The One With My Best Friend

Hey Y'all!

This week:

-we were "roped" into teaching the achievement day girls how to hoedown. (Get it 😉) they didn't have anyone to teach them how to dance for their Valentine Daddy Daughter Date. So naturally, the two of us being from the country of Utah, taught them the boot scoot and boogie!

- we had an investigator text us saying she had looked up some stuff online and we needed to talk. We really love her and we were terrified. We prayed so hard and went in. Turns out she just wasn't sure if we believed in the Holy Ghost. We showed her the articles of faith, and cleared it up really quick. We were so relieved. 

The Best/Worst Thing Ever:

I ordered a present for Sister Hurd who was going home. I ordered it January 3rd and it STILL wasn't here until the day before she went home it came in the mail. So I was able to give it to her. Sister Hurd got permission to come up the day before transfers to say goodbyes and spend the night at my house. So we went on exchanges, our companions were together. And we headed to Baton Rouge together. It was so crazy because we were both back in Baton Rouge again and I was having an identity crisis. We were visiting all of our old people that we used to visit and listening to our old songs. Except this time it was just for one day and her mission was ending the next day. We went and saw our recent convert and some members. We even saw one of our friends we met at the doll museum (let's see who remembers and who actually reads these things)

We stayed up talking and then the next morning we went to transfers. It was pouring rain and we were literally sobbing. (We were the only two there sobbing) everyone kept asking if we were okay lol. And someone literally handed me an inhaler cause they thought I was going to have an asthma attack. 

So here is why I was crying (caution:this is pretty mushy so maybe don't read it.)

A TRIBUTE: 

Okay y'all lemme tell you about someone named Madison Jo Hurd aka freaking psycho. 

I first met Sister Hurd on July 12th, 2017. We were doubled into Baton Rouge after they had removed elders and sisters. We spent an entire 2 transfers trying to contact over 100 referrals and mapping 1011 people on a map of Baton Rouge. We went to 7 1/2 hours of church every Sunday. We helped two people make a huge step in their discipleship of Christ. We got stalked twice and had a lot of Smoothie King and Pita Pit. A. LOT. All the drives with the windows rolled down, jamming, even if it was hecka humid and we just got home sweaty, sticky, and with curly hair but so happy. We spent so many nights staying up and talking and laughing until we cried and then Id freak out because I was behind on my journal. And she put mustard on literally everything. And lifting up a freaking car. All the "check your speed"s. And fighting over the temperature controls. We somehow could never get the morning schedule down. We had a spontaneous trip to the urgent care center and all the trips to every restaurant restroom in Baton Rouge. We did service in a haunted doll museum and met two of the best people in the world. We rode in a hot air ballooon. And searched for all graffiti. We spend wayyy too much time on the phone calling each other every.single.week. She taught me how to love Louisiana and to LOVE the people in it. She taught me what it really means to use the Atonement of Jesus Christ and to be a new person because of it. She taught me how to work hard and have fun. She taught me that you could choose to let trials and afflictions either make or break you. 

She is my best friend. And I really truly mean that. She is my other half and she kept me on my mission. So many times when i thought about going home, she kept me going. There is no better person in this world. She changed my life. 

 I can't wait to come home and live together and go on the great American road trip we have been planning. 

I'm so grateful for the Lord and President Varner for deciding to put two crazy chicas together to take over BR. 

Sister Kez

The One With The Wild Goose Chase

Quotes of the week:

"I'm not Catholic, but I love fish."

"It says it's made with love!""Cigarettes?!"

"Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub!"

Hey Y'all!

Hope everyone had an awesome Valentine's day, (and for the Parks and rec lovers "Galentine's Day") 

-For preparation day last week, we went to the state capitol! We met a 17-year-old girl on the top named Christiana. She was so cute! She had so many questions, we basically had a giant lesson with 6 missionaries teaching! She had a lot of misconceptions about Mormons and she was so willing to listen to what we had to say. She even thanked us for correcting her. She was so sweet! And hilarious!

"Louisiana may be number one in worst education. We may be number one in STD's. But we have the best beignets. #BeignetsOverAids." 

