Abbeville

This is a note from a man in our ward who served in Cam's mission over 25 years ago, Cam emailed him and asked him for some stories from that time. 

Elder Cardon,

 

So thrilled to hear you are planted in the Atchafalaya Basin! My second day in the mission filed was in Lafayette where I was picked up by my companion, Elder Loper and a black member, Elijah Dee. I grew up with severl black friends so I felt very comfortable and even excited to meet brother Dee but when he spoke, I could only understand about 25% of what he said. It was an immediate udnerstanding of what my Patriarchal blessing said, "I would serve among a strange people", but, it also goes on to say... "where I will learn their customs and their attituedes and where I would find the pure in heart and they would be affected by my testimony and my faith, and realize that they are choice children of our Father".

 

Elder, it was 33 years ago and don't have my journals close at hand but some highlights from my first area, Abbeville, LA:

 

Densyl Haymond was our Branch President (son D.L Haymond lived in Baton Rouge). He was from the ward in Lafayette. We met in a small home in town that had wood floors and on a typical Sunday we would have three MPH holders at church, Bro. Haymond, me and my comp. His two counselors were active but worked offshore in the oil fields so they were only around occasionally. We blessed and passed the sacrament, I played the piano, we taught SS and PH and spoke in sacrament meeting often since there were no shows a lot and frankly, many times, no one else to speak but us anyway.

 

We tracked day in and day out, very little member participation but we taught a lot. The people were very welcoming as far as hearing a message about the Savior but the response was always, "I'm Catholic, my mamma's Catholic, my Grandma is Catholic..." you know. Mike and Katie Schwere (sp) were great members there and treated us so good. We went month's without a baptism but finally met Jake, an elderly black man who retained some paralysis after suffering a stroke, he loved to have us come and teach him and read the BofM to him. He was baptized in our font in Lafayette which was an old garbage dumpster with plaster on the inside that sat behind the church that we filled up with a garden hose and dumped what hot water we could heat on the stove in the kitchen into it to take the chill off. Jake couldn't climb the ladders in and out of our make-shift font so we had to lift him in and out. He was a very sweet man; I'm certain he has been gone for many years. There was also a single mom with two young girls who joined the church, I don't recall her name but the little branch had a start.

 

We lived in a dump of an apartment on the second floor of a fourplex in Guegnon St. It was roach infested and I was able to find a great place to live right before I was transfered (never slept a night in it). We worked in Abbeville, Erath and Perry, all on bikes. Our district leaders were in New Iberia. I went from Abbeville to NO for 12 months serving in Algiers and NO East and finished my last six months in Biloxi.

 

The greatest miracle in Abbeville was probably Elder Beeson's growth in knowlege and faith. I spent six difficult but wonderful month's in Abbeville, met so many wonderful people and learned what the church was like outside of Utah and how important PH leadership is and what modern pioneers were like. I passed off all my discussions and over 240 scriptures that I memorized while in Abbeville. I finally, really leaned for myself that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that the Holy Ghost can bring comfort as well as guidance in our lives and that "ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith" but that when we press forward and endure, ultimately the window of heaven are opened and tremendous blessing come in many forms.

 

Elder, thanks for your faithful service. You may never know the tremendous impact you have had on others both in and out of the church, at home and away because of the work that you are engaged in.

 

See you before long, "The time is far spent, there is little remaining..."

 

Best Regards,

 

Sam Beeson

October 15--tabasco week.

Well, this was a pretty good week!

 

Again, I come to the library to tell you about all the cool things and stories, and then I sit down and my mind goes blank. Well, lets start with last p-day. I dont tell a whole lot of p-day stories, because we always do email first thing, so the rest of the day is the last thing in my memory from the week. Well, last week was definitely memorable, we went to Avery Island, the birthplace and only manufacturing place of tabasco sauce!! It was pretty cool. They talked about the history of it, the long-running family tradition, and the process of making it. they produce 700,000 bottles of tabasco sauce. A day. Its not really technically and island. There is a river, and the river splits itself around a mountain. Well, a hill, really, and probably (not joking) the only hill I've seen my whole mission. Louisiana is just a pancake. So the bridge isnt long, but I guess, by all technicalities, its an island. I sent a box with some overpriced souveniers home, did you get it yet?

 

We had a great increase in faith with Rafael and Virginia, they have desires to be baptized, but are just letting a few things get in the way. We are working with them, and should make some good progress with them soon. Other than that... thats about it. We helped someone in the ward move. Is that exciting? I dont know what else will spark interest in a routine email list, but, if you want, you can send questions, like my grandma did! so heres some answers:

 

 

How many missionaries do you share the apartment with?

Well, right here its just us two. In some areas its four, but I guess they try to avoid that for some reason.

Have your tried out your Mexican Cooking Skills on your new companions yet?

Well, to say it Louisiana style, I've been being doing that! It really is insanely cheaper to cook for yourself, and it turns out just the way you want it, every time!

Do you drive a car now that you are a zone leader?

Well, yes, but leadership callings arent always the reason you have a car, it depends more on the area. There are plenty of district leaders on bikes, and plenty of normal elders in cars. But all the zone leaders do have cars, because we have to go reeeeally far for exchanges and stuff sometimes. But, we still have mile limitations, so its not a free-for-all.

How big is the city of Lafayette?

Well, I couldnt give a population number, but its a little smaller that Baton Rouge. The hispanics are a little more spread out here, so we kind of have to go "hunting" for them, but we know a few good spots, and we stay pretty busy.

Where is it in the state, in elation to Baton Rouge and New Orleans?

New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette are almost equal distances apart (about 80 miles) on a roughly east to west plane. so lafayette is closer to the center of the state.

Is it as hot there?

Well, it hasnt been as hot, because we are getting in to fall, but I think it gets just about as hot here as anywhere else. Although on conference weekend we had a cold front, and I wore a sweater to general conference!'

So there it is. Write me soon!

 

Love,

Elder Cardon

October 8--Weekly Update!

Well, this was a great week with some great stuff happening, especially general conference! I just loved it! What was everyones favorite talk? I was really excited about the announcement for new missionary ages! Thats going to be huge. We had a great time, just us at the church watching conference, only a few members came, and we just had one investigator. I guess just watching it online is a little more convenient. I loved Elder Cooks talk, he really boldy called the world to repentance! Elder Don R. Clarke actually came to our mission about 7 months ago, and shared his steps of getting more out of the sacrament. The priesthood session was awesome as well. conference is just the best as a missionary, I've got more out of on conference on my mission than any other time of my life. I always tell people I'm more excited for conference than my birthday. and its true!

