Sister's Conference, Cookie Tracting and Just A Fun Week.

September 23, 2013

Yey Y’all:

Boy do I love hearing from you every Monday.  Lacey, you are a fabulous little writer!  I love your e-mails.  Momma, daddy thanks for being faithful writers.  I know I can always count on both of you for e-mails.  Gabey, checkmate dude!  It’s your turn to e-mail me back.  Sydney, I don’t like this DARE thing.  You should ask for an exception so that you can use electronic devices.  Though by the time you get this “book” as you call it…I will have an e-mail from you. Hannah I LOVE your letters.  I will try to be better at sending you letters.

Today we pretty much just hung out at the church.  I e-mailed and then wrote letters that I have gotten from the last 2 weeks… I felt very productive putting all those letters in the mailbox.  There was one for Liz, Tara, Talynn, Ashley (my roommate who is here on her mission), and my friend Sarah from school (she was my visiting teaching comp from last year…I love her).  It was fun to write them back.  Oh boy did my hand hurt after that though!

The Elders needed to go to the store so we took them.  Sis. Carrigan didn’t feel good so we stayed out in the car.  She slept and I finished writing my letters.  We got to our dinner appointment by 6:30 like we had been asked but dinner was still not ready.  We ended up waiting another 20 minutes or so.  I was antsy because we were supposed to go to Shanna’s (the family we tracted into) at around 7:30.  Did that happen?  No.  We ate dinner and then I gave the thought.  We had a really hard time breaking away and I wanted to cry because we were late.  I was getting so frustrated. Finally Sis. Carrigan said that we had to go and could we end with a prayer.  By the time we got out of there it was like 7:45ish.  We also had to go meet Lauren at the church (she is the one who was tracting with us when we met Shanna).  Basically by the time we got there it was 8:15 and very dark.  They were at home but didn’t answer.  I was so sad!  We are going to call her tomorrow to try and set up another time. Ugg!

September 24, 2013

Being sick is no fun!  Even if it is a little baby cold. I woke up this morning at like 4:30 because I was so stinkin' hot.  I got up and turned on the A/C. Suddenly I was freezing.  My body wouldn’t just give me a middle ground.  Luckily I finally got back to sleep.  When I woke up at our alarm I just wanted to sink back into the covers!  My throat felt ( and still feels) like sandpaper and my nose was stuffed up so much that I was breathing through my mouth, probably why my throat felt even worse than yesterday.  Oh!  The life of being a sick missionary.

District meeting was …interesting.  The first part we had the Bishop from Sharon Springs come talk to us about working with the ward to figure out less actives.  That was really awesome!  I didn’t know that Salt Lake is trying even harder to figure out the records of people that have been misplaced.  It makes sense.  We have been getting quite a few of those records to try and figure out.  After that we had some teachings and then we did role play.  That is where the interesting part comes in.  So the idea that E. Smith had was really good.  Lots of times as missionaries we get asked the dumbest questions like about polygamy or why blacks weren’t allowed to hold the priesthood.  Well at least I think they are dumb.  They wrote down those and a few others that were good.  The only thing is, that they also mixed in some really silly ones because, well, they are boys and forget that they are missionaries sometimes.  Well one of the missionaries blatantly refused to do it.  I thought that it was a little silly.  It wasn’t that big of a deal.  Most of their idea was pretty good.  Eventually the missionary decided to do it did it and it wasn’t that bad.  The funny part was that missionary didn't even have one of the silly questions.

After district meeting we went to lunch at Panda Express (not gonna lie, I’m so glad that we have one here.  I love their orange chicken! Yum!)  E. Rahman is trying so hard to fit in with the other Elders. He is the only greenie in our zone so he doesn’t have anyone that is in his same boat.  Poor kid.  At least I had a few others who had come out with me not just in the same zone (like Sis. Hooker) but I had Sis. Alvey with me in the same district.  It just makes you feel a little more comfortable to be with others as new as you.  But he is a good elder and he does fit in more than he knows.

After lunch we went to go help Marni clean her house.  She is so stinkin cute!  She is very worried that when transfers come she won’t get to say goodbye if one of us leaves (Sis. Carrigan is practically already packing though!).  Punk! She keeps saying she knows she is leaving.  It is driving me crazy.  We promised her that we won’t leave without saying goodbye.  I like her lots!  She always calls us girls.  It makes me giggle.

We were asked if we were going to help at the blood drive. Well, maybe it was more like we were told we needed to help.  Not complaining though.  We talked to a few people who weren’t members so that was pretty nice!  Not too bad!

At 5:30 we left for dinner at the Smith’s.  They are an older couple in our ward and they are awesome!  When we got there dinner was not quite ready.  Sis. Smith has a baby grand piano so we played that. It was awesome!  I dunno what it is but it seems like this happens every week.  One person will make us something like tacos or spaghetti and then during that whole week that is all that we will eat because basically everyone makes the same thing.  Right now we are on chicken pot pies.  They have all been really yummy though and  so it doesn't feel like days on end of left overs or anything.  I know there are missionaries in other countries who just eat black beans and rice.  So ya, we are kinda spoiled.

We had an appointment with the YSA relief society president so we ran over to talk to her.  Basically we talked about a few people who we could help with and talked about how the YSA could help us.  It was fun but by the end I was so tired!  This cold is totally wiping me out!  I can’t believe that I am being beaten by a cold.  So after the meeting we ran home.  We were a bit late for curfew (dang it)!  I got a letter from Brittany Young (Jimmy Johns).  She remembered about Talk Like a Pirate Day.  That made me laugh.  I also got the letters from the girls in primary.  I will write them each back a quick note.

September 25, 2013

Oh!  My goodness!  I hate this cold.  Ugg!  My body is so sore and I can hardly keep my eyes open.  It’s
rough!  After personal study (my favorite!! Even though I was having a hard time staying awake today) and companion study, we went over to Sis. Pruitt’s house (primary president).  We talked about what the primary needs from us.  That was fun.  She is a super awesome lady!  What can I say?  I love this ward!  I think that Suwanee ward will always be my favorite!  It’s like what you said Momma, it’s my greenie city/ward and I will always love it here a little differently than any other place I go. I won’t constantly talk about it to my comps though because that drives me a little, ok kinda a lot crazy.

After Sis. Pruitt we came home to eat lunch.  On Sunday Sis. Peterson told us she had left food in the fridge for us.  Taco soup and homemade corn bread.  Yummy!  We have been wanting it all week and this is the first time since then that we have had time to eat it.  Totally worth it though.  It has been raining all day so it was the perfect food for the weather.  Watch, now everyone is going to feed us taco soup for the week. But like is said . . . Yummy!

After lunch we planned to go and meet the Collins Hill Elders because they had Kelly’s teaching record.  It took forever. We waited for them for quite a while.  E. Calkins is in Collins Hill so I was excited to see him!  We finally got the teaching record and nothing was on it!  Kelly hasn’t been taught anything!  She has kept all the commitments so that’s good but nothing has been taught.  Well, at least not by the Elders.  So now we have to figure out how to get the teaching record that the Sisters had for her.  Hopefully they have taught her a little more than that!  The Elders said that the only thing they know the Sisters taught her was how to wear clothes and they wouldn’t be surprised if that was it… Great.

