This has been a pretty great week...

Dear Family,

 

Me and Elder Stratford are staying together another transfer and that will be really good. We both got really excited and motivated after the broadcast on Sunday and we are ready to work hard with our ward and do our best! That broadcast really was so awesome and made me so excited to be a missionary and even more excited to be a member of Christ's church. How cool is it that we all get to be so involved in sharing this message to the entire world?! It sounds like a lot of the things that they are implementing have been experimented with and have gone through tests in other missions and they are ready to extend it to everyone. Technology is going to really push the work forward and it is pretty cool because we got a little taste of that yesterday. We have an investigator and she has been staying with her dad in Texas for the last month and yesterday we taught her a lesson at a member's house over skype. Never thought that would happen on my mission haha. The Lord really is hastening his work and it is exciting! And yeah that was fun to see Hayden in the Choir. He is going to the Mexico Verhillimosa mission or something like that. It is the southern most tip of Mexico I am pretty sure. I got so excited to see him, because it just made me realize we are all on our missions now serving the Lord! 

And Mom, I think the best thing to do and the thing that I have seen work on my mission is being friends with them. I loved what Elder Nelson said in the broadcast " Act by inspiration and be motivated by love." When you are motivated by love you will be open to the spirits guidance and you will do not what you think is best, but what Heavenly Father knows is best. I know that you have the genuine charity towards others and you are in tune and sensitive to the Lord's guidance. That goes for all of you, Mom, Dad, Taylor, Emma, Haley, Homeboy and Olive. I know that we can all be missionaries at the same time and in Orem it might be mostly bringing back those who are lost and in Oregon it will be sharing the gospel by example and conversation. But each of them work the exact same way. In the broadcast they really emphasized that the Lord's gospel is simple and it blesses those who follow it. The Book of Mormon, sharing testimony and being their friend is the best way to share the gospel with anyone, member or non-member. One great way to do that is invite people over for dinner, people love food and it is a non-threatening enviroment to create relationships. I am so excited to hear about your guys missionary experiences!

 

This has been a pretty great week. This last monday we were at Sis. White's house and she grows these little red peppers. I decided it would be fun to try one and I asked her if I could. She told me, "They are really hot." And I was like "Cool!" Mistake? Probably. The first thing I noticed was there were lots of seeds and the next thing I noticed is that it was really hot and the next thing I noticed was I was crying a lot and the next thing I noticed is that I was really thirsty. Haha it was crazy, but it was an experience that I wouldn't trade. We actually got some more peppers and Elder Stratfor and I had a competition. We ate two each and I took a video. Man those things are hot going in and hot coming out haha. Maybe you could take that last part out...

 

We have been biking a ton this week because our miles are running out since it is the end of the month. It has been really fun to ride around Thibodaux and just have time to think and appreciate what is around you. But at the same time it is really hot riding your bike in the summer in Louisiana. Especially when it is 96 degrees with the humidity at 70 to 80 percent. Oh man!! We make sure to drink lots of water because I have never sweat so much in my enitre life. It is a lot of fun. I also made red beans and rice from scratch this week.

 

We have had a couple cool miracles as we rode our bikes this week. We went to one families house and they weren't there so we felt like we should ride a couple minutes to a less-actives place. Along the way this guy waved and said hi to us so naturally we stopped haha. We gave him a book of mormon and got hid number. A couple days later we went to  that same family as before and felt like we needed to go to that same less-actives house. Along the way Bro. B. was walking towards us looking a little distressed, his dog had gotten away and he didn't know where it went. We rode our bikes, we found the dog and we were able to work together with Bro. B. to coral the dog. That really increased our trust and friendship with him. And both times we weren't really able to get into that less-actives house. The Lord prompted us to go there becasue he needed us somewhere along the way. Pretty cool. We had another cool miracle happen. We were supposed to go see a member, Sis. L, but our miles wouldn't allow us to make the trip and survive the rest of the month. A member, Hayden ( a young football player at Nicholls who went on his mission to Italy) took us out to see her. Sis. Blakeney's husband works off shore and we wouldn't have been able to go in without Hayden and she needed us there. Also she has a really fat fat fat fat cat with a bad bad hat! It was so funny to see and she was joking with us about it.

 

I love this area. The ward, the people, the challenges everything. It really feels like home, it feels comfortable and I am making some really great life- long friends. Yesterday we had dinner at the Tarr's. They are a less active family and the husband is a non-member. We picked tomatoes with them, sat outside and talked, grilled up some really good steaks and all had dinner around the table. It reminded me of home. They are a family I want to come back and see. I really admire and look up to their family values, because they are just like ours. I also love the stocks, the voisins and the Barrilleaux's. They are all solid families that we are becoming really good friends with. I am excited to take you guys here to Thibodaux someday. Maybe Tommy Barrilleaux will take us on a bayou fishing trip, actually he definitely will haha.

 

I love you guys so much and I think abou that often. I am so grateful for your great example and whenever I have a hard day I think of you guys. I love you.

 

Prayers and thoughts always

 

Elder Debunhams