Hello Family!!
Well hope everyone is doing pretty good. I'm doing fine. This week was just another week. Nothing too exciting has happened. That's so cool to hear that Trevor got his call here. Yeah me and him were really good friends. We hung out all the time in Thatcher. So I'm pretty pumped now that he's coming here. Now I can't wait for March. Who knows maybe I'll even be his trainer. Haha. So I got your package. It's been so fun to open a little present everyday so far. The other elders also got 12 days of Christmas so we all get around and open our presents each day. Christmas should be fun this year. We have some appointments with some really cool families. So I dont know if I'll be able to email next week because the library will be closed. We might email on Sunday I'm not sure though. So if I don't email next week I'll just call you guys on Christmas and tell you to get online to Skype or what. It will probably be sometime in the early afternoon so just be looking for a phone call from a weird number. I'll probably call mom's cell phone if I can remember the number. If I do get to email I'll probably let you know some more details. But anyways this past weekend we had our ward Christmas party. We had to help the ladies set up and decorate the whole gym the day before. They were like yelling and getting mad at us because things weren't centered or there wasn't enough decorations on things. I'm just thinking to myself ...well did you think the missionaries were good at decorating things? The ward party was pretty good though. The primary kids put on a little Christmas program. I decided little kids from Louisiana are so crazy. Like if you thought the kids back home were crazy you just need to see some little cajun kids. They were just running around and screaming everywhere and while someone would be playing the piano they would just run up to it and start banging on the piano keys. Or go up to the mike and start yelling in it. I had a little headache afterward. So if the world ends on Friday I just want you to know you were a great family. Haha thats what alot of people we see down here ask us. On Sunday we had a little family we are teaching come to church. We have been teaching them the past couple weeks now. This last lesson we had was so good. They are so ready to accept the gospel. I can feel that they are so close. Hopefully things will continue to work out with them and the whole family will join the church. That would be awesome. So I'm sending off the families Christmas package today. You can open when you get it or you can wait till Christmas to open it. It doesn't matter to me whatever you guys want to do. I also sent off a letter to Jaden and Makenzie today. Hopefully they get excited for that. Well I can't think of anything else. I can't wait to talk to you guys next week. Remember you all are in my prayers. I love you.
Elder Tyler Willis

Dec. 10th, 2012

Hey!!
Well another week down--- 5 months gone....time is going by fast. So mom you're getting up there in the numbers now?  Haha happy late birthday!  You are the best. Thanks for everything.  Well I'm doing pretty good. We had another slow week with lessons--- 1 lesson this week.  It was a sweet lesson though.  We met this family at the flea market. They were way excited about coming to church but then they got sick so they didn, t end up coming. Hopefully we will be able to see them this week and teach them more. So I have been sick the past couple days. I guess there is a cold going around. I've had a super bad sore throat. I still have those emergen-c things you sent me a while ago. I've already drank like 5 of those the past couple days. I should be fine though. So in our ward my companion and I are pretty much getting forced into singing in the choir. I never thought I would sing in a choir. It's alright though.  The past couple days here have been pretty warm. It's crazy. I never thought I would have to turn the a/c on in December. Sometimes I wish it could be snowing just so I can feel the cold weather again. Anyways nothing too exciting happened this week. Just a normal week. Let's see I did fix a homeless guys bike though. This guy was a little slow but anyways his pedal fell off and I fixed it for him. Then he kept asking me for an estimate of how long it would last him. I was like it should last for a while. He asked me that like 5 times. Then he started telling me how good of shape he is in. He was like I can do 37 pushups. I was like oh yeah? Then he was like want to have a contest. I said sure. So he only does 20 pushups. Then I just do 21 pushups real quick. He was trying to tell me how I cheated. I'm just like sure....so I tell him to keep on doing those pushups and I'll come back later and we will have another contest. So that was really the only interesting thing that happened to me this week. Let's see we did go visit this one guy and he was just chilling on the couch with just his underwear on the whole time. So that was super awkward. Christmas is coming up fast. I bet you all are super excited for Christmas time. Being a missionary during Christmas is great because it's a great time to share a message about Jesus Christ and some people will actually want to hear it. . I didn't get your package yet but I should be getting it pretty soon. I'm still working on the family package. Hopefully I should get it done this week. Anyways can't wait to hear back from you again.    Love you!
Elder Willis