After meeting with the Elders we headed over to Pep Boys.  Again. Our car is so annoying!  It has been making weird sounds with the brakes.  We are so close to getting a new car!  Only like 600 more miles until it is retired.  They should probably switch it this next transfer.  We shall see.  So, of course, we were stuck there for about 2.5 hours.

When we finally got home we headed over to the church.  We were asked to get some Mormon Messages put together for a little baptism that is this Saturday.  It’s for a little 8 year old boy who is from a less-active family, so there should be quite a few non-members there.  Good missionary opportunity.  We did that and then it, was time to head home so we didn’t “turn into pumpkins” as our ward here likes to call it.  It’s day like these when I feel like a slacker of a missionary.  We did really important things.  I just didn’t feel very productive.

September 26, 2013

Oh my goodness.  We are having amazingly beautiful fall weather here!  Like crazy beautiful.  It has been sunny with lots of white puffy clouds, it’s getting cool with a light breeze.  Ah!  Perfect!  Today we went and finally saw Richard after 2 weeks.  He told us we were the highlight of his week.  The stubborn old man just needs to be baptized already.  We brought Bro. Wernli along as a team-up.  That was really awesome!  Bro. Wernli was finally able to answer some of Richard’s questions that we had been trying to answer but just couldn’t answer in a way that Richard was really able to understand.  He has finally committed to coming to church!  Yay!  Now we just hope and pray that he will actually come.  Bro. Wernli gave Richard a priesthood blessing that he wouldn’t have problems with his legs if he was determined to come to church.  The Spirit was so strong and Richard felt something different.  He knows there is something different, that’s why we are the highlight of his week, cause we bring the Spirit into his home.  So, that is where we are at with Richard.

After Richard, we went tracting for like 3 hrs.  That was good.  We have been told that we will be blessed if we tract 2 hrs. every day.  I feel guilty and like a bad missionary when we don’t.  Yesterday was one of those days.   Funny story!  So we knocked on this door and while we were waiting for them to open the door we are looking at the house.  I looked up at a window that was open and suddenly there is a man
sticking his head out of the window.  He had no shirt on and I’m almost sure he had no pants on either.  He told us he was working…ummm ok.  Well, I guess if you are home alone and just working on the computer there is no harm in working naked I suppose!?!  Until two sister missionaries come knocking on your door!  Haha!  It was kind of funny/quite awkward.

After tracting we went to see Kelly.  She is now saying she is getting a divorce!  Not once did she mention an annulment (yah).  We watched the Restoration video and afterwards she just kept saying how badly she wanted to be baptized.  I finally asked her why she wanted to wait until after her divorce when she could have all of those blessings and the gift of the Holy Ghost during the divorce.  She thought about it for a minute then said, “You’re right! I want those blessings!  I would really like to be baptized on Oct. 26!” YAH!!!  Kelly is getting baptized in a month.  I’m so happy.

After that we went tracting.  Sis. Carrigan seemed a little grumpy.  She won’t say anything.  I think it is probably because Kelly is being baptized after transfers so she thinks she won’t be here. Understandable I guess. I would be a little sad not to see her get baptized if I got transferred but oh it doesn’t matter! I’m just so very excited for her! Ahh!

We had dinner at the Watkins tonight.  They are so cute and so very funny!  Sis. Watkins has always wanted to serve a mission since she joined the church.  She has told Bro. Watkins that they are.  Well last Sunday she got called to be a ward missionary.  She is so excited!  She has already planned out our whole Saturday for us.  Luckily we got permission to go to the Relief Society broadcast and so Sis. Watkins kindly put that in our Saturday schedule.  Haha!  It’s kind of funny.  Basically whatever plans we did have for Saturday changed.☺

After dinner we went to the Willeys.  We didn’t really know if they wanted us to practice a lesson on them or if they wanted to talk about the YSA.  I suggested that we ask them about missionary work. For Bro. Willey, what helped him on his mission and what she wished the missionaries teaching her should have done differently. Oh! Good ending to the night. My pirate package finally came. That was so fun and way cute! Thanks mom. You are awesome. I LOVE my pirate things. They are cute. The pink eye patch made me giggle! Speaking of pirates, did you like your pirate present? I had to search a little harder for things like that cause I don’t have the internet to help me! But I found you a pirate something so I was pleased. All in all this was a pretty dang good day!!

September 27, 2013

SYDNEY!!!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY CUTE GIRL!  WHOOT!  I can’t believe you are 12.  Good grief.  It feels like I was 12 only last week.  I thought about you all day long.  I’m sad I couldn’t be there but glad you got your present.  I searched long and hard for the mustache stuff.

So today we went to the dermatologist so they could check out my tongue.  We went in and then the doctor came in.  She is asking me all these questions and then she asks “are you sexually active?”  I said no and then she looks at me and then looks at Sis. Carrigan (who is quietly sitting in the corner) and then looks back at me and says, “Do you want her to leave the room while I ask the questions?”  It was pretty funny but also very sad that she didn’t believe me.  What is the world coming to when doctors question the answer of a negative to that set of questions.  Sad. Just sad! But still kinda funny…

Now I am very jealous of Sis. Galt right now!  No fair. She got to talk to you Momma!  Ah!  She called me
and said, “Your mom sounds like a lovely lady.”  I told her you were and that you were my favorite lovely
lady.  So I love that you and Sis. Galt got to talk but I am insanely jealous!  Lucky duck Sis. Galt.  (The doctor had also asked Molly what prescription she had taken previously.  She needed someone to find out so her cute Sis. Galt was the lucky winner of that texting back and forth/phone call.)

After the doctor we went to go see Clara.  She is so funny!  She friended me on facebook.  She showed
me and it was weird to see my facebook page.  I loved that you made it say that I moved to Suwanee, GA.  That made me smile.  Everything else was blocked so I couldn’t see much since it was on her profile and we aren’t friends yet.  So, go ahead and add her.  Her last name starts with an M and I’m not going to even attempt to spell it.  We asked her if she had gotten her marriage license yet, she said yes but she didn’t know where it was.  Ugg!  She can’t get baptized until she gets married!  We are kinda pushing her to get that done.  Sis. Carrign told her if she didn’t get it done in the next 3 weeks she wouldn’t be there cause she would be transferred.  Maybe that will get Clara’s butt in gear even if it is not Sister Carrigan who is gone but me!  I just want so badly for these people to have the gospel and the gift of the Holy Ghost in their lives all of the time.

After Clara we were but really hungry so we went to Jimmy Johns for lunch.  It’s so weird to go in there and not have it be the Idaho Falls JJs and not see my people.  While we were there Sis. Carrigan predicted what
the girl she thinks I’m going to train will be like.  She keeps saying it over and over that I’m going to train.  I know I could if I were asked to.  I do think it would be kind of fun and I could try to implement some of the ideas that I have but have not been able to use up to this point as well as everything I have learned from Sister Carrigan.  Well if I do end up training I will find out the week before transfers (the week of Oct. 6). I will let y’all know.