 

We went on exchanges this week, with the elders in Morgan City, which is a cool little place south of Lafayette. We went with the spanish elders and the english elders down there, and did some great work with both of them. I had a cool experience with the english elders: So normally, we as spanish missionaries are "in the culture, but not of the culture" of Louisiana. We are very much involved in Hispanic culture as well. But on our exchange last week, I got to teach someone from a totally different culture. Normally, when we find someone who doesnt speak much english, its someone who speaks spanish and we're excited to teach them. But we had a great opportunity to teach a guy from india, who spoke a language called Myanlamar (or something like that), so it was kind of tough to communicate. But he let us in, and we had a short discussion of what he believed about Jesus Christ. In our talking, he mentioned that his brother had died about a year ago. We shared Alma 40:11, and he understood it, and we testified that his brother was ok, and that he was with God. The spirit was just soooo strong, and this man really could feel it, so much that he teared up a little, and I did too. He really did receive a witness that his brother was ok and everything would be alright.

 

We had a great zone conference this week, President Wall taught us some great things, and invited other missionaries to instruct for parts of it. Part of that, of course, was us, and we came up with a great idea for our assigned topic, companionship unity. We took one companion from each companionship into the gym, and blindfolded the ones that stayed. The ones in the gym were instructed on what to do, but the blindfolded ones were left quite aloof, being told only that their companion was going to come and get them and couldnt talk to them. Then their companion came in, brought them to the gym, and tied two legs together, and we had a blindfolded, non-communicatory 3-legged race. Luckily, there were no casualties. After, we said take off the blindfolds, talk, practice, learn, then we'll do it for reals. Then we all lined up, eyes open, adrenaline going, and had a REAL 3-legged race, down and back across the gym. Of course, Elder Dehart and I won. :) Of course, it had a spiritual connection, and the things that the missionaries learned were amazing, about trusting your companion, practicing, and getting a little competitive sometimes.

 

Well, I'm out of time this week, I spent a little time watching ABC's recent report on missionaries, which was filmed in our mission, with some elders I know, and also the press conference about the newly adjusted missionary age, found on mormonnewsroom.org. (check it out)

 

Love y'all!

-Elder Cardon

October 1--Weekly Update from Louisiana!

Well, we had an awesome week this week, with some cool experiences and a great leadership conference. We went on exchanges with the elders in a place called new Iberia, they are doing well and have some great people to teach. We also found some awesome new investigators in our area, the kind of people that you just say "wow, they are getting baptized, no doubt" and are really receptive. Speaking of baptisms, we had a baptism last week! His name is Antonio, he's an awesome guy from Nicaragua. Really humble, and has a great testimony of the restored gospel.

 

The leadership conference was great, President Wall is a great leader, and really knows how to help us grow and gain our own testimonies. He gave a funny example, relating to his past life as a newspaper manager he said, more or less " I used to manage multi-million dollar companies. I was successful, because I've got good ideas, and I know how to implement them. I got paid an obscene amount of money for what I did. I also have good ideas about finding. Give me 20 minutes, I'll give you 20 ideas for finding, and they'll all work. Give me 20 more minutes, I'll give you 20 more ideas. But I dont want you to use my ideas, I want you to use your ideas, and seek revelation for your zones and districts." He related that to a story of when he was managing one of his companies, and how he got his employees to come up with some ideas. He said " I called a meeting with all my employees and said 'instead of using my ideas to accomplish x task, we're going to start using yours'. I told them that we'd have an idea box, that everyone should put their ideas in the box. for every idea submitted, we'd pay them 5 dollars. for every idea implemented, we'd pay them 50 dollars. guess how much we paid out? 15 dollars. So I took a different approach. We broke them up into smaller groups, and I went to each group and said 'each group needs to come up with at least 10 ideas, and the group with the least ideas will get fired. so start brainstorming.' Well, ideas came out of the woodwork, and many of them were things I never would have thought of. I want you as Zone and District Leaders to come up with ideas of how to run your zones." It was really kind of different from presidents normal routine, because he really is very humble and doesnt talk about his business success much, but it was just a little bit of "look guys, I know what I'm doing here."

 

We had a great increase in faith with this family we have been working with, they are pretty involved in another church, but we meet with them alot, and they love us coming over and love the Book of Mormon. (who wouldn't?). They've apparently come once or twice in the past, but not since I've been here. On saturday night I was talking to him on the phone about something else, and just got the impression to just invite him. I knew he knew when it was and everything, but I just said "hey, wanna come to church tomorrow?" he said he'd be working, but maybe another time. The next day (Sunday night) we had dinner at their house. He told us that that morning it was raining, so he didnt have to work (he has a lawn care business) and when he found out he didnt have to work he heard something tell him that he should go to church with us today. He didnt know what it was, but he just really wanted to go to church with us. Well, the bummer is he didnt, but we told him about conference, and he's really excited for it. So pray that he and hopefully his family if they come will have a great experience!

 

Well, last week was a fun p-day, we went to a members apartment complex and played volleyball at their sand volleyball court. We're going there again, this time everyones bringing their own meat and we're having a bbq! the complex is super nice, and had 3 or 4 nice grills next to the court and pool. (why dont we live there?)

 

Love you!

Elder Cardon

 

P.S. to all- if you want to send me some questions to answer, I'll answer them. My grandma did, but the time ran out on me for this week, so maybe next week will be all question answering!

September 24--I Dun Had a Rajun Cajun Week!

Well, this was an awesome week, we had some really cool lessons and met some great people. I told a little bit last week about LaPlace again, it was nasty, but great to help people that needed it so much. We stayed the night in New Orleans again, and played basketball on p-day. This one tall elder was just messing around, and went in and dunked, and the rim came down and shattered the whole glass backboard. It was crazy, but pretty cool. I think he felt bad. That night, we had a dinner appointment with and awesome family in the ward. Dinner was great, but we realized they may have been buttering us up- they asked us to help them move some things from their storage unit to their house. Turns out "a few things" was alot of heavy furniture and 4 hours of it.

 

This week, I went on an exchange with the english Elders. So in the same area and neighborhoods and stuff, but teaching different people. One type of person I've rarely ever found, let alone taught, among the Hispanic culture is someone with agnostic beliefs about God. Its pretty engrained among hispanics to believe in God and to thank him for everything and always say his name. So much engrained, that it really switches from actual faith into almost a superstition. But thats another topic for another time. We taught this young couple with a 1 year old kid, they were really great people, but just couldnt connect the dots. He had a little more belief in God than she did, but just everything she was saying was totally highlighting gospel principles and the hand of God in her life, but just stuck to her guns with "Well, if there is a God, then after this life if you did good, you'll be rewarded accordingly". We talked about the commandments, and she said almost exactly that the 10 commandments were more like "10 creative suggestions". She talked about the wonderful feeling of love and peace she had when her baby was born, but passed it off as "feelings". She said sometimes she feels strengthened to do things she normally couldnt by herself or had an impression to help someone, but passed it off as just ideas. We truly testified of God and his power and influence in our lives, but she had a tough time bringing it together. It was just totally different.

