November 17,
2014
At the top of this letter there are Chinese characters then
the following: (pronounced
nee-how) J
Sister Kang
wrote it on a sticky not and I copied it.
Hers is much prettier! She told
me mine was very clear. Yeah! Cause it took me forever to write! Haha!
I’m pretty sure it’s actually terrible.
But I’ll just let her tell me that it’s good. J
It has POURED
all day long here! And it’s super
annoying cause we have Zone Conference tomorrow and we have car
inspections. It would rain on the day we
have to clean our car. : / But that’s a
story for a little later.
E-mailing
was good today. J It was kinda annoying though cause our
library only lets you on for 30 minutes and if someone else is waiting, it
kicks you off and you have to wait for another computer. That happened to me a few times, so it took
me a while to get e-mailing done! I try
to go fast so my companions don’t have to wait.
After
shopping, we went to Ulta (it’s a makeup store) and it got my eyebrows
waxed. They have been driving me NUTS! Haha!
Sister Kang told Sydney about in in her letter. So funny. J
We shopped and what not. By the time we got done with everything it was
4:30ish. We were driving all over to
find a carwash. Even though it was cold
and windy and looked like it would start pouring again at any second! Finally we found one so we got the car washed
and vacuumed. THEN we went home and I
waxed the car (it was FREEZING!!) and Sisters Kang and Motuliki cleaned the
inside (wiping everything down and cleaning the windows). It was cold and dark by the time we finished
at 6:00. Gosh dang it! We better win!! I want the 50 extra miles the winner gets for
3 months until the next zone conference.
The Sister Training Leaders (STL’s) got their car done by a detail place
for $20 and I know the Zone Leaders (ZL’s) paid $25 for theirs. Ours was $5 and an hour spent in the cold. Just for that we should win!!!
Sister
Beaver was supposed to have us over for dinner but she didn’t feel good. She was so thoughtful and got us Chinese
takeout. That probably worked out to
our advantage cause we were tired and cold after cleaning the car and we were
able to just sit in our apartment and eat.
We had a
lesson with Yin! Her mom and dad were
working but we still taught her. J Before we went in for the lesson, we were
sitting in the car saying a prayer.
After the prayer, Sister Motuliki points outside and goes, “Ah! A giant mouse!!” I look out and start laughing, a possum was
crossing right in front of our car. It was
SO funny! I mean, they DO look like giant
rats. J
Our lesson
with Yin went great! We taught ½ in
English this time and taught the Plan of Salvation. About ½ way through, Yin told us that her
grandma had taught her some of this before. . . SO cool!! Oh my goodness! The Lord has TOTALLY prepared them for
this!! AND Sister Kang put Yin on date
for December 6th all by herself. J Ah! So
cool!! I don’t think Yin fully gets what
she is committing to yet. Sister Kang
had to explain what baptism was, but by the time the 6th comes
around, she’ll be ready. J
Ah! I forgot about my other funny story! So while we were grocery shopping, I again
was trying to keep an eye on both Sisters.
Sister Motuliki was in one isle getting toothpaste and Sister Kang was
in another isle. Sister Motuliki comes
back to me and throws her toothpaste in the cart. I look at it and ask her what brand she
got. I grab it and look at the label and
just start giggling. . . she had gotten denture cream!! J Haha!!
When I explained to her what she had grabbled, her face got this
disgusted look. It was SO funny!!
November 18, 2014
Today was a
good day, but also a very sad day. Today
was Zone Conference, which was great!
But, it was my last Zone Conference, which was not so great. Where did the time go?!? Most of Zone Conference I just sat and
thought about my first Zone Conference.
That was the ZC that the AP’s (Assistants to the President) had me do a
duet with Sister Macedone.
I remember
that first ZC watching all these missionaries stand up at the end to bear their
testimonies. They all talked about how
fast it all goes. I remember sitting
there and thinking, “Yeah right! I still
have FOREVER!” I remember thinking how
much like missionaries those missionaries looked . . . and then there was me,
this greenie from Idaho who still really didn’t know what exactly she was
doing. Who thought the day would never
come when she would get up to bear her testimony and know that it was the last
ZC she would attend. But it happened-
-it happened today. It doesn’t feel
real, I still feel like I have a few more ZC’s in me. I don’t feel like I’m a missionary who looks
like a missionary. I feel like I’m a
missionary just getting the hang of things!
