Back and Forth e-mail and More!

Ha, so today we got a back and forth email session with Molly!!!  LOVED IT!!  Brad wrote his email a little late and so the initial response from her was on his email.  He is always so kind about letting me have contact with our girl.  It made me smile when he said, "Kelly, I think she is online right now if you hurry!"

Molly:  Daddy!  Daddy!  Are you still on?

Me:  Hey Cupcake, Dad said he thought you would be online right now.  Just thought I would say hey!

Molly:  I am! I didn't think he got that and I thought it would be fun to say hi! I'm bummed that I didn't get to see Benj! That would have been way fun! Sister Galt was so cute! When I talked to her! She called and said I just want to make sure that it isn't some crazy guy trying to mess with my missionaries! She takes good care of us!

Me:  Oh tell her thank you! thank you!  I didn't know any other way to take care of the thrush.  He really wanted to see you but not without permission.  So he didn't come to your ward on Sunday!  I was just jealous that he was so close!  He loved teasing me about that!

Molly:  Pah! I hate that the mission office is closed on Saturdays! It would have been fun to have him just pop in. I would have loved giving him a hug! Sister Galt is awesome. She is kind of my  mom here and she gives good hugs. NOT as good as MY Momma's hugs but for now it's not a bad filler :) I got the package on Tuesday So it didn't take very long to get here and the letters got here on Saturday. It was a WAY good pick-me-up! We have had a few good days but also a few rough ones... I officially got bashed. Welcome to the bible belt! It was crazy! JWs are NOT fun people to run into! They were pretty nice but it was still frustrating! Thanks for the medicine! I hope that it clears up this time! Ugg! Your letter this week is pretty long again :) I just can't help it! I have to tell you everything!!!

Me:  Oh we LOVE your letters.  And I think it is the best way to write - - write a little all week and then read read read on p-day.  Don't ever worry about the Bible bash thing.  Just remember, We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does NOW reveal and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God!  Also, we believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.  Just hold on to what you know and why you know it.  The Spirit has told you and it doesn't matter what man says just what you know is of God.  And true that on the JW's! :)  Love you baby girl and I love that Sister Carrigan of yours too!  As well as Sister Galt!  Hugs and Kisses from me in Idaho!

Molly:  The house is my most FAVORITE one in Suwannee! IT'S FOR SALE!!! You could come and buy it! I LOVE this house!!!  The leaves are from the Thai Elephant leaves that I told you about. They are CRAZY big!

This is probably my very favorite picture of Sister Carrigan and I. Our faces make me laugh so hard!

It is also our twinner day. We found these skirts at the thrift store last P-day... We LOVE them!

Me:  Oh you are so silly!!  The two pictures of you and Sister Carrigan came through but not the house.  In my next care package I will send you a new SD card for your camera.  We have been looking at the best way to get the pictures from your missionaries.  This seems to be it.  Then you can send us the full one.   We will get it down loaded  and then send it back to you!!  Find dad a job in Suwanee that will pay for it and I will come.  Of course that means definite transfer for you!  Haha!

Molly:  Here is the house... it is VERY purple but SO cute!!!  I was actually going to talk to you about the SD card! I forgot but I'm glad that you figured that out :) I have some pictures that didn't get deleted from before but I keep them on because I like them!

Me:  Okay that is gorgeous!   Dad needs a good job for that one.  Syd said, "Hey the shoes! Where did she get the shoes!?!"  And yes I love the pic of you and Sister Carrigan!

Molly: No! The housing market is crazy cheap here! EVERYONE has gigantic houses and they really don't cost as much as they would if you were in Utah or Idaho. Tell Ninny I got the shoes at WalMart. I needed some lazy shoes and so I got them. I'm glad you like the pic of Sis Carrigan and me. We think we are funny :)

Me:  Oh yes you are very funny - - maybe silly is a better word.  But I remember Sister Ljung and I thought we were funny too.  That makes everyone around you happy though and that is really what the gospel is all about!

