Smooth seas never made a skilled sailor.

Hey family, There are a lot of missionaries at the church wanting to email and the libraries have been closed because of Mardi Graw.

We had our Zone Training Meeting this week and everything went as planned. We gave an instruction and had some good responses from it. 

This week has been awesome and there are parades everywhere. We went downtown in New Orleans where the parades get huge and it was crazy! The entire city is packed full of people and parades weave through the buildings. It is a huge party and everyone is drinking. There were three people next to us that got pit pocketed. We put our wallets in the chest pockets of our coats so that people couldn't get them. It is the craziest thing ever. I think that Mardi Graw isn't what people outside of Louisiana think it is. Parades of all sorts for two weeks straight.

We did service for 3-4 hours the other day and I loved it. We were cutting down plantain trees with machetes. It was a lot of fun cutting down the trees. After all of the fun part was done we started hauling branches. After an hour and a half of cleaning up logs and branches other missionaries wanted to quit and come back another day to finish. I didn't want to leave the ladies yard a mess with a half-assed job. I told them that we could do it and that we were going to finish.

 If you are able to roll up your sleeves and do things right the first time with small things (such as a service project) then you will be able to do that with big events in your life and overcome great barriers in your life. Pay attention to the details. A man is made up of the small details and will only realize the results years down the road. We got the entire job done. We all felt a satisfying tiredness that only comes from doing hard work. Our satisfaction in life will only come from our work and not holding still. 

Smooth seas never made a skilled sailor.

Have an awesome week Family and friends.

Elder Cooley