January 6, 2014
Hey Family!
Today was bittersweet.
I woke up knowing I would get a call from the AP’s. Part of me was excited. The other part of me just wanted to cry. Elder Bridge texted us and said I was out but
didn’t say to where. So I waited… and
waited… Finally they called and told me
I was going to Hickory Flat in Marietta.
An hour away from my beloved Suwanee.
Sister Knight was getting Sister Heyland, who came out with me and is
really sweet. I was going to be with
Sister Nettleton who came out with Sister Knight.
Elder Hales had come from Canton which is right next to
Hickory Flat. He told me I would love it
there. It was us, our elders from
Suwanee and the Sharon Springs elders for P-day. Which was just fine and dandy with me! We went to lunch and then to the mall. Elder Kilmer wanted to get some golf
pants. Though heaven knows why, he can’t
wear them. Then we went back to the
church and just played games and talked.
I can’t believe I’m leaving. I
will miss the ward and maybe most of all I will miss the missionaries
here. Ya, I know that wherever I go
there will be other missionaries, but each time you have to leave your friends.
We had dinner with the Higginbothams. Their daughter Hailey is crazy and totally
cute too!
Then we went over and I said see ya later to the Galts. I am going to miss them a ton! One side of me loves having been here for 6
months but the other side hates it because of how close I have gotten to
people.
I also went and said see ya (cause it’s not goodbye!) to the
McKennas. The elders were there
too. We sat and talked for a while. I just love the McKennas. They are an amazing family!
I haven’t even started packing. My head hasn’t wrapped around the fact that
I’m actually leaving. So getting
motivated to even pack is super hard.
Hopefully it won’t take too long, but I have accumulated a lot in the
past 6 months. We shall see. I may not be getting too much sleep tomorrow
night.
January 7, 2014
Today we got up and it was 5 degrees with humidity. It was COLD.
We had members all over telling us to not go out. We had zone meeting today. In zone meeting we talked about the Book of
Mormon musical. It’s coming to Atlanta
and probably going to stir up controversy.
There are going to be a lot of questions because of it. Basically they trained us on what to
say. A few missionaries will be
transferred out to Atlanta for a few weeks when it comes, to stand outside and
talk to people after the play. I think
that would be so much fun but I doubt it will happen.
We got told that we didn’t have to go outside today because
of the cold. Sister Wolfert told
President to have us stay inside as much as possible. She's such a mom!
We went just as a district to Moe’s for lunch. It made me so sad to think that this was my
last time with all of them. We went back
to the church then headed to Marni’s. The
elders had asked for the car so we let them have it. When Elder Hales found out we were going to
walk they gave us back the car. Nice
boys. We went first to Marni’s.
Oh! I will miss them. I love that family so much! Marni gave me a gift card to Target as a
goodbye. She is a sweetheart.
Then we went and said goodbye to the Picketts. I’m really going to miss them. Brother Pickett is an amazing ward mission
leader.
Ben texted us and said he had to see me before I left, so we
headed over to his house. It was really
hard to say goodbye to Ben! Before I
left he gave me a hug and just told me thank you. Then he gave me this mini-statue of a little
girl to remember him by. Psst! Like I need anything to remember him by. He has become such a part of who I am. But I will cherish that gift forever as a reminder of the gift he gave me when he allowed me to become his missionary.
Dinner was at the Olsons.
I love them! I will miss them so
so much. I keep saying that but it is
true. Sister Olson kept giving me hugs
and telling me I was a gem. The elders
came and picked up the keys while we were there. Sister Olson gave us a ride to the
Johnsons. We figured Sister Johnson
could just give us a ride after.
Nope. Their car broke down so
they only had one. Since it was mutual
they had stranded her at home. In turn,
we were stranded.
Sister Watkins finally came and got us. And we went to their house and said goodbye. I had done really good about not crying… But
then I cried. It was so hard. Sister
Watkins took us home. We went over to
the elders and took pictures. I was
having the hardest time not throwing my arms around them. I will miss them these friends of mine. It is the same every time there are transfers.
January 8, 2014
I got 4 hours of sleep last night… I was up packing until 1 and then got up at 5
to finish. Ugg. I’m going to be trying to catch up on that
for days! It’s been a long and hard
day. I hate leaving!
