Ah! Jenn's Baptism!!

April 7, 2014

Hey-O Fam!

So this morning we woke up to POURING rain.  I haven't seen it rain like this since the summer.  I liked it.☺  At one point, the thunder was so loud and big that it shook our apartment.  I twas like our neighbors upstairs decided to throw a party and everyone was stomping.  It was nuts.  It was Sister Rowe's first legit rainstorm and she loved it!  We all do!!

We were very productive this morning.  We have car inspections for Zone meeting tomorrow, so even though it was pouring rain, we soaped down our car and let the rain wash it off and we vacuumed  really good.☺  We also went shopping and cleaned our apartment really good, all in 2 hours!  Go us!

We were super excited cause we have a lesson at 1:00 with a family we had met.  Even though it was in the middle of P-day, we didn’t care because we think they are an elect family and we LOVE teaching!  Alas, they texted us a couple of hours before 1:00 and cancelled.  We were pretty bummed.  We were all ready for them.  Hopefully they will text us back so we can teach them sometime this week!!

So instead of teaching them a lesson we went and hung out with the Dustins.  I’ve missed them!  It’s been like 2 weeks since I’ve seen them and sat down and talked! 

It was Sister Dustin and the 2 little boys.  Allen got it in his head that he wanted to call Mater on the phone (Mater from the Disney movie Cars).  So we called “Mater”.  Sister George, aka Mater, was on the phone in the next room.  Abram was so star-struck he couldn’t get a word out and Allen just chatted away!  When we hung up Abram burst into tears!  It was so sad and so cute all at the same time.

After that we went down and e-mailed.  I got a random, cute e-mail from Zach Peterson.  That was fun!  It was a good e-mail day!

Dinner was at the Kings tonight.  We had stir fry.  It was yummy!  It was a nice change from the run of pasta we have been on.  And it was just fun to be with the Kings!  I like them.  It’s always fun to see Bishop King at home and not just as a bishop at church.  And we liked talking to Jon their son.

April 8, 2014

Today was mostly just zone meeting.  40 something-odd missionaries jammed into the Relief Society room.  Haha kind of crazy but fun.  I like our zone.  And again, I’m friends with more of the elders than the sisters so I talked to a lot of the elders.  I just like that I can laugh and joke with other missionaries.  Some of the missionaries are very serious though.

Elder Vandertoolen used to be one of the President’s assistants but now he is our zone leader.  He kept telling me I was gonna be made a Sister Training Leader next transfer.  Ack!  Please no!  Though I have a feeling it’ll happen eventually.  I promise I’m not being vain when I say that, like, “Oh, look at me!”  No.  It’s just that I had a feeling I was going to train again.  And I’m having a similar feeling about being a STL.  We shall see!  But I hope I’m wrong with my feeling.  That would just be great!

We went to lunch with the Canton sisters afterwards and then went over to help Sister Bragg.  I love Sister Bragg.  She is awesome!  She is having a hard time right now with recovering.  We’re keeping her in our prayers!

Then we stopped by Sister Miles, a member in our ward.  At first she wasn’t too happy that we were there, but she still invited us in.  We had a nice talk.  I hope that she will start coming to church again.  I liked her.

The rest of the evening we went tracting and then had dinner with the Rethkes.  They are funny.  It was a good dinner.  We ended our night with the Relief Society activity.  That was fun.  It was “Around the World”.  We have a few ladies in our ward from like Russia and Columbia and a few other places.  So we learned about their countries and cultures.  So that was fun!

April 9, 2014

Ok, before I start in on this day.  Mom, I’m SO sorry I chastised you about mail.  Today we opened the mailbox and there were 4 letters to me.  2 from you, one from Sydney, and one from Sister Hooker.  One of the letters from you was post marked on the 26^th of March!!  Grr.  Stupid postal service!!  And one to Sister Rowe from you as well.  So, thank you for being my amazing mother and taking such good care of me! 

We started of the day with “Sisters Fat Camp”.  Remember when the sisters in my zone a few months ago got together with Sister Wolfert and we exercised together and talked about our feelings and what not?  Well, that’s what we did again.  Yippy!  Luckily it was at the Hickory Flat building so we didn’t have to go too far.  It was fine.  I got to chat with Sister Hamilton and Sister Knight, so that was good!  Sister Hamilton and her companion had a baptism last month and the mission had 40 so she gets to go to the temple tomorrow.  I am SOOO jealous but excited for her.  I want to go so very badly!  So, I have a plan!!  We have one on Saturday.  Everyone else needs to get theirs and THEN we can go on the 8^th of May!!  My birthday!  Ah!  I seriously cannot think of a more amazing birthday present!  So, y’all just pray that we get 40 in the mission in April so that we can go in May.  Deal?

 

After our “fat camp” we went home, got ready, and went to Jenn’s.  Ah!  I love her!  She wants to go into some deeper doctrine.  So today we talked a little about the 7 seals in the last days from the Book of Revelations.  Honestly, I feel that most of us need to focus mainly on the basic tenets of the gospel.  Spending a lot of time on some of that other stuff just doesn’t do it for me.  But Jenn took it all in good stride.  She tried on a few dresses we had for her baptism.  So we figured out which one fit her best.  Ah!  I’m so excited for Saturday.

Oh the things you finding tracting!

After Jenn, we went tracting.  We got to one house and knocked and no answer.  So I rang the doorbell/intercom button.  A guy answered over the intercom and so I tell him we are missionaries and he gets really mad.  Over the intercom he starts yelling how we’re on private property and to turn around and get out right now.  Blah, blah, blah.  So I just say, “Ok, sorry!  And um, you have a really beautiful lawn..”  There is a long pause and then, “Thank you”.  Click.  Haha!  Oh boy!  That was sort of funny.

Then we stopped by a lady named Patty we met last week.  She was home!  So we talk with her for a little bit and then she says, “Ok, tell me about the Mormons”.  So, I gave her the first lesson!  It was awesome.  And then Sister Rowe asked if she were to come to know that this is true would she be baptized?   And Patty said yes!!  She is awesome!  We’re meeting with her again on Saturday.  Maybe we could have 2 baptisms in April.  That would be sweet.

Despite what you may think because of
the signs I am in Georgia not Alaska!

Then we went and tracted some more and then went to the Dustin’s for dinner.  I love them.  On our way home, the STL’s called us.  We’re going on exchange this weekend and will switch back before Jenn’s baptism.  Sister Rowe is going to Woodstock with Sister Moon and Sister Breinholt is coming here again to hang with me in Hickory Flat!  Whoot!  So that’ll be fun.

April 10, 2014

I’m not really sure how to feel about today.  Part of me is happy and excited.  I’ve made it half way.  The end of my mission is getting closer.  Another part of me is devastated.  It’s getting closer for me to be done, and I want to curl up in a ball and go back to the beginning.  I need more time.  These feelings have been battling with each other all day long, and neither are winning, because just like my mission is half and half, my emotions are half and half.  I don’t like it!  There are a few times today that I almost burst out in tears.  But, I was able to keep it together.  I think the scariest thing for me, is that I know everything is just going to go by even quicker now.  I think I’ll just hide from that thought.

Sister Rowe and I have twinner Princess Ducks!

Despite my battling feelings, today was a good day.  We took Sister Rowe to the chiropractor again.  While she was getting her neck worked on, I wrote letters.  I was glad for that time because I so very much hate getting behind in letter writing!  We came home and went over to Jenn’s.  Sister Taylor and Sister Vickery are Jenn’s visiting teachers and they came with us.  Sister Owens is the new Relief Society president and got right on top of getting Jenn involved.  She will not become a lost soul after she is baptized.  I’m glad for that.

Then we went and helped Sister Bragg do yard work.  It was nice to just be outside in the dirt, planting…I know, I know!  Shocker that I enjoyed it.  Who would have thought that this queen wheel barrow breaker would like being outside?  Well, it happened!  I’m just sorry it took so long.