-I've already seen some miracles coming about from our mission having Facebook. I was able to get in contact with some people in my old areas. One messaged me and she told me her grandmother had died and I was able to provide some comfort. She had moved and so she doesn't have contact with the missionaries anymore. I got her information to send to the missionaries where she lives. 

- For Valentine's day, Sister Strate made

us dinner #compgoals

-I was able to take an amazing video of James (a recent convert) trying to say my last name. It's the highlight of my day every time I ask him. 

- We had pizza literally every day this week. 

-I finally got my ukulele tuned! Only 8 months after not having a Polynesian comp who does it for you. 

-We have this super sweet investigator and we were looking for a member to come with us to teach. The member we were going to ask is moving, so I felt prompted to ask another member. We told her a little about her and her first name. She said she'd love to. Later she called us back and told us the investigators last name and asked if that was her, we were like "yeah??" Turns out they went to school together! 

-Cassie got baptized!

-Sister Hurd had her homecoming this week, and my parents went! I got a whole bunch of pictures sent to me of returned missionaries with my parents. It was wild, yall! And I was super jealous cause everyone got to see my parents before me. 

- We went and visited a member in our ward who is going through chemo. She is the cutest little lady (and i mean little, she was 95 pounds before she started chemotherapy) but she has the strongest testimony. The whole time we were visiting her she was saying that Heavenly Father has blessed her so much. She is so strong in her trials and she never turned from Him. She was so positive and upbeat about everything. I hope to be like her one day. 

Now for the title, buckle up y'all. 

So our ward mission leader has chickens, guinea hens (birds of nightmares), a turkey, and a goose. So why does this matter? Well, he and his family went on a cruise for a week. So naturally, we fell with the responsibility to take care of his animals while he was gone. Now I'm pretty sure he won't ask us to do anything ever again. 

*the goose doesn't like buckets (he thinks they are evil) so if he sees you with one he will attack because he thinks he is protecting you. 

*we accidentally fed ALL the animals the wrong food. He even set the food we needed to feed them in the front with a cup so we would see. But we didn't.

*we don't have Google so we called someone and asked them to Google for us if what we fed them would kill them. (It wouldn't but we didn't want to take a chance)

*so in order to correct our mistakes, we had to crawl in the cages and clean out the wrong food. Well while that was happening, the birds escaped. Every.Single.One.  i came out to find my companion in the cage and the birds free. 

*the chickens were pretty easy to round up, and we could pick them up and put them back in. But the gray one. He doesn't like to be caged, and he is fast. So we ran after him for a while and finally caught him. Then the guinea hens. They were finally free and they ran around the house 8 times. We could NOT catch them. And guinea hens you can't touch. 

*we had an appointment so we had to leave. We were hoping they would run around until they were tired. 

*we came back (it was dark now) and they were all sitting on the fence. So we were trying to grab them and if you grabbed them they would freak out. They ended up flying into the neighbor's yard. And by neighbors yard, I mean the Jehovah Witness' parking lot. So we ran there and tried to herd them up. 

*and it sufficeth me to say: we got the guinea hens back into the cage. 

(And at a later time the goose and turkey escaped while we weren't there. And when we were leaving the dog ran out of the fence too. So we literally let every animal loose.)

Who let the dogs out?

Sister Kez

The One With Mardi Gras

"Throw me somethin', mister!"

Hey Y'all!

This week:

- The LBRM got Smartphones! So if you see me on FB don't be alarmed!

-we met a dog named Thunder Dinosaur 

-we ate dirty rice (rice with liver) and spaghetti sauce with bbq sauce in it. 

-i went on my 6th exchange to LSU  and FINALLY saw Mike the Tiger. We taught this girl, who is unreal! She hadn't been taught the word of wisdom yet but she found out about it and literally dumped her entire gallon of tea down the sink. She was the one who literally ran to the missionaries first. And she is killing it on her Book of Mormon reading. We went to teach her the Plan of Salvation and she literally just taught us. What. She is amazing. 

