On the levy
A moustache photo shoot
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
April 13, 2015
Ohhh Louisiana
Hey y'all!! K this week was so funny and so boring all at the same time, I'll start the boring first. So Elder Morrell had bronchitis this week so we sat in for a couple days which sucked cuz I got SOOO bored just sitting there all day. So I took all the church magazines in our apartment and cut out all the pictures of Jesus and created "Jesus Wall" haha I filled up a whole wall with pics of Jesus, so that was pretty cool. Oh and they took our car this week cuz some elder broke his ankle and sure enough, the week they take it, it rains ALL WEEK...i love the rain but holy cow when it rains here it pours. for hours. so we try to go sympathy tracting and people just laugh at us half the time. so that's always a good time. hopefully we get another car in a few weeks, but for now we're on bikes...awesome.
Anyways, funny stories! So last P day we went to this less active members house named Manny. Now, Manny is like a gourmet chef and he loves having big lunch parties with all the missionaries. And he's VERY open about how he's attracted to men. and the Elder that converted him is like a huge homophobe and he was there with all us missionaries so manny just kept saying stuff like "Lookin good Elder Whitmarsh!" and then he'd wink hahah it was so funny. I was laughing so hard and was SO glad that wasn't me cuz i'd have been so uncomfortable! but Elder Whitmarsh and him are tight so he was a good sport about it. But Manny made some gumbo, and it was my first gumbo and it was AMAZING. oh my goodness gumbo is the best.
Then later in the week we got bible bashed by a guy named Oscar (the guy who yelled at us from the tub). He went off about how the spirit was telling him to not read the BOM and we were like hmm...really...then we tried to just give him a pass along card with a pic of Jesus on it and he said he couldn't accept it cuz it was a false representation of Christ. I asked him why and he said "Jesus wasn't white! He was a dark skinned man!" He thought Jesus was black?!?! what the...I've never heard that before and literally had to keep myself from laughing.
On a more spiritual note, our only progressing investigator, Xavier, committed to baptism this week!!! We asked him at the beginning of our lesson on Friday if he'd prepare to be baptized on May 2nd and he said "I haven't gotten an answer yet, but i should by then, so ya." Well I wasn't too confident with that so we kept teaching and Elder Morrell had him read 2 Nephi 31 and while he was reading it came to me!! i knew exactly what to say! So when he was done reading, I asked him "When you think about your baptism, being all dressed in white and entering the water, how do you feel?" and he sat there for a sec and then said "I feel really good and peaceful and happy like I finally made it!" I felt the spirit SO strongly and told him, "Xavier, that's your answer you've been looking for! That feeling is the spirit telling you that it's the right thing to do!" He literally lit up and was beaming. Smiling so big. and he practically yelled "lets do it!!" haha i love that guy to death. so hopefully everything works out for him to be baptized in a few weeks!! I'm so pumped.
I just want yall to know how much I love the people here. Even the ones who bash me and yell at me. I love them because Christ loves me unconditionally and ultimately, as missionaries, we're just trying to help people strengthen their relationship with Christ. It's tough sometimes but God's servants are all given strength and are glorious in his eyes (1 Nephi 21:5) I love this gospel and I promise any and all of you that if you just take a few moments to read from the Book of Mormon everyday you will strengthen your relationship with Christ and know of it's truth! I miss and love all yall! Have a great week!!
-Elder Armstrong
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Hey y'all!! K this week was so funny and so boring all at the same time, I'll start the boring first. So Elder Morrell had bronchitis this week so we sat in for a couple days which sucked cuz I got SOOO bored just sitting there all day. So I took all the church magazines in our apartment and cut out all the pictures of Jesus and created "Jesus Wall" haha I filled up a whole wall with pics of Jesus, so that was pretty cool. Oh and they took our car this week cuz some elder broke his ankle and sure enough, the week they take it, it rains ALL WEEK...i love the rain but holy cow when it rains here it pours. for hours. so we try to go sympathy tracting and people just laugh at us half the time. so that's always a good time. hopefully we get another car in a few weeks, but for now we're on bikes...awesome.
Anyways, funny stories! So last P day we went to this less active members house named Manny. Now, Manny is like a gourmet chef and he loves having big lunch parties with all the missionaries. And he's VERY open about how he's attracted to men. and the Elder that converted him is like a huge homophobe and he was there with all us missionaries so manny just kept saying stuff like "Lookin good Elder Whitmarsh!" and then he'd wink hahah it was so funny. I was laughing so hard and was SO glad that wasn't me cuz i'd have been so uncomfortable! but Elder Whitmarsh and him are tight so he was a good sport about it. But Manny made some gumbo, and it was my first gumbo and it was AMAZING. oh my goodness gumbo is the best.
