SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

1st Letter from Baton Rouge Louisiana

hola family!

i am finally here! it is awesome here in Louisiana! it is so green but it is so flat haha. no mountains anywhere at all. so the area i am in is Chalmette! it is eastern new Orleans. if you look on a map and see the big lake (lake Ponchatrain) our apartment is literally right on the shore of the south of it! we share the apartment with elder Jarvis and elder Park. they are the two english elders for Chalmette. they are really cool! anyways in Chalmette there is just a branch. and usually about 30 people go to church each week. it is suppose to be a mix of spanish and english but only one spanish member went last week. but it was really cool because the gospel principles class is in spanish so my comp and i and the one member had a nice discussion while the two english elders just sat there and wondered what was going on haha! of the 35 people that were at church on Sunday 6 of them are the missionaries because we also have 2 english sisters here. our ward mission leader is awesome! interesting but awesome! my comp and i had to talk on Sunday haha they gave us a one day warning because our branch presidents family was speaking but he wasn't going to be able to make it because of work so instead they had us speak. but anyways they had the ward mission leader speak with us and he can talk up a storm so we were fine talk wise.

but anyways in his talk he asked the ward to fast for the missionary work in our area this upcoming fast Sunday after conference (super excited)  because we are in a very difficult area as far as the work goes. anyways in his talk he kind of called out the branch because of their lack of helping with missionary work and because they never feed the missionaries. it was just kind of funny to me. anyways yeah more on the missionary work here. so far of all the doors we have knocked on almost all have been vietnamese and speak no english or just act like they don't. One person who actually came out and talked to us for a bit (in english) but he wasn't really that interested so we only ended up being able to give him our number. i did talk college football with him for a bit haha tried to soften him up haha. we have taught a total of one lesson since we have been here and that was to a recent convert who has been a member for about a year. i could understand like half of what she said and like all of what my comp said but it takes me a while to translate it in my head. but as far as other lessons and appointments go we usually just get canceled on. this week it looks good though because on Tuesday we have quite a bit of appointments and stuff so hopefully i can actually start teaching and stuff.

the area where my comp and i usually go is pretty sketchy haha. we were starting to tract on Saturday after an appointment fell through and it was starting to get dark so after the first door a bunch of drunk people started coming outside and sounded like they were about to get in a fight so we left that area real quick. but yeah anyways this area is probably the area that was effected most by hurricane katrina. like the abandoned amusement park that is in a lot of movies is actually right in the middle of our area and we drive by it like everyday. its pretty cool. sadly no one is allowed to go in it. i think that would be so cool to do.

so yeah that is the most of it haha! i hope you all know how amazing you are and how grateful i am for all of you! this week is a very special week because it is general conference. i know at home i definitely wasn't the best example of watching it but this week i challenge you all to watch every single minute of it! WITHOUT your phones!!! (unless you are emailing me about your favorite talk. then you can have your phone) i didn't really realize it back home but the words that are shared during general conference are literally modern day scripture. what they say is just as important as what is in the Book of Mormon if not even more so because it pertains to our day and age even more. do not look at them as just a bunch of old guys haha. they are men called of our Heavenly Father and they are sharing the words that our heavenly father needs us to here at this time. Don't miss a minute. laugh at their cringy mormon humor jokes. just kidding you don't have to do that. but please listen to as much of it as you can and listen intently to their words and try to apply them to you. literally every talk can relate to you in some way. i know that if you do it it will help you so much with whatever you are going through big or small! 

i told my comp that i would let him write his own description of him so here it is! he did write it in the perspective of me though so- 

He is from West Jordan Utah. His name is Elder Hess. He likes to play soccer and some other sports. He loves the mountains and misses them a lot. He is really chill​ and is good at Spanish. I hope to learn a lot from him even though he thinks that he is the worst trainer ever. He doesn't know how to drive and he doesn't know any directions because there are no mountains. And the roads are all messed up. The grid system is the best way to get anywhere. He loves anything that has sugar in it. He ate a lot of the candy that you sent me in the package. That is just a little bit about him.  Sev Papi is the biggiest stud ever. 

i got the bike! it looks really cool but havent used it yet and according to my comp we dont really ever use them! maybe in like one of the spanish areas. but yeah we mainly use a car.

I love you all.

