Elder Oaks and Missionary Friends

October 21, 2013

Hey, hey!

Today was a pretty fun, chill day!  I like Monday's a lot.  I wish Gainesville wasn't so far away so that we could hang with Sister Hooker.  I love the Elders that we hang out with though.  We always have a blast.  I love your e-mails that I got this week.☺ I got an e-mail from Michelle Irvine and that was fun.  I also got one from Carson.  Well I haven't written him in forever.  Those letters were fun surprises.  We went to Walmart and I printed off some pictures.  I would like to get another memory cards so that I can send this one home and still have one.  That would be nice if you would print off copies from the card that I sent home.  I will try and get them all on a CD today.  And I will save them to my jump drive.  That way it will be all sorts of backed up.  Just in case.☺

We had dinner at the Holgado's tonight since it is Monday.  They are such a funny family.  I think I have always been a favorite with them.☺ I like that feeling.  That is totally not to say they don't love Sister Carrigan though because they so do that is why I said "a" favorite.  And once they get to know Sister Knight they will love her too.  I like that in all reality we can have more than ONE favorite.  We showed Scotty of video on Temples and talked about that.  His attention span is so very short.   We only get a little time before he is off and away again.  He is so cute though!  We played hide and seek afterwards.  Sister Knight and I stayed within sight and sound of each other.  Even with that hindrance we did pretty dang good.  It was hilarious!

After that we saw that Sister Watkins called us.  She told us to come over and teach her a lesson.  She told me she had something for me.  When we got over there we laughed because the Elders were over there too.  She is a funny lady.  She had printed off both her email to you and your email to her.  I love them both!  She let me keep them.  Lacey, you are now her favorite!  You made her cry.  I guess you will just have to come back with me to meet my little treasure Sister Watkins in person.  She told me my room is always ready when I want to come home.  That is what she calls her house for us.  She is right though, and she knows it!

October 22, 2013

District meeting wasn't the same today.  Don't get me wrong!  We still had a good time, but I miss the old group.  Elder Thomas, (the ZL's always split up and he always came to ours) Sister Alvey, Sister Carrigan, and Elder Smith.  We had a good thing going with all of us.  This group is good too though.  That's the bummer about transfers, you get really close to some of these missionaries and then they have to up and leave you!  

The Elders have this thing where they choose one person and that is the person they call on for everything.  To read scriptures, say prayers, answer questions. . . it used to be elder Howell and now he is district leader.  Guess who they have picked on now?  Yup you guessed it!  Yours truly.  Nerds.  Elder Howell doesn't do it but the rest of them do.  I told them they needed to pick the person who would most likely be the district leader after elder Howell.  They didn't go for that.  All well.  I would rather have them do this kind of stuff and tease me than ignore me.  If they ignore you, they don't like you.  That makes me "a" favorite in the district.☺

After district meeting we went home for lunch.  No one had any money.  I was OK with that.☺  We went over to Marni's and helped her out.  I really like her!  She is a cutie!  Sister Knight told me that when we go and helped Marni, she feels like we are being productive, but when we tract she doesn't feel like we are.  She is going to have to change that mindset or she is not going to feel productive very often.  She is starting to get the hang of missionary work though.  She is opening up more too.  I hope that we can be as close as Sister Carrigan and I were.  I know it takes time.

We had a little while to tract before dinner so that is what we did.  I don't feel as productive if we don't tract.  I love tracting.  Granted, some days are better than others, but for the most part I think it is fun.

Dinner was with the Hayden/Johnson home.  Sister Hayden and her family live with her parents.  I'm not really sure what her story is.  I think her husband is a member and that he works in like North Dakota or something.  I'm not really sure.  Anyways, we had fun!  Their little boy is named Gabe and he is the second oldest with girls on both sides.  I told him that I had a brother named to Gabe who is also the only boy.  I think he liked that.  I told him that you had turned out pretty dang good Gabey.  So he would be okay too.

By the time dinner was over it was dark.  I don't like that it gets dark at 7:30!  We try to go see some less actives and then some members but no one would answer.  It was about 8:15 and I asked Sister Knight if she was familiar with the mormon.org videos?  She said she wasn't.  I really want to try incorporating some of these into our lessons.  So we went over to the church and talked about our investigators, what they needed, and found videos to go with that.  We found some really good ones and some that answered questions that Michael had asked us.  

While we were doing that one of our ward members was doing family history work.  She asked us how she could get someone's info to have the missionaries to visit them if they weren't in our area.  Turns out it is her son.  He is 20, off to college and not really going to church.  She is worried about that.  I guess he is super talented and is going on tour with Donny and Marie Osmond during their Christmas tour.  Pretty cool!

We went home after that.  Kiaundra texted us.  She is the cute little 19 year old girl.  She told us she had some sad news.  She went to visit her family in North Carolina and had told them she was going to be baptized (that was news to me but happy news) into the Mormon church.  Her family got really mad.  She said she couldn't go against their wishes.  But, she still wants to meet with us and go to church and everything.  So pray that her family's hearts are softened.  She really wants to become a member and we want her to do that too!  Man, I hate that Satan is getting in the way of all of these amazing people.

October 23, 2013

UGG.  It was so hard to get up this morning.  My body feels like it's a bajillion years old.  No worries.  I got up on time.  Guess what???  The zone leaders called us.  They are figuring out how to get everyone to Elder Oak's talk.  Guess who they said we are meeting up and going with?  Has everyone guessed?  Of course Sister Hooker!  You are right.☺  I'm so happy.  We're going to have a blast.  Whoot!  So then we got permission to call them to figure out where we would meet.  I love talking to Sister Hooker!  She sounds so much happier and I'm so glad.  And I think her greenie, Sister Parrins, is really awesome.  I love hearing how happy Sister Hooker is.  It's going to be hard when we aren't in the same zone anymore.  I think we should be put together as companions.  I think we would be a power team!  One can pray…

Today was mostly a day of tracting day.  We went tracting for about 5 hours.  I really didn't mind it.  We need to make up for some of the days that we haven't and won't be able to tract.  We took Sarah Holgado with us.  That girl is a hoot.  She will be a great missionary when she goes.  I finally got her to do a door approach!  She did really good.  She will be experienced by the time she gets out into the field.  Hopefully she will get her paper started soon.

It was chilly today.  It was really windy and humid cold.  I don't like it!  I'm warning you now.  If it gets too much worse, then I'll be dead.  I'm going to die because of the humid cold.  I'm missing the dry cold for sure.  I'm I'm going to have to go buy me some thick tights, more long skirts and a pair of winter boots.  Sister Watkins calls them winter boots as opposed to snow boots because she says they are not the same thing.

Speaking of Sister Watkins, we had dinner with them tonight.  She is so cute!  Every time she gives me a hug now she will step back, look me in the eyes, and say, "Your Momma loves you!"  I love it.☺ And mom I know that you do love me.

I love our discussions that we have when we are at their house.  I wish that all members were like them.  They go to the temple every single Saturday, without fail they haven't missed one yet since they could first go, starting with baptisms and now endowment sessions.  She was telling us some amazing stories.  She told us some stories about the temple that she didn't want us to talk to others in the ward about.  Needless to say, she told us about some very spiritual experiences in the temple.  She and Brother Watkins tell each other what happened to them after they have done their work for the session.  I love hearing what they share.

So we got another rule today.  It's both a good and the bad rule but doesn't affect Sister Knight or I.  So you know how we were allowed to give the Elders rides?  Well!  That rule is officially gone.  Elders and Sisters are no longer allowed to ride in the same car.  Ever!  Even if the member is driving.  The Elders aren't very happy with this rule.  Especially because they can't get rides to church or meetings with us.  They either have to ride their bikes or call a member.  I feel bad just 'cause it's getting pretty cold now and they have to ride their bikes to church and pretty much everywhere too.  They can call members though.

October 24, 2013

This morning we got up at 5:30 and went to Sister Olson's seminary class.  Rise and shine!  They had just gotten through Jacob chapters five and six and were studying chapter seven.  She wanted to have us there to talk about what we did when someone tried to shake our faith.  Sister Knight was pretty quiet.  I think she was kind of tired.  I basically answered the questions that Sister Olsen asked, which was fine.  I didn't mind.☺  Sister Olsen is so sweet.  She made us breakfast as a thank-you.  I love her a ton.

We went home and did our studies and got ready.  Not going to lie, I was dozing during personal study.  I may not have been tired at seminary but I was tired later.  On top of that I was freezing!  I had two pairs of socks on two blankets my pajamas and my sweatshirt on, not to mention that we had our heater going too.  I don't know about this humid cold.  I'm not liking it that much.  It's going to be a rough winter.☺

We had the Elders meet us over at Marni's house today.  She had mentioned that the yard needed to be done.  The Elders had just finished complaining about how much more service we got to do than them.  So, I volunteered them☺  They didn't mind though.  I think they were actually excited to do something other than tract.  Funny story.  Elder Howell was cutting the bushes with an electric trimmer.  It was hooked up to an extension cord.  Well the cord got in the way and along with cutting the bush he cut the extension cord as well.  Marni was laughing so hard.  It was funny when she told us.  Poor Elder Howell.  He was really embarrassed.

