Week 36 - April 17, 2017

Hello again y'all!!
So it is another transfer here in Hammond Louisiana. Elder Israelsen and I are no longer together. He has moved on to Morgan City in the New Orleans Zone. He is now with my CCM comp Elder Porter. As far as I know they are doing well together! My new comp is Elder Barney. So the crazy thing about Elder Barney is that he is a English Elder.... So yeah I am in a salt and pepper companionship now. It has been an interesting week needless to say. Elder Barney is from Utah, go figure, and has been out for about 21 months. He and I get along pretty well together and I think some cool things will happen this transfer.

So this week wasn't too eventful other than getting a new companion. I have been taking him around to the people that we visit and introducing him to them and to the members of the ward. It has been good. 

So I am sorry for the short email y'all.... It has been a crazy week but mostly because of the new comp. Hopefully next week I will have more to report.

Love y'all!

Editors Note: Pictures are from last week. 

Week 35 - April 11, 2017*

Good Mornin y'all. So another transfer has passed for me out here on the mission. They seem to get shorter and shorter every time. Elder Israelsen tells me that it is probably because this transfer was only a five week transfer instead of a six week one but I'm still not convinced that is the reason :)

Still no news as to if Israelsen and I are being transferred, the calls wont come in until about 10 or 11 my time. I am hoping that Israelsen and I stay together one more but we will see what happens.

So this week was a little disappointing. We were supposed to have a baptism on the 15th of this month but on Saturday we were informed that we would have to postpone the baptism because of a few things that have come up. I won't go into detail but please keep the Strausbaugh family in your prayers!! 

The big thing this week was the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival. It is one of the largest festivals here in Louisiana and it is all dedicated to strawberries. Who would have thought strawberries were cool enough to bring hundreds of thousands of people to a small town like Ponchatoula?? Not me that is for sure!! So we got to spend a lot of time at the festival by doing service for the local Kiwanis Club. They were selling non-alcoholic strawberry daiquiri's to earn money for this years projects. It was a lot of fun and when we weren't helping there we got to go around and see some of the booths and talk to people. Not many people there were from our area but we did get to speak some Spanish there so that was really cool!! 

Other than that this week was fairly slow. We got a few new potential investigators this week including a family but we have to follow up with them this week and see if they are interested in continuing meeting with us. I will keep y'all updated on that.

One last thing. If y'all haven't seen the Easter videos that the Church has put out this year, I would strongly encourage y'all to go to Mormon.org and watch all nine videos. They will bring a Spirit of Peace into your homes this Easter season. I have felt and seen in others the Spirit that these videos bring.

Have a great week!! I will keep y'all updated on transfers!!

Week 34 - April 3, 2017

Howdy y'all!! I feel way too Southern now haha!! Anyways I hope y'all have had a great week!!

This week was pretty slow for us as missionaries. I got my head cold again but stronger this week from about Sunday to Wednesday and then Elder Israelsen got it starting on about Wednesday through the weekend. SO this was a fairly hard week for us but we made it through.

This week, even though we were sick, we still ended up finding a lot of service to do for the Kiwanis Club here in Hammond. On Tuesday we went to the local Kiwanis meeting and got introduced to more of the people that are part of the club here. On Wednesday we went and helped with the Happy Packs again which is one of my favorite service that we do. After that we went to the Kiwanis meeting in Ponchatoula, another city that we cover, and met the Kiwanis members there. Then on Thursday we went with the Kiwanis to help get new supplies for the Happy Packs. It was a good week for service.

On Friday we had our Zone Training Meeting (ZTM). It was really good. The instructions were about learning to love our companion by compromise and service. It was a really good instruction and much needed for this Zone. We also had an instruction on how to make finding new people more fun. The last thing that we did in ZTM was discuss the Easter video and pass along cards. I am really excited for them because so many people down here have faith in Christ and I feel like this will open so many more doors to us. I can't wait to get out and start using them out tracting.

We also had interviews with President Hansen Friday after ZTM. Elder Israelsen and I have come to the realization that for some reason that we don't know, President loves us. Our past few interviews have been super short and all he really tells us is how great we are doing and how happy his is to have wonderful missionaries like us. It is kind of strange but as long as I am on his good side I am happy. I got to talk to Sister Hansen as well which is always really nice. She is probably my favorite person on the Earth. She is so nice and understanding to all the missionaries and she gets to know all of us by name. She is just an all around great lady.

So other than that this weekend was AWESOME! I love Conference out here on the mission. Everything seems to be related in some way to what I am doing out here on the mission and how I can become a better missionary. I love that we have the opportunity twice a year to hear from the Prophet, the Apostles, and other inspired Church Leaders. It is always such a strength and there is always some thing to learn.

Well I hope y'all are having a great Monday and that this week will be great for y'all!! Hasta Luego!!

 

 

Editors Note: I'll caption these pictures, "Missionaries love new cars"

Week 33 - March 27, 2017

Hey y'all!! How is everyone doing?!

Things are going great here in Hammond. This past week has had a lot of complication but it has been really good! 

So all the excitement happened this weekend. First thing is that on Friday and Saturday we went on exchanges with the other Elders in our district. I went with Elder Jensen to Albany and Elder Street came with Elder Israelsen to Hammond. It was a really good time. We spent most of the time tracting in Albany because the other elders are trying to get their teaching pool up again. I got to meet come cool people out tracting and I got to learn from Elder Jensen. He is a great teacher and is so good at talking to others. One person that we met was a young man named Cameron. He is 14 and misses going to church with his mom. He told us that he is the only of the 12 kids in that family that has not been to jail. He told us that he wants to be the one that doesn't ever go and that he prays multiple times a day. It was really cool to see that determination in him.

