Sorry! I got really busy and don’t have time to write a full weekly email about my week. I will try really hard to send out next week’s email!
May the wind be in your sails and the current in your favor.
May your adventures be great and your journeys end back at home.
May the Light of Christ be in your heart and the Power of God in your efforts.
This week was pretty fun.
Tue 22nd
We put John Smith on a date! He has been progressing really fast. We also had some interesting calls. Sheldon also showed us his katana.
Wed 23rd
We practiced our special music number then drove to Waveland to sleep over with Elder Cuizon and Elder Daines.
Thu 24th
We had ZoCo in Gulfport which was really fun but it took us over an hour and a half to get back to our area.
Fri 25th
We did a lot of referral work especially in the Denham Springs corner of our area.
Sat 26th
We did family history class and once again nobody came which was disappointing but met a frog when we went knocking.
Sun 27th
We had branch conference out was pretty awesome and had a lot of people attend, we got to perform If You Could Hie to Kolob and did some visits with the Stake Presidency. Sister Tassin also gave us some of her own art!
Mon 28th
We had some plans for Pday but they were canceled so I made bread and we did some maintenance for our car.
Have a great week!
May the Light of Christ be in your heart
-Elder Ward
Sorry for not giving y’all an update last week. I was a little busy Monday evening. So I’ll recap last week and this week. Also Happy Easter!
Tue 8th
We had a pretty long call with the Cunninghams making sure everything in their paper area book was in our electronic one.
Wed 9th
I had an experience that I can’t share that really helped me see and feel the importance of being in tune with the Spirit. We also had District Council.
Thu 10th
Thursday was sad because no one came to our family history class. We did set up a sign in the library about Family Search though, so that was good.
Fri 11th
We taught Josep- I mean John Smith about Joh- I mean Joseph Smith. Yay!
Sat 12th
We helped pick up trash around the town. It was mostly alcohol bottles.
Sun 13th
We meet a member at a western store where he gave us the suit Elder Jenkins left in his previous area.
Mon 14th
We had Zone Council and Zone P-day! It was really fun. We did a nerf war, Zone Olympics, and pickleball which I got to ref while eating homemade pizza.
Tue 15th
I had a good exchange with Elder Roberts. We had lunch with the Gunthers who inspected our apartment. I also accidentally ran over a squirrel which made Elder Roberts crack up.
Wed 16th
We had a fun DC because the ZLs and the STLs switched which DC they went to.
Thu 17th
We had an awesome lesson with Josep- I mean John Smith and an interesting weekly planning.
Fri 18th
We had some good lessons even though I didn’t feel very great in the morning.
Sat 19th
We visited the Logans with the Coronas and shared some Easter messages.
Sun 20th
Easter was pretty fun – Brother Topham played his clarinet! We then hung out with the Crutchfields and the Newmans where I met their dog Moses.
Mon 21st
We had Pday with District+Bogalusa again and I got to run a DnD one-shot for everyone! We also played chair soccer.
May the Currents be in Your Favor.
– Elder Ward
Hey y’all this is exciting because there are new faces in town!
Mon 31st
I know I covered this day last email but we did some other stuff too. We stole a spoon, a table and a pull-up bar from the Covington Elders, because they left their door unlocked.
Tue Apr 1st
We had some good lessons with President Newman. We then took some photos next to a train picture on a building. Then went over to the Grices where Elder Stubbs took the Deathnut challenge, which involves eating peanuts that have capsaicin crystals on them making them super spicy, like 16 million Scoville units spicy!
Wed 2nd
We had the last district council of the transfer and got to say goodbye to everyone that was leaving. Then we had 8 elders sleep in our apartment for transfers which was fun.
Thu 3rd
Me and my new companion, Elder Jenkins, helped the Cunninghams move out and then had a wonderful weekly planning. Elder Jenkins is pretty awesome, he is very efficient and strategic.
Fri 4th
We started getting ready for conference and cleaned out our area book.
Sat 5th
We watched conference with the grices and though it is hard to choose a favorite I really enjoyed President Eyring’s talk.
Sun 6th
I really liked Elder Strong and Elder Kim’s talks during the Saturday sessions of conference.
Mon 7th
We went to Hammond and played some board games which were fun. Me and Elder Jenkins are also starting a small DnD campaign in the evenings before bed.
Love y’all
May the wind be in your sails
Elder Ward
Hey y’all this week has been hype!
