Welcome to Natchitoches - 7/27/15

Dang so transfers have happened and I have been banished to Natchitoches. It is literally the oldest city in the Louisiana Purchase. It is 300 years old. Lots of plantation homes and everything. haha dang it is so weird to be back up here. I pretty much know all the members already and everything so it is weird. But it is good. I love it here. 

Biking: Well let's just say we are on bikes and all I have to say is wife points better be real because biking for 4-5 hours a day in 107 degrees with humidity is killer. haha 11 weeks to sexy :)

Elder Allen: I am now training Elder Allen haha I just can't seem to get away from Allens. This is my 2nd companion named Elder Allen, and our ward mission leader is Bro Allen. I can't get away from them! Elder Allen is great. He is from Eagle Mountain, Utah and let's just say he has greenie fire. He is so obedient and just such a go getter. But still likes to have fun. He is such a stud. He also played baseball with Colten Vincent at West Lake so that's how he knows the Leones. 

Sunday: At church this man named Bruce came to church for the very first time. His friend just gave him a pamphlet with the church's address on it so he decided to come! He loved it. We got his info but he is like half homeless so it's really hard to catch him. But he is a cool guy. We got a few new people we're working with. 

Rednecks: haha I love how redneck it is here. I've missed it. People here are so kind and just sooo funny. Tracting in trailer parks is pretty fun as well. Let's just say that expect me to have eaten raccoon and squirrel before I come home. 

Pday plan: So the plan is we're gonna go to a members and go fishing and play volleyball. Then we're gonna have dinner with the Leones! I'm so excited to see them again. They are great. 

Well things are going real good here. At first it was a bit of an adjustment (to the area) and I am so glad that I am training Elder Allen. If not, it would be real tempting to "trunk out" but know that that ain't gonna happen. 

Love yall!

Elder Lehr

Surprise picture/text from a Natchitoches family

Another "son" for Elder Lehr - Welcome, Elder Allen

We received a surprise picture and text from the Zachary family telling us (Mom & Dad):
"Thanks for sending a wonderful young man to us. He is alive and well & now serving in Natchitoches, LA"

Gotta love the sweet families throughout the world willing to send a little glimpse of our missionaries back home to us.

When Elder Lehr served in Many, LA for 6 months he was in the Natchitoches District. So he is back again on familiar ground. He is training Elder Allen (yep, another Elder Allen) who is fresh from the MTC.  Elder Lehr is excited to train again and finish his mission strong.  These last two transfers will be amazing.

Transfers - 7/21/15

Bowling with the BR Spanish District

Elder Lehr's district and the BR Spanish district

Baton Rouge Zone before transfers

Elder Cole, Elder Lehr and Elder Richardson

This has been a very fun week with tons and tons of service. 

Transfer News: I am getting transferred and I'm gonna be training. All I know is that I am gonna be far away from Elder Richardson that is the only hint I got. 

Exchanges: I went on exchanges with Elder Makin who is one of my favorite missionaries in this mission. And we contacted this potential investigator and he said he would love for us to come visit and so well we did. He ended up being a minister for the Jimmy Swagert church which is very very anti Mormon. All he wanted to do was bash. so that was way fun. Then we went tracting and got more rejection. Haha I love tracting. People have the funniest ways of saying no. Rejection while tracting is pretty darn fun. It makes it so when they say yes I'm taken off guard and I don't know what to do!

Well that's kinda what happened this week. I am excited to train and end my mission with a bang!

Spiritual thought: Elder Pearson said in this last general conference that "hanging in there" is not a principle of the gospel. Enduring to the end is. And in 2 Nephi 31 it says to press forward with a steadfastness in Christ. I think this means using the enabling power of the atonement to have the strength to endure to the end and come unto Christ and be changed. That's the difference between "hanging in there" and enduring to the end is if you come unto Christ and are changed. 

Love yall

Elder Lehr

The boost I need - 7/13/15

This week was really good. Let's see:

Temple: I was finally able to go do an endowment session at the temple. That was my first time in 21 months. It felt soooo good. It gave me the spiritual recharge I needed to finish my mission strong. 