Then later in the week we got bible bashed by a guy named Oscar (the guy who yelled at us from the tub). He went off about how the spirit was telling him to not read the BOM and we were like hmm...really...then we tried to just give him a pass along card with a pic of Jesus on it and he said he couldn't accept it cuz it was a false representation of Christ. I asked him why and he said "Jesus wasn't white! He was a dark skinned man!" He thought Jesus was black?!?! what the...I've never heard that before and literally had to keep myself from laughing.
On a more spiritual note, our only progressing investigator, Xavier, committed to baptism this week!!! We asked him at the beginning of our lesson on Friday if he'd prepare to be baptized on May 2nd and he said "I haven't gotten an answer yet, but i should by then, so ya." Well I wasn't too confident with that so we kept teaching and Elder Morrell had him read 2 Nephi 31 and while he was reading it came to me!! i knew exactly what to say! So when he was done reading, I asked him "When you think about your baptism, being all dressed in white and entering the water, how do you feel?" and he sat there for a sec and then said "I feel really good and peaceful and happy like I finally made it!" I felt the spirit SO strongly and told him, "Xavier, that's your answer you've been looking for! That feeling is the spirit telling you that it's the right thing to do!" He literally lit up and was beaming. Smiling so big. and he practically yelled "lets do it!!" haha i love that guy to death. so hopefully everything works out for him to be baptized in a few weeks!! I'm so pumped.
I just want yall to know how much I love the people here. Even the ones who bash me and yell at me. I love them because Christ loves me unconditionally and ultimately, as missionaries, we're just trying to help people strengthen their relationship with Christ. It's tough sometimes but God's servants are all given strength and are glorious in his eyes (1 Nephi 21:5) I love this gospel and I promise any and all of you that if you just take a few moments to read from the Book of Mormon everyday you will strengthen your relationship with Christ and know of it's truth! I miss and love all yall! Have a great week!!
-Elder Armstrong
Monday, April 13, 2015
April 6, 2015 Pictures
Oh, and we also almost caught a gator that was sleeping!! Like literally I was 3 feet away and then it woke up and scared the crap out of me!! hahaha
April 6, 2015
It's already been a month?!
Hey y'all!!
Hey y'all!!
K first off, I just want to say that General Conference this weekend was AMAZING!! I've never gotten more out of it before. I wasn't tired at all and I felt the spirit so strongly, it was great. Personally my favorite talks were the one by Elder Holland cuz he always gets me pumped. But I loved Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the Seventy's talk. He talked about how we can always stay true to the gospel. He told us to never forget to pray, obedience builds faith in Christ & to read the Book of Mormon Everyday, Everyday, Everyday! it was great.
Anyways, we had a great week! I went on exchanges for Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday morning in Laplace with our district leader, Elder Whittier. He's been out about 9 months and so I was kinda nervous that I was gonna do bad but I actually kind of took over in his area which was so cool. Like Elder Morrell and I try to talk to everyone so I've gotten pretty good at starting conversations and contacting everyone I see but Elder Whittier isn't as comfortable with that. So as we went out tracting and contacting he said it was so cool that I could talk to anyone and that I was already better than a lot of missionaries at it and so I thought that was such a compliment! We were able to teach an 8 year old girl prepping for baptism and it was so cool to feel how innocent she is and the power and innocence of her spirit. We also gave a lady in the ward a blessing which was cool.
So I got back to Luling on Thursday and idk what it is but a lot of ladies hit on Elder Morrell and I...I guess they just like us Utah boys hahah anyways, we were contacting in a city called Wagaman and we went to a McDonalds that is in the city that we always go to. And there is this middle aged black lady who works there named Erica and she is there every time we go and when we walk in she yells "MMM MMM it's Mr. Armstrong!" so that always makes me smile. And on Friday we were out contacting again and this lady was sitting on her porch drinking a beer and we walked up and started talking to her. Her name is Miss Michelle and she's like 40 somethin but she started talking and said "Y,all are a couple of handsome young men!" and we laughed and were like "Ohhh thanks" and she continued and said "No really if I was young again...mmm mmm" in my mind I was thinking "Oh dear. please no." hahaha then she started telling us about her daughter and niece and how we should talk to them and we explained that we can't really date and she was quite disappointed. I guess we just a couple of lady killers.