Mon 24th
For Pday we went to Covington and the beach with the Elders from Bogalusa, The Bog Monsters, Elder Ence and Elder Larsen. We played football, basketball, and Spikeball. I also started my exchange with Elder Roberts.
Tue 25th
I saw a mountain! It was actually a dump. Guess the tallest thing around is a pile of trash. While finding me and Elder Roberts saw Bigg Dogg and little dog.
Wed 26th
We had DC and vehicle inspections where I ended my exchange with Elder Roberts. Me and Elder Stubbs went and did service for a member, where we got to set another branch and leaf pile on fire. We then went to Sheldon’s house. We met his new dog, Bojack.
Thu 27th
I had a stuffed nose and a super sore throat but we still did some calls and missionary work.
Fri 28th
We had a lot of stuff fall through but since the Cunninghams are leaving we are getting their teaching pool.
Sat 28th
The branch had a potluck soon we got a picture with the entire branch. We had our transfer boards drop, Elder Stubbs is leaving and Elder Jenkins is going to be my new companion.
Sun 30th
Fast Sunday was fun and we had dinner with the Crutchfields where we had shrimp and crawfish then took some to Sheldon’s and tried to take a picture with Buck (short for Buckaroo).
Mon 31st
That’s right including this Monday in my email!
We had Pday with the Bog Monsters in covington and played basketball. Then it is tradition in this mission to get a buzz cut when you finish your training Elder Stubbs missed his buzz so he did it after training his first time. I am going to shout out Elder Larsen here for choosing to buzz, because he had some good hair going.
That’s all for this week! I’m excited for General Conference, make sure you watch it with a question!
\/..|||. Live well and love others
May the Winds be in your sails
The current in your favor
The Light of Christ in your heart
And the Power of God in your efforts
I am leading the area completely now, so I get to host the ZL’s and DL’s when we do exchanges!
Mon 17th
Aldi is now open and Elder Stubbs literally celebrated in the car when we saw the Now Open sign. Fire Pday we went to Slidell and played Gatorball which is a mixture between football and soccer or for those of you that don’t live in America, American Football and Fútbol.
Tue 18th
We got to do a lot of service including picking up and burning fallen branches for one of our members.
Wed 19th
We went to District Council where I started my exchange with Elder Swenson, one of my ZL’s. We got to teach an awesome lesson to Pastor Green.
Thu 20th
Elder Swenson and I ended our exchange, he taught me a lot about how to improve my personal study.
Fri 21st
Us and the Cunninghams are working really hard and we found some people that hadn’t been contacted by missionaries since 2023!
Sat 22nd
We found a “hype park!” So the story behind using hype. Elder Stubbs likes to quote an Elder he knew that always said “Hype miracle guys!” So whenever something happens that we recognize as a miracle, we always say “hype miracle guys” and as such the word hype is making it into my daily vocabulary.
Sun 23rd
We are making a comeback! Elder Ward is destined to turn this branch into a ward! We had record amounts of people last week and this week. 46 people showed up last week and 41 people showed up this week! The average from last year was around 25 people!
I know that as we strive to be obedient to God’s laws he will bless us in a myriad of ways.
May the wind be in your sails
The current in your favor
The Light of Christ in your heart
And the power of God in your efforts
Love y’all
Elder Ward
One of my new favorite scriptures is Alma 18:27 don’t worry it’s a short one. It answers a lot of questions.
Most people agree that Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina are the “South”. What other states do you consider as part of the South?
Mon 10th
Daylight Savings kicked my trash; I was so tired! We went to Hammond for Pday and played Risk and KanJam. I also started my exchange with Elder Searle.
Tue 11th
Even though it was super foggy in the morning my exchange with Elder Searle went great! First we had a great workout. We then went to the Bishop’s Storehouse and played Tetris with boxes of food and toiletries. We went knocking and had a cat follow us the entire time. Then we had two really deep discussions about parts of the gospel with people.
Wed 12th
We finished the exchange then me and Elder Stubbs had beignets after we had maintenance done on our car.
Thu 13th
Thursday was uneventful except that we went back down to Mandeville to help transport a car to Zone Conference.
Fri 14th
We had a huge ZoCo with four other Zones, about half our mission! We had Elder Hamilton come and talk with us. It was really fun and spiritual. On the way back Elder Stubbs was really tired. We also helped someone move in.
Sat 15th
We were under tornado watch in the morning but it cleared up so we got to go to the oyster festival where I had some charbroiled oyster. It was good 8/10. Me and Elder Stubbs also got called Bible salesmen which is a new one for me.