Then we had dinner with Sister Judd and her grand-daughters.  Sister Judd is from New York and has the accent to go along.  She is great!  She and Brother Judd take care of their grand-daughters a lot.  The girl’s parents are divorced and both remarried with other kids.   Sister Judd is a quilter and has her own quilting room with bubble gum pink walls.  Haha!  It’s pretty legit!  You would love it Mom.  Quilting galore!

We finished our night off with some tracting.  We met a lot of nice people but no one was interested.  Well actually, the last house we went to for the night was a family.  The mom has lupis and crones disease.  We did the harvest prayer and sat and talked with her about eternal families.  Hopefully something will come out of that!

So despite my feelings of mixed love and desperate sadness of today, it was a pretty good day.

April 11, 2014

Happy Friday!  We were busy this morning!  Sister Owens took us around to go visit people on her list.  We first stopped at a little stand on the side of the road that is an “on your honor pay” kinda thing.  No one watches the stand, you just take whatever veggies or flowers you want and then put your money in the little lock box.  It’s so awesome!  We got some flowers there and went and visited some ladies in our ward.  Then we came home, ate lunch and weekly planned before our exchanges.

Then I got Sister Breinholt.  I love her!!  She is always a happy light!  I feel bad though because she is tired of being an STL.  I don’t blame her on that account.  She has been one for quite a while.

Basically before dinner, we tried to visit less-actives and tracted.  Nothing too much fun.  Sister Breinholt really liked the questions that Sister Rowe and I use for tracting.  She got really excited about that.  Sister Rowe and I decided that we would use our new approach while we are on exchanges and see how that went.  Sister Breinholt was a big fan.  Haha.  I like her.

We have been trying to get a hold of a certain woman in our ward for a while and she was FINALLY home!  She attends church in her parent’s ward so we never see her.  So we are trying to get her to come to church in our ward.  We shall see.

Sister Breinholt with ME!!

Then we had dinner with the Dustins.  They like Sister Breinholt.  We had a blast!  The Dustins compared me to Sister Beasley.  Well that is okay with me because I have only heard them say good things about Sister Beasley.  I’m all for being like Sister Beasley!

After the Dustins we went out tracting.  Poor Sister Breinholt.  None of the places we tracted were right, she said that is how her whole week has been.  Just one rude person after another.  Finally we went to our “little Mexico” trailer park.  We met two little boys who spoke English, they showed us around and pointed out the “English trailers”.  They were just adorable.

Our little scorpion friend!

Finally, we headed home.  We discovered a surprise in our apartment.  A little scorpion!  No joke!  We had a baby scorpion in our apartment!!  We put him in a tupperware—where he shall stay!  Ha! 

April 12, 2014

Today has been quite an adventure!  This morning Sister Breinholt and I spent study time just chatting.  It was fun.  She thinks that our zone will split and that she and I will be companions in one zone or the other.  I don’t want to be a STL but it would be good if I could be companions with Sister Breinholt.  Everyone loves Sister Breinholt.

Then we went to McDonalds and contacted the referral the Canton sisters gave us.  Her name is Yvette and the sisters were meeting with her about 5 years ago.  Hopefully she is more prepared now.  That would be awesome.  Patty called us and said she couldn’t meet with us today, BUT she did say that she would try to come out to church.  So we are crossing our fingers.

Then we started getting calls from Brother Cooley.  He is the ward mission leader.  He asked Brother Wyman to be in charge of the baptism this week.   The Cooleys are moving soon.  When we exchanged back I was happy to see Sister Rowe.  Exchanges make one thankful for the good that you have or lift you up so that you can continue on.  I was thankful for the companion that I have.

Off we went to the church!  But first we stopped and got mail.  Momma!!  You got me colorful envelopes!  Thanks.  I had been missing the colorful ones.  And thank you for the meds too.  Hopefully they will help especially since my face has just exploded with acne.  We hung out at the church and filled up the font and set everything up.

♥Max and Jenn!!♥

Max, Jenn, Sister Rowe and Sister George!  SOOOO Happy!

Jenn and Max got there at 1:30, got dressed and we took pictures.  Jenn was super nervous.  She was so cute!  While she was getting ready, she got a FB notice.  She grinned at me and said, “Sister George!   You just accepted my friend request!”  Haha!  It was fun to have you do that Momma, while I was with her.

So blessed to have our Jenn!

We had a pretty motley crew at the baptism.  But it didn’t matter.  Jenn looked beautiful!  And it was a happy time!  Max baptized Jenn and he did a fabulous job.  It was the coolest thing to see them both there!  It was a happy, happy time!  Both Sister Rowe and I spoke.  I did the talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost which is funny because that is what I spoke on at Max’s baptism too!

This time though, I started crying and I got Jenn crying too.  Oops.  Haha!  Sister Rowe did a really good job on her talk.  The best part about the whole thing is that even though it was a baptism for an individual, we also got a baptism for a family.  Max and Jenn can now go to the temple in a year and be sealed for time and all eternity and raise their future children in the church.  The work of us and the elders will affect generations of people!  So that is cool.

After the baptism we cleaned up and locked up the church.  Sister Rowe had a really bad migraine and couldn’t see.  So I took her home and she slept for a couple of hours.  Meanwhile, my face was puffing up.  My lips looked like someone had punched me.  It’s HUGE!  Here’s what we figured out.  Neither of us have sinus allergies with pollen.  Nope!  Our allergies show up with Sister Rowe getting a headache and I break out and swell all up.  It’s awful!! Ugg!  And we are supposed to have even more pollen in the next few weeks.  So I will just look like an overstuffed pepperoni pizza for another few weeks.  Great….  Hopefully those meds will tone it down a little…  If not, I’ll just look like I did all through high school.  Lovely. 

After Sister Rowe woke up and could at least see, we went over to see one of our members,  Sister Vaughn.  She had MS and her husband is not a member.  It is really hard for her to get to church.  She is super sweet.  We had a good chat with her.  She is lonely, so our plan is to go visit her at least once a week, so that should be good.

We ended our evening with dinner with Max and Jenn.  It was really yummy.  Jenn is a good cook!  After dinner we talked about tithing and fasting, and then Jenn went on Facebook and read some of my blog and looked at some of the pictures.  Haha!  So that was our fun.

We found another scorpion by our door when we got home.  I don’t like those things too much.  Hopefully they will disappear to wherever they came from soon.

April 13, 2014

Happy fast Sunday.  This morning we went tracting and the pollen was SO bad.  We basically were walking through huge clouds of it.  My nose itched and my eyes itched.  Bugger…  Our name tags had a layer of pollen on them.  It was nuts!  It didn’t help that we picked a middle of nowhere street to go on, so we had trees all around us, which resulted in more pollen. 

Gotta LOVE my Georgia!

"Weddin' This way y'all"

On our way to the street we were tracting, we passed a wooden post that said “weddin” and “This way y’all”  So redneck.  Haha!  We took pictures.

Church was awesome today.  Elder Pena confirmed Jenn. When she walked back to us after, she was just grinning from ear to ear!  It was so awesome.  Ah!  It was just a happy time.

We had a “linger longer” after church and that was nice, especially since it was fast Sunday.  After church and the linger longer, we just tracted for the rest of the night.  The Dustins drove by us and Sister Dustin took a video of us “in action”.  Haha!  It was awesome!

Then we went home, tired and gross.  But we got our contacts goal.  We both took a shower and dragged our beds into the living room for a “sleep over”.   Haha.  Ah!  The life of a missionary and the things that excite us!

I love y’all!!

Love, Molly 

General Conference, Getting Dropped, Preparing for a Baptism

March 31, 2014

Hello, Hello!

Happy last day of March!  I’m not too sure where January and February went, and I’m trying to figure out how the heck March got away from me too!  I mean, I suppose it’s a good thing, I would rather be working hard and lose track of the days as opposed to having them never end, but it’s still strange.

It was a pretty good P-day.  We got to e-mail first, so that was nice.  All the e-mails I got were good this week.  Gotta thank Lacey and Dad for letting me know my 9 month mark is next week.  How did half of my mission slip away from me!?!  I swear that I have not been out that long.  It is hard to think about and sad, but at the same time I know that I can be proud with what I have accomplished so far!  Luckily, I still have a little while to go, though, I know that the last 9 months will slip by even faster than the first 9 month.  Oh bother!  I just can’t win.

