LDS in Louisiana: Freezing in Louisiana!! Christmas, New Year's and Glow Sticks!

Dec. 14, 2015

Dear Friends and Family,

This is my white elephant gift, Chia Squeeze for women

I don't remember how all of my emails looked or sounded last year around this time, but I really hope they were so much more enriching and actually inspiring. I will try my best despite uhh, lack of actions to make words with. We did have some miracles that if pondered on, are much more significant than I thought.

We had a slow week honestly, and it's been raining a lot, so that makes finding new people to teach very difficult. That's nothing new though in the lives of missionaries. One day Sister Pfleger was very ill, and we were able to use their car and we saw A LOT of people that we have been meaning to meet and also return to see. The fact that they were sick, was bad, the fact that we made it worth it, was spectacular. Lots of different places in the city are rough for a number of reasons, but REALLY honestly if you know anything, these are the places where most people know who we are and respect us the most. We go there to see if anyone is willing to make some darn commitments now, just keep checking, that's the goal.

Natichitoches has a huge Christmas celebration, all month long,

including lots of fireworks

The lights are amazing too

There is an investigator who the sisters have been working with for awhile and he likes to talk to us and invite us to invites from time to time. Went to his First Baptist Church where he was in the choir and they sang lots of Handel's Messiah, so beautiful!! He also always induces such good conversations and gospel lessons when we talk with him. Amazing guy, moving at his own pace, in an honest way.

We also were able to enjoy a good Sunday, where the ward expressed lots of love for us and myself personally which really meant a lot to me. People never really know how much they affect us and can bless us when they put forth the effort. God thankfully gives persuasive means (the Spirit) to tell us how to love our Brothers and Sisters.

It rains, its cold, but that is all just in a short period of life. Soooooo it gets better. Merry Christmas y'all

-love elder joshua dean rush

Jan. 5, 2016

Dear Friends and Family,

I didn't write last week so I guess I should probably write something this week. Let me say that events have been lacking but I will remember and relate the best I can when something great happened.

This is my sad sad Star Wars face because

I am missing Star Wars episode VII

My comp, Elder Carter, loves Star Wars too

These are our shirts

This is our memorial fire in memory of missing our show,

just like Vader and Qui Gon were burned as Jedi

The primary forward motions of the work are with this part-member family we have been working with. The member is coming back to church himself and trying to be active and stay the course and his wife is Catholic and her mother is also Catholic. We wanted to make friends with them so we went to some Mass with them, and then the other day the Many elders and ourselves did service for the mother for a few hours. Helping her rake leaves, not just some leaves, but vast amounts of them, and then we burned them (that was super fun). To makes things even better, she is such a sweet woman, she made us this amazing pasta that we enjoyed for lunch and we had some fine discussions on Faith, The Book of Mormon and the priesthood. She kind of has a testimony of lots of the principles of the gospel that we teach, so that should be good for if her daughter ever wants to join (this being the second time missionaries have tried in the last 5 years). We gave her a triple combo and she is gonna read it haha ;)

Secret Santa

New years was great spending time with some of the funnest members in the ward, the same ones we helped move their house in from their trailer. Good times and great food down here in the sweet south.

Zone Christmas Picture

so sly with Elder Solomon and Sister P

the "old" district

It's been freezing lately, humidity just makes me cold. I was a polar bear in the dry cold with wind, but with the humid air, the pain is 10 fold. A vehicle, we are hoping, may fall from the sky soon though. We fasted for it....

So we had a little bit of fun putting glow sticks

on the Sisters car :-)

I learned something this week (isn't that great?) and it was all about argument, misunderstanding and self-control. We need those things to become the Children of God that we are meant to be, and that when you are upset, it is not good to harbor frustration. When you are misunderstood (which i am allll the time) just clarify according to the Spirit and forgive, then everything becomes sweet again. Bitter is a cause of lack of control, we can control a lot of things that we may not know we could, thank goodness for the Atonement.

PEACE Y'ALL -love elder joshua dean rush

Jan. 11, 2016

Dear Familia and amigos,

Bro J Paul Storrs, coming to Provo soon. Ladies be wary, too much suave.

I am not a Spanish speaking missionary just yet, but its liable to change based on revelation! This week was good y'all, we heard that there was some kind of lame lottery, who needs money when you got Jesus right? That's all I got to say about that business.

Sister Jenkins is from Newton (norther part of cache valley)

Great week everyone, its' been real cold and the wind cuts our souls nearly in half while we ride, but thankfully they are easily repaired by a dose of enthusiasm. It isn't something you can buy, but you can definitely make it even though you really don't want to. I guess we aren't in Utah so it isn't as cold temp wise, but humidity is most likely what threw the earth into an Ice Age, I'm almost certain...

District P-Day and Prep

Sis Jenkins and Pfleger at the Christmas party at the Gaylords(members) open house

I promised Sister Pfleger I would share this ridiculous photo, this was Christmas dinner with the Smiths.

We ate at some awesome members house on Saturday and ate fried squirrel including the head. It was dang great so now as a list of crazy food I've eaten includes armadillo, squirrel, alligator, oyster, cow tongue, and probably more stuff that I wasn't even told ;-).

Everything is going well, we are still working with less-actives and part-member families and we are getting more rides due to it being so particularly cold, people probably feel bad for us now.