After JJs we went to Mary and Arianna.  At first they were cute and just chatting away but then Mary started making snide comments about the church.  We invited them to the broadcast and she told us she was going to stay away from all of that.  I asked her why and she said she didn’t believe in things we did and wasn’t going near it.  I asked what kind of things she didn’t agree with and she said Joseph Smith (well shocker on that one. Not!)  I said, “Did you know that it actually talks about Joseph Smith in the Bible?”  She looks at me and says, “show me” like she was challenging me.  So they got the bibles out and we flipped to Isaiah 29:11.  I read it and she goes quiet for a minute and says “Oh, well my bible says this is about Jerusalem.”  Okay, whatever.  I don’t get her.  No one in her church comes and visits her or takes care of her.  None of them come over and cut her grass without being asked to.  None of them make sure to remember Arianna’s birthday.  Obviously we care about her but she just remains - she is so close-minded.  I don’t like loving someone so much and having them be so close-minded! It is not a fun feeling.  So that wasn’t a super fun visit and it made me so sad and frustrated when we left.

Sis. Carrigan needed to go to the bathroom so she stopped at this old, run-down, kinda sketchy gas station.  We walk in and there area bunch of lotto machines in the back with a bunch of old Hispanic men playing them.  Sis. Carrigan was in front of me and she passed them without even looking.  Well 3 of them were watching us so I just turned to them and gave them a little smile and nod.  One of them winks at me and smiles.  Weird!  Oh boy!  Some of the people that you meet on your mission.  I’m not so sure about them.

We went tracting for a few hours until dinner.  One lady we met was so stinkin cute!  She said that she was new in town.  We gave her our card and she says, “Well, I think I just might need to come visit your church.”  You will hear no arguments from us if she comes!  I really hope she does.  Ok, and now for my awkward tracting story.  So we are tracting a bunch of town homes and as we are going to turn into this driveway the garage opens.  So I say hello and start talking.  Well he was working on his truck and had dirt all over his nose and face.  He told me he already had a church.  I asked him what church he went to.  He said, “Well, we used to go to a Baptist church but we quit going there and now go to North Point.” (that would be a non-denominational church) “Life is a lot better now without the Baptists.”  I thought he was joking and I couldn’t tell but I thought that he was grinning a little bit.  So I giggled.  He looks at me and asked what was so funny.  I just started spluttering umm….I…ah….well… for about 10 seconds. Finally I say, “I can relate.”  No I can’t.  I can’t relate one little bit to switching churches!  My life is awesome!  I can’t relate.  So I quickly said goodbye and we left.  Awkward on my part.  It’s really funny to me now and it was at the time a little bit.  Sometimes you just don’t know what to say.  So at that moment in time I was crowned as the most awkward person on the face of the planet!

She may be awkward but she's cute.  She sent this picture in honor of her aunt.  She acknowledged that it probably wasn't spelled right but wanted her to know she was thinking of her.

When that lovely exchange was made we tracted the rest of the townhomes then went to dinner.  We were at the Hawkes tonight.  They have 3 little boys who are so stinkin cute!  They are a fun family.  It was getting dark and they asked if we wanted to have s’mores with them.  I was all for it but we went home instead.

Sydney, I hope you had a FABULOUS birthday full of fun. Send me a collage of all your birthday
presents.  You know you want to!

September 28, 2013

Oh today was a pretty good day.  So we got to go to a baptism this morning.  A little 8 year old boy named Alex.  His family got baptized about 3 years ago and have kind of gone less active.  They still consider themselves active but Alex wanting to get baptized has been good for them. It’s gotten them going back to church a little more.  They asked us to do the middle message thing.  We chose the Mormon message called Patterns of Light.  It is so good.  Go watch it!  It’s a 3 part message.  The baptism was good.  Poor Alex was so nervous!  He had to do it 3 times before it was good.  They kept talking to him and trying to calm him down.  The Spirit was so strong in the room.  It was awesome!  He is such a cute little boy.

We ate lunch there at the church and then went to get my prescription.  The dermatologist cost a whopping $60 (ugg) and the medication was $10.  I don’t know how much it would have cost without insurance but $60 is still a lot!

I told you that Sis. Watkins had our day all planned for us so we went over there.  She was baking cookies and cupcakes and all sorts of things.  Her plan was to go tracting and pass it all out.  We had no idea what we were going to say to people but we went with it!  We set up the plates and made them look pretty.  We got the cakes and cookies all ready and set off!  Lots of people asked us how much we were selling them for.  It was kind of funny.  We ran into a few sweet old ladies and one of them, Ruth, just came out and gave us a hug!  It was so cute!  I love getting hugs from cute old ladies.  The last lady we talked to was Dorothy Ramey.  Her yard was so pretty!!  She is a spunky 85 year old.  Her husband passed away a few years ago but she just kept plugging along!  She has friends that she goes out with, they went camping last weekend…at 85!  She has the best Southern accent ever!!  She has lived in the South her whole life and you can tell.  She is so sweet.  Her birthday is on Monday so we are going to go back and talk to her.  Cute Sister Watkins!!!  That was fun!

Then we got to go to the broadcast!  Yay!  And guess what?  I got to see my Sis. Hooker.  That was fun! Our church is the stake center so all the Sister missionaries were there from our zone.  It was kind of cool to have all of us there together.  Mom!  Sister Hooker says you guys talked to her family!  What?!? Jealous!

The broadcast was so good.  I loved it all. President Monson has lost quite a bit of weight.  President Eyring looks like he has lost weight too, and he doesn’t have anything to lose in the first place.  One of my favorite parts of the broadcast was when I saw Brittany Beckham in the choir!!  That was so fun.  I’m sure that Sister Beckham saw her, I hope she did.  Did you guys see her?  I was looking to see if Lindsay Kuhn was in the choir but I didn’t see her.

When we got home it was a little after 9:30.  We had permission though so we were okay.  Well Sis. Watkins had given us the rest of the cookies and cakes.  We had a lot and we didn’t really need them to go to our waistlines.  We decided to run some over to our neighbor who we see all of the time.  So we did.  Her name is Brenda.  She thought we were nuns.  Haha!  Ummmm no.  We got that straightened out quickly.  Not that there is anything wrong with nuns, but I have no desire to be a nun.  It was a great day!

September 29, 2013

Oh church!  I love church.  Sundays are always a grand old time!  Plus it means that the next day is P-day.  And, well I can hardly argue with the excitement of that.  Since today was the first Sunday of the month everyone met together for Relief Society and Priesthood.  I dunno about you guys, but for the last month and a half they have been pushing ward missionary work.  We watched a few clips from the missionary broadcast thing that happened right before I left.  It was really good!  Sacrament meeting was awesome too (that was before the combined meeting… I just forgot to mention it first).  You know how you always get the people who get up to bear their testimonies and it’s just kind of a facepalm with the shaking of your head?  Well that didn't really happen today.  Anyways, testimony meeting was good!  I just love church.  I love seeing my ward members and talking to them!  Cute Sister Olsen came up to me today and handed me a maxi skirt.  I guess I had told her more than once how cute it is so she just gave it to me.  It was so nice of her.  Ah!  I just love this ward!  It’s really going to kill me when I get transferred out.  There are so many people who I just love who I will for sure keep in contact with!  And who I will come back and visit.  I would be SO okay with training if I got to stay here for another 6 months.