Tracting: So all of our investigators have basically fallen off the face of the earth so Elder Richardson and I decided to go tract hard. So on Friday we went tracting for like 3 hours in 110 degree weather and got straight hardcore rejections. It felt awesome! I felt like a missionary. Then the next day we tracted for like 4 hours and for the first 2 hours it was the same hardcore rejection. But suddenly door after door we started finding people to teach. So now we got like 3 new families we are teaching and that was just sooo cool. 

Joshua: He is a man that we tracted into and is probably one of our investigators with the most potential. He asked a ton of questions and has the cutest family and he is really looking for the truth. He said that from other pastors and stuff he gets a bad vibe from them but when we came he knew that we were good people. And he felt that our message was good. So he is letting us keep coming back. He practically begged for a Book of Mormon to read so he could compare it to the Bible. It was so cool.

Church: Parish finally came to church again! That was the first time in 3 months. He sat next to our ward mission leader and they bonded pretty well. And also Wyatt, a less active who hasn't been to church in a year came suddenly and he really just wants God back in his life so that his family can stay together. It was really cool.  

Elder Bown: I was finally able to talk to Elder Bown for the first time in like 5 years. He is Carson Bown and he was one of my homies back in Jr High. It was soo good to talk to him again. I am excited to see him at transfers.

Love yall Things are looking good

:) 

Elder Lehr

P.S. I love the Allens (The Allen brothers whom he has served with on mission) so much. It's great being Elder Allen's zone leader.  So for a more spiritual note I have a new rally cry. So President Eyring is probably my favorite General Authority. I just love him so much. He said that whenever he is tired and wants to give up he gives himself this rallying cry. "Remember Him!" That made me think of the sacrament and our covenant to remember Him. Really as we keep Him in our minds and in our hearts and Remember Him we will have the strength needed to endure to the end to keep pushing when things get hard. I learned that first hand after like 7 hours of tracting in 110 Louisiana weather. 

'MURICA!! - 7/6/15

Dang all I have to say is God bless America. Amen.

Ok so this week has been pretty eventful. With some pretty cool experiences.

Exchanges: I went with Elder Baker again in my area and it was kinda interesting. It was just one of those days that I had like no energy or motivation to do anything but we decided to go tracting in some rich balla neighborhood for a couple hours. We got rejected quite a lot like we usually do but we were able to teach 2 lessons and get 2 new investigators from it. It was really cool. To motivate Elder Baker when we got rejected I would just point my umbrella forward and yell "wife points!!" haha hey it worked. It got us motivated.

More Exchanges: Right after that I had another exchange with the AP's but I ended up going with Elder Jones from New Orleans. It was weird but real fun. Elder Jones and I became best friends after only 2 days together. It was great he is such a homie.

Investigators: Well after finding out that we were single, one of our investigators pretty much proposed to Elder Richardson so we are no longer teaching her. haha that was pretty funny though. Raven still hasn't come to church. Parish went to Marksville for the weekend. It seems like everyone that we find on our own just won't progress. So now we are changing our approach. We are basically inviting ourselves into members homes so we can help work with them more. That will be key to having our investigators progress. So that's our focus right now.

4th: To celebrate the 4th of July we took a few hours away from pday last Monday so we could have some time on Saturday. So we had a zone bbq and that was tons of fun. I love our zone.

Well I’ve hit my 21 month mark which is pretty crazy. It still feels like I’m gonna be a missionary forever. Dang well I love yall

Love Elder Lehr

Classic flooding - 6/29/15

Baton Rouge North District

Literally it has rained like crazy every single day this week. And the roads have been completely flooded almost the whole time. So this week we had Specialized training and then I also went on exchanges to Plaquemine. 

Exchanges: Plaquemine is crazy ghetto and pretty darn depressing. But it was a really good exchange. A really funny moment was when it was raining buckets and I’m sprinting to our car and I open it and see some black person in the drivers seat and then I realized I ran into someone elses car. Haha that was so awkward but great. I went with Elder Porter and had a great time.

Turtle Shell: Elder Richardson made me a turtle shell and then Elder Gordon painted it into a pokeball. It looks soooo awesome. I love those two so much. President got a pretty good laugh out of it.

Investigators: Raven is doing real well but she got called into work yesterday so she couldn't come to church and Parish had a bad migraine so he couldn't come. But church was still way good.

The zone is doing a lot better now. A lot less struggles and those missionaries that are struggling are working it out.

Well that's about it for this week love yall!

Elder Lehr