Week 29 - February 27, 2017

Good morning everyone!! It is a nice morning here in Hammond. Transfers are coming up next week and Elder Israelsen and I are both hoping that he stays here for one more transfer. Elder Israelsen is getting the feeling that he is out but I think that he is staying one more with me.

This past week was pretty slow again but we got to do some cool things. This Friday we got to go to the temple with a member from our ward, Brother Abel. He is an awesome guy. We work with him a lot and visit people with him. We got to go to lunch with him before and then go and do a session in the temple. It was Elder Israelsen's first time being able to go to the temple. It is really nice getting to go. I feel that it helps me get my focus back as a missionary and I always feel better after going.

The other cool thing that happened this past week was that we had a great lesson with our investigator, Brandon. He has been coming to church with his girlfriend and we started teaching him last week. This week we taught the Plan of Salvation. That is my favorite lesson to teach. The lesson went really well. Brandon said that he enjoyed it and that it all made sense to him. He still isn't for sure how he feels in regards to being baptized and joining the church but he is thinking about it pretty hard and he is interested in what we teach. 

Other than that this week was slow again. Not too many people here are too interested in what we have to say but hey, as long as we are trying there is always someone to find. I hope y'all are having a great week!!

Week 28 - February 20, 2017

Hello again from Hammond!!

This week has been a pretty good week. The only thing too crazy about it is the weather. You never know what the weather here plans on doing. One day is is nice weather, not too hot, not too cold and then the next it decides to be cold and raining!! It is so weird!!

On Wednesdays we work with the local Kiwanis Club at a local school. We do what they call 'Happy Packs.' They are for the kindergarten kids. In their backpack we give them a book, juice, applesauce, snacks and some other food since many of them come from families with limited income. All the kids love it! They want to high five me and Israelsen all the time and this past week we had some kids come run up to us and hug us and thank us for the Happy Packs. It is really cool to do this for them and they really appreciate it.   

So this weekend Elder Israelsen and I did quite a bit of service as well. On Friday we went and helped a member of our ward, Gale, remove a miniature palm tree kind of thing from her yard. I don't remember what she called it though, it was some weird name. It took some time to get the roots out be Elder Israelsen and I powered it out in about 30 or so minutes. Then on Saturday we did about 8 hours of service. First, at about 9, we went to help Brother Fletcher's friend Brian move back into his house that was flooded and that he has been out of for a few months. We got the opportunity to talk with the other people that were there helping and tell them about what we do as missionaries and they all thought it was really cool what we do. After that service we went and helped a family from our ward put new insulation in their home. It was kind of cool to do and I am glad that I know how to do it now but three hours of it was crazy! I am still sore from bending to put it in!

This week we got a new investigator. His name is Brandon. His girlfriend is LDS and so he has been coming to church and to institute with her. We started teaching him yesterday. He was raised Baptist by his Grandmother and is a very religious man. We don't have a return appointment at this point because he wants to think about what we have taught him and to see if it is something that he truly wants to pursue learning the Gospel. We gave him our number and he said that he plans of texting us sometime this week with whatever he decides. He seems interested and I can tell that he is willing to follow the invitation that we gave him at the end which was to pray about the message that we gave him and about the things that he has already learned and to see if this is something he wants to do. I will keep yall up to date on how things with him go.

Well that is about it for this week! I hope all yall are having a great week and that the Lord is blessing yall in many ways

Week 27 - February 13, 2017

Good Morning yall!! Its been another good week here in Hammond.

So this week I got to go to a "practice" crawfish boil. Brother Abel had Elder Israelsen and me over for crawfish and taught us how to go about opening the crawfish to get the meat. I must say I have never liked seafood or anything like it but it was really good!! The way that they cook the crawfish in the boil makes it taste really good and it doesn't have a really strong seafood flavor. I cant wait for my first full scale boil! It should be a lot of fun!

So the excitement for the week was definitely being on lockdown because of tornado warnings all across the mission. We went out at 7:30 that morning to give a blessing and got back to the apartment around 8:30 and at 9 got a call saying that we were on lockdown until 12. That gave us some extra time to study and yes maybe we did take a nap too! The tornadoes didn't really effect the area around Hammond but New Orleans did get hit. New Orleans really can't seem to get a break.

The other big thing that happened this week was that me and my comp got asked to give a talk in church! Yay!! My absolute favorite! Haha. It was actually a pretty easy topic that I was given. I was asked to talk about how members and missionaries can work together. That is a really easy thing to talk about as a missionary lol. My companion was asked to talk on the focus of missionary work and to give a little rundown of our changes of schedule so that the members would know as well.

That is about it for this week! I hope yall are doing well! Have a great week!

Week 26 - February 6, 2017

Hello again from Hammond Louisiana! I am going to apologize in advance, this letter is probably going to be really short. This past week was pretty slow.

The best thing from this week was our lesson with the Strausbaugh's(I think I spelled that right). The father is a less-active member that is working on getting active again. He has three sons. Two 13 year old twins and a five year old. The 13 year olds are working towards baptism. Elder Moody, from the senior couple in our district, went with us. The lesson was on chastity, which I am sure was an awkward topic for two 13 year olds but we had a really good lesson. On of the twins is still on the fence about being baptized but he is really considering it and I think he will make the decision to be baptized.

Other than that the other cool thing that happened was that yesterday at a dinner appointment that we had I got to do the toothpick challenge for a hot sauce. I forgot how high it was on the Scoville heat scale but it was really really hot. It is definitely the hottest thing that I have had here but most of the others at the appointment were disappointed by my reaction because I didn't freak out because of the heat.

Well that is about all for this week. Again I am sorry for the shortness of the letter! 

Have a great week everyone!    

NOTE FROM NATHAN'S DAD: We heard there were tornadoes touching down in the New Orleans area today but from what we can see they were near by where Elder Stoddard is serving but not the same town.