Monday, July 2, 2018

MAY 14, 2018

Hey y'all, 

It was so great skyping the family yesterday!! Looks like everyone is doing so well. Happy Mother's Day, love you Mom. Could hardly recognize Chris and Mike, but with the weight gain and everything down here in Louisiana I guess I can't say much haha ;) Things here are really turning and burning, but I will just share a couple experiences for this week. 

Miracle:
We were doing service at the Food bank in Metairie, and one of the members of the ward came with us. We met so many way cool people. So Nohemi (one of the members) gets talking to this girl working there with us and invites her to get some food afterward. So we end up going to a little fast food restaurant, and Jess (the volunteer we met) came with us. We had a great time talking with her and getting to know her and then like 30 mins in ( even after we had been explaining our missions/leaving for 2 years, etc) she tells us that she is Catholic, but after moving out and going to school at LSU she started questioning it. Anyways, we end up asking her if she had ever attended a Mormon church, and she immediately gets red in the face, eyes widen, and her mouth drops. She was like, "Wait....y'all are Mormons?" hahahaha!! We all busted up laughing, because she had no idea we were Mormons (and Mormon missionaries especially haha). She seriously thought Mormons were crazy weird people and was so confused, it was so funny. The miracle of the story though is that she attended LSU, and after we told her that I served there  1 year ago she said she remembers me on Free Speech alley!!! It was funny though, because she admitted to taking a pass along card and just trying to avoid all eye contact every other time she walked passed and we were there. Haha! She was so embarrassed, but now realizes she just had no idea what we were all about and what we were doing. She expressed interest in coming to church next week too, so we are excited. Been thinking about how cool that would be if I was meant to teach her, and just took a couple opportunities. 

Funny tracting story:
We we were down in the hood of Kenner, just minding our P's and Q's, out walking down this street. We made sure to park our car in a different location as well and hit the road on foot haha. So we are trying to contact a people on the roster, and street contact, etc. One of the names we are looking for is this guy named Rodney Hollis. So we are talking to tons of people and eventually come walking passed this car with a few people standing outside of it. One guy waves at us and basically tells us to keep up the good work and the people down here need Jesus haha. We decided to stop and talk with him of course, and turns out the man's name is Rodney. So I'm like, Rodney Hollis? And everyone goes silent, and he was like, "My brothers!! You remember me!" It has been a decade and y'all are still out doing the work of the Lord. (I honestly think he thought we were the same guys that taught him like 10 years ago haha) The funniest thing was the wife standing right next to him with the most shocked look on her face because we knew his last name. Rodney hit us with like 5 NOLA hand shakes and invited us back this week. Gotta love it! Just getting some street cred down here. 

I will keep it short this week. I am loving the work down here, and know that it is true. Love y'all. Have a blessed week!
Love, 
Elder Wilson