Miss Us With The Red Dots
Hey friends and family, elder Laga here.We are prepping for Elder Clayton of the 70 to come to our mission.He's going to be meeting with us in just a little bit and he wants to visit our house and some other missionaries houses.And so we're prepping for that.And so because of its, because of that, I'm just going to talk again if that's okay with you all.Hopefully I'll be able to look back at these and be able to listen to them and share experiences that way.But this week was really cool.I got to go on a few exchanges with some missionaries.One was a missionary down in Blackfoot, and our landlord there was like best friends with my aunt and uncle.And so I got to see my cousinPorter for the first time since our missions.And so that was really cool.I didn't do it on purpose.I felt really guilty, honestly, when I saw but couldn't change the outcome.This is a blessing.Aunt Mindy gave us some creamies and my little cousin Reese is growing up, so it's really fun.The exchange with Other Gib was really awesome.I got to see what Blackfoot was like, a lot of really kind people.Then my exchange, I went on exchange with OtherMyers, and he played football at Utah State.He's a lineman and he said he's lost like £70 since being on the mission, which is crazy, but he's a champ.He was down in Shelley, but he came up to be with us up in our area.And an experience that I had with him is why the title of my email is the way it is.So in missionary terms, a red dot is like a do not contact, like, avoid this person at all cost.And a lot of the members that have lived here for a long time just assume that people don't want us to talk to them because they saw a fight happen in front of the house or whatever it is.And so there's this thing on our phones where it said, do not contact this family.Avoid at all costs.And I've been in the area for seven and a half months, eight months now, and I was just kinda sick and tired of people telling me to avoid them because I was with a big huge offensive lineman.I felt safe.And so we're like, all right, let's go contact these people.Let's go see what's up.And so we get there and there's a shirtless guy named Mark that answers, and he was like super sweet, he was super kind.And we're just like, hey, how are you?And we just had some small talk, but then we wanted to talk about what made him happy.That was our sole purpose.We one wanted to see if we'd get shot because that wouldn't be cool, but stories, right?But we wanted to see how this family could be happy because we knew that there were kids at the house, too. And so we asked another Myers, just like, hey, it was Thanksgiving just a week ago, and Christmas is coming up. Do you mind if we come in and ask the whole family what you all are most grateful for?And Mark's like, yeah.And Mark invites us in, and we go in, and there's like this 14 year old girl, a twelve year old girl, and this30 year old lady that's there, and her name is Shay.And we get in there, and then we're talking and we get to asking them the question of what makes them the most happy.And they say, my family and we talk about why.And we show them a little video.And the Shay this mom, she's the mom of, like, a six year old, five year old kid.She's just, like, super into it.And I pull out a Book of Mormon that I had, and it has tabs on it to Mark, where you can find questions to different answers, like, how can I find happiness?Or where do I go after I die?Just things that will bring peace to people's life if they don't know where it is.And so we kind of explained to her what it was, and we gave her the copy of the Book of Mormon.And we kept talking to the little kids.And it was really cool to see as I Was sitting on the fireplace, like, step thing, because they didn't have a lot of chairs, they didn't have a lot of stuff in their house.Other Myers was sitting on the ground, and I Was sitting on the fireplace step watching Cheyenne.She was leaned over, sitting on the couch, just like, hunched over this book.And she's not familiar with scripture and stuff, and so she opened up to one of these tabs, and the tab talked about or it presented the question of why does God allow evil and suffering occur?And we didn't know why she wanted to turn to that, and we didn't know she was turning to that.But all we could see is her mouth reading what was going on or what she was reading.And it was really cool to see how her appearance changed, and she started getting really emotional.And that was one of the things that was really touching to see because the scriptures really do bless your lives, even though you don't know what's going on.And so we asked her after we kind of got done talking to the little kids that were in the room with us, we just said, hey, is everything all right?And she looked up at us, and she's like, Everything's awesome.And we're like, Whoa, what did you read?What did you look up?And she looked at the scripture and was just like, I was looking at this.And it was in alma was talking about some tragedies that had happened, and we're like, what made you want to turn to that tab?And we thought maybe we had assumed that maybe something bad happened to her.And she goes, you know what?And then she starts talking about how it's really sad to see your loved ones go through a really hard time.And honestly, I was able to connect with her just because that's what I feel is really hard as well.I'm okay if I go through a hard time.I'm okay if I have a struggle or a challenge, but seeing a family member or a friend or another missionary go through a hard time kills me.And it's so hard.I want to do everything I can to help them out, but sometimes it doesn't.You're not able to.And so she was dealing with that, and so we were able to talk with her about the best way to help raise a child or help out a grandma or whatever the situation may be.And she was just super happy that we came by, and it was really a really cool experience for us.And we walked out of the appointment like, holy cow.We are so grateful.We couraged up and went and talked to his family, because all the members in the area were like, don't go talk to them.They're scary. They're not nice.And they were the kindest ever.And so open your mouth when it's scary.That's what I'd encourage you all to do.Or go try out something that you feel like you should.And if you mess up, you mess up.Try to get an offensive lineman with you.Those guys always help out.I was really grateful for his courage and his boldness at the door, but, yeah, that was one of the highlights of this week, for sure.We also went to a temple ceiling.Elder Connor had a person that he baptized, and so they gotta be sealed as a couple for time in all eternity.So that was my first time being able to go see a ceiling, and that was a really touching experience.I love my family so much.I hope they always are doing the right thing.I hope all of you all are.If you're in Alabama, if you're in Utah, St.Louis, wherever you all may be, but I'm sorry for taking up ten minutes of your time.I am loving it out here in Idaho.There's no place I'd rather be.There's no place where I could be able to gain the experience, experiences that I'm gaining, surrounding myself, and serving other people, especially at this time during the Christmas season.I love you all.I will try to write.It's just really easy to do voice clips, but yeah, I love you all.Have a great week. Bye.
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