Baton Rouge- Week 3

Subject: "OOOOHH Satan got PLAYED!" -Brandon (referring to the fall of Adam and Eve)

This week flew by. WOW! I will start from last preparation day so I can get in all the good stuff that has happened!

Last Tuesday Sister Holmes took us to the aquarium in New Orleans. It was fun, yay for aquariums and the bishops wife who paid for it all. She is incredible I love her and was very appreciative. Down town N'Orlinns is pretty cool. We saw the entrance of the French Quarter but didn't go in. All I hear about the French Quarter is how unsafe and eerie it is there. The french market is really cool I have heard, but over all the French Quarter isn't a place for missionaries to really go, especially two young girls. We walked along the Miss-sipie river, and enjoyed a few relaxing hours on our preparation day.
Wednesday I met one of the most awesome crazy ladies ever from the ward! She came out teaching with us. She is loud, super super talkative, kind of extreme and others might consider her extreme or too weird, but I absolutely LOVED HER and learned some really good things from her. She talks so much it was soo funny. At the end of the day I compiled and wrote out all the crazy stories and principles she taught me in my journal. For example: "So there is this homeless guy who lives on the bridge that I see walking around everywhere and one day it was raining really hard so I told him to get in my car so I could give him a ride home and that is when I realized he didn't have a home so he told me to drive him to the homeless center so I drove him an hour down town to the homeless center but I don't cares he's my brotha and needs my help and my time so I go do what I do and I took'em to the homeless center down town about an hour away then I tolds that man that if he needed me anytime he better call me because I would help him with anything and then later on he did call me and asked get rides to drop of these applications for work he had and I just told him he can borrow my car for the day I don't mind I don't worry what he might have done with my car it ain't my car its the car God gave me and what that old homeless guy does with my car ain't between me and him it is between him and God and if he crashes God will see what I be doing trying to help someone out and provide me with a new car I know that he will, its like with this lady I know she does me bad everyday she steels my money and says sorry I forgive her she steels my camera I forgive her she does me wrong over and over again does me real ugly but I forgive her every time she says to me once why do you always forgive me after I treat you so ugly over and over again and I say honey you ain't doing me wrong you doin God wrong God taught me to forgive you 7 x 70 so imma forgive you everytime girl you ain't doing me wrong you be doing God wrong what you do is between Him and you I always gonna let you in you do what you do I figure everything we have is a gift from God nothing is mine in the first place so if you take my stuff you be stealing from God and if God wants me to have that something back he gonna provide a way for me to get it back so you do what you do honey that is between God and you.." Oh man. She went on and on and I was just wide-eyed listening to her I loved it. She is awesome. She kept saying "God and me, we's tight, God and me" and would tell me experiences of her prayers being answered and ALL KINDS of stuff and she told me her whole conversion story which was way awesome and way all over the bored but I LOVED listening to her. She really did remind me some important things and about the nature of God and His relationship with his children. The last story she told me at the end of the day brought tears to my eyes. This amazing lady because of several things, had her kids taken away from her. She hasn't had them for a really long time. She said "I made the mistake of praying to God for the faith of Abraham. The patience of Noah (or someone I can't remember. But she prayed for the faith, patience, and love or something of 3 ancient prophets..anyways) Well..God gives me what I pray for thats for sure never will I pray for that again because He took my kids from me. Now I don't blame God I love God they are His children anyways so He can use them in his plan how he needs...but I know now....what it feels like to not have your kids. I know now exactly how much God loves each and everyone of His children. I know now how he would do absolutely anything in His power to save even just one of His children (by this point her eyes were welling up and the spirit was just burning in the car..) I know He loves his children. And is sad when we don't talk to him. Because He LOVES US. EVERY ONE OF US. He do EVERYTHING to get us back to Him."
So. Those are some lessons I learned in the words of my new friend. She is awesome I love her.
She came with us to meet Jacob who is a boy we are now teaching. He is amazing! He understood everything and just wanted to know more. He said casually "This is great give me a week and I will have this whole book read (Book of Mormon). When is your church, can I come?" HA it is phrases like that that just warm up a missionaries heart and make being a missionary the best thing in the world.
So the week continued on full of miracles. One thing I know for sure. When you obey with exactness, do everything you can to keep the commandments, and work HARD.....GOD BLESSES YOU AND BLESSES YOUR LIFE WITH MIRACLES. Seriously. MIRACLES! I can't even explain how blessed I am to be a missionary and experience these incredible things. It is amazing. Our investigator Melissa had a really bad toothache when we were teaching her the other day. She did NOT look good. She was in pain you could tell. She could barley talk. This was our...I don't know maybe 4th or 5th time teaching her...but I just kept getting the thought in my head...priesthood blessing priesthood blessing. And I learned the first week I was here..."if you think it, do it" as a way to follow the promptings of the spirit. So I said Melissa would you like a blessing from some brotheren in our church holding the priesthood of God? Thinking in my head (unfaithfully) ahh she is going to think I am crazy and that this is weird...(shame on me for thinking that, but never again will I..) Because she said oh yes anything please. So we called the a brother in our ward who was busy but said he'd find some people and send them over to give a blessing. And guess who comes over? Brother Roberts, who is a dentist haha. Awesome. They chatted a little bit, he looked, gave his recommendations, gave the blessing with another brother from the ward, and were off. Like minutes after they walked through the door Melissa goes, "Wow I don't even feel any pain anymore! My tooth feels completely fine! WOW!" She got all cheery and bright and was talking none stop after that. It was a miracle. I am so blessed to have witnessed it. Soooooo cool.
Another miracle was going to this apartment complex to contact a referral we received. Knocked the door. A guy answered and we were like..uh are you Taylor? "He is like no I am Brandon, Taylor is my sister, she don't live here!" We were like oh ok....then started talking to him! He walks out of his apartment, sits on the steps, and wanted to know EVERYTHING about what we had to share! We taught him about the restoration of the Gospel, about Joseph Smith, about the Book of Mormon, but he wanted more! So we taught him the whole plan of Salvation, read lots of scriptures...He was just LOVING LIFE. He was SOO funny, we would explain something and he would be like ""AHHH YEAH I GOTCHYOU I GOTCHYOU!!!" Then would repeat back to us in his awesome black way of saying it the doctrine or principle we just taught. HA it was SO COOL Heavenly Father has totally prepared Brandon to hear the Gospel. He is soo sweet. He can't wait to get baptized.
Miracle after miracle this week. It is so simple. LOVE! Work hard. obey. THEN PROSPER. Be BLESSED. That is it!
So DO IT!
One more important thing I promised myself this week. Never ever put myself first before God. Never seek to satisfy my carnal needs before what God needs me to do. It is something I plan to strive to do my whole life. It might not seem like a big deal be late for church, buy something you want on the sabbath, putting off commandments so you can make money, etc etc. Anything that is you going after your desires when its not the right time or day or place, and won't build your spirit and bring you closer to God...No. That is putting myself and my wants before God. Just something I don't want to do! :)

Well. Louisiana is beautiful. The weather has been like 75-85 degrees this last week. My favorite part of the day is waking up at 6:30 and running along the lake and watching the sunrise. I might of put that last update, but really, it is my favorite time of day. The sunrise over the lake is so beautiful and full of so much color.
I tried sending pictures, that is really sad they won't work. I will try again when I get some more time.

Much love!

Love,
Sista Laurel Skye Simkins