 

On the same exchange, we had a chance to eat dinner with an authentic cajun family who, if my temporary companion hadn't told me, I would've thought were members. After a few colorful jokes from the parents, I would've guessed otherwise, but the reason I say that at first is because they had five totally nice, well behaved kids, and they fed us some really good homemade pulled pork sandwiches, and were so excited to have the elders over. We said a prayer, and then the Mom started serving up plates, and passed one to me, then my companion, then the rest of the family. Having been well taught by a loving mother, I knew you're not supposed to start eating your food until everyone has their food and is eating together. But, I guess my companion lacked such refinement and dove right in, and after his first bite got absolutely REAMED by the woman of the house for not waiting. He bashfully apologized, said he knew, it just looked to good! Afterwards, we sat down and had a lesson with them about the plan of salvation. That really is a great lesson to teach a family, they had just tons of questions, they were really smart kids. Other cool fact: they had a pet squirrel! No joke! in a little cage with food and everything.

 

We taught another lady on the exchange who was trying really hard to give up coffee. I asked if we could have her coffee maker. She said yes. So now we have a coffee maker, and one investigator closer to living the word of wisdom. Exito!

 

Here was one of the coolest things of the whole week: We were on the Radio! No joke! one of our investigators has a friend who is a radio DJ and wanted us to come and tell about some of the services we can offer to the Spanish community. They had a little studio, which I was of course excited to be in, I've been missing the microphones and sound board and everything I left back home. It was a pretty small but still cool room, just a desk with a soundboard and computer, with her mic on one side and 3 on the other side for us and the interviewer, and it was a really cool, spiritual experience. We told them about our english class, doing translation, and our Sunday church services. They asked us to share about how people can find spiritual guidance in their lives. They asked us some questions about missionary work, and they were shocked when we told them that sometimes people slam the door and dont want to listen to us. They asked us why we came out on a mission, how we know the Church is true, and what keeps us motivated to keep working. I shared a scripture over the radio, and it was a really cool experience. then afterwards she said, "well, this week was little improvised, but next week we'll plan out a little more. I want you guys to talk more about families." Sweet! we can do that, and we're going back next week! Apparently you can listen online, so I'll let you know when our next thing is so y'all can listen in!

 

Other news, we have a baptism this weekend! His name is Antonio, he is really prepared, and is really excited to be baptized. More on him and his baptism next week.

 

Love y'all!

September 17-- New Area!

Well, this was a pretty great week!

We have started off well here in Lafayette, and have already had some great lessons with the people we are teaching. We have some awesome families, and had some great increases in faith in them. We stay pretty busy, which is great. One thing I have resolved to do better this week and the rest of my mission is to write stuff down during the day that I want to share in my weekly email. Because I know I have some stories that would at least be somewhat interesting to you, but whenever I get here to the computer, they seem to disappear.

We had a great lesson with two families, we got them together and had a mini Family Home Evening, and it went great. I've come to realize even more that FHE is such an inspired program! I'm so glad my parents were so diligent in it, it really was one of the most influential factors of my spiritual growth. Its cool how something so simple like singing a song and sharing a lesson and watching a video and eating dinner could be so powerful- but it totally is! We had a lesson about Faith, and we used the one of the new Bible Videos on the Church website, (has everybody seen those? go watch them!) where Jesus raises Jarius's daughter. All of those videos are very well done. Afterwards we had a great discussion of how they exercise faith in their lives, and they really enjoyed it.

This weekend we went out to LaPlace again, to help more with the areas that were flooded. We had some cool experiences, except that in one house we did they literally had not started at all- that means that for two weeks, everything in there had been molding and rotting, and oh my, it smelled terrible. Just worst than anything you can imagine, especially back in the closet that had no ventilation and was still full of moldy clothes, yikes. Yikes yikes yikes. I couldn't even stay in there for any extended period of time. The two sisters we were working with deserve a metal of honor for working in there with the homeowner to get all the clothes out. It smelled like a combination of rotten eggs and sewage and- well, ok I'll stop there, I think you get the idea.

But besides the nastiness, its really great to see how much peoples hearts soften upon being served in such a hard time of trial. I heard that after Katrina the baptisms in this mission just exploded, and they are expecting the same in some of the areas, they actually just put another set of elders in that city to help teach all the people who we helped.

I know I say this most weeks, but next week- I promise, a longer update. Ok? But that is of course contingent on how many emails and letters I get. I have to know these are being read and enjoyed, not that I'm preaching to a unresponding crowd! :)

-Elder Cardon

P.S. New area means new address! Send lots of letters!

Elder Cam Cardon

100 S Meyers Dr #1201

Lafayette,LA, 70508
 

 

(NOTE: Because Cam got transferred on October 22, this address might not be applicable anymore)

September 11- Cleanup Week!

Well, this week has been pretty busy! Not with the normal teach, preach and work like missionaries do- helping with the cleanup of hurricane Isaac. I mentioned last week a little bit about we were helping with cleaning out houses from the flooding, and we've been doing the same thing every single day. for 9 days straight! We've been really exhausted, but it feels good to work so hard. They have us pretty well organized. We split up into our missionary districts, or wards when there are members helping as well, and they give us a work order assignment, and we go and do it- Which is primarily taking out flooring, and taking out drywall. We are getting pretty dang quick at it, we're total pro's at getting out drywall and flooring faster than any other bunch east of the mississippi! (though a few of us are serving on the west side and came to help). Its been really cool, and it should be about done, we'll find out more on Wednesday what we're doing the rest of the week!

 

 Why Wednesday? Because thats transfers! Normally, president doesnt tell us where we are getting transfered to, but this transfer was a pretty easy guess. He asked me to be a zone leader, and there is only one spanish zone leader area. So my fate is sealed, I am getting transferred to Lafayette! I've heard its pretty different than New Orleans or Baton Rouge, so it should be a pretty cool experience.

Thats about it, I hope everyone got those pictures, they tell the story better than I!

-Elder Cardon

September 11 Pictures

(Sorry about the inconsistency of updates! We're going to do better in Cam's last six weeks to update you weekly on how he's doing.)

