I'm in Baton Rouge

Dear Family,

This past week has been almost as insane as the week previous. We've been placed in the Baton Rouge 2nd Ward, which means that we're very close to the mission home/office. In regards to having requests for my address, I'm going to revert back to the office address on Justice Ave. I actually don't know my current physical address, and since the mission office is so close I think I'll just plan on stopping by there twice a week to pick up my mail. Feel free to pass that address along as my current address.

Baton Rouge 2nd Ward is so far pretty good. The people, from what I hear, are eager about missionary work and love to give referrals. This is really great news because we've both been double transferred into an area without an area book. A few weeks ago, the office elders (who're in our ward) had the mission van stolen. In that van was the area book we should have to help us pick up some work. Basically what that means is that we're starting from scratch and we'll have to figure out how to find people.

We have the very good fortune to be living around the corner from the temple, and our church building is next door to it. Both are situated in a very nice neighborhood. I am so excited that Mom and Dad intend to come here to pick me up, because there're so many things already that I know Mom would enjoy. The food, however, is definitely something for me to share with Dad, since it's too spicy.

I can't believe Lacey's going to Hawaii. I didn't think she'd be able to get the money. How'd she do it? Make sure to tell her to send me pictures. All of you need to send me pictures! I need to see more of you. I would have pictures today, but I forgot my camera at the apartment. I don't have much anyway aside from an alligator. I don't think I'll have more than 100 pictures by the time I leave!

The heat is already getting to be too much. It feels like mid July in Utah and it's the last day of April. My clothes are not going work for the next five months. I'm going to die. In my defense, Salt Lake retailers don't sell summer clothes in the middle of winter when I did my shopping.

We had a day of service, by the way, back in Lafayette. That was pretty fun. The stake got together to repaint some of Lafayette High School. There were more than 300 people there and news crews came out to report. I brushed poles most of the time. I don't know how that helped or why I was doing it, especially since the sound of metal scraping metal makes me cringe, but it was fun to do something. The high school looked like an actual prison with a low ceilinged cafeteria and 'NO (insert item here)' signs all over the place. The ceilings exposed all the wiring, and the windows had bars. Really. The commons area outside had benches arranged around platforms, and I imagined that the students would gather on the benches as one would stand on a platform and deliver some rousing manifesto to inspire revolution. I don't think any high school will ever look so much like a prison as that one does, and I will never complain about Liberty again.

I can't think of much else. We have done practically no missionary work this week due to our circumstances, and I'm still very quick to forget that I'm a missionary. I don't know if it'll ever set in. On a high note, some of the adjustments I've had to make may stick with me. It's very freeing to not be worried about the internet or television. Music, on the other hand, has proven to be a chunk of my heart gone missing. Since I put everything on my iPod instead of bringing CDs, we don't have anything to listen to in the car except the same MoTab CD over and over. If you are feeling so inclined, a variety (I have a hankering for Saturday's Warrior) would be greatly appreciated. ;)

Tell the boys that I'm waiting on pins and needles to know where they're going and that they need to hurry up already with the papers! What time do you want me to call home on Mother's Day?

I LOVE YOU THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS MUCH, FAMILY UNIT!!!

-Magen

I have a Stalker

Happy Birthday to Dad and Lacey. I love what Lacey did, and I want you to know that I thought of you both. I miss you guys, and I wish I'd have been able to talk to you and tell you how much I love you, but rules are rules. I'm technically not even allowed to write letters on any day but Monday.

Before anybody dives into this week's email, I need you to sit down. Are you sitting down yet? Well, yeah, I mean it! Go get a chair! Okay. Ready? Good.