Sisters Bowling League!

After mailing we went grocery shopping, and then met up with the Canton sisters and went bowling.  And I gotta say, taking that bowling class in college paid off!  Whoot!  It was fun!  Sister Taylor and I sat together and talked, while Sister Rowe and Sister Macedone did their thing.  They get along crazy well together.  They are really funny and happy when they are together.  It is cool that missionaries have their favorites.  I know that I have mine.  They need to get it in because Sister Macedone is getting transferred.  Sister Alvey is taking her place.  I am so excited!  I love Sister Alvey!  Back to bowling—we had a lot of fun and I broke 100.  So that was pretty sweet.  Haha.

Dinner was at the Alleys.  I love them!  Their 3 boys are the cutest.  Sister Alley found out on Saturday that they are having another boy.  She is a little sad that it isn’t a girl, but she is an awesome sport about it.

We didn’t have a set appointment with anyone, so we decided to try some less-actives.  We made a goal to focus on 1 or 2 less-actives and get them active!   Well we went to the Hanawalts and talked with Sister Hanawalt for like 45 minutes.  When we headed home, we decided our goal was to get her and her husband active and to the temple!  We are excited!☺

April 1, 2014

Happy April Fools Day!  Mom, I thought about when you were on your mission and called Grandma really quick.  It made me laugh to think about you finding a payphone and putting in whatever Belgian coin it took and connecting just long enough to say “Happy April Fools Mom!” before it clicked off.  That memory made me laugh.

That's my cute district!

Today was our last district meeting before transfers tomorrow.  The zone leaders came.  And guess what???  I had to give a training.  Ugh!  It never ends!  I told Elder Winter that I gave one 2 weeks ago.  He said the zone leaders specifically asked us to give a training because our numbers have been pretty rockin’ lately.  Elder Astle is one of the zone leaders and he leaves tomorrow.  I’m kinda bummed.  We have become friends.  I always miss my friends when they are transferred, or I am transferred , or they go home.  Oh well there are always mission reunions and hopefully I will be able to see him and all my other mission friends who I have met along the way.☺

The Hickory Flat and Canton Sisters!!

We went to lunch with the Canton sisters at a place called Cheeseburger Bobby’s .   Yum!  That is my kind of place!☺   Haha!  Zone meeting is next week and Sister Macedone is still in our zone.  So it was more like see ya later than goodbye.  I like see ya later better!

Then we headed over to the Sucars.  We haven’t seen them for a few weeks.  Luckily they were home!  Sister Sucar said she had been waiting for us to call.   Well, we had.  But the number she had given us was some stupid store.  The oops probably happened on our end.  Luckily we got it all figured out and hopefully she can come with us                                                                                          on Friday to see the Frias family!

Then we went tracting.  And was it HOT!  80 degrees.  Ugg..  So sweaty!  But we had fun.  This new tracting thing that we’ve got going is awesome!  One guy we talked to invited us in and we taught him the first lesson!  He used to be in the Secret Service and had pictures with him by Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.  So cool!!  His wife was nice and a little out there.  She believes that this life is all a dream and that we are all in Heaven right now, but we’re asleep.  That is a new one for me.

Then we had a lesson with Bill.  He reminds me so much of Richard, it’s nuts!  He is a cutie and I just love him lots.  We asked if he would like a blessing and he said yes.  He didn’t like it too much that only the Elders can do that.   Haha!

We ended our night with the Kings.  They took us to William Bros. Barbecue-- which is huge here in the South.  I’ll have to send you some of their BBQ sauce sometime.  It was fun!  I really like their son Jon, now that he has been home from his mission for a while.  He is getting back to normal.  He is the same age as me and home from his mission.  Weird.  Well, I guess most of my friends are home from their missions as well.  I’m not sure how it has already been two years for them.  Crazy!

April 2, 2014

Oh my!  It was an exhausting, but productive day today!  And it was about 80-85 degrees the whole entire day.  Ugg.  So stinkin’ HOT!  I had blocked the feeling of always being sweaty from last summer.  But it’s back. : /

We started off our day with a lesson with Jenn.  Ah!  I just love her!  It’s so funny, cause she is my age.  She turned 21 in August.  It just kinda boggles my mind.  We are the same age but as such different points in our lives.  I just love her!!  She is so excited for her baptism.☺  Her interview is between sessions of General Conference on Saturday!  Whoot!  So that’s all going good!

We met Elder Peña’s new companion Elder Hayward.  He came out with Sister Knight and Elder Angilau (who was in my MTC district) trained him!  So that was fun. ☺  I hope he and Elder Peña will get along well!

Then we went to visit Morgan.  She is really trying to get her life in order.  I don’t know if she is going about it in the best possible way but she is putting effort into it.   I love her and continue to pray for her.

Then we went tracting.  In the heat.  And sweated ling pigs!  : /  We met some cool people though!    We met a guy named Cain who was working on a house.  He has some great potential and seemed really interested!  My goal is to make Cain a solid investigator and then find an Abel!  That would be super awesome!  Okay so I think I am funny!

We also met a guy named Pete from Greece!  He also took a Book of Mormon so that was fun and exciting!

When we got back to the car, we had a text from the ZL’s.  It said to be on the lookout for one of the elders in our Zone.  I don’t know what happened to him.  Hopefully they find him soon.

We had dinner at the Delahunty’s.  Brother Delahunty wasn’t there.  The kids were so funny!  They had lots of energy.

After dinner we tracted some more and then met with Sister Owens who just got called to be the new Relief Society President.  We talked about some ladies she wanted us to visit and how the RS can help with missionary work.  I love Sister Owens!  I’m so excited for her!

Last but not least, I got my first letter in a week today!  Whoot!  Thank you Sister Hooker!☺  Haha!  Sister Rowe always feels pretty bad when she get the mail.  She usually has at least one letter,  ususally 3ish.  And she always gets packages from her mom and neighbors.  I am happy that they take good care of her.  It is fun to get mail.  Ah well, I figured it would be at about month 9 when things slowed down for me. ☺  Mom, don’t think I’m chastising you or anything!  Cause I’m not!  You are fabulous at sending letters and packages.☺  You too Daddy.☺  And Lace is awesome on her e-mails!  So don’t worry!  I know I’m not forgotten by y’all.

April 3, 2014

Man, I thought we would never get through this day!  Whew!  We were pretty productive but it was just a long and weird day.

We started out with our lesson with Jenn and that was awesome.☺  She is getting baptized a week from Saturday and we are SO excited!!  She is too! ☺  We went over the interview questions with her and talked about them.  She understands the gospel really well and is constantly trying to learn more!☺

Then came the difficult part of our day- - less actives.  Sister Owens gave us a good list of people to visit.  NO ONE WAS HOME!!!  Stupid spring break! : /  Finally we got into one of the homes.  The Skaggs.  That was interesting.  Brother Skaggs doesn’t really have a testimony and sadly doesn’t even care.  Sister Rowe was asking him questions about his conversion and that made him squirm a little. 

After the Skaggs we were trying to figure out what to do.  Well my watch had broken yesterday morning and I was dying without one.  So we decided since it was so hot we would go find me a new one and try to do some contacting along the way.  We made a goal to talk to at least 3 people while .  Sister Rowe talked with the ladies in charge of the dressing room at TJ Maxx.  It ended up being like a 30 minute discussion!  It was awesome!  But I couldn’t find a watch.  We headed to Target.  I found a watch and we got some contacts in as well.  It was awesome!  Different than knocking doors- -I guess it was just a nice change of pace.☺

Dinner was with the Haruch’s.  Sister Haruch reminds me of you, Momma!  I felt very comfortable and at home with her.☺  So that was nice!  They did something pretty cool before we left.  Brother Haruch asked us if we would bless their home.  I guess that is their tradition every time they have the missionaries over.  I liked that!  So I did the harvest blessing.  The harvest blessing is a prayer with the only difference being that after we address Heavenly Father, we add, “by virtue of our calling as representatives of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”  It was cool!  And it really brought the spirit.☺

Then we went tracting until like 8:30.  It’s nice that we can do that now and it’s not dark!  The one good thing about daylight savings!☺

We are doing a lot better with our numbers this week than we thought we would with spring break!  It’s been nice to see our numbers not go down! 

