we found out we had bed bugs...... kind of bad

It’s a good thing I brought my camping tent down to Camden because I’m going to be staying here another 6 weeks. We just got the transfer call last night and Elder Anderson is going to be leaving Camden. It is so weird to think that we have been together for half of my mission!! It feels like just the other day we were driving home having met each other for the first time, but it’s good to have change. If there is no change you can’t really expect anything to happen different if you don't change things up. And it’s good to get out of this little town every now and then. This week we spent a lot of time up in Selma, Montgomery, and Magnolia we had a zone training up in Montgomery that took almost all of the day and we got back to magnolia around 7:00 on Friday, so we decided that we would spend the night down with them and go home on the 4th the next day.

Last week we were able to do a little bit of fishing. I've been mission out the last 12 weeks. Down at magnolia by their church (Being next to one of the Oldest LDS church's still up).... (If I’m not mistaken) they have a giant pond about 30 yards from the church, so we decided that we were going to go fishing with them. It was a lot of fun, I didn't get any pictures but we got a few Bass. Played with their 3 pet stray dogs, and had just a good time getting out of town for a little bit. Magnolia is the only place in Alabama that is smaller than Camden's population. They have about 1000 people in their area and they have met about everyone. So it’s pretty laid back down here. Get up go fishing go out for a few hours. Come home eat with the members that they live with, and go out with a member there all night. It’s very different from Camden ha-ha.

Last Thursday we found out we had bed bugs...... kind of bad, so this week we had someone from the mission office come down to help us kill them all. So that was a super trip. We had to heat our house up to 130* to make super that we killed them all and it was SUPER HOT. After the house had got up to 130* we were able to start cleaning up and vacuuming super good and we spent almost all of Thursday doing that. It’s been super HOT down here. The humidity kills you, you can get on your bike ride 5 minutes outside in the sun and be soaked.... so after the first 5 minutes of riding its not too bad because you just accept that you’re going to get soaked and enjoy it. The faster that you can ride the more the wind with blow the sweat off you.

Something that was super crazy this week that's been going on is since they did something about the confederate flag, (from what I’ve heard) people down here are going nuts about it. Everyone’s getting there flags out and are super mad that they took down the dukes of hazard because of the flag. But it makes sence down here. One of the things that you have to remember about the Deep South is that we're still behind a little bit. Half of my area doesn’t even have the internet, sooooo, but down here there was no Civil War. "The War Between the States" was all about the south wanting to leave the government, so for most of the people down here the confederate flag is very special to them. And they're super ticked about this whole flag thing going on. They’re all thinking that they’re going to make them change their flag next because the Alabama state flag is an old confederate war flag.

But on the plus side the work is moving on very well down here. We have been able to meet a lot of people the last few days. And not just the work down here but I’ve really been having a super good time with my studies. I remember the first time I came out here I was sooooo scared to think that I was going to have to study for 2 HOURS!!!!!!! I didn’t think that I was going to be able to do it, but the scriptures are just way cool. Everything is just super cool, Missions are cool. Hard but really cool. It’s nothing that you can every read about or try and understand, you kind of just jump in head first and hope for the best. They really are some of the best 2 years for your life.

If there’s one thing that you really have to put in to practice when you come out, you just got to trust in god that everything is going to work out. My friends my family those I meet out here. I really to believe with my whole heart as I do everything that I can to serve god he will keep everyone safe and doing well. That’s my motivation every day, because it’s really hard out here but thinking about the people that you can help every day I work as hard as a can. Nothing else pushes me harder than that.

I love ya, with my whole heart!

ELder Landon Aldana