Elder Louw's Address

Elder Izak Louw
NY Utica Mission
PO Box 149
Whitesboro, NY 13492-0149

thanks for all your letters, prayers, and support!

Love, Elder Louw

Favorite Hymns

My new favorite Hymns are page 264, 25, 27, 319, 333, 334, and especially 26! I have not spoken in church yet just said a prayer. After transfers, I am still with Vogelsang. The most unusual things I have seen are fireflies, trucks everywhere on the military base and filthy houses beyond my comprehension. The scariest thing that has happened was encountering dogs and nearly being bitten 3 times. Also a guy yelled and swore at us while tracting but that was mostly funny. The other day I said a prayer that we would find someone new to teach and at the last house we went to we found two kids who were really nice. We spend a lot of time on Fort Drum Military Base. So we have to use the car to get there. We are allowed 1050 miles a month in the car. It goes really fast so we try and get rides from the couple missionaries. For all the stuff in Carthage we ride bikes or walk.

First confirmation

Well we had a baptism last Saturday, Greg Smith, and this last Sunday I was able to confirm him a member of the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints and give him the Holy Ghost. It was really cool. I was super nervous because it was my first confirmation and blessing I did by myself. We are still teaching the Pettis family (Jeff and Michelle.) They are really cool. Jeff loves church and everything about it. Michelle is learning quickly. We were not able to teach her much in the beginning because she works so much, but she is starting to make time for us now that she is seeing the big picture. It's great! We are planning on setting them with a baptismal date soon so that will be cool. We have had to walk a lot and ride out bikes a lot lately because our miles for that month are pretty low. We did a 15-20 mile bike ride the other day. Now that might not sound like much to dad but on crappy mountain bikes going against the wind it's a lot! Let me tell ya! Everything else is pretty much going good. We teach about 25-30 lessons a week, talk to 50-60 new people a week. We had 3 investigators at church last Sunday which is pretty good. There is this new guy we found named Rajiv. He is sweet.

Oh ya, Jeff Pettis gave me a pair of winter boots that are really nice and he said he is going to give me a coat that is really nice that he does not want any more. He just wants to fix the coat pocket first. So my prayers about getting my winter stuff have been answered. Jeff is super nice. I told him I would buy my own but he insisted because he was going to give them away anyways. The days are starting to get cooler now and the leaves are just starting to change color. Hope everyone is doing good. You're in my prayers!