Ah!  Guess what?!?  One more day until General Conference!!  I’m so excited!!  I can’t believe that after this session, I will only be able to enjoy conference one more time as a missionary.  It makes me pretty sad.  There is just something different about watching General Conference as a missionary!  Part of me is more excited for it than I was before my mission!  Which is crazy caus I loved it before then too!☺  Ah!  I just LOVE General Conference!

April 4, 2014

Oh my exhausting day!  Mostly mentally and spiritually, which then makes you physically exhausted.

We started out with weekly planning which went great!  We planned Jenn’s baptism officially and got everything figured out and got everyone doing what we needed them to. ☺

It was hard planning for most of our investigators cause we’re kinda up in the air about most of them.  So that was a little rough.  But we followed the spirit and planned what we felt we should for them.

After planning, we went and saw a lady named Marion.  She is a referral from Sister King’s friend, who is Marion’s daughter-in-law.  Marion’s son converted when he was 16 and got married in the temple, has 5 daughters, with one on a mission.  They have tried everything with Marion.  She has read the Book of Mormon and believes it’s true.  Basically she told us that she just doesn’t want a big calling in the church, she doesn’t want a big responsibility.  Really?!?  She said we could visit but there’s nothing we can do or say that will change it.  She said when her granddaughter gets off her mission she’ll try to convert her (Marion).  Marion said maybe she will join then.  Oh boy she was a sweet lady.  She said that she can’t meet with us for the next 2 weeks.  So I guess we’ll see what happens.

Then came Bill. : /  Yesterday on the phone he said he needed to talk to us.  I didn’t like the sound of that.  Well, when we got there he dropped us.  His reasoning?  Because we celebrate Easter.  You may be thinking, “Huh?”  Yeah, us too.  He said that Easter in its Greek form is a woman’s name that means fertility or something.  I don’t really know.  Then he said we shouldn’t be celebrating Easter, but Passover.  I tried to talk about how we’re celebrating Christ and HIS resurrection.  But nope.  So there ya go.  I think we get the reward for one of the weirdest and stupidest reasons to drop the missionaries. : /  Go figure.

Sister Rowe was pretty sad the rest of the day.  It was hard.  I had to remember that this her first legit dropping.  It was pretty awful.  So because we were bummed, I decided we would go to Gloria’s and Sister Olah’s like 4 houses down, cause we knew they loved us!  So we chatted with them for a while and felt a little better.

Dinner was at the Ashment’s tonight.  Brother Ashment was working and their oldest son (who has autism) was a bit all over the place.  Sister Ashment is just sweet, gentle, and patient.  She just went with the flow.  She is really just an awesome person and a great example.  We did our armor of God with them.  Let’s just say we’re gonna need to either fix up our armor or get new armor.  It was a hoot!  They are a great family.

Then we went tracting.   We knocked on one door and this little man answers the door, he reads Jesus Christ on my tag and invited us in and grabbed his wife.  His name was Al and his wife, Maria.  They were Hispanic and basically they just talked to us a mile a minute.  Maria told us about 10 times that she was Catholic.  It was pretty cute.  We attempted to give the first lesson but we could hardly get a word in!  I think Heavenly Father sent us there to cheer US up more than anything.  It was quite a hoot!☺

We ended ournight at the Frias! ☺  They are a good family!  They are planning on coming to some of General Conference!  Hopefully something will be said that touches their hearts!

April 5, 2014

Happy Saturday sessions of General Conference!  Ah!  So many things to learn!  It’s so funny to me that here, General Conference goes from 12-2 and 4-6.  Last October, that totally threw me off, this time, not so much.☺

Before we went to General Conference we took Jenn to find her some modest church clothes☺ cause she’s getting baptized in a week ya know!!  And she wanted to make sure that she had some nice modest outfits.  The members are super awesome about making sure our investigators feel comfortable in their clothing, so we had some money to pay for some of what she got, which was great!  After we were done, she was so excited!  She had her interview today and on the way home was planning which outfit she would wear!  Ah!  I just love her!!☺

Then we went  to the church for General Conference!  Whoot!  It was us, our elders, the Canton elders and sisters, the Kings and an older guy named Stanley from our ward.  No one else was there.  But I kinda like that way.  It is quiet and easier to concentrate.

Okay, just gotta say, I LOVED Elder Holland’s talk!  He hit right on the spot with a few things, mostly about missionary life.  I loved that he pointed out that sometimes we question if what we’re doing out here is even worth it.  Not all the time, but on the mashed potatoes thrown at the back of your head kind of days, the wondering and doubt that creep in.  But it IS worth it!  Especially when you pull in what Elder Scott said about teaching with the vision of families being sealed in the temple! 

Then I loved Elder Rasband’s talk.  What an amazing story about the little girl and the tornado.  Sister Rowe and I have been thinking it would be cool to get at least a tornado warning.  I had one in Suwanee.  But now we’re thinkin’ maybe not.  I like how he said we neede to “take up the joyful burden of discipleship.”  He’s right, sometimes it’s joyful and sometimes it is a burden, but it is our duty as member of Christ’s church!

In between sessions Elder Anderson our District Leader, interviewed Jenn.☺  Afterwards we’re talking and he looks at us and says, “She is elect sisters!”  Cute Sister Rowe gets a big grin on her face and said, “Really?!”  I had to giggle.  We knew she was elect, but Sister Rowe was glad t ohear it from someone else. ☺  I was too.  It is nice that others can see in her what we see in her.  We tracted for the rest ofo ur time in between sessions then went back.  This time, it was only the missionaries.

I loved when Elder Nelson said, “Those who face their fears have courage as well.”  Sometimes, we believe that because we have fears, we are weak, But as long as we are facing them, we are courageous!

And Elder Scott’s talk was awesome!  One of my favorite things he said was , “Be the change in someone’s life for ETERNAL good.”  I feel like especially out here, that is our main focus, it is an eternal good to be baptized, to get sealed in the temple, and endure to the end, and if we can do that for even one soul, “how great shall be your joy.” ☺

Last but not least, was Elder Cook!  I think mainly that was one of my favorites because he spoke to just us missionaries like a month ago!  I did love that he said, “temple work is connecting roots to branches.”  How true that is!  I wish I could go to the temple and do that!  But, I guess right now we are the gatherers.  We are picking up the fallen branches and grafting them back on to the tree.☺

Ah!  I just can’t wait for tomorrow’s sessions!

After, we went to dinner at our house, and prepared for a lesson with Amanda.  I’m so tired of her beating around the bush.  So I told Sister Rowe that I may end up asking pretty hard and direct questions.  Well, I did just that.  I asked her some pretty hard questions.  And what it came down to was that a) she doesn’t want to change and she knows she’ll have to if she finds out the truth, and b) finding God and the truth is not really her top priority.  It was sad and frustrating.  It is hard when you really love someone and want to share with them what you love most, and they just don’t really care.  But after, we felt calm and peaceful.  I was bold, but loving, and we got the answers we were looking for.  Not necessarily the answers we wanted but. . . .   Our investigator pool is dwindling.  It’s because we have a baptism next week.  Satan is working hard.  But that’s okay.  We will just stay the course and work harder than him.  We may still be in the middle of the battle but we know the ending.  And we are on the winning side!!!

April 6, 2014

Happy General Conference Sunday.  I so love Jesus Christ and what a gift his birth was for us.  I love that this is the day the church was officially reorganized so many years ago.  Wow there is a lot going on on the 6^th of April.