After Marni's house we went tracting until dinner.  Sister Knight does not like tracting as much as I do.  I like it.  I like talking to people.  I think that Sister Knight will grow into it.  We had a lesson with Ben and Casey tonight.  The Picketts had us over to dinner and invited them as well.  Part of the training program is that the greenie extends the baptismal invitation.  Sister Carrigan liked to do it so I have never really invited someone to be baptized.  I wanted to do it but I had Sister Knight do it.  I will get to eventually.  Ben said that he would get baptized but thought that November the 16th was a little too soon.  We told them it should be his goal though, so he agreed.  Casey said no, she isn't sure yet.  That's OK.  She will be ready someday.  We had hamburgers for dinner.  Sister Knight had told me that she hated hamburgers...well...she must have been really hungry then.  That sucker disappeared pretty fast.  It made me smile.  I LOVE hamburgers!!

Sister Rodriguez had asked us to go with her and invite less actives and non-members to the primary program on Sunday.  So that is what we did for the rest of the night.  It was really good because we went and saw some less actives that I had never met before.  There is one family, the Lockridges, who are a part member and less-active family.  Her husband is not a member.  She is super sweet.  I think we will start visiting them more.

After that we went home.  Yea for mail!  Daddy I got your letter.  Thank you for answering my questions.  That was super in interesting.  All I can say is, I'm so glad that I will never have to be a bishop.  What a stinkin hard job!  Speaking of bishops, I'm not sure if I told you are not.  They made Bishop Galt the new stake president.  He will be amazing at that.  I'm bummed though.  I really love him a lot.  As long as they don't take away Sister Galt then it will be okay.  We should find out who our new bishop is this Sunday.  My bet is on Brother Hunsaker!

October 25, 2013

Today wasn't super crazy eventful but it wasn't boring.  Since it was Friday we started out with weekly planning.  Sister Knight is not that excited about weekly planning.  I really do love her though!  She has warmed up and we have fun.  We went tracting after planning.  O geez!  What a time we had!  On one door this boy, probably 18, opens the door.  Oh my goodness!  He was flirting up a storm!  When we gave him the mormon.org card with our number on it he said, "Oh!  It's YOUR phone number?!?  Sweet!"  Sister Knight was petting the dog so I was the one stuck in the awkward one sided flirting conversation.  But then she offered him a Book of Mormon.  He took it and she was super excited about that.  I'm not sure his intentions were good, but you never know.  He may take it off of the shelf and read it.

The next house we knocked on ended up being a nursing home.  They look like a regular house in the middle of this neighborhood.  One of the caretakers, Cheri, opened the door and started talking to us.  We told her what the Book of Mormon was and where it came from.  She actually seem very interested in it.  She took the Book of Mormon we offered and we invited her to church to the primary program.  She sounded like she would like to come.  She said she would like to tell her sister about it as well.  She was really sweet!  I hope that she comes to church!

Soon after talking to Cheri, we turned back and headed to the car.  We passed Jay's house (the 18 year old flirty boy) and he is standing in his driveway with his guitar!  What?!?  He isn't playing it though.  Just fiddling with it like its totally normal to be standing in the middle of the driveway with a guitar.  Oh boy.  

OK, my last tracting story for the day.  We had dinner with the Rodriguez family and we were tracting in their neighborhood before dinner.  We knocked on this door and a couple answered that looked SO familiar.  We give our door approach and the whole time I am praying that this isn't like the Collett's incident that happened last week.  Then they tell us that actually, this isn't their house, they are just house sitting.  They told us that their neighbors are Mormon.  That's when it hit me.  Their neighbors are us!  We tracted into our own neighbors!  Weird!  They didn't recognize us, and I thought about saying something, but then they said they talked to us all the time.  We do talk to each other, just not enough for them to recognize us.☺  Haha!  It was kind of awkward.  It's going to be weird when we run into them at our apartment.  Maybe they won't realize it was us.

We had dinner with a cute Rodriguez family.  So my thrush, which they told me was just a yeast infection, still hasn't fully left.  Sister Rodriguez had told us before that she had been trying to get rid of a yeast infection since an April.  I talked to her about it and she kinda told me what I already knew.  Lots of times it's caused by an antibiotic.  She told me what probiotic to get.  I will get that on Monday.  It's been a pain in the butt.  She also said to try and avoid the yeast and sugar.  So I will be trying that too.  Darn, I'm just going to have to eat boring food for a while.  But hopefully, that will make it go away.

October 26, 2013

Congratulations!  You are now reading this written by a hand that has been shaken by an apostle of the Lord!  Ha!  I got to shake Elder Oaks hand!  Oh my goodness!  Today was like the best day EVER.  It started off that we got to drive down to Tucker with Sister Hooker and Sister Parrins.  What a blast!  Haha! It was really a lot of fun.  I LOVE Sister Hooker!!! We just talked and giggled the whole way down.  I can't thank Heavenly Father enough for these great friends of mine.  I just love them to death!

When we got to the building I had a list of people I was on the lookout for.  Elder Harmon (duh), Elder Zimmerman, Sister Carrigan, Sister Jacobs, and cute Sister Tavenner from home.  The place was pretty dang packed because we had our mission along with the Atlanta mission.  I found Sister Carrigan first.  I gave her a big hug.  It was so fun to see her.  I really do miss her a whole lot!  Next was my favorite, I found Elder Harmon!  I think he is a cutie!☺  We really did just become the best of friends in the MTC.  Elder Harmon sat down by me just before Sister Carrigan was going to.  I think she was a little annoyed with him.  I'm so glad that I have such amazing friends here.  It's a good feeling!  I wanted like 10 sides so that I could have every one I loved sitting by me

I saw Elder Zimmerman and that was so much fun!  We didn't talk too much before the meeting but we got to after.  He is doing really well and I'm not surprised!  He got his bike stolen but he was happy because he got a new one.  Funny boy.

Right before the meeting a sister waved me down and said, "Sister George!  Sister Jacobs has been looking all over for you."   I found Sister Jacobs and it was so fun.  We hugged each other and talked for a minute.  She looks so happy.  It was really fun to see her!  I was looking all over for Sister Tavenner!  I didn't find her until right after we had sat down.

Elder Oaks said he would take two pictures.  One with the Atlanta mission.  And one with the Atlanta north mission.  We all crowded together and got ready before Elder Oaks arrived.  He walked in and it went silent.  It was so cool!  He took the pictures with us and then went up to the front to shake hands while the Atlanta mission got ready for their picture.  After they finished he grabbed a Sister Oaks bag for her and offered her his arm.  It was so cute!  I want that someday.☺

When we got in line to shake his hand I was so excited!  It was really awesome!  The spirit was so strong.  After the meeting we were driving home.  Sister Parrins said her friend had Elder Oaks come to his mission too.  Elder Oaks had told them that every time he shakes a missionary's hand and looks into their eyes, he has a mini interview with them.  Pretty intense!  So not only did I get to shake Elder Oaks hand BUT I also had a mini interview with him!  Sweet! 

The meeting was super good.  In meetings like a ours, they don't come prepared with the talk, they just go with what the spirit tells them to.  He talked about how a lot of times as members we feel superior to others who aren't members and they can feel that.  We need to not do that.  We aren't superior at all!  He also told us that every time we say "my mission" that is not the truth.  It is really the Lord's mission.  If we remember that, how much more dedicated will we be?  A lot!  He also used his fishing analogy.  I have heard him use it before but I like it.  Though we may be gone from our apartment all day, how long do we have our lines in the water?  We need to remember to ALWAYS be fishing in water and have our lines in the water.  Then he told us 10 things that President Hinckley told a group of missionaries that they should take home from their missions and if they bring these things with them they have had a successful mission.  1-A testimony of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ 2-A greatly enlarged understanding of this gospel  3-A love for the people of Georgia  4-A greater love for our parents  5-Understand the meaning of hard work  6-Understanding of our own personal virtue  7-An increase of being poised and polished  8-Courage to act  9-Faith to try  10-Humility to pray.

We didn't get an obedience talk or get chastized.  And it was an amazing meeting!  Oh mom, I forgot to tell you that I got your letter last night.  And the one from Sydney, Lindsay Kuhn, and Sean Nance.  I loved the story you sent!  Oh my amazing!  I need another copy of it...  Sister Wolfert stole mine!  She didn't mean to but she did.  So can you send another copy?

At the end of the meeting, after Elder Oaks left, I found Michelle Tavenner.  I mean Sister Tavner.  :-) she looked fabulous!  I got a picture with her, which you will get before you get this letter.

Sister George and Sister Tavenner

It was a blast to see all my missionary friends and to listen to Elder Oaks speak to us!  So fun!  When we got home we said goodbye to Sister Hooker and Sister Parrins and headed over to Michael and Brittany's with Sister Fullwood for lesson.  We had planned on teaching them the plan of salvation but didn't end up teaching that.  I liked what we did better!  Sometimes your plan just wasn't what was needed.  Mostly they asked a lot of questions and we answered them.  Sister Fullwood was a HUGE help.  Some of the stuff Michael asked was way over my head but Sister Fullwood knew how to answer them.  

Afterwards, Michael asked if he could teach us something.  I was excited!  He knows a lot of cool stuff!  Like, God didn't bless the second day when he created the earth because there was going to be a flood.  He asked us if we knew why Christ was crucified instead of just being stoned like most people.  I looked in the bible dictionaries under crucifixion.  It says that was saved for only the lowest of the low.  I told them it was totally my thought because I didn't actually know, but Christ died for everyone, even the lowest of the low, and maybe it was just symbolic.  Michael didn't know either.  He was just wondering.  It was just a really fun, cool lesson.