Here's some pictures from September 11 that Cam sent to us. :)

Cam says:

Here is a wave of pictures, more to come!

1. A painting we found when cleaning out someones house- representing, of course, Christ's baptism (artist interpretation)

 

 

2. Us driving back home after a long day of work!

 

 

3. Me in front a military truck- the national guard was there doing security, and this was a road block that didnt let us on the road because Obama came by!

 

 

4. The average street of the city we were working in all week, featuring my companion, elder Gillett.

 

 

5. To get to LaPlace, take exit 209... wait. Any other way?

 

 

6. Talking to a member during a pizza break

 

 

7. A few of us getting ready for a day of service!

 

 

8. A flooded street- after it had gone down about 3ft of what it was.

 

 

9. A few weeks ago on the streetcar going into town!

 

DAY 643: SEPTEMBER 4

(message received via text)

Your son has been here at my house all day cleaning up, thanks for letting us borrow him!

DAY 642: SEPTEMBER 3

Isaac, you win this time

Hey everyone! We dont have much time to email today, we have been so busy doing service! And alot of it. We did a few things in baton rouge, but all that was incredibly minor compared to what we have here. We came back after a week of evacuation in baton rouge, staying in an apartment with no power and therefore no AC, we came back on saturday and started on the service. New orleans itself isnt too bad- but the place that got it good is LaPlace. Weve been here the last three days gutting houses from the floods. most of the houses in the area we are working in got 1-2 feet of water IN their house- which means like 4 or 5 feet in the street. Its mostly taking all their furniture out to the street, ripping out carpets and cutting the drywall a few feet up to get the molded stuff out. And if you think you know what stench is- you have no idea until you open a fridge that has had no power in it for 5 days. No. Idea.

 

   So the plan for the rest of the week is all the missionaries to work all day cleaning out more houses, and then go back to their area and teach at night. I've noticed a huge difference in people letting us in when we have a gospel message and when we offer to help clean out their smelly flooded house- no telling which is more successful!

 

  Side note- Obama came to town! we saw him drive by in a huge caravan of police cars. Michelle waved at us!

 

-Elder Cardon

 

DAY 635: AUGUST 27

Run Away!

   Well, that was our approach with Tropical Storm Isaac. Last night we evacuated all the missionaries out of the New Orleans area to come up to Baton Rouge because of the coming storm. It seems like alot of people down there weren't too worried. In fact, we were stopped by a parade going through the street on our way out. I guess theres still time for a parade even when a hurricane is on its way.

 

  We're here in Baton Rouge staying at some other elders apartment, so theres 8 of us here at one place, its pretty fun. I'm sure you could find some updates online, but apparently the storm is supposed to hit the coast on Tuesday or Wednesday. Well see what happens, I guess. So hopefully we are safe up here.

 

Sorry for the short update, I'll write a good one next week!

 

-Elder Cardon

DAY 628: AUGUST 20

N'awlins.

Well, this week we had a great zone conference, and exchange with the other elders in our district. I went into another area, which is always a little bit of a break, not having to worry about where to go, but still engaged in teaching and finding. We found some interesting people, and had one of those funny drunk guy experiences we haven't had in a long time. These guys around there truck asked us to come over and talk to them, and asked us questions about why God lets bad things happen. After trying to figure out the question themselves, we just went with "well, less bad things will happen to you if you don't drink so much". That was probably about all the doctrine they could handle. I'm sometimes surprised about how confused people are about gospel/religious terminology. A couple weeks ago we were teaching two people and we were talking about prophets, and one of them asked if lineage was important to be called to be a prophet. We said the most important thing is that they are called of God. He asked "well doesn't lineage mean you're a prophet?" and the lady said, with a tone of duh in her voice "No, lineage is when you are cleaned from your sins!".  Oh boy, we've got some ground to cover.

 

     We were successful in teaching many investigators, and finding a few as well. We found a new apartment of people to teach, and as usual, they all have different interest levels. One of them we both agreed we could tell was feeling the spirit more than others, and he is the one we will focus on. One of them you could tell hardened his heart and in a couple instances laughed at us for what we were teaching, and the guy who we knew was feeling the spirit had the same reaction we did - Wow, rude. Is he seriously laughing at this? I tried not to let it bother me, but when he cut off the first vision and laughed at it, I just asked "is there something funny going on here?" and I think he had a bit of a wake-up call that this was the real deal and he shouldn't laugh at it, and he was silent the rest of the lesson.

 

   Other than that, pretty normal week. not much time today, so I hope to hear back soon!

 

-Cam

DAY 621: AUGUST 13

weekly update!

Well, this was a pretty normal week, nothing big to report on. We had some great lessons and increases in faith from our investigators, and found quite a few new investigators as well. We did a really cool lesson with a member family, about faith. So we all know that faith is like a seed- if you plant and nourish it, it will grow. So we went and bought some potting soil, little pots and some seeds, and helped all the kids plant seeds. And then committed to take care of that seed, and also take care of their seed of faith- by watering it and putting it in the sun, and by reading the scriptures and praying, respectively.  We went by two days later and most of the little pots had been knocked over, so I guess they "cast out the seed with their doubt" hopefully they didnt do that with their faith!

 

 We found a really cool family to teach this week, and they are from honduras. But they're not your average hispanics- they are of the Garifuna race. I think I've mentioned them before, they are people who are of african descent, but speak spanish too. The short version of the story is this: During slave trades in the 1700s, there was a group three ships traveling together back from africa to america. Well, I wouldnt like being taken out of my home to go work really hard in the heat somewhere for no pay*, and the africans didnt want to either, so the weren't gonna go down easy. So during the voyage they rebelled and killed all the white people. Not knowing how to navigate by the stars, let alone steer a boat, they ended up on the coast of Central america, crash landed, and then established there. So the Garifuna language is a mix between two african dialects with a little bit of french, and now some spanish. There are a few members who speak the same language, so I've learned a little bit of it, but man it is hard! totally a different feel than any Latin based language. lots of b's and g's. Stuff like "Maga tiena" "Badibu" and stuff. So luckily, they understand spanish just fine, and can learn in that, and they teach us little bits of Garifuna. The 13 year old in their family, named Iwor, seriously caught the restoration better than most adults. They were really excited about the Book of Mormon, and we totally have some Garifuna members to be some fellowshippers! Incase you wanted to know, to say "We are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints" is "Tida guietiwa liguilisi to lani bunguio to janisandu le lagamujou wellu" Don't worry, I'm still working on it too!

 

   Well, other than that, things have been pretty normal, we've had a great time with everything. Hope to hear back from everyone soon! Ask me some questions and I'll answer them in my next update. Or do the keyword thing, i think that worked for about two emails, but really, it was great idea!

