is pretty much a parade every night for the next 2 weeks. So how it works is that if the parade starts at 6 everybody who is on the floats wakes up early and starts drinking as much as possible before the parade so the can have a really good time. so we have heard a lot of comments from drunk people on these floats it is a lot of fun! I have been working on drinking more water that is what the mission nurse told me too. I have been drinking about 5 or 6 a day. I am going to the Cardiologist on Thursday so I will let you know how that goes. Life is good! I also went to my first Mass yesterday with one of our investigators, it was crazy! I love you guys so much!! Hope you have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

February 3rd, 2015

My awesome family!!!!! I love you so much!! I am glad to hear that everyone is hanging in there and that you are finally done with concessions for the year!! I bet that Jessa rocked the dance floor she is one awesome little dancing chick!! It sounds like it has been a pretty good week. This week has been crazy but so much fun!! I am getting transferred!!!!! I can't believe that I am actually going to go somewhere else it is crazy to even think about that. This is my home and my people :) But I am excited to go and experience a new adventure! I am also follow up training in my new area so that will be an adventure! One of these days I am going to get 12 week right so I don't have to keep doing it over and over haha It was so cool to be able to meet Elder Cook and Elder Hallstrom they are awesome guys!! We had a great meeting with them and the whole mission! It was a lot of fun to be able to see everybody in the whole mission again! The people that we are teaching are really progressing now and I am sad to leave them, but I know that Elder Porter will take good care of them. I love you guys so much and thanks for helping this poor white trash kid make it through the last 3 months! I couldn't have done it without you! Love Mud p.s. It is a lot more fun and goes a lot better when mom and grandma help you pack haha

January 26th, 2015

Oh my awesome family you guys are awesome! It sounds like you have had a pretty exciting week! Darn dogs always jump all over me too, it kind of makes you not want to have a dog haha Poor Josh he sure is a good guy!! It has been a pretty good week! It was a lot of fun to go on exchanges and have a little change of scenery for a couple of days. It was supposed to last until Thursday morning but Elder Trainer called and begged us to come back on Wednesday night instead cause he couldn't handle sweet ol Elder Porter any longer haha He is teaching us all a lot :) I hope you don't feel like I am always complaining about Elder Porter he really is a good guy with a good heart...he just is a different box of rocks. I know that God is still a God of miracles cause I haven't choked him yet hahaha And I have learned some lessons that I know will be good for the future :) I know I shouldn't stress so much I will work on being better. Things are going to be good this week I can feel it in my bones :) I love you guys so much!!!! Love Mud :)

January 20th, 2015

My family!!!! It sounds like you have had a busy week! I'm glad to hear that dad is feeling better!! My companion was sick with the flu this week too. I can't believe that Wade has lost 50 lbs. that is crazy! and that is crazy that they forget Seth too, poor guy. Yes I got my package thank you so much!! It is wonderful and Jessa did a great job on that pillow case! I kind of had a cool experience with that package. I was reading in Alma about how Ammon and his brethren bore their afflictions with patience, and I read this while I was sitting in our apartment trying not to go crazy. And I thought man it would be pretty cool if I got that package today, it would help me not go quite so crazy over the next few days and bam no sooner did I think that then the wonderful mail man knocked on the door and give it to me! Good really is in all of the details of our lives. It was cool to meet Elder Teh at Zone Conference he is a really cool guy. He talked to us a lot about exact obedience and he even quoted finding Nemo so after that I knew that he was my kind of guy. :) It was a pretty normal week here not a lot to report I just got to practice a lot on my nursing skills. and I learned that I am not near as good as mom or grandma! I love yall so much!!! I hope you have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love Mud :)

January 12th, 2015

Hey my family! It sounds like you are doing pretty good!! I hope that yall are surviving school and that poor dad is still hanging strong in drivers ed. I can't believe that you guys got smart phones that is crazy! It seems like just yesterday we were helping mom learn how to use her very first phone! This week has been pretty good! We are having a ton of general authorities come in the next couple weeks so poor president Hansen is kind of stressing out. Elder Teh of the Seventy is coming on Wednesday, then on the 31st Elder Cook is coming, and then on Feb. 1st Presiding Bishop Stevenson is coming possibly with L. Tom Perry. He was talking to the Zone Leaders in MLC last week and he told them , "There are going to be so many General Authorities around here that you can't swing a dead cat in a circle without hitting one of them!" hahahaha You can tell that he is a good ol Idaho guy. Don't tell too many people that we don't want to get him in trouble, but I thought that was pretty awesome. :) Guess what I had for dinner yesterday? Barbequed raccoon!! I feel like a true Louisianan now. It was kind of like roast beef but it had a wild twang too it. It was also super greasy...but it was worth trying. Things are going better with Elder Porter, Maybe just because I am growing more patience... :) I do have to be honest with you though, yesterday I was eating some grapes and as I had one in my hand it just felt perfect to throw. My companion was clear across the room and before I even realized what happed there was a grape sailing across the room. haaha And it was so much fun that I threw the whole bag at him and we had a grape fight, it was pretty awesome! I'm sorry that I always throw things I need to work on it :) I hope that yall have a wonderful week!! I love you so much!!!! Love Mud

January 5th, 2015

Hey my family! I'm glad to hear that things this week were pretty good! Sorry that you had to go back to school today, I better get praying that you can have a snow day too. I hope that Jake and Melissa get feeling better soon. Jake needs to get healthy so he can get exercising haha I'm just kidding I'm getting fatter too. This week has been a pretty good one. New years eve we went and ate with a family,"the Haltermans" they are pretty awesome! We had prime rib, homemade French fries, and Chocolate Chip cookies. It was pretty awesome! Elder Porter didn't want me to wake him up at midnight, so I set an alarm for midnight woke up said happy new year and went back to bed. It was pretty exciting stuff haha I would like to tell you that I am proud of my patience this week but I am not. It is still a work in progress :) Me and Elder Porter had a "come to Jesus talk" and I wanted to hit him, but instead I went outside and threw a couple rocks and then it was all good. I'm not sure why throwing rocks makes me feel so good but it really does. Elder Porter is doing a lot better and Elder Dye is working on not being such an impatient slug, thanks for all of your prayers :) cause I need all the help that I can get! One of our investigators Mallory that had kind of backed off came to church yesterday, it was awesome! It is so much fun to be a missionary! I am sorry to hear about Sister Rossi she is a sweet lady. I hope that you guys have a great week!! I love you so much!!!! Thanks for being so amazing!! Love Mud :)