3.21.11

Hello Family,

I bet you guys are pumped for your little trip to Vegas, have an awesome time! Take some pictures so you can send them to me later. Thanks for getting my contacts, and you said you might want to wait to send them in case I get transferred, I'm gonna say send them to the Frayser house anyway, they'll probably get there before Transfers, This is the start of week 5 of the tansfer, so we still have one more week after this. Mom, I didn't get an email from you again, I'm guessing it didn't go through because my email acount never seems to be working right, but just send it again so I can read it next week.

Sarah, I just wanted to tell you that you're right. No matter how perfect the 1st lesson is going, everytime, without fail, things start going crazy when we start teaching the restoration and the first vision. It's so frustrating, Satan is so good at making sure he interrupts, every single time. Last week when we were teaching this family we found, and a repair guy came in the house just when we started talking about Joseph Smith, and so the mother of the family left to go talk with him, and everyone was distracted, and it killed the spirit and the lesson. This week we had a toddler throw up all over the floor during the 1st vision, we constantly have phones going off. This one lady decided to start breast feeding during the 1st vision once, that was a really interesting lesson. A test tornado siren went off during the 1st vision when we were teaching Demarcus, and people are always knocking on doors and coming in and out of the house. It usually turns into madness when we get to Joseph Smith. This past week though, we were teaching a lady named Star, and even in the midst of this crazy lesson with little kids screaming and swearing and running around, she said that she felt like she received an answer that this message was true, through the feelings she had during the lesson. I thought it was amazing that even in the midst of all that, the spirit was working on her. Satan does what he can, but all you have to do is bear testimony, and he is powerless.

This past week was good, our numbers struggled, but we're teaching 3 great families that all want to get baptized. The sad thing is, none of them came to church yesterday... ugg. We went over to Shan's house at 9 a.m. and woke her up, and she said she was gonna go get the kids ready and that she'd see us at church at 10, but she didn't ever get to church. I'm not sure what happened. We can never get Star and her kids to wake up in the morning, They promised they were coming to church for the past two weeks, we always stop by Saturday night and remind them they need to get some sleep so they can get up and come to church, and then Sunday morning we call Star and go knock on the door, but we can never get her to answer, but she loves it when we come over and teach her, and she expresses to us all the time that she wants to come to church. It's rough waking people up in Memphis on Sunday morning, it's just not how they do down here in the South. So we have to keep pushing their baptismal dates back... I guess sometimes it just has to be a slow process, but the goal is to get them in the water as fast as possible, because the longer it takes the more time satan has to work on them.

About transfers though, I most likely am getting transfered. I had an interview with President this week, everyone does at least once a transfer, and he told me some surprising things. I guess he has a lot more confidence in me than I do, but it sounds like I'm going to be senior companion next transfer... I know right? I'm only 3 months out. It sounds like I'm going to finish Training Elder Warro, he's finishing up his first transfer right now, but his Trainer kinda dropped the ball, I guess they only taught like 4 lessons in a whole week, 3 of those being lessons to members. So it sounds like I'm going to be getting a lot more responsibility here real soon. We'll see though, President changes his mind sometimes last minute, maybe he'll come to his senses. Either way, I will gladly accept the opportunity to grow. I'm freaking nervous though, lol. but I am almost for sure leaving the Frayser house. No matter what happens I'll be happy.

We've been riding bikes like crazy, because missionaries have been abusing their mile limitations, so President is making a huge push for everyone to cut their miles in half. So we always ride our bikes or walk now, which is okay, but it's starting to get really hot here in Memphis. So we always show up to people's homes sweating like crazy, lol, but they understand. I hear it gets over 100 degree's here usually in the summer, plus the humidity, and we're sweating when it's 70, I think i'm gonna die. I also hear it's suppossed to be the hottest summer they've had yet. So that's exciting news.

I'm really excited for General Conference, which is something I've never experienced before, I've never been excited to watch General Conference, I guess the mission is changing me.

I'm trying to think of some crazy stories that happened this week but nothing comes to mind... but last night was dumb, we were biking to see this potential investigator and so we get to his house and lock up our bikes, he doesn't end up answering his door, so we go back and get on our bikes, but my back tire wouldn't move at all, I un-hooked the back brake thinking it was the brake, but it still wouldn't move, my bike was working just fine before we locked it up, so I was a little stumped. I looked at it for a few minutes and realized the piece that switches the front gears is jammed up in my tire, I don't know how it got there, but it was too dark outside to mess with it, and it was like 8 30 and we needed to get back before curfew, so I got to carry my bike 25 min back to the church. We drove it back to the house and I took the back tire off and fixed the little gear piece, it works fine now, it just got jammed somehow.

Oh, also, I dont know if I told you this, but I lost my driving privaledges until May. I didn't do anything on my mission, but some elders got in an accident a while back and President is just crackin' down on who can drive and who can't, and I had a speeding ticket within the past year, so I can't drive until May. As long as I have a companion who can drive until May comes I'll be happy, lol.

Well, I love you guys, we're gonna play some ball with some investigators today, it should be fun. Love you! Have fun in Vegas.

-Elder LeBaron