We had dinner with the Moores tonight.  Sister Moore is the Relief Society secretary.  She is really awesome!  Her house was so cute!  She had a turquoise dining room with a chandelier.  It was awesome!  After dinner we had been asked to help with the primary program practice.  So we went over to the church.  It's going to be so fun tomorrow.  The kids are so stinking cute!  I'm excited!☺  I love being around the kids as a missionary.  They get so excited to see you and I love that.  We ended our night meeting with Brother Pickett and talking about our investigators.  It's weird that we can't take the Elders anymore.  Brother Pickett took them home and basically just followed us.  All well!  Rules are rules and we must follow them!

October 27, 2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA SYNDERGAARD!  I hope that you had a good day mom, and thought of happy memories.☺  I love the knowledge that we can be with our family's forever.  What splendid knowledge.  We went to PEC today and when we talked about our investigators it went really well.  Then we got to the Elders.  O geez!  So they have a new investigator that is dating Adrienne.  We'll Karlin is also a member and Adrienne's ex boyfriend.  Last time Karlin and this guy saw each other it came to blows.  There is a ton more to the story but its all just complicated and messed up.  Anyways, they all just started arguing about what to do.  Pour Elders!  They so did not know the whole story about their new investigator!  All they're trying to do is teach the gospel.  Karlin ended up leaving when they told him who was coming.  The whole situation is just crazy!

For sacrament meeting today it was our primary program.  They did so good!  It was fun to listen to them!  They did something really cool, on most of the songs they had one of the kids accompanying them.  That was really cute.  I got a little teary when they sang "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" it just reminded me of home.  "I am a child of God" was just not as good in only English.  I miss the Spanish and the Dutch.

Church was just really good today.  I love being able to see our whole ward together every Sunday.  We went tracting before dinner for a few hours.  We tracted into this guy named Chad.  I started talking to him and told him what the Book of Mormon was.  He said it sounded like a pretty good book!  Yup!  I gave him a Book of Mormon and he seemed really sincere when he said he would read it and look into it.  Hopefully he will and give us a call!  If not, a seed has been planted.

We went to the VanDykes for dinner.  They are nice.  Their 18 year old son, Todd, likes to talk to the missionaries.  After dinner we planned our FHE lesson for the Holgado's tomorrow.  I know sister Holgado wants it but I don't know if Scotty will get baptized.  He doesn't really need to.  He is already celestial.  We will continue having FHE though if that is what she wants!

 Well family, I love you tons!  I'm excited for your e-mails tomorrow. ☺

Love Molly

P.S.  Did you know that you can send me videos on the e-mail?  I just can't send you any.  You all should make a video for me and send it to me.  Love you.

P.P.S.  I still have not gotten a letter from Grandma Syndergaard yet.

Goodbye to My Sweet Sister Carrigan - Hello Sister Knight!

October 14, 2013

Hey Georges!

Oh what a day!  Ok, so first off, I'm sorry about how short all my emails to y'all were!  We were super crunched on time today and I only got about an hour and a half to write and for some reason this week is the most e-mails that I have gotten in quite some time!  But you know the important stuff!  Like that I'm training and that I get my greenie on Wednesday!  Ah!  I'm excited!☺  The other important thing is that I'm still in Suwanee and I am VERY happy about that!

Second of all, boo that you didn't get my last week's bunch of letters!  I'm praying that it get to you!  That is a whole weeks worth of important news, info, and  memories!  I really hope you get it.

Today was a zone p-day.  We went to Amicolola Falls to hike.  Oh boy!  It was so much fun but boy am I tired!  We had to walk up 604 stairs.  My calves are killing me!  All of our legs were shaking when we got back down to our car and we were just standing and talking.  I hung out with Sister Hamilton and Sister Alder (our sister training leaders).  Sister Hooker's comp wouldn't come so I didn't get to see her! : /  I will get to see her on Wednesday though!  I am so glad that we are both training!  We took lots of pictures!  They are fun!  I will try to send you some next Monday!

We hit traffic on the way back home so we were super late for dinner with the Holgados.  I felt so bad!  Sister Holgado was really sweet about it.  She is just so stinkin' cute!  She sure does love having us over.☺  After that we had our FHE lesson with Scotty.  A very, very watered down version of the plan of salvation.  I think he got most of it so that was good!

After dinner and the lesson we went over to the Galts.  I'm sure that  you got the picture she took.☺

We love Sister Galt who randomly sends us text pictures!!!

I'm sure I look completely exhausted!  But happy, as long as I look happy and exhausted then we are good!

October 15, 2013

Today was kinda a sad day.  In district meeting everyone was saying good bye to each other.  Sister Carrigan is leaving, Sister Alvey is headed up to Delonega to white wash and train (luckily that is still in our zone☺) and they are sending Elder Smith over to Marietta to be a zone leader.  Elder Howell found out today that he is the new district leader.  They forgot to call him and tell him yesterday.  Elder Thomas is leaving too. : (  They are sending him over to the YSA ward in Rosewell zone.  He will be amazing there.  I'm selfish and don't want to share though!  He shared his testimony with us and it was amazing.  I almost started crying, it was really good.  He is going to go far in this life!  We went to lunch together and just had a good time as a district.  I'm really gonna miss all these guys!  Luckily most of them are staying here with me!☺

After lunch we went home and Sister Carrigan packed.  I cleaned.  Like, deep cleaned.  Our apartment isn't dirty, but it's nice to come "home" to a clean apartment.  I'm nervous for tomorrow but excited too!

We stayed home packing and cleaning until our dinner with Sister Fullwood.  She is an amazing lady!  She is teaching Relief Society for the first time and she is so nervous.  She will do an awesome job though!  She took us to Olive Garden cause that is Sister Carrigan's favorite restaurant.  We had a good time talking to her.  After that Sister Carrigan wanted to visit everyone!  It is hard to shove everyone into one night.  We used a ton of miles but leaving is hard and we have to say goodbye!  We have to drive to Lilburn tomorrow too.  On the bright side, if we run out of miles I will finally be able to use my bike!!  HA!

Oh!  So our balloon prank failed!  Our elders were supposed to get the keys.  They were way too obvious.  The Spanish elders found us out!  Darn it!

October 16, 2013

Today I was officially made a trainer!  Oh boy.  We got up this morning at 5:50 am YUCK!  I have been so stinkin' tired the whole day!   We had to be in Lilburn by 7:45 and we figured there might be a ton of traffic.  We packed all of Sister Carrigan's stuff in the car and we ended up getting to Lilburn at like 7:15.  So much for a ton of traffic!

We pulled into the parking lot and I found Sister Hooker right off the bat.☺  We went into the office and got Sister Carrigan all figured out.  She got a brand new 2014 car!  Lucky duck!  It even had the yummy brand new car smell!

We went into the chapel with all the other trainers.  The greenies were in the Relief Society room learning some other stuff.  President Wolfert then told us each about our trainee.  When he finally got to me I was excited but nervous.  He looked at me and said, "Sister George, how are you?!?"  I laughed and told him I was doin' ok.  He then said, "You will be training Sister Knight.  She has lived in Kennawick, Washington most of her life but her family moved to England at the beginning of this year.  She was a dancer for 10 years.  She went to Utah State and is 20 years old." and moved onto the next person.

After he had told all the trainers about their trainees, we went out into the hall to greet them.  I was at the front of the line and Sister Knight was one of the first ones to get to us.  I gave her a big hug and we then went into the chapel.  Sister Hooker followed with her greenie. 

Sister George, Sister Knight, Sister Hooker, and Sister Parrins 

 Then we had a meeting with Sister Atkins, the mission nurse.  President Wolfert talked about things and basically there was just a lot of info for all the greenies to take in.  I looked over at Sister Knight and she was fighting to stay awake!

After that they sent all the greenies to have a lesson for their bikes and how to take care of them.  We went to go grab their bikes and luggage and get all that in our cars.  I was so nervous!  I had to drive home!  My first time in three months!  Ahhh!

I kind of liked that both Sister Hooker and I are the senior companions now.☺ We got to go to lunch together with our greenies.  Sister Alvey and her greenie came too.  We had a ton of fun!  It was so sad to say goodbye to them after lunch!  Luckily next week on Saturday we will see them at the Elder Oaks meeting.  We got home, and like Sister Carrigan did to me, I asked sister Knight if she wanted to unpack or go to work.  She wanted to take a minute to unpack.  

When she finished unpacking it was time to go to dinner at the Johnsons.  They were having a greenie meal.  We had fun!  I really like their family, all five of their boys are just stellar.  I think that Gabe would get along really well with their son Jordan.  I wish you could come and meet them!  Someday you will.☺ After that we went over to the Galts.  I love Sister Galt.  Love her!  I'm guessing you got the picture that she texted you of sister Knight and me? 

Sister Knight and Sister George sent from Sister Galt

I hope I looked less dear in the headlights than the first picture she ever sent.  And not going to lie, I still feel like that!  The Galts had invited over Ben and Casey Willard.  They are the ones whose wife and mom died and the funeral service was Sunday night.  They really want to be baptized.  We taught them the first lesson and the spirit was so strong.  Probably one of the strongest times I have felt the spirit while teaching a lesson.  It was awesome!!  I think they will be baptized within this next month.  They really need this gospel and a great thing is that they know it.  And it was cool because Sister Knight got to teach a lesson on her first day.  Now that I'm training I can look back and see how rocky it was for that first little bit.  I think that I have grown a lot but I'm not done yet.  Not even close.