We had to weekly plan today so we didn’t get to go tracting at all.  We had a zone fast.  They challenged us to fast to get someone to set a baptismal date this week and if we already had one (Kelly for us yea!) to fast for another one.  So we did!  I also fasted that we would be able to find a family to teach.  I told y’all about Shanna so I prayed that if that was the family that we would be able to get in with them.  I know that as long as we work hard and look/pay attention, that Heavenly Father will answer.

 We had dinner at the Beasley’s house tonight.  Neither of us really knew who they were. We went over and at first it was a little awkward. Luckily things warmed up.  Sister Beasley actually went to Bonneville High School and Bro. Beasley went to IF high school.  That was kind of fun.  They have 2 boys and 3 girls, who are all married except for Josh who is a 7th grader and their 18 year old daughter who is up at BYU-I.  Josh and I are kindred spirits!  I have now finally met someone who is just as afraid of everything as me!  He understands!  He was pretty cute.  He is not afraid to let people know how bad of a chicken he is and he is only like 13. I’m impressed with him. I told him what you told me once Momma, when I was frustrated with how scared I get, you just said that my Spirit is just more gentle than some others.  Sis. Carrigan just scoffed at that.  I dunno if you told me that just to make me feel better but it worked and I liked it. So scoff all you want but I believe that it’s true.

It was pretty dark by the time we said goodbye to the Beasley's.  Stupid Winter and getting dark at 8. We went over to Sis. Fullwood’s to drop off some hammers she had lent us.  We visited with her for an hour. I love her!  She is so sweet!  Heavenly Father has an amazing guy planned for her!  I don’t know how we got
on the subject but I told her how I love to watch guys with their little siblings.  I love when they are just gentle and kind with them and that is a quality I want in a husband. She told me she had the perfect guy. Some missionary who served here before and was in the Suwanee ward. She said after my mission if he was still single she would set me up. Go for it Sis. Fulwood! It was funny. Who knows?

Well my lovely family, I love you buckets! I love writing letters to you and I love getting letters from you! Keep being my amazing, awesome family.

Love, Molly

P.S. Mom! Have you read Tramp for the Lord? It is by Corrie Ten Boom. I want to read it.

P.S.S. Daddy, would you give those letters to the cute little primary girls? Well I guess Momma could do
that too… Love you.

Talk Like a Pirate Day and splits with sister trainers!

September 16, 2013

I love Mondays.  By the end of a long week they become the day that I look forward to!  So today was my appointment at the dermatologist for my thrush (I still don’t understand what I’m going to a dermatologist for…)  That was a fail!  We typed it into the GPS but the wrong city.  We drove 15 minutes away.  Come to find out it’s like a 5 minute drive from our apartment!  Oops!  Needless to say, I missed my appointment.  Now it’s for next Friday.  I won’t miss that one.  After failing with the doctor we drove to the church to e-mail.  Sis. Carrigan and I were hyper or something!  We turned up the music as loud as it could go and were singing at the top of our lungs.  It was fun.

Thank you for e-mailing me every week!  Out of my whole P-day, e-mailing is my most favorite!  It’s when I feel closest to you guys.  I love picturing each one of you at the computer typing away!  Even though Idaho and Georgia really aren’t that far away, sometimes it feels like it.  E-mailing helps me remember that it’s actually not that far away. 

Grandma George sent me a letter that she calls her “sisters e-mail” or something like that.  It was nice to hear from her.  I still haven’t gotten a letter from Grandma Syndergaard yet.  I know that won’t happen for a while since she is in Belgium though.  Lucky Hatches!  After E-mailing we went to the Mall of Georgia.  Oh my HUGE.  It was gigantic.  Sister Carrigan was on the lookout for b-day presents for two of her sisters and I was on the lookout for Sydney’s present and an epic pirate present.  Well, sadly I didn’t find anything awesome for Sydney there and though I did find a pretty fun pirate present it wasn’t exactly what I wanted.  I almost waited for Christmas to send that to you Momma, but I couldn’t wait.  So, I stuck it in there with Sydney’s. 

After the mall we headed over to WalMart for groceries.  When we walked in, one of the first things I saw was the masks for Halloween.  I have ALWAYS wanted a cool masquerade mask and they had some fun ones.  So I got one. ☺  I also found Sydney her mustache present.  I’m sorry if it doesn’t fit.  It was so cute and fun.

We still had about an hour left of P-day.  So we went back to the church and checked for e-mails for the last time and just hung out.  Sis. Wolfert found out about the red shorts and the Elders got in trouble.  They think that Sis. Carrigan told on them so they are mad at us.  She says she didn’t.  I believe her.  I dunno who did but I’m glad they did!  The Elders said we will discuss it in district meeting tomorrow.  I don’t know why they care.  They know they shouldn’t have worn the shorts.

Oh!  Here is something crazy cool that happened.  So, there is a lady who has been being taught by the Sisters in Collins Hill.  Well, one of them got really sick so she went home and instead of putting another Sister in Collins Hill, they just took the companion and transferred her.  Anyways, this lady wants to be taught by Sisters.  The lady’s name is Kelly (therefore she is awesome).  She is friends with a guy whose parents are in our ward.  Kind of complicated.  His parents have said we could teach her at their house so now she is our investigator!  We called her and the first thing she said to me was, “You have no idea how close I am to baptism!”  Sweet!  She had a date but the day after she set a date, her husband said he wanted a divorce.  Stupid Satan!  Ugg!  So, she is trying to figure all that out… I am sad that she lost her other sisters but I am excited to teach her.  So, that is my fun thought.

We had dinner with the Higginbothms.  They have 2 cute red headed kids.  They are a fun family.  We finished our day off with attempting to tract.  It was really dark and the road we were doing was busy and didn’t have a sidewalk.  So, we decided that wouldn’t be so good, and went to go see Mary.  She wasn’t home.  By that time it was almost 9 o’clock so we headed home and called a bunch of people.  We are doing an exchange tomorrow with the Sister training leaders.  I’m nervous!  I’m staying here so I will be in charge of our area…  Yikes!  I’m pretty nervous!

September 17, 2013

Today was quite eventful!  First was district meeting.  It went really well.  When we split off to do role playing we found out that Sis. Alvey  (she came out with me) was the one who told Sis. Wolfert about the shorts.  I was so glad and pretty proud of her!  She said if the Elders asked her straight up she would tell them.  They did.  She told them and now they are all mad at her.  I stood up for her but I don’t think it helped too much…

After the meeting we went to go meet up with the Sister training leaders.  Ahhh!  Sis. Hamilton is with me.  She is really sweet!  We have been having a good day.  We did a lot of service today.  First we went to Marni’s and helped her clean.   Did I tell you about Marni?  She is the Pickett’s neighbor who completely busted up her ankle and can’t do like anything.  She is a sweetheart!  After Marni’s we went to a lady named Fae.  We tracted into her.  She is a widow and doesn’t want to listen to what we have to say but called and asked if we could help her fix her railing.  She is sweet but unless she lets us share a message we can’t really go back and do things for her.  We had dinner cancel on us and neither of us were really hungry so we just decided to tract.  A lot of people answered their doors!  And they talked to us!  That was kinda crazy but way fun.  I have learned how to do better door approaches from Sis Hamilton.  While we tracted, we talked a lot.  I asked how they decide who goes where on exchanges.  She said lots of prayer.  Then she said the reason I stayed here was they wanted to see if and how I led an area.  She said that I would be okay and that I had done a good job leading.  It was really nice to hear!  Especially since I had been so nervous!

