The One With The Big Mess

Hey y'all! 

This has been the most crazy, wild, overwhelming couple weeks of my life! I'm sorry I haven't done anything the past couple weeks, it's because I was crying because my life is a mess. If you haven't heard, I was transferred. My trainer stayed in New Iberia and I was transferred to Baton Rouge. 

We spent the whole week telling everyone that she was leaving (because she was there for 6 months and I was there for 3) She had packed her bags and everything. They were by the door, she had said goodbye and had taken pictures with everyone... she was leaving for sure we thought. But that morning I got the call. I was leaving the next morning. I had to say goodbye to as many I could and pack my bags, because it never crossed our minds that I would leave, so I didn't even touch my stuff.

The next day we headed to the stake center an hour and a half away for transfers. Plus side, I got to see most of my MTC district! That was amazing! I met my new companion Sister Hurd! I love her so much! We found out that we were getting doubled in (they were taking both of the previous missionaries out and put us both in) so neither of us knew the area. They took out the Elders and put us in, so we got their phone, car, and their apartment. And they took the sisters out in Baton Rouge North and the sisters in the neighboring area, Prairieville. So we got doubled into 3 areas, which has never happened! To say I'm overwhelmed is an understatement. We got to the apartment and we basically cried. Elders are so disgusting y'all. We spent three days cleaning and 43 nerf guns, 2 sombreros, 15 trash bags, and 7 breakdowns later we were done. (who needs 43 nerf guns?!) And we live with two other sisters! Which is called a quadpan, so naturally we call it the squadpan. 

We have met quite a few investigators that are SOLID. The work is so awesome here in BR. And we have an investigator who is on date for baptism!

Surprise surprise we had to speak in ONE of our wards. That's right we have two wards we are over! I went from a small branch to the two biggest wards in Louisiana. Which means 6 hours of church #sos 

Then we had pday with all of the nerf guns. We had a war with the zone. (Not as cool as it sounds) 

Then we got stalked by some drunk dudes but I'm not going to get into that but the Lord protects! And I hit my 4 month mark! It's so crazy! And I sack raced Sister Uibel (of the squadpan) at the ward pioneer activity. And also our first counselor invented the Voodoo flavor of Zapps chips (if y'all know what those are) and that is the coolest thing ever. 

Missions are awesome and hard and overwhelming but WORTH IT!

Sister Kez

The One Where Freedom Doesn't Ring

Get it? Cause my mom is Freedom and it was Independence Day?

Anyway, here is an update:

Tuesday, June 27th

Had a "funeral" for one of our elders, Elder Floyd. He is by far the funniest human ever. He is so apathetic and he is super sarcastic. He is from Vegas so we put a Vegas skyline on the chalkboard and instead of playing amazing grace we just played slot machine noises lol. Then we all went to a jank pizza place lol. And we went to the Johnson family. They are the most adorable family ever. He served his mission in South America and she majored in Spanish and now they are both Spanish teachers. and their kids are bilingual now. Except the baby one speaks in spanglish and it is so cute. He legit sounds like a little mouse. and he just wants to be held all the time. 

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Wednesday, June 28th

We went to a place called Poche's with the Chappelles and I had rice that was filled with chicken liver and gizzard and it was hecka spicy but wasn't too bad. And they told us a story of how she hustled a man in Vegas so that was cool. 

Thursday, June 29th

We had family home evening with Williams. Solange (his granddaughter) said she loves our church and wants to be taught! She is adorable. Some guy asked Sis. Manuma what her race was in the gas station and she said Samoan. and he turned to me and was like "you too?" and I was like "uh.. I'm from Utah." LOL

Friday, June 30th

Elder Hall from my mtc district went home this morning because he tore his acl and had to go home to get surgery and he won't be back for 6-9 months! 

Saturday, July 1st

New mission president got in!! Went to another baptism for the Lafayette sisters. Basically diabetes because they had so much dessert. The park next to our apartment had a soft grand opening and fourth of July kickoff so we walked there. It is the biggest park ever! They have two baseball arenas, two ponds, tons of basketball courts and tennis courts, a splash pad, a football field, a soccer field, and two playgrounds. It's legit! And right next to our house! #contactingGOLD!! They had fireworks and it was amazing! But it was so unbelievably hot. It was kind of miserable. 

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Sunday, July 2nd

fast Sunday. We visited a less active who just had surgery to remove her salivary gland. Yep, her salivary gland because she had stones. Yikes.