After Galts we ran over to Picketts.  Sister Knight didn't have any blankets or anything so Brother Pickett gave us some for her.  I was glad that she got to meet some of my favorite people today.  I think it was a good day to start off her mission!

October 17, 2013

Oh boy!  Rain, rain, rain!  It was a rainy day!  I don't think Sister Knight approves of tracting in the rain.  We did run to Walmart.  I know it is not Monday but we had no toilet paper and no food.  Seriously, like none.  I was fine because our members are good about feeding us, but I felt like I needed to get Sister Knight some food.  And toilet paper, well ya.

When we got back we ate lunch and headed over to brother Hiers and Brother Nevin's.  Oh boy!  Brother Nevin was on one!  We did have a productive lesson though.  Brother Pickett, our ward mission leader, has asked us to continue these lessons.

After we finished there we headed over to Marni's house.  By the time we got done at Marni's house we had time to change and go tracting for about 15 minutes before dinner.  It was raining a ton.  I was carrying a Book of Mormon and it got a little wet.  We went to the Hunsakers for dinner.  Their little girl makes me want to break all the rules and pick her up!  She is so stinking cute!  They are super good at making new missionaries feel welcome.

After Hunsakers we went tracting.  It was getting dark and I was fine with that, but Sister Knight not so much.  After all this is just her second day.  We did find a couple that wants us to come back.  Sweet!

Sister Watkins called us and asked us where we were and what we were doing.  She wanted us to come by the church so she could meet Sister Knight.  We went over to the family history center and Sister Fullwood was there too.☺ Sister Watkins was appalled that I had not asked you to send my winner stuff to me yet.  She made me give her your e-mail address momma.  I don't know if you got her e-mail or not.  She is a funny lady and I love her.☺  Then we went home and planned for tomorrow.  Training is hard!  I'm not sure how much I like it.  I just feel so very inadequate!

October 18, 2013

Oh man.  Today has been rough.  I just got a few hugs tonight from the sisters in our ward and I just wanted to collapse into their arms and cry.  I am trying to lead this companionship.  I am finding out how hard it is to train a new missionary.  I feel like I'm constantly praying that I can be better and not have her hate what we're doing.  At first it is hard to understand the importance of weekly planning.  You talk about your investigators and what they need.  I remember my first weekly planning session and being shocked that you planned for 2 to 3 hours.  I have learned how vital that time is when used wisely.

After weekly planning we went to see Shanna.  Sister Carrigan and I had tracted into her like two weeks ago.  We had been trying to go back but just hadn't been able to catch her.  Well I just called her to see if there was a time we could come over.  She said "How about today at 2:30?"  OK!  Sweet!  We went over and taught her the first lesson.  She was very receptive and I think she liked it.  I love watching people as we teach.  My favorite is when you just see in their faces, how familiar it all sounds, like the veil has become a little bit thinner and their souls rejoice because it is the truth.  I think it happens more often than not.  But then in some people you see the natural man fighting back and they close up.  In others the natural man loses (yay) and they are able to recognize the truth.  THAT is one of the things I love most about teaching.  Hopefully she will bring her family on Sunday.  If not, we will try some more and possibly be successful.  The Lord's work is progressing!  I see it more and more each week!

After Shanna we went tracting.  I love tracting!    I don't know though, it's not as much fun without Sister Carrigan.  I really miss her!  But Sister Knight and I are going to be awesome together.  I am sure that when I have to leave Sister Knight I will be very sad.

Funny story.  So I didn't check my GPS before we started tracting this area.  We knocked on a door, and the lady comes to the door.  I do the door approach and then she grins and giggles and says, "Sister George, I am Sister Collette.  I am a member".  Oh my goodness!  I'm dumb!  I knew she looked familiar.  It was pretty funny.☺  I had met Sister Collette like once on one of my first days here.  I won't forget her now!

We tracted for a little while longer.  After tracting we went home, had dinner, and then went over to the church.  They were having an enrichment activity and had a ton of non-members there.  I had a blast and it was good for Sister Knight to meet some of the sisters in our ward.

October 19, 2013

Holy rain!  It rained all stinking day!  We tracted pretty much all day long.  We contacted 44 people and had a ton of discussions!  I was proud of Sister Knight.  She is willing to just talk to people.  I usually try to have a small conversation before starting on the message.  She just starts as soon as they open the door.  Maybe this is just the way it works for her.

At 3:00 we had a lesson with Brittany and Michael.  Sister Galt came with us.  The lesson went OK.  I let sister Knight take the lead.  She didn't do too badly but I wish she had taken role playing more seriously in the MTC.  You realize how important that is when you get in the field.  I went back and covered a few of the things that she missed in the first vision discussion.  Michael had some really awesome questions and they said pretty much everything we talked about they already believed.  Again, that thinning of the veil.☺ We are going back next Saturday.  They said they want to make it a set thing so that would be awesome!  I hope they gain a testimony!  That would be so awesome!

After the lesson we went tracting again for a while and then headed over to the Watkins.  Dang I love them.☺  They are an awesome couple!  I do like being with them.  I know they love me and I love them!   Yea for Sunday tomorrow.☺  I really like Sundays!

October 20, 2013

It was a good Sunday.  We had ward council this morning.  I love being able to give them a big long list of people that we're teaching.  It is always so satisfying.  I hope the Elder's pool can pick up soon.  They are struggling.  Church was fabulous.☺  Our primary program is next week and we got to help them during the first hour.  Its cool what they are doing.  The kids are running the show.  All the songs they are singing are being accompanied by a primary kid.  Not the primary piano pianist.  Cool, right?

 

Third hour we help Sister Fullwood with her lesson.  She did an amazing job.  At the very end she had me recite the standard of truth.  I started crying during that.  Not one eye was dry in the room when I finished.  It was so cool.  The spirit was amazing!

After church and lunch we went tracting.  We ran into this old lady, Miss Dot Botwell.  She was so cute!  We chatted for about 30 minutes.  I don't think there is a possibility in this life of her getting baptized but for sure in the next!  She might come to the primary program next week.  We are going to check up on her this week.

We went to a baptism today.  Sister Howison's (who just got back into the church after being less-active for a while) son, Thomas.  It was good that we went.  Then we had dinner with the Picketts.  They are a stellar family!  Have you tried their salmon recipe yet?  It is so good!

Well I love you all!  I'm excited to read all of your e-mails tomorrow!  Hey!  Tell grandma to write me!  Will ya?

Love Molly

To Train or Not to Train!!!

October 7, 2013

Greetings family!

I can't believe that it is already Monday again!  The weeks seem to fly by but the days can drag on.  It's crazy to think that I have been out for three months!  Not a long time in the scheme of things but a good chunk nonetheless!

I loved all your e-mails :-) they made me smile and be very happy!  I got an e-mail from the sister missionary in the ward...  Dang!  All I remember is her first name is Karen and her last name starts with an F...  She is so cute!  I can't wait to meet her :-)

As we were e-mailing Elder Thomas was making our lunch☺haha!  We were the winners!  They were good sports about it and we all had a fun time.  Sister Carrigan needed to go to the mall so that's where we headed.  She is dead set that she will be transferred next week and so she thinks wherever she is headed will be out in the middle of po-dunk nowhere.  Her mom told her to buy them all Georgia pajamas for Christmas so she wanted to go see if she could find any.  Well...there weren't any.  It's just not the time for them yet.  Instead we kinda just walked around the mall and had fun.☺  We passed a kiosk with a bunch of straightening irons.  The lady was passing out coupons so sister Carrigan took the one she shoved in her face.  The next thing I know the lady has grabbed me by the arm and shoved me in a chair.  She starts yammering about positive and negative ions and starts straightening my already straight hair.  Then she takes the other side and starts curling it.  All the while trying to sell me the $275 straightener.  I told her over and over how I had no money.  Finally, after about 20 minutes of sitting in the chair she got the message.  Her whole face changed from bubbly to indignant.  The problem was, now half of my head was curly and the other half was straight :-) she ran the straightener quickly over the curly part and more or less pushed me out of the chair.  My head was still half wavy and now half straight!  Dumb lady!  It was funny though. 

We got done and still had about an hour left of p-day, so we headed back over to the church to hang out.  I love hanging out with the Elders!  They are so fun and just awesome to be around.☺  We had dinner at the Holgados again.  Sister Holgado has signed up for every Monday this month.  She is funny!  She loves having us over...  Her son Scotty is 14.  He is handicapped and has the mentality of about a five year old.  She wants him to get baptized even though he doesn't need to.  Whenever they ask if he wants to be, he says no.  She says that she reads the stories in like the Ensign of people with disabilities getting baptized and I think it makes her feel bad.  She asked if we would give simplified missionary discussions for FHE and she wanted visuals.  We watched the restoration video.  Scotty sat through the whole thing but was done as soon as the TV turned off.  I don't know if we'll ever get anywhere.  But it makes Sister Holgado feel better and we love the Holgado's, so I guess we will continue onward!