I got into a car accident. Wednesday. I'm fine and so is Sister Thomas, and so is the car actually, but it is currently not drivable because it needs to be repaired. We were driving to an appointment and got stuck in stop and go traffic for about ten minutes. In the time it took for Sister Thomas to glance at the dashboard, a bus two cars ahead of us came to an abrupt stop, as did the two cars in front, but Sister Thomas, who was stepping on the gas a bit when she looked away, had to look up and then hit the brake. The Tiwi box (A driving monitor we have installed from a company in SLC. They're in twenty missions, so the boys better hope they don't get called to one of them if they don't want to be violated. TJ would have to drive like a grandma, haha.) scolded us with a loud "AGGRESSIVE DRIVING" as we hit the car in front. We pushed all the way into the middle of the intersection when Sister Thomas decided that she didn't want to ever drive again and started crying. I tried to calm her down and told her she needed to drive through the intersection and pull over where the other two cars involved were pulling. It took about a minute for her to respond. When we finally got over, I called the mission office and started pulling out all our insurance, registration, and the accident report from the glove compartment. She was still fairly hysterical, which switched me into Mom mode. I gave her some paperwork to fill out because she needed to try to focus on something, and I went out to take pictures. None of the actual body is dented, thank goodness, but the plastic bumper and the lights were pushed out of place. We got really lucky. We were the third accident in the mission in three days. Salt Lake has to approve the cost of repairs ($3200 estimate) before anyone can drive the car, which means we get to use bikes.

Only I haven't used my bike yet because we went on exchange, and I didn't need a bike. Then on Saturday, as the elders came over to repair my tube that was popped by whoever put it together (and fix what they hadn't done right), a big red truck broadsided a Jeep Cherokee and pushed it into our parking lot under our window. We rushed out to help them. Nobody was bleeding, but the lady in the truck was pregnant and had to be taken away in an ambulance since she'd been broadsided on the driver's side. The people driving the truck were a Mexican family who were shaken for very different reasons it seemed. They didn't speak any English. The elders directed traffic around the accident (we live on a busy road and the accident blocked our entrance and took up a lane of the road) until emergency crews came. That was insane.

I still haven't been on a bike because we spend all of Saturday with the Adams (senior couple) going to visit investigators. By the way, I hope you're still sitting down.

Saturday night, our district leader came by to talk to Sister Thomas about a guy she'd been teaching before I got here. I've never met this guy, but he had to be dropped about a week and a half after I got here because he'd been texting Sister Thomas to tell her that he was falling for her. He's a big black guy in his late thirties, and has a history of violence. Remember that. So we gave his number to the elders who have not gotten a chance to teach him yet because he makes up excuses. That has not stopped him from coming to church to stare at Sister Thomas. Elder Taylor (our DL) has been bothered by it all week and wanted to let her know that he'd prayed about it in the temple and that he was going to tell President Wall. Which he did on Sunday.

So after church on Sunday, he called us to tell us that we were being ET'd (emergency transferred). Sister Thomas, because the President wants her out of the way of this potentially dangerous man (who has apparently cut people's fingers off), and me, because I am in training. We're leaving tomorrow to stay in Baton Rouge until President knows where to send us. We're being replaced by elders. One of the ward members offered us a place to stay the night because he thinks it's too dangerous to leave us in our apartment, and President agrees. We actually had a guy come over at ten thirty at night a few weeks ago and knock on the door, then sit in his truck (which, oh by the way, was missing plates) for a long time to take notes or something. So now we've been smuggled out of our apartment like Jews in Nazi Germany, and we're not allowed to be alone until we get to Baton Rouge. My life has turned into a movie.

But I do have a funny story to tell. When the elders were here during the accident and to fix my bike, their real motive for coming over was to share a pizza from Papa Murphey's with us. It was delicious. After the hullaballoo with the accident, they showed us a video they'd taken. It was them on their bikes, stopping on the sidewalk and picking up a pizza from the side of the road. They folded it in half, stuck it in their backpack, and that's where the video ended. We'd just baked and eaten that pizza. I told them that it would take a lot more than that to gross me out.

To top that though, a few months ago, Elder Taylor had made a big pot of jumbalaya for Sister Thomas. He used rabbit meat, and afterwards he showed her a series of pictures he'd taken of himself picking up a dead rabbit from the road, putting it in a box, skinning it, cutting it up, putting it in the freezer, taking it out, and cooking it in a big pot. This story had only been relayed to me, but when I heard it, I asked whether they'd run over the rabbit themselves. They had, to which I responded "Well, as long as you kill it yourself, it's okay to eat." Really, it'd take a lot more to freak me out I think. I'm finding that in a lot of ways I think more like an elder sometimes than a sister.

