Baton Rouge: Week 1

HEY YALL!

OHH my!!! Life is so great!

-Tuesday I arrived here in Louisiana! Plane ride was fine, talked to some swell people. Was warmly welcomed by a senior couple serving their missions here. We then went to the mission office and met the President, President Woods. HE IS FANTASTIC! So happy, so spiritual, so great, so loving, so welcoming. He gave me my call letter. Kenner Area, just a little big west of the city center of N'ORLINNS!!!!!! (New Orleans) HA! I was SOOO excited! WHO would have ever thought I'd end up in New Orleans! Right in time for MARTI GRAS! hahahahahaha. So awesome. We met with a few other missionary couples including our assistants to the president and 3 other sister missionary couples, then went to the mission home. It is beautiful. We met Sister Woods, who is our amazing happy beautiful mission mom! She is great. We then all went to dinner and had.......Blackened Alligator! It was tasty!! Slightly rubberary tasting, but really good! And then I got a pork po-boy. Po-boys are wayyy popular here. It is a Louisiana thing. I heard the deep fried shrimp po-boys are out of this world but I wasn't daring enough to try that yet. Anyways, the pork one was delicious:) I have been craving one ever since. So after that, my wonderful new companion/trainer and I got in our crystler sebring and made our way to n'orlinns.
-Companion: Sister Dupaix from Tooele. Ah she is GREAT!!!!!! Seriously, I couldn't have even dreamed of a better companion. She is sooo easy going, happy, nice, hard working, rule-following..She knows the area and people SOoO very well. They had three baptisms the Saturday before I got here. The area is just booming with ready people to hear the Gospel! Anyways she is great. We live in a tiny studio apartment with bunkbeds, a bathroom, and a little kitchen. It is cosy and cute, kinda smells like musty smoke (smoker must have lived there before) so that is kinda gross but I am good at fabreezing:)
-First day in the field: March 2nd. One month anniversary on a mission! I was as green as can be and eager to learn the ways of a mission. We went running by a beautiful lake right behind our apartments. It's gorgeous, lake ponchatrain. The sun is always rising behind it, its perfect. Comp walks, I run up and back and up and back circling her haha because I have to stay in sight. Then we go home, get ready real fast, eat, and then have personal, comp and language study (Italian. Pres Woods made it clear I need to still study an hour of Italian everyday, so I am thankful for that!!!!!!) Then we get on with our day!
-I HAVE MET THE MOST AMAZING PEOPLE HERE. EVERYONE needs to go on a mission. It is the greatest experience in this world. AHHH I see MIRACLES EVERYDAY! Prayers are answered. Miracles HAPPEN! Seriously though, these people are so great. Dan and Donna just got baptized and they are amazing. So faithful, so committed, especially Donna. She is "all in" as she says regarding the church. LOVE HER! So tracting the first day was HILARIOUS! My companion doesn't really like tracting, but I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! It is so funny. People are hilarious. This Guy answered his door NAKED but thank goodness he was hiding behind the door. No on has teeth her its fantastic. And the accents are out of this world. I can't get enough of it, I could listen to these people talk allllll dayy everyday. They are so funny. But really nice! Everyone is just relaxed, and in no rush, and really nice. They like us "church girls". Tracting isn't the most effective thing in finding/teaching people though so we have only done it twice since I have been here. Referrals are ideal. Member, media (mormon.org with is really promoted here, they have commercials, billboards, pass along cards. It is an awesome website, check it out!) and really any referral! So we go visit and teach them. We also visit a lot of less active members and ward members. It is great.
-Stacy. IS AMAZING. I love her. So I heard all through the MTC- The field is ready, people are ready for the gospel, God has prepared them! And I experienced that this last week. We knocked on this lady's door, were welcomed in and just started talking. In the back of my mind I was just like ok here we go here we go, gotta teach lesson one gotta teach lessson oneee like stressing out about it a little. BUT NO. The spirit DIRECTS. Just like they tell you. It really does. Our casual conversation turned to church topics so fast and before I knew it we were in an awesome discussion about the book of mormon, Jesus Christ, the atonement, history of Israel and the tribes. It was incredible. Stacy is a nondenominational member. But she asked the BEST questions and we were able to answer and show her answers to all of them. She was blown out of the water. The news that Christ had visited the Americas BLEW HER MIND. She was just shocked but was eating it up! We had such an incredible lesson. She knows that God answers prayers, so we challenged her to pray and find out of the book of Mormon was true that night. We are going back to see her today or tomorrow, I can't wait to hear the results! I PRAY that satan hasn't gotten in her way and hardened her heart! We will see. Other things about the lesson- It is sooo true that right when you are at a spiritual climax in a lesson, some distraction happens! The door flew open once! The dog burst in the room once. Her little boy came running down the hall once. Like right at these huge moments! Soo crazy. I had always heard that happened, and now have experienced how true it is. Funny.
-We have several investigators right now and like...3 with a baptism date!!! Awesome huh! They have already baptized more this year so far then they did all together last year. EVERYONE look up the VISION OF THE SOUTH by Spencer W. Kimball. It is incredible, and coming to past right now. SOOO COOL!
-I can't tell you how much I love being a missionary. I love meeting people. I love teaching people. I really can't go fast enough. I just want to keep going and going. I need to keep going but also be very sensitive to the spirit so I don't miss it's directions. We are completely dependent on the spirit and Heavenly Father! It is amazing. Fast Sunday was so great. I woke up and could feel a little homesickness stirring in my heart. A little sadness. So I knelt down and asked Heavenly Father to please take that feeling out of my heart and have the atonement heal me. I got up, got ready, and it was gone. Completely gone. I was happen, remotivated, and ready to see miracles. Amazing huh? The atonement is meant to be used EVERY DAY in our lives. Everyday. USE IT! I testify, that it WORKS. We are BLESSED!

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New Orleans is great.
Marti Gras is NUTS. All the parades are in the city center, so we won't see any, which is probably for the better.
EVERYONE talks about Katrina. All the time. It was a huge deal. I am just now learning how serious it was. Everything revolves around it here. It is a part of these people. "Well before Katrina ..." "After Katrina ..."That is how they talk. Man, it was devastating. They say it has never been the same here since.
These people are amazing. Full of culture. Such thick funny accents. So little teeth. Love them.

And I love you!

Have faith. EVERYONE do their member missionary work. NOW IS THE TIME! Use the atonement in your life and become the person you want to become. You have to depend on Christ to do that! and..Remember to LOVE!

I love you all so much!

Love,
Sista Simkins