Love,

Elder Polad

MTC life- Elder Polad

AUGUST 19th

hola mi familia!!!

how is everyone doing! it has been a crazy last ten days and i am kind no worn out. our p day is literally the furthest away it could've possible been. it has been a real struggle i am not going to lie but the mtc aka ccm purposely does that to us in order to make us rely on christ and oh wow does that work good! i spend most of the day saying quick little prayers asking for help and they are almost always answered. our district is pretty cool but we goof around a lot. there are two sisters and two other elders going to baton rouge with me and i really like them all and get along with them. two out of like thirty missionaries on our plane got first class  and me and one of the other elders who is going to baton rouge were it. my companions name is elder harper-smith (two last names dads favorite haha)  i honestly think we are exact opposite personality types so ugh. but i try my best to get along with him  anyways when we do teach lessons though him and i do work pretty well together. A cool expierence of the gift of tongues is when we both kind of had no clue what our investigator was talking about but i was able to pick up a few words and somehow never hearing this word before i knew he said abortion for some reason. he had asked if every sin could be forgiven including that one and if they could still have the holy ghost with them. my companion didn't understand this but i did so i picked out this passage in one of our spanish pamphlets about how the holy ghost is with us as long as we are doing what is right and my instructer said i answered it perfectly with that passage which was awesome. as far as spanish goes i am getting it better than most of the district i think. excluding the sisters because they study like crazy so that is cool. the gift of tongues is so real as long as we listen to the spirit and rely on jesus christ and our heavenly father. we have been so busy since we have been here. there is so much to tell and so letter time! anyways i just want to share some scriptures that have really helped me since i have been out here. they are mosiah 8 18 and 7 33 if i remember correctly. mosiah is definitely my favorite book in the book of mormon. anyways those have really helped me and i love you all! on a final note my companion is a great guy though and i can learn a lot from him. he knows a lot about the gospel so that is good and i do love him and i know heavenly father has me as his companion for a reason. oh and also my biggest regret is not spending more time with you all and serving you more. i wish i could go back and do so but i guess i will just have to when i get back! i am sorry i didnt help with the house more and that i was so selfish. you guys are such great people and i truely have been blessed with the most amazing family ever. every single one of you. just reading everything i got from you makes me realize all the good times we had and i miss them so much. oh and i also forgot to mention the food isnt great here at all but i am eating it and i think i am gaining weight but i dont know! im glad to hear how the olympics are going too.

we went to the temple today which was an amazing expierience. im the first in our family to say they have been through a temple in a different country haha. it was such a great spiritual expierence! kind of hard because of the spanish but i made it!   i love you all so much you have all blessed my life so much and i miss you all! 

 love elder polad

Summer Fun

Just seeing if I still remember how to post. These are just a few of our pictures from skim-boarding with our friends! Love Summer time!

Hawaii

I have almost forgotten how to blog it has been so long. My pictures are backwards so if you want to start from the beginning of our trip start at the bottom.
We all had Spring break for a week so we decided to try and go to HAWAII. It was a lot of work but also A LOT of fun! One of my favorite sayings is "It's not the Destination but the Journey." But with this trip it was the Destination and the Journey that made it so great!


This is Demmy and Grandpa waiting for the Canoe Ride at the Polynesian Culture Center. The PCC was one place everyone loved and had a great time! We didn't get too many pictures there because this was almost our last day and we had run out of space on our camera.
We had just gotten to the PCC and couldn't wait to get going. We just had to get covered in SunScreen first!
This is at the Pineapple Factory. Maycie and Dylan loved the fish almost as much as the Pineapple Icecream.
Danny and Dylan feeding the fish. It was just starting to RAIN.
This is a picture of Demmy pretending to try the ice cream. We made all of the kids try it if they wanted to eat french fries.
Daniel said this is his favorite place in Hawaii because he LOVES the ice cream. (and no he wasn't eating it with ketchup, that was just for the fries)
Here we all are at Pearl Harbor. We didn't go out on the boat because it was a 2 hour wait, but it sure was beautiful there.
This is Danny just chilling at the beach. The kids loved hanging out at the beach so every night we would just go down ti Waikiki beach and relax.
Dylan loves his Grandpa.
We were coming home from Haunama Bay we stopped at a place called Pali (sp?) lookout. It was so beautiful but I don't think that I have ever seen is so windy in all my life. I really thought it was going to blow me over. But I did love our cute hair!!
This is Maycie at Haunama Bay. She loved the water as long as her Daddy was there to take her out in it.
This is Derrik at Haunama Bay. He was such a good snorkeler. Daniel and him lived in the water and loved to see all the fish.
Marlee loved the birds. She kept trying to catch a bird. They were pretty fast. At one time I think she had about 20 birds surrounding us.
Grandpa and Dylan
This is us at Haunama Bay before the big hike down.
Demmy at the beach wanting to surf.
Maycie and Dylan at the beach. They both were so good on the trip! We were very lucky!
Danny burying himself in the sand.
Can't believe how big our boys are getting. They were so much help on this trip. We couldn't of done it without them!
Here are the beautiful girls.
Dylan and Grandma playing in the sand. It is always so much more fun when Grandma is there!
Derrik climbing the Banyon tree outside our hotel
We didn't take our car seat so we bought one at Walmart when we got there. It just didn't have a way to rest his head so Derrik was his head rest!