Monday, July 3rd

We drove to Baton Rouge early to "heart attack" the new mission president's house. And then we had the most amazing zone conference ever! I am so excited for this mission president. He is amazing. He said a lot of things I really needed to hear. He is so on fire too, he memorized EVERY missionary in the mission's name and where they are from before he even got here.

(Getcha someone who looks @ you the way Smeltz does)

Tuesday, July 4th

YAY! We had two meal appointments and ate more than I ever have in my life. but so good! Didn't really get to see fireworks. But we played a haunted game and it was so fun! (I won too!) But we are having the real pday/fourth of July celebration today. With BBQ sparklers and everything with the whole district! I guess I will tell y'all about it next week. 

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The One With The Tropical Storm

Quotes of the Week:

"You don't take pics on tropical storm days!"

"Holy cow!....That's what Moses said"

Alright y'all... you probably already know how bad I am at this...but I am going to try again!

Sorry I haven't been emailing and such but I suck and I just want to talk to my mom #notsorry

But this week I thought I should probably let y'all know I am alive. As you may have heard (or not idk) there was a tropical storm named Cindy that hit Louisiana. I was on exchanges with one of my sister training leaders in my area, while my companion was at LSU with the other sister training leader. This was the weather report for that morning. (This phone is older than a dinosaur and this is the only way we can check the weather.)

We called our mission president's wife to ask her what we should do because we were supposed to be exchanging back that day. She told us to pack bags and 72 hour kits and head to Baton Rouge to be on lockdown at their apartment. So we called the other sisters and told them to stock up on food, turn the fridge on the highest setting, and fill their car with gas and we headed our way to Baton Rouge. Luckily, as we traveled the weather was fine so we made it safely. When we got there, we were informed that we weren't on lockdown anymore but we were told we couldn't drive back to Broussard until we got the thumbs up from President. So we double worked the area with the STL's. We went to LSU to go to the insitute class. (mormon religion class in college) and then the Bishop took us all out to Fat Cow for lunch. It was awesome. They make fries that they fry in duck fat. Sounds disgusting-but so good! I had a creole cream cheese malt, and now I know what heaven is like. Then we got the okay to go home. I was hoping we could be the new LSU sisters too.

The next day I hit my 3 month mark! It's so crazy, I can't believe that I have been gone for that long. The work makes it FLY by. 

Speaking of the work... I had my first baptism! Williams finally got baptized on Saturday! It was so amazing and spiritual. He is the cutest and he giggled when he came out of the water. 

2 Nephi 31: Nephi is on his death bed and he uses his last dying breathes to talk about the importance of baptism. He was surrounded by his loved ones and he wanted to be surrounded by them in the next life too, so he taught them about baptism. It is so amazing to see Williams have this wonderful experience and to be so filled with joy that he giggled. He is a child of God and I know that Heavenly Father was smiling down on him that day. This work is so unbelievably hard but it is so worth it. 

Give 'em Heaven!

...and also email me. 

Sister Tessara Kezos

The One Where Everyone Cries

"'Manuma, what are your favorite kind of lays?" "I like any kind of flower leis and money leis...oh you meant the chips?" #gohome #polyAF #FreshOffTheBoat 

I'm so sorry y'all for being M.I.A these past few weeks. My life has been so crazy! And the Adversary has definitely been working on me lately, so I apologize. Anyways, here is my two/three week update:

> We had Sister Belnap's funeral because she is dying. (Aka stupid mission jargon meaning she is going home this transfer.)

> Exchanges. Exchanges. Exchanges. I've basically been in Baton Rouge this whole time. 

> Prez and Sister Hansen are also "dying" so they had their last conferences with us before they go home and we get a new Prez!

> We FINALLY had investigators at church! #thechurchistrue

> I touched a live frog

> I HIT MY TWO MONTH MARK #HoLLeR

> It's been a year since I graduated. Wait. What.

> We met a lady who has 24 siblings but didn't even have her own tv show

> My sister is having a GURL

> We got locked out of our car.

> Two days later we had a waterballoon fight outside in the rain and got locked out of the chapel with no shoes, phones, or car keys.

> I had my first zone conference! Best quote ever from Prez Hansen (on trying to get to heaven and you make one mistake) "Doggonit you're damned." + I had to say the prayer!

> We had 11 kids in primary and 9 of them were investigators!

> I LEARNED HOW TO PLAY THE UKELELE!! 

> We thought we were getting pulled over but really he thought we were just a missing Asian girl.