Sun 16th
The Cunninghams are leaving soon so they gave a farewell talk in church which many of our teaching friends came to, so that was cool. On the other hand we did Interactions which is the worst! It is where we message people who liked or commented on the church’s Facebook page.
Whew 3 months! Is has gone by so fast I can’t believe it! Soon I’ll likely have a new companion and lead the area!
You guys are awesome!
May the power of God be in your efforts.
-Elder Ward
Lets get right into it
Mon 3rd
We had Zone Council and talked about how to put people on date. Then we had Zone P-day at a member’s house and played capture the flag and volleyball which was a blast!
Tue 4th
Mardi Gras! …we were under a tornado watch so we didn’t do anything. We did celebrate my birthday! I am two decades old now! Ancient right?! Thanks to everyone who contacted me and wished me a happy birthday.
Wed 5th
Elder Stubbs was sick so we didn’t do anything exciting.
Thu 6th
I got sick from Elder Stubbs but it wasn’t as bad and I recovered quickly.
Fri 7th
We had District Council and our PPI’s! PPI’s are awesome! We also got our car back and we’re able to visit people we couldn’t bike to.
Sat 8th
We went out and tried to dedicate the day to staying out of our apartment. So we were knocking and visiting people and inviting people to come to church.
Sun 9th
Elder Stubbs gave a talk about charity in church and we had a linger longer afterward with Popsicles!
Y’all are awesome thanks for your emails.
May the light of Christ be in your heart,
Elder Ward
For the past three Fridays I have had some sort of sickness. Friday morning I start being sick, one or two days later and I wake up fine! It is strange.
Mon 24th
Pday was late. The Elders that were giving Mandeville a ride had their car battery die so they were very late to Pday. We had fun though. Elder Roberts and I played volleyball where the ball could bounce once and we couldn’t use our hands and arms to touch the ball.
Tue 25th
We had some awesome lessons and got a teaching friend to start reading the Book of Mormon. William gave us some ice cream after we taught him a lesson!
Wed 26th
I gave my first discussion in District Council on the power and authority of our calling. It went very well! We also had a great comp study session at the park about how to help people keep commitments. We also went to Sheldon’s where Elder Stubbs got to try on a gas mask!
Thu 27th
Ty mom fr – sped rit’g bks.
So… Mandeville has not had a car for a month so we were voluntold to let them use our car. (Since we are the reason their car is in the shop.)
Fri 28th
I had a horrible sore throat and cough so I was instructed to rest and recover.
Sat March 1st
I finished recovering. Sister Cunningham is awesome and came in clutch with some Dōterra stuff. Also shout out to the “Winds of Change”. Thanks for the videos, have fun!
Sun 2nd
We didn’t have very many people show up to church but Elder Stubbs took some funny photos with my phone when I wasn’t looking.
That about wraps up everything this week. Mardi Gras is on March 4th so we might have some stories to tell next week, but who knows?
I love hearing from all y’all. Thank you for your emails! One conference talk I listened to this week was “Following Up” by M. Russell Ballard in the April 2014 conference. I really enjoyed it and would invite all of you to listen to it as well.
May the Currents be in Your Favor
Elder Ward
We visited a lot of people this week, and traveled quite a bit.
Mon 17th
We drove down to Mandeville the night before so we could do P-day with them and give them a ride to the beach… since they still don’t have a car… Elder Stubbs has apologized multiple times. We also went to our Branch’s FHE activity at the Tassins.
Tue 18th
We traveled around town and took some photos while we went park hunting for a good place to do outdoor studies. As the weather is warming up to a nice 76°F.
Wed 19th
We helped the sisters teach some people and had some cool miracles happen. We also got our keys back from them and were able to get our Valentines Day mail!
Thu 20th
We went knocking on a bunch of houses and found out that a lot of people just don’t live where they are supposed to.
Fri 21st
We had some awesome plan of salvation lessons ate some crawfish and had dinner with the Logans.
Sat 22nd
Saturday was my busiest day yet on my mission! E visited a ton of people and even had someone flag us down while we were driving to pray with them.
Sun 23rd
Elder Stubbs was able to get a good photo of Elder Roberts. I was weirdly sick but we still had two of our teaching friends come to church. We have also been working on our Jesus walls.
Thank you to everyone that sent me emails! I love hearing from you!
May the wind be in your sails.
P.S. check out the “not chess” quote 😉
Elder Zachary Ward 