                                                                 Sister Hamiton and me!

After tracting we headed over to see Stephanie.  She wanted to go outside so that she could smoke while we were talking…yup a little frustrating that!  We taught her the Plan of Salvation and then somehow we got on the subject of her smoking…  Probably cause she was smoking…  She said that she would quit when she was married, had a 4 year old and was done with school caused then she wouldn’t be stressed anymore.  So Sis. Hamilton asked her why not now?  She told her the church has a program.  At first Stephanie was stubborn and said no.  Slowly as we kept talking though she convinced herself she would try the program!  Sweet!  Then she got really excited and asked if we would come in while she told Sis. Rhodes.  I wish Sis. Rhodes would have been a little more excited.  Hopefully she will get more excited and supportive of this program and Stephanie.  It’s a pretty intense 7 day program and she needs all the support she can get!  It’s not gonna be easy but the end result will be so worth it.  I’m so excited!

September 18, 2013

We exchanged back this afternoon.  It was pretty fun to be with Sis. Hamilton!  She is awesome!  It was nice to get Sis. Carrigan back though.  Before we exchanged back we went to try and see Clara.  Sarah Holgado had texted us and asked us if she could come with us.   Sweet.  We went and got her and then headed over to Clara’s.  She didn’t answer!  Dang it!  Sis. Hamilton turned to me and said, “OK senior companion, what’s the plan?”  I decided we would go tracting for a bit in a neighborhood that Sis. Carrigan and I hadn’t quite finished.  Then we would stop at the post office cause in Coal Mt. where Sis Hamilton is at, they don’t really have a post office.  It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere.  Luckily, I had the package to send off to you guys so that worked out well.  So we did all that, dropped Sarah off cause she couldn’t come with us.  We were gonna pick her back up after we exchanged back.

We went and drove to the half-way point and waited for Sis. Alder and Sis. Carrigan.  They drove up in a 2014 Mustang (a member was driving them).  It was a nice car.  We took pictures, talked for a little bit and then went our separate ways.  I was nervous at first but the exchanges were really fun!  I learned lots and Sis. Hamilton is awesome!

When we got back, we ran home, dropped off Sis. Carrigan’s things and went to pick up Sarah again.  There was a neighborhood we passed a few days ago and we have been wanting to tract.  It isn’t gated and the houses are huge.  The first house we went to no one answered.  The 2^nd house, the lady came to the window with the phone to her ear.  She then started telling us we were lost sheep… blah, blah, blah.  Poor Sarah!  She was pretty shocked.  We got out of there and the last thing the lady says is, “I really hope that y’all end up in heaven.  I would like to see you there.”  Well, gee thanks.  As we were walking down the driveway I looked over to the first house we had tried, the lady is on her phone looking at us and talking…  The women were on the phone with each other!  Good grief.  We tracted for almost 3 hours. 

Then we took Sarah home and we went to dinner at the Garfield’s.   They are crazy tall!  Bro. Garfield is like almost 7 feet tall and Sis. Garfield is like 6 feet.  Their kids are all tall too.  The 4 year old is as tall as Sydney.  Their kids are crazy fun!  They run around and yell and scream.  We had a really awesome conversation with Bro. and Sis. Garfield though.  When we were leaving Bro. Garfield asked if I liked cranberries.  He then gave me a 1 lb. bag of them.  They go against his diet.  Yah for me.  Bummer for him. 

After dinner we went to see Ethan Pittenger.  A few weeks ago we went to visit his dad (a less active).  Ethan was outside talking on his phone.  He told us he really wanted to talk to us and could we come back later.  He is the only one not baptized and he is a really awesome kid!  He bounded out of the house when we came and listened intently.  He was so focused on what we were saying.  It was awesome!  Hopefully we can get him involved in Young Mens and get him baptized.  Hopefully his dad would come back to church if we could do that!

September 19, 2013

HAPPY NATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!!!  I have been thinking about you all day long Momma.  I still haven’t gotten my package…  Maybe it is stuck at the mission office.  I check for it every day!  Richard cancelled on us this morning.  His son is getting a divorce and so his grandson is staying with him for a little bit.  I was so hoping to find out how his temple visit went!  Dang it!!  Instead we tracted until it was time to go see Bro. Hiers.  After Bro. Hiers we went to meet Kelly.  She is so cute.  Oh boy, does she need to get baptized.  She is so very ready and I wish that she would just get baptized!  She is really cute and I like her lots.  I guess Pres. Wolfert is going to need to interview her though but that shouldn’t be too big of a deal hopefully…  Oh!  Fun thing for the day.  I saw a man driving and he had an eye patch on.  Haha!  Way to celebrate!  Basically that was all that was exciting today.  We had dinner at the Brintons today.  They are a really cute family.  They have two little boys and Sis. Brinton is 22.  So it was pretty fun to hang out with members our age.

I saw this bumper sticker when we were driving.  I tried to take a picture from the car.  So that is why it is a little bit blurry.  It says, "My other car is a pirate ship!"

September 20, 2013

Today we went and saw Moses.  It was kind of our make or break lesson.  We had no idea what we were going to talk about…  Well, kind of.  We had talked about just asking him to be baptized.  Sis. Carrigan asked him to be baptized, which was awesome, but he said no.    Who knows what will happen with him now.

After that we went to go meet Lauren.  She is from the other ward that meets in our church building.  She leaves on her mission to Salt Lake in November.  At church she asked if she could come out with us.  We were just going tracting but she was okay with that.  So our last house a lady answers the door.  We told her who we were and she invited us in!  We taught her about the Book of Mormon and she was very open to it.  She has 7 kids, they are modest and basically a perfect Mormon family!  We are going back on Monday night to teach her and her husband.  She said he would probably be pretty skeptical.  That is okay.  The Spirit can speak to him.  It would be so awesome to teach them and have them all be baptized!  I could go to their sealing!!  Ok, getting ahead of myself there.  First we need to get them baptized.  So that was fun.

Haha!  I have a funny story to tell you!  Ok, so, mom, you know when we were looking for your missionary calendar and we found the book with the stories in it?  Well, just keep that in mind… Ok, so I was talking to Bro. and Sis. Olson (we were at their house for dinner).  I was telling a story and I meant to say the word fault…only I didn’t say the word fault but one close to it.  (This was a book that had a story of a man that had a speech impediment where he could not say the letter “L”.  Replaced it with the letter “R”)   Ah!  It was so embarrassing and super funny.  Only Sis. Carrigan seemed to notice and she was trying so hard to not start laughing.  So was I!  I finished what I was saying and took a drink of water to cover up my laughing.  Oh boy!

September 21, 2013

Since we didn’t weekly plan yesterday.  We did it today.  It has been raining  pretty much nonstop today and it has been raining hard.  We went and helped Marni clean her house for about an hour and a half.   Actually probably 2 hours.  After Marni’s we went to Yogli Mogli for frozen yogurt.  Sarah Holgado just started there and she asked if we would come to see her there..  We have become really good friends with her and I love it!  She is so cute!  After that we went tracting in the rain.  I loved it!  Take a Saturday and add rain and EVERYONE is home.  Whoot!  We got 24 contacts in the space of 2 hours.  We felt very proud.  After tracting it was getting dark.  We went and grabbed dinner and then after we ate we went over to Bro. Picketts.  He asked us to come meet with him to talk about our investigators (he is the ward mission leader)  Not super eventful but fun never the less.

