Happy Thanksgiving

Hello 

I'm excited to write ya'll this week! I have had a great week! It went by so fast!

It rained good on Friday and Saturday and it's been raining pretty good all morning. I'm so grateful I hauled my rain boots here. They are so nice.

We were tracting at a trailor park and these two black boys, around 13 and 9 were shooting some hoops. I felt like we should talk to them so we went over and asked if we could shoot some hoops with them. Sister Dailey and Sister Giddins wouldn't play, so I shot some hoops with them. It was awesome! I was guarding the little boy and he asks, "what church you from" and while I'm trying to steal the ball I say, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint!" haha I asked who there favorite team was and of course they say the Heat because they love Lebron!

The First Temple Baptist church put on a big Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday that we went to. After the pastor gave a short talk we went up and shook his hand and talked with him for a bit. Turns out he's Carl Malone's (he lives in Ruston) pastor. haha it was awesome!

Another time we were tracting and knocked on a Spanish family's door. Thank goodness Sister Giddins knows some Spanish. The dad invited us in and says, "it's my birthday and I was hoping someone would bring me a present" We handed him a Book of Mormon and wished him a happy birthday! We are teaching them again this week. Our ward mission leader is Spanish so he's coming with us. Bless his heart he's so good to us!

I had to give a talk in church on Sunday. On Elder Ballard's conference talk. It went good. Glad it's over. Guess I'll have to get used to it.

I tracted my first duck hunter yesterday. We're talking legit Duck Hunter. He said he's Baptist, so I asked him what he learned at church this week and says, "Actually this morning I was studyin with the ducks." I totally got the joke and was all, "Really? Did you get any?" But Sister Giddins and Dailey were so confused? They're like "You studied what at church?" haha it was pretty funny. He was nice to us.

Along with that we tracted into a different home that had an antler for the doorknob. They invited us in and they had at least 15 deer heads mounted on their wall. It was so neat. We taught them the restoration, but she couldn't come to terms with priesthood authority and wouldn't take a Book of Mormon. It was a good teaching lesson for all of us though. Just planting seeds.

Ruston is taking on the Christmas spirit. There was a holiday arts door this past weekend in the downtown shops. We went because some of the members had art in it. It was great! They were playing Amy Grant Christmas music and had Christmas trees up. Thanksgiving will be fun this week. We are going to Janice's house. She feeds us every week. We went over there on Thursday night to help make some center pieces. It felt good to get my craft on. Made me miss pinterest a little bit.

I am so thankful that ya'll have made it possible for me to be serving a mission. I am doing good. I love and miss ya'll so much. I am loving being a missionary though. The Elders look after us and so do the STLs.

Have a great week and stay safe!

Sister Hartley