First: Transfers! Elder Warenski left for Mississippi and I have a new companion here in Pride, Elder Connor.
Second: Stake Conference! It was awesome and had some funny talks. It was completely focused on missionary work. The missionaries sang as a choir and we sang ‘Called to Serve’ and ‘Hope of Israel’ it was really good.
Third: Jimmy came to church! Here in Louisiana the biggest thing we struggle with as a mission is getting people to come to church. But Jimmy made it and loved it. He said he’d try and make it as much as possible with his busy schedule.
Fourth: It’s getting hotter! We’ve been drinking more and more water every day to keep cool, because even when it rains we’re having upper 80s and lower 90s weather with the humidity making it feel like a sauna. I’ve been told by some members that this summer is going to be a hot one!
Fifth: Transfers pt2! Elder Marsh and Elder Sanders are both serving in my district so we get to see each other on Pdays!
Spiritual thought inspired by Elder Connor:
Mosiah 24 is about Alma’s people being persecuted by Amulon. In verse 10 their afflictions have become so much they start crying out to God. Amulon commanded them to stop praying so Alma and his people prayed in their hearts and God eased their burdens.
This shows three things. First, whether out loud or silent, God hears our prayers. Second, Satan knows the power of communication with God and will try to stop it with everything he has: distraction, deception, and destruction. Third, God gives what is best for us. Even though we might be praying for deliverance we might only have our burdens lessened at first so that we may learn from our trials.
This week was pretty fun. I went on exchanges to Zachary again, this time with Elder McCain. We had a whole bunch of lessons and were out with a cool Priest named Zade.
A cool experience we had this week was at a meal with a member. They had invited one of their friends over for the dinner as well and they had a ton of questions about the church and I was able to answer all of them!
Last week we had Zone Conference where we had some amazing presentations and I met Elder Rentmeister who met my cousin in the MTC. Two of the sisters that I came out into the mission with gave their going home testimonies as well. It made me realize how fast a mission is.
I’ll leave you guys with one of my favorite quotes from Elder Uchtdorf, from his talk ‘Do Your Part With All Your Heart’.
“Simply put, discipleship takes self-discipline.
It is not a casual endeavor, and it doesn’t happen by accident.
Faith in Jesus Christ is a gift, but receiving it is a conscious choice that requires a commitment of all our “might, mind and strength.” It is a practice of every day. Every hour. It takes constant learning and determined commitment. Our faith, which is our loyalty to the Savior, becomes stronger as it is tested against the opposition we face here in mortality. It endures because we keep nourishing it, we keep actively applying it, and we never give up.”
How has life been treating you? I’ve had some fun exchanges and lots of rain.
I was able to go on exchanges to Zachary, McComb, and Denham Springs! It was fun to visit the Zachary area and we talked to 4 different atheists during that exchange. In McComb we had some awesome lessons and I remembered the streets really well so I was able to direct us without a map. I went on exchanges in Denham Springs with Elder Weston. He’s currently one of four APs in the mission right now because we are preparing for our mission to split in July. Pride is doing okay; the only problem we are facing is that people don’t want to drive 20 minutes to church.
Now I get to save the best for last and wish my mom a wonderful Mother’s Day! She has been the greatest inspiration in my life and I’m so glad she is my mother. I couldn’t have asked for someone better. She has always supported me and taught me basically everything I needed to survive on the mission. Happy mother’s day mom!
I’ve had a blast up in Farmerville. We watched General Conference with the Varners. My favorite talk was Elder Bednar’s talk “All Who Have Endured Valiantly” where he connected enduring to the end and charity.
We had a Blitz in Farmerville, where every companionship in our district worked in Farmerville for a day. It was awesome! We saw a ton of miracles and me and Elder Sanders had a cool lesson with a dude who is going to preacher school.
A funny experience we had a few weeks ago was when me and Elder Sanders went over to someone who was taught by missionaries in the past. We went over and they were very welcoming, gave us a bunch of food and some really good salsa then told me I should be a model.
Some other big news, I’ve been transferred! I’m now in Pride, Louisiana with yet another W companion, Elder Warenski!
Let’s rewind and have a quick recap, because guess what! I’ve hit 16 months!
6 areas
10 companions
12 transfers
1 baptism
3 times the cops were called on us
thousands of doors knocked
thousands of seeds planted
487 hours of personal study
I’ve loved my mission it has changed me and made me a better person. I learned something from each person I interacted with. I know I’ve still got a third of my mission to go and I’ll probably grow even more, but I’m excited to see what the next 8 months bring!