Hey!
Hows everyone? Sounds like things are going pretty good now that things have slowed down. Wow a ton of people are getting married it sounds like. So you finally got Jaden and Makenzie to write me after last week when I said they don't write me anymore and they forgot about me. I got the letter and I laughed because I just pictured mom back home forcing Jaden and Makenzie to write me. I can picture them just sitting on the couch complaining and moaning about writing me.  (MOM'S NOTE:  I told Jaden & Makenzie to write Tyler before we got his e-mail.  It made them glad that they had a letter in the mail before they got this e-mail!) Haha oh well I liked the letter though and they should be getting a letter back from me this week.  . Anyways this week was transfer week and I'm still with my companion. No one in our apartment is changing.  So my first December in Louisiana has been a surprise. It's been in the high 70's the past few days. It doesn't feel like Winter time at all. It still feels like I've been in Summer weather since I have gotten here. It's weird because somedays it will be super cold and then the next day it will be in the 80's. The weather here is very strange. When it gets cold here it's cold. The humidity just makes it a bone chilling cold. So this morning a member took us to play frisbee golf. First time I have ever played that. It was pretty fun even though I couldn't throw a frisbee to save my life. I guess I'll just stick with basketball. So this past week nothing too crazy happened. Still a slow week with lessons. I think we only taught 1 lesson and that was to a recent convert. For the month of November our whole Baton Rouge Zone only baptized 1 person. That just shows how hard the work is down here. So the First Presidency Christmas Devotional was very good. I don't know if you guys watched it or not but I just get pumped up everytime I get to watch the Prophet speak. So this past weekend we helped the spanish elders with a booth at a flea market. It reminded me of the fish markets in Mexico. It was just all spanish people there. We had a little christmas booth with copies of the Book of Mormon and stuff. So were just sitting there and I decided to use the little spanish I knew to contact someone and give them El Libro De Mormon. So I walk up to this little women and I start having a conversation with her in spanish. It was a little scratchy though but I got the message across. She ended up taking the Book of Mormon. So after that I had a pretty big head. So paying attention in Spanish class actually paid off for me. So that's pretty much it for this week. The Blue Ridge jacket will be fine. Or my old billabong one if someone hasn't stolen it already. I'm still trying to get your christmas package ready. Hopefully it will be ready in time. So I have a question. Does Makenzie want an ipod for christmas. We were at a thirft store the other day and there was an ipod for like 30 dollars so I bought it even though I never have touched it since. There are some songs on it from the last owner but you can just erase them all. It's a 3rd generation ipod nano I think. If anyone wants it just let me know and I can send it home too. Well thanks for everything. I love you.
Elder Willis

Hey!!
So sounds like a crazy week for everyone!! Glad to hear that everyone is doing pretty good though. So sounds like the basketball team didn't do too good. Is Jaden wearing number 11?? Hopefully he is so he can keep the tradition alive. The other day during studies I just wore my basketball shoes around during the morning because I miss basketball so much..... Haha tell Jaden to write me a letter about basketball so I can give him some advice. Some advice that I wished I would have used back when I was playing. So tell him to write me. I haven't heard from him in like 3 months. Haven't heard from Makenzie in a while either!! :(     Did all you guys forget about me or something? Haha you can tell Jaden that Reed writes me more than he does. Anyways my week went by pretty fast. Nothing too exciting happened this week. Another week with no lessons. We still don't have any investigators. This is how our whole mission is. All the missionaries I talk to only have like 1 or 2 investigators. I'ts true when people say the south is one of the toughest missions. I have heard that the south and Eastern Europe are the toughest missions in the world. I don't know. I bet there are still alot of really tough missions out there. I try to not let it affect me too much. I try to look for the good in everything even when we can't find anybody to talk to. Sometimes even the members don't want to talk to us.  Oh well.....So thanksgiving was pretty good. We ended up only eating at 2 houses because we were so full. Thanksgiving here is just like it is back home. Regular food like turkey and potatoes and gravy. But here the women sit outside to eat while the men sit inside at the table to eat. I don't know if they always do that but that's what they were trying to tell us they do down here. It's kinda weird. Then after we just stayed and played some board games with them. It was pretty fun. That was like for lunch and then for dinner we went to another family and ate with them. The father served his mission in Dallas and he actually served in Denton for a while so that was pretty neat. And he knows where Parker College is and everything. So my thanksgiving wasn't anything too crazy. Now it's time for Christmas. :)   So my comp is Elder Damron from Idaho. He has been out 10 months now. He is pretty cool.  We get along pretty good. We have a little nerf hoop in our room so right after we plan at night we play a game of 21. It gets pretty intense. We pretty much just try to dunk on each other every single time. I'ts fun. Anyways nothing much else happened this week. So you can tell Matthew I have seperate B of M and Bible but they are both regular size. And for my jacket just a black one that I can wear proselyting. It doesn't matter what kind or anything. Just get me whatever you think is best. If there is anything else just let me know. Next week is transfer week again so I'll email on Tuesday probably. Well anyways take care. Your always in my prayers.
Elder Tyler Willis

