JANUARY 5, 2015

Hellllllooooo, 

This week has been pretty long but also really fun and a good learning experience. I've decided that living on my own is something I like very much haha Magnolia is reeeaaallllyy small. My companion Elder Hainsworth and I get along very well! He's funny and gets my sarcasm so I appreciate much this guy. I thought before I get too much into what's going on I'd explain more of what happened last week. They had all the new missionaries stay at the mission home the night we flew into Mississippi and when we woke up the next morning all the missionaries in a zone meet at the transfer point for that zone. Buuuut since this mission is so dang large they have a ton of transfer points and I had to be driven for near three hours before getting to Rustin, LA and then from that point I met Elders Iden and Nabulivula (he is Fijian) and Hainsworth and we traveled up to El Dorado (another hour) and then I drove to Magnolia from there. 

Anyways now that I've given you all those fun details I can go into the good stuff. Elder Hainsworth got his driving privelages taken away 3 weeks before I got into the field! so as this is a full driving mission area I get to drive all the time! haha The first night we got here we went to meet an older handicapped woman named C. She really doesnt have any interest in the gospel she just likes proving people wrong but as far as i can tell thats all the people down here :p. So it was interesting to see that I actually was able to help answer the questions we had in our "discussion." She seems like a generally nice lady and maybe something will come out of it later. As far as Magnolia goes there really is nothing to do here. It's a place that was made for this college SAU and for the bromine plant. Lots of fast food restaurants though! Waking up at 6:30 everyday isn't too bad either, Elder Hainsworth and I run a mile each morning and when he showers i do some more exercises. Breakfast is mostly cereal and candy since we have a ton of that piled up from christmas. Wednesday morning we went to the district development meeting and my district is only four elders so we are pretty isolated even as far as missionaries go! The only Elders here are the ones I mentioned early. We also went tracting later that day and had one lady have us teach the first lesson on her front porch in the freezing air. She wasnt even looking at us while we tried to talk to her. Later on that same street we found a really tall man who when we walked up and talked to him began crying profusely and we didnt really know what to do but we are going to see him again later tonight and I'm  hoping he will listen to us so we can help him out. Later that day we swung by the Rice's house. They have been treating the missionaries like her children here since she was baptized in July! Her husband is not a member yet so we stop by every once and a while to chat with them. They also have a crazy smart little boy that's 19 months. He is also just wild in general and really likes the missionaries haha We did 2 and a half hours of tracting on thursday in the rain. I thought it was fun but Elder Hainsworth wasnt really about that life. We only were able to teach one old couple that day. Most people are really solid in their beliefs over here. As far as funny stories go we had one old lady who opened the door really happily to us on friday but every single sentence she said (which was like 4) the door closed further and further until she just stopped mid sentence. I got to meet K & C who are not really investigators but they love the mormon church more than all the other ones?.. They are very odd people but I like them a lot already. C is the guy who works at the bromine plant and explained the chemical process to me. They are just some really interesting people but as far as I can tell ever since they have moved here the missionaries have helped them out a lot in their lives. Sunday was definitely different for me. The church was pretty much empty during sacrament meeting. Maybe 15 families go every week. It's already a small building and the chapel is even smaller. I decided that branch Pres O'neal looks a lot like mr bean. And thats pretty much my week.

As far as im doing life is pretty good. Im still sane and not all that stressed. Magnolia is a nice place even if no one really wants to talk to us. I have faith that if we keep trying we will find somebody prepared by the Lord to hear his message. Im already struggling to continue using proper english but i can almost always understand what people are saying! There are those few people with a really thick accent that I don't even know what they are saying but even then I'll catch a few phrases. 

I was studying in Matthew as to start over the new testament and see how much I will mark it up. But I got to the sermon on the mount the other day and I really looked over it. It's important for us to worry about our own salvation before we try and fix anyone else. I know that by putting the kingdom of God before my own wants and needs I will be helped in all of my other endeavers and I leave this with you and wish you all a wonderful week! Adieu

Elder Nally