Hey!!

What's up family? So sounds like everything is going good. Those were some nice pictures you sent. I could hardly recognize the house you tore it down to like nothing pretty much. Jaden is still short haha....Makenzie is getting taller. Mom still looks the same...Dad is starting to get handsome like me!! I haven't got the pants yet. I guess they should be coming in pretty soon. If these don't fit I'm just going to start wearing shorts to proselyte in!!   Anyways umm...my week was a pretty good one. So most of the elders in our apartment are cool.  My comp and I are getting along really good though. He is from San Francisco but he is Tongan and went to school in Tonga. He is pretty big. 300+ haha. He is like a rock though. He played Rugby and was a Linebacker in football so he likes sports too. Alot of people have been looking at us funny because they see this little white dude with this huge brown dude. And I have been driving all the time too. We have designated drivers so they will drive the whole time. We never switch off. We still don't ride our bikes very much. I think I have only rode my bike like 5 times on my mission. So we got to teach a few people this past week. There was this one kid we saw while we were driving through a neighborhood that  was running around jumping over ditches and fences and stuff. So we get out and we go over to him and we're like what are you doing? He's like I'm a free runner! I'm like no way I used to do that stuff then I broke my foot. He's like yeah my mom doesn't know about this because she would be mad. I'm like yeah my mom didn't like it when I did this too. So we talked to him a little bit more and then we asked if we could share a message with him so we just sat on the grass and we taught him the 1st lesson. He seemed like everything made sense to him. He told us he would read the Book of Mormon that night and he would tell his mom about it. So hopefully we can go over to his house and meet his family.  This past week I think I have handed out more Book of Mormons then I have in my whole mission. I have talked to so many more people on the streets and stuff then ever before. With me and my last companion the work was so slow.  Now that I have a new comp, we have been working hard and we have seen so much more success in just this past week. Anyways the other day we were walking down some neighborhoods trying to find any kids that were playing basketball outside so that we could shoot some hoops with them. I keep a basketball in the car in case we ever find anyone playing ball so we could play with them and then share a message with them.  So we were walking down the street and I was just looking down and I look up and this car swerves into our path like he is going to try and run us over but then at the last second he swerves back into the other lane. I had to jump out of the way so he wouldn't hit me and he yelled something to us but I couldnt understand it. I had a basketball with me and I was about to rock it into the side of the car...I was pretty mad. He was going pretty fast too like in the 40s... alot of people do not like us down here. We get all kinds of crap from people...but it is what it is. Other than that my week was pretty good. I don't know if you remember me telling you about the family that is from Snowflake that lives here-- but they have this family they want us to start teaching. They said they are really interested and would want to meet with us so hopefully things go good there. Anyways that was pretty much the week of Elder Willis...I love you all and pray for you each day.

Elder Willis

Hey!!!

Fefe Hake??-How are you doing?