So I got a little sad this morning at 10 o’clock my time, 8 o’clock yours.  Why did I get a bit sad?  Well, cause I figured if I were at home, the smell of Daddy’s waffles and peaches would be filling the house with a yummy smell!  Mmmm!  I miss those things!  Alas, what’s a girl to do besides wait 9 months for that yummy taste!?!☺

Well, wasn’t conference just dandy?!  I just loved President Uchtdorf’s talk!  I liked Elder Ballard’s talk about following up!  Because we do just that as missionaries FOLLOW UP!  All the time!  We’re going to be doing a tone of that this next week because we have 7 new potentials from tracting!  So it was a nice reminder to do just that!  And his story of “following up” on his wife was so cute.☺

Elder Bednar’s talks are always great!  As long as you are able to follow along with that deep thinking of his.☺  Sometimes  I get a bit lost with him.  Hey!  Google “Character of Christ” by him.  It was a talk he gave in the MTC and they only play it there but I think you can find the written version on line.  It is AMAZING!

Okay, anyways.  And then there was cute President Monson.  He seemed so much more serious.  It makes me sad.  A little of his light went out when his wife died.  Though I can’t say I blame him.  Elder Winter said he was pretty serious in the Priesthood session too.

In between sessions we went tracting and we went to the houses that probably haven’t been tracted in years because they are on one of the main roads and pretty hard to get to.  It was quite the adventure!  We were so close to hitting our contact goal for the week but luckily we would have time after dinner, so we just figured we would do it then. 

We got back to the church and chatted with Sister King for a while.  She is just the greatest.  I really love her.  I am so thankful that she is so great to us.

A funny thing happened when we were altogether with the other missionaries.  One of the elders who is a really good elder, was telling us a story about when he was at home.  His companion said something about how HE was here to be focused.  Huh?  I didn’t, but I wanted to say, “The Lord did not call us on a mission and tell us to forget and never talk about our home life.  He sent us here to learn, grow, and touch certain people with our personalities and that means our life before the mission too.” 

Okay, now back to conference.  The last session was awesome too.  I like how Elder Corbridge talked about how there will be the most opposition where the truth is.  It is SO true!!  Elder Aidukaitis was pretty funny!  Which doesn’t happen a whole ton in General Conference.  I liked him!  He had character.☺  Elder Christofferson’s talk was just stellar!  One of the things I loved that he said was, “Christ’s victory over death ended the human predicament.  Now there are only personal predicaments.”

So conference is awesome!  I love it!☺  Oh!  And Jenn came and she LOVED it!!  She is going to be such an awesome member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We need her in this church!

We had dinner at the Moran’s after the last session.  They are a good family. 

After dinner we sped tracted.  We didn’t just run from house to house, we like sprinted, in the rain, so that we could get our 70 contacts and still go have a lesson with Jenn.  Every door we got to we were panting.   BUT!  We were blessed!  Not only did we get our goal, but we also passed out 3 copies of the Book of Mormon and got 2 potentials out of it!  The Lord most definitely blessed us for wanted to hit that goal!!☺

Our lesson with Jenn went well!  She and Max committed to pray together at least once every day!  Sister Rowe and I were beat by the end of the night. 

I love you all!  Have a great week!!☺

♥

Molly

Happy Birthday Gabe and Billie-And the Armor of God

March 24, 2014

Hey Y'all!!

Ah!  What a great start to the week!  We had an awesome P-day!☺

It was the elder's turn to e-mail first so while they e-mailed in the morning we did our shopping and what not.

We had a blast and we went all over the place! We went to the christian bookstore and spent some time in there.  I got a CD and it's some awesome christian music.  It's great!  Gotta love those christian singers.  I talked to the lady who worked there and another customer about being a missionary and what we do.☺  Nice!  We always try to get contacts while we are out doing our shopping and what not.  It is not always as easy as you might think.

Then we were at the post office and giggling and having fun and ended up talking to the lady in front of us who was a pastor's wife.  Score!  That was fun and she was nice.

Emailing is always fun.!  You can never go wrong with that!  I got an e-mail from McKay Harmon.  He is doing well and asked a bunch of questions about how the work is going and stuff.  I had asked him if he remember the blessing he gave me.  He said that of course he did as it was his first.  I am so glad that he is my friend.

Dinner was at the Wyman's and we had a lesson with Amanda after dinner.  She kept saying she really didn't feel anything.  I think that may not have been totally true.  She was crying through a lot of it.  We just don't know what to do at this point and it's frustrating cause we love her so much and want her to progress.  But I also understand that the choice has to be hers.  No matter what she decides I will always love her.  She is my friend.  Sister Rowe feels the same.  It is hard to have something so precious and have someone willing to listen for a bit and then turn away.

Then we had a lesson with Bill.  Ah!  I love that man.  I was so proud of Sister Rowe!  We hadn't discussed it, but she invited Bill to be baptized if he comes to know this  gospel is true and he said yes!☺  I would love for him to be baptized before I leave.  But with his heart surgery, it probably won't be until later. : (  Darn it!  Ah well!   As long as it happens all is well.

So we got contacts and 2 lessons in with investigators today!  A P-day no less!  It's going to be a good week!

March 25, 2014

It was a pretty good day!  We had district meeting this morning and that got a little crazy.  Most of the elders were totally on one!  Let's just say it wasn't the most productive district meeting we have ever had.  Sister Rowe gave her first training and she did really good!  I just felt badly cause the elders all had the attention span of a flea!

We had lunch with the Canton sisters at Labamba (pretty much our only Mexican place here in Hickory Flat).  The Ellijay sisters skipped out.

We were supposed to help Sister Bragg but she cancelled on us.   So we went and contacted a referral we had gotten from the Wyman's.  It was their neighbor.  They pretty much told us to go away, nicely but still.

So then we went around to the little fire station in our area.  Sister Breinholt gave the idea to Sister Row to ask for a service project.  President said that if our greenies have ideas that we need to at least try.  We weren't exactly sure what we were thinking and so that became a bit of an issue when we were trying to explain that to the firemen. : {  Eh well!  At least we got a few contacts out of it!  And we may just have to keep working on it to figure out exactly how to go about it.

We were in our service clothes and needed a place to change.  So we went over to the King's and changed there.  We talked with Sister King for a little bit.  I feel bad for Jon (her new returned missionary son).  He is having a hard time being back at home.  He doesn't really have a job and he is just in limbo.  At least i know that Tay will take me back when I get home and hopefully I'll be able to find a CNA job too!  That would be great!☺  The Lord will provide!

Then we went tracting.  We started in one neighborhood but we weren't quite feeling it.  So we hopped back in the car and went to to a different area.  It was  a bit more lively and we talked to a lot of people but no one who was interested.  We had parked at the beginning of the subdivision and so after tracting we hopped back in.  I had to flip around and Georgia streets are not very wide.  So I just flipped around and  one of my tires  went onto the sidewalk.  Well a lady was coming the opposite direction and she rolled her window down and stopped.  So, I rolled down mine and she just starts screaming at me.  I said sorry and she drove away.  It was pretty ridiculous!  So that was our adventure for the day!

Dinner was at the Taylor's.  Sister Taylor's daughter was the one who got baptized on Saturday.  Their home is amazing!  It is super pretty!

Then we went to the Alley's.  They are a hoot!  We had a blast with them.  They both served missions and went to USU!  It was awesome!

March 26, 2014

Happy 18th Birthday  Gabey Baby!!  I wish I were home to throw my arms around you!  I hope you had a fabulous day!  I thought of you lots!

Gabe's final good bye for the next 3 years!

Gabe--he misses his sister too.

So we started off our day with a lesson with Jenn!  She is so awesome!  I just love her!☺  We brought the Relief Society President, Sister Jensen with us.  Jenn is really golden!  I know that she will get baptized!

Then we got our mail.  I got a LETTER from Ben☺!!  AH!  It made my day 20 times better!  I'm so proud of him!  He moved to Sandy Springs and only lives a mile from the church and the temple!  The sisters took him out on a team up and he was so excited.☺  I'm so happy for him!  I so very hope I get to go to the temple with him when he gets to go!

We tracted far a little while and then went to our lesson with Amanda.  The whole meeting was just off.  We weren't feeling the spirit.  It was rough.  Everything was just off.  UGH!  We will have to try to figure that out.