I hate
bearing my testimony in front of other missionaries. I don’t know why, I love doing it with
investigators, recent converts and members.
I guess I feel like maybe they’ll think my testimony isn’t as strong or
something. Totally irrational, I
know. But I did go up at the end. My heart felt like it was going to explode
out of my chest! But I did it. I bore my testimony. It wasn’t big or extravagant, it didn’t have
a story in it, I just bore it of the things that I know. I wish I could go back and tell my little
greenie-self that it really would go fast, it goes so fast that it is almost
like a dream.
I still have
2 months left though! Yes, they are
going to fly by, of that I have no doubt.
But, they also hold many things.
These next 2 months hold people who need the gospel, they hold sadness
and they hold joy, they hold many laughs and a few frustrations, they hold
memories that will last for eternity, and I can’t wait. J
Haha! Our car won!!! Whoot!!
So now we have 50 extra miles for the last few months that I’m
here! Everyone kept telling us the
reason we won was cause our car is newer than the rest of theirs. Psh! We totally worked for those miles! They’re just jealous! J
We got home
from the meeting around 5ish. We didn’t
have a dinner appointment so we decided to go out and tract then come in at 8
for dinner. As we tracted we talked
about Zone Conference. Sister Motuliki
was so cute! She told me that while I
was up bearing my testimony the sisters behind her were whispering to each other
and saying how pretty I was. It’s always
nice to hear those kinds of things. J They make ya feel good!
We had a
return appointment with a potential, Myriam.
Not gonna lie, I didn’t really think she would be there, lack of faith
on my part. : / But she was home!! She let us in and we taught her the first
lesson. She is a super sweet lady and
she said we could come back. J It made me sad though cause when we asked how
she would feel to know she could be with her family for time and eternity, she
said she wasn’t sure if that would happen but if it happened, it would happen. ACK! I
will never understand why people aren’t more excited about this news that they
can be bound to their families for eternity.
But we will get her there. J
We also went
and visited the Beckstrands. I like
them!! Brother Beckstrand is AMAZING
with wood. Right now he is making a
beautiful heart box for his cousin. He
showed us how he steams the wood in order to bend it and shape it. What a cool talent! He is a funny guy. He’ll start talking about growing up on his
ranch and just tell story after story.
Poor Sisters Kang and Motulikot confused and had no idea what he was talking
about. A language barrier has really got
to be hard sometimes.
When we got
home Sister Motuliki asked me why Brother Beckstrand was talking about a
coat. Haha! No, a GOAT! I am not sure what she misunderstood but she
goes, “Oh! So do goats not drink
water?” I said, “No, they do, all
animals drink water.” Then Sister Kang
pipes up and says, “Except fish!!” I
said, “Well, but it’s how fish breath.”
Then Sister Kang goes, “Oh! I guess they do drink water cause fish
pee.” Sister Motuliki gets this
thoughtful face on and goes, “Wait!?!
Fish go pee? I swim in the
ocean. There are ton of fish in the
ocean!! Eeewwww!!” Haha!
Oh the discussions that occur, all because of a goat. J I love my life! It does make you think twice about wanting to
swim in the ocean though!!
November 19,
2014
This morning
we went to teach Coco. She spoke a lot
more in English today! I was so
impressed with her. J She went to her English class last night and
they learned cooking terms. We went over
that again. She wanted to learn more
fruit and veggie names so we got her iPad and got pictures of a whole bunch of
different fruits and veggies. One popped
up that was a dragon fruit. I said I had
never tried it before. Coco got really
excited and said she had one. She cut it
up and let us try it. J Not too bad!
I think I’ll stick with kiwi though.
It’s very similar; I just like the kiwi taste better. J It was fun to try though!!
We went home
and did our studies and had lunch. I got
a letter from Sister Hooker!! She says
that we sit next to each other on the plane ride home!! Ah! J I will be SO happy if that’s true!! She also wants to know when my homecoming
talk will be. We want to try and be at
each other’s homecoming talks. J I dunno when
I am giving mine though. Do you know
Daddy! I’m good with whenever.
