Week 4 in Marksville: I have my first 'pros Monday'

 Bonjour amis et familles!


You might be thinking - it's Tuesday, innit? Why am I getting an email from Elder May today and not yesterday? Has he forgotten about me? What am I to do?
Well, never fear! Yesterday was 'pros Monday' because it's TRANSFER WEEK! (also 'pros' is short for 'proselyting'). Usually one transfer is 6 weeks, but if that was the case this time, transfers would be the week of Christmas, so this transfer was 5 weeks and next transfer will be 7 weeks.

It was a slower week this week, and not only because we had an extra day between p-days. Half the branch is quarantining right now because they're all related to each other and one of them got COVID. Also, we're trying to conserve our miles (I touched on this last week) for the rest of the month so we're really not seeing anyone right now. But there were still some Missionary Moments this week! (how could there not be?)

MISSIONARY MOMENTS OF THE WEEK

We had an extra zone conference on Tuesday last week with the Area President, Elder Martino (head honcho of an entire geographic area that covers many 'stakes', i.e., we're in the North America Southeast Area). We were given some awesome counsel about missionary work and how we can involve members. So, taking that counsel to heart, we had a lesson on Friday with Carl where we were able to have a member join us! One of the few members who isn't related to the big family who's quarantining! She's a convert (like most people down here) and she was able to share with Carl her experience joining the church and how reading the Book of Mormon and doing all the things that God wants him to do will bless his life, along with a lot of other great points. 

FUNNY QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Everyone point at the Sisters and laugh!"

This quote needs the picture to be understood. I'll explain below.

SCRIPTURE/SPIRITUAL THOUGHT OF THE WEEK

Alma 12:1:
"Now Alma, seeing that the words of Amulek had silenced Zeezrom, for he beheld that Amulek had caught him in his lying and deceiving to destroy him, and seeing that he began to tremble under a consciousness of his guilt, he opened his mouth and began to speak unto him, and to establish the words of Amulek, and to explain things beyond, or to unfold the scriptures beyond that which Amulek had done."

There's a lot of context here. And there's also a really good analogy that Elder Martino brought up in our conference. Simply, within the context of this story, Amulek is the 'member' who's just finished teaching Zeezrom, while Alma is the 'missionary'. Often, members can help connect with people we're teaching a lot better than we can, and their testimonies will be a lot more powerful than ours. We can then 'establish' those member testimonies, 'explain things beyond', and help everyone to grow closer to the Savior through that experience. I don't know about y'all, but this analogy blew my mind. I invite everyone to read (or reread) Alma 8-12 sometime this next week so that you can have your mind blown as well. 

Shoutout to the Spence family for hooking me up with a giant gingerbread house that we will make some time today.

Also shoutout to anyone on my list who thinks they deserve a shoutout. Love y'all.

Salut frérots, (slang - basically 'bye, bros')
Elder May

PICTURES:
1. Last district pic of the Alexandria district for this transfer including the two sisters who might or might not have COVID (see the pointing fingers vis à vis the above funny quote - as you can see, not everyone was on board)
2, 3. CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS! Shoutout to my family for hooking me up on that front. These aren't even all of what we put up. It's looking pretty festive up in here.





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