> Got told I was "white on the outside but black on the inside" #thx

Our district is getting split apart, which is so sad cause they are the raddest. Sister Belnap is going home, Elder Wright and 

Elder Flores are being transferred as well.

Also on a more serious note, Sister Manuma had a loss in her family and is having a very hard time. Prayers would be much appreciated!

The One With The InvestiGATORS

"How did they do it in High School Musical?" "They took it individually not with each other." "NO THEY DIDN'T" *Elder McCormies on the High School Musical jumping picture.

Weird things I ate this week:

*Crawfish Fettucine

*Tobasco Icecream

*Frog legs

After signing off last week, our district headed to Avery Island. Avery Island is home to the Tobasco factory...and a random Buddha statue. Anyways, Tobasco needs to chill cause they have everything: tobasco guitars, tobasco soda, if you can think it they had it. Also tobasco stinks. Like bad. 

But we were hooligans with the giant tobasco bottles #thugmormons

Then we went to the rest of Avery Island. AND I FINALLY SAW MY FIRST ALLIGATOR, #CRIKEY by the end, I saw like 5! Since we have an Aussie in our district, we had him be our tour guide. 

"They are just sitting in the water... uh, I don't really know that much about alligators." 

We hiked to the Buddha statue, Elder Cohen was singing Reflection of course. It seriously looked like we were in Japan. 

We tried like 80000X to take a jumping picture, (hence the quote at the top.) 

And we never even got one lol. ​

Wednesday was cray cray y'all. The storms were so bad that we were put on lockdown and tornado watch. It was raining and flooding so hard that we didn't leave our apartment the whole entire day. When we are on put on lockdown we have to put helmets on. (but we only kept it on for like 1 minute.) We could have made good use of our time but instead I made a bucket list. #yolo

Also I bet you can guess what else we did this week. That is right! We went to ANOTHER festival!! WOOP. The Crawfish Festival in Breaux Bridge!

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 Sad thing is they only played Zydeco Cajun music. And really we just want to listen to some apostate music y'feel. I tried frog legs for the first time! It's so gross. I don't know why them guys in Princess and the Frog were all excited to eat Tiana. Afterward, we went to Borden (which is like big biz here) and got icecream!

Spritual thing of the week:

We have been struggling with our branch. (only having the elders over, offending inactives and each other, not a lot of attendance, etc.) We decided to fast on Sunday for our branch. And let me tell ya, the Lord answers prayers. 

We got to church on Sunday and there were a lot of people there! Plus an inactive family we have been working with! One of them even bore her testimony. Then after church, we had 4 families come up and say they wanted us over this week! The church is so true! We were also able to be an answer to someone else's prayers and made a breakthrough with an investigator. The Lord doesn't forget us in our trials. 

Sister Kez

(PLZ EMAIL ME)

The One With Dave Chappelle And Beyonce

No, not the comedian sorry. A different Dave Chappelle (and probs even cooler)

So let me tell ya about Dave:

He is 70 years old

married to an Australian

loves to Zydeco dance (Creole dance)

has lived in Hawaii

is a navigator and has been all over the world

scuba'd the great barrier reef and has been to a secret waterfall in Hawaii

learned a Hawaiian hybrid of martial arts called Kajukenbo

is learning how to speak French Creole

a convert to the church

originally from California, and only lives in Louisiana cause it's fun.

He is the coolest person I have ever met. He took us to a small restaurant called, Pont Bridge. Where I tried gumbo for the first time. (its overrated.) and it had a live Cajun band. Also cool side note: Patrick Swayze has eaten there. Basically talking to Dave I figured my life out. I'm going to just travel and learn obscure fighting styles. Also, he told us to wait to get married instead of go to Breed-em Young University (Brigham Young University.)

So there tons of Bayou's in the New Iberia Parrish. And only God can make something so beautiful as this earth. But, the crazy culture of Louisiana has a different explanation. For the Bayou Teche (Teche=Snake) there is a legend as to how it came about. 

"Many years ago, in the days of the Tribe's strength, there was a huge and venomous snake. This snake was so large, and so long, that its size was not measured in feet, but in miles. (His head started in Morgan City all the way to Port Barre.)This enormous snake had been an enemy of the Chitimacha for many years, because of its  destruction to many of their ways of life. One day, the Chitimacha chief called together his warriors, and had them prepare themselves for a battle with their enemy. In those days, there were no guns that could be used to kill this snake. All they had were clubs and bows and arrows, with arrowheads made of large bones from the garfish. Of course, a snake over ten miles long could not be instantly killed. The warriors fought courageously to kill the enemy, but the snake fought just as hard to survive. As the beast turned and twisted in the last few days of a slow death, it broadened, curved and deepened the place wherein his huge body lay. The Bayou Teche is proof of the exact position into which this enemy placed himself when overcome by the Chitimacha warriors."