Then we
tracted until dinner. I have been having
Sister Motuliki and Sister Kang pick the streets we are going to tract. Every night they pick 3 roads from off the
map and that is where we go! We drove to
the first street and all our eyes got huge.
But not as huge as the houses!!
They were GINORMOUS!! The
subdivision next to the one we were at was called something like “Mansion
Way.” For real?!? It was ridiculous! We tracted about 3 houses and just felt like
it wasn’t where the Lord needed us to be, so we went to the other street they
had picked. It was this random ½ circle
off the main road. I missed it the first
time we drove past it. There were only
about 6 houses on this little street. We
knocked on the first 2 and got nothing.
At the 3rd house as we were walking up we saw an older man
watching us and talking on his cell. I
inwardly sighed when I saw that cause 99.9% the time people just tell us
they’re busy when you catch them on the phone.
This guy, Tom, was one of the 0.1% though. He got off his phone and talked with
us. He told us that he wife wasn’t home
but could we come back on Saturday to talk with them more. What?!?
YES!
I know that these
miracles aren’t happening because of me and my faith. It’s all because of my 2 comps! I’m so glad that I get to be with them and
experience these tender mercies too!!
Dinner was
with the Fritz’s (the Belnap’s daughter).
They have 2 little kids Andde and Carter who are just adorable! Ah! I
love them. J During our thought after dinner, Andde just
snuggled up to me. J She is so stinkin’ cute! I just love her!!
After dinner
we did a few drop bys with people. Our
last stop was Jackie (in our apartment complex). Her son, Christian, is 7 years old and he is
just the cutest thing ever! He has started
sassing off to his mom a little bit so we gave him a challenge; he has to tell
him mom 3 things each night that he is grateful for. Jackie talked about how she wanted to get him
around church kids and have church in his life.
I hope this is what will get her to start coming to church! I know that whatever the reason is that gets
her there may not be the same reason that gets her to stay. You just never know. The Lord works in mysterious ways. J
November 20,
2014
Okay,
another funny story from the life of Sister George and her foreign
companions. J So we were talking and Sister Kang rubs her
rear and says, “AH! My a_ _ hurts!” Part of me was laughing but the other part of
me was like, Ah! No! Haha!
I just told her not to say that
because in English it was a swearword.
She was so confused. I guess in
Taiwan it is a common word that is in their textbooks and stuff. Oh my!
I was trying SO hard not to giggle!
It made me feel like a parent teaching their child not to say something
even though it was a little funny. J I have to tell you that I am loving pretty
much every second of this companionship.
Ya know, there are always a few frustrations, but it is basically the
best. J I just love both of these two companions of
mine!
This morning
we went to see Sister Hopkins. She is a
good lady. I haven’t spent the time with
her that I spent with Miss Billie or Sister Shirley but I do love her. Poor Sisters Kang and Motuliki just kinda nod
their way through our visits with her because they have no idea what she is
talking about half of the time. Poor
Sisters!! They do good though. J
Tomorrow is
the follow up meeting for Sister Kang, which is nuts! I can’t believe that it has already been 3 ½
weeks since transfers! The weeks have
flown!! But since we have the meeting,
we had to do our weekly planning today, but we also still had to do the studies
with 12 week and language study.
Ah! So much stuff!
As we went
to tract we hung our garbage on our bike rack. . . and then forgot all about
it. :P
So we drove all the way down the road to where we were going to trac, with our
garbage hanging behind us!! Haha! J I’m surprised it didn’t break! Oops!
Luckily we quickly found a dumpster to throw it in. Sister Kang and Sister Motuliki were giggling
SO much. It tickled them to no end! And it made me laugh cause they though it was
so funny!
After that
we were all on one!! Tracting was just
hilarious!! Sister Kang kept hip checkin' us as we walked, but her hips only come to mid thighs for us. Sister Motuliki was just being so silly!
And I was just laughing at them both!
I love these sisters so much! I
am so glad the Lord gave them to me as my companions for these last 2
transfers!! I’m praying with everything
I have that Sister Motuliki doesn’t get transferred this next transfer. Everyone thinks she will, but I’m not so sure
about that. Not only do I still need
her, but she and Sister Kang really need each other!
