Monday, August 27, 2012

Hey!
Another week down. What the heck? It seems like I was just emailing yesterday! Hopefully everyone is doing good. I'm doing fine right now but I had a pretty crazy week. Holy Cow. It rains here all the time. I'm pretty sure there was 1 day that it didn't rain. When it rains it kinda makes everything go slower. I'm not going to lie... there were a couple things that happened this week that really tore me apart. But I found a way to get through them. So the first one that happened it was kinda later in the day the sun was going down. Me and my companion were getting really tired. It was raining so we were just getting soaked. It was just bad. We really didn't know what to do. We ended up just going to this one house to knock so we can be doing something. So we knock on the door and a muslim lady answers it. Right when I saw her I knew this wasn't going to be good. She sees us and just starts yelling at us. Telling us NO!! Go away! Don't come back again. So we start walking away and she yells at us again. She yells at us and tells us to get off her property before she calls the cops. So we just get out of there as fast as we can. It wasn't too good. It was pretty rough. People here are either super nice or super rude. So that was pretty crazy. Yeah ...I'll save my other story for later. So the hurricane or whatever looks like it's coming this way. I think we are probably gonna have to go stay at a members house for a couple days . I'm not sure. I think it would be crazy to be in a hurricane. Yeah so you got a call from pops...Bro. White? haha he is way cool. When he told me he talked to you I was like oh so you finally called my parents? He was like no I talked with them telepathically? or whatever...haha he is so crazy. So we went to a members wedding this week and guess what they had for food? Yep fried chicken and jumbalaya. I've had jumbalaya a few times already and its pretty good. It depends on who makes it. People here sure do love there food. So the other day I finally weighed myself....and I was surprised when I saw how much I weighed. 165!!!! Hahah  I'm getting big. I don't think its all fat cause I work out every morning. Maybe a little fat...I hope I don't get super fat! Yeah so I'll tell you my other story. This experience has been the worst experience I've had on my mission so far but I'm also glad that it happened. It tore me to pieces...so we get a call from a guy and he tells us to come over cause they are having a bbq. So we're like sweet lets go over there. We get there and there is no bbq. We sit down and these 2 other guys come in. So there are 3 black guys sitting down in front of us. They all bring in their bibles. By the way they are Penticostals. They are like okay lets start with a prayer so they say a prayer and they ask us what we believe about Jesus and Heavenly Father. We tell them how they are seperate beings. So 1 guy is like ok I want to go to a scripture. He opens up a notepad and has all these notes taken down just for us. They start telling us all these scriptures and trying to prove our religion wrong. They prepared for us to come cause they had all kinds of notes taken. 1 of them was like a pastor so he was using all these flattering words like bible pastors do. They knew their bible for sure. He looked us in the eyes and he said I can see the confusion in your eyes. Your searching for the truth. You have so much potential but you haven't found the truth yet. He was trying to convert us.They were bashing on us hard. It was horrible. This went on for like 2 hours. That experience really shook me up pretty bad. My faith was really tested. For the rest of the day I was just super quiet. My companion was asking what's wrong. I asked him if what they were telling us were true. So we had to discuss some stuff for a little bit. The devil is real. He was trying to tear us down through those guys. But now I'm fine. I've learned alot of things from that experience. So that was my week. I love you all and I'm praying for you!
Elder Willis <3

