Hey Mom,
My new address is 4501 Herrmann st #C , Metarie, LA, 70006
This week I've been in a new area, in Metarie North, which borders with my old area, Metarie South. I am now with Elder Christensen, our district leader, and we're working with some good people. But, I'll tell you first about what we did last Tuesday, for our p-day, Elder Vails last one. We went to a place called the french market, in downtown New Orleans. Its a little like Pike Place market, lots of vendors selling art, jewelry, t-shirts and things of the like. Theres also a whole food and produce place where they have a bunch of fresh fruit and meat and stuff. We went to a place that had fresh "bigneas", thats definitely spelled wrong, there like french powdered dougnuts. We went out and got some pictures right at the waterfront, which I'll attach. While we were walking around, this guy on a bike went by and stopped and said "wow, wow, wow! Thems some nice shoes! Stop and let me see y'alls shoes!" so we all stood in a half circle (there was 6 of us) and he said "Alright, just wait a minute and imma tell you all where you got your shoes" We agreed, and he said "now somma y'all gonna laugh, and somma y'all gonna try to run; but y'all got your shoes- right there on the bottom of y'alls feet!" Then he pulled out a little bottle of shoe polish and put a little dab on each of our shoes, and then had each of us put our feet on his knee and he started polishing our shoes. The first missionary, Elder Cranney, said "hey man thats pretty funny, I'll give you a dollar for this." the guy suggested 10 instead. Elder Cranney said he'd stick with one. Needless to say, I only gave him one as well.
Another cool thing this week was that JuanCarlos got baptized! Even though it wasn't in my area, it still felt good to see him come into the church. I'll attach a picture of that too! We have some cool investigators in this area, though I haven't met all of them. One of them is totally ready to be baptized, the only thing they're waiting on is a divorce in Honduras. They are living together here, and want to get married, but can't until her divorce from her husband in Honduras goes through, even though she hasnt seen him for years. We have some people that I still haven't met. But should soon.
One thing I've learned about recently is prayer. We all know prayer is important, and a basic outline of how we should do it, but theres a little more to it. One thing our mission president taught us in our new missionary training about prayer was about one of the most well-answered prayers we know of, and speak of quite often as missionaries, that is, the first vision of Joseph Smith. He didnt just read James 1:5, then say a little 30 second prayer than call it good. He had a question, that over much time he pondered over in reading of the scriptures. After finding James 1:5, he pondered on that scripture and his question for a period of time which isnt very clear, but was likely several days. He then decided a time, place, and condition in which he would pray. Because of his preparation, he was able to recieve an amazing answer to his prayer. Another cool thing I found about prayer is in Jesus the Christ, where James E. Talmage elaborates on the lords prayer, how each part is symbolic of how we are supposed to pray. And also that prayer is not to be seen of men, but is to speak with God, and those who do pray to be seen of men "they shall have their reward." which is just to be seen. We should proabably have a lesson on that with one of our investigators, named Salvador. He has an Evangelical Christian background, and his prayers follow suit. The first time I was in a lesson with him, we asked to pray at the end, and he gave quite a drawn-out, elaborately worded, almost yelling prayer that lasted more than 5 minutes. I was a little weirded out, but just went along, and after we left, I said to my companion "well that was quite the prayer" and he said "yeah hes been doing alot better about his Evangelical prayers." If that was better, I don't know what it was like before.
Well, thats probably it for this week, but guess what- I get to talk to you next sunday! I'll try to call after church, which I'm pretty sure ends at 4 in your time, right?
Love,
Elder Cardon
No comments:
Post a Comment