So I guess you already saw who my new companion is. Elder Mapa. He is Tongan. He's already teaching me to speak Tongan and I'm picking it up pretty good. He has been out like 7 months. At the transfer meeting when I first saw him I was like Oh my gosh...I hope this guy doesn't eat me because he's pretty big. But then we started talking and we have just been clicking ever since. He's super nice too. We are going to get along really well. Remember at the end of the movie the R.M.? How he gets in the bunk bed and the big Tongan guy is on the top and the bunk breaks and falls on the guy on the bottom bunk. If not go watch it again. That's exactly what I thought was going to happen our first night together. I told him I'd move up to the top bunk but he wouldn't let me. He said he would sleep on top. Thankfully our bunk bed didn't break. haha. So how our transfer meetings work is that all the missionaries getting transferred in the mission go to the Baton Rouge Stake center. Then President Wall will say like so and so will be in this area with so and so. We stand up if were called and go sit down with our new companion. So it's pretty nerve racking. The other 2 missionaries in our apartment are alright. It's a little weird living with 3 new people but pretty soon things should be getting back to normal again. So I got to see Trevor...Elder White now. It was super cool. During our luncheon after the meeting I sat and talked with him for a while. He let me know how everything was going back home. I talked with him about what to expect out here in Louisiana. It was so nice to see someone you know. He is in the Denham Springs zone so I probably won't see him for a while. The area he is in is really nice. I think he is in Denham Springs North. That is a pretty wealthy area so he won't get to experience real Louisiana for a while. I told him that I'll make sure before my mission is over we will be companions or at least in the same district. I told him I got the hookups with President Wall. Denham Springs zone and the Baton Rouge zone are the 2 zones everyone wants to be in. Probably because of the areas in them. Everyone wants to go to the Covington-Mandeville area the Denham Springs area or the Gonzales area. And I'm in one of them. So conference was way sweet. I really enjoyed it. We just watched it at the church. We were the only people there too. It was pretty nice being the only ones there though. My favorite talks were probably Monson's during priesthood session. I really liked Russell M. Nelson during the Saturday afternoon I think it was. I forgot. And I liked Christoffel Golden Jr's talk Sunday afternoon. Those were probably my 3 favorite. L. Tom Perry's and Jeffrey R Holland gave really good talks too -- those 2 were like spiritual spankings. So about those ties you sent....umm we have a thing in our district that on Friday we wear the ugliest ties we have. We call it Dusty Monkey tie Friday. Those ties you sent me are perfect for Friday's now. Thanks for them though. They aren't going to waste. So right now in our area we are going to try something new. Me and my last companion didn't really see any succes so I decided that with my new companion I'm going to try something new. I got an ubaptized child record in our ward and also a part member family list. So me and Elder Mapa are going to be working on that for a while and see if we can see any success with this. This past week we didn't really get any work done because we were busy with transfers and everything. So I just barely got an email from Garet and Amanda with their baby girl.. I guess she just had her. That's awesome. So Jaden and Makenzie are still busy with sports. Sounds like Makenzie is going to be a little track star. Tell her if she wants to get faster she needs to sprint up hills or mountains. Or sprint up the stairs a bunch of times. That will make her faster. Well I don't have much more to talk about. I can't wait to talk to y'all at mothers day. That's coming up soon. Anyways your in my prayers. Ofa Atu-I love you...

Elder Tyler Drake Willis

Hey!!!

Sounds like things are still giong the same over yonder. So you liked that seasoning? That is some good seasoning. They have some other seasoning the people here like to use and its called" Slap ya Mamma". Haha it is really good too. I don't know if they sell that at Wal mart but those are probably the two most used seasonings down here. People put seasoning on everything. Everything is so spicy and super good. Well about transfers....my companion is getting transferred. Also the other elder that was with us is getting transferred. So I'm the only one staying in the apartment. There will be 3 new elders coming in to live with me. That's probably going to be a little weird at first but it should be fun. Tomorrow is our transfer meeting where I will get my new companion. And Trevor will be there. So I'm pretty excited to see him tomorrow. That would pretty sweet if he is one of the missionaries living in my apartment.....probably not though. Next Monday when I email I'll fill you in with all the details that happened. There might even be 2 sisters in the other ward instead of 2 elders. We are going to get a new district leader too. It might be my companion. Anyways next monday I'll let y'all know. So when you told me that dad got his new calling I was thinking that he was probably going to get Jaden to speak with him alot. I guess Jaden is too scared to do that. Haha just tell him it will be good practice for when he goes on his mission. If I was home I would go speak with Dad every time he has to go speak in a ward. That would be sweet. I guess once I get home I will be dad's speaking partner. So Easter was pretty good. I got your easter package and all the jelly beans and gum were all over the package. All the eggs broke open and gum containers so there was jelly beans and gum everywhere. Our ward gave us like 6 easter baskets. We have so much candy in our apartment. I don't eat very much of it though. So I'm pretty excited to watch General Conference this weekend. None of the members have invited us over to watch it yet so as of right now we will probably be watching it at the church. It will be cool to hear what they have to say this conference. I'm going to try and send those pants back home today. If not today sometime this week I will. I have no idea what I want for my bday. It snuck up on me. It seems like it was my bday like last week. I'm going to be old....20 :( Maybe buy me a walking cane? Just kidding ummm.....I don't really need anything. Maybe another watch. Since I've been on my mission I have been in love with watches. Probably since that's the only cool thing we can have. I guess maybe another Nixon watch or I don't know the name of the watch but I have seen it before. It is a wood watch. It's pretty sweet. Maybe you could get Jaden to look it up. I'ts all wood except the face of the watch. I don't know the brand or anything except that it's wood. Anyways my week went by pretty fast. We didn't get to really teach anybody. We haven't been back over to the Dubois. I'm pretty sure that has died for right now. The other day we were driving around and tried to see this part member family we haven't seen in like 5-6 months. They were outside and we got to talk with them and they invited us back another day. So we had a lesson with them. And the dad that's not a member came to church on Sunday and we have another appointment with him this week. Other than that that is pretty much all that is going on in my area. Hopefully with my new comp we will start seeing some more success.