Molly:  We are silly too :) I"m pretty sure we are the favorite missionaries in the ward... Not that people don't like the Elders but we are more fun to be around! So I now don't have time to write you a big long e-mail but the letter is very long I will send it today!! I love you lots and it was SO SO fun to talk to you!

So right after talking to her like this Brad when to the mailbox and found another GINORMOUS letter from Molly about her week.  I get it if you choose not to read the entire thing but if I put the entire thing in you may choose what you do and do not want to read.  :)

July 29, 2013

Hey Y'all,

Okay, so may I just say thank goodness for P-Days!  You really do just kind of need one day to recharge.  It was a good day.  I had a lot of e-mails to respond to so that was way nice!  I loved getting all of your e-mails and finding out how everyone is doing!

I got an e-mail from one of my friends who I love and adore who said that they won't be able to go on a mission for a while.  They needs to get some stuff worked out with the bishop before they go.  Getting that stuff done before you leave is always a better idea than waiting until you are on your mission and having to go home to fix everything.  I just hope that they don't lose the desire to go!!  Because things really can be worked through.

Oh! Oh! Guess what?!?  I finally saw my very first lightning bug tonight!  It was so awesome!  WE need to figure out how to get those things to live in Idaho.

I feel like I have been here forever already!  I'm glad that I haven't been here forever though and that my time is just beginning☺!

July 30, 2013

Today, today, what did we do today?  So I had my very first district meeting.  We have 10 missionaries in our district.  I was told that is a lot.  After district meeting we went to lunch.  

Then after we ate we tried to get in contact with some former investigators and we visited some members.  We also tracted.  Tracting isn't really my favorite thing.  I know that one day it will pay off though.  Mostly  it is just not that fun to get rejected over and over.  I guess if the only thing they hear is Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints then a seed has bee planted.  

Sister Carrigan showed me this really cool thing.  Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone said it in 1984, it's called Vision of the South. . . . "President Spencer W. Kimball stated, 'Make no small plans.  They have not magic to stir men's souls.'  This is the vision that I have for the South.  I believe that one day the South will baptize more people into the Church than all other English speaking missions in the world together.  There are great hosts of marvelous Baptists, and members of the Church of Christ  Methodists and Catholics who are honorable people and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love Him.  As they see their church veering off to the right or to the left of those basic teachings, they will begin to search for truth.  As as pivotal teachers come into the Church and have influence, we will see the time when we will baptize hundreds and thousands  tens of thousands   In your day, you will see a million members of the church in the South.  There will be temples - plural - in the south states.  What a great call you have to serve with these marvelous  people."  Isn't that awesome?!?!  I hope I get to be a part of it!

So we went to a member's home for dinner tonight.  Daddy, you would have LOVED his yard!  It was SO cool!  He has all these tropical plants and you step outside and feel like you are in a whole different world!  He had banana trees, mangoes  lemons, oranges, kiwis, peaches, pears, blueberries, blackberries, bamboo plants, these really cool plants called something link Thai Giant Elephant Ears, which are HUGE!  The leaves get to be bigger than me!  He had some plant called like Angel Trumpets that were so pretty!  I took a few pictures and I will sent them to you.  The Elephant Ears aren't even half their full size yet!

Okay, the best thing of all, Daddy, you HAVE to get it!  It is the most amazing thing ever!  It is a plant called Miracle Fruit.  It comes in a pot and it is just a little bush.  You take one of the fruits after it's ripe and kind of bite into it and move it around in your mouth for about a minute.  You can swallow it or spit it out, doesn't really matter, but it makes everything sour taste sweet!  It works!  They  gave us a cup of straight lemon juice and it tasted like the sweetest lemonade I have ever had!  It was crazy!  So I'm gonna go all Veronica (off of Willy Wonka) on you, Daddy, I want one!! (I just read this again.  It has no affect unless you read it in a British accent.)  Research it,  It is so, so, so cool!!