Last story for the week, we met this guy named Mr. Charles last week when he was out mowing his lawn he stopped and yelled '"My Mormon Brothas!" This guy has a freakin story. So we went over on Friday to teach him and he has us come in and sit down. and he is a BIG black dude. like 6' 6" and at least 250 or 260 but he's not fat. and he's got scars all over his face and arms. anyways, we start reading from the bible and talking with him about Christ and he tells us how he used to not care about Christ and he said "I done everythin possible on the street except kill a man" like it was nuts. he told us about how he used to buy and sell drugs and did 17 1/2 years in prison but he came to Christ and chose his path now, it was so cool! he wants to keep meeting with us and see what we know! i'm pumped to teach him.
But anyways, a less active in our ward just called us and has a flat tire and needs a ride so we have to go help him now and have plans for the rest of P day so idk if i'll be able to really email any of y'all today but i'll try! I love y'all and am so thankful for this opportunity I have to be a missionary!!
-Elder Armstrong
March 30, 2015
Hey!! I'm in the tub!!
Hey y'all!! So, first off I hope these emails are at least semi-entertaining and that y'all enjoy reading them - even though they're kinda long. I think my stories are funny but maybe that's just me...haha anyhow, I bet a lot of y'all are wonderin why I titled my email what it is...well let me tell ya! So. We were tracting down this street and we were trying to go see a potential investigator named Oscar. We get to his house and knock on the door and there's a window right next to it and some guy yells "Hey!! Hey who's there??" Not gonna lie it kinda scared me but we were like "uhh the missionaries..." Then Oscar was like "I'm in the tub!! come back later!" hahah that made me laugh pretty hard.Things are good out here though. We've been working out in the mornings with the sisters in our area and one of them is a personal trainer...holy crap I thought I was in shape and I was sorely mistaken. Leg day was last Wednesday and Elder Morrell and I are just barely able to walk normal again...it's been rough. Haha We had kind of a slow week because we were planning a devotional for this last Thursday about the life of Jesus Christ but we ended up having to cancel it because a couple of guys randomly showed up and started replacing the carpet at the same time we were supposed to have our devotional! And no one knows who called them! I think it was Satan...but that's just me. But on Wednesday Elder Morrell and I were able to go the temple with a member in our branch, Brother Pearsall! It was so fun! I love the temple SO much. Literally the best place on earth. Like I said it was a slow week but I've got a couple of things that happened that were pretty cool.So first, we were riding through this neighborhood and I saw this guy and felt really strongly to go and talk to him so we flipped around and went up to his door and some old lady came to the window and yelled at us to leave hahah so we left and visited some other people. A couple hours later when we were leaving we rode down his street and he was out walking his dog so we stopped and talked to him, his name is Mr. Seymour. He's been wanting to go to church for a long time cuz he's catholic but doesn't like it there. So he said we can come meet with him this week and that he'll come to church in a couple of Sundays! But he said the old lady that yelled at us was his mom and that she though we were Jehova's Witnesses and so that's why she yelled at us! so we rode back to the house and she was out on the porch and Elder Morrell stops and says, "Ma'am, we're not Jehova's Witnesses." She was like "Oh, you're not?" Then he said "Nope, we're Mormons!" then she smiled and said "Well come on in!" hahaha I thought that was awesome.We had another great lesson with Xavier and we had real talk with him about baptism and the spirit was so strong it was amazing. He said he needs a little more time but could see himself getting baptized which is awesome!! I can't wait for the day that he says he's ready to be baptized!!:)Anyways, I want y'all to know how much I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Without him we'd all be lost. But through him anything is possible. The mission is SO hard at times but "I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength."(2Nephi22:2) I promise all of you that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring comfort and peace no matter what challenge you are going through. We are given trials to test our faith and devotion to him. Living the gospel is definitely not easy, but like my parents always told me "Nothing worth doing in life is ever going to come easy." Always remember to turn to your Father in Heaven in humble prayer and he will deliver you. I miss y'all a lot and thanks so much for all the emails and letters!! Love y'all!!-Elder Armstrong
Sooo this little creek and trees are actually right behind our apartment complex and we always see little gators in there.
Elder Morrell & I at the temple
--Elder Armstrong
Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission
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