I guess I will just have to work harder to find more people to teach. Well hope you guys have a great week. I love you.  (These are pictures of us at a member's house catching chickens!)

Elder Willis

Hey!

Those pictures of Grandma's casita look nice. It looks pretty much like grandma Goodmans. You guys did a pretty good job building that thing up...well I guess dad did a pretty good job. He probably did most of it. About the pants... I'll send them home and you can just get new ones. I guess with Stafford I wear a 34-32. And I already have a blue pair. Tha'ts the one I wear all the time so I can use a black and a dark grey. So i'ts spring break for you guys? That's fun...I don't get spring break. The schools here are all on spring break this week too. And one of the schools had their prom this past weekend too. I thought that was pretty early to have prom. There is a couple schools in my area. One school is pretty much where all the black kids go and the other is pretty much where all the white kids go. Things down here are still pretty segregated. They have black gas stations and white gas stations. It's weird. So next week is transfer week. I'll be emailing on Tuesday again and tell you what's happening. I'm pretty sure my companion will be getting transferred but that's what I thought the past 3 transfers. So you just don't know until you know. My mission president doesn't usually leave companions together for very long. So 4 transfers together is pretty unusual. He does like to leave missionaries in areas longer though. I don't mind staying in this area. This is probably the best area in the mission. Probably because most of the people here are semi-normal. Most of the people that live here in Gonzales are from different states working at all the plants here. There are a ton of plants along the Mississippi River and that's where alot of people work. Anyways my week went by pretty fast. So you liked talking to Sis Guy? They are a sweet family. She was like has your mom sent you an easter package yet? I was like noo....then she was like what? I'm texting your mom right now!! So I was like alright...tell her I like hand written letters too. Then on Sunday she came up to me again and asked me if I got my easter package yet. So I told her no and she was like what? I already sent my son 2 packages. I just told her I guess my mom doesn't love me that much :) We didn't get to have a lesson with the Dubois this week. Their daughter has softball practice on Wednesday nights and Bro Dubois helps coach so they are trying to find another night we can start coming over again. I think things with the Dubois are dying down. I don't want that to happen but that's what I think is going on. I'm not sure if we are even going to have a lesson with them this week. I guess we wait and see. Sunday we got to go down to Morgan City and speak in their branch. The same member that took us down to New Orleans had to go speak down there and wanted us to go and speak with him. They have a tiny branch. It reminded me of the tiny branch I was in in Opelousas. I like being in the bigger wards way better. Tiny branches are not very fun to serve in. Anyways I'm pretty sure that some of the swamp people live in Morgan City. I think that's what I heard. Troy Landry...the guy that says choot em!! It looked like it would be a perfect place for some swamp people to live. I think I probably told you guys this already but the Guist brothers on swamp people live in my area. We tried to knock on their door this one time but someone came out and told us they were atheist. Haha they live in some dumpy trailers. The members in my area don't like them either because they would come to school all smelly and would have like frogs in their overalls.. I don't know. Anyways the tri-companionship is still going pretty good. We are staying really busy because we have alot of people we could see so the days go by pretty fast. We went and saw our 85 year old lady but I don't think she really remembers us. We didn't really get to talk to her because her son was there and he talked our ear off. I guess he was a spy during the cold war and I'm pretty sure he was telling us some stuff about the war that he shouldn't be telling us. So I know some top shelf secrets now. He wants us to come over again but I think that's probably because he wants to tell us some more of his spy stories. Well anyways that was my week. Talk to you later alligator. Love ya.