We had our
dinner cancel so we had dinner from 7-8 before our appointment with Siddi. Instead of just going home, we went to
Chik-fil-a. J
Sister Mack
texted me and told me she had a recipe for me.
Thanks! She can be your Johns
Creek Georgia Peep. J I love the Macks so much! They are just the best! Their son got home on Wednesday from his
mission in the Philippines. I am so
happy for them.
Siddi is
just as cute as ever! She is so
funny! She goes onto lds.org and studies
and reads a ton! She takes notes and
then will give us a slew of questions when we go over! She loves the gospel SO much!
We got home the elders texted us and told us to keep someone who we knew in our
prayers. The elders had found out
that this person was in the hospital.
When we texted why, they called us.
They told us that a friend had reported that this person
was planning on committing suicide and so they had been taken to the
hospital. When my darling Sister Kang
heard that, she just dropped to the ground and started crying. I got off with the elders and started talking
with her. She shared a very personal
story with me about someone she loves who had tried to do that. She just cried and cried and all I could do
was hold her. My sweet, happy, amazing
Sister Kang has had her fair share of hard times. My heart just broke!! She looked at me and said, “I don’t
understand Sister George, why would anyone want to do that?!?” I told her I didn’t know. That it was a place in their mind that thinks
the world would be better off without them.
And even though they are 100% wrong, they don’t believe there is any
other choice. I shared with her an
experience I had when I was in Suwanee.
We talked about how the gospel can change peoples' hearts and minds
but that many still struggle. It was so
very sad! I felt honored that she would
share that piece of her life with me. I
know it wasn’t easy. You think I was a
mama bear before? I think this
experience just upped that! I never want
either of these two beautiful Sisters to get hurt. I just love them.
November 21,
2014
Okay,
something really fun that I learned today!
And I have to tell y’all before I forget! Do y’all remember the Moons from
Suwanee? I LOVED their little girl
Kalia. Anyway, I was talking to the
Suwanee sisters during the followup meeting and guess what?! Brother Moon’s dad is the mission president
in Cambodia!! Kiah’s mission president
is President Moon, right?!? Ah! Fun connection. J
The follow
up meeting was good today! It was so
weird to know that it would be the last time that I would be able to be in a
follow up meeting. My 4th
time. WOW! President kept referring to the
“veterans.” I don’t feel like one!! There are 4 of us ending our missions
training. There are 18 missionaries
leaving when I do. Most all of us have
had leadership positions. I think we are
all going to miss this place more than we want to think about.
After the
meeting I asked President if I could talk to him. So he pulled me into his office. He is such a great leader and man. I told him that I knew he probably wasn’t thinking about
transfers yet, but when he did start thinking about it, could he keep the 3 of
us together? Sister Kang and Motuliki
really do need each other. They are so
cute together and the love each other. I
don’t know what will happen but I do know that Heavenly Father will take care
of each of us. I’m pretty confident that
we’ll stay together til I leave. Not
gonna lie, I’m ever so grateful that we will probably be together.
On our way
home the STL’s called us. They were
stsranded at a mall that was in the Lilburn zone. They had been out on a team up with one of
the girls in our ward and the lesson went over.
The girl had a movie she was going to see and was upset because she
wasn’t going to make it. So the sisters just told her to go and they would call a ride.
Well, what they didn’t know was
theater where the movie was playing was outside our zone. By the time they figured it out it was too
late. Luckily we were pretty close and
went to pick them up. I love Sisters
Spainhower and Rueckert.
Sister
Spainhower and I go home at the same time.
I am embracing the Dr. Suess motto, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile
because it happened.” NO, I am not happy
to have my mission end, but I would rather not waste my time being sad that it
will be over all too soon.
Dinner was
at the Seamons. Brother Seamon wasn’t
there so it was just Sister Seamon and her 2 boys. We had a good time!
We ended the
night with a lesson with Yin and her mom Sally.
I could tell that the lesson wasn’t going super well, but because it
was in Chinese I couldn’t do anything to help!
I grabbed Ivan and Wendy and we colored/drew pictures while they (Sister
Kang and one of our Chinese members) taught Sally and Yin so they weren’t a
distraction. Ah! I LOVE Wendy and Ivan!! Those kids have my heart!! They are just so very great!! I gave them both one of my nametags to wear
and they LOVED that!! J Kids love to wear our nametags. I think it is so cute! It helps pump that desire to be a missionary
someday.