We went to pick up the car from the elders so I could load
my stuff in it. We drove to the church where we were supposed to meet everyone. We
were the first ones there, so we sat and just talked. I’m going to miss my Sister Knight. We became such good friends. I love her lots! I think it finally hit her that this was the
end or our run together. That made her
sad. Me too. Me too.
Finally people started showing up and we started switching
around. I thought I had a lot of stuff
until I saw some of the other girl’s things.
Mine was nothing! I met Sister
Nettleton. She is cute! I met the bishop’s wife, Sister King. She drove them down and us up. She is a cutie!
I still feel like I will be going back to Suwanee, which
stinks cause that’s not the case. I feel
like a greenie again, meeting everyone, new area, not knowing what’s going
on. I hate it. I’ll get the hang of it again eventually, but
for right now it stinks.
 |
| Sisters George and Nettleton on their first evening together in Hickory Flat! (Thanks Sister Dustin for the text pic) |
We went and
visited a bunch of people who I can’t remember but I will eventually
learn. Went out to dinner with a family,
the Jensens, I believe. She is the relief society president. Met the Dustins. Yup…That’s basically what we did. I have my work cut out for me though. I can see that there are some things that I
would like to change to move the work forward.
Maybe you can call it someone’s own personal style, but I see some
things that could be made better. Well,
let the adventure begin!
January 9, 2014
Oh boy…It was a looong day today. So first, we met up with the Allatoona
sisters (Sis. Hamilton!) cause they had my bike cause it wouldn’t fit in our
car yesterday. I’m so glad Sister
Hamilton and I are in the same zone. I
needed one of my good friends close.
Sister Hooker is in Commerce, I believe, which is way far away from
me. Elder Hales and my Sister Knight are in Suwanee still, and
Elder Harmon is in Delonegah. And I haven't seen Sister Carrigan in a lifetime cuz she is way far away from me! Luckily
Heavenly Father allowed me to have Sister Hamilton!
She was asking me how it was going and I told
her I have my work cut out for me. She
said that she did too. Haha! I bet that is what every transferred missionary thinks. Oh boy! She doesn’t like feeling like a greenie again
either. Next transfer we are supposed to
be getting a ton of sisters again (this time we had a whopping 1). Sister Hamilton bet me lunch that she and I
would be training again. I hope
not. Training is hard and it makes me
tired just thinking about it but that is not because of the sister I was training. It is just a lot of responsibility and no one wants to mess up something like that. We shall
see.
The Dustins took us out to lunch. It was fun but I was at the very end of the
table so I couldn’t really hear so I mostly observed.
We then went and saw one of our investigators, Morgan. She is cute and I like her. We are going to try and get her baptized on
the 25th of this month. She
is ready. Her only obstacle is
smoking. She is trying to quit. She will get there eventually.
Dinner was at the Cooley’s.
Brother Cooley is our ward mission leader. His brother lives in Idaho Falls on Brandon
Street. I believe that is in Grandma and
Grandpa’s ward. Small world! We went and tried to visit some people and then
came home.
I am completely exhausted!
I don’t remember being this tired when I first came in. But I probably was and just forgot. Eventually I will get caught up on my sleep. Note to self don't wait last minute to pack so you only get 4 hours of sleep.
January 10, 2014
Well, I have officially been out for 6 months now. Weird!
Today was way better than the last 2 days. I’m getting more in the groove again. Not so tired and things are looking more
familiar. We weekly planned today. Sort of.
I hope to make that a more thorough process in the future. But all in good time.
Then we went and saw Morgan again. I guess we go and see her every day. Her mom is in Cumming (which is right next to
Suwanee..Dang! I miss that place!) But her mom is moving and needs help. So, I called the missionaries in Suwanee to
help her. That was fun.
We went tracting too!
That was nice. Sister Nettleton
said she has not liked tracting in the past but was surprised how fast the time
went by. I count it a blessing that I actually do like tracting.
We had dinner with a family, the Markhams. It was fun and pretty wild. They have five kids under the age of 6! What a hoot. After dinner I finally got to meet Bishop
King. He is very nice. Hickory Flat and Suwanee are very similar
when it comes to members and missionary work, which is nice. I have heard horror stories about other
places. Luckily my chances of going to
some of those places diminishes with each transfer. And I am planning on staying longer than 6
weeks so that is good.