October 8, 2013

Today was zone meeting.  You know what that means!  Yup!  I saw Sister Hooker!☺ Yea!!  She got your letter Momma.  She said she wrote you back.  You will probably get her letter before you get this.  She told me that ever since you talked with her parents, they mention me in every letter.  She says they follow the blog and ask her how I'm doing.  Ah!  I just love her!!☺

Today or tomorrow is when we find out who is training.  Everyone keeps saying that I will.  Though I actually think that training would be fun, I don't know if I will.  I feel like I've gotten too prideful with everyone saying that I will train.  I will try not to be too sad when I don't get that call but I think I will be a little disappointed.  Which is just silly cause I KNOW that being a trainer doesn't determine how good of a missionary you are.  I don't know, we will see. . . .

After going to lunch, (somehow like half of our zone went to the same place.  Which we aren't supposed to do.) We headed over to Marni's to help her clean.  She is so stinkin' sweet!  She loves to make bread and she got all excited and said she was going to make us bread for next time.  Whenever we leave I really want to give a spiritual thought.  Her sometimes Marni will ask us questions but for the most part she doesn't.  

We went over to try and see Ethan (he is the one with the less active family and he is the only one not baptized).  We haven't seen him in quite a while.  He still wants to hear about the gospel.  It's just a matter of getting a hold of him.  He wasn't home.  His dad answered and though he was polite, he didn't want to talk to us.  I don't think Ethan has told his dad that he has been meeting with us.  We didn't have dinner tonight so we tracted straight through.  We got a lot of contacts so that was way nice.  We met a lady who's grandma is LDS.  Her story is kind of crazy!  So her grandma was baptized when she was like 15.  She got married at 16 and her husband ended up becoming a baptist pastor.  She kept going to church though and two of her boys went on missions.  Her dad went to the baptist church.  He met Emily's mom and she converted him to her church and that is where they are now.  Emily's grandma is still a faithful and active member, which is awesome!  She was so nice and told us if we just ever needed someone to smile and be nice to us to come visit.  So cute!

It was getting dark so we headed back to the car and went to go visit less actives.  As we were driving we passed the Elders.  Sister Carrigan passed them and and then turned into the next neighborhood.  We were going to pick up the Elders but decided not to.  We had to make it to our appointment.  They weren't home.  Then we got a call from Sister Henderson.  Oh my heck!  Her divorce has turned pretty ugly.  They are going to Judge Judy.  I so wish they wouldn't do that.  It won't end up being good for any of them.  Maybe you all should watch it on TV, then you can see who they are.  So that is what up.  Pretty crazy day!  No phone call from the assistance about training.  Only one more day of waiting for that.

October 9, 2013

Holy crazy!  So this morning I have been having an internal argument with myself.  On the one hand I wanted one of the assistants to call.  I wanted to prove everyone right and be training.  On the other hand I'm thinking, "If I'm thinking like that and wanting so badly to train I'm just being so prideful!" I kept thinking that it would be embarrassing if I didn't get a call as everyone said I will train and then I don't.  Basically I was just a jumble of nerves.  Well at 9:22 a.m. we got a call from the assistants.  Sister Carrigan answered it laughing.  They asked how she was and then how I was.  Then they said. "Sister Carrigan, Sister George the Lord has called both of you to train.  I was shaking and just started crying, my emotions were everywhere!  I didn't know what to do!  So, there you have it.  I'm training.  And so is Sister Carrigan again!  She thinks that I will stay in Suwanee and she will go somewhere else.  Guess we will see on Monday.  I'm feeling pretty humbled right now.  I'm excited and scared.  I know that I can do this and I know the Lord knows I can do this.  I will be the very best trainer I can be!

So now we have the trainers meeting tomorrow and it goes right during our meeting with Richard.  So we called him to see if we could set up a different time.  He told us that he had some exciting news and then told us that it was his birthday today.  Happy 65th birthday Richard!  Then he told us he had started reading the Doctrine and Covenants.  Then he stopped for a minute then said, "Now I know that I have a lot of work to do.  And this is exciting.  Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I need to be a re-baptized."  AHHH!!!  Yea!!  Richard wants to be baptized!!  I'm so happy!  We are meeting with him on Friday before we do exchanges.  I'm just crazy excited!  The Lord works great miracles on the hearts of man.☺ I'm so proud of this cute little old man who has listened to the spirit testify to him!  OK, he really isn't that old.  But he is cute!  I'm just praying that his family will allow him to do this without giving him such a hard time!  So that was my morning, all within a span of 2 hours!

We ate lunch and got all our plans figured out.  We had run into a lady yesterday who said to come back.  We did but she wasn't there.  Sad day!  We had about an hour before our next appointments so we went and got me a GPS.  Though I know Suwanee pretty well, I still don't know it well enough.  It is a good GPS and will come in handy.

Our appointment was a member referral.  Her name is Kiaundra.  She is 19 and she's the cutest thing on the face of the planet!  We did a church tour with her and that was so fun!  She is so excited and ready for the gospel!  She got really excited when I talked to her about the Book of Mormon and wanted one right away.  She has a lady who she is really good friends with who is 60 years old and Mormon.  Her mom and sister both don't want her to come to our church but she says she just tells them that they are silly and she has plenty of Mormon friends.  We have state conference on Sunday and she wants to come.  I really hope she wants to dig deeper into the church!  I feel like Satan is hardcore attacking everyone we teach!  I know it's because we're finding people who could do so much good in the church.

We went tracting after that and people were very nice but no luck.  We went to see another lady that we had met yesterday that had said to come back too.  She was just heading to the grocery store but she was very sincere when she told us she was glad we had come back.  We got her phone number so we could call her before we came...  I really hope and pray that she and her family will be willing to listen!  I want to teach a family SO BADLY!!  I want to bring them into this gospel so that they can have the blessings of the temple!  I'm going to try really hard to get in with her and her family.

We had dinner with the Watkins tonight.  They call us their girls.  It's kind of funny and I love it.☺ They aren't very pleased about transfers.  They told us that there was nothing good about that news.  Sorry!  We told them about how our Spanish Elders wrote on our car and we wanted to get them back by filling their car with balloons.  Brother Watkins was all over that.  He said we could come over and use their air pump so we didn't have to blow them all up.  He is a funny guy.  :-) When dinner was over we went and got the Elders.  They had kind of stranded themselves and wouldn't be able to get home on time.  Oh Elders!

October 10, 2013

It has been a mostly up with a few downs kind of day.  My first up was when I walked into the trainers meeting, and there was Sister Hooker!☺  Besides us two, there were two other sisters and two other Elders from my MTC District that are training.  Crazy!  Elder Harmon wasn't there and neither was Elder Zimmerman.  I was sad about that.  But, I did get to see Elder Angilau and he is awesome!  I asked and no one had heard anything about the Elder Harmon.  It's like he has disappeared into the wilds of Georgia!  And I can't write him because that's against the rules.  Elder Angilau did know about Elder Zimmerman though.  Poor guy got poison ivy and he is crazy allergic to it.  I guess he couldn't sleep for a week.  Sad!  That's all the info I could get about my Elders.

Thank you Sister Hooker's mom for posting pictures of  these two on Facebook!!  

So this is a really cool compliment that we got today.  Sister Carrigan's trainer, Sister Blaylock, told her that she has been hearing our names a lot and hearing about Suwanee.  She heard that we were getting Suwanee out of the slump that it had been in.  It was really nice!  And that is way cool that other missionaries in our mission are hearing about us!  Whoot!  When we finally got home we looked at our phone which had been on silent and saw a bunch of phone calls and texts.  Brother Wernli had called us and left a message. Richard had called him and had asked him to tell us that he didn't want to meet with us for a while.  He kept telling Brother Wernli that he was just a mess.  Brother Wernli said from the rest of their conversation it sounded like Richard had told his wife about wanting to get baptized and, well, Richard doesn't have a lot of self confidence and his wife was not happy.  I'm heartbroken!  I felt like this was going to happen.  I've been praying for his wife and son's hearts to be softened.  Sister Carrigan wanted to act in an like Brother Wernli never called so that she could tell Richard she was leaving.  I told her I thought we should not call Richard because that would make it worse.  I will be devastated if I have to leave and not tell Richard good bye.  I love this place with all my heart!

We went to Brother Hiers and Brother Nevins after lunch.  We went tracting after that.  I love tracting in the fall!  It's not too hot or cold but still sunny.  It's so pretty!  Mary had called us yesterday and asked if we could come help her pack because she was moving.  The people they were renting from sold the house.  When we got there she was so frazzled!  She hadn't even started.  We tried to just help her get started.  She really doesn't want to move.  I was looking at all her pictures and I got so sad.  Her husband died a year or so ago and she is just so lost.  She looks so pretty and happy in those pictures.  Now she just looks tired.  Oh how this gospel could help her if she would just let it!  But she won't and it makes me ache because she won't let the spirit truly speak to her.  I will just continue loving her though and pray that she feels Christ's love.  We got to have dinner with Sister Fullwood tonight.  What an amazing lady she is!  She has one of the strongest testimonies I have ever known and her faith is amazing!  I love her so much.  She for sure is one who I will forever keep in touch with!

After dinner we went over to John Scamon's house.  He is an "eternigator" and has been for very long time.  He knows most everything about this church.  He has a testimony but instead of doubting his doubts, he doubts as faith.  It's pretty sad.  He texted us the other night and asked if he could have his house blessed.  His 11 year old daughter has been hearing voices in her room and a bunch of other creepy stuff.  We took the Elders over and they said a prayer blessing that house and then they gave Briana a priesthood blessing.  After that we headed home.

