Semana Ochenta y Siete (In Which the Swamp People Gather.... And We Set a Baptismal Date! 🐊)(Minden, LA)

Goodmorning my peoples! 

We had a great week here in Louisiana. Though oddly enough, it really didn't started until Thursday because of exchanges on Tuesday and Zone Conference in Longview, Texas (my last area!) on Wednesday. But luckily that did little to stem the flood of miracles and crazy experiences this week. Here are the highlights! 

- One night we were driving back when we saw this huge armadillo  in the middle of the road. We hit the thing head on! I swear, it must have done more damage to us than we did to it. The thing rolled into a ball and smacked the bottom of our car hard. We parked and jumped out to see the squashed critter, but to our surprise it ran away unharmed. Lesson learned. Armadillos are tough buggers. 

- We had stake conference this week, and Bishop Causse, the presiding bishop of the church, was in attendance. He's from France so it felt right hearing him with his French accent speak to a bunch of Cajun swamp people. Our mission president, President Dalton, and the Dallas temple president, President Elmer, were also in attendance, so that was pretty dope. Great conference. (especially because a member made brisket sandwiches for all the Shreveport missionaries afterwards!) 

- Last night we set the coolest guy on date for September 28th! His name is Phillip Edwards. The elders found him a week before we got here, but they only taught him once. We've been over a couple of times, and on Sunday we were reading in 3 Nephi 11 and we got to the part where Jesus Christ gives authority to Nephi and few other men to baptize, and you could almost see the light bulb of realization light up over his head. He completely understood the idea of authority, and after he told us he believed everything we were teaching was true, we invited him to be baptized and he accepted. He might be the fast turn around convert of my mission, so we're pretty excited! 

- In an effort to conserve miles (Ha! miles...... that's a good one....) we've been biking all over tarnation this week. I don't think my trainee, Elder Patchett, likes it, but hey, it's good for him.

- During our exchange with the Brownlee Elders (Elder Per from Guatemala and Elder Meyers from Idaho) over in Bossier City, I got to use my Spanish again. They have the assignment of starting the Shreveport Spanish group, so they've almost entirely dropped all English in favor of Spanish. So it felt really good to bust out the Spanish again, even if it was just for a day. 

All in all it was a great week! We sweated (a lot), a biked (a lot), and we just did the missionary thing. Before I close want to leave you with a verse and an idea that I've been pondering on a lot. This is Peter's response to Christ right after many people abandon the Savior. 

67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
   68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life

Where will we go? Is there anywhere to go but the gospel? Sure you may leave the church, but are you really going to something else or are you just trying to get away from something. Most likely the latter. If we let it, the gospel truly can and will fill our lives. It gives us purpose, it gives us hope. Not just some temporary hope such as we might have that our favorite team wins or that the weather changes, but ultimate hope. The hope that comes from the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I love this gospel, and I love being a missionary here in Louisiana. It's the place to be. 

Catch y'all next week! 

Elder Clark Fox
(La Iglesia De Jesucristo De Los Santos De Los Últimos Días) 
(102 Emerald Drive Apt. 7 Minden, Louisiana 71055)  


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