- we had stake conference and I got to sit next to my recent convert! I love her and i got to see the Johnsons! They are a family from New Iberia that I haven't seen since I was transferred! (They have the bilingual chirren)

- we went to see our investigator and we saw that the side of her house was slightly melted and that her shed was charred. She invited us in and told us that her shed burned down in the middle of the night because of electrical issues. She said that it caught the fireworks and set them off but that's what woke her up so she could stop it before it got to her house! She said the closing prayer and she said she knew that Heavenly Father sent us to her! Eek!

- I went to my first Mardi Gras parade!!!! It was sooo much fun! I caught so many beads my neck was sore for a week! It was cold and raining but still so fun! I also caught a giant toothbrush and a baton that probably could've killed me if I didn't catch it. MARDI GRAS IS THE BEST!

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez! 💜💚💛

Sister Kez

The One With The Merge

Hey Y'all!

-We are getting smart phones in our mission! So we had to have technology training, to learn how to use our phones for good. We had a conflict with the BR meeting so we got permission to go to the NOLA tech conference. I didn't tell anyone. So I was able to surprise my MTC companion, Sister Adams! She had no idea! I haven't really even been able to talk to her for 10 months! We hugged so many times the elders started keeping count haha I also got to surprise Elder Platt from the MTC and Hermana Banner who I used to live with!

- not only are we getting smartphones but we are getting another mission! We found out that they are consolidating the Mississippi Jackson mission into ours! Coming July 1st we are going to have 100+ new missionaries in our mission! And we could have the possibility to go anywhere in Mississippi or Louisiana! A lot of the sisters in my MTC zone went there as well so we will be able to go home together!

-We had a referral that we contacted. He had called the number on a pass a long card that was left in the door of his cousin's house in Denham Springs by the missionaries who were tracting there. No effort is wasted!

-we shared Ether 3 with someone and she said she got cold chills #spirit and that it was exactly what she needed. So cool!

-I got permission to see Hayley Gatchell, a friend from home, she came and took is out to lunch to some jambalaya! It was so good to see her!

-Tumie, from Plaquemine, LA was baptized this week. She has been attending church her whole life but her father wouldn't allow her to be baptized until she was 18. She had to wait 10 years to be baptized. She is so amazing. Ive been thinking so much about how much we take for granted. How she has lived her whole life without the gift of the Holy Ghost or being able to enter the temple. Since the temple was closing that day they confirmed her a member at her baptism and gave her permission to do baptisms for the dead that day. She is going to go so far in life. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a member of this church and got the blessing of being baptized and the blessing of the Holy Ghosts guidance in my life. 

-we asked a member to pick up a bed from an investigator and he didn't really seem up to it. Later he called us and said he needed to repent for cursing us lol. He didn't want to but he decided to go and serve and he thanked us for that opportunity because he had prayed that morning to be able to serve someone. #ThoseDarnSisters

-i had the chance to teach gospel principles about the Sacrament this week. It was one of the best lessons I've taught on my mission. I've never truly realized how important the Sacrament is to me until my mission. That Jesus Christ implemented the Sacrament for us. For us to remember him and for us to recommit to our Heavenly Father. It's such a special time for us to reflect and determine ourselves to be better each week. 

Q: what does the Sacrament mean to you?

🐊 Sister Kez

The One Where Louisiana Freezes

Hey Y'all!

I'm still here in Louisiana freezing to death and eating King Cake!

This week was really insane haha

For pday we went to Baton Rouge (my old apartment) to hang out and play board games. We were there with the Plaquemine sisters, BR sisters, and the BR Spanish Sisters. So there were 8 of us. Turns out Louisiana is having one of the coldest winters ever and while we were blissfully and ignorantly playing games they shut down the two freeways and most of the highways. We got a text before we were all going to head home and we were on lockdown. Overnight lockdown. We hadn't packed anything! We started making make shift beds and I just slept on the floor. Hermana Stratton (who I lived with for 3 transfers) and I got to talk for a while! We all ordered a pizza. The next day we were still on lockdown until 1pm. Making it a full 24 hours of lockdown! And it snowed!! We all felt disgusting. They only had like two potatoes in their apartment lol. So we made hash browns for the 8 of us and then right after the power went out. We could slowly feel it getting colder and colder. So we were all huddled on the couch. We just ended up having a dance party haha. (My forever jam is New Orleans by Parachute. For obvious reasons) after we were released from lockdown we went and got sushi all together then made the trek home. We went to a members house and got a whole bunch of Mormon movies and went back to the apartment where we were put on lockdown AGAIN. So we spent the rest of the night on lockdown and freezing. 