After Amanda we went and taught Kaylin.  It took us a little to get her and Cydnee to pay attention and focus.  But luckily they got settled and focused.  Kaylin was talking the whole time basically like she was planning on getting baptized.  Finally I just asked her and she said yes but she is scared what her church will say.  So we've just gotta pray that everything will be okay!!!

Dinner was with the Pettits.  I really like their family!  They have such cute kids and Sister Pettit is due with another in October!  So that is exciting for them!

Me and Our Sweet Billie♥

After that we headed to our cute Billie's cause it was her 77th birthday today! ☺  I love that you and her share a birthday Gabe!!  We had gotten her flowers.  When we drove up, there was a flower delivery car but no delivery person.  Billie had invited him in.  He was SO creepy!!  Both Sister Rowe and I did NOT feel good about him!  It was really different from almost anything I have ever felt and Billie talked with him for forever!!  Sister Rowe and I just prayed that he would leave!  It was messed up!  The Spirit was totally gone and he wouldn't even look at us.  FINALLY he left!!  I was really thankful.

Billie is so proud of my picture up on her fridge.☺  And she just kept raving about your letter Momma.☺  Haha!  I just love that lady!

Happy Birthday Gabe Picture!!

We went over to the Dustin's so I could send a happy birthday picture to Gabe.  Sister Dustin wasn't there so Autumn did it on her iPad.

Well I hope y'all had a great day!  I love you Gabe!  I thought about you lots today!  Thank you for being forn an choosing our family even thought your the only boy.☺  But on the bright side it means you are forever the best brother!☺  All 4 of us sisters will attest to that .

March 27, 2014

Well, today and yesterday cannot be compared.  It was quite boring.

We first taught Jenn, which was awesome.☺  She asks deep doctrinal questions.  We just try to answer as simply as possible.  She is so darling and I just love that girl!!

Here we are!!

Sister Row had to go to the chiropractor again so we were there for a couple of hours today.  While she was in getting fixed, I read Grandpa's personal history that Grandma sent me.☺  That was fun to read and it made me giggle reading some of the stories.  Grandpa was a good man!  I'm sure he is doing tons of missionary work right now!

When we got back, we went and saw Sister Jenkins.  Her 2 sons were there.  They are like in their late 30's, early 40's and still not married.  They are both nice.   Sister Jenkins is always trying to get them married off.  But that's not to say that is what she did with us, just that she frequently tries to get her boys married.

Dinner was at the Moran's tonight.  That was fun.  Afterwards we tried visiting a bunch of people but no one was home.  : /  Bummer!

On our way home, we went and stole the elder's welcome mat. So far they haven't noticed.  We talked to them not to long ago.  We'll see how long it takes 'em or if they ever will notice.

I have decided that one of the great things about a mission you get to see lots of different relationships within marriage and how they work.  You see ways that you want your marriage to be like and ways you don't.  I think that it is good to get perspective.  Not that you have control over every little thing but you can choose how you react.  Some ways are definitely better than others.

Oh!  One more thing!  So I may or may not have been the cause of a squirrel's death today!  Well actually the dumb thing committed suicide!  We were just driving along and I see a squirrel in the middle of the lane.  I start slowing down but then it runs into the other lane so I stop slowing down.  Suddenly, it decides it can take life no longer and mid hop, changes directions back into my lane and flings itself under our car!  It had no chance.  It hit us so hard our car floor shook as it hit 3 different times!  I hate hitting little critters!

March 28 2014

Well today was partially one of those days that you want to crawl under a rock, plug your ears, and sing "La la la laaaa!" at the top of your lungs. : /

The beginning wasn't so bad.  We had a 2 1/2 hour comp study!  That was fun!  Mom, you know how you did surveying on your mission!  Well!  We decided we're going to try it with our own twist while tracting!  We're excited.☺  There are 6 questions, we are doing a few experiments with them for a little bit and we'll see what happens.  Basically we lead them from if they believe the Bible was written by prophets in Jerusalem, would they be interested in prophets in other places and their records.  We know that it's going to take us a while to work out the kinks but we can do it!!  We're hoping this will get us better results!  Elder Astle (one of our ZL's) said right now, we are one of the top companionships in the zone!  But we want to the THE top companionship leading the zone!! Just kidding! ☺  Actually we like to think we are.  We like us and that makes all the difference.

After that and weekly planning, we went to help Sister Bragg.  She keeps telling us not to come over but when we do she always takes it back.☺  Haha!  So we just ignore her and keep coming!

Morgan signed up for dinner and then texted us and said she had no food.  That always makes dinner a problem.☺  Sister Bragg was there when we got the text and heard us talking.  It is really no big deal but she told us to come back and have dinner with them.  That was sweet.

We stopped by Bill's.  He had an EKG today and probably will be having his surgery here now, instead of going back to New Jersey to have it done.  We see that as a blessing in disguise!

We also stopped at the Dustin's cause they had a bunch of stuff for Sister Rowe.  Brother Dustin just got back from Utah and had met up with Sister Rowe's dad and her mom had made her a huge package for Brother Dustin to bring back.  Fun for Sister Rowe!!

Then we went back to the Braggs for pizza.  I like that family!  We had a fun time at dinner!

When we left, I was not feeling good. We had decided we were going all the way to the other end of our area (which takes like 30 minutes) to visit a less active, Sister Kang.  We talked with her for a while.  She lived in Idaho Falls for a while and worked at the Hong Kong on Broadway.☺  So that was kinda fun to talk about!

We got home as fast as we could and mad our curfew just in time!  Hopefully we will have better adventures tomorrow!

Oh!  I forgot.  So the reason why this day was crawl under a rock day. . . .   So we texed Katelynn Wyman cause her baptism is next Sunday and Sister Wyman hasn't given us any info as to if she still want to be baptized or not.  Katelynn tested back this whole list of excuses.   So we have pretty much figured her baptism is off.  That always is a bit of a heartbreaker.

And then Kaylin (Cydnee's friend) texted us and told us her mom freaked out and told her she wasn't allowed to go with Cydnee to seminary or church or anything.  Kaylin is so sad and so are we.  STUPID Satan!  I would like to throttle that guy!  UGH!  He is the worst!!

So there's that! : (  Oh!  We decided we are now praying for a specific family.  So if y'all could keep in your prayers that we find a family of 5 that would be GREAT!  Thanks!☺

March 29, 2014

Today was interesting and pretty fun!  It pretty much rained on us all day, and since we tracted most of the day, we were pretty soaked.

That little Book of Mormon that I am holding in my hand is indeed
Guaranteed Satisfaction !!

We decided to try our our new tracting technique.  It was awesome!  We had longer and more detailed conversations with almost everyone we met!  AND we proved our point, without fail, every single time!  We still got denied pretty much every time.  Still, we got them thinking!  And I think we planted a bigger healthier seed than we would have if we had just done our regular spiel.  So that's awesome.☺  I was pretty nervous at the beginning cause we weren't doing the norm that I was used to!  But once we started to do it, it became a lot easier!

At one door we went to, Sister Rowe asked the guy what his name was.  He sorta looked around like he was thinking and then said, "Sammy."  Sister Rowe looked at him and said, "Did you just make that name up?"  Haha!  I was thinkin' the same thing but I wasn't going to say it!!  I'm pretty sure my eyes went really wide cause, a.) I couldn't believe she had actually asked that, and b.) I was just trying my hardest not to laugh!!  Gotta love Sister Rowe!!

At another house I sorta lost my cool.  He started calling us a cult and telling us that we had been brainwashed.  I finally looked at him and said, "Sir, what is your definition of a cult?"  He started going off about twisting the word of God and a bunch of other stuff.  I said, "Actually, if you look it up, it means any formed religion or a system of religious beliefs and ritual.  Which means any and all religions are a cult."  I was much more irritated than I should have been.  It's not like I haven't been told we are a cult before- - over and over again.  I don't know what it was but he really ticked me off!

Finally it was time for dinner.  It was a really long but productive day.  We went home for dinner and then headed to the church for the broadcast.

