Elder Kapischke - 2/23/15

This week has been pretty nuts. We had Elder Kapischke come from the First Quorum of the Seventy and we had a multi-zone conference for that. It was sweet to see Elder Sabey and Elder Smith again.

MLC: Before the conference we had a mission leadership council meeting and that was really cool. One cool thing we discussed is about the difference between the telestial law of obedience and the celestial law. So as a missionary the telestial law is basically worrying about something like waking up at 6:30. The celestial law is applying the principles of preach my gospel like ALWAYS asking for a referral and visiting our investigators every day.  Basically becoming a preach my gospel missionary. We also talked about new finding ideas and how now is the time for the vision of the South to come to pass. We also talked about completing families.

Zone Conference: I’m not going to go into too much detail about what I learned cause that would be a 3 page email and even I would get bored of reading it. But basically we talked a lot about what we talked about in MLC and then something kinda interesting is when we were talking about families Elder Kapischke asked me to come up and talk about my experiences with finding families in Sierra Leone. And I am just super ready to find and complete families now.

Taco Bell: After the meeting the Spanish elders and us went to Taco Bell and I saw this man pray over his food there and I just felt like I should talk to him. And to let you all know I am super scared of talking to new people. I'll do it but I really don't like it. But I decided to talk to him and we had a great conversation and we are seeing him later this week. That was pretty cool since we get a lot of rejection over here.

Black Non-denominational church: Our investigator came to church and invited us to his church so we went and we were the only white people there. And the only ones in a white shirt so we stook out like a sore thumb. But it was very interesting. Lots of singing and dancing and the pastor jumping up and down and yelling. I don't really want to go again but it was kinda fun to go once.

Service: We went with the Spanish elders to go help paint Debbie's house. She is soo grateful for us and knows that we were sent from God to help her in this trying time which is really cool.

So that's basically this week. Oh and I finally got that package :) thanks

Love
Elder Lehr

P.S. My birthday was good. We went to Burgersmith which is really good. And then we had the Fletchers for dinner and they are such good cooks. 

Pretty Crazy Week - 2/16/15

Elder Wittig and Elder Lehr

I hope I can remember all the important stuff that happened this week.

Donald: So we go to teach one of our investigators named Sylvester who is a super cool guy. He took a bullet to the head a while back so he is a little slower but he still understands what we teach him. And right after we teach him this really scary looking guy comes up to us and my first thoughts were "he is gonna kill me" but anyway he didn't. Instead he talked to us about how he has been looking for a church and how he really wants to come to Christ but whenever he tries temptation just gets too hard. So he wanted us to give him a few scriptures to read and we set an appointment and gave him as a referral to the AP's. Super cool.

Zone Meeting: We didn't have MLC this month yet due to Elder Kapishka from the Seventy coming on the 20'th for a zone conference. So we did a zone meeting without that. It actually turned out really well. We are focusing on finding people, our purpose, and inviting. I talked to President Hansen during our interviews and he told me that now is harvest time. That the Lord has prepared lots of people to receive the gospel. The problem is that we do face a lot of persecution and rejection here so a LOT of missionaries get really discouraged and simply aren't willing to find people to teach. Also a lot of members here in Baton Rouge are really discouraged as well so we are going to change that.

Parade: President allowed us to attend one Mardi Gras parade and so we went to one this weekend. It was really fun but I will say that these parades are definitely not your Utah parade. They get pretty crazy here. I got a few beads though that I will send home.

Talk: On Friday we get a call saying that we are giving talks on Sunday and we got pretty busy so we weren't able to prepare our talks till Sunday morning. And when we got to church, President Hansen was there, Elder Bluth the Area Seventy was there and all the stake presidents in our mission were there. And I didn't have much time to prepare my talk so I was like "oh shoot." But it went really well.

When I get home: During interviews with President I finally found out when I am going home. I go home Oct 15. And I entered the MTC October 4. Which means I get to have a longer mission! That's pretty sweet.

Like I said Elder Kapishka is coming on Friday and apparently at the end of March we are having another Seventy come. So we are just getting hammered with General Authorities here. It's pretty sweet.  We need it.

I love you all and I can’t believe I’ll be 20 tomorrow. Mardi Gras is tomorrow as well so everyone will be celebrating my birthday haha. Again, love you

Love Elder Lehr

P.S. Oh yeah we were able to go to the temple. That was sweet. I loved it.

So I haven't gotten a LSU hat yet. That hat is like 25 bucks and my companion and I are looking around for a good deal where I can get a solid hat for like 10 bucks. That way I feel better about it you know. And I’m still a teenager right now :) Elder Horrocks is a treat. I love that man. We have so much fun together. He is the most surprising man I know. He went to Bingham High and he used to have SUPER long hair. And he's an athlete. And at Zone meeting when we all introduce ourselves we also said something interesting about ourselves so I said that I was the pokemon master. And then I find out that he is more into pokemon then I was. Now that is impressive. haha I was laughing so hard when I found that out. I love that man.  Elder Sabey is still rocking in Many from what I hear. I’m glad that Noelle had fun.