September 22, 2013

So I woke up with a super sore throat.  We were fasting for our investigators today so not only did I have a sore throat but I wasn’t able to drink any water to sooth it.  It was ward conference today.  Kelly came to sacrament meeting and sat by us.  She is really cute!  I hope everything works out with her.  During the second hour they called Sis. Carrigan and I up to give like a one minute review on how members can be missionaries.  Sis. Carrigan went first.  When it was my turn Bro. Pett just asked me a few questions and then had me sit back down.  After church we were going to really quick finish figuring out the smoking cessation program.  It turned into like a 3 hour deal.  A little frustrating but I tried to make the best of it. 

We had dinner at the Noblits.  That was fun!  Bro. Noblit served his mission in Madrid Spain.  Is that where Benji went?  It was funny.  He actually reminded me a lot of Benjamin.  They are fostering 6 puppies right now.  And when I say puppies, I mean like 5 week old puppies.  Sydney!  You would have loved it!  They were so cute.  They were as close to holding babies that I will get to for a while.  So that was fun.

After dinner we went tracting.  We only needed to contact 5 more people to hit our goal of 70 contacts.  We made it.  We got 74 contacts for the week.  Sweet!  So that was fun!  Man, I say that a lot.  I will try not to.  We then went home and added up our numbers for the week and sent them in.

We were both really hyper so we turned on the Inside Out CD and filmed ourselves singing the snowman songs in different outfits we improvised from around the apartment.  I would send them to you but the e-mail will not allow it.  Guess you will just have to watch them when I send you my memory card.  I know you will roll your eyes but we had fun!  I love you all.  I hope you have a fabulous week.

Molly

Some Weeks are Harder than Others!

September 9, 2013

Hello family of mine!

I haven’t gotten snail mail letters this week yet but I’m thinking that is because of transfer week.  Things get put behind for a little bit until Sister Conners (who is in charge of the mail) figures out where everyone has been moved to.  I’m sure that I will get them soon.☺ 

P-day was quite an adventure today!  Our plan was to e-mail and then go to the mall of Georgia.  Sister Carrigan needed to go get a B-day present for her sister and I wanted to see what I could find. . . .

Well, we did e-mail!  That was fun.☺ I didn’t get a boat load of e-mails like I did last week but that was fine.  I got my family’s e-mails and really those are the ones I LOVE!  It was fun to get a surprise e-mail from Grandpa!  I got an e-mail from Chaia.  She is loving it all so far and she says her trainer is a little crazy but she likes her.

We didn’t end up going to the mall like we planned.  We went hiking instead!  As we were leaving our new DL, Elder Smith stopped us and asked if we were going hiking.  We decided we could go to the mall next week.  They said that it was only like 10 minutes away and it was an easy, 2 mile hike.  Sister Carrigan and I ran home to change.  We were in skirts since we had planned to go to the mall.  All the Elders had their clothes there to change into at the church.  It was us, our Elders, the ZL’s and Elder Smith and his companion.  We are always the only sisters. . . .  For some reason the other sisters won’t do things with the elders on P-days.  I understand why with some of them but most are pretty awesome.

So when we got back we walked into the Family History Center and what we saw made me roll my eyes, sad, annoyed, and embarrassed all at the same time.  One set of elders were wearing red booty shorts.  One of them even had a cut off shirt.  Elder Thomas was not happy with them!  He told them multiple times to change because they were inappropriate but they wouldn’t listen.  We told them we weren’t at all comfortable with it and they really didn’t care.  It made me sad to think that they would be willing to dress down to a pretty immodest state just so that they could do something that they thought was funny.

We still went hiking with them and it was fun but I partly wish we hadn’t.  It was embarrassing!  Luckily they didn’t wear their name tags. . . .  But they were still associating themselves with the church because they were with us.  I kinda wish we hadn’t gone . . . all because they were being stupid, immature boys!  It would have been so much more fun if they had acted like missionaries!

The hike was a lot farther away and a lot longer than they had said.  So we were late for dinner. L  I hate being late- -for dinner and anything else.  We went to the Hunsakers.  They are amazing! (Like most families in this ward. J)  There have been a few families we have been to that ask the get to know you questions (where you’re from, age, place in your family).  The Hunsakers did ask those questions.  They asked about each of you.  All the kids’ names and ages, what you all liked to do, jobs, relationships. . . .  They really cared and listened!  It was way fun. J  They played guess Sister George’s first name.  I gave them the first
letter and from youngest to oldest they guessed.  It only took them 3 rounds. J  Bro. Hunsaker is the 1^st counselor in the bishopric and he asked what kind of scandal we had in the ward . . .  I had none to tell him.   He said to ask you guys!

After dinner we went and picked up the Elders.  Because the hiking had taken so much longer we hadn’t gone to the store.  Elder Rahman has no food cause he is new.  So they really had to go.  We went and got him some food and then went home cause it was 9 o’clock.  Talking-to-people-wise it wasn’t the most productive day.  But, P-day was fun, hiking was fun for the most part, dinner was fun and the store was very much needed. 

Oh!  I forgot!  So while we were e-mailing Elder Thomas asked me for our car keys.  I thought nothing of it and handed them over.  When we went to change we got in the car and there was a creepy clown head on the floor!  He filmed it from the window.  Those kinds of things are dumb but fun. J  I am glad they tell us not to lose all ourselves when we are missionaries.  It makes things so much better!

September 10, 2013

Happy 2 months mark!  Crazy!  I’m almost done with being “trained!”  Every time Elder Thomas and I talk he asks me if I’m ready to train this next transfer.  I keep telling him no.  He says, “Well, too bad!  There are going to be a few trios, maybe you will get lucky and get 2 instead of one!”  Oh boy.  Sister Carrigan keeps telling me I will be training too.  I would really rather not train at this moment in time.  I really don’t feel like I know enough!  If President Wolfert is told by Heavenly Father that that is what NEEDS to happen then I will do it and I will give it my all.  It just makes me pretty dang nervous whenever they tell me that kind of dumb stuff!

We had zone meeting today, guess what that means?!?  Yup!  I got to see Sister Hooker!!!  Yay!  Man, I love that girl!  She makes me happy! J  It was her b-day on the 30^th so I sent her a letter since that is about all I could do.  Now SHE is a sister who will be training next transfer!  She is amazing!  So that just pretty much made my day right there!

We learned lots of good stuff in Zone Meeting.  It’s always fun to see all the missionaries in our zone working together.  There are now 32 missionaries just in our zone.  Crazy!  Oh!!   Guess who is coming to talk to us on October 25^th?!?  Elder Oakes!!  I am so excited!  President Wolfert said that when they come to speak to us they aren’t given a topic and don’t really plan out what they will say.  They go by what the spirit tells them we need to hear.  He wants us to prepare ourselves spiritually so that we don’t just get chastised.  I agree!  I would much rather get an awesome talk than to be chastised!  So, that is the super fun thing that is happening in October.

