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 :)