Then we went to the Frias.
They are a family in our complex that are not members. The mom doesn’t speak English so her daughter
translates for her. They are a sweet
family! I would love to see them
baptized.
January 11, 2014
Well, this morning was a bit crazy! During personal study the power went
out. It was thundering and lightning and
pouring rain all night. We got up and
the sky was a weird green color. Then we
got a text from the ZL’s to stay inside because of a tornado warning. Well, cool.
We couldn’t see anything cause our power was out. We had a few candles but they really didn’t
do too much.
Finally we were able to go out. It was still crazy dark though, so we went
over to the Dustins to finish getting ready and to study. When we were done, the rain had lessened and
the tornado warnings were over.
We went over to Morgan’s for a little bit and talked to
her. She is not quite as ready as I
thought. She needs to learn quite a few
things. I think that she does love the gospel. That is what is important. After Morgan’s we went and grabbed
lunch. We didn’t really have any
breakfast cause the power went out and this apartment is practically empty of
food. Subway it is.
Sister Nettleton then took me to visit Billie, a sweet old
lady in her 80’s who’s husband has alzheimers and mostly she is lonely. She has told the missionaries that she will
not get baptized in this life, but there is always the next .
We went back to the apartment to grab our service clothes
cause we thought one of the recent converts, Andrea, asked us to do
service. She meant the elders. But we got to check the mail. I got your letter Momma! Thanks for the stickers. Thanks for the advice too. Thanks for sending Sister Hamilton a letter. I sure do love her. Her first name is Julie. There aren’t any other Sister Hamiltons in
the mission so it will for sure get to her.
We headed over to the McGuffy’s house. Sister McGuffy is sweet. I really like her. We chatted for a minute and that was
fun. Then we went over and gave Andrea a
lesson on temples and family history. I
met Andrea the first day. She wasn’t
sure how she felt about me. It is always hard to lose the missionary that you know and love. No one can ever take another's place but there always seems like Heavenly Father enlarges the heart in order to make space for just one more. ; ) I think she
likes me now though.
Dinner was at the Potters.
They made wonton chicken salad that was really similar to the one that
you make Momma! It was pretty good and
almost as good as yours! Tonight was truly the first time that I felt like I
belonged. It was a nice feeling. The Potters are awesome. I was actually part of the conversation
instead of observing the conversation.
That’s a nice feeling.
Tomorrow is Sunday, which means church, which means being
bombarded with people I don’t know, trying to remember everyone’s name. I can do it though. I did it before I can do it now.
January 12, 2014
So church is at 1:00 here.
Which is a pretty inconvenient time as a missionary. But, ya make do with what you’ve got. We have been thinking that we will try to go
to some of the other churches in the area next week. I’ve always wanted to. For today though, we just tracted.
It was weird going to church here. I went from being in a huge stake center to
just about the tiniest church you have ever seen. The chapel only has about 10 rows of
pews. The gym is barely even half a gym
and you could walk around the building in like 12.2 seconds (okay, not really
but close). As people started coming in
the usual slew of questions began.
Q: How long have you
been out?
A: 6 months.
Q: Oh, you are a
veteran then. Where did you come from?
A: Suwanee
Q: Well forget about
there, this is the best ward! Where are
you from?
A: Idaho Falls
Q: Oh, do you
know__________________?
A: No, sorry I don’t.
I shook everyone’s hands and tried to remember their
names. Of course, I wouldn’t even come
close if you asked me now. I will get
there though. I got asked to say the
opening prayer in sacrament, the closing prayer in gospel principles, and was
asked to speak a little in the combined meeting. Gotta love being the “new” missionary.
Dinner was at the Slocum’s.
Sister Slocum is crazy but really cute.
She talks a mile a minute and gets distracted while she is talking. I gave the message on studying the Book of
Mormon and the different ways to do it.
She got so excited! I have never
had anyone as excited to do the challenge as her. It was great.
I liked it a lot. So thank you Sister Slocum for making this missionary's day! You cute thing!
There was a CES fireside tonight that Morgan wanted to watch
so we went over there. Well I ended up
being the only one to watch. Morgan and
Sister Nettleton were both a little distracted elsewhere.
Well, P-day is tomorrow!
I can’t wait to hear from y’all!!
Love you 20 dolla!
Molly
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