Last Companion, Transfers and Hurricane Cindy.....

Mondays-Jun 19 & 26                                                    Lake Charles, LA

*Super short emails for both weeks so I combined them and they are still not very long. But there are pictures-oh yes there are pictures.... 

" We had three people at church this week, our Korean friend and a girl named Cher and her son.

We gave a blessing in a hospital and we had to put on protective clothing. It is getting hotter outside and college just started up. 

My companion, Elder Kent is leaving today so I get to drive 3 hours to Houston and 3 hours back. Elder Kent is awesome. 

We woke up at 4:oo this transfer day (June 19) and went crabbing. 

This past Monday (26th) the wifi was broken for the longest time, so sorry for the long wait but it finally started to work. My new companion is Elder Ludlow and he goes home Aug 1, so just a short transfer with him. He is pretty tight and a good elder to end my mission with.

Most of our week was full of people warning us about tropical Storm Cindy, so we were pumped to see it. When that day came, we waited and waited and nothing. It finally started raining and it only rained for like a couple of hours and then it was just a drizzle. A little disappointing because we love to do service but at least now I can say I've been through a tropical storm. 

We met a ton of people this week. We have a couple of people on date for baptism. We did a lot of sandbagging for people for the storm. 

God is good. 
Love,
Elder Saunders

Giving a blessing of protection while we wore protective gear

Our district before transfers.....

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The calm before the storm-Tropical Cindy....

Fun p-day at the beach

Rad p-day at the beach 

Stay With Me....Stay With Me!

Monday Jun 12, 2017                                             Lake Charles, LA

"We are teaching two people-Mike & Crystal. Crystal is pretty solid. Mike is working through some alcohol issues and is pretty vocal. We went by and they invited us in. We sit down on their couch and Mike asked us if we needed anything to drink or eat. We told him that we were good and he brought us drinks and warmed up some Boudin anyway and gave it to us. After that Elder Kent said that he would like to start with prayer. Mike said he would like to give it. He sits down and all of us bow our head and he sits there super quiet so I look up and right when I look up, I see him leap to the floor. He started yelling" I KNOWS I AM NOT WORTHY OF YOU, STAY WITH ME, STAY WITH ME!! He proceeds to go on like that for 10 min and Crystal kept trying to get him up. Finally he ends and we start to teach and Crystal is understanding. She is going to need a lot of prayers... 

The next day we started off by going to a hospital to give someone a Bible. We eventually found her and were able to teach her a lil bit. We also had one of our recent converts talk to her friend whose is eight and she wants to be baptized. Her parents said it was okay so we are hopeful.

We found this lady when we knocked on her door and she was not sure of us at first, then she invited us in. We had a nice talk with her. She has been through a lot of trials and is currently dealing with a huge health problem. We taught her and then we came back the next day and she was ready for us. She even told us that the previous day she was praying for help and right when she finished, we knocked on her door. She said she was about to send us away when she realized that we were that answer to her prayers. She's pretty solid. A really good person.

Today we woke up at 3 a.m. to go crab fishing with some members. It was super fun and we caught a bunch of crabs. Maybe 50 or so but a lot were too small, so we kept about 12 of them and plan on going to the members house to eat tonight and have the crabs for dinner. 

Ether 12:4: "Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast." 
Love, 
Elder Saunders

crabbing in Lake Charles 

boardwalk in Lake Charles 

Henderson Bayou

wear and tear from almost two years on a mission ....

The Plan of Salvation-Our Happily Forever After...

Monday, June 5, 2017                                                    Lake Charles, LA


" This week has been a bit rainy, but still good. One of our investigators got a new job, but he's going to go work off shore, so we're probably going to have to push back his baptismal date just a bit. He works 14 on 7 off. 

As far as food, I found out the best drink at Sonic is the Ocean water with a pineapple add in. It's amazing!

We ate at this super fancy place called the blue dog cafe. Apparently it is named after this famous painter who literally just paints a blue dog on pictures. (I've included a few pics). I have a hard time getting used to popular art. I got the seafood gumbo and it was really good. 

One of the members had us over to eat crabs. They boiled them. They shake when you toss them in, its actually kinda sad but they taste good.

We also went on splits and we went with this recent convert to go see his friend. We were teaching his friend and she seemed really interested. We taught the Plan of Salvation cause she lost her brother. She randomly asks me, " So do you believe there are other books out there, like the Book of Mormon? " So I tell her yes and she gets all happy and starts talking about how she believes that too. She has been trying to find the Book of Moses. The recent convert that I was with was like, "Book of Moses? isn't that in the Book of Mormon?" She is so happy and keeps saying, "Is it really in there?" So I explained that it was actually in the Pearl of Great Price. I explained how we got the Book of Moses before I even explained who Joseph Smith is or anything. Right after that she told us that her dad went to a Mormon church once. She asked lots of questions and we were there for an hour and forty min. We covered half of the Plan of Salvation and it was all good.

