The Pepper Palace - April 20, 2015

Hey yall! I'd like to apologize now for all the pictures i'm gonna send this week haha i took a lot. But holy cow so this week has been awesome! BUT we've been on bikes and sure enough there were thunderstorms ALL WEEK LONG so that was fun to ride in. But first off I'll have yall know that I nearly died twice this week. Literally! the first time was last P day, we wen't downtown for my first time and went to the French Market in New Orleans (btw there are some VERY interesting people here) hahah anyways, we went to this place called the Pepper Palace. Now this place is home to the world's hottest hot sauce. you need to sign a waver to try it. Now for those of yall that know me pretty well, you know that I can't handle hot stuff. at all. and you also know that If people tell me do something that'll be funny/cool....well there's a good chance I'll do it. So long story short, I put about a pea sized drop of this sauce called "flashbang" on a chip and ate it. OH MY GOODNESS. it was like tasting hell. my ears were ringing, my face and hands were tingling and I couldn't even think or talk. It was as if the devil himself were liquified on that tortilla chip. And to make things worst I almost started having a panic attack cuz my mouth hurt so bad. But hey, I survived and got my picture on the wall of flame so I guess it's cool.

Second time, we're riding our bikes on the highway and there are a bunch of stores and food places that people are turning in and out of on the side of the highway we're on. Anyways, I'm about 10 feet away from a van and it's stopped so I assume she sees me. Well very clearly in my head I hear "go wide around this car" so without hesitating I go wider around it and as soon as I'm in front of it, she hits the gas to shoot a gap in traffic and it felt like I was watching her in slow motion but she literally misses my back tire by like 8 inches! Elder Morrell was behind me and he was freaking out cuz if she hit me I would've been flung into oncoming traffic and that wouldn't have been good for anybody. But by listening to the Holy Ghost I was definitely saved there.

It was also a really spiritual week too. I gave the spiritual thought at a joint zone conference so that was a little frightening. And I also taught my first instruction in district meeting which was cool. But Elder Morrell and I have been really faithful and diligent in our finding and contacting efforts lately and the Lord is blessing us with success. We are finding so many potential investigators and by the end of this week we should have up to 8 more investigators! That's really good considering we've only had 1 or 2 this whole transfer. But the coolest spiritual experience we had this week was with Mike.

Now idk if I talked about him to yall last week, but we found Mike while tracting in Hahnville. He's a legally blind, retired cop. He was raised catholic and studied theology so he knows a lot about religion. But we had an appointment with him on Saturday. We went over and he's such a cool guy and for a blind dude he gets around really well. But we taught him the restoration and it was so powerful. He understand all of it and kept saying "mmhmm" or "that makes sense" it was awesome! At the end he said "Ya know, we go through life as students, and God sends us the teachers. Well I feel like yall are the teachers that he's sent to me." I had such a strong feeling to invite him to be baptized and so i did and without hesitation he said "Yes. If I keep believing what yall are teaching then yes I'll be baptized." Morrell and I were so pumped!! We have a lunch appointment with him and his girlfriend tomorrow so that'll be fun.

The Lord is blessing us with miracles here in Louisiana. It's definitely a tough area but we keep working hard and being faithful and it's paying off. I love this work even though its so hard sometimes. I know that Heavenly Father prepares all his children at one point or another to receive the gospel and it's our job as missionaries to find those who are ready. Thank yall so much for the weekly letters and support!! Love yall!!

-Elder Armstrong

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