On an ending happy note!  I got your letter today Momma!  I love your letters.☺ I also got one from Sister Hooker.  Man, I love that girl!☺  On Tuesday I got a letter from the Parkers.  Kristine sent a picture that Kaudri had colored and their family picture.   Lucy's smile is the cutest little smile ever.  I also got a letter from Aunt Diana last week so that was fun.  Yea for letters!

October 11, 2013

We got to go on exchanges today.  First, we had weekly planning.  Oh boy, that was rough!  It took us a long time.  Sister Alder came here this time.  Suwanee was her greenie area, so that was fun!  Sister Galt took us to our meeting place because we are pushing our miles.  Going to Lilburn takes up a ton of miles...  When we got back to Suwanee we went tracting.  It was about four and we had dinner at 6:30 so we had our 2 hours of tracting in.  We had tons of fun!  Sister Alder is cute.  We were laughing and joking and having a grand time.

We had dinner with the Watkins again.☺  They gave us an open invite to call whenever we didn't have a dinner appointment.  I thought we would surprise them was Sister Alder.  We drove up and Sister Watkins ran outside all excited.  It was kind of fun to do that.  We met Sister Watkins brother...  He is quite the character!  He was really nice.  After dinner we had to drop off a Chinese Book of Mormon to Sister Tiszai.  She had met an Asian lady on a plane trip and ended up talking about the church.  The lady was super interested.  She is from China and though they have all those rules they still revolt a little and talk about stuff the government tries to stop.  One day we will get missionaries in there!  Sister Tiszai had a really great missionary experience and it was so fun to hear her talk about her experience.  I love hearing members stories about their missionary opportunities and getting to cheer them on!  It makes me even more excited to be where I am right now, a full time missionary!

October 12, 2013

We started off the day by going over to the Galts neighborhood clubhouse, at 7:30.  Their neighbor passed away and the memorial service was today.  They needed help setting up and since Bishop asked if we would of course we did it.  The story is super sad.  Tim and Debbie got married in 2000.  They are probably in their fifties or sixties.  Tim had cancer but had beat it.  A few weeks ago he went to the doctors for a checkup.  The doctor gave him an all clear and told him he was doing great and that he was super healthy.  Bishop Galt went over to chat with him for little bit after his doctor's appointment.  About 6 hours later Bishop Galt got a text saying that Tim had passed away.  He was pretty sure that the name was wrong because he had just seen Tim a few hours ago.  Bishop Galt went over to the house and Debbie answered the door.  Tim had a massive heart attack and was gone.  I'm only writing the story and I am crying!  This is like the saddest story ever!  Let me tell a sweet, happy though.  Sister Galt was talking to Debbie and said "You know, you will see him again."  Debbie looked at her and said, "I will?"  Sister Galt (is an amazing missionary) said, "Yes, he is up in heaven waiting for you!  He is there with your parents and his parents and they're all cheering you on!"  Debbie responded "Oh!  I've never thought about that!  I like that thought."  Ok, so I've started crying again. . . .

Mostly it is just so amazing to me what this gospel can do for people!  I am amazed that people aren't lined up in droves to get baptized so they can be sealed together.   And it's amazing to me how much comfort one little sentence about the gospel can give someone!  That is one of my most very favorite parts about being a missionary!  I love see a light come on in their eyes when they actually listen to the spirit testifying to them of the truth.  Even if they deny it, they have been touched.

We got back to the apartment at about 10:00.  Bishop had told us he wanted us at the memorial service also which started at 1:00.  We went home, did personal and comp study says, ate lunch, and then went back over.

So now here is a funny story for you now that I have made you all cry.☺  Ummm . . . when you go to a non-Mormon funeral or memorial, you're supposed to wear dark colors or black.  We pulled up into the parking lot and I'm looking around.  I looked down into my lap and go, "oh geez!"  Your brilliant daughter, me, was wearing her brightest yellow skirt with a white shirt!  Sister alder had just happened to bring a black skirt with a dark purple shirt.  We walk in and I felt like I should have just thrown up my hands and hollered, "Yep I'm a Mormon and apparently I have no idea how to dress at these things."  It was a bit embarrassing but oh well!  I'm not too sure what Bishop Galt had expected us to do.  We got shoved into a corner and we couldn't hear a word.  Our decorations and settings all looked really nice.  At the end of the service they released a dove.  Now a) I thought they only did that at weddings, nope, guess not and b) why do people rely on animals?  They never do what they're supposed to do.  The bird, oh sorry, dove just flew into the tree right next to us.  C) I don't really get the whole symbolism of releasing a dove.  It's a bit strange to me.  We left right after that because we needed to exchanged back.

When we got to where we were supposed to meet each other, I got out of the car, gave Sister Carrigan a hug and told her I had missed her.  We do a little thought about how our exchanges went, what is one thing the other person thinks we can improve on.  Sister Alder said I am too hard on myself and that I need to remember that I am a good missionary.  She is so sweet!  I will try to improve on that.  When we got home it was around 4:00.  We had just gotten the message from the zone leaders that we were allowed to go to the adult session of stake conference!  Yea!  

Sister Carrigan unpacked what she had taken with her on exchange and then we got a call from Stephanie.  She wanted to take us out to dinner.  She wanted to go way on the other side of our area.  We told her how about Wendy's?  I really didn't want to go but she was insisting.  We went and bought balloons at the dollar store next to Wendy's for out filling up of the Spanish Elders car.  We blew some of them up while we were laughing and having fun while we waited for Stephanie.  When she got there she ordered three large meals.  I really didn't want the food.  I tried to eat as much of it as I could but I only got about halfway through it.  Stephanie told us that she and her boyfriend have planned to start having kids.  Oh goodness.  I really don't understand her.  She really wants to quit smoking, and she says she believes what we have taught her but then she won't do anything about it.  I don't know what to do with her.  We were almost late to the conference because she wouldn't let us go.  We made it as they were singing the opening song.  Sister Hooker was there!☺  I love that we are serving in the same stake!  Conference was super good!  It was all about missionary work and how members can work with us and how we can work with them.  They have all 36 of us come up and sing an impromptu "Called to Serve" it was super awesome!  Everyone was crying, missionaries were crying, members were crying, it was just a cry fest.  Elder Pieper and Elder Bluth from the Seventy were there so we knew that our stake president, President Wood, was going to get released.  I'm sad about that.  I really loved President Wood!  After stake conference we went and talked with Brother Pickett about all our investigators.

October 13, 2013

Here is my happy thought for today...  I have gotten to see my Sister Hooker four times this week.  Yea for stake conference and zone meetings and being trainers together!  I LOVE her!  She knows when something is wrong and she it has amazing.  I love her tons.  

We rode home with the Watkins since they had taken us.  At 4:00 we went over to the church to help set up for a different funeral service.  This guy is a friend of Brother Adams, and his wife committed suicide.  It is pretty sad.  Brother Adams has told us twice now that Ben (the husband) will become Mormon at any time now because it was his wife who is stopping him.  Brother Adams is a funny man!  Sister Carrigan played the piano.  No one knows that I can play.  They may find out someday.

We did finish on a fun note.  At 8:00 we went over to the Watkins and filled up over 80 balloons and a ton of baby balloons.  We're stuffing the Spanish Elders car with them tomorrow.☺  Haha!  We are so funny!

Well my family!  I love you all!  Keep being amazing and keep being missionaries!  I pray for you all every night that Heavenly Father will keep you safe and happy!☺ 

Love Molly

Nothing Beats General Conference as a Missionary!!

September 30, 2013

Well here I am, at the beginning of a new week.  Next  week on Thursday I will have officially been out for 3 whole month.  It’s crazy, I feel like it has only been 1 month but nope, it’s 3.  Today (as all P-days are) was pretty dang good!  We went to e-mail and when I got on I saw one from Momma and one from Gabe.  I figured Daddy would get his to me while I was writing back.  Everyone else in the room was yelling out how many e-mails they had gotten but some of their parents hadn’t written them.  I was very happy with my e-mails.  As long as I get e-mails from you guys I’m a-ok!  It was funny, I was e-mailing Gabe when it popped up on my screen that there were 3 more e-mails…  I knew one was from Daddy but didn’t know about the other two.  One was from Lacey and the other was from my cute Chaia White.  She is loving her mission by the sound of things.  I’m glad.  I love that girl! 

We e-mailed and hung out at the church the whole day.  At the end of our P-day we went to WalMart and got food.  We haven’t been shopping for like two weeks but we were still doing pretty good on stuff.  Sister Carrigan and I bought masks!  Ah!  I love the masquerade masks and WalMart has some cool ones.  I now have two.  I tried to find the Halloween cereal, the Boo-Berry ones.  Except I like the strawberry.  They are my favorite cereal of all times and they only sell them once a year (which is probably a good thing in all actuality).  I couldn’t find them.  I looked all over.  I’m hoping we can go to Publix (like Alberstons) and see if they have any.  I hope so!  I also have found a new love… Stickers!!!  I love them!  So, if you find awesome stickers, send them to me.  I have been looking for stickers that are cute and have lots of them in a packet.  These puffy ones were only a dollar but I want flat ones too.  I didn’t really find any that were cheap and fun… Editor’s note---there are stickers all over the page.  Lacey, when I saw these little fish ones, all I could think was “buzz, buzz, buzz!  Fishys in the sea!”  It made me giggle and think of you.  I did buy real stuff and food that was good for you—I promise.  Actually, I have dropped a few pounds and I’m at the very lowest part of my fluctuation.  So that is good.  Ha, to everyone who said I would for sure gain weight.  I know Momma, you always said I could do it.  You’re awesome. 

