Dear Family
I have some exciting things to tell you this week because I have been pretty busy. We had exchanges this week with the LaPlace Elders so I spent a day in there with Elder White who was in the MTC with me. We did just about the same things we do in Kenner just with different people and with a car haha. One guy that we saw was named Bro. Watkins who is blind and very talkative. He was a little surprised to find out I wasn't Elder White's regular companion but he seemed to not mind too much. At one point he was talking to us about how he feeds the missionaries every week but that this week he was broke. He told me that had to come back to LaPlace on Thursday the next week so he could feed me and Elder White and make sure that Elder Hansen went back to Kenner. Along with that when he heard what my name was he quickly gave Elder White a funny look and quietly mentioned something about the Prophet Joseph Smith which I honestly get quite a bit but it makes me smile. So, after seeing these people on exchanges I decided that everyone in Louisiana loves to talk! That honestly is one of the tough the things we have to do to make visits effective is get people to just listen to us for a second. Its really funny because some people just get so excited to talk to missionaries. After exchanges, we got back into the regular and waited patiently for Monday to come so that we could hear about transfers. Before Monday came though we had the chance to go to mass with Joshua the young guy we had been teaching. It was quite the event and to say the least made me grateful I don't have to do that every week. It was kind of sad to see the emptiness of the worship especially since it was obvious that a very select few took the service seriously and most people were just going through the motions. Obviously this isn't something that only Catholics do because there are many Mormons who seem to just go through the motions. But with a service the Catholics have which is so routine it would be easy to get stuck going through the motions...Now onto to transfers... I had a pretty good idea what was going to happen because President Wall had told me some hints, but still when Monday came we were excited. So the news is that Elder Porter will be leaving Kenner and I will be taking over the area. I think im going to be surprised of what it entails to take over an area but Im excited still. im a little sad to see Elder Porter leave after becoming good friends with him and serving with him for these first six months. Now to the craziest event of the week.... Mardi Gras. We had planned to go to the first parade that started at 8 in the morning so in order to get there we had to get up super early this morning to make it early enough to both get a good parking spot and spot to wait for the parade since some people camp out over night for their spots. Luckily everything went smoothly in the morning and we managed to get to the first parade which is called Zulu I think my companion can explain best what the whole thing was like. Plus I'm feeling a little lazy so I'm going to plagiarize a bit from him.
Mardi Gras from Elder Porters perspective
The parade begins, and there are massive floats! amazing bands! people flooding the streets! throughout the parade everybody floods the entire streets, there is absolutely no order, just get out of the way of the float as it passes by.
So the second parade was also a very big parade for the city. It was the Rex parade. Where every float is a different Greek God. They all had their individual special beads. This was a white people float so it didn't compare to the black float at all.....Black people know how to throw a party! this parade wasn't as interesting more or less we were simply standing in the mud of the streets, soaking wet and only getting excited for the good stuff. ha The costumes of this parade were also really sweet!
The final parade was the truck parade! i would have loved this one if the weather wasn't so bad! by the time this parade arrived it was down pouring rain we were extremely wet, and very very cold. so we didn't finish this parade. This parade was only diesel Tractor trailer trucks one after another railing on the horn! back to back full of people on the floats ready to throw beads, this parade lasted forever! we wish we could have stayed longer but it was just too cold to stay for all of it.
Some interesting facts about Mardi Gras. Parades have been going for the passed couple of weeks now, today was the big parades and they began at 8:00 this morning with Zulu, and it will end tonight at precisely midnight so the rest of the town can get some sleep and begin their 40 day fasts of lent! For tomorrow is Ash Wednesday for Catholics.
So, ya you get the idea I am not a huge fan of the crowds but since I was there I decided I might as well make the best of it. And now I'm just writing these emails and getting prepped for Transfer meeting tomorrow to meet my new companion.
Love Elder Smith
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