I’m currently writing this email from El Dorado, Arkansas because I’m on exchanges with Elder Hallam. But, I’ve been having a great time in Farmerville the past two weeks.
It’s been interesting with only Elder Sanders because what we’ve mostly been doing is long knocking sessions along highways but it has been pretty successful in this area.
I got to celebrate my 21st birthday with some members on the sixth and they made me a cookie dough cake! It was six pounds of chocolate chip cookie dough shaped into a cake. It was very dense and all of us together could only eat one slice so I got to take the rest of it home and now there is only two pounds left!
I can definitely tell that Spring is here because Louisiana can’t decide if it wants to be winter or summer! We’ve had days where it is 80° followed by days where it is 32° then back to 80°. It just won’t give us a nice low 70s day.
Until next time and may the wind be in your Sails!
It’s already transfer time and I realized the last email I sent was when I got here to Farmerville around 6 weeks ago! So it’s about time for an update and to make sure that you all know that I haven’t died a horrible death from any sort of the wildlife down here.
Farmerville…
Farmerville is a fun place and the members are amazing, they are very missionary minded. We fared pretty well in the ice storm we had at the beginning of the transfer. But there was still patches of ice on the road for about a week and a half after. Now the thing about Farmerville is that it’s very back country and the largest town in our area is Farmerville. So we get to drive along back roads and basically get to go off-roading to go find our teaching friends. It’s really fun!
Holidays…
Valentine’s Day was pretty fun. We got to share Christ’s love with everyone and in District Council the awesome senior couple, the Stumpfs, brought everyone Valentine’s and treats and then after Mardi Gras they brought everyone Mardi Gras souvenirs. Now Mardi Gras is a pretty big deal here in Louisiana; they basically shut down the entire town for the day and have big parties and parades. So not much missionary work happens on Mardi Gras because we’re not allowed to proselyte at those parties or parades.
Exchanges…
Both of my exchanges this transfer have been with Elder Hallam, a missionary who is just finishing his training this transfer. He is so awesome! He has so much faith and even though he’s still in training he knows a lot and can really teach by the Spirit. I served with him in Farmerville and his area, El Dorado, which is the only area in our mission that is completely in Arkansas. That means I have now been to every single state in my mission: Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Free time…
Elder Sanders along with Elder Marsh have been getting me into Magic the Gathering. It’s been pretty fun to play with them and I’ve been trying to collect all of the knowledge on how to play every nerd game on the mission. We’ve also been playing Dungeons & Dragons almost every other night which has been really fun to DM them both.
Lastly, for my spiritual thought… Something that I have learned over this last transfer is the power of faith and how God has sent us here at this time, at this moment of Earth’s history, because we are the best of the best for this time. The fact that you and I are here right now means that the Lord has something very special in store for each and every single one of us. Quoting President Nelson in his worldwide devotional. “Our Heavenly Father has reserved many of His most noble spirits—perhaps, I might say, His finest team—for this final phase. Those noble spirits—those finest players, those heroes—are you!” Now the fact that each of us are heroes, with the coolest magic system in existence (the priesthood) is so cool. So what will you do as a jewel of the Lord?
Alright, sorry for no email last week. But I do have some exciting news! I’ve been transferred to Farmerville! I’m also in a trio, my companions are Elder Sanders and I’ve once again become companions with Elder Marsh.
My travel to Farmerville was interesting because we first drove up to Hazelhurst to stay the night and then in the morning we drove down to the mission office and packed all of our trios stuff into our Rav and then drove to Farmerville for a grand total of about 8ish hours of driving.
The day after we got to Farmerville there was a huge ice storm for Louisiana and we got about an inch of snow/ice which basically shut down the entire state because fun fact the State of Louisiana has no snow plows so we have been stuck inside since Saturday and we’re hoping we can get out by Wednesday.
To keep ourselves entertained during these past few days, we’ve been calling people, sleeping, and playing games. I even made some bread and put blue food coloring in the dough which made it look like it had mold.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! 2026, wow! So on your mission, there is this thing called your blackout year. Which is your first year on the mission, from January first to December 31st. It is called that because for some people it goes by so fast it seems as if you’ve blacked out and you’re already done with the year.
Christmas, New Years, and their eves were all very interesting since we didn’t go out to knock on people’s doors. We were encouraged to do missionary work in other ways such as visiting members and contacting people we’ve already been in contact with and wishing them Merry Christmas and happy new years as well as leaving them with the Spirit. So, it has been a very interesting past few weeks in this holiday season, where we didn’t do normal door-to-door contacting.