After Zone Meeting we went to lunch at 5 Guys.  That was fun!  I found a rock in my French fries.  YUCK!  And I bit down on it too!  Ouch!  Their corporate guy was there.  I didn’t say anything or complain like most people would have.  They had been super nice to us and I was not going to get them in trouble! 

After lunch and dropping off the elders at their apartment we went home and called a few people.  Moses won’t meet with us.  For the past 2 weeks he has told us, “Maybe next week.“  It makes us sad.  We see so much potential but not really any desire, or the desire that was there has faded.  We are trying one more time before we hand him back over to the Lord.  (We decided that sounds nicer than dropping themJ).

We went back over to the Hunsakers after that.  Sister Carrigan’s nephew was born last night and Sister Hunsaker had pictures that they had texted to her.  He is cute and has lots of hair but isn’t as cute or has as much hair as me as a baby. J  Haha!  It was fun for Sister Carrigan to see him.  I’m happy for her.  It’s sad cause he will be 1 by the time she gets back.  I’m so glad that as the oldest I don’t have to deal with that!  Gabe no worries, you won’t have to deal with that either. J  Lacey, no promises!

After Hunsakers we headed over to the Galts.  Barbara had said we could come over and we wanted to take Sister Galt with us.  When we got over there she said, “Oh!  Sister George!  I got a text from your mom!”  And then she gave me a big hug.  Thanks for the hug Momma. J  I squeezed back.  Technology is a great thing!  It is fun to know that you can communicate with my ward here.  I love picturing you texting them and getting a replay back!  It makes me happy to know that as far away as we are, we are also close. J  Sometimes when I can see the moon I start singing “Somewhere Out There” and think of you guys.  I makes me happy!  I’m sure Sister Galt also sent you the picture she took.  Not my best picture I‘m sure but I’m happy and safe! J

Barbara.  I was telling you about Barbara.  She is a sweetheart!  She is listening to the discussions and applying them to what she knows.  Like how Moses got the 10 commandments from God and Joseph got the plates.  Stuff like that.  She wants to believe what we are telling her.  She really does!  Right now the biggest obstacle is trust.  She has had a lot of things happen and trusting in people and churches is a hard one for her.  She sees all these people talk the talk of their churches but they don’t walk the walk.  Lucky for her she found a church that talks the talk and walks the walk!  We asked her to be baptized.  She said she has already been baptized.  Twice.  Basically in a nice way we told her that those ones are wrong. ☺ She said she would pray about it.  We asked her if she would follow through with whatever answer she got and she said yes!  Yay!  Barbara loved Sister Galt so that was awesome!  Actually, Barbara’s son, Eric, went to school with Sister Galt’s daughter.  Eric took a Book of Mormon today.  So now they both have one. ☺  Sweet!  They are really progressing and it is exciting to see!

It was pretty late when we left Barbara’s so we went tracting for a little bit and then at 7:30 we had to go clean our car.  The ZL’s are inspecting it tomorrow so it has to be pretty.  We are supposed to get a new car soon so that will be fun!

When we got home we did our usual mailbox checking.  I got a letter.☺  Thanks Momma!  I’m glad everyone had a good first day of school!!  How come Gabey had the day off?  Lace, the first day of school is ALWAYS a waste.  It forever will be!  You smart little cookie!  One out of 5 freshman in math class!  Psh!  Not gonna lie.  Those kids were always the ones I made friends with.☺  Obviously they were smarter than the rest of us so it would be stupid not to have them as my math buddy!

I have always love watching you with your kids at school Momma.  You can see how much they mean to you.  I am sorry that sometimes you get so frustrated with the system because it really doesn’t take children into account first.

I’m praying that the job thing gets figured out.  I know that Heavenly Father has wonders in store for our family and I’m so excited to see what all those wonders are. . . .  Even though I know there have been lots of them already!

I know it shouldn’t but it makes me smile to know that you missed me!  I’m so very sorry that you cried so much!  Don’t worry.  You will probably be the first person I throw my arms around when I get home . . . unless someone beats you to it. ☺  Just know how very much I love you and how hard I am working so that I can come home to you with no regrets!  You are my bestest Momma in the world!

September 11, 2013

Ah!!  I liked today.☺  It was a pretty dang good day!  We had interviews with President Wolfert today.  During the interviews we kinda sorta had District Meeting.  The Elders were being pretty crazy.  They kind of refused to focus.  I was playing the piano and Sister Carrigan was writing in her journal.  We were pretty much the only 2 trying to do what we were supposed to. . . well as much as we could.

I loved my interview!  Sister Carrigan had gone in before me and she was nice. ☺  She told President Wolfert that we got along really well and that I was a hard worker.  We talked about how I was liking it and how I was doing.  He asked about personal study and I told him I had a Book of Mormon that is dedicated to just finding things about missionary work (which is like every verse!)  He said he does that too!  Then he said, “Well Sister George, I’ve got to tell you.  From your e-mails and this interview you are farther along than we expect missionaries to be at this point on their missions.”  I said, thanks and then he said, “Don’t thank me!  Thank the Lord, and yourself, and Sister Carrigan!”  It was funny. J  It was really nice of him to say.  I’m glad that my hard work is paying off.

Afterwards we went and planned what we wanted to teach Stephanie.  We figured that since she had officially agreed to take the lessons that we would just start at the beginning.  We decided to show her the Restoration video, and talk about it all.  We taught her at the family history center.  Right in the middle we got interrupted.  Stephanie had fully been paying attention and then she was gone as soon as we were interrupted.  It was frustrating.  Luckily after a few minutes of starting again she was paying attention again.  Something has changed in her.  She seems like she actually wants to learn what we are trying to teach her and like she really wants to find out the truth.  I think we could really get somewhere with her.  She has A LOT of Word of Wisdom issues . . . smoking, chewing, coffee (that one actually might be the biggest problem), drinking.  Luckily we aren’t’ there yet.  I think she might throw a fit when we get there.  By that time I’m praying she will have a strong enough testimony to overcome all that.
 

We went over to Mary’s house and saw that her lawn had not been mowed in a while.  She has  no lawn mower and the guy she hires to do it basically told her to buy a used one and do it herself!  RUDE!  We called everyone to see if we could borrow a lawn mower.  Finally Bro. Lowry answered his phone and told us we could borrow his.  We ran and put our service clothes on and the hurried over to his house.  By this time it was 7:30 so we only had an hour left of daylight.  We got some, but not all of it done.   Bro. Lowry came and got his mower and we went over to Henderson’s.  Hopefully we will be able to finish the rest of her lawn soon! 

When we got home for the night and checked the mail there was another letter in there for me. J  Yay for finding the lost letter!  I love hearing about what’s going on in all your lives!  It makes me oh so very happy. 

September 12, 2013

Today started out fabulous!  We picked up Sarah Holgado (an 18 year old girl in our ward who wants to go on a mission) to come with us for the whole day!  She is really cute.  I like her lots. J 

Our first stop was Richard.  He welcomed us right in.  I think he really likes having us there.  He is sweet and I think it is good for him to be able to talk about the Book of Mormon with someone who isn’t going to shut him off.  We were talking to him about the Plan of Salvation.  He really liked the idea of a spirit world after death, that people didn’t just go to Hell but that they had a chance to learn.  He started talking a little about genealogy.  I felt prompted to ask him if he knew what we do in the temple.  He said no and so I started explaining the ordinances.  He loved that!  I think that out of everything this is what will get him baptized.  He said he saw his grandma after she had died.  He kept saying, “You probably think I’m crazy!”  I felt like I should tell him about when Grandpa died and how I had been singing and you asked me what I was doing and I said I was singing with Grandpa.  I know that is such a special story Momma, and I promise it isn’t one I take lightly.  I think it was a really good thing to share with Richard.  This was probably my favorite lesson my mission so far.  I really felt the spirit and I could just see Richard’s family praying and cheering for him in the spirit world to be baptized and then do their work.