This is Danny looking out from Diamond Head. That was an amazing hike with amazing views. Luckily it rained lightly some of time to cool us off.

All of us on Diamond Head
Daniel out on the balcony of our hotel.
Waiting at the Maui airport for our flight to Oahu.
This is on our flight to Maui, just beginning our trip and very excited to get to Hawaii.

We had an amazing time on our family trip to Hawaii. It was great to just spend time together as a family. The Journey and the Destination were unforgettable.

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

I now Know what they mean when they say "I Left my Heart in San Francisco". Danny and I just got back from an amazing vacation to San Francisco. We left all the kids home, packed our carry-ons and were on our way. We arrived on Thursday morning and didn't come home until Sunday.
This is one of my favorites. We are at the Golden Gate Park inside the Conservatorium of Flowers. We had walked lots and lots this day and it was nice to sit down for a minute.
This is us on the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a little windy on the walk back.
Here we are at the bottom of Lombard Street. We walked there from our hotel which was about 1/2 a mile away all UP HILL! It was worth it though.
This is my favorite picture of Danny and Chris. They look like they are having lots of fun!
This picture is of me and Danny on the wharf. It was a gorgeous day and we had just gotten done eating at Bubba Gumps Fish house. Yummy Yummy fish and Shrimp! The Wharf had tons of shops and good places to eat.
We went with a friend of Danny's from UPS and his wife, Chris and Linda. This is a picture of all 4 of us at the Golden Gate Park at the Conservatorium of Flowers. When we first arrived they told us to get a bus pass and it was good for all of the cable cars, buses and trolleys.
We had to get our picture taken in front of the sea lion statue. There were real Sea Lions all over down by the wharf. We loved the noises they made. The Sea Lions made us think of Dylan for some reason.
This is at the top of Lombard Street. This street is in the Guiness Book of World Records. It also had an awesome view at the top. It was fun to see the line of cars just waiting to drive down it. We also got to meet the man who takes care of the street. It is not owned by the city and is totally funded by private donations. It was beautiful.
Here are all four of us at the Golden Gate Bridge. This was one of my favorite parts. We walked all the way across the bridge and then all the way back. It was so amazing. We saw huge ships go underneath and of course the bridge is very busy with cars. It was 2 miles one way. They also have phones all across the bridge telling people to call if they need crisis counceling. I don't know how people could even think of jumping cause I could barely look down over the bridge without being scared out of my mind. It was so much fun to just walk and talk and be able to hold Danny's hand for almost 2 hours straight! Maybe that was why I liked the bridge so much.

The last day we were there we went to Alcatraz. This was also tons of fun. We took the audio tour and learned so many interesting facts. It was really amazing.

Danny loves Chinese food so he kept telling us that we had to go to Chinatown and eat "REAL CHINESE FOOD". So we take the bus and just get off somewhere and start walking around. Everything is in Chinese and is kinda dirty so we just kept wandering hoping something would look good to Danny. Then we saw two American's and decided to ask if they were locals. They said yes so Danny asked them "Where is the best place to get good Chinese food?" There answer was "NOT IN CHINA TOWN" So needless to say we were all ready there and decided to tough it out and eat somewhere since we were starving. We saw a sign that said "all you can eat Chinese buffet for $5.99" so we were sold. The funny thing was once you got in there, there was also a sign that said "There is a charge of $5.99 for Wastage of food." The food was terrible so we were all trying to sneak our food into the garbage so we didn't have to pay. It was funny. But at least Danny can say he ate in Chinatown.
One of Danny's favorite parts was riding on the Trolley cars and hanging off the side. The conductors called this riding in "First Class".
I guess it wouldn't be San Francisco without all of the street peddlers wanting money. San Francisco has the largest homeless population in America. There were all kinds of people from all walks of life. This one was one of Danny's favorites. He was senile and was playing a violin that did not even work.

The trip was amazing and we had so much fun. We were so glad that Chris and Linda went with us. I think the best part was just spending time with my amazing husband. He really is the best and I just realized more and more how much I love him!