Well, I have to go finish my P-Day and get ready to make an emergency exodus. I'm so glad Dad got working again. I've been praying hard for that. I'm super excited to hear where the boys are going. Don't send any mail to me until I write Mom back with my new address. Tell anyone you know who's written me, which is basically just my bookstore people, so tell Jessica to relay that. Take pictures of the backyard! I want to see! Hug Tonks, I miss her soooooooo freaking much. She's the best freaking dog in the world. I'll write you next week! LOVE YOU!!!

halfway through my first transfer

I'm officially halfway through my first transfer, which means that from here on out I will be away from you all longer than I've ever been at any given moment of my life. It's starting to wear on me a little bit. There's a Billy Joel song that was recorded on the Men of MoTab last year that makes me cry when we listen to it in the car. Mom has it, I know. Billy Joel always reminds me of Dad for some reason, so it makes me miss you. Don't worry Mom, I think a lot about you too. Whenever we go driving through the nicer neighborhoods in Lafayette I think of how much I wish you were here to 'ooo and aaah' with me over the architecture and Southern French style. My favorite part of town is a view of the river when you cross one of the bridges and you can see a big house hidden by trees and the boathouse right on the river with white slat trimmings. Maybe I'll get around to taking a picture and sending it home. It reminds me of the view on the Thames the further inland you get.

This week has been busy. I think. Interesting things happen most every day, but they're beginning to run together and I forget what happens. I am keeping a journal though so I don't forget. On Monday we had a dinner appointment with a family in the ward and they were out there. They remind me of the Holtzes a bit in eccentricity, but they are definitely the kind of people we probably would have gotten on with in California. They invited Sister Thomas and I as well as the English elders in our ward. Both sets are training new missionaries (myself and Elder Riendeau) so they thought it would be keen to have a green dinner. They wore green in our honor, had us eat from green dishes, sat us in green chairs, and served us green mashed potatoes with green gravy, salad, green koolaid, broccolli, and lime flavored (regular colored) chicken. It was fun. Brother Awbrey was in the army and served in Germany the same time we were there. They have two missionaries out and a plethora of other children at home and lots of books. I could definitely see our family getting on with them.

We've officially taken on the Muslims as investigators and dropped the atheist. I don't really want to talk about that because he was mentally unstable, but the Muslim guys have turned into our miracle. We met two last week and then this past Saturday met them again. We got some copies of the Book of Mormon in Arabic and they brought two more friends. We talked about the Plan of Salvation, and it made sense to them. They were really excited and we had a good discussion despite the language barrier. Heaven in their sense has different levels based on how well you lived, so the concept of the three degrees of glory was not difficult for them to grasp. The only thing they seem to be missing is the belief in Christ as the Son of God. After we met with them they invited us to join them at a BBQ later, which was fun. We met more of their friends and taught them about some gospel principles and answered questions. They asked who we thought the last prophet was, and when we said we believed that there were prophets today, they got really excited. We invited them to come to church and five showed up. It was awesome. I don't know that they'll get baptized, but I know that they're loving what they're hearing. Sunday School was on the Priesthood which we hadn't covered yet, and I can tell they're interested in that. Hopefully we'll get to answer some good questions next time. I'm beginning to wonder if Mohammed was maybe a prophet called to prepare them to recieve the Gospel, but Satan intervened. I'm thoroughly convinced that the reason there are so many wars in the Middle East right now is because Satan does not want us there because he knows that if we sent missionaries to predominately Muslim countries the people would be all too happy to recieve the teachings of modern prophets.

Saturday was really the best day ever. Aside from that we went to the temple in Baton Rouge. For being small it's really pretty inside. I hadn't thought that small things could be so magnanimously beautiful I guess. I wish we could go to the temple more often than we do. It's so much easier to get through the week and keep a focus on what's important when I've been. When I get home I don't think I'll stop going weekly until the day I die. Unless I move to Africa or something.

I finally got all the mail you sent to me via the mission office address, including Mom's letter from New York. I think I'll wait to hear from Mom again though before I send a reply, just so I'm not jumping any guns. I've gotten a letter bomb from work which was nice, but I have quite a few responses to send today, so I'll write to Mom next week. I got a letter from Sally which was really cool. Getting mail is very exciting, especially when you're cynical and you don't have your hopes up.

Keep praying and loving and sending love. I love you all so much and I pray for you every day.