After Richard we had 2 appointments set up but they both fell through.  So, we went tracting.  Unfortunately tracting in the middle of the day is very much NOT productive!  No one was home!  On a great note though . . . Hannah!  Guess what ?!?  I found my most favorite street in all of Suwanee!  Guess what it is called Hannah St!!!  They have a street named after you! J 

After some non-productive tracting, we went to Barbara’s house.  She told us that she is letting her boyfriend move back in.  NO!!!  Dang it!  Hopefully that will be something that can quickly be fixed. . . UGH!

After Barbara we went over to the Holgado’s for dinner.  Sarah was fun and told her parents all about our day. J   She wants to go out with us lots more!  Her dad asked if she taught anything and she said, “NO!  I was too scared!”  I teased her and said, “Yay!  You can be the greenie now."J

September 13, 2013

I have been so sad.  I knew that Sister Carrigan was frustrated with me last night.  I couldn’t figure out why.  I thought it had been a fantastic day.  It has really made me sad.  I went into the bathroom and cried.  I didn’t know what to do.  All day long I have been sad.  I’m trying not to be but it really hurt my feelings to know that I have made her frustrated and I can't figure out why and she won't tell me.  I guess it is just one of those things that happens when you are with someone 24/7.  But it made me very homesick.  I just want to be at home and get a hug from you and just have you tell me that you love me.  I hate how I have been feeling!  It stinks!  I really do love her and I want to figure out what I did and how to make it better.

We didn’t get any weekly planning done today.  We had too many appointments.  First we went over to Pickett’s neighbor, Marni, to help her clean her house.  She snapped her ankle and can’t do anything.  It’s really bad!  So we went to help her clean.  She was really sweet and way nice.  We are probably going to go over there twice a week to help her out for a few hours. 

After Marni we went to see Clara.  Clara is from Palau. She is a cutie.  She is a former investigator. . . kind of. . . it’s complicated with her.  She still comes to church and everything but had to be dropped because she couldn’t meet with the missionaries anymore.  Her sister-in-law practically lives with her and her husband and won’t allow the missionaries over.  It’s very weird and complicated.  It makes Clara sad cause she likes us coming over.   While her sister-in-law was at work Clara texted us to come talk to her.  It was pretty much a venting session for Clara.  That was fine.  She is a cute lady.  I like her. J  She told us how they do baby showers.  It was so random and kind of funny.   Basically they wait until a month after the baby is born and then have a party.  The new mother wears only a grass skirt so she is naked from the waist up.  It was interesting.  I’m so very glad we don’t do that!

After Clara we went to go see Bro Hiers.  He cancelled on us yesterday but at like 11:30 last night he called and left a voice mail.  He sounded like he was crying and he just kept saying, “I just need help.”  He was so sad.  I could relate!  Sister Carrigan chose read a bunch of scriptures on happiness.  I just kind of sat there trying to focus on Bro. Hiers and not on me.  It just about broke my heart to see him so sad.

We went tracting after that.  It kind of got my mind off everything so that was good.  Remember how I told you that we judge mailboxes!  Well I can’t really do that anymore either.  Last night when we were telling Sis. Hogaldo about our day, I said we do silly, fun things like judge mailboxes.  Sister Carrigan turned and said, “No, YOU judge mailboxes.”  I’m trying so very hard not to bug her!  I didn’t mention mailboxes once.  Then she turned to me after a while and said, “That’s a nice mailbox.”  I agreed and commented on it.  I just don’t understand.  I’m so confused about what she wants me to do!  But I know that I do not want to make her crazy.

Every time we get out of a lesson she tells me I need to talk more, when I do then I think I frustrate her and it feels like she thinks that I’m acting like a know it all.  I’m just confused, frustrated, and hurt.  Most of all though, I’m homesick.  I just wish I could be at home for like 2 hours, give you all hugs and kisses, talk for a little bit and then I could go on my merry way.  I just so very much want someone to tell me they love me.  It would be better if I could have an example or have her tell me but she won’t tell me and so I’m just lost!  UGH!  I hate this feeling!  Maybe I am reading things into what is not there but it doesn't feel like it.  I really do love her.  She is a good missionary.

After tracting we went and grabbed dinner at Jimmy Johns.  I’m not gonna lie, every time I go in there I think of my JJ crew.  I really do love it there.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder. J

Then it was back to tracting for an hour before we went to the Henderson’s.

September 14, 2013

Well, weekly planning went fine today.  Pretty much the usual.  I am still very homesick and I am tired of crying!

Luckily, tracting takes away from my frustration.  We traced into this guy named Abel.  He said he was a member or used to be.  He had gotten married in the temple to his first wife.  They got divorced, he fell away and has no interest in coming back.  How sad!  I hate hearing that!  We also met this 16 year old, Jessica.  She was really interested in what we had to say.  We are meeting with her next week.  I have a good feeling about her!

We also went to see Cherese.  She wasn’t home but her brother Colt was.  He is funny.  Gabey, I feel like the two of you could get along well!  I told Sister Carrigan I missed you.  I said that it would be so awesome if you went through the Atlanta airport and President Wolfert let me see you.  I said I would give you a big hug.  You would be the only Elder that I would hug.  I think Jenny Beth got to do that with Benjamin in New York.

Here is a way happy thing for me.  I got to see my Sister Hooker tonight!  Oh boy how I love her!  She always makes my day lots better.  I got to talk to just her for a bit.  It made me feel lots better to talk to her.  I’m so sad though because she has been having a hard time.  It made me feel guilty for being so selfish and sad for myself.  But Momma oh how I love that girl.

September 15, 2013

Sundays are good.  I love church and the recharge that it gives me.  Today has been lots better.   After church we went tracting.  The first door we knock on was a former investigator that we didn’t even know lived there.  He should have been baptized long ago.  Sadly, he plays devil’s advocate with himself.  He believes and he has a testimony but then he will convince himself that he doesn’t.  It is sad.  He just needs to get baptized!  He let us in and talked to us for like 1½ hours.  By the time we got out it was time for dinner at the Galt’s.

Here is the most awesome part of my week though --- AWESOME!  So Stephanie, the one who made me mad because of what she said to Sister Carrigan, asked us to come over.  She told us that she believes what we are teaching her is true!  She said it just happened when she finally stopped praying to see if what we were telling her wasn’t true but then she started praying to see if it was.  YES!  We have our work cut out for us though!  She kept telling us that weed isn’t a drug because it is natural.  Oh boy.  That isn’t the only thing we have to work on either.  It is going to be a long process but the end result will be awesome!

On that note I will leave you. J  I love y’all buckets!  I love y’all $20!  Have a happy week!  Happy Talk Like a Pirate day!  I will be thinking about you ALL Thursday long. J

Molly