Ah!  It was so good!  I really enjoyed it!  Momma, know that I sent a smile your way.☺  We were sitting with the Dustin's and cute little Elaina snuggled up to me and conked out on my lap.☺  Maybe Sister Dustin sent you a picture of that, I don't know.  I just really love this family.

As they were speaking I realized that if I were at home all us girls would have been  there together!  That made me a little sad, cause we couldn't be there altogether.  But I know that it will happen soon enough.☺  For sure this time next year!!

March 30, 2014

So today we thought it was fast Sunday.  Nope it wasn't!  Elder Thorne kept complaining cause we had told them it was.  He's getting on my nerves.  He is SO trunky!  Poor Elder Peña!  Elder Thorne goes home this week.

We tracted before church and we think we may have found a family!  They just moved here from Oregon and they have a little boy and a girl.  Maybe we were just praying for 1 too many kids.☺ Haha!  We are going to keep praying to find that family of 5 too but we would love tot each this family of 4!!

We got a new Relief Society President today.  Sister Owens in now the president.  She will be awesome.  I am really happy for her.  Sister Jensen was great too though.  I guess that is one of the things about our church and callings.  We only have them for a time.

After church we went home and ended our fast before dinner.

Oh! Wait!  Back up.  We got to teach sharing time today.  The Dustin's went out of town for spring break and Sister Dustin texted us during Sacrament meeting and asked us if we could do it.  So we whipped out one of our object lessons.  But, while we were teaching, I had like a deja vu moment but it wasn't.  I was talking to the kids and Mom, I got this feeling like you were doing the same thing.  I had just laughed and flipped my hair over my ears to get my hair out of the way.  It was like you were standing beside me and had just done the same thing.  It was a sweet feeling and memory of you being in primary.  I know you love it there.

Sister George before her mission putting on armor

It was really heavy and she couldn't stop laughing!

Okay, so after church, we went and broke our fast and we made the armor of God for our dinner lesson with the Markhams.  Haha!  It was  a hoot!  They looked so cute!

We ended our night at the Kings.  Sister King gave us a referral!  We are really excited to contact this lady!  Hopefully it'll work out!!

Well fam,  That's it for this week.☺  I love all y'all!!

♥
Molly

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Exchanges, and a Good Week

March 17, 2014

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!

I woke up thinking about y’all and I was hoping Tilly and Frodo had made it to you safe!  While we were getting ready we heard a little tap on the door.  When we opened the door, there were chocolate coins and a shirt and Lucky Charms!!  Tilly and Frodo found me even when I was all the way in Georgia.  And they didn’t forget about Sister Rowe ☺  AND.  They had kissed us on our feet!  We hadn’t even noticed.  Crazy!

Kissed by a leprechaun! 

Frosted Lucky Charms their magically delicious!
We love Tilly and Frodo!

We got the e-mail for the morning so we went and did that.  Thanks for y'alls e-mail!  I love em!  They make me happy.

I’m jealous about your Spring break trip!  If grandma makes it another year I‘ll do a road trip over there and say goodbye to her.  It’s been almost 11 years since I have seen her.  Wow!  That’s crazy to think about.  I hope that I can go and visit her before she dies….  I would like to do that.

Ah!  We got to do our laundry at our apartment today.  Best day ever!  Ok, that sounds so lame.  But it really was super awesome to be able to do our own laundry.  I think Sister King is a little sad about it because we won’t be over there as much.  But we will try!  And she is the most darling life saver in the world!  She took care of us for a long time on the laundry front.

We then went over to the Canton Sisters apartment and hung out with them and the STL’s.  That was a ton of fun!  And Sister Rowe had a good time.  Sister Taylor is a hair dresser and she cut Sister Moon’s hair.  Not gonna lie.  It made me want to cut mine.  I dunno… But with Summer coming, I really shouldn’t.  But it’s a tempting thought for sure!  I guess we shall see.

Dinner was at the Mecalfs tonight.  They moved from Woodstock in February, so they knew Sister Painter so that was fun.  Sweet Sister Painter.  We had a really simple meal of egg salad sandwiches.  I loved them.  They were great. 

After dinner we went to one of our less actives, Sister Johnson.  As we were driving, Sister Rowe asked if we could turn around and and go to a house that we had passed.  She kept saying that she didn’t know why.  I turned around and we said a quick prayer.  A man answered the door and I started doing the Harvest Blessing.  He interrupted and said that he was agnostic and that he was fine with being agnostic.  He was nice but we didn’t get anything from him.  Sister Rowe seemed to be disappointed.  I told her there was a reason that we turned around, although we may never know that reason.   Sometimes Heavenly Father just knows more than we do.  And I believe that if we stop following the promptings that we are given they will go away and we will lose the ability to hear.  I am glad that we stopped.  We visited with Sister Johnson for a while.  She is really nice.  She is a labor and delivery nurse so I talked to her about that for a little bit.

When we left there was a dog fight going on.  Ah!  It was a pretty evil noise!  Yuck!  All in all it was a pretty dang good day☺

March 18, 2014

Man!  I cannot catch a break when it comes to giving trainings.  We pulled up at the church and there are the AP’s.  Dang!  Last time I gave a training, President told me right before that Grandpa had died.  And the time before that it was zone conference and both President and the AP’s were there.  Obviously there is something that I am supposed to learn to do better.  But it went well and I feel like I did a good job.  I was asked to train on strengthening new and less active members.  I know I’m not very good at less active work and the Lord knows that, so, I needed to give a training on it and learn how to better do it.

After District Meeting we had brought our lunch and so we ate while Sister Macedone and Sister Taylor practiced their musical number.  It was SO good!  Ah!  They did such a good job.  They are super crazy talented and it was fun to hear their talents.  After they practiced we finished up our lunch and Sister Taylor played with my hair.  She is a hairdresser and she likes my hair.☺  Haha!  She gave me a double waterfall side braid that was Katniss style.  It was awesome!

Then we went to Sister Braggs.  We basically have it down pat what to do while cleaning her house.  It only takes about 20 minutes and we try to do other little chores for her.  She is so cute about it and is really grateful.

Then we met up with Sister King.  The elders had given us a referral and so we asked Sister King to come with us.  While we were driving there, she told us that one of the Woodstock elders got arrested.  What!?!  She watched the whole thing.  Yesterday they were shopping and he was with other elders and he got accused of shoplifting.  They searched him and the other elders but didn’t find anything.  So the elders gave them a card and they left.  Well, about 10 minutes later they called the elders back and arrested one of them!  And that is all that Sister King knows.  Hopefully we will find out soon!  Ah!  It is nuts!

We finally got to the lady’s house that the elders had referred us to.  I knocked on the door and no one answered.  So I rang the doorbell.  I heard the vacuum going so I looked in the window.  The vacuum was lying on the floor, turned on, like someone saw us coming while they were vacuuming and ran and hid.  Oh boy!  Dang!  People make me laugh☺ 

So then we took Sister King to Morgan’s.  She is the elder’s investigator now but we still go see her once in a while.

We gave a lesson to Sister King and then headed to dinner.  The Bessons took us out to Olive Garden, so that was fun!  Sister Besson wants Sister Rowe to date her son, who just got home from a mission to Ecuador (of course after her mission!).  It makes me giggle.  But it makes you feel good that someone likes you enough to set you up.  And all I know is he would be one lucky boy!

Kinda a crazy, nutso day!  Tomorrow is the follow-up meeting so that should be fun!  We are car-pooling Sister Hamilton and her greenie.  We have to get up at like 6:10 in order to get there on time.

March 19, 2014

Well, today was an up and down day.

Ah Sister Hamilton what's not to love?!?

The follow-up went really well!  It was fun to see some of my elders and be with them.  Elder McMurdie is in Sharon Springs (nest to Suwanee) and we became friends while I was there.  He is having a hard time.  His new missionary is presenting a few challenges for him.  Sister Hamilton is having a hard time too.  But she is so amazing.  Her new missionary is super struggling.  But Sister Hamilton leaves her sticky notes of encouragement all over.  She makes her bed and her breakfast every morning to help get her going.  But it is a real struggle for her.  Recently, Sister Hamilton has had a rough go of it with companions.  but to say that she is anything other than amazing would be an understatement.

