Christmas Week - 12/29/14

Christmas Dinner at the Leone's

This week was pretty slow but at the same time pretty darn good. I love Christmas. 

Basketball: We played the Leesville district in basketball on Monday and we won :) That was really fun. We played for about 5 hours that day. We were so sore next couple days. We also played on Christmas with the Vincent Clan. We lost that one but it was still really fun. 

Investigators: It was hard to see a lot of investigators because of it being Christmas week but it was still really good. We got a referral from this lady in Texas and the guys name is Gary. He is about 51 and has to go through dialysis and was looking for a church that he felt welcomed in. He came to church yesterday! I hope he enjoyed it we will follow up later this week. He left after sacrament meeting though. Trent got home at like 6:30 am on Sunday so he didn't come to church. We finished the lessons with him but he still is looking to see if the Book of Mormon is true. So we gave him our top 20 favorite chapters and committed him to read those. Also just yesterday while we were teaching Sean, his neighbor named Dakota who we have randomly seen literally everywhere was like hey come preach to me. So we did. And him and his wife are interested in the Book of Mormon. That was a really cool miracle.

Christmas: So as you know the Vincents let us go to their house and use their Ipads to facetime home. I really enjoyed that. I get one more call home on my mission. Also our mission president gave us permission to watch one clean Disney movie so we watched Frozen. I am so happy I finally got to watch it. It made me SOOO trunky. haha I have never been so trunky in my life. I really enjoyed it. Don't worry I'm over the trunkiness now. We then went to Bishop's and had some great food there. Then for dinner we went to the Leones for some really good food. And I got to leach off the sisters' movie and watch How to Train Your Dragon 2 while I was there. It was really good. 

That was basically the week.

I love you all 

Love Elder Lehr

P.S. That was so good seeing you guys. It felt less like a phone call and more like I was just there talking with you all. I enjoyed it. I get the feeling next phone call will be more plans for when I get home. I'm glad you enjoyed that Cajun Christmas :) That will be a family tradition now. That's so cool that Alex is back. I bet he will be married in 1 year. By that I mean he will get a girlfriend and then try to wait till Spencer gets back. I really enjoyed talking with yall. The dinner on the 27th was really good.  Its been raining for the past 2 days and it's been pretty darn hard at times. 

Christmas - 12/22/14

This week was kinda weird because it was slow but good. 

Restaurant: We went to the new restaurant we have been helping out with and we saw the Leones there which was awesome. That place is pretty good. I like it. 

Investigators: Trent didn't come to church because he slept in. But he is still really progressing. He is reading 5 chapters between every visit. haha it was pretty funny he was supposed to read 1 Nep 15-21 and he accidentally jumped and read 2 Nep 15-21 and so he just jumped right into the Isaiah chapters. That must mean he is pretty dedicated to be able to get through 5 chapters of Isaiah.  Its been really cool to see the change in his life and the light that he has now. We were finally able to see Marty Davis after 3 months of trying. He is doing a bit better and we taught him the restoration and he accepted a soft baptism. Which means if knows this is true he will be willing to be baptized. We also did the same thing with Tony. He is an investigator that we dropped because we could never see him. Also to try and make sure we are meeting more people and not just seeing the same people over and over again we have set the goal to at least track 5 houses a day. I dont care for tracting to much but it is a sign of faith in my opinion. We have found a few PI's that way.

P-day today: So another district challenged us at basketball so I mean it’s on. We are going to play here in Many today and Many District is going to dominate the Leesville district. Fact.

Prophecy: We are getting our truck back. No one knows this but Elder Sabey and I. Not even the mission president or the office elders. But we have a plan.

Christmas: So we kinda have a place to go for christmas just not on christmas day if that makes any sense. The Daniels are having us over on the 27 to celebrate Christmas with them. Though the Vincents were kind enough to let us use their Ipads on Christmas day so we can Facetime home. Though they will be out of town. 

Christmas Thought: Sister Ostler sent me an email with 24 scriptures that refer to Christ as the light. And I have been thinking about that. I have been thinking about what does light do? it gives us guidance. it lets us know of whats ahead, It gives warmth and comfort, these are just a few things that light does. It is interesting how one of the major signs of christ's birth was a star that showed them the way to the savior. That gave light. I know that Jesus truly is our savior and he has shown us the way to return to our Father in Heaven. 

I love you all and wish you a merry Christmas

Love Elder Christian Lehr

P.S. we made that deer meat into hamburger meat. We used a manual grinder. pretty fun. James said that in Kissy they are still doing well.

Many Miracles - 12/16/14

Brelin's baptism

Boiled Turtle? Elder Sabey & Elder Smith

Natchitoches District Dec 2014

This has been such a crazy week oh I don't even know where to start. ok I'll start from the beginning.

Burgers: We got some Granny Louise burgers which are the best burgers ever. So that was good. I ate about 3 and Elder Sabey had 4.

Exchange: I went on exchange with Elder Gosch and that was really good. I learned a lot from him. We spent a bit of time improving our tracting skills. We got two PI's from it that we gave to the sisters so that was good. Oh and Elder Sabey boiled a turtle. 

Specialized training: We had our meeting and that was really good. I love Elder Allen. He is the bomb. He is so much like his older brother. President Hansen talked about some symbolism in Christmas and I really enjoyed that. I always love learning about symbolism and stuff. After that we went to the Pineville parade where we passed out a ton of He is the Gift pass along cards with candy canes on them. It was long but good.

Worst news ever: So transfer news came....and our truck is gone. Our whole district is staying the same except for Sister Ogden is going home. I like the part that our district is the same. But we switched cars with the Natchitoches sisters and so now the sisters have the truck which is just salt on the wound. So now we have a white jeep which is still good. It reminds me of my jeep from home. 

Best news ever: Brelin got baptized!!! That was so awesome. It was very spiritual and just good. He is awesome. I love that kid.

We finally saw Jimmy Carter who is a less active and he is a big hunter. He has a ton of deer heads mounted everywhere. He gave us two full front legs so we are going to enjoy that. Elder Sabey taught me how to butcher the deer. 

haha I forgot to end my email. So that's basically my crazy week.

Love you all 

Elder Lehr

P.S. Oh and I wasn't able to play the sax. They tried everything but nobody had one. President Hansen gave a shout out to the Many Missionaries for rocking up Many and making it awesome. He did that at the meeting.

We also got an email from a member of the Many Ward last night telling us (in part) the following about Elder Lehr:

"We are thankful to have him give of himself in the service of our Heavenly Father.  He is a devoted missionary and is having an impact upon our ward membership.  I sing in the ward choir and I so much appreciate his beautiful bass voice.  It has been my wife and I's privilege to have he and his companions to visit in our home, to enjoy a meal and to leave a spiritual message.  You can be proud of his devotion to the Lord's work.

He told us that he first served in Sierra Leone and we know that through the spirit of the Lord he was sent to our mission to complete his assignment.  Thank you for sharing him with us in this area and the other areas which will constitute his mission in Louisiana."