Elder Willis

Hey!!

Sounds like everyone is doing great. My week was a good one. It went by pretty fast. So..... I was wondering if you could send me some more ties. I'm getting sick of all the ties I have. I need some new ones to freshen up my tie collection!  Anyways about my week....this past week I was pretty sick for a couple days. I had a bad headache and cold. I didn't want to stay in either. So I just sucked it up and went proselyting anyways. I think I probably took more advil than I should have. But now I'm fine. So the other day I was reading some talks on lds.org and I came across J. Golden Kimball and I remember  someone  would talk about how he would swear in his talks. So I read some of his talks and sure enough he just swears away. Haha it's funny. Could you ask if anyone has any talks from J Golden Kimball because he has really cool talks. So the weather has been really humid the past couple days. I don't know if I'm ready for a Louisiana summer again. Those are rough. Our tri-companionship is going pretty good. It's easier to do work because we have more people to go see now. We usually cover 1 area in the early afternoon and then the other area in the late afternoon. It's fun to go around and visit other people you don't know already. Yesterday we spent 9 hours at church.....we had to be there at 7:30 for meetings for the first ward then we went to their church then at 1 we went to second ward till 4 30. I guess that's what the missionaries back home had to do. So our lesson with the Dubois went really good. We played like a guess who are the characters in the Book of Mormon. So we described a character and they had to guess who it was. Then we had a nerf gun and they got to shoot at a target for points. The girls really liked the game. They don't like when we come with just a lesson because it's boring for them. So we try to play more games now. We have no idea what we are going to teach this week. If you know of any games that you think are fun let me know because we could use them. Other than that we really didn't get to see anybody else. We didn't get to go see our 85 year old lady. I think we will this week though. That's pretty much all that is going on in my area right now. That's sweet the missionaries back home are trying to push you guys to find someone to teach. We can't do that down here. If we did that the members probably wouldn't like us anymore. They don't like being pushed or pressured into anything. So we just wait until the members will come up to us and tell us they have a person for us to teach. That doesn't happen very often though. We do our own finding. Which is not very effective because almost everyone down here is already deeply rooted in another religion. Well I can't think of anything else. My week wasn't too crazy. Just another normal week. Remember you are in my prayers. I love you.

Elder Willis

Hey!!