Hey!!
How y'all are?? Hahah well sounds like everything has settled down over there. That's nice to hear. Well my week went by fast. Nothing too exciting has happened this week. Just a normal missionary week. We only taught 1 lesson this week. We currently don't have any investigators. It's tough.....we can't find anybody to teach. We don't do any tracting. Tracting is pretty much pointless in the south. The only way we get investigators is from members but the members aren't hooking us up with any referrals right now. So we just visit members and less actives all day. Yeah so our baptism didn't go through either. The Dad had to go to New York for a while. So we didn't get a chance to teach his son at all. Even if he does end up getting baptized it probably won't be for another couple weeks or so. I don't think the dad cares about his son getting baptized anymore. It kinda was just the spur of the moment that he wanted him to get baptized. I don't know we will just have to wait and see hopefully everything will work out. So lately it has been getting pretty cold. We went to this older ladies house one night and she opened the door and she was like "Where is your jacket?" I was like I don't have one...She pretty much freaked out on me because I didn't have a jacket. So she just left us at her house while she went to walmart and she bought me a jacket. So everytime we go to her house I have to wear my jacket even if it is warm enough to not wear a jacket. Just to make her happy. Sounds like you guys aren't too happy about giving talks. I still haven't had to give 1 talk yet. I can't complain about that. I have a feeling I'll have to give one here pretty soon though. I always carry a couple talks with me just in case. Thanksgiving should be pretty fun this year. Both wards here have a turkey bowl on thanksgiving morning. So we'll probably end up going to that and playing some football. We got invited to eat at like everyones house so we will probably just be house hopping around eating food at different places all day. The other day we were driving around and I was outside backing the car up and I was about to get in and this dog comes out from no where and jumps into the car. It wouldn't get out of the car. It jumped in the backseat and just sat down. It took us like 10 minutes to get the dog out of the car. Then it finally ran off. So that was pretty weird. Well I cant really think of anything else that's going on around here. So the other day I saw Michael Bonham here and he told me he just drove through Heber and he told me it hasn't changed at all. I was like it doesn't surprise me haha. Well that's about it for this week. Hopefully I'll have some crazier stories to tell next week. Love you and your in my prayers.
Elder Willis