Monday, August 20, 2012

Hey!!
Hows it going? Hope y'all are doing fine. Yeah everyone says y'all here. I kinda have gotten hooked to it too. Well this week went by fast. Hopefully every week goes by this fast.  That would be sweet. Well this past week wasn't as crazy as the others. Still some pretty interesting things have happened. We had zone conference this past week. To answer your question we are in the Lafayette zone. It was  pretty cool. We don't knock doors at all. It's pretty much pointless to knock doors here. Nobody wants to hear what we have to say. I think we have knocked doors like only 2 days for a couple hours so far. I think every door I have knocked I get the door slammed in my face. It's tough here. We can't find anyone to teach. And the people we do teach don't really take in what we teach them. It's like they just like talking to people and they don't care what we say. Its hard.....I get discouraged sometimes and think why can't we get at least just 1 person that wants to hear what we have to say and really be interested. Yeah it's kinda hard sometimes. I've also found out that God doesn't bless you with worldy things like money and clothes and all that....sometimes he does but I have found out that even the strong members of the church don't have alot. I would think like they are strong in the church why doesn't the lord bless them with more money and better living conditions. I have realized he does bless them because of their faith. I can see how happy they are with the gospel and how loving they are and joyful. They don't care that they don't have much as long as they are happy in life and have joy that's really all you need in this life. We had stake conference this weekend. We are in the Alexandria stake. It was alright. There were some good talks. At the end of the adult session saturday night when it was the prayer the lady that was supposed to say it just stood up where she was sitting in the stands and started her prayer. The stake president told her she needed to go up to mike and say it. It was kinda funny. So the other night when we got back to the apartment there were these 2 black guys playing on the courts outside. They were about 20. So we walk over there and say hi and stuff. They ask us if we want to shoot so I'm like yeah I'll take a shot. So I get the ball and I drain like 6 shots in a row. Those guys were like amazed with me. They were like how did you get so good? Asking me if I played in college and stuff....so we shot around with them for a little bit and talked and we set up a appointment where we can go teach them. So when we go teach them we walk in their appartment and it smells like smoke so bad. They were so high....haha so we start teaching them and they are so out of it. Like they can't think at all and they aren't even paying attention to what we are saying. Randomly they would just start laughing...it was crazy. So we just stopped halfway through the lesson and told them we'll come back at another time...yeah so it's pretty hard to teach people the gospel when they are high. So yeah that was pretty much my week. I wonder what this next week has in store for me....love you guys and your in my prayers.
Elder Willis

Monday, August 13, 2012

Hello Family!!!
How is everyone doing? Hope everyone is doing fine. I'm doing pretty good. This week went by pretty fast. Maybe cause we are always pretty busy. Alot of cool things and interesting things happened to me this week I guess. But I'm starting to get really comfortable here. The people here are pretty awesome. I'm not totally comfortable yet but still way better than last week. So I'll tell you a little about my week. We really don't teach very many lessons. We just visit alot of members and less actives. We are trying to find more people to teach. I think we taught like 2 or 3 lessons to an investigator this week. And I still haven't even bought any groceries yet haha. We got fed almost every night this week. I love getting fed by people. Let's see one night a family fed us rice and macaroni and cheese. That was a little different but it was fine with me. I pretty much just eat anything now. I'm not very picky anymore. Another night we went to this couple that lived in a 2 room house. 1 room was the bedroom and the other room was the kitchen and living room. It was sad to see. They didn't even have a table for us to eat at. We had to sit on the couch and eat our dinner. It was hard to see their living conditions. They are probably the strongest family in the church too. They are awesome. They have 1 kid and he is mentally handicapped but they still go to church and try to help people out as much as they can. I'ts really hard for me to see how some people suffer here. Another cool thing that happened. Saturday night me and Elder Ageda were just walking around in the ghetto in Opelousas. We came across this one black lady. We talked to her for a little bit and gave her a Book of Mormon. She told us that Sunday afternoon they were having a neighborhood BBQ and she wanted us to come to it. So Sunday after church we went over to her house. When we were walking up there were like 3 black guys outside smokin and drinkin. They looked like thugs. They saw us and got all excited and told us to go inside and get some of their food. So we go inside and there were like 50 black people in the house. Everyone was so excited to see us. They didn't know who we were but they knew we were church people so they loved us. They got us food and drinks. They were way friendly. Everyone was trying to talk to us. There were probably like 50 people there and I was the only white person haha. I didn't feel out of place at all.  There were some mean looking people there though. haha  Last night we went and talked to a less active family in our ward. the Longorias.....yes they are related to Evan Longoria. I'ts Evan Longoria's uncle. He is way cool. He used to play in the MLB  for a little while too He has a whole room filled with Evan Longoria stuff. So me and him pretty much talked about baseball the whole time. So that was my week. Everyday it seems like something interesting happens. Every p day our whole zone goes and plays basketball at the chapel. So later on I'm going to play bball which is always fun. I'm still moving along and doing good. I love you all and miss you!