-we had an someone we are teaching  tell us she was asked on the internet what her favorite book was and she said the Book of Mormon! And she testified to him! Yay!

-we tried hoverboarding at family home evening. Sister Strate tried to run over me and we both ended up on the floor. It's actually Sally's sister we do FHE with and she surprised me by coming! I did family home evening with Sally every other Monday for 6 months in BR. 

-Elder Costa of the seventy came to the mission. He and his wife were so cute and they are so inspired. They said things i really needed to hear. "Since I was baptized I've never had a bad day." The knowledge of the gospel brings us joy and eternal happiness, we still go through trials but with the gospel there are no bad days!

-i hit my 10 months 🤧

-we walked by a man in subway and we went outside. We got into the car and Sister Strate felt like we should go talk to him. He was so sweet. He goes to another church that he invited us to go to. But he told us "God Bless Y'all for the work you do."

-we spoke in Sacrament. 

-we had called someone we had never met and asked to meet with them. She told us she was just diagnosed with breast cancer so she was busy. We were in the post office (unexpectedly) and she came up to us and asked us if we were the Mormon girls who called her that morning! 

Tender Mercy of the Week:

A recent convert was driving and she got hit by a car and the other driver drove off. She had her pregnant granddaughter with her. She said she couldn't stop and she took her to the hospital to see if she was okay. The insurance wouldn't cover the damage if she didn't report it or get the other cars information. Later, we found out that someone who had witnessed called it in and they would be able to get it covered!

No Bad Days!

Sister Kez

The One With The Big Easy

Hey Y'all!

This week we got permission to go to New Orleans for our preparation day. Lemme repeat that, I got to go to New Orleans! 

I've been literally like an hour away from it my entire mission, but I've never been able to go. And I just need to proclaim something...

I am in love with New Orleans! 💘

We got to ride in a magical streetcar and walk the streets while they had bands set up in the middle of the road and play jazz 🎷🎺 

We went to Marie Laveau's Voodoo Shop (it actually really freaked me out lol) and we explored cemeteries that looked just like Princess and the Frog. We got to look at the Mississippi and they had a marching band because of the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans. 

Okay, I'm sorry that's enough. 

So Mardi Gras isn't until February 13th but Louisiana knows how to party so it's starting now. The amount of king cake I've had is insane. (King cake is basically a giant cinnamon roll covered in purple, green, and yellow sprinkles and with a small plastic baby Jesus inside. If you get the slice with the baby you have to bring the next king cake. So it's literally just an endless cycle of king cake.)

I FINALLY found the first maple donut in LA. I've been searching forever, they have donut shops everywhere but none have maple. You see what's wrong with that?

Some Tracting Experiences: (I promise no more gun stories)

-we tracted into a sweet old Catholic lady (everybody and their dog is Catholic in Gonzales) she let us in. She just started talking and she told us "The key to a long-lasting marriage is always saying thank you, always saying I love you, and always holding hands while you sleep." 

-we knocked on the door and they opened the window above us and yelled "who you looking fo'?" "Anybody!" "They're not home right now!"

-we literally chased after a ups guy 

-we tracted an entire street but we didn't tract 3 doors because something came up. Later we were calling random numbers in our phone we didn't know and someone answered. We later went to her house and it was one of those 3. The Lord provides a way. 

-a little old lady had a "Happy Birthday Jesus" sign on her door. She couldn't really hear, especially when we told her our names. She thought that Sister Strate said Sister Street. And she thought I said Sister Kevin. So look out for our tv show Street&Kevin 

-we were talking to a man in a wheelchair. We were getting in our car. As we got in our car we looked back just in time to see him get up and walk away. #LyingOrHealed ?

-we decided that we were going to tract using the Book of Mormon instead of the Restoration pamphlet. We instantly got into 2 houses and got 7 new investigators! One grandmother said "Let them in, this could be our blessing today."