That is some crazy stuff. 

We do service in a place called, "Vermillionville." Which used to be the name of Lafayette. It is a small, living history park. They have tours and everyone dresses in old time period clothing. We go and teach children how to make rag dolls. It is actually really fun! Plus we get to tour for free! I bet you are still wondering about the Beyoncé part of the title, right? Get on with it Sister Kez, amiright?! Unfortunately, (especially for Sister Manuma her #1 fan) we did not meet Beyoncé. But Beyoncé is of the Broussard family, (big money) and her great grandparents home, is in Vermillionville and we walked through it. Probably as close to fame as I'll ever get. And I read a sign and it said that the people are Acadians, obviously, but people got lazy over time with saying it, and it turned into Cajuns. (Acadian, Acadjian, Acajian, Acajun, Cajun.) It blew my mind, y'all. 

We volunteered at another festival. YAY. This one is a lot more popular though. It is the Festival Internationale de Louisiane.  There were tons of international bands and food. Y'all should check out Red Baraat, they are the coolest band ever. Their description is even legit: "A high energy fusion of jazz, hip-hop beats, rock muscle, funky go-go, and scalding hot bhangia." I tried to buy a cd but they weren't selling any.

 Luckily, our shift ended at six and we left because later that night there was a shooting! One person was killed and three were injured. The funny thing about that is that it was our investigator's cousin who killed the man! Small world? 

Also on Sunday, we were put on Tornado Watch. The roads were flooded and the rain was pouring! We still went to church tho. The power was out for a while and we thought we were gonna have to do a pioneer sacrament. But the power turned back on like 5 minutes before church started.  

But missionary work isn't all fun and games.

Because we are so young. A lot of people don't take us very seriously. In a discussion with a lady she asked us if this was our first time. Sister Manuma and I looked at each other and we told her it was definitely not. She said that we just were so nervous. (But I had never felt more calm in my life.) and in the middle of bearing my testimony, she started laughing. She thought that we were too young to be that serious. It was really frustrating. 

NUN'YA BUSINESS

But the best thing of the week:

We have an investigator named Veronica. She is the funniest person I've ever met, but she has lived a very hard life. Her and her husband, Phil, have had a lot of marital problems. She told us (which I don't think she should've) that she has tried to kill him multiple times lol. We visited her on Sunday and she told us the most amazing thing! Her husband has struggled with alcoholism. He just woke up on Friday and decided to go to a Rehabilitation center. He told her, "It's not fair that you keep trying for this marriage and I haven't been." She even offered him a beer and he said no. He told her he wants to be better! Because ever since she has been meeting with the nuns, (aka us lol) that he has seen a difference in her and her faith and she talks about God more. He has been going to bible study and when he gets out he wants to meet with the nuns too! and he wants to go to church! We have been praying for them so much! I have such a testimony that the Lord answers our prayers and that He listens to every one of his children's prayers. This is the work that I am supposed to be doing and I love it so much. 

Adios from the nun,

Sister Kezos

The One With The Boudin Festival

There are a lot of different seasons here in LA: crawfish, lovebug, but best of all its FESTIVAL SEASON!

We have festivals every week for the next 3 weeks so its gonna be LIT! (do people even still say lit?)

This week was the Boudin (boo-DAN) Festival in Scott, LA.

IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER

If you have never heard of boudin look it up but don't throw up. It sounds nasty but is actually not bad. ​

I also ate fried alligator.

They had a band called Bag of Donuts. Coolest band ever. (But they didn't have merch so that was dumb. Can you imagine how cool the tee shirts would be for Bag of Donuts?!) And they played my kinda music. Super apostate but that's beside the point. If you can't avoid it enjoy it. Amiright, sistersss? We danced so much and I'm pretty sure all the drunk people thought we were drunk. But we are just drunk on Jesus' love!

Also there was this 9 year old kid who was getting it! He danced with us all night and then at one point we were just watching him and a crowd gathered and they even threw money at him!

holler for that dollar.

We gave his grandparents a pass along card and I'm pretty sure they can be converted.

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Also wish I got a video of Sister Manuma fa'umu but I didn't but just know it was fantastic. 

The church is so true and Louisiana can get down!

Till next week and the next festival,

Sister Kezos