This picture is for Matthew!


Elder Willis

Monday, August 6, 2012

Aug. 6, 2012 1st Week in Louisiana

Well hello family! Hope everyone is doing fine. Im finally in Louisiana. Yeah so pdays are on Monday so that is when I email. It was nice talking to you guys it sounds like everyone is doing good. Well Ill tell you a little bit about my experience in Louisiana so far...when I first got off the plane I seriously thoughtIi was in the jungle. There are so many big trees here and everything is so green. Yeah it is so humid here. When we got outside I was already sweating pretty bad within like 2 minutes. My companion is Elder Ageda. He is black and he's from South America. He has been out about 10 months. He is pretty cool. We are starting to get along pretty good. Our area is the Opelousas area. Our apartment is in Lafayette. Our whole area is huge. We cover like 6 different towns. The chapel is in Opelousas which is about 30 min from our apartment. So yeah we cover a big area. I have only been in like 3 different towns so far. I think from one of the areas to the other is about 50 miles. Our area is pretty big. We have a car too. I am the driver cause my comp is from a different country. So the first day I got to my area I was already driving. Driving in Louisiana is pretty fun but there are some pretty wild drivers. Im kinda glad I dont have to ride my bike haha. Opelousas is pretty ghetto. All the neighborhoods are pretty much black dominated. As well with most of the areas. I'ts kinda scary sometimes. I think Louisiana is a different country cause I have been to Mexico before and I think Louisiana is more ghetto and scarier than Mexico is. The people here dont have alot. Most people live in beat down trailors. I havent been in one semi ok house yet. The people really struggle here but they are really humble. Im still trying to get used to it. Everything is an eye opener for me and I still really havent gotten comfortable here yet. It really makes me appreciate the way I grew up and how I was blessed. Im not going to lie this past week has been pretty hard. I have to adjust my whole lifestyle for these people and its really hard. Hopefully I can get more comfortable over time. The people I have met so far are really cool. The people arent afraid to say whats on their mind or what people think about them. Most people talk so fast here. I cant really understand most of the people so I just nod my head and laugh. Yeah I havent even had to buy any food yet. Most of the time the people just buy us food. Ive already had Boudin prounounced as boo-dan. Which is pig intestine stuffed with seasoned rice and meat. It was actually really good. and I also have had cracklin-- which is pork skins with the fat and meat still on it. It was really good too. The branch here is pretty small. There are about 40 members covering like 6 towns. Church here is a little different. Its funny to hear people from Lousiana sing church hymns cause they cant sing at all haha. But its hard to explain everything. You just have to experience the south for yourself to really know. Oh and a funny thing that has happened so after church on sunday our ward mission leader took us to give someone a blessing. Our ward mission leader is like 60 years old but act young like us!   After the blessing he took us to the gas station and bought us drinks .   Its weird. But thats pretty much all. Hopefully this week goes better and I can start to get comfortable. I love you guys and miss you.
Elder Willis

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

NEW ADDRESS

Talked to Tyler on his way to Baton Rouge.....He was ready to get to Louisiana and start serving.  He sounded a little tired because he had said that he went to bed at 11:00 and had to get up at 2:00 to get ready to leave by 3:00.  Not a lot of sleep.  He did sleep a little on the plane.  It was very nice to talk to him.  We had a list of questions that we had written down that we asked him.  We talked for about an hour.   We miss and love that guy:)  We are proud of him and his willingness to serve.  We are excited for his new adventure.
Today I got an e-mail from his mission home that gave us his address for the next few months.  He will be serving in the Lafayette area.  His address is
Elder Tyler Willis
1300 E. Pont Des Mouton
Apt D-107
Lafayette, LA  70507

Doesn't the street name sound foreign:)  Good luck Elder Willis and we are proud of you!   We know the people in Lafayette will love you too!