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 1st 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!
letter and from youngest to oldest they guessed. It only took them 3 rounds. J Bro. Hunsaker is the 1st 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 30th 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 25th?!? 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
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
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