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."