Marksville For Life!

So last week I told you y'all I was going back to Marksville and so here I am in a town that is only here because of a huge casino... ya the town starts a mile before the casino and it ends shortly after the casino, but wow I love the people here. It is way laid back, a ton of people don't have jobs they just live off the government and do much of nothing, others are retried from oil rig work and the others work at the Walmart or casino. So after I spent two day cleaning the apt I was ready to live there and get to work. So we went out on foot to go see members and kinda tract along the way. We went from dot to dot on our map trying to figure out where people were,  and that's always fun. We had a snack at the church and then worked our way back and we got home and I looked at my watch to see how far we went and it was like 9.88 and my comp looks up from the couch and said  "Wow that's probably the furthest I had ever walked in my life in one day"... poor kid. But it was a blast for sure! We had church and it was nice because there were high counselors and they were from my last area so it was nice to see them. but church was nice and the spirit is so strong in the little building. I've got no fun story's this week sorry but I love you all have a good week!

 Ok so I forgot one thing I did last week. 

So last p-day was the best. We got up and played golf with brother Vercher. It was a party and he's the best. After that we went to go email a tad. We then played some killer ping pong it was the best! But the best part was... MT biking. Yep I went biking. And it was the best. Now the mountains here are not to big but oh well. We did about 10 miles around this dope lake, we went with brother Magnum and brother Stock. We had a party and it was muddy (which is my fav). After that we went to the greens for dinner round one and today said bye to all the good people. We then went to say bye to sister Sanders and wow that was sad but it had to happen. But I can honestly say that that p-day was the best p-day yet!

Love Elder Gordon

 

 

And 20 months...just like that!

Well let me start off with. I have loved my time here in the Alexandria and Pineville area. So this last Sunday the wards became one, and this past Sunday was the first time we met as one ward and wow it was the best. There were so many people and it was just exciting to see the church full. But I had an awesome opportunity to talk for 5 mins in sacrament meeting and I had the chance to share my thanks. and by good byes to everyone!

But exiting News I am getting transfered to Marksville. So ya I am going back to the area I was trained in. I am way exited to go back. First off I am not too far from the people in Alexandria. And I have good friends in Marksville. Last week I had emailed the mission president and had asked him to put me there so I am glad to go back.  

Other than that the past week was fun just another week of hard work. But I love the work I do. Love you all have a good week. 

Love elder Gordon

March 12, 2018

Okay so I forgot to put a story in last week and it's a crazy story so I'm going to put it in this week's letter. Elder Leach and I were less active hunting and we came  across a record and the name was Andrew so we went to knock on the door of Andrews' house and this scrawny white guy in boxers answered the door. We asked "Hey are you Andrews?"  "No"  " Well is there an Andrew there?" "no"... "ok" was there.  We then started talking to the guy and this guy was all over the place and off the wall! He ended up telling us that he is the "literal son of Jesus Christ" and that he was atheist because religion killed his father (which was Jesus Christ) and this guy was all over the place he would start telling us something and half way through he would switch gears and start on something else and then stop talking and ask "so what do you think?" And we had no clue what the guy was talking about. It went on a while and eventually elder Leach pulled out his phone acting like some one was calling him and we left...😐

Baptism 

Alli Sanders is one of our investigators that we've been teaching over last couple weeks her family, that she married into, the Sanders is one of the families in the ward that is just the best. On Saturday Alli made the awesome decision to get baptized we had an awesome baptism ceremony. Her father in law baptized her her mother in-law had a talk on baptism and her sister in-law talked on the holy ghost and wow the spirit was way strong and it was so cool so see it all happen. It was just the best! 

Sunday.  

okay so last Sunday in both Alexandria and Pineville wards, one of the members of the stake presidency got up and told us about a special meeting next Sunday at 10 AM for both wards together... so all week long we've been going about trying to figure out what the special meeting was.  Just about every member we came across asked us, "Hey what's going on next Sunday"  we're like "don't know".  So we got the church this morning and they combined the Alexandria ward and the Pineville word into one ward.  They Dave Sanders the bishop. It was an awesome opportunity to see all the new changes in the Ward. I am very exited to see the new ward grow and thrive. 

Well that was the better part of my week, we put the truck into the shop last Monday and we got a call this morning that it will be in there until Thursday... so pray for me! Anyway love you all so much have a good week. 

Love elder Gordon 

March 5, 2018

Ok so I am going to try out this way now to see if I like it better. I am not going to go over every day I am just going to hit the high lights or spiritual moment. Ok so ya let's do it.

Ok so Tuesday we Zone Conference. And at Zone Conference elder Winn and I got to give an instruction. And it was on increasing faith and that was way cool to have the opportunity to talk about faith. There is this talk that has a way cool story about how this young mother  learn the true order of prayer I will insert that talk right here( Celeste Davis is a young mother of three whose baby woke up often, every night. She began to pray that she and her baby could get the sleep they needed. But her prayers seemed to go unanswered. This caused her to want to better understand prayer and why she wasn’t being blessed with relief. She learned from the Bible Dictionary that “we pray in Christ’s name when our mind is the mind of Christ, and our wishes the wishes of Christ. … We then ask for things it is possible for God to grant. Many prayers remain unanswered because they are not in Christ’s name at all; they in no way represent His mind but spring out of the selfishness of man’s heart.”

So Celeste decided to make a list of the things for which she had been praying. By making this list, she realized that her prayers primarily consisted of asking Heavenly Father for what she wanted, which was for Him to change her circumstances. She then decided to make another list, writing down those things that she was certain Heavenly Father wanted for her. Of course the two lists were not entirely incompatible—He loves us and wants us to be happy. But this little exercise teaches an important truth. While she wanted to change her circumstances, He wanted to change her. So, she decided to adjust her approach to prayer in order to better align her will with Heavenly Father’s. She wrote:

“I came up with a little formula to help me in my prayers. It is simply this—whenever you ask for something you want and you’re not totally sure if it’s something God wants for you, tack on the phrase ‘but if not’ and then add something you’re sure God would want for you.

“For example: ‘[Heavenly Father], please help me get some sleep tonight, but if not, help me to have enough energy to be pleasant and hardworking anyway.’ ‘[Heavenly Father], please bless that my child will get over this sickness and feel better, but if not, help us to trust in Thee and be patient with each other.’ ‘[Heavenly Father], please bless that I will be included in my group of friends, but if not, even if I feel excluded, help me to be kind and generous.’” 

She continued:

“I’ve tried this out for about a year now, and I can say my rate of prayer success has skyrocketed. …

“I feel like I’m finally fulfilling the real purpose of prayer, which is not to negotiate my desires, but to align myself with God. …

“An unexpected benefit has been that I don’t fear hard situations or not getting what I want nearly as much as I used to because I’ve seen and felt God answer my prayers—both my desires and my ‘but if nots.") we then heard from a lot of the other leaders and people that help keep this mission running. We had a fun full day. 

well it looks like thats really all that i got... we had fun week ahead of us... we just took the car in to the shop and it may be in there for a week so we will be roiling around on our bikes so ya. anyway love you all. 

love elder Gordon