*Wait, isnt that exactly what I'm doing right now? lol

  

DAY 614: AUGUST 6

weekly update

  Well, this was quite an exciting week! Probably one of the best weeks I've had in literally months. And theres a few reasons why. One of course, is my birthday! It was more or less a normal day, but, theres a place here in New Orleans that gives you a free steak dinner on your birthday- couldn't pass that up. So that was a great lunch outing, we went with two other elders. I also got a great birthday package full of presents, so that's exciting as well! We got back at night and on our mailbox next to the door was a sticky not from ups that said in my absence, the package was left on the balcony. Of course, he should have meant porch, because our balcony is on the second floor and has access from the inside of the apartment only, and there was no package on the porch. After just a moment of trepidation that it was left on the porch and stolen shortly thereafter, we went upstairs to investigate. Well, sure enough, we went upstairs, and on the balcony was my birthday box. The only plausible explanation is that he threw it, because one of our balcony plants was knocked over. I guess thats how UPS runs their operation: Deliver the package at all costs.

 

  We also had a baptism! Here's some pictures. It was of two kids, who are 8 and 11. Their mom isnt a member, but their future-step-dad is (they still need to get married). So just the kids got baptized now, and then the mom should follow soon. We are really excited for them, they already have lots of friends in the church, and they are always so excited about being there. Gary is about to turn 12, so will be moving up to young mens really soon!

 

  We also had a great increase in faith with Angela and Cesar, a couple we have been working with. It seemed like they were looking more for some marriage counseling than spiritual help, but things seem to have calmed down, and they are really open to us. We had a great lesson on the atonement with them, and afterwards she told us "every time you guys come over I just feel really good inside- and that feeling stays in our home for hours after. I want you guys to come over more often!". Well, that is totally the spirit! She also told us that she told a few of her friends that we were coming over and her friends told her some junk about the church and she really basically said "that doesn't bother me, compared with the feeling I feel when they teach us." So PUNTO para el espiritu santo!!!

 

   Another huge increase in faith in one of our investigators was with Antonio, Dora, and Norma. Antonio has come to church a few times, but just started working nights, so even though he isnt working during church, sleep takes the priority. Dora and Norma both work at a hotel, so work pretty much every Sunday, and had never come. But, this week they totally asked for work off, and got it, just so they could go to church! They were really excited, and had a great time. I'm always just a little worried when there is a fast Sunday with investigators, that some member will get up and say something weird. But, we had a great meeting, with only one iffy testimony, and they LOVED relief society. I really hope it will work for them to not have to work more Sundays. We were thinking- they work at a Marriot hotel, and the owner of Marriot is a member of the church- could we get a hold of him and ask him to give them Sundays off? =D 

 

  Well, those are just a few highlights. Another exciting event: we used to live with two other elders, but one finished his mission, the other got transferred, and their area got closed. So we now have probably the biggest apartment in the mission completely to ourselves. We have a big room with just our beds, a big room with our desks, a big kitchen and living room, we each have our own bathroom, and I have my own walk-in closet. Its amazing!

 

Well, I'd love to hear from anyone and everyone, so write me a letter!

 

Love,

Elder Cardon

 

P.S.

811 Adele st

New Orleans, LA 70130

DAY 608: JULY 31

Pictures!

Well, this week was transfers and I'm staying! We took some pictures at our last district meeting, so here they are. 2 serious ones, and 2 silly ones. Enjoy!

 

-Elder Cardon

DAY 600: JULY 23

Weekly update

Well, this week was pretty good! We had some cool lessons, and it rained literally almost every single day. Actually yes, every day. So whenever I say I'm from Seattle and and people ask, "it rains alot there, don't it?" I can confidently say "well, not really, compared to here.". So much rain, that last Friday, we were on lock down for most of the day, due to flooding. We were doing our weekly planning, and we did have one appointment to go to, but thats about all. We stayed in all evening though. I did feel a little unproductive, but it was nice to have a night off, this work is stressful! And other exciting/crazy thing during that time... there was a straightup drive by shooting 5 houses down from us. We were in having dinner and we heard what sounded like a  firecracker go off outside, it was about 15 pops, so I thought it was one of those firework chain things. We went outside, and there was no kids with matches, but down the street there was some commotion and a few minutes later the cops showed up. So, welcome to New Orleans!

 

   Last Wednesday we had  sweet lesson at the church, with our investigators Gary and Jair. They are 11 and 8, and both really like the lessons and church and everything. We taught the plan of salvation, and they understood it well. We wanted to make it fun and exciting for them so we made it so: We were at the church, so we started in the little overflow part between the chapel and the gym. This was the "pre-mortal life" we talked about what happened there, and then that God created the world for us. Then we said "lets go to the earth." and we went into the gym. There, they had to do 5 things: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, The gift of the holy ghost and endure to the end. In the gym there was papers all over the floor, and mixed in was all the stuff we can do in life like ride your bike, go to school, and other stuff, but also was the five things they had to find. Once they found them we said "alright, now you're going to die." Then we went up to the stage and explained what happens in the spirit world. While there, we explained what happens in each of the three kingdoms of glory. To help them understand, we gave an analogy that would make sense to them: In the Telestial kingdom, they have root beer. In the terrestrial, they have root beer and bread sticks. In the celestial, they have root beer, bread sticks, and pizza. Which one do you want to go to? Of course, the celestial, so we went from there into the kitchen and ate pizza, bread sticks and root beer. Needless to say, they loved it! They are really excited to get baptized, and they should be doing it this weekend!

 

  Well, theres always more stories, but not enough time to tell them!

 

Love y'all!!

-Elder Cardon

 

Heres a few picutures from my companions camera!

 

1. Remember the story about when we did the service for the old guy in our missionary clothes? Well, I wasnt kidding, I weedwacked a lawn in misisonary clothes.

2. A picture of street with a bunch of cops after the drive-by shooting. The guy was alright.

 

DAY 593: JULY 16

Weekly update!

Well, this was a pretty normal week. I got to go on exchange with the english elders in our district, and I got to go be on bikes with them. It was way fun, I definitely miss being on a bike. There are definitely some nice things about a car, though. Like not getting soaked head to foot like I did while on the bike, because it rained like crazy. Thats usually nice. But we still had a very succesful day, and taught some good lessons, and Elder Lawson was able to improve on his teaching skills a whole bunch! We had a good lesson with a lady who literally thought that 4th of July was celebrated because thats the day that America got food stamps. Wow. Nice one, Louisiana.