So we had dinner with the Bettes tonight.  They are just hilarious!  Sister Bettes invited her friend Marla too.  We went to Sister Bettes favorite restaurant called Cinco’s.  Marla grew up Catholic but doesn’t practice it anymore.  Her husband is Jewish and he also doesn’t practice.  Marla is so ready for the church!  It is ridiculous!  She has read a lot of stuff but no anti stuff.   Sister Bettes says the only reason she hasn’t joined is because of her husband.  I’m not sure if he is against the church or what.  We have just decided to pray that his heart is softened.  Dinner was fun and meeting Marla was awesome!

The YSA (young single adults) had asked us to give them a church tour for their FHE so that is where we headed after dinner.  We had told them to bring non-member friends but nope, no one did.  I realized tonight how rude it is to talk while someone else is talking!  They have a lot of returned missionaries in the YSA and there was a girl and a guy that were both RM’s that sat in the back and talked the entire time of the tour. Other than that, it went well for the most part.

There you go.  That was my Monday!!!

October 1, 2013

My goodness.  It’s October!  That means that Fall is officially here.  Actually I dunno why that would mean Fall is here.  It’s been here for a while.  Today was district meeting day!  I did a training on breaking our chains.  I think that I did a much better job on this one than I did when I talked about hope.  So lately the Spanish Elders have been playing jokes on us and today they took markers and wrote on our car…”Thing 1”  “Thing 2” “Monkey Power” and other such silly stuff.  Sister Carrigan was not too happy with them.  But I thought it was kinda funny.
 

Ok, fun and happy stuff!  We went to Marni’s today to help her clean.  She is just so stinkin cute!  After we got done cleaning, (Oh!  Mom!  You know how you hate cleaning  the blinds?  Well so does Marni.  She found this attachment for the vacuum made just for the blinds.  It’s sweet!  Just a thought) Marni asked if we were any good with computers.  She had gotten a new printer but the scanner wasn’t working.  Sister Carrigan said she could so I helped the daughter, Josephine, with her flashcards.  I told her that I would like to help.  It was fun.  Kinda like when Sydney was learning the states.  After that Josephine asked if I would play ‘Sorry’ with her.  They were not done with the printer so I said sure.  I wish that I could have flashed back to Idaho and grabbed my almost 8 year old sister to play with us.  Hannah, I am talking about you!!  I just pretended you were there.  Not the same, but the best I could do with my imagination.  Oh boy!  I got creamed!  There was no hope for me.  Then her brother Josh started playing with us.  It was fun to be with kids for a few minutes!  I wish that I had taken more time to play with Sydney and Hannah.  I feel like I’ve lost my chance kinda…  They will be 9 and 13 when I get back.  It breaks my heart a little to see that I had to go on a mission to wake up.  I haven’t been the kind of big sister that I should have been.  I hate that I can only say sorry for that through a letter.  I can’t come and wrap them in my arms and give them kisses and say I’m sorry.  The best I can do for now is to have Mom give them hugs and kisses for me.  And by that I mean all of you cute kids Gabe and Lacey too.

Sydney, Molly and Hannah on the day we left for the MTC

Ok, well, now that I have made myself get that out there…  After Marni’s we went tracting until 7.  I dunno what it was about today.  We tracted in the “prime” hours but no one answered their doors!  It is annoying when that happens.  At 7 we went home to eat.  No one had signed up for today so we just had leftovers.  I was ok with that.

At 8 Sister Henderson had asked us to meet her at the church.  She has moved out with her kids, which is really good.  She is also now out of our area so we can’t go to visit her.  She is having a hard time and it is sad.

Ok, Daddy, I have a question.  As a missionary I have seen more people ask for money from the church than I have ever seen in my entire life.   Lots of times it is things that they really, truly, could live without.  We get calls all of the time from random people that heard that they could get help from the church.  So my question is, is this as common there at home as it is here?  I mean, I know the church is immensely generous, I just figured people would do everything they possibly could before asking the church for help…  I know that I would!  I dunno, I’m just curious.

October 2, 2013
 

Oh boy, oh boy.  It has been quite a day.  So our first text of the day is from Kelly.  It was the worst text ever.  It said, “Hey ladies.  I can’t meet anymore.  I’m really sorry.”    Umm….what?  We called her and after the second ring it went to voice mail.  She ignored our call.  We texted the Collins Hill Elders and told them what happened  and told them to try and figure out what was going on!  I am so sad.  All day we have been trying to figure out what is going on.  The CH Elders finally got back to us with what they know.  She has now moved back in with her parents.  I think that must have happened this weekend.  She didn’t show up at church.  Her parents, I guess, are pretty anti and she hasn’t told them that she has been investigating our church.  So basically, that is all we know and it stinks.  She won’t respond to any of our texts or calls right now so we are just in the dark with what is going on.  I hate it!

After that whole mess our day was pretty good!  We went over to talk with Sister Johnson about the relief society and what we could help her out with.  She is so cute and we had lots of fun.  She gave us a whole list of names of people we hadn’t even thought of, so that was good.

After that we went home for lunch.  We were in a very crazy mood and we started playing “would you rather”.  Sister Carrigan asked if I would rather be a fountain or a waterfall.  Umm..  Waterfall of course!  We figured we could make it gospel related…  A fountain is never changing, it just recycles water over and over.   But waterfalls are always changing, always getting new water.  So, do we want to be stuck doing one thing or do we want to be constantly changing and moving and growing?  Right!  We want to be a waterfall.  Ok, not the best but not too shabby.  Haha!

We went over to Sister Galt’s after lunch.  It was Sister Carrigan’s sister’s birthday and she wanted to text her a picture.  We did that and then chatted with her.  Sister Galt is such an amazing lady!  She is just so kind and happy!  I just love her!  She just makes it just a little better when I get a bit sad that I can’t have my mom.

So I told you about how they are doing an emergency preparedness thing for Gwinett County and asked us missionaries to go around and talk to other churches, right?  Well Elder Thomas talked to one of the guys in charge and they are disappointed in us for not getting more churches.  We have told them we are trying!  Most churches see our badge and ask why we are doing it?  Why not the red cross?  So it’s been hard .  Sister Carrigan and I have gotten the most churches for them.  So because it was 1:30 and it is kind of pointless to tract at that time, we went to a bunch of churches.  Elder Thomas and Elder Ontivaros made a bet with us (since for some reason it’s really only the 4 of us getting churches information) that whoever gets the most churches before Sunday morning before General Conference wins lunch on P-day.   Pshh!  Done!  We already have 6 churches and we got those in one day!  No problem.  Ha!  Who said you can’t have fun with the Elders?

We did go tracting for 2 hours before dinner.  We met quite a few nice people but nobody that wanted to listen.  I don’t understand why some people are so nice and others are not?  If you don’t want to talk to us, then don’t answer the door!  Easy peezy lemon squeezy!

So we had gone to talk to Sister Johnson about the relief society.  We went back to have dinner with them.  They are such a fun family!  They act like themselves instead of trying to be all stuffy and proper.  Those are not the families that are fun to eat with.  It’s just the families who just act like themselves, those are the fun ones!  Our family is like that I think.  That is why that cute Sister missionary in our ward says she will come back to see y’all!  She knows were the coolest family in the world is at.

So Momma, hey um…  The post office isn’t helping you too much with your experiment.  I got both of your letters today.  The first one was post marked in Pocatello on Sept 25 and then in Atlanta on Oct 1.  The second letter was postmarked in Salt Lake on Sept 28 and then in Atlanta on Oct 1.  Not too sure what happened there…  But, it was fun to get both of your letters.

So I haven’t talked about Stephanie in a while.  That is because we haven’t been able to meet with  her.  We haven’t even been able to contact her.  So last Friday Sister Rhodes told us Stephanie was planning on attending an all-night drinking party.  That was all that we knew.  Well the ZL’s were talking to Sister Rhodes and she told them that Stephanie decided she shouldn't go, so she didn't!  Yah!  The last time we talked to Stephanie she said she would give up everything but she would never give up her coffee.  Well she works at Starbucks and we found out that she has been learning how to make all of the drinks and avoiding the ones with coffee.  Then Stephanie called us and asked about a drink that McDonalds has.  Neither of us had the answer to her question.  So that is where we are at with her.  We still have a ton of issues to work on her with but she is helping herself with some of those issues all on her own!

October 3, 2013

Oh boy has it been a roller coaster of a day.  So we went over to Richard’s for our 11 o'clock appointment.  I don’t understand him.  We tell him every week that we will see him the next week and he never believes us.  It usually takes us a while to start the lesson because he likes to talk.  We were talking about the Gospel of Christ so we thought that we would start by asking Richard if he felt something different when we were there, so that we could point out that it was the Spirit he was feeling.  So we asked him and he just got so sad and went off.  He started saying that he knew that we needed to visit other people and how sad he will be not to have us come anymore, but that he understands if we can’t.  He thought we were saying that we would not be coming back.  We were not saying that at all.  Then he said one of the sweetest things ever.  He looked at us with tears in his eyes and said, “Someday, two young Mormon men are going to be very lucky to marry you two.”  I almost lost it!  We tried our hardest but I don’t think he thinks we will come back.  We will be back next week though!