Another cool thing that happened was that I got to go to Mississippi!!! Most Spanish missionaries in this mission don't get to say that. We went to get our car checked by an Elder serving in McComb. He is a Toyota certified technician and we were sent there to see if he could fix the problem with our AC fan. So that was fun, but he wasn't able to fix it because he didn't have the right parts or tools so it ended up being a waste of miles.

The last thing that was cool was that last night we went out with Brother Abel to give a blessing to a member from our ward that is having surgery this week. We had a good time getting to know Brother Bounds better and after we gave him the blessing we went with Brother Abel to his house and he taught us how to make Beignets. They are kind of like a fry-bread or fried donuts. It was really good!! 

Well I hope all y'all have a great week! Remember that the Lord loves you and wants you to turn to him in everything!! Love y'all!!

Week 32 - March 20, 2017

Hello again everyone!!

Alright so the first exciting thing that happened this week is that one of our investigators agreed to a baptism date!!!! His name is Gunnar and we have him on date for the 15th of April!! He is a really solid kid and is ready to be baptized! He is one of the 13 year old twins that we have been teaching for a while and he is finally ready! His brother has decided that he isn't interested at this time which is sad but I know that he will come along!!

On Tuesday this week we had a zone conference where we learned about a new rule for our mission that no missionary is excited about. From now on if a missionary gets involved in an accident, even if it isnt their fault, all missionaries in the mission are required to ride bikes or walk the next day. This is called a "car fast." They are hoping that it will help us not get in accidents as much but it makes planning a lot harder. If that happens we only have maybe 24 hours to reschedule everything that we had planned and make new biking plans. Our first "car fast" was Wednesday the day after Zone Conference, so we all had fun biking and walking everywhere we needed to go.

The other big thing that happened this week is that I got sick!! Yay!!! I love getting sick. Head colds are the best! This was my first time getting sick on the mission and I really hope it doesn't happen again. I felt so drained of energy and couldn't really think straight. But its over now so I should be good for a while! Fingers Crossed!!

I would just like to leave y'all with one of my favorite scriptures from the book of Isaiah.

 

Isaiah 54:14 "In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee."

Always remember that if we are established in righteousness then there is no need to fear. We never stand alone when we stand for the right.

Con amor!!

Hasta Luego!!

 

 

Week 31 - March 13, 2017

I'm back and still chillin with Elder Israelsen in Hammond!! I am glad that we get to stay together one more transfer! I think this one will be a great one!

So we have an almost entirely new district now after transfers. The first awesome thing is that we got new Elders in the district so Elder Israelsen and I aren't the only ones anymore. They are Elder Jensen and Elder Street. Elder Street is fresh out of the MTC. We got one new Sister for each companionship as well. Sister Steele is the new STL(Sister Training Leader), Sister McBride is the new Hammond Sister, and Sister Beck is the new Amite Sister. Both Sister Steele and Sister Beck came out with me.

So this past week Elder Israelsen and I got to do a lot of service. The first service that we did was with a group called TARC. They are a local group that raises money to help children in the area with disabilities. We helped cook and serve the food that they were making. We sold about 400 meals of Pastalaya. It was really good and we got to talk with a lot of people about what we do as missionaries. Our next service was on Friday before District meeting. We worked with the Kiwanis Club to pick up litter in the city. It was cool to meet more people from Kiwanis and we got free t-shirts so that is good right?!

The other big service that we did was put up drywall for about 4 hours in the Portier's home!! That was an experience. Elder Israelsen and I were the ones that were screwing it to the wall. Elder Moody was there with us. He knows what he is doing!! He worked in construction as a career and is really experienced. It was fun to learn how to put it up but after 4 hours or so of squatting to screw it in, we were really tired!! 

Other than those things this was a pretty basic week. We havent been having too much success but this past weekly planning Elder Israelsen and I made a new plan for how we are going to tackle the work in this area. We shall see this coming week if it works out! 

I hope y'all are having a great week and that everything is going your way!! Hasta proximo semana!!

 

 

Week 30 - March 7, 2017

Hey Y'all! It has been a good week here in Hammond.

So I got the chance to go on my first real exchanges. I went to Denham Springs with Elder Stucki and Elder Bridges came to Hammond with Elder Israelsen. I had a good time in Denham. Elder Stucki is also from Idaho. He lives in the Nampa area. We spent most of our time tracting. Nothing came of it but we had a good time. There are 4 elders serving in the Denham area. Elder Stucki and Bridges are the Zone Leaders and Elder Barndt and Mghee. I got to spend time with all of them. They are all really awesome Elders.  

Stucki and I had to rush back from transfers because President wanted to do interviews with Elder Israelsen and I in Hammond. The interviews were probably the least interview like thing that I have ever had. All that happened for the interview was President asked if I had any questions that the could give us advice on. It was strange but I like interviews like that. It felt more like I was actually talking to the Mission President than usually happens in an interview with him. 

Yesterday we had another lesson with out investigator Brandon. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The lesson went pretty well. We invited Brandon to be baptized. He told us that he still needs time to think about it. After the lesson we committed him to read 2 Nephi 31 and pray to see if baptism is what he needs to do and that we would talk with him about it again next week. He said that he would so we shall see what happens.

So in other sad but good news Elder Davies finally got to go to Brazil! He left yesterday. He is sad to leave Opelousas, cant blame him there, but he is ready to be in Brazil. He is going to do great in Brazil.   

Well just one final thing. Elder Israelsen and I are staying together one more transfer!! It should be good and we look forward to what this transfer will bring!

I hope yall are doing great and have a happy week!! Hasta Luego!