Sounds like you guys are doing pretty good. That's great. I'm doing good. The weeks are starting to go by really quick now. It seems like it's Monday  every other day almost.  Anyways...my week was pretty good. Today the elder that was waiting on his visa to go to Brazil left. So the other elder is companion-less. So starting now until the end of the transfer which is in like 3 weeks we will be in a tri-companionship. We will be working both of our areas together. We are going to have lots to do. All 3 of us have been together for like 6 months now so we get along pretty easy so it should be fun. We are going to have to start going to all day church too. Yay...so let's see what happened this week. Umm....we got a call from this lady that wanted us to come over and teach her about the church. So we got pretty excited. We go over there and start talking to her a little bit. She was kind of a weird lady. Then she was like I want to learn more because I have been blessed with a special gift. She was like I can speak in tongues...so I'm just trying to keep a straight face while this lady is talking to us. So we just keep going. Then she was like I want to learn more about John Smith...I'm like oh Joseph Smith? She's like yeah...John Smith. Haha. She was crazy. There are alot of people down here that claim they are prophets and have seen Jesus and all that crazy stuff. So our lesson with the Dubois was pretty good. We just taught about the Holy Ghost. Things are still the same with her. Coming to church every Sunday and not really making any more progress than that. So we just keep chugging along until hopefully one day she will make a decision. A couple days ago the Dubois were all riding in their car somewhere and they drove past this little house with this old lady sitting out front. So Bro. Dubois got an impression that he needed to stop and talk to her about the church. But all the other family members wouldn't let him. So Bro Dubois lets us know about this older lady and tells us to go visit her. So we go up to her and I ask her if we can share a message with her blah blah blah....and she invites us right in without any hesitation. She was super glad that we stopped by to see her. She was telling us all about her little 1 bedroom house thats 90 years old. Her name is Mary and she is 85 years old. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and where it came from. She wanted to buy the book from us but we told her it was  free. She told us she was going to read a few chapters before she went to bed and she wanted us to come back and teach her more. She was probably one of the nicest older ladies I've ever met. So we're going to have to go back and see where we can go with her. We probably need to hurry because I don't know how much longer she has to live. So that was pretty much my week. Love you all lots.

Elder Willis

Hey!!

I hope y'all are doing fine. I'm doing pretty good. This past week wasn't anything too crazy. I don't know how good my email is going to be because nothing really happened this past week. So it's already March. That's crazy. School is going to be winding down here pretty soon for you guys. The weather here has been pretty good. It's starting to get pretty warm. Every once in a while there will be a couple days where it will be pretty chilly but then the next day it will be pretty warm. I'm pretty sure it's going to start getting pretty hot and humid here soon. I just hope I don't get transfered to a bike area in the middle of the summer. Alot of areas are turning into bike areas now because of all the sisters that come in and they have to have a car. Dang sisters..:). So I'm guessing probably by the end of this year most of the Elders will be on bikes. Anyways this past lesson we had with the Dubois went super good. We just played pictionary. The girls loved it. I think the whole family had a ton of fun. We just did simple church things like scriptures or sacrament. Just stuff like that. So it was kinda just for the little girls but Bro and Sis Dubois still participated. Sis Dubois actually knows alot. I just don't know what her deal is. It's not like this is going to be a life style change for her because she comes to church every Sunday and reads scriptures as a family. All she needs to do is just be baptized and then everything is back to normal again with her lfe. I don't know what we are going to do this week with them. Hopefully we can come up with something good. Right now the ball is in her court. She needs to decide what she needs to do. I think eventually she will be baptized. If not right now later on down the road she will. So other than that we didn't really do much this week. We tried to see a few people but couldn't get a hold of them. Saturday was a rough day for us. We struck out like 8 times trying to see people. It was a long day because we couldn't find anybody to go see. I just think the missionaries back home probably have it nice because they can work with so many members and they have so many members they can go see. For us it's a sruggle to find just someone that wants to talk to us for a little while. So after we went to those baseball games last week me and my companion got in the baseball mood. So we went to the store and bought some 4 dollar gloves and a ball. Now during our lunch and dinner breaks we go outside and play catch. It's fun even though I haven't thrown a ball in over a year. I don't think I got it anymore. I don't know how long this is going to last because our gloves are starting to rip because they were so cheap. Ummm....for morning excercise I usually just do like 250 pushups or like 100 sit ups. Sometimes I go outside and jump rope. It depends on what I feel like doing. We sometimes wake up early and go to the church and play basketball as a district. It's not very fun because there are a couple elders in my district that can't even catch a ball. But anyways that's pretty much it. Can't wait to hear from you guys again. Love you.

Elder Willis :) :)