July 31, 2013 (I can't believe it's the last day of July!)

Holy Cow!  I really can't believe that it will be August tomorrow!  I will have left a whole month ago in a few days.  I don't feel like that should be true at all!  So we had to run to WalMart today cause our money for the month hadn't been put on our cards yet.  So we couldn't go on P-day and we didn't really have any food and the elders didn't either.  As we were loading up the car this little British lady came up to Elder Baker and said she wanted to pay for our lunch.  Now you aren't supposed to take money from people but if you politely refuse and they keep insisting then you are supposed to take it so as not to offend them.  I'm not to  sure on that rule.  The guidelines are a little hazy. . . . Anyways she gave him $40!  Ten dollars for each of us.  We felt very rich.☺  It was really, really nice of her!  

Oh!  I was going to tell you about our almost crash!  It was pretty scary!  So we were trying to turn into the parking lot and a delivery truck was right in the middle so Sister Carrigan started turning in  and then the delivery driver decides to turn out so Sister Carrigan hits the breaks and the truck just kept on going.  The tire was inches away and actually it really should have hit us.  We really are protected by the Lord!

It was raining all day long.  We tried to contact people but no one was home!  It's been that way for the past 2 weeks.  We finally figured out it was probably because they get back into school next Wednesday so everyone is on their last vacations.  It makes missionary work very difficult!  The Lord knows we are trying our hardest though and so really, that is all that matters!

When we came home our neighbors were having a party,  I have never seen that many beer cans in my entire life!  Or that many drunk people. . . .  who's kidding who.  I've never actually seen a party before!  Well, drunk people are LOUD!  And when you are trying to follow the rules and go to bed at 10:30 drunk people are not helpful!

Aug 1, 2013

Well, when we walked outside this morning there were beer cans EVERYWHERE!  That must have been some wild party!  Luckily, despite all the yelling and loudness, I was able to fall asleep.

Today we went to go visit some inactives and former investigators.  We looked through our area book and read everything about each person and when the last time they had been taught.  None of them were home.  We left notes though and we will try them again sometime. 

We tracted for a while but either a) no one was home or b) they wouldn't answer.  Everyone has dogs and I swear it's just so that they know when we have left so they can stop hiding.  Then there are the people with huge glass doors and when you walk up they see you and just ignore you and will just walk into another room!

We have decided that yes, we have amazing members in our ward but they need to see that they can trust us with their friends and give us people to go teach.  I dunno how it is in other places but i have been told many times that it is the member's job to find people and our job to teach.  If we find people when tracting that is great but that isn't our #1 job.  So we have decided to focus a little on the member for a bit and see what we can do.

Elder Baker was at a leadership meeting all day for the past 2 days.  He was telling us some of the new rules.  The elder's dress code is being changed as I am sure you've heard.  Gabe!!! You can wear light colors!  that will be cool!  There is another new rule that we understand but we don't like very much.  The elders and sisters aren't allowed to eat dinners at members houses together anymore.  I guess that some members complained about flirting.  I understand that with the age change the elders and sisters are closer in age and so yeah, there is a bigger possibility of flirting.  Another rule is that the elders can't have backpacks anymore.  They aren't very happy about that, especially the biking elders.  Actually, this rule applies to everyone but since it is usually the elders who wear the backpacks it affects them the most.  Elders are also not allowed to baptize people anymore.  They are really sad about that but I think it is probably a good thing.  This way they have a member to look after them and are able to form this bond that would have never been formed had they not baptized them.  Whoa!  That was a complicated sentence!  You know what I mean though!