Transfers - 2/9/15

Baton Rouge North District (Elder Lehr looks really short - Love the temple in the background)

Free Speech Alley at LSU

(Former) Elder Evans from the Sierra Leone mission saw this picture of Elder Lehr hanging on the wall at the UVU Institute. We sent this to Elder Lehr via email. It totally made his day! He loved Sierra Leone.

So I am now a zone leader in Baton Rouge. So I'll be pretty descriptive of it here. Our chapel is the Stake Center which is on the same lot as the temple so I literally see the temple all the time because it's in my area which is such a blessing. I haven't been to the temple in 16 months and I am so excited to go again soon. Actually tomorrow I am helping out with the youth so I get to do baptisms for the dead there.

Baton Rouge: So to compare it to Many. I have seen more people in one day than there are people in Many. Also there are a ton more shops and restaurants and something about the mission culture here is they like to eat out. So basically if I'm not careful all my money will be gone week 1. So I am now no longer eating out and just cooking for myself. My area is very beautiful. Lots of nice houses and there are only a few ghetto areas in our area. There are tons of really old oak trees that are beautiful. LSU is in our area so we take the ones that are married while we have some missionaries that work with the singles ward. Which is good cause I don't want all those single women after me ;) The worst thing here is the traffic. Well kinda. The traffic is super horrid here. Which means that me as the passenger sometimes gets a little shut eye at stop lights and stuff. So that's the good news. The bad news is it takes us 30 minutes to go like 8 miles.

Companion: My companion is Elder Wittig and he is from Las Vegas. He has been out for 23 months so this is his last transfer. We get along really well. I've learned a lot from him so far. He has been working out. Me and him are going to be doing p90x so I can start my 8 months till sexy. So prepare for a lean mean Elder Lehr! haha

Investigators: We have a few investigators. One who is pretty much an Eternigator. He has been investigating for like 5 years now. He pretty much knows the church is true but I think he is waiting for some family members to pass before he changes his religion. He really loves missionaries and likes to feed us so I'm happy with that. We got a new investigator from the AP's. She is about 63 and was a teacher but now is retired and broke and is kinda a nervous wreck. She was praying for help and then we showed up. She is really humble and a great Christian person and is ready to work so we are helping her find a job through ldsjobs.org and she is also super into family history. She seems pretty solid. Those are our main investigators. The other big work we try do to here is try to help get the young men on missions. We have 1 that was less active but now really wants to work with us and prepare for a mission so that's sweet.

The Truck. So the AP's got switched trucks with the Natchitoches sisters so now the AP's have the Frontier that we used to drive in Many. I finally got my TIWI card so when we were on exchange with the AP's they let me drive the truck just a little. That made me happy.

I miss Many and I love that place but I'm ready to work hard here and love it here.

Love Elder Lehr

P.S. Something kinda interesting here is apparently Louisiana is the hardest mission in the US with an average baptism rate of 1 baptism per missionary their whole mission. That makes me kinda excited that I got sent to a pretty hard mission. 

Also something kinda interesting is Elder Netzley (Elder Sabey's trainee) is a visa waiter. He is originally going to Brazil to speak Portuguese. So it's in our genes to have super foreign missions. I'm from Sierra Leone, to Louisiana by a Canadian, to Brazil. He will get to Brazil and be all like "yeah my grandpa on mission went to Sierra Leone." That's pretty nuts.

Elder Cook's Visit - 2/3/15

Elder Sabey and Elder Lehr with a big fish in Zwolle

Apparently someone had pulled a prank on the Natchitoches elders and put a pool in the middle of their floor. So Elder Lehr and Elder Sabey thought they would see how good the fishing was. :)

This has been a pretty darn crazy week. We went on exchanges and I went with Elder Mecham which was really good. I learned a lot from him. And I'll go from there.

Baton Rouge: So the office elders drove us to Baton Rouge and I found out that the current office elder, Elder Bennett, is good buds with Brooks Hiatt. They were in a ska band and superband together. How crazy is that. 

Elder Cook: We got to have Elder Quinten L. Cook and Elder Hallstrom, and another Elder from the seventy come and speak to us. It was super good. Some things that they talked about was that whether as missionaries or members we succeed when we invite. He also talked about how we are to build the kingdom. Whether that means working with less-actives, investigators, or if we help a young man go on a mission. Just be a kingdom builder in anyway possible. They also talked about how faith is essentially "personal righteousness" remember that next time you read the scriptures. especially Ether 12.

Trent being the man: So every night we send a scripture of the night and last night we forgot and then Trent sends us a scripture of the night reminding us. That got me pretty pumped. I love Trent. He is too awesome. 

Transfer News: I am going to be a zone leader somewhere. I don't know yet. I'll find out tomorrow. So I don't really know where the Sam Hill I am going. Who knows maybe I'll go to Sam Hill. I mean I was in Africa now I'm in Louisiana. 

Well I love you all

Love Elder Lehr

P.S. Oh I forgot to mention Elder Sabey is training so I'm gonna be a grandpa!