Snow!!

Hey hey! I hope all is going well! We didn't get the chance to email yesterday, so we get to today!

So.... I don't know where to start. This week has been.... long? It seems like it. But it has gone by really fast all at the same time.

The Lord is amazing. That is all there is to it. I have grown so much in the past week now that I look back. It has been absolutely mindblowing. Nothing big or anything. Just the desire to do better, and working with the Lord to do so. Learning of some things that I should be doing and reminded of others. I tried to pray all the time before my mission. I would just catch myself sometimes praying and thanking the Lord for something that just happened. It was amazing. But I don't do that now. I don't get it. But I am working on being better again. Praying for compassion and charity, patience and courage. Praying with faith, and then working actually works. Pray as if it all depends on the Lord and work as if it all depends on you. You can pray for Charity all you want, but it wont get you anywhere unless you try to have it. It has been a nice reminder. I am learning to love my companion and to look past the imperfections and the annoying things. The Lord is amazing.

Anyway, so some news about the work. One of the investigators before I got here, and one I've met with a few times, told us (or my companion) that he wants us to back off for now. He wants to be a mormon, but not right now. Or something to that effect. Elder Redmon is going to talk to him more tonight.

The reason I feel like the Lord has called Elder Redmon and myself as companions in this area is to regain the trust of the members. I guess in the past year, a lot of the missionaries in this area haven't really focused on the work like they should have and they broke some rules, and the members' trust. And missionary work can only go so far without help from the members. We were talking about it with Kelly Rowland tonight (she was baptized in April, and is really amazing. She is one of my "mothers". She fed us pizza and cookies tonight and we talked about it. So we are going to work our hardest to earn the members' trust and to bring some souls to Christ. This work is amazing.



So they are spraying for cockroaches tomorrow. Hopefully it will do something. It's a war we will win.

So. Yesterday we were supposed to go to Shrevport (we are part of the Shrevport zone) for interviews with the Mission President. We were actually going to have p-day tomorrow because of this. But.... guess what! It SNOWED on Sunday! We got probably...6 inches? Something like that. We had stake conference on Sunday (10-12, it was broadcasted and President Monson spoke. It was AWESOME!). After we came out, 2 1/2 hours later, we had at least a 1/4 inch of ice on the windshield. It was crazy. Anyway, because of the snow and the bad roads, interviews were canceled, and we had p-day! Attached are some pictures of our snowman we built. He is about 6 foot 3 inches tall. His name is Harry (he had grass on him, and looked hairy). His nose is a cucumber, is mouth a banana, and his eyes are Dr. Pepper cans. P-day was a blast yesterday. Tons of fun! Anywho.

Ummm... I know there are other things I want to say, but I don't remember what. I hope all y'all are doing well. Love the Lord. Pray for the people here. And do good to all.

Also! Please take care of the missionaries in your areas. Treat them as family. Love them, adopt them as your own. They need it. That's all I have to say. Feed them. Let them share messages with you. And then kick them out and have them work. Give them referrals if you have them. Support them.

I love you all! Have fun in Utah with all the snow! We had our one snow storm of the year. It will all be gone in a few days too. (They plant their gardens on Feb. 14th...)

Love,
Elder Dwight Douglas Mendenhall (I have a looooong name!)