We got out of there just confused and quite depressed.  I suggested that we pray.  As I prayed I felt so much calmer and happier.  I knew Heavenly Father was watching us and He is taking care of Richard.  After the prayer I was ready to hit the road!  Sister Carrigan kind of hit a brick wall for the rest of the day.  We didn't get much done because of that.  It happens.  For lunch we went to the lake and just sat and watched the ducks.  Some things just knock ya off your groove.

We went tracting but it didn't go too well.  For dinner we went to the Paxtons.  Sophie Paxton loves us!  She is so stinking cute!  Her brother Enoch taught her the cup song.  He regrets it now!  Haha.  It made me think of Sydney with the cup song.  Over and over and over.  She asked us to play it with her.  I tried to be as quiet as I could but man that game is loud!  Especially on the table.  Dinner was good…chicken pot pie again.  They are a good family.  Enoch is the cutest thing ever.  He is almost 16 and is just so nice and sweet!  Sophie is just hilarious.  She will be a good little missionary someday.  They have an 18 year old that is struggling right now.  He doesn’t seem to be wanting to go on a mission anytime soon.  I hope that he will realize what he has or could have with the Gospel.  He has the greatest family ever!  After dinner we met with the bishopric at the church.  Bishop Galt had a list of less-actives and unknowns and then split us up into groups to go visit them.  We had a list of women.  We talked with two of the husbands.  Both non-members.  One of the other girls asked us to take her records out.  That makes me sad.   So that was my day.  Fun right?

October 4, 2013

Oh boy.  I feel like today was a wasted day.  I feel pretty guilty.  I suppose that Heavenly Father is looking down at me and He is disappointed in me today.  We did weekly planning today.   There are more things that we could do that we are not doing.  We are asked to tract for 2 hours a day and we didn’t.  We are asked not to come home until 9 and we didn’t do that.  I just really feel like even thought we did good things, we didn’t do the better and best things. 

So that is why I feel like it was a wasted day today.  I feel like I wasted the Lord’s time and I don’t like that feeling.  I promised myself that I wouldn’t feel like that again!  I really am trying to be exactly obedient.  I guess that is what repentance is for…  I have been doing that in my prayers.  Tomorrow will be different.  It is general conference and I’m so very excited!  I will miss waffles with y’all!

October 5, 2013

Oh.  My goodness.  I just LOVE general conference!  It has been a grand day people!

We started off with trying to visit Stephanie…  We had planned to meet with her at 10:30.  We went over to her house and waited for 15 minutes.  We texted, and called her, rang on the doorbell and knocked on the door.  No one answered.  So we decided to go visit churches!  No way are we going to let Elder Thomas and Elder Ontivarous beat us!  Nope!  Since general conference is at 12:00 here instead of 10:00 (weird).  We had a little while.  As of right now we have 8 churches and they have 4.  We have tomorrow morning before conference and then we will see who won.  They are determined to win, but, so are we!

Sister George Loves her Sweet Sister Carrigan!

Wasn’t general conference amazing today?!  The work is progressing.  I feel like every time we meet as a group lately, in whatever meeting, they talk about member missionary work, or just missionary work, or about how God is hastening His work!  All of it is just super cool and I LOVE the part that I am getting to play in it right now.  It’s so exciting!  80,000 plus missionaries.  One day I will be able to tell my children that I was part of this final push.  How awesome is that?!  I loved Elder Dibe’s talk, “never look back.  Look at what we still have to do”, how true.  There is so much work to be done and so little time to do it.  We, as a church have accomplished so much but there is still so much to do to prepare the earth for the Second Coming!  I love that I get to be a missionary and be part of that preparation here in Georgia and I can’t wait to be home and be part of the member missionary force!

I also just loved Elder Christofferson’s talk.  I just kept thinking what an amazing example I have to look at and to try to be when I am a mom.  I also kept thinking about how the kind of man I want to marry that I want to be just like my daddy.  Even though I’m sure your just gonna roll your eyes, Momma, and disagree, you really are one of the most amazing examples I have in my life!  I realize this even more and more now that I am out here.  I hear about other moms and I see other moms in this ward and I just think, “How lucky am I to have gotten a 2 in 1?!  An awesome Momma and and awesome best friend!”  I’m lucky.  Then I look at the dads in this ward and I read your e-mails Daddy, and I just think, “I want someone who loves me as much as my Daddy loves my Momma!”  I really am just lucky.

In the middle of the sessions we went tracting.  We missed a phone call from Brother Wernli but he left a voicemail.  He had called Richard to invite him to watch conference with his family.  Richard declined but was flattered.  After the first session they talked again.  Richard told Brother Wernli that Sister Stephens’ talk really touched him.  Richard just watched conference at his house.  He told Brother Wernli that he wanted to talk to us about maybe getting baptized!!!  Now he isn’t sure how this will fly with his family.  But we have been trying and trying to explain why we needs to get baptized into the church, and general conference worked a miracle!  Ok, Heavenly Father worked a miracle through general conference.  Now we are just praying that his family’s hearts are softened.  Heavenly Father worked that miracle, I KNOW he can soften Richard’s family’s hearts.  So, that is my very happy happening.  Now we just need to pray!

After general conference we went over to the Watkins for dinner.  Brother Watkins couldn’t go but Sister Watkins took us to Golden Corral.  Everyone loves that place.  I stuck with the salad.  We figured out that our scale is kinda broken..  So, I have actually gained about 7 pounds.  Not good!  Sister Carrigan is freaking out cause she has gained 15 pounds.  Ouch!  I’m gonna get rid of those 7 pounds dang it!  I will NOT get up any higher!

October 6, 2013

Whoot!  Whoot!  Guess who beat the ZL’s and got the most churches?  Us!  Guess who has to make us lunch tomorrow…  The ZL’s.  We beat them by 5.  That’s all we did before general conference this morning.  We met some pretty awesome people.  We met a minister from Scotland.  He was so cute!  One of his really good friends is a member, he got to go to the temple open house when it got re-dedicated.  He was so sweet!  He will make an amazing Mormon someday!  Heehee!

We also went to a church where the minister was super nice.  When we were leaving one of the members who helped us handed me a book and said, “Will you read this?”  I told him sure.  He said, “Do you promise?”  I said "Yes."  It’s called “More than a Carpenter” and some guy wrote it about his journey in finding Christ.  I told the guy that I would read it.  Sister Carrigan wanted to see it so she has it now.  I really don’t understand why people think we don’t believe in Christ.  His name is the biggest thing on our tags besides our names.  He was nice though and just trying to do what he thought was best.

General conference is just 10 times better as a missionary.  I feel like I pay more attention and I feel the Spirit stronger.  I love it!  I really liked President Eyring’s talk.  I have been reading my patriarchal blessing a ton lately and it talks a lot about church callings.  I just loved how he said to accept and magnify EVERY calling you receive and that it will bring your family blessings.

I also liked Elder Anderson’s talk about the priesthood.  I love watching the power of the priesthood change people’s lives!  What an amazing gift Heavenly Father has given us. His power on the earth.  WOW!  I liked how he talked about how even if there is no man who holds the priesthood in a home, women and children can have the blessings of the priesthood.  What a great general conference and what a grand time to be here on this earth!  Ah!  I just love it!  And I just get goose-bumpy when I think about it.

After conference we went tracting.  We were going to go for about an hour and a half until 7:30ish then grab the dinner that Sister Azizi had brought us and go and and then turn in our numbers for the night.  I have made it my goal to know the families in our ward by name and I have done a pretty good job if I do say so myself!  I have also made it my goal to become Sister Azizi’s friend and let her know that I love her.  I think that I have accomplished this goal to the best of my abilities!  I give her hugs, try to go out of my way to talk to her and tell her what a great job she is doing.  I really do love her and she does a great job with dinners and taking care of us.  I hope she believes me!

Ok, now tracting.  We were doing pretty good.  The street we had chosen was just long enough that we could walk up one side and back down the other and finish at about 8.  Because of the hurricane we were supposed to get a ton of rain today.  We didn’t but we could see the rain clouds coming towards us.  So we are walking up to this one house and Sister Carrigan is walking in front of me, to get to the door.  I am looking to the side because 3 people were walking up the street and looking at us.  So I say, “Hey.  How are you?”  As they are responding Sister Carrigan suddenly turns around and slams into me.  I’m thinking, “What the heck?!?” kind of annoyed and then I look at her.  She is covered in spider webs.  She just walked into this super big web and had turned around to run away.  I see her and then look over her shoulder and see the owner of the house standing there watching us through the door.  I am thinking how awkward this is.  He comes out and says sorry for what happened.   He was face-timing with someone so he went back inside and Sister Carrigan starts crying.  I am trying to comfort her and I got all the spider webs off of her but she was done.  We went back to the car at 7 and went home.  I cooked dinner, she took a shower and we ate.

I felt really bad.  I tried so hard to be understanding and I was sorry she was so flustered.

Well transfers are on the 16^th.  This week we will find out who is training.  That is a bit scary to think about.  We shall see!  We are going on exchanges with the Sister training leaders again on Friday so that should be fun!

Well, I love y’all!  Keep being amazing member missionaries!

Love,  Molly

P.S.  I hope the Sunday morning waffles were good!  I tried not to think about that cause it just made me a bit too sad!