Oh…President turned me down to be able to skype when Gabe gets his call.  So, Mother’s Day it is.  I dunno how you want to let me know about his call.  Maybe you could send it to me or just an e-mail on P-day.  However you do it.  We have a little time to figure it out!

When we got home, we had about an hour before dinner so we tracted.  We had fun but nothin big happened with that.

Dinner was with the Rethkes.  Haha!  I love them, they are characters!  It is always a fun adventure over there.

We had a lesson with Amanda and that was our downer.  She has so much faith!  And she can’t see how much faith she has.  I just wish so much that she could see what we see.  She just doubts herself and it’s so sad and frustrating.

The adversary is just hitting all of our investigators hard right now, and it’s so annoying!  But, the elect will stick, hopefully all of them will stick and to be honest all of them are elect.  I just have to remind myself that obviously we are doing well if Satan is trying that hard.

March 20, 2014

Ah!  We have so much to do but so little time to do it this week!  We had the follow-up meeting yesterday, we have exchanges tomorrow.  And we have tons to do!  We did some weekly planning this morning and Sister Rowe was in charge of it.  She did a good job!  It’s nice to not always be heading it up. 

We were supposed to go see Jenn after lunch but she cancelled on us.  So, we headed over to help sister Bragg.  She had us work out in the yard (yes, I know it is shocking I would do such a thing).  We had fun though!  Sister Rowe said she would rather do housework too if she had a choice between working in the yard and cleaning the house.

After Sister Bragg it was about 3:00.  We stopped at the Dustins to see if Sister Dustin would come with us to follow up on a lady we had tracted in to.  She couldn’t, darn it!  So we went ourselves and of course, she wasn’t there.  Ugg.

So, we went and tracted.  A whole subdivision.  How many people did we talk to?  Two….  We talked to two whole people.  And we seriously knocked on like 40 doors.  It is days like today that I just want to sit down and ask, “What am I missing here?”  Obviously there is SOMETHING I’m supposed to learn and I’m not getting it.  So what do you want???  But, I can’t do that.  So you just keep trudging along!

We had an appointment with Bill at 5:00 and our team-ups kept cancelling!  We were calling people the whole day to try and find someone who could go with us.  Nobody could come!  So we had our lesson with Bill outside on his front porch.  Bill reminds me of Richard.  I just love Bill!  He is so great.  We asked him how he got his Book of Mormon in the 90’s.  He requested it.  He knows all about Joseph Smith and he told us he knows that the Book of Mormon is the most true book he has ever read.  He really likes meeting with us.  But he also tries to be nonchalant about it too☺  Haha!

Me being Sassy!

Sister Fisher took us out to Zaxby’s for dinner.  She is quite the lady!  She just loves to talk and she tells us stories about her life.  After dinner we went and tracted some more.  We found a street called Sassafrass.  It was awesome.  We took pictures of us being sassy.

We finished off our night visiting the Speidels.  They are awesome!  We had a fun time with them visiting.  It was a rough day though.  I hate cancel-on-the-Sisters day!

March 21, 2014

Today we went on exchanges!  I got to go to Woodstock with Sister Moon and Sister Rowe stayed in Hickory Flat with Sister Breinholt.  I think Sister Rowe was pretty nervous, though she didn’t show it much☺  I really hope she has a good time!

Sister Moon and I tracted for quite a while.  But we really weren’t feeling the streets we were on. 

The darling Sister Moon and me.

At one point we almost got attacked by a dog.  Finally we found a neighborhood that had people in it and we tracted that and talked to them.  But without much luck.  We tried a few less-actives but found nobody at home.

We had dinner at the Beaty’s house.  It was just us and Sister Beaty.  Sister Moon said that they are less-active but just got called to be ward missionaries so they signed up for dinner.  Sister Beaty is awesome!  Brother Beaty works for Vitamix and is one of their sales guys.  So that is pretty cool.

After dinner we went and taught a man named Terrance.  He was really cool and super open.  I hope he ends up being a good solid investigator for the Sister Moon and Sister Breinholt. They are amazing sister and work so very hard but sometimes that does not always equal out if you are looking at just numbers!!  The zone leaders called and asked Sister Moon who they could have a baptism date for in April.  Our zone goal is for one baptism per companionship (later I found out that they asked Sister Rowe if we could get two).  Our numbers have been pretty good lately.  Hickory Flat seems to be prepared for success right now. 

Our last visit was to Sister Foxx.  She is an older lady and so very sweet!  All of her kids are less-active and she just tries to be a good example to them.  So that was our exchange!  Nothing totally exciting but it was fun and Sister Mood is so sweet!

March 22, 2014

This morning was really fun!  Our stake did an activity day thing at the Woodstock building and they asked the sisters who met at that building to come.  So that is what we did before we exchanged back.  Sister Hamilton was there too!  Our job was basically to mix and mingle with the girls.  They had activities and games.  During the games we were supposed to cheer for the girls by name.  I’m sure I looked like a moron, but boy did I ever cheer for those girls☺  If nothing else, I had a blast acting like a moron.

I asked Sister Hamilton how she was doing.  She said that basically she has laid down the law with her companion.  I think that they are doing better.  Sometimes tough love works a little better for all concerned.  I hope so as I love them both.

We exchanged back and I was SO happy to be back in Hickory Flat with Sister Rowe!  This exchange made me realize that I really do love this place.  I had fallen in love with it and hadn’t even realized it.  Suwanee still holds a VERY special place in my heart but Hickory Flat just snuggled its way into a spot without me even realizing it.  And I really missed Sister Rowe!  I love Sister Moon but it just wasn’t the same.

She and Sister Brienholt had a good time on the exchange.  They found a lady that we will teach while they were tracting.  Sweet!

After we switched, we went tracting.  Oh people!  They can be quite the grumps when they want to be.  We had a lady tell us she would never be a part of a church who’s foundation was polygamy.  Those people aren’t even worth wasting our time on.  Some people are pretty hard-hearted and just mean.

After tracting for a bit, we headed over to the church for a baptism.  One of the girls in our ward was getting baptized and her mom asked us if we would play the Restoration while they waited for her to get dressed.  It was a good baptism and we had fun.

The ever lovely Malia and Bella
♥Love Them♥

When we walked out to our car, on the ground in front of the car, someone had left a note made out of sticks.  It said “God loves you”.  Haha!  Malia Dustin and her friend Bella did it while we were inside at the baptism☺  It was fun and we enjoyed being with them.

We ended our night with a lesson with Amanda.  She is coming to church tomorrow!  We told her to bring 3 questions to church tomorrow and they would be answered.  We know that they will be, and we are praying that she recognizes the answers.

March 23, 2014

Ah!  What a FABULOUS Sunday!!  Everything just went so well today.  We went to  the Revolution church again because Elder Pena begged us and Sister Rowe has never been.  I don’t really like that place.  I think that is the last time that I will go there.

Church was awesome!  Both Amanda and Jenn came!  The speakers were amazing and the whole meeting was just great.  Amanda was just crying and Jenn was just a happy little clam.  Amanda left after the 2^nd hour because she didn’t feel well.  But we will talk to her tomorrow and hopefully she will recognize her questions were answered.

After church we tracted for a little bit and then went to the Burkharts for dinner.  The elders were there too…  They had signed up for both of us and we didn’t know about it.  Ah!  So basically we just hurried and ate and gave a quick lesson and left.  The elders weren’t as worried about it as we were.

After dinner we went and taught Jenn.   We just love her!  She is so awesome.  She started crying when she talked about us eventually leaving.  It made us sad, but glad to know that she would miss us. 

Katelynn was our only hiccup today.  Sister Wyman said she was saying she isn’t sure if she wants to be baptized anymore…  Stupid Satan!  Arg!  We aren’t giving up with her yet though!!  Hopefully we can meet with her this week!

We hit almost every single goal we made for this week!  It was a good week.  And tomorrow is P-day.  Whoot!

 

I love you’all.

Love, Molly