 

    We have been keeping pretty busy, but theres definitely not quite as thick of a spanish population here as in Metairie or even Baton Rouge. I think I mentioned before, president Wall said this was the hardest spanish area in the mission- yikes! But I think even so, we'll be having a baptism or two real soon. Antonio and Dora are doing really well, we havent taught them much this last week, but they really want to get baptized, and Antonio has come to church 4 times! Dora and Norma still havent, because they work on Sundays, and haven't been able to get it off. 

 

  Heres a picture of our street, taken from the balcony.

 

Well, my birthdays coming up! You are of course welcome to send me a letter :)

 

811 Adele st

New Orleans, LA 70130

 

    

 

 

 





DAY 586: JULY 9

just another week in NOLA!

Hey Everyone!

 

   Well, this week was just about like any other. Like usual, I think of all these cool stories and things to write about, then get here and all of the sudden the week seems pretty empty.  But I'll scrounge up a story or two. We went on exchanges this week, Elder Altamirano, who is serving in the East New Orleans area, came over with me, and Elder Gillett, my companion, went with Elder Mellor to their area. We met some cool people and taught some cool lessons. When Elder Clarke of the 70 came to our mission, he gave us the suggestion (commandment) that we should bring the Bishops wife flowers and give the Bishop a tie on their birthday. Well, our ward list has the birthdays on it, and it was the bishops wife's birthday, so we went to the store and got some flowers and a cheap card, and then went by. Well, they weren't home, so we gave bishop a call. He answered and I said excitedly "So I heard a rumor that its your wife's birthday!" He said "no... hers is in... April." After a brief pause I said, feeling a little awkward "oh.... um... Ok. Bye." So we're like dang it. Elder Altamirano was convinced he was lying to us or he misunderstood or something, so he's like "who else could we ask?" on the same ward list was his daughter. So we txted her and asked if it was her moms birthday and she said "yup! We're out to dinner right now!" Hmmm... So we asked the daughter if we could bring something by and she said sure. It didn't work out that night, but the next day we did. We didn't say anything about the confusion, she was just excited about the flowers.

 

    We had a great lesson with Antonio and Dora and Norma, about the Word of Wisdom. I always worry just a little bit about the doubts they will throw out, but we gave a really good set-up to it, talking about obedience and the blessings that come from living the commandments. With a good backdrop of knowing the Lord will help us and then bless us, almost any commandment seems easy to live! In the middle of the lesson, one of their roommates came out and sat in the lesson with us. He was pretty into it. Afterwards we asked about church, and Dora and Norma said they were working and were going to take the car, so Antonio couldn't come because of a ride. So I asked the other guy, Benjamin, what he was doing tomorrow, and he said he'd come to church. So he came with Antonio, and brought his kids, and they loved it! Awesome!

 

   Last week, my companion and one of the elders we live with went and bought a bunch of plants, so now we have a mini herb garden outside on our porch. It nice, I've been a little sick this weekend, so I've had some fresh lemongrass and mint to make tea with! Woo!  

 

   Well, thats about all thats going on for now, we have a fun day planned. Hope to hear back form you soon!

 

-Elder Cardon

DAY 579: JULY 2

Happy 2nd of July!

  Well, this week was pretty fun, we had some awesome, spirit-filled lessons with our investigators, and are really helping them to build their faith. Its awesome! We had an awesome lesson with some of our investigators named Antonio, Dora, and Norma. Dora and Norma are sisters and Antonio and Dora are... Well, they're not married, we're at least pretty sure of that. So that will be a barrier to overcome. Anyways, we had an awesome lesson last Tuesday, the spirit was amazingly strong as we taught the plan of salvation and testified of the atonement. Antonio has come to church twice before, but without us even asking, Dora told us they were both coming to church! Awesome. But, Satan got up early, and Dora got called in to work, leaving Antonio without a ride. So that was a bummer.  We had a great lesson with our ward mission leader and his in-laws, they have two kids that have come to church and love it, and should be close to getting baptized!

 

   So, I am still District Leader here in New Orleans, and we now have a gigantic district, there are 5 companionships plus a senior couple. So we have all of us working together, and its a whole lot to manage! But, I'm doing fine, we'll be doing exchanges this week.

 

   Last weekend, we had a member fireside, which I mentioned at lunch after district meeting, where we had a wonderful opportunity to work with the members. We had a fun little get-to-know the missionaries game, then had a spiritual message and watched a short video, then we split up into groups and did role-plays with the members about how to invite a fried to an FHE, how to give a video, a BOM, or an invite to church. I think the members really liked it and thought it was very helpful to have an opportunity to practice sharing the gospel with a friend. We didn't have a huge turnout, but I would definitely call it a success.

 

   Besides, that, it was pretty normal week, this week should be pretty busy with everything we've got going on!

 

Love,

Elder Cardon

P.S. I seem to be runnin out of Ideas or topics of things to talk about. Any more questions/ideas?

P.P.S. Ok, fine, you can write me a letter :)

 

Elder Cardon

811 Adele St

New Orleans, LA 70130

 

 

A few pictures:

 

From the WWII musuem!

1. Me in front of a bunch of pictures of WWII stuff

2. Me in front of a huge WWII bomber plane

3. Another picture of the same sweet plane from a cooler angle

 

Companions!

4.My last companion, Elder Richards

5.My current companion, Elder Gillett

 

Other:

6. A tres leches cake :)

7. The hotel in which we will be staying at christmas time (its about 4 blocks from our apartment)

 

DAY 572: JUNE 25

Well, this was a pretty good week. We had a few people at church, which was great. We also had transfers, and I have a new companion, named Elder Gillett, he's from Utah. We are already getting along great and I can tell we'll work together really well. We had some cool experiences this week, starting with the World War two musuem, which was really cool. Definitely going to come and visit that when we come back. They had a ton of really cool exhibits and little movies, and now I know a whole lot more about the events and geography of d-day. There is really a ton to learn about it, and they really have done a great job with it. They also have a 4-d experience movie, called "beyond all boundaries" about all the different things that were happening at the same time in WWII. They were totally fighting out on the european front and the pacific front at the same time, which really shows that we have quite a bit of power behind us. It was also kind of a depressing movie. Well, not sure how to really cheer up the fact that about 53,000,000 lives were lost in the space of a few years.

We had some people at church, which is such a relief. We also did some service for a less active, Roberto, with whom we sing music sometimes. He needed his lawn weedwacked and a few trees pruned, so we offered to do it. And he said "well you cant do it right now." and we said "why not" and he said its because of our nice clothes we were in. Again we asked "why not?" so he obliged, and I got out there in my shirt and tie with a weedwacker and pretty'd up the lawn, while my companion helped him move some things around in his shed. Of course, there was no tree pruners to be found, so a kitchen knife sufficed. Too bad it wasnt a cutco.