Hey!!
Sounds like everyone is doing good. That's good to hear. So sounds like some pretty crazy stuff has been happening over there lately in Az. That's cool to hear about Alyssa getting married. It seemed like just yesterday I was choking her and we had to get sent to the office. Haha. Cy is going to Arkansas? That's way sweet. It's actually the Jackson, Mississippi Mission that covers the northern part of Louisiana. Still he is not too far from me. Anyways I'm doing pretty good. Nothing too much has happened this week. I like this area better than my last area. Time is going by faster in this area too. My first 2 transfers in Opelousas went by pretty slow because the work was really slow and there really wasn't much stuff to do either. I talk to people here and they are like "Where did you serve before?" I'm like Opelousas and there like I'm sorry.....haha I'm just like I know right?!  But this transfer has been going by alot faster. I think time is just going to start to fly by now. So it snowed a little bit already? haha that's crazy! It's still like in the 80's here. I think it should start cooling down soon......hopefully. You can tell Makenzie that I'm getting super tan because I'm always in the hot sun :) She probably won't like to hear that though. Anyways so this Saturday we should be having a baptism! It's a 9 year old kid  and his dad wants him to get baptized so we have to teach him all the lessons before this Saturday. This will be my first baptism.   I'll take some pictures at the baptism and send them to you next week. This past week we had dinner at this member who is from like Vietnam or something and she fed us fried bamboo. Yup....I ate bamboo. It's actually pretty good. She told me to tell my mom that I ate wood. So that was interesting. I also had a gator burger this past week. It was pretty good but I much rather prefer a regular burger. I have eaten all kinds of crazy stuff so far. I'm pretty sure when I come home I won't be scared to eat Tostados anymore :) So I have been playing alot of basketball lately. For some reason all I want to do is play basketball. Every morning I wake up at like 5:30 and I try to get the other elders in my apartment to get up and go play basketball with me at the chapel. If they don't want to play with me I try to get the Spanish elders in our area to come play with me. Usually a few of the elders will come with me and play basketball. Anyways I can't really think of anything else I wanted to tell you guys. Oh yeah so Thanksgiving is coming up and we have like 5 dinner appointments. So the few days before I probably won't eat anything at all. Haha yeah so I'll have to see what kind of crazy experiences I get this week. Anyways I love you and miss you all! Your always in my prayers.
Love Elder Willis

Hello!!
How's the family doing? Sounds like the reception went well. That's good to hear. Wish I could have been there with you all but I have to be calling people to repentance down here. Haha   Anyways I'm doing pretty good. My new area is pretty sweet. The people here are more friendly than my last area. Even though this area is a little more slow with missionary work than my last area. We didn't teach any lessons this week. :(  That's just a normal week for Louisiana. We just see a bunch of less actives. It's ok though. Yeah the LSU - Alabama game was huge down here. That's all people talked about this whole week. Saturday night it was hard for us to go see anybody because everyone was watching the game. The town was like a ghost town because nobody was out on the streets. So we just had to go see the super old members that don't watch football. Then LSU lost so everyone was pretty grumpy at church. I think I heard more at church about Les Miles then about gospel stuff.  Haha  People down here sure do love their football. So some crazy stuff that happened this week. We were helping some older members put a tarp on their roof so the rain wouldn't get in the house. This area we were in was a pretty ghetto area. So we were just working and I look over across the street and there are these 2 little  kids fighting over a bike. One of them wouldn't get off so the other one starts punching him and takes the bike. Then the other one starts running after him and tackles him and starts punching him. These kids are probably like 9. Then this girl around like 12 comes and starts beating on both of them and swearing at them. Haha  It was intense. Then this big  women I'm guessing the mother comes out and grabs the girl and just starts beating her. The little girl just starts screaming but the women keeps beating her. And the women is just swearing at her and smacking the girl. I'm just standing there watching the whole thing and I'm just in shock.  How do these people live like this?  I'm glad I was raised in a good home. This other time we were eating at a older couple's house and they are just straight up crazy. They fed us spaghetti with hard boiled eggs in the sauce. It was interesting but I still ate everything. So then she brings out brownies and I'm like okay something normal. She sets them down and she was like oh I forgot the salsa!  At least that's what I thought she said so I'm thinking noooo way am I eating brownies with salsa. Luckily she said something different so it wasn't salsa.  Haha   It's just so hard to understand people down here. I'm still trying to learn the language.  Haha   Anyways that was my week. Oh I did get Aunt Laurie's package. It was awesome!  Make sure to tell her I loved it. That's cool to hear about Tyler and Cy.  Brazil would be an intense mission. Am I going to be the only missionary from Heber to ever go to the Deep South?!   I guess only the best can make it down here.   Haha. Well I love you all and you're in my prayers.
Elder Tyler Drake Willis