The Palantir

Well ladies and gents, exciting news! I’ve been transferred once again! Slightly sad to leave Elder Witbeck and New Iberia, but Elder Witbeck is training so that’s exciting. I have been moved to Mandeville to greenie break Elder Marsh.

One of the best things about Mandeville is that I can finally say that Elder Ward has now served in a ward! It only took 10 months! I thought that I would only be in a ward at the end of my mission. Elder Marsh is awesome! I really think he is a “W” companion in disguise.

It is very interesting to serve in Mandeville since it is in the same District as Amite which is where I started my mission. I went on exchanges here and served around here before, so I sometimes get déjà vu when we’re traveling through the area. 

We had an amazing lesson with one of our teaching friends that took almost two hours. He wasn’t ready to come to church yet he said but he believes in the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and wants to learn all he can.

Mandeville is very different from New Iberia because in New Iberia we had a ton of referrals who we had to visit so we had to drive a lot. While here in Mandeville we don’t have many referrals and go knocking much more often. One of the silliest things about knocking on doors is that many people ask how old we are. I always ask them to guess how old I am and the guesses have ranged from 12 years old to 19 years old with the most common guess being 16 years old. I must have some very youthful features.

I recently watched “The Parable of the Slope” by Elder Clark G. Gilbert and for me it really hit hard because of how God wants us to grow and how much like in the Parable of the Talents God doesn’t care what we start with he cares what we do with it. Here is the link to it. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/video/inspirational-messages/2023-01-0040-the-parable-of-the-slope-elder-clark-g-gilbert-eng

May the Light of Christ be in your heart.

– Elder Ward