We also had Sujin come to church again and that was way cool. 

" We all search for happiness, and we all try to find our own 'happily forever after." The truth is, God knows how to get there! And he has created a map for you...All you have to do is trust Him enough to follow His plan...and that path will take you to your happily forever after... President Dieter F Uchtdorf....

Love,
Elder Saunders

Southern Hospitality...... June 2017

Blue Dog Cafe-Blue dog June 2017

Basketball at the church (sent by a member). June 2017 

Sweet Is The Work......

Monday, May 29, 2017                                                       Lake Charles, LA

" Tuesday we drove to Orange for a meeting and then after that I got interviewed for the last time by President Drake. He goes home soon and we are getting a new mission President in July. We came back and we got this referral from this door to door salesperson who is a return missionary. We contact them and they are pretty solid. They came out and said , Oh it is the Jesus people. We taught them and they sounded pretty solid. A member took us to get ice cream after. We also got another referral from the same sales person and we dropped by and she seemed pretty solid.

On Wednesday, I had an exchange with my son(I trained him) Elder Jones and all of our appointments cancelled. We visited some investigators and members and helped a member move. We got this thing called a fidget spinner and it is cool. It was great to see Elder Jones again. He is a good missionary.

The next day we got this referral for this lady moving from Korea. We went over and had a nice time talking to her. Her name is Sujin and she speaks okay English but she has a sweet heart. For dinner we went to a part member's home and had a water balloon fight and then we had a BBQ.

Sunday, Sujin came to church and stayed for all 3 hours. I asked her how she liked it and she said, "I didn't understand anything, but good." So we think she liked it and at felt the spirit. We went to this house to teach this family and when we came in there was 9 people! We taught them all and put them on date. That's cool. After that we saw another investigator and he told us that he wants to get baptized. 

So I am late emailing today cause it started at 4:30 am when we woke up. We had a member pick us up and we went crabbing with chicken legs. We went to the beach, then they fed us. We came back and showered and cleaned our apartment and then went to a BBQ and then emailed. We have a couple of appointments later. A good week!
Love, 
Elder Saunders

Back to  my Roots....Started out my mission in Orange, TX  Love this giant metal star....May 29, 2017.

A member took this picture and sent us. She just had surgery and the Elders came to check on her. She said that Elder Saunders cracks her up. A little worried about those stitches.....May 2017

The Courage to Believe...

Monday, May 22, 2017                                                  Lake Charles, LA

" On P-day we went with some members and some missionaries to this gator trail and it was super cool. We saw some pretty cool gators and at times we were close. It was farther away then you think-I say that for my mom. The members would never let us get hurt. After we went to this Asian place and there was this super good food. My companion, Elder Kent, got chicken strips, ha ha. I learned how to peel a crab.

Tuesday I had a dentist appointment in Atascocita which is 3 hours away. We left at 11:00 and I drove. Elder Kent slept the whole way. We got there early. Come to find out that the dentist was a member in Kingwood and I actually knew him kinda well. While we were up there, we had our car checked for emissions. We drove back and got home about 7 and had dinner.

The next day we helped a member pack cause she's moving. She put on the Moana soundtrack and it was playing while we were packing. It sounded amazing. I'm excited to see the movie cause the track sounded good. Also we had dinner at some members house and the wife knew knows my cousins. ha ha. 

On Thursday a guy tell us we needed to leave a trailer park and actually threatened us with a dog and on Friday this guy waved us down and tried to bash us about prophets. As missionaries I am glad we have the courage to believe. To believe that we know that God lives and he sent a prophet to teach us. The courage to share Christs message with others. Good things happened, too. We talked to this lady in an apartment complex and she seems pretty solid. We also stopped by this part member family and he is inactive but he wants to feed us. We had dinner on Friday with some recent converts and they fed us lobster and steak. It was so good. 

Saturday we stopped by this part member family. We talked with him and he pretty much believed everything. He told us he believes the Book of Mormon is true and even told us he'd pass one out to his friend. He even said he would consider being baptized. We also met this other part member family. The daughter is like 16 and not baptized. Her mom is always gone and she asked for a Book of Mormon, so that is cool. 

We had this lesson with an investigator who we taught for the first time. She was taught a while back. We taught her the restoration and she said she believed it the first time she was taught and she believes it still, so we asked her to be baptized and she said, yes. So that was cool and she made us cheesecake and it was super good. 
Love,
Elder Saunders

Our district on the Gator Trail......

Gators on P-day- Quite a sight for a Utah Elder...

Strawberry pie that Elder Kent and I made....