Meet Benny

Transfer success! The Senior couple in Laurel, Elder and Sister Blau, helped transport me and Kent to 2 hours north to Wesson, MS. New address:

1020 Hill St. Lot 26

Wesson, MS 39191

We live in a trailer named Benny (I'll take pictures for you next week). We have a car but we did spend the whole day Friday biking, no me gusta. I don't know if it's something in the air or all the inclines but I don't bike here very well.

Dad, I love how you look up all the random little facts on the places where I live, its really interesting. You say they have 1904 people and I wouldn't doubt it, Sister Totterer and her last companion already tracted all of the town, so we work mostly out of town except for the few investigators and less actives in town. The church is north about 15 miles or so, up HWY 51 and east on HWY 28, across the street from Saunder's chicken farm and the huge Life Church (people always ask if that is ours, nope, ours is the only church without a big advertising sign out front). The town is really neat, and I want about 20 of the homes here. I'm falling in love with the wide porches, high stairs, tall windows and white siding. My future home is slowly being drawn in my mind. In town there are only a few places to eat- Porches, Los Lobos, Polliwog Frozen Yogurt, and 51 Dinner. The closest Walmart is either 15 miles north in Hazlehurst or 15 miles south in Brookhaven, and since we have to drive the Hazlehurst elders to district meeting, we usually shop there.

Mom, there is sunshine in my soul today, and in my cardigan! I love my harvest colored sweater.

By Saturday, we had 5 Thanksgiving dinners: 4 at members homes and 1 at Porches. While tracting, Sister Tebbs and Totterer had met a nice lady that was sad they weren't going home for the holidays so she paid for all 3 of us to have lunch at Porches. It was some really good food and hopefully I'll be able to save and perhaps go one more time before I leave Wesson. On Thursday we had dinner with the Diamond's, Payson's, and Francois' and even though I knew about all of these before hand, I wasn't prepared for the rush to eat. Luckily after the Diamonds we tracted for 30 minutes, wore off some food and sat and talked with all of the Payson's before eating there. Time between meals (including the half hour drive to the Francois') is what saved me. Then on Saturday we went to visit the Douglas' and accidentally popped in on their late Thanksgiving with their son home from college. Everything was really good, but the best: chocolate egg nog pie.

The work here in Wesson is really progressing and yesterday we had a really neat experience as we were trying to find the home of a member. We ended up meeting a young man next door, his nephew, who is baptist turned Pentecostal. We asked him if he had read the Book of Mormon and he said no and he probably wouldn't because it was something new and unfamiliar. So we talked to him a little about how it works with the bible, and using baptism as an example, showed how it made the ordinance of baptism clear, including progress and prayer. It intrigued him and he shared a couple points to us about his religion. After a while we asked if he would accept a copy of teh Book of Mormon and read it, he said yes (I would like to say with a little enthusiasm), and said he wanted to shared a pamphlet with us but couldn't find one so now we have a return appointment with him next Sunday. We're all excited to see how it goes, and we already have a fellow-shipper, his uncle!

I'm excited to see what will come in the work this week!

Zone Conference is this Thursday with the Clinton, Jackson, and Monroe Zones. I'm in the Clinton Zone (so no I won't see Petal friends). Its going to be a travel to get there but I know quite a few missionaries from there so this is going to be so much fun!

Not to be boring, here are 7 interesting things from Friday, November 29:

1. Egg and rice for breakfast, my new favorite keep-me-full breakfast.

2. Sister Totterer potentially ate a meth brownie (by the end of the day we determined she didn't though). But we were tracting and at one house pre-dubbed the "Party House" we were talking to a young man when his friend burst through the front door and asked if we all wanted a "chess square". I'd never heard of that before so I said no, Sister Tebbs said no, and Sister Totterer said yes... Luckily, I think it really was just a leftover from the holidays.

3. We met a guy with a green Uncle Same shirt on that said "I want you to smoke" and pointing at the viewer. He was indeed smoking, and then he started talking to us about his reading in the Book of Mormon (Sister Totterer had tracted into him a few weeks before).

4. When we tract in our tralier park we are always followed by one dog or another, today we had an Akita that was really nice. But everyone we talked to was scared of it and tried to shoo it away. It followed us on our bikes all the way to the highway before it disappeared.

5. Met a black lady named Dot who at first refused to be told my name. She only likes Sister Totterer and would only address her but fed us all cake and Sunny D then by the end told me she was glad I came so I could protect these girls... Glad my size comes in handy for something.

6. As we rode home around 5pm, Sister Tebbs and Sister Totterer noticed Josh Francois' car at the gas station. Sister Totterer rode forward and before anyone knew it was in their car, quickly followed by Sister Tebbs and eventually me. We talked to Josh and his girlfriend and our investigator Lindsey for a while, had a short lesson, and rode home.

7. I saw my first Am Tram train! It was so fast. The train tracks run right through the middle of town.

Now let me tell you a little about my companions: THEY ARE AWESOME!

That doesn't mean to be saying a lot because I've already had some pretty awesome companions but Sister Tebbs and Sister Totterer really know how to make and take the cake. Sister Tebbs was trained by Sister Cox right after Sister Cox moved to Bossier and was no longer my companion. So she has been out 3 months less than me. But that similarity in training makes the work so much easier because we are already uniform in our teaching styles. She's from Bryce Canyon, Utah (a little place called Ruby's Inn). She's 19 and her amazing devotion to the work makes me smile. Sister Totterer is from Farmington, UT, 19 (till next week) and amazing. She can talk really fast and is such a people person, she's makes even the tiniest thing an adventure. I'm really glad I have been put together with them.

I got my haircut yesterday, but it needs to go shorter. Still it feels good to have all that length off and to have healthy ends again. A member's daughter who lives Brandon cut it for me for free, so nice of her.

More warm stuff would be great. I lost one of my gloves biking and my hand froze riding down the hills. Also I was wrong, I do need a new jacket, lots of people have fleece one from Columbia or North Point, they seem to work really well. My polyester rain coat is just too sweaty.

I am SOOOO happy to be in Wesson, this has been the best week I've had since my first transfer. Sister Tebbs and Sister Totterer are really inspiring to the work and fun to be around, they are definitely on my list of best companions.

Spiritual thought of the day: Alma 32:27. Elder Holland once said that we should never be ashamed if we only have a desire to believe. Because if it is the desire of our hearts, the Lord will cause it to happen and then you will believe.

I love you all, hope you had a grateful Thanksgiving!

Love,

Super Lucky Lara

Elder and Sister Blau and Kent. 

 Thanksgiving Sisters: me, Sister Totterer, and Sister Tebbs.

 The STLs came and visited us, silly picture!

It was cold this week, into the 30s in the mornings and evenings. We had several days of frosted lawns when we woke up. 

 Tracting discoveries.

Not the best picture, but my new hairdo!