So the Ward Christmas party was way back during my last email. I didn’t put it in because I wanted to do it for my Christmas email. But it was really fun, we recreated Jerusalem in the church’s gym and had an amazing recreation of the nativity story. I loved how Christ-centered it was.
The weather here is weird. The day after Christmas it was 76° and new years eve it was 27° then today was back to 70° so it really doesn’t feel like winter here and everything is still green.
New Years was crazy! Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you think, I am not in an area where gunfire is the main firework during new years. However when midnight hit it sounded as if thousands of cannons were being fired continuously. The fireworks continued until the third too!
Jeffery R. Holland was an amazing Apostle and I loved his last talk during the Christmas devotional. I know that God has a great work for him on the other side of the veil.
Til next time May the Light of Christ be in your heart
Well, It’s been a bit since I last emailed. Sorry about that, that’s on me. I’ll try to be better. However, a lot has happened, it’s been almost a full month. A whole month since I’ve last emailed, such a tragedy.
In that space of time. I have had some fun experiences. I have to start with Thanksgiving. Yes, I know it’s Christmas this week, but I have to first talk about Thanksgiving. It’s actually one of my favorite holidays! It is where we actually get to be thankful for everything around us rather than just wanting everything around us; I really enjoyed it! We got to go over to a member in the Covington Ward and have a wonderful meal. They cooked the turkey with the dark and light meat separately and used a cool cooking method that made it very tender and juicy. I loved it. The food down here in Louisiana is some of the best stuff I’ve ever had, and it’s probably the reason I’ve gained 30 pounds on the mission!
We also had stake conference, which had some amazing messages. They talked a lot about missionary work, it was really awesome.
We’ve met with Shane again and its been really awesome because he’s become more interested in coming to church again. And it was really cool to see him get through that anti church literature stuff that he ran into.
We then had transfers! This transfer was longer than a typical transfer because they tried it make it so we don’t have a transfer during the holidays, but it just flew by! Elder Marsh has taken his passage to Farmerville, where many of my previous companions have now gone to, which was funny. My new companion is Elder Stewart, and he’s a pretty cool guy.
Also, that cool family that came to church, they have had us over a few more times and they’re really awesome. They gave me a new bread recipe too! It was delicious, and I plan on making more!
On an additional note, I also hit my year mark on the mission a week ago today! It was honestly very surprising. It has only felt like a few months have really passed to me, but it’s been a whole year! Looking back, I have grown so much. I have met so many new people and I’ve had a new companion basically every transfer! I’ve learned so much from each and every single one of them. It’s been a blast and I can’t wait for the next year.
We also had our zone conference and that was really fun. It was our Christmas zone conference and during the last half we got to do bonding activities. Those bonding activities were very fun. I learned how to brush my teeth properly because President Smuin is a dentist. He took some time to discuss how we should brush our teeth, because during those bonding activities, we got a lot of candy, and he gave us toothbrushes for Christmas. Now, I’ll probably never have cavities again, as long as I follow his instructions.
Zone conference with earlier this transfer due to Christmas happening. But this Monday, we had our zone council and zone P-Day where we got to meet up in Slidell with the entire zone and it was really fun. We played a lot of volleyball and pickleball.
Well, since I suppose Christmas is this week. I should leave you with a spiritual thought. Now many people enjoy reading the Christmas story from Luke and Matthew, it’s a wonderful story, but one thing that was introduced to me on the mission, and that I have really loved this Christmas season was reading the nativity story with the inclusion Samuel the Lamanite and from his prophecies, I’ve loved the perspective it’s given me. So I would urge you all to read the prophecies of Samuel.
This week had some interesting experiences – most of it was pretty good though.
We had a wonderful exchange with our Zone Leaders. I got to go to Covington and be with Elder Fisk. And we got to knock some pretty rich areas. Which is something that our mission is trying to focus more on now and using to find those good Christian families who are ready to hear the Gospel.
We had a very interesting interaction over WhatsApp with a lady who was trying to find a previous missionary and who thought we were that missionary.
Met with our amazing friend Shane again and found out that he had found some anti church literature and doesn’t want to be baptized anymore. However, he still wants to understand more and continue meeting with us so that’s a relief.
We had a wonderful meal with the family that came to church last Sunday and taught them about the Plan of Salvation which they really enjoyed. Then we invited them to come to church again, and they came and loved it!
Elder Zachary Ward 