We are going to teach the family we taught last week, Jared and Blanca, again tonight, they are doing pretty well.

Well, we've got to go, hope everyone is doing well!

Love,

Cam

P.S. To a missionary, love is spelled L-E-T-T-E-R-S

P.P.S.

811 adele st

New Orleans, LA, 70130

DAY 566: JUNE 19

Well, we are finishing up the transfer with not a whole lot of numerical success, but still some really good experiences and awesome people to teach. I'll try to condense a few experiences of the last few weeks into an email worth reading. The big news is on transfers- I am staying, and Elder Richards is going, which means I'll be getting a new companion. Quite a few Spanish elders are moving around this transfer, so we'll see what happens.

Last week I did an exchange with the other Elders, I went with Elder Lawson into their area, they have some cool people they are teaching, and we had some good lessons. These last few weeks, we have been getting referals from members right and left, which is just awesome, we've had 3 people in the last 3 weeks! One of them is Manuel, a friend of the Vazquez family, another named Carolina, a friend of the Henriquez family, and the last one is the brother of a member and his fiancee, named jared and blanca. They are all really cool. Last week we did an FHE in the Henriquez home, and after the lesson we played "do you love your neighbor", and they absolutely LOVED it. Laughing so much. Thats a great family game. Just last night, we went over to the Battle family's house to teach their brother and his fiancee, and we got to go across the causeway! I can now say I have been across the worlds longest bridge. How exciting! We had a good lesson with them, and, turns out Brother Battle used to be a DJ. And his son is just starting to get into DJ'ing. So we had some stuff to talk about, and I got to see his set up and jam with him a little. So much fun!

Last weekend we had a fathers day activity/fireside/dinner. It went really well, we had a dinner, and then a few members and the missionaries did a few talents/presentations. The missionaries did a little skit where two missionaries are in Africa and they run into a lion, and they run away from him and while he's coming they kneel down and pray that the lion will become mormon and not eat them. Then the lion slowly approaches them and kneels down in front of them and they say "look! the lions mormon!" then the lion folds his arms and says "Dear heavenly father, please bless this food that it will nourish and strenghten me..." and the curtain closes. Just a few minutes before the show, the member who was directing the activity came up and asked me to be the MC! Apparently she asked some of the other missionaries and they said, you know, Elder Cardon would be good for that. Thanks guys. Well, I had fun with it, told a few of my spanish jokes, and made the activity pretty fun.

Well, we've got to go, today we are heading to the world war two musuem!!

 

Heres some pictures from our last District meeting. The one of four of us is just my district, and the other one is both the districts.

-Cam

DAY 551: JUNE 4

Well, last weeks monday was memorial day, so all the libraries were
closed, and then we didnt have much time on Tuesday, so I just got a
few things, not a real update. So, I'll give some highlights from both
weeks. Last week I went on an exchange with the Elders in my district.
It went pretty well, we found some really cool people, and I got to be
on bikes for a little bit, they are in a bike area. Theres definitely
some fun stuff with biking, always one adventure or another. I got a
flat tire, so that was one adventure. Also, when I got back from the
exchange into our area which has a car, we were on bikes again for a
little bit. They give us a certain amount of miles we are allowed to
use, and we had used almost all of them, so we rode our bikes in the
afternoon and drove at night, and ended just fine.

   I mentioned a little bit ago that we got a referral from a member,
and we have been teaching them, quite a bit, they are really excited
to have us there teaching them. its a family, they have a son who is
18, and they want him to be in a better environment and learn more
about God. We've taught mostly the parents, because the son is almost
never there. They have all kinds of questions, which makes teaching go
really slow, it seriously took about 3 lessons to cover the plan of
salvation. But, they really like having us over, and they invited us
over for lunch, we ate a marisco soup, it was kind of weird, it had
crab and shrimp and yuca in a coconut broth. It was pretty good,
though. Hispanics I guess are too cheap for fancy crab-cracking tools
like we have back home, so busting open the shells for the meat is all
done with teeth. I was worried about breaking a tooth or the crab claw
biting my tounge or something, but he had it down to an art, and could
do it real quick.

   Other exciting news, we met a lady that said she was Jesus's wife.
She could also talk to cats. She told us to bring her around with us,
because she was a good testimony, Jesus healed her.  Howabout that.

   So this week, we had a pretty good week, it seemed to be a little
slower, just because we didn't teach as many lessons and stuff. Theres
some weeks where it really just gets out of your control, and your
numbers are bad no matter what.

  The english Elders decided to have a creative finding activity, and
we did a car wash! No joke! We stood out on the street with some
posters that said "free car wash" and it was suprising how many people
didnt turn in. But we had quite a few people come in, gave them all
pass-along cards and invited them to church. It was pretty fun. We of
course washed ours too :) it was a pretty fun break from "normal"
missionary work.

  Well, like usual, I have lots of cool things to write about, then I
get here at the computer and I can't think of anything. So hopefull
thats enough.


Elder Cardon

P.S. Heres a picture of the car wash!

May 21 Pictures

Heres a few pictures!

Me and the Powells, me and the Barro's, and with the Pahaumbas. The
Pahuambas just got sealed last week!

-Elder Cardon

P.S. In case you miss your favorite missionary, on LDS.org they've
uploaded all the conference videos since '71, and that includes the
music! You can hear an awesome choir and catch a glimpse of me in the
april 2009 priesthood session.
 

DAY 537: MAY 21

Well, it was a pretty good week, we had some cool experiences, and
zone conference. At zone conference we watched a video about airplanes
on an aircraft carrier, about the precision they need to land and
takeoff, and how everyone has to do their job exactly and be exactly
obedient to all procedures or something will go wrong or someone could
wind up really hurt or dead. He made this a comparison to our
missionary work, how we need to be so exactly obedient, or we really
could lose the spirit or have our work compromised in some other way.

   We had a cool service opportunity last week, we helped a less
active with his computer a little. He had an electronic keyboard that
he needed to hook up to his computer to do some recording, and some
help getting the recording program working. My companion and I both
having done home recording, we were obviously the candidates for the
job. So we got it all going, including walked to McDonald's to use
their wi-fi to download a driver, and then recorded a hymn or two. He
was so grateful, and then gave us the number of one of his friends he
wants us to go visit!

