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.
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