-we tracted into a lady who had a 9-year-old son. Turns out they are Baptist and her son is the preacher. HE'S A 9-YEAR-OLD BAPTIST PREACHER! And if yall know anything about Baptist preachers, then you know how amazing that is. Lol. He literally travels around Louisiana preaching. 

-we accidentally texted a drug dealer asking if he was interested in a message about Jesus Christ and he asked us how much we are looking for hahaha 

Some other things this week:

- the saints lost and Louisiana lost its mind 

- I ate two servings of shrimp ettouffee to get someone to read the Book of Mormon. 

- Sister Str8 spilled water on her dress and the person next to her spilled water on himself too so she wasn't embarrassed #TruHomie

-Quotes from that one old Cajun Guy. *to us, the sister missionaries* "Y'all going to church?.......you better be!" After he realized who he was talking to. 

We asked him how he was doing and he said: "They're trying to kill me!"

"I'm not disgusted. I'm just gusted."

Tender Mercy of the Week:

Literally, all the sisters in the New Orleans Zone and the Baton Rouge Zone got invited to the MLK March in New Orleans. Everyone except us. So we decided since we didn't get to go #bitter we would tract instead. And that was the day we found the two families. Even though we were both angry we found some amazing investigators. We also met a super cute lady. She has the most adorable 3-year-old daughter who ran up to me and gave me a penny and said: "have some money." (Somehow she knew I was a poor missionary) 

The Lord knows what He's doing yall!

Sister Kevin

The One With The Shotgun

"I don't care if it was Jack Frost who told you, I said no!"

Hey Y'all! 

It seems as my mission goes on the more interesting it's getting lol. 

This week we got to go to an LSU gymnastics game! #GeauxTigers

LSU really knows how to cheer. There's actually a football game they played a long time ago that the crowd cheered so loud that it actually registered on the Richter scale as an earthquake! They appropriately named it the Earthquake Game.  

So...I BROKE UP A PITBULL FIGHT. We were looking for service opportunities in our area. We found the local dog shelter. And if anybody knows me they know how much I LOVE dogs! 🐶😍 it's the highlight of my week. And basically is the only reason I can stay sane and get my 10,000 steps in. Except our first day volunteering we were tying the dogs in the yard. And a pitbull wearing a pink sweater, named Tinkerbell, slipped out of her collar. She went to another pitbull and started attacking it! Sister Strate and I were the only ones in the yard so we had to do something. And if I have learned anything in my life it's not to break up a dog fight. So I grabbed a leash and literally had to lasso it onto Tinkerbells head and pull her away. It was so terrifyingly cool. But I'm never trusting anymore dogs named after fairies. 

For some reason at almost every dinner appointment someone has shown me their rock collection. Am I just someone that looks like I collect rocks?!

Anyways...and for the reason for the title. Buckle your seatbelts y'all. There is this unspoken rule in Louisiana where if it's dark, even if it's 5 o'clock and they are home, they will NOT answer the door. They will literally look at you through the window and still not open the door. So we typically don't tract at night. Well we hadn't gotten our 5 doors in yet and it was a little past 7pm. We decided to go knock on some trailers. Well we were knocking at one and no one was home. So we were walking down the steps when we got blinded by a flashlight. Someone started yelling at us and asking us why we were there. We told him we were missionaries. He had turned to the side a little and I could see past the flashlight and i caught a glimpse of his shotgun. That's right, you heard me. HIS SHOT.GUN. Immediately we started getting the heck out of dodge. His wife was fussin' at us and was threatening to call the cops and we never looked back. So needless to say, we don't tract at night. 

Tender Mercy of the Week: 

We had the opportunity to go to the temple for the last time. The Baton Rouge temple is closing for 18 months for remodeling. I had the chance to do sealings for the first time! I was the child being sealed to the parent, which the rules just changed so the missionaries are able to perform that.  It was so amazing. We are so blessed to be able to live with our families for all time and eternity. The Spirit was so strong and I could feel the joy of those on the other side. Those that have been waiting so long to be sealed. 

Give 'Em Heaven,

Sister Kez