Letter #17 (Shreveport, LA)

So this week has been one of hard work, and high temperatures. Its cooled off for a bit today, but the whole last week had to be pushing 115 with the heat index. I may be embellishing a little bit because my bike doesn't have AC! See the bike puts you in a bad situation. In order to stay cooler, you need to make the air around you travel faster, which requires more work from your legs. This extra exertion causes what we as missionaries call perfuse sweating. Once the bike is stopped for extended amounts of time, the body works over time to cool you down, thus causing you to sweat even more than is anticipated. But hey, it makes weight loss very easy!
While yes, this week was hot, it was also very rewarding. With the departure of Elder Spangler, my new companion Elder Merrill came in Tuesday, and the two of us picked up as if we had been comps for months already! This week we focused on three of our investigators who all three of a baptismal date for the 19th of August, that's this Sunday for those of you who don't have a calender handy! Two of the individuals preparing are brothers, DeShawn, and Tyron Gray. They are the son's of a member of our ward who were just sealed to her new husband. The boys haven't been baptized yet because they were living in Michigan with their father, but are now living here, and have the desire to be baptized, so I get to teach them! It is so amazing to be able to help them work towards this special day for both them, and their family!
The other individual we are continuing to work with is Bobbi Peters, who is more than prepaired to be baptized on the same day. She is a mother of a boy who was baptized just over two years ago named Daniel. Daniel is 20 years old, and is actually prepairing to serve a mission in the upcoming future. His estimated time to turn in his papers is about 6 months, so both him and his Mother are eager for that. But first things first! Her baptizim! She has asked Daniel to baptize her, which is awesome, and tomorrow we will be going over there to show them the ins and the outs of baptizim, and what to expect come this Sunday! Very excited for it! Pretty much all that is on my mind!
~Elder Maddox!