  Another instance where we saw the power of music was with a
less-active who we visited, we ended up singing some hymns for him
with his guitar. He hurt his hand recently so he couldn't play, but
was really happy to have us sing and play to him. We sang "how great
thou art" and he said "thats the one they sang at my baptism! And he
sang along with us on all the chorus's.


   I'm in the big city of New Orleans and its a really cool place. My
grandma sent me a few questions about it, so here they is:

How much of the city has been reconstructed?

Just about all of it. Its been almost 7 years, so its really all about
back to how it was. Theres still plenty of shabby-lookin areas, I cant
tell if they were like that before or not.

Is there a lot of homelessness?

Yup. Apparently this is one of the homeless capitols of the nation.
Alot of homeless people, many of them surprisingly young, will hop
trains over here to be in the homeless community thats here. Random
side story: a couple months before my mission I was driving from
California to Washington by myself, and I picked up a hitch-hiker for
some company. He said he had been hopping trains around and that his
next goal was to hop to New Orleans. I said I was moving to LA in a
few months. He aksed what for and I explained, and turns out he was
raised Mormon. So they come from as far out as CA. Crazy!

Are there still needs for help in fixing the damage done by katrina?

Doesnt seem like it. If I didnt know about it, I wouldnt have guessed
that the whole town was underwater a few years ago. Though one cool
remnant is on many of the houses there are still black x's drawn in
spray paint, which is what the rescuers used to mark that the house
had been checked for bodies.

In the ward where you serve, are the members old time members who have
lived there a while, or are they people who have been relocated?

Well, many members remember katrina and talk about their time before
and after it, and it sounds pretty nasty. Alot of members are recent
converts, and dont have a complete understanding of the gospel, but
are still excited and happy to be in the church.

Are people looking for spiritual messages to help them?

Well, of course thats what they need, but they just dont realize it.
Its really tough sometimes to people reject the thing that will bring
them so much peace and joy! basically saying "No thanks guys, I'm
looking for happiness". Well here it is! But, theres people that do,
and its really great to see them accept it.


Well, I'd love to hear from y'all again soon!

Love,
Elder Cardon

DAY 530: MAY 14

Well, as you all know, I got transferred, and I'm in a new area! In the big city of New Orleans! I'm really excited. We have a huge area, covering from the Mississippi river up to lake Pontchartrain, almost all of orleans parish. I am in the same ward that I was before when I was in Metarie, so I saw some familiar faces and was excited to be back. I am also with a new companion, named Elder Richards, He's from arizona. So I just talked to most of you on the phone yesterday, so I guess theres not a whole lot of new updates, but... Yeah.

We live in a cool little neighborhood, which apparently was pretty bad before katrina, but is a little better now. Though someone got shot in a house across the street last weekend. So yeah. My new address is 811 Adele st, 70130 New Orleans, LA. Check it out on MapQuest or something if you want. We had a fun last p-day in Baton Rouge, played kickball and Frisbee at the park, and packed. then played some music at Roberto's friends house, his friend (whos a member) took a video of us two playing Nearer my God to thee, with one verse in spanish, one in portugese, and the third together in portugese, it was pretty good. She added me as a friend on FB so that she could send somebody back home the video, but I think my little sister forgot the password to my account (I had her change it before I left so I wouldn't be tempted to while out here) or something.

Well, I'll write a longer one next week, I promise. Email me some questions about the new area or whatever!

Love y'all,

Elder Cardon

P.S. Here it is again, the new address:

811 Adele st

New Orleans, LA

70130

Pictures May 8

Roberto's Baptism

Grillin'

Jammin with Roberto

DAY 524: May 8

Well, this week was pretty fun, we found some cool new investigators. Other big news is... I'm getting transferred! I've been here for 6 transfers, almost 9 months. I'll miss the branch, and some of our investigators, but I'm excited for the change.

Some of our recently found investigators are named Eduardo and Juan, and also another little family, whose kids are really excited about what we have to teach them. They have 2 kids, probably 13 and 10, a boy and a girl. We went there last night and had a cool experience with them, we knocked on their door and the 13 year old son answered. We asked if we could come in and he said he was playing xbox live, but his dad came and let us in. We sat down in the living room with the dad and had a prayer and started reading a chapter in the BOM, and right after we started the son came in from the other room with his Book of Mormon and said "Where are we?" and sat down to read with us. Without us even asking!! That my friends, is a miracle. Their daughter came out a few minutes later. I think the kids can really tell that we have something for them, but I'm not sure how much its getting through to Carlos, the dad. But he's a DJ, so we of course had something to talk about.

Eduardo and Juan are nice to teach because neither of them work, so the usually-dead hours of 1-4 in the afternoon can be filled with some lessons. Eduardo had an accident at work a few years ago and was in a coma for awhile, and still has some problems, he gets dizzy and headaches really easily, even from just talking and thinking to much. We met him from when he called us from one of our translation flyers to help him at the doctors office for an appointment. Juan doesnt work because... Well I dont really know all the details, but what I know is that he asked me to tell him what a paper he had got in the mail said, and it was from a pre-trial probation officer, declaring the parishes which he could not leave. So its probably related to that. But Juan had some awesome questions after reading, even "Who were the Jaredites?" so that was really cool.

We had the baptism of roberto, the brazillian, he's doing awesome. The baptism was pretty fun, but was started with some stress. They recently remodeled the bathrooms and baptismal font area, and re-did the plumbing in the font. Before, it would fill in about an hour. So, the other elders showed up about an hour early to get it filled. Well, the new piping didnt quite fill it as quick. So when we got there, it was just a little above the shins. we found out the drain wasnt all the way, so one of the elders took of his socks and shoes and rolled up his pants and went in and pushed it in further. But we were still behind, so had to do something else. So we went to the kitchen, and just like most churches, theres about 10 pitchers. We had plenty of missionaries and 2 sinks, so everyone grabbed 2 pitchers, filled them both, and went back and forth from the font to the kitchen and added more. That was helping, but wasnt quite enough. There was a 5-gallon water cooler/dispenser thing, but no more sinks, so I grabbed it and took it to the shower in the changing room, positioned it properly, and filled that, and dumped it in periodically. In the end, we had a good baptism, they only had to do it once.

We went over to his house for dinner on Sunday Night, and got to play some awesome music with him. A total blast! We had the other missionaries and everyone over, I grilled up the carne asada, Tanya (The brazillian lady who is friends with roberto) made this really good dip/topping- it was like brazillian pico de gallo. We had 2 other members over, and Roberto and I entertained them all, it was super fun. He's one I'm really excited to visit when I come back here (or to brazil).

Well, I've got to get off to other things and finish packing for transfers (its just astounding how much stuff you can collect), so thats all for this week.