Happy Easter

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for the Easter package! I was surprised to get it, and thrilled with the goodies. I've started coloring my little egg man, and he's almost done. It seems like I don't get a whole lot of time to even do that. We had a good Easter yesterday. It was my first Sunday with the ward, so there were a lot of people to meet. I now understand why there are so many conference talks on the nature of God and the Godhead and why the idea of the Trinity is wrong. So many converts here don't understand that Heavenly Father is NOT Jesus or the Holy Ghost. We had so many prayers offered by people who spoke to Jesus and not Heavenly Father, I was in shock. I didn't know if I should say 'amen' or not. One of the ladies in the ward also gave us Easter crosses. I've never owned a cross before. I suppose it's appropriate for the holiday, but I feel strange having it. Dinner was at a member's house, and it was the most amazing meal I've ever had. Crawfish casserole, jalapeno bread, sweet potatoes, and chicken stuffed with cornbread and cajun spices. Holy cow it was amazing, I forced myself to eat more! Members don't feed us much so far.

 Sister Thomas is fun. She's from Lindon. Her dad is in prison, and if you do some research on DN or the Trib, you'll find articles about an ex-bishop committing fraud? Yeah, that's him. I think I like having a companion much better than having a roommate because one of the problems I have most with people is holding secrets from me. That's impossible to do on a mission, so my anxiety over companionships is pretty much gone. At least for this transfer. We laugh a lot, work hard, and party as hard as a missionary can. Our DL is nuts. On Friday we had a Passover dinner that was really interesting. We had to eat with our fingers because there were no clean dishes aside from the pans the food was in, for starters. We had naan bread instead of matza because there isn't anywhere to find matza here. We had salad instead of bitter herbs, rice, and gravy. To top it off though, in favor of economic over authenticity, we had a pork roast. For our Passover. How blasphemous can you get? He wants to have a Holocaust Remembrance feast this week on Holocaust Memorial Day, and he wants to try to eat whatever they ate in concetration camps. I told him there was no way he was getting me to eat feces.

Work is progressing here. People are super nice, and tracting isn't too bad. We got around to going for my first time this week, and we had a little miracle. I was too scared to say anything even though I was supposed to be leading in our efforts, so Sister Thomas said a prayer that the next house would be fruitful and give us a nice rejection if it didn't work. So I lead on and knocked on the door. We sure got rejected, but not without a hug from the guy, who was excited that we were out preaching about Christ. We also got some new prospects this week. Two Muslims and an Atheist. Such is my life. I come to the God-centric South, and I get two Muslims and an Atheist. It'll be interesting teaching them. The Muslims are really nice, but the Atheist is weird. He may be a bit crazy. We've visited with a lot of less actives. One guy, Ralphy, is blind and mentally challenged, and lives in a disabled commune in the north part of town. He's really sweet and very lonely. He was baptized a few years ago but has a hard time getting to church, so we try to visit once a week. He sits in the dark when he's at home and listens to tapes. His apartment is small and rather messy. It's very sad that people here don't care more. There is so much poverty, and though I know that many people bring upon themselves, there are so many people who are worth more but go unnoticed.

I'm so glad, Dad, that you took note of that talk. I was thinking of you the whole time. I felt as though the letter he referenced at the beginning could have been written by grandma, and I pray that there is an opportunity to reconcile. I was hoping that you'd like that. It's so important that we put our faith in the Atonement and turn to Christ for comfort and be willing to take His name upon us when we take the sacrament. Baptism is the only ordinance that we renew for our own benefit every Sunday, and it's because the Doctrine of Christ is the cycle by which we can find salvation and peace.

 I'll write a letter today and send it off to Mom. Thank you for your support and love. I miss you guys, and I love hearing from you. I hope and pray that things are going well at home and that you're recieving blessings. I hope the boys realize that this isn't going to be a cake walk and are spiritually prepared to take this work on. It will be very humbling for both of them, but they can succeed if they rely on the Lord. I hope they get called stateside so they don't get stuck in the Empty Sea for too long! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!!!