Sister Kang
told us after that they want proof of the Book of Mormon. They are lacking the faith right now. I wish I spoke Chinese so I could help teach. Sister Kang is pretty frustrated. We had it pretty easy with our sweet Siddi,
who was an unusual case, so now she will get to learn patience with those who
have to work harder and longer with. She
will learn and it will get easier. J
November 22,
2014
Well, today
was an adventure! After studies we went
to the church to fill the font for a member baptism. We are still confused as to why they asked us
to do that. We were also asked to be in
charge of the middle part. So we picked
a few Mormon messages. One of them was
the Thanksgiving one our family likes to watch with the people in New
York. It made me think of y’all!
After the
baptism we literally tracted the rest of the day. We met a few nice people and a few mean ones
too. Sister Kang experienced her first
real door slam. The last time a guy
tried to slam the door on us the rug got caught in the door. That was funny! We tried so hard not to laugh!! But this other guy, the one today, slammed
the door hard. How rude!
We tried to
go visit a less active but her complex was all gated. So we parked our car and went through the
gate. As we walked to the less actives
apartment, there was a lady outside her car.
Sisters Kang and Motuliki had already walked past her but I have decided
that these last 2 months I’m going to be the boldest I’ve ever been and talk to
EVERYONE! So, I went up to her
and started talking. She told me she
didn’t agree with the Mormon’s beliefs.
I had asked her what she had heard, already having a pretty good idea of
the answer. I was right - polygamy. We quickly got that cleared up and she goes,
“Okay, so what do you really believe? Do
you believe in Christ?” I told her we
did, that our church was called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. I also told her about prophets
and latter day revelations. We have a
return appointment with her! I’m excited
to see where it goes with her.
We finished
weekly planning tonight too. I got a bit
frustrated. I know I shouldn’t have but
I did. Sister Kang told me we needed to
be more on time to things and she was pretty frustrated about it. Well 9 times out of 10 if we are late it is
because of traffic. I can’t control
that. I tried to explain that the
examples that she was using were times when things were really beyond my control. I felt attacked and then I went into defense
mode which is never really a good thing.
I really do try to be on time. And to be honest I agree with Sister Kang - - I hate late.
November 23,
2014
This morning
we had correlation meeting. It sometimes
takes me a while to figure out some people.
I am in that situation right now with one of the members we work pretty closely
with. It is a frustrating thing for me
right now but I will get it figured out.
Sacrament
meeting was really good today. The
Mack’s son, Jordan, got home from his mission Wednesday, so today he gave his
homecoming talk. As I sat there and
listened, I had so many emotions run through me. So many thought and memories. It made me a little teary eyed. My mind flashed forward to 2 months from
now. I will be in the same place Jordan
is in just 2 months. I know how quick
those months go. I wondered if I would
look like the same person to people in the ward, or would they look and see an
RM who had fully taken her mission into her life. I hope they see that person. J I have always loved homecomings because of
the stories that are told. I don’t know
which stories I will tell, but they will be fun ones with a good chunk of
spiritual. J
After church
we tracted around the Burleson’s before
dinner. I really like that family! Before we ate I used their bathroom. Well I discovered too late that there was not
toilet paper! Haha! I had to yell through the door to ask for
some! I’m glad it was their house where that happened at! With 5 kids, stuff like
that doesn’t even faze them. J
After dinner
we went to go introduce ourselves to a part member family who moved back into
the ward after being in the Peachtree Corners ward for a while. The kids are baptized but their mom isn’t. The kids range from 13-19 who have been
baptized, there are 4 of them. Their mom
wasn’t home but we talked with them for a food while. I asked if their mom is interested at all and
they said yes! I really hope so! That would be awesome if we could teach her
and get them out of the part member
status.
Well! It has been quite the week! I can’t believe that another one is
gone. This transfer ends in 2 ½
weeks!! Darn!! Life goes by quick!!
I love
y’all! Happy Thanksgiving!
♥
Molly
P.S. Oh! I
forgot! Guess who I saw at church
today!!! The Wolferts! Their son lives in the ward that overlaps
with us and their grandson got baptized.
It was fun to see them.
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