I guess that we are going to start getting super big spiders in a month.  YUCK!  And we have been told that they will hide in your toilet if they get stuck in your house.  So we have to flush the toilet every time BEFORE we go to the bathroom.  I never thought I would be scared of going to the bathroom, but I am now!  We are thinking of buying on of those bug zappers that look like tennis rackets.  We can just see ourselves accidentally zapping ourselves because we will be freaking out too much.  Oh well!  I suppose that would be an adventure.☺

August 2, 2013

Today was a silly day.☺  We did our weekly planning and we couldn't stop giggling.  We find  ourselves very funny.  Oh!  I love, love, LOVE Sister Carrigan!  We are two peas in a pod!  Then on top that we look alike!  Everyone thinks we are twins or sisters.  I think Heavenly Father has a funny sense of humor putting us together but oh. I'm so very glad He did!  I couldn't ask for a better trainer!

We finally got weekly planning done and as always we had a list of people we needed to go see.  we went to a member's house first.  She just had surgery.  Her husband is inactive and deaf.  He has an implant but Sister Carrigan says he usually just sits next to Mama Carlisle (that is what we call her☺) and reads her lips and stays quiet.  She was really excited that I know ASL and we hoped maybe I could sign a little bit.  He opened up!  It was really cool.  I didn't use a ton of ASL but it was enough to get him comfortable and talking.  I know it was more the spirit than me but it was nice to know that I helped a little bit.  When we left Sister Carrigan was so excited.  She said that was the most she had ever seen him talk.

So you know how sometimes I say really dumb things?  Yeah well, I did it again!  We were getting ready to leave the Billeter's house after dinner.  Sister Billeter asked if the elders needed a ride I said, "Nah, it's okay.  they are bunking with us!"  I TOTALLY meant to say "bumming!"  As in bumming a ride with us!  Oh boy did I get teased for that one!  Sister Billeter laughed as I yelled, "I meant bumming a ride with us!"  Oh boy. How embarrassing!  Oh well I will just chalk it up to a funny story!

August 3, 2013

Good heavens!  I have never moved so many people in my life!  This time it only took 4 hours instead of 10 though!  Yea for cutting off 6 hours!  This lady got our number from her neighbors so she called and asked us to help her.  We can't say no so instead we said yes.☺  How nice are we?!?  Very nice.☺  She had all their things shoved into a storage unit.  I don't really know what happened but it was an emergency move and so the clothes were shoved into garbage bags and boxes were thrown all around.  Basically it was a mess.  One of the boxes had a funny smell and when we set it down to look inside - - AHHHHH!  there was a bag of rotten something with a ton of cockroaches!  EWWWW!  It was super nasty!  There were larvae too and it was so gross!  Lakesha (the lady we were moving) just threw the whole box away.  That was probably a good thing since cockroach juice had leaked all over everything.

It was a lot of work.  We did it though and then we went home, had dinner and showered.  Then we went to help at the Galt's.  That is our bishop and his wife.  They sent you the text the first day to tell you I was safe.

August 4, 2013

So we went to dinner at the White's house today.  Their son Scott was home from college - - he goes to BYU-I.  When he found out I was from Idaho Falls he says, "I know it's probably a long shot but do you know Matt Monk?"  Needless to say I freaked out and got really excited.  He and Matt were roommates this year.  It was fun to find someone who knew the same person from halfway across the country.  

We went tracting tonight after dinner.  GUESS WHAT?!?!?  I handed out my first Book of Mormon today!!  She said she would read it so we are going to check up on her on Tuesday or Wednesday.  We are praying like crazy that we can teach her!  Her name is Phyllis and she is so sweet!  She has a real  southern accent! Oh I'm so happy and super excited!

While we were tracting and after we met Phyllis, a car drove past us on the street.  It was the Portuguese Elders.  They stopped and talked to us for a minute.  Elder Gomes was asking me about my family and how I like Georgia.  After a minute he said, "I would never think you were a Greenie!"  I told him I would take that as a compliment and he said good cuz' that is how he meant it.  I'm not really sure how people think greenies are supposed to act.  Sister Carrigan says I don't act like one either. 

Well, that is my week 2 of the mission!  I'm sure week 3 will be just as eventful.☺  I love you guys!  Have a fabulous week!

♥

Molly