I'm in the swamp

I am here! I've been put in Lafayette, Louisiana which is the fourth largest city in the state. There are about 120,000 people, and it's been voted the best food in the country as well as the happiest city tied with (of course) Provo. My new companion is Sister Thomas who has been here for seven months and hasn't served in any other areas. From the sounds of it I can expect to be here for a while because it takes time to get the wards to trust you. I am having a blast, though I really wish I could be with you guys as you go do exciting things too! There's so much that the boys should get ready for, because this is not easy. The MTC can be fun, but if they think they want to speak a foreign language, they will not want to after a few weeks there. There's so much to learn and it's absolutely exhausting work. The food is okay, the soup is really good (there, I mean). There is a lot of spiritual tearing down and building up again. It's an experience like no other.

My first week here has been really good. I haven't done any tracting yet, as the efforts in this area are focused on less actives and refferals. My first day here was transfer day, and since I had no clean clothes we did some laundry then as well as some grocery shopping instead of going out for appointments (we didn't have any anyway). We drove through the Bayou to get here and it stretches forever along the interstate in some places. I've already seen the temple in Baton Rouge though I haven't been in it. It's kind of weird. It looks like an ancient temple in the middle of nowhere, though it's in the middle of town. Things are so spread out here it's as though we're in the country. They don't believe in sidewalks here which only adds to the effect.

Sister Thomas and I share our area with a set of elders and our ward includes the zone leaders as well as a senior couple. We have a district of five sets which is huge. Our first full day we spent doing weekly planning and we spent three hours on campus at UL doing a media board. Rejection is easy to take here because everybody is very nice and polite. Even though there are only 6,000 active members in the whole state, everybody here believes in God and nobody goes to the same church, so they're pretty open to taking pamphlets about Jesus. The elders got a lot of rejections though. We had our table set up in the middle of campus where they have a swamp. With alligators. It. Was. Awesome. There is a lot of swamp to see around here, or at the very least big trees. It has the look of the Civil Rights Era mixed with pirate cove, which is an really interesting combination. And it is LOUD! I'm not talking cars and music and people loud. I'm talking Jurassic Park loud. At any moment I might be seized up and chewed apart by some giant lizard. The June bugs are insane. I haven't seen any other bugs, but I've heard them. I see lizards crawling all over the place too. I keep telling Sister Thomas I feel as though I live in a zoo. The humidity isn't too bad yet. It feels about the same as early summer in California, but it's going to be a long and muggy summer here. I'm going to have to get new clothes. Salt Lake stores were not equipped with the right stuff during winter. I get an allowance of $157 a month, so money will be tight.

So... Thursday was weekly planning, Friday was District Meeting, Saturday and Sunday were General Conference. The chapel was empty for both days. The church is right across the street from a high school and Saturday there was an Easter egg hunt going on that was massive. The church parking lot was full with cars for that. The irony was that it was being put on by a new church in town looking to recruit members. How sad it is that people think that God would need to bribe us into converting with flashy toys and music? How ironic that the parking lot was full so people could go participate in that rather than hear His restored Gospel in the chapel they had surrounded? I felt as though I were literally in Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life. How true are Nephi and Isaiah's warnings in 2 Nephi that people will be lulled into a sense of false security and begin to believe that there is no evil? Even the New Testament makes it plainly clear that anything that doesn't declare the truth of the Gospel is not of God. I was pretty upset.

Nevertheless, Conference was good. I'm really curious to know what your favorite talks were. I thought some were very applicable to our family specifically. I took to Jeffrey R Holland's talk the most. You'll have to send me an Ensign when the report comes out so I can read them again. I actually fell asleep during the Sunday afternoon session which is really bad, but Oh My Goodness, I am not used to this!

On Sunday we had a potluck between sessions and got some gooood food. Sister Thomas is determined to lose weight though, so we're going to try dieting. No more treats.

I guess I should say something about investigators, since I have met with a few people. I'm changing their names though because we've been warned to not disclose any information since there are people who work really hard to thwart the Work from progressing. We went into the ghetto part of town the other day looking for a young man who was baptized a few years ago but has gone inactive because his relatives are against his practice. As it turned out we ended up at the wrong door and met Rhonda, who was trying to clean out her carport. She was very open to chatting with us about her life and how things are not so great for her. We were there for at least an hour, and after teaching her a bit about the Restoration, she told us we could come back on Tuesday. Then we met with Dale, who's mother was a member a long time ago but was excommunicated. He was baptized when he was eight, but hasn't been active since. He's a very cautious sort with very conservative values and a curiousity for the Church. I really hope things go well with him, because I felt several times that the Spirit was there teaching.